Lessons from

 

LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF POWER

DR. D. K. OLUKOYA

A lot of Christians are getting tired of weak Christianity they have and as such they have been asking questions on how they could make progress from their present level. They ask how they could obtain power. Therefore, the focus of this message is to supply answers to these questions, which have been the concern of most believers today, since almost everyone knows full well from the word of God, that Christianity is a religion of power. There is something within the subconscious minds of believers challenging them about whether they possess this power in their lives now. That is why this message is entitled, “Lessons from the school of power” We will look at the lessons in seven perspectives. Therefore I counsel you to read with maximum concentration so that you could get the best from this message.

The first lesson is in the form of question: what is power?
Truly, power is derived from spiritual sources. Before anything could take place in the physical, some actions must have been taken place in the spiritual realm. When this occurs, nobody has any power to change the situation. Sometimes ago, when l was in England, I received a letter from the prison and I wondered who could write to me from there. But when I opened the envelope I was shocked to discover that somebody whom I expected to have been in Nigeria by that time was the writer. In his letter, he said “Dear Daniel, I wish to inform you that I am now in prison. Please pay me a visit and when you are coming buy some apples, toothpaste and other necessary things for me. It is now I know that I should have listened to all the things you used to tell me instead of laughing and making mockery of you” Truly, he used to laugh at me and call me names those days when I preached to him. So I went to see him at the prison. After passing through a rigorous prison protocol, I got to where he was and when he saw me, he broke down in tears lamenting that if he had listened to my words at that time, he would not have been clamped into jail. But funny enough, he had become born again and started preaching to other inmates. What offence did he commit? He issues cheque for the money he did not have, but nemesis caught up with him. I asked him if he was guilty and he said yes and asked the Lord to forgive him. He knelt down and asked for forgiveness. Thereafter, we transferred the case to heaven as he had repented. When he was charged to court, those of us who understood that the real power source is from the spiritual just laughed. On the judgement day, the presiding magistrate said, “As an educated and intelligent person with distinction in Master degree to your credit, I can only come to one conclusion about you, I think you are mad. Therefore, I hereby order that you should be deported”. That was exactly what we had decreed and prayed for. This is to tell you that true power does not belong here, it is from above.

At another instance, a six-year-old girl confessed in a revival programme that she was the one who bewitched her father’s hand. She said the reason he could not stretch the hand was they used it to cut firewood in their witchcraft meetings. Her father almost ran mad. If the six-year-old girl was asked to engage in a physical combat with her father of about forty, he would probably have broken her bones into pieces but he girl was stronger spiritually because that is the power base.

In this light, we can say that power is the process of control given by God through the spoken words that cause things to happen. It is capable of producing an effect that is the spiritual ability to accomplish things. However, one of the problems of Christianity today is that power is fading out and this sad development first started from individual believers.

Lessons No 2 what are the sources of power?

Power emanates from three sources namely: God, Satan and man. The divine power of God is the positive one, satanic power is negative whilst the human power is neutral. It can either be controlled by God’s own divine power or satanic power. We are only able to bind the evil and spoil his works by the power of Christ; otherwise we are no matches for the devil.

Lessons No 3 is the difference between authority and power.

People mix these two things up whereas they are two different things. As far as Christians are concerned, their authority comes from the word of God whilst their power comes from the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Many Christians have given commands to evil spirits by quoting scriptures but lack of good knowledge of where these scriptures are written have spelt defeat for them. This is the reason Bible study must be taken seriously. Many are still joking with their Bibles. If they are asked to open to any book, they will begin to fumble with their Bibles, looking for index, pages, numbers etc. You must be diligent with your Bible study.

Our authority as believers is exercised in the name of Jesus and the anointing of the Holy Spirit operates power. That is why you see two different levels of operation between two Christians. One can issue a command to an evil spirit in a person and the evil spirit leaves immediately. Whereas another Christian could use exactly the same words but the spirit would say, “You are not serious” So the difference lies on the power backing up the command. Authority is given to all Christian without measures, but power is given according to your level of self-crucifixion and faith. The moment a person gets born again, authority is automatically conferred on him. For it to move, the power of God must back it up. In other words, authority is the legal right of Christian, which you should claim and exercise. It is power that enforces your right as a Christian. It is possible to have authority without power and that can spell disaster. This is telling us the reason that the Holy Spirit is an indispensable factor in our Christian life. It is certain that no witch whether from the bottom of hell fire can kill you if you have the genuine baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Lesson no 4: What is our matching order from the Lord Jesus? Knowing full well that we are soldiers of Christ John 14:12
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father”.


Just like the armed forces, Christian soldiers have their own matching order too. Matthew 10:8
“Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give”.


Our marching order is clearly spelt out here. It says, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead and cast out the devils. As you continue to grow in your Christian life, if you fail to carry out any of these before you go and meet the Lord, you would have lived a powerless Christian life. What does the Lord expect us to be doing practically? How does the Lord want us to carry out our marching order? Should we just be hiding from our enemies? No. The Lord expects us to be creating headache for our enemies, but it is unfortunate to see that the enemies are oppressing believers instead. I used to have some troublesome friends in those days. I mean troublesome as Christian warriors and not as hooligans. One day at a night vigil, they prayed the following prayer points, “ Let all satanic transport services grind to a halt in the name of Jesus.” As they were praying violently, all of a sudden, a nicely dressed handsome young man landed on the floor and was saying, “What brought me down, what am l doing here?” And they told him without mincing words that he had been brought down by the power of the Holy Spirit backing up their prayers. I know some believers who dare not attend night vigils or pray fire prayer simply because the Christian marching order is not clear to them.

Another troublesome friend of mine came across a magician performing with live snakes in a market place. He stood at he back of the crowd watching his magical feats. As he rained his incantations, expecting things to happen in order to catch his prey amongst the spectators, my Christian friend who was standing at the back nullified the effect of his incantation by saying, “ I trample upon everything you have said, in Jesus name” And nothing really worked for the magician that day. By the time it dawned on him that he could not make any headway, he left the place for another location. This is the kind of headache that God expects us to be causing for the agents of darkness. You should not be crying day and night that something is screaming by your bed or that birds are perching on your pillow. Why should you be under the fear of a strange bird, Lizard and cockroach when you already have a superior power?

There was this other friend of mine who was posted to pastor a church situated in a street where there was practically a herbalist on every house. This brother decided to make it a do or die affair. He made up his mind to wake up everyday at 2 a.m point to every house and say “ I soak this house in the fire of God and I destabilize everything demonic arrangement therein in Jesus name.” He also coupled it with speaking in tongues. After two months of this exercise the herbalist in the streets held an emergency meetings where they sent a delegate to see his General Overseer and requested that he should be removed from their street. But he highly perturbed general Overseer told them that they were free to deal with him for he knew very well that they could not face him. That was how the herbalists lost their clients to the church of this brother and they began to wallow in poverty. Sometimes ago, a herbalist husband of one of the our converts traced his wife to our meeting with charms and threatened to deal with us if we did not release his wife. We asked him if he had come to fight us and he said no, but he would use his power on us. We told him that he could go ahead to use whatever power he had on us. But alas he failed woefully. He was enraged because he had lost his wife to Jesus.

I am emphasizing this for us to see that we are falling short of our marching order. Our shadows are supposed to chase demons. In fact, our spiritual level should attain such a height that even an usher in the church ought to be able to attend to any case of demonic attack that is brought to the church. The efficacy of the power should be so real in us that we should be able to say, “Don’t bother to take this one to the General Overseer. Let me take care of it “ We should all be able to carry out the marching order as attested in Matthew 10:8, God wants you be filled with power to the extent that as you are passing by witches will be running away from you. A witch should not be seen admiring your perfume and asking who did your hair for you. The fact that they were able to move closer to you is evident that you lack power. Even your saliva should carry fire and if an evil person is following you about in bed to collect the sand from underneath your feet, he will be electrocuted.

In a fellowship we attended long time ago, our prayer was so aggressive that unbelievers could not dare pass by the church building. They knew that if they attempted to cross our bridge, they would be shocked. But why is it that evil people who are supposed to be running about seeking for our help are the very people giving us problems? Are they not the ones who ought to be running helter-skelter? Did not our Lord and Master, Jesus say, “Greater works than these shall ye do” Our lives should be a terror to evil people. If they lock up Christians, we expect the angels of God to come and open door. The reason we don’t see angels is that a lot of consecration is required, which many people cannot cope with. Every believer is meant to be a power generator. It is not for Pastors, apostles or evangelists and ministers alone.

The fifth lesson to learn is anointing.

Like I said earlier on all Christians should be power generators. But then, this cannot be possible without the anointing. As you read through the New Testament, you will understand that anointing means the power that will enable you to function supernaturally. It is supernatural power for supernatural assignment. The question then is, how could you be anointed? How could you be spiritually equipped so that instead of running away from your marching order, you will stay and cause power to change hands. The anointing is a kind of power that comes upon you to enable you to operate as Christian. Without it there is little you can achieve for God. Something would definitely happen when the anointing comes upon you. It is the anointing that breaks the yoke of poverty, sicknesses and problems. Isaiah 10:27 Confirms this
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing”.

The anointing can crush all attacks launched against you. No matter the resistance force of your attackers, the anointing would scatter their strongholds. It is the anointing that stands between the believers and the power of darkness. It is what makes the believer to shine. Even if the enemy has locked up your potentials when the anointing comes upon you, they would be released. This anointing makes you to operate in the supernatural and increases your level of understanding.

Your first contact with the anointing is when you become born again because nobody can get born again except by the spirit of God. The book of John3:3 tells us that except a man is born of water and spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. But believers need to be anointed from heaven to exhibit power Acts 1:8
“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth”.
It means that without the power of the Holy Spirit, there cannot be anointing. Jesus was careful enough to warn His disciples not to venture to preach without this power. He charged them to wait at Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. Of a truth, when they received the power, they were accused of turning Jerusalem upside down. The manifestation of the power made them VIPs in Jerusalem. When they locked them up in prison, the angel of God went there and got them out and charged them to go forth to minister the word. They went back to inform the chief priests and scribes that the men they put in custody were found preaching the temples and market places.

When the power of God comes upon you, you will know. If I ask you whether you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit or not, and your answer is “l am not sure” then what you are saying in effect is no because when the power of God comes upon a person, he will know. Because many things will happen. You will pray in tongues, your prayer life will be changed, strange dreams will disappear and it will be as if heaven has come down. Also, it is one thing to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and it is another thing to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. If the apostles needed more of the in-filling of the Holy Spirit, then we need it much more in this dispensation. We should realise that the last days are here. One blind man was brought to Jesus for healing. Jesus held his hands and took him outside the town where He touched him. Then He asked him, if he could see and the man said that he could see men walking like trees. Jesus touched him a second time before he could see clearly. In the same way, most of the modern believers need the second touch of God. It is when the power of God comes upon your life that things will begin to happen in your life.

Many believers have never seen any vision or divine revelation or prophesied before. All they do is just to come to fellowship to allow others to do things in the fellowship. When the Lord comes and brings out the record of our services, what will you tell Him?


Lesson 6 is “The double portion anointing. In 2kings 2, we see an important thing. We know that the Old Testament is a shadow of he New Testament. And whatsoever has been laid down for us in the old testament, has its substance in the New Testament.
There we read about two men, one is known as Elijah. His name means God is God. And we have Elisha, who had double portion and his name means God is salvation. These two people were men of God who gave us a pattern on how we might move if we really want power. Elisha was a very important and wonderful prophet in the Old Testament. He was very important for several reasons. For example, we don’t know anything about the parents of Elijah, meaning that, your parents do not have to be important for God to use you. In fact, in some places in the Bible, some parents were downright demonic but their children were men of God. For example; Jehoshaphat, the king of Israel. His father was  demon-possessed and the Bible did not hide it at all. We don’t know anything about Elijah’s parents but he was the first prophet to announce punishment against God’s enemies. He decreed that there would be neither rain nor dew except by his word. And for three and half years he closed the windows of heaven and put the key in his pocket. That was in the old Testament, and the Bible says that we have to do better than that. That is why the book of James says that Elijah was a man of like passion as us. He was the first prophet to multiply food. Although our Lord Jesus Christ did a lot of it later He was the first prophet to raise the dead, he was the first prophet to call down fire. Before Elijah, nobody ever did. Now, Elijah was going away and a replacement had to be made.


So, the first qualification for somebody who wants the double portion of God’s power is that he must receive a call. The reason you are a child of God now is because God has called you. You did not become that by your own design. In fact, many people would not have come to the Lord at all if not for the fact that He drew them with a powerful hand. Some would have still been dancing away at the parties of the world. Bu the Lord organized situations for them to drag them to the gospel and now they are there and that see that there is no life better than that. The church as a whole is a constitution of people who were called out from the world. The Bible says, “Come out of hem and be ye separate” God called you out by unseen ordination, not by anybody’s brain. God calls out His people. You don’t become a member of the church by somebody writing your name in his or her register. You don’t become the member of the church just because on your fortieth day, you were taken to the church. No. It is something only God can do.

Elisha now received his call, it was unexpected. He did not question the call. He just accepted it. He did not struggle with God 1 Kings 19:16-21
“And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. [17] And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. [18] Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
[19] So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, (normally a person ploughs with just one but he was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen) and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him.(he did not say anything to him, he just cast his mantle upon him) [20] And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee?( I did not say anything to you now) [21] And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people,( and gave them bye-bye party) and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him”.

The call was unexpected but he man understood it. He did not question it. They did not force it upon him. It was unconditionally accepted. The Bible says that many are called but few chosen. God has called you and that is the reason you are a Christian. Elisha was already a warrior. These days, some people just come and they say, “I am not doing my work again. God ahs called me” The person that says God ahs called him has done nothing for two years. He is just sleeping and waking up. Occasionally, he would go to the business to make some noise in the name of Preaching. He tried carpentry, it did not work. He tried bricklaying, it did not work, he tried to be a bus conductor and that did not work, so he stayed at home now and said that God has called him. It is a big lie. Those that God called in the scriptures beginning from Abraham to the last person were busy doing their thing and God called them for what they were. They were busy men working. We still have to pray for a lot of people to be delivered from the spirit of laziness. Elisha was not lazy. He was busy working when God took him. We have another man in the bible called Amos who was preaching his message and the chief priest came unto him saying, “O seer, don’t prophecy here, we don’t want that kind of message here. How could you be saying that Israel shall go into captivity. Go back to Judah and eat the bread there” So, the work of God was described as eating of bread. But Amos said, “Once I was a herdsman and a keeper of sycamore trees and the Lord took me from doing that work saying go unto my people tell them about the transition, but you high priest because you said don’t preach here, don’t say what God wants you to say, hear the word of the Lord”, then he issued curses on him. He knew who called him and what he was doing. So think about it. Some people who say they want to work for God wake up by 2.00 a.m. Certainly, God has not called them.
To be continued.

 

Prayer points
1. Holy Ghost, ignite my fire, in Jesus name.
2. Let the flood of God’s power soak me, in the name of Jesus.
3. O Lord, make this week a week of power for me in the Name of Jesus.
4. I refused to fail, in the name of Jesus.
5. Every stranger in my life, depart by fire in Jesus name.

 The Scale of the Almighty

Dr.D.K.Olukoya

 

It is one thing to call yourself something; it is another thing for God to call you something.
     One of our elders in the Lord said, “You may decide to call yourself a pastor or an apostle or an evangelist, but in the book of God, which is the only book that matters, He writes that you are a messenger.” It is not what you call yourself that matters; it is what God calls you.

Daniel 5:1-2: “Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank the wine before the thousand.  Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his princes, his wives, and his concubines might drink therein.”

The party went on for a long time. Then all of a sudden, probably because of the effect of alcohol, the king ordered his servants to bring the vessels that were taken from the temple in Jerusalem. At that level, he overstepped his boundary. I pray that you will not overstep your boundary, in Jesus’ name. He went too far. A person can go too far. He can push himself to a level where the Spirit of God no longer strives with him, a level where God gives up on him. At a time the Spirit would be urging you to pray, read the Bible, watch your temper, etc. But a time will come when the Spirit would no longer strive with you. Once a person gets to that level, destruction is certain. I pray, that that will not be your lot, in Jesus’ name.

Daniel 5: 3-7 : “Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God, which was at Jerusalem, and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: (Why did the fingers go to the plaister of the wall? Because there was some light there and the writing would be seen clearly. It was like watching a cinema show) and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him. (He knew that whatever that writing might be, it would not bring a good message) so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spake and said to the wise men of Babylon. Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof shall be clothed with scarlet and have a chain of gold about his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then came all the king’s wise men, but they could not read the handwriting, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.  Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled and his countenance was changed in him and his lords were astonied.” They brought Daniel who said in verses 25-28, “And this is the writing that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. (Look at so many words crammed into one word.) TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”

At the time Daniel was interpreting the writing, it was too late for the king to change the situation. Those who would destroy his kingdom were already banging at the door, because he had gone down on the scale of the Almighty. He had failed completely on the balance of God.

We are in the habit of making one mistake or the other when we weigh things. But there is one balance in heaven which is absolutely perfect. It does not make mistakes. A pastor could make a mistake; he may say that you are the best person around and give you a spiritual assignment. But there is a balance in heaven which never makes mistakes. Other balances can get out of order. Their chains may break or one thing or the other may go wrong, so that when you measure something and it says it is one kilogram, the measurement is not really one kilogram. It may be less a little bit or more. But the balance of God never loses its judgment. In God’s balance, one kilogram is one kilogram. No mistakes.

The incident we are discussing happened in the kingdom of Babylon. Babylon was a paradise of architecture. In fact, in all the kingdoms or empires in the world, there was none greater in splendour than Babylon. The most elaborate structures of modern times that we see around are mere shadows of what was found in Babylon. The most sophisticated architectural design of these days would not compare to those in Babylon before its fell. Millions of men were employed to build the walls around the city which was 60 miles in circumference and had 25 gates of solid brass on each side of the square city. Some houses in Babylon did not join one another on the ground, but a bridge passed from house to house. It had many other fantastic structures. But as beautiful as it was, when it was weighed on the scale it was found wanting and it fell.

Our God has the knowledge that is beyond human reasoning. His ways of doing things are very strange to the human mind. God has His own way of detecting counterfeit or genuine services. If the service you are rendering to God now is counterfeit, He knows how to measure it. If it is for show, He knows. If you are just an actor, when He puts your acting on the balance, it will go down.

Many years ago, a sister prayed certain prayer points and God told her to just watch and see. All of a sudden, she saw a picture of rapture and everybody was being caught up. She was looking but could not go up, although she had attended a Bible college. At first she thought it might be because she was fat, but when she looked up she saw people double her size going. She tried to jump but something held her. She started crying and an angel came to her and said, “I want to show you your mark on the balance of the Almighty.” The angel gave her a piece of paper which read 22 per cent. It was completely inadequate, so she could not go anywhere.

When you are serving the Lord, He tries your service by fire. He has His own method of testing you. According to I Corinthians 3:13, if you are singing, it will be made manifest, if you are preaching, it will be made manifest. Whatever you are doing would manifest. If you like, do the work of God deceitfully, it shall be made manifest. If you like, be stealing materials from the house of God, it shall be made manifest. The day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire, which shall try every man’s work.

God has His own way of measuring our financial contribution. The way He measures is different from ours. Mark 12:43-44: “And he called unto him his disciples, and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.” God measures your tithes and offerings by how much you keep for yourself. So, you must take heed to yourself so that you do not offer the gospel to others, while you remain a stranger. Take heed so that you do not become a human signboard or a spiritual tout, shouting various bus stops, but never taking to take a seat inside the bus. Be careful beloved that you do not perish while you are warning others not to perish. Take heed so that after warning others to run away from hell fire you do not enter the place yourself. Do not be a tailor who goes about in rags while you are cutting and sewing clothes for people everyday. Think about it. God has His own way of measurement. He took three million Jews into the wilderness and took just two of them into the promised land. As far as His own judgement was concerned, that was a success. Man would say, what a fantastic failure but God was not worried. After all, the Bible says that God would not mind turning a whole nation into hell fire if necessary.

There is the story of that brother who was interpreting in the church and suddenly fell down and died. His wife sent to his people to come and bury him. On the fourth day, when they came to collect his body from the mortuary, they found tears in his eyes and all of a sudden, he opened his eyes and started talking. He said that immediately he died, he found himself in a pit of darkness, that the darkness was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. But inside there was a narrow path, so narrow that it took one leg to move at a time. He said that by the side of the narrow path was a wide road and there were lots of people on it but at the end of it was a big hole burning with fire. He said that the rate at which people including school girls were going inside was as if a tipper was dropping sand. But he did not find another person on the narrow path which he said, led to a very high mountain. He said that occasionally he would nearly fall but someone would appear before him and say, “Do not fall,” and he kept moving until he got to the top where there were angels who had one small television set, the size of a shoe polish can.  He said that immediately one arrived there they asked his name. And on his mentioning his name, every sin he had committed, right from when he was an infant, would appear on the television set. He said that at a stage while they were relaying the sins of a certain man, including the incest he committed with his younger sister, the man cried: “Please, switch it off. I don’t want to look at it again. Switch it off because it is terrible.” However, anything that you confessed and called the blood of Jesus to cleanse would not be shown, unless you went back to the sin. When the angels switched off the television set and asked the man, “What is in your pocket?” he put his hand in his pocket and brought out anger. The angels said, “Since you call yourself a Christian, how come these things are in your life?” The man said, “I am sorry, it is the devil.” They shouted, “Lucifer” and all of a sudden, he showed up, laughing.

The brother said that he also heard the scream of another sister who had died in his church about three years back and used to sing a special number. This sister was boiling and shouting with her soprano voice in hell fire. When the brother heard it he started crying. That was when he shed the tears that his people saw at the mortuary.

If the Lord begins to weigh you today, where do you stand? That rich man said, “My soul, rejoice and be glad, I still have many years.” But God said,  “This night, your soul shall be taken away from you.” All the things you had gathered, to whom shall they belong? All you had acquired by running around, who shall have them when you are gone?

I have often said that there are two places where sermons are effective: the cemetery and the leprosy colony. In fact, one of the best altar calls I have ever seen was at a cemetery. The preacher began: “Three days ago, this man was drinking Coke in my house. I did not know that in three days time, he would have gone. But he is here now. One day, whether you like it or not, whether you refuse to grow old, whether you are polishing your hair and carrying your body cream everywhere you go, one day, you will land here too. And other people will say, Oh, he has gone home. But who knows where you are going? Who really knows?"

God’s balance weighs many things. David’s father had many sons, some huge and handsome and some who looked respectable and holy. They seemed qualified to be the king of Israel, and Samuel almost made a mistake when he saw Eliab coming. He said, “Surely, this is him.” But the Lord said to him, “Look not at his countenance nor his frame for the Lord looketh not as man looketh, a man looketh at the surface but I the Lord, I look at the heart.” So, God had looked at the heart of all the sons of Jesse, weighed all of them and only David measured up. In fact, David was not allowed to come. He was the smallest son and was looking after the sheep. But Samuel said, “Go and bring him, we will not sit down till he comes.” And he remained standing with his anointing oil looking for the head to pour it on.

Many people lift up their hands and pray, “Anointing fall on me.” Some of them are goats and the heavens are saying, “You want anointing, but there are horns on your head, break the horns, so that you can become a lamb, then we can anoint you.” One goat would say, “No, anointing fall on me.” The heavens would say, “Okay, since we said, break your horns and you refuse, we will pour the oil on your horns.” Then the person will begin false prophecy. He would pray, pray and pray but two spirits will be quarrelling inside him. He would be preaching to thousands of people and at the same time he would be sleeping with a spirit wife. Two things would combine themselves in his life. He would sit down and read the Bible, up to the point that people will be saying that he is running mad, but at the same time, when he sleeps, he could be playing with masquerades. So, there are two conflicting things in his life.

The balance of God can weigh men and determine their integrity. Job 31:6 says, “Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know mine integrity.” God’s balance can weigh men of low degree and high degree. Psalm 62:9 says, “Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie; to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.” Vanity is zero. But the scripture says that somebody can weigh less than zero. There are many like that in the house of God. God is weighing you. He is looking at you and because He is looking at you, you are taking Him for a ride. That is because the Bible says that He does not want anybody to perish. He is long-suffering, so you take Him for granted.

Recently, before one girl died she came to see me, and she wrote a list of 40 men she had slept with. What pained me most was the last man. He was the one who converted her to Christianity in a holiness-preaching church. The man slept with her, who was a new convert not knowing that she had HIV. So, he signed a death sentence for himself. The same brother would jump forward and scream, “Without holiness, no man shall see God.” He would come forward and say, “Holiness is our watchword” and would sing in bass tone. But God is weighing him, and all those his songs will stand against him on the day of judgement. He will be asked, “Did you not sing these songs?” Did you understand what you were singing?” He will reply, “I sang. I understood.” The angels will now ask him, “Then what happened?” He will say, “I don’t know.” The angels will say, “Get him away, let him join the goats at the left side.”

In any church, there are two groups of people: the goat and the sheep. The goats go to the left hand while the lamb go to the right hand. A lamb is a foolish animal. It does what you want it to do. It appears like a fool, but it does not perish as easily as the goat.

God can weigh men of low degree and those of high degree. Eventually, some of the big men will realise that in heaven, unlike on the path of life, there is no first class person. No, it is not like the way things are done here. No angel can change what he has written about you because you say, “When I was in the world, I was living in a reserved area. God is weighing you everyday. If a person allows himself to get to zero level, the devil will come quickly and kill him and he will go to hell.

God’s balance can weigh the paths and the ways of men. It can weigh your path, the way you go, all the people you visit, the kind of relationship you have with your fiancée, etc. So, you can see that the balances of the Lord are very interesting. It is the same balance too that is written about in Job 28: “To make the weight for the winds, and he weigheth the waters by measure.” God can weigh the wind. In Proverbs 16:2 we also read about the balances: “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirit.” He can weigh your spirit. I Samuel 2:3 says, “Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.”

Beloved, if you want to experience the power that the apostles experienced, you should examine yourself carefully. If God were to weigh your spirit now, do you think that you are up to the required standard? Some raise their hands everyday and pray, “O God, heal me, heal me, I will serve you till I die.” And God says, “Okay, receive your healing.” They collect their healing and that is the last day you see them in church.

God weighs our actions. If He weighs your actions now, do you think you will be up to standard? The scarcity of the power of God in any generation is not the fault of God but the unavailability of men and women that He can use. By the time God grabs a person and says, “I want to use this one,” He has seen that it is the kind of person He can use. If God were to weigh your integrity as a Christian, are you up to the standard? This is the question to ask yourself.

One of our ministers prayed for a certain rich man who had a bad leg and the Lord healed him. Later, the rich man gave the minister a very nice brief case which he was carrying about proudly. One day, he offended the man who gave it to him and the man began to speak against him and reported him to me. He said, “My wife used to prepare tea for this pastor. She used to do this or that for him. I used to carry him about in my car. He is an ungrateful person. I gave him a brief case.” At a point the pastor said, “G.O., what can I do?” I said, “This is why I warn you pastors running around some rich people? You see yourself now. Prostrate and beg him.” The pastor prostrated saying, “I am sorry sir,” and the man said,” That is all right. You can stand up.” This was a person who had no leg to walk and now he could walk.

If God was to measure your financial contributions, do you think you will be up to standard? Somebody prayed and the Lord blessed him with 20,000 dollars but to pay the tithe of 2,000 dollars was hard for him. He said, “It is hard.” Of course, the Lord allowed the devil to create problem that made him spend that money. Eventually devourers were released upon the money that he had thought was heavy. For a person to steal from God, he must be a fantastic thief and a dangerous person to live with. If your husband is stealing from God, you have married a dangerous man. If your business is stealing from God, it will soon become a graveyard, unless you quickly do restitution.  If God were to weigh your financial contribution, where do you go? You are a student. Yes, they give you pocket money, you should pay tithe on it. If not, ordinary malaria can squander the pocket money.

If God were to weigh your zeal for lost souls, will you be up to this standard? If God were to weigh your spiritual activities in the church, do you think it will be up to standard? If God were to weigh your love for others, do you think it will be up to His standard? If God were to weigh your zeal for the house of God, do you think it will be up to His standard? Human beings may be dishonest about their balances or about their measurement cups. You can knock your cup inside, but not God’s. The balances of God will not make mistakes.

“Thou art weighed and found wanting,” were the words that came to Belshazzar. You may be born in the church or dedicated in the house of God. Your father may be a pastor, your mother may be a prophetess, but the day you are found wanting on that scale, that is it. Belshazzar did not get a second chance. His time was up, he had gone too far. His mistakes were many. He lived in pleasure and alcohol, just as some people who come to church are still drinking and saying, “I’m not a heavy drinker, the Bible doesn’t say, ‘Don’t drink,’ it says, ‘Don’t get drunk.” Is that really what it says? Such people are putting a curse on themselves. The Bible says, “If you want to be a prophet of God, a priest unto God, you should not drink. But if you want to perish, drink.” The book of Revelation says that if after you have read it and you decide to be doing evil, continue and if you decide to be doing good, continue. But behold, Jesus is coming quickly and His reward is with Him to give to every man according to his works. This means that after reading it you may continue in iniquity. The Bible says, “Give wine to those who want to perish.” If you insist on taking alcoholic drinks, all the prayer points, “I  fire back every arrow of witchcraft” you are praying are only a joke. Demons will say, “Which arrow is he firing back? He drinks the arrow every night.”

Belshazzar loved alcohol and parties. There are some people who like going to parties. Some do not go, but they would send their children. Some put on their little girls trousers and earrings that they themselves do not wear and send them to a party. The earrings could be those they inherited from their grandmothers who died of cancer. They push their teenage daughters to parties and they come back and say, “This is my boyfriend.” You now say, “No, don’t do that kind of thing in our family.” But you pushed her too far.

Sometime ago, a woman pushed her daughter who was under 15 to me, saying,  “This one is not serious, she doesn’t pray at home. When we pray at home, she sleeps.” Immediately I was about to pray, the Holy Spirit said, “She’s not sick, she’s pregnant.” I told her mother that she was not sick and that the reason she could not pray was that she was pregnant. The woman screamed, So, I said, “Madam, don’t cry, even you, you are with your fifth husband, so she has just collected your anointing.” When she heard me, she stopped crying.

Belshazzar cared very little about God. He decided to insult God. He was a proud man. He said, “Art thou Daniel of the Hebrew slaves that my father brought?” The man said. “Daniel would have said, “Yes, I am Daniel, but listen, I am not interested in becoming the third in command. The kingdom will fall anyway, but listen, your father, Nebuchadnezar, suffered. God threw him into the forest to suffer for seven years and made him eat grass like animals so that he might know that God is the ruler of men. You, the son, you were alive, you saw it and in spite of the fact that you saw it, you refused to learn from your father’s mistakes, so the hand that wrote the ten commandments of Moses now came down.”

There are two sins that the Bible says cannot be forgiven:

1.      Sin against the Holy Spirit.

2.      Willful sin.

Willful sins will attract punishment and sometimes without remedy. Sin against the Holy Spirit will attract punishment sometimes without remedy. When the Holy Spirit says, “Thus saith the Lord” and you say, “No, I will not follow it,” or “Thus saith the Lord, and you say, “It is a demon that is saying it,” there would be no remedy for your punishment. If you offend the Father, the Son will beg for you, or you offend the Son, you can ask the Holy Spirit for your forgiveness. But if you offend the Holy Spirit, you are finished. Belshazzar knew all these things but he continued in sin. Do you know that many churchgoers are like that? Since I got born again, I have learnt something from counselling. The sins that glue people to themselves are fornication and adultery. Such people feel sorry for themselves while hearing the word of God, only to fall back into sin soon after.

Forget the notion that it is only handsome men and beautiful women that commit fornication. No, that spirit has nothing to do with beauty and being handsome. Sometimes, it is easier to get a witch delivered, because once that anointing of fornication and adultery comes upon a man, he forgets that the person somebody is his house help. He forgets that this is the younger sister of his wife. He forgets that this one is his relative. He completely forgets that he has a family, that he has eight children to feed and that a new baby or wife will be an additional problem. When this anointing falls on him, he completely forgets that there is something called gonorrhea. He forgets its repercussion He does it and after about ten minutes, regret sets in. If the person has the Holy Spirit at all, he will be like someone mourning the dead. If he wants to pray, the Holy Spirit will not rise with him. If he reads the Bible, it will not be clear again. He goes for deliverance and prays only to fall back in sin again. Unless such a person cries unto the Lord now, the handwriting will soon be on the wall against him: “Mene, mene, tekel, peres upharsin” he is weighed and found wanting.

Somebody put in his room the emblem, ‘Angels on guard,’ Christian books, tapes of messages of holiness by men of God and he is committing sin in the same room. The Lord will not listen to excuses such as “everybody has weaknesses, my weakness is women.” He will not listen to excuses such as “there is a limit to human-endurance.” He won’t listen to excuses such as “I tried but I failed.” He won’t not listen to “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” He would not listen to any excuse. The only sin that God forgives is that not preplanned. Once it is a willful sin, it reduces your weight in the balance of God. Willful sins include anger, pride, lying, gossiping, bitterness, envy, backsliding, etc.

Every good word we say goes to the balance. All our spiritual actions go there. All our offerings go there. Every gesture we make goes there. Every help we render goes there. They all add up to help us against the day of reckoning. All the good things you do are increasing your weight in the balance of God. But when you begin to commit willful sin, it begins to cancel your weights and one day you may commit a single sin which can wipe off all the good you have done all your life. A single willful sin may make the balance to read zero. What do you weigh on the balance of the Almighty?

A man had a vision which revolutionized and revised his spiritual life. He had prayed many times asking for spiritual power. He did not see any changes in his life. He bought books on how to work on the supernatural and found that it did not work. He bought books on “Power from high,” He found that power did not come from anywhere. He tried fasting and prayer but before he broke his fast, somebody would bring food for him to eat in the dream. He broke his fast in the dream.

One night in his room, he prayed and saw a vision of an angel of God who came to him and showed him his mark recorded in heaven: Love 2 per cent, patience 1 per cent, gentleness 10 per cent, faith 5 per cent, self-control 3 per cent, evangelism 0 per cent, useful praying 10 per cent, holiness 1 per cent, doubt 30 per cent, love of praise 70 per cent, pride 69 per cent, useless praying 90 per cent, anger 90 per cent, bad thought 80 per cent. It was seriously below standard. The angel that came to show him the paper looked at him, shook his head, folded the paper, threw it at him and went away in anger. What do you weigh in the balance of the Almighty?

God has no regard for persons. Obedience is better than being religious. The Lord is looking for vessels to fill. Many vessels have disappointed Him. He is looking for people who will become His battle axe. So, if you are reading this magazine and you don’t have control over your thought, your balance may be reading zero, if you find it hard to break from any bad habit, your balance may be reading zero. If you cannot identify what you have done for the Lord, your balance may be reading zero. If your spiritual life is going up and down, your balance may be reading zero. If your main purpose of coming to the house of God is for prosperity and protection, your balance may be reading zero now. If you don’t have the joy of salvation, your balance may be reading zero. If you are not interested in soul-winning, your balance may be reading zero. If you have been avoiding paying your tithes or you have people you don’t greet or you keep malice against people, or you live a life of fornication, your balance may be reading zero.

If we have to go back to our roots, we must go back to the foundation and bring quality repentance unto the Lord, so that we can become what He wants us to become. Talk to the Lord about your life. Say, “Lord, what do I have? Where do I stand? I may have been calling myself one thing and you are calling me another. I don’t want to continue this life of nothing. Time is going. I am not getting any younger. Something must happen in my life. I know that this is not the best thing you have for me.

It can be very sad if you have been coming to the meetings of the old pathway and your life has not started to move in the old path. Settle it before the Lord. There are prayers to pray. But if as you are reading this message you have not given your life to Christ and you want to do so now, declare this loud and clear: “Lord, I thank you. I surrender my life to You. Forgive me my sins and cleanse me with your blood. I ask you to come into my life and make me a new person as from today. Thank you Jesus, in Jesus’ name.”

I have seen many people in the spirit struggling. If only they will allow the Lord to break off the horns of the goat so that they will become a lamb, the enemy holding onto that horn will have no more horn to hold. It is because there is horn on the head that the battle is still strong. The day you become what God wants you to become, all the warfare that you are fighting will surely come to an end and you would have victory over your enemy, and the enemy will have no landing place in your life again. But when you prepare a loophole for the enemy, he will take full position.

The Psalmist says, “The day that I cried unto the Lord, then shall my enemy turn back, this I know, for God is with me.” The reason some people are doing deliverance upon deliverance is because they refuse to depart from their sins. Some people will say, “Well, by the grace of God, I am living a life of holiness.” Holy life and there is malice in their lives. Holy life and there are people they don’t greet. Holy life when they are just holding their anger inside. Holy life and they are still stealing money from where they work. Holy life when they borrow money from the cooperative and they don’t want to pay back. Holy life when they buy things on credit and refuse to pay back. Don’t deceive yourself, bring quality repentance unto the Lord and your life will not remain the same.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.  O Lord, deliver me from the spirit of hell fire, in the name of Jesus.

2.  O Lord, show me where I stand, in the name of Jesus.

3.  My inner man, receive fire, in Jesus' name.

4.  Every witchcraft deposit in my life, die, in Jesus' name.

5.  Every power pursuing me out of the way of life, die, in Jesus' name.

 

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 paralysed 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.

 

Rearranging the problem

Dr.D.K.Olukoya

 

Judges7: 1-7says,“Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand. And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. So he brought down the people unto the water: and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.”

Israel had fallen into the sin of idolatry and this time as judgment, God permitted a vast herd of the Midianites to invade their land and rob them of their harvest. However, God raised  Gideon to deliver them. The book of Judges is a book of problems, the kind of problems people encounter when they make God the tail and make themselves the head. Anytime you put God behind, there will always be problem. That was how the Israelites got into trouble.

The Lord commissioned Gideon to lead the Israelites in battle against the Midianites. In response to the Lord’s command, Gideon assembled an army by the well of Harod while the Midianites encamped somewhere in the north. Gideon had 32,000 men while the Midianites had 135,000. You can check the figures in Judges 8. That means that Gideon was facing 135,000 Midianites with 32,000 people, a ratio of about 4-1. Imagine Gideon’s feeling when God told him that his men were too many. He asked those who were afraid to go home and 22,000 of them departed leaving Him with 10,000 men to face the 135,000 Midianites. Yet to the greater astonishment of Gideon God told him that the people were still too many. Then those who went down on both knees to drink water were eliminated and those who lapped as a dog were to go for the battle.

This takes us to the issue of lack of vigilance which is one essential characteristic in people that the enemy holds tight to enable him re-arrange problems in the lives of many. I Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” Picture the soldiers who bowed on their knees to drink from the well, they could be attacked easily because they would have laid aside their weapons to be on their knees. They would not have seen the enemy approaching because they would have their faces buried inside the water, and the enemy would have overcome them. So, God removed them and left those who lapped like dogs. When a dog drinks inside water it does not bury its nose inside the water, it just stretches out its tongue and laps. The men who lapped went down on one knee while retaining their weapons with one hand. So, they were vigilant. In their posture, they remained alert watching for any surprise attack by the enemy.

Only 300 of the 32,000 men passed the test and the ratio now became 450:1. They started with the ratio of 4-1 but by the time the Lord had dealt with them, the ratio fell to 450-1.

We have some lessons to learn from this. The Lord says “Be vigilant.” The devil does not go on sabbatical. He never takes a holiday. When you think you need to relax and put your weapon down, the devil will release an unanticipated arrow.

The passage we read is very clear. The Almighty God looked at the 32,000 volunteers and said, “No, they are too many. Reduce the men. 22,000 went home and among the remaining 10,000 He selected only 300 and told Gideon that those were the men he should work with. What were the reasons for God’s action?

1.  It is to prove that victory is from the Lord and not from man. A man may boast and say all kinds of things. He may say that he is the best man in the world. Yet victory is from the Lord and not from man. For example, nobody can scatter this country because of the prayer of the children of God. Anybody who wants to scatter it shall fall down and die. The Lord has a purpose for Nigeria, in Africa, and in the world as far as the gospel is concerned. The Bible says that it is not by power or by might but by the Spirit of the living God. So, our personal foresight, planning ability, intelligence, technological know-how, etc cannot save us in the day of trouble. Victory is from the Lord.

2.  It is to prove that God does not work with photocopy. The fact that some men were not picked meant that they were not supposed to be there at all. Likewise many people just join the crowd of Christians without any conviction. God does not work on photocopy. He works on the original. Those rejected men were photocopies. They heard that there was going to be a battle and they joined, but they did not do so with conviction, so God had to discard them. Supposing you have to face persecution now for Jesus, can you be numbered among those who will stand firm?

3.  It was to prove that those eliminated men were not an asset to the cause. They were a liability. They were not there wholeheartedly. They would have been a cog on the wheel of progress, so God had to remove them. I pray that every unprofitable friend, unprofitable crowd and unprofitable parasite in your life shall scatter, in the name of Jesus.

4.  It is to prove that God’s strength does not depend on number. So, stop saying that you are failing because nobody is supporting you. If God supports you, then every power in the universe is behind you. It is a very bad confession to say, “I have nobody to help me.” We count people’s heads but God counts the hearts. God is interested in the heart and not the head.

     A large percentage of these soldiers who bowed to drink the water took off their helmets, slacked their belts and removed their equipment, not minding the possibility of an ambush by the enemy. They forgot that they were at the warfront and that the enemy could come upon them anytime. They were drinking water as if all was well. Only those who lapped without relaxing had the real soldier spirit. They were vigilant, never once taking their eyes off their leader. They were ready to spring to action anytime. God said, “These are the ones who can walk with me.” Are you like that? Are you vigilant? Are you quick to detect sin in your life? Are you quick to notice when the Holy Spirit is saying, “Son, daughter, this is not the best for you?”

5.    It is to prove that many are called but few are chosen.

It is lack of vigilance that allows the enemy to be re-arranging problems in the lives of many people. Many Christians do not realize that they are fighting very terrible and clever spirits. Jeremiah 6:14 says, “They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” They were patching it up when there was no peace. When you are not vigilant as a Christian, the enemy would re-arrange problems in your life.

 

 

 

What do we mean by re-arranging problems?

In some parts of the world, suicide rate is now very high. People commit suicide so frequently and their governments do not seem to have an answer to the problem. What they have done is to spend money training people to try to persuade those who want to kill themselves not to do so.  If somebody climbs a high building and is threatening to jump down, the trained people would be invited to the scene to persuade the person not to die. But most of the time, the people being persuaded would just jump and die. Suicide attempts got so rampant in a particular hotel in one city that anytime anybody came into the hotel lobby the first question the receptionist would ask him is: “Are you staying or do you want to jump?”

In some places also, divorce rate is very high and sometimes a week after a wedding, the spouse files an action for divorce.  Some couples start fighting at the altar. When the pastor says, “Read these after me,” the bride would say to the bridegroom, “What kind of voice are you using to read? Why are you reading it with an unserious voice?” Some countries have come up with a regulation that a couple cannot divorce within three years of their marriage. This only amounts to re-arranging the problem.

 

A TIME OF SPIRITUAL CONFLICT

The time we are living in now is a time of terrible spiritual conflicts. Although we have many Christian churches now, there are also many satanic churches around. Although we have an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, there are also intensive demonic activities. Although we have abundant life, there is also death around. We have a lot of prosperity, and a lot of poverty too. We have a lot of love for God yet we have a lot of hatred for the Lord. Therefore, it is a time for all Christians to be very vigilant and to know that what most people sometimes describe as solution is not solution but a re-arrangement of the problem.

When you go to a herbalist, he will only re-arrange the problem. He would remove one problem and replace it with another clever one. When you go to a white garment prophet, he would trade your soul for temporary physical solution. When you go to an occultist, he would use your soul to form a covenant and give you temporary relief.

Sometime ago, a boy who had epilepsy was brought for prayer. Before then he had been taken somewhere and somebody did something after which he gave him a cross to hang over his neck. The boy thought that the problem was over only for it to get worse a few months later. When he was brought to the church, the minister of God asked him to remove the cross from his neck and break it. He did so and found in it a paper on which was scribbled the phrase, “donated to satan.” That boy thought he had been healed not knowing that all the so-called healer did for him was to re-arrange the problem.

Vigilance is very essential in these last days. The Bible says, “Be sober.” That is, “be quiet,” “be calculative,” “have a sound mind,” “be humble,” “be attentive,” “be careful.” The Bible does not stop there. It goes further to say, “Be vigilant.” Why? Because the devil, your adversary, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.

Somebody shared the testimony of a sister with me. The sister was preaching the gospel in a street and a certain man invited her to share the gospel with him. She entered the man’s house not knowing what the man had in mind. Suddenly, instead of the man to sit on the chair and listen to her, he slapped her on the chest and started chanting incantations. But everything he chanted to happen to the sister happened to him. He fell down and began to scream and beg the sister. The sister was surprised at what was happening. She did not understand why the man had to slap her on the chest when he was the one who invited her to preach to him. Meanwhile she could notice that life was going out of the man as he continued to beg her to rescue him. So, she prayed for him and he recovered. He asked the sister, “What kind of power do you have?” He told her that for the past 21 years, he had sacrificed a virgin every year to his idol. He would simply call them into his house, slap them and they would fall down and he would cut off any part of their body that he needed for his rituals.

The man could recognize a virgin if he saw one, but when he tried this sister, he met with failure. Why? It was because the sister knew her God and was obedient to Him. Unfortunately, many sisters are ashamed of preaching the gospel. Some men too, are ashamed of sharing the gospel. They fail to realise that the more you witness, the more power flows into your life.

Be vigilant for the devil, your adversary, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. If you notice that the time you spend in praying is reducing, or that your Bible reading no longer makes sense, or you find that fasting is becoming problematic and that going to church is not enjoyable to you anymore, you better shake yourself loose and start praying because the devil, your adversary, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.

The reason he is seeking whom he may devour is because he cannot devour everybody. There are some people he cannot touch. The Bible says, “Christians, seek not yet repose, hear your guardian angel say, thou art in the midst of foes, watch and pray.”

A certain sister employed a nanny. Anytime the nanny was bathing the child, the child would be screaming his head out, and after the bath too, he would continue to cry for almost an hour. One day, the sister prayed and the Lord opened her eyes and she found that the nanny was pouring pepper spiritually into the water that she was using in bathing the child. Then she understood. If you want to employ a houseboy, be vigilant. If you want to drink tea and you don’t know where it comes from, be vigilant. If you want to put something in your mouth, be vigilant. If you want to go to this party or that party, be vigilant.  It is not compulsory for you to honour every invitation. Some of them may be traps.

Beloved, you must be sober and vigilant.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.  I will not abort the programme of God for my life, in Jesus’ name.

2.  Oh Lord, set my inner clock for divine appointment, in the name of Jesus.

3.  Every power suppressing my elevation, fall down and die, in Jesus’ name.

4.  Every demonic panel set up against me, scatter unto desolation, in Jesus’ name.

5.  Every satanic padlock in my hometown working against me, I command it to be roasted, in Jesus’ name.

6.  Every fetish material directed against my progress, be roasted, in Jesus’ name.

7.  Every meeting summoned against me by witchcraft, receive confusion, in the name of Jesus.

8.  I shall laugh last, whether the enemy likes it or not, in Jesus’ name.

9.         Every power keeping me low, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

 

 

The Spirit of the chicken

Dr.D.K.Olukoya

 

This week we are looking at what I call,“Thespirit of the chicken.” Mathew 23:37-38 says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. (They refused to be gathered). Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.  For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

This was the Lord’s final prophecy on Jerusalem.  Those who read news stories and follow world events would discover that there has never been peace in Jerusalem.  Jesus said that peace would not come until that day of His appearing and they would say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

Very often in Jerusalem people put bomb in their own bodies, not minding to die. Sometime ago, a man walked into a market place in Jerusalem where there was a large crowd, ignited the bomb in that large crowd, and destroyed himself and many others.

Jesus had already said it, “I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathered her chickens under her wings and ye would not.”

The Lord’s care is compared to that of mother hen for her young chickens when they are in danger.  It is the wonder of wonders that sometimes people choose to abandon the cover of the wings of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1 says, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” It can be a terrible thing when someone now moves out. The Psalmist says, “Be thou my strong habitation where I may resort continually. Thou hast given commandment to save me.”

The Lord cares for us but sometimes, as foolish chickens, some will not hide under the mother’s wings. God’s people are always safe. All His saints are in His mighty hands. The hand of God is a place of safety and nothing can hurt a person who has made God his refuge. Whether it is famine, flood, riot, fire or war, nothing shall hurt the righteous. Psalm 71:3 says, “Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort; thou has given commandment to save me: for thou art my rock and my fortress.”

Though this earth may be rocking beneath the feet of man and the heavens are rolling up and the firmament is passing away, God’s people need not fear because they shall be saved. If they cannot be saved under the heavens, they shall be saved in the heavens. If there is no safety for them in time of trouble upon the earth, they shall be caught up in the air. That is why it is said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

God may tear His enemies like a lion but would protect every one of His children. As long as you hide under the cover of the blood of Jesus, you are saved.  The enemies may fire their arrows but God will always spare His people.  The reason God spares His people in time of calamity is that He sees the mark of the blood of Jesus upon their foreheads; so nothing can hurt them because the blood is upon them. Every evil thing must of necessity pass them by. The Bible says, “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.  Only with thine eyes shall thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord which is thy refuge even the most High, thy habitation.”

Please, pray like this: “Anything that will remove me from under divine protection, get out of my life, in the name of Jesus.”

Paul was in a ship, but before he set out for that journey, the most powerful prophet around told him that he was going to suffer on that journey, that he should not go, but Paul said that he was going. When he then got into the ship, he told the people there: “Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage not only of the lading and ship but also of our lives.” But the captain of the ship did not listen to Paul. He must have said in his heart. “An ordinary prisoner cannot tell us what we shall do here.” They felt that they knew better than the Almighty and went into the sea.  The Bible says that the storm arose and for weeks, they did not see the sun. They threw their luggage into the water. They could not eat.  Later, Brother Paul stood up. The prisoner then became the controller because God had already said that He had given commandment to save him. Paul said to them, “Sirs, did I not tell you not to set sail, but however, since it has become like this and you people are not eating, cheer up, eat food, none of you shall die. The angel of God, whom I serve, stood by me this night and said that none of you shall die, but you have to remain in the ship even if the ship is scattered into pieces.” Everybody in that ship was saved.

 

What is the spirit of chicken?

1.  Chickens are of different kinds. There are also different kinds of sinners. There are tall sinners, short sinners, slim sinners, fat sinners, rich sinners, poor sinners, white sinners and black sinners. There are different kinds of sinners just like chickens.  The Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

2.  Another character of chicken is that they all taste the same. Before God too, all sinners are the same children of perdition, going to the same way, preparing to be roasted in hell fire.

3.  The third thing, which you will notice about chicken, is that they always follow motion. When they see another chicken running to another place, they go after it, not caring where it is going. They run around aimlessly. When somebody runs aimlessly, he will soon leave the cover of the Almighty. What we are saying is that the chicken follows the crowd. For example, when you take some pieces of corn and go near the chickens and jingle them, they will go running and will become easy prey. Christians should not be following the evil multitude or evil crowd to do anything. As a Christian, you don’t do a thing because others are doing it. 

One of my teachers in years past used to say that what killed people most was their ability to do things the way others were doing them. You don’t have to follow the crowd. Others may be doing a particular thing, but you should not do it.

Please, pray again like this: “I bind every spirit of aimlessness, in the name of Jesus.”

Don’t follow the crowd, but follow the Book of life. Follow what the Bible says. If the whole crowd is doing the wrong thing, don’t follow them. Take a stand on what you should do.

Many years ago, a certain man prayed to God for promotion. He prayed aggressively and God sent somebody to him. The person said, “God is going to bless you, but when He blesses you, will you take your stand as a Christian? Will you serve God whole-heartedly?” The man shouted, “O yes. How can I be coming here to pray and when He blesses me, I will not appreciate it.” Eventually, God blessed this man abundantly. After the blessing, he clocked 50 and the first thing he did was to organise a big party to celebrate his 50th birthday. He invited a musician and hired a whole container filled with alcohol and all kinds of hot drinks, and another one filled with soft drinks which he served people. God was watching. After he finished that he had a stroke and was bed-ridden. He could not move his hands and legs. God warned him. 

As a believer, you don’t follow the crowd. As Christians, we tell unbelievers what to do. They don’t tell us what to do because we are the children of light. A child of darkness cannot dictate to a child of light what to do or how to live his or her life. We tell them the standard and requirements of the Almighty. Many people come to church now and pray for breakthrough. As soon as God blesses them, they stop attending prayer meetings until may be somebody steals their money. Then they will come back asking for prayers. Do not follow the crowd. 

4.   Chickens fight over things, and when they are fighting, they always wound themselves and do all kinds of evil things to themselves. That is why Ecclesiastes 6:7 says, “All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.” Just drop one dead insect in the midst of chickens and see what will happen. They will fight and nearly kill themselves. See how they will be jacking it from each other’s mouth. They will jump and peck each other on the nose and everywhere. If any starts bleeding, they may even peck the blood. Chickens will fight over anything until they have tasted it and found that it is not palatable, and they will all leave it. 

5.   The spirit of the chicken is an unbroken spirit.  Some people fight over food, money and spaces and even over women or men. They can also fight over seats in the church. They fight over people’s inheritance. Sometime ago, one man died. As they were planning for his burial, suddenly, his family members started fighting. They fought and destroyed everything. They fought over the property of a man who had not even been buried. His children were there but nobody wanted to care about them. They were busy claiming their father’s property. The poor widow was there looking at them. They told her that since she had no male child, that she was not entitled to anything.

6.   Chickens are easily frightened. That is why cowardliness is often associated with the chicken. They would say that a person has a chicken heart. The fear of others is the spirit of chicken. This is why some of us cannot witness to others. They are afraid of challenges. God has put you in a place for you to minister to those you find there, no matter how big or small they might seem to be; the important thing is for you to preach Jesus Christ. God forbid that, one day, the person will stand at the judgment seat of Christ and Jesus will say, “You were supposed to share the gospel with this your managing director and you did not talk to him about it because you were afraid.”

Most chickens would never try to jump over a fence. In the same way, the fear of taking challenges has made some people to remain where they are spiritually. I held a meeting several years ago at a School of Prophets.  I asked those who had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and those who would like to be prophesying to come. About 120 people attended. We went into prayer and fasting. After the first prayer point, about 40 people began to prophesy instantly. Others tried but due to fear, they could not. In their minds, they could be saying, “What if I say the wrong thing.  Supposing, I speak out and my voice begins to shake, what will they say?” Some of them, who were looking at it scientifically, could not prophesy because of fear. 

The man with a single talent went and buried it because he was afraid. That is why fear and torment go together. Fear is a spiritual force that kills. Fear would always anticipate the worst.  Fear releases the power of the devil into the life of people. The Bible says, “They were in great fear, where there was no fear.” It also says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for.” So, fear is the substance of things not hoped for”. When fear comes upon a person, he will begin to meditate upon the lies of the devil.  When the doctors say something, the devil would magnify it and then you will begin to meditate upon it and fear will come in. Fear would tear down the hedge of protection.  The spirit of fear is the spirit of the chicken.

7.  Unlike eagles, chickens find things in the dirt. That is why they are always scratching around in dirty places.  There are many people who love dirty things. They scratch around too, trying to find things in dirty places. They find gossiping and spreading rumours convenient. They involve in dirty things. That is the spirit of the chicken.

8.  You will notice that chickens are helpless against the enemy’s attacks. A single animal can kill all the chickens in a cage.  The devil finds it easy to harass people who have the spirit of the chicken. The spirit of the chicken accepts anything from the devil, all kinds of evil things will be transferred to them. That is why Jesus said, “How often would I have gathereth thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not.”

 

What Makes People Run Away From Under Divine Cover?

Personal sins: When you know that you are living the kind of life God does not want you to live, you are a sinner.  Sin brings in fear and then makes you get out from divine protection. If a child of God ventures to go outside the place marked by the blood, trouble will come. But if he remains inside, he is covered.  If he goes to play with his friends, while the angel of the Lord is passing by, and the angel does not find the blood, where he his playing, trouble will happen. It is written: “Let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:17).

 

Prayer Points

1.  I refuse to leave the protection shield of the Almighty, in the name of Jesus.

2.  Blood of Jesus, cover me perpetually, in the name of Jesus.

3.  Anything that is disobeying God in my life, come out with all your roots, in the name of Jesus.

4.  I bind and I cast out every spirit of tragedy, in the name of Jesus.

5.  All my departed glory, be restored now, in the name of Jesus.

6.  All my captured blessings, be released now, in the name of Jesus.

7.  Anything planted in my life to oppress me, come out now, in the name of Jesus.

8.  Anything planted in my life to demote me, come out now, in the name of Jesus.

9.  My blood, reject the spirit of infirmity, in the name of Jesus.

10.       You the owners of infirmity, carry your load, in the name of Jesus.

11.       Let all those who hate my prosperity be put to shame, in the name of Jesus.

12.       Every evil bird swallowing my virtue, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

13.       Every arrow of poverty, go back to where you came from, in the name of Jesus.

14.       Every oppressor of my comfort, loose your hold, in the name of Jesus.

15.       Let my divine helpers appear and let my hindrances disappear, in the name of Jesus.

16.       Every good thing that my hand has started, my hand shall finish it, in the name of Jesus.

17.       My prosperity shall not die on any witchcraft altar, in the name of Jesus.

18.       All my blessings confiscated by household witchcraft, be released now, in the name of  Jesus.

19.       Every stubborn vow of the enemy against my breakthrough, fall down and die now, in the name of Jesus.

20.       Every ancestral decision affecting me negatively now, loose your hold, in the name of Jesus.

21.       I dash every dream of failure to the ground, in the name of Jesus.

22.       Spirit of success, baptize me, in Jesus’ name.

23.       I refuse to carry any evil load. You, the owners of evil load, carry your load, in Jesus’ name.

24.       O Lord, I want to be at the right place at the right time, in Jesus’ name.

25.       Raise up your two hands and prophesy unto your hands that they shall be instruments of power, peace and prosperity, in Jesus’ name.

 

 

The Dangerous Sleep

Dr.D.K.Olukoya

One of the places that man suffers his major defeat is in the bed. The sudden trouble of a lot of people started on their beds. One wonderful thing that God can do for you in life is to give you power over the battle of the bed. When you win that battle you will start moving the way God wants you to move. You will not become a prayer warrior if you are still in the bondage of the bed. You will not be useful to the Almighty if the bed is still your cell. You will not become anything powerful to the Almighty if you spend too long a time on your bed.

I read the story of a man who died at the age of 75. He spent almost 25 years sleeping and about six months praying, out of 75 years. It is clear that the fellow had gone to hell fire. He spent one-third of his life sleeping. If you are still caged by the bed then you cannot make any headway spiritually. The major spiritual battles that many people won in their lives were won after midnight.

Matthew 13:25: “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares, among the wheat, and went his way.”

The enemy does not come to entertain. Sometimes, we start firing at the enemy when he had already planted his evil seed and is gone. We start firing when the destruction has already been done.
Sometime ago, a friend of mine boarded a vehicle to Lagos from somewhere in the eastern part of the country. He sat beside the driver and as they were going he noticed that the driver was dozing. He told him to park the vehicle and sleep for a while before continuing on the journey, to avoid an accident. But the driver abused him and told him that he was not sleeping. He slept off again and before they knew it, they had ended up in a pit. The accident occurred because the driver was sleeping but did not admit he was doing so, like many people would do. Some people allow the spirit of slumber to operate their spiritual life. Today, they are awake and tomorrow they are asleep. Witches and powers of darkness look at many of us in amazement because they don’t sleep. They don’t need coffee to remain awake. I know of a fellow, a child of the devil, who decided to hold night vigils against a person for one month. For the one month, from midnight to 3.00 am, he was cursing the man. The person being cursed was busy sleeping until he started seeing himself walking into a coffin.

Please, at this juncture I would like you to pray like this: “You the powers of the night, my life is not your candidate, in the name of Jesus.”
If you are the kind of person who sleeps so heavily that you cannot wake up at the first tap, you need deliverance, because it means you are going deep down and to the level that anything could happen to your spirit man. If your spirit man can sleep that far, there is a problem.

Romans 13:11 “And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”

Paul said they were sleeping and had to wake up. If physical sleep is very bad what about spiritual sleep?

 

Sleep is a period of rest during which the sleeper loses the awareness of his surroundings. So, the danger in sleep is the loss of awareness. The elder brother of sleep is what medical people call “coma.” Some people are in spiritual coma. Messages and prayer do not worth anything to them. They may be at church service but would not hear what the preacher is saying because they are already dead spiritually even though they are alive physically.
When a person falls asleep, all his physical activity decreases, his muscles relax and he could have a nightmare. Occasionally a person sleepwalks. A person who is sleep-walking can rise up, go to the kitchen, drink something go back to the bed and continue to sleep. And if you say, “Who drank this thing?” He would say, “I never stood up, I did not go there.” This is not common in Africa though. I pray that it will not happen to you, in Jesus’ name.
Some people even discuss in their sleep. That is why a local proverb says that sleep is the friend of death. It is during sleep that the agents of Satan in our environment lay evil eggs in people’s lives and they try to make sure that their victims do not know what they have done, because if they know, they will shake off the evil eggs. That is why the Bible says that while men slept, his enemies came quietly, planted evil and went away. It is not all enemies that will attack you directly. In fact, most enemies will not attack you directly. They just come, lay their evil eggs and go away.

When you lose the battle of the bed, you lose all battles. Satan has destroyed so many good things because of sleep. When you are addicted to sleep physically it is bad, but it is even worse when it is transferred to the spirit man. Sleep gives the enemy a chance to sow tares. While men sleep, many human tragedies occur. For example, fire, hurricane and tornadoes sweeping homes and cities away sometimes before the victims wake up. So, sleep is a time of insecurities, you cannot protect yourself at that time. It is a time of inactivity and a time of delusion when you assume that all is right only for you to wake up to see a great change. So, we need to be aware of the dangers of spiritual slumber. Great changes may occur for the enemy would be at work.
Some people would say, “When I went to sleep last night, I was okay but by the time I woke up, I had become another person." Some people go to bed sound only to wake up mad. The powers of the night waited for them to sleep and planted things in their lives.

 

Please, take this prayer points: “Every seed of the power of the night, roast, in the name of Jesus.”

The Bible categorizes spiritual sleep into many classes. We will look at some of them. This will help you to know whether you are awake or not. The fact that somebody’s eyes are open does not mean that he is not sleeping spiritually.
1. The sleep of Jonah: Jonah 1:5-6 : “Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.”

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SLEEP OF JONAH
It was an unrealistic sleep, a sleep of illusion. The storm was raging, men were in danger but Jonah did not realize it at all. Likewise many people today think that they can put a cover over their head and all the bad things they are seeing around them would go away simply because they are sleeping. No, they will not go away. The sailor confronted Jonah, “What meanest thou, O sleeper arise, call upon thy God. Can’t you see what is happening around?” There are many people like Jonah, a lot of things are happening around them, yet they are sleeping. Many, today are roaming about sleeping unrealistically. Their sin is raging like the hurricane and is as dark as the night and the danger is great but they want to believe that everything is going to be all right. That is why Paul warns: “Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and the light of Christ shall shine upon thee.
Unfortunately, many will die under this delusion because their eyes are covered, they think that the world will just go on like that and that nothing will happen. They believe that politicians will be politicians, military men will be military men, governors will be governors, etc. No, very soon, things will happen. If you are sleeping like Jonah, I pray that the Lord would deliver you, in Jesus’ name.
Some people have the call of God upon their lives and God has told them where to go but they have slept off like Jonah and have also decided to go another way. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh but he headed for Tarshish and slept off on the way. Eventually, he went from his bed of sleep into the mouth of a fish and was there for three days. He did three days dry fast in the belly of the fish because of unrealistic sleep. He was running away from God and consoled himself by sleeping.

2. The sleep of the apostle and the sleep of the disciple: What is the nature of the sleep of the disciples? It is the sleep of weariness. Mark 14:37 says, “And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldest not thou watch one hour?” He first called him Peter and later called him Simon. There is a difference between the two names. Peter means rock while Simon means reed. Anytime Peter began to do a slow motion in the Bible, Jesus would not call him Peter, He would say Simon. And when he was doing well, He would call him Peter.
When Peter left Jesus and began to fish after the resurrection, Jesus said, “Simon son of Jonah lovest thou me…” Here He called him Simon which means a reed, somebody who shakes here and there. “Simon, sleepest thou? Couldest not thou watch one hour?” That is, could you not do one-hour night vigil? There are many people like that. The only night vigil they do effectively with minimal sleep may be the ones organised by the church. Such people are deceiving themselves. When you cannot sit down and do a personal vigil for at least one hour, you are sleeping the sleep of the disciple. Jesus asked His disciples to pray for danger was coming. The betrayal was to come that night and soldiers were coming. Perhaps if Peter had prayed that one hour prayer, he would not have denied the Lord. When danger came, they stood up and were wide awake but that could not help the situation. I pray that you will not wake up when it is too late.

Today, people are exhausted and weighed down, and their senses are dumb spiritually. There is a  need to be watchful, for the enemy will attack when we least expect. While righteous men sleep, the enemy does not sleep. The Bible says, “Be sober, be vigilant for the devil, your adversary walketh about seeking whom he may devour.” Evil lurks in every corner when the righteous people are weary. The disciples slept the sleep of weariness and we see where it landed them.

3. The sleep of Samson: It is very sad to know that many men are sleeping the sleep of Samson. They leave their wives at home and locate a local Delilah somewhere and are sleeping there. To worsen their case, their friends who will come and smoke cigarette at their funeral are encouraging them to die. Samson, whose birth was prophesied by an angel, a supernatural man, could not withstand the lap of Delilah.

Judges 16:19: “And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.” The seven locks of head stand for perfection.

WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE SLEEP OF SAMSON?
It is the sleep of presumption. That is the spirit of “I can handle it, no problem,” the spirit of over-confidence. Samson knew that he was in danger for Delilah was after the secret of His power, but he could not help himself. Delilah made him to sleep on her knees and she cut off his hair. When he awoke due to the cry of the Philistines, he said, “I will go out like other times.” But the Bible says that he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. He was surprised that day because he had presumed that everything was still okay. Then his eyes were pulled out and he was made to grind pepper in the mill of the enemy. It is wrong to presume that you are safe and therefore place yourself in danger. One day, you may wake up and find that the Lord has departed from you.

4. The sleep of the sluggard: A person who will sit for exams and is sleeping eight hours everyday will end up a failure. Proverb 24:30-34:  “I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding, and lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well. I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep; so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.”
Many Christians are very lazy. They don’t want to do the Lord’s work. Just as a lazy person cannot do well physically, also a lazy person cannot do well spiritually. Laziness is the reason people give excuses for not doing what they are supposed to do. For example, they would complain that Bible studies usually take time and that is why they do not attend. Many are inactive when it comes to sowing the seed to the kingdom. Lazy people lack spiritual exercise. Family worship and Bible study are foreign to them. Just as a lazy farmer will not receive the best crop, a lazy Christian too will not receive the best from the Lord. The sleep of carelessness that many people sleep cannot fetch them anything from the Lord.

5. The sleep of Eutychus: Act 20:7-12: “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep; and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third floor, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, trouble not yourselves, for his life is in him. When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.”
This is the longest sermon in the Bible. Here was a man who had a bed at home and could have slept at home, but he did not do so but came to the house of God and decided that everything they were saying there was sleeping tablet and he started sleeping. And as he slept, his enemy that pursued him to the meeting said, “We shall use you to disgrace them here.” He slept until he fell down. If a fellow would be sleeping like that while a message is going on, it shows that he will not be useful at a night vigil. He would be a useless disciple.
One of the things that has captured especially this country is that there are some people who wake up in the morning while believers are still sleeping and take over the whole day. They give orders to the day to co-operate with them while Christians are still sleeping. If you wake up at 8 a.m. and pray a five-minute prayer, and later you say, “I don’t know how today went,” that is the sleep of Eutychus.
6. The sleep of the foolish virgins: We have their story in Matthew 25. They did not have sufficient oil in their lamps and yet they were sleeping.



HOW DO YOU KNOW WHETHER YOU ARE ALREADY DEEP IN SPIRITUAL SLEEP?
1. When prayer ceases to be a priority to you.
2. When you become content with the spiritual knowledge that you have already acquired.
3. When your biblical knowledge is not applied inwardly. You just go to church, hear the message and read the Bible but you cannot apply them inwardly. They have no effect on your thought life or on your way of life.
4. When thoughts about heaven and eternity cease to be regular in your life. You don’t think about heaven. It does not cross your mind that this world is not a permanent place. You are only concerned about material wealth. It is a sign of spiritual slumber. You forget that our period on earth is temporary, that very soon all you have acquired in this world would become raw materials for fire.
5. When services in the house of God hold no delight for you. You are not interested in what goes on there.
6. When spiritual discussion becomes a source of embarrassment to you. For example, in your office, talking about Jesus or spiritual things becomes highly embarrassing because you know that those around will certainly know that you are not behaving like a Christian.
7. When things like leisure, sports, recreation, entertainment, etc. take a large part of your time, sleep has crept in and if you don’t wake, up the enemy will come and sow tares or lay eggs if they have not already done so.
8. When you commit the sin of the mind and body without your conscience pricking you.
9. When the aspiration for holiness is no longer paramount in your heart. When you look for Scriptures to back up your unholy behaviour, you know the truth but you are running away from it. People can always recognize the truth when they see it and they can always know when they are trying to wriggle away from the blunt truth. The truth may be bitter and unpalatable but it is very stubborn. No matter what you do to it, it will stand looking at you. If you knock it down, it will stand. You throw it away, it will stand. You bury it, it will come up. It is very stubborn. It may take time to manifest, but it must manifest.
10. When acquisition of worldly material is the major part of your thinking.
11. When you are singing Christian songs and chanting Christian words just from the lips and not from the heart. Surrendering to Jesus, only what is convenient is a sign of spiritual slumber.
12. Taking the Lord’s name in vain shows that you are sleeping. You talk about the Lord as if He was your houseboy. Saying that He has spoken something when He has not spoken: you did not receive a revelation and you say you did.
13. Watching dirty movies and T.V shows and reading impure literature is a sign that you have already slept. A lot of people can stay glued to the T.V for hours without sleeping but immediately you say, “Let us pray” they sleep off.
14. When with the slightest excuse you avoid spiritual duties, you have slept.
15. When you are contended with your lack of spiritual power and you no longer seek power from high. The first key to spiritual power is lack of rest in your soul because you are not satisfied with your present level.
16. When you pardon your sin and your laziness by saying that God understands, you are spiritually sleeping.
17. When you as a Christian can easily adjust to the life style of the world. You dress differently to church and differently outside. It is a sign that you are spiritually asleep. If you still crack dirty jokes with unbelievers, or they feel at ease in your company to do whatever they like, then you are asleep. The correct position is that they should find it very difficult to do or say certain things before you.
18. When you are willing to cheat your employer, you have slept.

Today, my cry to God for you is that you will wake up like Paul said. Paul was not talking to unbelievers. He was talking to Christians. He said, “Awake thou that sleepest and Christ has shown you light.” So, it is time to awake from our sleep because now is our salvation nearer than it was before. Do not waste time clearing the evil eggs that the enemy has laid in your life while you were sleeping. The time you should do useful things for the Lord, you are busy using it to do deliverance for what happened to you while you were sleeping. It is better to be awake and pursue the enemy right into their gates. This is a serious matter and must be tackled aggressively.
It is not a good thing for you to say that you go to church and God does not speak to you. You cannot hear Him even on simple things of life such as your job. You are a Christian, yet you are gambling with life. When somebody begins to experiment with life, he does not get the best out of it. The best thing is to be in the right place at the right time and to be sure what the Almighty wants to do with your life. The fact that what you are doing is good does not mean it is divine.
If you have things to sort out with the Lord, do that now. Look back at your spiritual life. Look at what is happening now. Are you having the best? Haven’t you noticed the mistake that you have made because you could not hear from heaven? Haven’t you noticed the mistake was because you were spiritually asleep? You have given your enemy opportunity to plant weeds. Sort yourself out with the Lord. Make a promise that as from now on, your spirit man will be on fire and that fire will be burning on the altar of your life. Why should your ears be making noise and you are hearing nothing? Why should your eyes be itching but you are seeing nothing. You know everything about your field of specialization but you do not know what the Holy Spirit is saying about your life.
Please, pray aggressively.

PRAYER POINTS
1. O Lord, wake me up from every spiritual sleep, in the name of Jesus.
2. Every evil seed sown into my life while I was sleeping, be removed by fire, in the name of Jesus.

 

Holy Troublemakers

Dr.D.K.Olukoya

 

2Samuel 22:35-43:“He teachethmyhandstowarso that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation, and thy gentleness hath made me great. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, so that my feet did not slip. I have pursued mine enemies and destroyed them, and turned not again until I had consumed them. And I have consumed them, and wounded them that they could not arise, yea they are fallen under my feet. For thou hast girded me with strength to battle, them that rose up against me hast thou subdued under me. Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies. That I might destroy them that hate me. They looked, but there was none to save. Even unto the Lord, but he answered them not. Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the earth. I did stamp them as the mire of the street, and did spread them abroad.”

We need more troublemakers in the church today. God is looking for holy troublemakers, that is, men and women who are filled with the Holy Ghost and would stir up trouble for the enemy. Why? Because Satan is waging war against God’s people. God has called us to be soldiers. He has not called us to be parasites, benchwarmers or politicians. He has called us to be aggressive soldiers. So, He is looking for holy troublemakers, spiritually aggressive people. This year, we must get spiritually aggressive. The Bible says that our weapons of warfare are not carnal, not political, but spiritual. We alone can make the difference. The power to determine whether things go on positively or negatively rests on the church.

It is true that some people have programmed certain things into the sun, moon and the stars and thereby limiting others. It is only the church of God that can pull down these altars that are mounted above. We need to be spiritually aggressive in order to be able to do that. We need an army of troublemakers now who will stir up and challenge all the established dead churches, satanic strongholds, wicked institutions, witchcraft covens, and all the evil arrangements in the heavenlies.

There are some people who can take a person’s name and programme it into the moon and the stars because they don’t want the person to rise. And the person would never make progress and will be ruined if nothing is done urgently. So, it is not the kind of thing you smile at. It is something to be spiritually aggressive about. The Lord is looking for holy troublemakers who will challenge this kind of thing.

Sometime ago, a group of evangelists went out to preach in a place where there were a lot of satanic strongholds. They went to the first man and said, “We have come to talk to you about Jesus.” He said, “Jesus? I am coming.” By the time he came back, the first person dropped his Bible and slept off, and before you know it, all the ten of them fell down and slept off. He then woke them up and said, “Don’t come here again,” and drove them away. They quickly picked up their Bibles and ran away, totally embarrassed. Now, those were people who were supposed to be Holy Ghost filled.

We see the testimony of the apostles in Acts. 15:26 which says, “Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” They considered their lives to be nothing. They committed their lives to God and God was with them. God worked with them. Anywhere they went, signs and wonders followed them. People knew that they came there. If we are ever going to move our environment for God, we must follow their examples. In Acts 16:20, we see another testimony of those who started what we are doing now. It says, “And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city.” Also, Acts. 17: 6 says, “And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.”

So the kingdom of Christ has come to turn things around. Paul and Silas were two of the greatest troublemakers we see in the Bible. They were going through a city and one girl was crying after them saying, “These men are the servants of the most high God, who have come to preach the way of salvation.” The girl was saying the right thing but with the wrong spirit. Paul, the holy troublemaker, allowed the girl to cry for three days and after that he turned against the spirit inside her and rebuked it, saying, “Get out of her, you foul spirit,” and the serpentine spirit left her. When Paul cast out the demon in her and there was an uproar in the whole city. The people who were making money with her, caused trouble. Eventually, the apostles were beaten, dragged on the floor and put into the innermost part of the jail and chained. What these men did was to turn the city upside down. When they got to the prison, they started singing and commotion happened the following day. They caused an earthquake and the prison doors got broken and their chains fell off. But with all these they did not run out of the prison. When the guards wanted to kill themselves, they told them not to do so, that they would not escape. To add to this, they demanded an apology and that they be escorted out of the prison. Eventually, the authorities apologized to them and asked them to go.

God is looking for such people now. That is, men and women who understand what the Bible means by, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the words of their testimonies. And they loved not their lives unto death,” meaning that they have donated their lives to Jesus. The Bible says that whosoever wants to save his life shall lose it.

Sometime ago, a pastor friend of mine was invited to a street which was full of herbalists. Each of their signboards was larger than that of the church. People trooped to them day and night. This annoyed the spirit of the pastor, unlike some Christians who would see this kind of thing but it would not annoy their spirit. So, everyday, at 2 a.m. the pastor went to these buildings, pointed at them one after the other and prayed like this: “You powers of darkness that are helping herbalists to operate here, evaporate from here and condense into hell fire, in Jesus’ name.” After he did this for a month, the herbalists called a meeting to decide what to do. They could not face the pastor and they waited for the day his General Overseer came. They went to the General Overseer and said, “Sir, that your dog you put here, restrain him or bring the former pastor back.” The former pastor was not disturbing them. When the General Overseer heard that, he could not believe his ears. He was amazed at the way these people with the powers of darkness spoke openly.

The truth is that God would manifest His power only to those who stand up against the forces of hell, and not to those who are still busy struggling with simple things. God would manifest His power only to those who stand against the forces of darkness and not to those who are still fighting their wives and husbands at home instead of fighting the devil.  The devil may rage, the powers that be may threaten, but God has all the power, and will stand by you when you take a stand. The secret of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego was that they took a stand against the devil. The Almighty was happy with them and He came to their aid. But when you compromise, and you are neither here nor there, God, too, cannot stand by you. All the singing and praying that do not touch people’s lives must stop. The counsellors must counsel with fire. The prayer teams must take their proper positions, not the type of praying teams that would be meeting and witches are busy with their own discussions there. All the evangelism without fire must stop. The city and the country must know that Jesus is Lord.

We need more sisters who will be aggressive for Jesus; we need more brothers who will know the Bible more than they know the names of perfumes. We need more actions. We need to spit more fire.

A certain pastor came to me complaining that his church was not growing. He complained that so and so were disturbing him. I simply told him that his problem was because he had no fire in his life. I encouraged him to seek the fire of God and watch what would happen. He went back to his station, did as I told him and things began to happen. In that city which was under the stronghold of the children of the bondwoman, was a popular mad woman. Everybody knew her because she had a small dustbin in every corner of the town. One day, while the pastor and his men were clearing the ground they found her, they laid hands on her and prayed for her. Suddenly, she said, “Why am I wearing this? What am I doing here? Where are my children?” Then it was clear that she had been healed. That miracle alone brought a lot of people to the church. Before then, the pastor was busy apportioning blame. But when the fire came, he became a holy troublemaker. We must get hold of the horns of the altar and refused to let them go. What do I mean by that? It means that we should pursue the enemy by aggressive prayer and by appropriating the blood of Jesus. The Bible teaches that we must pursue our enemies and overcome them. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we can be victorious over the enemies. The enemies should be running away from us not we running away from them. For example, if you have a person who is possessed in your place of work, he should be the one avoiding you and not you avoiding him. David pursued his enemies until they were destroyed and consumed. He did not rest until his enemies were destroyed. A lot of us have become comfortable cohabiting with the enemy. But if you are wearing your full spiritual armour, the enemy should be running away from you.

Sometime ago, a madman was brought to one of our meetings. He was very violent. So, the prayer warriors prayed that the Lord should put him to sleep and he slept off. His people carried him home still sleeping. He slept for two days before he woke up. The woman with whom he was sharing a shop in the market came to the house and asked of him and was told that he was in. She did not believe it until she was led to his room where she met him sitting up, hail and hearty. She said, “What did you do to him to make him normal?” They said, “Prayers in the name of Jesus.” She went home, slept and when she woke up, she ran mad. There had been a reverse. That is what we call ‘back to sender.’

So, our prayers must be backed up with fire, and likewise our Bible reading and all our other actions. Our prayers must be backed up with our actions. Elijah was a powerful man of prayer. There is no Bible student who will dispute that. But after he had prayed, he backed up his prayers with actions. He challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest. Elijah was not the only prophet around that time. There were others who were hid in the caves and were fed with bread and water. They were silent, unknown and afraid. But Elijah, the troublemaker, came out, and even the king called him a troublemaker. He told the king that he and his father’s house were the troublers of Israel.

Elijah killed 450 prophets of Baal. I pray that you will kill your prophet of Baal today, in Jesus’ name. Elijah was not a gentleman to the devil. He openly mocked the prophets of Baal. He knew that Baal had powers but just as he had locked up heaven and put the keys in his pocket, he locked up the powers of Baal. He knew that they were not going to come there. So he mocked and ridiculed them. Gentlemen don’t do things like that.

The Bible says that the righteous shall be as bold as the lion. Jesus Himself was a troublemaker. He drove people away from the temple and called the religious leaders of His time serpents, the blind, white sepulchers and brood of vipers. He even said to some people, “You are of your father, the devil.” Those were not the words of a gentleman.

Unfortunately, many churches today are filled with silent, delicate and fragile gentlemen and women, spiritual diplomats who do not want any trouble. They would say, “I like the way I am doing my own things quietly, I don’t want to be too fanatical. If I go beyond this, my family members will call a meeting and ask me to take it easy with this my new religion.” That is why the kingdom of the Lord is called an upside down kingdom. The values of the world are not ours. What the world cherishes is dung to us. We do not run after the same things as the world because we know that our citizenship is not here. We are going to a better country, a city without foundation. So, there are certain things that we do not bother ourselves about. 

Some people would say, “Stop preaching to me. Don’t pray for me anymore. Don’t force your religion on me” They would scream and scream, but such things do not bother holy troublemakers. They still continue. I read a story about a man called Charles Finney. One day, as he was taking a stroll, he found a man leaning on a pole, smoking hemp. He went to the man and said, “Jesus loves you. Why are you smoking this?” The man got angry and told him that what he was doing with his life was none of his business. Mr. Finney smiled and said, “With due respect, sir, what you are doing concerns me. As an evangelist, it is my business.” The fellow asked him to get away. He went away. But three nights later, somebody came banging on his door. When he opened the door, he found the same man he had preached the gospel to crying. The man said, “Since the night you spoke to me I have had no peace. I want to give my life to Jesus.” That was how the man got born again.

 

THE MINISTRY OF PHILIP

This is a year that every serious Christian should receive Philip’s kind of ministry. What is Phillip’s kind of ministry? Act 8: 5-8 s; “Then Phillip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them and the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them, and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. And there was great joy in that city.” Philip was not an ordained pastor. He was just a layman filled with the Holy Ghost. He was not a pulpit man but a layperson who believed in the power of the Holy Ghost. Philip went everywhere expecting miracles to happen. He was the man of the marketplace but he caused things to happen. We need to imbibe his kind of ministry.

For Christians to make an impact on the nation or city where they are, they must become Christ-consumed and Holy Spirit-filled like Philip. We must become evangelists with faith to cast out evil spirits and pray for salvation and healing of others. Don’t stay where you were last year. Some people before they were blessed with cars, came to services early. Now that they have cars they come late and give all kinds of excuses. If they do not say that the carburetor of their car is faulty, they would say that their drivers came late. So, they are blaming God for the breakthrough. Where do we go from here?

A certain minister was sent to a town in the West African coast region. When he got there, he decided to visit the chief priest whom he learnt was the one causing trouble in the place. The chief priest said, “My dear pastor, I will demonstrate something to you now." He picked a piece of maize and placed it on his palm and instantly the maize started to grow on his palm. The pastor watched him and was very scared. The chief then asked him if his God could do that. He did not have an answer, and he quickly looked for an excuse and ran back to Nigeria. Later, another minister was posted there. He also went to the chief priest, who began to demonstrate his demonic power again. He put the maize in his palm and it started to grow as usual. The brother watched, and the priest said, “Can your God do this?” The brother said, “No. My God does not waste time on things like this but I will show you a little bit of what my God can do. He then opened his mouth and said, “You satanic maize, be roasted, in the name of Jesus.” And the chief priest cried out, “My hand, my hand.” After the maize had roasted, the fire began to burn his hand.” The brother had to pray for his hand to heal. That was a troublemaker.

Where do we go from here? Do we want to continue our Christian race with such complaints as ‘something is pressing me down on my bed’, ‘something is pursuing me.’ or ‘I saw a snake.’ ‘I saw water and I wanted to cross and one woman said I should not cross?’ Would we allow the children of the bondwoman and the children of darkness to sit on our wealth and we will be watching them and believe that well, one day, something will happen? No. Nothing will happen until we begin to pray and address what should be addressed. Then things will start changing. The spirit of demonic silence must go. Many of us are too quiet about the things of God.

If you are a boss somewhere, buy tracts, put them on your table and distribute to those who come to see you. Don’t sit in the bus and sleep. If you open your mouth wide and preach, there is no way you will fall asleep. God will only commit Himself to those who will take a stand.

Create time for evangelism. The reason God puts you where you are is for you to reach out to some people. And if you are a failure there, it will be a disaster for the Almighty. You never know what you can do until you try.

Sometime ago, the daughter of a certain sister had a mental problem and she was very wild. She took her to the hospital where she was given a special room because the drugs were not working. She bounced on anybody who tried to enter into the room. One day, the sister listened to a message entitled, “You, the sleeping giant, stir up yourself.” After listening to the message, she went to the hospital and asked to see her daughter. They told her to talk to her from the window. She said no, that she would like to enter the room. She entered and when the daughter saw her, she became wild. But the sister said, “In the name of Jesus, you wild beast, come out of her now.”  It was as if she gave a punch to the girl. She fell down and straightaway she said, “Mummy.” She became calm as she was delivered from the evil spirit troubling her.

The sister was shocked that she could do it. God will not commit Himself to those who would just sit down at home, or to men who after Sunday service, would sit down at home and watch television, who are not interested in house fellowship or group activities. 

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.     Anything programmed into the moon and the star against me, I dismantle you, in Jesus’ name.

2.     Lay your hands on your head and say: Power, prosperity and purity, fall upon me now, in Jesus’ name.

3.     Any evil thing programmed into this week against me, I dismantle you, in Jesus’ name.

4.     Lord, I need your strength; I want to move out for you, in Jesus’ name.

5.     Any sickness programmed into my life, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

6.     Every evil thing programmed into my life, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

7.     I disconnect my life from every spirit of failure, in Jesus’ name.

8.     My life, refuse to invite failure, in the name of Jesus.

9.     Holy Spirit, overshadow my life, in Jesus’ name.

10.  The enemy that does not want to let me go, be buried alive, in the name of Jesus.

11.  Every evil bird monitoring my life, I pluck out your eyes, in Jesus’ name.

 BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE OF LONG LIFE

Dr. D.K. Olukoya

In the last few years, we have witnessed or heard about a lot of tragedy. People that were expected to be alive were dead. A lot of young people were dead and some of them were born again. Is it God’s will? No. We must also realize that the devil has some powers to kill but the only strongest power is the power of God. Just as the Bible has principles for long life, it also outlines what could cause short life.

God’s original plan for man was life not death, health not sickness, energy not weariness and radiance not dullness. So, if Brother Adam had not sinned, he would have lived forever. The Bible emphasizes that God is not interested in short life. One man of God said that it was a tragedy for a plant to die at the seed stage because it could not become a plant. A situation where young people are dying shows that a lot of things are going wrong.

Deuteronomy 6:1-2:

“Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it. That thou mightiest fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.”

Here, we can see that God is not interested in short life. Job 5:26 also says,

“Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season.”

Proverbs 3:3: “My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments. For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee, bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart”.

Proverb 9:11: “For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.”

Proverbs 10:27: “The fear of the Lord prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.” 

God is not interested in short life for His children.

Proverbs 16:31:  “The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.”

 That is, if you hair is gray it is a crown of glory if you are in the way of righteousness.

 Psalm 90:10:  “The days of our years are three score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow. For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” 

 This verse is a curse and not a blessing. It is the minimum, which a lot of people now claim whereas they should not claim it. But even this minimum, which is a curse, is difficult for a lot of people to attain.

 Psalm 91:16: “With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.”

Isaiah 65:22: “They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.”

The Bible is telling us that it is a tragedy for somebody to sweat to gather, but before he would begin to reap the fruits, he dies.

Ecclesiastes 6: 1-2: “There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men.  (The Bible calls it an evil thing). A man to whom God has given riches, wealth and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it, this is vanity, and it is an evil disease."

Six major ways by which people die on earth

1. A person can die by his own hand: This is when a person just destroys himself, for example, by personal execution, personal murder, or assassination. It is possible for a person to eliminate himself. Sometime ago, a man fainted in the street and people rushed to help him. By the time a doctor that was passing by got there, he found a packet of drugs in his pocket, which he must have taken. As a medical personnel, he found out that they were hard drugs which he ought not to have taken. But he went to the chemist bought it and swallowed it. He decided to kill himself.

2. A person can die by the hands of another man. It may be robbers, witches or wizard, etc

3. A person can die by fear, especially the fear of death.

4. A person can die by breaking natural laws. For example, if a person decides to jump down from the top of a 25-storey building he would die. Or if a person knows that he cannot swim, but decides to go and swim, it could lead to his death.

5. A person can die by succumbing to the aging process. When everything in the body is old, the system may stop working.

6. A person can die by sickness or disease. 

What Are The Causes Of Short Life?

1.     Disobedience to parents:

Ephesians 6:1-3:

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.  Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise.  That it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth.”

If you don’t honour your father and mother, the reverse too will be the case, and that is untimely death. You may say that your parents are very bad, but any assignment that the Lord has given to you, you must do. We are not taught to hate any human being but if there is any evil spirit within them walking against our destiny, we must contend with the evil spirit.  The Bible says

“that we wrestle not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

 Also, the Bible says that he who does not look after his family is worse than an infidel. You may say, “But anytime I give them money, they use it against me.” Anoint the money and send it. A lot of young people are dying today because they decided not to listen to their parents’ cry. Some will go out with their fathers' cars after their fathers have warned them several times not to drive the cars. They decide to do otherwise and their corpses are brought home.

2.     Not walking in the way of the Lord: Failure to walk in the way of the Lord will bring short life. Deuteronomy 5:33:

“Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord thy God had commanded you, that ye may live and that it may be well with you, and that he may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess.”

  When you walk in the part of righteousness, the Lord will prolong your life. The Lord has no obligation to protect you when He knows that your life is a disgrace to Him.

3.     Failure to teach the word of God at home: If you fail to teach the word of God at home, it leads to short life.

 Deuteronomy 11:19-21:  “And ye shall teach your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shall write them upon the doorposts of thine house, and upon thy gates.  That thy days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.”

4.     Not fearing the Lord: Proverb 10:27 says,

“The fear of the Lord prolongeth days; but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.” 

Please, note very well that nothing happens by chance; everything is programmed in the spirit. There is nothing like a stray bullet or somebody using cutlass on you accidentally. It has been programmed in the spirit. What will make these seeming accidents not to happen are the kinds of things we are talking about in this message.

The fear of God is rapidly jumping out of the house of God now. People are not afraid of God any more. They dress anyhow, talk anyhow, and insult the men of God without knowing that they are inviting curses upon themselves. When you insult a man of God, his anointing will fight you, the blood of Jesus will fight you, the angels will fight you, anything can fight against you. The fear that people had when they got born again in those days is fading out. We need to bring that fear back into the house of God. You need to fear the Lord from the bottom of your heart and know that there are certain things you cannot do. It may be convenient and comfortable for others but you cannot do them. There are certain things that a Christian does not touch at all because of the fear of the Lord. It is these days that people come to the house of the Lord with chewing gum in their mouth. Sometimes it seems as if the Lord was not quick in punishing us. But we must not take that for granted because the devil would be doing a deeper harm.

Do you fear the Lord? If you do, then your days will be long, but if you don’t, your days will be short. Some people talk to the Lord anyhow.  For example, they would say, “I am sorry Lord, that I committed that sin, this is not the first time. Any way you wrote that even if my sin is as red as scarlet it will become as white as snow, so forgive me for I am a human being.” They command God to forgive them without fear. In those days, people used to cry at the altar showing godly sorrow for their sins. There is no fear of God again, believers fall into fornication and all kinds of sins and still smile, saying that there is a limit to human endurance.  These are the causes of short lives.  When arrows are fired in the spirit world it goes around looking for loopholes. If they see that there is no fear of God in your life, although you are coming to the house of God, they would enter into your life.

5.Failure to control the tongue:

I Peter 3:10 says, “For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.”

One of the greatest causes of short life is the tongue. If it were possible to padlock the mouth of human beings, a lot of people would not have died when they died. Many have gone into bondage because of their tongues. It is not everything that we have to say. Sometimes you just have to keep quiet. Most of the time it is better to listen. If your tongue has no control and you can speak 200 words per minute then you are writing an invitation to short life. Some people can talk and abuse an angel of God without knowing that the fellow that they are talking to is an angel of God, and they end up inviting curses because angels don’t operate like us. They don’t tolerate indiscipline and they can be easily provoked. That was why God warned the Israelites: “I will place my angel before you to go on the way that you will go but take heed that you do not provoke him. If you do, he will not pardon you. Don’t provoke him because he does not understand the word “please”. The angel did not forgive Zechariah when he doubted him and said, “Can these things be? I am old and my wife is advanced in age.” The angel said, “I am Gabriel, I came from the throne of God to give you this message and you are talking rubbish. For that, you shall be dumb.” He had to close his mouth and send him on a compulsory holiday. The tongue has killed so many people. I pray that the Lord will deliver us from the trap of the tongue, in Jesus’ name.

6.Pursuing evil: Proverbs 11:19 says, “As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death.” If you are pursuing an evil agenda, you are doing so at your own hurt.

5.     Forgetting the laws of God: This leads to short life.

 6.     Allowing an evil weight on your heart:

Proverbs 17:22:, “The merry heart doeth good like medicine but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” So, when you allow evil weight in your heart or when you allow a spiritual wound in your heart, you will waste away.  Whatever is in your heart, whether it is envy, anger, cruelty, fear, immorality, it would affect your body, soul and spirit. Many people do not understand that what goes on in the heart determines whether the body, soul and spirit will be healthy or not. Many sicknesses can be directly related to the attitude of the heart. Proverb 14:30 says, “A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.” When a heart is polluted with bitterness, anger, malice or is filled with sin, it will shorten the life span of the person. If all you are thinking about is sin and lust, it means that you want to die young. Eventually, you might develop high blood pressure.

7.     Wounded heart and negative emotions: This can cause all kinds of sicknesses.  It means people are being cruel to themselves.

8.     Lack of knowledge of spiritual prevention: This also shortens life. An English adage says that prevention is better than cure. God wants the totality of our being to be in good health and not for us to be seeking for healing. It is better to be immune than to have a disease and start taking drugs. The word of God shows clearly that Christians are supposed to have some immunity. To have immunity is better than having to evacuate the enemy anytime he gains entrance. So, we have to clothe ourselves with the fire of God and the blood of Jesus so that the enemy will not gain entrance.

 Prevention, even in the spiritual world, is better than cure. Some people say that it is because they were living in a particular town that they were having a particular problem.  But when they moved to another town, the problem continues. Some, even when they move to another accommodation, witches would still be pressing them down on their beds.  Such people should realize that it is because the enemy has entered inside them. The evil dreams are being played from inside. A man may sleep and another world opens up to him. Sometime ago, we were praying with somebody and a whole human being wearing rags walked out of him. The man and ourselves saw the thing left. It waved at the man and he waved back. Later, for the first time in his life, he had a financial breakthrough. It would have been better not to allow the spirit to enter into him than for it to enter and he had to go on seven days dry fasting.

Many believers find it very hard to memorize scriptures.  Some will tell you that their brains are getting older, whereas unbelievers spend quality time memorizing incantations, which they use against the children of God. The word of God says that we can build a hedge around us, which the enemy cannot penetrate.

There are some passages in the Bible that believers should know off hand, if they want prevention and protection and do not want the enemy to shorten their lives. We call them immunity scriptures

1.  Exodus 15:26: says, “If thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and will give ear to his commandment, and keep all these statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee. Which I have brought upon the Egyptians for I am the Lord that health thee.”

2.  Deuteronomy 7:15: “And the Lord will take away from thee all sicknesses, and will put none of the evil disease of Egypt, which thou knoweth, upon thee, but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.”

3.  Isaiah 43:2: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee, when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” This is talking about immunity against the waters of tribulation, immunity against the rivers of trouble and immunity against the fire of affliction. 

4.  Isaiah 54:17: “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.”

5.  Psalm 46:1: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

6.  Psalm 27:1-2: “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?.  When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.”

7.  Psalm 91:1: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” This Psalm tells us about immunity against the power of the night. It might interest you to know that most people do not sleep at night. The Psalm also talks about the arrow that flies by the day. It tells us about immunity against pestilence that walks about in darkness. It tells us about the power that causes destruction at noonday. It talks about power against the lion and the dragon. It talks about immunity against evil in all its ramifications.

8.  Psalm 105: 14-15: “He suffered no man to do them wrong, yea he reproved kings for their sake, saying, Touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm.”

9.  Zechariah 2:5: “For I saith the Lord will be unto her a wall of fire around about her and will be the glory in the midst of her.” Verse 8: “For thus saith the Lord of hosts, after the glory hath he sent me unto the nations, which soiled you for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eyes.”

10.     Psalm 34:7: “The angel of the Lord encampeth around about them that fear him and delivereth them.”

11.     Proverbs 3:24: “When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid; yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.”

12.     Mark 16:18: “They shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them, they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

13.     Luke 10:19: “Behold I give unto you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

My prayer is that your spiritual immunity shall not break down, in Jesus' name. We have so many outstanding promises that God will protect us, but if we break certain laws this immunity will break down. If you don’t know what to do or you do the wrong thing your immunity can break down. So many things can break down the immunity. For example, wrong attitude.  If somebody hurts you and you harbour resentment in your heart against him the enemy can see the dark cloud in your heart and that will break down your immunity.

Following the fashion of the world is another way you can break down your immunity. When someone lets you down or disappoints you and you begin to broadcast it to the whole world, your immunity will be broken down. When you pay evil for evil, when you decide to pay people back in their own coin, your immunity will break down. When you are very angry and you throw tantrums on people, your immunity will break down.  Calling people insulting names, gossiping and not forgiving those that have hurt you will make your immunity to break down. All the demonic jewelries that people put on make their immunity to break down. Demonic herbal concoctions and other terrible things that people swallow make immunity to break down.

Leviticus 17:11:  “For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”

 For you to be healthy and be moving about without any sickness, your blood must be immune. All the diseases that are available actually drink people’s blood. If a person loses a lot of blood, and nothing is done to restore it, he will soon die. Malaria is a terrible disease because it sucks people’s blood and uses it to produce more of its kind. Surely every sickness came as the result of the failure of Adam and Eve.

Somebody had a fever in the Bible. Let us see what Jesus did.

 Luke 4:38: “And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house. And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever and they besought him for her. And he stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.” It means that you can talk to the fever or to your blood. You may say that this is madness. That would not be strange, after all, people said that Jesus and Paul were mad.

But when you learn to pray the following prayer points, you give yourself immunity:

1.  Let the blood of Jesus be transfused into my blood, in Jesus’ name.

2. I render my blood untouchable to any disease, in Jesus’ name.

When you pray like this, any disease that comes in contact with your blood will die. There are so many other things that you can do. For example, you can anoint your body or put the anointing oil in your cream. You must be careful the kind of food you eat. You must always pray on your food and your water. Make sure you don’t over eat things.

The children of darkness often fortify and prepare themselves because they know that they can be attacked, but sometime the children of God are so foolish that they don’t fortify themselves.  In the light of this, I want you to pray the following prayer points aggressively.

prayer points

1.  (Lay your hands on your head): I challenge my body with the fire of God, in Jesus’ name.

2.  Every evil eternal enemy, come out by fire, in the name of Jesus.

3.       O God, establish your kingdom in every department of my life, in the name of Jesus.

 

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PROPHETIC PICTURE OF THE YEAR 2007

  1.           It shall be a year of assorted rages: the rage of the vultures, computer destroying human beings, mysterious violence, pollution and poison, mysterious controversies and rage of waters and land (natural disasters). There would be the rage of marriage destruction and unexplainable confusion.

2.           The year shall run like a film show. Some of the events will look like scenes out of movies.

3.           It shall be a year of the wound that refused to heal, and the small tree that became big.

4.           It shall be a year of very strange friends that will expose their friends to embarrassing circumstances – a year of heavy weight Judas and heavy weight Ahitophels. This will happen personally, nationally and internationally.

5.           This year, we need raw, unashamed and violent prayers to avert disaster.

6.           It shall be a year of deliverance of many from great afflictions. Long-term afflictions that have refused to go shall suddenly go back to the senders.

7.           It is a year to become God’s friend like Moses and Abraham – Exodus 33:11, James 2:23.

8.           It shall be a year of the clash of weapons (a year of arms and weapons).

9.           It shall be a year of strange movements, major shakings and quaking both nationally and internationally.

10.       It shall be a year of revival and uncommon outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

11.       This year, God shall cause His faithful children to move to very high places. God shall remove those who are blocking His way so that His children can rise.

12.       This year, many thrones of iniquity shall collapse and be toppled.

13.       This year, God shall shake loose wicked structures that are in many parts of the world and people will see that the Lord is indeed God in the kingdom of men.

14.       This year, night watches shall yield dividends to prayer warriors.

15.       This year, many long-term tests and trials will produce uncommon testimonies.

16.       This year, divine weapons for divine judgment shall begin to take aggressive actions on earth.

17.       This year, the Lord shall begin to balance the scale and His judgment shall begin to manifest.

18.       It shall be a year when believers will take back what the enemy has stolen. It shall be a year of recovery.

19.       It shall be a year of holy confrontations. The conflict that is assigned to hinder your future shall be settled.

20.       It shall be a year of unbelievable seductions. Evil doctrines will begin to rise and people will wonder where they come from.

21.       It shall be a year of divine surprises particularly on the political scene. 

22.       It shall be a year of transfer of wealth for kingdom advancement and a big blow on the demon of mammon.

23.       It shall be a microphone year. Everything will be louder and more pronounced than it used to be.

24.       It shall be a year of positive and negative exclamations.

25.       It shall be a year of disgrace for those who are mixing Christianity with witchcraft and other things. The synagogue of satan shall be scattered and those, who are using the name of the Lord to cover up for evil shall be exposed and disgraced.

26.       It shall be a year of strange political bedfellows who will eliminate themselves.

27.       This year, if those who go to the grave to receive power in order to fight the children of God do so again, they shall not return.

28.       It shall be a year of disgrace for children killers and those who commit abortions.

29.       It shall be a year of divine compensation for God’s children.

30.       It shall be a year of monumental failure for those who trust in satanic powers because their fetish powers shall fail them.

31.       This year, if you must do business and prosper, it must be founded on integrity because many businesses that are not founded on integrity shall disappear.

32.       This year, unfortunately, the enemy is bringing out a new agenda of terror, and drinkers of blood and eaters of flesh. But they that trust in the Lord shall be saved.

33.       It shall be a year of unbelievable brainwashing.

34.       This year, any political plan or scheme that is not in line with the mind of God will collapse, no matter the individuals involved.

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PROPHETIC PICTURE OF THE YEAR 2007

  1.           It shall be a year of assorted rages: the rage of the vultures, computer destroying human beings, mysterious violence, pollution and poison, mysterious controversies and rage of waters and land (natural disasters). There would be the rage of marriage destruction and unexplainable confusion.

2.           The year shall run like a film show. Some of the events will look like scenes out of movies.

3.           It shall be a year of the wound that refused to heal, and the small tree that became big.

4.           It shall be a year of very strange friends that will expose their friends to embarrassing circumstances – a year of heavy weight Judas and heavy weight Ahitophels. This will happen personally, nationally and internationally.

5.           This year, we need raw, unashamed and violent prayers to avert disaster.

6.           It shall be a year of deliverance of many from great afflictions. Long-term afflictions that have refused to go shall suddenly go back to the senders.

7.           It is a year to become God’s friend like Moses and Abraham – Exodus 33:11, James 2:23.

8.           It shall be a year of the clash of weapons (a year of arms and weapons).

9.           It shall be a year of strange movements, major shakings and quaking both nationally and internationally.

10.       It shall be a year of revival and uncommon outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

11.       This year, God shall cause His faithful children to move to very high places. God shall remove those who are blocking His way so that His children can rise.

12.       This year, many thrones of iniquity shall collapse and be toppled.

13.       This year, God shall shake loose wicked structures that are in many parts of the world and people will see that the Lord is indeed God in the kingdom of men.

14.       This year, night watches shall yield dividends to prayer warriors.

15.       This year, many long-term tests and trials will produce uncommon testimonies.

16.       This year, divine weapons for divine judgment shall begin to take aggressive actions on earth.

17.       This year, the Lord shall begin to balance the scale and His judgment shall begin to manifest.

18.       It shall be a year when believers will take back what the enemy has stolen. It shall be a year of recovery.

19.       It shall be a year of holy confrontations. The conflict that is assigned to hinder your future shall be settled.

20.       It shall be a year of unbelievable seductions. Evil doctrines will begin to rise and people will wonder where they come from.

21.       It shall be a year of divine surprises particularly on the political scene. 

22.       It shall be a year of transfer of wealth for kingdom advancement and a big blow on the demon of mammon.

23.       It shall be a microphone year. Everything will be louder and more pronounced than it used to be.

24.       It shall be a year of positive and negative exclamations.

25.       It shall be a year of disgrace for those who are mixing Christianity with witchcraft and other things. The synagogue of satan shall be scattered and those, who are using the name of the Lord to cover up for evil shall be exposed and disgraced.

26.       It shall be a year of strange political bedfellows who will eliminate themselves.

27.       This year, if those who go to the grave to receive power in order to fight the children of God do so again, they shall not return.

28.       It shall be a year of disgrace for children killers and those who commit abortions.

29.       It shall be a year of divine compensation for God’s children.

30.       It shall be a year of monumental failure for those who trust in satanic powers because their fetish powers shall fail them.

31.       This year, if you must do business and prosper, it must be founded on integrity because many businesses that are not founded on integrity shall disappear.

32.       This year, unfortunately, the enemy is bringing out a new agenda of terror, and drinkers of blood and eaters of flesh. But they that trust in the Lord shall be saved.

33.       It shall be a year of unbelievable brainwashing.

34.       This year, any political plan or scheme that is not in line with the mind of God will collapse, no matter the individuals involved.

 backWrestling with shadows

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 Our message this week 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.

5.    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.

6. 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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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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Power to prosper

Dr.D.K.Olukoya

 

 

Deuteronomy 8:18:“But thou shall remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.”

In the foregoing, the Bible talks about power to prosper. It is a good thing to talk about prosperity and to preach about it. But the subject of prosperity must be balanced with the subject of holiness so that after we have prospered, we would not go to hell fire.

Psalm 84:11 says, “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Our God is clothed in glory and there is no reason why His children should wear rags; it does not make sense. Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof: the world and they that dwell therein.” If God owns the earth and the fullness thereof, and I am His son, I must prosper. All the money in the world belongs to our heavenly Father. If you don’t have your own share of it now, perhaps somebody is keeping it for you, waiting for you to grow up before handing it over to you. But you will surely get it. The time has actually come for unbelievers to be removed from the positions of power, so that the gospel can prosper. Allowing them to be in control of the economy would certainly hinder the course of the gospel.

There are many people that have the keys of poverty in their hands and until they drop them, there is absolutely nothing God can do to help them. God has so designed His plans that He places first things first. A lot of people claim that Abraham’s blessings are theirs, the question is, will they allow God to run them through what He made Abraham to go through? Abraham first became a friend of God. He was righteous, he had faith and then God blessed him. Nowadays, people want to do it the other way round. They want money first. They want to be comfortable first before they serve the Lord. Unfortunately, it does not work that way. Anybody that cannot serve the Lord when he or she is poor will not be able to serve Him when he or she gets rich.

Let us look at the twenty keys of poverty. If you have these keys in your hands, you need to pray hard to drop them so that you do not labour in vain. Sometimes, what you think is a big problem is a small one. You must have sweated before discovering that it was just a simple thing you needed to drop for your life to be overflowing with blessings.

 

TWENTY KEYS OF POVERTY

1.   Stinginess: Proverbs 11: 24 says, “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.” Stinginess leads to poverty. This is where God’s mathematics is different from our own mathematics. It is more logical to keep money, hoard it, or pile it up to become rich. But God’s law says that he that scatters increases, but he that withholds, gets poor.

A certain man was on a salary of Five hundred naira and was paying Fifty naira as tithe per month. After some time, God blessed him and he started earning Five thousand naira per month and as such, he had to pay Five hundred naira for tithe every month. This man went to the pastor and said he needed counselling. The pastor asked him why he needed counselling and he said that five hundred naira was too much for him to pay as tithe every month because he felt that it could buy so many things. The pastor said, “No problem sir, let me pray that God should return you to your former income so that you will be able to pay fifty naira which you can afford.”

A lot of Christians treat God as if He is an errand boy who they give tips. God is not also a beggar. He does not need your alms. If you are reading this message and you are still stingy, stop it because the Bible says that a stingy person is cursed. The key to receiving is giving. Anyone who does not give is like a Dead Sea. The problem of a Dead Sea is that it does not give out, it keeps everything inside and so, it stinks because it is not refreshed.

2. Loving sleep: Proverb 20: 13 says, “Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.” If you want God to prosper you, and you still wake up every morning with the help of an alarm clock, something is wrong. Students who would love to excel above their colleagues will not love sleep.  How can a Christian sleep for 12 hours a day? Such kind of believer needs deliverance from the key of sleep.

3.   Loving vain persons: Proverbs 28:19 says, “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.” When a person is constantly found in the company of unserious people and those who don’t work hard, such a person would put himself into poverty.

4.   Laziness: Many Christians are very lazy. Instead of them to pray for ideas that would fetch them money, they would fold their hands and keep saying, “O God, we are looking at your face.” Anybody who is spiritually lazy cannot get anywhere with God. If you are lazy physically, you will not get on well as well. The Christian journey is not a journey for the lazy ones.

5.   Mocking the poor: Proverb 17: 5 says, “Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker; and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.” People who are fond of making mockery of the poor and laughing them to scorn shall receive the wrath of God. Don’t say, “Me, I am not in your category. I am made of a better stuff. I wear only expensive clothes and not these cheap stuff that you people wear.” If you have you ever looked at somebody created by God and said things like, “I don’t mix up with riff raffs like you,” you have mocked the poor and reproached their Maker. You did not create them. You did not decide on your own whom was going to be your parents before you were born. They too had no choice. If children had choice of parents, you would not see twins at the middle of the market with their mothers begging for bread. Mocking them is reproaching God. Sisters who tell their husbands things like, “You are a useless man. You are not like that man over there that has just bought a new fridge. You are just wasting time, you are a useless man,” are mocking the poor and are reproaching his Maker who will not take it kindly with them.

6.   Failure in tithes and offerings: Malachi 3: 8-10 says, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.  Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Failure in tithes and offerings is a strong key to poverty. When you give God your tithes and offerings, don’t sit down like a businessman who said, “O God, I have just paid ten thousand naira to you and that means that you have to give me hundred thousand back. God, do you understand?” In this case, you are doing business, you are not giving. It must be willingly and cheerfully given. Believers don’t borrow their tithes. If you borrow your tithe, you must pay twenty per cent on top by the time that you are bringing it back. Ten per cent is just the minimum that God wants you to bring to His house. It is different from the offerings, which you must give to God. Failure to do that would amount to God not opening you the windows of haven and pouring you out a blessing. Many believers are labouring under this curse without knowing. They always say, “I pray all the prayer points, I did all the things that should be done and yet nothing.” The question is, are you faithful in paying your tithe?

7.   Not contributing to the Lord’s work: Haggai 1: 6-8 says, “You have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will  take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.”

Anytime there is something to be done in the church and pledges are taken, please don’t be left out even if it is only ten kobo that you can afford, Put something down for the Lord for He sees your heart provided you have done according to your ability. Not contributing to the Lord’s work is like watching your father’s business go down and you feel unconcerned about it. It is this attitude that makes foolish Christian leaders to print harvest pamphlets and envelopes and distribute them to lodge members because they want money. The harvest that Jesus was talking about was the harvest of souls, not the harvest of yam and plantain and bazaar, which is really fraudulent in the house of God. It is wrong to put down a tuber of yam that someone bought for ten naira and to start ringing bell for someone to buy it for more.

8.   Giving to God in small measures: God measures your giving by the amount you have for yourself and not by the amount you give. Jesus said that that widow contributed more than everybody did because she put all that she had. It is a pleasure when God gives you something and you are able to give it back to Him. Luke 6: 38 says, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”

9.   Engaging in the wrong business: Luke 5: 4 – 6 says, “Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing; nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake...” The man who has prosperity was there, and when Peter failed, he told him what to do. When Peter saw what Jesus did, he was astonished, and those who were with him. In verse 10, Jesus said unto Simon, “Fear not; from henceforth thou shall catch men.” This means that Peter was supposed to be catching men but he was busy catching fish and was not successful. Even when Jesus died, he went back to fishing and still did not catch anything- John 21: 3-6.

10.  Not caring for ministers of God: Mathew 10: 41 says, “He that receiveth a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.” Ministers of God are not meant to be begging people for money. They are not supposed to be commercial ministers like it is these days. But the church of God is meant to look after its ministers.

11.  Not giving to the poor: Proverbs 28: 27 says, “He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse.” Giving to the poor helps you to have abundance.

12.  The curse of poverty: Galatians 3: 13-14 says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree…” The curse of the law includes poverty, disease and death.

13.  Ignorance: Hosea 4: 6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” Some believers are ignorant of God’s provisions for their lives. Some people who claim to be living by faith tell lies because they are living by begging.  Ignorance concerning the keys of prosperity or keys to success would lead to poverty. Ignorance is the major cause of human failure in many endeavours.

14.  Pride: Some people feel that they are too big to do some jobs whereas they have no job. They would say, “This is not the kind of job for university graduates. I cannot do it.” They then begin to walk about the street jobless. They always forget that God takes a little thing and then multiplies it. This is why rich illitrate men employ many university graduates today; yet they do not want to do the kind of jobs that those illiterate men did before they became rich. They feel that they are too big to begin business in a little dirty way. God will deliver all those who have the spirit of pride in them, in Jesus’ name.

15.  Ostentatious living: Some people like showing off. As soon as they collect their salary, the people they brought things from would be waiting to collect their money. They want to look better than everybody does and so they keep paying debts.

16.  Rigidity: When a person refuses to leave a closed business, he will suffer.

17.  Discouragement: A lot of people give up so soon. Once they fail at first attempt, they give up. Some believe that they will fail even before they start; they have programmed their minds to failure. When the failure eventually comes, they will say, “I knew that it would not work.” The spirit of discouragement, the spirit of the loser and the spirit of the tail are all the same thing.

18.  Lack of good counselling: A lot of people go into things without counselling and they do not ask for God’s direction. This leads to failure.

19.  Engaging in secret sins: Sin hinders blessings. They stop God from working. As a believer, if you have some sins that you are committing secretly, you have the key of poverty in your hands.

20.  Demonic activities: The major factors responsible for the poverty of black people in this environment are demonic activities.

      God is a good Father who cares for His children and listens to them. He is always ready to hear us when we cry unto Him and satisfies our needs. He is not against us having money but does not want money to have us. You can have money as far as money does not have you, and does not get into your head. One man of God said that a man is rich by what he has left after all his money has been removed. Money can either be good or bad because a bad man’s money will do bad things and a good man’s money will do good things. A bad man will use his money for the kingdom of satan while a good man will use his money for the kingdom of God.  If however you have money and you don’t control it in accordance to God’s will, it will control you and lead your soul to hell. Roman 12: 1 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. That ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” Your consecration to the Lord is the basic requirement for God’s blessings. Have you presented yourself holy to the Lord? Sacrifices have no power over the priest. We cannot sacrifice money to the Lord and His work if we ourselves are not sacrificed. Judas thought he was doing a good thing when he threw Jesus into the hands of those who would kill Him. He did not know what he was doing but the men who wanted Jesus knew what they were doing. He collected his thirty shekels of silver without knowing that he was fulfilling an evil prophecy. He thought that Jesus would overcome His captors by His mighty power. He was surprised to see Him following them like a sheep. The money became useless and he threw it back at those who gave it to him.

      Luke 16: 13 says, “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” In the foregoing, mammon is personified and treated as an idol. It is treated like another god. The Bible says that you cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve God and mammon. The word "cannot" means impossibility. You may work for two masters but you can serve only one.

 

MAMMON

Mammon is that demon power that controls money. It is the devil’s salesman. It is the power behind those who sell charms, witchcraft materials and do all kinds of things to make men sell their souls for money. Also, mammon spirit distribute spirits of poverty to attack human race particularly Christians. It is the demon that controls greediness, selfishness, poverty and financial bankruptcy. Many Christians have to defeat mammon in their lives. They have to bind the power and spirit of mammon. It is an evil spiritual power that grips men and enslaves them through money. It is the spirit that is working in the world and has made so many people to become slaves to money. We must deal this satanic force that enslaves men and women through money.

Your attitude towards money reveals your attitude towards God. If you are always ready to tell lies because of money, you cannot be a friend of God. So, your attitude towards money is very important if you want God to give you prosperity. The reason God sometimes does not give a person too much money is because He has seen some things in that person. He knows that giving such a person plenty of money would mean giving him a straight ticket to hellfire. No wonder Paul describes the love of money as the root of all evil. Whether you are poor or rich, it is either you are ruling money or money is ruling you. Poverty does not free one from the rulership of money. It will turn both poor and rich men to thieves. The love of money is what makes drivers of commercial vehicles to be involved in accidents most of the time. It makes people to drink terrible concoctions; it makes human beings to kill one another. Many will engage in the accumulation of money and forget their souls. Some will prefer to run their businesses on Sundays instead of coming to church. There are people who commit adultery in order to make money. The money of affliction and sin will lead to more problems.

Some people can die because of money. Some can spoil the lives of their children because of money. It is also the same reason many sisters marry the wrong men. They want good cars, expensive perfumes from Paris, expensive shirts and ties. Even when you ask them to go and pray, they will not regard it as important.

It is very bad to overestimate the power of money. Sometimes wealthy people are shocked to discover that there are things that money cannot purchase. And strangely too, poor people always imagine that once they have money, everything would be okay.

True riches are spiritual and it involves your being conformed to the image of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. You need to deliver your money from the world. You need to deliver your money from your ownself. If you are controlling your money or the world is controlling your money for you, it means that you have not submitted yourself to God.  If you give God what you cannot feel, then you make Him a beggar. The best bank is in heaven. God cannot force you to part with your money. The money you are dying for had been in the world before you were born.  When God says, give, He is just giving you a privilege, and so, don’t misuse that privilege.  Don’t be like Solomon who spent thirteen years building his own house and seven years to build God’s house. Don’t be a slave to money with money. God loves a cheerful giver. What people call money carries a lot of heavy load. A dirty currency note represents both blood and toil. It is frightening because it can serve or destroy man. Only God knows the secret of how many hands the money you are holding has passed through. Only God knows the evil or the good the notes have done since the moment they were printed. The money will not speak so it will never tell you all that is hidden it. Many people would have died because of that note you are holding. Many might have killed themselves for it. Many might have fought to possess it for a few hours, or to use it for a little pleasure and joy. That money might have fed a baby; it might have provided food for a family or books for education. But at the same time, it might have sent a letter breaking an engagement. It might have been used for abortion fees. It might have bought alcohol to create a drunkard. It might have bought dirty films or might have been used to record an indecent song. It might have been used for good or bad. This is why we must always pray on our money. This is the secret behind the power of mammon to trap people.

Many Christians are holding too tight to the money that have passed through so many things instead of giving it back to God. You must understand that God does not want us to be poor. But the keys to poverty must be dropped. Understand that God gave you whatsoever you have now and you must give it back to Him. If you refuse to do that, He would look for people who will give it back to Him and bless them. Therefore, be wise.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   O God, locate and revive my divine potentials, in the name of Jesus.

2.   I break every curse of poverty, in the name of Jesus.

3.   You spirit of poverty, be bound, in the name of Jesus.

4.   I bind the spirit drinking the blood of my blessing, in Jesus’ name.

5.   O Lord, create profitable opportunities for me, in the name of Jesus.

6.   O God, if my job or business needs changing, change it for me, in Jesus’ name.

7.   O God, reveal the secret of spiritual prosperity to me, in the name of Jesus.

8.   All my stolen blessings, be returned to me, in the name of Jesus.

9.   I refuse to inherit the spirit of poverty, in the name of Jesus. 

 

  

 

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 2002, 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.

 

The Evil Load

Dr.D.K.Olukoya

 

Matthew11:28-30“Come unto me (an invitation) all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

      From these three verses of Scripture we learn a few lessons:

1.   There are people who are labouring under demonic bondage.

2.   There are those who are carrying heavy burdens.

3.   There are those who have the yoke of the enemy upon their necks.

4.   There is only one Person who can break the yoke and remove the burden.

5.   When He has finished removing the burden and breaking the yoke, He will now give you His own yoke and place His burden upon you.

6.   His own yoke is easy and His own burden is light.

A version of the Bible called “Good News For Modern Man,” puts it this way: “All you who work hard, all you who carry heavy load, come to me I will give you rest; do what I tell you, learn what I teach you, I am gentle. I am not proud; lay your heart to rest. What I tell you to do is easy, what I give you to carry is not heavy.” It is said in a very simple manner; “Come unto me all you who are tired of carrying heavy load and I will give you rest. The yoke I will give you is easy and the burden I will put upon you is light.”

Jesus spoke about heavy load. A lot of people are unconsciously carrying loads on their heads. If God opens your eyes spiritually, you would see all kinds of strange things. Some people in the streets are carrying coffins on their heads; some are carrying rags on their heads. These are the kinds of loads Jesus was talking about; it was not physical loads. Many have yokes upon them but they don’t know. The bottom line is this: if you do not carry the load and yoke of Jesus, you will carry the devil’s own; there is no neutral position. If you say, “I don’t believe in God and I don’t believe in the devil,” you will carry the yoke of the devil. It is as simple as that. Anything that the enemy places on you and you do not know about it would be doing havoc to you. 

Put your right hand on your head and take this prayer point: “My destiny, co-operate with your Creator by fire, in the name of Jesus.”

The Bible makes us to understand that a person can carry a load that does not belong to him. It also makes us to understand that evil may be planned for somebody and one way or the other, someone else goes there to use his head to carry that evil. The way the spiritual world operates is this: once an evil has been determined, it must be carried out. The spirits in charge must perform their functions. Likewise God says, “The word that I speak shall go and prosper in that which I asked it to do; it shall not came back to me void.” It is the same thing. So, when evil has been programmed, it must happen to someone. I shall not carry any evil load, in Jesus’ name.

Isaiah 58: 5-6: , “Is it such fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” The Bible agrees that there are some heavy burdens and with fasting and prayers you can discard them.

Galatians 2:18: “If I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” Everything the Lord has helped to pull down in my life, all the sins of the past that have gone, He says that if I begin to build them again, I make myself a transgressor. So, a person will carry an evil load once he begins to build up again what the Lord has helped him to destroy. Such a person becomes a transgressor. I Timothy 5: 22 says, “Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins. Keep thyself pure.” This means that you do not lay hands on somebody anyhow, if you do, you may share the person’s problem. There have been cases where people laid hands on people and things were transferred to them. I know a man of God who laid hands on somebody and as he was praying, he noticed that something was entering his own hands from the person’s head. He could feel the thing moving like a serpent through his hand. He called the person back, asked him to kneel down again, placed his hand on him again and said, “Go back to your sender.” And the thing went back to its owner. He would have carried an evil load.

Lamentation 5:7:“Our fathers have sinned and are not and we have borne their iniquities.”  That is, a person may be carrying the load of his forefathers, a person may be settling his grandfather’s bill; a person can carry a load that does not belong to him. Habakkuk 2: 6:, “Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!” So, you can see that a person may be going about with other people’s load without knowing.

 

HOW CAN AN EVIL PROPERTY BE ACQUIRED?

You can buy it: Some people buy their bondage and put it on.

You can borrow it: Some people borrow bondage and put it on.

You can steal it: People steal bondage and put it on.

You can inherit it: People inherit bondage and put it on.

It can come to you as a gift: People get a lot of evil free gifts and then trouble starts. It is exactly the same thing in the spiritual world.

Psalm 91: 5-6: “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night nor for the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.”  It means that the devil throws trouble around. A person may refuse to partake or may decide to partake in it.

It is unfortunate but I am sorry to let you know that there are many people who are carrying evil loads that do not belong to them. Sometime ago, at a crusade, we were praying one prayer point that says, “Any owner of evil load, carry your load, in the name of Jesus.” There was a 39-year old sister there who had never experienced her menstrual period. She went to the back and started praying seriously. All of a sudden, God opened her eyes and she saw a big bundle of load by her side, and there was an angel standing by talking to a short old woman. The angel said, “Carry your load,” and the woman said, “No!” By this time the temper of the angel was rising. He said, “I say, carry your load.” The woman said, “But I am dead.” The angel said, “Come, I am going to say this one more time and I do not intent to repeat myself. I did not ask you whether you are alive or dead, what I say is carry your load.” Reluctantly, the woman picked up the load and walked off. By the time the prayer ended, blood was already dripping down the legs of the sister. She was carrying an evil load.

Please, pray this one too: “Every owner of evil load, what are you waiting for? Carry your load, in the name of Jesus.”

The enemy uses some small techniques to let people carry the load that does not belong to them. What are these techniques?

1. Bad confession: Immediately you say, “I am sick,” you have signed a package. The devil is a bad postmaster, he will put the stamps on the person. Twelve people were sent to spy the Promised Land. Ten came back with bad report. Look at what the Lord says in Numbers 14:28: “Say unto them, as truly as I live saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you.” Those people said that they were like grasshoppers and God said, “Okay, that is what you said with your mouth; this load does not belong to you but since you said you want it, you should carry it.”

Once a person begins to say, “I shall not die but live to declare the works of God,” he remains alive. But the moment you begin to carry a paper saying, “This is the song we are going to sing during the burial ceremony, this is the person that will render a special number,” you have signed your package. The load will now belong to you legally and satan can now enforce the load on you. It is very sad that a lot of people kill themselves everyday and accept evil loads with their mouths.

 

2. Provoking God: Another way that the enemy gives people evil load is by instigating them to provoke the angels of God. Matthew 18:10 says, “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.” So, we all have guardian angels. But then, angels can be provoked. Exodus 23: 20–21 says, “Behold I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions. For my name is in him.”  The Lord said they should not provoke the angels. Those of them above 20 years old died in the wilderness; they provoked the angels.

Lot’s wife provoked the angels. Zechariah the father of John the Baptist, provoked the angels. The angel said, “Thus says the Lord,” and Zechariah said, “No, it is not possible.” Gabriel then stopped Zechariah from speaking in doubt. God did not send him to make Zechariah dumb but the angel said, “Okay, you shall become dumb until these things come to pass.” So Zechariah carried a load that did not belong to him. It would be better for many people to be dumb for three or four weeks while working on important projects so that they do not destroy the projects with their own mouths.

Once you provoke your angel, he will deal with you. An angel can cause a disease or death, depending on how much you provoke him. Angels are not human beings and do not have to forgive anybody anything. When you go to where angels do not want you to go, you provoke them to deal with you. Zechariah carried the load of dumbness, which did not belong to him.

 

3. Foolish curiosity: Another way that people can carry a load that does not belong to them is what I call ‘foolish curiosity.’ Just like the Philistines in the Bible. They were curious to see what was inside the ark of the Lord and they paid dearly for it. Believers should not stand around watching magicians in the streets. Believers should not stand around watching juju (charm) hawkers to find out what they are saying. Many people get into trouble by wanting to try this, and wanting to try that. Many people follow their friends to herbalists not because they want to consult the herbalists. They just want to stand by to see what would happen. Sometimes, the herbalists turn to them and begin to prophesy evil to them.

 

4. Fighting alone when you know you have little power: People can pick up evil load by fighting alone when they know that they have little power. There is a time to take over and there is a time to take cover. Moses wanted to take over when he was supposed to take cover and we saw what happened to him. You should not follow anybody to idol places, or to swear before idols. Christians do not follow people to necromancers. Christians do not go to watch worldly films at public theatres.

The New Testament does not teach us to be going about visiting prophets. As godly as Abraham was, when he went down to Egypt, he had problem. So, when you go to the wrong place, you will have problems. There are some people who are fond of roaming about the houses of all sorts of prophets, and they collect arrows all over. Those who are fond of roaming around should be very careful so that they do not carry the load that they are not supposed to have. People who are fond of roaming about their hometowns when they do not have adequate power carry unwanted load. Some people rush to their home towns at any small thing, when they do not have power.

 

5. Evil friends: People pick up evil luggage by following evil friends. The Bible says that evil communication corrupts good manners. Many are in trouble today because of the friends they keep. If your childhood friend is not born again, you should severely limit that kind of friendship. Many ladies are living a confused life now because of their friends. Friends have let them into bondage and these friends they cannot find any more. Any close friendship with a child of the devil will make you carry other people’s load.

Sometime ago, a certain woman noticed that her friend was becoming very rich. She was buying cars and was prosperous. She went to the friend and asked her to show her the way to become rich too. She took her to one herbalist somewhere who did something for her and asked her to put it under her seat in her shop to enable her to have good patronage. She took the thing and did as she was told. The first day, she made very good sales. She was amazed and she rejoiced, but by the time she got home that first day, she found her son rolling on the floor. He was saying, “Mummy, I want to die. Something is pulling my throat.” The woman began to cry. Her friend who took her to the herbalist came, and finding the boy on the floor and the mother crying, she said, “Ah, why are you crying? Don’t cry. This is the price to pay for what you want. Did you not notice that when I did my own, my first son died? So, what is the problem? This one has to go if you want money. You still have two more, let this one go and enjoy your life.” The woman said, “no” and asked her friend to take her back to the herbalist. There she told the herbalist that she was no longer interested. The herbalist got angry and said, “But I asked you if your friend told you the price.” She said, “She did not tell me.” The man asked her to bring certain things so that he would reverse what he did. This cost her all the money she made on the first day. When you follow evil friends, you get into serious trouble. Many unwanted loads are pursuing people all over the place.

 

6. Dreams: Many unwanted loads are transferred through dreams. People get fed with all kinds of food in the dream and when they wake up, trouble starts.

 

7. Accidentally: People can pick up unwanted load accidentally. They unknowingly walk into the trap of the enemy and problem begins to happen.

 A long time ago, a certain lady was going to fetch water and met some men who asked her to kindly tell them where they could find the National Stadium and she described it to them. They said, “Oh, you are a wonderful girl, bring your palm and let us read it for you.” She gave them her palm and they made the sign of the cross on it, and asked her to turn it upside down and when she did, she saw the mark at the back of her hand. From that moment she got carried away and these men raped her, took her home and instructed her to give them all her mother’s property. It was after she had given them the last item that she came to herself. She had to go through very serious deliverance.

 

8. By inheritance: A person can pick up unwanted luggage by inheritance. The heaviest burden that many people carry is most times ancestral in nature.

 

Way out

1.   Confess your sins to the Lord.

2.   Command the satanic burdens to be removed, in the name of Jesus.

3.   Ask the owners of the loads to carry their loads.

4.   Pray that the angels of God should enforce the instructions.

5.   Pray that whatsoever the enemy has destroyed in your life before you found Christ should be repaired.

Many people around are under very heavy burdens. Some see the burden, while some do not; some understand it while some do not. How can somebody who has a boiling pot on his or her head fulfil his or her destiny? Likewise, somebody who has a mortar on the head and they are pounding something inside it cannot fulfil his or her divine destiny. You must pray aggressively for owners of evil load to carry their loads.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.     Every owner of witchcraft load, what are you waiting for? Carry your load by fire, in the name of Jesus.

2.     Lord, let the anointing that breaks the yoke begin to come upon my life now, in the name of Jesus.

3.     Let heavy burdens be removed from my life, in the name of Jesus.

4.     All the powers of the emptiers that have been programmed into my body, I order you to depart now, in the name of Jesus.

5.     Every owner of poverty load, carry your load by fire, in the name of Jesus.

6.     Every owner of evil load, carry your load, in the name of Jesus.

7.     My destiny, reject every evil load, in the name of Jesus.

8.     Every personal Red Sea, divide, in the name of Jesus.

9.     Every personal Pharaoh, drown, in the name of Jesus.

10.   Every local and personal Goliath, die, in the name of Jesus.

11.   In the presence of those laughing me to scorn, my Father, manifest your power, in the name of Jesus.

12.   Anointing that breaks the yoke, break my yokes now, in the name of Jesus.

13.   Every bird and cat of darkness targeted against my dwelling, die, in the name of Jesus.

14.   Every enemy of my testimony, I command you to die, in the name of Jesus.

15.   Let the God of Elijah arise and let my enemies scatter, in the name of Jesus.

16.   Every evil load programmed into my life in the dream, go back to your sender by fire, in the name of Jesus.

17.   Every distributor of evil load, my life is not your candidate, in the name of Jesus.

18.   My head, hear the word of the Lord. Reject every evil load, in the name of Jesus.

19.   Thank you heavenly Father for answering my prayers, in the name of Jesus.

 

 

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.

 

My Pharaoh must die

Dr.D.K.Olukoya

 

The message for this week is a prophetic one. Let us look at a few scriptures. In Exodus 15:9-12, we read about Pharaoh’s vow and the reaction of God Almighty. Psalm 18:37 also says, “I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed.”

Many years ago, as a woman in a labour room was about to give birth, a red bird flew into the labour ward. The bird spent a little time, looked at everyone there and flew out. The woman did not see the bird again until the day that baby who had now grown up was wedding. At the reception hall, the red bird came again, landed on the reception table, looked at everyone and flew out. The girl getting married did not know anything about the red bird but the mother remembered that she had seen the bird somewhere. It occurred to her that it was during the time she was about to give birth to the girl. Nobody saw that bird again until the girl who got married was about to give birth in a hospital. This bird flew in as usual and was looking at this woman who had just been delivered of a baby. The nurses saw the bird and wondered what it was doing in the labour ward. So they closed all the windows and used sticks to beat it to death. In their attempt to do this, they completely forgot the woman who had just been delivered of a baby. By the time they turned again to her, she had died. Something began to pursue her right from the day she was born unto the grave. That is one of the characteristics of Pharaoh.

 

What then is the meaning of Pharaoh?

Pharaoh means the son of the sun. The Egyptian kings were regarded as gods and the name Pharaoh has to do with destruction of good things in their infancy.

1.    The spirit of Pharaoh is a destiny terminator.  Pharaoh was the one that gave instruction that all male children of the Israelites must die and baby Moses was going to be eliminated but for God’s intervention.

2.    It is the spirit behind hardened enemies. Pharaoh’s heart was so hard that the Lord had to bombard him with ten plagues, and even after the ten plagues, he still pursued the Israelites.

3.    It is the strongman leading an evil army against the people of God. If you have dreamt of a crowd coming to fight against you, the leader of that crowd is the spirit of Pharaoh.

4.    It represents enemies who want to re-capture us and bring us back to Egypt. By the grace of God, we have left Egypt. Whatsoever wants to grab a Christian and take him back to Egypt is the spirit of Pharaoh, and should be resisted with all the energy at his disposal.

5.    It represents enemies that are insulting our God. You know when Moses went to Pharaoh and said, “Let my people go,” Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord? I know not the Lord.” He knew the Lord when he got to the Red Sea. This is what will happen to your Pharaoh today, in the name of Jesus.

6.    It represents enemies that employ sorcerers and magicians against us. They say, “Catch this person,” “spoil this marriage,” make this child dull,” “wreck this business” and so on and so forth.

7.    It represents arrogant enemies that say, "I can do anything I want to do against you and there is nothing you can do about it."

8.    It represents spiritual exploiters which use other people’s labour for their own advantage and advancement. Pharaoh held the Israelites for over 400 years and put them under hard labour.

9.    It represents hard slave masters who convert people to captives.

       A sister had a dream where somebody brought to her a big bowl of eba and okro soup-two things she hates so much, and commanded her to start eating them. She refused and said, “I don’t eat this. Even, if I want to, this is too much for me.” But the person folded her arms around her back and forced her to eat the food. By the time she woke up, her tummy was swollen. She did not know what to do. She went to the hospital and the doctor screamed at her saying, “You’ve had this kind of problem and you sat at home all this while.” She said, “This has just started this morning.” The doctor said it was cancer of the liver.

10.  It represents powers that can draw power from the sun and from the water. You may wonder what this mean. Ezekiel 29:2-4 says, “Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt: Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.” As we read in Exodus, Pharaoh used to visit the River Nile everyday.

11.  It represents stubborn pursuers. This is the totality of it, which is the area we want to work upon.

One of the lessons a minister of God who is interested in helping people should learn is that a lot of people are being pursued without them knowing it and as a result of that many things happen in their lives. They cannot grow spiritually because they cannot settle down to learn from the Lord. Such people will vow to follow the Lord only to fall flat soon after. They are not able to pray at home. Such people quarrel with their heavenly helpers and go to places where they will not grow spiritually. They prefer people who will get them excited, and they clap their hands and shout. The pursuer is quite comfortable with them and many of them are hypocrites.

One of the most interesting things is the communion service. People come forward to take the Holy Communion with very solemn faces, wearing a holy look, with their hands clasped together prayerfully. Some put their hands behind so that they do not swing anyhow. The man who just boxed his wife the previous day and the wife too who has a swollen eye would come quietly to the front to receive the communion.  People with red lips use handkerchiefs to clean up the lipstick so as not to stain the sacrament cup with their Jezebelian lips, and those who have just slept with sugar daddies and boyfriends queue too to take the communion. Some have their environment electrified with emotion and divine possession only for one hour or two. Once the ritual is over, it is fun again outside. The boxing husband returns to his one-eyed wife to continue from where he left her, the gossips go back to their gossiping, the sugar daddies and uncles who go to church continue with their girls. These kinds of people are being pursued but they don’t know. They put up all kinds of activities but get little results. Nothing good lasts in their hands. Even those who do not know them oppose them. People always repay them with evil.  Theirs are lives under pursuit. Death pursues them every time and they experience a lot of spiritual fatigue. Endless fatigue and inability to pray are marks of a life under pursuit.

Sometime ago, some policemen were chasing a thief. You know that when somebody is being pursued, he cannot co-ordinate very well. The thief ran to somewhere that looked like a solid ground not knowing that it was a raft and he sank. Those pursuing him turned back. That is always the character of pursuers. Once they are finished with a person or have pushed the person to a place of no return, they turn back. If you are being pursued or monitored, you will be seeing masquerades running after you in the dream.  You will be seeing snakes, animals, dead relations, naked males and females, rivers, armed robbers or birds in the dream. A certain sister came for deliverance in one of our branches and as the prayer was going on, suddenly two birds landed at her front and started fighting. They fought until they became weak and the pastor then moved in and finished them up. What happened? The woman was being pursued from both her father’s side and her mother’s side. When she said the pursuers should start to fight themselves, they appeared and the fighting started and they fought until they died. Before she got home, news were already making rounds about somebody from her father’s side with another person from her mother’s side who died about two hours earlier. When she looked at her watch, she noticed that it was during the fight show between the two birds at the church. 

Please, pray like this: “My Pharaoh shall die, in Jesus’ name.”

 

Under what situation does a pursuer become stubborn?

It is one thing to be pursued and it is another thing for the pursuer to become stubborn.      1.         A pursuer becomes stubborn when it is an avenger. If you have done something, you must pay for it. I know of a girl who got pregnant and had a baby but she could not tell which of the seven men that slept with her was actually the child’s father. At a stage, she found a white man who wanted to marry her but with a condition that she should do away with the child. He did not want to see the child. So, the girl thought of what to do. One morning, she soaked a towel in water and pressed it upon the baby while it was sleeping and suffocated it. The blood of that child pursued her. When somebody is being pursued, the pursuer wants to avenge something. It is only the blood of Jesus that can deliver one from the avenger.

2.    A pursuer becomes stubborn when it is under an evil covenant to destroy. When the enemies take a vow to deal with a person, they would become stubborn.  They will not rest until the person is finished.

3.    The pursuer becomes stubborn when you have its property in your possession.

       A sister lived in a house somewhere in the Eastern region of this country. Immediately she moved in, everything in her life turned upside down but she was praying. She noticed that her landlady used to lock up one door at the back. She never opened that door. One day, her landlady forgot to lock the door. Out of curiosity she decided to take a look into the place, and to her utter amazement and shock, she found a whole human being carrying a calabash and some money scattered on the ground.  Then she understood why nothing was working for her in that house. They enemy would always come for his property.

4.    The pursuer becomes stubborn when you are living in secret sins. You think no one sees you and so continue in secret sins, the pursuer will become stubborn. It knows men who will spend time praying and reading their Bibles and also knows those who frequent the nightclubs. It can see your heart.

5.    Pursuers become stubborn when they operate in multiples. They station one pursuer for marriage, one for finance, one for career, etc, pursuing a person at all fronts.

6.    The pursuer becomes stubborn when it has an agent inside. The outside one can therefore enter easily through the internal one. Many people have pursuers that are already inside but pretend as if they are outside. So, all the arrows they are firing outside cannot work on them because they are already inside.

7.    The pursuer becomes stubborn when there is idolatry in your foundation. That is why we must review the names we bear and make sure they mean well and do not glorify any idol. If your name or surname has anything to do with an idol, you will have a stubborn pursuer on ground. If you say, “Leave me alone now,” the stubborn pursuer will say, “Are you crazy? You’ve forgotten your name, that you’re dedicated to us.” Many families worship snakes. Members of such families should not be surprised when they are harassed by serpents.

8.    The pursuer becomes stubborn when one is unconsciously possessed. Many people are possessed with familiar spirits or are blind witches but do not know.

9.    The pursuers become stubborn if you are one of them and you are trying to get out. They will ask you where you are going and tell you that you cannot go. They will pursue you.

10.  The pursuer becomes stubborn when it is attached to a curse. When a curse is issued on a person the pursuer will be running to fulfil that curse.

11.  Pursuers can become stubborn when the parents of a person have dedicated him or her to them.

12.  Pursuers become stubborn if you have previously consulted them and asked for their assistance.

13.  The pursuer becomes stubborn if he was formerly your sex partner. Such a partner must have taken materials from your body.

14.  Pursuers become stubborn if you are living on their altar. If you put your house or shop on their altar, they will continue to harass and pursue you.

15.  The pursuer becomes stubborn when you are his or her spouse, in the case of spirit wives or spirit husbands.

 

The Way Out

1.  You have to review your past life with the help of the Holy Spirit. Review it so that your Pharaoh won’t have anything to stand upon. Have you consciously or otherwise entered into any evil covenant? Did you have sexual relationship with boyfriends or girlfriends who were possessed? Do you have a history of childhood sicknesses, and that anytime you fell ill you were taken to herbalists? Is yours like the story of a baby whom they said used to cry endlessly and so they threw her into the midst of termites for 24 hours and when they brought her out, she stopped crying, but from that time her life has been perpetually damaged? How were your parents looking after you when you were young? Have you been cursed by your parents? Have you ever gone to a diviner, a charmer, a white garment church or a herbalist, or eaten anything sacrificed unto idols? Ask yourself these questions.

2   Carry out restitution of whatever does not belong to you but is in your possession. Anything that is not yours and you are sitting tight on it you had better release it so that Pharaoh will not continue to pursue you.

3.  Deal with the spirit of Pharaoh both in the heavenlies and in the water. Many people are working below their destiny, serving their enemies and drinking the waters of afflictions. Some have been converted to hewers of wood and drawers water. The pursuer ensures that such people do not move far with God. The foundational spirits are holding tight to so many lives. They want to work for God but the idol says, “Where are you going?” All kinds of things are asking them where they are going. They are being harassed and cheated. This is why you must pray with anger and aggression, with violence and holy madness, so that any Pharaoh in any area of your life will die.  Your Pharaoh must die.

 

Prayer Points

1.  My Pharaoh must die, in Jesus’ name.

2.  O God, arise and let internal pursuers scatter, in the name of Jesus.

3.  Every foundational Pharaoh, die by fire, in the name of Jesus.

4.  Let all my pursuers fight themselves, in the name of Jesus.

5.  Every Pharaoh working against my breakthrough, fall down and die, in Jesus' name.

6.  O God of wonders, arise and manifest Your wonders in my life.

7.  Enemies that have refused to let me go, O God, arise and scatter them, in the name of Jesus.

8.  This week, I must experience breakthrough in all fronts, in Jesus’ name.

9.  O God, arise and let all stubborn pursuers scatter, in Jesus’ name.

 

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.

 

Power through fire baptism

                                   Dr.D.k. Olukoya

 

I want to encourage you to read this message prayerfully especially if you are not satisfied with your present spiritual life and would want improvement. Exodus 3: 1-6:  “Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses (God’s double call. In the book of Samuel, when God called Samuel it was, Samuel Samuel, a double call). And he said, “Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where on thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.”

We find one of the most important events in Scripture in the foregoing. The Bible has been divided into what Bible students call dispensations, which means different periods of time. This particular time signaled the beginning of what we call the dispensation of the law. It tells us about one man called Moses. People say a lot of things about the bush that refused to be consumed, because in the desert you find a lot of dry leaves, dry trees, cobwebs, bird nests and all kinds of things that are inflammable. These things were in that bush while the fire was on, yet it was not consumed. They were good materials for fire yet the fire rejected the bush and its contents as its own fuel supply. The fuel that supplied the energy of the fire was not from that bush, the fire sustained itself. So, it was not an ordinary fire. The focus of the fire was on Moses. Moses saw it, turned aside and there he received his call. And the Bible tells us that of all the prophets, there was none like Moses who spoke to God face to face. He was a very important man of God. If you read his history you will find out that even the devil tried to kill him at a young age just as the devil tried to kill Jesus at a young age. Sometimes at MFM, when we say, “Pray against the spirit of Herod,” many people don’t understand what we mean. The spirit of Herod is the spirit that kills good things in infancy.  Herod was the man who killed all babies below two years old because he wanted to kill Jesus. The devil tried to kill Moses by the side of the water where they put him but God prevented that. The devil tries to kill many people because he knows what God would do with their lives.

Moses went to the best university in the world because Egypt was the best centre of knowledge in the world at that time. He was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He lived in the palace of the king.

The incident we are describing now happened at Mount Horeb.  Horeb means a waste or a wilderness. All men of God must pass through the wilderness. Moses passed through his own wilderness. Elijah did as well. John the Baptist and even Jesus our Lord passed through their own wilderness. Jesus was there for 40 days and 40 nights. All holy men of God and anybody at all who wants to be useful to God must get to that place in his life, the place where fire is burning the bush and  the bush is not consumed. Moses died at the age of 120 years. He spent his first 40 years in Egypt. It ended in disaster because he ended up as a murderer. Why? Because he tried to use his own power, he tried to use the arm of flesh which we know would always fail. He ended up as a murderer. He ran away from Egypt at the age of 40 to a place called Midian and there he did the kind of job that Egyptians hate so much; the dirty job of a shepherd which a graduate should not do. He did not know that God was teaching him the principle of shepherding for a time was coming when he would lead three million people in the wilderness, just like Peter was first taught how to catch fish and then he learnt how to catch men.

He saw the burning bush at 80. That was the moment he met God and his life was never the same again. His life became meaningful and now had a purpose. He knew why he was called. He discovered the purpose of God for his life.  There are many people who do not know God’s purpose for their lives and as such they are doing the wrong things. So, in summary, Moses spent the first 40 years of life thinking that he was somebody. He spent the second 40 years learning that he was nobody. And then he spent the last 40 years seeing what God could do with Mr. Nobody. He did not know what to do until he came across the fire.

Job 20:26:  “All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall console him…” Job discovered the fire that nobody prepared with fuel. It is men who have moved like this that can be useful to God in any form.

Luke 3:16-17: “John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.” John the Baptist was a powerful messenger. The Bible tells us that his clothes were leather belt and clothes woven from camel’s hair, and his food was locust and honey. Jesus told us that amongst those born of women, none was greater than John the Baptist. He was the forerunner of our Lord Jesus Christ. A study of the life of John the Baptist reveals that he had a lot of wonderful qualities and one unforgettable one was that he was very precise in everything he did. He said, “I baptize but my own baptism is with water, somebody else is coming who shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” A lot of people know about water baptism. We thank God for it because when we are baptized in water it is the symbol that we have died with Christ and resurrected again. It is good. Also when you are baptized in the Holy Spirit you may speak in tongues, you may prophesy and all kinds of things may happen, but very few people know what we mean by baptism of fire. In fact, many who claim to know what it means do not really know. But verse 17 makes it very clear. Chaff is the refuse of grain and the straw of the corn. In those days in the land of Israel when people wanted to remove the chaff from the corn, they would thread upon the corn until the chaff is removed. Then they would separate the chaff from the grain and burn it with fire because if they do not burn it with fire, the wind would blow it into the grain, which they had cleaned.

The wheat represents the good in our lives; that which is produced by the Holy Spirit. The chaff represents the evil in us, produced by the flesh. The Lord knows how to separate the wheat from the chaff. Sometimes when He does it to us we would feel the heat in one particular area of our lives, which we love dearly and are not ready to let go. We all have some items in the showroom of our lives that are not valuable to God. Sometimes when God begins to touch these things, we complain that the pain is too much whereas it is the refining heat of God.

When God passes you through fire, you will come out a better vessel to serve the water of life to people. God will use both cold and hot vessels. If you are in the house of God now and you are hot for the Lord, He will use you and if you are cold, He will use you. You may wonder how He may use you if you are cold. He will use you as an example for others not to follow. He did this to the children of Israel many times. When they did the wrong thing, He disciplined them so that nobody follows them. But if you are hot He will use you to minister grace to others and He will use you as an example for others to follow. The only kind of people God will not use at all are the lukewarm people. He will just abandon them on the shelf. They would be stock on the shelf like expired wares. So you should allow the fire of God to do a deep work within you today.

A long time ago, this country was thrown in heavy darkness. Human sacrifice was common and a lot of horrible things happened. Anyone who wore good dresses did not wake up the next morning. People were afraid to call witches by name, they called them nicknames because they were afraid that they would die.  In some places in this country witches actually went about in daytime, people grounded day old babies in mortar to use for medicine, some people received up to 2,000 incisions and we had many evil trees growing around. Sometimes when men of God cut these trees, blood would start coming out from them, or sometimes the following morning, they would start growing again as if you did not cut them. People’s lives were regulated by superstition. You could not whistle at night or call a snake by its name. Some hunters shot at animals which turned into human beings. Many rocks and stones demanded worship and if they were not worshipped, there was trouble.

We were told about a king who had a special cutlass which used to spark fire, and people were afraid of him. But then something happened. God raised up certain men in this country who received more than the Holy Spirit and the gifts of speaking in tongues and body vibrations. They received the baptism of fire. These men entered forbidden forests, stopped the killing of twins, silenced powerful demons and chased them out of their hiding places. One of these men got to this king and commanded the cutlass to be powerless and its sparkling ceased immediately.

 

FIRE BAPTISM

The blunt truth is that there are many people with the baptism of the Holy Spirit but there are very few people who have received the baptism of fire. Those who have received the baptism of fire would not mind whether somebody is annoying them or not. There are characters that you will notice in them. Virtually anywhere in the Old Testament that God appeared, fire was always present. Fire symbolizes the presence of God, the unquenchable fire. We remember the God of Elijah, the one that answered by fire. An iron would not bend easily unless you push it into fire and it becomes hot. The reason some people have not been bent is because there is no fire in them. Therefore, God says, “Okay, I abandon you to your situation.” God will not abandon me to my situation, in Jesus' name."

When you go through the baptism of fire God will reschedule your life. A lot of people are rescheduling their own lives after their parents who made mistakes and are now in hell fire. They would say, “Because my daddy was a member of the place I must be there and die there.” May God have mercy on them. God is crying, “Be rescheduled, be rescheduled,” but they refuse to be rescheduled. People hate change so much but that is what brings progress. It is because they have not passed through the baptism of fire and so God finds it difficult to bend them. He just abandons them. The lame would be beating the drum while the leper would be singing and a child of God who has not been rescheduled would be dancing. That is very unfortunate. There are many such people around now. Until you listen to that rescheduling, many things won’t find their ways out. This is the blunt truth of the word of God. Raw gold just dug out of the earth never looks good. But when it is passed through fire to remove the impurities, it comes out clean.

The reason unclean spirits and all kinds of things are still hiding in some people’s lives is that there is no fire in them. Beloved, we need the fire of God in our midst and when it comes in, the promise of the word of God would come to pass. The strangers would fade away and run out of their hiding places, because when the fire comes in, it does not spare the ants, the elephant or the snake, it burns everything.  But many people are afraid of what will happen if they dare get on fire. If you are like that, you need to be rescheduled. This may be your final call.

 

Fire would produce heat and make people hot

The reason some people are so slow when it comes to spiritual development and the things of God is that there is no fire, no baptism of fire. All they do is speak in tongue: “Baba bakakaka,” and immediately after that, they sleep and the night caterers come and say, “Well, you have blown your tongue it is time for night meal.” And the person who was speaking in tongues now begins to consume food, which weakens his spiritual life.

How can unbelievers be running after you a Christian girl? You are praying for a Christian husband and it is only married men and unbelievers who find you beautiful. Something is wrong somewhere. Something has to be burnt in your life to remove that magnet inviting evil people to you.

 

Fire cooks

The reason some people make a big start and have poor finishing is because there is no fire. Fire symbolizes power and lack of it means powerlessness. Fire produces light and without it there would be darkness. 

Have you received the baptism of fire? Lack of this baptism is why many Christians are suffering. A Christian who is not interested in progress has no fire. A Christian who is not excited about the things of God has no fire. A Christian who gets weighed down by long prayer, has no fire. If certain things are still coming upon you to press you down on your bed, it is because there is no fire. Witches and wizards roam around the house freely when they know that the person is cold. Some people are in a hurry to escape from God’s presence. When they are in the house of God, they are always in a hurry to go. To some, prayer and fasting is becoming very difficult because there is no fire. Some people come to the MFM and say, “I thank God that my prayer life has changed.” We are not asking for your prayer life to only improve but for it to get on fire. Perhaps your Holy Ghost baptism is just speaking in tongues, you forget that there is a difference between your possessing the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit possessing you. The Holy Sprit will not possess you until you have passed through the baptism of fire, because when the chaff is still there it means that fire has not burnt it. That way, the Holy Spirit cannot possess you fully. It can only enter and operate in a little way. But for total possession, fire has to fall.

You want to reign with Christ always, but never once in your life have you seen a vision of heaven. What you see are masquerades, night caterers and serpents. With which Jesus do you want to reign when these are what you are seeing. When others say, “I saw angels of the living God praising God in heaven and I joined them; it was so wonderful,” you are saying, “I saw snakes.” You should be ashamed of preaching the gospel.

Many are just conquerors but not more than conquerors. Somebody who is more than conquerors will not only conquer, he will also take captives. How many captives have you made for the Lord? You are still busy sewing tight skirts so that everybody can see your shape. How many captives have you won for the Lord? Many people are praying that they want to grow but it is not coming from their hearts. Something within them is saying, “No, you cannot grow.”

It is lack of the baptism of fire that makes it difficult for people to run away from strange things and situations. All the virtues of many men have been buried under the sea by strange powers that have collected their sperm and have stored it there and they are busy going around. It is because there is no fire in their lives.

When you receive the baptism of fire three things will happen:

1.    Jeremiah 20: 9 says, “Then I said I will not make mention nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” When you receive the baptism of fire you cannot relax. It is not possible because the fire will not let you. You cannot see sinners and feel unconcerned. You would not be able to do without prayer and you would find it difficult to be away from your Bible. You would want to sit down and read it through. That is what we call baptism of fire.

2.    1 Corinthians 9: 16 says, “For though I preach the gospel I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel.” You cannot stop preaching. When the occult or witchcraft people see you they would mark you out and avoid you.

3.    Job 32: 19-20 says, “Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles. I will speak, that I may be refreshed I will open my lips and answer.” The power of God would be burning within you. You will wake up in the night speaking in tongues. God will be talking to you and you will see what God wants you to do. You will not live in darkness or semi-darkness.

Have you received the baptism of fire? A pregnant woman who had the baptism of fire went to the market. There, she mistakenly stepped on what an idol worshipper displayed for sale. The idol worshipper jumped up and started to rain curses on her while she was saying that she was sorry. He cracked his sticks and fire began to come out of his mouth. This pregnant woman said, “I quench that fire in your mouth, in the name of Jesus,” and the fire quenched. The man said, “What did you do now?” The woman said, “I spoke to your fire, in Jesus’ name and secondly, I returned all your curses back to you, in Jesus’ name.” When the man heard that, he ran away. If the woman had no baptism of fire, it would have been a terrible day for her. In fact, the power of darkness could change her baby from there.

Unfortunately, a lot of people are becoming friends with fire extinguishers. What quenches the fire of God?

 

FIRE EXTINGUISHERS

1.    Lust: Your imagination indulges uncleanness.

2.    Idolatry: If you permit anything to come between you and your God, it becomes an idol. For example, your job, money, etc.

3.    Laziness: Life of ease at home and lack of zeal for the things of God and hatred for long prayer sessions. These are fire extinguishers.

4.    Over-sensitivity: Bitterness rises quickly in the hearts of some people immediately somebody disagrees with them.

5.    Judgmental spirit.

6.    Gossip: All gossips are devil’s advertisers.

7.    Worry: This is when you are anxious about the future.

8.    Selfishness: This is when you ignore the interest of others and you are only interested in yourself.

9.    Distraction: This is when you are unable to focus on Christ and you find it difficult to read the Bible and gain something from it.

10. Lying.

11. Discouragement: Some people are easily discouraged. At the first sign of failure, they run away. They quit when things are hard.

12. Abusive tongue: Some people cannot control their temper.

13. Depression: This is when you allow despair to overtake you. You think of your problems always and withdraw from everybody when the Bible says, “I will not despair for I have believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

14. Fear: All kinds of fear are in the lives of people.

15. Procrastination: This is when you are always planning to go higher and dig deeper but always postponing the day you will start.

16. Lack of sexual control: People in this category should forget about spiritual growth.

The enemies of our soul have the most powerful scanning machine that you can think of. They can look and locate our weaknesses quickly. They struggle so much that people will not receive the baptism of fire. When the baptism of fire falls on a person, the person can prophesy for five hours non-stop. Many things will be drawn out of the person’s life. He or she would not have to pray to be delivered. The fire will answer everything. All infirmities would disappear. When fire falls on fibroid or whatever it may be, it would melt away because God did not create it with you. It is chaff and fire has to burn it.

Beloved, if you are ready today, I want you to bow down your head and begin to ask the Lord to forgive you any sin that would prevent the fire from falling upon you, because during the prayer session the fire will fall and things will burn and you will be catapulted to a higher realm. You will go from the position of weakness to that of power. When some people came against Elijah and extended the invitation of failure to him, he said, “Instead of me to come down, let fire come down.” And that was how 102 people were roasted on the ground. The third group of 51 people that came to him adopted a different approach because they were afraid to die. When you are in Elijah’s position, who is the enemy that can sit on your brain or your business? There would be no need for you to go to the hospital when you have the great Physician.

Please, if you are not ready for the fire that would come down as you pray, don’t pray. 

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.    Holy Ghost fire, fall upon me, in the name of Jesus.

2.    All strangers, loose your hold, in the name of Jesus.

3.    O Lord, crucify me on your altar now, in the name of Jesus.

4.    O Lord, set me on fire by the Holy Ghost, in the name of Jesus.

5.    Everything that is cooperating with evil in my life, stop your cooperation, in the name of Jesus.

6.    My life, begin to cooperate with the Holy Ghost, in the name of Jesus.

7.    All the negative things that I have been eating, I refuse to eat you anymore, in Jesus’ name.

8.    Fire from God, fall upon my life now, in the name of Jesus.

9.    (Stretch forth you hands as you say this:) Lord, put the head of my Goliath in my hands, in the name of Jesus.

10. My enemy shall bow down before me, in the name of Jesus.

11. O God, make me a vessel of your power, in the name of Jesus.

 

 

When the Heavens become brass

Dr. D.K. Olukoya

The message of this week is for those who believe in the God of the suddenlies, those who know that no matter how fast the enemy has been running, just a word from the Master is enough to halt his race.  After all, in the beginning, when the earth was without form and void all that was required to bring sanity was for the voice of the Lord to say, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  Also, when there was satanic storm on the sea, all that was required to quench it was for the voice of the Lord to say, “Peace be still.”

The message is entitled “When the heavens become brass.” Let us start from the book of Genesis, from the first man to see an open heaven.  In Genesis 28:11-12 we see Jacob as a very confused man. The Scripture says, “And he lighted upon a certain place and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. (His head was on the stone. When his head got on the stone, then his vision became clear.  That stone was Jesus). And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending.  And behold the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land wherein thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.”  Right from this experience, the life of Jacob never remained the same. 

You need an open heaven.  When this man saw an open heavens, for the first time he saw a ladder going right into the heavenlies, and God was there talking to him for the first time in his life.  If you need to do seven days dry fast or to go on only water for 21 days for God to speak to you for five minutes, it ‘s worth it, because if God talks to you for two minutes, it is better than a preacher talking to you for ten hours.  If God talks to you for one hour, it is better for you than a preacher talking to you the whole of your life.  When you have open heavens you will hear the voice of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 28:23: “And thy heavens that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth under thee shall be iron.  The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.”

Please, pray like this: “My heavens shall not become brass, in the name of Jesus.”

That Scripture tells us that the heaven over a particular person’s head can become brass, and the earth under his feet can become iron.  It is a terrible situation when the heavens become brass. This means that God has allocated to everybody an air space above his head, that can either be open or can become brass.

Matthew 3:13-16 says, “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.  But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness:  then he suffered him.  And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him…” That passage says “Him” and not all those people standing around. John the Baptist saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove; and lighting upon Him.  Jesus did not go out to minister until He received open heavens. He could not operate because when the Old Testament closed at Malachi, for 400 years God did not send any prophet and did not talk to anybody, the heaven was brass.  It had to be opened before the Son of God could start His ministration.

In John 1:51, it is written, “And he saith unto him, verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” They first of all ascend and then descend, meaning that the initiative for the angels of God to come and help you lies with you.  The initiative has to come from the earth. 

For your life to prosper, the heavens must be involved, because the heaven above us is seeing everything.  If a man is ever going to prosper, he cannot do it outside of heaven. A destiny remains stagnant until a connection is made between earth and heaven.  On your own, you can’t do nothing.  Even those who don’t believe that God exists and don’t serve the Lord are existing by the mercy of God.  God sends His grace on the evil and on the good.  Even if you said He does not exist, no problem; but the fact that you are alive shows that you are enjoying His mercies.

A destiny remains in the same place until a connection between heaven and earth is made, as with the ladder in the case of Jacob. You must have a process or a procedure to bring heaven to earth, or to join the earth to heaven.  Until your heavens are opened, you cannot even locate your ladder, let alone go anywhere.  Some people have broken ladders, some have no ladder at all, and that is why they have never in their lives seen anything positive coming from heaven.  Until your heavens open, you don’t really know how sweet God could be. But when the heavens open, you know and experience the power of God. He will speak with you, you will hear that voice which many prophets have heard, and their lives never remained the same. God cannot speak to you and you will remain as you are.  There must be a connection between earth and heaven. But when this heaven becomes brass over somebody’s head, his destiny is as good as dead.

 

SEVEN MAJOR THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN THE HEAVENLIES

There are seven major things that happen in the heavenlies above. Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”

1. The heavenlies are the location of spiritual blessings. 

2. The heavenlies are the headquarters of darkness. In Daniel 10, we find that for 21 days the heaven was brass. Why? There was a prince of Persia up there holding tight the angel bringing an answer to Daniel’s prayer. He could not bring the answer until he wrestled with the prince for 21 days. For all those 21 days, the heaven was brass because nothing was coming through.  Until Angel Michael came and cleared that demon out of the skies, Daniel did not get his answer. This means that prayers can be hindered by the headquarters of darkness above.

When the whole of heavenlies are occupied by darkness in the life of a person, the person cannot receive the rain of God. Such a situation describes what is meant by the heavens becoming brass.

3. The heavens are the battlefield for spiritual warfare.  Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against wickedness in high places.”

4. The heavens are the sphere or the arena of angelic activities.  Ephesians 3:10 says, “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.”  When you say, “I bind, I loose, I bind, I loose” and the heavens do not answer you, you are wasting your time.

5. The heavenlies are the battleground of the success of our Lord Jesus Christ in spiritual warfare.  Psalm 103:19 says, “The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens: and His kingdom ruleth over all.”

6. The heavens now are the location of believers’ position in Christ.  Ephesians 2:6 says, “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”  That is where we are supposed to be ruling from but we are not there.  This is why the enemy is boasting.

7. The heavenlies are the action field of the triangular powers.  What are the triangular powers? They are the sun, the moon and the stars. That’s why God says, "The sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night.”

When you look at these seven things, you will begin to understand that if all spiritual blessings are in the heavenlies, and one way or the other, they are not coming down, it means that the heavens have become brass.  Since the heavens are the battlefield for spiritual warfare, if a person loses all the battle fought there, then the heavens have become brass for him.  If the heaven is the arena of angelic activities, and the angels do not come to assist you, your heaven has become brass. No wonder Jacob saw them ascending and descending.  If the heaven is your location in Christ, and you are not sitting there, it has become brass, a hard metal.

We need to pray some brass-destroying, brass-shattering prayers. When you notice that there is silence from heaven, you get no information, those who want to help you get into trouble themselves, you go to borrow money and discover that the man who wants to give you the money has been involved in an accident and everywhere seems blocked, you have to check the condition of your heavens. 

At this juncture, I would like you to pray like this:

You forces of brassy heavens, give way by fire, in the name of Jesus. 

You heavens of brass, shatter, in the name of Jesus. 

Whatsoever that is making the sky to thicken over my head, die, in the name of Jesus.

 

IRON AND BRASS

Iron and brass in the spirit are equivalent to famine, dryness and drought.  It is this dry and arid land that the devil normally rules.  The Bible says, “When an unclean spirit has left a man, it roams around in dry places, i.e. in the lives of those that the heavens have closed. That is what the Bible means by dry places.  When the heavens are closed over the head of a person, there would be traffic of demons in the life of that person.  So, the questions that are pertinent to ask are: “Are your heavens open or closed? Are you really concerned about your life, progress, calling and destiny?”  Once you are concerned about your life, your progress, calling and destiny are the first things to check to know whether your heavens are closed or not.  If your heavens are closed and have become brass, demons would overcome you with ease.  Nothing will go smoothly.  Everything will be so hard, the ground will become very dry and plantations will not survive.  Sometimes when you go into a house to pray and say, “Father, in the name of Jesus,” you would continue to pray and it will flow and appear as if you should not stop. But when you go to some houses and say, “Father, in the name of Jesus,” the people there would be falling asleep. As you pray you would notice that something is pushing the prayer back into your mind.

Sometimes ago, some brethren and I went to pray for a sister who was very ill.  As we began to pray, I felt a thick darkness. I opened my eyes and said, “Madam, what are you doing here?” She said, “Em, before my father died, he willed the house to us, the children, and as the eldest daughter, I am staying here.” I said, “Do you want to die?” She said, “No.” I said, “But you have your own house, why are you not living there?” She said, “I’ve given it out to tenants.” The heavens closed over that place.

 

When the heavens are closed and there is no rain, plantations will not survive. When the heavens are closed, seeds are wasted because when they are put in the soil, they will not grow. You will plant much but reap very little because the heavens are closed and the whole of life is a struggle.  There is a lot of profitless hardwork.  One man was in Germany for 13 years and couldn’t get one single certificate. To worsen his case, his father, who was a herbalist, used charms to summon him home.  He suddenly packed his things and left Germany, and all of a sudden he discovered that he was at Muritala Mohammed Airport, Ikeja.  It was then his eyes cleared and he said, “What am I doing here?” They took him back to his hometown.  He is now a herbalist like his father. The heavens closed.

When the heavens are closed, you need more labourers to do a very little job. Many people will be there struggling.  When the heavens have become brass that is when worldliness and sins find their way into the lives of Christians. When the heavens become brass, problem remain the same even after deliverance ministration, a person will consume much more than he can produce or contribute, debt would be rising and the income would be low. When the heavens have become brass, a person will be labouring on hard ground.  He will labour and sweat so much and achieve very little. You know that when the ground is dry, and a farmer is hoeing, the hoe would be making much noise on the ground but would be making little progress. When the heavens become brass devourers are released unto a person’s labour.  It leads to deflected and paralysed life, and the affected person would notice that his spiritual life is going down. 

 

It is possible that the heavens of somebody were open before but are closed now, and the person is now living on old and past achievements.  The person does not have fresh fire and his prayers have become ordinary noise.  His mind wanders about during prayers and Bible reading becomes a religion.  He no longer derives any benefits from Bible studies and he goes to a great length to spiritualize the foolishness that he is practicing.  Unbelievers boldly toss him to and fro. 

When the heavens are closed, the person finds it very easy to co-exist with darkness. When you find it easy to co-exist with darkness, it is a sign of brassy heavens.  When the heavens of a person become brass his prayer life becomes vague and powerless; the joy of the Lord no longer remains his strength. 

Beloved, do you know of certainty the condition of the heavens over your head? This is a very important question.  Before you start blaming anybody for your problems, first ask yourself this question; “Are my heavens open?” Check that thoroughly, look deeply into your heart, look deeply into your life and your commitment to Jesus.  Have you noticed, beloved, that you sow much but bring in little? What is the sense in working so hard and at the end of the day, you go to the bank to cash money and behind you are armed robbers? This is the money you have sweated for years. Do you eat fatty things and become lean? Are your expectations cut short most of the time? Do you look for much from your investment but very little comes in? Do you have leakages in your purse?  Do you have a bag with holes so that nothing is retained? Do you come to the house of God and the word of God becomes dry and empty to you? Do you notice a strong dominion over you life? Then you have work to do.

I heard something from a certain man that troubled and challenged me.  He said that spiritually, you deserve what you tolerate.  If you allow evil powers to drink your blood, they will drink it. If you allow your heavens to be closed, it shall be closed.  When the heavens have become brass, that is when some people who have no money would begin to sing, “When I get home, when I get home, my sorrows shall be over.” That is not correct. The Bible says, “Verily, I say unto you, there is no man that has left house, parents, brethren, wife, children for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive manifold blessings, even this present time and in the world to come.”

If you want God to change you, you have an opportunity.  If you say, “Well, I refuse to tolerate brassy heavens,” then it shall be so and you shall not tolerate it and your heavens shall be opened. 

When the heavens are closed, and it has become brass, the wealth of a person goes to the wrong hands.  The person’s child becomes sick, and there would be no money to treat the child. The poor child is exposed to mosquito bite because there is no money to buy insecticide.  It is a sign of brassy heaven.  If you tolerate it, it will continue. When you find that everything is just slipping away from your hands, this will come and will go away, another will come and go away, check the condition of your heavens.  Many sicknesses come upon people who are not eating well.  When the heavens become brass, people feed poorly. Proverb 10:15 says, “The rich man’s wealth is his strong city, the destruction of the poor is their poverty.” When the heavens are closed, scarcity is created in the midst of plenty.  When heavens are closed, the person will pay his tithe to the wrong place. If you refuse to pay it to God, something else will collect it from you.  But when the heavens are opened unto you, the devourers would be silenced.  There was a brother who whenever he got his salary, used it to settle debts. He never paid anything to God. One day, something happened. He soaked his choicest clothes in the water and went into the house to bring soap.  By the time he came back, both the bucket and the clothes had been stolen.  He shouted, screamed and did everything, but nothing worked for him until he began to pay his tithe to God.

It does not pay to cheat God because you will just end up closing the whole of the heavenlies.  One of the greatest things that could happen to a man is to have open heavens.  And I pray that the Lord will give you open heavens today, in the name of Jesus.  When you have open heavens, blessings are released unto you in abundance and you will take the good treasure of the land where the Lord has planted you.  But if you continue to live in disobedience, the heavens would remain closed. 

 

HOW TO DESTROY

BRASS IN THE HEAVENS

1. Repent from any sin that has closed the heavens against you: This is the first thing to do.  Disobedience and sin will close the heavens.

2. Pray brass-shattering prayers: There are some prayers that will do that for you and there are some prayers that cannot do it. 

3. Engage in sacrificial giving: Give to God in a way that you will feel that you have given something.  You should give to God sacrificially, generously, unselfishly, cheerfully and without grudge. You should give proportionately, you should give at every opportunity that God asks you to give. You give without open show.  The Bible says, “If you bring your tithes to my house, I will open the windows of heaven.” What the Bible is telling you is that, if you do not bring it those windows shall be closed and devourers shall be released. 

4. Long sessions of praises: Take time to learn worship songs. Take time to learn hymns in the hymn books. Spend quality time praising God.  Sometimes don’t even pray at all, just praise Him.  Long sessions of praises break the heavenlies open. 

5. Destroy ancestral covenants and altars: Please, pray like this: “Every ancestral altar of destiny destruction, die, in the name of Jesus.

6. Drop all languages of closed heavens: The languages of closed heavens are for example, “What gonna be gonna be. What goes up must come down. What’s gonna be gonna be and there is nothing you can do about it.” When you say that what is going to happen, must happen and that there is nothing anybody can do about it, you are speaking the language of closed heavens. There is one demonic Yoruba proverb of laziness and backwardness that says, “If it is not possible to go forward, go backward,” whereas the Bible says, “Go forward!” The languages of closed heavens include, “Eh, I’ve prayed and prayed and fasted and nothing has happened. Everything is upside down.” Drop such statements for you are making yourself miserable.  Nobody can make you miserable unless you permit the person to do so.  A person can stand in front of you and abuse you from morning till night, but if you make up your mind inside that you will not allow what he is saying to make you miserable, you will not be miserable.  If you live with a person and the person does not appreciate what you are doing and whatever you do is wrong, if you allow it to get to you, you will become miserable.  But if you decide that whatever he is saying will not get to you, you’ll not be miserable.  So, you can choose to be miserable or not to be. The choice is yours. 

You can also choose what to say.  You may decide to speak the language of heaven or speak the language of hell fire. Saying, “I’m fed up with all these,” is the language of closed heavens.  When you say that you are fed up, the devil will say, “Yes you are fed up.” When you say, “I’m fed up with this marriage, let us pack up everything,” the devil would say, “Yes, pack it up.”  You speak the language of closed heavens when you say, “Eh, God cannot do it.” When somebody says, “I am frustrated in this situation, I will stop coming to church, Lord what is my sin that you are doing all these to me, or are you saying that you are for some special people?” It is the language of closed heaven.  If you have been uttering those kinds of statements maybe not verbally, even in your heart, it is still a voice of closed heavens.  You must stop saying them and repent of them.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   My heavens, open by fire, in the name of Jesus.

2.   You my enemies, you shall not prevail, in the name of Jesus.

3.   O God, arise in my life and let the world know that you are my God, in the name of Jesus.

4.   My hidden riches, be revealed and be released, in the name of Jesus.

5.   O windows of heavens, open unto my life, in the name of Jesus.

6.   Satanic brass of iron working against me, shatter, in the name of Jesus.

7.   Sun, moon and stars, refuse to co-operate with my enemies, in the name of Jesus.

8.   Every power that has been assigned to sit on my breakthrough, die, in the name of Jesus. 

9.   Every Pharaoh from my home town, sink in the Red Sea, in the name of Jesus.

 

The strange children of the last enemy

Dr D.K.Olukoya

 

The first question to ask is who is the last enemy? I Corinthians 15: 26 says,  “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”  The second question is, who are the strange children? Psalm 144:7 says, “Send thine hand from above; ride me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children.” This is the psalmist praying his usual warfare prayers. Verse 11 says, “Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.”

 

THE GREATEST FEAR OF MAN

The greatest fear of man is the fear of death. The fear of death does a lot of things to people. Hebrews 2:15 says, “And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” So the fear of death can put a person in bondage forever. When you see men running away from dangerous animals it is out of the fear of death. If you see people avoiding lunatics in the streets, it is out of the fear of death.

If you see people being careful with electricity, roaming about herbalists houses for protective charms or hanging charms in their cars, it is out of the fear of death. The major reason people join cults, lodges or go into all kinds of occult things is the fear of death. Unfortunately, even many Christians are under the grip of the fear of death. There are many pastors and ministers of God who are afraid of death. Beloved, one of the reason many people die before their time is fear. Once the fear of death grips a person, he would sometimes behave like a mad man. When the fear of death grips a person, he would open doors to several other things. These things know that they cannot kill you. They just come to see if they can instill fear in you and if you allow the fear to grip your heart, then you open the door through which they can operate. It is when the first strange child grabs a person that the other strange children would move in. 

This is what the last enemy does. He wants to remove your attention from God.

 

CEMETERY OF FAITH

Fear would paralyse your faith.  Fear would bury your spiritual growth. Not only that, it would distribute your home address to other strange children such as discouragement, sickness, etc.

 

FEAR OF DEATH

The fear of death does not recognise any academic qualification. In fact, the most fearful people are those who are well-read. Death has another evil and strange child. I Corinthians 15:54 says, “So when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” After that exhortation the next verse says, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” Then verse 56 says, “The sting of death is sin…”

 

THE STING OF DEATH

Another strange child of death is the sting of death. If you refuse to play with the strange child of death which is sin, it cannot sting you.

 

THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY

The Bible talks about the mystery of iniquity. Somebody knows that what he is doing would hurt him. He knows that the thing is bad. After the thing has harmed him he says, “I won’t do it again.” But the next moment he is on it again. That is the mystery of iniquity. For example, a man drinks alcohol to drown his sorrow and when he wakes up in the morning, he develops head-ache and suffers from indigestion. He cannot go to work. He has what you call hangover. Then, he says, “I am not going to drink again.” But behold, as he passes by the street, somebody invites him for a drink and a chat. He goes in again and starts the same thing that almost destroyed him. That is the mystery of iniquity. Or somebody knows that something has been telling him or her that his or her patience as a husband or as a wife is not good enough. So he or she takes a quality decision not to get angry again or allow himself or herself to say harsh words. But after sometime, the same thing starts again.  That is the mystery of iniquity.

Sin is a sting of death and the wages of sin is death. Sin is the greatest instrument of death. A sinner dies but for the saint, God calls him home. Once you are born again, you have given your life to the Lord, you become a saint. For the Christian, death is a special sleep or rest.

 

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF DEATH?

Death was tied to a tree in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2:17 says, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.”  This was man’s first introduction to the word death.  Therefore, by simple implication, man was meant to live forever. So, the word, death came from disobedience.  Romans 5:12 says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” So death came into the world through Adam’s disobedience to God’s word. God’s pronouncement then came upon him: “Dust thou art and unto the dust thou shalt return”. So the devil is the author of sin in the universe. He gave a share of the sin to Adam. Since satan is the author of sin and sin then brought death, satan became the controller of death.

Although God has the overruling power to say yes or no, satan controls death through his department of death. And I tell you something, my name is not in that department. Hebrews 2:14 says, “For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.” Man through disobedience has given the devil ample opportunity to kill him like house flies and this he does through the department of death. Lecturers in that department include sickness, accident, murder through magic, suicide and poisoning. Therefore, another strange child of the last enemy is sickness or the spirit of infirmity. They sometimes render medical science powerless. The spirit of infirmity could sometimes hide in a person’s life and rapidly kill the person at a time of spiritual weakness. So, sickness is another strange child.

 

ACCIDENT PRODUCERS

Another strange children are accident producers. These are strange powers that manipulate vehicles and drivers to cause accidents. They would confuse the driver and distract his attention. They would cause mechanical faults. They make motorists to drive under the influence of alcohol. They attack drivers and pilots, blocking their visions and thereby cause all kinds of problems.  So believers should not travel without prayers. Believers don’t just jump into vehicles and start going.

Another strange children are drinkers of blood and eaters of flesh. There may be conscious or unconscious wizards in your vehicle which would kill the careless and the unprotected. They also use idols to kill people. They use candles and pressing of sand to eliminate people. They dig into a person’s background to see the doors through which they can enter.

This is why we must send God’s fire to the root of our lives. We need to pull down what I call foundational demonic stronghold. When a demonic foundation has been built in a life, even before the person was born, a palace has been built in the person’s life. When the person gets born again, the enemy will confront him. If the enemy checks a person through and sees nothing, he will check the mother and father. He digs deep into a person’s background.

When you pray that all these foundational demonic strongholds should be pulled down, they would be pulled down. They won’t have any place to hide.

Another strange child is the spirit of murder. This spirit instigates murder in cold blood. Sometimes people just kill others senselessly. When you ask them why they do it, they would say, “One voice told me to do it.”

Another strange child is the spirit of suicide. Many people hear voices asking them to kill themselves. The devil would engineer a problem which he knows will eventually get a solution, but he makes it to look like a giant so that the victim would say, “I will kill myself.” Some swallow poison because they want to die. If you have ever made such an attempt on your life, you need special prayer urgently.

 

THE CURSE OF FAMILY DESTRUCTION

Another strange child is the curse of family destruction. You will find that members of some families die in horrible and mysterious ways. The spirit enters a family and kills each member before he or she is 40. It is the spirit of family destruction. It kills according to certain patterns. In some families the members will first run mad or sometimes it is only the males that are affected.

I know a family of four girls and three boys. The four girls got together and through witchcraft powers ate the three boys. The child causes health problems that would defy medical solutions, and in some cases chooses some age groups. This is the strange child of the last enemy.

 

ANTI -DELIVERY SPIRIT

Another strange child is the anti-delivery spirit affecting pregnant women. It causes problems for women during pregnancy and during child birth. Sometimes it gives rises to long and tormenting labour. Sometimes it involves abnormalities in the exit of the baby from the womb. Sometimes it leads to excessive bleeding during labour. The Bible does not say that believers should die during childbirth. In fact, it says in I Timothy 2:15: “Notwithstanding she shall be saved in child bearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.”

 

CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH A CHRISTIAN MAY DIE

1.    By laying down his life for the cause of the gospel like Brother Stephen in the Bible did: All the old apostles were like that. The Bible says that when they were being beaten, they were smiling and praising God.  Beloved, how wonderful would it be when somebody was being dealt with horse whips and the person would still be smiling saying, “Praise the Lord. They are beating me because of Jesus, I enjoy it. I know that I would have a better reward.”

2.    Old age: Try and know this very well: It is impossible to kill a Christian. Colossians 3:3 says, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” You are dead and your life now is first of all hidden in Christ, then that is hidden in God. So whoever wants to get at you has an impossible job, because first of all, he has to remove Christ from inside God and put Him down. And he would put his hand inside Christ and take you out. Then he would put his hand inside you to remove the Holy Spirit, then he will get at you. But that is impossible. A Christian may die at old age, after living the fullness of his days on earth. Psalm 90:10 says, “The days of our years are three score years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” So the minimum life span is 70 years. If you want more than that, you can always ask God for it.  

Not only that, godly men and women always have their youth renewed. Psalm 103:5 says, “Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles.” As a Christian you should be looking younger not older. And if some people would stop worrying their souls and stop being afraid, they would look younger. If some people would stop getting angry, they would look younger. And if some people can smile often rather than screwing up their faces all the time they would look younger. If some people can do more fasting and prayer, they will look younger. Fasting does not make people to age, it makes them look younger. Sometimes when we say, “Hold seven days dry fast,” some people would say, “What?” I told a nurse to do three days dry fast and she said that there would be no supply of sugar to her brain. Look at Moses, he was always in the presence of God. Deuteronomy 31:7 says, “And Moses called unto Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.” Moses handed over to Joshua. Deuteronomy 34:7 says, “Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.” Then Joshua 14:10-12 : “And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. Now, therefore give me this mountain…” So, as long as you ask, claim and believe the promises of God, nothing can snatch you away before your time. That is the basic Bible truth.

3.    By personal desire: One can die by personal desire. Jesus was not killed. He laid down His own life. He said in John 10:17-18, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” This commandment have I received of my Father. A Christian may die before 70 by personal wish. Philippians 1:23-25 says, ”For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better. Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful of you. And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith.” So, Paul said, “I prefer that place but I am in a strait between two but for your sake I will stay.” So, if he wanted to go he would have gone. But people like David refused to die. He said, “I shall not die but live to declare the works of the Lord.” Elijah too at a stage wanted to die, so when he said so, God translated him to heaven. People like Hezekiah said, “I don’t want to die, I want more years,” and God said, “Take 15 more years.” But a believer should not sit down and say, “Well, I want to die because I don’t have money.” “I want to die because my colleagues in school are riding big cars and I don’t have a bicycle.”

4.    Ignorance or lack of knowledge: A believer may die out of lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” People of God can die out of ignorance. Failing to reject death is lack of knowledge. Lack of knowledge has made a lot of Christians to fall prey to the enemy.  If you ignorantly collect a clinical prophecy or demonic prophecy, you may lose your life. If you are a Christian in this environment and you know nothing about spiritual warfare, nothing about sending back evil arrows and nothing about amputators, you may die out of ignorance. You won’t go to hell fire but just die out of ignorance. Sometime ago, at one of our spinsters meetings, one sister came forward and asked a question: “Sir, why is it that my fiancé said we would be getting married in three months time and when it was one week to the wedding, he said it would be in another three months time, and when it was one week to the wedding again, he postponed it.” I told her that that is what you call the powers of the emptiers. She said she did not understand what I was talking about.  I asked her how long she had been coming to MFM and she said that was her first day.  Then I understood why she could not understand me.

 

THE EMPTIERS

The emptier is somebody that would allow you fill a cup to a stage and then pours it away. You will go through the trouble, gather the money, gather everything without any problem but when you get to a stage everything is poured away.

When a Christian is just going to church and does not know all these things he is wasting his time. If all he knows to do is to sit down and sing canticles and psalms, and does not have the correct knowledge of what to do, there would be problem. If all you know is reading psalms and you are still unrepentant, and you are reading the psalms with anger and bitterness in your heart, it won’t work. A believer who goes to church but does not know how to apply the blood of Jesus lacks vital knowledge which may eventually lead to death.

The last enemy of man called death is seen by many as very irrational. It does not make sense to many of us that it kills babies and teenagers, that it kills people at the prime of their lives, that it would remove the only bread winner from a family and leave all the poor people around, that it would render children orphans. Why? It is because it is not under the control of God although God has the final yes or no. The spirit of death tried to kill Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego but God said no. So, it could not kill them.  It tried to kill Daniel. Its agent made sufficient attempt. Those who threw him into the lion’s den definitely wanted to kill him but God said no. But if Daniel lacked knowledge, he would have died. Many of the present-day believers in his shoes would have been eaten up by the lions within the first five minutes, because fear would have killed them even before they got there. Imagine somebody going to pray for a sick person in the hospital and is already shaking at the door. How would he pray?

I want you to listen to this basic truth. Death did not overcome Jesus, He laid down His life. The passage we read in Corinthians says that death is swallowed up in victory. Revelation 1:18 says, “I am he that liveth and was dead, behold, I am alive for ever more. Amen.  And have the keys of hell and of death.” Therefore believers should not fear death because their Master is holding the key. And believers should not blame God for any death because the devil also kills people. A believer must take a quality decision because if you want to die the death of the righteous, you must also live the life of the righteous. A believer must also recognise that some people’s death are useless before God. Psalm 116:15 says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” So, some deaths are useless before the Lord but the death of His saints are precious in his sight. Therefore, to be afraid of death is to demonstrate that your salvation is questionable.

How do you recognise that you are in the grip of death and her strange children?

You can determine by asking yourself some questions:

Do I experience constant fear? If the answer is yes, you are in the grip of fear and must be loosed.  Do I feel lifeless sometimes and get sick of living? If the answer is yes, you need to pray How long do the members of your family live? At what age did your father and mother die? Your uncles, how old were they? If you find that they were cut off at the prime of their lives you need to pray. If you take it for granted, it just stays there. Do you have a family shrine or a family altar? If you do, you have to pray seriously. They might have donated you to it and at the appropriate time it wants to eat you, you will die. And if there is no discernment of spirits, you will not even know what to pray about.

Have you ever participated in a sacrifice to demon or ritual before? You may actually be killing yourself when you are slaughtering that ram for sacrifice so you have to pray seriously. Do you have any sickness that defies medical diagnosis? Then you really need to pray. Have you undergone surgical operation more than once? Then you should pray seriously.

Have you ever been addressed as the re-incarnation of somebody? Are you respected and called honourable names because it is believed that you were somebody before? Then you really need to pray very hard. Or does your own father prostrate for you simply because he feels you are his mother that died? Have you ever been involved with somebody who asked you to bring certain things and dress and he took you to the forest where you undressed and he took the fine clothes away while you put on something else.  And he says, “Today you have said bye bye to death. You no longer have familiar spirit.

The Bible says, “In the name of Jesus, you shall cast out demons.” It does not say you would do so by buying fine clothes and dropping it in the forest. If you have experienced such a thing, you are probably in the grip of a strange child, and you need to release yourself.

Have you ever used charms to protect your life, or you have a blessed picture, or used blessed soap, sponge, cream or perfume? You need to pray. You are probably in the grip of something.  Were you terribly sickly when you were very young and they carried you all over the place and eventually they took you to a place where they said okay, “We shall preserve his or her life?” You need to pray.  Have you ever been in a fattening room because you want to get married? Do you  see things that other people don’t see? Do you hear voices that others don’t hear or you perceive some odours that others don’t perceive? You need to pray.

Are you the kind of person that can be described as being very stubborn? The problem with stubborn people is that they die suddenly, just like Pharaoh. Are you addicted to alcohol, tobacco and sex? Then you need to pray. Are you the kind who always experience terrible menstrual period and you have tried medicine to no avail and doctors have advised you to keep boyfriends? You need to pray. Do you experience sleepless nights? Do you experience dizziness often? Then you need to pray. Are you getting leaner and leaner in spite of the fact that you are the greatest eater in your family? Do you get moody and angry without any cause? Do you have unnatural heat or something moving all over your body? If such a thing is there, do you want to wait until it gets to your heart and grips it?

Do you discuss with voices within you and you know that the voices are not the voice of the Holy Spirit? Do you sometimes sense an invisible presence of evil when you are alone? Or do they press you down on your bed? Are you the kind who wake up in the morning with scratches and incisions on your body? Have you ever dreamt of discussing with dead relatives and eating with them? If your answer to some of these questions is yes, the truth is that you are under the grip of either the spirit of death itself or its strange children. And whether you like it or not you shall be released, in Jesus’ name.

If you have any sickness, I don’t see why you will continue with it after reading this message unless you are not serious. The Bible says that whosoever asks receives. If you keep quiet and make no request, or you are playing the gentle man before the enemy, may God have mercy on you.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.        Spirit of death and strange children, release me and release my home, in the name of Jesus.

2.        Put one hand on your head and the other hand on your stomach and pray like this: Every plantation of the strange children, be uprooted now, in the name of Jesus.

3.        Put one hand on your head and the other on your stomach and say: Spirit of infirmity, depart from my blood, in the name of Jesus.

4.        I release myself from every ungodly grip, in the name of Jesus.

5.        O Lord, lay your mighty hand upon me now, in Jesus’ name.

 

 

Power against unclean spirit

Dr D.K.Olukoya

This week, by the grace of God, we are going to learn about power against unclean spirits. The Bible makes us to know that God has given believers authority to be able to do certain things. We have to learn about those things and walk in that authority which is the birthright of every child of God.

The first one is authority to overcome sin and all bad habits in all areas of our lives. Matthew 1: 21 says, “And she shall bring forth a Son and thou shalt call his name JESUS, for he shall save his people from their sins.” The Bible also says, “In whom we have forgiveness, we have redemption." Therefore, we have power from God to overcome sin and evil habits. As from today, you have to walk in this authority that God has given you.

Another authority that we have is immunity against poison and control of wild beasts. Luke 10:19 says, “Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

Another one is the authority to heal the sick. James 5: 14 says, “Is any sick among you let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” And Mark 16:17 says: “And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues. They shall lay hand on the sick and the sick shall recover.”

Another authority that has been given to you and I is the authority to raise the dead. John 14: 12 says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father.” Jesus raised the dead, and He has given us the authority to be able to raise the dead like Him.

Another authority that the Lord Jesus Christ promises us is the authority to be able to bind and loose anything. Matthew 18: 18 says, “Verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Another authority that the word of God promises us is the authority to destroy the works of satan. Jesus has also given us authority to be able to control the elements and do all kinds of miracles. That was why Joshua was able to command the sun to stand still and work in his favour. We too, can do so.

Another thing that the Bible says we can do is that we can execute judgment upon the powers of darkness. Psalm 149:6 says, “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand. To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people.” So we are authorised to execute judgment, not on one another or on pastors and ministers of God but on all the works of darkness. You are to judge yourself, and also the powers of darkness.

Another thing that the Bible promises us is the authority to get abundant provision for living. Philippians 4:19 says, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

The word of God has also promised us the authority to have complete knowledge of the truth of the word of God beyond all doubt. That is why the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2:15, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Another authority that we have is authority to experience the river of living water flowing out of our innermost being. John 7: 37-39 says, “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive:  for the Holy Ghost was not given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified).”

So, we have the authority to have rivers of living water flowing out of our innermost being. We have the authority to do the work of Christ, even greater authority to do greater works than He did. We have authority to have freedom from darkness and experience complete life in all areas of our lives. We have authority to have healing and sound health. For you to remain in sound health, you have the authority to able to do so.

We have the authority to receive the fruit of the Spirit, and impart the gifts unto others. Also we have authority to exercise power over all unclean spirits. Matthew 10:1 says, “And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.” Let us look at another word of God that establishes that as well. Mark 6:7 says, “And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two, and gave them power over unclean spirits.” Luke 10:1 says, “After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two by two before his face, into every city and place, whither he himself would come.”  We can see in these Scriptures how the disciples were sent out and how they received power to be able to stand against unclean spirits. When they came back, their report was that they saw satan himself falling before them.

Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God from God. Likewise unclean spirits are the spirits that come from the devil. These unclean spirits are obedient to him; they are in subjection to him. We need not argue whether there are demons or not or whether unclean spirits exist or not. Whether you believe it or not, the word of God has said that there are unclean spirits. Jesus also made us to know that there are unclean spirits. Whether you doubt the existence of satan or not, satan exists as well. What we should know is what we can do against these unclean spirits.

 

UNCLEANS SPIRITS

Some people meet unclean spirits at different places. Unclean spirits are personalities. They are spirit beings that exist spiritually, although they often appear physically as well. We need not know how they came to the earth, but the Bible says they came to the surface of the earth. Although they don’t have physical bodies, one of their aims is to indwell human beings to be able to carry out their activities on the surface of the earth. To express their will and personality in our natural world, they attach themselves to objects, especially those dedicated to them. They attach themselves to idols, amulets, charms, fetish materials and instruments of ritual worship. Any one who has any charm, concoction, amulet or idol at home has a ready material for unclean spirits. Such a person would be attacked or oppressed day and night.

Apart from using or looking for human beings to possess, they can also inhabit physical places such as houses, buildings or an apartment within a building. There are other names that the Bible calls unclean spirits. It calls them seducing spirits. 1 Timothy 4:1 says, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” And Matthew 12: 45 says: “Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.” So, the Bible tells us that there are evil spirits. We really need to war against them.

At this juncture, please take this prayer point: “My life is not the habitation of evil spirits. My body is the temple of the living God. Therefore no power of darkness can enter into me, in the name of Jesus.”

The Bible also calls them devil’s agents. It calls them principalities and powers. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Whatever names they are called, they are unclean spirits. They are not holy and that qualifies them to be called unclean spirits.

 

WHAT ARE THE FEATURES OF THESE UNCLEAN SPIRITS, DEMONS OR POWERS OF DARKNESS?

They can speak. When Jesus went to the temple, the first personalities to recognise Him were demons. The Pharisees, Saducees, high persons and teachers that were there in the temple did not recognise that Jesus was there with them. But immediately He came, the person that was possessed with demons said, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to torment us before our time?”

They have understanding and they are very intelligent. The Bible says that the children of darkness are wiser in their generation than the children of light. So, anyone who copies something from unbelievers is undoing himself.  If the people he is copying are children of darkness, then he will not be able to know that they are demonic spirits and they would just undo him because they are wiser in their own generation. Unbelievers can commit sin and get away with it because it is part of their life. If you follow them, one day you will be caught.

They can believe to a limited extent. The Bible says that there is only one God. The demons also believe that. They believe that there is Jesus as well, only that they don’t want to accept that Jesus is greater than them.

They co-operate with one another. Sometimes the one that has greater demons would cast out the one with lesser demons, and would say he is powerful. That is why sometimes you see a child of the devil say, “I am the husband of witches, I am the wife of wizards.” Such a person must be using the power of the devil against the devil. So, when you go to them with a problem, they pretend to solve it but actually they are replacing the problem. They will deceive you so that you will not know that that problem is still there and multiplying in your life. That is why we have fake prophets or white garment herbalists. They use the power of the devil to subdue smaller demons and to exercise authority over them.

They seek for bodies to enter and to control.

They know their end. They know where they are going to end up, that was why the possessed man who challenged Jesus asked Him whether He had come to torment them before their time.

They recognise divine powers. They know those that have divine authority. They know you as you are. They know your spiritual level. That is why they would deal seriously with someone who is not living a clean life and wants to cast them out. The sons of Sceva wanted to cast them out, whereas they did not have the authority and disaster befell them.

They also know those that say, “Me, my own blood is bitter, nobody can suck my blood,” but do not have any power.  Such people are easy prey for them. So if you have not received the Holy Spirit, try to do so because they know us as we are. They know those that are not living a clean life and merely say, “Let me follow them to church, maybe one day God will do it.”

They recognise those who have divine authority and can exercise it over them. I pray that you can exercise the authority that Jesus Christ has given to you, in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

 

THE WORKS OF THESE POWERS IN THE LIVES OF UNBELIEVERS

They cause spiritual blindness, so that whenever you are talking to them or preaching the gospel to them they will not believe or agree with you. During evangelism, you will come across some people talking and arguing with you, recognise that they are under the control of these evil sprits. What you should do is to bind the demon and you will recognise a break immediately.

They attack the doctrines of Jesus Christ. For example, they disagree with the death of Jesus as a substitute. Another thing they do is to blind the eyes of unbelievers to their sins and the consequences. They cause them to believe that God is a good God and cannot punish anybody.

They fill their hearts with hatred against ministers of the living God, so that they go to attack them wherever they go and preach.

They cause sicknesses. They possess a person in order to kill him, so that he will not be able to hear about Christ.

 

WHAT THEY DO TO BELIEVERS

It is important for you to know what unclean spirits do to believers. The first thing they do is that they always deceive believers into believing that committing a sin just once is not a big deal and that God will pardon them. Immediately the believers go ahead to commit the sin, they will be the ones that will attack them.

They attack the word of God in the life of believers. They make sure they render to naught the teachings of Christ in the life of many believers. In the Parable of the Sowers, we see how they distort the words of God that are planted in the hearts of people.

Sometimes they oppress believers who allow themselves to be oppressed.

They tempt believers to sin and when they commit sin, the devil will go to God and say something like this: “That your daughter or son has just cursed somebody before coming to fellowship. And because of that, his prayer should not be answered.” Therefore, we need to be wiser than the devil. The evil ones are wiser in their own generation, but the Bible says that you can receive the wisdom of God so that you can know how to deal with them.

 

WHAT DO WE DO TO THEM?

Ephesians 5: 11-12 says, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.”  The word of God does not say we should be petting evil spirits. It says, we should rebuke them. Mark 16:17 also says, “And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out demons, they shall speak with new tongues.”

The devil is a liar and has failed woefully. The Bible says, “You shall cast out devils.” And we saw that in the ministry of Jesus Christ. He was always casting out devils, healing the sick and raising the dead. Paul also cast out devils. We have been given the authority to cast out devils.

Power of the Christian over and against unclean spirits lies in the name of Jesus. Philippians 2: 9-10 says, “Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth.” So, we have the name of Jesus as a weapon with which we can exercise authority against them and over them. Let us see what was done in Luke 10:17.  It says, “And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject unto us through thy name.” Why were they subject to them? It is because of the name of Jesus. So the name of Jesus is powerful. No power can withstand it and no demon can near it. The name of Jesus is too great.

Another thing we must know was that the disciples were working in full obedience to the Lord’s instruction. When Jesus sent them forth, to be able to cast out devils, He gave them power against unclean spirits. Remember that those that were sent to cast out devils were those that were called disciples or believers. They were working in full obedience. For you to be able to exercise power against unclean spirits, you need to work in full obedience to the Lord and not in partial obedience. You should not be like those who say, “My own Christianity is different. Let me be doing it little by little, later on I will join them.” If you are like that the unclean spirits will attack you even when you say the name of Jesus.

Another ingredient is faith, and not fear, faith in the word of God that makes you to believe that when you mention the name of Jesus, something will happen, and nothing can stand against it.

Another thing is that the disciples worked under God’s appointed authority. A believer who wants to exercise power over unclean spirits must be under God’s authority. You must recognise that you did not earn the authority by yourself, that the authority is inherent from God and it is a right that is given to you. Devil does not submit to you or to us as believers or as individuals because of our name or because of our birth. He submits to us because of the power that we have as believers. If we call our own name, say in the name of so and so, demons will not listen to us. But immediately we say, “In the name of Jesus,” they will obey.

What happens during the new birth is that you are promoted from the rank of a private in the army to that of a full general. In the hierarchy of power, God has greater power than all the powers of darkness. Therefore devil is always subject unto us.

Now that you know all these, what do you want to do? You should recognise the fact that all our actions everyday have full effect on us. How do you contribute to the building up of the kingdom of God in your attitude, behaviour and thought.

The second thing is that you must know that your own work is not only to build-up the work of God, but also to contribute in breaking down and overthrowing the kingdom of darkness. Your name must be known in hell and in heaven as well. Your name must be known in hell so that whenever you are praying the beings in hell will say, “That is a believer, do not touch him.” But if you are living a careless life, you will not be able to operate.  The devil does not want your name written in the Book of life.

In everything you do, you must be pulling down the kingdom of darkness. Some people are contributing to the kingdom of darkness consciously or unconsciously. If you commit sin, you are reestablishing the kingdom of the devil. When you are not working in full obedience to God, you are contributing to the kingdom of darkness. I pray that the Lord will help us to work in His side, in Jesus’ name.

Before we attack the kingdom of darkness with some prayer points, let us make sure that the kingdom of darkness does not have a legal hold on our lives. I want you to pray like this: “All the legal hold that unclean spirits have over my life, I command you to receive the fire of God now and be consumed, in the name of Jesus.”

Your body must be under the control of your soul. Your soul must be under the control of your spirit. Your spirit must be under the control of God. If your spirit is not under control and in that line of authority, you cannot exercise authority over any other power. That is why you will talk to yourself like this: “My body, be under the control of my soul, my soul be in subjection to my spirit, and my spirit be in subjection to the Spirit of God, in Jesus’ name.

PRAYER POINTS

1.     I bind you devil and all unclean spirits in all areas of my life. I declare my life a danger zone for you, in the name of Jesus.

2.     Anything that unclean spirits have eaten in my life, or whatever they have destroyed, let there be a complete restoration, in the name of Jesus.

3.     I remove my name from the book of demonic casualties, in Jesus’ name.

4.     I break every family covenant that may be affecting me negatively, in the name of Jesus.

5.     I remove myself from the hold of any demonic power, in the name of Jesus.

6.     I bind every spirit of infirmity, in the name of Jesus.

7.     I break and lose myself from every bewitchment, in the name of Jesus.

8.     Every link connecting me to evil things, break now, in the name of Jesus.

9.     I reject any evil thing that I have inherited from my father and mother, in the name of Jesus.

10.  I release all my helpers that are locked up in prison, in Jesus’ name.

11.  I invite the fire of God to destroy every evil altar constructed against my life in my village, town, or where I was born, in the name of Jesus.

12.  I break every witchcraft curse, in the name of Jesus.

13.  I bind every spirit of marriage destruction, in the name of Jesus.

14.  I bind every spirit of untimely death, in the name of Jesus.

15.  I bind every spirit of marital failure, in the name of Jesus.

16.  I break every covenant of late marriage, in the name of Jesus.

17.  I break every spirit of financial failure, in the name of Jesus.

18.  I release right now, my materials in satanic bank, in the name of Jesus.

19.  I release myself from the hold of every evil remote controlling power, in Jesus’ name.

20.  I refuse to be controlled by any power, which is not the Spirit of God, in the name of Jesus.

21.  I destroy the remote-controlling powers, in the name of Jesus.

22.  Any strongman attached to any bad thing happening to me at present, I bind you and paralyse you, in the name of Jesus.

23.  Any evil that has been done to my life within the hours of midnight and 3 a.m. I cancel you, in the name of Jesus.

24.  Any organ in my body that a strange hand has been laid upon, I set you free, in the name of Jesus.

25.  Thank God for answered prayers, in Jesus’ name.

 

 

The way of spiritual immunity

Dr.D.k.Olukoya

Immunity is a state whereby certain things cannot harm you. It is having an internal defense. Sometimes, people wonder why they are always attacked and the attacks prosper while some other people do not even see any attack and it seems as if nothing touches them. Perhaps the later group has learnt the principles of spiritual immunity.

Ordinarily, believers are meant to be immune to certain things but lack of knowledge kills people prematurely. When you get born again, that is, you have given your life to the Lord; there are some  important things you should know:

1. You need to know what you have as a result of your being born again.

2. You need to worship God. You need to spend time with God everyday, in prayer and in studying the Bible.

3. You have to attend church services. Church attendance is compulsory for those who are born again. The Bible says in Hebrews 10:25 that we should not neglect the assembly of one another.

4. You need to give to God your tithes and offering, so that He will open the windows of heaven and pour down blessings upon you.

5. You have to witness to others. Tell others about God’s salvation.

6. You have to live a clean and separated life. The Bible says, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship has light with darkness or what concord has the temple of God with Belial.” Immediately you get truly born again, your friends will change. If your best friends are unbelievers, then your new birth is questionable. If you say you are born again and your boyfriend or girlfriend is an unbeliever, you are playing at the edge of hell fire and the devil might push you in very soon.

7. You need to know who you are.

Talking about spiritual immunity, the first place to start is your identity. Who are you? If you do not know who you are you cannot know what to do about immunity. If we say there is an outbreak of disease in the streets and a person does not know whether he is a monkey or human being, he will not know what to do because the disease may not affect monkeys at all.

John1: 22-23 says, ‘Then said they unto him, Who art thou? That we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself ? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esais.” So, that man knew who he was. The question is, who are you? Ignorance about your identity can put you into trouble. The lesson on identity is an important one.

Somebody called Jacob in the Bible learnt that hard lesson. He saw that by his identity he was not in the place of blessing. A lot of people by what they are called, are not in places of blessing. In Genesis 27, Jacob got the blessings of his brother. He thought he was being clever, but did not know that all he did was a change in his identity. He got his brother’s identity card.

One of satan’s most effective device is to get Christians to doubt their identity as God’s children. He used that trick on Jesus. He said to Him, “If thou be the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.” What was he trying to do? He was trying to make Jesus to doubt His identity.

Elijah too, knew his identity.  When some people came to him and said, “Man of God, come down.” He said, “If I be a man of God, let fire come down.”

Jesus answered the devil correctly and Elijah also answered his enemies correctly. The devil also said to Jesus, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down.” Again when Jesus was on the cross, some people said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, come down from that place.” They thought that Jesus would say, “Nonsense, I will come down so that they can see,” but He did not listen to them.

The same way the devil is speaking to many people today. He would say, “If you are a child of God, why are you suffering?” “Why do you have evil thoughts?" That is why I am asking you the important question, “who are you?” Some people call themselves names when they pray. They say, “O Father, I am a worm, I am unfit, I am bad, I am cruel, and I am naked.” That is your old identity card. Now that you are born again calling yourself such names before God amounts to showing Him your old identity card and it shows that you don’t know who you are.  The devil will whisper dirty things into the ears of believers and will blame them for it. Then they begin to cry, “Why am I thinking like this? Why is my heart like this? But I am born again.”

The prodigal son was unworthy and bad but the Bible says that after some time, he came to himself. That is, he knew who he was. He realized he was a son and not a slave. The devil will push you forward and backward if you don’t know who you are. You have to realize who you are before you can be immune against spiritual poisons and arrows.

 

WHO ARE YOU?

Looking at the life of Jesus, we could see that He was always confessing who He is, what He is and His mission in life. He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” He says, “I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world.” The question is, who are you? I am not asking for your name but for what God says you are? What is your identity? The Bible says, “Jesus is the vine and we are the branches (John 15:5). 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature old things are passed away; behold, all thing are become new.” It means that as a child of God you are new creature. In Ephesians 2:10, the Bible says, “You are His workmanship”. He works on you, and you are His product.

You are the righteousness of God in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.” This means that you are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:37 says, “Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” This means that you are more than conquerors. Colossians 3:3 says, “For ye are dead and  your life is hid with Christ in God.” This means that before somebody can get at you, the person will get at God, remove Jesus out of God, remove you out of Jesus and then remove the Holy Spirit out of you before he can get at you. But we know that that is impossible. If you don’t know all these, you will be like Peter who was released from jail and did not know that he was free. It was when he got outside the town gate that he said, “I thought I was dreaming. I know that the angel of the Lord has set me free.”

The day you know who you are, that day you win a great battle for yourself.  When you are asked to pray for a person who is possessed and you say, “Ah, not me. I have not reached that stage.” You are told to preach in the bus, you say, “Not people like me.” It is because you do not know who you are. The feeling of unworthiness has made many Christians a target for the devil. It is often said that you never know what you can do until you try. Some never believed they could be free from their problems until they started praying. When you know who you are, you will keep confessing it and saying it loud.

When you stand your ground like Elijah who said, “If I be the servant of the Most High God, let fire fall. I am from the third heavens. The Spirit of God is in me. The Lord is my defense. You cannot overcome me”, then you begin to notice some breakthroughs. Many do not know who they are and when the devil comes to them, they do not know what to declare. Until you know correctly who you are, certain things will not be clear to you.

They asked John the Baptist if he was Elijah or that prophet or the Messiah and he answered, “No.” Then they asked, “Who are you then?” And he said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, follow the way of the Lord, make His path straight.” When you know who you are, your confidence in God would be settled in your spirit.

The will of God is for the totality of our being to be in perfect health. God would rather give you perfect health than have you coming to Him all the time to say, “Heal me, heal me.” When you are immune from a disease, it means that you are protected from being affected by that disease. Normally, when a person is open to infection, three things can happen: The disease will either avoid the body or lands on it and cannot penetrate or penetrates and the body kills it. In that case, the body can be said to have immunity.

The Word of God makes us to understand that it is better to have immunity than to evacuate the enemy after it has gained entrance. Most of the time it is after the enemy has gained entrance that we begin to shout, “go out, go out, depart,” instead of preventing it from coming in.

 

IMMUNITY SCRIPTURES

You will do well to memorize these scriptures. It will save you a lot of medical bills.

1. Exodus 15:26 says, “And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.”

2. Deuteronomy 7:15 says, “And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee, but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.”

3. 3 John 2 says, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”

4. Malachi 4:2 says, “But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.”

5. In Psalm 91, we identify the powers of darkness in all its ramifications - terror by night, arrow that flies by day, pestilence that walketh in the darkness, destruction that walketh at noonday, forces of defeat, plagues, lion, adder, the young lion and the dragon. But the Lord says He will deliver His people from them all.

6. Psalm 105:14-15 says, “He suffered no man to do them wrong; yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” “Touch not” means do not even get near.

7. Zechariah 2:5 says, “For I, saith the Lord will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.” God will be a wall of fire around His people.

8. Zechariah 2:8 says “For thus saith the Lord of hosts. After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoil you. For he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.” Say to yourself “I am the apple of God’s eye."

9. Mark 16:18 says, “They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them, they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

10. Psalm 103:1-3 says, “… who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases.”

11. Isaiah 53:5 says, “But he was wounded for our transpression, he was burised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

12. Matthew 8:17 says, “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esais the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.”

A believer that confesses these scriptures daily would not be harmed even if somebody poisons his food.  A certain evangelist went to preach somewhere and the people did not like him.  So, they employed a cook who was poisoning his food everyday. The cook would put sufficient poison in his food and he would sit down and pray over the food and even for the cook before eating it and nothing happened to him. The cook was so amazed that he confessed to the evangelist and surrendered his life to Christ.

 

WAYS OF BREAKING DOWN

ONE’S IMMUNITY

1. Repaying evil with evil: Believers are not to harbour resentment. Romans 12: 21 says, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” And verse 20 says, “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” Do you want to heap coals of fire on your enemy’s head? When he is hungry give him food and when he is thirsty, give him drink.

Do not allow wrong attitudes and actions to stir up the same attitudes and actions in you. If somebody hurts you, don’t harbour resentment. If somebody lets you down, do not broadcast it to the whole world. If you do, you are breaking down your immunity. Believers never repay evil for evil. For example, if you greeted somebody respectfully and the person replied in a careless tone. You then decide that the next time you see him coming, you will carry your face to the other side, you are repaying evil for evil. Don’t take revenge, if you do, you break your immunity. Even if you confess all the Bible passages in the whole planet and you take revenge, you break open a space through which the enemy can enter. We are overcome by evil any time we decide to pay back those who offend us in their own coin.

About ten years ago, a woman came for prayers, after she has tried many things and all roads were blocked. I prayed for her everyday and after five days, the Lord said, “Tell her to forgive one person she has promised never to forgive.” Then I called her and said, “The Lord said you will have a breakthrough provided you can forgive this person you have refused to forgive.” She looked at me for one minute and said, “I know who you are talking about, it is my husband and let me tell you I cannot forgive.” I asked her why and she said, “Before we got married we did not have anything and I was suffering with him. After some time, God began to bless us. We bought three cars and moved into a big house. Do you know what my husband did? He picked a girl, the age of our first daughter and brought her into the house and said all of us should move to the boy’s quarters. Can you forgive that?” She asked me. Then I said, “Madam if you will not forgive, this is where our prayer programme will end. Then she said, “Give me five minutes.” She went to the back of the church, sat down and cried. She then came back and said she was ready to forgive and we prayed. The following day, her ways began to open and everything went through. The Bible says that when you pray, forgive. It also says, “Forgive us our trespasses just as we forgive those who trespass against us.” If you do not forgive those who trespass against you, God too, will not forgive you your trespasses.

Anytime you pay people back in their own coin you take the position of God. You set yourself up as a lawyer, a judge and the executioner. God says, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” He also says, “You shall keep your peace and I will fight for you.” But people would always say, “They got me annoyed.”

 

Why do people get annoyed?

People get annoyed when other people don’t measure up to their personal expectations. They would say, “My advice was ignored.” “They don’t love me the way I want.” “My food was not served the way I want it served.” “They were too slow for my liking.”

People get angry when they feel they have not received a fair share. “They gave my job to another person.” “Why does it always happen to me?” “Is she prettier or more intelligent than myself?” “Why did they get the larger share?”

People get angry when they feel that their rights have been violated.

People get angry when they are not prepared to put up with a little bit of inconvenience. If you are still in the category of those who say, “They are getting on my nerves,” then your nerves need deliverance.

People get angry when they feel that others have hurt them. The devil who is a clever fighter will always allow you to see the fault in others but not the ones in yourself. And if you are ignorant you will not know that he is trickishly trying to remove your immunity. If you don’t stop at this stage, he will lead you to the next stage. Then you begin to use the carnal method of fighting. You face your spouse or wife to say, “You need your head examined,” or “You are absolutely stupid.” The use of insultive names like idiot, old monkey, or threatening people, criticizing and gossiping must be avoided. Never repay evil with evil or you will lose your immunity. But if you repay evil with good, you will put coals of fire on the heads of the enemy and there is nobody who will carry fire and be comfortable.

2. Your immunity will break down when you refuse to accept responsibility for your faults. Don’t go about saying that it was somebody that made you to do it.

3. Your immunity will break down when you fail to forgive those who have hurt you. This we can find in Mark 11:25.

4. When you fail to make God the priority of your life, your immunity will break down. You wake up without prayer, go to work without prayer and start work without prayer, your immunity will break down.

5. Your immunity will break down when you refuse to keep your peace and let God fight for you.

6. Your immunity will break down when you are selfish. You only serve yourself and not others.

7. Your immunity will break down when you practise any known or willful sin.

 

STRATEGIES TO MAINTAIN SPIRITUAL IMMUNITY

1.      Your blood must be immunized: The Bible says in Leviticus 17:11 that life is in the blood. Any disease that destroys blood kills very quickly. Many killer diseases actually eat up people’s blood. Malaria is one of them. More than one million Africans die every year because of malaria. It affects the blood and the liver. Men have been looking for ways of getting rid of malaria from time immemorial. As they do that, it looks for ways of dodging them. You discover that sometimes, it is resistant to drugs. We are told that mosquitoes carry malaria. There are mosquitoes around now that even your insecticide will not harm. There is another disease called sleeping sickness. These two sicknesses have boxed men and scientists to a corner. They are serious because they affect the blood.

We should ask some spiritual questions. Surely sicknesses come as a result of the fall of Adam. Is it possible that there is a spirit of malaria? If not, what teaches the malaria disease what to do? All mosquitoes are not normal. Or haven’t witches confessed in our revivals that they sometimes use mosquitoes to drink blood. Could there be a curse of malaria on black men, because it seems to be killing black men in millions?

Let us look at Jesus. Luke 4:38-39 says, “And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house. And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever, and they besought him for her. And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever, and it left her.  And immediately she arose and ministered unto them.” It means that you can talk to fever the way you can talk to any other thing. You can rebuke the fever. You can talk to your blood not to accept malaria.

I know a brother who before he got married, did not use to buy insecticides. He prayed every night, bound the mosquitoes and went to sleep. But when his wife came, the first thing she asked was, “where is your insecticide?” The brother said, “No, we don’t use insecticide here. I bind them.” She said, “This is madness. Don’t allow mosquitoes to bite me, I am going to buy one.” Although she did not buy it, that night mosquitoes bombarded the two of them because there was no agreement. The Bible says, “All things are possible to him that believeth.”

If you pray regular prayer points like: "Let the blood of Jesus be transfused into my blood," or "Malaria parasite will not get inside my body," or "I render my blood untouchable to any disease agent," or "Lord Jesus, lay your hands on my blood" or "I apply the blood of Jesus to my blood, my brain, my hairs, my eyes, etc." they would be immunized.

2. The bone: There are also spiritual attacks on the bone. The Bible tells us in Psalms 34:19-20 that “Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.” God is a keeper of bones. You too can talk to your bone not to accept any evil parcel. You can talk to your bones not to give a forwarding address to your enemy.

3. The skin: The devil may want to attack your skin. What a glorious thing it would be for our skin to shine like that of Moses after he had seen God’s glory. No evil agent can attack such skin. You can pray prayer points like: “O Lord, let your glory overshadow my skin. Or, “Nothing evil can attack my skin,” or “I apply the blood of Jesus to my skin” or you can pray against the worms that destroy the skin and you will find that your skin too will be protected.  If you form the habit of praying over your water before bathing, it will give you a lot of protection.

4. Mouth gate: More than one million black people die annually from problems introduced into their lives through the mouth gate. Therefore, we must always pray on our food and our water.  We must be careful about the kinds of food we eat and follow the Bible’s recommendation.

5. The head: A Christian involved in spiritual warfare must form the habit of laying hands on his head and praying. It keeps your brain healthy. You must also form the habit of anointing your head.

6. The home: Deuteronomy 7:26 says, “Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it; but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it, for it is a cursed thing.” For example, bewitched decoration materials, jewelry, carved images, etc can put you in bondage. Occult materials will compromise your immunity. Your house could become a traffic of demons because you have their property.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.     O Lord, immunize me against satanic poison, serpentine spirits and demonic arrows, in Jesus’ Name.

2.     Any area where I have compromised my immunity, O Lord, forgive me, in Jesus’ name.

3.     Tell your blood, brain and bone to receive the fire of God, in Jesus’ name.

4.     I refuse to be a candidate of any sickness, in Jesus’ name.

  

The Strife of the tongues

Dr D.K.Olukoya

 

Psalm 31: 20 : “Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.”

The topic of our message this week is taken from the foregoing. I want you to keep the passage in your spirit as we go to Psalm 141: 3 where the Psalmist prayed a very important prayer point: “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.”

We have read two passages; one talks about God having to hide people in His pavilion because of the strife of tongues. The second talks about setting a watch over our mouths and the Lord keeping the door of our lips.

There is a very dangerous door that has caused destruction in our present world. The strange thing about that door is that it has no lock, and many people could have been a lot better if they did not possess this door. In His wisdom, the Almighty God has designed the human head to have seven openings: two nostrils, two ears, two eyes and only one mouth. God, in His mighty wisdom, restricted the seventh opening to one. That already, is a message. That all other openings are in duplicate but this particular one, which is about a few inches below the nose, is only one, means that God wants you to see double, hear double, smell double but speak once. This single opening has caused us more troubles than the other six put together.

Let us look at a few Scriptures. Psalm 34: 11–13: “Come ye children hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he who desert life, and loveth many days, that he may see well. Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.”

The fear of the Lord starts from your tongue. Judicious use of the tongue enables you to see good days. Likewise if you misuse your tongue, you will see evil days. Proverbs 13: 3 says, “He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life, but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.” Proverbs 21: 23 says, “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from troubles.” Proverbs 15: 14 says, “The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge, but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.” Proverbs 8: 21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”

 

POWER OF THE WORD

The word is very powerful. There is a powerful secret behind the nature of the word which men over the ages have failed to realize. Words do not just come ordinarily, they are backed up by the personality that is speaking. It means that the words that we speak have spirit beings behind them. They do not exist in isolation. They carry power. When the devil came to Adam and Eve, all he did was to speak words, project his lying nature into the words and the words he spoke to them in the Garden of Eden caused their destruction. Words are far more than the arrangement of letters and alphabets. They are like containers, they may be filled with anger, malice, envy, curses, or destruction. What I am saying is this, your life today is mainly a result of what you said about yourself yesterday, and the totality of what you are now is a combination of what you have been saying and thinking about your life.

You need to seize this opportunity to reverse all the evil words you have said about your own life. Your words will determine your destiny. We need to pause and assess the kind of words we speak. You need to keep quiet a little bit and listen to everyday conversations and analyze them. Many people think that words die. No, they never die. And in the planet now, there is a war of words going on. I am talking about the strife of tongues because words can summon good or bad spirits. A person who always curse is affecting other people. A person who always speaks angry words will always invite violent and wicked spirits. If you see a man who has spirit wives, 99 per cent chances are that he is one who gets angry very easily.

Politicians speak words of deceit. Leaders all over the world now speak words of deceit and chaos. Foolish academicians speak words of blasphemy against God. Demonic musicians sing songs that destroy the lives of men and women. Sometime ago, one musician sang that a certain man would not die but a few months later the same man died. It was as if the musician sang him to his death. False prophets speak prophecies of destruction. Ministers of dry bones in dry churches speak dry words to stony hearts of dying people everyday. Satanic agents speak words of lying and ignorance to receptive souls. That is why the Bible says, “Make a tree good, and the fruit thereof shall be good.”

The Bible says that every idle word that men speak, they shall give account of them on the day of judgment because by their words, they shall be justified and by their words, they shall be condemned. So, the words you speak go to the judgment book. You speak out of the abundance of your heart. A carnal man will speak carnal words and a spiritual man will speak living words. Your words reveal the real you, no matter how you try to cover up. A person cannot be separated from his words, it will show the kind of person he is. You cannot run away from your words, they will reveal who you are.

The Bible says, “Thou shall hide them in their pavilion, from the strife of tongues.” The danger posed by the strife of tongue is so much that God has to hide even His own people in the pavilion so that they will not be affected. For God to decide to hide somebody from something, that thing must be powerful. So the strife of tongue must be a very serious matter. One of the most serious wars that can ever take place is the war of words.

 

WHAT CAN BE TERMED AS STRIFE OF TONGUES IN OUR LOCAL SETTING AND HOW DOES IT AFFECT PEOPLE’S LIVES?

1. Curses: Unfortunately, curses are so rampant in our environment that some people have termed them play-things. But the greatest headache with a curse is that it goes to the root. When Jesus cursed a fig tree: “You will never bear fruit again,” the next time He passed by, it had dried to the root. The curse went down to the root. That is the trouble with curses.

When there is a quarrel between two persons, and they start to exchange curses or abuses, they do not know the kind of terrible harm they are doing to themselves. When a husband curses his wife or a wife curses her husband, or parents curse their children, the curse goes to the root of the life or lives of the person or persons cursed. This is one example of the strife of tongues. One woman asked her husband for money for soup and the man dropped N20 for her. The woman said, “What will N20 do?” The man said, “That is all I have.” The woman replied, “So that is all you have? You will spend a lot more and you will look for money.” The man thought it was a joke, but the curse had already been issued. The next thing was that he ran into a problem that he could not solve, until he ran to the Lord, all these because of the strife of the tongue. A lot of women traders do not sell anything or do not make any profit because of the curses their husbands put on them.

2. Angry exchanges of words: Angry exchanges of words backed up by evil spirits can cause havoc. That is why when you are angry, it is not good to talk. You must avoid arguing with people who you know have authority over you. For the same reason you should not argue with anointed men of God because they may speak angry words that can do you harm. All those who are filled with the Holy Ghost should avoid hot verbal exchanges. If not, they may be harming the person they are talking to.

3. Incantations: This is the number three thing to avoid. Simply put, incantation is an invitation to demonic spirits to punish a person. When invited, demonic spirits will go into operation. You find that before some people start to fight themselves, the first thing they do is to rain incantations. They invite evil sprits to come and do some assignments for them.

4. Evil reports: This occurs when somebody takes somebody’s case to a herbalist, evil prophet or occult people and say, “Do you see what this idiot did to me? Do you see? I should get rid of this idiot.”

5. Careless abuses of people playfully: Although you are playing with them, those words sent out are not for play in the spirit world. They are used against the people. So, those who play with such abuses as, “Don’t you see his head, don’t you see his leg, don’t you see his mouth,” are causing trouble. The only thing is that they do not know the amount of trouble they cause.

6. External reversal of bad words: This is when somebody knows that what he means is bad, but he twists his tongue and says the good thing. May be some kids are making noise and he says, “Who are those good children disturbing there?” Everybody knows that good children don’t disturb. Therefore what he means internally is what is valid. It is that which he says inside that he has programmed himself to say. He has just twisted his tongue. Whenever you mean bad inside and you say well outside, the devil sees your tongue twisting and knows what you mean. This can cause serious problems.

7.    Demonic chants: Isaiah 8:19: “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? For the living to the dead?

Demonic chanting is the method of destruction employed by many occult people. A long time ago, when I was  in England, there was a house I thought that nobody lived in.  But one day as I was passing, somebody said, “Daniel, do you know that a Nigerian lives in the top floor of that house?” I said, “But I have never seen him. He said how can you see him? The enemies have dealt with him. He always locks himself in, he does not want to see anybody. “Why should he lock himself in? Why does he not want to see anybody? I asked. He said, “You see, he came to England to study for a Ph.D., and the Ph.D. normally takes three years. But he has been doing it for eight years, but no result. It seems as if the white people did not want to see him through. Anything he said was wrong, even if it was right." I said, “Can I go there?” "He will not see you,” he replied. One day, I prayed and went there. When he saw me, he was about to run inside the room, however, he sat down and said, “Sir, can I help you? I don’t like seeing people, I always hide in the room.” I saw his wife, who was about 25 years old, but she looked like somebody of 50. The burden of life had been so much on her and she was finding it too hard to bear. I started talking to the man, I spoke to him about the power in the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver. He said, “But I go to church,"  I said, “When last did you go to the church?” He said, “The last time I went there, I saw my enemies, so I decided to stay at home. I was puzzled. Then the Lord revealed to me, that somebody on the ground floor who was demonic was chanting his name day and night to destroy him.  So, I prayed again and went to the man at the ground floor and said to him, “Are you a Christian?” He said “No."  We started talking and at a point, he said there was a foolish man upstairs, that he dealt with him. I said, “Sir, how have you dealt with him?” He said, “Don’t you know that I belong to so so thing?" He mentioned the name of his cult. I said, “But there is a power that can counter that one.” He said, “Which power?" I said, “That thing you are using, do you know that from where I am staying now, I can nullify it, in Jesus’ name. He said, “Look, let the world rest, and the world will not rest, live me alone.” Then I said to myself, What can I do now? If I say I should hold night vigil upstairs, my friend will run into the room and will be afraid of shouting.” I went and approached his wife first. I began to teach her what to do and how to pray. She started and after sometime her husband came out, and joined in the prayer. The devil is very bad. Every night, for a whole year, somebody just knelt down and chanted the name of a person till day break. And the more he did it the more confused the man got. Then I said, “Well, the baby which says that its mother would not sleep, itself would not sleep.” I said to the man and his wife, “Cancel sleep for sometime now. They slept in the afternoon very well and whenever it was 9 p.m. they woke up and began to pray: “Every chant coming from downstairs, we cancel you, in Jesus' name.”They prayed it everyday and not long the man began to discover that his trouble was fading. Suddenly a letter came that he should come and defend his Ph.D. project. Then the man downstairs warned me that he never wanted to see me again. I said to myself, “Fair enough."

Eventually the man upstairs was able to get himself out. We have many like them in this country. There are men who worship snakes. There are men who wear three-piece suits and work with you in the office but when they get home, they are different kind of beings. They light candles, kneel before the candles and a snake or an idol, and if they don’t like you, they chant your name till daybreak. So, if you hear people calling you and you don’t know where the voice is coming from, you should rise up and begin to cancel the chants. It is a strife of tongue.

8. Self-direct curse or swearing for denial purposes: May be somebody died, and they say, “Who killed this person?” And they bring one idol and say that everybody should swear that he did not kill him. Everybody should say, “If I have a hand in this matter, let this happen let that happen.” Beloved be informed that for those who accept to swear, immediately they say, “If I have a hand in this matter,” the devil will put his two hands in his ears. He does not want to hear that part. But when you say, “Let this happen to me,” he will put his signature. That is why the Bible says in Matthew 5:34, “But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne.” So all those who swear by pointing their fingers to the sky do something very demonic. That finger you point upwards, if you are not careful, it may not prosper on anything again, because you have done what is against the word of God. Obey the teaching of the Scripture. Don’t swear by heaven. It is God’s throne. Matthew 5:35 says, “Don’t swear by the earth." Don’t say, “I am standing on the ground now. Let the ground do this, let the ground do that,” for the ground is God’s footstool. And don’t swear by Jerusalem. It is the city of the great King. Verse 36 says, “Neither shall thou swear by thy head.” Don’t say, “My head will fight you,” or that somebody’s head will be bad if he is the person that did so so and so." “Neither shall thou swear by thy head because thou cannot make one hair white or black, but let your communication be yea, yea, or nay nay.” So, swearing by your head is a demonic practice. Anytime your tongue utters a statement against yourself, you do yourself a lot of spiritual havoc. It is even worse when you do something wrong, and you swear falsely. When you say, “If I was the one that stole it, let this happen,” whereas you know that you did it. Those people who bite a cutlass or a knife and say, “This is the god of iron, I bite it.” All these practices are evil. It is also evil to stand on the mortar and swear.  A man wakes up one morning and says, “It is because of my wife that I am not getting on. Let her come and swear,” and they say the woman should remove her dress, climb on a mortar and swear. It will not favour both the man and the woman.

9.    Acceptance of demonic prophecies: Somebody stands up and you know that he has ten wives, and he begins to say Eli, Eli, Eli and after that he says, “My child, hear the word of the Lord, and you accept what he is saying. He will direct curses at the root of your life and will say it is from God. What do you do if you are in a situation of strife of tongues?

       The Bible makes us to understand the techniques for cancelling them. I Kings 18:17 says, “And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said unto him, Are you the one that troubleth Israel?” What a bad name: troubler of Israel. Elijah quickly rejected it. Verse 18 says that he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house.” So he not only replied, he put an addition. Matthew Chapter 4, talks about the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The devil came and said, “Command these stones to become bread,” Jesus said, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” But the devil did not give up, he tried again. He put Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple and said to Him, “Jump down,” and then misquoted Psalm 91, “It is written, he shall give his angels charge over you, and their hand shall bear you up, lest at anytime thou dash thine foot against a stone.” Jesus said, “It is written, thou shall not tempt the Lord your God.” The devil did not give up. He again asked Jesus to fall down and worship him and he would give Him the whole world. Jesus said, “Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, thou shall worship the Lord Your God, and He only shall you serve.”

So, what do you do when you know there is a strife of tongue against you? I have seen a case where somebody jumped out of his car, he was happy, he was strong, but immediately he entered his office in his place of work, he became weak, tired and felt like sleeping.  He drank coffee but it was like valium. He slept off even while drinking the coffee. But immediately he jumped out of the office, he was okay again. There was a strife of tongue against him.

When there is a stripe of tongue, there are three things to do:

1.    Reject it.

2.    Reverse it.

3.    Return it.

Reject means that it does not belong to you. Reverse it, that is, return it back to the sender and decree that it will not come back again. It must always have somewhere to go. That is why Jesus said, “If any of you shall say to the mountain, be thou removed and be cast into the sea.” When you say the mountain should go, tell it where to go. “Be thou removed, and be cast into the sea” You reject it, you reverse it and return it to the sender.

The worst of all situations of the strife of tongue is self-directed type of tongue. Even if God wanted to hide you in His pavilion, but you are the one uttering evil words against your own life, there is nothing He will be able to do to help you until you take a padlock and shut your mouth. If you want to continue to talk, it is not your enemies that are harassing you now, it is you destroying yourself. The Bible says that the whole world was framed by the word of God, meaning that words are spiritual messengers. So you must think of what kind of words to speak.

Do you speak words of power or weakness, words of love or hatred, words of bondage or freedom, words of faith or unbelief, words of victory or defeat, words of life or death, words of health or disease, words of joy or sadness? If you do not make a quality decision to watch your tongue, you will certainly limit the miracles of God in your life. Consider the kinds of words you speak. Do I weigh my words? Am I chatting away my anointing? Are people accusing me of being talkative? If you study church history you will realise that the most powerful men of God are very quiet people. The enemies of our souls have learnt the secrets of the evil use of words. They issue curses. They chant incantations. And these curses and whatever they issue are so bad and powerful, that when they hired Ballam to go and  curse the people of Israel, God Himself had to intervene quickly. If Ballam’s curse was not very serious, and was not going to function, God would not have intervened. But God knew that it was a serious thing, so He had to intervene. So you must be able to speak words that would neutralize evil words spoken against you. Also you must not support the devil in speaking words against your own life. Don’t speak words of doubt, condemnation or unbelief. Don’t speak about bad health. Don’t speak about disobedience. You must speak the words of deliverance. You must speak the words of healing, of love and of prosperity if you want to overcome poverty. When you ask some people, “How are you?" They say, “Not too bad, thank you,” meaning that it is bad, but that it is just not too bad. When  you say what is happening in this company? They would say, “O my goodness, nothing is working, nothing, nothing is working." Whereas the fan is blowing, the air conditioner is there, the legs of the table are still standing,  the human beings there are still talking and he says, “Nothing is working here.” And they have come for work. Instead of somebody saying, “I don’t know what I bought from the hand of headache,” let him return what he bought and stop saying so. Such statements as “I cannot allow one child to kill me,” is a statement against yourself. Even if you were in the secret place of the Most High and you are talking rubbish there, God cannot defend you. Some people would say, "Pastor, I am fed up with everything. Since the day I got married everything has gone hay-wire.” Or they look at their husbands and say, “You bastard,” Or, like a mother who used to call her daughter a bastard. Then the day the girl got pregnant and could not differentiate which of three men involved had the pregnancy, the mother began to beat her up. The man of God there said, “Don’t beat her. You have been calling her bastard, bastard, bastard, she had demonstrated the character of the bastard.” Or you look at your wife and say, “You call yourself a wife, you are as useless as your father, big leg, big hand, short ears, useless here, useless there, dunce.” If you have said these words to people, you must ask the Lord to help you today.

Men who lived with God in Scripture learnt the secrets of words and used words effectively. It is the high time to refuse the enemy to trap you with the words of your mouth. God is looking for believers who can control their tongues. There is one proverb,  which says, “A closed mouth does not catch flies.” And it is true.  Now pray in great boiling anger.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.    Every curse issued against me to make people ask where is my God, return to the sender, in the name of Jesus.

2.    I reject and return to sender, every strife of tongue against my life, in Jesus’ name.

3.    (Place your right hand on your head): I release myself from every evil incantation, past or present, in Jesus’ name.

4.    Every miss-use of my tongue against myself, I cancel you, in Jesus’ name.

5.    Every power and activity of serpentine spirits against my life, be cancelled, in the name of Jesus.

6.    Every evil report about me, I cancel you, in the name of Jesus.

7.    Lord, surround me with the edge of fire and lay your hands of fire upon me, in Jesus’ name.

8.    All the forces that the Lord has scattered on my behalf will not reinforce or regroup, in Jesus’ name.

9.    All the enemies of abundance in my life, be roasted, in Jesus’ name.

10. All the good things I have been pursuing, now, begin to pursue me, in Jesus’ name. 

11. Power must change hands in my family to the hands of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus.

12. I dethrone every king of sorrow, in the name of Jesus.

13. Every unsettled evil spiritual account, I cancel you with the blood of Jesus.

14. Any satanic agent following me to steal my blessings, be roasted now, in Jesus’ name.

 

 

Disgracing Evil local weapons

Dr. D.K. Olukoya

 

Our message this week which is entitled, “Disgracing local evil weapons” can also be called “Instructions for warfare.” Psalm 74:20 says, “Have respect unto the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.” It talks about the dark places of the earth and the wickedness therein. Psalm 91:13 also says, “Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.” What does the Bible mean by the lion and the adder, the young lion and the dragon? They are powers of darkness in all their ramifications.

  Psalm 91: 5 says, “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destrution that wasteth at noon day.” All these are the vices of the enemy. 2 Corinthians 2: 11 also says, “Lest satan should get an advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices. Here, the Bible says that we should not be ignorant of satanic devices. If the Bible says we should not be ignorant, it means that some people are already ignorant. They do not know what to do. It can be a very terrible thing when weapons are being fashioned against you and you do not know their nature, let alone be able to draw a programme of reaction. Job 5:12 says, “He disappointeth the devices of the crafty; so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.”

  As I was told, one man went to his hometown and was introduced to members of his extended family. To his amazement, the man who introduced him made very bad remarks about him. He told the people that he was jobless, useless, wayward, worthless and a nonentity. He called the man and asked him why he introduced him like that and the man told him that if he did not say so, he would be finished. Then he understood and allowed him to continue with his strange introduction. Like every other environment, ours has its own wickedness. It is a place where you cannot afford to be neutral. If you are going to be on the side of God, make sure that you have every weapon that the Bible describes and all the benefits that God says you can have. Do not stay in the camp of those who say that the time of speaking in tongues and miracles is gone, and there is no more supernatural power. If you see anybody saying that, know that household enemies have finished his account. You just pray for God to open his eyes.

  I once came across a lady who had two sex organs. She said that somebody told her the wrong one could be removed by operation, but anytime she went to the hospital to complain the doctors would not find the wrong one. It would disappear. Somebody also told me that demonic people have something which when they place on a seat and a woman sits on it, instead of the normal menstruation, the woman would be menstruating maggots. I also know a man who ran mad at intervals. And when that happened and he hit his head with his hands, cockroaches would be coming out. Sometime ago too, there was a man who was normal as long as there was no food in his presence. But immediately you placed food before him, he would begin to tear his hair off and would not eat the food even if he was hungry. They kept moving him around until they brought him to one of our meetings. After prayer, he was given food and he ate very well, to the amazement of his wife.

  What I am trying to say is that every geographical area has its own evil forces and evil weapons; every country has its own satanic technology. Some of the prayer points we pray can help in some places while they would be completely useless in other places because what you may be addressing is not there. You do not find men in this environment taking injections to enable them to develop breasts like women. In places where this obtains, you would see two men in the street cuddling each other, and one of them has breasts while the other does not. The demon behind such practice is not found here in Nigeria. Daniel 10:13 says, “For the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, for Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.” Here was an angel bringing back the response to Daniel’s prayer and a principality controlling the area withstanding him. But thank God for Daniel that he did not stop praying. Verse 20 says, “Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight the prince of Persia...” Mark 5: 9- 10 says, “And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, my name is Legion: for we are many. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.” The demons did not want to leave that country, they wanted to continue to destroy the lives of the people living there. Every area has its own demons and evil forces controlling it. So, satanic weapons vary from one place to the other and whatever weapons that would be available for the devil to use in an environment would depend upon seven things.

1. How that nation or tribe began: Did it begin with war or unity? Is it a single race or has it many races? Were the people slaves before or free people? So, how that nation began would determine the kind of weapons that satan would use.

2. The influence of those who developed the land originally would determine what kind of weapons that satan would use.

3. The local and imported religion predominant in a place would determine the kind of satanic weapons. What do I mean by local and imported religion? It is for example, when a tribe or nation worshipping an idol that looks like a woman, suddenly introduces another religion from abroad and replaces the name of the female idol. For example, changing the name of a female idol to the biblical name of Mary or Esther.

4. Whether the area has ever experienced warfare: War makes people to do a lot of satanic research in order to have more wicked weapons to fight with. These satanic weapons will remain after the war. Did your tribe or nation come to where they are now through wars? If that is the case, you can be sure there would be wicked satanic weapons still on the ground. In the 1930s a man of God held a crusade somewhere and when he said people should bring out their idols, one man brought something like a small doll, which had nails on it. He told the man of God that each nail on the doll represented one life and there were more than 45 nails on the doll. So, he had killed many people in that small town with that kind of weapon. He called a person’s name, put a nail on the idol and the person cried out and that was all.

5. The level of poverty: The evil powers in poor areas are generally more wicked than the ones in prosperous areas. So, if you come from a village or a town where the indigenes do not prosper or where those who prosper are those who run away to other places, then you need to pray seriously.

6. The number of ethnic groups that make up a country: When the groups are many, then the devil would have a variety of weapons to work with. For example, in Nigeria, if he tries a Yoruba satanic weapon on somebody and it does not work, he can try Tiv or Edo demons. So, the more the tribes, the more the variety of satanic weapons and satanic intelligence. He may even decide to export the case file of a person to another country if he finds that the person is very strong. I thank God for a certain brother to whom a demon idol was sent on his way to the bathroom. He saw the idol walking towards him physically, not in the dream. He just cleared it from the ground with his leg, in Jesus’ name. And it somersaulted and ran back to the sender.

7. The culture of the people: Wicked spirits dribble people according to their cultures. This is why all cultures must be tested and judged by scripture and demonic ones must be rejected.

  The only power in the universe that can successfully deal with demonic powers is the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, for it is written “At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in heaven, of things on earth, and of things underneath the earth.” It is therefore very dangerous and risky for demons to be fighting you and you are seeking the help of demons to fight back. Darkness cannot fight darkness. The enemies of our soul have no free gift for anybody. Anything you have ever taken from the enemy, he will take it back from you with interest. If you say, “Well, I will be pressing sand,” do not worry; one day, you will come across somebody who can press the sand in the moon and you will be in trouble. If you say it is candle you want to light, do not worry; one day, you will find somebody who can demonically introduce a candle into a bottle and light it there, then you will be finished. If you say, it is charms you want to make, one day, you will find somebody who can make his own in the second heavens and you will be finished. But it is not so with the power in the blood of Jesus.

  In science, there is a big difference between practical and theory. We have science theory and we have science practical and what can be called the applied practical. You can understand the theory of a thing but it would be completely useless when it comes to the practical. You can even understand the theory and the practical but when it comes to its application for your benefit, you cannot understand it. Many believers are like that. When you ask them, “What is salvation, sanctification, or redemption?” They would define and explain them very well. When you say, “Okay, have you ever experienced any of these things?” They say, “O yes, since I got born again, things I used to do, I do them no more. Since I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, I can pray better, I read the word of God very well. I have had hunger for God in my soul.” But when you say, “If somebody is still running after you in your dream what are you doing about that?” They would keep quiet because they cannot apply the theory. So, they are theory and practical students but lack the application.

  For example, you can carry out a research on oranges without ever seeing one in your life. You could read all the books available about oranges, that is theory. You may go into practical and start to plant the orange but when it starts to grow you may not be able to apply all that you have read about it. You may not know that it can be eaten or that some people burn the peel to drive away mosquitoes. Those are the people who can apply. So, we have three groups of students in the spiritual war class:

a. Those who know all the theory. Mention Bible quotations they can tell you where you can find them.

b. Those who understand the theory and the practical but cannot apply it.

c. Those who understand the theory, know the practical and can apply it.

  How can somebody apply the blood of Jesus? You can do so by testifying personally what God says the blood of Jesus can do.

  Let us look at some of the local evil weapons.

1. Planted evil deposits: These are demonic materials which the wicked ones put under somebody’s seat or carpet or in the soil and the moment the person sits or steps on it, problem starts. The person may be paralyzed or satanic worms will start moving all over his body. A long time ago, one man came to me and introduced himself as a senior apostle somewhere. He said that there was a fight in his church and somebody put something under his seat and since then he could not urinate. That was why he came to see me. I asked him, “How come that you, an apostle, something was put underneath your seat and it entered into your body?” He said, “Ehm, ehm, God will save us.” Many cases of paralysis that doctors cannot understand are caused by these things. Of course there is no way you can detect a demon by testing somebody’s blood or urine. It is due to planted evil deposit. At one of our Power Must Change Hands meetings, a phylactery physically got out of a woman’s leg and dropped on the floor. Also, at one of our crusades, somebody vomited a white stone. The question is how did these things enter into their bodies? They were satanic deposits from the enemy. They turn people’s body into a dustbin.

What is the way out?

♦ Surgical extraction of the evil deposits.

♦ After the surgical operation is over, you pray for the treatment by the blood of Jesus of the wounds caused by the evil deposits.

♦ Return the evil deposit to the sender.

♦ Ask God’s angel to deflect any such deposit coming back to you.

2. Forced initiation: Some people are forced against their will to join evil groups. Sometimes the initiation takes place in the dream. They are force-fed like a baby who does not want to eat. Sometimes, they are force-fed with the kind of food that they do not like eating physically. Victims of forced initiation sometimes see themselves at uninvited meetings in the dream and they would be wondering what is happening.

The Way Out

♦ The solution is deliverance, either personal deliverance or somebody does it for you.

♦ You must pray violently every night.

3. Demonic prosecution: This is when a person’s spirit is summoned out of his body to a demonic court, which is usually a wicked affair. When a person is summoned by a demonic court, the best SAN in this country cannot help him. No relatives can accompany him there, and he would not be allowed to get out of the spiritual Black Maria. He may be shocked to see familiar faces there. A certain man found himself in such a courtroom, the court was in session and he was there like a criminal. When he looked at the person acting as judge, it was his seven- year old daughter. The girl opened her mouth and said, “Why do you always give me cow skin when you give my elder sisters the liver?” The man said that it was what the family could afford and she said, “Why did you not divide the cow skin and the liver into two and give my elder sisters and I one piece of each?” The other people there said, “You are always giving our queen cow skin.” The man said it was an error and that they should forgive him. They said, “No, you cannot be forgiven.” They dealt with him and he cried. When he woke from sleep he became paralyzed.

  Dreams of being surrounded by people with tough and hard faces should be taken seriously. And so are dreams of seeing yourself standing trial in a court, or being locked up in a police cell, or somebody takes your hand and gives you some strokes of the cane.

The Way Out

♦ Go into aggressive prayer and fasting to withdraw the call or summon.

♦ Withdraw or cancel the call. The wonderful thing about the things of the spirit is that you can do a fast-forward or a rewind, which is not possible in the physical world. For example, it is not possible to go back to when you were six years old. But spiritually, you can go back to what somebody did to you 27 years ago or to a dream you had 25 years ago and cancel it today and it stays cancelled. You can see what God has for you in the future or where He is taking you. That is the beautiful world of the spirit. So if you have been called before in your dream, or physically you heard a call and you answered, you can withdraw the call today by saying, “The call that I answered then I withdraw my answer, in the name of Jesus.” You have the right to do that as a child of God.

♦ Cancel the sentence passed on you.

♦ Send confusion into the midst of the court where you were summoned.

Barricade your life with the blood of Jesus.

4. Buried virtues: Readers of the Bible understand that the earth, which we are standing upon, is a living entity and can accept virtues deposited into it. When Cain killed his brother, Abel, the Lord said unto him, “Cain, what has thou done?” He replied, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The Lord said, “The voice of the blood of your brother is crying to me from underneath the earth.” Every blessing that we are entitled to first of all existed in the spirit world before it manifested physically. If somebody grabs the spiritual representative and buries it, that is what we call buried virtue. If you know that when bright opportunities come, you fail; or that at the point of something good, everything goes wrong, or you are always in and out of hospital because of bad health, it could be that somebody may have buried your health, wealth, etc.

The Way Out

♦ Call for the assistance of God’s angels.

♦ Devote at least one hour each day for the next seven days praying that all your buried virtues should be exhumed, in the name of Jesus. You will be surprised at what will happen.

5. Spiritual cell: This is when a person is like a little bird inside a cage. He cannot move far or fly beyond a particular level. Friends and enemies surround the person and throw things at him like people do to animals caged in the zoos. If you notice that you depend on friends and relatives to feed, you have been caged and you have to escape today. Friends would be throwing you bananas while enemies would be throwing you stones, which you would be busy trying to dodge like a monkey in a cage. Somebody in a cage really cannot run far from the enemy. The person will not be able to respond effectively to attacks because the cage would be limiting him. The trouble with spiritual cage is that a lot of people get so used to it that they do not even realize their freedom. They become like the woman who was given a lift and she still had her load on her head. When she was asked to put down the load, she said, “No, it is me you are giving the lift not the load.

The Way Out

♦ Pray the prayer of Jabez. What is the prayer of Jabez? It is “O Lord, bless me and enlarge my coast, in Jesus’ name.”

♦ Take authority over the cage. The cage can hear what you are saying.

♦ Invite the Lord Jesus Christ to open the cage with the key that He took when He triumphed over satan.

♦ Ask the Lord to cast the cage into fire.

6. Body exchange: There are powers that alter people’s bodies. People whose bodies have been altered look older than their age. They feel uncomfortable and experience heaviness. Ugliness, sluggishness, unexplainable hatred, marital failure may also be their lot. The gospel was preached to a certain man and he said, “Okay, I believe you. But that heaven that you just described is Mama so so (i.e. his wife) going there? The preacher said, “Yes, if she is born again, by the grace of God she will be there.” The man said he would prefer to go somewhere else if the woman would be there. “Do you hate your wife so much?” the preacher asked him. He said, “Yes, I do not like seeing her.” Something may be wrong with the woman. Her body may have been changed and each time the man looked at her, he saw another person.

The Way Out

♦ Pray to receive your body back. When you pray this kind of prayer, you may be feeling heat or chill all over your body. Then you will notice things begin to happen.

7. Spiritual bullet: When a person’s case is taken to the dark world, a search would be carried out to locate the people with dark powers in the person’s family. The more the people with dark powers in the person’s family, the more complicated the person’s case becomes. All the information the enemies need would be supplied by members of the person’s family. Then the person’s spirit would be called out and shot. Such people generally do not wake up the following day. The person may see the bullets in the dream entering his body. This is how diseases like cancer starts, and slow death would set in. Alternatively, if the bullets enter into the leg or stomach, that part of the body will be rebelling against other parts of the body.

The Way Out

♦ Spiritual surgery is needed to get the bullets out.

♦ Then send them back to the senders.

8. Spiritual arrows: A child who has potentials to be great can be located from his mother’s womb and fired at. This is a common practice in polygamous homes. This is one of the reasons you can hardly find somebody from a polygamous home that does not need deliverance. If you are the only male or the first male in a polygamous home and your mother is not the first wife, there is 100 per cent chance that arrows are in your body. When arrows are fired, the brain is always the first target.

The Way Out

♦ Extract the arrows and send them back to the sender.

♦ Pray a wall of fire around your life so that this kind of thing does not operate again.

9. Consumption of polluted food: Being fed in the dream or attending demonic parties where one is served the wrong food to eat introduces all kinds of bad things into one’ s life. Problem would start, then the person’s spiritual life will not grow very well and the person will be having sickness all over the body.

The Way Out

♦ What a victim needs is deliverance and to pray to vomit all the deposits of the enemy.

10. Demonic marriage: If somebody is consciously or unconsciously married in the spirit world, he or she is in for a serious battle, for spiritual marriage is as binding as the physical one. The spirit spouse will fight with the last drop of his or her blood to keep his or her partner. This is one of the reasons many people do not enjoy their marriage. The spiritual partner would fight the physical one and engineer separation. There would be marks of hatred, unexplainable quarrels, poverty and business collapse so that tension would be high in the home. Family interference will be so high. The spiritual spouse would harass the physical one so much.

The Way Out

♦ Go for deliverance.

♦ After your deliverance, pray and make sure that the spirit spouse dies and leaves you alone to enjoy the life that the Lord has given to you.

  Everyone has something that God has planted in him to make him great. God has not created any failure. You may not see what God has planted in you, but your enemy, satan, sees it. So, today, attack every local weapon that has been made against you.

  The weapons treated here are restricted to those used in this environment. If somebody collects an imported one, then he has more work to do. I saw a man who was boasting that when he was in Nigeria, all the girls were running after him and when he went to Germany too, all the white girls were running after him. I said to him, “Look, you have received combined honours of evil, so your deliverance will be longer.”

  Some people’s idea that they would just say the blood of Jesus and pray for protection is not enough. You must attack. The best system of protection is to attack. God cannot release His miracle power until you begin to attack what you should attack. 2 Thessalonians 1:16 says, “Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you.”  That is what God will do when you strike back. Also, the arrows will go back to the senders. Why? Because Psalm 109:17 says, “As he loved cursing so let it come unto him as he delighted not in blessing so let it be far from him.”

  When people who are wicked and disobedient to God are firing witchcraft arrows at God’s children, they must be stopped. By returning the arrows, the spirits following them will go back to the senders. One secret you must know is that satanic agents are always afraid of their arrows coming back to them. Sometimes when it does not happen that way they will not bow. That is why the Bible says the wicked must bow before the good. 

  If you are yet to surrender you life to Jesus Christ, the accompanying prayers would be of no use to you because you have not taken the first step in obtaining the blessing of God. If you want to give your life to Jesus, say the following prayer: “Lord Jesus, I come to you today, I surrender my life unto you. I accept you as my Lord and personal Saviour. Forgive me my sins and cleanse me with your blood. Come into my life today, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

PRAYER POINTS

1. (Put your hands on your head and pray like this:) I cover myself with the blood of Jesus, in Jesus’ name.

2. Mention the underlisted conditions and say seven hot times: “Back to the sender, in the name of Jesus.”

i. Satanic dream. ii. Spirit of bedwetting. iii. Spirit of fear. iv. Mark of hatred. v. Spirit of infirmity. vi. Satanic arrows. vii. Problems with the blood. vii. Problems with the head. viii. Problem from the river. ix. Problem from the sea. x. Problem from polygamy. xi. Problem with circumcision. xii. Problem with the reproductive organ. xiii. Problem with demonic in-laws. xiv. Problems with witchcraft spirits. xv. Problems with unfriendly friends.

3. Local satanic weapons, release me and go back to your sender, in the name of Jesus.

4. (Place one hand on your stomach and the other one on your head:) Every arrow from local witches and wizards, back to senders, in the name of Jesus.

5. Talk to the Lord about any strange experience you might have had in the dream or in the physical and say, “Back to the sender, in Jesus’ name.”

6. You the devices of the enemy upon my life, receive disappointment, in Jesus’ name.

 

RULE IN THE MIDST OF YOUR ENEMIES

Dr D.k.Olukoya

 

 

        Mathew 10:16

 

“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of

wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless

as doves.”

 

Jesus made this statement as He was sending His

disciples forth into the world to preach the Gospel.

Those that we are living with are referred to as

wolves.  In some cases, the Bible even refers to them

as dogs, serpents, scorpions, fowlers, etc.  The Bible

used all these names, so that we would have an idea of

the kind of environment we are in.  Many people do not

understand this, but it is true.

 

One day, a preacher gave us the illustration of a

beautiful house where human beings were being

slaughtered in the backyard. Looking at the house from

the outside, it looked beautiful. How could anyone

imagine that such a monstrous thing could be going on

in there? It is the same thing with some human beings;

if God opens your eyes in the spirit to see what they

really are, you would not want to associate with them.

How would you feel, if God opened your eyes to see

that your landlady is walking about on her head in the

spirit realm? For some fearful Christians, the

solution would be to run to the Estate Agent to get

another house.  God in His own mercy prevents people

from seeing these things, because they are very

fearful and scary.  All He would do is to keep an

angel by the doorstep with a sword of fire in his hand

that would deal with such evil powers without the

person knowing it.

 

There was a sister who used to see a short statue on

her bed physically and even when she closes her eyes.

She went to white garment churches here and there but

it persisted. When she was introduced to me, I sent

her for deliverance and told her that she had to pray

very well to remove the impact of the statue’s

presence in her life. Suddenly, she became impatient

and started talking about getting married. I told her

that she needed to pray hard and get totally delivered

before thinking about marriage.  She did not agree

with me and for some time, I did not see her again.

The next time I saw her, I called her by her father’s

name and she corrected me, saying she was now Mrs. so

and so. As I called her new name, I heard “Drugs” in

my spirit man. I asked her that her husband did and

what the word “Drug” meant.  She did not know. Six

months later, news came that the man had been arrested

in the United States of America, for drug trafficking.

It was also discovered that he had been married to

another woman in America. This sister got into the web

because she had not finished dealing with the powers

that were troubling her foundation, before building

marriage on it.

 

This same sister made a fuss about moving out of her

one-bed-room into a-two-bedroom apartment.  She did

not heed all the advice she was given. She got one and

discovered that in that building, there was a door,

which she never saw, open. Later she noticed that the

landlady went into that room at odd hours.  One day,

there was no water in this sister’s apartment and she

went downstairs to fetch some.  She found the door of

that room open and out of curiosity, she moved close

to see what was there. To her amazement, she saw a

woman, kneeling down with white cloth wrapped around

her and carrying a calabash on her head. The sister

also saw Naira notes on the floor. She was shocked

because she understood the stories about moneymaking

rituals with human beings. As she turned to go back,

the landlady appeared. She asked her what she came to

look for and told her that she had just found

something to cater for, for the rest of her life.  At

first, the sister was apologetic but later said she

was the one that should be accusing the landlady.  As

from that day, that sister had no rest of mind. She

always saw monkeys pestering her. This is to show you

that, our environment is not one in which you will

just relax and sleep anyhow. You have to be vigilant

and prayerful. You should understand the fact that

Christianity is not just belonging to church societies

and dancing and sleeping off at night. We are in

spiritual warfare.

 

The way God wants us to operate as Christians

   

Deuteronomy 3325:

  

“Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days,

so shall thy strength be.”

     

This means that as Christians, anything we trample

upon should be crushed because our shoes are made of

iron and brass.  Also, as we grow older, we become

stronger, not that old age will turn us into jelly or

babies.  We must be able to mark a difference between

Christians and unbelievers.  Why should a smoker who

is 70 years old, be looking stronger than a Christian

of the same age or less?

 

Verses 26-27:

 

“There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, Who

rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in His

Excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge,

and underneath are the everlasting arms: and He shall

thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say:

“Destroy them!”

 

This is the position you should take.  You must use

your sword; not that you will run away from the enemy.

 

 

Psalm 234-5:

  

 “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow

of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;

thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  Thou preparest

a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”

 

If God decides to bless you, it does not matter if

your mother is a witch or if other witches are

gathered against you. The Bible says your blessings

will manifest in their very presence.

 

Psalm 1102:

 

 “The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of

Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.”

 

Romans 517:

 

 “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.”

 

1 John 44:

 

“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome

them: because greater is He that is in you, than he

that is in the world.”

 

Revelation 15-6:

 

“And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness,

and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of

the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and

washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath

made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to

him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

We are meant to be kings amongst the enemies; the very

moment you accept the Lord Jesus Christ into your life

as personal Lord and Saviour, and you receive the

baptism in the Holy Ghost, you become a king.  God

intends that we all as Christians become kings and

reign in life.   Jesus is king of kings, you and I are

kings and we should reign in the midst of trials and

tribulations and all unfavourable circumstances and

the uncertainties of life.  God wants us to reign over

our bodies and emotions, over our homes and

unprogressive thoughts, unfavorable circumstances,

demonic powers, sickness and disease, over all forces

of darkness.

 

When a person, who is filled with power, goes into a

marketplace and challenges those who have witchcraft

powers, not many people will yield to that call. It is

unfortunate that many Christians are living like

slaves. Whereas, we are supposed to reign as kings and

should be unshaken and unafraid.  Normally, your

environment should be too hot to be a passage for any

witchcraft power.  In fact, as they approach, they

should turn back if they do not want to be roasted

like the ones that mistakenly passed there as you were

firing your arrows of prayer.

 

One night, a prayer meeting was going on at the MFM

headquarters and suddenly, a woman dropped from the

sky.  She was actually flying across the premises in

form of a bird, in the company of other birds, on an

evil mission to the University of Lagos. The fire of

the Holy Ghost arrested her and she became a human

being and dropped.  When asked to surrender her life

to the Lord Jesus Christ, she said it was too late,

that she had sold herself to the devil.  When you

anoint your house and you charge it with the fire of

the Holy Ghost, it will become untouchable and

unquenchable fire.

 

When the devil comes to tempt you to sin, you should

be able to resist him because you are a king. If you

succumb to temptations, you are not reigning as king.

The Spirit of God will always warn you, even in little

things. Assuming you have the craving for ice-cream

and there is a long queue in the sun waiting to buy,

the Spirit of God would normally tell you that as a

king, you should not be in that queue but if you are

not totally yielded, you will stay there and waste

precious time and money. It means, that craving is

ruling over you. Some people allow fashion to rule

them. They could stay home and not go to church

because they have no new dress. They would say they

have recently worn the ones that they have. Such

people have been turned to slaves.

 

 

Why Kings are turned into slaves

 

1.    Ignorance.

 

If you do not know who you are, and what God has done

for you and in you, the devil will cheat you. The

devil knows that you have power over him but would

make sure that you do not know that you have it, so

that he can control you.

 

2.    Laziness.

 

Many Christians are lazy. They find it easier to watch

television programmes and video films for six hours

but cannot stay awake for 30 minutes to pray.

 

3.    Worldliness.

     

It is not possible to be part of the world and fight

it.

 

4.    Lack of internal peace.

     

Your peace of mind as a Christian cannot be

negotiated. You either have it or not.  When you are

right with God and have an assurance of your salvation

and are redeemed, if the Prince of peace is in you and

you know that you are heading for heaven, you will

have an inner peace in you.  No matter what the

situation around you is, you will always rejoice and

have a smile on your face and will be friendly to

everybody.  Knowing that whatsoever happens, the

Prince of Peace is with you; and that God never fails.

The peace of mind is your proof of victory. Jesus

demonstrated it for us during the storm.  He slept off

in the boat because He had peace. Everybody else was

worried but He slept off.  That peace shows the

evidence of His authority.

 

      When the power of hell did their worst against Jesus

and held their revival against Him in the courts of

Pilate, He did not say a word.  When Pilate, confused,

asked Him why He was not responding, and if He did not

know, that he, Pilate, could set Him free, Jesus

answered saying “Thou couldest have no power at all

against me, except it were given thee from above:

therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the

greater sin”. (John 19:11) Earlier on, Jesus had told

him that He, Jesus, is King and that He came to the

world to witness to the truth. As the hosts of hell

were causing commotion in the midst of His accusers,

Jesus was cool, calm and collected.

     

If there is any area of your life where you do not

have peace, you will have war there. If you know you

have victory already; you will have peace and you will

know that you have a God who never fails.  Paul says:

“I have believed and am persuaded to keep that which I

have committed into His hands, against that day.”

That was why when the snake fastened itself on his

hand, he did not jump up in panic, he just shook it

into the fire and continued warming himself. The Bible

says that the God of peace shall bruise satan

underneath your feet, shortly. Peace marks the

evidence of victory.

 

Revelation 4:6

 

 “And before the throne there was a sea of glass like

unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and

round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes

before and behind.”

 

This shows us the kind of peace that is at the throne

of God. There are no waves, no anxiety, the Lord is

never in a hurry and never worried and is never

without an answer. When the enemy robs you of your

peace he is making you up to be a slave to something.

Whatever happens, your internal peace must be

maintained.

 

5.    Unbelief.

     

It is a very serious issue; it makes God look like a

liar and opens the door to the enemy to operate

freely.

 

6.    Lack of recognition of your authority in Christ.

     

What the devil fears is the fact that Christ is in

you.  He is not afraid of you as a person so, if you

do not know the authority that you have as a believer,

the devil will turn you into a slave. Outside Christ,

you cannot withstand the devil.

 

7.    Renewal of attacks by forces of evil.

     

These are forces that renew things. They bring back

what a person has relinquished, thereby making the

person lose his or her ruler ship over the enemy.

This is the kind of spirit that works in sicknesses

like cancer.  When you think it is healed, it comes up

elsewhere and makes it new. When a person prays and

obtains victory, they come in to take away that

victory and return the problem.  The person loses that

authority in the coup planned by forces of darkness.

This seventh reason is the answer that God gave me,

when I asked why Christians in our environment are not

ruling as kings.

     

Many years ago; in the Eastern part of Nigeria, there

was a wedding ceremony going on.  As the pastor read

out the traditional question: “Will you, Miss So, So,

take Mr. That, That, as your wedded husband, to love

and to cherish, till death do you part?” The lady

said: “NO.”  the pastor thought he did not hear her

well or that she did not hear him, so, he repeated the

question and she still answered “NO.” That marked the

end of the wedding on that day.  Later, it was

revealed that the lady had a spirit husband who had

warned her not to say yes, if she did not want to die.

 Some time before then, she had prayed about it and

thought he had left but the week before the wedding,

she was so occupied with the preparations, that she

did not have time for serious praying and the spirit

husband came back and warned her of the danger of

getting married physically.  This is a manifestation

of the forces of evil renewal.

 

In Mark 9:25-26 Jesus demonstrated what we need to do:

    “When Jesus saw that the people came running

together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him,

Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of

him, and enter no more into him.  And the spirit

cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he

was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.”

     

This means that it is possible for an evil spirit to

come back, after it has been chased out of a person.

The principal of the return of troubles and problems;

energised by evil renewal forces, is well spelt out in

the Scriptures.

 

Luke 1124-26:

 

    “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he

walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding

none, he saith: “I will return unto my house whence I

came out”.  And when he cometh, he findeth it swept

and garnished.  Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven

other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter

in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is

worse than the first.”

 

John 514:

 

   “Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and

said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no

more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”

It is very clear that there are evil renewal forces

that bring back bad things that have been removed from

people’s lives.  Many people were handed over to the

devil, by their parents while some offered themselves

to the devil, free of charge.  Whichever way a person

passed through to the devil, he or she can get out by

taking the decision and praying aggressively.  God

too, will answer and take them out not minding who put

them there. Some people were born into demonic

religions, got initiated into the occultist world,

right from the time they were in their mother’s womb.

But when such people come to Christ and they cry out,

He delivers them.

 

Some of these renewal powers are programmed into the

lives of people, through incisions, tribal marks and

tattoos.  Some of them do not function until later

dates, probably when the person is married.  At the

time it is supposed to go into action, the lady with

such marks or tattoos will just find out that she

quarrels with her husband and leaves, bearing in mind

that she is beautiful and will find another man.  The

same thing will happen over and over again until she

is too old to please any man.  If such a person comes

to Christ, she will be delivered. Some people were

chronic witches or wizards and when they cry out to

the Lord, He delivers them.  Some people got converted

and the Lord healed them from their sicknesses and

diseases.  Some were afflicted with terrible poverty,

some had already been eaten up spiritually, but the

Lord delivered them. Even if the eaters of such

people’s flesh had already digested them and passed

them out, God will still deliver those who have come

unto Him and will recover all that belongs to them

because the Bible says: “In Him, all things

consist...”

 

When a person gets delivered from all these things, it

sets the person above his or her enemies.  They will

see that, a power that is greater than theirs is

living in the person.  They will not give up, they

will still send the forces of evil renewal against the

person.  If the person is not careful and they are

able to find their way into the person’s life, the old

problems will come back. Those in the deliverance and

the healing ministry can testify to it that, these

forces of evil renewal always want to come back and it

becomes more difficult to chase them out.

 

WHAT INVITES THE FORCES OF EVIL RENEWAL?

 

1.    Open doors

 

Many Christians open doors to the enemies. For

example, if a student sends a Valentine Card to a

demonic man who takes it to the bottom of the waters,

thereby forming an unconscious covenant with her or on

her behalf. This would hinder the girl from getting

married physically or if she gets married, there would

be problems here and there.  The door was opened by an

‘ordinary’ greeting card.

 

2.    Failure to tell it not to return

 

Mark 925:

 

“When Jesus saw that the people came running together,

He rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him: “Thou

dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him,

and enter no more into him.”

 

Jesus commanded the evil spirit to come out of him and

never return there. You too should command all those

things to go and then, forbid them from entering

again. It could be debt, sickness, etc. the Bible says

if you believe, you will command a mountain to move

and it will move, if you do not doubt it.

 

1.    Failure to tell it its destination

 

      When you command a mountain to move, you must also

tell it where to go.  It must not roam around.  You

could command it to move into the sea or into the

wilderness.

 

2.    Going back to old sins

 

John 514:

 

“Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said

unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more,

lest a worse thing come unto thee.”

 

If you go back to old sins that you have repented of,

then the consequences will come back.

 

Take these prayer points:

 

-     I will not invite old problems into my life, I will

not go back to old sins in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Owners of evil load in my life, pack your load and

go in the Name of Jesus.

When your life has been totally surrendered to the

leadership of the Holy Spirit and He rules over your

life, then you in turn will rule over your enemies.

When you submit to the Spirit of God, as you move, it

will be the Holy Spirit moving in you.  What happens

is this; the enemy will see the power of God in you

and will know that you are king.  You will be the one

giving instruction, not the other way round. When

Elijah got to Mount Carmel, he gave the instructions.

They were not able to push him here and there.

 

When the power of darkness urinates on what a person

is selling, even if it is the best of its kind around,

nobody will buy it.  When they urinate on a lady, she

might be the most beautiful one around but no man

wants to marry her.  If it is a man, he might be the

most handsome and richest around but he will not be

able to settle down. When you go back to old sins, it

is not only old problems that will come back, new ones

that are worse than them will come in too. This is why

we always emphasize that Christians should make sure

that they get to heaven. You know one secret?  I am

going there!  No matter what revival the devil is

holding.

 

Many years ago, I was sent as external examiner to a

university.  When I got there, someone took me round

the university and then showed me the

Vice-Chancellor’s lodge, where I was to stay.  As the

man was about to leave, he said: “Doctor, do you need

spare tyres, I said “no”, that we had one in the car.

My driver giggled.  The man then said: “Do you need

bush meat?”  I said “no”, and the driver laughed.  The

man then went straight to the point and asked if I

wanted a woman, with whom to pass the night. When he

saw the look on my face, he knew that he had made a

grievous mistake and he said he was sorry, that he did

not know that I was an ‘S.U.’ I told him that I am

more than that, that I am a child of the kingdom of

God. I then told him that he should know that he

himself is ‘bush meat’ in the hands of strange women.

 

If a person takes advantage of the fact that no one is

seeing him or her and goes into sin, old problems will

come back.  When they come back, they come with full

force; seven fold and it will then be more difficult

to chase them out.  The powers behind problems are not

fools, they will say to themselves that if the person

just fasted for only one day and was able to chase

them out, they too should become stronger and more in

number, so that the person will not find it easy to

chase them out again.  Thus, they will reinforce.

That is why we teach deliverance ministers that, as

they chase out demons, they should ban them from

regrouping or reinforcing.

     

Sometimes, when we pray in the church, and a person

gets healed of migraine and on getting home it starts

again, he would wonder what happened.  Part of the

reasons could be that when he got into the bus on his

way home, he sat beside a person that was reading a

dirty magazine and he too, read a little bit with one

eye; that was enough to open doors to the powers that

had been marauding and seeking a way through which

they could come back.  Except you surround yourself

with the Fire of the Holy Ghost and angels of God and

live a holy life, they will come back.  Sometimes, if

such people keep touching their head, to feel if the

migraine is actually gone, it could come back because

those powers will use such unbelief as a

stepping-stone back into such lives. Forces of evil

renewal need a ladder to get back into your life.

Make sure that you do not provide it!

      Today, we will continue by looking further at the

reasons why evil powers renew old, evil things and

take hold of people.

 

5.    Receiving partial deliverance.

     

To only receive half or partial deliverance is a

reason for the come back stage of evil and old things

into one’s life. Sometimes, some people claim to be

delivered, while they are not.  Sometimes, they only

succeeded in chasing out the small demons, while the

big ones are still in the background.  All kinds of

things that people say they are free from are actually

still in their lives and are silently tormenting them.

 The small area of darkness that is still remaining,

will then serve as ladder for the forces that have

left, to renew their entry.

 

A woman was having problems with her husband and the

woman used to beat up her husband.  The man then sued

for divorce.  When the woman came to me, I wondered

how she got the power to beat up a man, and the Lord

told me that she had familiar spirits. I then asked

her some questions and she said she had  had these

spirits since childhood but that her parents took her

to a place where something was applied to her eyes and

then they took her to some people who gave her banana

to eat.  She said after eating the banana, she stopped

seeing the familiar spirits.  To her, she did not have

those spirits again but that actually, was spiritual

deception.  It was a satanic strategy meant to hinder

her from being delivered.

 

A lot of people that are claiming to be free from

these evil associations are really not free.  It could

be that they no longer attend meetings or run errands

for them, but they are still there.  It could also be

that a spiritual cataract has been put on their eyes

to hinder them from seeing.  Many people do not know

that they could attend witchcraft meetings and

participate fully every night without their knowing

it. They could say that God sees them, that they do

not have any strange power, or witchcraft or familiar

spirits. God will say that such people are not serious

because they have not really checked themselves.

Obtaining partial deliverance will only lead to

trouble.

 

The reason people receive partial deliverance is

mostly because they are not repentant.  There is a

difference between feeling sorry and repenting of a

sin.  Judas felt sorry for betraying Jesus, but he did

not repent.  Rather, he committed suicide. Peter felt

sorry for denying Jesus and he repented and cried for

forgiveness. That is why he remained a disciple and

did exploits for the Lord.  When a Christian laments

on why he or she arrived at falling into a particular

sin, and turns back from doing it, and makes up his or

her mind not to go back to it, that is called

repentance.  If a person refuses to confess a

particular sin, his or her deliverance will not be

complete. Also, if a person refuses to forgive those

who have offended him or her, the person cannot

receive total deliverance, despite hot deliverance

prayers.  If a person keeps bad things that he or she

inherited form parents and ancestors, deliverance will

not be complete. Some are even content with the

reduction of demonic attacks and oppression, rather

than seek total elimination of such things from their

lives.

 

Pride is an open door to evil spirits and it hinders

total deliverance. Pride does not allow a person to

know the truth about oneself.  This is the sin that

made Lucifer to fall.  If you want to receive total

deliverance, you have to humble yourself.  Pride will

make a person refuse counsel and prayers from a

younger person.  It makes such people say that they

want ‘people with experience’. The Bible says: “Live

by Faith.” not by experience.  Some people then go

from one prophet or pastor to the other, yet, nothing

happens.

 

Living in a bad spiritual environment, will ensure

that a person’s deliverance is partial.  When such

people pray in the church, they get relief but when

they get back home, the problem starts again. There

was someone who could not sleep for months.  When he

was prayed for in the church, he slept off on the

spot.  When he got home, he could not sleep again and

it continued for days.  It meant that there was

something in that house that was hindering him from

sleeping.

 

Partial deliverance makes things that were gone, to

find their way back. Refusal to break evil covenants,

results in partial deliverance.  Also, keeping secrets

that need to be confessed, will lead to partial

deliverance.  I would like this to be very clear in

your spirit. Many people complain that they do not

have breakthroughs, whereas, they hear other people

giving testimonies.  They wonder what their own

problem could be.  Things like the above-mentioned can

be responsible for lack of testimonies.

    

If the axe of God has not been allowed to go deep into

the foundation of a matter, then the problem remains.

The person could be relieved for a while but the

problem comes back later. Many are ashamed to tell the

truth; they hide their true self and do not reveal

what they are into; thus, the effectual prayer of the

saints will not avail for them. The axe of God will

not touch the ones they are hiding. If you hide dirty

things in your heart, there will be trouble. Some

people claim to be innocent but they are not really

innocent. For example, if a person finds him or

herself in the midst of people where there was a theft

case and the person goes to an herbalist with them,

that simple visit could cause problems in the life of

that person, whether he or she is the accused or not.

Also, before some men got born again, they found

pleasure in smacking the backside and the chest of

women.  Unknown to them, they could have slapped women

with evil powers and one day, a witchcraft bird could

have gotten hooked to their hands. They would just

notice that things are not moving the way they should.

 Usually, such people do not count such plays as sin.

So, they do not confess it.  The axe of God is not

likely to touch such things, because they have been

cleverly concealed. 

 

In some traditions in Nigeria, there is a kind of

beans that is cooked for twins and distributed to

people.  This is a from of sacrifice and must be

confessed, otherwise, the axe of God will not be able

to locate it from its roots.  If you have ever been

unfaithful to your husband or wife, you must confess

it, so that the axe of God can locate the root of that

problem.   

 

A brother said he had problems and was taken to a

fetish place. The place was all glass. The fetish man

took money from him and said he would call out his

spirit and would ask him questions.  The first

information that the spirit gave was wrong. The

brother then knew that he had been tricked and wanted

his money back. The fetish man asked him to leave at

once, if he did not want more problems for himself.

This kind of consultation is sinful and should be

confessed.

 

The more space you give to God to operate in your

life, the deeper the work He will do in your life.

The more secretive you are to God, the less you get of

Him.  The best way of dealing with God is to come to

Him, as you are; open up to Him.  God respects people

who open up to Him, and this allows His axe to get to

the roots of their problems.  

6.    Keeping demonic objects in one’s possession.

     

Deuteronomy 726:

 

 “Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine

house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou

shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor

it; for it is a cursed thing.”

 

These are things like phylacteries, charms, rings,

crosses and candles that were collected from

herbalists or white garment prophets.  The Bible says

they should be destroyed in fire.

 

7.    Unbelief and prayerlessness

 

That is expecting a problem to resurface, calling the

problem ‘My’ problem and refusing to confess

positively about your situation. If you confess

positive things to your life, you will find out that

old problems will not come back.  God did not create

believers to be tossed around by the powers of

darkness.

 

There was a man who was very rich but was sick. He was

transferred to a hospital in England and the doctor

could not do anything and said the man should go and

write his will, that he had only two months to live.

The man said that was not his portion and he came back

to Nigeria. He started praying vigorously and the

prayer warriors too, joined him. They revoked the evil

prophecy and he started to prophesy good things into

his life. The man did not die. After one year, he went

abroad on holiday.  He decided to pay his doctor a

visit.  When the doctor saw him, he fainted because he

thought he was seeing a ghost. This man survived

because he refused to give in to the evil prophecy

though he was an old man, he refused to die just like

that.

 

8.    Ingratitude

 

Many people keep asking God for things but never give

thanks to Him.  When they receive miracles, they do

not testify to others about what God has done.  They

are shy to say it out. Such people do not remember the

story of the ten lepers that were healed. Only one of

them came back to give thanks and Jesus pronounced

additional blessings on him - He was made whole; the

others, were just healed.  Being made whole means,

total renewal of all the parts of his body. When some

people complain about having prayed a particular

prayer point for one month and nothing happens, I tell

them to stop praying and start praising God for one

whole week and things will start to happen. 

 

If you fail to fill your life with the Holy Spirit

after chasing out certain things, they are likely to

find their way back, to fill the vacuum. You must be

filled with the power and fire of the Holy Ghost. That

is why Jesus said that if an evil spirit has been

chased out of a place, it will roam around and if it

does not find another suitable accommodation, it would

go back to where it was chased out. If it finds it

vacant, it will re-establish itself and invite others

that are even more wicked than it is.  Be filled with

the Holy Ghost until you are drunk with Him.     Perhaps,

you have not yet been filled with the power of the

Holy Ghost, you have to pray hard. If you say you are

filled with the Holy Ghost and nothing supernatural

has happened in your life, your life has not changed

dramatically as the lives of the Apostles did, then

you need to pray harder.  If you say you speak in

tongues and you still keep malice or tell lies, or

fear still grips you and you are always discouraged,

it means you have received Him, but are not yet filled

with Him.

 

Any believer that is filled with the Holy Ghost is

always radiant and people will wonder if he or she has

no problem. I for example would always tell people

that since Jesus made the pronouncement: “It is

finished” on the cross at Calvary, my problems too,

finished. When a person’s spiritual life is just

floating and is being pushed about by the currents of

life, the person will be like a dead fish that is

being carried about by the waves of the sea. A fish

that is alive swims against the torrents and currents

of the water. Do not allow circumstances and

situations to toss you here and there.  Be filled with

the fire of the Holy Ghost.

 

Whatever God does for you, should be permanent. If

there is anything in your life, that does not want the

gifts of God to be permanent in your life, you have to

shake it off.  You should not smile at such things.

You should not allow what God has given you, to slip

off your hands. Sometimes, some people see themselves

in dreams, receiving gifts from God but in real life,

do not have those things.  I would like you to pray

the prayers below, with all the fervency that you can

gather. Is it good for a person to put himself in a

coffin and nail it down by himself?  Such a person is

creating problems, not only for himself, but also for

his children and children’s children.

 

Once you come before God and ask for a thing, if God

sees that it is good for you, He will give it to you.

As you are asking, the devil is wishing that you did

not have it.  As you are receiving it, the devil is

planning on how to steal it from you and if you are

not careful, he will succeed. As you are going away

with it, the devil could make you slip off and it will

drop and he will take it away.  He could force you to

throw it away; he could force you to break it, etc.

That is why people have dreams of good things but they

are eaten up almost immediately. If you do not deal

with these forces, it will be difficult for you to

rule in the midst of your enemies.  When God wants you

to rule, He means rule.  If you keep collecting

blessings and losing them to the enemies, how will you

rule in their midst?

 

Many people are being remotely controlled from their

villages; many are tied to their mother’s aprons and

are being controlled from there. Some people are being

controlled from the ground or from the waters. Some

people are being controlled by their colleagues who

are using evil powers on them.  Some are being

controlled by the powers of dead relatives. How can

such things be reversed without the Lord’s

intervention? The Lord does not mind calling back a

spirit, to come back and carry its evil load, even if

it is already in the grave.

 

If you are reading this book and you are not yet born

again, if you find it difficult to stay away from sin,

despite all efforts, then, you need to cry out to the

Lord in prayer.  If you are not yet born again, you

cannot even survive in the midst of your enemies, not

to talk of ruling.  How would you lose eternity

because of ephemeral pleasures that last only a few

minutes or hours?  If the trumpet sounds today, will

you go with the Lord? Enough is enough, for powers of

darkness ordering believers here and there, sending

believers from one hospital to the other.  For you to

really say enough is enough and begin to reign in the

midst of your enemies, you have to be born again.  You

have to surrender your life to the Lord Jesus Christ.

See yourself as a sinner that cannot approach God in

this sinful state.

 

Confess your sins to the Lord; name them one by one

and ask Him to forgive and cleanse you from all

unrighteousness.  Claim the redemptive power in the

Blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross at Calvary.

Invite the Lord Jesus Christ into your life and ask

Him to become your personal Lord and Saviour. Ask Him

to take total control of your life and everything that

concerns you. Tell Him that you will never go back

into the world again.

 

I congratulate you on this decision that you have just

taken. It is the most important decision in life and I

pray that it shall be permanent in your life, in the

Name of Jesus. I pray that your name will be written

in the Book of Life, in the Name of Jesus. I pray that

the Lord will uphold you with His right hand of

righteousness, in the Name of Jesus.

 

Now, take the following prayer points with the spirit

of ruler ship and with determination in your heart.

 

-     I will not carry any yoke because the Lord Jesus

Christ says that His yoke is easy, and His burden is

light. Therefore, owners of evil load in my life,

carry your evil load by fire in the Name of Jesus.    

 

-     Any ungodly alteration that the enemy has carried

out in my life be repaired in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Holy Ghost fire, purify the foundations of my life,

in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Wherever my destiny has been altered for evil, O

Lord, repair me, in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     I receive the power to rule in the midst of my

enemies in the Name of Jesus. 

     

-     You forces of evil renewal, my life is not your

candidate in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     You spirit of debt and poverty, depart from my life

and go into the Abyss in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Every offensive mark upon me, be rubbed off by the

Blood of Jesus.

 

-     Every offensive mark upon my business, be rubbed off

by the Blood of Jesus.

 

-     Every evil imagination against me be condemned, in

the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Holy Spirit, take total possession of my life, in

the Name of Jesus.

 

-     I come out of every bondage that my parents prepared

for me and that I entered into, now, in the Name of

Jesus.

 

-     Angels of the living God, bury all my problems,

eternally, in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     You spirit that renews defeated problems, be bound

in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     I refuse to be ignorant of the devices of the devil

in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Whatever trap the devil has laid for my life

backfire in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Let the power to destroy the fiery darts of the

enemy fall upon me in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     My life will not reject the counsel of the righteous

in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Every power backing spiritual stubbornness in my

life, die in the Name of Jesus.  

 

-     The counsel of the Lord shall always prevail in my

life in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Holy Spirit, anoint me afresh with Your fire so that

I will become untouchable and unquenchable fire in the

Name of Jesus.

 

-     Every shackle of slavery, physical or spiritual

break and release me in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Every evil destructive craving, my life is not your

Candidate die in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     O Lord, help my unbelief in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     The peace of God that surpasses all understanding,

reign supreme in my life as from today in the Name of

Jesus.     

 

  

 

 

RULE IN THE MIDST OF YOUR ENEMIES

Dr D.k.Olukoya

 

 

        Mathew 10:16

 

“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of

wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless

as doves.”

 

Jesus made this statement as He was sending His

disciples forth into the world to preach the Gospel.

Those that we are living with are referred to as

wolves.  In some cases, the Bible even refers to them

as dogs, serpents, scorpions, fowlers, etc.  The Bible

used all these names, so that we would have an idea of

the kind of environment we are in.  Many people do not

understand this, but it is true.

 

One day, a preacher gave us the illustration of a

beautiful house where human beings were being

slaughtered in the backyard. Looking at the house from

the outside, it looked beautiful. How could anyone

imagine that such a monstrous thing could be going on

in there? It is the same thing with some human beings;

if God opens your eyes in the spirit to see what they

really are, you would not want to associate with them.

How would you feel, if God opened your eyes to see

that your landlady is walking about on her head in the

spirit realm? For some fearful Christians, the

solution would be to run to the Estate Agent to get

another house.  God in His own mercy prevents people

from seeing these things, because they are very

fearful and scary.  All He would do is to keep an

angel by the doorstep with a sword of fire in his hand

that would deal with such evil powers without the

person knowing it.

 

There was a sister who used to see a short statue on

her bed physically and even when she closes her eyes.

She went to white garment churches here and there but

it persisted. When she was introduced to me, I sent

her for deliverance and told her that she had to pray

very well to remove the impact of the statue’s

presence in her life. Suddenly, she became impatient

and started talking about getting married. I told her

that she needed to pray hard and get totally delivered

before thinking about marriage.  She did not agree

with me and for some time, I did not see her again.

The next time I saw her, I called her by her father’s

name and she corrected me, saying she was now Mrs. so

and so. As I called her new name, I heard “Drugs” in

my spirit man. I asked her that her husband did and

what the word “Drug” meant.  She did not know. Six

months later, news came that the man had been arrested

in the United States of America, for drug trafficking.

It was also discovered that he had been married to

another woman in America. This sister got into the web

because she had not finished dealing with the powers

that were troubling her foundation, before building

marriage on it.

 

This same sister made a fuss about moving out of her

one-bed-room into a-two-bedroom apartment.  She did

not heed all the advice she was given. She got one and

discovered that in that building, there was a door,

which she never saw, open. Later she noticed that the

landlady went into that room at odd hours.  One day,

there was no water in this sister’s apartment and she

went downstairs to fetch some.  She found the door of

that room open and out of curiosity, she moved close

to see what was there. To her amazement, she saw a

woman, kneeling down with white cloth wrapped around

her and carrying a calabash on her head. The sister

also saw Naira notes on the floor. She was shocked

because she understood the stories about moneymaking

rituals with human beings. As she turned to go back,

the landlady appeared. She asked her what she came to

look for and told her that she had just found

something to cater for, for the rest of her life.  At

first, the sister was apologetic but later said she

was the one that should be accusing the landlady.  As

from that day, that sister had no rest of mind. She

always saw monkeys pestering her. This is to show you

that, our environment is not one in which you will

just relax and sleep anyhow. You have to be vigilant

and prayerful. You should understand the fact that

Christianity is not just belonging to church societies

and dancing and sleeping off at night. We are in

spiritual warfare.

 

The way God wants us to operate as Christians

   

Deuteronomy 3325:

  

“Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days,

so shall thy strength be.”

     

This means that as Christians, anything we trample

upon should be crushed because our shoes are made of

iron and brass.  Also, as we grow older, we become

stronger, not that old age will turn us into jelly or

babies.  We must be able to mark a difference between

Christians and unbelievers.  Why should a smoker who

is 70 years old, be looking stronger than a Christian

of the same age or less?

 

Verses 26-27:

 

“There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, Who

rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in His

Excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge,

and underneath are the everlasting arms: and He shall

thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say:

“Destroy them!”

 

This is the position you should take.  You must use

your sword; not that you will run away from the enemy.

 

 

Psalm 234-5:

  

 “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow

of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;

thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  Thou preparest

a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”

 

If God decides to bless you, it does not matter if

your mother is a witch or if other witches are

gathered against you. The Bible says your blessings

will manifest in their very presence.

 

Psalm 1102:

 

 “The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of

Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.”

 

Romans 517:

 

 “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.”

 

1 John 44:

 

“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome

them: because greater is He that is in you, than he

that is in the world.”

 

Revelation 15-6:

 

“And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness,

and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of

the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and

washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath

made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to

him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

We are meant to be kings amongst the enemies; the very

moment you accept the Lord Jesus Christ into your life

as personal Lord and Saviour, and you receive the

baptism in the Holy Ghost, you become a king.  God

intends that we all as Christians become kings and

reign in life.   Jesus is king of kings, you and I are

kings and we should reign in the midst of trials and

tribulations and all unfavourable circumstances and

the uncertainties of life.  God wants us to reign over

our bodies and emotions, over our homes and

unprogressive thoughts, unfavorable circumstances,

demonic powers, sickness and disease, over all forces

of darkness.

 

When a person, who is filled with power, goes into a

marketplace and challenges those who have witchcraft

powers, not many people will yield to that call. It is

unfortunate that many Christians are living like

slaves. Whereas, we are supposed to reign as kings and

should be unshaken and unafraid.  Normally, your

environment should be too hot to be a passage for any

witchcraft power.  In fact, as they approach, they

should turn back if they do not want to be roasted

like the ones that mistakenly passed there as you were

firing your arrows of prayer.

 

One night, a prayer meeting was going on at the MFM

headquarters and suddenly, a woman dropped from the

sky.  She was actually flying across the premises in

form of a bird, in the company of other birds, on an

evil mission to the University of Lagos. The fire of

the Holy Ghost arrested her and she became a human

being and dropped.  When asked to surrender her life

to the Lord Jesus Christ, she said it was too late,

that she had sold herself to the devil.  When you

anoint your house and you charge it with the fire of

the Holy Ghost, it will become untouchable and

unquenchable fire.

 

When the devil comes to tempt you to sin, you should

be able to resist him because you are a king. If you

succumb to temptations, you are not reigning as king.

The Spirit of God will always warn you, even in little

things. Assuming you have the craving for ice-cream

and there is a long queue in the sun waiting to buy,

the Spirit of God would normally tell you that as a

king, you should not be in that queue but if you are

not totally yielded, you will stay there and waste

precious time and money. It means, that craving is

ruling over you. Some people allow fashion to rule

them. They could stay home and not go to church

because they have no new dress. They would say they

have recently worn the ones that they have. Such

people have been turned to slaves.

 

 

Why Kings are turned into slaves

 

1.    Ignorance.

 

If you do not know who you are, and what God has done

for you and in you, the devil will cheat you. The

devil knows that you have power over him but would

make sure that you do not know that you have it, so

that he can control you.

 

2.    Laziness.

 

Many Christians are lazy. They find it easier to watch

television programmes and video films for six hours

but cannot stay awake for 30 minutes to pray.

 

3.    Worldliness.

     

It is not possible to be part of the world and fight

it.

 

4.    Lack of internal peace.

     

Your peace of mind as a Christian cannot be

negotiated. You either have it or not.  When you are

right with God and have an assurance of your salvation

and are redeemed, if the Prince of peace is in you and

you know that you are heading for heaven, you will

have an inner peace in you.  No matter what the

situation around you is, you will always rejoice and

have a smile on your face and will be friendly to

everybody.  Knowing that whatsoever happens, the

Prince of Peace is with you; and that God never fails.

The peace of mind is your proof of victory. Jesus

demonstrated it for us during the storm.  He slept off

in the boat because He had peace. Everybody else was

worried but He slept off.  That peace shows the

evidence of His authority.

 

      When the power of hell did their worst against Jesus

and held their revival against Him in the courts of

Pilate, He did not say a word.  When Pilate, confused,

asked Him why He was not responding, and if He did not

know, that he, Pilate, could set Him free, Jesus

answered saying “Thou couldest have no power at all

against me, except it were given thee from above:

therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the

greater sin”. (John 19:11) Earlier on, Jesus had told

him that He, Jesus, is King and that He came to the

world to witness to the truth. As the hosts of hell

were causing commotion in the midst of His accusers,

Jesus was cool, calm and collected.

     

If there is any area of your life where you do not

have peace, you will have war there. If you know you

have victory already; you will have peace and you will

know that you have a God who never fails.  Paul says:

“I have believed and am persuaded to keep that which I

have committed into His hands, against that day.”

That was why when the snake fastened itself on his

hand, he did not jump up in panic, he just shook it

into the fire and continued warming himself. The Bible

says that the God of peace shall bruise satan

underneath your feet, shortly. Peace marks the

evidence of victory.

 

Revelation 4:6

 

 “And before the throne there was a sea of glass like

unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and

round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes

before and behind.”

 

This shows us the kind of peace that is at the throne

of God. There are no waves, no anxiety, the Lord is

never in a hurry and never worried and is never

without an answer. When the enemy robs you of your

peace he is making you up to be a slave to something.

Whatever happens, your internal peace must be

maintained.

 

5.    Unbelief.

     

It is a very serious issue; it makes God look like a

liar and opens the door to the enemy to operate

freely.

 

6.    Lack of recognition of your authority in Christ.

     

What the devil fears is the fact that Christ is in

you.  He is not afraid of you as a person so, if you

do not know the authority that you have as a believer,

the devil will turn you into a slave. Outside Christ,

you cannot withstand the devil.

 

7.    Renewal of attacks by forces of evil.

     

These are forces that renew things. They bring back

what a person has relinquished, thereby making the

person lose his or her ruler ship over the enemy.

This is the kind of spirit that works in sicknesses

like cancer.  When you think it is healed, it comes up

elsewhere and makes it new. When a person prays and

obtains victory, they come in to take away that

victory and return the problem.  The person loses that

authority in the coup planned by forces of darkness.

This seventh reason is the answer that God gave me,

when I asked why Christians in our environment are not

ruling as kings.

     

Many years ago; in the Eastern part of Nigeria, there

was a wedding ceremony going on.  As the pastor read

out the traditional question: “Will you, Miss So, So,

take Mr. That, That, as your wedded husband, to love

and to cherish, till death do you part?” The lady

said: “NO.”  the pastor thought he did not hear her

well or that she did not hear him, so, he repeated the

question and she still answered “NO.” That marked the

end of the wedding on that day.  Later, it was

revealed that the lady had a spirit husband who had

warned her not to say yes, if she did not want to die.

 Some time before then, she had prayed about it and

thought he had left but the week before the wedding,

she was so occupied with the preparations, that she

did not have time for serious praying and the spirit

husband came back and warned her of the danger of

getting married physically.  This is a manifestation

of the forces of evil renewal.

 

In Mark 9:25-26 Jesus demonstrated what we need to do:

    “When Jesus saw that the people came running

together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him,

Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of

him, and enter no more into him.  And the spirit

cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he

was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.”

     

This means that it is possible for an evil spirit to

come back, after it has been chased out of a person.

The principal of the return of troubles and problems;

energised by evil renewal forces, is well spelt out in

the Scriptures.

 

Luke 1124-26:

 

    “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he

walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding

none, he saith: “I will return unto my house whence I

came out”.  And when he cometh, he findeth it swept

and garnished.  Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven

other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter

in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is

worse than the first.”

 

John 514:

 

   “Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and

said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no

more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”

It is very clear that there are evil renewal forces

that bring back bad things that have been removed from

people’s lives.  Many people were handed over to the

devil, by their parents while some offered themselves

to the devil, free of charge.  Whichever way a person

passed through to the devil, he or she can get out by

taking the decision and praying aggressively.  God

too, will answer and take them out not minding who put

them there. Some people were born into demonic

religions, got initiated into the occultist world,

right from the time they were in their mother’s womb.

But when such people come to Christ and they cry out,

He delivers them.

 

Some of these renewal powers are programmed into the

lives of people, through incisions, tribal marks and

tattoos.  Some of them do not function until later

dates, probably when the person is married.  At the

time it is supposed to go into action, the lady with

such marks or tattoos will just find out that she

quarrels with her husband and leaves, bearing in mind

that she is beautiful and will find another man.  The

same thing will happen over and over again until she

is too old to please any man.  If such a person comes

to Christ, she will be delivered. Some people were

chronic witches or wizards and when they cry out to

the Lord, He delivers them.  Some people got converted

and the Lord healed them from their sicknesses and

diseases.  Some were afflicted with terrible poverty,

some had already been eaten up spiritually, but the

Lord delivered them. Even if the eaters of such

people’s flesh had already digested them and passed

them out, God will still deliver those who have come

unto Him and will recover all that belongs to them

because the Bible says: “In Him, all things

consist...”

 

When a person gets delivered from all these things, it

sets the person above his or her enemies.  They will

see that, a power that is greater than theirs is

living in the person.  They will not give up, they

will still send the forces of evil renewal against the

person.  If the person is not careful and they are

able to find their way into the person’s life, the old

problems will come back. Those in the deliverance and

the healing ministry can testify to it that, these

forces of evil renewal always want to come back and it

becomes more difficult to chase them out.

 

WHAT INVITES THE FORCES OF EVIL RENEWAL?

 

1.    Open doors

 

Many Christians open doors to the enemies. For

example, if a student sends a Valentine Card to a

demonic man who takes it to the bottom of the waters,

thereby forming an unconscious covenant with her or on

her behalf. This would hinder the girl from getting

married physically or if she gets married, there would

be problems here and there.  The door was opened by an

‘ordinary’ greeting card.

 

2.    Failure to tell it not to return

 

Mark 925:

 

“When Jesus saw that the people came running together,

He rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him: “Thou

dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him,

and enter no more into him.”

 

Jesus commanded the evil spirit to come out of him and

never return there. You too should command all those

things to go and then, forbid them from entering

again. It could be debt, sickness, etc. the Bible says

if you believe, you will command a mountain to move

and it will move, if you do not doubt it.

 

1.    Failure to tell it its destination

 

      When you command a mountain to move, you must also

tell it where to go.  It must not roam around.  You

could command it to move into the sea or into the

wilderness.

 

2.    Going back to old sins

 

John 514:

 

“Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said

unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more,

lest a worse thing come unto thee.”

 

If you go back to old sins that you have repented of,

then the consequences will come back.

 

Take these prayer points:

 

-     I will not invite old problems into my life, I will

not go back to old sins in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Owners of evil load in my life, pack your load and

go in the Name of Jesus.

When your life has been totally surrendered to the

leadership of the Holy Spirit and He rules over your

life, then you in turn will rule over your enemies.

When you submit to the Spirit of God, as you move, it

will be the Holy Spirit moving in you.  What happens

is this; the enemy will see the power of God in you

and will know that you are king.  You will be the one

giving instruction, not the other way round. When

Elijah got to Mount Carmel, he gave the instructions.

They were not able to push him here and there.

 

When the power of darkness urinates on what a person

is selling, even if it is the best of its kind around,

nobody will buy it.  When they urinate on a lady, she

might be the most beautiful one around but no man

wants to marry her.  If it is a man, he might be the

most handsome and richest around but he will not be

able to settle down. When you go back to old sins, it

is not only old problems that will come back, new ones

that are worse than them will come in too. This is why

we always emphasize that Christians should make sure

that they get to heaven. You know one secret?  I am

going there!  No matter what revival the devil is

holding.

 

Many years ago, I was sent as external examiner to a

university.  When I got there, someone took me round

the university and then showed me the

Vice-Chancellor’s lodge, where I was to stay.  As the

man was about to leave, he said: “Doctor, do you need

spare tyres, I said “no”, that we had one in the car.

My driver giggled.  The man then said: “Do you need

bush meat?”  I said “no”, and the driver laughed.  The

man then went straight to the point and asked if I

wanted a woman, with whom to pass the night. When he

saw the look on my face, he knew that he had made a

grievous mistake and he said he was sorry, that he did

not know that I was an ‘S.U.’ I told him that I am

more than that, that I am a child of the kingdom of

God. I then told him that he should know that he

himself is ‘bush meat’ in the hands of strange women.

 

If a person takes advantage of the fact that no one is

seeing him or her and goes into sin, old problems will

come back.  When they come back, they come with full

force; seven fold and it will then be more difficult

to chase them out.  The powers behind problems are not

fools, they will say to themselves that if the person

just fasted for only one day and was able to chase

them out, they too should become stronger and more in

number, so that the person will not find it easy to

chase them out again.  Thus, they will reinforce.

That is why we teach deliverance ministers that, as

they chase out demons, they should ban them from

regrouping or reinforcing.

     

Sometimes, when we pray in the church, and a person

gets healed of migraine and on getting home it starts

again, he would wonder what happened.  Part of the

reasons could be that when he got into the bus on his

way home, he sat beside a person that was reading a

dirty magazine and he too, read a little bit with one

eye; that was enough to open doors to the powers that

had been marauding and seeking a way through which

they could come back.  Except you surround yourself

with the Fire of the Holy Ghost and angels of God and

live a holy life, they will come back.  Sometimes, if

such people keep touching their head, to feel if the

migraine is actually gone, it could come back because

those powers will use such unbelief as a

stepping-stone back into such lives. Forces of evil

renewal need a ladder to get back into your life.

Make sure that you do not provide it!

      Today, we will continue by looking further at the

reasons why evil powers renew old, evil things and

take hold of people.

 

5.    Receiving partial deliverance.

     

To only receive half or partial deliverance is a

reason for the come back stage of evil and old things

into one’s life. Sometimes, some people claim to be

delivered, while they are not.  Sometimes, they only

succeeded in chasing out the small demons, while the

big ones are still in the background.  All kinds of

things that people say they are free from are actually

still in their lives and are silently tormenting them.

 The small area of darkness that is still remaining,

will then serve as ladder for the forces that have

left, to renew their entry.

 

A woman was having problems with her husband and the

woman used to beat up her husband.  The man then sued

for divorce.  When the woman came to me, I wondered

how she got the power to beat up a man, and the Lord

told me that she had familiar spirits. I then asked

her some questions and she said she had  had these

spirits since childhood but that her parents took her

to a place where something was applied to her eyes and

then they took her to some people who gave her banana

to eat.  She said after eating the banana, she stopped

seeing the familiar spirits.  To her, she did not have

those spirits again but that actually, was spiritual

deception.  It was a satanic strategy meant to hinder

her from being delivered.

 

A lot of people that are claiming to be free from

these evil associations are really not free.  It could

be that they no longer attend meetings or run errands

for them, but they are still there.  It could also be

that a spiritual cataract has been put on their eyes

to hinder them from seeing.  Many people do not know

that they could attend witchcraft meetings and

participate fully every night without their knowing

it. They could say that God sees them, that they do

not have any strange power, or witchcraft or familiar

spirits. God will say that such people are not serious

because they have not really checked themselves.

Obtaining partial deliverance will only lead to

trouble.

 

The reason people receive partial deliverance is

mostly because they are not repentant.  There is a

difference between feeling sorry and repenting of a

sin.  Judas felt sorry for betraying Jesus, but he did

not repent.  Rather, he committed suicide. Peter felt

sorry for denying Jesus and he repented and cried for

forgiveness. That is why he remained a disciple and

did exploits for the Lord.  When a Christian laments

on why he or she arrived at falling into a particular

sin, and turns back from doing it, and makes up his or

her mind not to go back to it, that is called

repentance.  If a person refuses to confess a

particular sin, his or her deliverance will not be

complete. Also, if a person refuses to forgive those

who have offended him or her, the person cannot

receive total deliverance, despite hot deliverance

prayers.  If a person keeps bad things that he or she

inherited form parents and ancestors, deliverance will

not be complete. Some are even content with the

reduction of demonic attacks and oppression, rather

than seek total elimination of such things from their

lives.

 

Pride is an open door to evil spirits and it hinders

total deliverance. Pride does not allow a person to

know the truth about oneself.  This is the sin that

made Lucifer to fall.  If you want to receive total

deliverance, you have to humble yourself.  Pride will

make a person refuse counsel and prayers from a

younger person.  It makes such people say that they

want ‘people with experience’. The Bible says: “Live

by Faith.” not by experience.  Some people then go

from one prophet or pastor to the other, yet, nothing

happens.

 

Living in a bad spiritual environment, will ensure

that a person’s deliverance is partial.  When such

people pray in the church, they get relief but when

they get back home, the problem starts again. There

was someone who could not sleep for months.  When he

was prayed for in the church, he slept off on the

spot.  When he got home, he could not sleep again and

it continued for days.  It meant that there was

something in that house that was hindering him from

sleeping.

 

Partial deliverance makes things that were gone, to

find their way back. Refusal to break evil covenants,

results in partial deliverance.  Also, keeping secrets

that need to be confessed, will lead to partial

deliverance.  I would like this to be very clear in

your spirit. Many people complain that they do not

have breakthroughs, whereas, they hear other people

giving testimonies.  They wonder what their own

problem could be.  Things like the above-mentioned can

be responsible for lack of testimonies.

    

If the axe of God has not been allowed to go deep into

the foundation of a matter, then the problem remains.

The person could be relieved for a while but the

problem comes back later. Many are ashamed to tell the

truth; they hide their true self and do not reveal

what they are into; thus, the effectual prayer of the

saints will not avail for them. The axe of God will

not touch the ones they are hiding. If you hide dirty

things in your heart, there will be trouble. Some

people claim to be innocent but they are not really

innocent. For example, if a person finds him or

herself in the midst of people where there was a theft

case and the person goes to an herbalist with them,

that simple visit could cause problems in the life of

that person, whether he or she is the accused or not.

Also, before some men got born again, they found

pleasure in smacking the backside and the chest of

women.  Unknown to them, they could have slapped women

with evil powers and one day, a witchcraft bird could

have gotten hooked to their hands. They would just

notice that things are not moving the way they should.

 Usually, such people do not count such plays as sin.

So, they do not confess it.  The axe of God is not

likely to touch such things, because they have been

cleverly concealed. 

 

In some traditions in Nigeria, there is a kind of

beans that is cooked for twins and distributed to

people.  This is a from of sacrifice and must be

confessed, otherwise, the axe of God will not be able

to locate it from its roots.  If you have ever been

unfaithful to your husband or wife, you must confess

it, so that the axe of God can locate the root of that

problem.   

 

A brother said he had problems and was taken to a

fetish place. The place was all glass. The fetish man

took money from him and said he would call out his

spirit and would ask him questions.  The first

information that the spirit gave was wrong. The

brother then knew that he had been tricked and wanted

his money back. The fetish man asked him to leave at

once, if he did not want more problems for himself.

This kind of consultation is sinful and should be

confessed.

 

The more space you give to God to operate in your

life, the deeper the work He will do in your life.

The more secretive you are to God, the less you get of

Him.  The best way of dealing with God is to come to

Him, as you are; open up to Him.  God respects people

who open up to Him, and this allows His axe to get to

the roots of their problems.  

6.    Keeping demonic objects in one’s possession.

     

Deuteronomy 726:

 

 “Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine

house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou

shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor

it; for it is a cursed thing.”

 

These are things like phylacteries, charms, rings,

crosses and candles that were collected from

herbalists or white garment prophets.  The Bible says

they should be destroyed in fire.

 

7.    Unbelief and prayerlessness

 

That is expecting a problem to resurface, calling the

problem ‘My’ problem and refusing to confess

positively about your situation. If you confess

positive things to your life, you will find out that

old problems will not come back.  God did not create

believers to be tossed around by the powers of

darkness.

 

There was a man who was very rich but was sick. He was

transferred to a hospital in England and the doctor

could not do anything and said the man should go and

write his will, that he had only two months to live.

The man said that was not his portion and he came back

to Nigeria. He started praying vigorously and the

prayer warriors too, joined him. They revoked the evil

prophecy and he started to prophesy good things into

his life. The man did not die. After one year, he went

abroad on holiday.  He decided to pay his doctor a

visit.  When the doctor saw him, he fainted because he

thought he was seeing a ghost. This man survived

because he refused to give in to the evil prophecy

though he was an old man, he refused to die just like

that.

 

8.    Ingratitude

 

Many people keep asking God for things but never give

thanks to Him.  When they receive miracles, they do

not testify to others about what God has done.  They

are shy to say it out. Such people do not remember the

story of the ten lepers that were healed. Only one of

them came back to give thanks and Jesus pronounced

additional blessings on him - He was made whole; the

others, were just healed.  Being made whole means,

total renewal of all the parts of his body. When some

people complain about having prayed a particular

prayer point for one month and nothing happens, I tell

them to stop praying and start praising God for one

whole week and things will start to happen. 

 

If you fail to fill your life with the Holy Spirit

after chasing out certain things, they are likely to

find their way back, to fill the vacuum. You must be

filled with the power and fire of the Holy Ghost. That

is why Jesus said that if an evil spirit has been

chased out of a place, it will roam around and if it

does not find another suitable accommodation, it would

go back to where it was chased out. If it finds it

vacant, it will re-establish itself and invite others

that are even more wicked than it is.  Be filled with

the Holy Ghost until you are drunk with Him.     Perhaps,

you have not yet been filled with the power of the

Holy Ghost, you have to pray hard. If you say you are

filled with the Holy Ghost and nothing supernatural

has happened in your life, your life has not changed

dramatically as the lives of the Apostles did, then

you need to pray harder.  If you say you speak in

tongues and you still keep malice or tell lies, or

fear still grips you and you are always discouraged,

it means you have received Him, but are not yet filled

with Him.

 

Any believer that is filled with the Holy Ghost is

always radiant and people will wonder if he or she has

no problem. I for example would always tell people

that since Jesus made the pronouncement: “It is

finished” on the cross at Calvary, my problems too,

finished. When a person’s spiritual life is just

floating and is being pushed about by the currents of

life, the person will be like a dead fish that is

being carried about by the waves of the sea. A fish

that is alive swims against the torrents and currents

of the water. Do not allow circumstances and

situations to toss you here and there.  Be filled with

the fire of the Holy Ghost.

 

Whatever God does for you, should be permanent. If

there is anything in your life, that does not want the

gifts of God to be permanent in your life, you have to

shake it off.  You should not smile at such things.

You should not allow what God has given you, to slip

off your hands. Sometimes, some people see themselves

in dreams, receiving gifts from God but in real life,

do not have those things.  I would like you to pray

the prayers below, with all the fervency that you can

gather. Is it good for a person to put himself in a

coffin and nail it down by himself?  Such a person is

creating problems, not only for himself, but also for

his children and children’s children.

 

Once you come before God and ask for a thing, if God

sees that it is good for you, He will give it to you.

As you are asking, the devil is wishing that you did

not have it.  As you are receiving it, the devil is

planning on how to steal it from you and if you are

not careful, he will succeed. As you are going away

with it, the devil could make you slip off and it will

drop and he will take it away.  He could force you to

throw it away; he could force you to break it, etc.

That is why people have dreams of good things but they

are eaten up almost immediately. If you do not deal

with these forces, it will be difficult for you to

rule in the midst of your enemies.  When God wants you

to rule, He means rule.  If you keep collecting

blessings and losing them to the enemies, how will you

rule in their midst?

 

Many people are being remotely controlled from their

villages; many are tied to their mother’s aprons and

are being controlled from there. Some people are being

controlled from the ground or from the waters. Some

people are being controlled by their colleagues who

are using evil powers on them.  Some are being

controlled by the powers of dead relatives. How can

such things be reversed without the Lord’s

intervention? The Lord does not mind calling back a

spirit, to come back and carry its evil load, even if

it is already in the grave.

 

If you are reading this book and you are not yet born

again, if you find it difficult to stay away from sin,

despite all efforts, then, you need to cry out to the

Lord in prayer.  If you are not yet born again, you

cannot even survive in the midst of your enemies, not

to talk of ruling.  How would you lose eternity

because of ephemeral pleasures that last only a few

minutes or hours?  If the trumpet sounds today, will

you go with the Lord? Enough is enough, for powers of

darkness ordering believers here and there, sending

believers from one hospital to the other.  For you to

really say enough is enough and begin to reign in the

midst of your enemies, you have to be born again.  You

have to surrender your life to the Lord Jesus Christ.

See yourself as a sinner that cannot approach God in

this sinful state.

 

Confess your sins to the Lord; name them one by one

and ask Him to forgive and cleanse you from all

unrighteousness.  Claim the redemptive power in the

Blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross at Calvary.

Invite the Lord Jesus Christ into your life and ask

Him to become your personal Lord and Saviour. Ask Him

to take total control of your life and everything that

concerns you. Tell Him that you will never go back

into the world again.

 

I congratulate you on this decision that you have just

taken. It is the most important decision in life and I

pray that it shall be permanent in your life, in the

Name of Jesus. I pray that your name will be written

in the Book of Life, in the Name of Jesus. I pray that

the Lord will uphold you with His right hand of

righteousness, in the Name of Jesus.

 

Now, take the following prayer points with the spirit

of ruler ship and with determination in your heart.

 

-     I will not carry any yoke because the Lord Jesus

Christ says that His yoke is easy, and His burden is

light. Therefore, owners of evil load in my life,

carry your evil load by fire in the Name of Jesus.    

 

-     Any ungodly alteration that the enemy has carried

out in my life be repaired in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Holy Ghost fire, purify the foundations of my life,

in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Wherever my destiny has been altered for evil, O

Lord, repair me, in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     I receive the power to rule in the midst of my

enemies in the Name of Jesus. 

     

-     You forces of evil renewal, my life is not your

candidate in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     You spirit of debt and poverty, depart from my life

and go into the Abyss in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Every offensive mark upon me, be rubbed off by the

Blood of Jesus.

 

-     Every offensive mark upon my business, be rubbed off

by the Blood of Jesus.

 

-     Every evil imagination against me be condemned, in

the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Holy Spirit, take total possession of my life, in

the Name of Jesus.

 

-     I come out of every bondage that my parents prepared

for me and that I entered into, now, in the Name of

Jesus.

 

-     Angels of the living God, bury all my problems,

eternally, in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     You spirit that renews defeated problems, be bound

in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     I refuse to be ignorant of the devices of the devil

in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Whatever trap the devil has laid for my life

backfire in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Let the power to destroy the fiery darts of the

enemy fall upon me in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     My life will not reject the counsel of the righteous

in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Every power backing spiritual stubbornness in my

life, die in the Name of Jesus.  

 

-     The counsel of the Lord shall always prevail in my

life in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Holy Spirit, anoint me afresh with Your fire so that

I will become untouchable and unquenchable fire in the

Name of Jesus.

 

-     Every shackle of slavery, physical or spiritual

break and release me in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     Every evil destructive craving, my life is not your

Candidate die in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     O Lord, help my unbelief in the Name of Jesus.

 

-     The peace of God that surpasses all understanding,

reign supreme in my life as from today in the Name of

Jesus.     

 

  

The song of Moses and the song of the Lamb

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Isaiah51:11says,“ThereforetheredeemedoftheLordshall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.”

Here the Bible talks about the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb. In the message, we would be considering the following: What is the Song of Moses?  When can it be sung? Who is qualified to sing it?

In Exodus 15: 1-19, we find the song of Moses:

“Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overtrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.”

The question is: are you able to sing the song of Moses? Bible history reveals that Jacob left the land of Canaan for Egypt to look for food. The children of Israel were in slavery in Egypt for many years. Why did God keep them there that long?

In Genesis 46: 5-7, we see the prophecy. It says, “And Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him. His sons, and sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.” Genesis 15: 12-15: “And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge. And afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age.”

Why did the seed of Abraham have to go through all these? It is for a few reasons:

1.  God gives a picture that those heading for heaven must first become strangers/pilgrims here. Sometimes when somebody has not been through bondage he will not fully understand freedom.

2.  Heavenly pilgrims must pass through Egypt. Egypt represents the world. Everyone who is born again has to leave Egypt.

3.  Egyptians will afflict us if we remain in Egypt. That is, remaining in the world and dancing to its tune will only lead to suffering.

4.  God wanted these people to pass through their period of testing.

THE SCHOOLS OF GOD

In a sense, God is telling us that His various children will pass through various schools until they pass their exams. Many of us are passing through schools now and we wonder what is happening.

The school of good behaviour: God may be passing you through the school of good behaviour. God wants you to adjust that your behaviour. Until you pass, there will be no rest.

The school of humility: If God sees that you are not humble, He will cause you to work under people who are inferior to you, until you learn the principle of humility. You will be complaining, “O Lord, I am more qualified than these people.” When you learn the lesson of humility, He will say, “Okay, now you can go.”

The school of self-control: God is passing some people through the school of self-control. They have been out of control and have caused problems for themselves and are trying to solve the problems now. But the lesson God is teaching is that you must be able to control yourself. You must be able to speak to yourself and say, “Flesh, I am the controller here. You cannot tell me what to do, I will tell you what to do.” That is why Paul said, “But I put my body under and bring it into subjection lest at any time when I have preached to others I myself will be a cast away.” It means that the flesh can send somebody to hell fire.

The school of prayer: God is passing some people through the school of prayer and He creates prayer points for them to pray. He wants them to pass an examination.

The school of fasting: God is running some people through the school of fasting. Some of the people in this school had a lot of money before, and they spent it sponsoring beauty contests, boxing matches, pasted it on the heads of women at parties. God then said, “Okay, there is no problem, your fasting will soon start. “Now their fasting has started and the money has disappeared. God is teaching them a lesson. He is saying, “When I bless you again, you will know how to handle money.”

The Son of God Himself, Jesus, passed through various schools while He was on earth. Imagine the Son of God, the One who created men. These men stood before Him and argued on the Scriptures which He wrote.

Many people cannot sing the song of victory today because they are still suffering in Egypt. But praise God that the song of Moses is for us all. In Egypt, the Israelites cried to God and He reacted to their cry. God sent Moses to them. God first worked on him and he started his ministry at the old age of 80. He went on and led the people of the Lord away from the land of bondage. When they came out, the enemies began to pursue them. God had to deal with their enemies. He sent plagues of darkness, locust, blood, etc, upon them. The Israelites became too hot to handle before they were released. The stubborn pursuers still ran after them until they eventually killed themselves. After they had finished themselves in the Red Sea came the song of Moses.

So, the song of Moses is the song of the overcomer. It is the song of the victorious ones. It is the song of the winner. It is the song of those who are more than conquerors. Jesus does not want anybody to live a life of bondage. Therefore, if you find that the enemies do not want to release you on time, you can use the method of Moses and send plagues upon them. After the Egyptians perished, the song of Moses came.

THE INITIAL AND THE FINAL SONGS OF VICTORY

You can make yourself qualified to sing the Song of Moses. We have the initial victory and the final victory. Our initial victory is the victory over the devil and the flesh. But the initial victory is not good enough. The best victory is the final one.

WHAT IS THE SONG OF THE LAMB?

Revelation 15: 3-4: , “And they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy. For all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgements are made manifest.”

The song of the Lamb is the song of the redeemed when they get to heaven. You will first sing the song of Moses before the song of the Lamb. Everybody will be a chorister in heaven because they have to sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb.

It is very sad but true that many church goers are going to hell fire. The neglect of talent will send some people to hell fire. Some people are doing nothing for the Master. Such people just come for miracles, signs and wonders. They go away with all the blessings and contribute nothing. Such people should be assured that they are going to hell fire and there will be no song of Moses or that of the Lamb.

The servant that buried his talent landed in hell fire. His master said, “Push him out into utter darkness where there is gnashing of teeth.” And he was thrown out. Why? He refused to use his talent.

Some people will go to hell fire because of unprofitable spiritual development. They started with one ministry and there was no growth but all they were interested in was how the place was run and how much they could collect. They are not interested in the spread of the gospel and the spiritual growth of people. Religious attachment to dead churches will end in hell fire. God did not ask you to go to church to warm benches on Sundays. To serve Jesus is better than wearing expensive clothes and sitting on decorated seats. When a person is doing a lot of activities but his spiritual life is not deep, he is living a superficial life. Such a person cannot sing the song of the Lamb. When a person spends only 20 minutes from Monday to Friday to read the Bible, such a person is on his way to hell fire.

All those who have enrolled in the school of Jonah: God told them to go somewhere, they said, no, that they would go to where they liked. Hell fire is awaiting such people. Unscriptural marriages and ungodly relationships would lead people to hell fire. People involved in such exercises cannot sing the song of the Lamb. All believers who come to the house of God and are still busy playing games with the devil, cannot sing the song of Moses.

The average modern- day Christian is afraid of being described as fanatical or being referred to as a “madman for Jesus”. Beloved, until you get to the level where people would look at you and say, “You are mad,” your name may be blotted out of the Book of life. Jesus was called a mad man, Paul was called a mad man.

Many are afraid of a complete revision of their lives. Sisters who dress differently to church and dress differently outside are afraid of a complete revision. When God asks people to give up some certain things, they run away. Sometimes, our greatest blessings come to us by way of what people call madness. When you start carrying out the instructions of the Lord, a lot of people will think you are mad.

For one to sing the song of Moses there must be freedom from pride, envy and malice. Deception and impurity in the heart have to go. I pray that evil prophecy will not be fulfilled in your life, in Jesus’ name.

PRAYER POINTS

1.   Every sorrow and mourning, flee away from me by fire, in Jesus’ name.

2.   Every power working against victory in my life, loose your hold now, in Jesus’ name.

3.   I smash the head of every serpent of defeat, in the name of Jesus.

4.   I decree that the thunder and lighting of God should disappoint the camp of my enemy, in Jesus’ name.

5.   I soak myself, my family and everything concerning my life in the blood of Jesus, in the name of Jesus.

6.   (Lay your hands on your chest and pray like this): O Lord, baptize me with righteousness and fire, in Jesus’ name.

7.   Every power stealing my property, fall down and die, in Jesus’ name.

8.   I command every evil hand upon my life to wither, in Jesus’ name.

9.   I cancel all evil vows that are affecting my life negatively, in Jesus’ name.

10.  Let the time-table and clock of the enemy against my life, be destroyed, in Jesus’ name.

11.  Lord Jesus, reschedule my enemies to useless assignments, in Jesus’ name.

12.  Let every evil service of the enemy against my life be disappointed, in Jesus’ name.

13.  O Lord, make my life invisible to demonic observers, in Jesus’ name.

14.  All evil remote controlling powers, enter into bondage, in Jesus’ name.

15.  I withdraw all the ammunition of the enemy prepared against my life, in Jesus’ name.

16.  You the spirit of death, release my life, in Jesus’ name.

17.  I refuse to be spiritually amputated, in Jesus’ name.

18.  Let all pronouncements uttered against me by poisonous tongues be nullified, in Jesus’ name.

19.  I cut myself off from every territorial spirit, in Jesus’ name.

20.  Father Lord, heal me, in every area I need to be healed, in Jesus’ name.

21.  Father Lord, replace in me whatever needs to be replaced, in Jesus’ name.

22.  Father Lord, transform me wherever I need to be transformed, in Jesus’ name.

23.  Let the fire of God consume every darkness in my life, in Jesus’ name.

24.  I loose myself from the bondage of profitless hard work, in Jesus’ name.

25.  I loose myself from any power of witchcraft and bewitchment, in Jesus’ name.

26.  I loose myself from every satanic bondage, in Jesus’ name.

27.  I cancel the power of all curses upon my head, in Jesus’ name.

28.  Satan, I close any door, which I have opened to you through ignorance, in Jesus’ name.

29.  I bind the strongman working against my life, in Jesus’ name.

30.  I bind the strongman over my family, in Jesus’ name.

31.  I bind the strongman over my blessings, in Jesus’ name.

32.  I bind the strongman over my business, in Jesus’ name.

33.  I command the armour of the strongmen to be wasted completely, in Jesus’ name.

34.  I command all curses issued against me to be smashed and broken to pieces, in Jesus’ name.

35.  I command total restoration and healing to take place in my body, in Jesus’ name.

36.  I loose myself from all inherited bondage, in Jesus’ name.

37.  Let all the powers encamping against my goodness and breakthroughs become confused and scatter, in Jesus’ name.

38.  Let all the powers of my adversaries be rendered impotent, in Jesus’ name.

39.  Let every evil tongue issuing curses on my life be completely silenced, in Jesus’ name.

40.  I command all evil stronghold holding on to my goodness to be removed, in Jesus’ name.

41.  I pursue, overtake and recover my property from the hand of spiritual robbers, in Jesus’ name.

42.  Let all evil counsel, plan, desire, expectation, imagination, device and activity of the oppressor against my life be rendered null and void, in Jesus’ name.

43.  I terminate every contract and cancel every evil promissory note kept in satanic bank for my sake, in Jesus’ name.

44.  I release myself from the power and activity of the wasters, in Jesus’ name.

45.  O Lord, baptize me with your strength to pursue my enemy, in Jesus’ name.

46.  I disband all evil hosts gathered against my progress, in Jesus’ name.

47.  Let all anti-testimony forces scatter into irreparable level, in Jesus’ name.

48.  Let the joy of the enemy over my life be turned into sorrow, in Jesus’ name.

49.  I paralyze every pocket with evil holes, in Jesus’ name.

50.  Let the power, glory and the kingdom of the living God come upon every department of my life, in Jesus’ name.

51.  Let all eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood begin to stumble and fall, in Jesus’ name.

52.  I break the power of any demonic spell against my life, in Jesus’ name.

53.  Let all bitter water flow out of my handiwork, in Jesus’ name.

54.  I paralyze all problem expanders, in Jesus’ name.

55.  I paralyze every power delaying my miracles, in Jesus’ name.

56.  I paralyze all marriage destroyers, in Jesus’ name.

57.  I separate my life from all idol present in my place of birth, in Jesus’ name.

58.  I separate my life from all evil streams present in my place of birth, in Jesus’ name.

59.  I separate my life from all evil shrines present in my place of birth, in Jesus’ name.

60.  Father Lord, I thank you for victory, in Jesus’ name.

 

The song of Moses and the song of the Lamb

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Isaiah51:11says,“ThereforetheredeemedoftheLordshall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.”

Here the Bible talks about the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb. In the message, we would be considering the following: What is the Song of Moses?  When can it be sung? Who is qualified to sing it?

In Exodus 15: 1-19, we find the song of Moses:

“Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overtrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.”

The question is: are you able to sing the song of Moses? Bible history reveals that Jacob left the land of Canaan for Egypt to look for food. The children of Israel were in slavery in Egypt for many years. Why did God keep them there that long?

In Genesis 46: 5-7, we see the prophecy. It says, “And Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him. His sons, and sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.” Genesis 15: 12-15: “And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge. And afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age.”

Why did the seed of Abraham have to go through all these? It is for a few reasons:

1.  God gives a picture that those heading for heaven must first become strangers/pilgrims here. Sometimes when somebody has not been through bondage he will not fully understand freedom.

2.  Heavenly pilgrims must pass through Egypt. Egypt represents the world. Everyone who is born again has to leave Egypt.

3.  Egyptians will afflict us if we remain in Egypt. That is, remaining in the world and dancing to its tune will only lead to suffering.

4.  God wanted these people to pass through their period of testing.

THE SCHOOLS OF GOD

In a sense, God is telling us that His various children will pass through various schools until they pass their exams. Many of us are passing through schools now and we wonder what is happening.

The school of good behaviour: God may be passing you through the school of good behaviour. God wants you to adjust that your behaviour. Until you pass, there will be no rest.

The school of humility: If God sees that you are not humble, He will cause you to work under people who are inferior to you, until you learn the principle of humility. You will be complaining, “O Lord, I am more qualified than these people.” When you learn the lesson of humility, He will say, “Okay, now you can go.”

The school of self-control: God is passing some people through the school of self-control. They have been out of control and have caused problems for themselves and are trying to solve the problems now. But the lesson God is teaching is that you must be able to control yourself. You must be able to speak to yourself and say, “Flesh, I am the controller here. You cannot tell me what to do, I will tell you what to do.” That is why Paul said, “But I put my body under and bring it into subjection lest at any time when I have preached to others I myself will be a cast away.” It means that the flesh can send somebody to hell fire.

The school of prayer: God is passing some people through the school of prayer and He creates prayer points for them to pray. He wants them to pass an examination.

The school of fasting: God is running some people through the school of fasting. Some of the people in this school had a lot of money before, and they spent it sponsoring beauty contests, boxing matches, pasted it on the heads of women at parties. God then said, “Okay, there is no problem, your fasting will soon start. “Now their fasting has started and the money has disappeared. God is teaching them a lesson. He is saying, “When I bless you again, you will know how to handle money.”

The Son of God Himself, Jesus, passed through various schools while He was on earth. Imagine the Son of God, the One who created men. These men stood before Him and argued on the Scriptures which He wrote.

Many people cannot sing the song of victory today because they are still suffering in Egypt. But praise God that the song of Moses is for us all. In Egypt, the Israelites cried to God and He reacted to their cry. God sent Moses to them. God first worked on him and he started his ministry at the old age of 80. He went on and led the people of the Lord away from the land of bondage. When they came out, the enemies began to pursue them. God had to deal with their enemies. He sent plagues of darkness, locust, blood, etc, upon them. The Israelites became too hot to handle before they were released. The stubborn pursuers still ran after them until they eventually killed themselves. After they had finished themselves in the Red Sea came the song of Moses.

So, the song of Moses is the song of the overcomer. It is the song of the victorious ones. It is the song of the winner. It is the song of those who are more than conquerors. Jesus does not want anybody to live a life of bondage. Therefore, if you find that the enemies do not want to release you on time, you can use the method of Moses and send plagues upon them. After the Egyptians perished, the song of Moses came.

THE INITIAL AND THE FINAL SONGS OF VICTORY

You can make yourself qualified to sing the Song of Moses. We have the initial victory and the final victory. Our initial victory is the victory over the devil and the flesh. But the initial victory is not good enough. The best victory is the final one.

WHAT IS THE SONG OF THE LAMB?

Revelation 15: 3-4: , “And they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy. For all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgements are made manifest.”

The song of the Lamb is the song of the redeemed when they get to heaven. You will first sing the song of Moses before the song of the Lamb. Everybody will be a chorister in heaven because they have to sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb.

It is very sad but true that many church goers are going to hell fire. The neglect of talent will send some people to hell fire. Some people are doing nothing for the Master. Such people just come for miracles, signs and wonders. They go away with all the blessings and contribute nothing. Such people should be assured that they are going to hell fire and there will be no song of Moses or that of the Lamb.

The servant that buried his talent landed in hell fire. His master said, “Push him out into utter darkness where there is gnashing of teeth.” And he was thrown out. Why? He refused to use his talent.

Some people will go to hell fire because of unprofitable spiritual development. They started with one ministry and there was no growth but all they were interested in was how the place was run and how much they could collect. They are not interested in the spread of the gospel and the spiritual growth of people. Religious attachment to dead churches will end in hell fire. God did not ask you to go to church to warm benches on Sundays. To serve Jesus is better than wearing expensive clothes and sitting on decorated seats. When a person is doing a lot of activities but his spiritual life is not deep, he is living a superficial life. Such a person cannot sing the song of the Lamb. When a person spends only 20 minutes from Monday to Friday to read the Bible, such a person is on his way to hell fire.

All those who have enrolled in the school of Jonah: God told them to go somewhere, they said, no, that they would go to where they liked. Hell fire is awaiting such people. Unscriptural marriages and ungodly relationships would lead people to hell fire. People involved in such exercises cannot sing the song of the Lamb. All believers who come to the house of God and are still busy playing games with the devil, cannot sing the song of Moses.

The average modern- day Christian is afraid of being described as fanatical or being referred to as a “madman for Jesus”. Beloved, until you get to the level where people would look at you and say, “You are mad,” your name may be blotted out of the Book of life. Jesus was called a mad man, Paul was called a mad man.

Many are afraid of a complete revision of their lives. Sisters who dress differently to church and dress differently outside are afraid of a complete revision. When God asks people to give up some certain things, they run away. Sometimes, our greatest blessings come to us by way of what people call madness. When you start carrying out the instructions of the Lord, a lot of people will think you are mad.

For one to sing the song of Moses there must be freedom from pride, envy and malice. Deception and impurity in the heart have to go. I pray that evil prophecy will not be fulfilled in your life, in Jesus’ name.

PRAYER POINTS

1.   Every sorrow and mourning, flee away from me by fire, in Jesus’ name.

2.   Every power working against victory in my life, loose your hold now, in Jesus’ name.

3.   I smash the head of every serpent of defeat, in the name of Jesus.

4.   I decree that the thunder and lighting of God should disappoint the camp of my enemy, in Jesus’ name.

5.   I soak myself, my family and everything concerning my life in the blood of Jesus, in the name of Jesus.

6.   (Lay your hands on your chest and pray like this): O Lord, baptize me with righteousness and fire, in Jesus’ name.

7.   Every power stealing my property, fall down and die, in Jesus’ name.

8.   I command every evil hand upon my life to wither, in Jesus’ name.

9.   I cancel all evil vows that are affecting my life negatively, in Jesus’ name.

10.  Let the time-table and clock of the enemy against my life, be destroyed, in Jesus’ name.

11.  Lord Jesus, reschedule my enemies to useless assignments, in Jesus’ name.

12.  Let every evil service of the enemy against my life be disappointed, in Jesus’ name.

13.  O Lord, make my life invisible to demonic observers, in Jesus’ name.

14.  All evil remote controlling powers, enter into bondage, in Jesus’ name.

15.  I withdraw all the ammunition of the enemy prepared against my life, in Jesus’ name.

16.  You the spirit of death, release my life, in Jesus’ name.

17.  I refuse to be spiritually amputated, in Jesus’ name.

18.  Let all pronouncements uttered against me by poisonous tongues be nullified, in Jesus’ name.

19.  I cut myself off from every territorial spirit, in Jesus’ name.

20.  Father Lord, heal me, in every area I need to be healed, in Jesus’ name.

21.  Father Lord, replace in me whatever needs to be replaced, in Jesus’ name.

22.  Father Lord, transform me wherever I need to be transformed, in Jesus’ name.

23.  Let the fire of God consume every darkness in my life, in Jesus’ name.

24.  I loose myself from the bondage of profitless hard work, in Jesus’ name.

25.  I loose myself from any power of witchcraft and bewitchment, in Jesus’ name.

26.  I loose myself from every satanic bondage, in Jesus’ name.

27.  I cancel the power of all curses upon my head, in Jesus’ name.

28.  Satan, I close any door, which I have opened to you through ignorance, in Jesus’ name.

29.  I bind the strongman working against my life, in Jesus’ name.

30.  I bind the strongman over my family, in Jesus’ name.

31.  I bind the strongman over my blessings, in Jesus’ name.

32.  I bind the strongman over my business, in Jesus’ name.

33.  I command the armour of the strongmen to be wasted completely, in Jesus’ name.

34.  I command all curses issued against me to be smashed and broken to pieces, in Jesus’ name.

35.  I command total restoration and healing to take place in my body, in Jesus’ name.

36.  I loose myself from all inherited bondage, in Jesus’ name.

37.  Let all the powers encamping against my goodness and breakthroughs become confused and scatter, in Jesus’ name.

38.  Let all the powers of my adversaries be rendered impotent, in Jesus’ name.

39.  Let every evil tongue issuing curses on my life be completely silenced, in Jesus’ name.

40.  I command all evil stronghold holding on to my goodness to be removed, in Jesus’ name.

41.  I pursue, overtake and recover my property from the hand of spiritual robbers, in Jesus’ name.

42.  Let all evil counsel, plan, desire, expectation, imagination, device and activity of the oppressor against my life be rendered null and void, in Jesus’ name.

43.  I terminate every contract and cancel every evil promissory note kept in satanic bank for my sake, in Jesus’ name.

44.  I release myself from the power and activity of the wasters, in Jesus’ name.

45.  O Lord, baptize me with your strength to pursue my enemy, in Jesus’ name.

46.  I disband all evil hosts gathered against my progress, in Jesus’ name.

47.  Let all anti-testimony forces scatter into irreparable level, in Jesus’ name.

48.  Let the joy of the enemy over my life be turned into sorrow, in Jesus’ name.

49.  I paralyze every pocket with evil holes, in Jesus’ name.

50.  Let the power, glory and the kingdom of the living God come upon every department of my life, in Jesus’ name.

51.  Let all eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood begin to stumble and fall, in Jesus’ name.

52.  I break the power of any demonic spell against my life, in Jesus’ name.

53.  Let all bitter water flow out of my handiwork, in Jesus’ name.

54.  I paralyze all problem expanders, in Jesus’ name.

55.  I paralyze every power delaying my miracles, in Jesus’ name.

56.  I paralyze all marriage destroyers, in Jesus’ name.

57.  I separate my life from all idol present in my place of birth, in Jesus’ name.

58.  I separate my life from all evil streams present in my place of birth, in Jesus’ name.

59.  I separate my life from all evil shrines present in my place of birth, in Jesus’ name.

60.  Father Lord, I thank you for victory, in Jesus’ name.

 Physicians of no value

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Our topic is taken from the book of Job13:4 which says, “But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value."

Pray like this: “Lord, choose me for miracles and let your presence be profitable to me as I read this magazine, in the name of Jesus.

We have to cry like this to the Lord because in the Bible although Jesus never refused anyone who came to Him, yet He did not proclaim healing or universal liberty to all captives. The truth therefore is that some captives may die in their captivity even though they have encountered the Liberator. Some sick people may die in their sicknesses even though they have encountered the Healer. Jesus never proclaimed resurrection for all the dead. For example, the Bible says that when He was at the pool of Bethesda, there was a multitude of impotent folk, the blind, the hurt and the withered. But He just passed by them and picked only one man out and healed him. When Jesus was at the grave of Lazarus, He called Lazarus to come forth. The rest of the dead still remained there. Also though Jesus came to set the captives free, He left His own cousin, John the Baptist, to stay in jail until his head was cut off.

In the story of Jacob, we see that the only person who could save Jacob made every effort to get away from him. He said to Jacob, “Let me go, for it will soon be daylight.” But Jacob said, “I would not let you go unless you bless me.” Let us also look at two New Testament Scriptures to buttress our point. Mark 6: 48 says, “And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea and would have passed by them.” This was Jesus. He saw His disciples troubled in the sea. In spite of the fact that He knew they had problems, He set His face as if He was going to pass by and the Bible says that He would have passed. But then, they saw Him and cried out. Then He stopped and they laid hold on Him.

Luke 24: 28 says, “And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further.” This was Jesus again. He was talking to His people and when they got near where they would stay, He kept His face as if He was going further. Is it that God wants to avoid us? No. But through what looks as if He is going to avoid us, He ignites a fire in us or stirs up enough action in us. For us to be like Jacob who said, “unless thou bless me I will not let you go,” there has to be a stirring. When we are stirred up like that, then we will look for God with all our hearts. Please, pray again like this: “Power to lay hold on God like Jacob, fall upon me so that God will not pass me by, in Jesus’ name.”

WHAT IS SICKNESS?

Sickness is a state of bad health; when things that are meant to be functioning well are not doing so. The Bible makes us to understand that there are different kinds of sicknesses.

1.    Spiritual sickness: This is the sickness of the spirit. Once the spirit is sick, it can lead to other problems in the body and in the soul. Such sicknesses are generally caused by sin. Spiritual sickness will result in spiritual weakness or lack of appetite just like somebody who is sick physically. A person may have spiritual Kwashiorkor, meaning that his spirit is poorly fed and is suffering from bad nutrition and cannot contend against the enemy of the soul.

2.    Emotional sickness: This is sickness caused by the hurting or damaging of the emotions. It is common with people who are easily upset.

3.    Mind sickness: This is when the mind, the will and the intellect begin to behave abnormally. Dirty minds, weak wills, ungodly imagination, unprogressive thinking, blindness of the heart and blankness of the heart are signs of a sick mind. They cannot be seen physically. They manifest through people’s attitudes.  

4.    Sickness of the body: This is when the body is not functioning well in one part or the other. Many people understand the sickness of the body. If you understand the sickness of the body, it is not difficult to understand what it will look like if the spirit is sick. If you have ever had malaria fever, imagine how you felt at that time, then imagine how you would feel if your spirit were to have fever. When the enemy knows that the spirit is sick, he comes in and strikes. This is the major cause of sudden death, weak spirit falling under the sledgehammer of the enemy.

5.    Demonic sicknesses: In these cases there is nothing wrong with the body but certain spirits are hiding there causing trouble and confusion. These are diseases sponsored by bad spirits.

6.    Sicknesses unto death: These are sponsored by the spirit of death and hell.

Man has always had his own way of treating sicknesses. God too, has His own method of treating sicknesses and the devil has his own method. When you accept the devil’s treatment it is like accepting treatment from a quack doctor. There are many quack doctors who treat people the wrong way. Going to the devil for treatment amounts to the same thing. When a person accepts the devil’s treatment, many other problems will follow. It does not matter for how long you have received the treatment. 

 SOME OF THE THINGS THAT FOLLOW THE DEVIL’S TREATMENTS ARE:

1.    Multiplication of sorrows: The Bible says that the sorrows of those who run to other gods shall be multiplied.

2.    Selling yourself to the devil for nothing as pointed out in Isaiah 52:3 which says, “For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought and ye shall be redeemed without money.”

3.    Engaging in primitive spiritual trade by barter: Since the devil has the power to put sicknesses in people, he also has the power to withdraw some of the sicknesses so that the victim would be confused and will eventually be captured and thrown into hell fire.

4.    Exchange of destiny: This happens when you go to the hospital of the enemy for treatment.

5.    The entire body of the person could be exchanged by wicked spirit: People whose containers called “the body” have been exchanged are not difficult to recognize. They suffer heaviness, drowsiness and are very vulnerable to spiritual wounds because they are carrying a body which does not belong to them. Once you have a body that does not belong to you, you cannot get married in that state because no husband or wife will marry a fake body. The hospitals can never find out what is wrong because when you get there, the evil powers would quickly replace it with the normal body and the doctors would not see anything wrong and when you are out, they quickly put the bad one back. These days they do that a lot. 

The bodies of many people are under remote control. The bodies really do not belong to them and that is the reason the bodies are opposed to their spirits. The bodies are acting in opposition to their spirits. This is why some people experience unexplainable hatred. Some people who are meant to help them just hate them. All these happen when you go for treatment in the hospital of the devil.

6.    Unconscious spiritual transportation: Ten years ago, a little girl of seven was brought to me. The person who brought her said, “Tell the man of God what you have been doing.” She said, “I used to carry my mother to witchcraft meetings. Although she is not a witch but I carry her there.” I asked for her mother to see me, and she was brought in. The woman who was supposed to be in her 30s looked like a woman of 60. During the journey to the witchcraft meetings at night, she received wounds. Her head was hit against things, even her spirit too, as she was carried all over the place. Physically, she suffered constant sicknesses, including suicidal tendencies bothering on insanity, and she felt things moving about in her body. This was because one day, the woman went for treatment in the hospital of the devil, and from there, her case file was transferred to her daughter who started to use her as a horse to go to witchcraft meetings. If you are like that and you are reading this, you shall be set loose, in Jesus’ name.

7.    When you go for treatment in the camp of the enemy, you put yourself in the cooking pot of the enemy: This is why some people complain about heat and peppery feeling all over the body. Such people are tied down so that they keep going back to consult the evil powers until they are finished with them. Your lot will not be like that, in Jesus’ name.

When a call goes out in the world of wickedness to get a person, the dark powers will first of all check their records to see if they have anything on the person. Once the person has consulted them or have been to their saloon, he or she would be in trouble. When a believer goes to a hairdressing saloon called “mermaid salon,” or barbing salon called “Hot-head” he or she is looking for trouble because they did not mince words on their notice board. What they do there is well spelt out. So do not be surprised if the person’s head is messed up. They would use the hair collected from the person for evil. The same goes for those who have kissed their agents. They will use their saliva for evil. They can also use their clothes, photographs, etc. They start working on people from these points.

The answer could also be “Oh no, we have no materials on this person and the blood of Jesus has removed even the former ones.” When that is the case, their agents are instructed to try and find something from the person’s body. They look for material which when got are used to hunt for the person. Such person keeps worrying, “Oh why am I having this? What is happening to me? I cannot sleep.”

If you carry your body to satanic agents they will remove all they want and keep them in their bank. With incisions, they gain access to people’s blood for future manipulations. Such people are also marked. All the stylish things people put on their stomach and hands, for example, tattooes, are bad marks which need to be cleaned up by the blood of Jesus. When they put incision on your body, you form the strongest covenant on earth called the blood covenant. If they have treated you with incisions before, you need to get hold of the Great Physician now. All those who say they heal through incisions are physicians of no value.

May be you have been asked to carry sacrifices. All they have done is to convert you to the devil’s caterer. You had feed wandering spirits at the crossroads. You cook food for them and now you expect them to leave you alone. No, they will multiply your problems so that you will bring more food. All those who have their bath with charm soap are busy washing away their virtues and transferring them to somebody else. Using strange perfumes on the body would result in chasing away the good spirits that would have helped you.

Eating herbal concoction is the same thing as feeding from the devil's table. There is a book called, “Demons, Doctors and Medicine.” It reveals the secret of satanic agents who are doctors or nurses. According to the book, they don’t treat patients but kill them softly. All these are physicians of no value. Bathing at the river at the prescription of a herbalist or fake prophet leads to evil initiation to water spirits. They are making you a disciple of the mermaid. When because of one problem or the other somebody has sex with a herbalist or a so-called man of God, all he or she is doing is signing off his or her own marriage and inviting stubborn spirit husband or spirit wife. Some people would be told that before they can get out of a problem, they have to go under the bridge and have sex with a mad woman or mad man. What they are doing to them is initiation into spiritual madness. The Bible says that when you join yourself to a harlot you become one body. The person becomes one body with madness. Such people need deliverance. A certain woman was seeking for a child and was told by a herbalist to buy a young goat, carry it on her back and walk to a market place.  What the herbalist did was to give her a goat for a child. The child was already a child of hell fire even before he was born.

These are the methods of the physicians of no value. They have caused people a lot of terror and havoc, especially in the black man’s world. Their cures are uncertain, indefinite and unreliable. But when the cure is from the Lord Jesus Christ, it is certain. The Bible says that all that come to Him, He will in no wise cast out. He cures all that come to Him. Jesus can also cure instantly. He cures perfectly, permanently and most importantly, He cures without charging anything. If you have ever paid anybody for giving you spiritual service, know for sure that the service you paid for was not from God. He says, “Freely are you given, freely you give.” When somebody charges you money because he wants to bless anointing oil for you, know for sure that the power inside the anointing oil is not from God. Somebody came to me and said that a prophet charged him N4000 for anointing oil, which should cost only N25.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect doctor of both spiritual and physical diseases. If we can remove all the spiritual diseases, nobody will be sick again. But as far as men are getting spiritually sick and are going to physicians of no value for treatment, trouble will continue to happen. If you study the people that Jesus healed in the Bible, you can group them into about eight classes.

 CLASSES OF PEOPLE HEALED BY THE LORD

1. The blind: Those who are spiritually blind are unable to see the truth. They only possess physical eyes. Believers who have only physical eyes and cannot see into the spirit are heading for danger. A certain sister visited the man she planned to marry. During the visit, she said, “Let us pray.” As they prayed, the sister saw that she was no longer in the sitting room where they were and the person sitting beside her had turned to a snake with three legs. She opened her eyes several times but saw the man still praying and not a snake. She was afraid of saying “no” right away. So, after the prayer, she politely told the brother that she needed to pray some more about his proposal. Suppose, her eyes were not opened, she would have married a three-legged snake-man. Believers who cannot see beyond their nose go to the camp to pray for two weeks and come back to say that they did not receive anything. It is spiritual blindness.

Many people have spiritual cataract in their eyes. They see nothing in the spirit just like the physically blind people. Such a person could have lots of accidents. A spiritually blind person too will have accidents. They fall into pits that they are not meant to fall into. The enemy will bring in a sword like this and they will not see him. A lot of people will be in perfect health if their eyes can just open like that of Elisha. Because immediately, they enemies bringing the evil parcel to you, you will see it and say, “Please, oga, this is not the address.” But when you cannot see, what do you do?

God called a man some years ago and told him that an epidemic of disease was about to enter his town: “It will enter at exactly 2.00am. Therefore take your Bible, go and wait for it at the gate of town.” The man said, “oh Lord, what will I tell the spirit?” The Lord said, “I will tell you when you get there. One step at a time.” He took off and stayed there. Truly, at exactly that time, this spirit came with a calabash, to sprinkle it contents on everybody in the town apart from those who had the concerning of the blood of Jesus. The man of God saw the thing and said, “Stop, in the name of Jesus.” The thing said, “Why did you stop me?” He said, “Because I don’t want you to go there and put your sickness on the people.” The thing said, “What? But we have our own children there too. You people are causing trouble. You should protect only your own children and leave us alone to punish our own.” The man of God said, “No, the Bible says that God maketh the rain to fall on both the just and the unjust.” He said, “No, I am not talking about rain now. I am talking about sickness.” They argued for a long time. Let us open our eyes. We need them open. It is important.

2.    Jesus healed the deaf and the dumb: There are people who come to the house of God but they never hear the voice of God. And they have no fire in their tongue and cannot discuss with God spiritually. They need to hear the voice of the Lord today. For the string that is tying their tongues and ears to be loosed, they need to be able to hear the voice of God calling them by name. God has to call you by name and you will answer.

3.    Jesus healed the lame: The spiritually lame people are those who cannot walk in God’s way. They find it so difficult to keep to the path of holiness. Their legs are not equal. They remain in the valley because of the difficulty of climbing to the mountain. People are looking over their heads but they do not look at the legs so they do not know that the legs have injury and are lame. A lame man cannot win a 100 meters race against people with normal legs. If there is fire in a place, the lame man has to be helped just like the blind has to be helped.

4.    Jesus healed lepers: These are people who are unclean by reason of their sins. Sin is the leprosy of the soul and lepers are usually kept away from other persons. They are kept outside the town. Spiritual leprosy will keep you away from God’s blessings and from getting your benefits from the Lord.

5.    Jesus healed the crooked, the withered and the paralytic: These are people whose spiritual lives are paralyzed. They are useless in God’s army. Sin has removed their strength and sicknesses have taken over. They do not correct what they should correct. So, they go to physicians of no value and they add more to their problems.

6.    Jesus healed fever and issue of blood: Spiritually, this means uncontrollable passion for sin, spiritual leakage resulting in lack of discipline.

7.    Jesus healed the demon possessed: These were people imprisoned in the body, soul and spirit by foul spirits. Such people are a curse to themselves and a danger to others. They need to be set free.

8.    Jesus raised the dead: He prayed for the dead to come back to life. There are those who are dead in trespasses and sins, dead towards God. As far as God is concerned, they do not exist.

Beloved, why don’t you go to Jesus today for your healing. Take no price for He heals for nothing. Go at once because if you delay and neglect it, it may mean death. When you do not go for your treatment with the Great Physician, you can be eaten up. It does not matter how heavily you have been bombarded, there is the balm of Gilead. All you have to do today is to cry unto God. The Scripture says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will answer and thou shall glorify my name.” I remember the story of a man who runs a pharmacy shop and he used to think that he is very bright. He has a Christian friend who used to preach to him. He will always argue and refuse to believe. One day this Christian got fed up with arguing with him. The Christian said, “Well, I am not going to talk to you about salvation again, but remember any day you run into trouble I give you one verse; it says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee and thou shall glorify me,” and he went away. A few weeks later the man was sleeping in his shop and a little girl came with a prescription from a doctor. She said her mother was sick to the point of death and needed some drugs. The pharmacist was unhappy to be woken up, yet half asleep he gave the girl the medicine. Immediately the small girl got it she ran out to give it to her mother. Not quite a minute after the girl had left, as the pharmacist was putting the drug container back on the shelf, he discovered that instead of the correct medicine, he had poured poison into the bottle he gave to that little girl. Immediately his sleep cleared. He ran out and looked to the left and to the right, but could not see the girl. He was distressed. He shouted, but the little girl did not come back. He was worried, because he knew that when the drug is given to the woman and she dies, somebody would find out the truth and he would be in trouble. He ran back into his room and the Scripture verse of his friend occurred to him: “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will answer, and thou shall glorify my name. “The man started praying and started crying, “God, if you will only do this. I will believe that you exist and will give you my life.” Immediately he finished praying, he had not risen from the floor when the little girl was at the door again. She had fallen down and broken the bottle. She said, “excuse me, sir. I broke the bottle because I was in a hurry.” The man wondered, “So this is how God works? He then committed his life to the Lord completely. Now if God could do that for that man, He will do it for you.

 PRAYER POINTS

1.    I oppose every evil influence that the enemy is having over my life, in Jesus’ name.

2.    Any material of my body present in any evil altar be withdrawn, in the name of Jesus.

3.    Any good thing belonging to me that is presently being kept in a satanic bank, be released to me, in the name of Jesus.

4.    Any area I have submitted myself to physicians of no value, be released, in the name of Jesus.

5.    I release myself from every infirmity, in the name of Jesus.

6.    Eternal Rock of ages, lay your hands of fire upon me, in Jesus' name.

7.  Lord Jesus, answer me when I cry, in Jesus' name.

 

Counterfeit Christianity  2

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 This is the concluding part of this message, which we started last week. We went into it because many people are working behind their schedules and some have spent unprofitable time in incubation instead of doing what God wants them to do. In the last week’s edition, we said that the Lord wants us to become disciples and also, we began to look at the characteristics of a disciple, namely:

 1.   Hatred to self.

2.   Hatred to worldliness.

3.   Carrying your cross.

4.   Forsaking all for Christ.

5.    Continuity.  

As I said last week, there are lots of receivers but few givers. There are lots of people who sing praise worship without the love of God in their hearts. A lot of pastors pastor only their bellies. A lot of ushers are ushering only themselves. There are lots of choristers who sing only for themselves while a lot of Sunday school teachers teach only themselves. The Lord does not want this situation to continue. We must always remember to ask ourselves the relevant question: “Art thou also one of this man’s disciples?” We now continue with the characteristics of a disciple:

6. Brokenness: This has to  do with a lot of spiritual warfare. The three major elements of warfare are:

1.  Dealing with the devil and his cohorts.

2.  Taking control of your mind. Your mind is the greatest battlefield. You must establish a solid immigration control on the door of your mind, because if you lose the battle of the mind then you lose every battle.

3.  Crucifying the flesh. The big truth is that satanic attacks cannot prosper against our lives if our flesh refuses to co-operate with them, as it is written in Colossians 3:5. If we daily mortify our flesh, the devil will have no landing place in our lives. If you are living a life that is dead to sin as the Scripture commands, you will not surrender to satanic suggestion; you will not respond to the temptations of the flesh because dead men do not respond to temptations. Dead men do not commit fornication. Dead men do not abuse people. Dead men are incapable of doing what people who are alive are doing. This is where the power of broken lives lies. When you live a life of brokenness, you will not be threatened by temptations rather the power behind the temptations will avoid you. But in a situation where you are threatened by temptations all the time, it means that you are not broken. A man may jump and shout at the devil all day but if he allows one area of his life to go unchecked or unguarded, he would be courting trouble. Big sins will not get many Christians to hell fire because many of them will not get involved in those ones; but the little ones such as little stealing, little lies, little malice, little prayer time, abusive words, critical spirit, etc. will push people to hell fire. If there is an area of sin in your life that you have not dealt with, the enemy will use it as a door to attack you and all the prayers against him will be to no avail. In such a case, the devil is not the real enemy but your carnal mind and flesh, which are not submitted to the Holy Spirit. Herein lies the trouble. This is where God is having problems. God will not force you to live the kind of life you want to live. It is a matter of choice. That is why Joshua stood before the Israelites and said, “I set before you this day, blessings and curses, death and life. Now chose the one you want.” It is a matter of choice.

 THE BROKEN LIFE

A broken life can never be a raw material for the devil. A broken life knows the secret of the law. It is immune to satanic arrows. It will trample permanently on serpents and scorpions. It is a terror to demonic forces. When a broken life goes into a particular situation, demons walk out. A broken life will move under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It will offer the devil no cooperation at all. It is dead to worldly opinions. If you are broken you would not be bothered about the comments of somebody in darkness on your dressing. Somebody in darkness should not dictate to the person in light how he should live his life. A broken life offers no protection to the enemies.

Unbrokenness will do your spiritual life a lot of harm. If you joke with brokenness it means that you are not a disciple. The Lord only uses broken things. Peter was a broken man. Anytime he made a mistake he agreed. The Bible says that when he denied the Lord, he went out and wept bitterly. When the Bible says that somebody wept bitterly, it must be a serious matter. Peter was carrying the power of God about because he was a broken man. “Art thou also that man’s disciple?” If you are truly His disciple, you would be broken. That thing inside you that makes you very annoyed wants to make you a child of the devil. It has to go. That thing that makes you to tell lies is turning you into a child of the devil who started lying from the beginning. There is no truth in him at all. “Art thou also that man’s disciple?” If you are, you are a correct representative of the body of Christ. If you are not, you are one of those whom the Lord is complaining about that they are moving behind schedule. You are also one of those blocking the prayers of the saints. You must move forward and become a disciple.

If you can still be annoyed easily and you can fight, you do not belong to God yet. You belong to the devil. God cannot manage you. God cannot manage a person who gives in to fornication, adultery, alcoholism or who has an unforgiving spirit. He says that if you want to be hot, you should be hot, if you want to be cold, you should be cold. You cannot sit on the fence. Those who sit on the spiritual fence are fired from the two ends. God will fire them and the devil will fire them.

6.   True discipleship: This is found in John 13:34-35 which says, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if you have love one to another.” Recently, the Lord showed me a vision which bothered me; Different groups of people were preparing to go to heaven. The first group was praying seriously. The second group was reading their Bibles with full concentration. The third group was just singing praises and waving their hands unto the Lord and was in the attitude of worship. The fourth group was making hot Bible confessions. All of them were heading towards a beautiful mansion. But when it remained a little for them to get there, there was a diversion and the signboard said “hell fire.” I thought they would continue on the way to the beautiful mansion but they did not. Instead they took the diversion. I said, “O Lord, what is wrong? What is happening?” Then He said, “I traded with them and I lost. They were practicing these things but they were bankrupt in love.” When the vision cleared, I was worried because I saw these people praying, reading the Bible, praising God, confessing the word of the Lord and were heading towards a beautiful mansion and then diverted into hell.

When I was a young Christian, we had one evangelist who subjected his counselees to seven days dry fast and they would be struggling to pray, but he would go home and feed himself well before coming for the prayers. He was bankrupt in love. The Corinthians in the Bible had a wrong view of true Christianity. They thought it was just prophetic knowledge, the ability to speak in tongues, or miraculous power. But they ignored the key point of discipleship which is love.

 If you do not enjoy good relationship with anybody, you need prayers. If you have no friend, you are a loner and you lock yourself up, there is problem. Some people are like that and when you tell them to change, they would say no that they do not want trouble. The question I normally ask them is “If we all lock ourselves up like that, would there be fellowship?”

 The Bible tells us that God is love. His own love is unconditional, impartial, ever-lasting, infinite and perfect. Love is never wasted. The love that expects positive reactions or results is not true love. Love that expects something in return is not the true love that the Lord wants His disciple to have. Love never makes any demand. Love only gives, it does not stop giving because others do not reciprocate. The perfect lover would devote himself to others. Jesus did that. He gave Himself to us but what did He get from us? We crucified Him. The most outstanding thing that our Lord Jesus did was to love the unlovable but many of us are quick to write off anyone who offends us even if he really does not know what he does. We retaliate at the slightest offence.

 If you are going to fight, fight for the relationship and not against it. Fight to improve not to destroy. Fight for reconciliation and not for separation. Fight to preserve the relationship and not to destroy it. Fight to win your wife and not to lose her. Fight to win your husband and not to lose him. Fight to save your marriage and not to break it. Fight to solve the problem and not to salvage your self- pride. So, if you are going to fight, fight to win. Do not fight to lose.

A loving person would control all his unloving attitudes with his will power. You can be saved without spiritual gifts. You can make heaven without receiving the gift of words of knowledge or words of prophecy but you cannot be saved without love. All the tools and talents that are not motivated by love are a waste of time. That is why the whole of the Bible is bound up by one word - Love. Love your God and love your neighbour. Love sums up the whole Christianity and it is the distinguishing mark of a true Christian. Without love, spiritual gifts are useless. Take away love from the earth and what you have is a graveyard. The problem we have in the house of God today is that there are a lot of Christians who do not love one another. There is a lot of malice and unforgiving spirit towards one another. Those who have such attitudes are not the disciples of Christ. They may be coming to the church but they are not true disciples. They may be doing all sorts of activities but they are not true disciples. So, examine yourself now. Is there anybody you do not greet? Is there anybody that you do not feel happy hearing his voice? Then you are not a disciple. You need to sit down and readjust. It is amazing to know that sometimes some husbands and wives come to church but they do not talk to one another. They come to the church and do not sit together. Something is wrong with such couples. They are bankrupt in love and that is a serious situation. I know many people who can speak in tongues and can call fire prayer points but they do not have one atom of love. There are wicked husbands who beat up their wives even though they come to church. The Bible says, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples when you love one another.”

 When love is presented before you, you can chose what to do. You can decide to love yourself. You can love your God and your neighbour. The Bible tells us that the man who loves his brother dwells in light but if he hates his brother, he is in darkness. So, there are only two kinds of love. Either you love yourself or you love others and your God. When you concentrate all your attention on yourself, then you are a selfish person and do not have the kind of love we are talking about. Selfish love can be described as poison that a person absorbs everyday. It would demote a person from being a true disciple.

 Are you the kind of person that is still fighting with people? How long will you stay in that kind of school? While others are collecting power and are moving forward, you are still busy wasting time with unforgiving spirit and unloving attitudes. Examine your heart now. It is important that you sort out this before the Lord.  

LOVE OF SELF

Love of self is a love that drinks water while his neighbour is dying of thirst. Love of self is the love that has 200 shirts, 200 skirts and blouses and somebody else is wearing one shirt or skirt everyday and the former is not ready to give. Love of self is the love that keeps the best to himself when there are things to be shared. He keeps the best place for himself. Those who use papers, Bibles, etc to reserve seats in the church for people who are still having their bath at home, while some people are standing outside, lack love in their hearts. Love of self satisfies himself alone. Love of self makes a person to boast about himself and is dead to the words of others. Love of self makes a person to make a choice and force it on others. Love of self leads to self-pity. Those who do so intentionally do not want others to ask them for help. Love of self advertises his own ideas and despises those of others. Love of self simply put, is selfish. In fact, the greatest of human suffering is caused by love of self. The Bible says, “Love God and love thy neighbours as thyself, then you fulfill the whole of the commandments, then you are recognized as a disciple indeed.”

 Love of self has destroyed so many things in the house of God. A lot of people want to push themselves forward, forgetting the admonition of Jesus that when we come to a place we should stay at the back and then we can be invited to the front.

 If you want to be a true disciple of Jesus His love must be in your heart, that love that is in your heart will flow out to others.

When you see a person who has knowledge of all mysteries, has the faith to move mountains, and has memorized the whole Bible, you could say he is a great man. But according to the Bible, he is nothing if he has no love. A man could be distributing money to beggars every week. But the Bible says it profits such a person nothing if he lacks love. We find all these in 1 Corinthians 13.

 The first character of true love is patience. Love suffers long. The original word from which the word “suffers” is derived means to hold off one’s anger. That is, when somebody irritates you, love makes you to hold on your anger and seek a peaceful resolution without bitterness. In moment of animosity when people fight with you, love will show affection. The one who loves would patiently wait for the improvement of others. He does not complain always.

 This is one area where the enemies are cheating believers. We do a lot of good praying and other things but there is no love. A lot of people are losing their blessings as a result of this deficiency. When you look at the way some Christians act you wonder if they had ever read the Bible. It is because there is no love. Love copes with suffering. Love endures pains, sorrows and anger. Love endures the selfish and critical nature of others. Love that is patient is not judgmental. It does not rush to criticize people on assumptions or expectations. Love that is patient does not retaliate. Love that is patient does not promptly punish. It exhibits self-restraint in the face of provocations.

 PATIENCE

Patience does not surrender to circumstances or succumb under trial. So, to be patient is to be long- tempered and not short-tempered. Patience is putting up with bad treatment. You calmly handle or receive injury from others without losing your temper. You are not upset or angry or revengeful. When you are inconvenienced or when they take advantage of you, the love in you would enable you to endure.

 Patience is to refuse to pay evil with evil. It is to turn the right cheek when you are struck on the left. There are some men who can keep malice for three weeks and there are some women who can keep malice for one month. They will not talk to you and do not expect you to talk to them. True love is long suffering and does not retaliate.

In my former place of work, I knew a man who often got angry with people. He used to boil anytime he was angry. His body would be shaking. He did not care whether you were a man or woman. One day, out of anger, he hit a married woman so much that she broke down and cried. But the man noticed that I was always calm and always tried to calm him down. One day, he called me and said, “How come that when I am angry with everyone you are always very calm?” I explained to him that he had a problem, that the problem was that the love of Christ was not in his heart and that if he continued that way, he would eventually kill himself.

 True love is patient and endures long. It is never tired of waiting and waits without murmuring. It never gives up and it is able to suffer. Beating your wife does not show love. Saying, “I am tired of your nagging so I am leaving and I will not eat your food” is not love. And the wife that says, “Well, I too will refuse to cook” does not have love. So, patience is the most outstanding quality of love. Love that is able to turn to hatred overnight is not love at all. True love would go through fire, sorrow and trouble. It endures suffering. Impatience is evidence that there is no love. True love would learn to wait. There are many people who are difficult to live with but when you are patient, you are able to live with them. True love does not owe money and refuse or hesitate to pay. It does not steal other people’s money. It shows concern for others.

 I want you to examine the quality of love in your heart. Ask yourself: “Am I truly a disciple? Can I call myself a disciple of Christ? Is His love in my heart? Do I really love others as I love myself? If Jesus comes now and begins to examine my heart what would He find? Will He find any hatred against anybody in my heart? If He is able to find it, then I am not a true disciple. Talk to the Lord and ask Him to forgive you for areas you have exhibited unbroken spirit. And the Lord will help you as you do so, in Jesus' name.

PRAYER POINTS

1.   Oh Lord, break every idol present in my heart, in Jesus’ name.

2.   I refuse to cooperate with the spirit of death and hell, in the name of Jesus.

3.   Every rebellion in my heart, die, in the name of Jesus.

4.   My head will not be prayer proof, in Jesus’ name.

5.   Every viper in the tabernacle of my life, die, in the name of Jesus.

6.   Every viper surrounding my destiny, die, in Jesus’ name.

7.   Every enemy spreading evil mats for my sake, die with the mats, in Jesus’ name.

8.   Any evil image representing me in the dark world, fall down and scatter, in the name of Jesus.

9.   O God, arise and reign in every department of my life, in the name of Jesus.

 

Counterfeit Christianity Part 1

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 Judas heard the word from the Lord:    “One of you is going to betray me tonight.” Everyone of Jesus' disciples began to say, “Lord, is it I?” When Judas asked the same question, the Lord said, “You said so.” That was enough for somebody whose head was not anchored to defeat. Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your power, that I might destroy you.” Samson heard that and still allowed it to happen to him.

 The Lord has been warning that many people are working behind schedule, and that is scarring. He says that there are so many prophets and prophetesses who by themselves have gone on continuous incubation without hatching, and that many prophets have become parrots, talking too much. Many evangelists have become oracles of the devil and God is now in the process of project transfer, that is, “If this one is silent, the stones shall speak.” I pray that the Lord will not replace us in Jesus’ name. These are very serious matters.

 When the Lord says, “Stones shall arise,” He does not mean that stones shall come up and begin to talk. He is saying that hardened people that we never thought would accept the Lord will accept Him and He will bombard them with power and those who have been born again for years will now be carrying their bags for them. It is very sad that we are working behind schedule.

  John 18:17: “Then saith the damsel that kept the door unto Peter, Art not thou also one of this man’s disciples? He saith, I am not.”

 The word “Christians” is mentioned only once in the Bible and the word “Christian” appears twice. But in the New Testament, believers are called disciples over and over again

 WHO IS A CHRISTIAN DISCIPLE? 

A Christian disciple is one who learns of Christ; who follows Christ and obeys Him. In the Bible, we see that the Pharisees had their own disciples. John the Baptist, had his own disciples, and in His days on earth Jesus had His own amongst whom were the apostles whom He chose to be with Him.

 In the Bible as well, the term “disciple” is applied to all who followed the Lord, many of whom the book of John tells us that after He had preached a message, they said, “This is a hard saying, who can bear it?” So, they went away and walked no more with Him.

  Christ has very many disciples throughout the whole world today. Every Christian should be a disciple. Unfortunately, this is not so and that is why the church of God has problems. We need to make a distinction between being a Christian and being a disciple. Somebody may hear an altar call and come forward to surrender his life to Jesus. He may go through a foundational class, be baptized in water, and by the grace of God got to know about sanctification and the baptism in the Holy Spirit. He could pass through all these experiences but it does not mean that he is a disciple. You are a believer, okay; but that is completely different from being a disciple. It is possible to be a Christian, be saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost and still not be a disciple. Many of them are eaters and not givers. Many churchgoers are following their brains, their persons, their families and their pastors, but not Jesus. This is because they are not disciples.

  To be a disciple means to be a disciplined Christian. A Christian who is a disciple does not lose his temper and start fighting. He can discipline his temper. A disciplined Christian is not the kind that would break his fast and be pretending as if he was fasting.

 A disciple does not only become a Christian but follows on to know the Lord. No wonder the Bible says, “Unto the children of Israel, God shows His works but unto Moses, He shows His ways.” Which one is better? It is only a disciple that can know the way. The miracle seekers know only the works of God, they are afraid of discipline.

 A disciple follows on to know the Lord. Paul said, “That I might know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering.” A disciple is like Mary of Bethany who sat at the feet of Jesus and learned of Him. Discipleship is therefore a costly business; very costly. For example, you would be rejected and ridiculed by others. You would be asked to do things for others whether they deserve it or not. You follow God’s leading, no matter the personal cost it involves. So, discipleship has a price. And because it is a costly business, 90% of churchgoers are not disciples. This is unfortunate.

 Singing does not make you a disciple. Ushering does not turn you to a disciple. Even wearing the pastor’s collar does not make you a disciple. To be quite honest with you, many pastors are not disciples yet. Many deliverance ministers do not even understand the meaning of the word disciple. A disciple is not someone who is satisfied only with the fact that he is going to heaven. Salvation does not cost you anything but to be a disciple of Christ is very costly. To get saved, you need only to repent before God and have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but the conditions for discipleship are quite different and demanding. The question is, “Art thou also one of His disciples?” It is a question you will answer in your heart. They threw the question at Peter and it destabilized him.

 A disciple is a champion survivor. When others are falling, the disciple will keep standing. A disciple would trust God no matter the situation he encounters. He is not the kind of person that says, “Well, I asked you people to pray for me and you did not pray for me. There are so many churches in town. I am not coming to this place again.” That is the attitude of miracle collectors. Disciples are not people who say, “Don’t you know who I am in this place? In case you don’t know me, I am so so and so. So I demand respect.”

 A disciple obeys God’s commands and would follow the plan that God has chosen for his life. Jesus is number one priority for a disciple. Any other thing is secondary. The priority of many people is marital breakthrough. For some, it is financial breakthrough. May be that is why they are not being blessed. Their priority is wrong. Every disciple is a believer in Jesus but not every believer is a disciple of Jesus.

 The benefits of discipleship are so much. The Bible promises Jesus’ disciples wealth and riches. It says that wealth and riches will be in their house. Also, the Bible promises that when dark circumstances surround the Lord’s disciples, God will be there to help them out. It promises that whatever was meant for evil in the lives of disciples shall be transformed into good. It also promises that they will never be shaken from the foundation of their faith. It promises that God’s divine protection shall be upon them and their families. The question again is, “Art thou also one of this man’s disciples or not?”

 Many people are not doing what God wants them to do. Many are just warming the benches in the churches, and some are lost there. It is a tragedy for somebody not to know where he is going at the age of 40 - 45.

 A sister went to the bank with a cheque of N250, 000.00 she wrote for her church. The bank manager called her and said, “Are you crazy? You want to give the church a whole N250,000.00. Are you mad? Give the church N10,000.00 and give their pastor N5,000.00. The sister said, “No sir, I made a covenant with God that if He blessed me, this is what I would do.” The man said, “Oh, but this is too much.” The sister then withdrew the cheque. Within a short time, she lost two people in her family and spent a total sum of One Million Naira to bury them. “Art thou also one of this man’s disciples, or are you just going to church for the fun of it?

 Many people would say, “Pray for me so that the witches disturbing me will die. Pray for me that all shall be well with me.” But these things end here. Witches do not go beyond this place. Once a person dies, he or she is free from witches. He will then face either struggling with Satan in hell fire or he is enjoying with the Master in heaven. The choice is yours.

 CONDITION FOR BEING A  DISCIPLE OF CHRIST

1.  Hatred to self: Luke 14: 26: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple”.

  So, the first condition is hatred. Does this mean that we must hate those who are close to us? No. It means that we must give the Lord supreme place in our lives. It means that we must love Him better than we love anyone or anything else. Jesus must come first in our affection and there must be no rival. Some people’s fiancées are rivaling Jesus in their lives. A person sits down to wait before the Lord and wants to receive from Him. As she is reading her Bible, there is a knock at the door and somebody enters, a friend she loves. Then she drops her Bible, the quiet time and the meditation ends, and for the next three hours she is chatting with the visitor. “Art thou also one of this man’s disciples?” If you are, you will arrange your priority well. Jesus must come first in our affection. There must be no rivalry. That is what He is telling us. If a situation arises where we must make a difficult choice between obedience to our parents or obedience to Christ, we must put Christ first. That is what he is saying. 

 I know of a sister who bought a wedding gown and everything for her wedding.  Three days to the wedding she came to the pastor and told him that there was an emergency.  “What is the emergency?” The pastor asked.  She said, “Sorry sir, you know that Saturday is the wedding, but I have found out that the man drinks although he says that he is born again, I have even found a bottle of gin hidden under his bed.  After taking alcohol, the brother used peppermint or something else to wash his mouth.  When the sister told her parents about this, they rose against her calling her names, because they wanted her to marry that brother. But she looked at the man and said. “If I marry this one, I will lose Jesus.” She loved the man, but Jesus had the first place in her life.  So, she broke the engagement.  How many sisters can do that?  Many would decide to marry the man and manage with him. Then when they settle down with him, he may be boxing them at night.

  In Matthew chapter 10:34-37 Jesus says: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”

 So it must be Christ first all the time. When Christ has the rightful place in our lives, we shall love our parents the more. When Christ takes the first place in your life, you will love your wife the more.

 Art thou also one of this man’s disciples? Does He have preeminence over your life. Do you hate anything that will come between you and Christ? That place you are working and stealing and telling lies, is placing a wall between you and Christ. Is Christ the first place in every part of your life?  Examine yourself now. This is why the Lord said that we are working behind schedule.

 2.     Hatred to worldliness: Any Christian who can still boldly stand in the middle of unbelievers’ party and dance to worldly music, may the Lord have mercy upon him.  It means he is still very far from the Lord.  If a Christian still has friends who are only interested in parties, he is still far.  He needs to recover himself today.

3.     Carrying the cross: Luke 14:27 says, “And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” These words are very clear and emphatic. They mean that if we are not bearing the cross of Jesus, and growing after Him, we are not true disciples. You can be the disciple of your General Overseer. You can be the disciple of your pastor, you can even be carrying his bag about. You can even give yourself a name, “Pastor's boy,” but if you don’t carry the cross, you are not a disciple.  The pastor may be shaking your hands saying, “Well done my boy, well done,” but the Lord may be saying, “This one is stinking, take him away from me."

 When we say cross, some people think it is a problem. No, no, it is not a problem that we are talking about. If it refers to problem then it means that everybody is bearing the cross, because there is nobody in this world without one problem or the other. But that is not what we mean.

 Several years back, I was sent to a church to represent my own church. There, after the praise and worship, choir ministrations and the message and everything, the pastor came to the front with a microphone and said, “We have been doing pleasant things all along, but when unpleasant duties arise, it is our duty to carry them out.”  Then he called one Brother Samuel to come out. The handsome brother came out: The pastor then said, “This brother has slept with three members of this church and has impregnated the three of them.” And turning to Brother Samuel he said, “Therefore, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we excommunicate you from this church, and we hand you over to satan.” And he asked him to go back to his seat.  When the pastor called on the congregation to share the grace, I could not stand up. It was a very sad thing.

 We need to be very careful. For that man to get into that kind of situation means that he was not a disciple. The sisters who were roaming around him because he was handsome were also not disciples. All those three women he impregnated were cursed, not by the devil, but by man. Who will remove the curse?

 To bear the cross is to take up the cross and follow Jesus. It means you voluntarily share in His reproach and suffering. It means that the kind of suffering Jesus went through, you are willingly to share in it. It means you are willing to put aside your own dreams, your own plans, your own ambition and your own goals in exchange for the will of God. It means that in a situation where your desire and that of God are opposite each other, you should follow that of God.  Some people say, “Eh, my wife is my cross.” No, she is not. If she is your cross, you will be carrying her about every day. The cross that we are talking about is that you are willing to put aside anything that pleases you in order to follow the Lord.

 To Jesus, the cross meant suffering and shame. It meant laying down His life.  This is what we find in

 Hebrews 12:2: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

 If we are to be Jesus’ disciples, we must be willing to share His sufferings. Some people are ashamed to carry their Bibles in the open. They hide it inside their bags. They don’t want people to call them fanatics.

To be His disciple means to be hated, persecuted and misunderstood as He was. To take up the cross, means that we are willing to bear all the suffering and shame, out of love for Jesus, who out of love for us agreed to be numbered with the transgressors and was crucified on the cross.  When Jesus was here on earth, Herod sought to destroy Him as a baby. His town’s men at Nazareth wanted to throw Him over a cliff. The scribes charged Him with being in league with Beelzebub. The people tried to stone Him. The chief priest and the elders paid Judas to betray Him and accuse Him falsely before Caiphas. He was charged for treason before Pilate. Pilate asked the Jews “Whom shall I set free for you? You want Barabbas, the robber or Jesus?”  They said, “give us Barabbas.” Pilate then condemned Jesus to death. And He was crucified between two thieves.

 How do we pass the test of discipleship?

Have we taken our stand openly for Jesus? Do our friends and loved ones know that we are Christians? Are you willing to deny yourself and bear shame and suffering, if it is necessary, because of Jesus? If you don’t carry your cross, He says, you cannot be His disciple.

 THE CROSS

The cross is a place of death. It is a place of humiliation. It is a place of suffering. It is a place of self-mortification. It is the most wicked instrument of death devised by the heart of man; nails are forced through the palms and the ankles, the lungs stretch out and the body sags. The victim now suffocates. He dies painfully and slowly. That cross is the end of your old life. It destroys the old pattern, the pattern of Adam.

When your old life dies on the cross that is true Christianity. Many people  are coming to the church but very few are recognized in heaven. Many even call themselves pastors or ministers of God but they are not recognized in heaven. Why? They fail to listen to the words of Jesus: "Whosoever does not bear His cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. "Art thou also one of this man’s disciples.

 4.     Forsaking all: Luke 14:33 says, “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”

Beloved, the Lord says that there are some miracles He has not started doing because we believers are not ready for them yet. There are a lot of things that are disturbing the power of God from flowing.

     What does it mean to forsake? It means that you must forsake all that you have. It means that I must reach the point where I can honestly say,” I am taking my hands off my life. I am taking my hands off my home. I am taking my hands off my loved ones. I am taking my hands off my money. I am taking my hands off my possession. I am taking my hands off all that I have. I am taking my hands off all I have looked upon as my own. I will henceforth look upon them as Jesus’ own. I will no longer have any claim to them.” That is what forsaking means.

There are boxes scattered in the church for people to put in money for the needy.  I am sure that there are many people who have not put one kobo inside any of those boxes.  It would be helpful for you to make a list of the things you regard as yours. They may be your wife, children, home, bank account, car, house and certificates. Make a list and hand them over to God. Recognise that they belong to Jesus. That songwriter says, “Take my life and let it be, consecrated, Lord to thee…" Take everything. That is what it means to forsake.

“Art thou also one of this man’s disciples?”  Forsake every thing.  Someone was harassing me: "Excuse me sir, post me out to go and do the work of God, post me out to go and do the work of God.” I said he should go to a certain place where there is religious turmoil and he said “G.O, don’t crack jokes. This is a serious matter. You don’t joke with things like this.” What he was telling me is, “Post me to a comfortable area.”

 A true disciple would forsake everything to please the Master.

5.     Continuity: In John 8:31, Jesus said to the Jews:  “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.” Continuous, not temporary action, not acting when you feel like, not epileptic action. To continue means to abide in Christ, to grow up into Christ, to shape our lives in conformity with the word of God. It means that we should accept the word of God as the final authority in our lives. It means that we should seek day by day to live in submission to the word, and in obedience to the Lord.

Many churchgoers are not really getting ready for the Second Coming of Christ. They don’t pray up to half an hour a day. They don’t read their Bibles up to half an hour a day. They don’t witness to anybody. They just dress up, go into their cars, go to their places of work, come back, go to fellowship at times and go home and sleep. This is dangerous.

 What Jesus sometimes wants us to do can conflict with what we want to do or what our friends want us to do. We should be asking ourselves, “What does the Lord want of me? Why has He saved me and called me? There are so many that are roaming about, who are not saved, why did you save me? How will His glory be manifested in my life? Am I reading and meditating and feeding on His word?”

 “Art thou also one of this man’s disciples?” The time has come when God will no longer permit His temple to be polluted. There are lots of criminals now in the house of God. A man ran away from the world because the pollution of the world wanted to kill him, he then ran into the church of God, only for him to meet a greater destruction there. He ran away from the Jezebel in the world, only to find out that there are worse Jezebels in the house of God.

When people are pursuing a thief and he runs into a police station, they would stop chasing him at least in the hope that he has given himself up.  But it is not always so.  Now, Somebody who is a sinner, whose heart is polluted, runs into a church, and one would have thought that by so doing the sinner is now safe.  But it is not so.  There are many evil workers that Satan has raised up, who are in the house of God, and are not willing to change.

 “Art thou also one of this man’s disciples?” What is the sense in coming to church when you do not want to be a disciple? What is the sense in coming to church when at the end of the day, the Lord will say, “Who are you? I don’t know you. Where did you come from?” And you may now say, “Sir, remember that I gave my life to Jesus at so and so crusade. I attended so and so Bible College.”  And the voice will say, “Get away from me, you worker of iniquity.” You may say, I used to sing,” was your life in conformity with what you were singing?” I am a pastor.” The voice will say, “Fine, you preached this message, you preached that message, what is the impact of your messages on your life?" You may say, “I was a Sunday school teacher.” The voice will say, “Yes, but you were a worker of iniquity, you were teaching in sin.”

 Are you one of those people who are making your church to work behind schedule? Are you a prophet or prophetess whose life is slowing your church down? Are you the type of person that God has been calling and talking to  and you put His words aside while pursuing your own agenda? Are you the type that walk with your two eyes open into sin, and you come out and ask God to forgive you? And if He forgives you, you walk into the sin again? When will you be serious with the Master?

 PRAYER POINTS

1. Every enemy of discipleship in my life must go today, in Jesus’ name.

2. O Lord, let sin be slaughtered in my life, in the name of Jesus.

3. Every spiritual veil preventing me from seeing, be roasted, in the name of Jesus.

4. My hypocrisy must die, in the name of Jesus.

5. Power to save myself from this wicked generation, fall upon my life, in the name of Jesus.

6. O mountain of iniquity, clear away from my life, in the name of Jesus.

7. I shall not go back into perdition, in the name of Jesus.

8. My Father, let Your glory possess me, in the name of Jesus.

9. O Lord, deliver me from evil conscience, in the name of Jesus.

10.     Every satanic strangulation on my neck, break, in the name of Jesus.

11.     Lord, sprinkle my heart with Your blood, in the name of Jesus.

12.     Lord, destroy the evil in my flesh, in the name of Jesus.

13.     Every spiritual irritation, be lifted away, in Jesus’ name.

14.     Mountains of hindrance get out of my situation, in the name of Jesus.

15.     Every hindrance to open doors in my life, clear away, in the name of Jesus.

God’s Assylum

Dr.D.K.Olukoya

 

We are looking at what I call “The asylum of the Almighty,” or the Psychiatric hospital of the Almighty.” A person can describe himself as anything. He can call himself an angel, an apostle, a pastor or a reverend father. These are just labels which have no value as far as heaven is concerned. It is not what you call yourself that is important but what God calls you.

There are many people building castles in the valleys. Such people need to pray to be catapulted to the mountain. Some have been rubbing their shoulders with the shoulders of the enemy and the enemy cannot even feel the fire; they need to receive the fire that burns.

Let us look at two passages that I consider the most serious passages in the Scriptures. I Peter 4:17 –18: “For the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God; and if it first begins at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God. And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear.”

Note that the passage says, “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?” Thousands of years before this passage was written, something had happened. God created man and man messed up. So, God brought a Redeemer but man rejected the Redeemer and nailed Him to the cross. But before the Redeemer, there was a prophet in Israel called Ezekiel, who was the most powerful prophet in his time. The elders of Israel and members of the temple used to come to him regularly for prayer and counselling. He was their visionary and prophet.

One day, God said to prophet Ezekiel, “Son, look through this hole and see the wickedness that is there.” Through that little hole in the wall, Ezekiel was able to see the secrets of the elders of Israel. Some were bound to idols, some were drawing strange pictures on the wall, some were facing the sun, and some were worshipping the idol called Tamus. God said to him, “Do you see the wickedness they do in this place and yet they come to you everyday to ask for my blessings. Therefore I am going to go through the land of Israel.” God then engaged the services of His angels. The first angel came with a pen in his hand. And the Lord said to him, “You, go throughout the land of Israel and put a mark on the foreheads of all those who are not part of the wickedness happening here, those who are living holy and righteous life.” He summoned the second angel who came with a sword. God said to him, “Follow the angel with the pen and slaughter anybody that does not have the mark on the forehead.” And God added an interesting sentence: “Begin at my sanctuary.” Ezekiel screamed: “O Lord, don’t kill all of them, don’t make an end of the house of Israel.” While he was still begging the Lord, the angel came back and said that he had finished his assignment.

Beloved, you and I have only one life to live. Even if it was said that you were an Ogbanje and that you had been here before, it was certainly not you but a demon inside you. We have only one life to live.

The second serious passage is Revelation 21: 27. It says, “And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb’s Book of life.” This Scripture says that under no condition shall anything that defiles, including masturbation, and whatsoever works abomination, including lying, shall enter heaven.

A minister in one of our branches told me a story. A prostitute came to the church and gave her life to Jesus. As she was being led through the sinner’s prayer, it got to a level where she began to scream: “Oh Lord Jesus, forgive me, I am not going to do this thing again. I promise, I promise, I promise.” She was screaming and became uncontrollable. When she now calmed down, the man of God asked her what she saw.  She said that immediately she began to say the sinners prayers, the Lord took her to a big chamber where she saw a lot of women. Some of them were tied with their legs up and fire was burning their legs and they were screaming. Some were tied with their hair and fire was burning the hair and they were screaming. Some were tied with their tongues up and little drops of fire were dropping on their tongues and they were screaming. She said that she then asked the question: “What is happening? Who are all these?” And the Lord Jesus began to explain to her. He told her that the ones who had their legs tied up used their legs to commit sin when they were alive and so the legs were on fire now. The ones with their hair tied up used their hair to entice men and commit fornication and that was why their hair was tied up. The ones that had drops of fire on their tongues used their mouths for oral sex. The Lord then asked her, “Which one of these groups do you want to follow?” She said, “No, I don’t want to follow any.” The Lord said, “Promise me that you will not go back to prostitution.” She then began to scream that she would not go back.

A lot of people are in more danger spiritually than they think. If God shows you the picture of heaven and hell, your life will no longer remain the same. You will be a new person because for no reason will you like to go to hell fire.

You and I have an appointment with the Almighty and we have to keep that appointment. You may miss some of your appointments here on earth or may attend to them late, but God’s appointment is different. You will not come late and you will not miss it at all. It does not matter what name you bear, what Bible College you went to, who your father is or who your mother is. These are irrelevant facts. It does not matter which university you went to or the kind of certificate you have. It does not matter whether you are the first lawyer in the universe, you will not miss the appointment with the Almighty. The Bible says that eyes have not seen, ears have not heard neither has it even entered into the hearts of men what the good Lord has prepared for His people.

I am never tired of telling people about the first time that I saw the vision of heaven. I cannot forget the joy I saw on the faces of the people I saw there. Some of the things I saw there were very unique and mysterious. I discovered for the first time that there is no true joy here on earth. I discovered also that there is no music or beauty here. When I saw these wonderful things, I wanted to rush in there but there was an angel at the door who said, “Not yet, don’t come now, you have an assignment.” When you see that kind of vision, nobody will beg you not to backslide.

Sometime ago, an old man of God who was very useful died. He was a very powerful prayer warrior and because of his usefulness, a lot of Christians were not happy that he died. So they surrounded him and prayed that he should come back to life. The man got up, opened his eyes, looked at all of them with hatred and said, “You wicked people, why did you bring me here when I was in a place of enjoyment. I don’t like this place.” They said, “Baba, you cannot go because of us.” The first day they brought him food, he looked at it and said, “This is sand.” They said, “No, Baba, it is eba and okro,” and he said, “No, this is sand.” The second day, they brought him food again and he said, “You have brought another sand.” By the third day, he was dead again.

A lot of Christians all over the world are sleeping like the foolish virgins. A lot of Christians have to do a lot more than they are doing now if they want to make the rapture. It is a waste of time, no matter what miracle you receive for the trumpet to sound and you are deaf to it. Then you have wasted your time coming to church. It is a disaster for any pastor, counsellor or prayer warrior not to hear the trumpet when it sounds. Such a person would not have any excuse, no matter what it is. It would have been better for the person to have died as a premature baby than to go through this life, which is the probation period of the Almighty, and at the end of the day, go to hell fire.

God is interested in quality and not quantity. He has His own programme and plans and He wants to carry them out with quality people. Your life does not belong to you. You have no right to live it your own way. It is wrong for you to say, “I can say anything I like.” No, you do not have any right because it is not your mouth. “I can touch anything I like.” No, you do not have that right because it was the Lord’s hands that were nailed to the cross. “I can walk anywhere I like.” No, you cannot because it was His own legs that were nailed to the cross. The Bible says, “He was despised and crucified.” He died of a broken heart. Death on the cross is one of the most painful ways that anybody can die. The artists who drew the picture of our Lord’s crucifixion were nice with their illustration of the crucifixion. Crucifixion was a Roman form of punishment. Criminals were crucified naked. If God could allow that to be done to His Son because He wants you and I to escape from hell fire, then it must be more serious than we think, if you and I are now befriending what God wants us to escape from. How then would we escape if we neglect such a great salvation.

The end of all things, including man, is approaching. The rapture is coming and it will happen in a twinkle of an eye. Many people are carefree now. They do not read their Bible or observe their quiet time. Instead, they always gossip and are busybodies. They would still be busy doing bad when the rapture takes place and some of the people they think are strange and fanatical would have heard the trumpet and be gone.

I told a certain woman to receive the Holy Spirit and she said, “Excuse me, I have three degrees in Bible knowledge. You are so narrow-minded and fanatical. Concerning the baptism of the Holy Spirit, there are five view points and you are projecting only one.” I said, “Madam, if you don’t mind, I have no time to argue with people. If I pray with you now and you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, will you believe?” She said, “yes.” I prayed and she not only received the baptism of the Holy Spirit but she also began to prophesy. When she settled down, she said, “Pastor, this is wonderful.” That was the beginning of revival in her life. She prayed one day and God showed her a vision of the rapture where everybody was going away but she could not. She tried but she could not. All that she studied at the Bible College could not help her. She got up and jumped, thinking that she could not go because of her fatness, but she still could not go. She saw fatter people going. God then showed her report card to her, just like we all have our own report cards with the Almighty. Everything that we are doing here is being recorded. Whether you are singing or teaching, there is a record. Whatever group you belong, you are scoring marks.

The Lord showed a certain woman her report card and it read 22 per cent, and as far as God is concerned, 99½ per cent is a failure. So what is your mark in the score sheet of the Almighty. The song of an ancient hymn writer says, “Lord, I care not for riches, neither silver nor gold, but I will make sure of heaven and I will enter the fold. In the book of your kingdom, so fair, tell me Jesus my Saviour, is my name written there?”

Human beings have large asylums all over the place and what a shame to lock somebody up in that kind of institution. Anytime I go to a psychiatric hospital, I come back sad. What a painful thing to pump powerful drugs into people just to calm them down.

The asylum is a form of prison. God also has an asylum for mad people. If a person continues to rebel against God, God has an asylum for him.

 

ASYLUM

-     An asylum is a place of wasted lives.

-     It is a place of wasted talents.

-     It is a place of wasted opportunities.

God has His own definition for mad people. Your definition may sometimes be different from His own but it does not matter. For example, most people understand adultery to be when a married man or woman is having extramarital affairs or when a man having one official wife at home and has three or more others all over the city, who generally would not come to the open until he dies. Or some may come before he dies and try to fight the real wife. But adultery is redefined in Matthew 5: 27. That definition of the Almighty is the one that counts. He says that immediately you lust after somebody in your heart, you have already committed adultery. As long as one has it in his heart, he has done it. What a shame for such a person to be locked up with prostitutes in hell fire. Heaven’s vocabulary is different from the earth’s. For example, if we say that someone died, heaven’s vocabulary will say that the person slept.

 

WHAT IS MADNESS ACCORDING TO GOD?

-     The Bible calls all the crooked hearts of men madness. 

-     The prodigal nature of the hearts of men.

-     When a person decides to leave a place of blessings to go into a place of bondage, it is madness; like that prodigal child in Luke 15 who spent his money in riotous living; it was madness.

-     Resistance to the truth

-     Intentional deafness to what will profit a person. For example, if someone asks you a question like, “Why is it that your skin is getting lighter?” Instead of your saying that it is the devil that deceived you to start bleaching, you say, “I am trying to cure pimples.” This is madness. When you see a day-old baby, you would see the glory of God. You cannot find a day-old baby who runs mad.

-     It is evil marriage to sin.

-     It is exalting yourself to where God has not put you that is, living above your spiritual experience.

-     It is personal antagonism- waging war against your own self.

-     It is playing with God’s call upon your life like Jonah. A man of God once said that anything that takes you away from the presence of God is Tarshish. It could be your boyfriend. His name may be Kunle or Chukwudi, but as far as God is concerned his name is Tarshish.

-     It is disobedience to a clear commandment from the Almighty. That was the problem with Saul. The instruction to him was very clear: “Destroy the Amalekites, everything.” But he disobeyed.

-     It is twisting God’s word to suit your purpose.

-     The laws of men are the laws of men and you can stay in the courtroom and argue them but when it comes to the laws of God, there is only one lawyer that can discuss them, the Holy Spirit and no other person. You cannot turn the Bible upside down to suit your purpose.

-     When a person ascribes God’s glory to idols or himself.

-     Every uncontrollable temper.

-     Engaging in what does not make spiritual sense.

-     Making oneself equal to God.

Just as there are different grades of mad people around, there are also different grades of mad people who claim that they are going to heaven.

All unexplainable anger, unexplainable depression; issuing curses on your husband, your children and yourself; all the desire to pull other people down, even if it means lying against them to do so. All these are madness according to the Almighty.

These days, many people are not ready to tell others about law and judgement. They preach only about the love of God, which gives a distorted picture of God.

God and men were friends before sin came in and everything changed. Sin had to be punished because God saw that some men would choose rebellion forever. He saw that some men would choose to be married to the devil and sin forever. So He provided an asylum for them, the place called hell fire. It was needed and God provided it.

There was a time an atheist was about to die and a Christian nursing sister was by his bed. Suddenly, the man screamed, “They are here, they are here, these demons, these terrible angels they are here, they are here.” The nursing sister said, “Where are they?”  And the man died. That nursing sister promised herself that she would never be around when unbelievers are about to die.

In this asylum of the Almighty, the fire shall never quench. A person will be fully conscious of what is happening. It is a place of torment, a very hot place, a place where one man entered and the fire was burning him unto madness. He was asking for a drop of water on his tongue. It is a place of darkness, a place of eternal separation from God, a place of no escape.

One of the most horrible pictures I have seen in my life was the day a poultry was on fire. I felt sorry for those birds because the man who had the poultry was not around to open the door, and they were all in a cage. They were struggling and battling, but they were being roasted alive.

That is how hell fire is. There is no opportunity to go out. It is a place that torments the memory because each time the person remembers the church, the house of God, he would be tormented the more. Each time the person remembers Sunday school he would be tormented the more. He would say, “I wish I had listened to the preacher, I wish I had read my Bible, I wish I was able to control my anger.” But all these would be too late.

It is a place of unsatisfied desire. The sin that they are begging people not to commit, now the people would want to commit it but there would be nobody to commit it with. The adulterer will want to commit more adultery, but there will be nobody to commit it with.

Many people are already there, including pastors, Sunday school teachers and singers. The question is, must you go there? The Bible says that  hell fire has been expanded because of the abundance of people going in. Unfortunately, many people are longing to go. But going to hell fire is not very easy, because it takes effort, sacrifice and choice. A person who wants to go to hell fire has to overcome so many things before he goes. That is why some people described hell fire as “Truth discovered too late.” So for a person to go to hell fire, there are so many obstacles to overcome. He has to first of all overcome the church, the gospel, the Bible, his conscience, the Holy Spirit, the crucified Christ and God’s providence. You have to climb over these seven mountains before you get there.

We have to think about all these things now that there is still room for us to reorganize our lives before the Almighty. God is going to judge each person the way He finds him. Many modern men are walking at the edge of hell fire. I have attended meetings where people refused to pray. But on that day, in God’s asylum, men will try to pray, but the prayer will be too late.

PRAYER POINTS

1.  Any power quenching the fire of the Holy Spirit in my life, loose your hold, in the name of Jesus.

2.  I refuse to deceive myself, in the name of Jesus.

3.  O Lord, have mercy on me, I will not allow myself to perish, in Jesus’ name.

4.  Anything that will remove my name from the Book of Life, O God, remove it from my life now, in the name of Jesus.

5.  Every spirit of death and hell, loose your grip upon my life, in Jesus’ name.

6.  Holy Spirit, take your proper position in my life, in the name of Jesus.

7.  Any ladder with which the enemy climbs into my life, roast by fire, in Jesus’ name.

 

 Immunity against oppressors

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Daniel2:22:“Herevealeththedeepandsecretthings: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.”

There is only one person who qualifies for the above description and that is the Almighty God. He can reveal what is deep and secret, He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with Him. He is the only Person who can see into the two worlds very well.

In this message, we would be considering some of the secrets of freedom from the hands of the oppressors, particularly in our environment. Anything that is affecting your body, soul, spirit, life or business in a negative way is an oppressor. When you earnestly want to grow up spiritually but something seems to be dragging you back, that thing is an oppressor. Anything that is ruling a person’s life in a hard or cruel way is an oppressor.

CERTAIN THINGS YOU OUGHT TO KNOW ABOUT THE POWERS OF THE OPPRESSORS

1. Their main purpose is to keep men from serving the true God. If witches, wizards and demons do not succeed in that, they will ensure that a person who has started with God does not make much progress.

2. They need a door to enter into any life. They just cannot enter anywhere and begin to operate. a door is required for them to get in. Many people open these doors for them by themselves. Others get the doors open by their parents.

3. The oppressors vary in power. A man of God prayed hard to God for somebody to be delivered from a particular thing. While he was praying, he saw a vision that the person was being guarded by some soldiers and lions. Each time he tried to move near, the lions roared and tried to jump at him and he ran away. This continued until the vision cleared. The problem of that person remained and the man of God cried unto the Lord saying, “Why is the lion preventing me from setting this person free?” The Lord said, “You need to obtain sufficient power because the power oppressing this person is higher than you think.” So, he went into fasting and prayer. It was then he could conquer the lions and the person was set free. Sometimes, certain things go easily when you order them once to do so, in the name of Jesus. But some would not go at a single command.

4. Oppressors like unhappy people. They like them because a sad spirit creates a gateway for demons to enter into a person’s life and oppress him. So, anybody suffering from depression would continually have a traffic of evil spirits in his life.

5. They have agents in every family.

6.  Most of the time, human beings invite them in through many things they do.  For example, at the time a small girl was raped at a very small age, a big door is opened in the world of the spirits to something that may happen to her later. Immorality is an open door. Sacrificing things to idols or eating food anyhow anywhere maybe because you do not have enough food in the house or because the food is attractive, is opening doors through which these spirits enter. If you eat beans cooked on Fridays for twins, you are opening doors to the oppressors.

A person who is guilty concerning a matter and is cursing himself that he is not guilty is opening a door to the oppressors. When a young person of about 14 or 15 peeps through the keyhole of a door to see what a man and a woman are doing inside a room, he is opening a door through which oppressors can enter. When they have entered, the person could struggle all his life and may not be able to find the cause of his problems.

The Bible says that it is wrong to pray with the name of angels. There is nothing like Six and Seven Books of Moses anywhere. Moses never wrote any Six or Seven Books. If a person begins to read such books, he gets into trouble and the Lord would look at him twice before he gets deliverance.

I want you to look back a little bit in your life to identify where you went wrong so that you can retrace your steps.

A certain mother brought her son to me and said that he was reading the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses because he wanted a visa. She asked me to appeal to him to stop reading the books before he got into trouble. But before I talked to the boy, he had read a little bit and that was enough for the devil to operate in his life.

Somebody whose father was a chief hunter learnt and memorized demonic incantations. When he became born again he forgot about them and did not even pray to God to wipe them off from his brain. Now that he is excited when he sees masquerades, he should know that there is an open door in his life. His father put his leg into something and it must be taken out.

When a young girl of 15 sees men coming to sleep with her in the dream, it is quite possible that she has been committing fornication in real life, and through that has created a ladder for oppressors. Such a girl needs to repent.

Carrying of sacrifices to the cross-roads is also an invitation to oppressors. Those who visit false prophets, obey their instructions and use their materials are also opening doors for the oppressors to come in. Whether those instructions are simple or complicated, they are invitations to tormentors or oppressors.

Borrowing clothes from people to wear is a dangerous thing to do in this environment. If the person you borrow from is possessed, you too, would be possessed and a transfer would be carried out through the clothes. Since the anointing power of God can be transferred through handkerchiefs, and it will heal the sick, evil spirits too can move through people’s clothes.

Mothers who seek the fruit of the womb through charms are not only endangering their lives, the children would also get their share of the trouble. All those who invite the oppressors cannot blame the devil or God because they issued the invitations themselves.

Many people have been spiritually contaminated and have to be purged. There are different types of ink. Some you can easily clean off with water and some you cannot. In the spirit world, spiritual marks are like that. There are some you can easily remove by praying for half an hour while others cannot be easily removed like that.

Sometime ago, as I was praying with somebody, a spirit spoke to me from the person’s mouth: “Leave me alone. This girl has been dedicated to me from birth, so leave us alone. After all does she tell you that she wants to be free?” A door had been opened and the enemy had rushed in and there was trouble now.

When somebody is suffering from spiritual contamination his problems would be multiplied. God did not create drug addicts. He did not create mad people. He did not create ulcer patients or broken homes. These things happen since the world became contaminated. Many people have been spiritually contaminated, some from birth. Even some people who call themselves Christians still need deliverance in one area of their lives or the other. Hot temper opens the doors for the oppressors even in a life of a Christian. A Christian who is hot-tempered needs to repent so that he can be delivered.

Many people come from idolatrous homes and some bear idol names. All these are open doors. Some people are fond of praying and at the same time consulting herbalists, while some are stylishly worshipping nature. Looking at the stars and believing that the horoscope is dictating your life is opening doors to evil powers. You have life and they do not have life, so they cannot control or dictate your life in anyway.

Our lives are in the hands of God, not in the hands of stars. A star may fall down and crash but God will never fall down and crash. We may not know about tomorrow but we know the Person who owns tomorrow in His hands. Let this be settled in our spirits.

People dedicate their children to idol, thereby starting problems for them early in life. Sometimes at naming ceremonies, people eat dead rats and from there, trouble begins. You must withdraw yourself from all these things today through prayer.

Many times while evil spirits keep to themselves, people go to look for their trouble. Distributing cakes and things like that to people have no biblical backing at all.  Collecting names of a child from false prophets creates an evil door. Such names must be changed because they will not do him any good because their spiritual source is evil.

Many people are doing what you call astral travel. They read books that help them to take their bodies from this physical world to the river or somewhere else. The devil allows them to do all that, but contaminates their spirits before they come back to their  bodies, and when they come back they will start behaving funny.

Some people worship angels. That is wrong. The Bible says that we would judge the angels. Peter was addressing an angel and when the angel spoke to him, he prostrated. But the angel said, “No, no, no, don’t worship me. Just worship God.”

Incense burning is a serious invitation to demons. All the special perfumes and special use of psalms are invitations to the oppressors.

A woman came to one of our meetings about three years ago and said that her husband was not loving her enough. One white garment priest told her to bring the picture of her wedding and she took it to him. He tied some strings around the picture and did something to it saying, “As from now when you say, ‘go’ the man would go and when you say, ‘run’ he would run to you.’ She found that the thing was working and was excited. However, her husband made a roundabout turn and it became so serious that the woman rushed back to the white garment man and told him that the charm was no longer working. Then the man started making passes at her and she knew that there was trouble. So she came to our meeting and the Lord revealed that she did something that she hid in her room. She was asked to bring the picture. It was after we destroyed that picture and prayed very well that the man began to follow her to church.

All these things are traps that people put their legs into. You must seriously examine everything you put on your body. Find out where they came from.  Be sure that you get them from a source that you can explain or a source that is not cloudy. These things may be open gateways for the oppressors.

A lot of black people are worried by ancestral spirits which have caused them one trouble or the other. Some people kiss the dead and from there the demons that are yet to go out of the dead person gets into them. It is like a trap set by the devil and when people get into it, they start struggling to get out.

At times, the devil operates like the fly. When the fly lays eggs in a particular place, the eggs may be difficult to see. The same stands for the eggs of evil spirits. They may be difficult to see but when they start becoming maggots and develop further, then we will see that there is trouble.

HOW PEOPLE GET INTO THE CAMP OF THE OPPRESSORS

If you know that you are being oppressed, it is not good to leave the oppressors alone. Give them no peace. Take action and do not allow them to work unmolested in your life.

But you must first clean the temple of your life. Once you clean the temple of your life God will fill it for you, because He will not live in a dirty environment, just like you would not find houseflies living in a very clean environment.

 HOW TO BE IMMUNE AGAINST THE OPPRESSORS 

1.      Live a life of holiness: I have said that things do not just happen; may be a gate or a door has been opened. A holy life annoys the devil. A Christian with a pure heart, mind and body is surrounded by fire which burns brightly all the time. Your naked eyes may not be able to see it, but satan and his agents can see it, and they avoid people with such fire because they know that when they are attacked they react violently.

Unfortunately, today, sin and immorality have removed holiness from many people’s lives and many Christians have been unequally yoked with unbelievers. When they mix so much with unbelievers they make themselves vulnerable to all the attacking forces. When we begin to say foul things with our mouths and begin to do things that are bad, we are giving the oppressors a foothold. But when we clean our temples and fill them with good spirits, we are immune.

But the fact is that a lazy Christian can never be holy because holiness requires reading the Bible, it requires disciplining our bodies, it requires our praying very well, and it requires our praying in the Holy Ghost which is vaccine number one. So if we want to be free from oppressors, we must go back to holy life which the devil cannot pollute or touch. We must examine our lives very well and see to it that there is nothing there which can invite the devil in: no envy, no malice, no quarrelsome spirit, no spirit of anger. All these things must go, to render the devil powerless.

Sometime ago, a man took his friend’s case to a herbalist. The herbalist asked him, “Have you quarrelled?” He said, “No, we have never quarrelled.” The herbalist said, “Go and quarrel with him then come back.” The man did not succeed because his friend was somebody who when you look for his trouble he would not talk. He would smile at you and go away. Such people are difficult to attack. When you attack them, the evil will come back to you.

2.      Walk in the Spirit: Galatians 5:16-17 says, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth 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.”

When you give your life to the Holy Ghost and you are genuinely baptized in Him, one of His symbols is fire. It makes the environment too hot for the devil. It brings every thought to captivity. When you begin to walk in the Spirit, your life will be filled with Him. You would pray in tongues in the morning, pray in tongues in the afternoon and at night, and even before you take your actions you would ask the Holy Spirit. When somebody talks to you, before you react you would say, “Holy Spirit, what should I say to this person.” But when the flesh is in control we open the gate for the enemy.

3.      Be humble: When you set humility against the devil, he will flee. The Bible says that the humble man occupies a high place. He takes the place of the fallen angels. Isaiah 57:15 says, “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”  So, the Lord would actually bless those who are humble and He hates the proud because pride is a character of the devil. The devil committed only one sin before he was cast out of heaven. He wanted to exalt himself above God.

So, demons would be far away from any person who is humble, but to an angry or proud person they will always be close. What we are saying is that, you must totally submit yourself to God. That is the easiest way to force satan out of his stronghold.  You must totally submit your body to God. The devil recognises that once you are living a life of submission to God, he cannot touch you. Every area of your life must be brought under the power of God. 1 Peter 5: 6-9:“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” James 4:7 also says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

It is when you submit yourself to God that you can resist the devil. The reason all the parts of the body are functioning well is that they are under a particular authority. So, submit yourself to God in every area of your life and let us see how the oppressor can come in.

4.      Read the Word of God and meditate upon it daily: The word of God is the mirror of the Spirit. All our faults are exposed in the mirror and the word is able to transform our lives.

5.      Keep the right company: 1 Corinthians 15: 33 says, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” We are supposed to be separated and we must keep away from possible sources of contamination.

An unbeliever should not be a believer’s closest friend. In fact, the Bible asks us to keep away from certain groups of people. If God delivers you from drinking of alcohol, you must not go back and fellowship with those who drink it because you are now a different person. 

6.      Make sure you go to the right church: It is important for you to go to a Bible-believing church, a church where you can grow. You must not stay in a church where your spiritual life is dying out and you are not doing anything to improve it. If you stay there because you were born there you may end up in trouble. Look for a Bible-believing church which believes in the totality of the word of God, which believes in the power of the Holy Ghost and which believes in the gift of the Holy Spirit, not where there is corruption and where people are doing things contrary to the word of God. Look for a Bible-believing church where the power of God is present.

7.      Put on the whole armour of God: Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Verses 13 -18: “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.”

All these things are the armour of God. Deuteronomy 7: 26 says, “Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a curse thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it, for it is a cursed thing.” You must remove all demonic materials from your house so that you don’t have a ladder through which oppressors come in. Re-examine all the pictures that you have, examine all those things that are put in your house as decoration. Look at them deeply again from your spirit. Removing abominable things from your house would help to set you free from the oppressors. The devil uses them to set traps and deceive people to step into bondage from which they will be struggling to get out. The people I feel sorry for most are those who enter into these traps unconsciously.

One day, a girl who could not walk was carried to our church. What happened to her? Her classmate belonged to a mermaid group which told its members to bring one person each within a specified period. The girl tried but could not get anybody to join voluntarily. So she went and wrote down the name of this girl. And from that night the girl would find herself swimming at the Bar-beach without knowing what was happening to her. It was later that she discovered that her friend wrote down her name in the group, and the important thing for her was to get out.

Please pray the following prayer points very well. Do not allow your mind to wander. Forget about past failures. Trust God today. Stand against monitoring spirits with great anger and violence because the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent takes it by force.

PRAYER POINTS

1.    Every spirit monitoring any area of my life, I bind you, in Jesus' name.

2.    I withdraw my leg and my life from any monitoring spirit, in Jesus' name.

3.    Holy Spirit, incubate me with your fire, in Jesus' name.

4.    You foul spirits tormenting and harassing my life, loose your hold, in Jesus' name.

 

 

The Prophetic Picture of the year 2006

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

The year 2005 was a year of serious rage of   the enemy. There was rage in the waters, land and the skies.  There was rage by fire and wind. It was a terrible year of wastage of lives, properties and other resources. Unfortunately, the word given by the Lord for last year is still valid for this year. And unless there is consistent and serious prayers this year, last year’s occurrences would be like a child’s play compared to what the enemy is planning to do this year.

The year 2006 is practically a year of twenty-five things but I will talk about only twenty-three in this message:

1.    It shall be a year of mysterious conflicts. There would be unexplainable conflicts; nobody will know the cause and how they started.

2.    There shall be strange appearances to men from the spirit realm. Those who are fond of attending night parties and roaming the streets at night will be in for a special surprise if they do not stop.

3.    It shall be a year of the fight of the he-goat and the she-goat. And those around the he-goat and the she-goat will suffer.

4.    It shall be a year of plenty of strange occurrences that will stupefy people.

5.    Any peace-loving government must make conscious effort to invest in prayers this year. The Lord has a controversy with the nations of the world, and these nations are doing many things, which are not pleasing to the Almighty God. All the natural disasters that occurred last year was a proof that indeed man is powerless. There is no science or human intelligence that can arrest natural disasters. All that the elements need is a command from heaven to move and they will promptly obey; they cannot be stopped by any human effort.

6.    It shall be a year of unbelievable surprises.

7.    It shall be a year of disunity amongst people, even those from the same clan, tribe, town, etc.

8.    Prayerless politicians and government officials will by themselves cause their removal from office this year.

9.    This year, the secret behind spiritual and physical terrorism that harassed many people will be revealed. Secrets that some people believed would never be exposed would be revealed.

10. This year, the powers of the heavenly shall be thoroughly shaken up. So, you need to soak yourself in prayers.

11. It shall be a year of strange suicide cases. People, whom no one believed could do such a thing would go ahead and take their own lives.

12. It shall be a year of increased attack on people’s brains. There will be a lot of cases of insanity, unless arrested by prayers.

13. This year, the heavens shall wage war against the mighty and the wicked. It shall be a very bad year for wicked men unless they repent.   

14. There shall be a divine defence of the poor, widows and the fatherless. Anyone who participates in cheating these groups of people will end up in tragedy. 

15. It shall be a year the nakedness of many kings, that is, rulers shall be uncovered.

16. It shall be a year that all the enemies of Nigeria shall be in serious trouble.

17. It shall be a year of massive failure of occult powers. Those who believe in them shall experience failure and disgrace. It is only the power of God that cannot fail or be disgraced.

18. It shall be a year many great and new things will begin to happen in the lives of children of God who worship Him in spirit and in truth.

19. It shall be a year God will teach the hands of many of His children to prosper. And those who have been using evil tongues to arrest their prosperity shall be arrested.

20. It shall be a year of miraculous intervention for God’s children. Seemingly impossible cases and situations shall receive divine intervention.

21. It shall be a year of super abundance for those who are not stingy with God. Those who are stingy with God, even what they have shall be taken away from them since they are not utilizing it well.

22. It shall be a year of the beginning of a new era and a new order.

23. It shall be a year of accumulation of good things, advancement, strength and power for children of God who worship Him in spirit and in truth.

24. Not revealed.

25. Not revealed.

The Lord has given three scriptures to the members of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries for this year. These scriptures shall be their watchword for the year 2006.

They are:

a.  Psalm 2:4: “He that sitteth in the heaven shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derision.”

b. Psalm 71:21: “Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.”

c.  Ephesians 3:20: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”  I encourage you to memorise these scriptures.

So, for the members of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, it is a year of, “Overcoming laughter and enlargement breakthroughs.” It is a year that the children of God will laugh their enemies to scorn. Please, take notice that any prophecy given that is totally devoid of a way out of mercy, is unlikely to have come from the Almighty God. Therefore, God has strategies for success this year.

 

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS THIS YEAR

1. You must break free from every ungodly thought pattern of the past. The Bible says that as a man thinketh in his heart so is he (Proverbs 23:7).

2. Do not blame others for your failure. If somebody is attacked, and he feels it, the first thing he should do is to find out why the attack was able to penetrate his body, and not to blame those who are firing the arrow.

3. This year focus on God and His unfailing promises. Remove your focus from men, prophets or men of God. Don’t go to church to play politics but go there to look for God.

4.  Do not nurse your problems but nail them to the cross. Don’t fertilize them.

5.  Do not embrace your curse but curse your curse.

6.  Ensure that this year, you are always in the right company. If you go to the wrong company upon which God has ordained destruction, you will be affected. For example, if a first born of an Israelite was in the house of an Egyptian the day God asked the Israelites to apply blood on their door-posts, he would die because the angel assigned with that responsibility was not interested in who was inside.

7. Crucify your flesh this year. Do not yield to the commandments of the flesh.

8. This year, make Christ your model and leader. If you are in a position and need to take a decision, the first question to ask yourself is, “What would Jesus do if He was in my shoes now?”

9. Obey God’s word completely this year

10. Live by faith and grow in faith.

These are the strategies for success this year. If you follow these strategies strictly, it shall be a year of bigger testimonies for you. 

 

PRAYER POINTS

Breakthrough prayer for this year.

There are at least 3500 miracles attached to each of these prayer points, therefore, I encourage you to pray them aggressively.

1. O God, arise and connect me with people that matter this year, in the name of Jesus.

2. Every arrow of infirmity, my life is not your candidate, therefore, die, in the name of Jesus.

3. My leg, hear the word of the Lord, carry me to my  place of destiny this year, in the name of Jesus.

4. My body, reject every arrow of death, in the name of Jesus.

5. This year, I will get to the right position, in the name of Jesus.

6. O God, arise, bless those that bless me, and curse those that curse me, in the name of Jesus.

7. This year, the storms of life will not sweep me away, in the name of Jesus.

8. This year, my enemy shall hear of me and tremble, in the name of Jesus.

9. I declare that all my journey this year shall be safe, in the name of Jesus.

10.    Every grave dug for me this year shall scatter, in the name of Jesus.

11.    Every financial grave dug for me this year shall scatter, in the name of Jesus.

12.    Every power assigned to waste my life, you are liar, die, in the name of Jesus.

13.    O God, arise and put me in your envelope of fire, in the name of Jesus.

14.    O God, arise and let my story change, in the name of Jesus.

15.    O God, arise and let my Goliath die, in the name of Jesus.

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Recovering your assets from the destroyer

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

If you are a black person you must pray the prayers in this message the way you had never prayed before. There are so many things in the background of the black man that are pulling him backward.

God might have a purpose for your life but your family idols could tie you down. You want to move ahead but they would not allow you, because of the hold they have on your family. You had prayed and God showed you a revelation that you have to fly as an eagle and just as your eagle was about to take off, a strongman stood on the way, and said, “Where are you flying to? No one has ever flown in this family.” And you said, “I must fly.” But he said, “We shall call upon what we have planted in your life now and we shall see how you will succeed.” The truth is that whether you are a pastor, a priest, or a born again Christian filled with the Holy Ghost, as far as these materials are still in your life, they would pull you back. You will make heaven, no problem, but you would have lived a second- class life.

It is a fact that the percentage of black men doing very well is very low compared to the population of the world. It is in this part of the world that money meant for ten million people is carted away by one person and yet he cannot finish spending that money in ten years. That is one of the demons of the black man. We need to address it. If your lot is part of that money and someone is already sitting on it, where will you get it? Unless the Lord helps you, it will be a hard thing.

1 Samuel 30: 8: “And David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troupe? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.” In the above passage, we see three things: to pursue, to overtake and to recover. That is, if you do not pursue, you cannot overtake because the enemy is not standing still. You have to run after him and when you overtake him, you will then recover from him. Psalm 18: 37 :“I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed.” That is the position of Scripture. It is the lot of champions to pursue their enemies and not for their enemies to pursue them. Unfortunately, the reverse is the case for many. Psalm 126: I: “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion we were like them that dream.”

A long time ago, a certain brother wrote the School Certificate examination and made As in all his seven papers. That was when the standard was still high. He also sat for the Cambridge General Certificate of Education A level examination and came out with As as well. He was very brilliant. He made further efforts and travelled abroad where he made a first class honours in Mathematics. He came back to Nigeria and for six years, he was unable to secure employment. In those days, the Beetle car was sold for N2, 000.00 and before people left the university, employers were already coming for them. Employers came to the schools to look for people who would like to work for them. Yet, here was somebody with a Cambridge Certificate and a First class honours degree without a job. One day, as he was roaming the streets as he normally did, he came across a man advertising a crusade which was to hold later in the evening. He attended the crusade and what the preacher said that day sounded very strange to him. He did not preach like the pastor in his church. He talked about buried virtues. And after the preaching, he said everybody should space out and begin to pray that all their buried virtues should be exhumed, in the name of Jesus. The man prayed as he had never done before. As he did so, the Lord opened his eyes and he saw an angel and a woman standing by him. The angel said to the woman, “Madam, release his virtue.” She said, “I want to, but when I buried it, there was no river there but now there is one there.” The angel said, “I did not ask you whether there was a river or not, bring out his virtue.” Suddenly, the woman said, “I have found it.” And she brought out something that looked like a wedding present and handed it over to the brother. He felt the weight of the thing. This happened at the crusade while he was still praying. When he opened his eyes he found that it was a vision and he was really amazed. The following day, as he was in the street again, somebody parked a car by his side and said, “Hello.” He looked at the car, it was a very expensive one. He found that the fellow inside was a former classmate of his whom he used to teach mathematics and was the poorest in the class. He asked him when he came back from England and he said, “Six years ago.” He also asked him where he was working and he told him he was still unemployed. The man was surprised to know that such a brilliant person could not find a job. But that was his situation. The enemy did not stop him from going to Cambridge or getting a first class degree but he made sure that the certificates were of no use to him. The man invited him to his office and introduced him to his managing director and he was employed immediately and given a car and accommodation of his choice. He got everything after he had recovered his virtues from the destroyer.

Beloved, it is time for you to recover your asset from the destroyer. When the purpose for which God created you is stolen, then your destiny is buried. In such a case, the enemy has not stolen the destiny but the purpose for it. Many people do not know the purpose for their lives. When your harvest or goal is buried, it means that your achievement too is buried. Likewise, when your soul is stolen then your eternity too is buried.

Unless there is a contest, nobody can win. Unless you pursue, you cannot overtake. Prayers cannot be answered unless they are prayed. Many things have been stolen from the black man and kept in the devil’s bank. Many people’s resources are stored in various satanic banks. Where are these banks located? They are in seven locations:

1.    The second heaven: There is a bank there where people’s blood and virtues are stored.

2.    The atmosphere around the earth: A person’s destiny can be floating in the air. Such a person would be drifting. A drifter would say, “I took the City and Guild exam., Banking exam, Insurance exam, etc. There are many men and women who are drifting from one bed to another. When someone sleeps on about 20 beds in one month, he or she is a drifter and is busy distributing satanic magnets.

3.    Evil trees: In our environment, you can find some trees covered with white clothes and they call them sacred. These are evil trees. I have seen witches confessing that they hold their meeting in the trees. Things like money, underwears and wedding rings belonging to people are kept in these trees.

4.    Rocks: It is a common knowledge that rocky cities are plagued by poverty because most of the wealth of the areas is in the rocks. There are rock demons.

5.    Water: This one is everywhere, especially in the south.

6.    The earth.

7.    Human beings: It is possible to take a person’s virtues and hide them in another person’s body and the person in whose body they are hidden would be operating with them. For example, a person’s brain can be stolen and given to another person. 

The devil is an intensely evil being. There is no goodness in him at all, just as there is no badness in God. God is altogether good and the devil is altogether bad. If he gives you money, he would collect it with interest. Jesus has nothing good to say about the devil. He said he has come to steal, to kill and to destroy. He has stolen so many things from people.

The devil has stolen so much of what the Lord has set aside for us. It is very sad. If a lot of people knew what they know now about 20 years ago, I am sure they would be much better than what they are now. Many years ago, some people listened to the devil and now they are reaping the result. If Job knew that it was the devil that was behind his case, he would not remain in the problem for more than one day, but he thought it was God. His friends said it was his sin. His wife said, “Curse God and die.”

The devil is the most successful thief in the universe. Somebody who is not interested in stealing your television but wants to steal your eyes, is a big thief. Of course, what is the use of television when the eyes have gone. He steals joy, children, money, home, peace, possession, wives, husbands, etc.

It is sad but true that many inheritances of the saints are locked up in satanic banks and used for financing the kingdom of darkness. We must use the opportunity of this message to serve a quit notice to Satan and all his agents. For too long, they have robbed the saints of God and have demolished the quality of their lives, taking the lion’s share of their possession. We have to recover them.

Thieves use different techniques. A thief can decide to come when you are not at home. He can decide to tell lies. Some are armed robbers. All these techniques are in the hands of the devil. This calls for warfare. Sometime ago, I met a lady who came all the way from London to Nigeria for deliverance. I asked her if she had done deliverance before? She said, “Yes, pastor. “How did it go?” I asked her. She said, “I went to the pastor and he asked me to sit down. He gave me a cup of coffee and as I was sipping it, he prayed for me. After about three minutes, he said I was delivered.” Coffee deliverance? The battle is much more serious than that.

The devil is still bent on unserious deliverance that is why the Bible says that Jesus has come to undo the work of the devil.

 

THE CYCLE OF SIN

The enemy is out to destroy destinies and his most lethal weapon is sin. We should fight against this weapon with all our might. There is something called the trinity of destruction. It comprises sin, death and hell. They are triplets. Sin will kill a person, death will reap the person like harvest, and hell fire, the bank of the iniquity, will keep the person. The Bible even says that hell fire has been expanded. There is also something called a cycle of sin. Someone commits fornication, collects demons from his or her partner and transfers it to another person who in turn takes it to another person and the circle of sin continues like that. Someone commits fornication and it results in a child out of wedlock. Because the child is out of wedlock, he automatically comes under a curse of 10 generations as pronounced by the Bible. The child becomes a vagabond and a criminal and goes to rape someone else and the sin continues. Or a lady commits fornication, gets pregnant and aborts it. Then the spirit of abortion takes over and she becomes a prostitute or she catches a disease and it begins to torment her life or she spreads it around and the circle of sin continues. Take any other sin and you will find that it operates like a circle. A person gets drunk and begins to misbehave and the sin continues.

The world is a trap of a satanic network of sin, which leads to death. The cycle of death is highly organized to sustain the reign of Satan. Where sin reigns, evil is established and demons thrive. If you want to destroy the destroyer you must depart from sin. Others may be doing it but you cannot. Take a good self-examination of your life, then you can destroy the destroyer.

 

WHO ARE THE SATANIC BANKERS?

1.    Demon gods: These are in all tribes of our states. Their names are attached to our names. People worship and reverence them. They rule over mankind. Many use them against others. If they are not worshipped, they protest. A priest would come and say, “There is problem in this community because the gods are unhappy.” They would gather things together and give to the idols.

A small girl of about 16 ran to Lagos after being raped by her own father because that was what the idol said he should do so that he would not be chased out of the village. The girl lost her virginity to her own father, yet the idol was not satisfied. It wanted her to lose one of her ears too so, she ran to Lagos. They demand to be worshipped and when a person refuses to worship them, there would be problem. It would take a serious fight for the person to recover what they have taken from him when he was serving them. They would say, “When your childhood and placenta are still with us, where do you think you are going?” So, you must learn to pray fire prayers.

These idols have their secret places of worship. Many families have family shrines. Some carry theirs to the cities. Some hide theirs underneath their beds and would say, “Well, when the name of Jesus becomes too problematic to call, I will go back to my shrine.” I feel sorry for such people because the idols will slap them on one side of the face and Jesus will slap them on the other side.

The whole nation worships them. Sacrifices are offered to them before bridges are built, if not, workers at the bridges would sink. Unfortunately, many people are bearing their names. They hold the black man in captivity. We must destroy their powers, if we must move. If you do not want your eagle caged, you must destroy them.

2. The strongman: As revealed by Jesus in Luke 11:22, a strongman is a demon assigned to a person, place, family or community. He is the one in charge. He is armed with offensive weapon to wipe off anybody who wants to release his captives. He can rob people of their sight, speech and abundant life. There is a difference between the strongman and the demon god. The strongman does not need worship. He is a wicked spirit assigned to a person. When the strongman of a person’s life is the same as the person’s spirit wife or spirit husband then the person is finished unless he can pray. He will scatter everything that the person wants to do, like marriage, business, etc. The strongman steals from people such things as prospects, joy, understanding, etc. He can cut a person’s soul and steal something. He can even steal human parts like legs and eyes and can put people to poverty. All the things that people require to enjoy are in his custody. He holds them captive, the way you keep a guard in the gate of your house.  But thank God, he can be overpowered. He can be disarmed. He can be dislodged. Stolen valuables in his hands can be recovered. His captives can be set free by the finger of God.

A sister got married and at the reception, her mother -in-law said to her, “I am the senior wife and you are the junior one.” The sister said, “Mummy, what are you talking about?” She said, “Number two, you should only move where I want you to move.” The sister said, “We are still at the reception and you are talking like this.” She said, “Immediately you enter, I am coming to stay with you.” The sister thought it was a joke. But one week after the wedding, she lost the use of her two legs. The mother –in-law was living there and was giving the sister whatever she wanted, until one day the sister prayed and the strongman was destroyed.

3.    Serpents and scorpions: These are Satan’s most crowned demonic forces. They roam about the earth. Their weapon is their mouth and tail. They capture men by sex. Many men have fallen and many are still falling. They sting people. They poison to kill. They are responsible for inflicting sicknesses upon people. Sometimes when you pray well, you can see them in a vision. They possess people. Sometimes, they come in human form. They are very much around, stalking the unsaved. They also attack saints who have broken the edge. Once the edge of protection is broken they move in. For example, if as a Christian you shout at somebody like this, “Shut up and keep quiet, your father is mad,” he has removed the hedge. At a school of deliverance, one of the lessons taught is that anger is the gateman at the door. What is its duty? When anger comes upon you, it opens the door and asks hypertension and all kinds of sicknesses to come in. And by the time you say, “It is all right, I have calmed down,” they are already inside. Even if you were born again, they would enter because you have broken the hedge. It is a law.

4.    Wild beasts: Some people call them spoilers of the vine, the small foxes that spoil the vine. These are evil spirits. They do not necessarily possess anybody but they try to associate with people. They are destroyers and devourers and they do not like to lose their ground. They are armed and can go from family to family. They can kill and they destroy health, family and control harlots. They take delight in spoiling things, that is why Psalm 91 talks about the lion and the adder which are wild beasts. They are among us and when they act, you would say, “Is this one a human being? How can a man of 40 years rape a two-month old baby?”

5.    Fowlers: They are in the same group as the birds. They set nests to capture birds. They can capture a person’s soul.

6.    Oppressors: Satan is called an oppressor but we thank God because the Bible says that Jesus has come to destroy all his works.

7.    Captors: The Bible says in Luke 13 that one woman was bound by satan for 18 years.

8.    Tormentors.

       The reason we go into this kind of message is that there are some people now whose virtues are bound but they do not even know. The prodigal son eventually discovered that he was no longer in the place of blessing, the Bible says that he wondered, “Was I under the influence of drug or was I drunk? What am I doing here when my father has everything? I shall go back to my father.” Immediately he said that, things began to happen. You must take back your possession which the destroyer has captured.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   I pursue and overtake every family strongman, in the name of Jesus.

2.   Point your finger to the heavenlies and prayer like this: satanic bank in the heavenlies, release my virtues now, in the name of Jesus.

3.   I arise by fire from every bondage, in the name of Jesus.

4.   Every hunter of the eagle of my life, die, in Jesus’ name.

5.   Every evil rope pulling me away from my place of blessing, break, in the name of Jesus.

6.   Every consequence of family idol worship in my life, break, in the name of Jesus.

7.   Every consequence of family marine worship in my life, break, in the name of Jesus.

8.   Every consequence of parental mistake in my life, break, in the name of Jesus.

9.   Every consequence of family witchcraft upon my life, break, in the name of Jesus.

10.  I pursue, I overtake and I recover, in the name of Jesus.

11.  I pursue and overtake the strongman, in the name of Jesus.

12.  You stubborn strongman, release my asset, in the name of Jesus.

                    

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Facing both ways

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Matthew7:21-22"Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devil? And in thy name done many wonderful works." Some people have not even done any work but the people in the passage said they have done many. Verse 23 says, "And then will I profess unto them (God forbid), I never knew you (although you worked miracles in my name and prophesied) depart from me, ye that work iniquity." These are heavy words.

An ancient proverb says that there was a foolish ruler. When it was hot, he wanted it cold and when it was cold, he wanted it hot. He was always looking for what was not. It is amazing that many people do not know what they want and many come to the house of God blind.

There is a class of animals called amphibians. They are defined as animals that can live both on land and in water. There are many Christians like that, they are facing both ways.

Elijah told the people at Mount Carmel, "If God be God serve Him, if He is not go away, don’t patch up. Don’t put one leg in His kingdom and another one in the kingdom of the devil." You would not be dinning with the children of the devil and be receiving divine vision at the same time. Those facing both ways have not identified thoroughly with what they believe. All such people, according to Jesus, would miss heaven. He says, "Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Even if you worked miracles, prophesied, sang, taught or did anything else. As far as you did not do the will of the Father, I will say to you, sorry, I don’t know you. You are a worker of iniquity because you did all that with a double mind." Such people will eventually miss heaven unless they repent. This is very important.

Those facing both ways are not committed to God. They do not realize that God has a purpose for bringing them to church. He has no useless exercise. Such people come to church, pray fire prayers, listen to the word of God and yet, it is not certain where they belong. They are Christian amphibians or sub-marine Christians. They want miracle but do not want the miracle worker. When the mouth and the heart are playing different games, the person is not heading to heaven. The mouth is saying, "Lord, Lord," but the heart is saying something else. It is strange to know that the most diligent preacher around now is the devil. He is never out of the church. You cannot find him idle. It is the Christians that become idle, not the enemy. He is present in every service. His agents are anywhere God’s name is magnified, to report back to their master. He is also available. You do not need a long invitation to get him to work. It does not take you a minute to slap somebody now. It does not take you a minute to get angry. So, he is always available and does not sleep. Unfortunately, many are serving him without knowing. His best job is done by those who claim to love God. They are his best agents. Masquerades dance very hard in market places. You can see sincerity, commitment and hard work in them as they work for the devil. They do not come late to their meetings. But in the church, you have many children of God that are not committed. They are one leg in, one leg out. In their houses, you will hear worldly music which they memorize.

It is possible for somebody to be coming to the house of God and remain what you call a sweet sinner. There is also bitter sin, for example, armed robbery. Christians are the greatest sweet sinners. But sweet sins will get more people into hell fire. There could be a person who does not smoke, womanize, drink, attend parties or gamble, but he cannot witness for Christ. Such a person is still a sinner, a sweet sinner. There are people who know the Bible from the first page to the last but they have terrible temper. Any small thing provokes them. They are sinners although they know the Bible. A person could teach at the Sunday school, do praise worship, yet possesses an acidic tongue, is a sinner. Some sinners are the kindest and most respectable people you can find. They would say, "Yes sir, how are you sir?" and so on and so forth but they are terrible sinners inside. This is why the kingdom of heaven is going to be very interesting. Some people you expect to find there will never get to the gate. Jesus said to the Jews, "You keep calling yourself the children of Abraham. But I tell you on that day, you will see prostitutes, adulterers, etc, sitting at the table with Abraham and you would be locked out." They claimed that Abraham was their father but the spirit of Abraham was not in them. That is why James 2: 10-11 says, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, do not commit adultery, said also, do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law."

There are thousands of people who say, "I am trying my best. I have done this, I have done that." But the Bible says, "If you offend in one point, you have committed all the sins." So there is no difference between somebody who tells small lies and a witch. Both of them will end up in the same place when they die. There are many people who speak religious language but unfortunately, they are perishing. There are many pastors who shall perish. There are many people who, although they bear Christian names, will perish, unless they repent. Those, who are putting time and money into the things of God but have no love and sincerity, will miss heaven. There are people who come to church but have not totally forsaken their sins or are not truly broken. They may be working for God, sweating, but they are sinners. The most dangerous ones are those who have unforgiving spirit. My prayer is that the Lord shall perform a surgical operation in their lives, in Jesus’ name. Some labour to hide their sins from man but they stubbornly refuse to let all the sins go. They refuse to uproot the world from their hearts. The world is deeply entrenched in their lives although they come to church. They look different in the church from what they are outside.

Many people talk and sing about being free, while they are still bound by lust, greed and covetousness. A certain sister telephoned me and said, "Please, sir, help us." I said, "What is the problem?" She said, "My husband is a deacon in our church. But we have had accident three times on the road because when he was driving, he could look forward only when there was no woman by the side of the road. Whenever there was a woman, he would not look forward until he ran into something." That was a deacon. What was his problem? Sin. Jesus would say to such a man, "Although you are a deacon I don’t know you. Your name is not in our book." A person’s name can be in the book of exploits because the Bible says that they that know their God shall be strong and do exploits. It could be on record in the book of exploits that you converted so, so and so, yet your name is not in the book of life. It could be recorded that you sang and people got converted. But that is in the book of exploit. What about the book of life?

Some people decide to miss heaven because of worldly things. But I made up my mind a long time ago that come what may, I will not miss it.

A certain armed robber saw a vision of heaven and appreciated the beauty so much that he said to the angel that was conducting him, "Excuse me sir, let me stay here." The angel said, "No, you cannot. There is still one more place for you to see." He dragged him to hell fire where he saw his fellow- armed robbers, who were already shot, burning in hell. Worms of fire were entering in and out of their nostrils and they were screaming. He told the angel that he preferred the first place. The angel said, "If you don’t repent, this is where you will end up like your friends. When he woke up from his dream, he went and submitted himself to the police. He said, "Please lock me up. It is better for me to die in prison and go to heaven than to be a free man and go to hell fire." You may go to hell fire laughing but when you get there, the laughter will disappear. You may play games and be clever now, but over there, there are no games because you would meet the master game player.

When God shows you the truth, your life should not remain the same, unless you have decided to be what the Bible calls a child of perdition. There are some people who have decided to perish. There is nothing you can say to change them. Their conscience has been seared with hot iron. When somebody commits sin willfully, he grieves the heart of God, he crucifies the Lord Jesus Christ a second time. Whenever a believer commits sin, he quenches the power of the Holy Spirit. Every sinner is making attempt to overthrow God. It does not matter if the sin is still in the mind, the person is doing a lot of harm to the Creator.

Husbands, your sins could damage your wives, unless you repent. Wives, too, your sins will damage your husbands unless you repent. Murmuring, complaints, disrespect, jealousy, disobedience, anger, pride or rebellion will hand over a family to the devil for punishment. This is why at Mountain of Fire and Miracles, we do not teach anybody to fight the husband or the husband to beat the wife. We teach that the husband is the head of the home and the wife should submit to him. That is the proper order, provided what the husband wants you to submit to is not sin. That songwriter says, "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back." He says, "The cross before me, the world behind me." Is the world behind you or at your front? Have you left the shackles of the world behind? For example, if the prince of the world comes to you now, that is the devil, can he say, "I cannot find anything in this man? I cannot find anything in this woman? Can he say that about you? Not all that are called pastor, priest, singer, Sunday school teacher or whatever shall enter. The Bible says that iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold. It does not say, "it may," but that "it shall" wax cold. Pray like this: I remove my name from evil prophecy; it will not happen in my life, in the name of Jesus.

The reason some people are having backache is that they are sleeping on stolen beds. The reason some people are having stomach ulcer is that they are eating with stolen spoons. Somebody goes to a hotel and when he is checking out, he steals the towels and the cups and goes home with them. Now he says he has skin rashes. The reason is that he is using the stolen towels.

A sister stole a television set and watched it for years. But she noticed that there was no single breakthrough in her home. Each time she switched on that television the devil would start to dance because they were watching his property. In the same house, they held night vigil every last Friday and everybody prayed. But the devil was laughing because of the stolen television in the sitting room and a stolen carpet. So, nothing happened.

A certain brother who claims to be a Christian tried the first time to get a visa, he was turned down. He tried the second time and still did not succeed. Then he got another passport and changed his name from Olowu to Owuto. He now said, "Pray for me so that I will obtain a visa to travel abroad." And children of God were praying aggressively. That is an amphibian.

Ask yourself: "Have I cheated somebody in any way? Have I even been paid money that I ought not to get and I kept quiet. Have I ever cheated my employers in any way?

Have you ever stolen money, equipment or anything? Have you made a false claim to exaggerate things? Have you claimed money for any work you did not do? If you are committing secret sins like that, the voice will sound out, "I know you not." Or are you the kind of person that close your eyes when people are committing sins? Have you ever stolen anything from anywhere? Are you the kind of person, they give change and the change is over what you should get and you do not return it? There was a time that I had something to do and I employed three carpenters. I said that I was going to give them a test to see who I should continue with. I asked them how much they needed to do the work. The first one said, N2,500; the second one said, N2,500, and the third one said, N2,400. Each of them was given N3,000. I wanted to know the honest one. Of course, two just said, "Thank you sir" and went away, and never returned any change. Only one of them came back and said, "Sorry sir, there is a mistake, the money is supposed to be N2,500, but there is extra N500, so I have brought it back." I decided that he would be the permanent worker. The others kept quiet and later started complaining, that that one, whom I was giving jobs, was not good: he was bad, he was mad, he was this and that but they were thieves.

So, sometimes when you think you are being clever, you cannot be smarter than the devil. Are you the kind of person who borrows from people and decides not to pay back. Some people keep their money in the bank. They have N40,000 in the bank and are roaming around looking for somebody to lend them N5,000. It is madness, because that money has become an idol. If you say, "I want to keep it there to yield interest," whose interest, when the Bible says, "owe no man."

Not all they that call me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.

If you are reading this bulletin and you falsified your age to get admission, or to obtain a job, you are a sweet sinner, an amphibian. Anytime you have the opportunity of getting into somebody’s house, where you can use free telephone and you overuse it, you phone the whole world, you are a sinner. You propose marriage to somebody and later find somebody better and you break your first promise, you are an amphibian Christian. May be you got somebody pregnant and because you have no money, you now say, "I didn’t do it," you are an amphibian. You smile at people, but internally, if they fall down and hit their heads on the ground, you really do not mind. God sees your heart. If we all gather into the house of God and the only thing we want is for His glory to be manifested, nobody will fight. If all that God requires from you is to be cleaning shoes for His glory to be manifested, then you do it. If all He wants you to say is Amen, and it is for His glory to be manifested, that is okay. But the moment people want their own glory, there will be fight.

A man, a very top official in a church, came to me and said he was in trouble. He wanted prayer. I said, "Why do you want prayer now?" He said that when he wanted to take up the church post, four other people wanted it. So he went to a herbalist somewhere close to Ikorodu, who he learnt was every effective. He gave him a charm so that he could win the post. Now he won the church post by using wicked herbal means and there was a quarrel. The herbalist threatened to come and report him to the church, that he was the one that did this and that for him to become this and that. Now he wants prayer from me so that he could defeat the herbalist. I said, "Who did you want to serve with the post?" He said, "God." I said, "If it is God you want to serve, and you want only His glory, why should you go and use satanic means to get the post?" I thought it was the end. I did not know that all the other contestants had been rendered paralysed. The ignorant members of that church would sit down and say, "It is my father’s church, I will die there."

So, serving God with an unclean heart is like you are saying, "Lord, Lord," but in reality, you do not belong. It is possible for you be coming to a church and not contributing anything to the holiness there. The world is just looking at some people to change so that their lives alone would make thousands to rush into the kingdom of heaven. God is waiting for that change, but they are not moving fast. Instead, they are advertising the enemy. They use their attachments to advertise him. They paint their fingernails to advertise him. They wear their 666 chain over their necks to advertise him.

Do you know where you are going? Pray like this: I remove my name from the list of backsliders, in the name of Jesus.

Confess your sins to the Lord and refuse to be used as a bad example. Talk to the Lord yourself. He uses His x-ray machine to look into your innermost being, to the deepest part of your life. He can see the areas where people have covered so cleverly. Confess your sins to Him. Tell Him that you are sorry, tell Him to help you. He is available to help.

Prayer Points

1. O Lord, deliver me from every bondage of sin, in Jesus’ name.

2. Every power quenching the power of the Holy Spirit in my life, release it, in the name of Jesus.

3. I must rest in the Lord and not on any other thing, in the name of Jesus.

4. O Lord, lift me up, in Jesus' name.

5. Every spirit of lukewarmness, depart from my life, in the name of Jesus.

6. I refuse to be intimidated by any stranger, in Jesus' name.

7. O Lord, manifest your power in my life, in the name of Jesus.

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Breaking Destructive Linkage

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Beloved, before we go into this message, I would like you to make the following declaration: “I am not a second class citizen. I declare that greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. Any power trying to pull me down must scatter to pieces because my feet are on the Rock of ages who will never fail me. I decree that God has something special for me and every stage of my life shall glorify His name. If others are going through a particular problem in my family, my case is different because I am a child of the living God and the hand of the Lord is upon my life, in Jesus’ name.” 

 Our message this week, which is entitled, “Breaking the evil link,” would focus on a particular item, which has been a source of hindrance for many. We are going to concentrate all our prayers on this area since the Holy Spirit is emphasizing it. Several years ago, a certain man was brought to one of our meetings. He had gone to an all-night party and while the party was on, he told the fellow sitting close to him that he wanted to go and ease himself and the person directed him to the right place. So he went and over there, he saw a relative of his who was dead and he said, “What are you doing at the back of this building?” And the supposed ghost gave him a dirty slap. People wanted to take him to the hospital but he told them to take him to a church that his case was not a hospital one. At the time he was brought to the meeting, his mouth was bent to one side. Members of his family followed him to the church but they were not interested in praying. They pitched a small camp at the back of the church where they cooked his meals and people were going there to pray for them. But I noticed that even during service, these people who came with him were not interested in what we were saying. They just sat down there. I told them that that was a church and if they did not want to pray, they should please excuse us. They said, “You cannot force us to pray. We shall take our brother away.” I said, “Okay, take your brother away.” But the man kept begging that I should not allow them to take him away, that if they did, I would not see him alive again. He knew that he was not safe with them. But one afternoon, they smuggled him out and about 50 meters from the church, the man died in their car. He was slapped by a dead man and surrounded by evil agents who followed him to the house of God and eventually finished him up. Then they rushed back to the church and started crying and saying that he was dead. I asked them why they took him away from the church but none of them answered. What happened to that man? There was an evil link between him and members of his family, which he discovered too late.

 There was also the case of a particular sister who at 45, never had a bachelor who showed any interest in her not to talk of proposing marriage to her. It was only married men with many wives that were coming to her. She came to me and I gave her a prayer point which says, “Lord, show me the secret behind this problem, in the name of Jesus.” She prayed the prayer point and in a dream, she saw herself in a big wedding in the dream. At the wedding was a big choir, and a very fat pastor conducting the wedding. Then something told her to look at the face of the bridegroom who was just saying, “I will” to everything they were saying. By the time she looked at the bridegroom, behold it was her own father and she woke up. She didn’t understand. I explained to her that it meant that spiritually, she was married to her daddy. She said, “Well, I just know that we are close. I am closer to him than my mummy and he talks to me about deep things which he doesn’t talk to mummy about.” So, her daddy was not really ready to release her to any man. Spiritually, he got her engaged. That is what we call an evil link. If someone is under such linkage, it has to be broken. Many years ago too, I knew a lady whose mother had died 10 years earlier but had never accepted that she was dead. She told me that she spoke to her everyday. She said, “If you offend me, I will report you to her.” Evil link.

 These kinds of things are not the kinds of things any born again Christian should be seeing or experiencing because the Bible says that it is given unto man to die once and after that judgment. The Bible also says that there is no relationship between the dead and the living. The eternal words of those angels to the disciples of Jesus were “Why are you seeking the living amongst the dead?” The people I have just described are examples of those who are being remotely controlled through an unprofitable communication system.

 In a small book entitled, “Bitten by Demons” there is the story of a certain girl who was always screaming that some things were biting her. Nobody could see the things biting her but the marks of the bites were all over her body. She was taken to the doctors but the doctors could not help her. They could not even diagnose her problem. The government brought her on air and called the best doctors; neuro-physicians, psychiatrists, etc, but they could not help. Then they brought her on air and said anyone who could help should please come. It was then a certain preacher turned up and said he knew what to do. He asked if anyone knew what was biting the girl but no one could answer him. To address the problem, he first of all gave them a lecture on the three forces in the universe:

1.    Positive power which is the power of the Almighty God.

2.   Negative power which is the power of the devil.

3.   Neutral power which is the power of man. He explained to them that this can either go positive or negative. There are many people now who mix both the negative and positive powers.

He told them that whatever power was biting the girl could not be the positive power. Both the doctors and other people present there agreed with him. Then he started praying, and as he prayed, the girl started screaming saying that all the things biting her were all there and the man of God said, “Yes, let all of them come, I will deal with them.” And to the glory of God, he dealt with the problem in the name of Jesus. That incidence threw the evangelist into limelight. He cut the link between the girl and the demons and she was free. Why were they able to terrorize her for that long? There was a link.

 There are some men who are controlled by their mothers and to marry such people, you have a battle to fight. I have seen a case where whenever the mother-in- law came to visit, she would sleep on the same bed with her son while his wife slept in a different room and the man couldn’t see anything wrong in it. When his wife complained, the man said she should stop complaining, after all that was the person he was sleeping with before he met her. My prayer is that every evil link affecting your life shall break, in the name of Jesus.

 There could be an evil link between friends. Some of the people we call friends in school are not friends. In fact, there are so many people we call friends that are sent against us to steal our virtues.

 A certain young man came to me crying. What was his problem? Sometime ago, he went to a lagoon front to relax and according to him, he was looking at the lagoon and suddenly, he fell into some sort of sleep and by the time he opened his eyes, he found a woman sitting beside him. He didn’t know where the woman came from. She started complaining about JAMB admission, etc. and he got carried away and committed immorality with her. Since that day, every marriage plans he had failed. Every nice woman he got involved with, ran away. They did not want to stay even though he had everything that could make them comfortable. But the prostitutes liked to stay longer. What happened? There was an evil link between him and the strange woman at the lagoon.

 There could be an evil tie between children and parents which needs to be broken before there could be marital breakthrough. There could be an evil tie between a person and an adulterer. This is why sex outside marriage is wrong and bad. A person’s problem may sometimes be traced to a casual relationship with a married man or married woman. I got a letter from a young man of 22 in the university. He financed his education by looking around for women who could pay him money to sleep with them. So, there are so many women who play games with their husbands. He got one who wanted more than a casual relationship. She brought him into her matrimonial home and explained to her husband that he was her junior brother from the village. One day, the husband caught them and sued for divorce. The 47 year- old woman and the young man of 22 were ashamed but they could not split. The woman said, “You made me lose my husband, so you stay.” Then the boy wrote me a letter saying, “Sir, I heard that you are coming to Kaduna. I know that my wife /husband will not allow me to go out. Please Sir, help me with prayers. Try and help me sir, but don’t send anybody to this address because if she knows about it, she would kill me.” An evil link. Even if that woman died, he would still be in trouble. Sometimes, some people think they are very smart, not knowing that they are looking for trouble.

 There could be an evil tie between close friends. If you sit down and review your friends right from secondary school to primary school and begin to put their spiritual lives on the ladder of fire, the Holy Spirit might help you to locate the terrible ones among them who have done evil things against you. There could be an evil tie between a person and a group. This could come in the form of binding agreements.

 There could be an evil tie formed by fornication and immorality. The more women or men you sleep with outside marriage, the tighter the linkage would be. This is why the Bible warns us seriously against these kinds of things.

This then will answer a lot of questions that have been troubling the minds of many. Questions like: Why is it that certain problems are always sticking to certain people? Why is it that sometimes after hot prayers, some problems become stronger? Why is it that sometimes a problem stages a comeback? Why do some evil spirits stick to a particular environment? Why is it that some people see some particular people in the dream all the time? Why should the dead parents of a person keep pursuing the person?  Why should the dead friend of somebody keep pursuing the person? Why should a person continue to dream of a particular dangerous animal all the time? Why do some people attach themselves to some people even when they know that it is wrong? 

Sometime ago, there was a big fight between a woman and her husband. I went there to pacify them and tell them to stop fighting. But the woman insisted on leaving the man. So I asked what was the problem. The husband said that his wife’s junior sister who was living with them was the one causing problems for them and that he had asked the girl to go back home. The wife caught in and said that if the girl was going, she too would go. Why? Evil link.

Why should an adult of 21 or 25 be cuddling teddy bears or dolls, which she had 15 years ago? This is why Psalms 129: 4:  “The Lord is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.” What is the cord of the wicked? It means their linkage, that with which they operate.  Isaiah 5: 18  “Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope.”

We have these passages in the Bible because there could be an evil link between a wicked person and somebody who claims to be righteous. There could also be an evil link between a person and an evil spirit. The evil spirit will not be inside the person. Get that clear. It is not all evil spirits that want to enter people. Some evil spirits don’t operate inside. They stay around, outside, pushing away good things. Why are they around?  It is because there is a link.

There could be an evil link between a family idol and a person. There could be a link between a person and a curse running in the person’s family. This is why we have to pray for spiritual surgery so that all these evil links can be destroyed. Spiritually, a lot of people are being pulled around with a spiritual rope like an unwilling goat going for slaughter. Such ropes must break today, in Jesus’ name. If you don’t break these things, the soul ties would remain and your life would become a dumping ground for the enemy.

When these links are in place, you would be following another person blindly. You will be fulfilling the desire of another person and may also be experiencing the problems that person is passing through. It can give rise to false love. You may call it love whereas it is lust. It may cause relationship based on lust, witchcraft, domination, etc. These spiritual cords just have to be broken. It is important for you to ensure that none of these linkages are in place.

If, for example, when you were in the world, you had a boyfriend whom you almost married or a girlfriend you were almost going to marry, if that tie is still in place in the spirit, getting a fresh person would be a problem. There are many people who have left their pictures behind in the house of their former girlfriends and boyfriends. Only heavens know what they do with those pictures now. So, now is the time to deal with these issues once and for all. Please, pray the following prayer points with holy madness:

PRAYER POINTS

1.   I break every evil unbiblical cord. Break, break, break, in the name of Jesus.

2.   I break every evil unbiblical cord by fire, in the name of Jesus.

3.   Evil spiritual parents, release me now, in the name of Jesus.

4.   Evil spiritual partners, release me now, in the name of Jesus.

5.   Evil spiritual marriage, release me now, in the name of Jesus.

6.   Every enemy of my marital breakthrough, loose your hold, in the name of Jesus.

7.   Every spiritual competitor against my marriage be scattered, in the name of    Jesus.

8.   I remove every garment magnetizing anything evil to me, in the name of Jesus.

9.   Begin to thank the Lord for His deliverance upon your life, in Jesus’ name.

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Attack the Spirit of Jezebel

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

A lot of people are struggling and tiring themselves out with a closed door whose key they do not have. In the absence of the key, banging, shouting, crying or general struggle trying to get in, is a useless exercise. Unfortunately, this is the position of many Christians.

Jesus said unto Peter, “I give to you the key of the Kingdom and whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.” Peter had a key, Paul too, had a key. I want the key that would open the door to my breakthrough physically and spiritually, in the name of Jesus.

The Lord meant our body to be His temple. But before the glory of God can fill a particular temple, the temple has to be cleansed and purged. Therefore, Jesus had to purge the temple at Jerusalem. He said to them, “My house shall be called a house of prayer but you have turned it to a den of robbers” and He chased them out. The body of man is meant to be the temple of the Lord. But to many people, the body is not the temple of God but virtually a caged or imprisoned entity by powers greater than them. I want you to proclaim liberty and freedom to yourself. The Bible says, “If the Son makes you free, you are free indeed.” It also says that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty and that Jesus came to proclaim liberty to the captive. Please, pray like this: “Freedom from the Lord Jesus, soak me from the top of my head to the sole of my feet, in Jesus’ name." The Bible says, “If God be for us, who can be against us.” When God is for somebody, anyone who decides to go against that person must be mad. If a witch or wizard or powers of darkness decide to wage war against a child of God, it would be the beginning of their end. In fact, it is madness to attack a child of the most High God.

A lot of Christians never grow because they spend 90 per cent of their prayer time battling internal and external enemies and spend only 10 per cent on their spiritual growth. When the spirit of freedom is upon you, anyone who turns against you is planning to run mad. Beloved, enough of useless battles. In many places in the Bible, God set against themselves the enemies who prepared themselves and trained their armies to fight against the Israelites. They destroyed themselves while the Israelites moved in and collected the spoil. This is why you must pray this prayer point: “Let all the enemies of my soul get busy as from today fighting against themselves, in Jesus’ name.

 

WHO IS JEZEBEL?

The first introduction of Jezebel in the Bible portrays her as the rebellious and domineering wife of a king, called Ahab. She dominated and manipulated her husband. Unfortunately, for the nation of Israel, her husband happened to be their king. I Kings 16: 30 – 31: “And Ahab, the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.” God had warned His children never to marry the Zidonians. The warning is true today that no believer should marry an unbeliever. If you do that in spite of the fact that you know that it is wrong, you have only constructed a coffin for your home. Eventually, it will become a foundational problem that will be very difficult to solve. This was what a whole king of Israel did. Apart from that, he was serving the idol of Jezebel called Baal. My prayer for bachelors is that they will never marry Jezebels, and the spinsters too, will never marry Ahabs, in Jesus’ name. Ahab raised  an altar for Baal and built a house for it in Samaria. The Bible says that Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. His problem started when he married Jezebel.

In the book of Revelation, we see Jezebel again surfacing. Revelation 2: 20- 21 :“Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou allow that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.”

Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, was so powerful that she forced 10 million Jews to bow to Baal. Only about seven thousand plus Elijah were faithful to God. In fact, Elijah thought he was the only one, until God said, “No, I have seven thousand more somewhere.”

 

THE SPIRIT OF JEZEBEL

The woman Jezebel is now dead physically, but the spirit of Jezebel is still very much around and has caused and is causing many problems for Christians. This spirit has thousands of people in its grip. It is responsible for the worldliness and unseriousness you find in Christians nowadays. It is the spirit converting many houses of God to entertainment halls, where people just go to be entertained by actors. It is the spirit of Jezebel that has produced a lot of psychedelic and disco pastors. You see pastors with 'jerry curls' and 'Tyson' hairstyles. In such places, you cannot differentiate between the pastor’s wife and a club girl. It is responsible for the conversion of the house of God to a place of merchandise and fashion parade. It is now introducing witchcraft into the house of God very cleverly and people are not aware of it. The spirit of Jezebel is responsible for the perversion of the authority in the home, where the wife is converted to the husband and the husband is converted to the wife.

Jezebel incited her husband to do evil and eventually led him into trouble with the Almighty God. God got fed up with Ahab and called a meeting of His angels and said, “Which of you will go down and deceive Ahab to die.” They all gathered and gave different suggestions. All that time, Ahab was comfortable. Eventually, God put a lying spirit in the 200 prophets of Ahab. Sometimes, when one wants to go into destruction, he would be deaf to every wise counsel. All the 200 prophets prophesied and said, “Go and the Lord will give these people unto your hand.” Only one man was different, a true prophet of God. He said, “No, if you go, you will not come back,” and Ahab promptly commanded that he should be locked up.

The spirit of Jezebel is the spirit responsible for the revengeful spirit in many believers now. A lot of believers want to retaliate what other people did to them just like Jezebel wanted to retaliate on Elijah. This is wrong. The spirit of Jezebel is responsible for the idolatry that is in the church now. A man came to the house of God and said he was broke and that he wanted to be prayed for so that he would begin to prosper. Some brethren prayed for him. Shortly after, he went to his bank account, which had been dormant for a long time and found that somebody had mistakenly paid N30,000.00 into it. He jumped up and said that the Lord had prospered him. He went ahead and withdrew the money and gave testimony that God had prospered him. That is modern idolatry.

The spirit of independence and ambition to be popular is the work of the spirit of Jezebel.  It is the spirit that kills God’s prophets prematurely. It is the power behind seducing spirits. The work of the spirit of Jezebel is getting so common nowadays. All the panel-beating and the spraying of the body by Christians and careless eating are the works of the spirit of Jezebel.

 

THE NAME, JEZEBEL

What does the name Jezebel mean? It means ‘without co-habitation.’ That is, Jezebel will not dwell with anyone,’ unless she can control and dominate that person. It has destroyed preachers and politicians. It makes people to commit abortion. It is responsible for family strives and unsettled homes.

 

PRISONERS OF JEZEBEL

There are many secret prisoners of Jezebel today. They have no control over their sexual desire. They run after their house girls at night or any other woman, apart from their wives. Anytime they are not busy praying or clapping and singing, pictures of immorality fill their hearts. When you see a man who enjoys being in the company of girls alone, know that he has a problem. If you see a woman too, who prefers to be with men all the time, something is wrong somewhere. All these are secret prisoners of the spirit of Jezebel.

The truth is that the spirit of Jezebel would stop attacking a person only when it knows that the person can withstand it, because Jezebel’s worst enemies are the prophets of God who speak against it as the true prophet of God spoke against it in the Bible. The spirit of Jezebel hates repentance, prayer, holiness, purity and has captured many modern day Christians. Some people go to church to seek deliverance, only for them to get possessed by the spirit of Jezebel. This then worsens their case.

 

THE FOUR POWERFUL STRONGMEN IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION

1.  The spirit of death and hell: The first strongman is the spirit of death and hell. Death is the reaper while hell is the storehouse. So, one goes to work, and the other stores what is brought back.

2.  The spirit of the anti-Christ: This is the spirit responsible for lukewarmness. It takes people farther away from the Lord and the more somebody goes away from the Lord, the more he moves into darkness.

3.  The spirit of Babylon: This is the spirit of compromise. Believers should not compromise their faith at all.

4.  The spirit of Jezebel: This message is centered on this strongman.

 

THE AGE LONG WAR

There has been an age long war going on between the spirit of Elijah and the spirit of Jezebel. Elijah represents the interest of heaven, the call to repentance and a return to God. Jezebel on the other hand, represents principalities or powers whose purpose is to hinder the work of repentance. Looking deeply into the scriptures, we can see that Elijah was very bold. But Jezebel too, was also very bold. Elijah was violent against evil while Jezebel was violent against righteousness. Elijah spoke about the ways of God while Jezebel spoke about the ways of witchcraft. This war still continues today.

In the book of I Kings that we have read, Jezebel had systematically murdered God’s servants, the ones she could lay her hand upon. It was not that she did not look for Elijah, but the God of Elijah kept Elijah out of her hands. Ahab looked everywhere for Elijah and when eventually Obadiah found him, he said, “We have searched for you everywhere. You just locked up the windows of heaven and put the key inside your pocket, the king is looking for you.” But something happened in I Kings 18. There was a contest between the prophets of Jezebel and Elijah. The contest was on mount Carmel. The contest was very simple. The prophets of Baal, who were 450 in number, were on one side while Elijah was on the other side. Elijah said unto the people, “I even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, it is well spoken.” So they began to call on the name of baal and nothing happened. They did this for almost 12 hours. The Bible 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. (Elijah did not stop there like many Christians would do). And Elijah said unto them, take the prophets of Baal; let no one of them escape. And they took them and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.” And so will you slay your Baal today, in Jesus’ name.

The God of Elijah is the God of fire. He will fight for you today against any spirit of Jezebel, in the name of Jesus. Now, after this kind of super victory, why on earth should Elijah run away and say that he wanted to die. I Kings 19: 14: “But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, it is enough now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.” This was Elijah talking because in verse 2, Jezebel threatened him. “Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah saying, So let the gods do unto me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.”

 

FEAR AND DISCOURAGEMENT

What came over the person who prayed and fire fell? How could such a mighty prophet turn and run? The answer is simple: Jezebel had released a flood of witchcraft and demonic powers against him. It was not that the witches were eating up his flesh or drinking his blood. No, they could not, but they put two things in his hearts, which are already in the heart of many people today. The two things are fear and discouragement. When those things entered into the spirit of Elijah as a result of an attack by the spirit of Jezebel, the great prophet of fire turned and ran when he could easily have stood at the palace of Ahab and call fire down so that Jezebel and her whole household would be destroyed. He turned and ran because two of the greatest weapons of the enemy were used against him.

A lot of people think that witchcraft is only about eating their flesh, drinking their blood and breaking their legs. No.

When there is fear and discouragement in a person’s spirit, the person would run even if it is only a cockroach that is talking. And then in that position of fear, the person becomes an easy target for the enemy. They would be able to touch the person because he has not placed sufficient fire around himself. Witchcraft would first of all send its two disciples; fear and discouragement. If you allow them to touch you, then they start clearing the road. They discourage people so much that they would not be able to pray well and you would be thinking it is one man somewhere. These two powerful weapons are what the spirit of Jezebel uses a lot today.

Elijah went away in his chariot of fire. John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah. And the dancing daughter of Herodias got John killed. She danced very well and Herod the king promised to give whatever she wanted. The girl now said, “I want the head of John the Baptist.” So, the man who came with the spirit and power of Elijah, was killed just like that. What the spirit of Jezebel did to Elijah, Herodias, too, did it to John the Baptist. But before John was beheaded, the two evil disciples of Jezebel had attacked him; that is fear and discouragement. It was so much that John sent a messenger to Jesus asking, “Are you the one that is to come or should we look for another?" Here was the forerunner of Jesus Christ who said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world.” He baptized Jesus yet, he sent a messenger to Him to find out because fear and discouragement had entered into him

 

THE SPIRIT OF ELIJAH

The ministry of Elijah is not over. In fact, the book of Malachi tells us that towards the end of time, God will still send Elijah to us. Malachi 4: 5 – 6: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”

God is still raising up a company of prophet Elijah. These are Spirit -filled Christians who are supposed to kill the prophets of Jezebel and to drink the blood of the prophets of Baal. But you cannot be in the company of Elijah if Jezebel still has a hold on you. If your enemy cannot attack you directly, he would seek to bring you into sin, thereby positioning you for the judgment of God. That is true about the enemy.

The movement of the power of the spirit of Elijah is what we need now to put the spirit of Jezebel to flight. Addiction, adultery, arrogance, broken marriages, fear, fornication, jealousy, unclean thoughts, masturbation, perverted sexual relationships, spiritual blindness, the spirit of religion, witchcraft and all occult involvement manifest in the lives of those who are controlled by the spirit of Jezebel. For example, if the spirit of Esau were upon somebody, the person would sell his birthright, meaning that the person would stay at the tail instead of at the head. If the spirit of Menasseh were upon somebody, the person would also operate at the tail region. If the spirit of Pisgah were upon somebody, the person would be seeing good things but would never taste them. If the spirit of Saul were upon somebody, the person would start off on fire for God and end up with the spirit of witchcraft. If the spirit of Pharaoh or Herod were upon somebody, good things would die at infancy in their lives.

The spirit of Jezebel is the spirit that kills God’s anointing in people’s life. Such people would receive no revelation. They pray and see nothing or hear nothing. This spirit kills the prophet inside of you. It is the spirit that pushes people under God’s judgment like it happened to Ahab. Jezebel kept pushing Ahab until he entered into trouble. The spirit of Jezebel is the spirit that prefers artificial glory to the glory of God. It is the spirit that causes constant strife in the home. It turns husbands into babies and wives into giants. It is the spirit of immoral activities.

2 Kings 9: 30 –33: “And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master? And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? Who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs. And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses; and he trod her under foot.”

Beloved, today, you have to throw the spirit of Jezebel out of your life. Let the dogs lick her blood and you will trample upon it. Jehu had no mercy for Jezebel. He was not ready to reform Jezebel. There should be no mercy or compromise or sympathy towards the spirit of Jezebel. Jehu trampled her under foot. Right now, God is giving you the spirit to participate in the internal judgment of Jezebel. You have to cast her down, let the judgment of God come forth. It is time for the children of God to unite against this spirit with the power of the Holy Spirit, under the Elijah anointing and the anger of Jehu. Start to proclaim holy war against the spirit of Jezebel.

 

WAY OUT

There are six ways to deal with the spirit of Jezebel operating in the home. The devil tries to keep people from understanding these facts.

1.     Do not raise your voice against your spouse because the Bible says that a soft answer turneth away wrath.

2.    Identify the issue.

3.    Do not dig up old wounds. Bringing up old wounds will bring up further tension.

4.    Do not call your spouse names. This is character assassination.

5.    Do not generalize by telling your spouse, “You always do this or do that.” All these are destructive exaggeration.

6.    Finish the discussion. Do not burst into tears or get out of the house in anger.

 

PRAYER POINTS

Please pray the following prayer points with holy anger.

1.    You spirit of Jezebel, I command you to release your captives, in Jesus’ name.

2.   You spirit of Jezebel, you will not kill the prophet of God inside of me, in Jesus' name.

3.   I cast down every evil imagination against me, in the name of Jesus.

4.   I break any ungodly association with the spirit world, in the name of Jesus.

5.   O Lord, set my enemies in array against themselves, in the name of Jesus.

6.   The key to open the way unto my breakthrough physically and spiritually, Lord give it to me, in the name of Jesus.

7.   I pull down the altar of witchcraft against my life, in the name of Jesus.

 

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Power against captivity

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

  

Psalm 126: 1 –4: “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south.” Psalm 53: 6: “Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.” Psalm 68: 18: “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men: yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.”

The word ‘captivity’ is taken from the word ‘captive’. Somebody who is in captivity is a prisoner, whether the person knows or not. We have so many unconscious prisoners; those who think they are actually enjoying themselves but are prisoners. There are several kinds of captivity that sons of men experience. They are grouped under four major categories:

1.     Internal captivity: This is when a person is a prisoner inside, although he may be smiling to people outside. The external may not reflect what is going on internally.

2.     External captivity: This is the obvious type. It can be seen that a person is under a form of bondage.

3.     Remote control captivity: This is when a person is being controlled by a demonic person who is far away. Satanic people construct dolls or effigies to represent people. Whatever they do to these effigies would be happening to the people anywhere they are. Sometimes they do this by evil summon. They summon the spirit of a person to their demonic meetings and pass a wicked judgment on the person. Some of the people you see all over town, wearing suit and talking grammar are being remotely controlled from their hometowns. That is why a believer should pray that God should bless him or her. Do not say, “I wish I could be driving in that V-boot car like that man.” If the V-boot man is being controlled by remote –controlling powers and God answers your prayer of wanting to be like him, you will come under the manipulation of remote -controlling powers. They would start controlling you the way they are controlling him. If somebody was under a remote -controlling chain and the sword of the Holy Spirit cuts the chain, fresh miracles would bombard him in a dumbfounding way.

4.     Personal captivity: This is when somebody who knows that a particular thing will harm him, but still goes back to it. For example, if somebody knows that anytime he goes drinking and smoking, he comes home with a headache, and he still goes to drink, such a person is under personal captivity.

The ability of God to make captivity captive is something that is not clear to so many people. Some people are quick to forget that aspect of God. God has a method, which is not clear to man yet. When you talk about light and darkness, hot and cold, death and life, it takes a lot of effort to go from one extreme to another. In most cases people just give up and learn to live with their conditions but Jesus reverses things. He can make darkness to become light. He can change a bad person to a good person. He makes the dead to come alive. He replaces fear with peace.

 

UNCONSCIOUS CAPTIVITY

 

Unfortunately, man sometimes finds himself in helpless situations for which he may not be personally responsible. These are the kinds of people I feel sorry for most. The parents of a certain girl were poor and could not afford to continue her education even though they knew that she was very intelligent. At the age of eight, while she was toping her class, they stopped her education. Then one old man of 42 came along and asked why she was not going to school and they told him that they did not have money for that. He volunteered to sponsor her to school if they would allow her to marry him. So the girl got married at the age of 8 years. At the age of 21, she became converted and found that she was in captivity. She did not get into it by herself. Circumstances and situations got her into it. It is like the case of a girl who was raped by a demonic man of 50 when she was two years old and caused her some injuries. There was also a man who lost both parents when he was six months old and because of the situation, he had to live with five different people in five different homes. He had never experienced parental love. Now as a man, every woman he married ran away because he did not know how to show love to them. His condition had become captivity and he had to look for a way out.

 

SIGNS OF CAPTIVITY

1.     When a person who has a sharp memory discovers all of a sudden, that he now finds it difficult to remember things.

2.     When a person who was prosperous suddenly has nothing, that is captivity.

3.     When a person who used to be very healthy suddenly becomes sickly.

4.     When a woman’s husband suddenly loses interest in her.

5.     When you do your best to normalize things but they keep getting worse.

Perhaps, this is your situation, I have good news for you. God is able to reverse your captivity. He can make your enemies to swallow their words. He has done it before, He has been doing it and He can do it again. God knows that many people got themselves into their present situations though ignorance. All our young brothers and sisters who have the opportunity of being taught how to pray in order to receive their God-chosen partners and are not grabbing it should ask the older ones about their experience. If these older ones knew one quarter of what they know now, they would not have made mistakes.

A lot of people saw captivity and out of ignorance went headlong into it. If some sisters had prayed, they would not have ended up with the men they married. Then, they had said, “Love is blind.” Now that the love is beating and harassing them, they are running helter-skelter. But God who is faithful can forgive you for those periods of ignorance. The Bible says that God winks at the time of ignorance. Since He can forgive you, He is able to bring you out of your captivity. The devil dealt with Job but God brought him out of captivity and turned his weeping into joy.

 

RECEIVING POWER AGAINST CAPTIVITY

You must learn the lesson that God wants you to learn in your present situation. God would not give you power against captivity until you have learnt these lessons. This is to ensure that you do not go back into captivity again and He does not want you to lose what He has helped you to restore. You may be in a particular situation, which is not making you happy, perhaps the lesson God wants you to learn is that of patience. The Bible says that some people, by faith and patience won the promises (Hebrews 10: 36). If some people were more patient, their marriages would still have been steady now. May be that is what God wanted them to learn.

Perhaps, it could be anger. If God wants to take you somewhere and He sees that your anger is bad, He would wait for you to remove the anger because if you get there you will cause more problem for yourself. Perhaps your own is fornication. You roam around with all sorts of men and women. Your friends hail you for your immoral exploits and you think you have achieved something. In case you do not know, you have only got yourself an express ticket to hell fire. God could be waiting for you to repent of that. Maybe your own is alcohol, God is waiting for you to throw your bottle of alcohol away and forget about it completely. God is waiting for a time when somebody will say, “Serve us beer,” and you will say, “No, we no longer serve beer in this house because the Bible says woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink. If you enjoy ‘woe’ may God have mercy on you because ‘woe’ means serious calamity. Maybe your own is fighting. You are always fighting; in the market, in the bus and in the house, and in the evenings you will carry the Bible and God is saying, “When will this one stop fighting so that I can make progress in her life or his life.” Maybe yours is abortion. You have aborted all God’s prophets and they are making noise at the throne of God saying, “Lord, will you allow this dirty woman to continue to kill your prophets? Require our blood from her hand,” and you are busy saying, “It is not my fault.” God is not asking whether it is your fault or not. All He wants is repentance.

Maybe it is idol- worship that God wants you to forsake. Many people have exalted many things above God. Maybe your own is nagging. You are always complaining about your husband or your wife at home. Maybe God wants you to get out of evil associations. For example, the school of disrespect and dirtiness, bad companies, demonic associations, etc. God waited for Job to learn his lessons. It was after Job had learnt his lesson that God made his captivity captive. You may say what lessons did Job learn?

Job learnt some lessons:

1.     He learnt that evil should not be given any chance.

2.     He learnt that it was wrong to blame God for what the devil has done.

3.     Job also learnt that devil was behind all his sufferings and not God.

4.     He learnt that he should not have cursed himself.

5.     He learnt that he should have prayed for his friends.

From your present problem, what lessons have you learnt? As soon as Job learnt these lessons, God said he was ready. He was cursing himself and saying all kinds of things. But when God bombarded him with questions such as: When I laid the foundation of the earth where were you? Declare it if you have knowledge. He would not answer. He asked him more questions. Then it got to a point where Job said, “I know that my Redeemer liveth and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” So if you are cursing your mother, or cursing the day you were born because of your situation, you need to repent.

A person who refuses to learn from his school of captivity is a failure. There are generally seven signs with which to recognize those in the school of failure.

1.     They are always neutral over spiritual things. For example, they do not take spiritual holiness seriously.

2.     They go to church when they feel like it and when it is most convenient.

3.     They look at the inconsistencies and fault of others. They find faults and criticize others and ignore their own faults.

4.     They unite with worldly things like clubs and fraternities. I am sorry for anyone who has his name in the register of worldly clubs but do not have it in the Book of Life. When some chronic lodge members and chronic herbalists die, you see some funny pastors performing burial rites for their corpse. I am afraid the judgment of God would be hard.

5.     They run around with carnal Christians and make friend with unbelievers.

6.     They make immorality their food.

7.     They do not learn lessons from their friends and they repeat their mistakes.

Another principle of making captivity captive is the fact that nothing good comes easy. Ask all the spiritual giants how they became giants and they would tell you terrible stories, which would shake your legs. Most good things are difficult to obtain but the land of opposition is a land of opportunity. Before the parents of Samson could deliver him it took them some time. His mother was banned from drinking wine and alcohol and some other things. The parents of John the Baptist had the same experience. Today, we are enjoying the benefits of salvation but it was not an easy thing for Jesus to do. Imagine the man who stood by the woman at the well and said, “I am the living water. If I give you my water you will never thirst.” And the woman said, “If you have that kind of water give me also so that I don’t come here to fetch water any more.” Imagine the man who said that, coming to the cross to say, “I thirst, give me water.” Trials will lead to success. People will ridicule you but it is part of the show. People usually criticize the man at the front not the man at the back. Even on the cross, Jesus was still being criticized. Maybe you have criticized your parents and asked them to leave you alone as you have your life to live and that you are a modern person and now you are having problems. May God have mercy on you. Do you know what they did to you when you were eight days old? Now they see how you are going and have realized that it was as a result of what they did. They are advising you on the basis of that and you are asking them to get lost, no problem. You will only be long in captivity. Nothing good comes easy. When you have a battle to fight, violence is required. The Bible says that right from the time of John the Baptist, the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.

Do you feel limited? Do you feel confined? Do you feel like you are in bondage? Are there barriers and bands in your life that need to be broken? Do you fall in and out of favour? Somebody loves you today and tomorrow, you get there and he says, “Get out, I don’t want to see you again.” Do you experience powerlessness? Do you notice that what used to take five minutes of praying now takes five days? Do you notice that your spiritual gifts are fast disappearing? Are you busy looking for a job without success? You are praying, believing that your prayers would bring answer but no solution and the devil is even tempting you to go back to the world. Do you pretend about your problems? You have occasionally thought about yourself and said, “Well the best thing is to give up.” You need to repent.

Some people are too scared to commit fornication physically but the thing has completely gripped their hearts. They just cannot stop their hearts from thinking fornication. You look at your life and it is like even your own parents have lost interest in you and people are gossiping about you and laughing at you. You have gone for countless counseling and the result seems to have yielded nothing. The devil keeps singing to your ear that you are a failure, or you notice that you experience hindrance in anything you want to do. You have been coming to the house of God for years, yet nothing is happening or you are a sister and you have turned yourself into an emergency cook because you want a husband. These are all signs of bondage. Many people have ladders through which evil spirits come into their lives. If such people decide to pray with aggression and violence and take to heart what this message is saying, freedom is sure. Why? “Jesus, the same yesterday, today and forever.”

That voice that said, “Let there be light and there was light, only has to say to you, “Today, be free,” and there will be freedom.  He does not have to say more. One of the most outstanding scriptures is found in Psalm 78: 40 - 42. It says, “How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.” The Israelites had got so used to bondage that they limited God. When you blame God or other people for your circumstances, the barrier remains in place. Your position as a believer is this, others may but not you. It may be happening to others but not you because your case is different. Can you imagine that as powerful as God is, you and I can limit Him in our lives? That is what that scripture is saying. It says, “They turned back and limited the Holy One of Israel.” Has it ever occurred to you that you might be the one limiting God in your life? You may wonder how possible it is for you to hinder God when He has all the powers. God did not create us like robots or lifeless equipment. He created us with a soul and we can choose what we want.

 

HOW YOU CAN LIMIT GOD

1.     By forgetting what God has done for you: If you forget what He has done for you, you cannot overcome the captivity in your life because you have limited God’s ability to work for you. Remember your position before and your situation now. Remember the victories God has won for you. To forget is to plan for present and future failure. The Lord gave food to the Israelites without a bakery. He gave them water without a well, electricity without machines, health without medicines, clothes and shoes that never got worn out for forty years. But they hindered God in their lives. Some are afraid that the enemy would start running after them now that they have given their lives to God. Some are saying that since they testified to what God did in their lives, problem has started. The devil uses things like that to shut people’s mouth because he does not want them to get out. That way, people limit God.

2.     Turning back on the day of battle: Proverbs 24: 10 says, “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.” Turning back on the day of battle is limiting God. Psalm 78: 9-12 says, “The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law. And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them. Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.” Turning back on the day of battle is limiting God. When you say, “I am fed up,” you limit God because the angel bringing your miracle could be standing at the door but because you would not see beyond your nose, you are busy saying negative things. Once you do that, you are turning God away. When you go back to your old ways, you limit God’s power. When you try herbalists because answer to your prayer seems delayed, you are limiting God. Know that since the devil is the one putting diseases on people, he has some power to remove some diseases in order to convince people that he has power. He would remove tuberculosis and replace it with Aids.

Several years ago, a woman came to one of our meetings and told me that her husband died of Aids and that she was afraid that she might die of the same thing. I told her she would not die but live whether her husband had Aids or not because the blood of Jesus is stronger than Aids. She praised God and started worshipping God. Then one day, a miserable counsellor told her to go and do a medical check up if that was what killed her husband and stop talking about faith. Unfortunately, she heeded the evil counsel and was not coming to services regularly again. She went for the test and the result read positive. Immediately she collected that result, life lost all meaning to her and she began to lose weight, this was somebody who was living well. I never saw her again until I heard that she was dead. Never limit God’s power. It is when the battle becomes tough that the tough people get going. Losing the battle is losing the war. There will be no Moses without a Pharaoh. There is no Elijah without Ahab. There is no Esther without Haman, and no David without Saul. So you cannot have a distinction without sitting for any exam. You cannot become an army general by sleeping on your bed. No enemy, no victory. No enemy, no throne, no battle, no crown. So giving up is like disobeying God. You do not know how long God has travelled. It may just be one more blow that you need and your breakthrough will come. But you refused to give that blow and wonder why the captivity is keeping long. Or are you like the children of Ephraim? The Bible says that they were armed and they counted bows but on the day of battle, they ran. Adversity is a breeding ground for miracle. The land of opportunity is the land of opposition. Canaan was a land flowing with milk and honey but right in the midst of the land, were giants. God may be waiting for you to grow up to the level where you can maintain your breakthrough. When you lose contact with God, you book an appointment with the devil. There is no triumph without trial.

Do not allow fear to turn you back. When you fear that a problem will overcome you, you limit God. Thou shall not be afraid. Fear is a spiritual cancer and must go. It is the opposite of faith. Anybody fearful is useless to God. If you exercise fear that a problem will overcome you, it will be so. The Bible says that the fearful ones will go to hell fire like the fornicators. Are you afraid that a sickness will kill you? Have you started reading about the sickness to know more about it? Are you bothered that you will not be able to pay your children’s school fees? Are you afraid that you will lose your husband so you are monitoring him around? Are you worried that something that a sharp dreamer saw about you will come to pass? Are you afraid that you will never come to the top? These are ways of limiting God. 

3.      Following other gods: Despite the many wonderful things God did for the Israelites, they turned against Him forgetting that He is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5). Everybody is worshipping something. If you do not worship the true God, you are an idol worshipper. An idol is anything that is exalted above God. Idol worshippers include those who say, “My job does not allow me to come for fellowship.” Many people, these days, are worshipping the god of their belly. Such people are not interested in anything that does not have to do with food. Giving God’s glory to something else is idolatry. Stubbornness is idolatry. Some have turned sex to their idol. That is all they talk about. In their rooms, you see calendars of naked women, and all kinds of obscene pictures. For some people, it is sport. During football matches, they forget about fellowship. They abandon the house of God for what they call soccer. Sometime ago, some believers were crying because a particular team lost a match but never in their lives have they cried for a sinner to repent. Some actually fasted for that team to win but they have never fasted that their pastors who are in the lodge society should get out.

Some people have made education their idol. They forget that the arm of flesh will fail them. The last time I went to pray for somebody at a Psychiatric hospital, I did not like what I saw. A lady had just been brought down from England. She had her lipstick below her lips. So what was the use of her master’s degree certificate?

When you bow down to worship an image, whether the image is Mary, Diana or Venus, you are an idol worshipper. The Bible did not say you should be bowing down for Mary. She was a sinner like all of us and she knew that she needed the Holy Spirit that was why she gathered at the upper room to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the other disciples. God became angry with the Israelites for forsaking the tabernacle of the Lord.

What is the focus of your own life? What is the most important thing in your life?  What do you spend your money on? How do you spend your time? Are you willing to give up those things separating you from God?

 

HOW TO OVERCOME CAPTIVITY 

1.     Do not give up.

2.     Remember what God has done for you and be grateful to Him.

3.     Remove fear.

4.     Reject every idol.

5.     Fill your life with the words of God.

6.     Confess His words.

7.     Know for sure that the enemies of man cannot be begged to leave him alone. What they understand is absolute defeat. You cannot appeal to the devil. Jesus crushed the head of the serpent.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. I remove myself from every remote -controlling power contrary to the will of God, in the name of Jesus.

 

2.     I decree freedom into every area of captivity in my life, in Jesus’ name.

 

3.     You captivity, I command you to be captive, in Jesus’ name.

 

4.     Captivity, release me, in Jesus’ name.

 

5.     Anything in my life that the power of captivity is using against me, come out by fire, in the name of Jesus.

 

6.     I break and loose myself from every bondage of slavery, in the name of Jesus.

 

7.     I terminate every journey into captivity, in the name of Jesus. 

  

 

The Evil Diversion

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Our Father in heaven, we thank You because you are El-Shaddai, You are the Jehovah- Jireh,  the Jehovah-Shamah, and Jehovah Shalom who has all powers in His hands. Thank You for being our provider, shelter and rock.   We thank You for the promotion, provision and breakthroughs You have given us. Glory be to Your holy name.   Do wondrous things in our lives Through this message, in the name of Jesus. Thank you Lord Jesus, in Jesus’ name. Amen.         

    Beloved, life is like a journey in three parts. There is the beginning, the course of the journey and the end. God has a divine purpose for us as a church.  Apart from that collective purpose, God also has a divine purpose for us individually. What I mean is that God is not in the business of messing around. He has a divine purpose for putting you somewhere. He has a reason for allowing your father and your mother to give birth to you. He does not engage in useless activities. One of the most terrible and effective ways of amputating a person’s life and his destroying potentials is what is known as satanic diversion.

 

WHAT IS DIVERSION?

   A diversion is turning aside from a course that is to be followed. A diversion is a change of direction or an alternate route. It is also something designed to take away attention from the main course. Simply put, it is a change of direction.

    Jonah 1:1-2: “Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it for their wickedness is come up before me.” That was a straight forward message to a man of God from God. Verse 3 says, “But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa: and he found a ship going to Tarshish so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.” Jonah paid his fare to go into bondage. He sponsored himself out of the will of God. That is, a person can use his money to buy diversion, or divert his journey from where God wants him to go. Verses 4-5 says, “But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was like to be broken.  Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the waves that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them...” 

     We can see how a single person who was diverted put other people in trouble.  All those traders threw their things into the sea because a single man who had been diverted was on board. “...But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep.” The Bible says that he slept deeply, even though he was in disobedience and diversion. So, you may enjoy yourself as you are being diverted. Verse 6 says, “So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.” After all the other people in the ship had tried their little gods, they woke him up to call upon his own God, who might be more effective.

    Verses 7 - 17 : “And they said every one to his fellow, come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us, so they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us, What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou? And he said unto them I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.  And he said unto them, take me up, and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you; for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not, for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them. Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

  The question is this: What was the spirit that told Jonah, a man of God, to change his destination after God had told him to go to Nineveh. The fact that somebody is a prophet does not mean he cannot be diverted. 

WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF EVIL DIVERSION?

   Major evil diversion takes place in darkness because deception is very easy in darkness. Sometime ago, I was going somewhere but suddenly there was power failure and everywhere became dark. It had been five years since I went there last, so I was unable to find my way. The major evil diversion of human lives takes place after the enemy had succeeded in dragging them into darkness. Therefore, the longer a person stays in darkness before he runs to Jesus, the deeper the enemy will work in the person’s life, and sometimes, the longer it will take to clean the person up after he had escaped.

     I know a certain man who was in a cult for 30 years before he gave his life to the Lord. When he handed over his evil powers, he forgot that a long time ago somebody gave him some eggs which he swallowed, and right inside his stomach the eggs had hatched into chickens, and these chickens inside his stomach had helped him to kill people. He began to pray fire prayers like: “Holy Ghost fire, come upon my life, in the name of Jesus.” Anytime he prayed the prayer, the birds got agitated, picked at his intestine and started to eat it up.  And as a result, he was bleeding and could not eat. One day, he remembered the birds. Some brethren prayed for him until he vomited them alive. But before he vomited them, they had done a lot of havoc on his intestines, and a teaching hospital had to do a surgery on him  to join them together. So, the longer one stays in darkness, the deeper the enemy will work in his life. And if the devil saw that if you escaped from his kingdom you would become dangerous to him, he would try and leave enough mark on your life. Darkness is an easy place for evil work. Your best friend can give you a big punch in the dark and because you cannot see him, you would not know. This is why God does not open the eyes of Christians who have bad temperament, because if He does and they have insight into the things of the spirit, they can kill.

   A certain man prayed the following prayer point: “Oh Lord, deliver me from every foundational problem and reveal the secret of my life to me, in the name of Jesus." He soon fell into a trance, and found himself in a courtyard where he stood as the accused, and his seven year-old daughter called Folake was the judge looking at him sternly. He asked her what he had done wrong and she said, “En, when you give me cowskin (ponmo), you give my sisters good meat and liver.” The man said, “That is not a problem, I will start giving you liver as from now.” The girl said, “Too late,  you are already here.” They hit him on the head with a big stick and he woke up and ran mad. When he was  cured of the madness eventually, he remembered the vision. The spiritual world is like that. Those who you sometimes think are your best friends, may be your worst enemies, when you know who they really are, you will adjust. That is why the Bible says we should walk in the light. When you walk in the light, you cannot be diverted.

  Many are on the wrong road now because when they were in darkness, the enemies who saw the goal of their lives, diverted their journey into the wrong road by satanic intelligence. Although they are now Christians, long before they got born again, the course of the journey of their  lives had been diverted.   

 

CLASSES OF EVIL DIVERSIONS

a. Conscious evil diversion.

b. Unconscious evil diversion.

c. Inherited evil diversion.

d. Transferred evil diversion.

e. Evil diversion acquired by personal decision.

   I pray that your ungodly journeys will be terminated today, in the name of Jesus. When God says that somebody will be a bricklayer, but his parents want him to be a medical doctor, they will force him to study Medicine and he will make mistakes.  He will become the doctor that would forget scissors and cotton wool inside the stomach of patients, he would do wrong abortions and his patients will be dying and many people will be running away from him. There are many counterfeit doctors like that. There is no way a fish can be blessed when it is out of water, neither can a crab become a boxing champion when he is on top of a tree.

 

Why does the enemy wish to divert a person?

    Many years ago, a woman came to me for prayer and the Lord told me that she was a principality. I asked her what she wanted and she said that her husband was never balanced. I said, “Is that all?” She said, “Yes.”  “So, what do you want me to do about that,” I asked.  She said, “Pray for me so that my husband will be balanced.”I went straight to the point and said, “Sorry, are you saying that you don’ t know you are demonic and that you are a principality.” She said, “Oh, so you can see.  All right, now, I will tell you certain things.” Then she gave me a one hour lecture on how the powers of darkness operate. Among other things,  she told me how they foresee the future of  people the very day they are born. I asked her what they do with such information and she said, “Ah, knowledge is power. Once we get the information, we can divert the journey of their lives, confuse them, and that is it.” The enemies of the souls of men know the hidden potentials in people even before such people realise it, so they rejoice over such information because it helps them to carry out their evil plans.

  These days, in so many churches, demons rejoice because the praise worship is being led by somebody from the river, the usher is from the tree, and the pastor is from the lagoon, while  normal people are busy dancing and beating drums.

 

THE PURPOSE OF EVIL DIVERSION

1.  To take the individual far away from God.

2.  To ensure that the purpose of a person's  life is not achieved. Evil diversion is an usher of failure. It ushers people into failure.

   Make the following declaration: “I know that I shall not be ushered into failure, in the name of Jesus.”

3. To open avenues for demonic pollution and domination.

4. To hold others in bondage by diverting the deliverer. The enemy can divert the journey of a deliverer so that those needing deliverance will not get delivered.  For example, if somebody who is going to preach somewhere branches at a bar to greet his friends and they offer him palm-wine and he drinks, he would be diverted. 

5. To push people into hell fire.

6. To prevent people from reaching their goal in life.

7. To remove people from their place of divine blessing.

8. To waste lives. What does it mean to waste?  It means to use wrongly or not to use at all.

   Sometimes, evil diversions look bright and good. The fact that a place is good and enjoyable does not mean that you should be there. The Bible says there is a way that seemeth right unto men but the end therefore is death. The way of diversion is sometimes the way of least resistance.  

  There was a certain man who called himself the lion of Judah. When I was a small boy, I used to call him a hero because he was more intelligent than my teachers in school. He could play the mouth organ excellently, but he was a mad man. He knew music, mathematics, history, etc, but he was useless. 

 

What is a wasted life?

    A wasted life is a life without a purpose. It is a life that has been diverted from its divine purpose, and until the person is delivered, life will have no meaning to him. There are so many people in the world today who are very busy, dedicated, influential, respectable and even admired by everybody, but deep inside them they are frustrated, confused, disillusioned, depressed, aimless and unhappy. This is why the issue of purpose before getting a partner is very important. This means you should discover what God has sent you to do on earth before you begin to pray for a life-partner. Some people do not understand. They want everything fast but God is saying, “Find out the purpose for your life first.”         

    There was a certain brother who heard the message of "purpose before partner" but did not take it seriously. So when he wanted to marry, he just picked up somebody. Everyday his wife would smile at him in a sarcastic way, pat him on the back and say jokingly, “You call yourself a prayer warrior.” She did this for a long time. The brother did not understand. One day, suddenly, the sister locked the door, threw the key under the bed and turned into a big snake. The brother jumped on the bed and started crying, “Blood of Jesus, blood of Jesus.” Eventually, she  turned back to a human being and questioned: “But you call yourself a prayer warrior, how come you did not know who I am? She then said, "Now that I have shown you my real self, take me to the pastor for deliverance.” We know that the brother cannot divorce her. Even if he does and marries another one, who knows, that one may be a crocodile.

   The enemy can divert a person’s journey and the person will not know the right thing to do. He will make the person to live on assumption or on the prescription of the society. And witches and wizards would be trying their new weapons in the life of the person because he is not where God wants him to be.

 

WHAT ARE THE AGENTS OF DIVERSION?

1. The first powerful agent of diversion is seducing spirit. 1 Timothy 4:1 says, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.”

   Seducing spirits are very rampant now because these are the last days. A seducing spirit is an evil servant from satan sent to perform a particular assignment, and that assignment is to overthrow people and take them into captivity. Once that assignment is completed, they impart another spirit into their victims and they will begin to carry out strange orders unconsciously. So, in a way, a seducing spirit is a forerunner of another wicked. The spirit of seduction will come first, seduce the person, then leaves and opens the person for the next demon to take over. The purpose is to entice people into the wrong things, tempt or lure them into sin, excite them where they should not get excited, make them get interested in what they should not be interested in, fascinate them with what they ought not to be fascinated with, arouse their interest in what their interest should not be aroused in, in order to win them over and bring in another wicked spirit.

  In a certain fellowship where I was sometime ago, I spent a lot of time praying that a particular sister should get married.  She was thirty-nine then.  Then one day, a brother said the Lord told him to marry the sister. I was happy that the prayer had been answered. So the brother went to meet the sister and told her that the Lord said she was the person he should marry.  The sister looked at him from his head down to the sole of his feet and said, “You cannot carry my load.” I was shocked. Then I asked her the type of load she had that the man would not be able to carry. This was in 1979 and up till now, the sister is still looking for somebody to carry her load. Why? Seducing spirits have diverted her to the wrong direction.

  Spirits of seduction choose their candidates based on their personal weaknesses, then they work upon those weak areas until their victims surrender. If your own weakness is anger, seducing spirits will make you to get so angry that you will annoy God. They make people to talk when they should not talk. They make you to get angry before your divine helpers, so that they would not be interested in helping you. It could be selfishness. It could be pride. They will make you over value yourself and they will be rejoicing.  The pride will then lead you to be diverted to somewhere else.

   A long time ago, a certain man came to our meeting. Throughout the prayer session, he just opened his eyes and was looking at us as if we were mad, he did not pray any single prayer point. He was very angry. So, I asked one usher to bring him when we closed. When they brought him to me after the service, he was still angry.  He asked, “Why is there no music in this place? Where are the drums, guitars, etc? I don’t go to a place where there is no music.” I tried to explain some things to him because I could see that he was under serious satanic attack but he fled out in anger. The next time I saw him, he had gone mad was residing under the bridge at Yaba. Why? He had been diverted.

   God says, “I will open the windows of heaven, and pour down blessings that you have not even enough room to take them.” The fact that God pours down blessings does not mean that everyone would be blessed. Those who are diverted cannot share out of God’s blessings when He pours them down. 

   Seducing spirits are so many around us now. And instead of some people to get serious with the Lord, they are still busy with other trivial matters. I remember a certain sister who got to her office and found a powerful charm on her table. She said, “I clear you off, in the name of Jesus,” and with shaky hands, she threw it away.  Then something said, “Why don’t you look under your chair before you sit down.” She looked under the chair and saw another big one attached to the chair with cello-tape. This happened in a bank and in a civilized society. She began to bang the chair on the floor so that the thing could drop since she did not want to touch it. Eventually, she shook it off and threw it into the dust bin.  By the time she sat down and worked for thirty minutes, the first thing that came to her table was a serious query from the manager and she had never received any query in her life before. The next day, she was mysteriously roped into a fraud case and was locked up. By the time she was released, she did not go home, she rushed to the church and I gave her some prayer points on sending confusion into the camp of the enemy. She took it home and did not pray. Then the problem escalated.  I asked why she did not pray the prayer points and she answered, “Well, as Christians, we are supposed to love our enemies as ourselves. I think we should be praying that they should be converted not that they should receive fire. It does not show kindness.” So I told her to read I Corinthians 13:1. She opened it and read: “Though I speak with tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”  In that passage, we see the qualities of love. I asked her  who wrote it, and she said, “Paul of course.” “Do you agree that this man knows about love more than you?  I asked. She said, “Yes.”  Then I told her to go back to Acts 13: 9 - 11.  After she had read those verses, I asked her who was talking there and she said, “Paul.” “So, what is going to happen now?” I asked her and she said, “They are dead.” She could not understand that she was fighting spiritual enemies. If you are fighting with spiritual enemies and there is anything stronger than thunder, you better use it because if they get you, they will not show you mercy at all. It is like appealing to a witch that: “Do not be so wicked. Do not drink blood. Try to be nice, you know that your public relations with people is not so nice.” You will be wasting your time. The enemy has diverted the  attention of many people to other things.  It has come to a stage now where some people idolise praise-worship as their God, it is diversion.

    When the spirit of seduction comes in, he gives a terrible blow to the conscience, and hardens it. Then the conscience will not be able to differentiate between right and wrong. That is why when you tell a woman not to marry a certain man because he smokes hemp, she would tell you that the man would change. It is the work of seducing spirits.  Once they are at work in any life, the person will no longer have the ability to discern between left and right. The person would be in total submission to  them. This is why we pray an  aggressive prayer that, “Nobody will transfer my case file to the demonic world, in the name of Jesus. When a witch dies in a family, she hands over the case file to the next witch in the family and it continues like that.

 

WHAT IS THE WAY OUT? 

1. Try to find out whether all the spirits that come to you are of God. You may say, “But I cannot tell.” The Bible says, “By their fruits, we shall know them.” Notice what fruit is produced.

2. Know the word of God so that nobody will confuse you.

3. Be prayerful.

4. Do not be foolish.

 

HOW DO YOU DEFEAT THE SPIRIT OF SEDUCTION?

a. Bind the strongman of seduction.

b. Cast out the seducing spirit and command it not to come back.

  The last stage is the most difficult stage because when the seducing spirit enters a life, it would have done a lot of damage before the person discovers. Sometimes there is already a broken home or a  life that has been thoroughly messed up.

c. Pray for restoration and repair of what the seducing spirit had destroyed. 

That is the first class of spirits that cause diversion.

 

2. Another agent of diversion is a class of  spirits called familiar spirits. They are experts at causing diversion. They are  the spirits in charge of passing down evil traits from one member of the family to another. They transfer evil genetic diseases or evil inheritance from one person to another. They transfer the problem of parents to their offsprings. If the parents had committed sin, and it is to be visited on the children, the transfer will be done by familiar spirits. All the inherited sicknesses and diseases, evil tendencies, evil habits, are transfered by familiar spirits.  They stay in the family line, so when one member of the family who has familiar spirit dies, he would decide which member to give the mantle or what we call counterfeit anointing. This is why if they say, "Hey, mummy wants to die, daddy wants to die  and they are calling you," and you know that such a mummy or daddy is not born again, it is not advisable to rush there  and allow them to pray for you because in the course of such prayers evil is transferred. If in your family they keep pets, they always have one dog or one cat and everybody knows the cat, if there is nobody to receive the spirit, the cat will keep it for a while, until it can enter another person.

     As a spirit-filled Christian, you are supposed to cast these spirits out, un-bind the human spirit, set it free from satanic captivity and replace death and curse with blessings. These  are the main two powers of evil diversion. If the business God asks you to do is not what you are doing, it may be the reason you are having problems with what you are doing.  If you are doing what He asks you to do, He will bless you.  Jesus died to ensure that our journeys go the right way. Today, if you are sufficiently concerned, you must pray, or if you do not know your goal in life.

      Beloved, one thing is certain, many people are travelling on the wrong road, many people are in the wrong things, some are in the wrong relationship, some are in the wrong business. Today, you must remove yourself from any evil journey and start the journey that God wants you to travel in. The journey to Canaan would have taken  forty days, but it became forty years after the Israelites were diverted.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. I command every dark work against my life to be cancelled, in the name of Jesus.

2. I refuse to accept anything from satan, in the name of Jesus.

3. I command every seducing spirit and familiar spirit to stop their operations in my life, in the name of Jesus.

4. Let all the incantations issued against me be cancelled, in the name of Jesus.

5. You the strongman troubling my Israel, I paralyse you, in the name of Jesus.

6. You the strongman troubling the Israel of my family, be paralysed, in the name of Jesus.

7. Every strongman in my family, be exposed, in Jesus’ name.

 

PARALYSING SATANIC DOGS
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Our message this week is
            entitled “Paralyzing satanic
            dogs.” I encourage you to read it prayerfully. Exodus11: 4 -7 says, “And Moses said, “Thus saith the Lord, about midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt. And all the first born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first born of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.”

Verse 7 says, “But against the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue.” The Bible does not contain any useless information. Every detail in the Bible serves a purpose. The people of Israel had been in bondage for over four hundred years and it was time for them to get out. But like all stubborn enemies, the Egyptians who were using the Israelites as slaves made up their minds not to let them go. God therefore had to take them out by His strange hands and sent ten plagues, which were terrible blows to them. All the ten blows were specifically addressed to their gods (idols), for in Egypt in those days and even up till now, people worship River Nile, the great river in Egypt. God destroyed that river by turning it into blood.

The Israelites worshipped anything you can think of in those days. So, they were confident that they had all the power. They worshipped the sun. That was why God commanded darkness to fall upon them. This was a serious blow to the god of the sun, which they worshipped. Bible students know that firstborns in Egypt were almost worshipped like God. So, God dealt a blow on the firstborns. When that happened, then they were ready to let go but not without a struggle, because when they went out of Egypt, the Egyptians still pursued them.

In modern day Christianity, Egypt can be interpreted as the world and Pharaoh as the god of the world holding God’s people from worshipping God in Spirit and in truth. But with a strong hand, God’s people have to be delivered. My prayer today, is that all those still held in bondage in Egypt shall be released, in Jesus’ name. Dogs are known to howl when people die. So when the first born of the Egyptians died, there must have been some howling that day. But God said it would not happen in the camp of the Israelites.

 

WHO ARE DOGS?

Dogs have spiritual counterparts and these spiritual dogs are moving their tongues against many. But my prayer is that they must be silenced, in Jesus’ name. In Deuteronomy 23: 18, the Lord describes what is referred to as dogs. “Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination into the Lord thy God.” We can see the way the Bible handles the issue.

The Bible refers to homosexuals and lesbians as dogs. Anyone who has ever engaged in these kinds of things would need to receive deliverance from the spirit of the dog, which has entered into him or her. Generally, in the spirit world, dogs symbolize sexual perversion. So, if you see yourself being pursued in the spirit by a dog, check your sexual life. It means that something must be wrong somewhere, whether in your heart or your activities. Psalm 22:16 says, “For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.”

Dogs also include men and women who use any material to excite themselves sexually, i.e. masturbation. The spirit within such people is the spirit of the dog.

Verse 20 of Psalm 22 says, “Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.” It means that wicked men and enemies of Christ are also referred to as dogs. Isaiah 56:10 –11 says, “His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, everyone for his gain, from his quarter.” In the foregoing, the Bible refers to false prophets as dogs. So, if you consult them, the spirit of the dog would enter you. 2 Peter 2: 20 -21 says, “For if after they have escaped the pollution of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” All backsliders are referred to as dogs in the Bible. Revelation 22:15 hits the nail on the head. It says, “For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” The Bible calls all lost souls dogs, and it says that they shall be outside, they will not be inside. So, when the Psalmist said, “Deliver my soul from the power of dogs,” he was praying a very great prayer. These in a nutshell are the kinds of people the Bible calls, dogs. Before you read further, I would like you to lay your right on your chest and pray aggressively like this: “O Lord, deliver my soul from the power of the dogs, in the name of Jesus.”

The spirit of the dog is seriously in operation but the promise of God for us Christians is that no dog shall move its tongue against us. Unfortunately, there are people that the dogs are pursuing day and night such as backsliders and those who remain outside God’s kingdom. Those who are possessed by the spirit of the dog find it very difficult to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. They do not understand the scriptures even after they have been taught over and over.

 

STRATEGIES OF THE SPIRIT OF THE DOG

1. The spirit of outside: The number one method the dog spirit uses is the spirit of the outside. Those five virgins that were foolish were thrown out and locked out. Such people, when they are at the edge of their breakthroughs, have what is called dreams of spiritual failure. They see themselves in the dream preparing to go to church but they would spend a long time looking for what to wear. The church clothes would appear to have been stolen. It is the work of the spirit of the dog. Some would find themselves in a large congregation but when they are told to preach, sing, or teach, they would not be able to find their hymnbooks or Bible or whatever they would be looking for. Some would see themselves in the dreams with torn Bibles or the Bibles would be completely stolen away from them. They could be looking for the book of Matthew, they would search and search and would not find it. These are signs that the spirit of the dog is inside a person. If the person does not arrest it on time, the person will end up being thrown outside the programme of God because the Bible says that without, are the dogs. When you have dreams of spiritual failure it could mean that the enemy is after your spiritual failure. When you find yourself moving around in the forest and never getting anywhere till you wake up, God is telling you something. It means that you have prayers to pray. Some people also see dogs attacking them or biting them in the dream. If you notice these kinds of attacks, you have to check your spiritual life, the way you have operated your life and done things generally.

Sometime ago, a man came for counselling and his major problem was that he used to see dogs walking around him in the dream. He noticed that anything he did never prospered. Naturally, he hated dogs. As I was about to start praying for him, the Spirit of God said, “Do not pray for this man. Tell him to go and bring the list of all the women he has slept with.” To my amazement, the following day, he came with a big notebook. I thought he might have used just a few pages but I was wrong because the whole book was filled up and he was saying that those were the ones he could remember. No wonder those spiritual dogs were after him.

When somebody is bitten by dogs in the dream, spiritual poison would be released into his or her body and this may lead to spiritual death. When somebody is being chased by dogs in his dream, it shows that he is under a serious attack. And if care is not taken, the person would see himself operating at the periphery of miracles, periphery of blessings, etc. If somebody finds dogs leaking his body, it shows that the person has a covenant with sexual demons.

Beloved, we must fight against these things. When God says that no dog shall move its tongue against us, it means the demons of dogs will lay no hands on us. Sometime ago, at one of our branches, one woman gave a testimony of how on her first time at the church, the pastor raised a prayer point which said, “O Lord, give me divine insurance, in Jesus’ name.” She prayed aggressively. By the following week, there was a terrible accident and about sixteen persons in a vehicle died. Only one person got out alive. It happened to be the husband of this sister. It was discovered that dogs have conspired against the man. But thank God he had a wife who could pray. If she had been second, third or sixth wife, the prayer would not have been answered because God does not answer prayers of glorified girlfriends who have refused to repent. By the same token, God does not answer prayers of a man who has one wife and other girlfriends he calls wives. The spirit of the dog would be pursuing such people until they make restitution and make their ways right before the Lord.

 

2. The spirit of fear: Another method these dog spirits operate is by the spirit of fear. When the spirit of fear is in operation, fear of death, of sickness, of darkness, fear of water, and all kind of things give these spiritual dogs power to operate.

 

3. Worry and anxiety: Another strategy of the spirit of dogs is worry and anxiety.

 

Way Out

You have to chase out the spirit of the dogs from your thoughts and from your life.

 

WHAT MAKES THE SPIRIT OF THE DOG TO ENTER INTO PEOPLE’S LIVES?

1.   Lack of control of the tongue: Your tongue must not be used for gossiping, backbiting or singing praises to demons. It must not be used for destructive criticisms. It must not be used to find fault in every small thing. The Bible says that by your words you are justified and by them too, you are condemned Matthew 12: 36 says, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement.”

 

2.   Evil friends: Another way through which the spirit of the dog operates is evil friends. 2 Corinthians 6: 15 says, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” You will not be able to resist evil if your friends are worldly. They would pollute you or put you in trouble. Many people make mistakes because they do not understand that most of the powerful spirits that destroy men are bad spirits that are outside. These kinds of spirits do not stay inside human beings. When you are close to a person who is not a child of God, who is a demonic bank, such a person could transfer materials into your life regardless of the fact that you call him your childhood friend. So, evil friends would expose you to spiritual dogs. If you do business with a child of the devil and you ask God to bless it, you would be making a mistake because you cannot bless whom God has cursed. You cannot be asking God to bless His enemy.  

 

3.    Wrong places: You have to beware of where you go. The programme of a believer is directed by the Holy Spirit. The devil can plan a ceremony just to catch a single believer. It happened to a man I know but he had a wife who could pray and she rushed him to a prayer meeting. The man took off from Lagos to another town on a weekend for a party. He did not know that his enemies were waiting for him. The big party was celebrated just to catch him. There were many people there. The enemies were watching him and he did not know. When a person is being followed like that by the enemies, the person needs divine intervention to be free from their grip. At the party, a girl came and served him rice and he started to eat. Immediately he started eating the food, the girl ran back to the building she came from as if to bring him some water, but a snake came out towards him. He saw it but could not move. He just sat down there. The snake got to him, climbed on his chain, moved to his face, licked his face and crawled back to the room and the girl who served the rice came out again. That was the beginning of his troubles. Beware of where you go. Do not go to a place where the angels of the living God would say, “Sorry we cannot follow you there.” The Bible says that the angel of the Lord is around the camp of those who fear God and delivers them. But we are not supposed to go where the angels would not enter. Believers do not go to night parties, disco parties or places where bright lights are removed and dark bulbs are used to replace them. Anyone that goes to such places exposes himself or herself to the spirit of the dog. 

 

4.   Evil consumption: Another way through which, they operate is through food and drink. You have to beware of what you eat and where you eat. People who eat anything, anywhere, and anyhow would not be far from the power of the dogs.

 

5. Evil wear: Beware of what you wear. You can wear what will put you in bondage if you are not careful. 

 

6.   Sharing your plans with the enemy: A person who is talkative may not know when he tells his life plans and programme to his enemies. It is also dangerous to tell your plans to your friends who are not born again. They could transfer your case to satanic places.

If you are not yet born again, that is, you have not given your life to Christ, your prayer against the spirit of the dog would be a waste of time. So, the first step to deliverance from the spirit of the dog is to give your life to Christ. If you want to do so, then say the following prayer with faith: “Lord Jesus, I acknowledge you as my personal Lord and Saviour. I repent and forsake all my sins. Come into my life now and help me to serve you, in Jesus’ name.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.    Let every dog barking against my progress, be paralyzed, in the name of Jesus.

2.    I cancel every dream of spiritual failure, in the name of Jesus.

3.    Every evil thing uttered against me by the tongue of the dead, be cancelled by the blood of Jesus. 

4.    Let the tongue of my oppressors be confused, in the name of Jesus.

5.    Let my miracle cause revival in my family, in the mighty name of Jesus.

6.    I close every satanic door, in the name of Jesus.

7.    I refuse to be used as satanic experiment, in Jesus’ name.

8.    I ask for angelic assistance to paralyze every satanic army directed against my home, in Jesus’ name.

9.    Every water spirit operating against me, receive the thunder of God, in Jesus’ name.

10.  I break every demonic crown upon my head, in the name of Jesus.

11.  Let the fire and thunder of God attack all the powers of witchcraft working against me, in the mighty name of Jesus.

12.  Every agent of the devil sent from the bottom of hell fire, receive madness, in the name of Jesus.

13.  Every herbalist working on my name, be frustrated, in the name of Jesus.

14.  Every satanic prayer uttered against me, go back to your sender, in the name of Jesus.

15.  I refuse to reap any satanic harvest, in the name of Jesus.

16.  You devil, hear me and hear me well, you cannot steal my blessings anymore, in the name of Jesus.

17.       Father Lord, I thank you for answers to my prayers, 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.

 

  

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.

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

 

 

 

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.

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

 

 

 

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.

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

 

  

Candidates of Bewitchment

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

This is a direct message from the Lord to you today. The fact that God has preserved your life up till this time means that He has a purpose for your life. The message is entitled, “Candidates of bewitchment.” Acts. 8: 9 – 13: “But there was a certain man called Simon which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one. (So the man had been bewitching the people of Samaria.) To whom they all gave heed, (although he was bewitching them, they all gave him 100 per cent attention) from the least, to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of a long time, he had bewitched them with sorceries. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women. Then Simon himself believed also; and when he was baptised, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done.” Later, the secret of Simon was revealed and it was known that he was a sorcerer. 

Many people and many nations are being bewitched. The Lord has a controversy with many people because they are not walking the way He wants them to walk. Many people go to churches to get themselves entertained instead of getting their spirit man changed. Many are working below the standard God wants them to work. Such people must do something before God looks away from them because bewitchment is a terrible thing and it is taking an epidemic proportion these days. Many people now are behaving just like the Samaritans in the scriptures above. The people of Samaria were under so much suffering but they never realised it. They were under blindness and satanic elusion but they didn’t know. They praised the very man who was destroying them. They did not really know who Simon was. He was sapping them dry but they believed he was delivering them. It is the same thing with a lot of people. They do not know whom they are dealing with and what such people do at night. They are just being sapped dry. Simon was destroying them properly and thoroughly but satan made sure they were blinded to it.

This is not a time to be spiritually blind, so you better pray off the blindness now.  The people of Samaria ignorantly hailed their enemy. They called their friends, enemies and called their enemies friends. This is what we call bewitchment.

A lot of people invest their money where they are not supposed to and they have been losing. Some put their legs where they should not put their legs and they are licking their wounds now. In Samaria, destruction had already settled over them, sadness was everywhere in the city; unclean spirits had already possessed so many people.  Nevertheless, they went about normally. They dressed in three - piece suits and went about like respected men and women although they were bewitched. Successful businessmen and politicians of Samaria were all blinded by the devil. There were sicknesses in the land, it never bothered them. There were unclean spirits everywhere, almost in every home, yet they felt strangely normal. They thought Simon was the answer to their problems whereas he was the problem. Slowly, ironically, they were dying and praising the man who was drowning their boat.

What was happening in Samaria? Bewitchment. They were bewitched, but all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit located Simon and declared him as a satanic agent. We have a lot of people going about looking normal and respectable but inside, they are bewitched.

 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE BEWITCHED?

It means to be spiritually influenced by the power of witchcraft.  Bewitchment is casting a spell on people. You find a lot of people burying cows alive, some eating raw animals in order to bewitch others and they succeed in caging so many people.  That is the bewitching power of the devil. It is when a person has been captured like this that he cannot move ahead again. Although he is making motions, he is not making any progress.

Examine your life to see the dark areas of your heart that the light of God has not touched. A lot of negative things are manifesting in the dark regions of people’s lives. Except they allow these dark regions to be reached by the fire of the Holy Ghost, they would continue to be bewitched. They urgently need to work on these areas of their lives that are still bewitched.

Perhaps, you have been allowing sin to bewitch you and God has been warning you, talking to you, and even making some trouble to come your way so that you can sit up, yet you hold on to the sin. A prophet of God is telling you that sin is a viper and that it would certainly kill, but something makes you to continue in that evil excitement and it removes the eyes from the effect of the bewitchment, trouble is coming. All the “I don’t know what made me to do it,” is the work of bewitchment.

Bewitchment paints sin in attractive colours and makes it respectable. Things like pride, drunkenness, indiscipline, rebellion, lying, dishonesty, homosexuality, gossiping, promiscuity, laziness, drug addiction, belonging to one cult or the other, adultery, prostitution, are evidence of bewitchment.

 

WHO IS A BEWITCHED PERSON? 

•     A bewitched person is a person who blindly clings to sin, inspite of warnings.

      A young man of 17 was brought to us for prayer.  When he removed his clothes, there were sores all over his body, including his reproductive organ. But in spite of all the sores, he still continued in his       immorality. That is bewitchment.

•     A bewitched person is a person who has been blinded by the devil and cannot even see that the devil has been defeated.

•     A person who has been kept away from using his or her divine weapons is bewitched. The Bible says in the book of Galatians 3:1: “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?” These Galatians were going to church but were bewitched all the same.

•     A bewitched person is a person operating under the destructive effect of sin.

•     A bewitched person is a person suffering from mind confusion. If you notice that your mind is always confused, you can’t put things together or when you do and it gets to the edge of success, something goes wrong, know that there is bewitchment in place.

•     A bewitched person is a person who exhibits stubborn disobedience to God’s command.

•     A bewitched person is a person who makes unexplainable mistakes. Such a person cannot explain why he does some things. He cannot justify his actions. When a professor begins to make the kind of mistakes that someone who is uneducated should not make, you know that he is bewitched.

•     A bewitched person is a person operating under different powers that are beyond his control.

•     A bewitched person is a person who does not know what happens to his or her money. He or she just knows that the money comes in but does not know what is happening to it. It is bewitchment.

Sometime ago, a certain man came for prayers. He was a millionaire but lost everything in a mysterious way. He came for prayers and the Holy Spirit revealed that it was his daughter that destroyed his money. So, I asked him to bring her. He brought her and she confessed that she used witchcraft means to lock up her father’s money. She also said that one of her aunties was her accomplice. The man had money but did not know what happened to it - bewitchment.

•     A bewitched person is somebody who has completely lost the joy of the Christian life, that is, the joy of salvation.

•     A bewitched person is somebody who is struggling against a force he cannot understand and cannot master. A lot of people struggle with what they don’t understand, it is bewitchment. Just like the people of Samaria who went deeper and deeper into what was destroying them.

 

THE GOOD NEWS

The good news is that Jesus came and was manifest in the flesh. The Creator was made a creature. It was a fantastic process of humility. Jesus who was clothed in glory now wore rags of the flesh. He, whose glory filled the heavens and the earth was now carried into a cot in a manger because He wanted to deliver us from bewitchment.

He, the God of circumcision was circumcised. The one who owns the earth and the fullness thereof got to a level where He said, “I am hungry, I am thirsty.” The God of life was put to death. The One that said, “I and the Father are one,” now cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” In His lifetime, He had no where to lay His head.  And when He died too, there was nowhere to lay His body. The Kings of kings was punished, a crown of thorns was placed on His head. His holy ears listened to the blasphemies of men; His face was spat upon, His back was beaten, those hands of power that came on the sick and the sick recovered were nailed to the cross. His soul was forsaken on the cross. Why? So that the whole of the bewitching power of satan, of sin and of the world would be broken, so that the light of God can shine into the darkness of our lives. So that the enemy does not bewitch us anymore. That facility is still open now for those who want to take advantage of it.

Nowadays, a lot of people go to the market and never come back. Some go to buy refrigerators and end up inside the refrigerators. A lot of terrible things are happening in the world today but God has better things for us. If we will lay down our sins, come to repentance, humble ourselves so that God can speak peace into every situation of our lives, our lives would be changed for the better.

You have an opportunity to receive the touch of God in a mighty way and for all the bewitchment of the past years in your life to completely disappear so that you can start a new life. If only you can seize this wonderful opportunity.

 

 

 

 

SIN

Sin says, “I don’t care about what God is saying, I don’t care about God’s commandments, I prefer to please myself to pleasing Him. I am going to be the Lord of myself.” Sin is not moved by the blessings and gifts of God. It makes one to treat the Almighty God with contempt. The music of sinners is; “I don’t care what God requires, I must have my own way. I refuse to submit to the authority of God. I don’t care what God Almighty has threatened to do, I am not afraid. His eyes may be upon me but I am not going to be restrained, I don’t care what He wants and what He hates. I shall please myself.” That is the music of sinners. But God is asking for repentance today. Where there is no Holy Spirit, there is failure. Do not allow your life to remain the same after reading this message.

2 Chronicles 7: 14 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.” You must turn away from any evil pattern that you have been following. If you have not made peace with God, you must do so now and repent completely. If there are 50 leakages in a ship and you block 49, the one left can still sink the ship.  So your repentance must be entire. God does not want you to be serious today and unserious tomorrow. God does not want you to go back to your vomits. This is the message He has for you as you go further into the year.

A lot of people are under the power of bewitchment. A lot of people are being controlled by the powers they do not understand and a lot of people cannot even see the spiritual powers controlling their environments. Many do not even recognise that the fellow they are sitting with in the office may be calling on another thing to undo or subdue them. It is bewitchment. At this juncture, I want you to make this declaration out loud with holy anger: “Bewitchment must die, in the name of Jesus.”

This message is not for entertainment. It is for you to possess your possession. Therefore, I encourage you to give your life to Christ if you have not done so because you cannot defeat bewitchment except by the power in the blood of Jesus.

 

HOW TO GIVE YOUR LIFE TO CHRIST AND BECOME A CHILD OF GOD

·  Admit that you are a sinner: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3: 24).

·  Repent: “Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts. 3: 19).

·  Confess: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1: 9).

·  Forsake: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him” (Isaiah 55: 7).

·  Believe: “For God so loved the world that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3: 16).

If you are ready to accept Him, then take this prayer before you pray against bewitchment: Father, in the name of Jesus, I come to you knowing that I am a sinner. I confess my sins (mention the ones you can readily remember now and repent of them). Have mercy upon me and forgive me my sins. I accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. Cleanse me Lord with your blood. Thank you Father Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

PRAYER POINTS 

1.     I dismantle every satanic agenda programmed against me this week, in the name of Jesus.

2.     Point your fingers to the heavens and say this: I speak unto the sun, moon, and stars to favour me this week, in the name of Jesus.

3.     Point to the earth and say this: Anything programmed against my life in the earth, I dismantle you by fire, in the name of Jesus.

4.     Every evil kingdom reigning against my life, I overthrow you, in the name of Jesus.

5.     Every plan of the enemy for my life this week, I dismantle you, in the name of Jesus.

6.     I raise the whirlwind of the Lord, to pursue every stubborn pursuer, in Jesus’ name.

7.     I raise the thunder of the Lord to pursue every stubborn pursuer, in Jesus’ name.

8.     Lord, advertise your power in my life, in the name of Jesus.

9.     This week, you must co-operate with my destiny, in the name of Jesus.

10.   Let the programme of my life be enforced upon the enemy, in the name of Jesus.

11.       Bewitchment must die, in the name of Jesus.

back

 

Candidates of Bewitchment

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

This is a direct message from the Lord to you today. The fact that God has preserved your life up till this time means that He has a purpose for your life. The message is entitled, “Candidates of bewitchment.” Acts. 8: 9 – 13: “But there was a certain man called Simon which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one. (So the man had been bewitching the people of Samaria.) To whom they all gave heed, (although he was bewitching them, they all gave him 100 per cent attention) from the least, to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of a long time, he had bewitched them with sorceries. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women. Then Simon himself believed also; and when he was baptised, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done.” Later, the secret of Simon was revealed and it was known that he was a sorcerer. 

Many people and many nations are being bewitched. The Lord has a controversy with many people because they are not walking the way He wants them to walk. Many people go to churches to get themselves entertained instead of getting their spirit man changed. Many are working below the standard God wants them to work. Such people must do something before God looks away from them because bewitchment is a terrible thing and it is taking an epidemic proportion these days. Many people now are behaving just like the Samaritans in the scriptures above. The people of Samaria were under so much suffering but they never realised it. They were under blindness and satanic elusion but they didn’t know. They praised the very man who was destroying them. They did not really know who Simon was. He was sapping them dry but they believed he was delivering them. It is the same thing with a lot of people. They do not know whom they are dealing with and what such people do at night. They are just being sapped dry. Simon was destroying them properly and thoroughly but satan made sure they were blinded to it.

This is not a time to be spiritually blind, so you better pray off the blindness now.  The people of Samaria ignorantly hailed their enemy. They called their friends, enemies and called their enemies friends. This is what we call bewitchment.

A lot of people invest their money where they are not supposed to and they have been losing. Some put their legs where they should not put their legs and they are licking their wounds now. In Samaria, destruction had already settled over them, sadness was everywhere in the city; unclean spirits had already possessed so many people.  Nevertheless, they went about normally. They dressed in three - piece suits and went about like respected men and women although they were bewitched. Successful businessmen and politicians of Samaria were all blinded by the devil. There were sicknesses in the land, it never bothered them. There were unclean spirits everywhere, almost in every home, yet they felt strangely normal. They thought Simon was the answer to their problems whereas he was the problem. Slowly, ironically, they were dying and praising the man who was drowning their boat.

What was happening in Samaria? Bewitchment. They were bewitched, but all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit located Simon and declared him as a satanic agent. We have a lot of people going about looking normal and respectable but inside, they are bewitched.

 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE BEWITCHED?

It means to be spiritually influenced by the power of witchcraft.  Bewitchment is casting a spell on people. You find a lot of people burying cows alive, some eating raw animals in order to bewitch others and they succeed in caging so many people.  That is the bewitching power of the devil. It is when a person has been captured like this that he cannot move ahead again. Although he is making motions, he is not making any progress.

Examine your life to see the dark areas of your heart that the light of God has not touched. A lot of negative things are manifesting in the dark regions of people’s lives. Except they allow these dark regions to be reached by the fire of the Holy Ghost, they would continue to be bewitched. They urgently need to work on these areas of their lives that are still bewitched.

Perhaps, you have been allowing sin to bewitch you and God has been warning you, talking to you, and even making some trouble to come your way so that you can sit up, yet you hold on to the sin. A prophet of God is telling you that sin is a viper and that it would certainly kill, but something makes you to continue in that evil excitement and it removes the eyes from the effect of the bewitchment, trouble is coming. All the “I don’t know what made me to do it,” is the work of bewitchment.

Bewitchment paints sin in attractive colours and makes it respectable. Things like pride, drunkenness, indiscipline, rebellion, lying, dishonesty, homosexuality, gossiping, promiscuity, laziness, drug addiction, belonging to one cult or the other, adultery, prostitution, are evidence of bewitchment.

 

WHO IS A BEWITCHED PERSON? 

•     A bewitched person is a person who blindly clings to sin, inspite of warnings.

      A young man of 17 was brought to us for prayer.  When he removed his clothes, there were sores all over his body, including his reproductive organ. But in spite of all the sores, he still continued in his       immorality. That is bewitchment.

•     A bewitched person is a person who has been blinded by the devil and cannot even see that the devil has been defeated.

•     A person who has been kept away from using his or her divine weapons is bewitched. The Bible says in the book of Galatians 3:1: “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?” These Galatians were going to church but were bewitched all the same.

•     A bewitched person is a person operating under the destructive effect of sin.

•     A bewitched person is a person suffering from mind confusion. If you notice that your mind is always confused, you can’t put things together or when you do and it gets to the edge of success, something goes wrong, know that there is bewitchment in place.

•     A bewitched person is a person who exhibits stubborn disobedience to God’s command.

•     A bewitched person is a person who makes unexplainable mistakes. Such a person cannot explain why he does some things. He cannot justify his actions. When a professor begins to make the kind of mistakes that someone who is uneducated should not make, you know that he is bewitched.

•     A bewitched person is a person operating under different powers that are beyond his control.

•     A bewitched person is a person who does not know what happens to his or her money. He or she just knows that the money comes in but does not know what is happening to it. It is bewitchment.

Sometime ago, a certain man came for prayers. He was a millionaire but lost everything in a mysterious way. He came for prayers and the Holy Spirit revealed that it was his daughter that destroyed his money. So, I asked him to bring her. He brought her and she confessed that she used witchcraft means to lock up her father’s money. She also said that one of her aunties was her accomplice. The man had money but did not know what happened to it - bewitchment.

•     A bewitched person is somebody who has completely lost the joy of the Christian life, that is, the joy of salvation.

•     A bewitched person is somebody who is struggling against a force he cannot understand and cannot master. A lot of people struggle with what they don’t understand, it is bewitchment. Just like the people of Samaria who went deeper and deeper into what was destroying them.

 

THE GOOD NEWS

The good news is that Jesus came and was manifest in the flesh. The Creator was made a creature. It was a fantastic process of humility. Jesus who was clothed in glory now wore rags of the flesh. He, whose glory filled the heavens and the earth was now carried into a cot in a manger because He wanted to deliver us from bewitchment.

He, the God of circumcision was circumcised. The one who owns the earth and the fullness thereof got to a level where He said, “I am hungry, I am thirsty.” The God of life was put to death. The One that said, “I and the Father are one,” now cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” In His lifetime, He had no where to lay His head.  And when He died too, there was nowhere to lay His body. The Kings of kings was punished, a crown of thorns was placed on His head. His holy ears listened to the blasphemies of men; His face was spat upon, His back was beaten, those hands of power that came on the sick and the sick recovered were nailed to the cross. His soul was forsaken on the cross. Why? So that the whole of the bewitching power of satan, of sin and of the world would be broken, so that the light of God can shine into the darkness of our lives. So that the enemy does not bewitch us anymore. That facility is still open now for those who want to take advantage of it.

Nowadays, a lot of people go to the market and never come back. Some go to buy refrigerators and end up inside the refrigerators. A lot of terrible things are happening in the world today but God has better things for us. If we will lay down our sins, come to repentance, humble ourselves so that God can speak peace into every situation of our lives, our lives would be changed for the better.

You have an opportunity to receive the touch of God in a mighty way and for all the bewitchment of the past years in your life to completely disappear so that you can start a new life. If only you can seize this wonderful opportunity.

 

 

 

 

SIN

Sin says, “I don’t care about what God is saying, I don’t care about God’s commandments, I prefer to please myself to pleasing Him. I am going to be the Lord of myself.” Sin is not moved by the blessings and gifts of God. It makes one to treat the Almighty God with contempt. The music of sinners is; “I don’t care what God requires, I must have my own way. I refuse to submit to the authority of God. I don’t care what God Almighty has threatened to do, I am not afraid. His eyes may be upon me but I am not going to be restrained, I don’t care what He wants and what He hates. I shall please myself.” That is the music of sinners. But God is asking for repentance today. Where there is no Holy Spirit, there is failure. Do not allow your life to remain the same after reading this message.

2 Chronicles 7: 14 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.” You must turn away from any evil pattern that you have been following. If you have not made peace with God, you must do so now and repent completely. If there are 50 leakages in a ship and you block 49, the one left can still sink the ship.  So your repentance must be entire. God does not want you to be serious today and unserious tomorrow. God does not want you to go back to your vomits. This is the message He has for you as you go further into the year.

A lot of people are under the power of bewitchment. A lot of people are being controlled by the powers they do not understand and a lot of people cannot even see the spiritual powers controlling their environments. Many do not even recognise that the fellow they are sitting with in the office may be calling on another thing to undo or subdue them. It is bewitchment. At this juncture, I want you to make this declaration out loud with holy anger: “Bewitchment must die, in the name of Jesus.”

This message is not for entertainment. It is for you to possess your possession. Therefore, I encourage you to give your life to Christ if you have not done so because you cannot defeat bewitchment except by the power in the blood of Jesus.

 

HOW TO GIVE YOUR LIFE TO CHRIST AND BECOME A CHILD OF GOD

·  Admit that you are a sinner: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3: 24).

·  Repent: “Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts. 3: 19).

·  Confess: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1: 9).

·  Forsake: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him” (Isaiah 55: 7).

·  Believe: “For God so loved the world that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3: 16).

If you are ready to accept Him, then take this prayer before you pray against bewitchment: Father, in the name of Jesus, I come to you knowing that I am a sinner. I confess my sins (mention the ones you can readily remember now and repent of them). Have mercy upon me and forgive me my sins. I accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. Cleanse me Lord with your blood. Thank you Father Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

PRAYER POINTS 

1.     I dismantle every satanic agenda programmed against me this week, in the name of Jesus.

2.     Point your fingers to the heavens and say this: I speak unto the sun, moon, and stars to favour me this week, in the name of Jesus.

3.     Point to the earth and say this: Anything programmed against my life in the earth, I dismantle you by fire, in the name of Jesus.

4.     Every evil kingdom reigning against my life, I overthrow you, in the name of Jesus.

5.     Every plan of the enemy for my life this week, I dismantle you, in the name of Jesus.

6.     I raise the whirlwind of the Lord, to pursue every stubborn pursuer, in Jesus’ name.

7.     I raise the thunder of the Lord to pursue every stubborn pursuer, in Jesus’ name.

8.     Lord, advertise your power in my life, in the name of Jesus.

9.     This week, you must co-operate with my destiny, in the name of Jesus.

10.   Let the programme of my life be enforced upon the enemy, in the name of Jesus.

11.       Bewitchment must die, in the name of Jesus.

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Dreamer or visioners

Dr D. K. Olukoya

 

John 3: 8 says an interesting thing about the Holy Spirit. It says, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” It simply means that immediately you get born again and get filled with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible for the powers of darkness to trap you. They can hear the sound of your movement, but they will not know where you are going or where you are coming from. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.

The greatest detective in the world is the Holy Spirit. No matter how clever you are, or how hidden a thing is, the Holy Spirit will bring it to light, and before Him no man can hide.
Acts of Apostles 2: 17: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see vision and your old men shall dream dreams.”

Here, we see two categories of people; the young men and the old men. The young men are supposed to see visions while the old ones are to dream. That is, visions to the young and dreams to the old.

A DREAMER

A dreamer has a lot of disadvantages. His greatest disadvantage is that he has to sleep before he collects information. For example, if a situation that requires urgent spiritual attention is happening at his place of work, he would fail woefully because there would not be time for him to go somewhere and sleep to receive a revelation. Unfortunately, 90 per cent of Christians who claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit these days can be classified as “glorified dreamers.”

When you are moving below the level that God wants you to move, you will not be able to withstand the storm and waves that will come against you.

WHY VISIONERS ARE BECOMING DREAMERS

Why is it that those that God expects to be visioners are dreamers? You may think that it is impossible for everybody to see visions. In the Bible, we have the story of where Moses was praying for some people and the Lord took part of the spirit which was upon Moses and distributed it upon the elders and they began to prophesy. But there were two men who were not in that meeting but their spirits were there. Even though they were not physically present at the venue of the meeting, where they were they were following what was happening in the spirit and they caught the overflow of the anointing. Immediately the overflow got to them, they too began to prophesy.

Somebody ran to Moses and said, “Moses, stop them. They are not supposed to be prophesying like the rest of us.” Moses said, “Would to God that all of you are prophets, then there would not be problems again.” Would to God too that all those who claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit are visioners instead of dreamers, there would be less problems.

Most times, dreams lack clarity. Sometimes, some people come to me to say, “Man of God, I saw myself at the back of a Mercedes Benz or with a brother sitting beside me. I was wearing a white gown, that looked like a wedding gown but I was not sure and the brother too, was wearing something that looked like a wedding suit, I wonder if God is telling me he is my husband.” I always tell them that they should be serious because they are not going to get married in the dream. These are the problems with the dreamers.

A lot of people have been confused by some people who rub charms on their eyes and claim to see visions. Sometimes the person rotates and dances under the influence of smoke, incense and drumming, circulating all over the place. Immediately the person begins to circulate, demons possess the person and use him as a point of contact to release the information already decided in witchcraft meetings about people in the congregation. They collect these evil prophecies thinking they are the words of God to them.

The reason many people fall victim is because they are spiritually lazy. If they can discipline themselves and wait more on the Lord, they would find that seeing vision is not a big deal like many people think. Many believers who are supposed to see visions are not seeing anything.

A lot of people have lost their money, cars and other things to so-called visionaries. How can a person build a house for 2 million and a so-called prophet would say he should sell it to him for 50,000.00 because he can see vision?

A man went to a church where a woman was commanded to go into the spirit to find out what was wrong with him. The woman danced round the place and when she finished, she said that the man was having problems because he was being fried in the same pot used for frying bean cakes. They tried to bring him out of the pot but could not. The man ran to the church. I made it clear to him that he had entered into some evil covenants by allowing a possessed woman to prophesy upon him. So, he had additional problem to the one that took him there.

Ignorance about the Holy Spirit causes all kinds of riots in the spirit world. Unfortunately, the Holy Spirit is a person most believers do not know.

WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?

The Holy Spirit is the third person in the Godhead. He is a person and not a thing. Many people have no problem visualising God the Father and God the Son but when we talk about God the Holy Spirit, they get lost. Many people think of God the Father as one old man sitting somewhere and looking at all of us. God the Son is easy for them to identify. Many people know that He is Jesus, the One who came to the world as the man of sorrow, man of Galilee, man from Nazareth, etc.

The Holy Spirit is not easily identified by many. But He is really a person, and since He is a personality, He can speak to you, open your eyes, and open your ears. He is the executive agent of God on earth today. When Jesus was going away, He said to His disciples, “If I do not go, the Holy Spirit will not come. I go but I will send you another comforter. This means that Jesus is a comforter, but He said, “I will send another one, that is the Holy Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit is not just speaking in tongues, which is a manifestation that you have received His baptism. He is more than that. He is not just an experience, a feeling or an emotion. The kind of spirit that you cannot control cannot be said to be the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He is a person who can give information, who can guide and direct you.

A sister prayed that God should show her the secret behind her problem. As she was praying, she saw a man of God who came to her and commanded that the wedding ring on her finger should be removed. He was so aggressive and he forcefully removed the ring from her finger, and immediately she woke up. When she woke up, the physical wedding ring on her hand was twisted like paper. This confirms the fact that a person who cannot see, would put on the material of his enemy without knowing. Such a person would use the material of his or her enemy to decorate his or her self without knowing it.

When you cannot see, you will wear things manufactured by your enemy, drink medicine prepared by your enemy and eat his food because you cannot see beyond your nose. God does not want us to operate like that. Some people come to counseling crying and saying, “I don’t know why I invested in this business. I didn’t know that the person is a dupe.” I always asked if they asked the Holy Spirit about the investment before they went ahead. They did not ask because they cannot even hear from Him. So, they end up suffering.

You must get close to the Holy Spirit and begin to talk to Him like a friend and companion. This is why we pray for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit becomes your friend then seeing visions would not be a big thing. Visions are just one of those things that He shows His friends. The Holy Spirit is now the one operating the plan of God on earth. He is the one that can reveal the hidden treasures of the kingdom of God.

God’s Holy Spirit is the most valuable asset of Christian living. So it is wrong to regard the Holy Spirit as just speaking in tongues, or shaking or twisting. It is more than that.


 

 

 

HOLY SPIRIT IN THE BIBLE

In the book of Genesis, we find the Holy Spirit doing the work of creation. In Exodus, we find Him empowering people to do great things. In Judges, He gives power to fight battles. In 2nd Kings, you see the Holy Spirit giving double portion of powers. In Jeremiah, you find Him as the Spirit of fire. In all the books of the Bible, you find the Holy Spirit doing one thing or the other.

The question is, are you really ready to surrender your life to the Holy Spirit to do what He wants to do with you? If your answer is yes, may I caution you that He would be your senior partner, He would not take second place. He would be the one giving the instructions. If you are not ready to carry out His instructions, then you are not ready yet to receive Him. That is, you want to remain a dreamer.

Some people plan to fail, they plan to remain in a particular level all their lives. Such people are not interested in the mountain- top life, so they do not surrender to the Holy Spirit. But immediately you open up to the Holy Spirit and say, “Holy Spirit, I surrender myself to you. Reveal yourself to me,” and you do it honestly, things will begin to happen. It may mean your abstaining from certain things.

The Holy Spirit may ask you to stop doing certain things. He might ask you to stop using your make-ups, jewelry, etc. He may ask you to re-organize your life pattern. He may ask you to do extensive night vigils or go to places you do not want to go. The problem is that a lot of people are afraid of being led by the Holy Spirit, therefore, they have become occasional vessels in His hands.


 

LIKE THE WIND

The witch has not been manufactured, neither the familiar spirit that would trap a person filled with the Holy Spirit. Just like the wind is mysterious in action, so is a person filled with the Holy Spirit. He or she cannot be controlled by the powers of darkness. Just like the wind is powerful in movement, the movement of someone filled with the Holy Spirit is also powerful. Just like the wind is invisible in action, the same thing would happen in your life once you are filled with the Holy Spirit. Just as the wind is penetrating in action, you too would be like that when you are filled with the Holy Ghost.

Beloved, are you ready for the Holy Spirit? Do you really want to leave the department of the dreamer and become a visioner? If your answer is yes, then you must open up to the Holy Spirit. The beauty of a life filled with the Holy Spirit is that the powers of darkness may see you but would not be able to predict your action. If you operate like the wind, you cannot be trapped. But there is a very bitter word of lamentation which can be used to describe the present- day Christian Hosea 7:8-9

 

We thank God for the Bible for it makes us to understand that there is no age limit in getting filled with the Holy Spirit. If a child is ready, God will fill him up, likewise an adult that is ready. Whoever is ready gets filled up. God can never be partial.

PRESENT -DAY BELIEVER

Hosea 7: 8 –9: “Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.”

Many people have mixed themselves up with the world. Some have mixed themselves up with what we call spiritual nonentities, while others are unturned bread, that is, they remain in the same department every year. Anyone who looks at the spiritual state of the present church would know that a lot is wrong. Many people come to services yet there is no change in their life style. Many put up a different attitude in the church and a different attitude outside. Many come to meetings and receive miracles but they do not come across the God of miracles. They have miracles but do not have the miracle worker.

Many people have a lot of people around them that would never follow them to church because their life style does not glorify Jesus. How can a person convert his neigbour’s wife when he is busy making passes at her? How can a person convert someone he is drinking alcohol with? It gives me a lot of concern when I realise that some people will not get to heaven because they do not want to, not that heaven is not open. It is, but they just do not want to go there.

Some people are unserious with everything in life, including matters of heaven. This is the reason many present- day Christians are still afraid of demons, charms, incantations, enchantments, etc. They cannot withstand these things because there is sin in their lives and they know that the devil can see it. There are also many people who attend church services but lack simple faith in God. They bind the spirit of headache with paracetamol in their pocket, yet they want the miracle. Many come to meetings but they find it very difficult to conquer sin.

A man prayed in agony to God to change his life. In fact, he cried to God to give him the power to live a holy life. Suddenly, a voice sounded from heaven and said, “You have to wrestle. You must fight your flesh and conquer it. Don’t expect me to conquer your flesh for you.” You have to determine in your spirit that your flesh shall not overcome or dominate your life. It is a personal decision. It is so easy for a lady who allows herself to be put in the family way to say, “It is this man that messed up my life.” But she has forgotten that she gave him her full co-operation without which it would not have been possible.

Many people cannot hear God’s voice. To many, God is unreal. They just come to the church to gamble; therefore, satan is killing many people prematurely. Many do not have independent faith, they have become spiritually static. Many would drink concoction, take injections, drink holy water, use anointing oil, and also do deliverance at the same time; they have become gamblers because the Holy Spirit has no free flow in their lives.

The Holy Spirit you receive should not be just to speak in tongues or to pray when you are scared at night. It is to communicate with Him as a friend. When the Holy Spirit becomes your friend, it is then He will open your eyes and you can see things for yourself. This is why it is very important to pray that whatever is breaking down your communication with the Holy Spirit should be melted away.

The Bible dispensation can be divided into three:

1. The period of the tabernacle: This was the period when the Israelites built tabernacles in the wilderness. Then, God was inside the tabernacle and not in their lives. So, they messed up. Anytime they wanted to see God, they entered into the tabernacle. Nobody knew much about the devil then. That is why in the Old Testament, you do not see much about the devil. He was able to operate in hiding. But when you get to the New Testament, you see the Man of Galilee who came around and began to expose the devil.

2. The dispensation of the Son, i.e. Jesus Christ: He came physically, did His redemptive work and said, “I am going away but I shall come back. I will send you the Holy Spirit who will be staying with you and teaching you all things. He shall be your friend.” As a Christian, if you are not close to this Friend that the Lord has given us, you will have problem.

3. The dispensation of the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit is the executive agent of God’s programme on earth now.


 

HINDRANCES TO VISION:

1. Demonic activities: If you are involved in demonic activities, forget being a visioner. You will become a permanent dreamer.
2. Unconfessed sin: If you have unconfessed sin in your life, forget the school of the visioners. You will remain a dreamer until you confess all your sin.
3. Lack of true repentance: When you have not truly repented, forget the school of the visioners because you will still be a dreamer.
4. Unforgiveness: If there are some people that you can never forgive, forget the school of visioners.
5. Pride.
6. Fear: If fear is in your heart, you will remain in the school of dreamers.
7. Unbelief and doubt.
8. Lack of concentration: Some people’s minds roam around. They do not really follow anything through. Such remain in the school of dreamers.
9. Refusing to release yourself totally to the Holy Spirit.
10. Refusal to honour your parents: This will also land you in the school of dreamers.

The choice is yours now. Joshua said to the Israelites, “Choose you this day whom you shall serve, whether the idols your father were worshipping in the wilderness or the Lord God.” He also made a confession. He said, “But as for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord.” Personal choice.

You must depart from the school of dreamers. Your eyes must open so that you can receive divine revelation. Remember it is a matter of personal decision. If you decide to put an end to blind Christian life, God will open your eyes. If you say, “Enough of spiritual life of the valley,” God will catapult you to the mountain-top. It is necessary to confess any hidden sin that can hinder you to the Lord. God has promised to fill all the vessels that are ready. So, readiness is the condition.


PRAYER POINTS
1. Oh, Lord, manifest your presence in my life, in the name of Jesus.
2. Let the rain of the Holy Spirit fall upon me now, in the name of Jesus.
3. Oh Lord, let your mantle of power fall upon me, in Jesus’ name.
4. Holy Ghost, fill me, in the name of Jesus.
5. Holy Spirit, open my eyes, in the name of Jesus.
6. I refuse to operate in spiritual blindness, in Jesus’ name.
7. I remove myself from every evil spiritual bus- stop, in the name of Jesus.
8. I reject every arrow fired against my spiritual life, in the name of Jesus.

 

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TERMITES OF THE SOUL

Dr D.K.Olukoya

 

We will start this message by looking at Matthew 12: 22-24: “Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, this fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.”

Beelzebub means the lord of flies. We can even see the devil as the demon of insects, doing all kinds of havoc. Beloved, we have a lot of corpses walking in the streets. They look bright and sunny outside, but their internal mechanisms have completely collapsed. There are many who are still living but they have been buried. When the total collapse happens suddenly, you wonder what went wrong. But the truth is that inside, termites of the soul have been eating them up little by little until suddenly there is a total collapse of the system. While the internal structure was being demolished, the outside was still looking whole. 

A certain man called Sunday appeared to be getting on well with his wife. They held hands in the street and always smiled at each other. Neighbours admired them and many people wished their marriages could be like that. The neighbours did not know that sometimes,  Sunday and his wife were putting up an act. Once they got inside, they started their quarrels. Things went on like this until one day, Sunday came back from work and found a V-boot Mercedes Benz car in their garage. He got inside and asked his wife how the car got there. She said, “Well, men who are not ready to carry out their responsibilities should be able to bear when they see others who can bear it.” “Meaning what?” he asked. “I mean it is a gift,” she retorted. “From whom?” he asked. “That is none of your business,” she said. He went to the father-in-law and complained to him. The father-in-law was taken aback and told him he  would not take that sort of nonsense from any woman. He told him to do as he pleased. The father-in-law did not know that his advice would lead to more trouble. As Sunday was going home, he branched at the market, bought a cutlass and sharpened it very well. Immediately he got home, he asked his wife again, “Who is the owner of this car?” The wife said, “I asked you to shut up before, and I am still saying you should shut up.” Sunday descended on her, and cut her into pieces. The neighbours who used to admire them could not stop him. That was the end of the woman. When Sunday came out of the madness, he took some poison, went to a hotel room, drank it and killed himself there. And that was the end of the family. Before the disaster happened, the termite inside had been eating away slowly.

 

TERRIBLE INSECTS

Termites are very terrible insects. They are most destructive during the rainy season. When you are spiritually cold, the termite of the soul would be able to work. When you abandon your quiet time and your prayer life is cold, termites would be eating you up slowly. When termites are in an environment they lower the temperature of the place. It is the same thing when you allow a termite to enter into your life, and it is eating away, your spiritual temperature will go down.  They construct their ugly houses and pass through it. Likewise those who have termites inside look normal on the surface.

Termites operate a kingdom. They have queens and kings. They have workers, soldiers, and observe division of labour. It is the same with termites of the soul. Termites lay eggs at the rate of one every two seconds. So, they lay so many eggs in the life of a person, and make extensive tunnels to weaken the structure of a person’s life until there is a total collapse. Because termites do not operate on the outside, victims are unaware of their presence until it is too late. I pray that it will not be too late for you, in Jesus’ name. Sometimes, prayers and confessions would be useless when termites have finished their work in a victim. In most cases, it is the internal wound created in the soul that comes first before the external sicknesses appear. When this inner decay starts, then physical sickness will set in. Anyone who wants to obtain power against any sickness, must obtain inner healing first. As far as the inside is sick and rotten, external sicknesses would be having a field day. The reason physical sicknesses refuse to go sometimes is that the soul and the spirit are already sick. They are so sick that they cannot sustain the body to receive healing.

Our Lord Jesus said, “My peace I give unto you not as the world gives.” When you see someone who lacks internal peace, know that termites are at work. There are very few people who have the right peace. What some people call peace, is peace on the tight rope. The psalmist saw that his mind was wandering all over the place, and that it was not resting on God; he spoke to himself thus: “Return unto your resting place, O my soul.” Is your mind in its resting place, or the termite of worry, the termite of fear or the termite of the fear of death, has eaten you up? At this juncture, I would like you to take the following prayer point: (Mention your name and say): “Hear the word of the Lord, return to your resting place, O my soul, in the name of Jesus.”

Many people need healing of the mind because termites are eating them away. A woman came for counselling and told me that her husband watched pornographic films every night and also read dirty literature. She was worried. You may wonder why a man of 42 would be watching this kind of thing. It is because his mind was sick He might have looked bright on the outside; he might have very good university degrees, but he was a sick man. This man put their house girl in the family way. He could wake up one day and say that he wanted to do deliverance. But before he gets to this stage, termites have been eating his inside. There are many men who cover up a lot of things, whereas they are already gone inside.

 

HEALING

A lot of people need healing of their emotions because the way they think is absurd. Some need to be healed from the painful memory of the past. Some need healing from their unfulfilled dreams. They have been saying that they want this and that to happen, but they do not see them happening and it is as if these things were haunting them like ghosts. Right inside, they have silent frustration. They need to be healed from inside. That termite has to die. Some need to be healed from the resentment in their hearts. When people like that develop a physical sickness, it becomes difficult to control because already inside, termites are working really hard.

Many need healing from the spirit of rejection. Some need healing from self-pity. There are many people who feel sorry for themselves day and night. You hear them say, “I don’t know why life is treating me like this, and I tried my best, it is not working. I just don’t know, this is not good, it is unfair. I don’t know why I went to the university.” One day, after a medical doctor received his first salary, he put the money down, broke down and cried. He said, “So, it is because of this N5,000 I spent seven years worrying myself.” That was self-pity, an evidence of termite eating away. He forgot that a fellow who started on N5,000, could end up with something more later. So, in the clinic, when patients come to see him and look at his face, they would be discouraged. He needed the termite inside to die.

A lot of people need healing from depression. You would be surprised how many people go through depressive mood. They are always unhappy, and harbour heaviness in their hearts. When the heaviness sets in, all kinds of demonic dreams would follow.

Some need deliverance from the spirit of guilt. Sometime ago, a certain woman cried so much that it was almost difficult to console her. She wept uncontrollably. What was her problem? Thirty years ago, in a maternity ward, she stole another woman’s baby boy and exchanged it with her own baby girl because she already had five girls. Now, she heard a message and understood that she was a thief. The boy had become an adult, and did not know that the woman was not his mother. She could not trace the real woman. The guilt was inside eating her away.

Some people need healing from fear. In fact, fear is the most common demon in the world because it is in every nation, people and age. Many need healing from sorrow of the heart because the termite of sorrow is inside their lives eating them away. Many need healing from the spirit of hatred. The Bible refers to all those who hate their brethren as murderers. Many need healing from the spirit of inferiority complex. Some need healing from the spirit of condemnation. Those possessed with this spirit are always condemning themselves. Many need healing from the spirit of worthlessness.

 

OTHER FORCES

When these termites are eating hard, other things would go wrong. Other external forces would gather and begin to work. When the enemy has already got inside and you do not get him out, it would be a waste of time praying any other prayer. A sister wanted to get married, and two weeks to her wedding, the husband- to- be was knocked down by a vehicle at the bus-stop, and he died. So, she started struggling again to get another man. The second one she got was a sailor. One day, one of the things some labourers were off- loading from the ship, fell on his head and he fell into the water and died. She got a third and got a little bit far with him. At least, they got to the altar. During the wedding in the church, the pastor said, “If there is anyone here who knows any reason why these two should not be wedded in holy matrimony should say it now or keep silent forever.” Suddenly, a hand shot up from the back and the person who raised his hand said, “Sir, I object.” The pastor said, “What are your objections?” The woman came to the front with a baby at the back and pulled another one by the hand. Meanwhile the mother of the bride was at the front, already running mad slowly, waiting to explode. She had removed her headgear and tied it around her waist. When the woman got to the front, she said, “Pastor, look at the face of the bridegroom and look at the face of the baby at my back and the one I am holding. This is our marriage certificate. We got married in England, so, he cannot marry this one.” The pastor then said to the man, “Do you know this woman?” He could not deny the fact that he knew her. Then the pastor called off the wedding. What happened to that sister? Stubborn pursuers were running after her. They killed the first man, killed the second one, and then gave her the third one that was already married. Beloved, at this juncture, I would like you to lay your right hand on your head and pray like this: “Every stubborn pursuer inside my life, come out now, in the name of Jesus.”

Isaiah 53: 5: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Jesus was chastised so that we might have peace. Refuse to live in the past. Do not be the type of person that is always consuming large quantity of pain relieving tablets, tranquilizers and sleeping tablets. Those who manufacture these drugs make quite a lot of money because of the work of the termites. It is very sad that this generation has become a generation of aspirin and paracetamol. Millions of people are running mad and millions of naira are being spent because of the epidemic of this problem. All that people require to do is to deal with the termites.

 

DEVIL’S FILES

The devil has his own files. He has a file on all our weak areas, our failures and fears. He knows what we fear most, our embarrassment, our feelings of guilt, etc. Satan is responsible for the bad memories that come to people’s mind. He is the one who gives the anointing to remember word for word, the contents of an argument. Satan is the one that keeps reminding us that we cannot forgive someone who has offended us. He is the one who keeps all evil records. We must refuse to listen to him any more. If we keep dwelling on his sermons and on the past, termites would only bite harder. Do not allow yourself to be defeated by these internal evil warriors. Nothing good would happen if we just sit down and do not address them. But immediately you locate them, and begin to address them, things would happen.

On many occasions, God refuses to perform what we asked Him to do because He has already given us the power to do them ourselves. The command of the Almighty to all His children is that they must loose the band of wickedness on their necks and put it back on the neck of their tormentors. If they do not put it back on the necks of their tormentors, it would come back on their own necks. You do not beg God to chase away evil spirits. He will not answer that kind of prayer because He has already asked you to do it and given you the power to do it. You should not beg God to help you kill the termites, because He has given you power to address them.

If you cannot identify the termites operating in your life, then you are deceiving yourself. You should not pray that God would begin to loose you from the bondage of the enemy when He has given you the power to do it yourself. The Bible says, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper. And every tongue that rises against you in judgment, thou shall condemn.” It did not say you should call upon Him to condemn them. Some people have spiritual wounds caused by termites of the soul and they are carrying them about. Some people find it difficult to forgive their spouses because they have been rejected. Some parents do not have the kind of love they are supposed to have for their children. A child who is being treated unfairly would develop emotional problems.

 

MOVE AHEAD

There were many ladies who were rough-handled by men. Others sold off their virginity at very cheap price, and now they are regretting. You need to get out of that now; the past is gone, you need to start moving ahead, do not live in that past. I was ministering to somebody sometime ago, and she said, “By the way sir, somebody raped me last week, but his life has been destroyed.” I asked her to expatiate on this. “Who was it?” I asked. She described the person. I happened to know the person. Sometimes somebody may think he is covering up, but one day, the secret would come to the open. I pretended I did not know the person. Later, I called the person and said to him, “You know what? You are finished.” He said, “What did I do sir?” I told him what I heard. I asked him if he knew that she was from the water and it was a dangerous thing to commit fornication with her. He said, “She said something like that but I thought that she just wanted to escape.”

If you harbour unforgiving spirit, or malice, the termites will bite harder. If you have a do or die attitude about everything, you are fueling the termites. When you are stubborn and rebellious, you are fueling the termites. When you are difficult to appease, you are fueling the termites. When you are selfish, envious, have competitive spirit or judgmental attitude, you are fueling the termites. And once the termites are already working, you may be going about, but will only be wandering.

Many people claim they are born again, but they do not know how to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, they are managing their behaviour, instead of renewing their mind. The Lord does not ask you to be managing your behaviour instead of receiving a new heart. If you are suppressing your behaviour, then you are not changed inside, and the termite will continue to work. I saw a boy coming from church one day and said, “Where is your Bible?” He said it was not necessary in his church. They were not referring to the Bible there, so he dropped his Bible at home while going to church. How will he grow? Many are getting excited at rebuking the devil instead of digging deep into the foundation of their lives and killing the termites. They refuse to give Jesus access to the foundation of their lives. If you know that there is pride in your heart, unbelieving spirit, jealousy, worry, adultery, self-deception, frustration and intolerance, you need to pray to God to deal with the termites right now.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   Every satanic insect working against my life, die, in the name of Jesus.

2.   Every arrow hiding in my body, soul and spirit, I command you to depart right now, in the name of Jesus.

3.   Every heavy load in my life, be melted by fire, in the name of Jesus.

4.   My prosperity, pursue me, locate me and cover me, in the name of Jesus.

5.   Every internal stubborn pursuer, come out with all your roots, in the name of Jesus.

6.   Every evil plantation in my life, die by fire, in the name of Jesus.

7.   I refuse to co-operate with my enemies, in the name of Jesus.

 

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CHICKEN OR EAGLE  ?

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

PRAYER POINTS

1.    O Lord search me today and make me whole in the name of Jesus.

2.    Lord I thank you for the favours I have received so far in the name of Jesus.

3.    Lay your hand on your chest and pray like this: Every slavery in my life, break in the name of Jesus.

4.    For those who want unexpected income to arise, pray like this in faith; I claim unexpected income in the name of Jesus.

5.    I receive increase of prosperity in the name of Jesus.

6.    No weapon formed against my destiny shall prosper in the name of Jesus.

7.    I quench every evil candle lighted against me in the name of Jesus.

 

When you approach the bible as a Christian, immediately we are divided into two groups. An unbeliever is working in his own way doing his own things, walking according to the dictates of his or her mind. But when somebody gives his life to Jesus and you believe the word of God, even amongst those believers, you can find two clear groups. It is those two clear groups we want to address this morning; Eagle or Chicken. When you bring born again children together, you call those two groups, Eagle or chicken. In Isaiah Chapter 40:28-31- "Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary, there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength . Even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.  These are two birds; both represent two classes of children. You may be a Pastor or bishop. Arch bishop, His eminent. The Pre-eminence, Most Right Reverend, and be a chicken. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. It is those ones who will mount up with wings as eagle, you are either the eagle Christian or chicken Christian. When you look at both birds, they may appear a little bit similar, but they are actually so different from each other as day is different from night. Chickens have their heads down, their peaks are always busy in the rubbish or something, they scratch among the debris, and they scratch among the filthy, to look for worms and for food. They search scrap; they look for bits of foods and corn. If you look at the chicken, it is always working hard because it knows that the time is short. Very soon it will be dark. And they will pack the chicken again back into the cage for the night. So she has to work hard to get sufficient meal in the tummy before it is dark. That is the chicken.

But look at the other bird, the Eagle,  the appearance of the eagle bird may look strange, these actions too may look very strange, you will see it not on the ground, the lowest it will go to the ground is probably on the fence and it is with his head lifted up to the skies. And its sharp eyes searching the cloud. And it stretches forth its wings lazily. Nod as the wind blows, it mounts up. And for those of you who have seen the eagle before it is hatching, the sight is unique and magnificent, the way it spread its wings, and it will go up. It is this structure of the eagle that has been used to structure the airplane. It is obvious that it is completely different from the first bird.

Meaning that two Christians can be reading the same bible, coming to the same church, praying the same prayer point, listening to the same sermon and one would move mountains for Jesus; the other one would be scratching mountains. Make up your mind which one you want. I read a story a long time ago that a certain poultry farmer was working on the mountain one day and he discovered an eagle's net right on top of the mountain. The eagle's nest contained one egg. Immediately the man became curious and he was thinking about the possibility of raising an eagle. Then the idea struck him that he could raise the eagle in his poultry. So he took the egg home and incubated it, under the hen. Soon the hen hatched all her eggs, but the eagle could not hatch on time. It took a longer time before the thing could hatch . and you know when you see the chicks they look very beautiful, but the eaglet was blind, naked, ugly and fragile there. Likewise we have people who have been born and incubated by the wrong hen. The egg of the goodness has been put under the wrong hen and therefore they cannot move there. As time went on, this eaglet became strong and was going in and out with the chicks. It was now imitating them, imitating their ways of life, pecking stones, looking for worms, taking shelter under mother hen, in times of danger and looking down like the chick is looking down. From time to time the mother would look down to see how they are performing.

So the eaglet was raised like the chicks, but it does not look like one of them. Then on a certain day when the farmer was observing the eaglet in his manner, all of a sudden mother eagle appeared in the air, flying rather low, It could sight the eaglet there among the chicks and mother eagle circled round the yard. And gave a loud cry it was  like the mother eagle was giving an alarm to the eaglet, that you don’t belong to that place, you are in the wrong place.  With that loud cry, by the mother eagle, for the first time something stirred in the blood of the eaglet and it looked up to see somebody bigger than itself. Moving about in the sky. Again, the cry came and then this eaglet began to try for the first time. It began to try its wings, again the mother eagle came crying for the third time and now the eaglet tried, struggled with the wings a little bit and off it went with the mother and disappeared. Here we are, the eagle who saw himself as a chicken, it thought like a chicken, behaved like a chicken, then finally one day, it got a cry, got tired of its present state. Beloved until you get tired of your present spiritual state, you will remain there. but the day you say no I don't want to be like this and you get mad with the situation changes will begin. Some disagree with their present state but they don't hate it yet. When you hate your present situation, when you don’t like where you are, and you take it, then you begin to move. Changes do not happen until you get mad with that situation. But if you leave it as it is, well one day say, things will be okay, we are many, many of us are  the same in the situation , so nothing to worry about, then you will remain where you are spiritually . A Christian is like that eaglet that has found itself where it does not  belong. Stolen away by the devil, put under the wrong hen, but now he hears the cry of the master, the cry of mother eagle, which is the kind of cry I am giving to you this morning. You don't belong to this your present level, you don't belong to that place, and you should get mad with that situation. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.  One man of God was sleeping one night and the devil came to the room and was confusing the whole of the room, scattering everything there. When the man of God opened his eyes, and saw the devil, he said ha, Mr. devil pack all your load and depart from her now in the name of Jesus. And the evil presence lifted from the room, did leave. But after the devil had left, the man now saw that the devil had removed his bed from one place and put it in another place, it has taken away his chair, re arrange it in another place, he was still angry. He said Mr. Devil come back again and the evil presence came back He said when I left this house in the morning my bed was in that corner, my chairs were in that corner, put those thing back where you found them and the devil re-arranged them to the proper position. And the man now said, you devil, clear out from my presence. And the devil fled from him. That is the Eagle Christian.  They slap you on the chest, then you did not know where you are again, and you said you were kidnapped, you are a chicken. Somebody slaps your chest and said what is the property of your parents at home, you said they have video, they said go and bring everything and you did not know what you were doing again. And you went and took everything, count it and give it to them. Later your eyes cleared and you say that you are a child of God. Something is wrong, seriously wrong.

Something is boasting against you that I will deal with you, I will give you what you will carry for life. And he issues certain curses and incantations and you discover that what he has said is coming to pass in your life, then something is wrong. You are a chicken and you must get away from that level. Many of us are so afraid that even when the hared of Banana tree is moving to fast at night, in the backyard, they will say listen the witches are already here. They are already singing. You are a chicken.

I was sharing something somewhere. One man had problems and he went everywhere looking for assistance . Eventually after wasting money and time, and making so many sacrifices, somebody said there was somewhere in the western part of this country where the council of the high witches met. Any problem they took there, they solved it. But there were procedures for him before they could take him there. And he did all the procedures: White goat, white this, killed this, killed that, took his bathe with  walk backward to some places all kinds of things . These are people who are highly educated, not illiterates. So they took these men to the council of witchcraft; male and female witches were there. And they asked him , what could we do to help him. He said, he wanted to be free from His problems. They said they were sorry, that they could not help him. They said, the reason they could not help him was because anytime they run into trouble, his grandmother usually bailed them out. When they needed somebody to be untied, if the person had been tied by another power, it was his grandmother that helped them to untie them. Therefore, they could not help him. The person in charge of your case was your grandmother. At that level, the man now knew that he was in trouble. This man goes to church even the person who took him there is a church member. Both of them call themselves communicants. But they just come to the house of God, they think everything they say is theory, they are chicken. Many people who come to church, the devil does not respect them because he can see that with a little bit of push here and there they will comply with his instruction. Therefore make up your mind . The mounting up process that we are talking about is important and necessary for you to be conformed to the image of the Son of God and for you to reign with him forever. You must destroy the idol standing in the temple of your heart to enable you to mount up. If all that you are pre-occupied with is I want to go to club, I want to drink, I want to run around, I want to go to party. If that is your main pre-occupation, then beloved you are just coming here, you are still a chicken . You need to now grow higher, destroy the idols in the temple of your heart. You must decide to pay whatever price it will cost you to go up with God to the high places. There are prophets and there are prophets. There are some prophets now, until they have prayed for two hours, they can hear anything from the Lord, there are some prophets now, until they go on dry fast, they hear nothing. There are also some kindergarten prophets it is only when they sleep, they are dreamers. The bible says in the last days I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions, ;your old men shall dream dreams. So it is vision to the young, dreams to the old, but now it is the reverse; it is the old ones who are seeing  the visions, the young ones have become executive dreamers.

You must decide to pay the price. You must decide what you want to belong to these two groups we are mentioning this morning. The chicken too they are symbolic of some people. The only time chickens were referred to in the bible, was when Jesus used them as a type of strange people in Jerusalem who could not hear his message.  They could not heed his call. He called them like a chicken. They travel about in crowds, they were earth bound. They kept their eyes on the things of the world. they are scratching out, their bare existence. They never lifted up their heads to see him who is far above. The lecture handout that has been given to them, they ate them. Then they are now searching greedily in the dustbin and in the dust to fill their bellies with unclean materials. The chicken will eat dead things, it will eat inseparable filth, such people are bound on the right and the left by fences, and there are many people like that in the house of God. But this is not what God wants. The disciples of Jesus came to Jesus, and said can a man put away his wife for every cause? Jesus said no, you cannot. They said, but Moses told us to give them a certificate of divorce. He said well that is because of the hardness of your heart. He said now, once you worry, you marry, Peter recorded that one. Then they said has many times shall I offend my brother and he will say sorry and I will not retaliate. He   volunteered an answer. He said Seven times? Jesus said no, seventy times, seven times, four hundred and ninety, somebody must offend you a day before you can retaliate. Even if you are the most un-serious person on this earth and you have no work to do with your life, it will be difficult for somebody to offend you four hundred and ninety times a day . It is very difficult. So what he is telling you is that you cannot retaliate. When Peter now heard that one. He said Master, there shall be very few people in the kingdom of God then. Jesus did not say yes or no, he said stand, strive to enter by the narrow way. Because narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that find it. That means some people will find there jewelers and the bleaching creams and the paints, they will find the giant belt like wrestlers, they will find the transparent dresses, but then they can not find the narrow way. Yet they are in the way but they cannot find it. They have become passengers, in their own father's house. I refuse to be a passenger in my father's house, in the name of Jesus. That is the life of the chicken. But this is not the nature of the eagle at all?

The eagle has inherited a nature that can not be confined . a nature that cannot be put in captivity of the bound yard fowl. It is not possible . that is not the nature of the eagle. If you pray yourself into the eagle class, you don't need to go for deliverance. To be happy and to fulfill his purpose ;in life and eagle must be free to soon  in the wide opened heavens. Although it is lonely up there because there are not many who will dare to rise to that height, but the eagle does not care. Once you begin to grow in God, and his power begin to come upon your life, you may start to become lonely because what is interesting to your friend is no longer interesting to you. What is exciting them does not excite you any more. It is not in the nature of eagle to be mingling with multitude, it is not in his nature to mingle with the majority. But you see the nature of the eagle is that it is free, it is not bound, it is not caged. In Deuteronomy chapter 323 verse 11, it says As the eagle stretch up her nest, fluttereth over the young, spreadest abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead him and there was no strange God with him. He made him to ride on the high places of the earth that he might eat the increase of the field and he made him to suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock. When eagles have given birth to their children, and they have hatched them out of the earth, they build very beautiful nest and keep them there. And they want that child to start behaving like an eagle.  So one day the mother eagle will just come and destroy the nest to persuade that eagleth to jump out. And once this eaglet is falling down it is falling   at fast speed, and mother eagle will spread her wings underneath her and will catch the small eaglet. It will return the eaglet back to the nest, throw her down again, until this small eaglet start learning to fly. It will try it over and over again. But if it were a chicken there is nothing to worry about. If the eaglet was a chicken nothing to worry about. It will be able to get food from the ground and somebody would give him things to eat.  Somebody will watch over him, somebody will feed him, somebody will protect him. Not so for the eagle. Either it learns to  soar by itself or it will starve to death, either it learns to fly high or it will become a prey to wild beast. Mother eagle will test the eaglet to see that it can fly if after several trials (this is the painful part) to make this young eaglet fly, and the young eaglet refuses to fly, then one day, with a wild scream of disappointment, it will leave the eaglet to drop on the rock and die, that is it. It will go and hatch another egg. That is the bottom line. Eagles are specially trained and God is training many of us now. God has offered some people, the life of the eagle since, but they refuse to move in that realm, they are rebelling against the processing of God. God is processing them, they are rebelling, they are protesting. They are complaining that God is processing them. They don’t want to become the eagle saint. They don’t like being placed in the furnace of fire because there is rebellion in their hearts. When a chicken falls down, it never falls a long way any way because it never rises to great heights. But when an eagle falls, it falls a long way. So if you want to make your rest in the heavens, there must be no rebellion in your heart. The chicken guard is a confined place, it is like a cage. But if you put an eagle in a cage, it will wither and die. It can only live where it can find happiness in the freedom of the heavens. There is unlimited revelation there, in its life, there is heavily gifts, there is special deliverance's, but the life of the chicken is so dull, they are scared, they go about, not really doing much. Immediately there are some in the heaves, all the chicken will be running away looking for cover. But when there are wild storms in the heavenlies, the eagle looks up and flies above that storm.

A fellow was coming to church and he had forty naira in his pocket, twenty naira in one pocket, twenty naira in another pocket. The twenty naira in one pocket is for his feeding, the other twenty naira is for the offering. But as he got down from the bus, somebody faced him with a knife, and said I will kill you now, bring out that money in your pocket. He brought out the twenty naira in his right pocket and gave it to the thief. And the thief ran away. And the brother was now going and said what kind of thing is this. And as he was moving close to church, he said Jesus they have stolen your offering. The one they did not steal is the one for my food o. I hope you will understand. That is the chicken Christian. The eyes of the eagle can behold a far off. The eagle is noted for very great vision. It is the same thing with eagle saint.  Those, whose eyes are glued to the things of the eyes, they can not see heavenly things. They need to try and break through into the realm of the  spirit. So one way you can know whether you are a chicken or eagle in your spiritual vision. Ordinary prayer for job specification many people do not know. God does not speak to you about your life, Now, you say you want to marry now, it is now God is speaking small things, he is not speaking to you. There are men in the bible, who walked beyond the limitation of their time. The bible says Enoch walked with God, and he was not for God took him. Enoch was an eagle saint. Instead of Enoch to just settle down and be satisfied with what is available in his generation, he said no, I must reach for the skies; something must be better than what I have. Enoch did not live in our kind of days; Enoch did not live when man was walking with God. Adam had died a thousand years earlier. Adam walked with God in the garden and the time that Enoch was with God the earth was filled with violence. Ungodliness of men was a stench to the nostrils of God. No churches, any baptism of the Holy Ghost, no saviour had come to die for the sin of man. There is no record that there is a bible for him to read. There is nowhere, where they wrote that anybody ever became a saint of God. But in the midst of all these, Enoch believed that he would reach beyond that limitation and walked. The men who lived in his time never believed that a person can escape death but the bible says by faith Enoch believed that he could do it. And he did it. And if you read your bible well, Enoch was the first prophet in the bible He was the first person to say in the bible, thus says the Lord. As far back as Genesis Enoch had prophesied that the Lord Jesus would be coming back Noah too was an eagle Saint. He saw judgement coming although the judgement never came till 120 years time. He prepared for it others who lived in his time had no such vision, they perished. Noah had never had Enoch's prophesy, he too was born at a time when the wickedness of men was great and causing God to regret that he had made man  but he stood out. And said sorry, I don't want to conform with this your weakness. I too want to move ahead. Elisha was another Eagle saint. The man came from a very rich home, his father was a judge.  Elisha was like the kind of person who lived in Victoria Island or Ikoyi and Elijah  was in Mushin or Ajegunle, although he occasionally went to the Victoria Island to harass them there. But then this Elisha, the son of a rich man began to pour water on the hands of Elijah; he humbled himself. Anything he was asked to do, he was doing it. He was serving this man who refused to have his bath for three and half years. He was following the man. A day came Elijah was going away and Elisha was following him. Read your bible well, Elisha did not receive any encouragement from following Elijah. In fact several times, Elijah said sit down here, I am going forward, he would say no, I am following you. Sit here, no I am following you, he kept following the man. The sons of the prophet, they called Elisha and said knowest not that your master shall be taken away? He said I know but keep your peace. So those ones could see that Elijah was going. But they had no portion of them to receive his power. They are prophets too Elisha said I am not sitting. If it were some of our unbroken brothers and sisters, they would say you are a wicked man I have being following you, nursing after you, serving you, now you want to go away, you don't even bother to tell me. This is very bad, you are trying to discourage me, okay if you say I should not follow you, go to places He did not say that one. When Elijah saw that the man was an eagle person, then he said what do you want me to do before I am taken from your hands. The man said, I want a double portion of your power. He was looking beyond the realm of Elijah. He said this man is going now, he has only one portion, and I cannot survive with his portion. I want double. Elijah said you have asked for a hard thing because l that you are talking to, I have only 1 , and you say I should give you two. (2) of what I have just 1. It is a hard thing. But he said however if you are able to see me when I am being taken away it shall be so.  I  am sure prior to that day, Elisha would have stopped eating food. Because it is not with these physical eyes that you are going to see chariots. And the bible said that the chariot came and Elisha saw it and that was it. He received a double portion of power. He became an eagle saint. Unfortunately Elisha died of a broken heart because he had nobody to hand over to. The person that should have taken a four portion was Gahazi. He only succeeded in collecting leprosy. There are many leprosy Christians now in the house of God. Everywhere the sons of the prophets went, when Elisha had received double portion, they said you have become our Oga, we will now bow down to you. But they had a similar opportunity. They  said well, we don't want  to go that far. We are not that serious yet. Some of our sisters still want to dress like the world, talk like the world walk like them, wear their body lugs and terrible skirts but at the same time they don't want the witches to eat them up. So they will buy prayer rain and be praying that one.

Meanwhile they are misbehaving seriously some where else. You need to become an eagle; the life of an eagle is up there. If you are looking for friends down here, you are wasting your time. They would drag you to hell fire. Those friends that you are looking for and  by the time that the trouble of your Jacob would come, there is nobody who at one time or the other will not face the problem; they call it the day of Jacob's trouble.  The time that the day of Jacob's trouble will come, your members of this club, that club that you are roaming about with at night will not be able to help you. No they will not be able to help. It is like that brother, don't marry this person, you already have your wife. He said no, he abused the man of God and went away and said I will marry this person. He left his own wife and went and pick up this girl and during childbirth the girl and the baby died. I did not see the man again until one day I saw the man at one corner shaking his head here. What happened? The new girl that he married, died and they wanted to bury her. The family of the girl said no, that we don't bury people like that here. First of all, pay the dowry of a corpse, do the engagement. They collected everything from him, and said now buy a wedding gown and you wear a suit and come. So he wore the suit and went there and they wore wedding suit for the corpse and now wanted to join him in wedlock with the corpse. He said I can not do that one . they said it is our tradition. If we don’t wed you with her we can not bury her. He ran away and he was seen one  corner here shaking his head. After he had abused the man of God and said well you people are fanatics. If he was an eagle saint, he would have seen well ahead.  And know what to do. Another eagle saint was Joseph, when Joseph was in Egypt, he told his brethren, he said I know that the Lord will take you away  from this place. But when you leave carry my bones away from here. And when they were leaving Egypt, Moses did not forget, Moses carried the bones in a coffin and twelve men from each tribe, they took their turns in carrying the strange Egyptian coffin through out their journey in the wilderness. God will always reveal his secret to the eagle saint. Joseph could see the future by the eye of the spirit. so truly those children of God that were going in the wilderness, they should have been comforted that one way or the other, they would get to the Promised Land. Because Joseph had said carry my bones. And go and bury it in the Promised Land. So no matter how anybody raged against them, no matter how hard Pharaoh pursued them, it will do no good because there is a coffin in their hand full of bones. And the eagle saint had said it must be buried in the Red Sea. So it must get there since the eagle saint had said it. Sometimes, we pray a single prayer point and some will say well is that all did you see anything I will say, I saw you I mean vision. Give me some psalms. All the cries in Egypt, there was a coffin of bones to show them that there will be deliverance one day. All the people complaining by the Red Sea, telling Moses that they would perish here, they were carrying a coffin filled with the bones of Joseph, and there was no need to fear. Let all the rebels take up their stones and begin to throw the stones, the bones of Joseph says they will fall. When they talked about death and failure and discouragement, the bones of Joseph was talking about life and victory. All the talk about going back to Egypt, they would not go back. The bones of Joseph said they must go on. He was an Eagle saint. The choice is yours, what do you want to do in these end times when things are becoming rougher and rougher, terrible things are happening, earthquake, flood, all kind of things, witches seem to be gaining power and doing all kind of things. During the annual anointing service, before the service began 5 people were already confessing to witchcraft. Is that the kind of generation you want to sit in and your eyes will not open? Some people marry husband, they don't know the husband they marry. Some marry wives they don’t know the wives, they have househelp they don’t know who the house help is, they employ staff they don't know who the staff is. All of a sudden, God just open their eyes and see what is happening. A sister came to one of our meetings  that was held at MFM  Ikeja branch, We really prayed that day about the fire of God coming into our lives. She prayed with anger because she saw her position. How can things be walking all over my body and I say I have Holy Spirit. How can my husband go to work early in the morning and then they say strange women has taken away half of his money. She got mad and prayed with that madness. Little did she know that the problem was under her roof; the house help. When she got home, she was praying that Lord I thank you for taken me to this meeting. And for bringing me back home. And all of a sudden God opened her eyes and she saw a duplicate of the house help flying out of her body. The thing went into the roof and disappeared, she said yea. And called the house help who are you? She said you mean  you don’t know that I am a witch? why do you think the leg of your son is not working? Who do you think is making your husband to give money to strange women. This strange woman is one of our group. I thought you know. She said I don’t know. The house help said, what kind of rubbish prayers do you say you are praying? She said she felt ashamed. (Pray with fire like this. Spirit of darkness, fly away from my life in the name of Jesus.

The other time a medical doctor drag his daughter here and the daughter was confessing to witch craft. The daddy was telling me that he took her to a prayer meeting somewhere and when they got back home, the girl said, Daddy, thank you for this prayer meeting, you took us to. Because before we went to that prayer meeting, we only had red birds, we did not have black birds, but from that prayer meeting, we were able to collect them . the man was scared . He was calling himself. Dr. Deacon. I said Oga remove this Deacon from the front of your name quick, quick. We need to locate our position and new position ourselves to be blessed. What do we do now? How do we become an eagle saint? It is very simple, if you are prepared to pay the price.

1.    Submit yourself completely to the Lord. Don't be the kind who throws away the large earring to go and buy small, small ones again. Don't keep saying, well, well, they are too strict in this place. I want to go to a place that is liberal. That liberality is license to hell fire. It is a license to bondage. Some sisters now, when they get home, they go to work, they will look like masquerades . By the time they are coming in the evening again, they have taken away the Jezebelian attachment and they will begin to sing Holy. Who are they deceiving, themselves? I will not be surprised, if there are brothers around, who have chains on their necks. I don't know what they are doing with it. Putting a chain on their neck. They are not submissive yet. The bible says submit yourself to God. When you are completely submitted, then now you resist the devil, then it shall flee. But if you do not submit and you say, devil I resist, that one will say haven't you read the bible, that says having in readiness to avenge all disobedience when your own obedience is complete. When your own obedience is not complete and you are binding and losing. It will say: okay, no problem. Sometimes it is not necessary to talk, shut your mouth, when there is nothing to say. Sometimes it is not necessary to even receive a visitor when you know that each time this visitor come, he draws you back. To the mud. You say this is my boyfriend, this is my fiancée, but the kind of fiancée that you have is that any time, the fellow comes around, your spiritual life goes backward, then you should check what you are doing.

1       The first thing is submission.

2       Humble yourself.  There is nothing that you have that you did not receive. It is God that gave it to you. Don't be proud on anything. Humble yourself before the Lord.

3       Be hungry and thirsty for spiritual growth. You will look at yourself and said certainly, I am not supposed to be like this.  Certainly I must have an improvement. Certainly I must be an eagle Christian. This kind of life is not okay for me. Certainly God must move me forward. You must hunger and thirst for spiritual growth. The bible says blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled because they are hungry for it. And hunger and thirst, they are not very good things. When somebody is really hungry, he would not be able to know whether there is salt in the food or not it is only when you are not hungry that you would say there is no salt in this food. It is because somebody is not thirsty that you would say, actually I don't drink from water in the tap. I only drink bottled water, It is because he is not thirsty yet. When he is thirsty, he will dire at that water. So hunger and thirst, they are not very nice things. They are things pushing you forward.

4       Pray until something happens to your spiritual life. That is, until you receive a visitation, don't leave where you are. Spend long time talking with the Lord. Don't worry what it will cost you. Instead of sitting down to begin to worry and begin to harass your brain unnecessarily and begin to ask yourself strange questions, am I the only one, why are they worrying me like this, I am the only child of my parent, they should leave me alone. Instead of harassing yourself with that kind of question, if it is business that is bothering you. If you get on your knee, and you refuse to leave that place, until you hear from heaven, something will happen. But the thing is this; you can not force God to talk to you. You have to wait there. He may decide to talk to you after the first day, after the second day, after the third day, after the fourth day after the seventh day, but he will definitely speak if you stay there long enough. The trouble is that, many of us are impatient when it comes to the things of God.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.    Every power pulling down my spiritual life die in the name of Jesus.

2.    My eyes open by fire in the name of Jesus.

3.    O Lord, whenever evil people are before me, expose them, in the name of Jesus.

4.      Lay your hands on your stomach and pray like this.

 

 bac 

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.

 

 

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

1.   Anger.

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?

i.  Recognize that there is a problem. When you know that there is a problem, you have started addressing it.

ii.          Accept the Lord Jesus Christ fully. Don’t be a part-time Christian.

iii.         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.

iv.         Commit yourself completely to Jesus.

v.         Study the word of God.

vi.         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 imagi-nation 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.

 

The Strongmen of this Millennium

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

The enemy has released certain powers into this millennium and these powers have started to do a lot of havoc since 2000 AD. Our message this week will focus on “The strongmen of this Millennium.” Zechariah 1: 1 says, “In the eight month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, the son Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet...”

In that passage, we identify Zechariah and his father. And we also identify that it was the word of the Lord that came unto him. Every other thing in the Bible was a direct message from the Lord to a particular group of people. Beloved, pray and tell the Lord to speak to your situation now, in the name of Jesus.

Now that we have identified whom Zechariah was talking to, verses 18-19:  “Then lifted up I my eyes, and saw, and behold four horns. And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What are these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem.” Four horns were sent into the midst of Israel and they scattered Israel, Judah and Jerusalem. So what we are looking at now are the horns, which have been sent into these millenium years. Mark 3: 27 says, “No man can enter into a strongman’s house and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strongman and then he will spoil his house.”

 

WHO IS THE STRONGMAN?

1.    The strongman is the controller over a group of spirits.

2.    The strongman is the ruling spirit over a group of evil spirits.

3.    The strongman is the principal evil spirit or leading demon.

4.    It is the dominant or the head demon in a particular department. Therefore, for you to set some particular situations free, the strongman is the key.

5.    It is the power source in a particular situation.

In this millenium, the enemy has released all kinds of strongmen into the midst of men and a lot of people have strongmen attached to several departments of their lives and these wicked powers have started harassing them.

 

Let us identify these strongmen in order to prevent them from operating against us this year. 

1.  The spirit of heaviness:

Isaiah 61: 3 says, “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.”

Under the spirit of heaviness, you have broken heart, continual sadness, defeatist attitude, discouragement, depression, hopelessness, sorrow, tiredness, troubled spirit, laziness of the mind and sleepless-ness. These things have started to do a lot of havoc. It is for you to decide that the strongman of the spirit of heaviness will not have a hold in your life this year.

 

2. The spirit of death and hell:  This is a terrible spirit that the enemy has already set in motion this year. Although the year has just begun, many people that shouted happy New Year on the first of January have, all of a sudden, been snatched away by the devil.  There have been accidents and other forms of tragedy that have taken away many lives. That is the work of the strongman of death and hell. They are also responsible for ritual killings and kidnappings. A lot of people are surprised at these happenings because they do not understand that it is the activity of a spirit that has been released into this millennium. Under the spirit of death and hell, we have sicknesses, cancer, arthritis, exhaustion, incurable diseases, heart attack and high blood pressure. These things are now on the increase starting from last year. Young people of 16,17 and 18 are talking of high blood pressure. It is the spirit of death and hell. Close your eyes and pray like this: “Every arrow of death and hell fired into my life, die, in the name of Jesus.

 

3.  Lying spirit: This spirit is so much in action now that you also see some Christians telling lies. It is the spirit of the age. Adultery and fornication come under this because for you to be an adulterer or fornicator, you must have some demonic intelligence and some lying spirit. Under this lying spirit, you also have people who commer-cialise the word of God. I was told that a certain prophet sold anointing oil to a rich man in Lagos for N50,000.  In spite of that, the anointing oil did not work. The correct price of the anointing oil was probably only N100.

Spirits of deception and all kinds of exaggeration and hypocrisy are also released into this age. Many went into business only to discover that their best friends were not their best friends again and that the person they thought was going to help them had destroyed everything they sweated for. I pray that, that shall not be your lot this year, in Jesus’ name. 

 

4.  Familiar spirits:

These are spirits of the dead working in the family. They dealt with your father, dealt with your mother and are now dealing with you. You notice that the problems of your father and mother are becoming your problems.  The enemies that were pursuing them are now pursuing you. You need to pray to get them off your back.

 

5.  Perverse spirit: Isaiah 19: 14 says, “The Lord hath mingled a preserve spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof: as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.”

 

The perverse spirit has also been released. Under this spirit, you have abortion, child- abuse, false teachers, sexual perversion, homosexuality, incest and stubbornness.

6.  The spirit of pride: You will find this manifesting in anger, unnecessary argument, boastfulness, bragging, domineering attitude, irritability and a lot of confusion. The spirit of pride causes many of the unrests and public disturbances that we have. It is a spirit released to the age.

 

7.  The spirit of infirmity: You find people roaming around the hospitals with diseases that nobody understands. The spirit of infirmity is doing a lot of havoc. This year, I pray that it shall not have a hold over us, in the name of Jesus.

 

8.  The spirit of fear: The Bible says, “The Lord has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love and a sound mind.” But then there are a lot of fear around. And fear leads to anxiety, apprehension, resentment, quarrels and bitterness. 

 

9. The spirit of bondage:  A lot of people find that they had a dream which put them in trouble by the time they wake up. The enemy has put them in one bondage or the other. Romans 8: 15 says, “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby ye cry Abba, Father.” Spiritual blindness, unnecessary violence, inordinate quest for money, etc, come under the spirit of bondage.

 

10.     The spirit of anti-Christ: This is now very rampant because as the days are drawing to an end, the spirit of the anti-Christ is so much with us. It makes people to act against God. It makes people to act against the correct teachings of the Bible. It makes people to attack the saints. It makes people to blaspheme. It makes people to exhibit powers of darkness like the kind of open attacks of the powers of darkness recorded in 2000 AD.

 

I have a question for you: Do you want these strongmen to be moving about in your life the way they want? Do you want them to continue to pursue you this year? The decision is yours. When God created Adam and Eve, He left the forbidden tree in the garden. If He wanted to remove it, it would have been removed, but he left it there. So the Lord will not clear away the witches and wizards. He will not clear away those who are harassing people. We will co-exist with them and as we do so, we learn how to resist them so that they are not able to prosper in our lives.

 

OUR DEFENSIVE TACTICS

¨ You must surrender your life to Christ completely. This is not negotiable. Don’t continue in this New Year without being a true child of God. To live in this year without the power of God is to register for disaster that is about to happen.

 

¨  Depart from every known sin. Any sin in your life will encourage the enemy to fight you harder. Perhaps you are reading this and you spent the whole of last year smoking cigarette and running after strange women, you have a wonderful opportunity for a new beginning, as this year is still very young.

           

¨ Completely yield your life to God. A life completely yielded to God will be barricaded against the powers of darkness.

 

Beloved, make up your mind to wage war against these ten spirits. I don’t know what they have already done in your life. But I know that there is a power that can defeat them.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.    Thank God for what He would do in your life this year, in Jesus’ name.

2.    Ask the Lord to forgive you for any sin that will hinder His move in your life this year, in Jesus’ name. 

3.    Lay one hand on your head and the other on your chest and pray like this: Holy Spirit, overshadow my life, in the name of Jesus.

4.    Holy Spirit, arrest every prosperity arrester, in the name of Jesus.

5.    Tell the Lord to remove your name from every register of failure, in Jesus’ name.

6.    Lay one hand on your head and the other on your stomach, close to your belly button, as you take this prayer point: Every power that has acquired witchcraft spirit for my sake, what are you waiting for? Die, in the name of Jesus.

7.    Every power that has acquired familiar spirit in order to fight me, what are you waiting for? Die, in the name of Jesus.

8.    Every power that has acquired marine powers for my sake, what are you waiting for? Die, in the name of Jesus.

9.Year 2001A.D, you will not swallow any of my blessings, in the name of Jesus.

10.  Every arrester of progress this year, be arrested, in the name of Jesus.

11.  Every power that is poised to pursue my destiny this year, what are you waiting for? Die, in the name of Jesus.

12.  Every witchcraft meeting taking place against me now, be scattered, in the name of Jesus.

 

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Sheep amongst the wolves

Dr D. K. Olukoya

 Sheep amongst the wolves is the title of our message for this week. Matthew 10: 16 says, “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” ln this passage, Jesus is warning us about the danger surrounding us in the world. The wolf is a very dangerous animal. Physically, if a contest were declared between the sheep and the wolf, the sheep would stand no chance at all because the wolf is stronger than it. The wolf would destroy the sheep utterly.

      The environment in which we find ourselves is a very hostile one. The Bible does not use kind words to describe it. The Bible talks about the environment being filled with serpents, scorpions, lions, foxes and all kinds of terrible creatures. And in the passage we read, the Bible is talking about wolves. Truly, the wolf can destroy the sheep but there is something that can enter the sheep and give it the ability to confront and defeat the wolf. That thing is the Spirit of the living God. The Holy Spirit can enter the sheep because of certain qualities that can be found in the sheep.

Readers of the Bible recognise that Samson was a man that did exploits. There was a time he met a lion on the way and the lion did not know that Samson was not just an ordinary human being it could devour. It smiled at Samson and wanted to pounce on him but then something was in the life of Samson, which the lion did not know about. The Spirit of the Lord was mightily upon Samson. Judges 14: 5 – 6:  “Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother to Timnath: and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and behold, a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.” The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson.

When the Spirit of the Lord comes upon men, new things begin to happen. When it comes upon you, new ideas would begin to come up in your mind, a new power would enter into your spirit, you would begin to resist the devil and he would certainly flee from you. Perhaps as you are reading this message, you are the timid and fearful type. When that Spirit comes upon you, it will make you to become bold. Samson did not flee from the lion, instead he pounced on it. Meaning that he did to the lion what the lion planned to do to him.

The Spirit of God has always been doing wonders in people’s lives and I am sure He would do wonders in yours too, in the name of Jesus. Every serious man of God in the Bible passed through this kind of experience that we are talking about. The seventy elders had a difficult task to do. Ordinarily, they would not have been able to cope, but God had to do something to them before pushing them into the midst of wolves. We too need this Spirit to give us wisdom. We need Him to disgrace all the lions harassing us. Gideon, too, was a man that was called by God for a task he could not cope with until the same Spirit came upon him. The same thing happened to king David, Simon in the New Testament, and to all the apostles. The Spirit of the living God came upon them and that made all the difference.

The whole of the Bible can be divided into three clear sections:

Section 1.  The time of Tabernacles and temples:

The people of Israel built tabernacles in the wilderness. Anytime they were moving, they carried their tabernacle. When they finished with tabernacles, they started building temples. That time God was in a place and not in their lives.  This is the reason the devil was able to mess people up thoroughly in the Old Testament. God was inside the tabernacles and inside the temples but was not inside their lives. The high priest used to go to the Holy of holies once a year and he did that with very great precautions because anything could happen to him there. That is what we see in the Old Testament.

  

Section 2. The time of Jesus Christ:

      Jesus came, and men looked upon Him and decided that He was not worthy to remain alive so they got rid of Him. But before then, He moved around preaching the gospel and healing the sick. God anointed Him with power and He did great exploits. He laid the foundation of the apostolic ministry. When He was going away, He said, “I am going away but I will not leave you comfortless. I will send to you another Comforter,” and that ushered us into the realm of the Holy Spirit, where we are now.

 

Section 3. The ministry of the Holy Spirit:

      The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the last ministry. It is the Spirit that allows us to live in the supernatural. What I am talking about surpasses just speaking in tongues. There are many people who speak in tongues but there is no power in the tongues. What I am talking about is moving in the supernatural. Sometime ago, a certain woman attended a service where somebody prayed on anointing oil and she drank it. Shortly after, she began to feel pressed to go to the toilet. By the time she got to the toilet, she excreted three snakes, not worms. That is what you call moving in the supernatural. There are some sisters in our fellowship who have never been to any school in their lives but they can read the Bible very well. That is what you call moving in the supernatural. This is the only thing that can confront and defeat the wolf.

         Our country used to be in terrible darkness and many evil things were happening. Clergy men used to go to evil people to collect power. People were even afraid to call the names of witches and all kinds of horrible things were happening until some men who had the Spirit of the living God came and confronted the wolves. You cannot confront the wolves when you are chewing gum in the church or when you cannot concentrate during service.

 

THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

          Baptism of the Holy Spirit in the right sense of it, is an experience that revolutionises people’s lives. Many years ago, I was passing by a university campus around I.00 a.m. and I saw three girls wearing tight trousers standing in front of the place. As I was wondering what they were doing there, they waved me down, so, I stopped and I asked what they were doing there. They said they were looking for transport to take them home. So, I offered to help them. As I was driving, I asked them again what they were doing there at that hour and they said they were coming from a party that had just ended. I went on further to tell them that it was dangerous for them to be there at that time and they said, “Sir, Jesus will protect us.” When I heard that, I asked, “Are you people born again.” They said, “Yes.”  So, I asked again, “If you are born again, then, what are you doing in a night party and dressed the way you are?” They said, “We are not only born again but also filled with the Holy Spirit.” I said, “Supposing Jesus comes and meets you in that party dancing with unbelievers, what do you think would happen?” One of them said, “No. He cannot come now because I am not yet married and I have not done anything. He would have to wait for me to finish everything then He can come.” It is really a pity. A lot of people who claim to have the baptism of the Holy Spirit are not serious yet. If you received the genuine baptism of the Holy Spirit, it would revolutionise your life. It would turn your life upside down for good. It would reverse your situation.

       For us to disgrace the present-day wolves, we need the power of the Holy Spirit. One man of God said that the sign of Christianity is not a cross but a tongue of fire. When the fire comes upon your life things begin to happen. The greatest reason we need fresh fire from above is for us to be a great burnt offering for God. Once you become that kind of burnt offering, the first thing that would disappear from your life is the fear of death. And immediately the devil sees that you are no longer afraid of death, he would flee from you because there is no other greater thing with which he can threaten you. Supposing the Holy Spirit wakes you up at 2. 00 a.m. and says, “Son or daughter, today I have a message for you to deliver at the front gate of Atan Cemetery.” What would you do? Somebody who is on fire for God will not think of the danger but would go there. That is what we mean by being a great burnt offering for the Lord. People who have got to that level are above fear. When such people are threatened with charms, they ask the person issuing the threat to bring his most powerful one.

When we become a great burnt offering for God, it is then we can disgrace the wolves and when God is looking for someone to rely upon, He can depend on us. The question now is, “Do you have that fire of God burning in you?” The Bible says that our God is a consuming fire and when that fire comes on you, you will have liberty in the spirit. When some people speak in tongues, it would appear as if somebody was squeezing their throat and quenching the power. I pray that we may have the fire that John spoke about. Then, the devil, sin, sicknesses cannot live in our lives because it would be too hot. This is why we need the fresh fire of the Holy Spirit. Many have quenched that fire by their words, unbelief, and the unwillingness to change. So, it is time to check your baptism again. Does it have fire in it? Or have you lost it?

The second reason we need fresh fire is so that we may be perfected in love. You must love all sinners, not wishing that any should perish. Paul said, “Though I preach the gospel I have nothing to glory of, but necessity is laid upon me. Woe is me if I preach not the gospel.” He was able to say that because something had happened to him.

The third reason we need fresh fire is for holy zeal to fall upon us. The apostles had fire and they got result. A friend of mine in England was invited to Russia to preach. He did not understand their language. He preached in English while another person interpreted in Russian language. His message was on why we have redundant people in the house of God. He said that those who are redundant in the house of God should be rendered more redundant. The message touched his interpreter so much that the  man broke down and could not interpret any more. Then suddenly the Spirit of the living God fell upon my friend and for half an hour, he preached in Russian language and there was not a single sinner at that meeting who did not give his life to Jesus. Immediately the half an hour was over, he did not know what he was saying again. He just saw that sinners were coming out to give their lives to Christ. That is what the Holy Spirit could do in one’s life.

Beloved, we need to pray that the fire of the Holy Spirit should fall upon us by praying the following prayer points aggressively.

 

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.      Anything hindering the move of the Holy Spirit in my life, release me now, in the name of Jesus.

2.      Holy Ghost fire, move freely in my life, in the name of Jesus.

3.      Let the Holy Ghost fire purge my life, in the name of Jesus.

4.      Anything quenching the fire of God in my life, die by fire, in the name of Jesus.

5.      Let the fire of the Lord consume every darkness in my life, in Jesus' name.

6.      O Lord, make my life invisible to demonic observers, in the name of Jesus.

7.      I cancel every evil vow that is affecting my life negatively, in the name of Jesus.

 

 

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The Ultimate evil desire

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Wonderful God, we thank you for this message. We give you all the glory and all the honour, in Jesus’ name. Father Lord, minister to us through this message. Open our eyes in a new way. Thank you heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

  Our message this week concerns everyone. No matter how long we stay here on earth, there is a place we are going to stay longer. No matter the enjoyment we have here, there is a place of eternal enjoyment, where all the parties in the world and everything they have as pleasure cannot match. There is a better country, whose foundation was not made with hands. No matter what you accumulate here on earth, one day, it would end. Even if it were a human being, one day, the person would die. Everything in this world has an end. Every man has a compulsory appointment with the Almighty. That is why all the children of God who are serious about their spiritual lives should be interested in knowing the survival strategies of the last days because already the word of David is coming to pass. It says, “How are the mighty falling and the weapons of war perish.” A lot of mighty men and women of God are falling. Some have sold off the good things the Lord deposited into their lives in the lap of male and female Delilahs. A lot of churches have become cemeteries and the pastors are busy pouring water on dead bones every Sunday. It is very sad. The Lord showed me a vision in which I saw somebody preaching in the market place. But the interesting thing about the man preaching was that he was standing on the Bible, he was not reading it. He was standing on top of the Bible chanting incantations and people gathered and were listening to him. And the Lord said to me, “Son, this shall be more rampant in the last days. “The Lord showed a friend of mine the vision of hell fire and told him to go and warn His people not to come there because it is not meant for them. Any believer who goes there is trespassing.

   Luke 22: 31 says, “And the Lord said, Simon, behold, satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” That is an example of evil desire, evil expectation, evil programme, evil prayer, evil plan and evil imagination. It means that the devil sat down, did his arithmetic and concluded that he must have Peter that he may sift him as wheat but the Lord had prayed for him. As far as the faith of Peter did not fail, there was no problem. The Lord went on to tell him that when he was converted, and had fully learned his lessons, he should strengthen his brethren. When you consider the process of sifting wheat, you would understand what the enemy wanted  to do with Peter’s life. He wanted to trample upon Peter and make his life useless and demote his destiny. That was an evil desire.

  The ultimate desire of the devil is to display Christians as trophies in hell fire. A certain woman said to her pastor on her deathbed, “Man of God, you have often spoken to me about Christ but you did not tell me enough about the implications of disobeying His commandments." But it was too late. A lot of people will blame their pastors for not telling them more about the eternal danger and about the fact that there is hell fire. Although the subject is not popular at all and is very unpleasant, it is more necessary than any other subject in the Bible. We need to always remind ourselves of the fact that hell fire is real. Some people treat any message that tells them about the end as a joke. But the Bible says that a day is coming when we shall all stand before God and give account of how we lived our lives.

  The gates of hell are different from other gates. Most gates are used to keep people out of a place but the gates of hell are used to keep people in. It is unfortunate that most people think that all there is to life is to just come, work, marry, have certificates, acquire property, die, and go. No. Matthew 7: 13 – 14:“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction. And many there be which go in thereat. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” This shows that many people are far away from meeting the requirement of the Almighty. No wonder He says few there be that find it. But many are those who are travelling the wide way. When the Bible says that something is few, the percentage can be amazing. It is like what you see in the land of Egypt. 600,000 men walked out and only two were saved. Millions of people died during the flood of Noah and only few were saved. Even some animals got salvation where human beings failed to get. So, as a matter of fact, many church goers have to do a lot more than they are doing now if they would make heaven. Some people lose their blessings immediately the service closes. They get upset and begin to yell at people around them. Such people are not going to heaven. Many Christians are into fraudulent businesses and they look for pastors to give their tithes and to pray for them. The Bible says, “Few there be that find it.”

   About ten years ago, a sister came to me and said, “God has done a miracle in my life.” I asked her what it was all about and she said, “I have a visa and I am travelling abroad tonight. “I thanked God for her life and asked her what she wanted me to do. She said, “Pray for me and bless me before I go. I need your prayer sir.” I closed my eyes and I heard the voice of the Holy Spirit saying, “Ask her to show you her passport.” And I said, “Sister, can I look at your passport?” It took her a long time to bring it out. When she brought it out, she said, “I will tell you the truth because you are a man of God. This passport does not belong to me. It was posted to me from abroad because the owner resembles me a little bit. So I want to use it to travel.” I said, “Ah! You came to the wrong prophet. I am not going to pray for you. This is unrighteousness and God cannot bless a lie.” I told her that when a lie looks a blessing it is a design of the devil to destroy. “So you won’t pray for me?” she asked. I said no ma. Send this passport back to the owner.”She explained that she had already booked her flight. I told her to return the ticket to the airline, that she would only lose some money. When she found that she could not persuade me, she started crying saying, “I have been praying for this for a long time. I have been coming to this church and it is through you that God answered the prayer, and now, you are saying that you will not pray for me.” I refused to pray. Then she knelt down, held my legs and was begging. I told her to leave my legs. She took her bag, went out in anger and banged my door. She got to the airport in that rebellion and immediately the immigration officers saw the passport they knew it was not hers. They threatened to arrest her and she pleaded with them to leave her. So she left the place without the passport. It took me a year to know that she did not go, and she was telling people around that I refused to pray for her that was why she could not go. "Few there be that find it." If you received a demonic breakthrough, the breakthrough that is unrighteous, drop it because few there be that find it. Revelation 20: 11 says, “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.” Verse15: “And whosoever was not found written in the Book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Whosoever, means chorister, general overseer, general superintendent, house fellowship leader, Sunday school teacher, etc. It is a terrible thing to end up that way.

  The only qualification for which some people are put in places of position in their churches is because they are the only ones wearing London made suits and hats, and not because they can pray. Meanwhile those under them are witches, attacking them and they would not know because they cannot discern. "Few there be that find it." So many people would have made heaven easily if not for one pastor who gave them church posts. Some pastors would have made heaven if not for the fact that they went somewhere and were ordained pastors. Sometime ago, a certain pastor was waiting to see me and one of the people working with me made a mistake by calling him a brother. He got very upset and spoke harshly to the person. The way some people march around with their university degrees is like they should frame them and hang them on their necks.

  Luke 16: 19 says, “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously everyday.” Wonderful fellow, he lived well, fed well and dressed well. Everything was okay with him. But verse 20 says, “And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores.” Verse 22: “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried.” May be the corpse of Lazarus was dumped in a bush but  the Bible says that the rich man was buried. There was a proper burial ceremony with outing service and everything for him. Verses 23 – 24: “And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham a far off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” (In hell fire, people‘s memory will not fail them. They would remember all that happened before they died.) And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house. For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they come into this place of torment.” That is the touching part of the story. We can see that He was a good man. He had sympathy. He loved his brothers and did not want them to suffer what he was already suffering, but it was too late. These passages should be of serious concern to any serious Christian.

  Trophies are very rare things which people are proud of receiving. Recipients talk about them and show them off to people. But winning a trophy requires time, talent, energy and money sometimes. One occult woman, in her confession said that she was asked to bring down a man of God and for 23 years she was after him. Eventually, she got him. The powers of darkness did not mind to spend 23 years pursuing a person because they wanted to use him as a trophy in hell fire, and they succeeded. Just like hunters and fishermen, who study the habits of animals and fishes, satan studies each child of God. He knows who will explode when there is fire. He knows those who pray only when they have a bad dream or there is a problem. He also knows those who observe useless quiet time. He knows those who do not read the Bible and those who are living in sin and are trying to bribe God with deliverance. So, the devil tries to get the children of God to a place where he can work in their lives.

 

WHY DID THE DEVIL WANT PETER?

 

   He wanted Peter because he was a trophy. Peter had become rare and special. Peter had a special calling. He had been promoted from an ordinary fisherman to a fisher of men and apostle of Jesus. The devil wanted to show off with Peter but he never got Peter. Every serious child of God is a trophy that satan is after. Cain became a trophy of hell when he killed Abel. There are many trophies from Sodom and Gomorrah in hell fire today. They parade them and say, “This was the one that married the daughter of that man called Lot. This was the one that wanted to rape an angel, etc - trophies in hell fire. Lot’s wife became a trophy of hell when she looked back. Judas became a trophy of hell because of the desire for money and power. Demas, the brother who loved the present world more than Jesus became a trophy of hell. God is going to have a trophy case to display in heaven. Will you become the trophy of Jesus or the trophy of hell? God’s trophies would hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Your name is in the Lamb’s Book of life, enter into the joy of your master.”

  So, we disregard our destiny when we behave as if there is no hell. When you commit sin and something says, “Just one more time, after this one, repent,” and you go ahead to do it, you are behaving as if there is no hell fire and you are disregarding your destiny. These days, you find pastors beating up their wives, and we have reverend doctor Mrs. witches all over the place. We even have people now who are committing scientific fornication. What is scientific fornication? The white man has now manufactured artificial male and female organs which people can buy and convert to their husbands or wives. That is scientific fornication.

  We disregard our soul’s destiny when we are reckless with the way we use our time. We disregard our soul’s destiny when we abandon fellowship, or refuse to do all that God commands us to do. We disregard our soul’s destiny when we refuse to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. We disregard our soul’s destiny when we go about with modern-day concept of hell fire. The modern-day man says there is no hell. When  he gets there he will know. The modern -day man may say, “Well, it is only bad people who go there.” The rich man in the passage we read was a good person but he got there. The modern-day man says that hell is on earth here. If you are enjoying yourself, you are in heaven, if you are not enjoying yourself, it means that you are in hell. The modern- day man would tell you to ignore everything about hell fire and just live your life the way you see it now.

   A certain scientist who specializes in internal medicine and is well known for resuscitating dead organs did not believe in the Bible at all. One day, he saw something in his clinic that changed his mind. He had a patient who had a heart problem. Anytime the patient regained his heart beat, he would scream, “I am in hell. Doctor, please help me to get out.” He was always terrified anytime the patient started to scream because when he looked at the patient, he found genuine fear on his face as he begged him for help. So for the first time the doctor started reading his Bible and believed that indeed there is a place called hell.

  Korah, Dathan and Abiram entered into hell fire live. The earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up. So, inside the earth, where the Bible says that hell fire is, there are millions of lost souls under torment, burning, weeping and wailing without any hope whatsoever. Jesus said in Mark 9:46, “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” Recently, some scientists discovered that at the bottom of the ocean, there was fire leaking out. And when they got to the area where the fire was leaking out, they found some long fire worms. The Bible talks about these worms which would be going in and out of the nose, mouth, and ears of people in hell fire. God has not left us without a witness. Recently also, there was an article in a newspaper abroad entitled, “They dig into hell.” Some scientists who did not believe in heaven and in hell were drilling a hole into the ground and when their instrument got to a particular length, they noticed that the temperature went up. They found that the instrument was moving up and down, and they were hearing noises. They thought the instruments were bad and adjusted them. After the adjustment, the screaming continued. And according to them, it was not a sound from a single human being but screams of millions of people. In fact, they recorded the noise. Screams of millions of human beings wasting away in hell fire.

  Would you be a trophy in hell fire or would you be a trophy of the Almighty God? Hell is a place of unquenchable fire, a place of memory, a place of regret, a place of separation, a place of undiluted divine anger, and a place that was originally prepared for satan and his own hosts. You have no business going there and really you should not plan to go there. But all sinners without exception are planning to go there. As far as Bible is concerned, every sinner will end up in hell fire. It would be a very sad testimony if a Christian lands in hell fire with the witches he was binding and casting out. It is terrible because every single moment throughout eternity, every inch of the person’s body will be in pain. It would be like pouring boiling oil on the skin of somebody continuously. The person will not be able to bear the pain. His throat will become dry with screaming and as he opens his mouth, worms of fire would be going in and out. He would be crying for water, but there would  be none, and without any warning, the person would see that he keeps dropping, coughing, and gasping and the tongue would become like red hot iron and the roof of the mouth will be patched with heat. It is then that everything the person heard in church will torment him the more.

  Beloved, examine your life. If there is any sin there, no matter how little, it will take you the place of torment. You must not go there. You are not supposed to be there.

 

 

 

 

HOW DO WE PREVENT OURSELVES

FROM GOING TO HELL FIRE?

1. Romans 12.1:“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Your first medicine against hell fire is to become a living sacrifice. Although you are alive, you are dead in Jesus. You die daily like Paul. Once you are dead to the flesh, you don’t know whether people are gossiping about you. You cannot be bothered whether you are being insulted or not.

2. Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” The second medicine is: Do not like the world and its evil system. James 4:4 also says, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” Friendship with the world, the Bible says, is enmity with God. If any man loves the world, he has only one sickness, the love of the Father is not in him. If you love the world, when the world perishes, you will go with it.

3. The third medicine is humility. Be humble. Romans 12:3 says, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

4. Romans 12:4-8:  “For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office. So, we, being many, are one body in Christ and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation; he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence, he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.” Medicine number four is play your part in the house of God. Don’t be a bench warmer in the church. Make sure there is something you are doing for God.

5. Romans 12:9 says, “Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.” Medicine number five is love people without hypocrisy.

6. Medicine number six can also be found in verse 9 which says, “Abhor that which is evil.” Hate whatever is evil with perfect hatred.

7. Romans 12:11 says, “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.” Be fervent in the spirit.

8. Be broken. Every area of unbrokenness in your life will only give the enemies space to work.

  If a person is a candidate for hell, useless and vain things will take his time. So the item that takes most of your time indicates where your heart is and shows where you are going. The candidates for hell waste most of their time.

  The ultimate desire of the devil is to display Christians as trophies. If you are reading this message and you are not yet born again, it means that you have not started at all. If you don’t want to go to hell fire, you must become born again. If you have decided to give your life to Christ, make the following confession: “Lord Jesus, I come before you and I confess that I am a sinner. I repent of all my sins and ask that you forgive me. Cleanse me O Lord with your blood. I surrender my life unto you. Take absolute control of my life. Thank you Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

PRAYER POINTS

1. I refuse to be a trophy in hell fire, in Jesus’ name.

1. Every rag-wearing spirit, lose your hold upon my life, in the name of Jesus.

2. (Place your hand on your head which is the symbol of our destiny and pray like this: Every enemy of my destiny, I command the earth to rise up against you, in the name of Jesus.

3. All my pictures present in the demonic world, be roasted, in the name of Jesus.

4. I claim instant miracle today, in the name of Jesus.

5. Every satanic desire upon my life, be frustrated, in the name of Jesus.

6. O Lord, just as you prayed for Peter and Peter did not fall, pray for me, in the name of Jesus.

7. Backsliding shall not be my lot, in the name of Jesus.

8. I don’t want to be a trophy in hell fire, I want to be a trophy to Jesus, in Jesus’ name.

 

 

 

 

Poverty must die

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

This week, we are considering a message entitled, “Poverty must die.” The Bible says that you can pursue and overtake your enemies and recover what they have stolen from you. It is a standing order in the word of God. The Bible being a very straightforward book, gives you the two sides of the coin. It also tells us that curses can pursue a person and overtake the person. The same Bible also makes us to understand that blessings can pursue a person and overtake the person. I must point out to you that the spirit of poverty is a very stubborn spirit and it has to be dealt with, with full force by the hammer of the Almighty. Deuteronomy 28: 2 says, “And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.” So, blessings can also pursue and overtake a person. Psalm 23: 6 says, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life...” When you combine Deuteronomy 28:2 and Psalm 23: 6, you get an amazing information. We have always been taught that we should pursue blessings, pursue money, be very aggressive and work ourselves to the bones. Then when we get the money, we hoard it. But now the Bible is saying something completely different. It is saying that those things that you are busy worrying your brain about can pursue and overtake you. Remember that God knows no barrier or impossibility.

   Most of the wealth in the world is in the wrong hands. Why are they in the wrong hands? We, Christians allowed it. Many of the things that are happening are so because Christians allow them. When we stand as a church of God and say that we disallow a particular thing, it would not happen. Our word cannot be challenged because it is by eternal decree. We are sons of the living God by adoption. We were not voted into it, so nobody can vote us out.     

   Men love the supernatural and they like to see the miraculous. It is because of that you always find people crowding around street magicians putting big snakes round their necks. The Bible says that signs and wonders shall follow believers. It did not say we should be following the signs. Miracles can pursue and overtake you that is the truth. Beloved, I have a word for you from the Lord as you are reading this message: God says that He has just started His work in your life and He has not finished yet.

    At the end of the day, the only true fire and power is God. People may say all kinds of things but the only person who has the final say is not the doctor, or the banker, or the lawyer, or the judge. It is not the president, but the Almighty God. And when God says to your enemy, “Let go,” they have no option but to let go. God can overturn the tables any day. May be you are looking at your situation now and every way seems to be blocked and you come to a conclusion that there is no way. I have news for you.  When you get to that level, it is then that God has just started to warm up.

   Another truth you must know is that no one can cheat a Christian and go scot-free. If they take your one kobo, the Almighty will use it to claim one million for you. Haman was pursuing Mordecai but the wife of Haman told Haman the blunt truth. Esther 6:13 says, “And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, if Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fail, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him.” That is the stance of the Bible concerning the children of God. It is a known fact today that many believers are financially poor, and that is part of the reason the gospel is sometimes very slow. God does not want the situation to be so.  Meaning that Christians are not supposed to be poor. All Christians must at least be comfortable. You may ask where that can be found in the Bible. Psalm 34:10 says, “The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” Psalm 37:19 says, “They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.” That is what the Bible says and verse 25 says, “I have been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” This is why we are saying that poverty must die.

 

WHY MUST POVERTY DIE?

1. Because the Bible says that poverty is not good. Proverbs 10: 15 says, “The rich man’s wealth is his strong city, the destruction of the poor is their poverty.” So, the poverty of the poor man can kill him. Proverbs 20:13 says, “Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty, open thine eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.” These are important scriptures.

2. Poverty will make people run away from a believer. When a man of God has visited somebody at home and he has prayed and he has said the grace, the next thing for him to do is to carry his Bible and go. If after the grace, he still sits down, it means that he is looking for something. And if he is going to be begging for money everyday, he would make people to avoid him.

3. Poverty will make people to look down on our God.

4. Poverty is not one of the promises of God for His people. This must be clear to us. Some people turn the Bible upside down. The Bible says that it is harder for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God than for the camel to enter the eye of a needle. Now, when you look into the eye of a needle, and try to imagine a camel passing through it, you may begin to conclude that all rich people would go to hell fire. But it is not so. The eye of the needle in that illustration is the name given to a small hole in the wall of Jerusalem where visitors who came late at night passed their luggage, after the big gate had been closed.  The camels had to crawl through the hole to the other side. If it were the kind of visitor that the people did not want, they would say, “Sorry, you can’t pass through the eye of the needle. Sleep outside the gate. But people turn it the other way round. A person can be very poor and be very greedy and a person can be rich and be greedy too.

5. Poverty will make doing the will of God difficult for many people. Any time Jesus wanted food, He got it.  If He was fasting, then He was fasting.

6. Poverty, most times, delays the growth of a believer when the person cannot even buy Christian books and materials to help himself.

7. Poverty hinders evangelism. A lot of people cry day and night wishing they could contribute to the work of God but they cannot because they do not have the money. Beloved, I want you to take this message seriously because as you read and meditate on it, wealth would be released to you even without you doing anything or your money could become too hot for anybody sitting on it and the person would have no choice but to release it, in the name of Jesus.

8. Sometime ago, I was trying to settle a quarrel between a couple. They both said their own sides of the case and at the end of the day, I came to a conclusion that the problem was poverty. How could Madam tell her husband not to touch her sugar. She used to count the cubes of sugar left in the box and one day she got there, and found out that three cubes were missing, and her husband was drinking tea. She rushed at the tea to fish out the cubes of sugar. How can that kind of family have a family altar? 

9. Poverty opens room for sicknesses and diseases. A lot of sicknesses and diseases would have been prevented if poverty was not in place. When God blesses you and you build your own house or have your own apartment and have your toilet the way you want it, then you don’t have to share toilet seats with twenty- five tenants that could give you all kinds of infection.

10. Poverty can be a source of serious temptation. There was a certain girl who came from a very poor family where she was given ten naira to take to school. One day, she found a man in a big Mercedes Benz car who gave her five thousand naira. She was shocked and could not believe it.  But the man thinking that the money was not enough offered to give her more (temptation). Beloved, by now, I am sure you must agree with me that poverty must die.

  To every blessing of God, there are conditions:

a. For healing you need faith.

b. For salvation you need to repent.

c. For protection you need obedience

d. For good and long days, you need a good tongue.

e. To be anointed, you need a clean vessel.

 Until you fulfill the conditions for prosperity, you would continually be plagued with poverty. Poverty has many agents, which are as follows: devourers, little foxes, cankerworms, sicknesses, death, etc.

  The Bible indeed, says we should be rich but at the same time, the Bible is against flamboyant living. In fact, that kind of life has destroyed so many Christians. Sometime ago, a certain woman died and by the time she died, she had three thousand two hundred dresses in her wardrobe and three hundred pairs of shoes. Normally, I don’t attend burial ceremonies, but I wanted to know the number of dresses would be worn on her corpse. I found out that only one was used and it was not even the best one they used because some people already had their eyes on them. The Bible is against fashion parades. Many sisters have written me to say, “We thank God for what God is doing in this fellowship. For the first time in my life, I wear what I have to church. In my former church, I used to have headache before I can come up with what to wear to church on Sundays because it was always a fashion parade. The Bible is against us competing with money. The Bible is against a do or die attitude towards money. It is also against public display of wealth or showing off of money. But the Bible says that you must be comfortable as a believer. If the reason you are doing your fasting is because there is no food in the house, then you are on hunger strike.

         

FIVE REASONS MANY CHRISTIANS ARE POOR:

1. God will not give you what will kill you. It is like a small boy watching his daddy shaving and he says, “Daddy, give me the blade, give me the blade.” No matter how he loves the child, he will not give him the blade. So your spiritual level and your level of brokenness may be too low for God to entrust wealth to you. That is why the Bible says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all other things shall be added unto you.” They are automatic addition. Here comes the first question to you in this message. “Can you confirm in your spirit that the kingdom is in you? Are you a broken Christian? That is the first poverty destroying weapon

   God may be looking at you and He is saying, “If I give this my child fifty million naira, will he not backslide?” If God sees that anger, greed, dishonesty, lying, are still in your life, He will not give you His prosperity. Get the kingdom first; submit the whole of your life to God and then you will never be forsaken.  The Bible says that God never forsakes the righteous but you have to be righteous to have that privilege. There are many people now who are very serious with the Lord because they are poor.  But when money comes, they would become irregular. God can see. Many are praying, “O Lord, promote my husband,” and God is saying, “When I have not promoted the man, he is running after strange women, when he is promoted, he will now build castles for them and abandon you completely.  Why don’t you let us get him saved first?”

   There are people who were working and praying hard when they did not have a fan in their house and at night mosquitoes came and by the time they slapped themselves thrice, they would stand up to pray. But now they got the fan and split air conditioner, they over sleep. God does not want that. Many forget the household of God immediately they obtain contracts.  They would not be seen again in the church until the money is gone. Before then when you call a prayer point like: “Let every contract be released now, in the name of Jesus, they would pray and shake their heads.  But when they get it, the next place you would see them is the VIP lounge at the airport with very starched clothes, sitting down and eating meat pie and drinking tea as early as 6.30 am. But when they were looking for it, it was dry fast everyday.

  Many who used to come early to church when they had no cars now come late to church in spite of the fact that God has blessed them with cars and drivers.  And when you ask them why they come late to church, they would say, “That foolish driver did not wake up on time to bring me to church.” But when there was no car and driver, they got to church before everybody, swept the floor, joined the prayer warriors, and then settled down before service. God sees all these.

 Some people were praying very well when they had no job. But now that they have a job, they forget their spiritual duties because of over- time. Some prayed and fasted to get a job and by 5.00 am., they have arrived at the office. But when it is service days, you see them strolling in one hour late. God normally allows that which keeps a man from Him to be withdrawn so that He can get his attention. God has had to withdraw cars, houses and comfort from people in order to save their souls. So, check your life today.  Are you broken to the level where God can commit the riches of the Gentiles into your hands? Do you have clean hands, a kind of hand that God will place this sort of riches on? This is the first headache of the Almighty when it comes to prosperity.

2. Proverbs 11: 24 says, “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat. And he that watereth shall be watered also himself.” And Luke 6: 38 says, “Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, and shaken together and running over, shall men give into your bosom.” This is an area where the devil has blinded the eyes of many believers. Many pray that they want prosperity, but how is the prosperity going to come when they have sown no seed. It is like a student praying to pass his examination when he has read nothing. It is like a woman praying to get pregnant without a husband or without a man. You must sow a seed. It is that seed that the Lord will multiply for you. Someone who wants prosperity should do more than tithing. Some people have been writing me letters asking: “What should we tithe? Is it the gross pay or the net pay?” It is better for you to over pay than to under pay. If God is asking you for a tithe and you say, “O God, take 20 per cent or 15 per cent, it is better for you to owe me than for me to owe you.” You must not treat God as a beggar.  You treat God as a beggar when you give Him the extra that you don’t need. If you cannot be generous with the Almighty when things are hard for you, you would not be able to give when there is abundance. Sowing in the time of famine attracts abundant blessings and prosperity. Remember the story of the woman in Mark chapter 12, who just threw in some coins and God said, “This one has contributed more money than every other person.” So, if you find it hard to give a tenth unto God, of the money that belongs to you, you are inviting poverty. If you completely forget to pay your tithe and your offerings, you are inviting poverty. If you feel or believe that the tithe and offerings you give are too much, you are inviting poverty. If God gives you 20,000 naira and you find it difficult to pay 2,000 as tithe, you are writing to poverty. Wise believers double the tithe. Also, they sow a big seed and challenge the Lord. Giving to God is sacrifice. You have not started giving to God until you feel the pinch. Many are so tight-fisted when it comes to financing God’s work. Tithe borrowers are looking for trouble too. It is foolish to borrow your tithe because the repercussion can be grievous and it is also an insult to God. God can allow an ordinary boil to swallow N20,000.00. He can allow a single problem to take away the money you refuse to give to Him. The principle of giving will enable you to experience many financial miracles. Fear and unbelief will keep a lot of people in poverty. Many give sparingly but the Bible wants you to give and it tells you how to give. We must know that the money that the Lord needs to finish His work has been in the world before you were born. God will not force you to part with your money. But when you do it willingly, He will open the door of your life to blessings and many other good things will begin to happen. You must give sacrificially, that is, you give as much as you can until it pinches because your offering is measured by what you have left and not what you give. You should give according to your income. Not that you get a big income and you give a small offering. You should give cheerfully. You should give systematically. You should give at any opportunity you have to give without grumbling or complaining. You don’t give under compulsion.  The Bible says, “Do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.” You should not be the kind of Christian who wants a gift from God but you don’t want to give to Him. You should give regularly. And the Bible says that you should give without display or open show. So, if you have not been giving that way or you have been giving only when the man of God says, “I want twenty people to give one million naira each,” then you march forward and people clap for you. That has no blessing. Wrong giving is the second reason. That is why we say, ‘change your offering and change your destiny.’

3. Psalm 78:41 says, “Yea they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy one of Israel.” The third reason is that many of us limit God. Many limit God by the way they talk and act. Many do not believe that God can do something outside their normal salary or income. So, anytime they pray, they focus their attention on what appears to be obvious. They are not on the look out for the miraculous or supernatural. They limit God completely. That is why sometimes when you ask some people, “How are you?” They would answer “rough.” Negative and inferior thinking invites poverty. You should not limit God. The Bible says that with God, nothing shall be impossible. It is only in our dictionary we find the word impossible or difficult.

4. Staying in the wrong business and wrong profession. In Luke chapter 5, we see the example of Peter. Peter was trying to catch fish when he was destined to fish for men. God will not bless the wrong thing you are doing. Check prayerfully whether you are in the right business. That is the reason I said that if you are a bit confused about what to do, you must pray to God to make His way plain before your face. If you have no business or job, pray and get direction from the Lord on what to do. Forget how prosperous you were before, face realities now and ask the Lord to show you the way.

   The fact that God is your Father is enough to make you find out what He wants you to be doing. If you are doing what God wants you to be doing, you can refer back to Him when there is a problem. You don’t just enter into the university and study anything just for the sake of having a degree. Ask the Lord what to do for God will not prosper what He does not support. Some are spiritually lazy and will not stay before the Lord for a long time to receive from the Lord. When you ask such people to go and pray, they come back the following day to say that they did not receive anything. The fact that God is refusing to talk to you about your own life shows that you need some spiritual adjustment quick, and you must make this adjustment. Once you are in the right thing, you must surely prosper even if it is a very small thing.

   Sometime ago, I was almost shedding tears at Ojuelegba bus stop, Lagos. I parked my Volkswagen bus because I wanted to buy something. As I jumped down, one small boy of about seven came to me and said, “Oga which passengers should I call.” I said, “But I am not running transport.” I asked him what he was doing there and he said, “This is how I feed my daddy and mummy.  A boy of seven running bus conductorship for some hours everyday and whatever he gets, he takes it home for all the members of his family to feed on.

5. Giving place to the enemy. Ephesians 4: 27 says, “Neither give place to the devil.” If a person gives room to the enemy, he would allow poverty to operate. There are spirits of poverty and there are also what we call poverty dreams. Regular dreams of being naked, roaming about the market place, being broke, selling and not getting result, are signs that the spirit of poverty is in operation. You should bind the spirit of poverty. This spirit looks ugly and tattered in the spirit. Sometimes, it appears like an old ragged man with one leg. 

    What I am saying is that, some people have already given place to the spirit of poverty in their lives and it does not matter whether you give them ten million naira to run a business, they will soon finish every kobo and nothing will come in. When the spirit of poverty is in operation, the person will be experiencing unexplainable loss of money. He would not know exactly what he does with his money. The person may be bombarded by hungry and unrepentant relatives. Before he wakes up in the mornings, they are already knocking at his door. He may be facing wastage of materials. For example, his food may be getting spoilt without explanation. Cups and plates would break, the children would lose their bags in the school. Their money would be stolen, etc.  It is the work of the spirit of poverty.

  When a person is always being duped by fraudulent people, constant attack by robbers, attack by fire, uncontrollable birth of children, dismissal from various places of work, loss of materials including clothes are all signs of the operation of the spirit of poverty.  Sometime ago, I was shocked when a man told me that his clothes were stolen while he tried to dry them outside his house. He said it was not few minutes he put the clothes on the line, and went inside.  By the time he came out, the wet clothes were gone. Spirit of poverty. The spirit of poverty has turned managers to servants. It has turned teachers to pupils.

                             WAY OUT

  When you check your life and you find out that the spirit of poverty is in control, then you need to resist it. Think now about your finances. If you have cheated God, ask for forgiveness. Take a positive stand on what you will do in God’s house. If you have things that you have stored up somewhere and you know that you don’t really need them. Sell them off and put the money into God’s work. The last step to take is an aggressive one. It is to pray poverty destroying prayers. You must pray against the spirit of poverty with holy aggression. Some sicknesses are not ordinary. They are just ladders of poverty and you need to break them to pieces.

PRAYER POINTS

1. You heaven that has become brass, break open and bring rain, in the name of Jesus.

2. Every spirit of poverty, I break your control, in the name of Jesus.

3. Lay your hands on your eyes and pray like this: O Lord, anoint my eyes to see the hidden riches of the world, in the name of Jesus.

4. Lay hand on your head and pray this: O Lord, advertise your prosperity in my life, in Jesus’ name.

5. Lay one hand upon the other hand and pray like this: Let the riches of the ungodly be transferred into my hands, in the name of Jesus.

6. O Lord, let divine blessings bombard my life, in the name of Jesus.

7. O Lord, give me dumbfounding breakthroughs, in the name of Jesus.

8. Every curse working against my destiny, be broken, in the name of Jesus.

 

Vagabond Anointing

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

In Genesis 4:12, we see the first example of a vagabond person. It says, "When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shall thou be in the earth." Deuteronomy 21:18 - 21 "If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them. (That is, the person is a vagabond child) Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him and bring him out to the elders of the city and unto the gate of his place. And they shall say unto the elders of the city, this son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice, he is a glutton and a drunkard. And all the men of the street shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shall thou put evil away from among you and all Israel shall hear, and fear."
In Psalms 109:10, we see how serious the vagabond problem is. It is a terrible curse. It says, "Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places." In Acts of the apostles 19: 13- 16, we have an interesting story. It says, "Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of their house naked and wounded." Here, we see vagabond Jews being attacked. That is the reward of the vagabond.
Now let us look at the master vagabond. Job 1: 6-7: "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto satan, Whence comest thou. Then satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it." So, all vagabond anointing is from the master vagabond. 1 Peter 5: 8 also says, "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."
Luke 15:11- 15:  "And he said, A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me and he divided unto him his living." (The younger of the two sons persuading his father to divide the estate between them while he was still alive.) And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. (He went to a far land where he lived a life of immorality and then poverty overtook him.) And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of the country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine." When he had lost everything, famine arose and he, the son of a rich man was reduced to feeding pig. This is the result of the vagabond anointing that was upon his life.

We can pick a few lessons from the experience of the prodigal son.
1. A vagabond is always a sorrowful person. Sin will bring sorrow always and it never fails to find men out. It may not be in a dramatic way but at the end of the day, the sin of a man will find him out.
2. The vagabond spirit causes demotion. The son of a rich man started to feed pigs and for a Jew brought up in a proper Jewish family, no greater humiliation can be directed at him. The job made him ceremonially unclean and brought him shame.
3. A sinner is always in a far country.
4. Vagabond people are always very selfish.


 

WHAT IS ANOINTING?

 

Anointing is a supernatural thing. It is the supernatural equipment that enables you to achieve supernatural results. It is the ability to do things without sweating. God does not have counterfeit materials neither does He give them to people. These are the last days and many evil things are happening. The Bible has a very bad picture for the last days. It says that men’s heart shall fail them for fear, many false Christ and many false prophets shall arise. Many shall be lovers of themselves, lovers of money and haters of good things. The Bible also says that in the last days, the devil will increase his activities. He will release terrible spiritual bullets on the human race. Now we hear that divorce rate has gone up tremendously, boys are taking to drugs and it is now very rare to find somebody who is still a virgin at the age of 20.
The book of Luke says that it will get to a time when the heart of men will fail for fear but we need to be successful in whatever warfare we are fighting no matter how fierce the battle is. The enemy will make some progress because of sin. One of the reasons the enemy has so much control over many lives is because they have found it difficult to forsake their sin. When a person constantly repeats a particular sin, satan will take up his abode in that area of the person’s life. As a family continues to repeat a sin, the devil will use that area to get them. It could be the spirit of worry, fear, sexual sin, laziness, abusive tongue, etc. He will use these sins as his base.
The vagabond spirit is the spirit that makes a person live an irregular life or a wandering life. The person goes from one place to the other with no fixed purpose, an aimless life. A lot of people are operating under the influence of the vagabond spirit. God created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day and God expects us to be able to rest in Him. But those under the vagabond anointing are restless in their spirit. People under vagabond anointing wander from city to city, from job to job, from house to house, from marriage to marriage, etc. They are never able to really settle down.
People under the vagabond anointing are always tormented by the spirit of poverty. When a person is under the vagabond anointing, the spirit of poverty finds it very easy to move in. This will give rise to so many other things which includes restlessness, confusion, financial bondage, depression, loneliness, hopelessness, suicidal thoughts, sorrow and grief.
The vagabond spirit makes people to waste their investments. Nothing they lay their hands on works out. The person may have B.Sc. in Economics, Masters in Philosophy and Ph. D in Accounting, yet nothing prospers. It is this vagabond anointing that is responsible for lack of focus. A lot of people are not focused, that is why the devil is able to do so much havoc. A person that was meant to settle down to sell vegetables is busy looking for an office job. No focus. When the devil knows that you are in a wrong place, he would attack whatever you are doing. One of the greatest mountains that one faces is the mountain of ignorance.
The vagabond anointing is responsible for a person to fish and catch nothing in the sea of life. If this anointing is on somebody, it does not matter how far the person roams, he could travel around the world, he won’t be able to make headway. It is a pity that so many are suffering. When a medical doctor has been reduced to serving food in a bar abroad in order to survive, it is vagabond anointing. When a man with a Ph.D is busy sweeping the floor at the railway station, it is vagabond anointing.
The vagabond anointing is responsible for the lack of direction and aimlessness in so many lives. The devil himself is a vagabond and he likes to distribute that anointing. It is also responsible for what we call double left hands. Many people have double left hands in the spirit and because of that, there is no way they can handle things as well as somebody who has a right hand and a left hand.
The vagabond anointing is responsible for slippery blessings, unstable breakthroughs and confusion. As this year is rolling by, will you say from your heart of heart that you have got all that the Lord wants for you this year? Beloved, if you find that the vagabond spirit is operating in your life, it is not late. If you call upon the Lord, you will be saved. The bad thing about the vagabond anointing is that it generally enters through the invitation of another spirit.
Perhaps as you are reading this message, you find that your mind wanders, you need to pray.
A long time ago, a certain man came to our meeting and was crying. He cried so much after the service that I felt sorry for him. I asked him what was the matter and he said, "This is a very wonderful fellowship. You have good message, good praise worship and good testimonies but you spoilt everything with speaking in tongues. Then I told him that he needed deliverance from the vagabond anointing.
Inability to concentrate especially during prayers and Bible study is a sign that the vagabond anointing is in place. So, if you are the kind of person who would open your Bible to read and before you know it, you sleep off, or as you are reading it, something else is coming to your mind, know that the vagabond anointing is upon you. Remember that small things steal away big things. A little thing could make a person to lose a life-time opportunity.
Impatience attracts vagabond spirits. The vagabond spirit is upon those who are impatient therefore they cannot just wait upon the Lord. They want to go from place to place.
Many people cannot rest. If they were not cooking, they would be washing. To sit down and listen to a sermon is a problem. They always find something to do. Such people run mad easily and people would wonder what happened to them. Some will say, "Well, the Spirit of God says I should keep moving." And usually I would ask them: "into what?" They resign their jobs without praying about it. These are signs that the vagabond spirit is in control.
Some men move from one woman to another, this is also a part of vagabond anointing. Some people marry through journals. They would write to editors saying, "Dear editor, I am looking for a lady, six feet tall, minimum of masters degree, beautiful, very smart. If you find anyone, contact me at this address." It is a sign of vagabond anointing.
Recently, I saw the obituary of a woman in the newspaper. All her six children were fathered by different men. The vagabond anointing was upon her. Some people have gotten to the level of walking in their sleep. As they are sleeping, they walk about. Sometimes they wake up physically, go into the kitchen, take a glass of water, walk back to their beds and continue sleeping without knowing Sometimes, some people see themselves travelling about with no destination in their dreams. They just jump into their beds and start travelling. They do not know when the journey would end. These are all signs of the vagabond anointing. If you are always dreaming of climbing staircases but never get to the end of these staircases, it is the work of vagabond anointing upon your life.
Immediately, some people collect their salary, they would see themselves distributing money in the next dream they would have. And that would be the end of the physical money they have collected. They would rush into any business that they hear about. They would have no direction. I am unhappy to tell you that the vagabond spirit has totally enveloped a lot of Nigerians and we need to pray.


 

 

PRAYER POINTS
1. I dismantle every stronghold of vagabond anointing in my life, in the name of Jesus.

2. I break every vagabond anointing upon my life, in the name of Jesus
3. My Father, rearrangement my life to suit your purpose, in the name of Jesus.
4. O Lord, let your kingdom be established in every department of my life, in the name of Jesus.
5. I command frustration on every evil agent assigned against my breakthrough, in the name of Jesus.
6. None of my breakthroughs shall disappear this year, in the name of Jesus.
7. I refuse to be wasted, in the name of Jesus.

 

 

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The river of power

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

This week, we are considering a topic entitled, “The River of power.”  Our first working text is from the book of Ezekiel 47: 1 – 6: “Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar. Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward; and behold, there ran out waters on the right side. And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits. And he brought me through the waters. The waters were to the ankles. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins. Afterward he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river.”

 

What a wonderful scripture! Ezekiel’s movement from the dry land into the waters of the glorious river symbolizes movement from our old ways of life into a new one controlled by the Holy Spirit. The contact with the Holy Spirit is always a wonderful experience no matter how brief. It should be noted how the angel of God measured a thousand cubits of water in four different occasions. This could be likened to the four classes of relationships believers generally maintain with the Holy Spirit. As you read, you would discover where you belong. 

1.     We have the ankle-deep believers. Unfortunately, this is the group where many Christians belong. People in this class make no further effort to increase their relationships with the Holy Spirit beyond this level. But just as it is impossible to be serious in a river that is ankle deep, it is impossible too to have a meaningful relationship with God if one stops at this stage. Being baptized with the Holy Spirit is just the starting point in a meaningful Christian race. The plan of God is for Christians to have the maximum of everything. Not going beyond this stage can only make a believer to get just the minimum.

 

2.     We have the knee-deep Christians. These are people who, after having received the Holy Spirit baptism, take an additional step forward in their Christian race. This could be just a slight improvement in their Bible reading or receiving the favour of the gift of prophecy.

 

3.     The loins-deep believers. These are those who in one way or the other have started to take the Holy Spirit as their partner. They discuss and have a personal relationship with Him; but because the water has not reached their heart region, the Holy Spirit is treated with levity at times, depending on the situation they find themselves. God does not expect us to stop at this stage where the control of the Holy Spirit over us is not total.

 

4.     The over-flowing group. This is where the Almighty wants us to be. Jesus says, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this he spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified. ” (John 7: 37 – 39).

 

The flowing river is the river of life and power of the Holy Spirit. Beloved, we need more than any other thing, the power and the Spirit of the living God to fill our lives.  Genesis 1: 1-3: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And  the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light: and there was light.”

 

Right from the beginning, man has been plagued with three distinct problems and up till now, man continues to face these problems. What are they?

1.     Many lives have no form: A life without a form is always characterized by confusion and lack of direction. The person finds it difficult to know where he or she is going. People in this category would be unable to pursue their God-ordained programmes. Satan rejoices over such lives for he knows that something good has been truncated. A dead person cannot pursue the programmes of his life. This is one main reason the enemy is turning people mad. Herod wanted to kill Jesus because he did not want Him to fulfill the programme of His life. If a person’s life lacks direction, then the enemies are at work, and only the inflow of the river can stop the evil tide.

 

2.     Many lives are empty: The second problem that the earth had was that it was void and desolate. Emptiers have dealt with many lives. Nothing good has ever been allowed to stay in such lives. If your life has been like this, you need to open up yourself for the river of power to come upon you.

 

3.     Many people live in darkness: The third problem of the earth which man has equally been suffering from is darkness. Darkness releases blindness upon souls and prevents them from seeing the handiwork of the enemy.

 

There was a certain brother who was a millionaire. But all of a sudden, his business collapsed and he became so poor that he started moving about in motorbikes whereas he had sixteen cars. The powers of darkness ensured that he did not do the right thing. They pushed him into visiting herbalists in search of solution to his problem. He never found solution until he turned to Jesus.

 

Going from one place to the other shows that a person is in darkness. If you discover that your life is characterized by aimlessness, there is a need for you to experience this power flow into your life. This is why the Bible calls the Holy Spirit wind. When the wind of the Holy Spirit flows into you, no power can trap it. It is possible to cage demonic powers and tell them to stay at a particular place and get tormented there. But the power of the Holy Spirit cannot be so treated.

 

When the wind of the Holy Ghost begins to blow into your life, you will become unchallengeable and all the stubborn trees of problem in your life will be blown down by the powers therein. That is why the Bible also calls the Holy Spirit water. Water revives, satisfies, refreshes, maintains and purifies. It also causes growth. In the same vein, the Holy Spirit does all these to you. The Holy Spirit is also described as oil because it is the source of energy. When two surfaces do not work together and you apply oil on them, it lubricates them and allows free movement. The Holy Spirit removes all frictions in our lives too.

These are the end times when the powers of the antichrist will manifest more than ever before therefore, you cannot afford to be a spiritual sluggard. You need the in-flow of fire and power upon your life to be able to withstand the wiles of the devil.

 

When the river of power flows into you, certain things will become afraid of you. The reason many of us are not really filled the way we should is because we have refused to submit ourselves completely to the Almighty. James 4: 7 says, “Submit yourselves  therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Without total submission to God, there would be no power for resistance. Once you begin to do that, the devil will start hiding from you because he will immediately recognise the power in you. The kind of tongues you speak probably carries no fire and that accounts for why demons are still able to press you down in your dreams and feed you with demonic meals. Your finances have probably been in shambles because of lack of power. You need the inflow of this river to move to higher mountains.

 

Beloved, the children of darkness are improving on their weapons everyday. They are doing even more research on destruction. It is not strange because the Bible has warned us that evil men shall wax stronger and stronger and that iniquity shall abound. If the children of darkness could be this serious in their quest to destroy, we as children of the Most High need to be more serious. We need to acquire the infilling of the Holy Spirit power to suppress these lesser powers as commanded in Ephesians 5: 18, which says, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit.” This is a command and not an advice. The word ‘filled’ here means, ‘be completely controlled by the Spirit.’ Be equipped with this power.

 

A certain man was a drunk before he got born again. After his conversion, he stopped drinking. However, one day as he was going to church he passed by the bar where he used to drink before his new birth. The smell of the drinks got into his nostrils and immediately, something in him began to agitate for the drink. He was almost going to yield but in that split second, he saw another shop where they sold soft drinks so he dashed in there and ordered for six bottles of soft drinks. He gulped the first five bottles in quick succession and his stomach was full. Even if he still wanted the alcohol, there would have been no room for it. It is the same thing if you get filled with God. The devil would have no room to operate. If you refuse the power of the Holy Spirit, the devil will come in and become the landlord of your life.

 

Victory comes when you allow the Holy Spirit to take full possession of your life. When He is in charge of the vehicle of your life, you need not be afraid even when the vehicle is giving some funny sound. Be filled with the Spirit. Give Him your all. If you have been playing games with the enemy, it is high time you packed away the cards and turned to the Holy Spirit fully. If you stay long in the camp of the enemy he will destroy you. The best thing is not to go there at all and be drunk with the power of God that cannot be insulted. Allow Him to dictate everything to you. Let Him dictate the dress you wear, the words you speak, the food you eat, the fellow you marry and all that you do.  When this happens people’s opinion will not matter to you any more for all you would be seeking is how to please Him.

 

Don’t you want your life to experience this much- needed change? Don’t you want to climb that mountain of power? Do you still want your household enemies to destroy your purpose on earth? It is high time you cried unto God and get filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.  Let the river of power flow into your life and you will never be the same again. Remember the Bible says that when you are in Christ, all things will become new. Get filled with this power and victory will be yours, in Jesus’ name.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.     Oh Lord, touch me and anoint me to do extra for You, in Jesus’ name.

2.     (Lay your hand on your chest and pray like this:) Every dominion contrary to the will of God, be uprooted, in the name of Jesus.

3.     Oh Lord, let Your peace and glory be established in every area of my life, in Jesus’ name.

4.     I release myself from every failure before opportunity, in Jesus’ name.

5.     I release myself from anything that will quench the fire of God in my life, in Jesus’ name.

6.     Holy Spirit, fill me afresh, in Jesus’ name.

7.     (Lay your hand on your chest and pray like this:) The power that cannot be insulted by any evil power, fall on me now, in the name of Jesus.

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The Fire and The Altar

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Our message this week gives answers to many questions many people have been asking.  It is called, “The Fire and the Altar.”

  In the book of 2 Chronicles 7, we see the story of a man who was great and wonderful when he was still on fire; a powerful man before he moved from the fire into the smoke. In that chapter as well, we read about the great move of God in his life when he was on fire. That man was Solomon. He built a mighty temple for the Lord and was burning for God so much that in verse 5, we see how his zeal for the Lord was at a high tempo. Let us see what he offered to the Lord on the day he dedicated the temple. 2 Chronicles 7: 5:  “And king Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty and two thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep; so the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.” What a wonderful preparation. People were invited from all over the place for the dedication of the temple, which was one of the greatest architectural designs in history. It was a thing of pride to the Israelites, a building for which 20 cities in Israel were given to pay the debt incurred for its construction.

  2 Chronicles 7:1- 2: “Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house.” Everything was set. The sacrifices were on the altar but something was missing, that was the fire. Immediately, the fire fell, the glory of the Lord followed.

  Beloved, the end of all things, including man’s occupation on earth, is coming. All the activities of man shall soon be brought to a halt. Very soon God will signal the last subject on His timetable. There are so many signs indicating this. There are prophecies in the Bible, which talk about these signs. All Bible prophecies will eventually end at the second coming of Christ. That time, the Lord will stop warning people and those who have stubbornly refused to leave their sins would get married to them forever. These prophecies are quite clear.

   Jesus is coming back. He will come for His own people. He will remove them from this sinking world and later; things begin to happen here. When He came the first time, it was as a lamb to take away the sins of the world.  The world did all kinds of things to Him at that time. But His second coming will be as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. At His first coming, human beings looked at Him and concluded that He was not worthy to be alive. So, they nailed Him to the cross. He is going to come back with that cross-turned upside up, meaning that the cross will become a sword. He is coming back with a sword.

    He came the first time meek and gentle, riding an ass. But now, He is coming as a conqueror, riding a horse. He came at first as a servant in humility but He is coming back as a king in power. He came the first time as a Saviour to die, but He is coming back as a Judge to rule.  A songwriter says, “The Lord is coming and the foundations of the earth shall shake.” He came the first time to wear the crown of thorns but He is coming back to wear His golden crown. When He came the first time, He was beaten with rods but He is coming back to rule the nations with the rods of iron. He came the first time to die on a cruel cross, but He is coming back to reign on a glorious throne. When He came the first time, the Bible says, “His own received Him not,”but at His coming back, every knee shall bow whether willingly or unwillingly. For you and I to be ready to rule with Him, certain things must happen in our lives.  

   An altar is a place designed for sacrifice. When you have an altar, then you must have something called a sacrifice and a priest. But if you have the priest, the altar and the sacrifice, and the last ingredient, which is fire, is missing, then you are going nowhere. What I am saying is that many of us need more fire than we have now if we are to make the rapture. All those who have seen the vision of rapture know that it is a vision that nobody can clean away from your memory. It is not possible to clear it out because it is going to happen. But the sad thing about it is that it would happen as when a thief comes in the night. Many people would not even know that it has happened when it would have been over because there is no fire inside of them.

   If you attend church services, sing in the choir, preach, write tracts, evangelize or prophesy, we thank God for your life. But I want to give you a counsel: The Bible says, “Whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it with all your might,” because a time will come when even those who had worked hard would cry for not working harder because of the glories that are going to be shared. The Bible says that eyes have not seen and ears have not heard what the Lord has prepared for those who love Him. I made up my mind over 20 years ago that I am not going to miss the good thing that the Lord has prepared.

  Beloved, there is a lesson, which you must learn about the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is a teacher but if He talks to you and you keep rejecting Him, He would leave you alone because He is a perfect gentleman. If somebody comes to you and says, “So, upon all the messages you are listening to, you are still doing this,” it means that you have been neglecting the Holy Spirit. You should cry unto the Lord because it is a bad testimony for somebody to say that to you. It is a sign that something is wrong somewhere. If you do not repent on time, the Holy Spirit may stop talking to you. He would be fed up with teaching you if He finds that He keeps repeating the same lesson. He would leave you alone and conclude that you are a dunce. Sometimes, God has to push some people around before they can become wise. Some people complain that they don’t know why things are not working: there is no money, all road seems to be blocked, no husband, no this, no that, but the Lord is saying that these things are very minor if only you can get fire into your life.

  The Holy Spirit is saying you should get fire into your life but you are avoiding that. Instead, you have your lipstick in your bag, waiting to paint your lips in your car after the service. You put your ear-slavery aside during service only to put it on again after service while saying, “They are too rigid in this place, they are preaching false doctrine.”

 

THE ORIGIN OF EAR- PIERCING

  Ear-piercing has a demonic origin. In those days when slaves were being sacrificed, the way to identify the ones marked for sacrifice was to punch holes in their ears. Eventually, one day, some slaves revolted and were not used for sacrifice. Then they decided to be decorating the holes in their ears with jewelry. That was the origin of the earring. Unfortunately, you find believers who are talking about getting to heaven, saying that they want fire and they want God to be talking to them everyday, yet they are buying earrings that are as big as their ears. Later, you hear them complaining that they do not know why spirit husbands, marine spirits, etc are disturbing them.

  So many people have wasted time going to society churches. Some have dressed to kill others. In other churches also, anytime some people remember Sunday service, their hearts would beat faster because they would be thinking of the kind of dress to wear since they would not wear the one they wore the previous Sunday so that people would not say that they are poor.  Meanwhile they know that economically, it is wise for them to just wash that one and iron it. But because they want to please people, they put themselves in bondage.

    After hearing about the uselessness of jewelry and its demonic nature, a certain sister packed all her jewelry to England and sold them, and with the money she bought herself a V-Boot Mercedes Benz Car. She had as much as that while she was busy ridding in a dead car. What an avoidable bondage!  Many people are so ignorant of spiritual things that they cannot discern that certain designs on jewelry are satanic. For example, jewelry that carries the sign of stars.  Some of these stars are witchcraft signs and they are putting them on their ears saying, “I cover it with the blood of Jesus.” It would not work because the blood of Jesus does not ask you to be testing God like raw materials for making bread. This is why the fire is not there.

   Many people are complaining that the Holy Spirit is not talking to them when in fact He is doing so in one way or the other. But the problem is that they refuse to listen.  After sometime He would leave them alone and would not speak any more. I pray that you don’t get to that stage, in Jesus’ name.

    There must be fire on the altar of your life if you are going to be useful to God at all. When men began to worship God in the Bible, they all started to build altars. An altar is a place of slaughter. We have lots of unslaughtered men coming to the house of God and this is a problem.

  A lot of people have hidden sheep and hidden cows in their houses, and we are telling our Samuel that we have killed them. The Lord is saying, “What then is the bleating of the sheep and the oxen I am hearing.” A lot of us have bleating sheep and all kinds of things in our houses entering into the ears of God and we are saying we don’t know why we are having problems instead of us being blessed. The Lord is saying, “I am ready to bless you, after all the earth is mine and the fullness thereof. But what then is the bleating of the sheep that I am hearing? Why don’t you sacrifice them?”

    Some people are quick to complain that there is no love amongst brethren. If you look at it properly, you would find out that they are the ones who do not have love or exhibit it.

  Sometime ago, a certain man was brought to the church. By the time he came, he was defecating in his trousers.  Some brethren gave him a bathe and somebody took him to the hospital and started to give him money, food and other provisions. He got well and added some weight. Then somebody counselled him to look for a job since he was now strong, and he said, “I don’t like wahala (working to make a living). It was wahala that I made before that made me to be sick.”  They suggested some lighter jobs to him but he refused to do anything.  He preferred the free food he was getting. So, those who were giving him money and provisions said, “Since you are not ready to work we cannot continue to assist you.” Before you could say Jesus is Lord, he wrote to the General Overseer to say, “There is no love.”  I wonder what kind of love he is asking for.

  Fire must be on the altar of our lives. All of us must be one great burnt offering for the Lord. Before we can be completely free from the world and its sin and problems, we must go to the altar. Are the enemies pursuing you? You go to the altar and let us see what the enemy would do to a dead man.

  God is looking for active people, for the last day army, those who want to swallow fire and go and vomit it where and when necessary. Not those who come to church everyday and yet have nothing to do in the house of God other than to make reports about people and complain about others.  I always ask when such people are going to report themselves to God.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN

 THE FIRE OF GOD FALLS UPON YOUR LIFE?

  When you get to the altar and the fire of God comes upon your life, your life will be rearranged and reversed. All the worldliness in you will burn away. Then what has value in the face of man will have no value to you at all. A lot of people like to deceive themselves. On their wedding days, they borrow big cars like Mercedes Benz cars to carry them to church. After the wedding, they return the car and the following day, you see them at the bus stop looking for bus or taxi. That is one day of deception. Some people extend deception to every area of their lives.

   Many of us are running away from the altar. We are struggling to escape while God is dragging us there. Many people are struggling to run away from the hand of the Almighty. They hang their legs on stones and dirty grasses because they do not want to go to the altar. All the magazines of the world and dresses of the world, (any dressing that shows your shape in a way that will make people to be running after you, transparent dresses, etc) are not of the Almighty God. When the Muslim woman goes to her mosque, she covers every bit of her hair. It is in the house of God that you find sisters putting handkerchief on their heads. Some do not even bother to cover, they tell you that they forgot. Why? There is no fire. You need to leave everything on the altar of God. If you don’t get there, God cannot make much use of you. But when you get there, you can serve God the way God really wants you to serve Him.

 

WHAT ALTAR ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

   The altar represents death to sin or the cross.  It represents the offering up of your soul. In the Old Testament, where animals were used for sacrifice on the altar, the animals sometimes struggled when they were being dragged to the altar. They could smell the blood of other animals that had been slaughtered so they struggled to retain their own lives.  But they were still forced to the altar.  Likewise, God uses death to kill that which is undesirable in our lives and to kill carnality. You have to go to the altar and allow the knife of the Holy Spirit, which is the word of God to go through your life.

   If the fire of God does not come upon our lives, we would be wasting time. God really cannot use us. Without being on the altar, God cannot begin the process of using you although you may be a good signboard or a wonderful bus conductor. Nice signposts point to a place but the bad thing about signposts is that they don’t leave where they stand. You tell people: “Come to our church, the power of God will touch you,” but you are busy going to one club or the other and dinning with cult members who are not friends of Jesus. Without being on fire, God cannot convert you to a useful vessel. But on the altar, you are completely submitted to God. When the fire comes upon you, you burn for God and you can be a sweet offering unto the Lord.

 

HOW CAN WE KNOW THOSE THAT ARE ON THE ALTAR

1.      They recognise their sinful position.

2.      They run away from sin. They don’t go around playing with sin.

3.      They recognise the vanity of this world.

4.      They have hunger for the word of God and for prayer.

5.      They completely lose touch with worldliness.

6.      They pursue holiness 24 hours everyday.

  I believe strongly that all ministers should be sent for deliverance because sometimes, among ministers, you find the greatest envy, jealousy and fighting. When church workers envy one another, it is a sign that they are not on the altar. When you find a married man playing around with his messenger or tea girl at his place of work, it is a sign that he is not on the altar. A person who says, “My anger is going little by little, I thank God,” is certainly not on the altar. Believers whose body temperature goes up when it comes to the issue of money are not on the altar. Not paying your tithes correctly is a sign that you are not on the altar. There are many people too who want the gift of prophecy for commercial purposes. Such people end up seeing masquerades and spirit husbands instead. It is a sign that they are not on the altar.

  When there is malice in your mind against anybody, it is a sign that you are not on the altar. Gossips, listening to gossips, back-biting or demonic exaggeration are signs that a person is not on the altar. When something did not happen before you and you say, “I saw it, I was there,” it is a sign that you are not on the altar. For some people, silence is the best because the more they open their mouths, the more they get into trouble. There are husbands, wives and children in a family who tell lies. Everybody is lying to one another.

   What are people looking for in this old sinking world? If it is riches, the riches will end here. Is it enjoyment? What some people call enjoyment, is to go to night parties, dance to useless profane music with free and useless women or men, drink beer, give themselves headache and their lives hard work to do and say, “I am enjoying myself,” They do not know that it is the devil who is enjoying them. Is it immorality? How can you allow five minutes of enjoyment to lead you into hell fire. Is it worldly enjoyment? The Bible says, “The pleasure of sin is for a while.” Is it popularity? All popularity loses its relevance immediately you die. And there is no special death.

   God has sentenced the present world unto death, but those who get on fire for Him on His altar will not have a part in the destruction that is coming.  If you doubt the Bible, you will not make heaven. If your mind is filled with filthy thoughts, conversation, magazines, books and plays, if you are selling alcohol, drinking alcohol or moving about with alcoholic friends, you are  going nowhere. People who are just living to have a good time and people who spend their life pursuing earthly possessions are not going anywhere. People who follow false religions are not going anywhere.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF FIRE

  The burning candle is a kind of fire but if there is a serious wind, it cannot stand.  Firewood fire is fire too but when you pour water on it, it dies down. Gas fire is another type of fire and the petrol fire is another fire. The welder’s fire, acetylene one is another fire. The fire of God upon the life of Christians can also be divided into five groups.  Try to locate the group you belong for you to know how to pray. I am not asking whether you went to a Bible college or whether you were an elder in one church or whether you were ordained in America or by the greatest archbishop on the planet.  My question is: “What is the level of the fire of God in your life?” When the fire of the Holy Ghost comes upon you, you loose yourself in God.

  If you are under the ash category, you would be seeing spirit husbands and masquerades pressing you down on the bed and satanic arrows would be working in your life. If you are in the smoke category, things like fornication, adultery, pride and lying will still be playing around in your life and you will find it difficult to give up your worldly friends. That is what happens when you are living in the smoke.  Those who belong to the spark group are hot today and tomorrow they are cold. They would prophesy today and tomorrow they are fighting in the street. Those in the coals of fire group have what it takes but they are just sitting in one place. They have the Holy Spirit, they can do counseling and they know the Bible but they are not doing anything. They just sit down like coals of fire, which cannot move them. People in the flame of fire group are those who are on fire for God and doing exploits for Him.

   We all need to cry unto the Lord. God does not want us to finish our work here on earth and go to hell fire. We have much more serious business to do here on earth than what some people think. We must be on fire for God, and must vomit this fire anywhere we go.

   Before we go into the prayers, I would like you to close your eyes and talk to God like this: “O God, forgive me, for my level of fire. I know that it is not sufficient. I know that you have been warning me and telling me that my present level is not good enough for You. I know you have been warning me day and night that anger should go, malice should go and I should stop back-biting and gossiping. You have been telling me that I need to climb up to the mountain. Please, forgive me Lord and help me.

   If you are expecting the fire of God upon your life and you want the Lord to rearrange your life; you have decided that you want to stop pleasing yourself and your friends and begin to please God, I want you to pray from the depth of your heart. There is something the Bible calls the spirit of hell. When the spirit of hell is operating in somebody’s life, no matter how high up the persons grows spiritually, he would fall. When somebody finds it difficult to depart from a particular sinful habit, it is the spirit of hell in operation. It wants to push the person into hell fire.  It is the spirit of hell that makes people to complain that they have been slighted or that people are gossiping about them.  It is also the spirit working in those who rush back to dead churches after listening to the sound word of God and praying fire prayers because of empty posts. I would like you to raise your voice and pray the following prayer points with holy aggression.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.      You the spirit of hell, my life is not your candidate, in the name of Jesus.

2.      O Lord, do not remove my name from the Book of life, in the name of Jesus.

3.      If my name has already been removed, O Lord, rewrite it, in the name of Jesus.

4.      (Lay your right hand on your head as you say this prayer point:) O Lord, let your glory fill the temple of my life, in Jesus’ name.

 

 ba 

The Appointed time

Dr.D.k.Olukoya

The topic of our message this week is entitled, “The appointed time.” Job 14: 14 ;  “If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.”

  A bus-stop is usually an interesting place and full of activities. You find some people who come there sluggishly; they are not really in a hurry. Such people pick and choose the vehicle to board. Whereas you find some people struggling to catch any vehicle going their direction because they are already late. Sometimes in their rush, they enter the wrong bus.  Some would prefer to take taxis in order to meet their appointments. It all has to do with timing.

  It is a bad thing when you miss the appointed time. Jesus said to the city of Jerusalem, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (Matthew 23: 37 – 39).

 

Jesus told Jerusalem that her house would be left desolate because she did not know her time of visitation. The Messiah was promised and they refused to recognise Him. They decided that the best thing for the Messiah was to kill Him. This is the reason Jerusalem is still in trouble now. When the Jews came to Jesus and said, “Look at this beautiful temple. Isn’t it wonderful?” Jesus said, “A time is coming when none of these stones shall stand on one another. They shall all be thrown down.” They did not believe Him because the temple was solidly built and had gold and different kinds of ornament in it. Eventually, the word of Jesus came to pass. The temple with everything in it was destroyed, and now there is a mosque there. It is a bad thing when you miss the appointed time.

  Time is an important part of our lives. All the popular questions that we ask ourselves about time, for example, How old are you? What is your experience? How long is this or that, etc, are not of interest to God. Rather the question He is interested in is, “What have you done?” To God, every purpose of His has a time. Isaiah 55: 8-9: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Verse 11 says, “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Sometimes when you are pestering God concerning a particular thing and He does not grant it immediately, it is because His ways are higher than your ways and He knows the best time to grant your request. At times when it seemed as if God was not moving, it was not that He was not concerned. It could be that the time was not yet right. When the mother of Jesus told the people at the marriage at Cana of Galilee to approach Him for wine, He said to her, “Woman, my hour has not come,” and when His hour came, He said, “Father, this is the hour. Glorify Yourself.”

   Beloved, one fact you must know is that if God is for you it does not matter who is against you. Anyone that is against you shall eat his flesh and drink his own blood. But if God is against you, no matter who your supporters are, they would be destroyed by fire. God has a purpose for making this message available to you. I believe that you are not reading it by chance but by the leading of the Holy Spirit. 

   It is a fruitless effort to bring your bucket out when the rain has stopped falling. Psalm 119: 126 says, “It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law.” I counsel you to confess this scripture seven times and to pray it aggressively because it is time for God to bless you. If it were not time for God to work in your life, you would not come across this message. Now is the appointed time. Please pray the following prayer points:

1. Oh Lord, it is time for You to do a miracle in my life, in the name of Jesus.

2. All powers trying to keep my life stagnant, be roasted, in Jesus' name.

   The God we serve is very particular about time. One of the worst demons that satan assigns to people is the one that slows them down so that they never do anything on time. This demon is called the spirit of the tail. It is a powerful demon that we must watch out for. God will never come late into any situation. What we are saying is that miracles may not come at your own time but God will not come late. Many times in our lives, we try to time God forgetting that He has His own timing. People may be mocking you now that you are running about and carrying Bible but one thing is sure: the answer to your prayers will not come late. Good change will not come late. Your favourable situations will not come late.

When we fulfill our own part, God will certainly visit us. For example, we start our programmes on Sundays at 7.00 a.m., Mondays at 5.30 p.m. and on Wednesdays at 5.00 p.m. All these periods are already written down in God’s book. So, immediately we get close to these periods, there are special angels who are around to record the names of the early risers, that is, those who come on time, and once the service starts they take off. So, God is particular about time. If God says we should meet at 7 a.m. and you get there at 7.30 a.m. you better apologise because with God,7 is 7. Some people come when the angels have gone. You, as a child of God, must do all things on time. Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to break down, and a time to build up. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away. A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.  A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”

  Everything in the plan of God has been timed. Your miracle has its own appointed time. When Joseph was in the prison, he interpreted the dreams of the chief butler and the chief baker. According to his interpretation, the butler’s dream meant that he would be restored to his job while the one of the baker meant that he would be killed. The butler was happy and promised to tell the king about Joseph when he is restored. But the Bible says that when the chief butler got to the king’s palace, he forgot all about Joseph. Why did he forget? God caused him to forget because that time was not God’s appointed time for Joseph. Two years after the man had forgotten him, God Himself brought him out. God has a time-table for your life. John the Baptist was to be six months older than Jesus Christ. It was God’s time. We are discussing this today because the Lord said your time has come. The children of Israel were in bondage for 430 years but when it was God’s time to bring them out, it took Him only one night. The birth and crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ were all according to God’s time-table.

 Failure to move when God is moving is very disastrous. Failure to pray hard when prayer points are called and others are praying hard could be disastrous. On their way to the Promised Land, the children of Israel decided to move outside of God’s timing, they ended with defeat. If God moves and leaves you behind, you need to cry for mercy. It is the high time to come to the camp of holiness, purity, power, prosperity and healing. If God asks you to witness to a person and you refuse to and the person dies, you will be in trouble because you have missed His time. It is very dangerous to take a short cut when you are dealing with God. Please, pray this prayer point: “I reject every sin of taking a short cut, in the name of Jesus.”

 

What is the meaning of taking a short cut?

  Before they had Isaac, Abraham and Sarah decided to take a short cut. The short cut brought about somebody called Ishmael. It was the wife of Abraham that pushed Abraham into it. We know what Ishmael has done to the whole world now. Two generations later, the family of Abraham had another person who was like Ishmael. His name was Dan. When Rachael pushed Jacob to Leah, Leah gave birth to Dan. In the book of Revelation when God began to list the 12 children of Israel, He removed this Dan and replaced him with Joseph’s son called Manasseh. That is what happens when a short cut is taken. God has His own programme for every life; that is why you must not use other people’s lives as a yardstick to measure yours. God’s programme for us may look alike but they are different. Your personal programme for your life may lead you to failure and destruction if it is not in line with God’s programme for you.

  God’s programme and time may look unattractive but they are the best. Many of us need to correct our ideas about God. The God who rained manna from heaven for the children of Israel was the same God who rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. The God who called Moses was the same God who prevented him from entering the Promised Land. The Lord God that made Saul a king was the same God that dethroned him. The Lord God that healed Namaan was the same God that transferred his leprosy to Gehazi. The God that blessed David and made him to become king in Israel was the same God who put curses on him. The God that gave Samson power was the same God who allowed his eyes to be removed and to be punished. The God that made Zechariah to serve in the temple was the same God who allowed him to be rendered dumb. With God there is no middle camp. God is a God of joy, love, peace, miracles and power but you must also remember that He is a God of righteousness and judgment.

   Many years ago, I taught Biology in an Adult Education school. I had about 120 students in my class. The first thing I taught them was living and non-living things. I told them about the amoeba. After I made some explanations, I asked them if they understood the lesson and they said, “No.” I repeated the lesson two more times and asked if they now understood it. One man stood up and said, “Where is the wife of amoeba?” I felt frustrated but explained to him that it was not necessary for amoeba to marry. What was the problem with them? Timing. They were doing the right thing at the wrong time. You could do the right thing at the wrong time or the wrong thing at the right time. They are both the same thing – wrong timing. When you change your position, God too changes your situation. It is that change that is so difficult for most of us.

   After service sometime ago, a man came to me for counseling and said, “What a wonderful fellowship. I know that the church I attend now is bad but when I get there, everybody stands at attention and greets me. So, I may find it difficult to continue to come here because in this place, nobody can hail me. Nobody recognizes anybody. I cannot bear it. I prefer a place where I am known and recognised.” When I discussed further with him, I discovered that he did not know anything about the Holy Spirit and did not believe in the teachings of Apostle Paul. I could see that he was bent on his opinions. He was refusing to change his position so God could not change his situation. What will kill most people is their various church posts. The devil has used these to stagnate many lives. I have a friend who before he became a pastor was a priest somewhere. As a priest, during communion, he used to lust after the girls who came for the communion service and each time he sat at the altar, something would be saying to him: “Can’t you see that you are not saved? You would perish if care is not taken.” He struggled with this for sometime until one day, he decided to give his life to the Lord and became a floor member of a Pentecostal church. Not longer after he gave his life to Christ, God began to promote him. If he was bent on remaining a priest in his former church, wearing cassocks and carrying a big bag about, God would not have changed his situation. If you cry for a change, God too will cry for repentance. Once He cries for repentance and you repent, the change comes. From time immemorial prophets of God had always cried that people should repent and make a turn around. The Bible 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 I too will perform” (2 Chronicles 7: 14). God says He would perform once we do our own part. You are the pointer towards what God wants to do in your life. You may be wondering why the heavens seem so closed to you now and nothing is coming through. All that God is saying is, “Change.” He is an orderly God. He will not put the cart before the horse. If you need to obtain certain things or meet a certain standard before He gives something to you, He will not give it to you until you change. For some people, God is only waiting for them to remove anger from their lives, then the power they are calling for so much will come upon them. God will not give you power when He knows that you will misuse it. 

  A lot of people are praying that God should bless them with money when they are still very covetous. The blessing will not come until that covetousness goes. Some people are busy revealing their secrets to their enemies and God wants to teach them how to shut their mouths before He gives them their miracles so that they will not spoil their miracles with their own mouths. God is ready when we are ready. Unfortunately, today, there are people who want to run faster than God. Some even try to know better than God. Many people lack patience and are in a hurry. Isaiah 28: 16: “Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste.” That is, you will not be in a hurry. The Bible says, “Of all my appointed time, I will wait till my changes come.”

   Patience is one of the greatest virtues that God gave to man. Impatience has destroyed so many things, lives, homes, families and nations. Some people keep crying day and night that they must get married and God is saying to them: “Be patient. Your partner is on the way.” Some will say, “If God does not move fast enough, I will go back to my former boyfriend because no Christian has proposed marriage to me.” Others are saying, “I must get rich now.” And God is saying, “Prosperity is on the way, be patient.” A certain woman kept crying that she wanted to get rich. She gathered some money and planned to travel to England. Her poor husband escorted her to the airport and after they said farewell, he waited at the airport to have a drink before he went home. Suddenly, he heard his name over the microphone that his attention was needed at the information desk if he was still around. Immediately he got there, policemen held his hand and led him inside and behold, he saw that his wife had been arrested. What happened? She tried to smuggle out cocaine. When her husband found out what happened, he fainted. Impatience had caused a lot of problems for many people. Many people have gone back to square one because of impatience. These things are so important that the Bible says so much about them. Three important principles must be clear to us before we start praying.

1. There is time for everything. Doing things at the wrong time would lead to disaster.

2. God Himself has appointed a time for your miracle. Has God assured you through prophecies, dreams and visions about a thing? Then wait for the appointed time. Don’t go and try the enemy’s camp.

3. Patience is a great virtue.

   If you study the history of Science, you would find out that the inventors of most of the things we are enjoying now were first of all ridiculed. People laughed at them but they remained patient and continued with their works. When the first men that made motor cars were working on their cars, people abused them in the streets and told them to go and buy horses instead of wasting their time on the dirty thing they call motor cars. It was the same with those who invented the telephone and the Aeroplane. Those were men of the world who did not know the Bible. You need to see what the Bible says about patience. Lack of patience robbed Saul of his kingdom. If he had waited a little bit for Samuel to arrive there would have been no problem. A few minutes of impatience caused Moses the Promised Land. We need to pray that divine patience should come upon us so that we can wait for God’s timing and not wanting Him to work with our own time. We need patience for the word of God to bear fruit in our lives. We need patience too to possess our possessions. The school of patience brings you hope. By faith and patience, promises are inherited.

In His word, our Lord promised us healing. But this healing would not come instantly on everybody. Some will recover instantly while others will recover gradually. But when you are not patient, you may miss it. You need patience to run the Christian race. The Bible says that we should run with patience the race ahead of us. Patience too, is a sign of Christian maturity. An impatient believer is a baby Christian. Patience receives answers to prayers. This is one of the secrets behind the success of the Psalmist. We must cultivate it.

 

MANY PEOPLE ARE IMPATIENT FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:

1.  Lack of brotherly love.

2.  Spirit of competition.

3.  Pride.

4.  Stubbornness.

The Bible does not want us to be impatient because when God decides that it is your time, every thing will cooperate with you. People who are against you will start working for you. Even those who do not like you will become your friends.

   Please, be aggressive in your prayers. God bless you as you do so, in Jesus’ name.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.      Oh Lord, don’t ever leave me behind. Let me be going with You all the time, in the name of Jesus.

2.      Oh Lord, let me be in the right place at the right time, in the name of Jesus.

3.      Oh Lord, restore to me everything I have lost through impatience, in the name of Jesus.

4.      It is time for You, O Lord, to turn my life to miracles, in the name of Jesus.

5.      I refuse to waste my life. I refuse to waste my time, in the name of Jesus.

6.      Oh Lord, Your purpose for bringing this message   to me will not be defeated in my life, in Jesus’ name.

7.      I refuse to labour in vain, in the name of Jesus.

8.      Let household wickedness be put to flight, in the name of Jesus.

9.      Let all anti-glory forces loose their hold upon   my life, in the name of Jesus.

10.              I release myself from the bondage of leaking pockets, in the name of Jesus.

11.              Father Lord, give me supernatural breakthroughs   in all my endeavours, in the name of Jesus.

12.              I bind and put to flight all the spirits of fear,anxiety and discouragement, in Jesus' name.

13.              Lord, show me dreams and visions that would advance my cause, in the name of Jesus.

14.              O Lord, let your divine patience come upon my  life, in Jesus' name.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               I I NEED A MIRACLE

 Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

 This week, we are considering a message entitled, “I need a miracle.”

 2 Chronicles 16:9: “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him...” 

  Every day, God watches out for an opportunity to do a great thing for you when your heart is perfect towards him. Anyone who claims that he does not need a miracle must be somebody without goals in life. We are all in need of miracles and thank God, we have the God of miracles.

 WHAT IS A MIRACLE?

 It is an event beyond the power of any human being; an event beyond any physical law. it is a supernatural occurrence or a wonderful thing brought about by the power of God. Sometimes the Bible refers to it as mighty works or marvelous things. When God does it, He does it to His own glory.  Anywhere you see human beings, miracles are needed. Paul the apostle had been inside a ship for a long time and the people with him in the ship refused to listen to the voice of God. Rather, they listened to the devil and started to reap the result. Sailing became dangerous and they spent a long time on the sea in anguish. Most of them stopped eating. They threw their luggage into the sea and it was dark for many days. They had given up hope on living.  To worsen the situation, the ship in which they were traveling, hit a rock and was shattered to pieces.  But one way or the other, they all got to the shore on splinters of wood. When they got to the shore, Apostle Paul, the man of God sat down to warm himself by the fire and a viper jumped out of the woods and fastened to his hand, wanting to disgrace him. All other prisoners and the sailors were there. It did not go for them. I do not know which serpent has fastened itself to your own hand but one thing I know is that God can shake it into the fire. That was what happened to Paul.  As the people there were waiting for him to fall down and die, thinking he was evil, he shook the snake into the fire and did not fall down neither did he die. When they found that he did not die, they changed their mind and gathered around him as he continued to demonstrate the power of God in their midst. So the disgrace that the enemy planned for him was converted into a revival. God is still in that businesses of having His children throw serpents into the fire. Paul threw the snake away and its poison had no effect on him. That was a miracle.

If miracles work contrary to human logic then you expect the unusual or the unexpected to happen whenever you are praying for a miracle. If you were going to be looking at what your biology or sciences say, you would be far from miracles. When you come to God, know that what you considered to be logical would be illogical to Him. What you think is completely illogical may be the right thing to God. The Bible makes us to understand that God still works miracles. Unfortunately, these days, many people do not agree that the human brain has its own limit. Anything such people cannot understand with their brain, they just conclude it cannot happen. What a shallow way of looking at things.

Once the brain perceives certain things as impossible, the human mind accepts it quickly and sometimes, when we accept it like that, our faith would not go beyond what we have accepted. Then, we end up insulting God.  It is an insult to limit God. God often looks at us when we limit Him and He would be saying: “This people cannot realise that I created these things and I can readjust and rearranged them.” When God is in operation, He specializes on things that people say is impossible. Those who are close to God, obedient to Him, and have faith in Him will always experience His miracle working power. This is why we need to cry unto Him saying: “Lord, I need a miracle.” If you cry unto Him like that and He sees your heart, He will respond.

God works His miracle for several reasons and He does not have to consult anybody before doing it. He may do it just to teach a lesson, to enable men to declare the gospel properly, to silence false prophets, to reveal the devil as a destroyer, or to reveal His goodness or to reveal Jesus, the resurrection and life.

 

WHO NEEDS A MIRACLE?

  Perhaps familiar faces are troubling you in your dreams, you need a miracle. Perhaps you notice that your life has been converted to a material for testing new satanic weapons, you need a miracle. Perhaps you have been sitting for satanic examinations in your dream, which has turned you to a student in the school of tribulation, you need a miracle. Perhaps your spiritual life is stagnant, you have been struggling on your own and trying your best, but you find that you are not making progress, perhaps there are hidden and clever devourers working against you, just sucking your money and resources away, you need a miracle.

 Perhaps you have what we call weak breakthroughs. By the time you have a breakthrough, there would be sufficient debts on ground to swallow it. Although there is a breakthrough but the breakthrough is not sufficient to carry the load that you have. You need a miracle. Perhaps you notice that your life is following an evil family pattern; everybody in your family is heading towards one wrong direction, for example, you notice that in your family, nobody has a good job, nobody has good health, people die young or people are not getting married, you need a miracle.

 Perhaps you know that your names are placed on evil altars somewhere and someone you don’t even know chants incantations on them, you need a miracle to destroy the satanic priest at the altar and to set the altar on fire. Perhaps you have been suffering from prayer paralysis. You find that you can only pray for a short time or else you develop migraine or become afraid, it would seem as if some forces want to overshadow you, you need a miracle. There are many people who have benefits abroad which foreign demons have captured. Such people need a miracle to release those things. There are many people who have been duped even by white men, they need a miracle. There are many people as well who have been cursed by satanic prophets for no just cause, some have the mark of hatred on them, those who liked them suddenly began to hate them passionately, some are suffering from leaking pockets, money comes in and goes out, they cannot retain it, they need a miracle.

 I was talking to one man about the gospel and he was saying all kinds of blasphemy against the Lord Jesus Christ. I said, “O Lord, give me a word for this man, that he would know that you are the Lord.” And the Lord said, “Ask him whether or not he sees himself roaming about in the market place anytime he gets his salary and he would feel as something is passing down through his pocket.” I threw the question directly at him as the Lord had said it. He was surprised and asked: “Who told you that?” I said, “The same Jesus that you called a bastard  now.” Anyone whose pocket leaks in the spirit cannot retain money physically.  He would not be able to give account of how he spends his money. Perhaps you have medical problems that defy medicine, you need a miracle. Perhaps all roads to progress seem blocked. Anywhere you go, it would seem as if someone had already gotten there before you and put a stumbling block on your way, you need a miracle. Perhaps you notice that any time you have a particular dream, a particular problem would start, you need a miracle. Perhaps you have no good job or business, you need a miracle.

 Perhaps your family is under attack and they are being bombarded everyday by the arrows of the enemy or you have a building you cannot finish  because witches have urinated on it, you need a miracle to remove your building from their grip. Perhaps you have answered to demonic calls, you need a miracle to cancel the evil call. Perhaps you are being tormented by very intelligent wicked network and you don’t really know who your friends are or who your enemies are, you need a miracle. Perhaps you never really enjoy divine benefits. You just hear God blesses people but the only blessing you receive is that you are alive and breathing,  you need a miracle. Perhaps you have open, unrepentant and stubborn household wickedness, you need a miracle. Perhaps you are suffering from intensive marital attacks, you need a miracle. A sister whose husband had abandoned for a long time, was ministered to in Kaduna. After the ministration, she took some prayer points home  and prayed. After the prayers, her husband came back.  He could no longer recognise his own children because they were very young when he ran away. But the sister started to complain that she did not know if it was even right for the man to come back again because the same Ankara dress that he was wearing when he left was still the same one he was wearing when he came back after many years. His lot had not improved. Perhaps your case is like that, you need a miracle. Perhaps you are one of the so many people who are born again but cannot even locate the enemy. They just know that there are enemies but cannot locate them and cannot fire their bullets properly, you need a miracle. Perhaps you are a student but you always fail your examinations, or the enemy has converted you into a foot mat;  all the inferior people are promoted above you but you taught them the job, you need a miracle.  Perhaps life has become like a prison and you wish to die, you need a miracle. Perhaps you are suffering from intensive financial embarrassment, you need a miracle. When some people in this fellowship started coming here, people used to give them transport money to come and to go but now such people give tithes of N50,000. What happened to them? They received their miracle.

 Perhaps you find that you are spiritually cold, or all those who want to assist you suddenly become unwilling to help, you need a miracle. Perhaps you have good ideas but there is no capital for you to work with, you need the God that turned the fish into a bank. Perhaps as one problem is going another one is coming or you are the kind of person who always fights and struggles before you can get anything done, you need a miracle.

 Perhaps you have children that have traveled abroad and are doing well, but they have completely forgotten you here. And you are wallowing in poverty. Perhaps you are occupying the wrong position in your dream, you see yourself in three-piece suit, dressing well, inside a very fine car but in the physical you cannot afford a bicycle. You need a miracle. Perhaps your promotion is being denied or delayed. You need a miracle. Perhaps your marriage is the type they can call the cat and mouse marriages. You need a miracle.

 Perhaps the enemy has converted your business to a desert, you need a miracle. I cannot understand how a person would take food down to the market place for sale and bring it back home without selling one grain. Such a person needs a miracle. The devil has turned the lives of so many Christians upside down so much that what is supposed to be normal, they see it as unusual. Perhaps your account is dead, you need a miracle. Don’t limit God. He does not use your arithmetic to operate.  He operates in a way that is beyond your imagination. Perhaps you have accumulated debts and you don’t know where to run, or your situation is so bad that you have closed your door to visitors and have given your children strict instruction that the only person they can open the door for is your pastor, you need a miracle. Perhaps you notice that your virtue has been transferred, you are supposed to be the first born but your younger ones are doing better than you, you need a miracle.  Perhaps you know you are being bewitched. When you get money your hands and body would be shaking and you put it in the wrong place, do the wrong business, and buy the wrong things, you need a miracle. Perhaps you have a dead organ in your body, you need a miracle. Perhaps you are being pursued by the spirit of death or the arrow of poverty, you need a miracle. Perhaps you are a spiritual spectator; you are just observing everything. When they say, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” your spirit is as cold as ice block. Your own child is prophesying but you as daddy or mummy cannot see beyond your nose, you need a miracle.

 Perhaps you have been feeding your enemies to fight you harder, you need a miracle. Perhaps you have long standing infirmity or you have a vagabond anointing. You cannot settle down on something, you are fishing in the ocean of life but catching nothing, you need a miracle.

 Perhaps you have what we call verbal trap. The devil has recorded many messages from your mouth, and have used it to cage you because you are the one saying them, you need a miracle. Perhaps your business is suffering from what we call profit starvation, you need a miracle.

 

GOD’S MIRACLE AGENT

 

Genesis 1: 1 – 3: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”

 The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. It was after that that God spoke and things began to happen. In the Bible, we can see that God did a lot of miracles through Moses. Moses was so close to God that the anointing upon him was so tremendous. At a stage, God took part of the Spirit that was upon him and divided it amongst seventy people. What was the secret of the miracle working power upon Moses? It was the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s miracle agent. Do you know the secret of Joseph’s success in Egypt. Why was he so much in tune with God.? It was because the Spirit of God was in him. Bezaleel the son of Uri was the first spiritual artist in the Bible. He constructed the furniture in the tabernacle. How did he do it? He did it by the Holy Spirit.

 David was a successful king and warrior because he had the Holy Spirit. He said, “Take not thy Holy Spirit away from me.” Elijah operated in the miraculous and worked wonders for the Lord. The Bible talks about the spirit and the power of  Elijah. Elisha received the double portion of that spirit because he recognized that no miracle would happen without the Spirit of God. He waited for the anointing and it came upon him and that wonderful passage in

  Isaiah 10:27: “...And the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.” The miraculous birth of Jesus was done through the power of the Holy Spirit. The angels told Mary that the Spirit of the Most high God shall overshadow her.

 Luke 5:17: “And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee; and Judea, and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.”

 The power of God has to be present for healing to take place. A lot of people don’t like the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries because it is ‘a do it yourself’ ministry. This place demystifies priesthood and removes the veil of pastors.  We make people to understand that they too can walk in the supernatural. It is not for pastors alone.

 A certain white man received a touch of fire and one day, his wife woke up and found him praying on their cooker, that the cooker should work, in Jesus’ name. She tapped him and said, “John, what kind of madness is this? If the cooker is not working any longer, buy another one.” He said, “No. I cannot waste my money. It must work.” And behold, it started working. Meaning that the miraculous can work with animate and inanimate things.

 The power of the Holy Spirit is God’s miracle working power. The Bible says that God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power and He went about doing good, healing those that were oppressed, for God was with Him. Jesus moved under the anointing. The apostles too moved by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Any meeting where the Holy Spirit does not come down and flow freely, there will be no miracle. The Holy Spirit will not come down or move freely if He is grieved or quenched.  Once you rebel against Him, He will move away quietly  and nothing happens. The Holy Spirit can be resisted. What does it mean to resist the Holy Spirit? It means to rebel against His conviction.

 When people refuse to surrender all to Jesus, they experience only small miracles.  Those who do not believe that nothing much can happen would  only expect minor miracles. Once you come to God with the expectation that He has all the powers and can do all things, you will  receive miracles. But when you come to the house of God, and before the prayers start, your spirit is already low and down, the Holy Spirit will pass you by.  The same thing applies to those who come to service and do not concentrate. Miracles will not happen in such lives. Some people come to the church meditating on their problems.  During prayers, such people just shake their heads and say nothing and so nothing happens. God wants us to come to Him with high expectation. You do not come to a meeting and say, “Well I am going again, I hope God will hear me today.” You don’t come to God like that. You should come to God with high expectation.

 THE GREATEST MIRACLE

 We must know that the greatest miracle we can have is our salvation. When that is taken care of, other things would follow.  So if you are not saved better get saved now.  We thank God for His mercies. Salvation is offered free of charge. Some people say, “I just want a miracle, I don’t want to be born again.”  We must know that a person may get a miracle and still go to hell fire.  All those who say, “I don’t want to be saved. I don’t want those restrictions. They don’t allow you to have a mind of your own.” If that is your own opinion about it, I counsel you to change your mind. And if you say you won’t change your mind or surrender completely to Jesus, a time will come when you will leave this earth and you will knock at His gate and He too will look at you and say, “Who is that rebel, clear out of that place.” Even if you stand and begin to say, “But I was born in Italian Catholic church. My father was the chief usher of the Kerosene and paraffin church and my Mother was the most senior mother in Israel in our church or I was born in Elijah Apostolic church and was brought up in supernatural Anglican and now you say I should not enter,” He will not open for you.

 A lot of people fail examinations because they did not prepare very well. You only get what you are ready and prepared to receive. The sower went out to sow. Nothing was wrong with the sower and nothing was wrong with the seed. It was the soil that had some problems. You have to make yourself available to God. Drop worry and anxiety and make yourself available to Him. Doctors do not go about the streets asking people if they are sick. Clothes sellers do not go about the street saying to people, “You are wearing rags, buy new clothes.” Likewise barbers do not drag people from the street into their shops, saying, “Your hair is bushy, come and cut it.” Soap sellers do not force people to buy soap even if they are smelling. Be prepared. Before Jacob’s name could be changed, he got alone with God. He became spiritually aggressive in prayer. There was a preparation. Before the wall of Jericho fell down, the Israelites marched round it for seven days. There was a preparation. Before the widow of Zarephath could receive abundance, she gave up everything she had to the prophet. In spite of the fact that she knew there was nothing else to fall back on. Before Naaman could be healed, he dropped his pride, obeyed the prophet and took a bathe in the dirty water. There was a preparation.

 Before that woman could receive abundance of oil, the man of God told her to go and get more vessels. God began to fill the vessels and the miracle continued for as long as there were vessels to be filled.

 Identify what you need now. There is no point for a person to come before the living God, the limitless God with unbelief in his heart or without the faith that a lot of things could happen. You ought to offer a holy cry to the Lord that: “Lord, I need a miracle!”

 Before we go into the prayer session, I counsel you to give your life to Christ in case you are not yet born again because I want you to experience the miracle power of God and the deliverance power of the Almighty. I want you to see the impossible happen. If you are ready to do so, make the following confession: “Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. I want to get born again. Come into my life. Forgive me my sins and cleanse me with your blood. I say bye to the devil. I enter into the kingdom of heaven. Thank you Jesus, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

 We have to take steps to arrest every evil progress. No evil progress must continue. It is important we take this step. Perhaps you have been suffering for a long time, it is time to deliver yourself from the bondage of the enemy. The first thing to do is to break the stumbling blocks and clear the blockages away before we begin to cry to the Lord for a miracle. Remember blind Bartimeaus threw away his garment that was disturbing him so that he might reach the Saviour.  We must also fling away every evil garment now so that we can touch the Saviour. Raise your voice like thunder as you take the following prayer points:

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.       I receive spiritual violence to confuse my enemies, in the name of Jesus.

2.       Every satanic angels blocking my breakthroughs, be bound, in the name of Jesus.

3.       O God that answereth by fire, answer my prayer now by fire, in the name of Jesus.

4.       Every power making my miracle to slip out of my hands, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

5.       (Focus on one thing at a time. If you have any sickness on your body, lay your hands on the place and pray like this): O Lord, on this issue I need a miracle, in the name of Jesus.

6.       (Focus your attention on another thing and pray aggressively like this): O Lord, on this issue I need a miracle, in the name of Jesus.

7.       Let my poverty disappear; let my prosperity appear, in the name of Jesus.

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Charge your batteries

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Father Lord, we lift up your name for you are a great God. You are the keeper of Israel who neither slumbers nor sleeps. If it was not the Lord that was with us, what would our Israel now say? Thank you heavenly Father. Accept our thanks, in Jesus’ name. Speak to us through this message. Put your fire in our spirits we bind every spirit of tragedy, in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

   No matter how intelligent a person is, it would be very difficult for the person to switch on his torchlight in the dark and it will come on when the batteries are dead. Our message this week is entitled, “Charge your Batteries.” If the batteries inside your torchlight have rusted and grown old, although you may have a new bulb, you would still have a problem because you need power, which comes from the batteries to run the bulb.  Matthew 5: 6: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Notice the strong phrase: ‘they shall be filled.’ That is, without fail, it must happen. In that passage we can see that the condition for being filled is to hunger and thirst after righteousness. The Bible says that those who fulfill this condition shall be filled. Jeremiah 29: 13: “And ye shall seek me, and find me, (under what condition?) when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” (it didn’t say with a part of your heart.) That is, God is asking for 100 per cent of your heart. In Luke 6: 21, our Lord also says, “Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled.” This is repeating what we read in Matthew 5: 6. In John 7: 37, a spectacular thing happened. Normally, Jesus does not raise His voice but in this verse, He did. Wherever you read about Jesus raising His voice in the Scriptures, know that it must be a very serious matter. John 7: 37 says, “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” Please raise your voice and pray like this: “I drink now from the well of salvation, in Jesus’ name.

    From the four Scriptures we have read, we can see the key to charging our spiritual batteries. The Bible says that in the last days men shall become lovers of money, lovers of themselves and that they would love pleasures more than God. It also says that there would be a lot of uproar and evil men shall wax stronger and stronger. So, we, as believers, cannot afford to sit down and be rejoicing about what happened yesterday, or what happened last year, or about how we prophesied the other time. We must continually charge our batteries. Our spiritual batteries have to be on fire. Any serious Christian must have at least one or two days in the week for fasting and praying. The reasons you need to do this one is to charge your batteries and get your cup filled over and over. Somebody asked a great preacher called D. L. Moody the following question: “Mr. Moody, why are you always talking about being filled and filled with the Holy Spirit?” Mr. Moody answered thus: “I always talk about us being filled and filled because we all leak and have to be re-filling and re-filling.” The power of God will manifest in your life all the time and the enemy cannot catch you unawares when you keep charging your batteries.

    The devil is catching many Christians unawares because they are not charging their batteries. It is commonly said that when fire has gone from the cooking place, all kinds of insects and reptiles would have the confidence to go there. But when you have red-hot fire at the cooking place, it would be very difficult for a lizard to come near it. It is not possible.

 

INGREDIENTS FOR CHARGING OUR BATTERIES

    God wants us to charge our batteries and the ingredients that will keep our batteries charged are known as spiritual hunger and thirst. So, two things that you must never lack in your spiritual life are hunger and thirst. Immediately they are gone from your life, forget it. It is a nice thing when you feel hungry to pray, read the word of God, or hear the word of God and it is a feeling of demotion, when you lose interest in these things. Wanting fire to remain in your life without this hunger and thirst, is like players gathering in a football pitch without a ball. The players cannot play any game. Hunger is the football in the football pitch, without it, there is no game. “Blessed are those that thirst and hunger after righteousness for they shall be filled.” It is time for many of us to pray that the snail anointing should get out of our spiritual lives. 

   Sometime ago, in England, I preached the gospel and ministered to an English boy. I spoke to him on a Tuesday, and by the time we met again the following Tuesday for another meeting, this boy of about 17, had read through the whole Bible for the first time.  He sat down and read the Bible through in one week. There are many people who have been born again for many years but are yet to read through the New Testament. Some people start, only to give up half way. Some have been saying, “Well, I will make sure that on weekends I’d keep my programme low so that I can be alone with God, pray, fast and read the word of God.” They boasted and started off only to give up by the third week. Such people cannot hope to charge their batteries. Do you want to receive great power from God? Then this hunger is a must; there is no two ways about it. Hunger for God is one of the greatest signs of spiritual people. Why is it that some people can pray for three or four hours non stop? It is because there is something inside their lives. When a person can read the whole of the book of Matthew at a sitting, there is something special inside the life of such a person.  It is not possible to climb a spiritual mountain without any discipline. It is not possible for you to receive power without doing any consecration. Out of all the spiritual gifts in the Bible, the one that you see easily in people’s lives is prophecy. There are very few people in other areas because not many people are ready to consecrate themselves and drop a few things so that they can gain the power of God. It is very sad that true and powerful men of God are reducing in number. Women are even a lot lower in number and this is very sad.                  Unless we as an end-time church, decides to pick up the mantle and determine that we must affect our own generation positively, God will blame us for allowing so many evil things to happen.  Do you want this great power? Hunger is a must. Thousands of people come to the house of God, listen to the word of God, pray the prayers, come to all the services and join the groups but they remain unchanged. Some have already made up their minds on what to do before coming to church. They pick and choose from the messages. When you come to God like that, He would turn His face away. God does not want people who have made up their minds. He wants people He can mould into what He wants. 

    Have you ever decided on your own to fast and pray for days just to be with God and for His power to fall upon your life not because of problems? A certain man said that when somebody is hungry he would not find any fault with the food. He would forget whether there is salt or none in the food. It is only when a person is not hungry that he begins to complain that the food is not okay. When you are hungry for God like that, the hunger drives you closer to God.

   A hungry man would learn something no matter who is preaching. It can be so sad for people to come before God and leave the same way they came. I pray that the Lord would open up our understanding, in Jesus’ name.

   Proverbs 8: 17: “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.” Many start to seek the Lord at old age. Many always think that there is time and a lot of people don’t bother about God until they go to the cemetery. The above Scripture is saying that the time to seek God is now. Now is the time to be hungry for God not when you are older; not when you can no longer stand and pray for two hours. Some people feel that they have sufficient time to play around a little bit and be serious later. There is no time to be serious later, the time is now because you do not know when your time here would be up. All the excuses of “I am so busy in the office; my schedule is so tight, etc” would be useless. How sad it would be for you to tell the Lord that you spent all your life working in one office or reading Physics on the day of reckoning.

   A certain little boy who was hungry after God asked his father, “Daddy, what would  I do to be on fire for God continually?” His father asked if he really meant what he was saying and the boy said yes. His father then took him to a small pond. Immediately they got there, his father bounced on him and pushed his head underneath the water. The boy began to struggle for air and as he was doing that, he was gulping water. At the third gulp, his father then released him and asked: “What did you desire most when I dipped your head inside the water?” The boy said, “Fresh air,” and the father said, “When you are hungry and thirsty after God like the way you thirsted for air now, fire will fall upon your life.” Beloved, that is it.  

   Our aim should be for God to use us to cause a supernatural revival of apostolic signs and wonders. The apostles moved in the supernatural. They cast down strongholds, uprooted demonic trees, trampled upon satanic powers, worked earth-shaking miracles, turned cities upside down for Jesus, burned demonic materials and God used them to lay the foundation for what we are enjoying now.

 

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM OF PRESENT DAY CHRISTIANS?

    Is sin our problem? No. The Apostles too were not perfect people. Is our problem insufficient quantity of the Holy Spirit? No. We have the same Holy Spirit as they had.  Is our problem civilization? No, because it is actually Christianity that brought about civilization. Is it economic problem? No. The Bible says, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” The problem is lack of hunger. The present-day Christians are not thirsty after God. The Lord picked up Peter who was fishing and catching nothing. And after Jesus picked him up, He said to him” “I will make you fishers of men.” So, God’s purpose for the life of Peter was to be a fisher of men. But the same Peter ran away in John 21 to do something else, the very thing that he was delivered from originally.

    What is causing our lack of hunger for the Lord these days can be found in the question Jesus asked Peter. John 21: 15 says, “So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon, (here, Jesus called him Simon instead of just the new name, Peter, which He had given Him. Meaning that something was wrong. Peter means a rock while Simon means a reed) son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord: thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, (may be Jesus was suspicious of the first answer) Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.  He saith unto him, feed my sheep.  He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.  Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.” Peter failed at a profession in which he was an expert. Many, too are failing woefully today at what they know how to do because of lack of the hunger for Jesus in them. Jesus was asking Peter if he loves Him more than all the disciples, more than his boats and more than his fishing. Today, He is asking you the same questions. Do you love Jesus more than the world? Do you love Jesus more than all the glamorous things that are around you? Are you the kind of person who would abandon fellowship because you want to go to a worldly party? Do you love Jesus? It is the love for Him that would create the hunger.

    A story I read about Peter said that Peter was eventually arrested and locked up somewhere in Rome and as the soldiers were going to kill him, he escaped when he had the opportunity to do so. On his way out, he met Jesus and asked Him, “Lord where are you going?” and Jesus said. “To go and die for you the second time.” When Peter heard that, he walked back with his own legs to the Prison from which he had escaped because he remembered the words of the Lord to him; Do you love me?  Feed my sheep.” He went back and they promptly caught him and as they were going to crucify him he said, Sirs, don’t crucify me the way you crucified Jesus.” So they turned Peter upside down and crucified him. That was how he died because he loved Jesus. The Bible says, “And they loved not their lives unto death.” The reason some people are afraid of death is because they don’t love Jesus. When you love Jesus, and the devil sees that you are no longer afraid of death, he will run away from you.

  A careful consideration of the following questions will help you to test your level of spiritual hunger for the Lord: Have you forgiven everyone who has offended you? Is there any malice or hatred in your heart? Another year is going now and God is putting everything on record. Do you cherish grudges in your heart? Have you refused to be reconciled with somebody you quarrelled with? Do you get angry?  Do you still lose your temper? Or do you boil internally? Do you get jealous? Is envy in your heart? Are you sweet and clean under heavy pressure or circumstances? Are you easily offended? Does it hurt you when somebody ignores you? Are you disturbed when you are neglected? Is there pride in your heart? Do you always like to be noticed? Are you always dishonest when it comes to money? Do you gossip about people? Do you discuss other people behind their backs in a negative way? Are you on assignment for Jesus?  Do you obey Him all the time? Do you steal, particularly God’s money? Would the people of the world regard you as being different from them? It is sad when an unbeliever looks at a Christian and what he or she likes about the Christian is her kind of lipstick and finger nails polish instead of the holiness and righteousness of God in your life. Such a Christian is advertising vanity instead of advertising God. The person has become like Hezekiah who when some people came to visit him, he took them around and showed them the beauty of the temple and they left. Then God asked him, “Hezekiah, what have they found in your house?” He couldn’t talk. God said, “You advertised to them all the decorations and beauty but you refused to talk to them about the God of Israel that added 15 years to your life. Shouldn’t that be the first thing to talk to them about?” God had to deal with him. 

   Have you wronged anyone and you don’t want to make restitution? Are you a spiritual-yes person? Do you receive anything from the Holy Spirit? Have you received the spirit of Zacchaeus? Do you steal spoons, beds, chairs, office equipment, etc from hotels and offices? Are you an extortioner? These are the things that kill spiritual fire. Are you a fornicator or an adulterer? Do you get anxious or worried about any small thing? Do you pretend to have forgiven somebody when you have not really forgiven the person? Do you disobey men of God? Are you guilty of immorality in the heart? Do you harbour in-pure or unholy imaginations? Are you the kind of person who exaggerates? Do you tell lies to cover up your faults? Do you pray for others? Are you guilty of the sin of prayerlessness? Are you neglecting the Bible? How many chapters a day of the Bible do you read? Do you witness about Jesus to people? Do you have compassion in your heart for souls that are perishing? Have you lost your first love for the Lord? How can a person planning for heaven buy a tie worth N20,000 whereas he cannot spend N5,000 to buy tracts and distribute to people so that they can at least enjoy the benefits of Jesus? Do you attend parties of unbelievers and start to look around and hope that nobody from your church is there to see you because if they see you, you would be used to preach the following Sunday and so you stay in the dark areas? These are the way check the level of your hunger for the Lord. Beloved, think about these things.

   James the son of Zebedee, an apostle, loved the Lord until his death. When he was going to be killed, he witnessed to the Roman soldiers who were taking him away. The executor became interested and when they got to where James was to be killed, the soldier said, “Sorry, you have to kill us together. I am not killing this man. His colleagues reported him. So James did not die alone. He died with the soldier that was meant to kill him. They loved not their lives unto death. Under harsh conditions, some Christians would deny Jesus. This is very sad.

   The reason masquerades and other things are running after many people in the dream is because they are afraid of death. The apostles passed that level. They loved not their lives unto death. We read that Philip was dragged on the ground until the whole of his clothes were torn and he was terribly wounded before he was nailed on the tree. Matthew was made to sit down and clubbed to death. They loved not their lives unto death. Stephen was stoned to death. Brother Andrew was crucified naked on a cross with an ‘X’ shape. The man who wrote the book of Mark in the Bible was dragged on the ground before an idol while he was preaching until his flesh was torn into pieces. They loved not their lives unto death. Almost all the apostles died a terrible death because of the gospel.

    Are you hungry for Jesus? Is the hunger for God in you now higher than what it was last year? Now that another year is coming, are you still at that same level of breaking down and crying instead of standing your ground and fighting the enemy? What then do we do now?

   We need to pray seriously that the Lord should close down every factory of the enemy in our lives.  It is from this factory that anger and all kinds of evil things are coming out. All satanic factories should be closed down because their existence will entrench lack of hunger for God and kill spiritual fire. We also need to pray that the power of resurrection should enter into our lives afresh. When the power of resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ comes upon you, you will not be afraid of anything because since Christ is still living in you, nobody can kill you. We also need to pray that every spirit of death and hell should depart. The spirit of death and hell operates in two ways:

1. They sponsor untimely death.

2. They deposit people in hell fire.

We have to stand against them so that the fire of revival will enter into our souls and when this happens to us, you need not tell somebody that God has done a miracle in your life. People will know that something has happened to you.

   You have to go to the mountain where God wants you to be and if you need to be pushed, for you to get there, you shall be given the push. One practical way of getting started is to get serious with your Bible study. Another practical way is to decide to pray for a minimum of half an hour per day and stick to it no matter what happens.

    Please pray the following prayer points with these four things: holy stubbornness, holy aggression, holy violence and stubborn faith. 

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. Every factory of the enemy militating against me, fall down and                 die, in Jesus’ name.

 

2. O Lord, send your resurrection power into my life in the name of Jesus.

 

3. Every spirit of death and hell, my life is not your candidate, in the name of Jesus.

 

4. Every evil root growing in my family, be uprooted by fire, in the name of Jesus.

 

5.   Inherited demotion, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

 

6.   Every power sitting on my promotion, be unseated by fire, in the name of Jesus.

 

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Year 2005, the upper room experience

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

This year is a very interesting one for both believers and unbelievers. The scene at the upper room in the book of Acts of the Apostles paints a good picture of the year 2005 AD. At that time, some of the people rushed there because they found that they did not have sufficient power to cope with the world in which they were living. They needed the anointing that could not be confronted or pulled down. The Bible says that they were gathered in that upper chamber in one accord and suddenly, there came a sound as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled the house where they were.

 

Part of the picture God gave to us concerning last year was the rage of the waters. Unfortunately, we found the manifestation of that sad aspect happening in Asia. The incident in Thailand, Sri Lanka, etc recently makes it very clear to us that man is completely powerless and helpless before God. If you find God, you find life, and if you do not find God, you do not have life.

 

Prophetically, Year 2005 can be called the upper room year. It would be characterized by 32 things:

 

1.     Globally, there shall be a lot of political disappointment and prayerless politicians will find themselves in a very big trouble.

 

2.     There shall be a war of contradiction and even after the fight has ended, those involved will not understand why they were fighting.

 

3.     Kidnappers and ritual killers shall be disgraced.

 

4.     There shall be events that would shake the foundation of many nations.

 

5.     It shall be a year of mystery. The Lord said that many unexplainable things would happen.

 

6.     It shall be a year of very strange occurrences.

 

7.     It shall be a year of the humbled and the humiliated.  A lot of people who never thought that they could find themselves in one position would find themselves there.

 

8.     It shall be a year of very strange and powerful miracles.

 

9.     It shall be a year of very powerful manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is a year that you do not only have to double your prayer, but do it seven-fold.

 

10.   The Lord said unless arrested by prayers, it is a year of terrible decay among the youth, meaning that the powers of the oppressors have planned to waste many young people this year. We need to pray this year.

 

11.   It is a year we need more prayers of intercession to prevent colossal natural disasters. Men and women are taking the Almighty for granted but very soon the Almighty will blow His final whistle, and they will find that everything they have struggled for is raw material for fire.

 

12.   It shall be a year of disgrace for disloyalty and conspiracy.  Therefore, don’t get involved in conspiracy or disloyalty wherever you are, and whoever you are working for this year.

 

13.   The Lord said that a strange spirit of suicide would be poured out and unless arrested by prayers, it will happen in very strange places.

 

14.   The Lord said that unless we pray very well, the poor would still get poorer.

 

15.   There will be an alarming rage of the spirit of fear and witchcraft internationally.

16.   It will be a wonderful year for those who are seeking marital breakthroughs.

 

17.   There will be what can be described as global confusion and bewitchment in many places.

 

18.   We need to pray against strange winds that will sweep away many things.

 

19.   Some wicked and horrible idols and shrines whose powers have been buried by the missionaries will resume their activities in many places due to terrible personal and community sins.

 

20.   Special prayers should be said for oil producing areas because there is conspiracy against them in the heavenlies by the powers of darkness.

 

21.   The Lord said He would use foolish things to confound the wise this year.

 

22.   This is a year when you must get your priorities right. If you do, you will rejoice but there will be serious trouble if you get them wrong.

 

23.   Spiritual power is a necessity in this particular year because powerlessness will certainly lead to destruction. Do whatever you need to do this year to get the power of God into your life, because all the beggarly power that some people are using will fail them in a terrible way.

 

24.   It will be a terrible year for all thieves, whether they are stealing from their friends, community, or nations.           

 

25.   The arrows of the wicked, which the Bible says shall wax stronger and stronger shall strike at an alarming rate this year.

 

26.   There will be public exposure of many hidden atrocities that have been buried before now.

 

27.   The Lord said that problems linked with food would cause destruction in many places this year.

 

28.   The Lord said that long term houses of bondage would be dismantled suddenly.

 

29.   There will be a powerful outpouring of God’s power on those who are honestly and sincerely seeking His face.

 

30.   It shall be a rewarding year for those who practice their regular fasting and prayer.

 

31.   This is a year when we must pray and also take action so that we don’t compromise our unity, and there will be no chaos.

32.   It is a year of expectancy and fulfillment.

 

The Lord said that this year, you should expect the impossible to become possible, difficult situations to turn around, uncommon promotion to come, your antagonists to become your agents of promotion, riches and honour to flow to you from unsolicited sources, any failure or defeat to turn to success, and the Almighty to over-answer your prayer. This in a nutshell is a picture of the year.

 

STRATEGY FOR SUCCESS THIS YEAR

The strategy for success this year is that of the upper room experience. It is the strategy that brings down the power and fire of God, meaning that fire is the answer to many situations that will confront us this year. In the Bible, God released fire to consume the wicked, to empower His people, and to consume sacrifices. This year is an upper room year where only the genuine power of God will uphold people. All the beggarly powers will face their owners.  The principal weapon we need to deal with spiritual enemies that will come up this year is fire. Fire is powerful in movement. Fire is very aggressive. Fire is very militant, and has no respect. We need to get ourselves to the level, where the fire of God will be operating in our lives always.

 

Acts of Apostles chapter 1 verse 8 says, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall become witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” So, this year, make sure your stance with God is right. Make sure you fulfill the conditions for the power of God to come into your life. If you have been depending on beggarly powers, you better throw them away and look for the genuine one, and then, the Lord will be able to help you.

 

For the members of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, the Lord said it is a year of three Ps: the year of Power, Perfection and overflowing Progress; power that cannot be contested, perfection of everything that concerns you and overflowing progress. This is according to what is written in Psalm 138 verse 8 which says, “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth thee...” And as we can see in Acts of the apostles 1 verse 8, it is our year of demonstration of power that no enemy can insult.

 

 

PRAYER POINTS

 

1.     Power of God that cannot be insulted by any power of darkness, come upon me now, in the name of Jesus.

 

2.     Anywhere I go this year, when I walk in, darkness shall walk out, in the name of Jesus.

 

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The garden of evil planters

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

This week, 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, apologise, 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 paralysed, 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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Are you there?

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

We shall start this message by looking at three scriptures: Genesis 3: 9: “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, where art thou?” Was it that the Lord could not see Adam? No. He could see him.

I King 17: 2: “And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.” In verses 9 - 10 of the same passage, God continued to speak to Elijah: “Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there, gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I may drink.”

II Kings 5: 9 – 12: “So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him saying, go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shall be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and went away, (Naaman was angry, like all baby Christians) and said, Behold, I thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. (The sick man was becoming impatient and was also becoming the doctor). Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.” He wanted to go to Abana and Pharpar, but the Lord had no appointment with Abana and Pharpar but with Jordan.

The first passage says, “Where art thou?” The second and the third ones talk about men who wanted to avoid the place God wanted them to be because they thought they had a better place to go. It was not that God could not see Adam, but Adam was in the wrong place. This is why I always say that a sinner in the right place and a saint in the wrong place are birds of the same feather because both of them will not receive blessing. God was actually asking Adam the following questions: "Adam, is this your condition now? Are you in the place where I placed you? Is this our agreement? Is this what has become of you? Adam, why have you decided to wage war against yourself? When did you become a self-appointed criminal hiding yourself from the Almighty? Why have you allowed the enemy to catch you so cheaply? Why are you in this condition?" This is why one of the greatest prayer points you can pray for yourself is: “O Lord, let me be in the right place at the right time.” I think you should close your eyes and pray it.

A certain sister's mother made a covenant with God that if He gave her a child she would dedicate the child to Him. This sister happened to be that covenant child. She grew up doing quite well. When she entered the university, her colleagues made fun of her because she had small breasts while they had bigger ones. They called her names and gave her lectures on how she could enlarge her breasts. They told her that the reason her breasts were so small was because she was a virgin, that if she started committing fornication, they would grow big. Unfortunately, she listened to their lectures and sold off her virginity at very cheap value. The day it happened, she had a dream in which she saw four men in white garment pursuing her. They caught up with her and began to beat her. As they were beating her, she kept hearing a voice saying, “Where art thou?” She too, started screaming until she woke up. The following night, she had the same dream but this time, she asked them why they were beating her and they said: “You are a covenant child. God has ordained that you would produce four prophets but because of what you have done, joining yourself to satanic agents, God has replaced you with someone else." At this juncture, I think you should take the following prayer points: 

1.   O Lord, do not replace me with stones, in Jesus’ name.

2.   Every anchor of evil replacement, be shattered to pieces, in the name of Jesus.

Beloved, this is a very serious matter. Where are you? If you are not able to answer this question, then you are living what I call a wasted life. There are many people in the Bible who lived wasted lives, from men like Cain to men like Samson. Are you in the place and in the condition that God wants you to be? You could be in the place where He wants you to be but not in the condition He wants you to be. Is what is written in Hebrew chapter 5 verse 12 not true of many churchgoers today? It says, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.”

There are lots of babies in the house of God. They ought to have grown beyond the stage they are now but they are still there. The babies who come to the house of God are only interested in miracles and breakthroughs. They hate any ministry that talks about holiness within and without. They do not like it at all. The reason you see people flocking to where they can dance for hours is because they want the flesh to enjoy forgetting that the Bible says that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and that the same flesh battles against the spirit. Those who hate the ministry of holiness rush to where there is no discipline. Where art thou?

There are many people who went to Bible colleges but the Bible College is not inside of them. Such people have the Bible only in their brains. There is a difference between having the Bible in your brain and having it in your spirit. The Bible in the brain can get you a Ph.D. in theology but cannot make you to be born again. Whereas the Bible in the spirit can make you to be born again and you will have power over the host of darkness, which is what God is looking for. I was talking to a woman who graduated from a Bible college. I said to her, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” and she said, “No. That is wrong. According to the theory of so, so and so, there are five view points on that issue.” Since I did not have time to argue with her, I said, “Madam, you don’t believe that you can receive the Holy Spirit, but if I pray with you now and that power falls upon your life, will you not believe?” She said, “That will be good.” I said, “Okay let us pray.” Then we started praying. As we prayed, she did not only receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, she also started to prophesy. When she finished, she exclaimed, “What a wonderful experience!” That made nonsense of all the Bible theory she had learnt. After the baptism of the Holy Spirit, God showed her the true position, which hitherto she had not known in a vision. She saw a staircase containing 14 steps and on step No.14 was written, “1994.” God meant for her to be on step No.14 by 1994, but that year, she was on step 3. She said, “Ha, what is this? I do not understand this.” Then suddenly, she heard the sound of a trumpet and before she knew it, rapture had taken place. People were flying. She saw them going but found that she was not going anywhere. She tried to jump, believing that if she jumped, something would carry her up, but she could not go up. She thought it was because she was fat but when she looked at the sky, she saw fatter people going to be with Jesus. She broke down and cried. Suddenly, an angel appeared and showed her a score, which read 22 per cent. For the first time in her life, she knew where she was. She did not need anybody to tell her to sit up. She did a five-day dry fast to catch up with the 11 steps to be in her rightful position.

Where art thou? Do you know where you are in the time-table of the Almighty? Where are you in the spiritual thermometer of the Holy Spirit? Are you a spiritual diabetic patient dancing to unclean praises? In some churches now, you find those leading praise/worship dressed in skimpy things. Unclean praises. Or are you a spiritual malaria patient, running between hot and cold? Today, you are hot and tomorrow you are cold, just like somebody having malaria fever. Or are you spiritually anemic, no spiritual blood, that is, no fire? Or are you suffering from spiritual malnutrition, that is, no word of God inside, no prayer and no holiness? If your case is like that, then you are suffering from spiritual kwashiorkor. Or are you a spiritual masquerade? You are just masquerading. Nobody knows what you are inside. Or are you a spiritual chameleon changing your colour according to the weather or environment? Where art thou?

The spiritual life of many people can be likened to the case of two men who went to a bar and drank beer until they were so drunk that they  forgot that they came to the place by boat. Eventually somebody reminded them that they came there with their boats. They entered into their boats, but because they were drunk they completely forgot that they had tied the rope of their boats to the harbour. They paddled and were surprised that the boats were not moving. There are many people like that whose sins have stagnated their spiritual lives. That is why you see a lot of people prophesying but they manifest very little of other gifts because the other gifts need more concentration and much more seriousness. When such people prophesy, “Thus says the Lord,” and nothing happens, they go home and say, “Sorry, it is because people are not ready to consecrate themselves and pay the price.”

If you are going to listen to human opinion, I tell you, you are never going to be useful to God at all. That is why I am asking the question, “Where art thou?” The story was told of a man who was running ferry-boat across a river. One day, a gentleman entered his boat and as they were chatting, the gentleman asked him if he could swim. He said, “Don’t ask me foolish questions.” The gentleman repeated the question and he said again, “Don’t ask me a foolish question. What kind of stupid question are you asking me?” The man said, “In case this boat capsizes, how will you get out?” He said, “It is not going to capsize.” The next day, he died. Why? He was relying on false confidence instead of listening to what the gentleman was trying to tell him. Sometimes you find somebody who has just commited a sin declaring boldly: “I know that I shall trample upon serpents and scorpions and over every power of the enemy and I know that Jesus has overcome principalities and powers for me. Nothing shall by any means hurt me,” when he is already hurting God Himself. Where art thou?  If you are not able to answer the question, you will become a waste.

The devil is already wasting people. In fact, the greatest demon harassing Nigeria is the demon of wastage. Human beings are wasted. Many things are wasted. A person could decide to waste his own life. A person could inherit wastage and a person could be wasted by powers of darkness. You must refuse to submit yourself to be wasted.

It is a disaster to look at one’s life and discover that one has wasted it. It is a disaster to come to the house of God and find that you are not really doing much and you do not act on what you are being taught. If God gives you a big truth and tells you to follow it and you find it difficult to follow, He will fold His hands and wait for you. He will continue until you finish with that one. That is how God operates. The reason many people are not moving ahead in their spiritual lives is because they sift the messages and choose and pick the ones they want. They forget that the totality of the word of God must be taken seriously whether it is convenient or not. This is why it is an important prayer point when somebody says, “I refuse the activities of the wasters in my life, in the name of Jesus.”

The greatest waste that could happen to a life is for it to be wasted at the end of the age, when you would stand before the judgment throne of God and the Lord would not recognise you even with your Christian name. You may tell Him that you were the chairman of the harvest committee of your church and He would say: “Yes, but that harvest has no value here. I don’t know you.” You may say, “But Lord, I worked miracles.” He would say, “Get away from me, you worker of iniquity.” That is the greatest wastage.

Let us consider the case of Elijah. The raven could not have fed Elijah anywhere else except where the Lord said he should go.  Likewise, the widow would not have appeared anywhere else, except at Zarephath where the Lord commanded him to go. The Lord did not tell Elijah to just be moving about aimlessly like a vagabond. He directed him to the places He wanted him to be. Those were the places of God’s will for him. They were the places of God’s power and provision for him. A person could dance away from the place of God’s will or God’s provisions. God has a place for everyone. He has something He wants you to be. He has somewhere He wants you to be and He has something He wants you to do. It is  a tragedy for a person to decide to go out of where God wants him to be.

Sometimes what God  wants you to do may be completely inconvenient or may not make sense, but you have to do it. This is why the Bible says: “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 14: 12)

Nobody can be truly happy when he is outside the will of God. One of the most horrible things that could happen to a person is when the person is outside where God wants him to be and he does not realize it until he gets to the grave. Such a person would end up living a wasted life. You can never please God anywhere else but where He wants you to be. You may be popular amongst people and anytime you are around, they praise you, but if you were not where He wanted you to be, you would have chosen the second best for your life. Whatever our achievements, we must not miss God’s purpose for our lives. If you feel too big to be where God wants you to be, you would be cheating yourself. But when you are in a place of divine appointment, then you are in the flow of divine miracle. If somebody had told the little boy whose fish and bread the Lord used to feed the multitude when he was living home his provision would feed 5,000 people that day, he would have said, “No. This one is just for me. How can 5,000 feed on this?”

When you are in a place of God’s purpose for your life, you are in a place of power. A person may be working very hard on a very good thing but if he is in the wrong place, he would be wasting his time; and it could be said that he is rebellious. So, the question is: Are you in the right place and in the right condition? Is your present spiritual level where God wants it to be? Namaan wanted to go to Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, but God had no appointment with Abana and Pharpar. Although they were nice rivers, the divine appointment was with the dirty river Jordan. Many of us are heading for Abana and Pharpar when we should go to Jordan.

Are you where God wants you to be? An ancient hymn writer says:

 

“When terrible problems encircle me,
Oh sinner to enable me escape the guilt,
When the devil in his deception
raise me up to the mountain of the world,
Asking me to bow down to him so that earthly               
possessions could be mine,
 

Say, Oh God never fail to call me as
You called Adam in the garden,
Saying, "Where art thou?”
Oh sinner to enable me escape the guilt.

So when the world’s glory wants
to force me break your law
Standing solidly behind me assuring
me that all is well.

Oh Lord, never fail to call me
As you called Adam in the garden,
To enable me to escape the guilt.

Say when my trust is shifting
From God to medicine and idols
When incantations are struggling with
prayers and incantations become
morning meditations

Say, Oh Lord, never fail to call me,
as you called Adam in the garden,
to enable me to escape the guilt.

When I am about to walk in my own
self-will and my heart beat up and down,
When I am neither hot nor cold,

Say, Oh Lord, never fail to call me,
As you called Adam in the garden, to
enable me to escape the guilt.

When I am loose like a dog not hearing
the whistle of the hunter. When all hopes
are lost and sin encircles me, say,

Oh Lord do not fail to call me as You
called Adam in the garden,
to enable me escape the guilt.

Now when all comforters flee, and all
counsellors are far away, when
sadness like wails assails me and make
me to bow,

Oh Lord never fail to call me,
as you call Adam in the garden, to enable me
escape the guilt, etc.

This songwriter listed several things that can remove a person from the conditions and the place where God wants him to be. In his song he prays: “Oh Lord, anytime I am going wrong, call me so that I do not go astray.” It is an important prayer point.

I want you to be sincere with yourself. If you know that the Holy Spirit has been telling you that your present position is not where He wants you to be spiritually and physically, pray the following prayer points aggressively:

 

PRAYER   POINTS

1.  O Lord, if I am out of the place You want me to be, restore me now, in Jesus’ name.

2.  I refuse to live a wasted life, in the name of Jesus.

3.  Oh Lord, help me to be where You want me to be, in Jesus’ name.

4.  Every satanic lion moving about my environment be tamed, in the name of Jesus.

5.  I wipe my name away from any satanic memory, in the name of Jesus.

6.  I soak this month in the blood of Jesus, in Jesus’ name.

7.  Let the divine favour of God envelope my life, in Jesus’ name.

8.  By the divine decree that shall not fail, I receive  answers to all my prayers, in Jesus’ name.

9.  Holy Spirit of the living God, quicken me today into the position the Lord has ordained for me, in the name of Jesus.

10. O Lord, cause me to satisfy every condition that will lead me into the position You have ordained for me, in the name of Jesus.

 

 

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Adult crawlers

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

      

In these last days, many mighty men are falling. Many that were walking before have been converted to crawlers, and those managing to crawl have been completely paralysed. Those who are supposed to be eating bread are drinking milk, and those who were drinking milk before are now taking water. These are the last days and the Bible says that there would be perilous times. The word perilous means difficult to restrain, dangerous, mad, etc. The Bible also says that at this time, evil men shall wax stronger and stronger. They shall be cleverer in their evil design. The Bible says there shall be intense satanic revival because the devil will put his best possible in his work of destruction. As Christians, we cannot afford to sit down and allow the enemy to be having a field day pulling Christians down, paralyzing their prayer lives and throwing away their Bibles in the dream. We must declare to him that enough is enough. Therefore, I would like you to pray these prayer points:

a. I receive the anointing to disgrace every satanic arrow, in the name of Jesus.

b. I refuse to follow the pattern of Samson in my spiritual life, in the name of Jesus.

            When your life becomes the electric current of the Almighty, anyone that touches you for evil purpose shall be electrocuted because it is written: “Touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm.” Pray again like this:

“Every strange hand that has touched my life, wither, in the name of Jesus.”

“Every contrary wind blowing against my life, be silenced permanently, in the name of Jesus.”

            Beloved, because of the seriousness of the period we are in, we are considering what I call “The adult crawlers.” Habakkuk 1:6-10: “For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful: their judgement and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every stronghold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.”

            Our God is a King, and kings are fond of raising armies. Here you can see the kind of army that was raised up by the Lord. It was the kind of army that was not ready to take no for an answer. A part of the passage says, “...they shall deride every stronghold...” meaning that they will laugh at the enemy.

            Men are supposed to be walking while babies crawl. But now, evil powers have converted many men to adult crawlers and have even made many adults to retire and expire. So, if you must walk and not crawl, you must be violent spiritually. As far as God is concerned, no matter your age, as far as you are born again and you are available, He can use you. God is not looking for ability, He is looking for availability.  However, if you do not become violent, the enemy can make you to retire and expire.

            A certain woman was made the principal of one of the best secondary schools in this country. Everything was going on well until one day a student came into her office and asked her if she was the new principal and she said yes. The girl further asked her whether she was aware of what happened to her predecessor and before she could say a word, she said to her, “Let me warn you.  The person who left this place did not pray this sort of prayer you are praying.  You know that you don’t have fire and you are praying this kind of prayer. You have to be very careful.” Before she could stand up to respond, she started feeling dizzy.  The whole office started to turn around in her eyes and she fell on the floor.  By the time she opened her eyes, she found herself on a hospital bed with drips.  All she could remember was that she was in her office talking to a student. After sometime, she was discharged from the hospital and she went back to school. But right from that day, she started seeing a wall anytime she went out. This wall would suddenly appear and she would try to push it away, and she was the only one seeing it. Even when she wanted to cross the road, the wall would appear and she would stay in the middle of the road trying to push it away, thereby constituting herself a nuisance to other road users.  Her enemies wanted to make her retire and expire before her time.  Make the following confession: “I refuse to expire and the enemy will not retire me, in the name of Jesus.” That was the prayer point the woman prayed and the Lord delivered her.  If she did not know what to do, she would be pushing an invisible wall all her life.

            Many years ago, I had the privilege of meeting with a very important person in this country. He came to me crying. I asked what was the matter and he said: “My wife travelled abroad and before she left, she had been warning me about womanizing but I never listened. I wish I had listened to her.” What happened? He picked up a girl at a party, took her home and committed immorality with her. In the middle of the night as he wanted to go and ease himself, he discovered that the girl had her two legs on the wall. He tried to remove the legs but they were so heavy that he could not lift them. Then I asked him what he did when he could not lift the legs off the wall. He said, “I broke down and wept because my wife had warned me.” Nobody needed to tell him that he was already in trouble. Eventually, he went for deliverance and God in His mercy, delivered him. He was lucky that he knew the right place to go. He would have expired and would have been retired.

            There are so many men who have been retired by powers of darkness. The devil does not respect or know gentleness. Unprofitable gentility must go. You must refuse to make your life a playground for your oppressors, in the name of Jesus. Let me share a testimony with you. Three sisters from the eastern part of this country noticed that seven people out of the thirteen living in their family died within three months. Only three of them were born again.  They ran to a man of God to find out what was happening. The man of God prayed and saw a  revelation that there was a tree planted in their compound from where they plucked vegetables for food. But a fetish power was planted underneath the tree. The idea was that anyone who ate its leaves would die. The man of God prayed again to know why the tree was poisonous and the Lord told him that somebody with whom they were fighting over a land did it because he wanted to eliminate everybody so that he would take over the land.  The man of God then asked the Lord what would be done to save the situation.  The Lord told them to pray that the fetish planted under the tree should be uprooted. The other three people who were not born again went to a herbalist who told them that it was because they did not give a thorough burial to their grandfather that people were dying in the family. He told them to do a thorough burial and the problem would stop. They were thoroughly deceived. As they were running around looking for money for the burial, the people of God prayed and the tree dried to the root and the problem stopped. Nobody died again. If they were not born again and had gone to do a thorough burial, they would have ended up strengthening their enemy. Pray like this:  

-           Every satanic material buried for my sake, be roasted by fire, in the name of Jesus.

-           Any power carrying about sacrifices against me, be disgraced by the sacrifice, in the name of Jesus.

 

THE POWER OF LIGHT

            If you will walk and not crawl, you must become violent.  The Bible says that light shines into darkness and darkness cannot comprehend it. Light will always prevail over darkness. Shadows cannot drive light away. When the sun rises, there is no power of darkness that can go against it. So, in a sense, light is more aggressive than darkness. Christians are meant to be militant and the most aggressive force in the whole of the world.  Most often, until you identify what you are fighting and deal with it aggressively, it stares you in the face. Pray this prayer: “I release myself from every demonic ignorance, in the name of Jesus.”

 

WHO CONVERTS ADULTS TO CRAWLERS?

1. SATANIC VESSELS: If God has a duty to perform, He looks for proper vessel to use. Moses was a vessel. Elijah was a vessel and Paul, too, was a vessel. These three men collected spiritual power from on high and transferred them to men. This is why the Bible says, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace.” When a man who preaches the gospel of peace enters a place, his presence ushers in many good things into the place. Likewise the devil has vessels that he sends to people. He puts dangerous weapons in their bodies to use against the children of God. He sends them to cause confusion in the house of God and even in marriages.  Some of the people who come to church are actively working for the devil. For example, gossips, backbiters, liars, etc. They are all working for the devil. I feel sorry for such people because they can receive what is known as friendly fire.  In military terms, friendly fire means an accidental shoot-out against somebody who is in the same camp with you but is looking like an enemy.

            There are satanic vessels planted all over the place. They are sent to homes to break them. A woman brought some materials to us to be burnt.  Among the items was a broom which caught my attention. I asked her what it was used for and she said that before she got born again she was a husband snatcher. When she used the broom to sweep the front of any house she wanted to take over, any woman in charge there would surely leave. These evil vessels are sent to places to cause problems.

            It is a pity for a human being to submit himself to be used as a vessel by the devil. Vessels of the enemy would cause problem somewhere and when the problem starts, they would be the first sympathizers to arrive at the scene. Whereas they were the ones who engineered it. God will save you from every false friend, in Jesus’ name.

            A brother thought that he had friends. He was the only one that had a car among his friends. He did not know that they were not happy. One day he gave them lift and dropped them off one after the other at their various destinations. Unknown to him, one of them put something in the car. As he was passing through a railway crossing and a train was coming, his car stopped suddenly and refused to move. He tried to move the car but the car refused to move, so he put the gear in free position, jumped out and tried to push the car away from the track, still the ca r could not go. Then he called on the God of Elijah.  That was what saved him.

            Some people’s unfriendly friends are sitting on their books, certificates, marriages, promotion letters, academics, career, etc. As long as they sit on these things, they won’t be useful to the owners. Some have friends who would smile at them but when they are not there, they would spoil and backbite them. Such friends are evil vessels and must be dealt with.

            There are many people with witchcraft spirit going round looking for people they would harm. One day, at a popular bus-stop in Lagos, there was a man selling demonic wares. I watched as he advertised them one after the other. He held up a padlock and said, “With this one, you can lock up anybody. If one person’s life does not spoil, another person’s life cannot be good, so you must spoil another’s person’s life for yours to become good.” He went further to say, “Is it your boss in the office that is annoying you, lock him up so that you can take his position...” I thought nobody would buy but I was wrong as one man put his hand up and asked how much it cost and he said N1,500.00. The man paid for the padlock and took it and was asked if there were any rules he must observe concerning it. He brought out another one, an animal horn and after he advertised it, a woman bought it and left. Satanic people selling their wares in a public place.

            Some people notice that at certain periods of the night, they feel as if their heads were swelling up and they would not know what is happening. It is simply because there were  evil vessels around. Some notice that they are being choked on their beds while some notice cold feeling all over their body.  These are signs that there are satanic vessels around and they must be paralysed. Some of these evil vessels transfer demons into the lives of people through  handshakes. We must avoid such evil handshakes. Those who have no fire in them are most affected by these wicked operations of evil vessels. Make the following declaration before you read further: “Woe unto that vessel that the enemy will use against me, in the name of Jesus.” So, anyone who releases himself as a vessel for the enemy to be used will have himself or herself to blame for whatever happens. Evil vessels convert adults to crawlers.

 

2.  REMOTE CONTROLLING POWER.

            There are many satanic satellites monitoring the life of millions. This is why sisters should be very careful what they put on. Anything you attach to your hats or dresses that looks like an eye of a fish must be thoroughly checked out. Most of such things are watchers which monitor people. You have to be very careful. A lot of people are being controlled from afar. Those who are directing their lives are not even living in the same town with them. They are far away in dark places doing all kinds of things. If you see the amount of satanic wickedness that goes on at night, you would be shocked. Many years ago, my family and I lived in the same environment with a man who had many wives and children. One day, we saw one of his wives with a newborn baby and we asked her when she gave birth to the baby and she said it was the previous day. By the third day, we did not see her with the child again so we asked her about her baby and she said, “Daddy has used it.” Used it for what?” we asked, her and she said: “For juju (charms).” There are many people like that around. I know something: “My own name is not in the list of candidates for eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood. My name is not in the list of those under demonic control. What about you? There are lots of remote controlling powers operating in our environment. This is why many people fail at the edge of miracles. At the time such people are supposed to move up, the remote controlling powers press a button like that of a television set and they cannot go forward. 

            Beloved, if you find that as an adult you are crawling instead of walking or running, please, pray the following prayer points with holy madness to release yourself from the grip of satanic vessels.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.         Every remote controlling power, I dash you to pieces, in the name of Jesus.

2.         Every satanic padlock working against my breakthrough, fall down and perish, in the name of Jesus.

3.         Let my prayers provoke angelic violence against my oppressors, in the name of Jesus.

4.         I will become all that God wants me to become, in the name of Jesus.

5.         Every power hindering my advancement, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

6.         I move forward in every area of my life, in the name of Jesus.

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The Hem of His garment

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

 Beloved, before we start this message, I want you to pray the following prayer points:

1.  Oh Lord, let your   anointing fall upon me, in the  name of Jesus.

2.  Every agent of infirmity, fall down and die, in the  name of Jesus.

 

Matthew 9: 20 – 22: “And behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment. For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. (What a positive confession.) But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.”

 

We have another version of that story in Mark 5: 25 – 34: (When you see a story repeated in many places in the Bible, know that it must be very important.) “And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment, for she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be made whole. And straightway, the fountain of her blood was dried up; (the fountain of your sickness will dry up, in Jesus’ name.) And she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague and Jesus immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith had made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.”  

This is a very interesting story from which we can draw a few lessons:

 

Lesson 1: This story is the simplest illustration of faith in the Bible. The woman acted, virtue came out of the Lord and a miracle took place. She felt that she did not need to bother the Lord. She believed that once she was able to touch the hem of His garment, she would be made whole. With this simple child-like faith, she went ahead and touched Him and that was it. We could say that she drew power from Jesus without permission.

 

Lesson 2: Longstanding problems yielded to the power of Jesus Christ. The woman had the problem for good twelve years. Meaning that no matter how long a particular problem has been in place, the hand of the Almighty can go to the foundation and dry it up in one second. This was what happened here. Many who are suffering from long-term sicknesses will be delivered if they can reach out to the Lord in faith.

 

Lesson 3: The doctors can only care but they cannot heal. The woman had been to many doctors, yet she did not receive her healing. She discovered that only Christ could save her. Perhaps your case is like that, as you are reading this message, the Lord shall deliver you, in Jesus’ name. People’s cases get worse when they go to satanic doctors for healing, so avoid it.

 

Lesson 4: It does not matter if you come from behind, as long as you can touch the hem of His garment, you will be healed. You do not have to be in front to get your healing. This woman did not know about Christianity. Her father was not a reverend gentleman, likewise her mother. So, no matter who you are, once you reach out to the Lord in faith, He will touch you.

 

Lesson 5: The virtue of healing comes from only our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Lesson 6: The Lord insisted that the woman made an open confession. Until she made an open confession, her healing was not complete. It was after her confession that Jesus said to her: “Daughter, thy faith hath made you whole.”

 

Lesson 7: The woman got rid of all her obstacles to get to Jesus.

 

Let us consider this last point.

Faith can break down the barrier between a person and the person’s desired miracle. There were many things that would have prevented the woman from receiving her healing but she refused to be stopped. She kept going despite all the obstacles.

 

WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS THAT WOULD HAVE PREVENTED HER

FROM GETTING HER BREAKTHROUGH?

 

1. THE WRONG CROWD: Jesus attracted the wrong kind of people and that could have been a barrier to the woman. Those who followed Jesus were people from Galilee. They were not educated people. They were not fine people. They were not the kind of people you would refer to as civilized. They were a pack of fishermen, poor, sick, despised and ignorant people.

The woman could have gone back because of this and died with her sickness.

The reason many people die in their sicknesses is that they allow the pride in them to make them miss their healing even in the land of healing. They choose whom to listen to by outward appearance. For example, some society men and women would prefer to go to Cathedrals on Sundays instead of a living church where the sound word of God is preached. They prefer to die in Cathedrals or society churches to receiving healing where they think are meant for the low class. Naaman, the captain of the Syrian army would have missed his healing for this reason but God helped him. The woman did not think about the kind of people that were following Jesus.

 

2. FEAR: She could have said that the big crowd would make her nervous. She could have complained about the noise and the pushing as a result of the surge of the crowd. A certain sister had a problem and came to the church. As we began to pray, it was discovered that she had a stone in her stomach which the scanning machines could not detect. After praying for sometime, the stone disappeared and that was the end of her problem. Then after a few months, she stopped coming to church. Her reason was that she preferred a small fellowship where she would be popular among the people. She went to a smaller fellowship where she became popular and the problem came back.

 

3. DISCOURAGEMENT:

She could have said, “Well, I have tried everything but nothing worked. So many men of God have prayed for me and nothing happened. I have gone round all the available places yet the problem remains. Why don’t I just resign to fate and sit down here until death comes?” She did not do that. She did not think about the different doctors she had seen without any answer to her problem. She could have forgotten that sometimes doctors are like apprentice repairers while God is the manufacturer. She did not begin to feel sorry for herself because all her former efforts were fruitless. She could have convinced herself that she had a good reason to be discouraged but she refused to quit. I do not know what your barrier is today but I like to encourage you to get rid of that barrier like blind Bartimaeus who threw away his garment in order to get to Jesus.

 

4. WEAKNESS OF THE BODY: The woman could have said, “I am too weak to push through the crowd to Jesus. I am not going to make any effort.” She said to herself; “I may be weak but I can take one more step.” She gathered herself together and moved, and that was the final step to victory. I pray that you take the final step to victory today, in Jesus’ name.

 

5. FEELING OF UNWORTHINESS: She could have said, “Well, I am not worthy to receive anything from this man. I have committed so many sins. I have never done anything for Him so why should He help me?” She did not allow this feeling to deter her from taking a step of faith.

 

6.PAST FAILURES: She could have said, “Well, others may be receiving from Jesus, but not me because I have called Him before and I did not see Him neither did He answer me.” She believed in the promise of God which says that whosoever will, may come and receive. She did not say, “Well, I don’t know this man and He does not know me, why should I go to Him?” This is why some people write prayer requests to us and include money for the prayer. We always send their money back to them and still pray for them because we do not sell prayers.

 

7. THE FEELING THAT IT WAS ALREADY TOO LATE: She could have said that it was too late to do anything. The truth is that it is never too late with God. The Bible makes us to understand that even in cases when people were already dead, Jesus did not think it was too late. It is never too late until God says it is enough.

 

8. THE ISSUE OF GODFATHER: She did not say, “Well, I don’t have anyone to help me or introduce me to Jesus. This is the obstacle of many people today. She could have said, “I don’t have anybody to carry me through the crowd. I don’t know any pastor, so I cannot get help.” You don’t have to know anybody. You don’t have to see any pastor or any general overseer for Jesus to touch you where you are. This woman did not give up. She found her way to Him and touched Him. She did not waste time looking for somebody to introduce her to Jesus.

 

9. PROCRASTINATION: She did not say, “I know that I will be healed if I touch the Lord, but not now, may be sometime later. I will try tomorrow, not today.” When you make up your mind like that, it acts as a barrier and nothing happens. This has stopped thousands from receiving their healing.

 

Some of these excuses that I have pointed out are the normal barriers that people come across when they come to prayer meetings where God is ready to do anything. You have to break down these roadblocks hindering your miracle. Don’t say, “I have tried everything. Is no use trying again. I am discouraged. I am too weak and tired. I am not worthy.” Don’t make such statements. instead, remove the roadblocks and touch the hem of His garment.

 

Some are going around preaching that God does not heal people again. But I believe in the word of God, which says, “He Himself bore our infirmity and healed our sicknesses (i.e. He carried it on Himself,) the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed. The stripes on the body of Jesus represent our sicknesses, which He had already born. So, what He had already carried should no longer be a problem to us.

 

Touching the hem of His garment and receiving from Him is a practical thing. I want you to release yourself and reach out so that you can touch the hem of his garment. When you touch the hem of His garment, every evil foundation will dry up. Scientists have something they call germ. Many germs are under the control of Satan. Therefore, you must declare war against the spirit of infirmity by the power in the blood of Jesus.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. Let every germ of infirmity die, in the name of Jesus.

2. Let every agent of sickness die, in the name of Jesus.

3. Hidden sicknesses disappear, in the name of Jesus.

4. Every dead organ in my body, receive life, in the name of Jesus.

5. Let my blood be transfused with the blood of Jesus, in Jesus’ name.

6. Any organ of my body present on any evil altar, I recover you now, in the name of Jesus.

7. Every infirmity, come out with your entire root, in the name of Jesus.

8. Every owner of the load of infirmity, carry your load now, in the name of Jesus.

 

 

Holy rebellion

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

  

Beloved, this week, 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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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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The Battle against the wasters

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

The Bible says that no man can enter into the house of a strongman and spoil his goods except he first binds the strongman. This book focuses on the activity of the evil powers that has dealt a deadly blow on the black race in particular and has truncated its developmental process.  We are talking about the power of the wasters. These wasters must be dealt with for they are responsible for destroying God’s plans for individuals. Therefore, I want you to pray the following prayer points before we continue:

1.   Every virtue of my life that the enemy is sitting upon, come to me by fire, in the name of Jesus. 

2.   Anything planted into my life to disgrace me, come out now, in the name of Jesus.

A man of God went to preach in a particular place and as a mark of courtesy, he first of all went to the palace of the chief of the town. He greeted the chief and preached the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to him. The king challenged him by telling him to first assist them solve a problem they had with their river and then they would listen to his message. So, the man of God went to the river and prayed for seven hours. Then the demons in charge of the river came out and protested that they be left alone to accomplish their mission of spoiling the lives of the inhabitants of that place. A dialogue then ensued between the man of God and the demons. The man of God asked them whether they were the ones that got to the location before the river and they said that the river got there before them. So, the man of God said, “Since it is the river that got here before you, then you are strangers and it is written that the strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places.” (Psalms 18:45.)  That was how he succeeded in chasing them away and, of course, he need not preach much for the villagers to accept Christ for they had seen the raw power of God.

Isaiah 54:16: “Behold I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work, and I have created the waster to destroy.”

Verse 17 goes further to say that, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise up against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.”

The spirit of the waster is the most terrible demon that has demoted the black man. It has done and is still doing a lot of havoc. This evil spirit is at work in every African country.

 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO WASTE?

a.     To waste is to use wrongly. For example, pouring diesel into a kerosene lantern.

b.    Not using a thing maximally.

c.     Rendering a useful thing idle.

d.    To render something worthless or to make it useless.

e.     To damage something completely.

Before the spirit of the wasters can take over an environment, it must first of all have grabbed the individuals who make up the inhabitants of the place. One thing that worries my spirit and breaks my heart is the fact that there are so many people around who are not working according to God’s time-table for their lives. You will understand what I am talking about better by asking yourself the following questions: 

i.     Do I really know where my God’s-given prosperity lies?  Some of us spend years and years drawing water and hewing wood. Some of us spend years serving our oppressors. Do you know where your God’s - given prosperity lies? As you are reading this message, do you really know what you should do to prosper?

ii.     What are the things that I am happy doing?

iii.    What are those things in my life that I know can help others to attain their maximum when I do them?

iv.    What are those things that God has planted in my life that have capacity of demand?

v.       What are those things that I can accomplish with minimum assistance?

If you don’t have clear answers to these questions, then the wasters are already in place in your life. That is the truth.

If you don’t know how to pray in anger before, you have to learn to do so to really confront the wasters. Once they are operating in one’s life, crying is not the answer. Blaming others won’t get you anywhere. The only way out is to fight and defeat them.

A lot of men are being wasted everyday because they never find out what God wants them to do. The devil finishes such people completely by making them to engage in activities that will make his job easier, for example, womanizing, smoking, drinking and moving about in the night, and little by little, their lives are wasting away. Such people forget the fact that nobody is getting younger.  Every day, everybody gets older and if by the time you are 40 and you have not discovered the direction you should follow, then you are lost. Some people say that a fool at 40 is a fool forever; but I believe that nowadays, a fool at 21 is a fool forever.

A lot of women’s lives have been wasted. Some women are in the mess they are now because of accidental pregnancy. They may not have been meant for the men they are married to but because the men have put them in the family way, they were compelled to marry them, even though there is no love between them.  Many women are collapsing under this heavy burden now and the enemy is wasting their lives. The same thing goes for some men. That is why I said earlier that if you don’t know how to pray in anger, better learn to do so now.

The powers of the wasters are strong forces working against Africa as a whole. Even if you don’t know the whole of Africa, Nigeria serves as a good specimen. This country is so fertile that any seed you put into the soil will grow. There is virtually nothing that can’t be grown in Nigeria. God has blessed her with virtually everything. She has abundance of minerals. Her pilots have been rated as some of the best in the world. A lot of very good brains are found there. The question is, what is happening to her that has prevented her from being great? The answer is not far-fetched. It is the spirit of the wasters. And this cuts across all black nations. The problem is not leadership. You also get it wrongly by saying it is bad administration or the inability to plan things properly. The problem is the demon of wastage wasting things. But before this demon took over the nations, it had started with individual citizens. This is really sad.

One of the strategies of the wasters is to blind people from recognizing opportunities.  Even when they are right under their nose, they would not see them. These spirits are deceptive in nature. When opportunities are available to people under the manipulation of these powers, they will never have the true picture of what the situation is. The opportunities they are supposed to seize will look shapeless, impossible or sometimes they perceive them as set-backs or failure. The situation will disguise as something else and make people waste their lives by missing opportunities that can never be repeated.

Unfortunately, some of those who should go on three days dry fast and address the wasters believe that their problems are as a result of bad luck. There is no such thing as luck.  A person is either blessed or cursed. What many  people call bad luck is actually the activity of the wasters.

These wasters are the powers that plant spiritual diseases in people’s lives, especially the spirit of impatience. Impatience has made many people to lose great fortunes in life. It operates everywhere - in the banks, post offices, highways, markets, homes and churches. It is commonly said that the patient dog eats the fattest bone. So, if you are going to move permanently from poverty to prosperity, from defeat to victory, from failure to success and from nobody to somebody, you need to deal with the power of the wasters. The other time a professor was jailed for a rather pathetic reason. He appropriated the rice meant for distribution to people in his local government area to himself. When he was being taken to jail, he was protesting that it was a waste for the country to lock up a whole professor in the jail. But his problem really was impatience. He wanted to get rich quickly with minimum effort.

Many think that money is the answer to their problems. How wrong they are. If you don’t deal with the wasters and you are given millions and millions of money, it will vanish in no time because this spirit will ensure that nothing good is done with it. It will waste it. It happened to the prodigal son.

The powers of the wasters make people give up when they have temporary set-backs. And it could be that they are just at the edge of success. They make people think aimlessly. Such people just move through life without a divine purpose. It is unfortunate. There are some people who go through life expecting the worst to happen to them and if anything good comes their way, they say, “Well it is too good to be true,” meaning that they expect failure all the time. These people end up blaming others for their predicaments when they should have faced the demon of the wasters responsible for their problems.

It is unfortunate that many lives are being wasted. The Yorubas have an adage which says that if a man spends 20 years planning to run mad, what time is he going to be released into the market place. Close your eyes and pray this prayer point in boiling anger: “I reject every manifestation of backwardness in my life, in the name of Jesus.”

It is this spirit of the wasters that does not allow people to understand that God has to expose His people to painful training in order to turn them to champions. A champion is somebody who has triumphed over great enemies. David was a champion. There is hardly someone who can become a champion without fighting. But the power of the wasters will not allow people to understand this.

People are said to be great for God because they have won many battles. It is only the fellow who passes examinations that is promoted. God may be testing you at this moment. The test of God for your life is to make you a champion. When God tested Belshazzar, He found him unfit. “Thou hast been weighed in balances, but have been found wanting.” That was the conclusion of the Almighty concerning the life of Belshazzar. So, in a sense, God was telling Belshazzar that he had wasted his life.

All the physical trials that Christians are passing through today are in reality, spiritual strategies for promotion. An untested product from the factory is as unreliable as the weather. But when an item is tested, it can be used and you can also have guarantee on it. Great spiritual assignments are reserved for vessels that do not break under trial.  So, any man or woman who is looking at his or her problems from beneath will be boxed to a corner by those problems. But the man who gauges his problems from God’s position, will see all his problems as opportunities to record God’s testimony. Peter when he was looking at the storm from the position of Christ, remained afloat, but when he looked at it from beneath, he sank. There are many of us who are busy wasting our time throwing stones at Moses, complaining over very little discomforts instead of forging ahead.

What do I mean by stoning Moses? By stoning Moses, I mean blaming others for our problems. Some people are in the habit of heaping blames on their pastors or their former churches instead of realizing that they still have battles to fight. Your destiny is in your hands. Avoid looking for excuses for your present predicament. Rise up and challenge the spirit of the wasters and you will become a champion.

When the powers of the wasters are working in people’s lives, carrying out God’s assignments becomes difficult for them. They live aimless lives - a life of spiritual procrastination. Time has no friend. A lot of people are wasting time.  Many people who put a lot of money into very useless projects are wasting money.  The man, who has money today, becomes poor overnight because of the spirit of the wasters.

Somebody wrote me a letter which made me really sad. In the letter, she said she invested all her money on something that somebody told her was hot cake in a particular country only for her to get there and find out that she had sunk all her money on what was not needed there at all. She never prayed before embarking on the business. She ended up wasting all her resources.

A lot of families are being wasted. It is the waster that circulates a woman from one husband to the other and also circulates a man from one wife to another.  Somebody came to me and said that she wanted to marry. I asked her whether she had found God’s chosen one for her and she said yes. The man she wanted to marry was 57 years old while she was 48. She further told me that the man had married five times and all the wives were dead. Unfortunately, the sister could not see that the man had the spirit of the wasters working on him.

The Israelites wasted all the opportunities to hear the Lord by themselves. Esau wasted all his opportunities. If the powers of the wasters were to be working on blind Bartimaeus, he would have missed his healing. But he refused to lose the opportunity.

Some are wasting their talents. They are using them to glorify the devil.  Some are even burying theirs. There are many things that could get a Christian to hell fire but one which is clear in the Bible, is the burying of one’s talent. The person will become like the unprofitable steward who said, “You gave me one talent and since I did not see you and because I was afraid, and know that you wanted to reap where you did not sow, I buried it.” The master had no  other option but to throw him into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Some people come to the house of God just to sit down, warm the benches and go away in spite of the great talents that they have. God is recording these wasted talents against them and they have to give an account of them.

Satan can waste a person’s health by keeping the person on a job that wastes his or her health, energy and abilities. A person’s blessing, properties and spiritual power can be wasted too. Beloved, we really need to pray hard. The power of the wasters can make people work like elephants but eat like rats.

Cain was a wasted man. Although Samson’s birth was prophesied by angels unfortunately, he was a wasted man. Somebody like Goliath was a waste. In spite of his threats against the Israelites for forty days, he only succeeded in promoting David.

You can waste anything but the most painful thing to waste is your life. You can put a halt to the activities of the wasters now.

Before you were born, God had designed a purpose for you. If you are not fulfilling that purpose, your life is in danger. So, you really have to decide to use your life to fulfil divine purpose. May be you are winning the race nobody asked you to run or you are effectively doing the wrong thing, you better be careful. The fact that what you are doing is good does not mean that it is right. It is said that a good idea does not necessarily mean it is God's idea. So when a person’s life is not fulfilling the divine purpose, the person is wasting his life.

We have a lot of wasted lives around. You have an opportunity now to fight back with all the powers that you have. The Psalmist did not want his life to be wasted so he prayed radical prayers. He prayed violent prayers. He prayed red hot prayers. He prayed calling the thunder and lightening of God to strike his enemies. He prayed that the ground should open up and swallow his enemies. He prayed that the teeth of the ungodly should be crushed. He got really violent. You too have that power. You only need to exercise it in faith and pray against the wasters.

Now, look at yourself: are you walking in God’s plan for your life? He has designed specific ways for us to follow. The fact that God has designed the way you should follow means that if you do not walk therein, no other path can bring  you blessing. This is the truth.

 There are so many of God’s children roaming about the streets now. They cannot be blessed until they run back to the Saviour. Once God has decided that this is what you should be and in one way or the other, you depart from it, you have opened the door for the wasters.

A lot of pastors have been wasted. A lot of elders have been wasted. A lot of deacons and deaconesses have been wasted and many more are still being wasted. When they should be apostles to the nation, they are still busy distributing biscuits in one church or the other. Some women whom God has promoted are still busy downgrading themselves by being the fifth or the tenth wife of somebody somewhere. And God is lamenting about such lives for failing to do what He has purposed for them.

Today is the day when you really have to break yourself loose from the wasters. So, take a hard look at your life. What things of lasting value have you done so far for Jesus? He is saying, “I spent so many years for you, but how many minutes have you spent for me?” "I suffered a lot for you, what have you done for me?” Think about it. If as you are getting older, you look back and  really cannot put your finger on something you can say that you have done for the Lord, something that  people can remember and glorify the Lord because of you, then your life is being wasted.  Maybe all you can point to is that you have become a chief not knowing that by calling yourself a chief you are demoting yourself. How can the children of the Most high God be calling themselves chiefs? It is a demotion.

Do you want your life to be like that of a certain sister who died and all that could be said of her was that she married 7 husbands, had 15 children, 2 for each of them and nobody could tell the father of the last child. Some funny priest would say, “Thank God for her life. She has gone to heaven.” She did not go to heaven, she was wasted.

A lot of pastors are wasting themselves like Gehazi. They are running after gifts and money. They run after people who will give them things. They are operating with the anointing of Gehazi. This will not get anybody anywhere. 

Beloved, you have one life to live and it is on a one-way traffic. There is no reverse journey. It is like an arrow that has been fired from somewhere. It is going somewhere and it is not coming back. By the time your life ends, what is going to be written in the Book of life about you? Will it be said that you spent your life fruitfully or that you wasted it? 

One man of God said that there are two ways people pass away: they either die or they are killed. Those who dead are the ones who fulfill God’s purpose for their lives. Conversely, those who are killed are those who did not fulfill God’s purpose for their lives.

We need to battle against the wasters. This is what is affecting Africans as a whole. When there is a witch in the family of twenty and the witch wants to eat up eighteen people within two years, she will first of all eat up all the bright ones. Anyone who wants to be bright gets attacked by the witch. Any child that is intelligent would be attacked by the wasters. If you see any child that is seriously sick in school, check, he must be a bright person. Such children usually see strange things that other people around them cannot see. So, when the useful ones are finished, who will help the others?

A lot of people who could benefit our country now are busy cleaning streets and washing gutters in London and America. Medical doctors have been converted to security guards in America. African dentists are washing plates. In Saudi-Arabia, top African professors are working under people who are not qualified to be their students because they want money. Where are we going? This is a waste which first of all started with individual lives.

People are running away from the farms. They want to work in the cities and when they get to the city and discover that there are no jobs, they take to armed robbery. God forbid that somebody will read this book and the wasters will still be working in his life. Review your life. Is your life not being wasted as it is now? If it is, then you need to reverse the trend.

If God says you are to be a blessing to this nation and it has not been so, it is simply because you have been doing the wrong thing, succumbing to the powers of the wasters. You must refuse to be wasted because God did not create you to be wasted.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.      I refuse to be wasted, in the name of Jesus.

2.    Every waster of my prosperity, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

3.    Every aggression against my prosperity, be paralysed, in the name of Jesus.

4.    My blessings shall not stagnate, in the name of Jesus.

5.    I reject weak financial breakthrough. I claim big financial breakthrough, in Jesus’ name.

6.    Every hidden devourer, be bound, in the name of Jesus.

7.    I release myself from every evil family pattern of poverty, in the name of Jesus.

8.    All my prosperity on every evil altar, I withdraw you now, in the name of Jesus.

9.    Every spirit of leaking pockets, come out with all                 your roots by fire, in Jesus’ name.

10.   Every prosperity paralysis from household wickedness, come out with all your roots by fire, in Jesus’ name.

11.   Every clever devourer, come out with all your roots, in Jesus’ name.

12.   Every spirit of fragmented life, come out with all your roots, in Jesus’ name.

13.   Every spirit of debt, come out with all your roots, in Jesus’ name.

14.   Every handshake of poverty, come out with all your roots, in Jesus’ name.

15.   Every financial paralysis by witchcraft, come out with all your roots, in Jesus’ name.

16.   Begin to tell the Lord the type of prosperity that you want and He will give it to you, in Jesus' name.

17.     Every satanic insect prepared against me, be dissolved by fire, in the name of Jesus.

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The private enemy

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Beloved, as you read this week’s message which is entitled “The private enemy,” believe the Lord for outstanding breakthroughs. The first thing you need do is to address yourself because the greatest hindrance to God’s touch upon you is not the devil or household wickedness. When the prodigal son talked to himself, then he began to make progress. You will call your name and say, “Whatever will disturb you as you read this message, let it go so that you can be blessed, in the name of Jesus.”

 2 Corinthians 12:7: “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” That was Paul talking. The messenger of satan was assigned against this man of God.

Matthew 12: 43: “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out, and when he is come he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. (What is he calling his house are human beings.) “Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.” (His going to gather more wicked spirits means that spirits operates on different levels of wickedness).

Several years ago, a man who was practically at the point of death came to me for prayers. As he came in and sat down, I could see in the spirit a lady waiting outside the door carrying a small coffin. So, I said, “My brother, somebody followed you here.”  He said, “No. I came alone.” I could see that he did not understand so I then started to describe the lady carrying the coffin and he said, “Yes. That description fits a former girlfriend of mine whom I jilted and she promised to deal with me.” I started to pray but the Holy Spirit said, “Don’t worry yourself. This one is already gone.” Then, I asked him why he jilted the girl and he said it was because his parents said he must not marry from the girl’s town. I also asked him why she was so angry and he said it was because she aborted five pregnancies by him and he still did not marry her. So, I asked him to go. All those took place on a Saturday and by the following Tuesday, he was dead, destroyed by a private enemy who was following him about.

The messenger of satan was specifically assigned to Paul and he was following him about. I want you to understand that when evil spirits are against a person, they can operate both within and without. Some spirits within a person could be telling the  person to go and die, jump in the lagoon, drink poison, kill yourself, twist the books, tell lies, etc. Just as some operate inside, some operate from the outside. It is not for an evil spirit to take over the life of a Christian who lives the kind of life God wants him to live. If however some evil spirits have found their ways inside your life, you need to expel them. With the external ones, you fight and resist them.

Ignorance can be a very terrible thing. Many years ago, when I was studying for my degree overseas, a Cameroonian classmate of mine had malaria-fever. The white doctor who had never seen a case of malaria tested him and didn’t know what was wrong but we the Africans around, by just looking at him, knew what was wrong and we told the doctor that it was malaria, that he should give him some chloroquine.  But the doctor said, “No. We can’t just give anybody drugs like that. The man’s case got really bad. They took his blood, sent it to a laboratory to detect what was wrong. The result took a long time coming and the man’s condition was deteriorating so we Africans had a meeting and decided to carry out a protest at the hospital. We told them we would set the hospital on fire if they allowed the boy to die because we were sure that he had malaria. The doctor then asked us to sign an undertaking that if anything went wrong we would be held responsible. The fifty of us signed, and gave him the drug. After about half an hour, he began to sweat and three days later, he was discharged from the hospital. The ignorance of the doctors would have killed the man. So, if physical ignorance can be so bad, the spiritual one is worse.

No battle has ever been won with just a strong defence. If the only thing you want to do is to defend yourself, you can never win. Nobody has ever won a battle that way. Any boxer in the ring that is only defending will end up being knocked out. You cannot outgrow spiritual warfare. You must learn to fight so that at the end of everything, you can say I have fought a good fight.

The enemy ensures that failure takes root in a person’s life but failure cannot take root in your life without your permission. If you say you don’t want to fail then you won’t fail. The fact that you are even struggling now shows that you have not been defeated yet. A defeated person cannot do anything.

Spiritual warfare normally surrounds the birth of a miracle. Whether you like it or not, you are already part of that battle. You cannot be neutral. Jesus said, ‘He who is not with me is against me.” It doesn’t matter whether your name is John or Joseph, if you are not with Jesus, you are against Him. He also said, “He that does not gather with me scatters.” So, we are the territory the enemy is fighting over. The enemy has designed his own programme of action. If he could put six thousand demons inside just one man it doesn’t cost him anything to assign a demon to anybody who is not serious. One way or the other, especially in this part of the world, there is a personal demon assigned to you by the devil. The job of that spirit is to   derail and disturb you.  This personal demon causes a lot of strife, derails and distorts. When two people are quarrelling, it is their private enemy that would be telling them not to agree. And when they start to fight the two assigned demons will start laughing. So, the devil has given personal assignment to specific demons to harass and afflict people.

I know a person who took an examination seven times before he could pass it. The first time, somebody in the examination hall would cheat and the examination would be cancelled. The second time, some students beat up the invigilator so again everybody was failed. The third time, the examination question papers were found in the bag of one of the students and because of that everything was cancelled and so on and so forth. There was a demon assigned to that brother. The purpose of the demon was to ensure that he did not pass that examination. So, anywhere he went, the demon would cause confusion. Paul had a personal demon assigned against him. He was not demon-possessed. The mission of the demon was not to possess Paul but to kill him and cut short his ministry. Therefore, everywhere Paul went to preach there was always an uproar and chaos. Many times he had to be smuggled out of a place.

You may wonder why Paul was under constant harassment. It could not be because of the sermons he preached. If you study your Bible very well you would find that somebody like Peter preached harder messages but he was not harassed like Paul. In fact, Peter took his wife along to wherever he went to preach but if Paul tried that,  they would first of all kill that wife before they descended on him. He was not safe let alone having a wife around.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Many so-called prophets deceive people who go to them for advice. Somebody may go to them and after they have prayed for the person, they would tell him that he is a witch, or that he has familiar spirit because they could see the person surrounded by witches or familiar spirits. Most times they actually receive correct visions but the problem is that they cannot really discern the correct situation. If somebody is being attacked by witchcraft and is completely surrounded by witches, it does not mean that  the fellow is a witch. So instead of praying to release the person from the grip of witches, the person is handled as if he is a witch. If for example, you employ a person like that as a house help, although the person is not a witch but because that person is under serious attack of witchcraft, there would always be traffic with these kinds of spirits in your house.

These demons that are specifically assigned to people may have friends or playmates who are more wicked. They would invite these more wicked spirits to come and help them to harass those they have been assigned to. They hunt people like a hunter’s dog. They know all our weaknesses. They know what it takes to upset you and the greatest attack of these powers happens when you are at the edge of a great breakthrough. The attacks could become unbearable especially when you are on your way to achieving greater things for the Lord.

They can destroy things. They can spoil machines and ruin things just to disgrace somebody. I used to have a friend who was a very intelligent pilot. He was highly respected and had excellent records. People kept recommending him for jobs until the President of his country got to know about him. He had been flying for eleven years with excellent performance but the only day that the President said he should fly him, this pilot made terrible mistakes. Immediately he landed, the President said to him, “You must never show up to me again.” He broke down and cried. His personal-assigned demon had seen to it that he was finished. If such a demon follows you to the examination hall, or on your business trip, you will fail. If it follows you in your ministry, it would spell failure. So, what you should do is deal with it. At this point, I want you to close your eyes and pray the following prayer point: “Every private demon harassing my life, die, in the name of Jesus.”

A certain girl was convulsing and fainting regularly, so her mother ran to a prophet for assistance. Although the prophet boasted before he got to the woman’s house; when he got there and saw the girl, they recognised each other. The girl was the head of their team in the spirit world. The girl said to him, “You are crazy. What are you doing here. Didn’t you know I am the one here?” The prophet prostrated and begged the girl and the girl said, “I have been assigned to destroy this family and I am completing my assignment tonight. Run out of here.” The girl’s parents were amazed when they saw the prophet running away. He was a fake prophet.

This private demon messes up the husbands of sisters and the wives of brothers. It comes from the pit of hell and stays with a person 24 hours a day. That is why Paul calls it “The messenger of satan.” The original meaning of the word ‘messenger’ is also used for angels. People who have a deep feeling that there is something out there which knows more about them and knows what it takes to shut them down will understand this better. This demon uses your weak points to attack you. Paul was a man of faith, yet this thing was harassing him. It is the reason some people have to fight so hard before they achieve any measure of success. Personally-assigned demons cause people to fail at the edge of great success. It operates through the spirit of almost-there in such lives.

Moses was a man of God who had a sense of his destiny even at a young age. He knew that one day he would deliver his people from bondage. Though he grew up in the palace of Pharaoh, he did not lose sight of that. In anger, he grabbed an Egyptian and killed him to save a fellow Israelite. He tried to fulfill his destiny by his own power but he failed and had to run away. All that while, that tiny personally- assigned demon of anger was following him about. While Moses was calling fire on Mount Sinai, this demon of anger stood afar off watching him. But when he got to the edge of the promised land, the demon now moved in. Moses, after eighty years of moving with God, of seeing the kind of signs and wonders that modern men would see and faint, his personally-assigned demon of anger came in and robbed him of his breakthrough. The assignment of the demon was to make that Moses did not reach the promised land and he succeeded. God said to Moses, “Because you failed to sanctify me before this people, you shall see the promised land with your eyes but shall not enter therein.” Moses is actually the greatest example of a victim of the spirit of almost-there. From that time until Moses died we did not read that Moses got angry again. The demon had finished its assignment and was gone. I pray that you will not be derailed, in Jesus’ name.

Many people are operating below their capacity. Many know that they are working but it seems as if they are not because at the end of the day, they get little or no result. Sometimes some people who are troubled by private enemies go for deliverance and do all sorts of things to eject evil spirits from their lives not knowing that the enemy is fighting from outside. When you say, “Father in the name of Jesus,” the demon runs far away and waits till the day that you are weak and then comes back. No wonder the  Bible says, “If you faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is little.” This is why the beneficial potentials of so many have been dragged to the cemetery.

 

These personally-assigned spirits do various works:

1. They invite evil visitors.

2. They magnetize bad aura around you. You just notice that it is only the wrong people who come  towards you. As a businessman, only the wrong customers would be coming to your shop. These evil spirits are the ones inviting them.

3. They divert good things away from people. When a good thing is coming to a person, they scare it away.

4. They cause unpardonable mistakes. For example, if you are asked to answer three questions out of four in an examination, they will make sure that you see and believe that you were asked to answer only one. And when you come out, you would say that the examination was very easy only to realise later that you have committed a serious blunder.

5. They generate strife against people. This explains why some people notice that they are always harassed anywhere they go, even by people who have never seen them before.

6. They sponsor internal supermarket in the lives of  people.  In such cases, you have demons buying and selling in the person’s life and these             personally-assigned demons would be the advertising agents.

7. They cause internal division. They cause strife and problems in the family.

8. They invite sicknesses.

9. They create ladders for attacks.

10.       They do what we call pregnancy conversion. They turn the baby inside the womb to something else.

11.       They sponsor sudden violent deaths.

12.       They communicate to your external enemies and give them information about your lives.

13.       They act as spiritual spies by reporting your activities.

14.       They know your history, geo-graphy, and chemistry and are able to use them against you.

15.       They specialize in attacking organs of the body e.g. the kidney, blood, etc.

16.       They are spiritual smugglers. They pass out a person’s virtues.

17.       They assist internal termites, which eat up people inside.

When they create these problems, their victims get confused and won’t know what to do. There was a brother who used to think that the issue of demonic attacks was all a joke until one day, one of the members of his staff who did not know that a secret camera was installed in his office went in there at night took off her cloths, took a cock from her bag, cut off its head with her hands and poured the blood on his table  and began to rain incantations on it. She did not know that the security men were watching her. They allowed her to finish and got her arrested there with the cock and the blood in the brother’s office. They held her there until morning. When the brother came he almost fainted. He still did not believe them until they showed him the film and he saw the activities that took place in his office. He came and told me that he wanted to change his office. But I told him that changing his office was not the solution because certain things have been planted. This kind of activity is sponsored by personal private enemies.

18.       They kill, steal, and destroy destinies.

19.       They can share the lives of two or more persons, that is, they can harass two persons together. 

20.       They are responsible for the spirit of error.

The private enemy is a powerful spirit.  When somebody who is regarded as a mature believer all of a sudden commits an unbelievable sin, this demon is at work. A long time ago, there was a certain woman of God who was very serious with the Lord. Before her husband who was also a man of God arrived at a crusade, she was already there doing praise/worship, and miracles would be happening. All of a sudden, the woman began to sleep with the landlord of their apartment and shortly after, we heard that she had gone on pilgrimage to Mecca and had become an Alhaja. A demon was assigned to her to derail her. When you see somebody who every time he does something bad would say, “I don’t know what made me do that,” he is being directed by a private enemy in the form of the spirit of error. When a person falls into the same spiritual trap twice, it is the work of the spirit of error. This same spirit makes somebody who experiences financial breakthrough to refuse to pay his tithe so that  poverty can come back and he would start to regret. When he gets another breakthrough, he would repeat the same mistake. It is the spirit of error sponsored by these powers. If you have got to the stage where the word of God no longer has any effect on you, or you know that something is bad and you understand the effect it will have on your life, destiny and your calling yet something makes you to go ahead and do it, it is the spirit of error. When you go ahead to commit the same mistakes you saw other people make, you have a personal private demon working against you. There are some people who observe the times to obtain information, its a spirit of error encouraged by this private devil. Some people are still pressing sand in order to know the future- spirit of error. Some are still chanting the names of angels that do not exist- spirit of error.

In the open market, there are people selling books called ‘Special use of the Psalms.”  They tell people to be chanting some strange names after reading the book. It is the spirit of error. After all, the Bible says, “Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image nor the likeness of anything whether it is in the heaven above or in the earth below and don’t bow down to them.” Any form of respect to any image is spirit of error. Any prayer session where a male is washing the naked body of an adult female is a spirit of error, sponsored by this private demon. Any organization where they are sitting or standing on the Bible is a spirit of error.

A long time ago, I wanted to pray for a woman and I saw that she had tied her Bible with a string, so I asked: “Madam, why did you tie your Bible instead of reading it?” She said, “I am mother in Israel.” I told her it was wrong to tie the Bible that is the spirit of error. Any teaching that supports reincarnation is a spirit of error. Any prayer that involves rubbing somebody’s body with eggs or offering sacrifices, is the spirit of error. Any organization that meets only in the night is the spirit of error. Any association that advocates polygamy is the spirit of error; baptism of the dead, prayer at the cemetery, praying to God with flowers or perfumed water is the spirit of error. These private demons push people to do these things.

Sometimes when you tell some people what the Lord said they should do, they would tell you that what you are saying is too simple to be true. They don’t want the simplicity of the gospel. They want something else added to it. Keeping or decorating any furniture in white colour specially for God in your house is a spirit of error. Any scraping of hair and living a little bit in the centre in the name of religion is the spirit of error. Praying naked and facing the East or West is still the spirit of error.

Why is the enemy interested in confusing people?

The private demon knows that once he pushes a person into the line of error and he begins to make mistakes, God will turn His face away from the person. Then they are able to deal with the person. Pray the following prayer point:

“Any private demon assigned against my family, I bury you today, in the name of Jesus.”

What are the factors that determine whether a private enemy will leave you alone or continue to follow you?

These powers can only prosper depending on certain factors:

1. Your level of secret sins: As far as you are cleverly committing your secret sins, the private demon assigned against you will be strong against you. The Bible says, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” That sin that you are covering up which you don’t want anybody to know will make your private demon to get stronger against you. A lady told me she was raped and I asked her how. After her explanations, I said, “A person picked you in his car and diverted his journey from where you were going, you did not object. He stopped at the market to buy things, you did not jump out. He drove you to his house and was cooking food, you did not open the door and run away, how can you now say that you were raped, it is not possible.” “You raped yourself,” I concluded. Cleverly concealed sins strengthen the enemy against people. If the Lord opens your eyes to see the laboratory of the hearts of men, you would be amazed what some people are thinking about. If for example you know that I have power to read what is going on in your mind, I am sure you will run away from me. When you naked a woman or man in the laboratory of your heart, the private demon sees that. So don’t be fooled by thinking that nobody sees you.

2. Your kind of family background: For example, if your father is a herbalist and your mother the chief priestess of the water spirit in your village and your uncle is the one that sacrifices slaves to demons, then with that kind of background the enemy would be fully strengthened. That is why we pray at MFM that every seed of witchcraft in my foundation should die. The fact that you ignored it and you are so naïve to believe that those things will not affect you does not prevent them from working against  you. When they gave birth to you and named you ‘Osotunde’ which means that a wizard has just arrived, they have simply handed you over. You don’t expect  your battle to be as easy as the battle of somebody whose father was a catechist in the church and the mother a prophetess. No, your battle would be different.

3. Consultation with dark powers: The private enemy will be strengthened by any previous consultation with dark powers unless you sit down, take your biro and paper, write down all the wrong places you went to seek solution and begin to break any connection between you and them one by one. Cancel their evil connection and destroy their powers.

When I graduated from the university with a First Class degree, somebody in my family came to me and said, “You are the first person to achieve this in our family and we don’t want witches to eat you up. We have to fortify you.” I told him I was not going anywhere, that the word of God was powerful enough for me. This person started to cry. He cried bitterly one day and I decided to follow him. When we got to the herbalist, he was sitting on one old dirty bench, and had a big plaster on his hand. He was eating yam with salt and palm oil. The whole of the place was dusty. I had my New Testament Bible in my pocket. We stared at each other. I was praying seriously within me that: “Oh Lord, send this man that brought me here out, so I can deal with this herbalist.” All of a sudden, the man who brought me asked for the toilet to ease himself. When he left, I faced the herbalist and said, “Mr man, look at me straight in the eyes. You say you want to fortify me and you cannot even afford to buy one egg to eat your yam. Look at the whole of the place you are living in, if you are so powerful, why can’t you make yourself live in a better condition? Look at your clothes. You are just deceiving yourself and will die unless you surrender yourself to Jesus.” The man got annoyed but before I could continue, the man who brought me came back so I kept quiet. The herbalist looked at the man who brought me and said, “This man is very stubborn, get him out of this place.” So, we got out and the man started to cry again.  If you have been fortified like that I pray the Holy Spirit will de-fortify you today, in Jesus’ name. Such fortification will only strengthen the enemy because anywhere you go you would be recognized as somebody who had received favour from them in the past. The devil has no free gift. He operates a primitive trade by barter

4. The spiritual quality of your past sex partners: You might do well by writing down the names of all those you have slept with and cancel every ungodly soul-tie between you and them because a person who has slept with a goat is different from a person who has slept with a serpent. Many men who have gone to the prostitutes were just sleeping with serpents. Many are sleeping with crocodiles and they don’t know. I pray that the Lord will deliver you, in Jesus’ name.

5. Your potential usefulness in the kingdom of God: If the devil sees that you are potentially useful to the kingdom of God he would try and fight you. It is recorded in history that Jerusalem was invaded four hundred times. Why was the invasion of Jerusalem that hot?  It is because Jerusalem has a prophetic calling. So, if you have a Jerusalem in your life, it would be hotly contested by the enemy.

6. Your willingness to be free from the activities and powers of this private enemy.

        Sometime ago, a man came to one of our meetings. His problem was that he had twenty- seven birds always running after him. He was the only one seeing them and sometimes the birds would defecate on his face and because of that he was always cleaning his face and people thought he had eye problem. After the first prayer point, twenty-four of them disappeared and it remained only three. Then he came to me that I should help him deal with the three and I said, “Let us pray.” As I closed my eyes, the Holy Spirit said, “Don’t waste your time. Ask him the last time he slept with a woman who is not his wife.” I said, “Sir, before we pray against these birds, can you tell me the last time you committed immorality. Looking away from me, he said, “Last week.” I told him that if he did not repent, the twenty four birds that had left would go and bring seven more each, plus the remaining three and all of them would now be running after him. He said he was sorry and I said, “It’s not me. Ask the Lord to forgive you.” A private demon was in charge of his life. It is the private demon that pushes a person who has received deliverance to commit sin again so that the problems will come back.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   Sing the following song three times:

Let God arise and His enemies be scattered.

Let God arise and His enemies be scattered.

Let God arise and His enemies be scattered.

Let God, let God, arise.

2.   O God, arise and let my enemies be scattered, in Jesus' name.

3.  O God, arise and let every satanic messenger scatter, in the name of Jesus.

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While men slept

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Beloved, before we go into our message for this week, I would like you to pray this prayer point: “Anything that is making me powerless in the spiritual world, Lord Jesus, take it out of my life, in Jesus’ name.” Matthew 13:25:“But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.”

The greatest danger that a man faces in the spiritual world is what happens when he sleeps.  The Bible divides sleep into two: Physical sleep and Spiritual sleep. Every normal person must engage in physical sleep to allow the body rest in order to be alive, and also to enable the body to be in constant continuous growth. Everybody sleeps physically, but not everyone sleeps spiritually. God Himself in His infinite wisdom has decided that a man should dream during his sleep. Dreams are therefore important in human life. However, some people’s spiritual sleep may be so deep that they forget everything they see in their dreams. There is danger in not remembering what you dream about. Number one danger is that you miss God’s messages to you. God may be speaking to you through dreams, but when you wake up you don’t remember them.

  Number 2 danger: All the enemies’ activities that you should have seen in the dream and acted upon when you wake up are forgotten. Therefore, forgetting dreams always is a very serious spiritual disease. Moreso, many spiritual defeats happen in people’s dreams. It is the manifestation of these dreams that happens in real life.

   A sister had a dream when she was about eight years old. In that dream somebody said, “I want to go to the toilet.” The girl said, “Go to the toilet now.” Then the person said, “Your head is the toilet, your head is the toilet.” And the person began to defecate on her head, and at about 35 years of age, she was still not married. She said that something  within always told her to reject suitors. So, what is manifesting now in her life was planted through dreams. If she had learnt a little bit about spiritual warfare, she would have cancelled it right from then and her life would not have been affected. Some people dreamt that when they got to their offices they found that they were locked and somebody gave them letters. Somebody was forcefully fed in the dream and in real life, the person began to pass bloody stool. So many Christians suffer as a result of ignorance of what to do about the devil’s strategy. And many are falling prey to the tricks and devices of the devil in their dreams. Many people too, through their dreams have been made to believe lies and errors. The enemy has used dreams and spiritual slumber to confuse many people in marriage and in business. They would say, “I saw so so person in the dream doing business with me.” They now unite with the person, but are still not making any progress. These have happened to so many people in financial and marital matters.

What the devil plants in the lives of people in their dreams can be likened to weeds. There is always a proper plant in place before weeds come. The problem with weeds is that they compete with the real plant. They disturb the real plant, and can kill it if they are carrying diseases. These diseases can be transferred to the real plant.

 

WHAT IS A DREAM?

   A dream is generally a revelation or vision of the activities going on in the spiritual world. A dream happens when a man is sleeping and his spirit is alive. It is a scene of the occurrences in the spiritual realm. 

 

DIFFERENT FORMS OF DREAMS

A dream may come as an activity- a situation whereby the dreamer is involved; he may see himself selling certain things. That is dream by activity.

A dream may come as an event: when the dreamer is an observer, looking at what is happening. The person is just a spectator. It may be an event that has occurred or is about to occur.

Any dream that you have and you always see yourself when you were a small child, or right where you were born, it is because something has been buried there for your sake. There is a magnet in that place, magnetizing you to the place and that bondage must break.

A dream may come as a message for you to other people or as a direct message to you. A dream may come as an attack: You see yourself fighting with some people or some people are fighting you.

A certain sister had a dream where she saw somebody who came with a big stick to fight her. The sister said to the person, “I command you, in the name of Jesus, begin to use that your stick on your own head.” And the person began to use the stick on his head. She was able to do that because she understood the strategy and trick of the enemy.

Many people are feeding their bodies. Some even change the colour of their skin, some have their bath as many times as possible in a day just because they are looking after the body but they neglect the spirit. They spend time and other resources just looking after the body alone the one that becomes dust to dust and that may not live for more than 100 years and abandon their spirit which is eternal.

This is the reason many people are spiritually weak in their sleep. If you don’t give your spirit food, it would not be able to fight when the battle comes. If your heart is not right with God and you are still battling with sin, your spirit will be weak.  This is why people get defeated. It is good for you to look after your body, but it is better to look after your spirit. A good example of what I am trying to say is, somebody who spends two hundred naira to buy a bangle but cannot spend ten naira to buy a book on how to receive the Holy Spirit, yet the person does not have the Holy Spirit. Such a person is looking after the body. The bangle will rot away, but the spirit remains. If you look after your spirit properly, it will look after you. If you abandon it and you don’t care, on the day when snakes and crocodiles come, it would run away; the snakes and the crocodiles would run after that spirit and bite it.

 

Dreams come from three sources:

1. It could be from God. God relates to man through dreams. Genesis 37:3-11: “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age and he made him a coat of many colours. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph dreamed a dream and he told it his brethren and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed. For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field and lo, my sheaf arose and also stood upright and behold your sheaves stood round about and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us?  Or shall thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream and told it his brethren and said, Behold I have dreamed a dream more and behold the sun and the moon and eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father and to his brethren and his father rebuked him and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed?” Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him, but his father observed the saying?” So, God related to Joseph and gave him the programme of his life through dreams.

   Numbers 12:6: (We are establishing the fact that God speaks to people through dreams). “And he said, Hear now my words, if there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dream.” The popular Joel 2:28: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.” (This is the same thing as in Acts of Apostles 2:17). Jeremiah 23:28: “The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream, and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? Saith the Lord.” Matthew 2:12:, “And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.” God warned the three wise men in a dream not to return to Herod. So, God can relate to you through dreams. Why does God do that?

God relates to man through dreams in order to teach him and to warn him of impending danger. Sometimes, God relates to men through dreams in order to rebuke them. You have just read about Joseph. God can reveal the plan of your life to you through dreams. Sometimes, God can come in a dream to encourage you, to direct you, to bless you, and to make a covenant with you, or to correct you. God spoke to Joseph in his dream about his life. The only problem with Joseph was that he did not learn how to keep his mouth shut. Solomon was a man who dreamt about a famine and the famine happened. Solomon, when he requested for wisdom, saw the Lord through a dream. Pilate was going to crucify Jesus and a night before that, God troubled his wife in a dream and she came to him and told him that a certain man would be brought to him and he must not touch him. And like most men who don’t understand spiritual things, he went ahead and got involved.

The dream which God gave to Joseph came to pass. Has God given you a dream about your life?  You may ask: “How does one know whether it is God giving him a dream or not?”  The first answer is in Jeremiah 29: 11. It says, “For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” So, any dream that is evil does not come from God. God does not send snakes to people. He does not put anybody inside water to be swimming. He does not create hindrance for people in their dreams. All those things are from the devil. If God has warned you in a dream to take action about something, you better do so now, that is the first step.

 The second source which is man can be seen clearly in Ecclesiastics 5 : 3 and 7. Verse 3 says, “For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by a multitude of words.” Verse 7: “For in the multitude of dreams and many words, there are also divers vanities but fear thou God.” And Isaiah 29: 8: “It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul has appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against mount Zion.” The point we are making is that a dream may come about as a result of what  a person has been thinking about in his mind. All fornicators would be dreaming about fornication. Sad people would be dreaming about tragedy. Those who decide to fast but their minds are confused would be dreaming about food. Those who read bad books would be dreaming about what they read in the bad books. Those who  watch terrible programmes on TV would be dreaming about what they watch. A songwriter said, “Count your blessings, and name them one by one.” If you count your sorrows before you sleep, you would dream of sorrow. And if your dreams are completely taken over by worldly things, then you have to be very careful. If you see yourself always jumping in a party in the dream, you have to be very very careful. Dreams from the flesh can be very deceptive especially if you have not crucified the flesh. Many people come for our meetings but they have really not crucified their flesh and because they have not done that, they lust for women in their hearts. Then in their dreams, they would be seeing these same women and would begin to claim that God is speaking to them.

Dreams can come from sickness. A sick prayerless person would have bad dreams. People with serious malaria and migraine would have such dreams. People with confused minds would be having senseless dreams. These are dreams from the flesh. If you do not allow fear to overcome you, such dreams would do you no harm. But if you are living in sin and you are dreaming of the sin then you are preparing for hell fire.

The third source is from the devil and his demons: The devil uses dreams as one of his strategies to cause calamity and destruction. His mission is to steal, to kill and to destroy. Jesus said in the book of Matthew that when an evil spirit leaves a man it does not go far. It stays close and would be watching. It would say, “I will return to my house.” So, it regards the body of that man as its house. That is what satan does. The purpose of the devil is to destroy people and to bring back problems that have gone away. He plants terrible sicknesses in people’s lives in their dreams. Also, in the dream, the devil terrifies people, forms evil covenant with them and manipulates them to take wrong decisions. Many people see demonic white garment prophets in their dreams and then they believe it is of God. If you see somebody in white garment whose hair and beards are unkempt and he is looking so dirty and he begins to talk about the Bible, be not deceived, he is not of God but of the devil. It is the devil just trying to deceive you. 2 Corinthians 11: 14: “And no marvel; for satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” So, the devil is darkening the visions of so many people even in their dreams. All the dreams about accidents, attacks, somebody carrying a horn, somebody going to a room to close the door, or somebody finding a carbon copy of himself or herself and sometimes looking older, or somebody being tied down, or you open your Bible and somebody is closing it or you find that you have hair in the real world, but in the dream you are bald, or somebody gives you a bitter cup to drink, or somebody prepares a small coffin, all these dreams are from the devil. Somebody being lost in the forest, or somebody seeing a black object following him, eating in the dream, seeing snakes or water, or speaking and eating with dead relatives, especially dead relatives who did not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ before they died or being involved with spirit husbands, spirit wives or masquerades, these are all from the devil.

Masquerade is the embodiment of all the evil that we have in this environment. So, anybody who dreams about masquerades need to pray.  Some people are not pursued by these masquerades but they watch them display. This is a different problem entirely. Many would see themselves fly without wings to a particular place where evil meetings are held and the participants discuss things that they do not understand. Or somebody who has not been pregnant before finds herself labouring in the dream or somebody who is already married getting married again in the dream. Or you are being attacked by cats and dogs. These are dreams from the devil.

 

WEAPONS OF WARFARE

 In the Bible, we find many weapons that we can use to arrest or destroy the works of the enemy. When you try one and it does not work, then you look for another one. By the time you try three weapons, one would have worked. The Psalmist carried five stones when he was going to kill  Goliath. Why did he pick five? He did that because he felt that the first one may miss the target then he would use the second one, the third, the fourth and the fifth. But he discovered that he did not have to use more than one. And the Holy Spirit grabbed that one and took it to the correct target. Also, in the Bible, you find Jesus applying different solutions to the same problem. For example, for the blind, sometimes He would say, “Receive your sight.” Sometimes, He would  say, “Go and wash.” Sometimes He would say, “Go and show yourself to so, so and so.” It is because the sources of the problems are different. Some stubborn things will require a combination of weapons before they succumb to the power of God. For example, if you have a dream where somebody took your property, when you wake up, don’t cry. Tell the Holy Spirit to reach out and bring the thing back. That is the first thing. Command the thief to appear with the property. When it appears, collect it and bind the demon. Don’t expect to see the demon physically because God may not show him to you. Sometimes, God does not show you those things because if you see the person, you may collapse out of shock because of whom he may turn out to be. So, God may not show you. But at that command, they have to appear. They have no option, for Jesus had said, “Behold, you will hear the voice of the Son of man and those that are in the grave and in the water will come forth and they would come to judgment.” It is the voice that called Lazarus to come forth from the grave. When that Voice commands a spirit to come forth, it must obey. It has no option. So, don’t say, “I have commanded them but did not see them.” They have to come, it is just that you cannot see them. If you say that, they would go back. They have come, it is now for you to work on them. Then you bind the demon. You can release the arrow and thunder of God on the head of the demon. You can tell the arrow to remain permanent, then you recover your property and cover every other property that you have with the blood of Jesus.

 

These are examples of how to use the weapons

 If you see masquerades in your dream, arrest the masquerades as a policeman would arrest a thief, then call the consuming fire of God upon them or cast them into a place of torment.

 If you dreamt that you were drinking dirty water, it means that spiritual poison has been introduced into you to weaken your spiritual life. What to do is to command the blood of Jesus to enter into your stomach and purge you.

If you see yourself swimming in dirty water, it means that the devil is trying to deceive you and lead you into sin. So, command that water to dry up, in Jesus’ name. Also, you can pollute the water with the blood of Jesus. When the blood of Jesus enters the water, then the Holy Spirit would be able to operate there. Lastly, command the blood of Jesus to cleanse your body.

If you find yourself drowning in the water and crying for help, it means that difficult times are ahead of you. What you should do is to nullify that hard time, in Jesus’ name. Call the Holy Spirit to help you and then command that water to dry up from your body, in Jesus’ name.

If you dream that you are about to go to a place and there is a river separating you from that place.  When you wake up, command that water to dry up, tell the Spirit of God to make a bridge above that water and then command yourself to climb over it, in Jesus’ name.

If you find yourself eating dry fish or meat, it is an attack from witches and wizards. What they are giving you is human flesh to eat. If you find yourself always taking cola drinks, you are drinking blood. What you should do is to purge yourself with the blood of Jesus and pray to vomit every evil consumption, in the name of Jesus. Some people would even prepare the things themselves but they might not understand where they got the materials from and they would begin to eat.

If you find yourself eating rice and beans, it is one of the ways that the devil introduces small demons into people. You have to purge yourself. If you find yourself eating solid food e.g amala, (Yam flour meal), fufu (Cassava flour meal) and eba (Cassava meal), pounded yam, etc. this is poison to put terrible sickness into your body. Ask the Holy Spirit to purge you and tell the devil that his instrument of attack against you will not prosper.

Some people find themselves eating sand or dirt, this is an attack from the devil to cause spiritual heaviness and to wear out their spiritual power. Ask the Holy Spirit to purge you.

When somebody is climbing a mountain with great difficulty, it means that difficult situations and hindrances are on the way; so command the mountain to move, in Jesus’ name and cast it into the sea and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you through what you want to do. If you find yourself in a car in a serious traffic hold-up, and you have a feeling that you have to be somewhere and you are late, it means there is a hindrance to prevent you from achieving what you intended at the right time. Ask the Holy Spirit to blow its spiritual siren and clear the road for you, in the name of Jesus.

If a sister finds herself nursing a baby, the baby could be hers or just any baby, it means there is hindrance and distraction in the form of trouble and affliction. Bind that baby, rebuke the spirit and cast the baby into the fire, in the name of Jesus and you would see what will begin to happen. If you see yourself carrying a heavy load and the load is so much, it means that the devil is trying to put problems in your way. You have to reject the load. Or if you find a load and you are unable to carry it, it means that you would find it difficult to fulfil your responsibilities. Ask the Holy Spirit to lift the load and resist the opposition from the devil.

If somebody finds himself or herself cooking on fire and after many hours, the food is not done, it means there is a hindrance. Ask the Holy Spirit to begin to cook that food. If you find yourself going somewhere and the vehicle you want to use for the journey breaks down, it is an attack on the wheel of the progress of your life. Ask the Holy Spirit of God to repair that vehicle and put it in good condition and begin to rebuke the devil.

If you find yourself in darkness, it is spiritual blindness which may lead you into very grievous sins if you are not careful. Command the light of God to shine into your life.

If you find that a strong wind is blowing, it means tribulation. Command the wind to stop and rebuke it, in Jesus’ name.

If you find yourself in a vehicle and you do not know where you are going and nobody else knows, it means that you are being taken away from your place of blessing to a place of desolation. You may be going from Jerusalem to Jericho. Recall that vehicle, set it ablaze and then ask the Holy Spirit to bring you back to that place of blessing.

If somebody has an accident in the dream, it is an attempt by the devil to put pain in his body.  Recall the vehicle, destroy it and then ask the angel of God in charge of your health to treat you. If you are travelling and the road is becoming longer than necessary, it means that the devil is delaying your goodness and blessing. Ask the Holy Spirit to straighten the journey and take you to your divine destination.

If you are shot in the dream, it means that affliction of terrible sickness and poverty are on the way. This may lead to death. Many people who were shot like that never woke up to tell the story. When you wake up, remove the gunshot, in Jesus’ name. Then ask the angels to treat you and then send the bullets back to the sender. If you find yourself wearing rags in the dream, it means poverty and lack. Ask the Holy Spirit to remove the rags and to cleanse you with the blood of Jesus.

If you find yourself naked, God does not make people naked. It means disgrace and insecurity. Pray that the Holy Spirit should clothe you immediately and remove from you any object of disgrace. If a person falls into a pit and is unable to come out, it means spiritual impediment and no progress at all. Ask the Holy Spirit and the angels of God to lift you up. Order the enemies to fall into the same pit because if they do not fall there, they will dig another pit for you again.

If you dreamt that somebody came into your room and stole your credentials or somebody sat on them, it means that those documents, although you have them, are useless. You will not be able to get a good job with them. Immediately you wake up, tell the Holy Spirit to search for those thieves and bring them back. Fire the arrow of God against the evil thieves and bind them. Collect your documents back and then stand on the word of God which says that the rod of the wicked shall not fall on the lot of the righteous.

 If your clothes are stolen, it means the enemies are attacking your honour and glory. Ask the Holy Spirit to find the thief and get your clothes back.

If you are married but suddenly you begin to see yourself in wedding garment again in the dream, it is an attack on your marriage. If a single sister finds herself wearing such a garment, she would find it difficult to find a husband. So, she must ensure that the wedding garment is sent back to the owner when she wakes up.

If somebody steals your Bible, it is an attack on your spiritual power.  You must resist the devil, in Jesus’ name. You must command the Holy Spirit to bring the Bible back, in Jesus’ name. If you find your property being stolen or your house being burgled, it means spiritual emptiness. Ask the Holy Spirit to bring them back.

If you notice that your child, husband or wife is missing in the dream, it means that the death of that person is being planned and you must rebuke the spirit of death upon the person.

If somebody is being pursued by a masquerade in the dream, it is witchcraft attack on the life of that person. And the person must arrest the masquerade as I said earlier.

Anyone being attacked by a dog or cat must really pray. These two animals are very dangerous in the spirit world. They can lead to death if proper action is not taken. If you find a dog licking your body, it means that you have a covenant with sexual demons. You should go for deliverance and sanitation quickly.

You know that it is not good to see snakes in your dream, so when you see them, bind them and send the fire of God upon them. The same thing goes for crocodiles and lizards. If you see somebody flogging you in the dream, then you must flog the person back. When you wake up, collect the whip and flog the person back.

If you find yourself in a court room and you have a lawyer and a judge there who are against you, accusing you of doing something and you know that you are not guilty of the offence, it means that severe problems are awaiting you. You must call everybody in that court together and bind them.

If somebody curses you in a dream you must retaliate.

If you are bleeding, it is an attack by witches and wizards.

If you find yourself selling things in the market, it is imprisonment or enslavement by the devil. You must renounce every appointment that you have in that market.

If you are a woman and you find another woman committing immorality with you in the dream, it is the demon called spirit husband or spirit wife. You must rebuke that spirit, in the name of the Lord. You must reject it with every hatred that you have and cancel all appointments with her and ban her from visiting you again. If you see someone you know, and you find that the person is practising immorality with you, it is a spirit that wants to interfere with your marital or sexual life. You must rebuke that spirit and minister to your own sexual organ. You talk to it immediately and cover it with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are examples of the strategies of the devil in the dream.

It does not matter how long you have had these dreams. If as you are reading this message, the Spirit of God reminds you of any evil dream you have had in the past, you can begin to take the necessary steps.

Now, we know how the enemies sow weeds. My question to you  is, “Will you allow the enemy to continue to sow weeds in your life? You must recall and deal with them.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   Every mermaid spirit working against me, I pollute your water, in the name of Jesus.

2.   Lord Jesus, cleanse me internally with your blood, in Jesus’ name.

3.   Command the thunder of God against the citadel of any satanic power that is against you, in the name of Jesus.

4.   You bad spirit of the air, the water and the forest working against me, receive the fire of God, in the name of Jesus.

5.   Try to remember your dream and pray like this: Every bad  thing that the enemy has done against me in the dream, I retaliate now and I command the Holy Spirit to repair the damage done, in the name of Jesus.

6.   As from today, any power that comes to attack me in the dream, tremble and be paralyzed, in Jesus’ name.

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Change and rise

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

When you change, you rise. Jeremiah 48:11: “Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.”

      God has designed this message for some specific people. Here, we see that Moab had problems. He was used to a life of ease.  He was settled on his lees. He was not emptied from vessel to vessel. He had not really tasted what is called captivity and because of that, his taste remained unaltered, and his flavour was not changed. The long and short of the matter concerning Moab was that he refused to change and because of that, he stank.  Anybody who would like to work with Jesus must be prepared to change. Somebody who was a drunk suddenly gives his life to the Lord, and he becomes a new person.  He has changed and when you say, “Sir, were you not the one drinking in that place?” He would say, “That was before, I have now changed:". Change is actually the very essence of life itself and when a person resists change, the person is working against life. There are some changes that one may be required to make which he or she is  not even ready to embrace. A lot of people would rather stick to their familiar past.  A lot of people are afraid of going into unravelled territories or taking any risk. Many stubbornly cling to their ideas and habits.

      The Lord does not allow that. The nature of God’s work includes changing, you must sincerely change. Read your Bible very well and you will find out that men and women in the Scriptures who moved mountain for the Lord, travelled in unknown territories. Moses did not see a previous example anywhere but he did something and the Red Sea parted. He took a holy risk and God backed him up.  So, you have to make a decision now to make a change.

      Some friends may have to go, some ideas might have to be dropped and some habits might have to be changed if you want the fullness of God in your life. You must make that decision to change. You must examine all your old habits and practices. You must examine all your old friends, and challenge all those traditions you have been following which have yielded nothing. In spite of the fact that God is even trying to bring some people out of these traditions, their heart, and spirits are still there, and so Jesus is still looking at them, asking “Can I really use this one?” So, you must challenge these things you have been doing. Many of us are moving behind schedule.  Some are meant to have helped thousands of people but they are still busy picking marbles in the street. Sometime ago, a couple came to see me because they were fighting.  I asked: “What was the matter?” and the husband said, “Dr., tell this woman to be submissive,” and I said, “Madam, why are you not submissive?” And she said, "Excuse me man of God, this submission, what is the meaning?” I counselled them and after sometime, I said, "Let us pray.” When I prayed, I was amazed at the revelation I got. I saw the couple standing on top of a very tall building and there was a long queue of people in their front, and they were distributing money to these people. These people were very grateful and were thanking God for their lives. But as they were distributing the money, I saw some naked women at their back firing arrows at them, so I said, “You people are busy fighting instead of doing what God wants you to do." A change is necessary.

      You must question those customs that have not gotten you any where. Somebody told me he had been going to church for forty years and when I asked him if he has received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, he said, “How much do they sell it?” So, I gave him a lecture and after the lecture, he gave me a sum of two thousand naira. I thanked him and used the money to buy some books that would help him for him before he left.

      This is a new week and we must change for the best. Remember, a seed does not take root unless it falls to the ground and dies there. It will then change to something else and begin to grow.  The seed would first of all look ugly, and you wonder why life is so unkind to it as to break it in the middle. But the truth is  that it has to change before it brings out something.

      The stars that you see in the sky do not shine too much until it is very dark. So, anybody who is saying, “I am always what I was,” the person is to be pitied. I mean the person is not ready for progress and a person who never changes is a fool. It is a stagnant water that breeds mosquitoes. The  law of change is so powerful that you must comply with it. Sometimes, the problem with those who refuse to change is  that they love themselves more than the truth. So if you love yourself more than the truth, deceive yourself for a while, then things will start to happen.

      Some brethren and I ministered to a sister who had a lot of problems. She read medicine but it was as if she did not go to school. She was married with  four children. Her husband woke up one morning and said, “I don’t know why, but I hate you and I am leaving.” The woman thought it was a joke, but the man packed his things and left. I asked her if she was a Christian and she said yes and described her church to me. The first day she attended our service, I saw her and asked, “How was the service today?" She said, “Strange.” I asked her what was strange about it and she said, “In the church I used to attend, we danced for 4 hours, from 9 am - 1 pm. Sometimes when you get home, your waist would be paining you because of dancing.” Anyway, she kept coming. I asked her to go for deliverance and  she did. I saw her again and asked her how she was getting on, and she said, “Fine but tough.” “What is tough?" I asked her; she said, "You see, I had to  remove my attachment, and I have discarded my jewellery. I am looking ugly now". So it was hard for her to change, but when she began to follow the necessary directions, things began to happen. The first miracle she received was that the British Nationality that had been denied her in the past was given to her after three weeks of her coming. She was pleasantly surprised. Immediately her husband heard that she got the British Nationality, he came back and said, “Well, I just said I should come and congratulate you.” Then she said, “Go now.” He said, “No. I am staying here.” That was how her marriage was restored.

      So when you change, things happen. We do a lot of spiritual warfare here. Eventually everybody will get involved. There is no other way because the dark forces surrounding  us are so many and they are fighting the battle of their lives.

      When you talk about spiritual warfare, it involves the following:

1.     Dealing with the devil and his cohorts

2.   Taking control of your mind. You decide that certain things will not stay in your mind again. You establish a solid immigration control at the door of your mind to discard any entity that you know is not welcome.

3.     You have to crucify your flesh.

      It is in this last area that many people fail. The big truth is that satanic attacks cannot prosper in our lives if our flesh refuses to cooperate with the devil. Colossians 3:5: “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth...”  Paul says, “I die daily.” If you are living a life that is dead to sin, as we are commanded by the Scriptures, all the demonic suggestions and the fleshly temptations will not have a hold on you because you are already dead to the temptations, and the suggestion of the devil. Dead men do not respond to temptation. Dead men do not know whether somebody is winking at them or not. Dead men do not even know whether somebody is criticizing or abusing them. Dead men do not commit fornication. Dead men do not abuse people. But when a person is not broken, any small criticism will upset him to the point of crying. Many of us go for deliverance. It is good, but the greatest deliverance is to crucify the flesh. Once the flesh is dead, no demon will be able to stay there.  When you live that kind of crucified life, the devil would find you a dangerous person. A man may scream and shout at the devil at the top of his voice saying, “You devil, you are under my feet,” etc, but after the screaming, he misbehaves as a result of unbrokenness in any area of his life, the devil would still attack him because he still has a door through which he can come in to such a life.

      After some people would have shouted, prayed and done all kinds of activities in the church, the devil would say to his demons, “Don’t worry, we will follow him home.” Then immediately the person gets home he finds that his child has poured oil on the clothes he washed before going to church. He now says, “Who is the bastard that did this thing?" The devil would turn to his agents and say, “I told you” and they will move in quietly. This is the problem. A lot of people who go in for deliverance do not need it. All they need is to crucify the flesh, be completely broken and take every word of God they hear as a very serious matter. Sometime ago, I spoke to some people on “How to make yourself perfectly miserable or  how to convert yourself into a very sad person.”  What does that mean? One way a person can convert himself into a very sad person is to get provoked by any insult passed to him and then begins to fight with everybody. That is unbrokenness. So all the prayers against the devil are to no avail.  The devil knows that when you get home, he can get you easily, but when you crucify the flesh, you will enter into a new realm of life. Your life cannot be a candidate of satanic devourers again.  It is such people who know the secret of the Lord. The secret of the Lord is with those who are broken and living  crucified lives.

      A person could dress to ‘kill’, but there is nothing in that dress. If the devil knows that all you are out for is to seduce through dressing, then he has got you. But once you live a crucified life, you would be immune to satanic arrows. You would become a terror to demonic forces and when the Lord decides to call you home, demons would be rejoicing that a troublesome person has been removed from here. The removal of some people does not affect the devil at all.

      When you are broken, the anointing of the Holy Spirit becomes powerful upon your life; you would be dead to worldly opinions and would offer no protection to your enemies. But if you are not broken and you are not living a crucified life, you offer the enemy a lot of assistance. Christians are supposed to mount up with wings as eagles. Anything that wants to convert an eagle to a hen must be pointed out so that you can deal with it.

      One of the reasons God does a lot of things to people who come to our meetings is because when they come here, their lives undergo a revision. Sometimes all that some people require is just a little change in their prayer life and that is all. What happens to many people when they come here is that their prayer life changes. They are encouraged to pray and they learn how to pray straight forward and well-directed aggressive prayers which are different from the dead prayers they were used to. They can also fast now and serve God better. These are changes that have helped them to make some progress both physically and spiritually.

      Sometimes, what we call a problem is actually a  trumpet call by the Almighty for a change. Sometimes what we call a problem is a help not a hindrance; sometimes, it is a blessing not a burden to develop you and not to destroy you. Sometimes it is to cleanse you and not to corrupt you. Sometimes it is to train you, not to torture you;  to mould you not to break you. Sometimes, problems arise as a result of our ignorance, laziness or unseriousness in the things of God. God may talk to a person through dreams but the person may forget these dreams.

      A person may find himself naked in a dream and may not understand it. When God speaks to you through a dream and you do not understand, He may give you that same message through a vision. And if you still fail to understand, He may speak to you through prophecy. If that fails, He could speak to you through an audible voice, through messages, or through prevailing situations surrounding you and if you still refuse to understand, then God will now have to create something that will cause you to change. This is what some of us call problem. When you go through deliverance and pray, “I bind you, release me, this, that, stop holding my leg, this, that, stop harassing me, you pray fire prayer, do fire fasting, and the situation remains the same, perhaps you should change because sometimes, God Himself can resist us.

      God sometimes could block the way like He did to Adam.  He pulled him out of the garden, put an angel there with the sword of fire and said, “Don’t allow them to enter this place.” God could do what He did to Balaam. The angel of  God slapped the horse, and hindered Balaam. God could do what He did to Jonah. The problem of Jonah would not have been solved by any deliverance minister because it was God that he had problem with. God wanted Jonah to change but he did not want to change. Then God said, “Ok, I know what to do to you.” He threw him into the sea and a big fish swallowed him. He did three days dry fasting inside the belly of the fish. By the time God finished with Jonah and the fish vomited him in the place he did not want to go, he preached with fire. When he got there, everybody repented to the disappointment of even Jonah himself.

       So when a person begins to say, “Hindrance clear out of my way, clear out of my way,” and the hindrance says, "By whose authority should I clear out?" and the person says, "By the authority of the Almighty God.” What if it is the Almighty God hindering you? This is the problem.   Failure sometimes can befall an expert like the fisherman Peter. God engineers something to make a person change. The instruction to the Apostles was as it is written in Acts 1:8: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” But they refused to change and sat in Jerusalem and God needed to make them change so He created something. What happened? He allowed James to be arrested and killed. The fact that James could be killed like that shook them, and those who were not praying before began to pray, those who were not serious with night vigil, began to attend. Before they could say, “Jesus is Lord,” Peter was grabbed, because after James was killed, they still sat in the same place.  So, the Lord allowed them to take him and allowed him to be roughened a little bit before the angel released him from the prison. Peter then discovered that Jerusalem was no longer a place of blessing and he moved out. He said, “Brethren, I am going away.” And as he went, the power of God just followed him anywhere he went. God had to use the purifying power of persecution to change them. God’s purification came in the form of persecution. You know who the genuine Christians are when persecution comes.

      A sinner wearing a suit is the same as a sinner wearing rags. A frightened sinner is still a sinner, an academic sinner is still a sinner. A clever sinner is still a sinner. One man said, “If you educate a sinner, you make him a clever devil.” But when God’s purification power touches him, it brings about a change. God’s ultimate aim for our lives is to make all of us conform to the image of God and align to His destiny for our lives.

      God does not operate like worldly tailors who alter dresses to suit you. If you say, “Tailor, this pair of trousers is too long.” He would say, “No problem I will cut it short.” Or if you say, “This dress is too big," he would say, “No problem, I will reduce it.” God is not like that. Our garment is Christ, we have to put Him on as He is. He never changes. It is you who have to change to be like Him. If you are fatter than that garment, you have to be slimmed down. If you are too slim to fit in, the Holy Ghost will plump you, but all the same, you have to change. When you respond to the will of God for your life, a change is involved. At this juncture, I think you should take the following prayer point:

“Oh Lord, show me areas of my life requiring changes, in Jesus’ name.

      People hate changes, yet it is the only thing that can bring growth. People hate those who rock the boat of their hearts but they say that a smooth sea does not produce a good captain. When the sea is rough and the man has been trained on rough seas, he becomes  a good captain. If you are a pilot and every time you fly, the sky is always smooth, you can never be a good pilot because the day you experience serious turbulence, you won’t know what to do.

      When I was in the university, I was involved in one activity or the other almost everyday in my church. After sometime, I felt it was too much so I stopped going and started reading only my books. I was not going anywhere again and there was no problem until one day to the examination, something happened. I had a very serious headache. It was as if somebody was ringing a bell inside my brain. It was as if the head was going to be cut off. A brother came to greet me and met me rolling on the floor. He started praying, “In the name of Jesus, every spirit of headache, I reject you.” The more he prayed, the more the bell rang. So I said, “Brother, I know what I have done. It is okay. Don’t pray that prayer again." God wanted me to change but I did not want to do so. Then, He created something to change me. Since then I recognised that as a believer, I  have to work hard, very hard and at the same time know that the battle is not smooth but with persistence, I will win. You still have to rely on the Almighty.

      We also know that  lifeless things that do not change, grow out of style. So, you and I that are not lifeless must change.  Those who refuse to cooperate with the change required by God, will suffer the consequence; but those who cooperate will mount up as eagles. When you refuse to accept your present position as God’s final for you, you will create a future for yourself. When you accept God’s changes for your life, miracles begin to happen. If you are defending your faults and pampering your errors, it means you have no intention of changing and God will say, “I cannot use this one, I will look for somebody else.”

      Everybody wants progress but many people do not want to change. Look at Joseph, his father sent him on an errand to check his brothers and he went. If he had not gone on that errand, may be his brothers would not have captured him and sold him. And if they did not sell him into slavery, he would never have met Portipah’s wife, and if he had agreed to sleep with her, he would never have landed in the prison. He would never have met the baker and the steward, and would never have received invitation to go and interpret dreams. Everything started with a man who just obeyed the father, and things began to happen in his life.

 

WHAT ARE THE PURPOSES OF CHANGES IN OUR LIVES?

1.   Divine advancement. When God wants to advance you or promote you, a change is required from your                 normal pattern of things.

2.   Divine enlargement.

3.   Divine increment. When the Lord wants to increase you, you require a change.

4.   Divine improvement. When God wants to empower you, a change is required. It is that power that will make room for you wherever you go.

5.   When God wants to give you a new direction, a change is required.

6.   Divine re-assignment. When God wants to re-assign you a change is required.

      If you now refuse to change, you will stink like Moab. But the more broken you are, the more God is able to change you.  That change may involve change of people, change of habit and change of spiritual temperature. This is what God is calling for now to be able to make us mount up with wings as eagles.

      So, if as you are reading this message, you notice dissatisfaction in your spirit about your situation, God is requiring a change. The first group of people God is calling for a change in their lives are those who are divinely dissatisfied with their position.

      I was praying with a sister for the restoration of her marriage which had broken down for 24 years. As we started praying, her husband phoned from America and said they should forget the past. The sister then said, “After 24 years.” The man said, “It seems as if you have lost hope on me. I made a mistake and I want you to forgive me. She said, “Forgive what, over the phone?” And the man hung the phone.  And she came back to me and said, “I need another prayer point.” "For what now?" I asked. I said, “God gave you a wonderful opportunity but because of your unbrokenness, you messed it up and now you want fresh prayer points for him to repeat the call.” She said, "I felt so bad when he dropped the phone, I wish I said something else.” Unbrokenness.

      If you are having a feeling of being resisted, for example, you want to move ahead and it is as if something somewhere is pulling you back, a change is required and I believe that you will make that change today, in Jesus’ name.

      Sometimes what the Lord requires some people to do is so small but they would not want to do it and this will result into all kinds of things. Many sisters cannot do without painting their nails and the Lord is saying, “When I created you, did I paint these things for you?” There are also some men who go from one place to another after work and before they get back home, it is very late and they are tired.  They cannot even pray again and they sleep off like that. God is saying, “Change", but they refuse to change. One day, they would just come and say, “I received a revelation that my wife is a witch.” Here is a man who does only 5 minutes of prayer in some days. To that kind of man, everybody is a witch, even if they are not witches.

      If you feel you are being resisted, a change is required. 90 percent of the problems of a lot of people would be gone if they can just put a divine padlock on their mouths and obey the instruction of the psalmist which says, "Set a watch over my lips oh Lord.”

1.     Anyone who is frustrated needs a change.

2.     If you are suffering from lack, a change is required.

3.     If you are suffering from aimlessness, you don’t know where to go, you need a change.

4.     When you are the discouraged kind, a change is required.

 

How do you carry out the change?

1.   Release the garden of your life to the Holy Spirit. Don’t struggle with Him again. Release the garden of your heart to Him.  Anything He says you should do, just do it. Don’t query the Spirit of God.

2.     Take ruthless action on any part of your life that is not Christ-like. Don’t pity yourself. Be honest with yourself.

3.     Learn to listen more than talking. Change your prayer life, change your Bible reading, change your witnessing, change your reaction to people, and don’t listen to gossips.

4.     The Lord is calling for that change. The Bible says that if you are not living your life as it written about   you, it is better that you were not born.

      Anyone taking the word of God lightly is sentenced to destruction. The Lord, the Creator, the Ruler of all things cannot be talking and you ordinary man is deciding which one to take and which one to reject. You have no right to come against what the Creator is telling you. For God to make you His treasurer, there are certain things He would first of all do with your life. He wants to ensure that when He starts to bless you, the blessings do not carry you away from Him.  If He sees that there are so many unbroken areas in your life, He cannot give you an exalted position, because it will destroy you.

      The following prayer points are the type that will bring instant result, therefore I want you to pray them aggressively.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   Oh Lord, anything you need to change in my life for me to become your champion, do so now, in Jesus’ name.

2.   All my birth rights that are not available now, I possess them, in the name of Jesus.

3.   Anything that scares God away from my life, and anything that stops the move of God in my life come out of me now, in the name of Jesus.

4.   Every spirit of the valley, loose your hold, in the name of Jesus.

5.   Every opposition to my breakthrough, I crush you to nothingness, in the name of Jesus.

6.   Every power struggling with me for my flag of victory, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

7.         O Lord, amongst the wealth you have deposited in this country, I possess my possession, in the name of Jesus.

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The way to the power house of God

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Let us pray: Wonderful God, we thank you for bringing this message to us. We thank you for preserving our lives, for laying your hands upon our body, soul and spirit. What a mighty God You are,! Thank You for Your wonder working power, thank You for total deliverance, thank You because You are the Lord our God, and You change not, therefore we are not consumed. Thank You because You are our unchangeable God, the same yesterday, today and forever. Accept our thanks, in Jesus’ name. Lord, I commit all those who shall read this message into Your holy hand. Dig deep into their inner beings and do strange and marvellous works in their lives, in the name of Jesus. Thank You Father, in Jesus’ name. Amen

This message is for those who want power in their lives. Some people may decide to sit and lick their wounds, some may decide to form a pity party, some may even decide to make themselves candidates of depression, but that is not God’s will for us.  He wants us to be champions. I therefore recommend this message to those who want to live the mountain top life.

Genesis.32:1-11: “And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom, and he commanded them, saying, “Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau; Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now: And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and womenservants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight. And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks, and herds and the camels, into two bands; And said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, “Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.”

Jacob was approaching his own country and the fear of his brother filled his heart. He had to pray. In his true colour, he pushed his wife and children forward, in case there was danger, those ones would die before the danger reached him.

Genesis. 32:23-28: “And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had. And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” 

This contest about Jacob is corroborated by the book of  Hosea 12:3-4: “He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him; he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us.”

It is important and also compulsory for us in the present generation to have the power of God in our lives, more so in these last days.

Every believer is meant to generate power. Our lives should bring forth power. It is however a lamentable tragedy that the enemies use many Christians as foot mats because they lack power. What we are talking about is not physical power but spiritual power. A person can be strong physically but weak spiritually, such power will only help in killing the fellow. He would use his own strength to kill himself. I know of a wrestler who was very good at wrestling but had no spiritual strength, and as such, he had no control over hard drugs. The demon attached to hard drugs always overpowered him.

There was the case of a woman who beat up her housemaid who was demonic. Through her demonic power, she made the woman’s hand to swell. Only prayers saved her, the hand would have been rendered totally useless.

People come to the house of God and receive sound teachings. They pray well and have the much needed anointing but they still miss it because they cannot translate all these into power. The story of Jacob we have just read reveals one major method God uses in generating power. It is called “Under pressure.” Our early fathers were more serious than we are today. They prayed seriously. They aggressively controlled the heavens. They were equipped with anointing that destroyed yokes.  They sang songs that disgraced the enemies. They were very confrontational when it came to praying in the spirit and they had a high level of boldness that is not found in present-day believers. Our early fathers attacked giants, they built churches where people would not want them to and they were not afraid of anybody, neither were they threatened by any kind of fetish. They prayed to establish, to root out and to plant things.  That kind of power, power to disgrace Satan is what we are talking about. Jacob was in trouble.  The pressure upon his life was translated into power. You too can translate every pressure upon your life into power. Every arrow the enemies fire at you can be translated into power.  Every pressure upon your life can be translated into power. Every snare the enemy is using to war against you can be translated into power, every problem that is arranged against you can be translated into power, and all the harassment of the enemies can be translated into power. So, God who knows our nature arranges that challenges come and the challenges will introduce pressure into our lives. Then, you begin to fight and in the fighting you get power from God. A lot of us, all that we do is to use authority and sometimes the authority fails. It is like a police man in his police uniform standing at a check point and all of a sudden some armed robbers that have just robbed a bank drive towards the check-point.  If the policeman orders the robbers to stop, what do you think will happen to his authority? Under a normal situation, a policeman as slim as a pencil who is in his uniform can point to a big trailer and say stop and because of that authority, revealed by the uniform that the government has vested on him, it would stop. But under a situation whereby some hardened criminals who have robbed, drive towards the check-point, that uniform becomes useless to the policeman.  He needs something else which is power.  He must carry his own fire power in addition to the authority that he has. Present-day believers only use the authority that is not backed-up by power.

The problem that confronted Jacob and threatened his life started from the womb. He struggled to come out of the womb before Esau so they fought in the womb of their mother. When he found out that Esau was the first to come out of the womb, he held on to the leg of Esau. When Esau came out, he was red with hair all over his body so they called him Esau. Jacob who came out grabbing the leg of his brother was called grabber-Jacob, that is, a cheat. He ran away after deceitfully collecting the birthright of his elder brother. Really, if you are the first born in Israel everything belongs to you; even the pottage that Jacob gave to Esau by law, belongs to Esau. That notwithstanding, he deceived Esau and collected his birthright. He also deceived his father too and collected the blessing meant for Esau. Now, his going back home made his life to be under a threat. It was a very dangerous journey. Waiting at home was his brother Esau whom he had cheated and Esau was a strong and violent man. Also waiting at home was his aged father to whom he had lied. So Jacob was going to an unfriendly territory, trouble and death were awaiting him.  The Bible told us that Esau was a wild man who had a reputation for aggression. He fought with wild animals while Jacob was a man of the tent who stayed quietly at home with mummy.  Jacob knew that he was no match for Esau. He knew that Esau could tear him into pieces and that being a hunter Esau could fire at him from a distance. So, he knew that there was serious trouble.

Esau was supposed to be the elder brother of Jacob. The Bible also calls him Edom, a hunter, beloved by Isaac. He sold his birthright and also married a strange woman. He started polygamy and it pained the heart of his parents. He also did all kinds of terrible things. You can read more about it in the Bible. Jacob was in trouble but he turned the pressure into power that brought victory.

 

How do you have power with God?

Until you have confronted your Esau, you cannot enter the Promised Land. An Esau was waiting for Jacob.  No matter how wonderful and attractive your plans are, until you confront and deal with your Esau, you are not ready for the promised land.  There is always an Esau waiting for every Jacob right at the gate of the promised land. When you decide to live in eternity, your destiny and your eternal purpose, you must confront your Esau. No matter what you have, until you deal with your Esau you remain in exile like Jacob. Here lies the secret key of power. No matter who you are, until you confront that your Esau, you remain in the wilderness roaming around. As far as the purpose of God for you is concerned, it is when you deal with that Esau that you begin to move.

For twenty-one years Jacob was living in a foreign land, pretending and behaving as if there was no Esau waiting for him. He did not share the secret with anybody. Before you settle into God’s promise for your life, before you find your physical and spiritual identity, no matter how many years you have pushed your Esau aside, you would still need to confront him because he would be there waiting for you. You have to deal with him.

It is very clear  that our Esau differs. The Esau of Jacob started precisely at the time he deceived and collected Esau’s blessing. Think deeply beloved, what are those Esaus you have in your life? Because anytime you seriously want to possess your possession, Esau would say, “Sorry sir, you have not settled me.”  Are you like the fellow who was annoyed with a tree and decided to destroy it?  He cut the tree to the ground level leaving the stump and now cemented the place. He was pleased with himself. After some time, he found that the cemented floor started to crack. That stump was saying something which means, "You have not settled my case yet and you are looking away as if am not here but I have been waiting for you.” You are crying, “O Lord, I want power,” but Esau is saying, “I am still here and I will not pursue you, for I will wait for you at the gate of the promised land. I will wait for you at the gate of your inheritance.” Esau will always wait at the gate of rest, at the gate of power, at the gate of promotion, at the gate of destiny, saying, “I am still here; you have not dealt with me. You are pushing me aside but I cannot be pushed aside”

 

What is the sprit of Esau?

1.     When you do not carry out self- examination and do not reflect on   spiritual things.  All you spend your life thinking about is, “Oh no, how can I make my complexion lighter, how can I do my hair so that people would see it and their heads would turn, or what kind of car should I ride so that when I am passing by in the streets people would be waving at me.” The spirit that does not reflect on spiritual things is    the spirit of Esau.

2.   When you do not build your life on God’s word.

3.   When you live a lawless life, a life without control.

4.   When you are aware that you have been fighting a war from the womb, yet you are not serious at overcoming it, the spirit of Esau is at work.

5.   When you are building your life on desolation. Ecclesiastes 12:8:“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

6.   When you sell your birthright like most ladies sell off their virginity at a cheap price. A lot of people are not bothered about their birthright; they are only interested in satisfying their immediate hunger.

7.   When you are only interested in satisfying the lust of the flesh.

8.   When there is pride in your life and you go about feeling superior to others spiritually.

9.   Counterfeit Christianity is the spirit of Esau. We have many counterfeit Christians who come to the house of God. They are not serious with God. This is the spirit of Esau.

10. Bread and butter Christianity is the spirit of Esau.

11. When you over-look your own blessings and potentials and you treat them like something worthless, it is the spirit of Esau.

12. When you are spiritually undisciplined, it the spirit of Esau.

Beloved, What is your own Esau? You need to cry to the Lord today. Maybe you ran away from one husband in one town and now you came to Lagos to marry a new one who does not know about the former one, Esau is waiting for you. Maybe you are owing some people money or you have even stolen money in your former church where you were a treasurer or financial secretary, by being in a different church now does not mean your Esau is dead. It is saying, “You are neglecting me but I am still here.” Maybe you have committed abortion, Esau is saying, “I am here.” Perhaps you have been working with a fake certificate, Esau is saying, “You are neglecting me, I am here.” Perhaps you slept with your cousin, your niece, or your nephew and nobody saw you, you covered it up, Esau is waiting for you. Maybe you were very clever when you were in school with all types of contraceptives, or you were drinking alcohol, Esau is waiting for you. Maybe you have secret lust in your heart, Esau is waiting for you. Perhaps, you have children and women secretly scattered all over town outside your legal marriage, Esau is waiting for you. Until you deal with that Esau you are joking because immediately you are at the edge of your breakthrough or at the edge of your blessing, close to the promised land, you will come across Esau there who would say, “You have not settled my case.” You may be 30 or 40 years old. As you are growing your Esau too is growing. Jacob left home at forty and came back at fifty-one, Esau too was growing up. The Esau you do not uproot will grow up with you. When Jacob left home Esau was only one man but by the time he was coming back, Esau had four hundred men. When Jacob offended Esau and ran away, Esau was just one person, but on his return, he found that Esau had increased. If you do not deal with your Esau it shall increase. If you like you may postpone your meeting with your Esau, in several years time, it would have become more sophisticated, more complex, much more serious, and much more difficult.

Your Esau now may be a habit in your life that God has been pointing His finger at. It maybe a sin you never confessed, it may be a baby you gave birth to when you were younger and you dumped it somewhere and now you are going for deliverance. You may not be delivered unless this Esau is dealt with because Esau would be waiting for you at the deliverance ground. It may be some secret sex that nobody knows about and Esau is there waiting for you and you are busy singing, “I’m marching forward.” Esau would say, “Let him come, I’m waiting here.” One man put a girl in the family way when she was in school and she gave birth to a girl. I still cannot understand why they gave the girl the name “Atare.” “Atare” in Yoruba language means hot pepper. After sometime, this man married another woman, and never told her that he had a child at all. He cleverly hid the secret but his wife noticed that he usually bought girl’s materials whenever he was going to the village. But she thought as a Christian, he gave them to people as gifts. One day, after some aggressive prayer by the sister, her mother-in law began to confess to  witchcraft. She said everybody should come to the village to hear the terrible confession she was making.  She then confessed that all the havoc she wrecked on people including her son through witchcraft powers, she did them in conjunction with Atare. His wife who was born and bred in England was surprised and wondered who this Atare was. The Esau that was hidden for 17 years was revealed. You may hide for years but one day your Atare will cry out: “I’m here, you have not dealt with me. I’m waiting for you.” It may be addiction. No matter how popular or great you are, if you have an Esau, it will be waiting for. You have to deal with it if you must have power with God.

The children of Israel would have entered the promised land within two weeks but if you look at Numbers chapter 20 you will see that it was Esau who prevented them from entering. Numbers 20:14-21: “And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us. How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers; And when we cried unto the Lord, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt; and behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border; Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: We will go by the king’s high way, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy borders. And Edom said unto him, thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword. And the children of Israel said unto him, we will go by the high way. And if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it; I will without doing any thing else, go through on my feet. And he said, Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand. Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through its border: Wherefore Israel turned away from him.” If they had allowed them to pass they would just pass through Edom into the promised land, but he said “no”, we are waiting for you here, you cannot pass. At the edge of the promised land, Esau dealt with Israel. The Israelites could have avoided the 40 years of wandering about, but they had a diversion and the journey then became wearisome. The problem was Esau. 

You have to cry out to the Lord to help you deal with your Esau today. When Jacob saw that cleverness was not going to work, he then prayed to the Lord to deliver him from his brother Esau.

For God to conquer your external enemies, He must first conquer you. Immediately Jacob prayed that prayer, that God should deliver him from his brother Esau and the angel of God came and the battle started, a very hot battle went on for about seven hours until Jacob was conquered. God will not conquer your Esau until He has conquered you. Many of us have been struggling with just one sin for many years. I will not be surprised if there are people reading this message who in their three-piece suit, can still jump out of the car and start fighting in the street.

As Jacob wrestled with the angel, he received internal dislocation and he became a broken man. There can be no power for living, there can be no power with God until you deal with your Esau. It was after Jacob was broken like this that the power of God was released upon his life. If you look at your life and you find out that you do not have power with God, you need to be broken. After the wrestling match between Jacob and the angel which the Bible says he obtained by prayer, weeping and supplication, God said, “Okay you have power now to face Esau.” Power with God is power among men to deal with Esau. You have power with God after God has conquered you. Remember, if there was no Jacob inside there would not be Esau outside. There is no short cut to power but Esau will shut us out in the wilderness if we allow him. The man in us is becoming little when we should become stronger. Immediately Jacob dealt with the Esau in him and he was broken, the battle ended and he had power.

Then the angel asked him, “What is your name?” That question meant, what is your character? What are you like? And he said, “I am Jacob,” and the angel said, “So you know how wretched you are, you have changed now, you have power with God and with men.”

It is easier to say no to the devil than yes to God in those areas where God is seeking to transform us. God wants to change us but many of us do not want to be changed and that thing in us that does not want us to change is the Esau at the gate.

Your Esau is that area you are wrestling with God in your life. Your Esau is where God is asking you to surrender, where He wants to control. Your Esau is where God is asking you to be changed. Your Esau is that character change that God is really calling for. The angel touched the long leg of Jacob, the leg by which he was deceiving people all over the place and he was dislocated and in his great pain he held tight to the angel saying, “You cannot leave me like this, my leg is already dislocated. Change my name.” The angel said, “Okay you have power with God.” In the morning, Jacob then leaped towards his brother as a changed man. He was no longer fearful, all his manipulation and cheating were gone. He was then a broken man and to his amazement Esau embraced him, he did not kill him and eventually they buried their father together. With that battle he fought, he dealt with the Esau in his life so then he could enter into his land of eternal purpose.

Think about it now. This is a day for divine surgery, a day that you should cry to the Almighty to change anything in your life that scares God away, anything in your life that makes heaven to frown at you, anything in you consciously or unconsciously that scares the spirit of revival away from your life. Cry that God should reveal it now to you so that you can change and the ones that you know that you have been struggling with, ask God to do something about them. What we are talking about are things which people cannot share publicly. For example, there was a man who had a duck in his sitting room which he used to sleep with. How many people would he tell that? Or that sister who used to sleep with her dog and she was always with the dog as if it was her husband? How many people would she tell about it. Some people do not want other people to hear about the things they do.  Some of these things are so shameful and disgraceful to discuss publicly, but they are the threatening Esau. Let God put His finger on them today. Let Him point at them today and say, “This is that Esau.” 

You need to pray that whatsoever God would have to do to you so that His power would remain upon your life, that He should do it. You need to cry to the Lord that you do not want to become history while you are yet living, that the Holy Ghost should go into details about your life and reveal all the hidden things and the hidden agenda.

Perhaps this is why witches are getting stronger against you, they may have seen your Esau. They are saying, “Well, as far as that Esau is at the gate, let him struggle, let him study, let him get the degrees, let him build the house, let him do everything he wants to do, he shall be waiting at the gate.”

Let the Lord do a divine surgery upon your life today so that you can absorb His power into your life and destroy your Esau completely. You need to cry unto Him to obtain this power through the following prayer points:

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   Everything planted within me to hinder God, depart from my life, in the name of Jesus.

2.   O Lord, wound my Jacob so that I will have power with You, in the name of Jesus.

3.   Blood of Jesus, silence my Esau, in the name of Jesus.

4.   My first shall not become the last, in the name of Jesus.

5.   O Lord, plant my feet on higher ground, in the name of        Jesus.

 

  

Principle of violent faith

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

We shall begin by looking at a popular passage in the book of Matthew.  A lot of people always wonder how they can have faith to do exploits while many worry about how to have faith at all cost.

   Matthew 11:12: “And from the days of John the Baptist  until now the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.” We can break that verse into three parts and look at each separately:

a.  “And from the days of John the Baptist...”

What is special about John the Baptist? For 400 years after the Old Testament of the Bible, there was no prophet. God was not talking to anyone. Everybody did what he wanted - there was no voice from heaven. When God wanted to start speaking again, He spoke through this man called John the Baptist. John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah. You and I know who Elijah was. He was the no-nonsense prophet of fire. John the Baptist came, dressing strangely and preaching strangely but using a very direct format. As he baptized people, he told them: “I am baptizing you now with water but somebody is coming after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not fit to untie. This person shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” This was the first time somebody began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand,” and that opened a new chapter.

 

b. “Right from that time, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence…” You need to be violent to possess the kingdom and all the benefits therein.

 

c. “And the violent take it by force.” When you become violent, then you take it by force meaning that it is not something you take on a platter of gold but something you fight to get. The Bible says, “Fight the good fight of faith.” So, faith involves a battle. You need to fight to lay hold on eternal life or else it would slip from your fingers.

            If you read the Bible from the beginning to the end, you would be able to classify people into different sections according to their faith. For example, men like Abraham, Elijah and Elisha had violent faith. There were other men who though had faith but theirs could not be classified as violent. There were some too who had what you can describe as weak faith. I hope you do not belong to the class of the weak. I want to believe that you too want to experience the supernatural power of the Almighty. If that is the desire of your heart, then look at what 2 Kings 6:1-3: “And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell is too strait for us. (Revival was happening in the school of  prophets. More and more students were being admitted and it got to a stage when the classrooms became too small for them.) Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell.  And he answered, Go ye.  And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go.”

            I want you to take notice of these short sentences - “Go ye,” “I will go.” Elisha like most men of faith was not a  talkative.  He went with them and when they came down to Jordan, they cut down trees. Verses 5 –7: “But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas master! for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; (into the river) and the iron did swim. Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it.” This, logically does not appear reasonable for science would tell you that a heavier object would sink while a lighter one would float. The power of miracle is what we call violent faith.

            It would have been easier for them to say, “Well, let us look for money to buy another one because it will be impossible for us to bring out the iron from the river since nobody even knows where it is at the bottom of the river.” Nobody knew how to fetch it. It was not possible in the realm of the physical but now we are talking about the supernatural. When you talk about the supernatural, it means the physical laws are set aside.

            Beloved, if you do not release your faith to God, your situation will become worse. Doubt has never been known to help anybody. Anything that has to do with God is supernatural and requires your faith being released to make it happen. What you do may not make sense but then faith is like that. Elisha said, “Grab the axe head.” He was saying, “Don’t let your miracle pass you by. Grab it. Grab the axe-head!” 

            During prayer meetings, a word of knowledge may come for just one person and you find many people catching it. This is what we call violent faith.  Eventually, somebody whom it was not meant for initially would get blessed because there is an overflow. He catches what God wants him to catch. You need to do like that always. Don’t let your miracle pass you by. Grab it with both hands.

            There are so many things that God cannot do. If you look at the Bible very well, you will find out certain things that God cannot do. For example, God cannot tolerate evil. Also, we know that God cannot receive a sinner into heaven. He cannot occupy a second position in your life. God cannot share you with other things. God cannot lie. God cannot change, God cannot be defeated, God cannot bless a lie. God cannot do things contrary to the Scriptures and at the same time, God cannot be pleased without faith. The Bible says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.  He that cometh unto God must believe that He is and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6) So, one of the impossibilities of the Scriptures is that somebody will please God without faith. Anytime your mind begins to doubt the word of God which you had initially believed, then you are displeasing God. Essentially, what I am trying to make you understand is that the supernatural which is the ultimate comes by faith alone.

            There was a certain man of God who was a  pastor in a small church where there were many rich people. He mounted the pulpit one day with his mind on the message which he had already prepared. But the Lord changed it and commanded him to talk on Isaiah 35:8:“And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.”  He started off  that Sunday talking about holiness. His congregation did not like it at all and after the service, they warned him that if he still wanted to continue to feed, he had better drop that holiness topic by the following Sunday. He apologized to them and promised to change the topic. As he was about to start speaking the next Sunday, the Spirit of God said, “Your message today is to be based on Isaiah 35:8.” He started off again. Some of his audience walked out, while others stayed. After the service, they went to him and said: “We told you last week to change your topic and you still went ahead. We give you one last chance to make amends.” But he got to the church on the third Sunday and as he was about to deliver a message he felt his congregation would like to hear, the Holy Spirit came again and insisted that he should preach on the same topic he had talked about the previous two weeks.  That day, by the time he finished the sermon, the church committee handed him a letter indicating no further payment of salary as well as temporary suspension. The man remained like that and was no longer able to feed himself. Then one afternoon, one of these rich men decided to pay him a visit. He believed by that time, whatever was worrying the pastor would have left him and that hunger would have taught him a lesson. He intended going to mock him. Although the man of God was really hungry, when the rich man came and asked how he had been feeding, he replied that he had enough food in his pantry. At that time, he had no money nor food, but he had the faith that his God would not put him to shame in the presence of this mocker. Beloved, by the time the pantry was opened by this mocker, the Lord had filled the place up with all kinds of food. That is violent faith.

           

The level of faith that many of us operate will not get us as much victory as we want. When you limit your God, He would decide to stay limited. If you decide to enlarge Him, He will be great in your life. This is the area where many believers are half full or half empty. Some lose the faith they had because of one or two disappointments they have had in the past. Some suffer tragedy here and there and thus conclude that the Almighty must be deaf and dumb. They would say that if God could allow this or that to happen to them, they would not serve Him again. They do not understand that the enemy is trying to destroy the little faith which they have. The situation therefore is that while some are struggling to acquire this much needed faith, others are busy throwing away the little they have. But to move mountains, we need real violent faith.

            Faith is such a powerful force, that is why the Lord said that faith is able to move mountains. “If  you have faith as small as the mustard seed, you shall say to that mountain, remove from there and move into the sea, it shall be so and nothing shall be impossible unto thee.”                 Faith will laugh at impossibility. Some people pray in the spirit, pray aggressively, pray with great joy, pray with great laughter but inside, they are still afraid and therefore results elude them.

            It is like a sister who entered an aircraft and after some time they landed at an airport to take more passengers. They were served with food and just as she was about to start eating, the Holy Spirit said, “Don’t eat now, start praying because one eater of flesh and drinker of blood is just about to board this aircraft now.” So she looked up and saw some people moving in. She could not discern who the eater of flesh and drinker of blood was. Then satan ministered to her to pray after the food. So, she swallowed everything and then the plane moved up. Immediately, there was a problem. The pilot then  informed them of the danger ahead. Wind, storm, everything started going wrong with the plane. It would come up and go down. People began to shake. Even men wearing business suits began to cry like babies. Then the sister now started praying. She prayed madly. You know that when death is starring you in the face, you will become aggressive. She prayed with holy anger and because of that aggression, she prophesied and said nothing would happen to anybody in the plane and that it would land, in the name of Jesus. After the prophecy, she was still afraid so she continued praying. God had mercy on them and they were able to land safely.

            When you want to move beyond normal Christianity to the supernatural, the first thing you will work on is your faith. It is the foundation of everything. The Bible says that faith gives you the power to cross the barrier of what makes sense to the region of the unusual. That is faith. Faith is the ear which refuses to be troubled or harassed by questions or doubt. You can hear what other people are saying but one way or the other, you block your ears to it because that is not what you don’t want to hear. 

            The man of faith listens and is very attentive to the word of God and responds to it. Faith looks. The Bible says, “And they looked on Him and they were lightened and they were not ashamed.” The eye of faith turns away from impossible circumstances and looks at the possibilities. Faith would look only at the Saviour and His greatness. Faith would look at the stones that the Holy Spirit has placed in your hands instead of the height of Goliath. Faith would believe the promises of God, then the spiritual transaction would take place. Everything people are looking for is somewhere in the spirit. The trouble however, is crossing that physical line into the invisible realm and possessing your possession.

            A person may know that a bank is very sound but it is only when a transfer of funds has taken place that actual  transaction has begun. But if you don’t transfer money, you wouldn’t really know what they are talking about. The spirit world is like that. It remains there until a transaction takes place. The currency for that transaction is faith.

            Electricity cannot communicate its energy until contact is made. It is faith that will make contact with the spirit world. It is the switch that supplies the spiritual contact. But things like unbelief will tie God’s hands, enthrone self and encourage sin. The Bible makes it clear that there are only two people to whom all things are possible. These are namely: God and the believer.

            It says, “With God, all things are possible,” and "All things are possible to him who believes." It is possible to be holy and not have one iota of faith. Holy men and holy women of God abound with no faith. In fact, I will not be surprised if a search is conducted on the bags of  members on church days and drugs are found there. Yet they have come to meet the Healer. So, a person could be holy but have no faith. Holiness will get him into heaven no doubt but his little faith will not move him too far into that realm.

            The Bible makes us to understand that it is a sin to doubt. Romans 14:23: “And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” So, to doubt is to commit sin. Unbelief is a hindrance to the mighty works of God as it is recorded in Matthew 13:58: “And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” It does not say nothing was done there. He did some but not many. Why? Because of their unbelief.

            The centurion was a classical example of a man of faith. His son got healed by his absolute belief in the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. He understood that he did not need the physical presence of Christ for the miracle to take place. He also understood that the power of God cannot be hindered by distance.

            The men that brought the paralytic man to Jesus through the roof exhibited great faith. The woman with the issue of blood got her healing via violent faith. The blind men that came to Jesus, the Zarephat woman, the blind Barthemeus and many others in the Scriptures exercised violent faith. So, a very crucial question to ask is, Of what degree is your own faith? Is it at zero level?  

            There are some people who cannot believe God for anything. These are the people whose faith is at zero level. Others have very little faith. You know the category you belong. One thing is clear, if Christ could tell His disciples that they did not have faith by calling them men of little faith, then, little faith is almost equivalent to no faith.

            Peter went as far as his faith could carry him. But the end result of the journey of Peter was as if he had no faith. The people who sat in the boat and made no effort to walk on the sea were even better; but he walked and sank and could have died. He cried for the mercy of God- a weak faith indeed.

            When there is no pressure it becomes almost difficult to tell those whose faith is violent.

            I was talking to a sister who was crying bitterly. Her problem was that she found a love letter written by another woman inside her husband’s bag. That was all. I then asked, “But you are a child of God, don’t you have faith?” She refused to agree with me that God can change things. This is just a clear example of the weak faith I am talking about.

            Using God as an alternative is a demonstration of unbelief. When you keep tablets in your pocket and you are at the same time praying for healing, you are deceiving yourself for deep down in your heart, you know that should the prayers fail, you will swallow the tablets immediately. Blind Bartimaeus was not ready to give Jesus an alternative. When he found that the people around were trying to persuade him to take an alternative by asking him to keep quiet, he got mad with them and was able to arrest Jesus’ attention.

            Faith without works is dead. But a living faith obeys, suffers and serves God in spite of all hardships. When you are told to lay your hands where there is problem, what you are doing is to apply work to your faith. The Bible says that faith without works is dead. So, when you move your diseased body, or do that which you were unable to do before, you are adding what is called works to your faith.

            All the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 took some actions. They did not just remain stagnant. There is what we call vain faith. This means empty, worthless faith; one that is not result-oriented, faith that is not based on the Lord Jesus Christ. We need the type of faith mentioned in Luke 7:9: “When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”

            The faith of the Centurion gives us an idea of what violent faith means. Let us consider the following characteristics:

1. He could discern the authority of Christ: He told Jesus that following him home would amount to ceremony. He believed that Jesus had sufficient authority to speak to the wind and it would carry the message wherever He wanted. He did not have to go there. In the same manner, there is no sickness that God cannot heal and there is no problem that God cannot solve within a short time, no matter where you are if you believe. If you believe that somebody must have to pray for you over every issue, then something is lacking in your faith and you may not go far. He understood that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow.

2. He could discern the power of Christ.

3. He understood that the power of God does not regard distance and space is not a barrier.

4. He knew that you could exercise faith for someone who is not in a position to exercise faith.

5. He understood that distant deliverance is possible. Even as you are reading this now, if you have children in far away countries, you can stand in for them; and tell the word of God to cross over the sea to meet them and it shall be so.

6. He understood that you don’t have to be physically present in a place for God’s power to move. The Bible says that Jesus sent His word, healed them and delivered them from their afflictions. No wonder, Jesus said, “Great is thy faith, I have never seen such faith in Israel.”  (Matthew 8:10)

 

The principles of violent faith

            With all the Scriptures that we have looked at and what we have discussed so far, let us put these principles together:

a. If you want to exercise violent faith, fear must not rule or change your mind. If you want to exercise violent faith, you must hold on to whatever God has promised you without wavering at all. Don’t allow fear to rule or change your mind. When people are confessing failure, the man of faith is saying something else.

            When a situation confronts us the first thing that comes to many minds is fear. The mind goes to all the negative possibilities. Somebody came to see me and was shaking before me. I asked him to narrate his problems, but he was shaking and could not talk. I noticed that he had his hand in his pocket and the hand too was shaking. When he could not talk, I said somebody should put his hands in his pocket and  bring out whatever was there. When the person brought out the piece of paper inside his pocket it was a Quit Notice. Why was he shaking like that? He had thought of all the negative possibilities: “Ah, you mean they will throw my luggage on the street? So all the kids will be crying outside and some people who know me as a believer will now be laughing at me.” It was obvious that he had totally lost his faith and had succumbed to devil’s lectures on fear.

            Sometime ago, when the government announced that some civil servants would be retrenched, many of them started to pray and some who had never done dry fasting before, did it. All the early morning tea disappeared. Why? The enemy had shown them negative possibilities. Some believed they were finished. God cannot do anything with those who think they are finished. If you want to exercise violent faith, fear must not rule or change your mind. Once you pass that test you have passed a great test.

 

2. If you want to exercise violent faith, you must know that the Lord has the ability to meet your needs in a way that defies human logic. This must be clear in your spirit.

 

3. If you are going to exercise violent faith, you must stop working mathematics with your brain. It does not work that way. You must know that the Almighty can do something at anytime. He does not mind sacking the whole of the unbelievers in a place because He wants His children there. He does not mind sending somebody to jail if that is what will make his prayers to be answered.

            A certain sister was always beaten up by her husband, so she decided to pray that God should change the man. I told her that with this prayer, anything could happen and when it did she should not be sad because when God would decide to answer the prayer, He might start in a way she wouldn’t like. Behold, a week into the prayer, the husband was arrested for manslaughter and was thrown into prison. There in the prison, man saw the uselessness of all the charms he had been relying upon. He said, “Ah! If with all these charms and fresh incisions I received everyday, I could still land in this place, then something is wrong.” It was in that prison that he gave his life to Jesus. When he eventually came out, he became a better prayer warrior than his wife. Sometimes, when God starts answering prayers, it looks strange. The people of Israel prayed for deliverance in Egypt and God started to answer the prayers by showing Moses the burning bush. What is the relationship between a burning bush and people who were praying for deliverance? That is how the Almighty operates, always in a way that defies human logic.

 

4. If you want to exercise violent faith, when God says something, take Him by His word. When God says He will do something, you will ignore feeling and logic.

 

5. If you want to exercise violent faith, you will not give the Lord any alternatives. Your attitude must not be that of, “If He fails, I will switch over to this.”

            It is so easy to reach the Almighty if you come to Him with child-like faith. You don’t have to be super spiritual neither do you have to be a pastor before God can answer your prayers. You don’t even have to be a General Overseer or a superintendent. As you are reading this message, you can relate to the Almighty and remove mountains.

 

            Lay your hand on your chest and with all seriousness pray the following prayer points:

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.  Any power choking my faith, be uprooted by fire, in the name of Jesus.

     Focus on one thing, then pray this never-failing prayer:

2. O Lord, with the power that you used to dry the Red Sea, dry this problem, in Jesus’ name.

3. You that angel dispatched from the Lord to bring my breakthrough, locate me now, in the name of Jesus.

4. Any sickness programmed into my body, go back to your sender, in the name of Jesus.

5. I refuse to marry poverty, in the name of Jesus.

6. You evil power in charge of my place of birth, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

7.  Every evil power programmed into my dream, I bury you alive, in the name of Jesus.

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THE WICKED SHALL FALL

Dr. D. K Olukoya

 

 This week we are looking at a message entitled, “The wicked shall fall.”

 

Psalms 27:2: "When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.”

 

 Here, the Bible is saying that the wicked shall stumble and fall. Sometimes ago, a sister wanted to travel. Unknown to her, her enemies planned to kill her on the journey for they had already seen in the spirit that she would be traveling. The sister being a prayerful person prayed very well before she embarked on the journey. As she was waiting for a taxi with her suitcases placed in front of her, a prophet came to where she was standing, pointed at her suitcase and prophesied saying, “The owner of this luggage must not travel. If she did, she would certainly die.” But the sister who was not afraid at all, confronted him and said, “Mr. Prophet, I have already committed this journey into the hands of the living God. He knows about it and He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. He also preserves my going out and my coming in.” Apparently, her enemies who knew about the trip arranged for that evil prophecy in order to instill fear into her. Most times, the enemies employ the weapon of fear to get at their victims. But unfortunately for the enemies of this sister, she did not entertain any fear. Five days later, this so-called prophet ran into a train at a railway crossing and that was it! Nobody could explain how it happened. What the enemy planned for the sister went back to the enemy.

 

The word of God has very bad news for the wicked. Let us look at some of them.

 Job 8:22: "They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nought."

 Job 11:20: "But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.”

Job 18:6: "The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him."

 Psalms 7:1: "O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me.” Verses 5-6 : "Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Arise, O Lord, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded.”

Psalms 146:9: "The Lord preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow; but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.” Isaiah 3:11 says, "Woe unto the wicked! It shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.”

Isaiah 48:22: "There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked."

Isaiah. 57:20-21 : "But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”

Jeremiah 30:23: "Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked."

 

We are in the last days and the Bible makes us to understand the signs of the last days, which includes the fact that: Israel will be gathered again, there shall be false prophets all over the place, there shall be fear, the hearts of men will fail them, there will be increase in knowledge, lawlessness and corruption will increase and another sign of the last days which has been neglected is that there would be intense satanic revival and wickedness in the realm of the spirit. The devil will launch a desperate attack on the human race. When a desperate man is fighting, he fights with a strong determination. The devil is on his last desperate and final attack. My prayer is that you will not be consumed in Jesus’ name. So, any minister of God who is kind and can see the type of wickedness going around cannot sit down and pamper people by telling them to just be doing their praise worship, waving their hands and jumping up, and all their problems would be over. That is a big lie. It is often said that when there is no war, there is no peace.

The devil is enlisting the whole spirit of wickedness for his final attack against man. The Bible says that the dark place of the world is full of the habitation of wickedness and that wickedness shall increase. It did not say it would reduce. If human beings who are mortals can improve on what they are doing, it will be foolishness to believe that the devil’s agents will not improve.

 1 Timothy 4:1: "Now the Spirit seeketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." 

In the last days, the devil will have his teaching programme, his own Bible study, and all kinds of false doctrines to lead people astray. In short, wickedness will prevail. 

2 Thessalonians 2:7: "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way.”

This verse is telling us that the iniquity that traps men and puts them into poverty, wrong things and leads them to hell fire is already at work but that there is somebody who is controlling it so that it does not go too far. But again the Bible says a time is coming that he who letteth shall be taken out of the way.  Thick darkness is coming upon the world so the message of Peter which says, “Save yourself from this wicked generation,” becomes very necessary. I challenge you today to deliver yourself and save yourself from this wicked and adulterous generation.

2 Thessalonians 2: 8-10: "And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved."

These are signs of the wickedness that would be released upon the world.

Revelation 12:12: "Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."

 The devil is angry because a greater power has been given solely to the church.

Luke 10:19: “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the powers of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

 It is only the church that has this power, not presidents, governors or professors. The devil is jealous because his kingdom has been taken away from him and some people are going to inherit it and become judges and God has counted you to be one of them. This is the reason for his anger.

2 Timothy. 3:13: "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived."

 Men are becoming even more wicked now. People collect other people’s urine or even feaces and use these things against them. Such people find that they are unable to urinate, and their stomachs start to swell. They go to the hospital, try all kinds of things and before you know it, they are dead.

When somebody dream of a snakebite, what does that mean? It means that the enemy is now using all those things that are not harmless against him. The person wakes up to find out that places where others go and succeed, he would go there and have problem. People send snakes to people. I know the case of a sister who was attacked by a big snake on the 5th floor of a building. There was also the case of a sister who watched as an invisible being ate her rug away. She saw the rug disappearing and was moving close to her. She jumped over it and rushed to a night vigil. There had been cases of nurses in the hospital confessing to drinking people’s blood. Also, We had a case of where somebody died and the members of his family who believed it was one of his eight wives that killed him, took the eight of them to a shrine to swear before an idol in order for them to know the culprit. Eventually, the idol picked the wrong person because the real murderer had a more powerful idol. I have also seen people who cashed their cheques and never used the money for anything meaningful because at home, they have satanic agents who sat on the cheques. These satanic agents are sometimes their house girls. We have seen people who have been locked up with evil padlocks. Mad people are now on the increase, and many believers are getting confused. There are many Christians who have up to fifty bondages to break and all the prayers they have prayed so far have broken only ten. Many people prayed through and received deliverance only to get into fresh bondage again.

 

A sister came to mountain of fire and miracles ministries and after she had prayed all kinds of hot prayer points, she got back to her car and put on again the demonic bangles that her grandmother gave to her, which she left in the car when she was coming in, thereby renewing everything that had left her in the church. Many people are now asking these types of questions: “Why is my life like this?” “When will things ever be okay?” “Why is it that nothing seems to work?” “Why are certain spirits refusing to leave me alone? What have I done to them?” You cannot derive any good by harassing your mind. With these questions, you will only confuse yourself the more. You need to cry to the Lord for Him to turn your tears into spiritual acid and pour it on the head of your enemies.

Everybody has spiritual enemies. If you say you do not have, then you must have dropped from heaven because Jesus Himself had and they hated Him and did not hide it. They would have killed Him before His time if not that He had a ministry to fulfill. The Bible says of Him: "Who wicked men crucified and nailed on the cross." During His battle at the Garden of Gethsemane, He got to a level where He said, “This is your hour and the power of darkness.” He recognized it. If you say you do not have an enemy, then who sends evil thoughts to your mind? What makes you to forget the Scriptures you have memorized? So, do not deceive yourself about that. We have a lot of educated people, professors and doctors, who believe that this is all superstition. There was a lecturer in one of the universities who used to tell his students that there is no God. He also told them that he did not believe in charms either. He kept on polluting those boys and some of them believed him. Some even stopped going for fellowship. They reasoned that the lecturer had a Ph.D., a big car, fed well and had a beautiful wife and he was not serving God, nor consulted any herbalist. They stopped going to church and decided to emulate the lecturer. One day, one of the boys was coming from a party at 1 a.m and saw the figure of somebody. Behold, it was the lecturer naked and carrying a pot of sacrifice on his head. He looked at him and said, “Excuse me sir,” the man did not answer. So he rushed back to the church and started asking God to forgive him. 

 

In the last days, men will become more and more wicked. The most dangerous position anybody could be is to allow the devil to make him believe that there are no evil powers when the Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places.

 

A sister had a dream where a man urinated inside a cup and asked her to drink it. She said, “But urine is not for drinking.” The man said, “Nobody is asking you whether they drink it or not, all I said is drink it.” She refused. So, he force-fed her with the urine. She woke up feeling very bad and three days later, she developed high blood pressure and was admitted in the hospital. Shortly after, her fiancé came to the hospital and called off their relationship. She started losing everything. It is wickedness. 

 

The devil used wicked men to slay Jesus but little did he know that the death of Jesus would become his own defeat. There is a general judgment for the wicked but they can be judged even now.

Deuteronomy. 32:35: "To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste."

 Psalms 149:5-9: "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 hand. To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments 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.”

 

When Jesus was on earth how DID He deal with wicked spirits?

 

 Matthew 8:29: "And behold, they cried out, saying, what have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?"

 

So the wicked know their fate. They know where they are going. So if you allow them to spoil your life before they get to their final destination, it is your own fault. They said to Jesus, “Lord what have you to do with us? Leave us alone; let us destroy them in this place. Why are you disturbing us?” That was what they were telling Him. But Jesus said, “Shut up and get out.” Beloved, do you wish to allow yourself to be destroyed? If your answer is no, then you must prepare for war.

 

A lot of people are in a war and they are behaving as if there is no war. They just do what they like, wear what they want to wear, put on every chain available in the market on their necks, all the bangles on their hands, and even put some on their legs. They wear the type of clothes they should not wear and they are in a war. They do not know what they are facing yet. This is why I said you must prepare for war.  You must make sure you put aside anything you know the enemy can use against you because it is time for war. Do you want your enemy to destroy you before they go to their final destination? No enemy can harm you without your co-operation.

 

I want you to be sure that you are not your own enemy. Fornicators are their own enemies, liars are their own enemies, all angry people are their own enemies, and all those who fight and quarrel are their own enemies. So, please ensure that you are not your own enemy. You may say, “Well, I get angry but I cool down very quickly.” It is still the same thing; you are the enemy of yourself. If you leave an open door in your life, the enemy will utilise it.

 

What are these open doors?

 

Wrong attitude: This is in form of anger, pride, malice, gossip, backbiting, lukewarmness in prayer and Bible study, eating while others are fasting, running away from serious programmes, self display, etc, are doors through which the enemy can enter into a life.

Darkness: The wicked loves darkness. Satanic agents work better in darkness. So, stay in the light of God ‘s word. Do not approach the world of darkness for help. If you do, you will pay heavily for it, and not only you but your children also. The devil has no free gift. If he gives you one naira, he will take back a million naira and will demand for it at a time you least expected. He can even demand it from your children or grandchildren. You can rebuke the operation of the wicked in your life today because the Bible says whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

   A lot of  family members are enemies in disguise. Your friends in your family are those who are born again. All others can be used against you by the devil either directly or indirectly, so you better be careful. Those who patrol their home-towns to show off their new cars and let people know that they are prosperous in the town and not for the sake of preaching the gospel are playing with fire.  

    Deuteronomy 7:26: "Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it; but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing."

 

A believer must be careful about the kind of money he handles. Any form of bribery, or money got in a wrong way should not come into your pocket. If you take such money, it will remove greater things from you and hinder God’s blessings. Also, do not store strange property in your life and home and expect blessings. It is time for all of us to carry out a research on our lives and a spiritual inventory of everything we have in our houses. A lot of sisters say they are born again yet they are still keeping things given to them by their former boyfriends. They are strange materials and must be destroyed. Perhaps you have stolen things before you got born again and you are still keeping them. You must let them go.

 

The reason some people have constant headache is because they are sleeping on stolen pillows and some have backache because they are sitting and sleeping on stolen chairs and beds. Some people have ulcer because when they were in a hotel they stole plates and are now eating with those stolen plates. Those who stole spoons now have problem with their mouths. Some have nightmares because they sleep on stolen bed sheets and some are jobless now because they studied with stolen books. There used to be a market somewhere in Lagos popularly known for secondhand books. It is not bad to sell or buy secondhand books. If someone finds that he does not need a book anymore, there is no rule that says he cannot sell it but the trouble with this market was that immediately you opened your box in the class those days and you found that any of your books was missing, if you run in time to this market you would still meet it. The dealers might just be trying to clear your name off it with sandpaper and if you had some money on you, you could still buy your book back. Anyone who studies with such stolen books will fail or when he is able to get a certificate, it will be useless.

 

If you are keeping the devil’s property in your house, he has a right to come and inspect them from time to time. When he gets there, he asks them questions like, “I hope you are doing very well? I hope you are punishing  your host very well?” Evil spirits will never leave anyone who is harbouring strange property in his house alone. Carry out an inspection of everything in your house. Find out how you got them. If you acquired them in an unrighteous way, return them to their rightful owners that is if you want the wicked to stumble and fall. If not, he will hold on to those things and will not be able to fall completely.

 

When you clean your house, Jesus will come in and settle there. That is what happened to Zaccheaus. Jesus said to him, “Come down. Today, salvation has entered into your house and whatsoever you have taken from people would be returned four-fold.” Zaccheaus was a thief but he restored everything he had stolen. 

 

At a crusade a long time ago, a particular man came forward anytime an altar call was made. In those days, they had what was called the sinner’s altar and if you wanted to give your life to the Lord, you would pray your way through unto salvation, not the way it is done these days. Nowadays, when altar calls are made, you see people who come out with their tight skirts with long slits and jeans trousers. They shake the preacher’s hands, and he says, “You are born again.” It was not like that in those days. You sit down there and pray your way through and when you pray through, nobody can confuse you. You will be convinced totally.  So this man continued to answer the call and prayed. On the third day, he was the last person to leave the sinner‘s altar. Then the evangelist went to him and asked: “Brother, can I help you?” And he said, “Yes.” You have been seeing me here for the past three days.” The evangelist said, “Yes, that is why I want to help you.” He told the evangelist that he had been working in a place for twenty years and every month he stole a minimum of fifty pounds. Now that the evangelist had said people should make restitution where was he going to get all that money to pay back. The evangelist said, “No problem. You just go back to your boss tomorrow and tell him everything.” The man said, “Okay, but I will be jailed.” The next morning, he went to the general manager of the company and said, “Sir, you know I have been working here for twenty years. I have been stealing money every month but now I want to get saved. I want to give my life to Christ.  Right now, I prefer to go to jail and I have my peace of mind than mine present state.” The general manager looked at him and said, “Well since you have decided to go to jail, to jail you shall go.” But on a second thought, the man looked at him and said, “I want honest people like you here. Nobody has ever come here to say anything like this. I will promote you.” So he got a promotion instead. He ran back to the crusade ground with excitement. 

 

The devil makes people believe that if they make restitution, they will get into trouble.  A lot of people who are now crying that they are not prospering have forgotten that at one time or the other, they cheated. You must make restitution if you need to before you can have your breakthrough.

 

Ecclesiastes 10:8: “He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.”

 

 I tell you God does not allow Satan to just attack like that. God always protects His people. It is the devil that attacks people. If you have power over the devil, you should be the one chasing him. God built an edge around Job and the devil could not tear down that edge. But Job tore down the edge with his own mouth. You alone can tear down the edge that God is using to protect you. If by your own words of fear, you tear down the edge of protection that God put around you, the Bible says the serpent shall bite you. God hates this and does not want His people to do it.

 

Another important fact is in Matthew 11:12: "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."

 

Great miracles happen when you get violent. You have to get violent to get your freedom. The moment you get mad at the devil you will receive your healing from whatever sickness you have. So get violent today and receive that which is yours. We have allowed the devil to confuse us in so many ways.  Some people even believe that the game is up, that they just have to manage life. That is wrong. You may lose a battle that does not mean you have lost the war. You cannot put up a defence against the power of God in your life and expect Him to help you. You must open up to Him and get violent with the enemy. When you get violent, God will fight for you. No battle is over until God says it is. 

Beloved, I want you to think about everything the enemy has done to you. That should be enough to get you mad. The Bible says, “When my foes, (I do not know about you) and my enemies come upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumble and fall.” A good reader of the Bible would recognize that God does not tell useless stories and that anything that He allowed to go into the Bible must be of spiritual significance.

 

Let us look at some people in the Scriptures who had one thing in common:

a. Jezebel: We do not have Jezebel the wife of Ahab here now but the spirit is around.

b. Nebuchadnezzar (Babylon): We do not have the kingdom of Babylon that Nebuchadnezzar ruled over now but the spirit of Babylon is here.

c. Goliath: The Goliath who challenged the Israelites is no longer alive physically but many people have Goliaths troubling them now.  Goliath is what we call giant enemies that challenge people. 

d. Saul: We do not have Saul here again but Saul pursued David for years.  Likewise the Pharaoh of Egypt pursued the children of Israel to destroy them.  We do not have Pharaoh here now but the spirits of Saul and Pharaoh are here with us.  They are the stubborn pursuers.  The interesting thing about Pharaoh and Saul is that they were both kings whom had power at their disposal but made a mistake by chasing God’s people.

e. Ahitophel: Ahitophel was a fake friend to David.  He was an evil counselor.  We do not have Ahitophel now but we have the spirit of Ahitophel which operates in the lives of people who will smile at you and tell how you are ever so fine but behind you they are biting serpents

f. Absalom: We do not have Absalom here again but the spirit of Absalom is in operation. It represents household enemies. Absalom was the enemy within the son that fought against his father.  

g. The enemies of Daniel: We do not have such people now who can throw you into a physical lion’s den.  But that is the spirit behind evil observers. 

h. Haman: Haman was against Mordecai and effectively planned his death and got the instrument of death ready. We do not have Harman now but the spirit of Harman is working in those who plan the death of others. All these are the agents of Satan.

     The Lord has revealed these things so that His people can have complete deliverance. So, pray the following prayer points aggressively so that every oppression against you will stop.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. Every evil association against me, be scattered, in the name of Jesus.

2. Let all wicked spirits working against me fall by their wickedness, in Jesus’ name.

3. Every wickedness that has been done against my life, stumble and fall, in Jesus’ name.

4. Any good thing that the enemy has removed from my life, my home, and my work, be restored immediately, in the name of Jesus.

5. I command every spirit of wickedness that has ever had anything to do with my life right from the womb to gather together now, in the name of Jesus.

6.You forces of wickedness that have gathered now, receive the judgment of God, in the name of Jesus.

 

 bac 

The last laugh

Dr.D.K.Olukoya

 

Beloved, this week, we shall be looking at a message entitled, “The last laugh”. We shall start by looking at Psalm 2:1-5: “Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed saying. Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.  He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure”.  Verse 9: “Thou shall break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

God laughs at His enemies and He laughs them to scorn. The first question is this:

 

WHO ARE THE ENEMIES OF GOD?

1. All those who oppose the gospel and all the lovers of the world are the enemies of God. The bible says in 1 John 3:15, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him.”  James 4; 4: “. know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?  Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God”.

So, those who are comfortable with the world system and the way it operates, are God’s enemies. 

It gives me a lot of concern when those who are actually God’s enemies join others to sing the popular song, which says, “Let God arise and His enemies be scattered.” It is foolishness for those who are qualified as the enemies of God to be singing that song.

2. All those who hate the truth.  Some people will prefer to believe lies to believing the truth. Once you prefer lies to the truth, the Bible says you are an enemy of God.

3. All those who are not born again.   As far as God is concerned, the spirit of the power of the air controls all unbelievers. No matter how nice they are, no matter how educated, beautiful or handsome they are, as far as they are not born again, they are enemies of God.

4. All those who attack God’s children.  Apostle Paul before his conversion was attacking the children of God. But while he was on his way to deal severely with the apostles, there was a blinding flash of light and then the voice sounded, “Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou me? It is a hard thing for thee to kick against thorns.” And Paul said, “Who art thou Lord?” He was persecuting the body of Christ on earth, and Jesus made him to understand that it was He the Lord he was persecuting. All those who are fighting the children of God in one way or the other, constitute themselves as enemies of God.  The Bible says the Lord shall laugh them to scorn. The Lord sees them as jokers.

Psalm 37:12: “The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him; for he seeth that this day is coming.”

When you look through the word of God from the beginning to the end, you will discover that all those who wanted to serve God from the bottom of their hearts were always subjects of hatred.  Enemies in the Bible sometimes had to resolve their differences because they wanted to fight against a child of God. It is still happening now. But the Bible says they imagine a vain thing.  Some stubbornly fight on even when they are losing.

 

WHAT WILL GOD DO?

The Bible says, “He shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” People like Pharaoh and Haman in the Bible understood that message very well when they fought against the children of God.

As a child of God, when God is asking you to change, you better do so unless you want to belong to the group of people who He laughs at.  I don’t want you to belong to that category at all.  Proverbs 1:24:  “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded.” For example, if God asks you to stop drinking, or smoking, or going around with strange women, or moving about like a ghost at night and you refuse, or He says, “Come” and you say you are not interested, verses 25-26: “But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity: I will mock when your fear cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.”

All who hear God’s call and pleadings and remain unrepentant, God says He will laugh when their own calamities begin to come. Therefore, it is a very serious thing, which we must sort out within our spirit. If somebody says he is repenting of certain things, and makes a vow that, “O God, I promise that this particular thing I will not do it again,” and you go back to it, you have committed a terrible offence because you have broken a vow that you made with God. At such a person, God says, “I will laugh.”

The fact that you fall asleep anytime you want to read  the Bible, means that there is an enemy of God inside of you. If you find it difficult to pray even after you had determined to do it and you could not, shows that there is an enemy of God in the camp of your life. The fact that anytime you want to move the way God wants you to move, there is a force dragging you behind means that you have something within you that is pitching its camp against God, that is why there is that struggle. If God tells you to come, and you are able to run to Him, then there is no hindrance. But when He says come and as you try to move, you find that your legs are heavy and you are moving slowly, know that there is an enemy inside dragging you behind.

Your  enemy could be pride. It could be resentment, bitterness, anger, lack of concentration, or unteachable spirit.

Sometime ago, we had a message entitled, “The rod of Elisha in the hand of Gehazi.” The rod of Elisha could not function in the hand of Gehazi because the wrong person was holding it. The enemy of the power in the rod was inside Gehazi who was holding it so, there could not be any cooperation between them. I could wear the best cassock in the world, and yet there could be a conflict between the cassock and me. A person could have a godly name and not be godly.  There could be a conflict between my name and what I am.  Beloved, we must sort these things out. Immediately you sort them out, and remove yourself from the group of those God is laughing at, then you become an Elijah who in I Kings 18:25-27, displayed and boasted in his God.

I Kings 18:25-27: “And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, choose you one bullock for yourselves and dress it first; for ye are many, and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under. (Notice the way he was talking to them) And they took the bullock, which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon saying,, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar, which was made. And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud; for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he slept, and must be awaked.”

When you transfer yourself from the camp of the enemy of God to that of His friend, you can mock and laugh at all the decisions and strategies of the enemy because you know that He that sits in the heaven shall laugh them to scorn and which He is already doing now.

Sometimes, the situation of Christians may seem as if God is no longer there, but at the heat of the problem, God takes you out. The question is, why does He permit it to happen at all? When He allows it to happen, and the enemies think they are having their way, He steps in and begins to operate.

 

LET US LOOK AT SOME REASONS GOD STAYS SILENT SOMETIMES

1.  To give us the opportunity to develop our faith. Most of the strong prayer warriors we have around did not become so out of personal decision. They became strong prayer warriors because they had things to uproot and break down and in the process of dealing with those things, they became aggressive. God allows it to happen before He starts His laughter.

2.  To prove that the enemy does not have all the power. The enemy may do all sorts of things but he does not have all the power.

3.  God allows things to go rough sometimes before He delivers His people to make them develop unshaken confidence in Him. And when other storms come, they will be able to stand because they have been tested.

4.  God sometimes allows the heat to be so bad before He comes in to strengthen our faith to teach us some important spiritual lessons. God will keep repeating a particular lesson to a person until the person learns. God is not fraudulent. Therefore, He would not allow anyone to fail in His examination.  You must pass before you can be promoted. For example, if the lesson God wants to teach you is to stop crying anytime you have a small problem and you have not learnt it, He will keep repeating it until you learn.

5.  God allows the heat to get bad to make people appreciate the worth of their deliverance.

6.  God allows the heat to get bad to prove your spiritual strength, to know how strong you really are. It is easy to say you are a Christian when there is no problem. But when there is attack here and there, and everybody seems to be against you, then we will know whether you can really stand. You have no right to say that you are not a thief until you have been given the opportunity to steal and you do not do it. You cannot say that you are not a proud person until you are placed in an important position and you remain humble.

Beloved, the believer will always have the last laugh.  For 120 years, Noah constructed a boat and other people laughed at him and called him a foolish man. But when the flood began to chase them and they started to climb the trees, they changed their minds and cried unto Noah to rescue them. But Noah said, “I am sorry, it is God who locked the windows and door. I cannot open the door. I am sorry.” Who laughed last? Noah and his family.

A believer may look foolish and it may seem as if he does not know what he is doing. They may call him the father or mother of Jesus or whatever, but he will laugh last. God passed the people of Israel through the land of Egypt and the wilderness and allowed Pharaoh to get close to them to see whether they would have confidence in Him or not. Why did not God send thunder and blast Pharaoh to pieces before he got close? Why did God allow Saul to give David a hot chase of his life for twenty years? Was God sleeping when Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den? Was He sleeping when Shadrach, Mehsach and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace? But David, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had the last laugh.

When king Ahab wanted to go to war, and consulted with about four hundred prophets, they told him to go ahead that he would succeed. All of them said he should go because they were on his payroll. There are many people today who have prophets on their payroll. All the four hundred prophets said the same thing but somebody there, who was not convinced, asked the king if there were no other prophets apart from the four hundred. The king said, “There is one called Micaiah the son of Imlah. The problem with him is that he prophesies evil always. If you bring him now, he will prophesy evil”. But he was persuaded to send for him.  When the messenger got to Micaiah he said, “Micaiah, the king wants you concerning a matter. Other prophets have prophesied good, make sure that when you get there, your words agree with theirs.” And the prophet said, “What the Lord says to me, that I will speak.” When he got to the king, he said, “I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have no shepherd; and the Lord said: These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace.” The king got angry and ordered that he should be locked up. But when Micaiah said, “The Lord has prophesied evil against you, He has called a committee meeting in heaven and they have decided that you must die.” Then the chief prophet slapped him and said, “How can the Lord leave me to come and talk to you?” He was ordered to be locked up and fed with water and bread of affliction until the king and his people came back in peace. And Micaiah said, “If thou return at all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And he said, Hearken, O ye people, everyone of you.” And Ahab never came back. Who laughed last? It was the man who was fed with bread and water of affliction.  (I Kings 22).

Why was the Lord Jesus Christ led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit? Why did Paul have to pass through horrible things? God’s people know that God will always have His way in the wind and in the whirlwind. It does not matter the wind of adversity and rivers of problems you are passing through now, ensure that you are His friend and not His enemy and He shall laugh those your enemies to scorn.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   Anything in me that is your enemy, O Lord, chase them out today, in the name of Jesus.

2.   I dissolve every evil agreement, in the name of Jesus.

3.   All spiritual vultures working against me, be roasted, in the name of Jesus.

4.   Let all the vows and promises of the enemy on my life be nullified, in the name of Jesus.

5.   Let every stranger in my life be consumed by fire, in the name of Jesus.

6.   Father Lord, arise and let it be known that you are my God, in the name of Jesus.

7.   Let the fire of God purge away every evil deposit in my life, in the name of Jesus.

8.         I shall laugh last, in the name of Jesus.

k 

Iron or clay

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

The topic of our message this week is entitled, “Iron or Clay.” Luke 4:1- 7: “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him, if thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, it is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. (Not some of it, every word).  And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me, and to whoever I will I give it. (Wonderful, Jesus did not argue at all. That is why they call the devil the god of this world). If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.” Perhaps, we can now understand why some people have charms for making money at home. The devil is the god of this world and has power over these things. Verses 8-13: “And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me Satan: (or put in our local language, get lost or go and jump into the lagoon). For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve. And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, (Note the ‘if,’) cast thyself down from hence. For it is written, (that is the devil quoting the Bible) He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee. And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.  And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.” Meaning that he would come back. When the devil left Jesus, he began to speak to the scribes and the Pharisees and his influence made them to argue with Jesus. When he finished with the Pharisees and the scribes, he went to Herod, who was also looking for Jesus.  After that, he went to Pilate, and then to the cross.

  The above passage gives us so much information. It talks about the time of temptation. We can see that immediately after the anointing of Jesus, then came temptation. Immediately after the heavenly voice, came the temptation. Immediately after the defeat of the Egyptians at the Red Sea, came the bitter water of Marah. After a mountain-top experience, prepare for a valley attack. And the higher and glorious the mountain-top experience is, the deeper the valley. The more the power, the more the demand. 

   Let us consider a simple example of Elijah and Elisha. Elijah was a man of fire, they call him the prophet of fire. He was the first prophet to call  fire down  from heaven. There was a time fifty soldiers plus one captain came against him and said, “If thou be a man of God, come down.” He looked at them and said, “Well if I am a man of God, I will not come down but let fire come down.” And fire came down and roasted the fifty-one people. Another group of soldiers came, fifty of them plus one captain again, and said the same thing to him, “If thou be man of God, come down.” He replied again, “If I be a man of God, I refuse to come down. Let fire come down.” And fire came down and roasted the fifty-one people making a hundred and two roasted soldiers on the ground. A third consignment of fifty soldiers and one captain was sent; but this captain had some home training. When he came to Elijah and saw a hundred and two roasted people on the floor, he took a different approach. He said, “My father, please, have mercy on us,” and he came down. So the last captain and his group were not destroyed.

   A hundred and two soldiers were sent against Elijah while Elisha, the man who had a double portion of his anointing, had a whole army sent against him. But thank God for the God of Elisha who got them so confused that they asked Elisha where was Elisha? And Elisha said, “Oh, he is not here, just follow me.” And they followed him whom they were looking for until they were put in bondage.

  So, after a mountain-top experience, prepare for a valley attack. Some people lose their miracles after they have prayed and the Lord has laid hands on them because they do not know that they would be challenged and then problem comes.  Let us look at another example Luke 9. Luke 9:28 – 31:“And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias. Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.” So they had this mountain-top experience. Verses 36 – 37: “And they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen. And it came to pass that on the next day, when they were come down from the hill, much people met him. And behold, a man of the company cried out saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son: for he is mine only child. And, lo a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out; and it teareth him that he foameth again, and bruising him hardly departeth from him.” After that mountain-top experience, look at what was waiting for them at the valley.  Promotion and testing go together. God’s microscope for revealing the kind of persons we are or what is hidden in us is temptation. 2 Corinthians 12: 2 - 7 : here was Paul saying, “I knew a man in Christ about fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up in paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” Here was a man from the third heavens now facing a valley experience. Promotion and testing; they go together. God’s microscope of revealing our hidden evil habit is temptation. When temptation faces you, you either become iron or clay. You can mould the clay to what you want but the iron stands firm. Meaning that if you are a clay, temptation can melt and remould you but an iron person would remain unmoulded. My first question to you is, when temptation comes, do you become iron or clay? Are you the kind of person that temptation will mould to what it wants? Or you can stand and say no to it?

 

WHAT IS TEMPTATION?

    Temptation is that which persuades a person to do something wrong or foolish. When a person is tempted, the person could walk far away from the Lord, or do things that he is not supposed to do. There is something we call evil magnet. It magnetizes people to what will destroy them. The Bible says, there is a road that seemeth good unto man, but the end, which only God can see, thereof is death. Why do people move towards such a way? There is an evil magnet pulling them there.  Therefore, I would like you to pray the following prayer point with serious aggression: “I refuse to be pulled by any satanic magnet, in the name of Jesus.”

 

WHEN DOES TEMPTATION COME?

   Temptation comes when a person walks far away from the Lord or when he is not close to the Saviour or he walks away like Peter. The farther you are from the shepherd of the fold, the easier it is for the Amalekites to catch you.  

   Temptation comes when you are warming yourself in the fire of the enemy. When you are using the enemy’s method to assist yourself, like Peter was warming himself in the fire of the enemy and the enemy came to him and asked, “Are you one of them?” He said no and began to curse and swear.

  Temptation comes when you refuse to make covenant with your eyes.  If you allow your eyes to look at anything or any direction, temptation will follow.

   Temptation comes when you are moving faster than God. Some people are moving faster than God. When God says, “Be patient,” and you say, “No, it must happen now. My colleagues are doing it, so it has to be done, and it has to be now.” When you move faster than God, temptation must happen. When God says by May next year, you shall go to so, so place and the May has not arrived, and you are in too much of a hurry to get there, things will go wrong.  

  Temptation comes when you allow covetousness to take over your life. What is covetousness? It is refusing to cut your coat according to your cloth. Covetousness will open you up to temptation. 

    A big friend of mine came crying, several years back. He had just retired from public service. He collected all his entitlement and was planning what to do with it when suddenly some people came and introduced a business to him. They brought some dark pieces of paper cut like money and told him that they would become dollar bills if washed with a particular liquid. They told him how much the substance would cost. He did a quick calculation and was happy with what would be his share of the deal. He did not tell his wife nor anybody.  He gave them all his entitlement and they told him that would only buy one component out of three needed for the business that he should bring more. He borrowed some money and took it to them. They still demanded for more. They produced two dollars for him, so he was convinced. This was an educated man. As he was giving them the third instalment, a police man suddenly appeared from nowhere and said, “Sir, what are you doing here?” He said, “I have business to do with these people.” “Don’t you know that this business is illegal? You as former top civil servant, educated in England, how can you be moving about with thieves like these to wreck the economy of your country?” asked the policeman. The policeman arrested all of them. The man began to shake and to beg. The policeman asked him which secondary school he attended. He mentioned it. It happened to be one of the best secondary schools in town. The policeman said, “You are a disgrace to that school.” He told the policeman to ask those people to give him back his money and he will go his way. The policeman then said, “I am talking to you about the offence you committed and jail, and you are talking about getting your money back. He began to prostrate and beg the policeman whom he did not know was part of them. The policeman closed his eyes and said, “Before I open my eyes run out of this place.” The man fled out. And that was the end of entitlement and the money he borrowed. He wanted to get rich quick. The Bible says, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof is death.”

   Temptation comes when the fowler has set a net for you without your knowledge.

  Temptation bombards a person and wins when the person is not broken. Unbroken people are meat in the mouth of temptation.

  When temptation comes, you must understand its nature. Our text in Luke chapter 4 makes us to understand that temptation is not sin. Hebrews 4:15: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” So Jesus was tempted, yet He did not fall. Therefore, temptation itself is not sin. It is when you yield to it that it becomes a sin. Martin Luther said, “I may not be able to prevent birds from flying over my head, but I can prevent them from building their nest on my head.” It is the same thing with temptation. You may not be able to prevent a temptation from coming, but you can prevent it from building a house in your spirit. God Himself sometimes allows it to happen to test the kind of person you are. It is easy to be screaming, “I trust myself, I cannot do that kind of thing.” Let the temptation come, then we see how you will handle it.

   Sometime ago, in a church I used to attend, we invited a man who was 85 years old. He was the oldest man I ever saw on the pulpit. He stood there with his old coat and sang a popular song which says, “There is victory within my soul, for the spirit with me abide. Let the waves of temptation roll, Jesus will keep 'em whatsoever happens, victory in my soul.” After the song, he asked a question: “How many of you want victory?” Everybody raised  their hands. He said, “If you want victory, shout Alleluia,” and everybody shouted. Then he faced us again and said, “How many of you want war?” Nobody put a hand up. Then the man said, “Where will the victory come from? How can there be victory when there is no war?” For the enemy to come against you and flee from you, you must first of all come against him. So when temptation comes and you are able to stand, it is then we know that you have passed. It is God that tests the nature of what we are. A man of God once said that temptation is devil whistling at the key hole of your house. When you open the door and let him in, then he gets you. He also said that he may be whistling till day break for you to let him in. Some people instead of fleeing from temptation, would be arguing or debating.

   As a Christian, if you know that a particular brother or sister can make you to fall into sin, in spite of your spiritual level, or no matter how much you have promised God, or how much fire prayer or fasting you have done, immediately this person comes along, you become jelly, the only solution is to flee if you are a serious person.           The Bible says flee from all appearances of evil, that is, don’t wait for the thing to become evil before you flee.

   Potiphar’s wife said to Joseph, “Come lie with me.” Likewise, there are many things in the street too crying to us day and night saying, “Come, lie with me.” For example, pornographic materials, the gadgets of Jezebel, e.t.c. Joseph had the opportunity of having a free woman who was willing, and also the Bible says that she was beautiful. Joseph had many things to his advantage. If he wanted to do it, nobody would have seen them. It was a satanic fringe benefit for a houseboy like him. Everyday the woman kept urging him to lie with her. He did not do what a lot of people would have done today. Some people today would have said, “Okay, just a peck,” and like that, many men and women have pecked their ways to hell fire and into destruction.

  If Joseph had cooperated with Portiphar’s wife, he would not have reached his goal. Temptations are set-ups by the enemy to divert us from our divine destiny. We are the ones who do not know what we are doing sometimes, but the enemy knows what he is doing. The temptation of Joseph was a strategy of the enemy to keep him from fulfilling his divine destiny. That would have been the end of Joseph and God who would not permit a vacuum in His programme would have looked for someone else. One of the most powerful confessions you can make upon your life is, “I will reach my goal, in Jesus’ name.” What do I mean by if Joseph had cooperated with that woman, he would not have reached his goal? If he had cooperated with her, he would not have been thrown into prison from where he was catapulted to the palace. It was when he fled from the woman that she told lies against him and he was put in prison. The woman thought she had done Joseph harm not knowing that she had only promoted him. Likewise, many sisters would not have been where they are today, if they opened their mouths and said no to a particular man at a particular time. Many brothers too, would not have been where they are now, if at a particular time, they had tightened the belt of their trousers and refused to open it. They would still have been okay. So, yielding to temptation can alter a person’s divine programme for life. Temptation itself must not lead to sin. It did not do so with Christ, so it need not do so with us.

   We have a lot of satanic agents all over the place. Some of them are running after ministers, some are running after would-be ministers of God. Just like we have male hunters, hunting for women of God to pull down, we have female hunters too, hunting for men of God to pull down. At a crusade held sometime ago, two girls came forward crying. They were undergraduates in one of our universities. Everyone tried to stop them but they continued crying. When asked why they were crying, they said that both of them belonged to the same demonic group and that every man that had ever slept with them would never live longer than fifty years, and their children too will die young and it had already began to happen. They brought out a newspaper and showed us the obituary of two of them who died at 39 and 42. These two girls have repented, got born-again, and are now children of God, but some men are now in hell fire because of them.

  James 1:13-14:“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.” It is the lust inside the heart of a man that cooperates with the enemy and allows him to be dragged away. This is why brokenness is very important. When you are broken, certain things will not interfere with your spiritual life any more. God will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able to bear but it is not the same with those who voluntarily go into temptation. When satan invited Eve to come and look, what she should have done was to run. Samson would have fled instead of telling stories: “If you take this, I will lose my power.”

 

WHAT IS THE RESULT OF TEMPTATION?

   No man can be the same after temptation. It is not possible. Temptation can either make or mar you. But God wants it to make us while the devil wants is to mar us. It is left to us to decide what we want. Temptation should prove and improve our faith. Consider this important truth: Every temptation is an opportunity for you to get nearer to God. You may decide to flunk the opportunity or use it to a divine advantage.

   Analyse your temptations and you will find out the kind of person you are. You will know who you are by what tempts you. If it is money, opposite sex, or bad temper, there is something within you that needs to go. By the time you finish the analysis, you would have defined yourself, and be able to say, “This is me.”

   To pray against temptation and then be careless, is like you putting your finger inside fire and saying, “Father, in the name of Jesus, this must not burn my finger. I command you fire not to burn it,” whereas you have put your finger in the fire.

   No one can be delivered from temptation. You have to be determined to do your best to get out of it. The greatest temptation comes to us when we are off duty as Christians. But it is a big truth that God’s presence is a good remedy against temptation.

   Trying to change your skin to look like a white woman's is an abomination unto the Lord. That thing that is telling you to change the colour of your skin wants to destroy you. It is telling you to improve on what God has done. People who do that always have one excuse: “I am fighting pimples.” Instead of saying, “Well, I think I will look more beautiful if I am lighter,” which is the truth. Such people are not spiritually serious. The black woman’s hair can only grow longer naturally because of the way God created it. But when you go to the market and buy extra attachment or what we call in deliverance ‘dead men’s bone’ and you attach it to make your hair longer, you are courting trouble. I wonder how somebody who has the property of the enemy can command the enemy to go. A lot of spinsters are crying to God to give them godly husbands while they themselves are not godly. Some Christian sisters dress like prostitutes. Some who are not satisfied with one pair of hole in their ears which their parents put there ignorantly, punch two or more on their ears. 

  When you encourage the enemy, he will get strong. If you know that you are from a background that requires serious warfare for you to deliver yourself, you don’t spend time joking or doing unnecessary things. Sometime ago, a lady was  brought to us for prayers and immediately we said, “Father, in the name of Jesus, lay your hands of fire upon this sister,” she began to dance like Indians.  When we asked her to stop dancing, she said she couldn’t and did not know why she couldn’t. The reason she could not stop was because there was a spirit inside her doing the dancing. But the same girl would wear long trousers and put on attachments on her head. Such people waste the time of ministers of God.

  God is not going to promote untested men and women. The world is God’s testing station. It is on this earth that you can prove to God that you are qualified for heaven. Most of the time, temptations come as a result of the desire of old nature in us.

 

HOW DO YOU OVERCOME TEMPTATION?

1. Kill the flesh: When you kill your flesh, you will be dead to temptation.  It will no longer be a question of you battling with it. For example, as a man, if a free girl enters your sitting room and you go to the toilet and start praying instead of you to run out of the place, it means something within you is still interested. When you are dead to it, it will have no effect on you. Let the flesh die, that is, be broken. Unbroken people disgrace the church, disgrace God and cause problems.

2. Avoid all evil influences: Much of the music, literature, television programmes and movies in our society are polluted. It is commonly said that “Out of sight is out of mind. When you know that something is an evil influence, you stay clear from it. If you have a friend who is always talking fornication, adultery, and all kinds of things that are ungodly, let him go his own way. If as a Christian you still entertain your visitors with alcohol, remember the Bible says, “Woe unto him that gives his neighbour drink. You must not encourage your friends to go to hell fire. Don’t be a stumbling block to them.

3. Build your life on the word of God: Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. Know the ‘it is written’ of every situation you find yourself. 

4. Flee from all appearances of evil: Don’t wait for it to materialise, run away from all those things that cry, “Come and lie with us,” like Joseph did.

5. Resist the devil: James 4:7 tells us to resist the devil and he will flee from us.

   If you cannot control your temper, you won't be able to control anything. If you don’t have the stamina to say no to the flesh, you cannot resist temptation. Until you defeat lust, forget about pulling down strongholds. In our nation now, many people are copying American Christianity. Some people decorate their churches all over with flags as if that is the Spirit of God. Some speak American English, and pray American prayer against Nigerian demons. Sometime ago, some people who were going out for evangelism and were singing, “We are able to go up and take that country, to possess our land from Jordan to the sea, though the devil may be on our way to hinder, God will surely give us victory. Move on to the righteous side.” They were singing that they were going to take the country with attachment, painted lips and fingers. Some of the women ministers were wearing skirts that you could see the lining of their underwears from outside. They wanted to take the country when they themselves have already been taken.

   A believer must learn to rule the flesh by the spirit which is empowered by the Holy Ghost. You change from the inside to the outside. When your body is in subjection to your spirit, God will do wonders in your life. Before temptation even comes, you would have made up your mind that you will obey the word of God.

   I would like you to confess your sins to the Lord and tell Him that you are sorry for the times when the waves of temptation came, and you could not stand your ground, the times that you compromised your faith, the time you could not stand up for the truth, the time you constituted a stumbling block.  Ask the Lord to help you out.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. I bind every coffin spirit, in the name of Jesus.

2. I cast every serpent of infirmity into the fire of judgment, in the name of Jesus.

3. Let every evil challenger fall after the order of Goliath, in Jesus' name.

4. I refuse to partake in all the tragedies that are left in this year, in the name of Jesus.

5. Let my blessing pursue and overtake me from the North, South, East and West, in Jesus’ name.

6. Every garment of poverty, be roasted, in the name of Jesus.

7. I paralyse every evil carryover, in the name of Jesus.

8. I refuse to be defeated in battle, in the name of Jesus.

9. Let my spiritual life be too hot for the devil to handle, in Jesus' name.

10.     I paralyse every satanic embarrassment, in the name of Jesus.

11.     Every serpent dispatched against me, bite yourself, in Jesus' name.

13.     You household strong man, carry your load of problems, in the name of Jesus.

14.     You household strongman, carry your load of backwardness, in the name of Jesus.

15      You household strongman, carry your load of wickedness, in the name of Jesus.

 

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Power to bind, loose and spoil

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Wonderful God, we bless and thank You for it is written that the name of the Lord is a strong tower and the righteous runneth therein and is safe.  Because we have escaped into this Tower and Power, anything pursuing us is just wasting its strength. Accept our thanks, in Jesus’ name. Open our understanding. Paralyse every power and disgrace every spirit that is after us, in Jesus’ name. Thank you Lord, in Jesus’ name.

 Matthew 12:29: “Or else how can one enter a strongman’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strongman? and then he will spoil his house.”

Luke 11:21-22: “When a strongman armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger man than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.”

Matthew 16:18 –19: “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bind in heaven and whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Colossians 2:15: “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”

In these passages, three words stand out: ‘bind,’ ‘loose’ and ‘spoil.’ If you are a careful reader and a student of the word of God, you will notice that the phrase ‘to bind’ in the Bible means many things:

a.       To stagnate i.e. you can arrest the movement of a thing.

b.      To paralyse i.e. you can make evil powers to develop spiritual stroke.

c. To strangulate.

d.      To take captive.

e. To entangle.

f. To tie like a goat from hand to feet to keep it from struggling too much.

g.       To make movement hard.

h.      To have a controlling effect.

i.       To choke.

   

WHAT THEN DO YOU BIND?

We bind the works of darkness. You can bind demon activities and they won’t move. You can bind evil progress and it will stop. You can bind evil forces, evil thoughts, evil trance, evil imaginations, evil strategies, evil plans, evil authorities, satanic prayers, satanic challenges, satanic desires, satanic exploitations, evil decisions, evil agreements, evil counsels, evil threats, evil attacks, evil programmes, evil debate, evil design, evil intelligence, evil re-enforcement, evil opposition, and dream manipulators.

 

Who are dream manipulators?

They are the powers that show you your enemies as your friends and your friends as your enemies in the dream. So when you wake up, you start quarreling with your friends and getting friendly with your enemies. They manipulate people’s dreams in order to confuse them.  When such people have good dreams bad things will happen to them and when they have bad dreams good things will come their way.  It is the work of dream manipulators.

Anytime you pray serious prayers and have attacks in your dream, know that the prayers  worked. So what you should do is to continue with the same prayers. But if you get scared and discontinue, your enemy will win against you.

You can bind evil parents; there are some people who have fathers and mothers in the spiritual world. This is why some earthly parents cannot control their children.  Such children are being manipulated by their mothers and fathers in the spirit.  A brother woke up at 4 a.m. one morning and sat on his bed to start praying, suddenly, he saw his four year old daughter who was sleeping on the mat turn into a big woman, fully dressed with hand bag ready to move out. He was shocked.  Instead of using the word of God and prayer, he folded his sleeves and jumped on the girl, but the girl dodged him and he hit the bed and wounded himself.  Before he could gather himself together, the girl was back on her mat. In fact he could not touch her again. It dawned on the man that he had a daughter who was older than him.  There are many children like that who don’t give a damn to orders of the earthly parents because they know that their satanic parents will punish their earthly parents if they maltreat them.

You can bind spirit husband and wife. We talk a lot about spirit husband but many men have spirit wives. If a man has a spirit wife, his wife at home would be in trouble. The spirit wife will oppress her, cause financial problem in that home, and fighting because the spirit wife considers the physical wife as a competitor.

You can bind satanic spies so that they would not be able to report your progress to their headquarters. You can bind evil equipment and gadgets. Counterfeit angels can also be bound.  There was a certain brother who never had sound sleep because every night, something used to press him down on his bed. But one day, he attended a prayer meeting and the topic of the message for that day was “The men who refused to die.” The preacher in his message spoke about the three Hebrew children, Daniel and Hezekiah who refused to die. He also said that all those who refused to die were aggressive men and rounded up with a local proverb which says, “A child who says his mother would not sleep, will not be able to sleep as well.” When the brother heard all these, he was ready to fight. So, he went home that night and started praying.  As he prayed deep into the night, all the charms of the next door neighbour whom he did not know was a herbalist started to fall down. The herbalist summoned his demons to go and stop the brother. So, as the brother was praying, somebody in a white garment looking like a an angel of God entered his room and said, “Stop praying. Jesus has answered your prayer. I the Lord will uphold you with my right hand of righteousness.” The brother noticed that the person who said right hand was lifting up his left hand so he took a closer look at him and discovered that his white garment had dirty spots on it. So, it dawned on him that it could not be the angel of the living God.  The Scripture says, “Don’t marvel because the devil will transform himself into an angel of light to deceive people,” quickly came to his mind and he called the fire of God on the thing and it somersaulted and went back to the herbalist. So we can bind counterfeit angels.

We can bind evil monitoring agents. Somebody may go to an interview and could be bombarded with embarrassing questions. And only one man in the panel may be asking him hard questions. If you are faced with such a situation as a Christian, you can bind the spirit behind the man.  You don’t have to shout. You only say ‘shut up, in Jesus’ name because monitoring agents that do not want you to get the job have entered them.

You can bind eaters of flesh and drinkers of  blood. You can bind problem expanders, evil broadcasters, satanic caterers and blood hunters. Sometime ago, as I was travelling to Ife, there was a lorry in our front filled with passengers at the back. Suddenly, it was if as something lifted the lorry up and smashed it on the ground and before you could say Jesus is Lord, blood was flowing on the ground and I was surprised. There was nothing wrong with the tyre and other parts of the vehicle. Then the voice of the Holy Spirit whispered into my ears: eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood.

You can bind evil sexual partners. They have multiplied in the streets now looking for women and men to destroy. You can bind evil messengers carrying evil messages everywhere about you. You can bind evil soldiers, evil advertisers, demon idols, (these are very short evil beings that carry clubs sent to people at night for destruction.) One of such demons was sent to a brother.  It came and woke the brother up and called him by the name he was given on his eighth day: nobody has ever used that name to address him. The demon told him that he had been sent to destroy him. But the brother said, “You can’t destroy me for I am a child of God,” and began to utter a battle cry against the demon-idol and things began to happen.  A light shone upon the demon-idol and it started growing weak until it ran away. But it is not good for us to allow them to run away for they will come back.

You can bind bondage distributors. There are many of them in our streets today. You can bind the spirit that impersonate the dead and evil pursuers. And most importantly Psalm 149:6 : “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand.” What are they going to do with those things? Verses 7- 8 says, “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 his saints. Praise ye the Lord.”

     Anything God says you should destroy, make sure you destroy it utterly and not partially. If God says destroy and you destroy some and leave the rest, He will be angry with you.

A certain woman went to a revival meeting and for the first time in her life she learnt that the Lord our God is a consuming fire. When she got to her shop, she locked herself up and started praying. After sometime, something ministered to her to lay her hands on the wall and pray. So, she laid her hands on the wall and prayed that the walls should receive the fire of the Holy Ghost, in the name of Jesus. Suddenly she heard a sound from the next room. She concentrated her prayers and within a few minutes, her next-door started shouting, “Mama Ibeji stop! Mama Ibeji stop!” But she continued. The neighbour came and started pleading with her to open her door, but she continued praying that the walls should receive fire, in the name of Jesus. By the following week, that her neighbour packed out quickly. So when God says destroy, do that. When He told Saul to destroy, he did half destruction, therefore His anger came upon Saul.

 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO LOOSE?

According to the word of God, it can mean eight things:

a.       To free somebody from a particular control.

b.      To release from captivity.

c. To untie. It is very sad when somebody is under bondage and he does not know.

d.      To make free.

e. To cause to become ready for action.

Sometime ago, a sister in our Abuja branch went to the hospital to give birth and the doctors said she would have to undergo a caesarean operation to have the baby. All of a sudden her husband remembered his anointing oil. So he ran home and brought it, put a little bit of the anointing oil in her mouth and went back to the doctor. While they were still discussing, the nurse screamed, “Doctor, come, come, the baby is coming.” There was another woman there whose baby had died in her and they were trying to carefully remove the still baby. The woman said they should please drop of the anointing oil in her mouth and as they did that, her baby began to kick. Those babies were already bound in their mothers’ wombs. All the Lord did was to loose the cord binding the babies.

f. To loose can mean to discharge from prison.

g.       To loose can mean to be free from the bondage of disease.

h.      It can mean to be loosed from the influence of demonic spirits.

You can loose yourself from demonic subjection. A long time ago, a certain white man who was around forty five years old came to Nigeria to preach. Somebody asked him if he was married and he said, “No. I am still a bachelor.” One Nigeria said to him, “You will just grow old and die like that.  At forty something you are still calling yourself a bachelor.” The white man looked at him in the face and said, “Sir, with due respect, I bind your words." They will not happen to me and I loose myself from whatever cage your words has created,” So when people throw curses anyhow, it can cage people. You can loose yourself from cages constructed by curses. You can loose yourself from ungodly soul ties. Sometime ago, a woman came to me complaining that right from the day she got married, her husband had been busy thinking of his former girl friends. He did not even want to touch her. She did not understand that his mind was some where else - an ungodly soul tie.

A lot of sisters were destroyed by their boyfriends when they were in the world. If you have a fiancé who is only after sex, and cares less about prayer, studying the word of God or planning about your future, then know that such a fiancé is not born again, no matter what he calls himself.

If as a married person you are wishing you married someone else apart from your spouse, it means there is a tie between you and that person and the tie must be broken before you can enjoy your marriage.

You can loose yourself from demonic grips and holds. A lot of people are in the grips of demons. You can loose yourself from bondage. Some people are under the bondage of sleep. If you are a Christian and you sleep ten hours a day, you are in bondage and should be released. You can loose yourself from evil habits. There are some nice Christians who still have some bad habits that they need to break.

You can loose yourself from curses and spells. When they cast a spell on somebody, he will be behaving like a drunken fellow until his eyes clears. I know of a boy who had seven girl friends. I was not concerned until I saw the number eight girl whom I know. I asked her what she was doing with the man and she said he was her fiance. Then I said to her, “Do you know that you are the eighth person? I know your parents, nice girls like you don’t come to this place.” She said, “Well that is your own personal opinion, sir. You see, he has promised to marry me.” Not long after that, the girl’s mother started screaming that the boy had made her pregnant and she was only in form four. Another week, two mothers came to scream at the same boy for making their daughters pregnant.  These kinds of girls have been caged under a spell. You can release yourself from bewitchment. You can loose yourself from evil monitor. You can loose yourself from evil associations. You can loose yourself from evil remote controlling forces. Do you now know what to loose yourself from?

 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SPOIL?

As far as the Bible is concerned, it can mean six things:

1. To spoil can mean to strip an enemy off his weapons.

2. It can mean to seize something.

3. It can mean to snatch away.

4. To spoil can mean to lead captive, i.e. you can go to the camp of enemy, defeat them and carry their belongings home.

5. To spoil can mean to seize by force.

6. It can mean to strip one’s garment off to the point of complete nakedness.  The Scripture in Colossians 2:15 can be translated like this: “Jesus completely striped principalities and powers and left them completely naked with nothing remaining in their possession with which they can fight back.” The word ‘open’ shows that it was not a hidden affair.

 

WHAT DO YOU SPOIL AS A CHRISTIAN?

You spoil satanic agents and evil weapons. You spoil satanic agents guiding evil banks. You spoil evil crown wearers. There are some people amongst us who don’t belong to the King of kings and the Lords of lords. Some have been crowned from inside the ground, some from inside the trees, and some from the water, and they are proud to call themselves queens and kings. We are to spoil their crowns.

We spoil satanic warehouses, banks, and cages. The devil has harvested so many things. He has come to steal, to kill and to destroy. We spoil satanic fortifications, armour and satanic strong men.

 

WHY DO WE HAVE TO BIND, LOOSE AND SPOIL?

To prevent us from being defeated by the devil. And we either fight or we perish. It is amazing to note that even after Jesus has defeated principalities and power for us, we still have Christians who can be seduced by the spirit of lust. A lot of Christians are being afflicted by a lot of things. Many Christians are being attacked successfully. A lot are still getting depressed and discouraged. I know a sister who was force-fed in her dream and yet she could speak in tongues.  This should not be.

Many Christians are being influenced and controlled by the enemy. That is why we say that a true Christian is not known in the church but at home. What a person does when his or her pastor is not there is what matters. It is so easy to pretend to be a Christian with your face shining like that of a holy person. Many people can stand now as Christians but they fall easily under any small pressure crying that they did not know what made them to fall. Will you tell God on the last day that, “O Lord, I am sorry. You know there is limit to human endurance?”

 

WHY DO MANY FAIL TO BIND, LOOSE AND SPOIL?

They only answer to that is because they are in bondage to self or flesh. Many Christians are prisoners to themselves. What is bondage? It is the inability to begin what you should begin or stop what you should stop. When a person is in a bondage of self, binding and loosing would be hard or completely impossible. For example if you have anger, in your spirit, then binding, loosing and spoiling would be difficult.  If you find it difficult to forgive others, you are playing with your life.  Jealousy and envy are problems of self that render one powerless.

Blind argument, procrastination, rebellion and laziness will keep a person away from loosing and binding. Attractions to violence e.g. American wrestling, boxing, etc, uncontrollable temper, constant worry, anxiety, sleeplessness, adultery, compulsion to do evil, masturbation, depression, greed, fear of any kind, (some people are afraid of growing old so they paint every wrinkle on their faces), will keep you from binding, loosing and spoiling.

If you had not given your life to Jesus. You cannot bind, loose or spoil anything. If you want to give your life to Christ now so that you can bind, loose and spoil, say the following prayer: “Lord Jesus, I come before you now. I confess all my sins and I ask you to forgive me. Wash me with your precious blood and come into my life. I surrender all to you and I make you my personal Lord and Saviour. Thank you Lord Jesus, in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.  O Lord, do serious damage to my spiritual ignorance today, in the name of Jesus.

2. Holy Spirit, energise me to pray to arrest God’s attention, in Jesus’ name.

3. Holy Spirit, empower me to pray destiny-changing prayers, in the name of Jesus.

4. O Lord, baptise me with fire that will dry the fire of the enemy, in the name of Jesus.

5. I damage the power of prayer resistant demons, in the name of Jesus.

6. You evil strong man remove your evil umbrella from my family, in the name of Jesus.

7. Every satanic spy delegated against my progress, be blinded, in the name of Jesus.

 

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The Pot or the well

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Father Lord, we pray for a fresh touch of your power. Speak to our spirits and turn our lives around to that which you want us to be. Thank You heavenly father, in Jesus name.

Our message this week, is entitled. “The pot or the well.” In John chapter four, we see an interesting passage where Jesus was talking to a woman. Verses 5-18: “Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well; and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat). Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealing with the Samaritans. (In those days, the Jews used to call the Samaritans dogs so they did not like them at all). Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who is he that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman said to him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with , and the well is deep; from whence then has thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well (the woman did not know she was talking to the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob), and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?  (Look at it, the well that Jacob dug long before he died was still found useful.) Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not neither come hither to draw.

(She did not understand.) Jesus said unto her, Go call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said,  have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband; for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband…”

What our Lord Jesus is saying here is that if a man marries only seven wives, the last six are not really married to him. They are just glorified girlfriends. Verses 19-30: “The woman said unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, or yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: (So, Jesus did not want to outrightly tell her they were worshipping demons,) we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him.  God is a spirit; and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman said unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ; when he is come, he will tell us all things Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. And upon this came his disciples, and marveled that he talketh with the woman; yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and said to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all thing that ever I did; is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city and came unto him.”

That Bible passage is interesting in many aspects. The woman was very sharp and quick to identify a spiritual truth that is hidden from so many today. She saw the well and threw away the pot. Sometime ago, there was a certain blind man in a church. Everybody in that church prayed for him to be healed but he did not get healed. After some time, the pastor of the church took time to ask God why he could not be healed. The Lord told him to look at the man’s walking stick the next time he came to church. The next day, when the man came to church, the man of God looked at the walking stick and found out that it was the walking stick of those who belonged to the Lodge society. So, he told the man that if he wanted the Lord Jesus to touch him, he had to renounce his membership with the occult. The man said, “No, pray for me, I want to be healed.” Then the man of God said, “Don’t worry us here. You have already donated your eyes to the devil and now you said we should be praying.” The man held tight to his cult. He did not want to release it so that he could receive his sight. It is the same thing with many people. They have refused to release their pots so that their wells can come out. At this juncture, I think you should close your eyes and pray the following prayer point with anger; “Every good thing that I have donated to the devil, whether consciously or unconsciously, I take them back now, in the name of Jesus.” That man donated his eyes, and was given a stick instead. He was even proud going about with the stick.

 

Beloved, herein is the great truth; as a Christian, you are either a pot owner or a well owner. Many people suffer day and night because they carry pots instead of going directly to the well. I was told the following story about some Arabs. They went to England and were surprised at what they saw in the five star hotel where they lodged. They turned the tap on and water was coming out. They were amazed at that wonder and exclaimed, “We don’t have water in the desert where we come from.  How can we cleverly take this water away so that we too could be having water?” They asked one of the stewards how they could get the tap and basins to buy. So, he took them to a shop and they bought the taps, basins, and everything they saw in that hotel and they were secretly happy thinking that they had been very smart. When they got back to their country, they attached the taps, sinks, etc, to the walls. Now, came the moment of truth; they turned on the tap but there was no water why? No source.

There was also the case of a man who had never seen an electric bulb before. One day, he went somewhere and saw one and was totally amazed, He waited till everybody left the place and stole the bulb, put it in his bag and went back to the village. He looked for strings used to tie animals, tied it around the bulb and attached it to the wall and behold there was no light. Why? No source. 

All the servants of God can be divided into those two groups; the pot carriers and the well carriers. The pot carriers do unnecessary hard tasks while the people with the well drink directly from the source, which is the throne of grace. If you have a water tap somewhere and you keep walking up and down to fetch water, you cannot claim to be more comfortable than somebody who stays at the tap and simply turns it on to have water.

The pot owners worn out  themselves  while the person at the well is directly at the source. The Bible says that God has made us priests and kings unto Him. God intends for all of us to be direct priests unto Him, that is, to be at the well. It is not God’s intention that men should become mediators; that is why we have the blood of the New Testament, which gives us direct access to God. So you would do yourself a lot of good by praying to the level of being at the well. You have to abandon the pot and drink directly from the source. Unfortunately, most people prefer the pot and as a result have become slaves to prophets. You need to be at the source because your pot can be stolen, it may get broken, you may not even carry enough water sometimes and you wear yourself out trying to get more. The pertinent question is, “Do you have the pot or the well?” I want that to be very clear in your spirit.

When I was in primary school, one of our teachers told us a story. He said that there was famine in the land of the animals and only the dog was getting fat while other animals were getting lean. Mr. Tortoise then begged the dog seriously to reveal the secret of his well being to him. The dog kept quiet. So one day, the tortoise poured a lot of ashes into the bag of the dog and punched a hole underneath the bag so that he could trace where the dog used to go to get food. He was able to trace the dog to a forest where he sang a particular song and a piece of coconut fell. So the tortoise memorized the song and went and sang it. One coconut fell but he was not satisfied. He then said two should fall and two fell. He was not still satisfied and said everything should fall down. Everything fell on him and he could not get out from under them.

The essence of this story is that God will not give His power to a baby; the well cannot be inside a baby. You have to grow up so that you won’t be like the tortoise. As a sister, if God gives you power now, and your husband offends you, would you not say, “Be roasted, in the mighty name of Jesus,” and the man becomes suya and you run back to church to say, “I did not know that it was going to work.” So, God wants grown-ups. A common proverb says, “Give a man a fish, and you have given him a meal. But teach him to fish, then you have fed him for life.”

The trouble is that many do not have the patience to learn about the well and to stay at the well. Many times when people come for counseling and we try to teach them how to get to the well, they disappear. They would say, “I want quick solution, this is very urgent.” And we say, “But today is your first time here, so you cannot go for deliverance now.” They would say, “No, I must do deliverance.” So, we tell them, “Yes you want to do deliverance, how about all the sugar mummies? Won’t you leave them alone? How about your sinner boyfriends? Won’t you leave them alone? They don’t want to learn how to stay by the well. They want quick fast food Christianity.        

Nowadays, everything is done fast but the spiritual world is not like that. It is line upon line and precepts upon precepts. God does not jump queues. With Him, you will have to learn. He will not promote you without an examination.  You must grow up. If you always have to depend on somebody else to pray for you, what if the person refuses or dies, will you go and meet him in the grave? It is better to learn how it is done so that you do not get stranded.

1.  Every believer should have power to overcome all sin and bad habits. I am not talking about ordinary churchgoers. I am not talking about those who don’t know their left from their right or those who when you say, “But you are an adulterer,” they would reply, “But, David had many wives.”  Matthew 1:21: “For she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins.” If you say it is not possible for you to be free from sins, then you are saying that the death of Jesus amounts to nothing.

2.  Every believer should have power to cast out demons. Mark 16:17: “And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils.” It is your right, but something could be somebody’s right, and he will not know. The person will then be like that mother who had a son working in the city. Her son kept sending her money but she did not know that the papers were money. She thought that they were pictures. So she was gluing them on the wall as decoration whereas she was owing rent and had no money to take care of herself.  Then one day, a pastor asked her about her son in the city and she said he was fine. “Doesn’t he send you money?” Asked the pastor. She said, “No, just pictures.” And the pastor said, “Where are the pictures?” She told him that she decorated her walls with them. So, the pastor followed her home. When be got there, he almost fainted because there was sufficient money pasted on the wall to buy the woman a whole house; and yet her landlord wanted to eject her. For not paying rent. So; you could have something, but not use it. You could be the best soap producer but your body could still be dirty.

3.  All believers are meant to be immune to poison. Mark 16:18:. “.And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them..” This verse is not saying that you should consciously drink something that is poisonous, but if somebody mistakenly puts it in your food, it will not work. Let me share this testimony with you. A certain brother was traveling to somewhere, at a point, he stopped over at a restaurant to eat. He made his order for pounded yam and egusi soup and they gave it to him. He prayed seriously on the food, not the kind of prayer that many people pray when they want to eat, like, “O Lord, bless this food for Christ sake.” That is no prayer. As he took the pounded yam and was about to use it to touch the soup, something like a sun-ray seemed to come from heaven and broke the plate of soup into pieces, and the soup was scattered all over the floor. He was shocked. Some people in the canteen asked, “Excuse me, do you go to church?” He said, “Yes I do.” Then they said he should continue to go there because the God that he is serving is a powerful God. The brother did not know that in that restaurant, on that day, they were trying to poison a man, but the steward made a mistake, and served it to the brother and they did not know how to warn him against taking the food. So, they were just watching him. But when they saw the thing cracked to pieces, they realized there was a power higher than all powers and they bowed to Jesus.

There was the case of another brother whom God told that his next-door neighbour was a witch and whenever the witch was going out at night, God would wake him up and let him know about it, but the brother was merely watching and did nothing about it. Then one day, the woman said she was celebrating her birthday and cooked some rice and chicken. She served the brother some of the food and he took it. When he took the plate, something reminded him that God had told him that the woman was a witch. He refused to heed and said, “It is written, if I drink anything deadly, it shall not harm me.” He cited scriptures to support his gluttony and began to swallow the food. Before he finished the food, trouble started and he was rushed to us. They prayed seriously for him because he almost died.

4. All believers should have the ability to lay their hands on the sick and the sick would recover. Mark 16:18: “..they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

5. All believers are meant to be able to bind and loose. Matthew 16:18: “...Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

6. All believers must be able to destroy the works of satan wherever they find them.

 If as a believer you cannot do these things, it means that you have to drop the pot. Pot carriers as in the church of God are not difficult to know. They always report back. They would say, “I prayed on the problem and the thing went, then after two weeks it came back.” They won’t tell you that they had been fighting and getting angry. They would also say, “I don’t know what is happening. I did deliverance and everything went out that time, but now, they are back again.” But they won’t tell you that they have been losing their temper, or that they have been going to their boyfriends or girlfriends. That is why I tell people that any Christianity they embrace and their lives do not undergo a revision is a waste of time.  If you still dress the way you like, talk the way you like, and do what you want, your friends do not change, you are not serious yet.

Nowadays, pastors are not interested in the spiritual growth of their members. In the days of our Pentecostal fathers, a pastor may walk from the back of the church and just tapped somebody and said, “Brother, you are preaching this morning,” without prior notice. This made everyone to be serious because they never could tell what would happen when the pastor walked in from the back. So, people came prepared and they got on fire.

Pot carriers are those who are always keeping different holy waters at home. They would say, “I got this water from Jerusalem, this one from river Jordan. This anointing oil is from Israel, this other one from Mountain of Fire, this one is from Ogere and this one from Cameroon. When I have fever, I use the water from Jordan when it is bad dream, I use the anointing oil from Mountain of Fire, etc. There is no power in these things apart from the power of our Lord Jesus that is inside them and the Holy Spirit that has incubated them. So, your faith is not in the anointing oil. It is only a point of contact for your faith.

Pot carriers are always roaming about prophets and looking for special revelations. These prophets scare them and magnify their problem. Sometimes they will tell you the decisions that witches have taken concerning your life meanwhile they are members of that witchcraft. All they are doing is communicating their decisions to you and when you accept it then you got it, you have signed for the parcel.

Sometime ago, a prophet was passing by the house of a sister and suddenly, he branched there and told the sister that the Spirit of the Lord was telling him that three people would die in that place, unless they brought him a bell and some candles. The sister being a woman that was on fire said, “Prophet, sorry. There is no money to buy this bell, can you lend me the money?” The prophet got up, hissed and went away. As he was going out, the woman said, “Come back. You are the people spoiling Christianity. Which God told you what you are saying? You are a fake prophet.”  

Pot carriers are those who fail to ask the question, “What is the matter with me? Why is God not talking to me about myself? Why is He talking to somebody else?” Pot carriers are those who receive healing and run away. When the sickness comes back they will reappear to pray, “Jesus heal me.”  Pot carriers are those people who only speak one sentence of tongues and that is it.

Pot carriers  are those who develop stomachache and headache when they pray serious prayers. Then they will keep quiet and allow the ache to subside before they start again. But the person by the well will always use fresh water. Somebody drinking from the tap of heaven can never run dry.  You can drop your pot and drink from the source today.

Do you want to drink from that well that never dries up? Jesus says all those who thirst should come and drink. If you want the well, you must thirst for it. The second thing you must do is to come. And the third thing is to drink. So thirst, come, drink then be filled, that is what Jesus says.

Jesus got to that pool of water and healed only one man although the Bible said there were multitude of people there. Others glued their eyes on the pool, looking at the pot. While the well was passing by, they were looking at other things. You cannot get to the surgical theatre and tell the doctor to allow you to assist him with the surgery. You will only be disturbing the surgeon. Many Christians have died prematurely for treating spiritual problems with physical solution.

So the question again is, do you want the pot or the well?  If you say you want the well, then we are going to do what is in Psalm 81:10. It says, “I am the God thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.” As many as are ready to open their mouths wide, the Lord says He will fill them.. You will raise  your voice like thunder and pray like somebody who wants to drink at the well.

Jesus says, “Let all that thirst come unto me and drink, he that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly, shall flow rivers of living waters,” not ordinary water.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.  O Lord, remove spiritual pot from me and put me at the source of power, in the name of Jesus.

2.  I break every evil linkage to my past, in the name of Jesus.

3.  O Lord, revive my beneficial potentials, in the name of Jesus.

4.  Spirit of stagnancy, depart from my life, in the name of Jesus.

5.  My soul, drink from the living water, in the name of Jesus.

6.         Every organ of my body donated to the devil, be returned now, in the name of Jesus.

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The cry of the spirit

Dr D. K. Olukoya

 

Father Lord, do a deep work in our spirits this week, touch us at the points of our needs.  Let our lives no longer remain the same, in Jesus’ name.  This week, we are looking at what I call, “The Cry of the Spirit.” Hebrew 12: 25 – 27: “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.”

In that passage, the Spirit of God is promising that He is going to shake the earth again. And when He starts, so many things would not stand. Every shakeable would be shaken away. It is a very sad thing for a person to build his or her life on shakeable things. Such a person would have come to the world in vain. The Spirit of the Lord is crying unto us this day, that is why the Bible says, “He that has ears let him hear what the Spirit is saying.” It means that the fact that we have something representing ears does not mean that we hear.  It is only those who have spiritual ears that can hear the cry of the Spirit.

Ezekiel 21: 27: “I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.” This overturning and shaking is happening now. All you need do is to look closely and you will see how the whole fabric of the human society is being shaken and many things are being turned upside down. The Scripture has already warned us about these things because God usually warns us before He does anything. Disobedience to God’s warning is the father of all disasters. Before the flood came in time of Noah, God warned the people for 120 years. Many of them thought it was a joke. Just as many people believe that God who is so good and has created all things cannot clear them away. Right now, mankind as a whole is sitting on what is called a time bomb, which can explode at anytime, and the voice that once shook the earth, is going to shake it again. Unfortunately, many people do not still understand. As you are reading this message, there is a cry of the Spirit ringing in your ears that this is the last hour and you have to be more serious than you are now.

When God sends warning signals, it is to prevent people from getting into trouble.  The aftermath of some dangers are repairable while some are not.

One could be in the church and not even hear what the Spirit of God is saying through his pastor or house fellowship leader. Consider the following questions: “Why did God bring you to a particular church? Is it just to collect miracles or to learn a few things? What is your duty in the church? Certainly God is not in the business of messing about. He plans His things and does them. He means what He says and says what He means. So the fact that He has put you in a place means that He has a duty for you.  The fact that He has designed that you will pass through a certain place, means that you must make a mark there. You cannot be a spiritual rolling stone and expect to be blessed.

 

WHY IS THE SPIRIT CRYING?

The Spirit is crying so that no one will have any excuse when he stands before the judgment throne of God. All men, no matter their position will stand up before God. So, this is the time to convince God that you are serious. God will never accept excuses. What would you say when you get before His throne? If you have been coming to Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries for one year and you have not received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I submit it to you that you are not serious.  Every Christian as a matter of compulsion must make sure he or she gets filled with the power of the Holy Ghost.  A lot of people have been going to church for several years yet they remain bench warmers.

God has not called us to entertain people but to prepare an army for the Lord going to heaven and in their preparation as soldiers of the cross, they will be experiencing their breakthroughs.

A time will come when the Spirit will cry no more. Whatever you call yourself, that cry is ringing in your ears now. Even if you have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, there is another cry asking you to go higher. No matter what level you are now, there is a cry telling you, “son, daughter, keep moving, don’t stay where you are.”

The Spirit is also crying because of the existence of hell fire.  The issue of hell fire is a horrible fact to which the Bible gives a prominent place. Our tender, lowly, forgiving, merciful, healing, and comforting Jesus was the man who referred most to hell fire in the Bible. He talked about it more than any other person because He knows that it is real. But it is most sad to note that many people by their actions are heading there. It is also unfortunate that some of those  who carry Bibles will also find themselves in hell fire even with their big Bibles because they refused to pay attention to the cry of the Spirit.

No matter how clever you are at committing sin, if you encounter the fire of the Holy Spirit, it will expose you. You may hide for a long time but the day the Holy Spirit fishes you out, everybody will know the kind of person you are. And if your life has been a stumbling block to others, it is even more terrible because the Bible says, they ought to tie a millstone around your neck  and throw you into the sea.

The devil tries to hide the facts of hell from people. He does not want people to know there is such a place  because he knows that once they know about it, they would not want to be there. Even the boldest of men will melt if God shows them the picture of hell fire. Hell fire is eternal suffering. So why should somebody get into that kind of situation?

There used to be a popular armed robber who was very effective in his difficult and terrible job.  Normally, he had two guns, one by his side and the other one around his waist and he could shoot with both hands accurately, so he was feared by many people even the police. So the police wanted him dead or alive and placed a ransom on him. During one of his operations somewhere, a boy who was distributing tracts threw one inside his waiting car. The tract was entitled, “Where will you spend your eternity?” When the robber saw it, he was taken aback by the title and he kept it aside. But when he got home, something urged him to read it and he did after sometime. Immediately he slept he had a dream. In that dream, he saw two angels by his side but he didn’t know they were angels. They held his hands and told him that he had an appointment, which he must keep.  He asked them where and they told him to shut up until they got there. Eventually, they got to a beautiful and wonderful place and as he looked around, he saw people for the first time in his life, with real joy written all over their faces. Then the angels said, “Ok, we must leave this place now.”  He said, “Please, let me stay here, this place is good.” The angels said, “No, you still have another appointment,” and they took him down to hell fire. He saw his fellow robbers who had been shot by policemen, school girls, policemen, soldiers, married women who were committing adultery, etc, screaming and rolling. He was scared and wanted to leave, but the angels said he must watch the scene for about two minutes more. He did and he woke up shivering. He then took a decision that no matter what happens, he will not go to that place of damnation. This is what the tract talked about: hell fire. So he walked straight to the police station, introduced himself to the policemen at the counter and they ran away because they thought he had come to kill them like he used to do.  He said, “Don’t run away. I have come to hand myself over, you can lock me up. I am no longer interested in killing people.” When they were convinced that he was serious, they opened the counter and he walked in himself and sat down. When God shows you the picture of hell fire, nobody will beg you to repent.

Most biblical information about hell fire was revealed by Jesus. It was He who said in Mark 9 : 43 that, “And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched.”

So, no matter how profitable your hands are doing, if it will lead you to hell fire, you better stop doing it. He didn’t say you should cut off your hand with a knife because even if you do so, and your spirit still commits the sin, your hand is still committing it. Verses 44- 47:  “Where their  worm dieth not,  and the fire is not quenched.  And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter halt into life , than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.”

By the same token, if you have bleached your body, you better repent and allow it to come back to it’s rightful colour because it is better for you to enter into heaven with black complexion than for you to bleach your body and enter into hell fire where their worms die not and the fire is not quenched. Remember the parable of the rich man which says, “My soul rejoice, be glad and enjoy yourself with the harvest you have put up for many years.” And the Bible says, “You fool, today, you are going to die and all those things you have been sweating for that has taken your time from God, to whom will they belong?” That was it.

All the certificates and awards a person may gather become useless once the person is dead. These are the shakeable that shall be shaken away.

No amount of suffering here can measure up to hell fire. Sometime ago, somebody called me on the phone and was crying, saying, “Dr. Olukoya, pray for me, I don’t want to die.” “What happened?” I asked her. She said, “I used to sleep with men who give me contracts but recently, I promised God that I will never do it again and that if I do it, He should kill me. But you see, I have done it again. So, please pray for me, I don’t want to die.” I told her that she was already dead. Already she was dead in sin.  I told her that I didn’t know what God would do with her since she on her own made a vow to God that He should kill her if she committed that sin. So many people are like that. It would have been better for that sister to die as a pauper and go to heaven than to be rich and go to hell fire. Although believers are not supposed to die as paupers but it is better for you to die as a pauper than to be rich and enter into hell fire. So you better think about it and do a better scriptural balancing of life’s account. It is terrible to know some people will go to hell fire. This is why the Spirit of God is crying, saying, “Let him that has ears hear what the Spirit is saying now to the churches.”

The Spirit cries because of the disappointment and unhappiness in this world. 1 Timothy 6:7: “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” The present world is a failure. This fact is not hard to prove. Marriages have failed: divorce is now a common thing.  Ten years ago, one out of five marriages broke down; now it has moved to three out of five. Some people even start fighting right from the day of their wedding. Many couples live like strangers in the home. When children are brought up in that kind of environment, they rarely do well. Schools too, have failed, teachers mess up students and you see gun-toting boys going about robbing men and raping women.

A sister who is well to do and highly educated told me a pathetic story. She said on a certain day, some armed robbers trailed her home and as soon as she entered her sitting room, they entered with guns and said, “Madam, we are armed robbers in case you don’t know, so bring out everything.” So they packed all her properties and she did not resist them because she did not want to be harmed. When they finished packing all the things and she expected them to go away, one of them who was around twenty said, “Madam, remove your clothes.” That was how she was raped.  With these types of cases around us, it shows that both the schools and the homes have failed. The Bible is warning us, that the world is a set-trap and we should not allow it to trap us.  University lecturers carry sacrifices and put them on the doorsteps of their colleagues. Governments too, have failed. All over the world, there are cases of crime. Three quarters of people are killing one another or are being killed and the prison houses are filled up.  In the hospitals, you find patients in the corridors and doorsteps. Disease, suicide, heartlessness cannot be controlled by government, all over the world.  People pour acid on others who have offended them.  The whole world, as far as God is concerned, is a failure. It is therefore a sad and wicked world, which offers no peace to the human mind.  Rather, it puts labour on people and worst still, no one will take nothing out of it.

God is becoming more and more difficult to find now. Most Christians cannot be trusted again once it comes to monetary matters. The church in many places have turned to political set ups. People who should sit down and learn want to teach others by force. Is it wise then to plan to perish with this kind of world? This is why the Spirit is crying. It does not make sense if you come to church and you do not have sufficient fire to even put your enemy to flight, or you are still addicted to one bad habit or the other, or there is pride in your heart, or you cannot hear when God is talking to you, or your dreams are not clear or you have never seen a vision in your life. You don’t know what God is saying to you about your life. Do you want to remain like this? You have to cry to the Lord.

The Spirit cries because of the sufferings of Christ. Christ was punished because of you and me. A song writer says, “He died of a broken heart. His heart was broken on the cross for us. He was mocked, humiliated, and was crucified.” Dying by the cross was a Roman kind of punishment and anybody that was put on the cross died a “slow death” with intense suffering because the whole of the weight of his body would be supported by two hands. You know how painful it is to use an ordinary needle to prick your hand how much more when a six- inch nail is smashed into it. That was how Jesus was killed. When He was thirsty and asked for water, they gave him vinegar instead. This kind of suffering that God allowed His Son to be subjected to, should not go in vain. So, if a person does not comply with it, the person suffers. That’s why the Spirit is warning. He was despised. His face was marred.  His beard was plucked out and He was badly hurt. It was sad when the same people for which He died sat there saying, “Prophesy who is it that slapped you.” Even when He called on His Father saying, “Eli, Eli- lama Sa- bach tha - ni (meaning My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?), they laughed and mocked Him. If then you neglect the issue of salvation for the sake of anything, the anger and terror of God would be great upon your life. 

 Another reason the Spirit is crying to you day and night is for you to depart from your valley and go to the mountain. All the excuses such as, “They are the ones looking for my trouble,” that you are giving will not exempt you from the wrath of God. For how long will they be looking for your trouble? Where did you hide the trouble they are looking for? Nobody is looking for your trouble actually, the trouble is that you are a proud person. If you are in the category of those who classify some sins as not too bad, you must be careful because there is no small sin.  The Bible says that every unrighteousness is sin.

The Spirit cries because of the glory of heaven. The Bible says in John 14: 2 - 3, “In my Father’s house, there are many mansions: if it  were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, ye may be also.” The Bible also says, “Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for His saints.” There is no enjoyment in this world, compared to what is in heaven. The Spirit is warning that we should not miss the place. So think about it.

If you are haunted by the same fear that used to torment you years ago, it means you are not growing spiritually. If your faith is still as rudimentary as when you first believed the Lord, it means you are not growing spiritually. If your knowledge of God is still second hand and you have not experienced personal revival, it means you are not growing spiritually. If you have never used the name of Jesus to defeat evil, it means that you are not growing spiritually. If you still cannot differentiate between your voice, the Holy Spirit’s and the devil’s, it means you are not growing spiritually. If your joy depends only on material things, there is a possibility that you would not be admitted into the kingdom of God.

Beloved, this is the last hour. Today, seek help from the Lord. Don’t rejoice that you are better than someone else. We  don’t have much time left.  In the Bible, you find expressions like “take heed”and “beware, “meaning that the Bible warns us about several things. For example, it says, “Don’t give your alms before men,” “Don’t give in order to be seen,” “Let not your left hand know what your right is doing,”  “Beware of covetousness,” “Let no man deceive you,” “Do not allow the light in you to be turned to darkness,” “Let every man take heed how he is building, “Let him that thinketh he stands take heed lest he falls.”  It says that we should not devour one another.  It warns that we should not allow the ministry that God has committed to us to fail. And it also warns that one day, all of us shall arrive at the judgment seat of Christ and we shall give account of our lives.  My prayer is that God should open our ears to hear what the Spirit is saying, in Jesus’ name.

Sometime ago, in one of our meetings here, there was a warning from the Lord that nobody should  travel. One sister insisted on travelling even after some brethren pleaded with her not to. She travelled and never came back alive.  It was her ashes that was brought back because the vehicle she was travelling in collided with a vehicle carrying fuel and that was it. So God says what He means and means what He says.

If you don’t read your Bible and follow the pattern of life God wants you to live, you will make the job of the devil easier for him.

It is very clear that a lot of people come to the house of God but not many people are planning for heaven. A lot of people find their ways to services on Sundays and come out like a sinner who gets baptized without being born again. The sinner goes into water as a dry sinner and comes out as a wet sinner.

Beloved, I hope you are not one of those that the devil is using as a stumbling block against others who want to get saved. How would your husband follow you to church when you are busy cursing and abusing him? Why should you be in a cat and mouse relationship with a person and still be smiling at the person?  Why are you living a life of deception? The Bible says that no unclean thing shall enter into heaven, no matter how good it looks on the surface.  No matter what you call yourself, if you are not clean, you shall not enter therein.

Beloved, search your spirit today and repent of all your wicked ways. Ask the Lord to lead you into the way of eternal life so that at the end of the age, you shall live triumphantly with Him, in Jesus’ name.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. O Lord, deliver me from this wicked generation, in the name of Jesus.

2. O Lord, do not let your death be in vain upon my life, in the name of Jesus.

3. O Lord, remove the stumbling block in my walk with you, in the name of Jesus.

4. O Lord, let me be swift to hear and slow to speak, in the name of Jesus.

5. O Lord, give unto me power to mount up with wings like eagle, in the name of Jesus.

6. O Lord, instruct me and teach me the way that I should go, in the name of Jesus.

7. I refuse to be disgraced in eternity, in the name of Jesus.

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Evil Diversion

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Our Father in heaven, we thank You because you are El-Shaddai, You are the Jehovah- Jireh, the Jehovah-Shamah, and Jehovah Shalom who has all powers in His hands. Thank You for being our provider, shelter and rock.   We thank You for the promotion, provision and breakthroughs You have given us. Glory be to Your holy name.   Do wondrous things in our lives through this message, in the name of Jesus. Thank you Lord Jesus, in Jesus’ name. Amen.           

    Beloved, life is like a journey in three parts. There is the beginning, the course of the journey and the end. God has a divine purpose for us as a church.  Apart from that collective purpose, God also has a divine purpose for us individually. What I mean is that God is not in the business of messing about. He has a divine purpose for putting you somewhere. He has a reason for allowing your father and your mother to give birth to you. He does not engage in useless activities. One of the most terrible and effective ways of amputating a person’s life and destroying potentials is what is known as satanic diversion.

 

WHAT IS DIVERSION?

   A diversion is turning aside from a course that is to be followed. A diversion is a change of direction or an alternative route. It is also something designed to take away attention from the main course. Simply put, it is a change of direction.

    Jonah 1:1-2: “Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it for their wickedness is come up before me.” That was a straight forward message to a man of God from God. Verse 3 says, “But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa: and he found a ship going to Tarshish so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.” Jonah paid his fare to go into bondage. He sponsored himself out of the will of God. That is, a person can use his money to buy diversion, or divert his journey from where God wants him to go. Verses 4-5: “But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was like to be broken.  Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the waves that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them...” 

     We can see how a single person who was diverted put other people in trouble.  All those traders threw their things into the sea because a single man who had been diverted was on board. “...But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep.” The Bible says that he slept deeply, even though he was in disobedience and diversion. So, you may enjoy yourself as you are being diverted. Verse 6: “So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.” After all the other people in the ship had tried their little gods, they woke him up to call upon his own God, who might be more effective.

    Verses 7 – 17: “And they said every one to his fellow, come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us, so they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us, What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou? And he said unto them I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.  And he said unto them, take me up, and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you; for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not, for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them. Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

  The question is this: What was the spirit that told Jonah, a man of God, to change his destination after God had told him to go to Nineveh. The fact that somebody is a prophet does not mean he cannot be diverted. 

 

WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF EVIL DIVERSION?

   Major evil diversion takes place in darkness because deception is very easy in darkness. Sometime ago, I was going somewhere but suddenly there was power outage and everywhere became dark. It had been five years since I went there last, so I was unable to find my way. The major evil diversion of human lives takes place after the enemy has succeeded in dragging them into darkness. Therefore, the longer a person stays in darkness before he runs to Jesus, the deeper the enemy will work in the person’s life, and sometimes, the longer it will take to clean the person up after he has escaped.

     I know a certain man who was in a cult for 30 years before he gave his life to the Lord. When he handed over his evil powers, he forgot that a long time ago somebody gave him some eggs which he swallowed, and right inside his stomach the eggs had hatched into chickens, and these chickens inside his stomach had helped him to kill people. He began to pray fire prayers like: “Holy Ghost fire, come upon my life, in the name of Jesus.” Anytime he prayed the prayer, the birds got agitated, picked at his intestine and started to eat it up.  And as a result, he was bleeding and could not eat. One day, he remembered the birds. Some brethren prayed for him until he vomited them alive. But before he vomited them, they had done a lot of havoc on his intestines, and a teaching hospital had to do a surgery on him  to join them together. So, the longer one stays in darkness, the deeper the enemy will work in his life. And if the devil sees that if you escape from his kingdom you would become dangerous to him, he would try and leave enough mark on your life. Darkness is an easy place for evil work. Your best friend can give you a big punch in the dark and because you cannot see him, you would not know. This is why God does not open the eyes of Christians who have bad temperament, because if He does and they have insight into the things of the spirit, they can kill.

   A certain man prayed the following prayer point: “Oh Lord, deliver me from every foundational problem and reveal the secret of my life to me, in the name of Jesus." He soon fell into a trance, and found himself in a courtyard where he stood as the accused, and his seven year-old daughtter called Folake was the judge looking at him sternly. He asked her what he had done wrong and she said, “En, when you give me cowskin (ponmo), you give my sisters good meat and liver.” The man said, “That is not a problem, I will start giving you liver as from now.” The girl said, “Too late,  you are already here.” They hit him on the head with a big stick and he woke up and ran mad. When he was  cured of the madness eventually, he remembered the vision. The spiritual world is like that. Those who you sometimes think are your best friends, may be your worst enemies, when you know who they really are, you will adjust. That is why the Bible says we should walk in the light. When you walk in the light, you cannot be diverted.

  Many are on the wrong road now because when they were in darkness, the enemies who saw the goal of their lives, diverted their journey into the wrong road by satanic intelligence. Although they are now Christians, long before they got born again, the course of the journey of their  lives had been diverted.   

 

CLASSES O F EVIL DIVERSIONS

a. Conscious evil diversion.

b. Unconscious evil diversion.

c. Inherited evil diversion.

d. Transferred evil diversion.

e. Evil diversion acquired by personal decision.

   I pray that your ungodly journeys will be terminated today, in the name of Jesus. When God says that somebody will be a bricklayer, but his parents want him to be a medical doctor, they will force him to study Medicine and he will make mistakes.  He will become the doctor that would forget scissors and cotton wool inside the stomach of patients, he would do wrong abortions and his patients will be dying and many people will be running away from him. There are many counterfeit doctors like that. There is no way a fish can be blessed when it is out of water, neither can a crab become a boxing champion when he is on top of a tree.

 

Why does the enemy wish to divert a person?

    Many years ago, a woman came to me for prayer and the Lord told me that she was a principality. I asked her what she wanted and she said that her husband was never balanced. I said, “Is that all?” She said, “Yes.”  “So, what do you want me to do about that,” I asked.  She said, “Pray for me so that my husband will be balanced.”I went straight to the point and said, “Sorry, are you saying that you don’ t know you are demonic and that you are a principality.” She said, “Oh, so you can see.  All right, now, I will tell you certain things.” Then she gave me a one hour lecture on how the powers of darkness operate. Among other things,  she told me how they foresee the future of  people the very day they are born. I asked her what they do with such information and she said, “Ah, knowledge is power. Once we get the information, we can divert the journey of their lives, confuse them, and that is it.” The enemies of the souls of men know the hidden potentials in people even before such people realise it, so they rejoice over such information because it helps them to carry out their evil plans.

  These days, in so many churches, demons rejoice because the praise worship is being led by somebody from the river, the usher is from the tree, and the pastor is from the lagoon, while  normal people are busy dancing and beating drums.

 

THE PURPOSE OF EVIL DIVERSION

1.  To take the individual far away from God.

2.  To ensure that the purpose of a person's  life is not achieved. Evil diversion is an usher of failure. It ushers people into failure.

   Make the following declaration: “I know that I shall not be ushered into failure, in the name of Jesus.”

3. To open avenues for demonic pollution and domination.

4. To hold others in bondage by diverting the deliverer. The enemy can divert the journey of a deliverer so that those needing deliverance will not get delivered.  For example, if somebody who is going to preach somewhere branches at a bar to greet his friends and they offer him palm-wine and he drinks, he would be diverted. 

5. To push people into hell fire.

6. To prevent people from reaching their goal in life.

7. To remove people from their place of divine blessing.

8. To waste lives. What does it mean to waste?  It means to use wrongly or not to use at all.

   Sometimes, evil diversions look bright and good. The fact that a place is good and enjoyable does not mean that you should be there. The Bible says there is a way that seemeth right unto men but the end therefore is death. The way of diversion is sometimes the way of least resistance.  

  There was certain man who called himself the lion of Judah. When I was a small boy, I used to call him a hero because he was more intelligent than my teachers in school. He could play the mouth organ excellently, but he was a mad man. He knew music, mathematics, history, etc, but he was useless.  

 

What is a wasted life?

    A wasted life is a life without purpose. It is a life that has been diverted from its divine purpose, and until the person is delivered, life will have no meaning to him. There are so many people in the world today who are very busy, dedicated, influential, respectable and even admired by everybody, but deep inside them they are frustrated, confused, disillusioned, depressed, aimless and unhappy. This is why the issue of purpose before getting a partner is very important. This means you should discover what God has sent you to do on earth before you begin to pray for a life-partner. Some people do not understand. They want everything fast but God is saying, “Find out the purpose for your life first.”         

    There was a certain brother who heard the message of "purpose before partner" but did not take it seriously. So when he wanted to marry, he just picked up somebody. Everyday his wife would smile at him in a sarcastic way, pat him on the back and say jokingly, “You call yourself a prayer warrior.” She did this for a long time. The brother did not understand. One day, suddenly, the sister locked the door, threw the key under the bed and turned into a big snake. The brother jumped on the bed and started crying, “Blood of Jesus, blood of Jesus.” Eventually, she  turned back to a human being and questioned: “But you call yourself a prayer warrior, how come you did not know who I am? She then said, "Now that I have shown you my real self, take me to the pastor for deliverance.” We know that the brother cannot divorce her. Even if he does and marries another one, who knows, that one may be a crocodile.

   The enemy can divert a person’s journey and the person will not know the right thing to do. He will make the person to live on assumption or on the prescription of the society. And witches and wizards would be trying their new weapons in the life of the person because he is not where God wants him to be.

 

WHAT ARE THE AGENTS OF DIVERSION?

1. The first powerful agent of diversion is seducing spirit. 1 Timothy 4:1: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.”

   Seducing spirits are very rampant now because these are the last days. A seducing spirit is an evil servant from satan sent to perform a particular assignment, and that assignment is to overthrow people and take them into captivity. Once that assignment is completed, they impart another spirit into their victims and they will begin to carry out strange orders unconsciously. So, in a way, a seducing spirit is a forerunner of another wicked. The spirit of seduction will come first, seduce the person, then leaves and opens the person for the next demon to take over. The purpose is to entice people into the wrong things, tempt or lure them into sin, excite them where they should not get excited, make them get interested in what they should not be interested in, fascinate them with what they ought not to be fascinated with, arouse their interest in what their interest should not be aroused in, in order to win them over and bring in another wicked spirit.

  In a certain fellowship where I was sometime ago, I spent a lot of time praying that a particular sister should get married.  She was thirty-nine then.  Then one day, a brother said the Lord told him to marry the sister. I was happy that the prayer had been answered. So the brother went to meet the sister and told her that the Lord said she was the person he should marry.  The sister looked at him from his head down to the sole of his feet and said, “You cannot carry my load.” I was shocked. Then I asked her the type of load she had that the man would not be able to carry. This was in 1979 and up till now, the sister is still looking for somebody to carry her load. Why? Seducing spirits have diverted her to the wrong direction.

  Spirits of seduction choose their candidates based on their personal weaknesses, then they work upon those weak areas until their victims surrender. If your own weakness is anger, seducing spirits will make you to get so angry that you will annoy God. They make people to talk when they should not talk. They make you to get angry before your divine helpers, so that they would not be interested in helping you. It could be selfishness. It could be pride. They will make you over value yourself and they will be rejoicing.  The pride will then lead you to be diverted to somewhere else.

   A long time ago, a certain man came to our meeting. Throughout the prayer session, he just opened his eyes and was looking at us as if we were mad, he did not pray any single prayer point. He was very angry. So, I asked one usher to bring him when we closed. When they brought him to me after the service, he was still angry.  He asked, “Why is there no music in this place? Where are the drums, guitars, etc? I don’t go to a place where there is no music.” I tried to explain some things to him because I could see that he was under serious satanic attack but he fled out in anger. The next time I saw him, he had gone mad was residing under the bridge at Yaba. Why? He had been diverted.

   God says, “I will open the windows of heaven, and pour down blessings that you have not even enough room to take them.” The fact that God pours down blessings does not mean that everyone would be blessed. Those who are diverted cannot share out of God’s blessings when He pours them down. 

   Seducing spirits are so many around us now. And instead of some people to get serious with the Lord, they are still busy with other trivial matters. I remember a certain sister who got to her office and found a powerful charm on her table. She said, “I clear you off, in the name of Jesus,” and with shaky hands, she threw it away.  Then something said, “Why don’t you look under your chair before you sit down.” She looked under the chair and saw another big one attached to the chair with cello-tape. This happened in a bank and in a civilized society. She began to bang the chair on the floor so that the thing could drop since she did not want to touch it. Eventually, she shook it off and threw it into the dust bin.  By the time she sat down and worked for thirty minutes, the first thing that came to her table was a serious query from the manager and she had never received any query in her life before. The next day, she was mysteriously roped into a fraud case and was locked up. By the time she was released, she did not go home, she rushed to the church and I gave her some prayer points on sending confusion into the camp of the enemy. She took it home and did not pray. Then the problem escalated.  I asked why she did not pray the prayer points and she answered, “Well, as Christians, we are supposed to love our enemies as ourselves. I think we should be praying that they should be converted not that they should receive fire. It does not show kindness.” So I told her to read I Corinthians 13:1. She opened it and read: “Though I speak with tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”  In that passage, we see the qualities of love. I asked her  who wrote it, and she said, “Paul of course.” “Do you agree that this man knows about love more than you?  I asked. She said, “Yes.”  Then I told her to go back to Acts 13: 9 - 11.  After she had read those verses, I asked her who was talking there and she said, “Paul.” “So, what is going to happen now?” I asked her and she said, “They are dead.” She could not understand that she was fighting spiritual enemies. If you are fighting with spiritual enemies and there is anything stronger than thunder, you better use it because if they get you, they will not show you mercy at all. It is like appealing to a witch that: “Do not be so wicked. Do not drink blood. Try and be nice, you know that your public relations with people is not so nice.” You will be wasting your time. The enemy has diverted the  attention of many people to other things.  It has come to a stage now where some people idolise praise-worship as their God, it is diversion.

    When the spirit of seduction comes in, he gives a terrible blow to the conscience, and hardens it. Then the conscience will not be able to differentiate between right and wrong. That is why when you tell a woman not to marry a certain man because he smokes hemp, she would tell you that the man will change. It is the work of seducing spirits.  Once they are at work in any life, the person will no longer have the ability to discern between left and right. The person would be in total submission to  them. This is why we pray an  aggressive prayer that, “Nobody will transfer my case file to the demonic world, in the name of Jesus. When a witch dies in a family, she hands over the case file to the next witch in the family and it continues like that.

 

WHAT IS THE WAY OUT? 

1. Try to find out whether all the spirits that come to you are of God. You may say, “But I cannot tell.” The Bible says, “By their fruits, we shall know them.” Notice what fruit is produced.

2. Know the word of God so that nobody will confuse you.

3. Be prayerful.

4. Do not be foolish.

 

HOW DO YOU DEFEAT THE SPIRIT OF SEDUCTION?

a. Bind the strongman of seduction.

b. Cast out the seducing spirit and command it not to come back.

  The last stage is the most difficult stage because when the seducing spirit enters a life, it would have done a lot of damage before the person discovers. Sometimes there is already a broken home or a  life that has been thoroughly messed up.

c. Pray for restoration and repair of what the seducing spirit had destroyed. 

That is the first class of spirits that cause diversion.

 

2. Another agent of diversion is a class of  spirits called familiar spirits. They are experts at causing diversion. They are  the spirits in charge of passing down evil traits from one member of the family to another. They transfer evil genetic diseases or evil inheritance from one person to another. They transfer the problem of parents to their offsprings. If the parents had committed sin, and it is to be visited on the children, the transfer will be done by familiar spirits. All the inherited sicknesses and diseases, evil tendencies, evil habits, are transfered by familiar spirits.  They stay in the family line, so when one member of the family who has familiar spirit dies, he would decide which member to give the mantle or what we call counterfeit anointing. This is why if they say, "Hey, mummy wants to die, daddy wants to die  and they are calling you," and you know that such a mummy or daddy is not born again, it is not advisable to rush there  and allow them to pray for you because in the course of such prayers evil is transferred. If in your family they keep pets, they always have one dog or one cat and everybody knows the cat, if there is nobody to receive the spirit, the cat will keep it for a while, until it can enter another person.

     As a spirit-filled Christian, you are supposed to cast these spirits out, un-bind the human spirit, set it free from satanic captivity and replace death and curse with blessings. These  are the main two powers of evil diversion. If the business God asks you to do is not what you are doing, it may be the reason you are having problems with what you are doing.  If you are doing what He asks you to do, He will bless you.  Jesus died to ensure that our journeys go the right way. Today, if you are sufficiently concerned, you must pray, or if you do not know your goal in life.

   Beloved, one thing is certain, many people are travelling on the wrong road, many people are in the wrong things, some are in the wrong relationship, some are in the wrong business. Today, you must remove yourself from any evil journey and start the journey that God wants you to travel in. The journey to Canaan would have taken forty days, but it became forty years after the Israelites were diverted.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. I command every dark work against my life to be cancelled, in the name of Jesus.

2. I refuse to accept anything from satan, in Jesus' name.

3. I command every seducing spirit and familiar spirit to stop their operations in my life, in the name of Jesus.

4. Let all the incantations issued against me be cancelled, in the name of Jesus.

5. You the strongman troubling my Israel, I paralyse you, in the name of Jesus.

6. You the strongman troubling the Israel of my family, be paralysed, in the name of Jesus.

7. Every strongman in my family, be exposed, in Jesus’ name.

 

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The Valley of decision

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

One of the most wonderful miracles in the Bible was the crossing of the Red Sea. One dimension to this wonderful miracle was that the Egyptians were so dumb as to follow the Israelites into the Red Sea. They felt that since the Israelites were their servants they could still surpass them in anything. They did not for once consider who parted the Red Sea, and the fact that the same person could decide to change his mind when they want in. It was a very big mistake. So shall your enemies make mistakes, in the name of Jesus.

This account is recorded in Exodus 15:19 - 21: “For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea. And Marian the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and dances. And Marian answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.”

That was a miraculous deliverance. But what happened immediately afterwards? The Israelites were not prepared for the next shocker. Verses 22 – 24: “So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of  Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter, therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, what shall we drink?”

The Israelites travelled three days to the water of Marah after the wonderful miracle at the Red Sea.  They must have been excited to see that river in front after three days of having nothing to drink. But what a disappointment when they got to it and found that it was bitter. They were unprepared for what they saw but God was prepared because He never has an emergency. It is only human beings who talk about emergency but as far as God is concerned there is no emergency. As far as God is concerned too, once you are born again, there is nothing like luck or being fortunate; your life is teleguided from above. Your life is in the outline that God has laid. God is never confronted with a situation which He does not have an answer.  Businessmen, pastors, doctors, etc, could sit down and deliberate on a situation without coming up with a solution but God is never confronted with any situation that He cannot solve no matter how terrible it may be.

A woman suddenly discovered that her husband was acting strangely. He stopped talking to her and eating her food. Then it took another turn. One day, he invited two girls who sat in their sitting room and watched video film with him till daybreak while she was inside the room. The situation got so bad that she ran to a herbalist, who after consulting with his oracles, told her that when her husband was born he was handed over to his village idol, which happened to be a woman. Therefore, her husband was already married before he married her. The herbalist advised that in her own interest, she should move out before the man cut off her head with a cutlass when she was asleep and nobody would know what happened to her because the man would throw away her body. She went home in fear and after some time, she became born-again, and started attending a living church. One day, she attended a crusade where the man of God made an altar call for those who wanted to give their lives to Christ. As those who gave their lives to Christ were going back to their seats, there was another altar call for those who wanted to grow spiritually. As the woman came out for the second call, she saw her husband among those who came to give their lives to Christ. She hid her face and went for her own altar call. When she got home from the crusade that night she found him in the sitting room tapping the table with a biro pen. Then suddenly, he said, “Madam, I am sorry for all I have been doing to you. Please, forgive me.” That night, everything was sorted out by God who is never confronted with a situation for which He does not have an answer. And they started living happily again as husband and wife. You may say the man would never change again with all his girl friends. But when the God who does not know emergency arose, he gave up the girl friends and reconciled with his wife.

The Israelites came to their own emergency and started to grumble like many of us do. Some of them would have said, “I have been coming to church for years, and praying all the prayers but nothing is happening so I decided to stop coming.” That was exactly what the devil wanted. They grumbled but one man among them called Moses had the wisdom to pray instead of grumbling. He alone did the sensible thing. He prayed and what happened? Verse 25:  “And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them.”

God is interested in quality and not in quantity. If God has quality people, they will turn nations upside down. The apostles in the upper room were just one hundred and twenty people and they turned the city upside down. Beloved, if you and I were on fire for God, we would be sufficient to turn the world upside down. Moses prayed and God gave him the key to the problem. The Lord will throw trees into every Marah in your life, in the name of Jesus. Not that there is any power in the tree. It was just an act to release the power of God. It is like the woman who touched the helm of Jesus’ garment. Not that the garment carried any power but the faith of the woman released the miracle working power of the Lord. We find this principle of faith being applied both in the Old and the New Testaments. In the story of Elisha and Jericho, we saw how Elisha put salt into the bad water of the city and the water became sweet. These were acts of faith in God.

Although the above story of the Israelites goes to back thousands of years, there are some lessons hidden therein that I want to make known to you:

1. Everyone at one time or the other gets to the valley of decision with God. But the decision you take at that time will determine whether you will get positive or negative results.

2. Great victories prepare us for great testing. The fact that God has given you a great deliverance does not mean that for the rest of your life there will be no trials again. This is what happened to the Israelites. Immediately after a great deliverance, they were faced with another problem and they grumbled instead of praying to God.

Are you a grumbling Christian? Are you a crying Christian? Are you a weeping Christian? Are you a worrying Christian or an anxious Christian?

The Israelites eventually got to their own Marah but that Marah was God’s programme for them. It was God who led them there. As you are reading this message, you may have arrived at your own Marah or your bitter pool. You got to a situation you thought would be sweet but instead, it was bitter. What do you do? Your Marah may be your health, marriage, business, or your children.  It may be disappointment with people you do not expect could disappoint you. It may be that you find it difficult to have peace even though you have many things that should make you happy. What do you do?

The purpose of your arriving at the bitter pool or Marah is for God to expose an area in your life which He wants to deal with. Immediately the people of Israel got to their own Marah it exposed them.  It was clear that they were ungrateful to God. When God carries out His tests, a lot of people begin to grumble and to complain. One brother was deported from England and immediately he got to Nigeria he locked himself up in a room and never came out to speak to anybody. Why? Because he was deported from England. That is a wrong reaction to the bitter pool. Isolation, worry and crying are wrong reactions to the bitter pool. There is no life that has no problem, the important thing is for the problem not to have you.

There was a man who was doing very well in business.  After 15 years of success, things began to go wrong. He took his wife and five children to his village idol to swear one after the other to prove their innocence. It was a wrong reaction at the bitter pool. The question is, how are you reacting to your own bitter water? What do you do when you come to this valley of decision? Do you react in anger?

There was a brother who was always angry with everyone. It was so bad that his workers knew him for that. One day, I went to see him in his office but he was not in, so I decided to wait. The junior members of his staff, who did not know that I knew him, planned to upset him because they knew he would fall for it. As he came in, they said, “Good morning, sir.” He answered, “Good morning.” One of them said, “Sorry, sir, that file you said we should look for yesterday we could not find it.” Immediately, he flared up and started ranting. Then they said, “But, sir, we found it before the close of the day.” The boys turned to themselves and started laughing. Are you like that? When you see somebody who has over-painted her body, know that the person is covering up something. When you see somebody who has a walkman attached to his ear banging music into his ears, he is covering up something. He is trying to use the music to suppress the noise in his heart. If you have a neighbour who is always playing loud music, know that something is making noise in his heart and he is looking for a louder noise to calm it. It is a wrong reaction at the pool of bitterness. Some people grow lean and ugly because they are at their bitter pool.

God wants to deal with the defect in our characters. Some will say, “I’m human, it is natural to worry.” They would say, “Who can that happen to and he won’t be sad?” Jesus said it is unbelief to worry and the Bible says that God has a way of escape and the battle is His.

One day, a certain man was at his veranda relaxing when a man  drove in in a Mercedes Benz car and his wife said, “Daddy, I’ve suffered enough. I like to enjoy my life a little bit so I am moving out.” She packed her things into the Mercedes Benz car and the driver took off. That was how she moved out of her matrimonial home. The man was dumbfounded and wanted to commit suicide but some friends counselled him to take it easy. Several years later, the woman came back begging. The man told her:  “When you left this house, there was no money and there is still no money so you better go back to where you are coming from.” He was no longer disturbed. Many sisters like to have rich men as husbands, but unfortunately, many of the rich men are not very good people and most of the fine brothers don’t have too much money.

 

WHAT TO DO AT THE POOL OF DECISION?

1. Recognize that God is able to make the situation sweet no matter how bitter it may be.

2. Let the living God deal with any defect the situation has exposed in your life.

3. Accept by faith, God’s provision for your life.

4. Begin to thank God for what He has done on your behalf. It is then God will begin to reveal Himself to you.

5. Don’t limit God when you get to the valley of decision. As far as God is concerned, He can do anything at any time without being queried or challenged.

The children of Israel forgot what God has done. They limited God for whom no man can draw a boundary. The same people who saw the Red Sea parted and they walked through it, and also saw the Egyptians smitten with plagues, and so many other things, began to grumble when they came to the bitter water, and God got angry with them.

Beloved, God gets angry when people put a limit on Him.  And it has been observed that the sin of limiting God is the commonest sin of the saints. When the devil sees that he is only about a quarter to get out of a person’s life, he will put in his last effort pretending to be tough. If then the person gives up and starts complaining and grumbling, he goes back fully into the problem. A lot of people will be useless without any pressure on them. Any child who does whatsoever he is asked to do would not be beaten. But when you find that your child does not take to your instructions, you would have no option but to discipline such a child. God too, cannot allow His children to behave any how. No good father will allow his children to be unruly. This is why God has to be hard on some of us sometimes.

God called a certain friend of mine to go and preach. But my friend said, “I’m a manager in a big bank, how can I become a preacher and be waiting for members to collect kobo- kobo for me before I eat. No way.” So, he refused to answer the call of God. One day, he had an accident and lost his left hand. When he got to the hospital the Spirit of God came to him and said, “Are you ready to preach the gospel now or I cut off the second hand?” He said he was ready. So he is now preaching with one hand. God knows how to deal with us when we are stubborn. The best thing is to be broken so that God will not push you here and there to get you listen to His instructions. When you tell some people to go for deliverance, they will refuse until God allows some witches to visit  them at night, then they will run back to say they are ready. I once read about a Prime minister who was known as a dunce in his school. Eventually, this same man changed and became intelligent. All those who were beating him in the class was now going to him to say “His Excellency.”

Perhaps there has been predictions about your life that you cannot make it, know that those who are giving the predictions are not God. I felt sorry for a little boy. On his naming day,  he was taken to a place where they prophesied names. I hope you were not named through such prophecies. If you were, you need deliverance because whatever evil prophecy is pronounced on a person on the day of his naming ceremony remains permanent unless Jesus cancels it.

The reason many Christians have problems when they get to the bitter pool is because  they engage in conversation with the devil. The devil has no right to ask you and I any question. All the “why” and “why me” questions are from the devil. If you do not know how to ignore satanic questions or to answer the devil with “back to sender,” you may lose your miracle. The devil will ask you questions like, “Do you think God has answered your prayer?” “Do you think you have been healed?” “What if the problem comes back?” “Do you think you are going to prosper?” “Can’t you see that you are following your father’s footsteps?” “Can’t you see that your father-in-law is a lodge member?” The devil will ask you series of questions and then give you satanic answers.

Beloved, this year is a year of divine possibilities.  My prayer is that God will change your name as He changed the name of Abraham. Before God could work well on Abraham, He changed his name from Abram to Abraham. Perhaps, your name has been hindering God. As God removed Abram and instituted Abraham, so will He remove every Abram in your life and replace it with Abraham, in the name of Jesus.

Whatever is standing in your way, I want you to believe that the heavenly bulldozer will bulldoze it out of the way. He will bulldoze the enemy, those standing at the back of the enemy, and those around him, in Jesus’ name.

A lot of people fail at the valley of decision while others succeed but our God is a God of success. If you have not surrendered your life to the Lord, do so before you pray these bulldozing prayers because you cannot bulldoze the enemy if you have not accepted Christ as your Lord and personal Saviour. When God decides to bulldoze the enemy, even all the supporters of the enemy will be in trouble. Perhaps you are about to give up and the enemy is persuading you to give up by recounting all the failures and showing you the impossibilities. You must say no to the powers of the enemy today.

 

PRAYER POINTS

 

1.    I disgrace every assignment of the enemy against me, in the name of Jesus.

2.   Let my enemies make mistakes that will advance my course, in the name of Jesus.

3.   The key to the solution of my problem, Father, in the name of Jesus, give it to me.

4.   I refuse to permit any evil tenant in the house of my life, in the name of Jesus.

5.   I come against every spirit of limitation, in the name of Jesus.

6.   I come against any carry-over from Egypt making me to limit God, in the name of Jesus.

7.   I forbid any satanic arrow from being part of my life, in the name of Jesus.

8.   I release myself from every curse of failure, in the name of Jesus.

9.   I release myself from any satanic predictions, in the name of Jesus.

10. I break the power of any rituals aimed at me, in the name of Jesus.

11. I move from bondage to liberty, in Jesus' name.

12. I command the pool of tribulation to dry up, in the name of Jesus.

13. Every evil bird flying for my sake, receive the arrow of fire, in the name of Jesus.

14. I refuse to be the candidate of eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood, in the name of Jesus.

15.Thank God for answered prayers.

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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 paralysed, in the name of Jesus.

5. Every problem initiator and expander, be paralysed, 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 paralysed, 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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THE JONAH IN YOUR BOAT

 Dr D. K. Olukoya

 

Beloved, this week we shall be looking at a very serious message entitled, “The Jonah in Your boat”. It reveals the story of Jonah showing that men do not always want to do the will of God; a great tragedy indeed Jonah 1:1-17: “ Now the word of God came to Jonah, the son of Amittai saying, Arise, go to Nineveh that great city and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tar shish from the presence of the Lord and went to Joppa and he found a ship going to Tar shish. So he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it to go with them unto tar shish from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it off them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay, and was fast asleep. So the shipmasters came to him, and said unto him, what meanest thou, o sleeper? Arise call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. And they said everyone to his fellow, come and let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lots fell upon Jonah. Then they said unto him, tell us, we pray thee for whose cause this evil is upon us; what is thine occupation? And where comest thou? What is your country? And of what people art thou? And he said unto them, l am an Hebrew; and l fear the Lord, the God of Heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then said they unto him, what shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? For the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, take me up and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for l know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you (The men did not want to do what he said) Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; But they could not; for same wrought, and was tempestuous against them. Wherefore they cried unto the lord and said we beseech thee, O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood; for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea; and the sea ceased from her ranging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows. Now he Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

God’s ultimate aim for mankind is that we must conform to the image of Christ and that at the name of Jesus every name must bow of things on earth, of things under the earth. And that every tongue should confess Him as the Lord. But the world is in a mess and men live and die without Christ. Some who had Christ lost Him and died without hope. The Lord’s Prayer says, “Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.” Meaning that, God’s will is supposed to be done on earth always.

It is disastrous to rebel against the Creator. The Lord had no problem talking to the storm to be stirred up and telling the fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah should have known that before refusing to do the will of the Almighty God. Jonah like many of us, do not want to do the will of God.

A certain man called Brother Grand prayed for the will of God in marriage. He saw a very nice girl in the fellowship who was beautiful, had a good job and seemed to be okay generally. Brother Grand who wanted to serve the Lord as an evangelist felt that the woman was the kind of person he needed for a wife to help him in his ministry (This is why we preach at the mountain of fire and Miracles ministries that people should find purpose for their lives before praying for partners so that they won’t pick partners who will destroy the purpose of God for their lives) But the Lord told him that she was not his wife, and that his wife is a sister who normally sat at the back of the church; The Problem with that sister was that she had tuberculosis. Brother Grand then replied God, “No l am an evangelist and l move around a lot. This sister cannot cope she will soon die. The Lord said, “ I have spoken and will not repeat myself” He struggled with God like many people do before he eventually gave in to the will of God. He went ahead and married the Tuberculosis case. A week after their wedding, the nice girl whom Brother Grand wanted to marry just fell sick and died. Then he understood God. But for the tuberculosis girl that he married, it was as if their marriage was the cure that she needed. Immediately after their wedding, the tuberculosis vanished and she became a strong woman for God. So sometimes, what God will ask you to do, your body or flesh will complain and grumble. It may also be bitter but it would be the best thing for you. The Bible says, “There is a way that seemeth right unto man but the end therefore is death” (Proverbs 14:12) It is God that can see the end of anything from the beginning. There was another case of a sister in a church I used to attend many years ago. She cried to a certain man of God for a husband. The man of God had compassion on her and went to a mountain to pray for her. He prayed for seven days, came back and told her that her partner was the same brother God had revealed to her as husband. The only problem with that brother is that he had one eye. Then the sister said, “Well, if a one-eyed man is the best God has for me, l would marry someone else” So, she married one university lecturer who happened to be one of those who would come to church to clap and sing but never got born again. There are many people like that in the house of God. Another problem the man had was that he ran after anything in skirt. Unfortunately, after about five years of marriage with two children, the man died and that was the end of that marriage. The sister became so poor that the church had to be taking care of her and her children. There are many stubborn Christian like that, Jonah was a stubborn and rebellious prophet, His name means dove but his character and behaviour was the opposite of his name. So it does not matter whether you are named Samuel or Joseph and those who gave you the name could have good intentions, but if you are a disobedient person, God will not be happy with you.

 

Jonah had a reason to disobey God. He was a Jew and the Ninevites were the enemy of the Jews. So, he felt it was wrong for him to go and preach to them to repent. As far as he was concerned, they should perish. He did not want to go because he did not love them. Just like many people can do wonderful praise worship but cannot speak one word of love. Some can speak twenty thousand words in “tongues” but cannot speak one word of love to anybody.

 

The reason God cannot use some of us is because we lack love. Like Jonah, many who should go to Nineveh, have taken off Tar shish. The spirit of Tar shish has descended upon them. Jonah means dove but he did not act like a dove, he acted like a goat. There are many Jonahs who are goats. Jonah abandoned the divine destination for personal interest. He consulted flesh and blood before carrying out divine instruction. But Paul Said, “When God spoke to me, l did not consult flesh and blood” (Galatians 1:16) immediately you begin to consult flesh and blood they will react against any divine instruction you receive. There was once a man of God who was so great that when he stood preaching, an angel would be telling him what he would say. When the angel stopped talking, the man would keep quiet until the angel began to speak. He was an extraordinary minister. No sick person left his meetings without being healed except he could not get to the person. He used to pray for people until they carried him out on a stretcher because he would have worn himself out laying hands on people. But initially, he did not want to answer the call of God. So God said, Okay, if you do not want to go, you will see how l will deal with you. A great flood came and before his very eyes, his three children were drowned. He held on to his wife but the powerful storm came and tore off his wife away from his hands and that was her end. So, in one day he lost his house, wife, and three children. Then he was ready to answer the call of God. If the devil or a herbalist is against you, you can pray fire payers and be delivered. But when God is against you, there is no prayer that can help you. When the man eventually started the work, anywhere he went to preach, his message was “The way of transgression is hard” (Proverbs 13:15) The best thing is to depart from the way of the transgressors.

 

 Jonah even paid for his problem. He paid the fare that got him into trouble. He also put his companions into trouble. Meaning that a man could be the cause of the storm in her family. Likewise, a child. Such a person is the Jonah in the boat of his or her family. And God may be waiting for you to change or to throw you out.

Sometime ago, a woman who had stomach problem died before she could be brought to church for prayers. Her household enemies had finished her up before anything could be done. About a week later, her daughter of eleven came to me for prayers. She said she wanted to be saved. So she gave her life to Christ. She was taken through deliverance and during the deliverance, she confessed to witchcraft and that she killed her mother. She is now on the path to heaven now but her mother who was careless with her spiritual life went to hell fire.

 

One sinner in an environment can cause confusion for everybody just like Jonah gave headache to the poor mariners in the boat. And if they had not thrown Jonah out on time, that would have been the end of all of them. Jonah also wasted the property of those people because they threw everything into the water. Just like a sinner in a family will begin to sell their property. When all these problems were going on, Jonah was sleeping comfortably in the midst of the terror and the guilt. He ran from the presence of the Lord. So what happened? He was cast into the sea and then, there was calm.

 

WHAT IS THE JONAH IN THE BOAT OF YOUR LIFE?

1.     It is like that, which makes a person to run away from the presence of the Lord.

2.     It is the spirit of evil diversion.

3.     It is the spirit of disobedience.

4.     It is that which drags you into trouble.

5.     It is that which invites storms.

6.     It is that which invites divine pleasure.

7.     it is the spirit of slumber

8.     It is the spirit of the goat.

9.     It is the spirit of compromise.

 

Compromise is a very deadly enemy of Christians. Show me a backslider and l will show you a person who has been compromising for a long time. There is no such thing as sudden fall of a Christian. The individual would have been compromising little by little, until he or she finally falls away. He or she could attend one of these funny Bible colleges around and be given titles like reverend or pastor, whereas he is falling. That is giving oneself spiritual appellations without divine approval. It is the spirit of compromise that makes a person to keep silent when he ought to speak out because of fear of offending unbelievers. It is the spirit behind somebody who approves the wrong thing in order to appease friends. It is the spirit that tolerates sin because you do not want people to make you their enemy. Ask yourself this question, “ Is there any compromise in my life today?” It is important to pray the prayer of the Psalmist that says, “Search me o Lord, and know my heart today, if there be any unrighteousness in me, take away from me and show me the path of righteousness” It is a pity that many like worshipping a synthetic god, the god they manufactured by their own hands. They are worshipping a god manufactured by their brains.

It is sad but true that some of the practices that have been carried out by white men in the name of Christianity have now resulted into backsliding and witchcraft. Even all kinds of occult that black men are thrown away are now taking over the white man’s country. Yet some ignorant Nigerian preachers are now importing any things that cause backsliding and weak Christianity from the white man’s country. Recently, for the first time in my life a pastor with Tyson hairstyle. I was shocked because Isaiah 55:8:

“ For my thought are not your thought, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord”

 

How can you follow the tradition of the world and make God look less than He actually is. They update God to suit their own taste. They make God look like a liar. They make people feel that the kind of God that will they should search for is the God that will make them feel okay about themselves, the kind of God that will make allowances for their sins, and take excuses. They give people the idea that God is not a God of judgment and that He easily adapts to our own lifestyle and does not have any standard. They make God feels like somebody who delights in just the small attention we can give to Him on Sundays. They forget that the same God that sent Jesus was the one, who rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, the same God who called Paul by the way, is the same God who sank Pharaoh in the red sea. They tell people to just choose the part of the Bible that they like and follow it. Whenever we try to modify God, we become idolaters. We make a fresh idol.

 

Unfortunately, many present-day Christians hate reading books that encourage self-sacrifice. They hate books on holiness. Many people rush to where Christianity is less demanding. The only difference between them and the worldly people is that they carry the Bibles and go to church on Sundays. Preachers are now de-emphasizing God’s attribute of holiness and righteousness and hatred for sin because they want crowd. They want to have many branches. Preachers are now trying to make the gospel more palatable for people. Instead of saying adultery, they call it extramarital affairs; Instead of saying that abortion is murder, they will say it is removal of unwanted child. They call gossip chatting. Homosexuals are called sexually confused men. I have seen people, describing even sin as self-expression. When somebody is promiscuous, and is messing around, they will say he is not promiscuous but sexually active. They change the language to make sin look light. They water down what God is saying so that the crowd will come and one percent of them don’t even know where heaven is, let alone planning to go. They play the kind of music they hear at disco halls in the church and dance the kind of dance they should have dropped in the world in the church and their spiritual power rapidly goes down. They preached the gospel that offers forgiveness without repentance, and offers heaven without hell. It is better to know about the two and choose where you are going. It is not right for us to trust the flesh. The bible says

 

“ Let him that thinketh he standeth take head lest he falls” 

 

(1corinthians 10:12). There is a possibility of falling, so don’t ever have confidence in the flesh. Don’t say: l can do what l want, go to where l want, do anything, No! Paul said, “We have no confidence in the flesh” The mature believer will always recognize that there is still a long way to go and that constituency is the mark of maturity. Consistency is when a Christian observes his quite time, prayers and Bible reading without interruptions. But somebody who does quite time on Monday and will not do it again until Thursday, is not serious yet. Apostle Paul warned against anybody thinking he cannot fall into temptation. For example, Moses spoke with God face to face but anger and pride dealt with him terribly. What about Samson? An angel prophesied his birth but he yielded to his natural desires of lust and fell. The man, who killed people with the jawbone of an ass and took the whole gate of the philistines away, became somebody who was grinding pepper in the camp of the enemy.

Peter discovered that self-confidence was his weakest area. He boasted to Jesus but could not cope. King David served the Lord faithfully for twenty years but he eventually committed adultery with Bathseba. So the weakest Christian is not in as much danger as those who call themselves strong Christians.

So, the Jonah in the boat of many may be fornication, adultery, abortion, family quarrels and argument, lies etc.

Once there is Jonah in the boat of your life, there will be storm outside. There will be powers rocking the boat of your life and until the Jonah is thrown out, the boat will continue to rock. And if you don’t get the Jonah out on time, God forbid, the boat may capsize and that would be the end. You will then end up in hell fire. Think about it. What is the Jonah in the boat of your life?

For any serious revival to happen, the issue of sin must be dealt with. Many people have never seen one single revival, everybody in town would talk about Jesus, it would then become an unusual thing for a person to say he is not born again. All the bars and brothels will close down. Churches would be filled to overflowing. Sinners would not need long messages to get born again. We will not need to cry out, “Be Healed” before people receive their healing. Everybody will be talking about God, and even the government will notice that something is happening. Until we deal with the issue of sin, we are still joking. There are lots of people now who jump out of churches to set-up their own ministries just because they are not broken enough to accept corrections. The spirit of disobedience is still reigning in their lives. And when you get to these their ministries, you find out that they are just wasting their time. Elisha got a double portion of anointing from Elijah, Most of these people who run away say, “ l am starting my own church” do not collect one quarter of the anointing of the person they had worked with so they are not able to do much.

 

WHAT IS SIN?

Sin is renouncing whom God made you. It is refusing the right of God to govern you. It is saying you do not care about what God is saying; you want to go your won way. It is disobeying God’s commandments. Sin prefers to please you than to please God. It is when the blessing and gifts of God do not move you. It is treating the Almighty with contempt. If you have never seen the great evil of sin, then you have not seen anything is stranger to God. The music of a sinner is, I don’t care what God requires. I must have my own way”. This is why after 400years of the Old Testament, God spoke to nobody. The first time he would send a prophet, after 400 years of silence, was John the Baptist. And when John the Baptist came, his message was pure and simple: Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand”. When Jesus too came, He cried out “Repent or perish”. When Peter too started to preach on the day of Pentecost, it was the same message of repentance.

Many People are not repentant. True repentance comes when you realize in your hearts the seriousness of sin, the seriousness of ignoring the claim of God and defying his authority. True repentance is when you have hatred and deep sorrow for sin. It is an acknowledgment of your sin before God, and a complete forsaking of it. Not like Lot’s wife who was told to flee and escaped for her life, for God was going to destroy the city, and she could not get herself from that city. Her physical body was out of there but her spirit was still inside. Lot’s wife is now in hell fire. That is why Jesus kept saying, “Remember Lots’ wife”

It is only repentance that can make God to pardon us. If you find someone who keeps repenting of the same sin, it is not certain whether the person ever repented in the first instance. This is why repentance is a great weapon in spiritual warfare. When you beg for divine blessing without true repentance you are only trying to sow seed in a land you have not cleared.

We need to carry out diligent and prayerful examination of ourselves. What you find in most churches now is fake repentance. People only repent because they are afraid of punishment, not because they hate sin. People look sober during a message, go home quietly, but by next morning, the effect is worn off and they go back to their old ways. People may be deeply moved when they hear the word of God or during prayers. They may even cry and go home determined that they would change yet they go back to their sins.

Beloved, all those cries of “O Lord, l want to change” and each drop of tears will stand on the day of judgment and testify against many. You may have humbled yourself before God for a time, yet remain the slave of lust. It is possible that a person may be attending powerful church and still be a smoker. Such a person is lost completely. Some too come to services looking like angels, but when you see them in the street, they are just like masquerades. They are lost.

 

Beloved, can somebody in the light please somebody in the darkness? Are you looking for the approval of man instead of looking for heavenly approval? Does it really matter what people are saying about you? It is what heaven says that is important. If heaven says you are bad, you better change. If people here are saying you are ugly but in heaven, angels are rejoicing about, then you are in order. A person may be afraid of hell fire but not afraid of committing sin. This is why we find some people who have cried, “ O lord, l want to change, l want to repent. Please help me” The next minute, they are falling into fornication again. A person may hate to go to hell fire but yet may be running as fast as he can get there unconsciously. Many church members will backslide if they hear that hell fire no longer exist.

Do not confuse the fear of hell with hatred for sin. Confession of sin too is not repentant. Many have gone for confessions, while their partners in fornication and adultery were waiting for them outside the church. If you do not resist sin, and turn away from it, then your repentance is fake. Repentance signifies a change of mind.

Nowadays, there is no longer godly sorrow for sin. The wet eyes are gone; people commit sin and ask God to forgive them with dry eyes. True repentance is turning away from your sins and forsaking them. It is making peace with God and taking sides with God against yourself. True repentance must be entire repentance. You cannot have some darling sins in your life; that is the ones you like committing, the ones which you are saying nobody can change. Throw out the Jonah in your boat today and your life will never remain the same.

 

PRAYER POINTS

 

1.     l pursue, overtake and recover my blessing the enemy, in Jesus name.

2.     Let the Holy Ghost fire destroy every foundational problem, in the mighty name of Jesus.

3.     Every limitation placed upon my life by household wickedness, be destroyed in Jesus name.

4.     Let every hand be removed from the affairs of my life in the name of Jesus.

5.     Every thing done against my life under the devil’s anointing be neutralized inn Jesus name.

6.      Every parasitic enemy, be paralyzed, in the name of Jesus.

7.     Satanic banks, release my properties in your hand, in the name of Jesus

8.     Every evil vessel dispatched against me, l command you to crash, in the name of Jesus.

9.     Anything in my life that will take away heaven from me, remove it Lord, in the name of Jesus.

10. I cast away every spiritual Jonah from the boat of my life, 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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Not by bread Alone

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Let us pray: Father, we pray that Your power will descend on us and empty us of everything known as self and drain out every unbrokenness out of our spirits, so that Your word can have root in our lives, in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Beloved, the Bible talked about the sower who in his assignment had some of his seeds fell on good ground and yielded bountifully while some fell on barren land and therefore yielded nothing. God wants to profit with us hence He is investing in our lives. You cannot live the life of an unprofitable servant, who buried the one talent that was given to him by his master. This means that your life must be tailored towards yielding dividends unto God. At this juncture, I want you to raise your voice and pray like this: “O Lord, anything that will not make You to profit with my life, take it out now, in the name of Jesus.”

Matthew  4:1-4: “Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”  For you to remain standing as a Christian who will make heaven, there are three things you cannot put aside:

1. Holiness: The Bible does not mince words as regards the importance of holiness. It says in Hebrews 12: 14: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:” You may see anything, you may see  vision, you may prophesy, you may know your pastor, you can hold all the church posts but seeing God without being holy is impossible.

2. Prayer: Jesus did not say preach without ceasing, but He said pray without ceasing. Without prayer, you cannot communicate with God. This is a nonnegotiable condition for making heaven. A prayerless Christian is a dead Christian. The staff with which to walk with God is prayer.

3. The word of God:  This is one area where the devil has dealt a serious blow on so many Christians. It is sad but  true that many church goers are completely ignorant of the Bible. I am not talking about the theoretical experiences many gain from Bible colleges. You could even go to these colleges and come out more confused.

Many church goers are even completely ignorant of whom the Lord really is. Some would resolve to read the Bible from cover to cover only to abandon it midway. To some, the best place for their Bible is under the pillow, with a Psalm opened, and to some, it is a tool to be used when in danger. Many have small Bibles; some have big ones but do not read them. Without any argument, we all know that the Bible has changed so many lives. In countries where reading the Bible has for long been accepted as tradition progress was rapid. While in places where people do not like to read the Bible, progress has been slow. Those who read it before but later abandoned it, are in trouble now. There is power in the Word of God if not there would not have been so many attempts to destroy it. Perhaps you have heard of John Wycliff, the first man to translate the Bible to English. Prior to his effort, only priests or pastors used to read the Bible and their interpretation of it was unquestionable. John Wycliff’s efforts were therefore seen as a threat to this situation. No wonder he was eventually killed for making it possible for everyone to read the Bible. They killed  him, but even some years after his death, they were still not satisfied with the punishment of death. So, his corpse was exhumed and burnt to ashes and the ashes were dumped inside rivers. Happily today, the Bible is everywhere and in it, we have the best of books, the greatest book and the  most wonderful book. It is the book that has lasted longer than any other book. It is however sad to note that it is the most neglected book. A lot of people do not know that when they do not read the Word of God to feed their spirits, they will have no strength spiritually.

There was a man in a country where they do not permit people to read Bible. His only Bible was seized and thrown away. Later, he discovered that somebody else had one hidden in a village nearby. He managed to get  in touch with him and started copying about two chapters a day. Two chapters were sent to his son and by the time he was through with it, he got born again. It is amazing  to see many in a free country as ours still refusing to read the Bible and get filled with the powers therein.

In a certain place, a man was preaching at the back of the house of a university professor. He described the birth of Jesus Christ - how a virgin gave birth to a son called Jesus. Hearing this, the professor was upset and described his sermon as illogical, because to him, there was no way a virgin could give birth. To further discredit the sermon and the Bible as a whole, he bought a copy of the New Testament and studied it for thirteen years. By the time he was through with it, he became a born again child of God. It was then his turn to preach the Word with even greater fire than that of the man he set out to discredit. Such is the power in the word.

It is not only prayers that you need to get along with God. In fact, when your prayers are devoid of the Word of God, the devil will not respect you much. Remember he was defeated by Jesus with the weapon of “It is written.” Recently, a sister recently paid dearly for her low level of the Word. She saw a demon in the dream who showed a part of her body to her and said to her, “You are not going to get it.” She then started quoting the Scriptures against the demon. To her amazement, the demon demanded from her where the quoted Scriptures were written in the Bible but she could not tell. This delayed her miracle for some time but that incident taught her a lesson.  The Bible commands that we should keep God’s words in own hearts. 

Deuteronomy 6: 6: “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.” And Psalm 119:11: “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” This implies that it is possible for you to hear the Word and the devil takes it away. So, there must be a determined effort on your part to hide the word in your heart. To do this, two things are required:

1. Kick all useless thoughts out of  your heart. Worldly and ungodly thoughts  struggle for the same space in the heart with the Word of God. One has to go for the other to stay. It is the height of hypocrisy for a person to come to the house of God and write down passages quoted by the preachers together with the messages and then never go over them again in his  private time. Some even forget their jotters in the house of God because other irrelevant and worldly thoughts have occupied their hearts. These must be knocked out for the Word to have a landing place.

2. Form the habit of meditation. A starting point is to pick a verse or two a day and meditate on them throughout the day. This is where many miss it. They do not read their Bibles, and do not memorise Scriptures, they are therefore empty. As serious Christians, we are not only supposed to hear the Word of God, read and study it, but we must also memorise and meditate upon it. It is only after that that you can begin to apply it and share it with others. Many are not aware of the fact that the level of the Word inside them is known by the devil. He knows those who are serious Bible students and those who just read the Bible to silence their conscience. He recognizes   those who read for the sake of reading. So he can gauge the spiritual temperature of many by the level of the Word in them.  John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Verse14: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.” A careful analysis of these verses reveals that the Word of God is the Son of God and if the Word dwells in you, then the Son is in you. The opposite is also very true.

3. Read the whole content of the Word of God": The Bible says that the word of God is the Son of God. So, for Jesus to dwell richly in your life, the Word must dwell richly in you. The Bible also likened the Word of God to a seed. The parable of the sower talks about some seeds falling on good soil, some on the rock, etc. The seed talked about here, is the Word of God. Your heart must receive it or else it dies.

The Bible also likened the Word of God to a sword. Hebrew 4:12: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

The Word of God is a mirror through which you can look at yourself to see the way you are and make adjustment. We are encouraged to know the Bible, which is the Word of God. Anything in you that hates the Bible is your greatest enemy, and that may lead you to hell fire. You are to receive the Word fully. If it says, “Do not,” then don’t do it. Do not argue, do not use  human logic to figure it out. Swallow it, hook, line and sinker.

We should dwell in the Word of God. Anybody who has made up his mind not to obey God has no business coming to the house of God because each time you come and God talks to you and you turn your back and go away without making any adjustment, He writes it down and the words will then stand against you  on the day of judgment. If you have been born again for five years and you have not read the Bible through once, I put it to you that you are lazy. Sometimes ago, in England, I preached to a white boy and he gave his life to Jesus. That was on a Tuesday and by the next Tuesday when we were to have Bible study, he had read through the entire Bible. Yet we had old members of the church who got born again before him but had never for once read through the Bible. When you read the Bible, it quickens you. The Bible says the flesh profits nothing, therefore, when you read the Word, you are strengthened and when you abandon it, you go lean.

Beloved, this is the word from God to you. If you have abandoned your Bible, please make amends and it will be well with you. At this juncture, I would like you to bow your head and confess your sins.

If you know you are a lazy Bible reader or you only read the Bible when you feel like or you are one of those who just carry it about, ask the Lord to forgive you and make a covenant with Him that you will be on fire as far as the Word of God is concerned, that you will not allow the enemy to cheat you or put you on the shelf because of the lack of reading the Word of God. Talk to Him and He will surely help you.

The Bible says, “Forever O Lord, thy Word  is settled in heaven.” Also, tell the Lord that the giant of ignorance in your life should die. Ignorance is a serious giant that paralyses people. Pray like this: “Everything that the devil has secretly stolen from me because of lack of the knowledge of the Word of God, I claim them back, in the name of Jesus.” Matthew 22:29: “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” Jesus is saying that, not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God will result in error.  Ignorance could make a person to be living in sin without knowing it. It is sad and the effect, disastrous. The disciples of Jesus got into very serious confusion in Luke 24:4 which says, “And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.” They were confused because they had forgotten that Jesus had earlier warned them about looking for the living among the dead.

 Lack of the knowledge of the Word of God will result in the following:

a. Spiritual dullness.

b. Confusion. A person who does not know and have the Word of God in him would be roaming about aimlessly and would suffer unnecessarily. He will be afraid where there is no fear. The devil will kick him about like football.

c. Spiritual sickness. A person without the Word will suffer malnutrition because the Bible is the food for the soul. Many Christians are sick or weak because their spirits too are sick. The physical food that we eat has various functions it carries out in our body. For example, food builds up our body and replaces worn out tissues in us. Through food you get energy. What food does to our physical body is what the Word of God does to our spirits. Hence in some places, the Bible calls the Word of God milk, bread or honey. Spiritual malnutrition will happen when a person is not feeding adequately on the Word of God.

d. Lack of spiritual resistance: An affected will not be able to resist the devil because his spirit lacks the necessary strength.

e. Sinful life: Sin will keep you away from Bible and the Bible will keep you away from sin. Therefore, lack of the Word will keep you in sin.

Beloved, living without the Word of God is empty Christianity. Your life should not be by bread alone. Resolve not to be an empty barrel as far as the Word is concerned. Make a definite plan to saturate your spirit with the Word and ask the Lord to help you. May your Bible reading be revived by fire, in Jesus’ name.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   I renounce any signature of my name in satanic possession, in the name of Jesus.

2.  I release my name from every satanic possession, in the name of Jesus.

3.  I release myself from any ceremony linking me to evil powers, in the name of Jesus.

4.  I release myself from every blood donation to the devil, in the name of Jesus.

5.  I paralyse and disband all satanic parents, in the name of Jesus.

6.  I renounce every satanic baptism, in Jesus' name.

7.  Every power assigned to hide my light under the bed, be paralysed, in the name of Jesus.

 

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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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Thorns of life

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Our message this week is what I call “The thorns of life.”
              Genesis 3:17-19: “And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee saying, thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

       

What is a thorn?

It is possible that many city dwellers have never seen thorns in their lives. But try to picture a plant with sharp needles on its body. A thorn is a prickle or a sharp pointed growth on the branch or stem of a plant.

The passage above is what the Bible calls the curse of thorns. Thorns were not meant to be a problem until this curse was issued. Carefully interpreted, thorns and thistles mean hard labour or hard life. A life of thorns and thistles, if not rescheduled, can cause other problems.

Matthews 27:29-30: “And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.” This occurred before Jesus was crucified. What is known as a crown of thorns with sharp needle-like objects was placed on His head, causing blood to come out. They put the crown of thorns on His head to mock Him. It was also to give Him headache. But unknown to them, they were fulfilling a divine purpose. The kind of plants used for the crown of thorns was known to be poisonous. So, apart from the headache, the poison from the plant used for the crown also entered the blood of the Saviour.

 

Why was His crown made of thorns?

His crown was made of thorns because He came to cancel and break the curse of the thorns of life. He wore the crown for you and for me and carried away the curse and spiritual poisons that made life a hell. When there are thorns in a life, the purpose is to cause worry, trouble, temptation, annoyance, pain, humiliation and persistent attacks. But since Jesus had suffered and shed His blood to remove these thorns, life will offer only two things: Thorns or flowers; depending on what you personally choose. The Bible says, “Behold, I place before you this day blessings and curses, life and death, I advise you to choose life so you may live.”

 

What determines whether a person picks up thorns or flowers?

        What will determine what you pick up is the kind of vessel you are made of? A vessel is any material that may be used for any purpose. A vessel may be a tool, an implement, a weapon or something you use to perform a particular function. Romans 9:21-23 talks about one particular kind of vessel. It says, “Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory.”

2 Timothy 2:20-21: “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.”

There are different kinds of vessels in the house of God. So you will do well to examine what kind of vessel you are. Let me clarify one thing before we go deeper into this message: God will not accept any excuse from anyone for not being a useful vessel. 

Recently, a man of God preached to an unbeliever to accept the Lord. He listened attentively and after the message, he said to the man of God, “You are talking about heaven and that at the end of the day we shall all go there.” The preacher said yes. The man queried further, “You say that there is enjoyment in that place and that eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, and it has not come into the mind of men what the Lord has prepared for His people.” The preacher said, “That is correct.” Then the man asked, “One final thing before I decide whether I will give my life to Christ or not. Will my wife be there?” The preacher replied that if she was born  again, she would be there. Then the man said, “In that case, I do not want to go to heaven because I do not want to have anything to do with her whether in heaven or anywhere else.” This man did not know that even if his wife was the worst woman that ever lived, God would not accept such excuse from him. 

The excuse of Adam for disobeying God was rejected. The excuse of Eve for disobeying God was also rejected. The excuse of Lot for wanting to stay in Sodom and Gomorrah was rejected. The excuse of Moses for not wanting to talk to Pharaoh was rejected. The excuse of Aaron for making the golden calf was not accepted by God. The excuse of the ten spies for not wanting to go into the Promised Land was rejected. The excuse given by the Israelites for wanting a king for themselves was rejected. The excuse of Saul for assuming the post of a priest was rejected; also his excuse for saving the enemies of God, the Amalekites that were to be destroyed, was rejected. The excuses of Elijah, a fire man of God for running away after Jezebel had threatened him with death was rejected.

The excuse of the unfaithful servant who hid the one talent he was given was not accepted by his Master. Jeremiah told God that he was a small boy when God called him, but God said: “Shut up. Do not repeat what you have just said. I chose you from your mother’s womb.” All his excuses were rejected. So, no one should have any excuse for being a useless vessel before God.  I have gone this far to let you know that God hates excuses. Those who have excuses for not being what God wants them to be are causing trouble for themselves for all their excuses will be rejected.

I ask you a question now: “What kind of vessel are you? Your answer will determine whether you will be picking up thorns or flowers from life. It is said that the same sun that hardens the clay melts the candle. Both clay and candle are materials but they happen to be of different textures. One can withstand the sun while the other cannot. What kind of vessel are you? You will not say I want to cook soup and then say the best material to use is a wine glass. It will crack because it is not the correct vessel to use. Examine yourself. What type of vessel are you?

When enemies fire arrows at you and such arrows prosper, it shows the type of material you are made of. There is no excuse for a Christian to be weak these days. There is no excuse for not moving the way God wants you to move. The Bible says that there are some vessels of honour and others of dishonour. There are some people who are spiritual conductors. They are signboards leading people to heaven, but they  are not prepared to enter. Some even block the way for others to enter. They are just like the bus conductor who never allocates a seat to himself. Do not be an unprofitable usher, an unprofitable vessel or a vessel unto dishonour. Unprofitability and dishonour attract evil.

You will now take these two prayer points:

1. Oh Lord, I do not want to be a vessel unto dishonour, make me a vessel of honour, in the name of Jesus.

2. Oh Lord, let all dirtiness be drained out of the vessel of my life, in Jesus’ name.

Every situation in life, no matter how horrible it may be, can be rectified by the touch of Jesus. A man’s life will remain empty until he has had an unforgettable encounter with Jesus. Nothing works except Jesus Christ is in it. If people say someone is prospering because he has money that does not necessarily mean he is getting on. Except he is prospering in God, he is not really getting on. He may be making progress by human assessment, but so long as Jesus is absent in his so-called progress, everything really is zero.

Many people are like that clever soldier who did not want to stay in the army anymore and therefore device a trick. He pretended to be mad and began to salivate and to drag his feet on the floor. When an order was given to the soldiers to stand at attention, he would bend down. His main desire was to be discharged. Everyday, when they showed him a paper, he would say, “No. This is not it.” Eventually a decision was taken to discharge him from the army. He was then given his discharge certificate. He read only the first page and yelled, “Yes. This is it.” His madness cleared away at once. But as he was matching away, congratulating himself for being smart, someone drew his attention to what was written on the other page of the letter. Turning to that page, he found that directives were given that he should be taken to the prison yard. Most people who were like that soldier never wanted to settle down and sort themselves out. They want something to fall down from the sky and sort them out. It is not so. God needs your cooperation. You cannot fight it out with the devil by your own strength or by your own brain. Look at the methods people have been using to sort out their problems. Undiscerning men and women patronize herbalists thereby complicating their problems and postponing their evil days.

A sister went somewhere to seek for help. The consultation fee was N30, 000 and she managed to cough it out. As directed, she wrote her name on a piece of paper and handed it over to the herbalist who set the paper on fire. She was told that after the paper got burnt, she would see her spirit from whom she would enquire why she was having those problems. She was then taken to another room decorated with glass and she could see herself in the glasses in several places at the same time. Soon she saw an image, which looked like a lady, but the voice sounded like that of a man. When she pointed out that that was not her voice she was told that it was the voice of her spirit. She agreed with their explanations but in the end, nothing happened. In effect, the N 30,000 collected from her achieved nothing. “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it,” the Bible says.

Perhaps you have been trying on your own strength, you have been struggling, you have been wasting time. It is time for you to submit your vessel, then you can be a vessel unto honour.   

There are seven things that can come under the category of thorns of life and depending on the vessel you are, you can pick them up.

1. Sin. The Bible says in Matthew 1:21 that the Son of God was born to save men from their sins.

2. Sicknesses: The Bible says that Christ was wounded for our transgression and bore our infirmities on the cross.

3. Demonic oppression. 

4. Unfriendly friends: They are all over the place and one can pick them up.

5. Bad habits: They can stick to one and land one in hell fire.

6. Lack of spiritual power: This can easily be picked up in the environment.

7. Spirit of failure.

A certain man fell into a pit and could not get out. But right at the mouth of the pit he received about 12 visitors. The first person to come and see him was Brother Sympathizer. He said, “You are inside the pit. I feel sorry for you,” and walked away. After a few minutes, Brother Logic came around and said: “Oh, you are inside there. It is logical that someone should fall inside there, because of the location. They should have put it elsewhere or a piece of wire should have been put round the top.” He then went away. Shortly after, Sister Holiness came. She said: “What are you doing in this hole? Only bad people and sinners fall into such a hole.” She then went away.

After a while Brother Mathematician came. He began to calculate how the man fell into the pit. He calculated the circumference and the depth, yet the man remained in the pit. Eventually Sister Historian turned up. She explained that it was in 1965 that the hole was dug. She then told the history of how many people had fallen into it. She left and the man was still there. Then a newspaper reporter came and wanted to interview the man on how he got into the pit. He wanted an exclusive story on the incident. Then he left. Brother Self-Pity came and urged the man to take courage. He said his own pit was a lot deeper than where the man was. “You have not seen anything yet,” he said and left.

After a while a Pentecostal preacher came. He said, “Brother, why are you inside that pit. Now, begin to confess that you are out of that pit.” He too departed. Then something happened. The Lord Jesus Christ came to the spot and did not waste time blowing grammar. He just took the man’s hand and dragged him out of the pit. Beloved, Christianity is not theoretical. It is practical. We have a policy in the Mountain of Fire and Miracles. It is as simple as a Yoruba adage that says: “If a man sees a snake and a woman succeeds in killing it, the important thing is that the snake has not escaped.” Beloved, only Jesus can withdraw the thorns of life and replace them with flowers. One big problem, however, is that many of us do not listen to God before we get into problems. Suppose you asked God’s opinion before you invested in certain projects or contracts you would have avoided a lot of troubles. God could have told you, “No, do not dare because the result will be unpleasant.” May be you want to go on a journey and the Spirit of God says, “Do not go this way but go that way,” whatever would go wrong on the road would not affect you.

There are two groups of Christians who listen to God: The weak listeners and the aggressive listeners. Who are the weak listeners? The ones who do not clear their decisions with God before they act. Weak listeners will come to church, but will not give a second thought to what God is saying. They just hear but the message does not register neither do they understand it.

God wants all of us to be aggressive listeners, who come to church with their Bibles opened and their pens ready. During Bible studies, such people have their hearts and ears fully open. They  are very inquisitive and are always probing, searching, comparing what they hear to what they already knew. Such people are constantly thinking of how they can apply the Scriptures to their lives. They ask themselves: “What I read this morning, what does it mean?” They are like the Berean Christians. When we fail to find a way of hearing from God and we are aggressive about it, God will use different methods to get our attention. Some of the things we call problems are not problems as such. They are God’s ways of gaining our attention.

If you have been rushing too much and God wants to slow you down, He may use some of the following methods:

1. He could make you restless. You would just notice that you cannot rest. You do not know why. You do not feel easy inside. If this happens the best thing to do is to stop and listen to God. But if again you do not listen, He will apply another method.

2.  He could use unusual vessels, for example, unbelievers. I remember a brother who, before he got born again used to drink a lot of palm wine. After he got born again, he reduced the quantity but did not stop altogether. He looked for Bible passages to support his action. You can always support anything with the Bible, if you choose to. But then, the Bible says that some do this to their own destruction. One day, this brother was drinking and a believer who passed by said, “Brother, you are the one preaching to us about this type of thing. What are you doing with palm wine?” He said it was because it contained yeast and he understood that for clear eyes one might drink palm wine, particularly that with sediments.

Unbelievers sometimes point out to us the wrong we are doing. Some may say that they  pick on us because we are believers. But it is good to listen to criticisms, particularly from those you regard as your enemies. Sometimes they are right. God can use them to gain your attention. Any other vessel can be used just as God used Balaam’s horse to get his attention when he refused to listen.

3. God could use a word from others, even other Christians, to get our attention. Like Nathan the prophet went to David and said: “You are the man who did this,” and David had to adjust himself. Sometimes God does so through unusual blessings. So, when you receive a breakthrough, when you are thanking Him, sit down and find out what next He wants you to do.

Another way He gains our attention is through unanswered prayers. Sometimes all our prayers are answered. But when a particular need arises and heavens are like brass, then God gets our attention. Silence from heaven often signifies that we should conduct self-examination.

Sometimes God uses disappointment to cause us to listen to Him. At times, when we have what we call great disappointment, God wants to use it to have our attention if we cannot be reached in any other way. He can also use unusual circumstances like in the case of Moses in the burning bush. He had never seen this type of thing before, so he drew nearer to have a closer look at it and God spoke to him. Another method God can use is through failure. Sometimes God can be responsible for our failures. The Israelites had just defeated Jericho, but  they could not overrun one small town called Ai. When they failed woefully, Joshua sought the face of the Lord. Then he knew that there was sin in the camp. When we ruin God’s purpose for blessing us, failure will come so that He can gain our attention again.

He can also use financial crisis to get somebody’s attention. God sometimes dries the finances of somebody so that he can listen. I know a man when he had a bus; he was cleaning benches in the church. After God blessed him and he had five cars, he started coming late to church. When asked why he was coming late, he said his driver was reporting late so he could not leave home early. When he was travelling by bus, he was always one of those arriving early. God started withdrawing the cars one after the other until He gained the man’s attention back.

God can use tragedy to get a person’s attention. Just as He did to the Israelites in the jungle when He sent serpents to bite them. Then they sat down and listened to Him. God can use sicknesses and affliction to get attention. He does not use the same method for everyone. Do not wait for Him to use any of His methods to reach you. Instead, pray and purify the vessel of your life.

Now lay your right hand on your head and take the following prayer points:

 

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   O Lord, any area in which the vessel of my life is weak or it is not strong enough to receive the kind of blessing You want to pour on it, help me, in the name of Jesus.

2.   O Lord, in which ever way the vessel of my life is not strong enough to accept the blessing You want to pour on it, help me, in the name of Jesus.

3.   Satanic poison go, in Jesus’ name.”

4.   I break every curse that may be affecting my head, in the name of Jesus.

5.   Open my ears so that I may be hearing from You clearly, in Jesus’ name.

6.   Place your hands on your eyes and say: Spir0itual blindness go, in the name of Jesus.

7.   All you enemies of my breakthrough, be disgraced this week, in the name of Jesus.

8.   I refuse to pick up thorns from life, in Jesus’ name.

9. I shall laugh last over my enemies, in the name of Jesus. (Repeat this seven times)

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I am getting out

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

   Beloved, our message this week   is entitled, “I am getting out.”  Please bear in mind that being a Christian does not give you an automatic victory but doorway to the victory that has been won for you by Christ. This victory comes when you identify your position in God and you use all the equipment available to you to chase the enemy out of your territory. Spiritual warfare is tough but the weapons that God provides for His children are tougher. The truth is that many people will continue to have problem until they are determined to get out of their bondage and declare like Esther; “If I perish I perish.” Then the devil will know that there is problem and the challengers will know that you mean business. Do not prefer to remain in bondage to any sickness, or any unfavorable situation. Declare now that you are getting out of it.

    Before we dig deeper into the words of God, let us pray: Father, in the name of Jesus, by your divine power, open our understanding as we go into this message and let the chariot of every stubborn pursuer drown in the Red Sea. Thank you Father, in Jesus’ name. Our first Scripture reference is taken from Exodus 15:2-10: “The Lord is my strength and song and he has become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an inhabitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name. Pharaoh’s chariot and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea. The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue I will over take, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them;  I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.” And so shall your enemy sink in the mighty waters, in the name of Jesus. You may view this prayer point as aggressive which is in order, but the devil your arch enemy is aggressive himself and unkind. Or how does one explain the issue of six out of seven children in a family going insane and the only one that is not mad is using all his money to look after those who are mad.

    Verses 11-15: “Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee,  glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. The people shall hear and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall rake hold upon then: all inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.” Your enemy shall be amazed, trembling shall take hold of them and they shall be melted away, in the name of Jesus. Verses 16-19: “Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O Lord, till thy people pass over, which thou hast purchased. Thou shall bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary. O Lord, which thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.” This is what the Bible calls the song of Moses. It is the song of victory.

     One of the most interesting verses in the Bible is what we find in Revelation 12:12: “Therefore rejoice, ye heavens and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”

   If somebody is going to school and he is almost late, he would hurry up because he knows that the bell would be rung any moment. He would run with all his energy because he would not want to be late. So he becomes desperate. What the Bible is telling us is that the devil at present, is very desperate and many Christians are not helping matters at all. Such Christians tell us not to bother about the devil. They claim that if you don’t bother about him, he will leave you alone. This is a strange teaching. I told a sister to pray the following prayer point: “I bind every power of the oppressor in my life, in Jesus’ name.” She said, “No. The devil is already under my feet.” I said, “Yes, I know. But if he is under your feet, how come you are born-again, speak in tongues and you are still eating in your dream and masquerades are still running after you, yet you say devil is under your feet?” That means that you could have a weapon and not use it. For example, if you buy a washing machine, you will find an enclosed manual to educate you about its mode of operation. It will not do you any good if you study everything written in the manual and never switch on the machine. Your clothes will remain dirty even though you have a washing machine. Many people are like that. They read the Bible, they know about sanctification, salvation, justification, redemption, baptism of the Holy Spirit, etc. They know what the Bible says about everything but they don’t apply it. So, the Bible is meaningless to them. Therefore, to ignore the devil is like underrating him, and refusing to carry our actions that will overcome him, or what will give you your much needed victory over him. We must not glorify the devil. At the same time, we must not underrate him. So, he must be dealt with.

    The fact is that the devil has convinced some people that he must be left alone and that is a  clear indication that he has already captured them. The Bible says the devil has come down to the earth in great anger and who is he going to vent his anger on? Christians. Why?  He is going to do that on the Christians because they are the only people whom the Lord has given the following promise as found in Luke 10:19: “Behold, I give unto you, power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon every power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” God did not give that promise to herbalists or to the children of the devil but to Christians.

      In these last days,  the devil has therefore bombarded the world with seven powerful spirits which are:

1. The spirit of confusion: There is confusion in all nations of the world including the developed ones. There is confusion too in the hearts of many Christians. Some people do not know where and when the Lord wants to use them. Many believers are lost in churches. Some people that God should have been useful in their churches to perform His wonders are busy doing menial assignments while the people they are supposed to be teaching are their pastors. You may say it is the fault of the devil and his evil spirits. But the devil cannot operate in a life except there is one form of darkness or the other. When the earth was without form and void, the first prayer that God prayed was: “Let there be light. When there is light, it is then you can see that there is disorganization, which you can then re-organize. Confusion occurs where there is darkness.

    Light in itself has various levels. The candlelight for example is light. But you cannot light a candle in a stadium at night, and expect anyone to play any football match with it. Yet it is a form of light. We also have the electric light and there are different types and sizes of bulbs for electric light.  Insufficient light will give the devil an opportunity to operate in people’s lives.

2. The spirit of fear: A lot of people are becoming senior students in the school of fear. Many people too have fear in all departments of their lives. Immediately you allow fear to take over your life, worry sets in. Fear rules many people’s lives.

3. The spirit of frustration: Many men and women, including the educated are frustrated. They are frustrated with almost everything. A woman who has a masters degree from a University in England got frustrated with her marriage. She went to a prophet who gave two options in order to solve her problems. He asked her to carry a small goat on her back and walk to the market place or carry a pot of sacrifice to a certain place, naked at 1a.m. She reasoned within herself that if she carried a goat on her back into the market place in the afternoon, people would think she had gone mad. So, she opted to go naked with the sacrifice at night. The day she carried the sacrifice, she had her hair well shampooed. The well-kept hair was shining but there was a black pot on it. This is the spirit of frustration. The following month, she was in the court seeking divorce. The pot of sacrifice did not work. Frustration is a spirit whose purpose is to discourage and to defeat people. It has deprived so many people of God’s will for their lives. It has killed so many people. Some people get so frustrated that they seek to take their own lives and the devil would be rejoicing.

4. The spirit of promiscuity: The spirit of promiscuity is all over the place now. A lot of men and women are so promiscuous that anywhere and at anytime, the devil can convince them to commit immorality. The devil is so happy that many people are like that. The spirit of fornication has nothing to do with beauty or ugliness. A man who has the spirit of fornication can sleep with the ugliest mad woman under the bridge and the woman with that kind of spirit does not want to know whether the man is 100 years old and she is 12 years old. This is a demon and the devil is bombarding the world with it.

5. The spirit of backsliding: A lot of Christians that were on fire for God are now cooling down.  Haven’t you noticed the  rate at which people’s prayer lives are going down? You must know that once the devil wants to finish a person, the first thing he attacks is the person’s prayer life? You can do all kinds of things and the devil will be watching you but immediately you get serious with your life, he becomes furious. He can steal your prayer life and once that is done, all other things collapse. He is after people’s prayer life because he cannot pray. He can read the Bible and preach the gospel but he cannot pray. So since he cannot pray, and he knows that you can pray and the prayer can defeat him, he will not allow you to pray. He does not mind to bring about some situations that can make you unhappy and heavy so that you cannot pray. Prayerlessness is the beginning of backsliding.

6. Seductive spirit: Many people are being deceived and they do not know what they are doing. I told a lady ten years ago that she needed deliverance.  She said, “Our pastor says that if  anyone be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new, so I don’t need deliverance.” Now she is over 42 years old and she is still single. Recently, she came and said she wanted deliverance and she started. Meanwhile, one pastor had put her life on the shelf for 10 years.

     Many people are yet to realise that American demons and British demons are different from Nigerian demons. This is why most foreign books on demons brought to Nigeria are irrelevant to us. And the Christian disco too that many are dancing today does not cast out any demon. People dance to them while their problems are still increasing. When some people come to our meetings, they leave their bondage in the car, only to pick them up again when they get back inside again. This bondage is in form of colour eye pencils, lipsticks, attachments, jewellery, etc. And all the blessings they have got, they give back to their chains and their beads. They come back to the next meeting, take another round of blessings and submit them again. They keep wondering what is  wrong. This is the work of seductive spirits. You must understand this clearly. You must be able to relate your Christianity to your environment.

    Seductive spirits are  all over the place now. How do you explain a situation where a pastor tells a person to go and borrow money from the bank and come and pay an offering to the church from the loan that the person should exercise faith. When the Bible says, “Owe no man anything.” The person now says, “Well, that is my breakthrough,” only to come back crying to the pastor that the money is gone. It is the work of seductive spirits.

7. Spirit of rebellion: Nowadays, we find that many children do not listen to their parents. The demon of rebellion, perhaps, has boxed you into a corner. We thank God for giving us the strategy of offensive warfare to fight them. There are two kinds of  battles one can fight: defensive warfare or offensive warfare. Defensive warfare is when you just read your Psalms 23, make the sign of the cross, and say, “I cover myself with the blood of Jesus, and put myself in the envelope of fire. Amen.” And you go to bed. But somebody who says, “I command the fire of the Holy Spirit to begin to circulate around my house, and any witch that wants to pass through this place should receive spiritual calamities, in the name of Jesus.” That person is taking the offensive. He is fighting. Any army that does not do offensive prayer cannot succeed. When you do not have the power to win, that is when you start with defensive prayer. But if you have the power to attack, then you should go to the offensive because that would make the enemy of your soul to be weak and thereby surrender. So, beloved, you must gather your forces against the enemies. You must wear your whole armour. You must load  your weapon, and fire. You may say, “Where is the gun?” But you are the gun and well targeted prayers uttered in faith are the bullets. The Spirit of God takes the bullets to the target.  The man who killed Ahab in the Bible did not just fire the arrow without direction. His prayer took it to the right target. The Holy Spirit directed the stone that killed Goliath to the right place and then things began to happen.

    Jesus is power personified. Power on earth and in heaven has been given unto Him. So, no power has fought against the gospel and progressed. Those who fought against Christians and the gospel died miserable deaths                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         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the gospel they fought against is still alive and well. There was a French man called Voltaire. He boasted that he would devote all his energy to destroying every Bible in town. He died in the process and after his death, a Christian press bought his house and they started printing Bible there. Adolf Hitler hated Christianity so much that some Christians were calling him the anti-Christ. He is dead now but his former headquarters in Berlin has become a Christian centre. Adolf Hitler had a lieutenant who said Christianity was poison and warned his wife never to allow his children partake of it. The man had nine children, seven of them became Christians, while one of them even became a missionary. 

     The devil may be controlling many but the Bible says, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. For all things in heaven and on earth were created by Him.” We thank God for He is still the same yesterday, today and forever. There is a sister in this fellowship. One night as she was about finishing her prayers, a Yoruba demon called “sigidi,” holding a club came to her. The sister asked, “Who do you want? And the demon idol mentioned all her five names, and said, “I have been sent to you.”  The sister asked, “Why?” And the demon replied, “To kill you.” The sister then said, “I command you, in the name of Jesus to stand at attention like a policeman.” The demon stood at attention. She went further and asked, “What is that in your hand?” The demon replied, “A club,”  and the sister said, “Ok, begin to use it against yourself.” The demon started hitting itself with the club. After sometime, the sister then said, “Get out.” By 6 a.m. the next morning, someone was knocking at her door. It was the person who came to deliver a message to her that her father had just  died. She went home to see him. By the time she got there, she saw big holes on the head of the father. She asked if he was attacked by armed robbers and the relatives around said no, that he just went to bed, and suddenly they heard him scream and before they got to him, they found out that his  skull had been broken with blood all over his head. The woman said, “Please,  don’t invite me to his burial.” They said, “But you are the first born.” She asked them to shut up and walked away.

      When you know that your God has all the power on earth, your fears will disappear, and your problem will be solved. Perplexities will be removed, trials will become triumph and  temptations will then become testimonies because for them to challenge you, they will have to first challenge that your God. God says that all power in heaven and on earth belong to Him. This is why I love that old beautiful hymn which  says, “Bruised is the serpent’s head, hell is vanquished, death is dead.” That was what happened on the cross. It goes further to say, “Captive is now captivity.” I don’t know what kind of challenges you are facing but I know one thing, whatever is challenging you, is challenging the One behind you. Just turn them over to the Lord and you will witness deliverance and miracles.

      Many Christians stay too long in the past, not forgetting about those things that are behind and looking forward. Nobody can successfully walk straight while looking back. A 35 year old sister told me that her father raped her when she was ten years old. I counselled her to get out of it for she cannot ruin the whole of her life because of what happened to her 25 years ago. One American man said, “Give me liberty or give me death.” So, you have to make the same decision to get out of  bondage. Pray this prayer point: “I refuse to stay in the waste bin of life, in the name of Jesus.” Take the fight and turn it over to the Lord. We would not be reading about David in the Bible if not for the fact that he challenged one man called Goliath. He defeated Goliath because he came against Goliath in the name of the Lord of hosts. He just turned him over to the Lord.

      In a church I attended a long time ago, a woman had a child that was always sick. Every month she visited the hospital at least twice and her business was going down because she spent all her money on the sickness. Then one day, she got fed up and took the child by the hand, raised him up and said, “If you want to die, die. I am not taking you to the hospital again, in the mighty name of Jesus.” And she put the child down. Since that day, the child did not have a single fever.

     The devil has organized and designed many people’s lives in a wicked way. During breakfast, they drink uncooked egg, or eat some onion. Lunch, Egusi soup or nothing else. If any other thing is taken, there would be problem. For dinner, it is either pounded yam or something that is white in colour. If they try any other colour like Amala, they are dead. In some homes, when cooking is going on in the kitchen, you will hear people saying, “Ah, daddy does not eat crayfish, don’t add it. Daddy does not eat beans. He cannot eat carrot, he does not eat liver, etc.” If you are like that, decide today that you are getting out.

      The devil has suffocated the spiritual lives of so many people. Doctors and herbalists have told some people not to eat certain things. The One who declared that all power has been given unto Him is saying to you that no matter the situation or what the doctors have said or what the lawyers say about your case, He will fight from heaven for you with heavenly weapons that cannot be destroyed. At His name, we shall have our peace.

     For how long will you waste time crying, “Oh I have lost that job again,” my husband just abandoned me, a strange woman grabbed him.” How long are you going to be crying? God is watching all those enemies and all those problems pursuing you. He knows where and how they started. He knows all the participants, He knows how far they have gone with your case. God is now puncturing their tyres and frustrating their efforts. Pray this prayer point aggressively: “I command the tyres of my pursuer to be punctured, in the name of Jesus.”

       There used to be one magician called De Lawrence. He told his followers to bury him alive and that he would resurrect like Jesus on the third day and they did. His magic was so powerful that anything he said happened. He was an expert at editing the seven books of Moses. (Moses never wrote any six or seven books. So, if you are reading them, know that they have no bearing with the kingdom of God, you are only polishing your coffin. The earlier you set them on fire and burn them, the better for you.) While it was getting close to the third day, the ground began to shake and it was as if the man wanted to come out,  but suddenly, thunder from God came, blasted him back to where he was coming from and that was his end. Why? Jesus says, “All powers belong to me.” God will not give any other being power that is equal to the power of Christ. Jesus our Lord is in heaven and I am sure that my Joseph is no more in Egypt. Intellectuals may fail, academics may stumble, as they are busy doing now. Philosophers may make mistakes but God’s word will not fail. God will never make a mistake. This is why you must not lose your contract with Jesus and if you don’t have the contract get it now. Your contract with Jesus is your salvation. Salvation is the only commodity in life which has no substitute.

    Beloved, there are many laws that have been written down through the ages: Natural law, scientific law, economic law, etc. But there is however a divine law, to which we are pointing the attention of our enemies. When a weaker power meets with a stronger power, the weaker power vanishes. Perhaps you have not yet surrendered your life unto Jesus. You are not born again. You cannot fire any successful arrow at the enemy. Instead, the  enemy will be stronger against you. But if you want to succeed in your journey of life, the first step is to get born again and surrender your life to Jesus. I am not talking about being confirmed or baptised with water. Are you born again? Have you publicly surrendered unto Jesus? If you have not done so, you have to do so now.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. I am getting out of all negative circumstances, in the name of Jesus.

2. Every power working against my advancement, receive the arrow of fire, in the name of Jesus.

3. Every power working against the peace of my life, receive the arrow of fire, in Jesus’ name.

4. You strongman attached to my family, receive the arrow of fire, in the name of Jesus.

5. Every household wickedness, receive the arrow of fire, in the name of Jesus.

6. Every spirit of financial failure, receive the arrow of fire, in the name of Jesus.

7. (Put one hand on your chest and the other one on the stomach). Lord, touch my system with your fire, in the name of Jesus.

8. (Retain your hands on your chest and your stomach) Lord Jesus, touch the foundation of my life with your fire, in the name of Jesus.

9. I clear away the hidden places of the enemy in my life, in the name of Jesus.

10. Let my breakthrough manifest powerfully this year, in the name of Jesus.

11.  Any power hindering my breakthrough this year, receive the arrow of fire, in the name of Jesus.

12.  All good ways that have been closed in my life, open, in the name of Jesus.

13. As you mention one situation, shout: receive the arrow of fire, in the name of Jesus, three times:

            - Every anti-progress spirit.

            - All the powers revealing my secrets to the enemy.

            - Every evil friend that has been sent into my                        business.

            - Every unprofitable attachment to my prayer life.

            - Every power blocking the anointing of God in my                        - life.

            - Every serpentine spirit.

            - All satanic attackers in the dream.

            - Every spirit of demotion. 

14. I send every bondage back to the sender, in Jesus' name.

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Abraham’s Children in trouble 2

Dr D. K. Olukoya

 

Beloved, this week, we are looking at the concluding part of the message entitled, “Abraham’s children in trouble.” Last week, we looked at various reasons a person could be a child of God and yet be in trouble and why Abraham’s children sometimes suffer. The reasons we saw were living in sin, ignorance and breaking the laws of faith. We started looking at the laws of faith so that we could know when we were breaking them. We stopped at law number 15.

In this edition we are starting with law number 16.

16. Faith does not work for those who want to operate with other people’s timetable: Your faith cannot work when you are comparing yourself with others, because what you are basing your faith on is not the plan of God for you. We have to be very careful about this. In Psalm 73, we see a man that wanted to make a comparison and found out that he was making a great mistake.

17. Faith is never envious of other people: If somebody is doing very well, you don’t have to envy him. Rather you have to support him in prayers. The more you do that, the more God will bless you. The spirit of envy is from the pit of hell fire and it destroys very quickly. Also, when you take advice from envious people, you get into trouble. A sister had problem with her husband and went to a friend of hers for counsel. The friend told her that she must not take nonsense from her husband. She advised: “If the man talks nonsense you give it back to him raw.” And the sister said, “If I do that, there will be quarrel.” Her friend replied, “Ah! That is the only way you can deliver yourself from somebody that wants to be controlling you any how.” Sadly, the person giving this counsel to this sister was practically a slave to her own husband. She would not say one word when her husband began to talk and here she was, counseling somebody else to be rebellious to her husband because she was envious of that woman. The funny sister actually took the advice and trouble started in her home. When she ran to this counsellor one night to tell her that she had been thrown out, she said, “I am sorry, I don’t want my husband to meet you here, it will cause trouble. Take your things and go.” The shocked sister shot back: “But you are the one that advised me.” The evil counselor countered; “Anybody can advise anybody. Sometimes, it works and at other times it does not. So, it is not my fault.”

18. Faith focuses on God alone: It does not start looking for alternatives but God alone.  The moment Peter removed his eyes from Jesus, he began to sink; another law took over him, the law of doubt. So faith focuses on God alone and it does not look for alternatives. This is the blind Bartimeaus kind of faith. He cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me,” and he was not ready to stop until Jesus showed up.

19.  Faith rejoices in the Lord always:  No matter what the situation is, faith rejoices in the Lord always. Sometimes what a person sees as a setback could be a divinely appointed staircase to climb into a higher realm. But if you look at it as a setback and get depressed, faith jumps out.

20. Faith is buried by worry and anxiety: When you are worried and anxious it will seem as if you had never prayed. Worry and anxiety nullify prayers. A white man friend of mine would always say, “Why pray, when you can worry?” He used to say so because praying and worrying do not go together. If you worry don’t bother to pray or you drop the worry and pray.

21. Faith knows no impossibility: Somebody who moves by faith must not work by sight. If you must move by sight you will never praise God.

22. Faith must start in the heart:  Romans 10:8-10: “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” Faith must start in the heart and not in the head.”

23. Faith must be expressed by words and actions: Once you believe God; begin to confess that what you are asking from Him is so. Once you believe God, begin to act on it.

Once a person breaks the law of faith, even if he is a child of Abraham, he will suffer. So the first reason Abraham’s children suffer is because of sin.

The second reason is ignorance; the third is breaking the laws of faith.  The fourth reason is being caged by past memories. There are many people who are bound by their past bad memories.  A person who is 42 years old and has given his life to Jesus may still be haunted by what he did or what happened to him 21 years ago. Whenever something bad happened to him he would trace it to that incident that happened 21 years ago. And the person keeps asking God for forgiveness for the same thing all the time even after God had forgiven him. If you are in this kind of situation you must decide to get out of it. You must not allow any bad past ignorant memories to ruin your present life. Some people who probably were the ones that first introduced their younger sisters to sex and now found out that, that younger sister is living a worldly life, have these memories tormenting them. Some did abortion a long time ago, and when they gave their lives to Christ they confessed and God has forgiven them. Yet they are still harassed by what we call the spirit of abortion because they have not forgiven them selves. The spirit of abortion, which generally leads to frustration and backwardness will harass anybody that has ever done any form of abortion before. Until you go for deliverance, and clear yourself from that spirit, frustration will trail you like a police detective. Once you have done deliverance and cut it off, you have to put the past where it belongs.

Sometime ago, a man who came to see me told me that somebody who was a member of a Pentecostal church offended him that is why he does not like Pentecostal churches and their members, I said, “Okay, where is the person?” He said he died fifteen years ago. “So what do you want us to do now? Do you want us to bring him up from the grave so that he can apologise to you?” He said no. He was being limited by past memories. We have cases of fathers who have slept with their own daughters, men and women who were unfaithful to their partners and people who have experienced serious tragedies and the enemy makes these memories to linger on so that these people continue to live in bondage. If you live in the past, you miss out of the blessings of Abraham. Some people even try to remove imaginary demons out of themselves instead of jumping out from the past.

There are some people, who each time they remember certain things that had happened in the past, their spirits go down and they suddenly even become sad if they were rejoicing before. If you are like that, you cannot have Abraham’s blessings. There are some people who are going about with heavy burden of things they cannot share with others in their spirits. Although they refuse to share them, they still stubbornly hang them in their memories. They have to get out of that or Abraham’s blessings would be difficult to get.

Many of us need to forgive ourselves since God has forgiven us and claim our liberty. 

I want you to lay your hand on your chest and pray like this:

“Lord Jesus, walk back into my past and erase every destructive memory, in the name of Jesus.”

The next reason Abraham’s children suffer, is that they permit the operation of satanic weapons against their lives. The devil has a lot of weapons in his armory that he uses against Christians day and night. These satanic weapons are:

i.  Continuous feeling of unworthiness.

ii.  Anxiety.

iii. Fear, which leads to lack of confidence. Many people have become like that servant in the Bible who because of fear of failure, fear of being compared to others and fear of taking risks buried his talent. He refused to do anything because he was under the bondage of fear.

iv. Doubt.

v.  Anger.

vi. Guilt.

Many have allowed the weapons of the enemy to prosper in their lives. You need to identify these things and loose yourself from them.  When some people come to God, they do not believe that their lot is improving. Some actually say that things are getting worse. All their dreams are negative because they lack faith and cannot see with their spiritual eyes.  We have a lot of wicked satanic agents surrounding us. The first problem is that, they themselves hate one another so they cannot love others. The law says, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” You have to love yourself before you can love others. So if you don’t hate yourself, you will not submit your life to the enemy. Jesus is here today to set people free.

The Bible says we should be as wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove. It also says, “I send you forth as sheep among wolves.” The Bible calls those we are living with wolves. Now, for a sheep to operate among wolves, certain things must enter the life of the sheep that will paralyze the wolves no matter how tough the wolves are. 

Let us consider the following activity of a knowing wolf: Two sisters who live in England heard about Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries and came. The first was 39 years old. Their problem was that no man had ever proposed marriage to them. I counseled them to go for deliverance and they asked, “What does that mean?” I explained, feeling sorry for them, because immediately I saw them I knew that their own father was in charge of their case. As they were about going out, I asked them where they were going. They said, “We bought some things for daddy and we want to go and give them to him.” I told them to go but they should not let him embrace them. They asked why I said so and I told them that if they allowed him to embrace them, their marriage would be postponed again. They could not understand that, so I simply urged them to do as I had told them. They went home and gave their daddy the present. Predictably, the man did not want to touch the present, he only wanted to embrace them and they said, “No, daddy, just take the present,” and the man declared, “You have been to that church.” They asked him: “How did you know that?” He answered, “Don’t worry, you are small girls.” They asked which church? And he described it. At that level, they started to shiver. They were now genuinely afraid and ran back to me and narrated their experience. Beloved, how can a man enter a covenant with powers of darkness to renew his own prosperity at the expense of his daughters’ goodness? We have such agents surrounding us. Therefore, it is the duty of Abraham’s children, though they look like sheep, to strike at them like thunder.

Somebody once wrote me a letter from here and said, “Dr. Olukoya, thank you very much for what God is doing here and what He is doing in your life.” He continued, “But I have a question The question is this: suppose somebody who is a believer, is being attacked by a witch and the believer came for deliverance and prayed fire prayers that every arrow of witchcraft in his life should go back to sender and the arrows went back to sender giving rise to problems and afflictions in the life of the witch. If the witch found out she was about to die, and quickly ran to Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries and submitted herself for deliverance while also prayerfully sending back the arrows to the sender. Would the arrows go back to the believer that originally sent it?  That was question number 1. Question 2: In all these back to sender issues, who carries the arrows? Is it angels or demons? He wanted to know the transport vessels that take arrows from one spot to the other. Question 3: Why do you people pray that every spirit working against their progress should fall down and die, can a spirit die?

Lets take it one after the other. When the person carrying the witchcraft spirit decides to repent, the arrow will not harm him and the evil spirit of the witchcraft, which can never repent leaves his body and enters another person who makes himself or herself available. When the person who repented of witchcraft, sends the arrows back, they will not go back to the believer but the arrows will gather themselves and go back to Mr. Devil who originally manufactured them. That is the original sender.

 

WHAT DOES FALL DOWN AND DIE MEAN?

We call death, separation from God. If somebody is eternally separated from God, he goes to the bottomless pit; the place where evil spirits don’t want to go. So when you say fall down and die, what you are saying is this: go to the bottomless pit and be locked up there forever. That is the meaning.

 

WHO CARRIES SATANIC ARROWS ABOUT?

Nobody has to carry them. They fly about by themselves. They don’t need wings because they can move by themselves. Angels don’t need to carry them.  In fact, what angels sometimes do is to deflect them from us. We are going to pray now, but if you are reading this message and you are not born again, you have not given your life to Jesus Christ, the first thing you have to do to enjoy God’s blessings is to give your life to Jesus. If you don’t do that, you cannot be called Abraham’s child let alone enjoy the benefits of Abraham. So, if you are not born again though you have been going to church, make the following confession: Father, in the name of Jesus, I surrender my life to you. I confess my sins and forsake them. I say bye-bye to the devil. Lord Jesus, come into my life and be my Lord and Saviour. I enter the kingdom of heaven. Thank you heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

I congratulate you. You have become Abraham’s child and you are entitled to his blessings. For Christ has redeemed us from thse curse of the law so that the blessings of Abraham can come upon us.  We have the right now to the blessings of Abraham which is spiritual prosperity, material prosperity and good health as well.

Pray these prayer points with holy aggression and holy madness and with the spirit of somebody that means business.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. Every satanic inspiration targeted against me, be paralyzed, in the name of Jesus.

2. (Place one hand on your head and the other one on your stomach very close to the belly button as you take the following prayer point. Please, if as you are praying this prayer point you begin to feel dizzy, please, sit down and continue with it. It is very important): Every seed of sorrow planted in my life, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

3. Please, still retain your hand on your head and the other one on your belly button: Any power that does not want to see me around, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

4. Every evil sun and evil moon, be disgraced, in the name of Jesus.

5.       Begin to thank God for what He has done.

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Abraham’s children in trouble Part 1

Dr. D. K. Olukoya 

 

Beloved, this week, we are looking at the first part of a message entitled, “Abraham’s children in trouble.” We shall be praying as we go on with the message.

   Luke 13:11: “And behold there was a woman which hath a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together; and could in no wise lift up herself.” This means that a sickness could be engineered by a spirit and in such a case; doctors are virtually helpless since their knowledge can only deal with the physical and not the spiritual. Applying a physical solution to a spiritual sickness will only worsen the situation, as the physical medication will only act as a fertilizer to strengthen the problem. This may also result in the victim acquiring a new demon that may make him become a drug addict. If you have any infirmity in your body, you have a wonderful opportunity to deal with it, for God does not design infirmity for His children, because He knows that they will not be able to serve Him with infirmity. Although having the spirit of infirmity will not disqualify one from getting to heaven, but it will ravage one’s body here on earth. You cannot do much for the Lord with a sick body. Infirmity may be ravaging your body whilst your spirit can make it to heaven. Therefore pray a prayer of command like these:

1. I cast out every spirit of infirmity, in the name of Jesus.

2. Every owner of infirmity, carry your load, in the name of Jesus.

   The woman in our text was tormented by the spirit of infirmity for 18 years. Close your eyes and pray the following prayer points:

1. Every longstanding infirmity, I destroy your feet by fire, in the name of Jesus.

2. I refuse to live with any sickness, in the name of Jesus.

   Doctors certainly have terminologies for all sicknesses, including the spiritual ones. Luke 13: 12: “And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, woman thou art loosed from thine infirmity.” Jesus could see the rope with which she was bound hence he loosed her from it. Verse 13 – 16: “And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?”

   Her adversaries were not bothered about her plight but were more concerned with the breaking of their law. They wanted people healed only from Monday to Friday but not on the Sabbath day. These were enemies right inside the church! I pray that those who are not happy with your progress shall be disgraced, in Jesus’ name. Beloved, the interesting thing here is that though that woman was a daughter of Abraham, she was in bondage by an invisible rope. By great faith in God, her spiritual father, Abraham, was made a source of blessings to the whole world and she, like many today, must have appropriated the blessings to herself. In spite of this she was still in bondage.

   Abraham did not have access to the reference and study Bibles as we have today. He had neither the computer Bible nor any example to follow, yet he exercised a high level of faith that even challenged God to make him a source of blessing to the whole world. This is why people the world over tend to appropriate the blessings of Abraham to themselves. But then, who are the children of Abraham?

 

THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM

   Galatians 3:6-16: “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” Verse 29: “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

   Those who are in the household of faith, who belong to Christ, are the children of Abraham. Therefore if you do not have the faith of Abraham you cannot claim to belong to Abraham. And if you are Abraham’s seed, you will behave like him. God intends all believers to become Abraham’s seeds and to inherit his blessings. The woman in our text belonged to Abraham but she was in bondage. The same thing is true for most believers today. Many Abraham’s children are bound. Their situation could be likened to the story of a gorilla that was put in a cage for years. The enemies of the beast visited it and threw stones at it. Its friends came as well to give it banana. It kept on living like this for long until a white man came forward to buy it. His offer was accepted and he brought it out of the cage and kept it in a good environment to enjoy liberty. But to the amazement of the white man, the gorilla could not appropriate its freedom because it was used to confinement in the cage. A lot of people are like this.

   A person under bondage cannot enjoy the blessings of Abraham. The Bible tells us that the blessings of Abraham extend to both our physical and material prosperities. If the spirit is sick, the sickness would affect the physical and this explains why the devil is first interested in ravaging the inside of a man.  Knowing full well that when the inside is polluted, every other thing you set your hands to do will equally be affected. The spiritual, physical and material matters are the three common areas in which a person can be under bondage.

   A person can be under the bondage of drug or debt: bondage is bondage. There is no small bondage. But when you operate in the faith of Abraham, people may tend to view you as being fanatical, they may feel you are intolerant of others. But when you begin to reap the blessings, they will begin to wonder how it happened. A man once told the story of a colleague at his place of work whom was a prayer addict. He said he always used his free period to pray while others were either at the canteen or doing something else. Then things started to happen: he was soon made a supervisor. Later on, he became a manager. Eventually, he resigned his appointment only to come with a big car to visit his former colleagues. He was still praying all the while? But people often call those who pray like this mad people. Those who operate in faith are called mad people because faith is not logic. Whoever comes to God with the expectation to receive from Him must first of all forget whatever knowledge he has. What faith attempts to do may sometimes be illogical, unreasonable and unscientific.

   While I was studying abroad, we used to have students’ Christian movement which met every Friday for fellowship. We used to invite men of God to come and preach to us. One day, a man was invited, though a white man his complexion showed he had been terribly affected by the scorching sun. When he started to minister he said: “Do you know that there is a particular witch that goes about every church in this city to rain curses.”  The white man sitting by my side exclaimed: “This is outrageous.” But I admitted within me that the man got the point, even though that was the first time I heard a white man mention the subject of witchcraft. He then asked us to pray a corporate prayer, which we were not used to praying. As the prayer began, confusion ensued. The lady that led the praise worship was the first person that was carried out. We could see that the man carried the touch of power. This man told us what happened in a rural area of India which was a very long distance to a hospital. A snake bit one man and in the midst of the perplexing situation a man surfaced from nowhere and issued a command that the snake’s poison should come out, in the name of the Lord. Instantly, the poison started to flow out. The man said even though he had been a Christian for long, he was greatly challenged by the faith of the Christian Indian.

   Abraham was asked by  God to sacrifice Isaac, his son, who was his dearest treasure and future hope. He did not argue with God for he knew that it was God who provided the son and  could  provide another Isaac by resurrection. It was the same Abraham who argued with God when He wanted to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. He did not even tell Sarah or Isaac himself or  his slaves about his adventure with God. This would have been termed sheer madness by his people. There is no such thing like bad news for a person moving in faith. Bad news poses a challenge to our faith and as we move forward in faith, we have the courage to challenge God with bigger problems that come our ways. Many people pray against cancer but have not succeeded in dealing with common headache. Many people are praying that God should remove every obstacle on their ways, but they forget that that would make them to be lazy and good for nothing soldiers to God.

   When I was in the junior school, I was always beaten up by the grown-ups. As I kept complaining, somebody encouraged me to try to fight back whenever they came to attack me. One day, one grown-up challenged me and I dipped my fingers into his eyes so that he could not see. Then I carried him and threw him on the ground and took to my heels. From that day he kept a distance from me. What did I do to deliver myself? I flexed my muscle and it worked. This underscores the saying that the best method of defence is to attack. God has not called His children to be harassed by the enemy.

   The question now is, why are the children of Abraham always in trouble?

1. Sin: Abraham’s children are wedded to sin. And since Mr. Sin is the husband whilst the sinner is the wife, an evil covenant is formed. Mr. Sin will continue to force the sinner to commit sin regularly. As long as the wedding is in place, trouble will continue to have a field day in the sinner’s life.

   Sometime ago, I went to preach somewhere and a boy of 16 was brought to me for prayers. His problem was that he was addicted to prostitutes. He had stolen about forty thousand naira of his mother to patronize prostitutes. He told me he was in a senior secondary school and that he was born again. But here was a born again Christian whose life had been damaged by the sin of immorality. He was so devastated that all his private parts were full of terrible sores. Nevertheless, he still maintained he could not stop going to prostitutes. This is an example of a life married to sin.

   At times when you give some people prayer points and tell them to keep away from anger if they want answers to the prayers, they will say they cannot guarantee that. It is because there is an evil marriage in place. If you remove the issue of sin from the Bible, there will be no Bible, and there would not have been the  need for the Saviour to come to the world to sacrifice Himself for mankind. You may attend a lot of Bible colleges, but if sin is not dealt with in your life, all the knowledge you might have required amounts to nothing. All your lecture topics would be mere theories. That is why the Bible says that people will shun sound teachings in the last days and would heap up for themselves teachers with itching ears.

2. Ignorance: The second reason Abraham’s children are in trouble is ignorance. Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” This is not referring to satanic people, but God’s own people. If Samson had known that the lap of Delilah would spell  doom for him, he would have fled. A person can be so stupid in ignorance that God may find it difficult to help him. I told a sister 13 years ago that she needed to go for deliverance ministration. She told me she did not believe in deliverance because her church was not preaching it. She said once you believed and you were born again, you were automatically delivered. To my surprise, she came calling after 13 years that she needed deliverance. For those 13 years, she was suffering because of ignorance.

    Another lady was staying with her husband in England. One day, she had a dream that a white lady came to strip her of her wedding gown and ring. When she related the story to her husband during breakfast the following morning, he dismissed it as a figment of her imagination and as such nothing was done about it. But before the week ran out, a white woman had already taken over her home while she found herself back in Nigeria! Why? Ignorance. If immediately she woke up from that dream, she prayed to reverse  the dream, what happened to her would have been averted. Even though she was born again, she did not know how to deal with the dream, hence there was nothing the Almighty could do in that situation. Even the Bible says that some people are bent on exhibiting wilful ignorance. I pray that God would have mercy on such people.

3. Breaking the laws of faith: This can also lead Abraham’s children into bondage. When you break the laws of faith, the promise of Abraham would not be fulfilled in your life. What does it mean to break the laws of faith?

i. Faith must be rooted in the word of God and not in your brain or what you think or feel or your personal opinion.

ii. Faith must be confessed with the mouth. The Bible says, "If any of you shall say unto the mountain, be thou removed and be cast into the sea and do not doubt in his heart, but believe that what he had said shall come to pass, it shall be so." In the beginning, before things began to happen, the Bible says, "God said, Let there be light." God spoke and things began to happen.

iii. Faith must be blind to opposing circumstances. That is, your circumstances may look hostile and unfavourable, but you should be blind to it.

iv. Faith must not be moved by sight. The Bible says, “We walk by faith and not by sight.” Once you allow what you are seeing to move you, faith jumps out of the window of your life.

v. Faith must continuously give praises to God. When a person is always full of praises and thanks to God, his faith will be on top. Do not say, “Why should I praise Him when He has not done anything for me.” A pastor once talked of a believer who was always grateful unto God by giving sacrificially unto God. This believer was operating a salt business. One day, a great flood flushed his large stock of salt away. When his pastor heard of this unfortunate incident, he was afraid to visit him because he could hardly find words of the Bible to console and encourage him. But as he summed up courage to visit him, he found to his amazement, the man and members of his family rejoicing. He said, “Pastor, don’t worry. God took away my stock of salt to make room for a larger one.” So, when the devil sees that people are always happy and rejoicing in a particular family, he runs away. But if he finds otherwise, he would pitch his tent with them.

vi. Faith does not make negative confessions. Someone who moves by faith will not be confessing evil to himself. He will not say, “Oh, this headache, or this asthma will kill me.” No. You must speak good things to your life and believe that all the problems are gone with Christ on the cross. One way most of us pull down this country is through our confessions. The other day, I was in a bank, I heard a woman saying, “Oh, this country is finished,” simply because the bank official complained of her signature being irregular. She forgot that we are still living in this country, whether we like it or not, and if it is good, we will enjoy it and if it is bad, it is to our disadvantage. Why do we have to destroy the country with our mouths?  Uttering words like “bastard,” “that your foolish dad will soon come,” “dunce,” “idiot,” etc, to your children, will make them behave exactly like that.

vii. Faith does not entertain wrong thoughts. Some people contemplate suicide as a means of escaping the troubles of this world. A brother told me of a Christian who committed suicide in Zimbabwe and people began to wonder how a Christian could take his own life. But Zimbabwe is one of the enclaves of white men whose peculiarity is to commit suicide. So they told the Nigerian brother that the victim had gone to heaven to enjoy the peace he could not find on earth. A person who prays fervently for an accident-free journey and then begins to think negatively of the journey, is not operating in faith.

viii. Hebrews 6:12: “That ye be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise.” According to this passage, faith must be married to patience . One of the greatest virtues that God gives to man is patience. Many people want to run faster than their legs can carry them. Some want to run 100 meters while they are still crawling. You need to be patient to allow God to sort out your life. You may say your application is being delayed. Well, it may be that God wants to remove somebody for you in that company or He may first of all want to close the mouth of the lions that are sent there by the enemy to attack you. When you plant maize, you don’t dig it up every morning to check how it is growing. If you do that, the maize will not grow. You need to exercise patience with it.

ix. Faith does not give up. If you are a child of Abraham, you will not give up. I have witnessed many impossible situations in my life, which the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had turned around. This is the God that Elijah called upon on Mount Carmel and He answered by fire.

x. Faith must be resistant to discouragement and fear. That is why you must not have fearful and discouraged friends, otherwise you have work to do. If your faith is subject to discouragement and fear, it is not the Abraham-type of faith but the faith of Thomas. Thomas said, “Except I move close to him, see the hole of the nails in his hands and thrust my finger through them, I will not believe.” And it was a shameful thing for him when he saw Jesus, for Jesus declared to him that blessed were those who did not see and yet believed. The faith of Thomas is synonymous to that of modern-day doctors and scientists who believe in observation and experiment.

xi. Faith must be released to operate. Perhaps an illustration will serve to explain this: A woman in the Bible decided within herself from home not to be distracted by the crowd. She said, “If I can touch the helm of His garment, I shall be made whole” She released her faith and received her needed miracle without “permission.” But Jesus knew what she did, because He was aware of the virtue that went out from Him.

xii. Faith is fed by the word of God, but starved by word of the devil. The devil is the best preacher. Therefore if you listen to him, the faith in you will be starved. He will say, “There you are, those who are to minister to you have left before you got there,” “Upon all your beauty, you are still waiting and praying to get married. For how long will you do that.” If you listen to him he will destroy you.

xiii. Faith never cries, grumbles or complains. You should not become a modern-day Jeremiah.

xiv. Faith forgets past failures. You don’t say because your prayer has not been answered, you will give up you faith. No.

xv. Faith is quenched by living in any known sin.

                                                                                            

 PRAYER POINTS.

1 Every enemy of Abraham’s blessings in my life, be bound, in Jesus’ name.

2. O Lord, magnetise angels of blessing to me, in the name of Jesus.

3.   Every spirit working against me in my household, be exposed and disgraced, in Jesus’ name.

 

Curses, covenants and professions

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

We shall begin our message of this week by briefly examining the meaning of these words- covenants and curses. A covenant is a strong agreement between two parties.  It is a contract with its terms clearly spelt out and the sanctions attached to its breach unambiguously stated at the outset. The Bible reinforces this posture in Psalms 89:34: “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” In Genesis chapter 2, God made a covenant with man, with obedience attached as the condition for its continued observance. In Genesis chapter 9, God made a covenant with Noah that there would not be another flood, and in Genesis chapter 12, God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants. And because our God is a covenant keeping God, that covenant is still in existence till today. In Genesis chapter 12 we see the covenant where God said, “Those who curse you, I will curse, those who bless you, I will bless.” Now, we have a new covenant, a spiritual covenant of God in Christ with His followers. The day you give your life to Jesus and become born again, you enter into a covenant with God in Christ, as stated in Hebrews 8:6- 7:“But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.”

A marriage is a covenant. Man can make covenant with evil spirits. The Bible tells us that some people even boast about their evil powers simply because they have made a covenant with the spirit of death. This can be seen in Isaiah 28:18: “And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.” A man once made a covenant with death. He was a messenger in an office, and whenever people were promoted in that office, he made sure that those of them who were not children of God were killed. As a result, people preferred not to be promoted. This was the situation until a brother who was a child of God was promoted. This messenger told him that he would die within seven days. The brother ensured that he prayed daily. On the seventh day, while he was asleep, he saw this messenger in a vision with a tall black man (an agent of death). He ordered the tall black man to kill the brother but the tall black man refused, saying that the man was a child of God. He told the messenger that if he failed to kill the brother, he would kill him. My prayer for you is that God will deliver you from every stubborn pursuer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Sometime ago, a “big” man came to me for counseling. He confessed that he went to bed with a strange woman he met at a party and when he went to ease himself at night, he found that the woman put her legs on the wall. He was scared for he had heard that witches behave like that. The demonic association left him with a strange deposit, which he lived with for years. Of course, hospitals became useless and he would have died in that state but for the mercy of God.

A covenant binds two parties together; hence one must be careful of what one says. Immediately God entered into a covenant with Abram, several things began to happen. God changed his name to Abraham and that of Sarai, his wife, to Sarah. Circumcision was the seal and God began to fulfill His part immediately. God did not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah until he told Abraham about it because of the existing covenant between them. It is amazing to know that God instructed Lot and his wife not to look back, but Abraham looked back and watched the ruins but did not become a pillar of salt. Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt; this was because of the covenant between him and God.  Abraham appealed to God in a way that would daze the present day believer. He bargained with God from 50 to 10 holy men and God listened to him because of the covenant. God could not forsake the Israelites even after their 430 years in bondage. He had to send Moses to take them out because of the covenant. A covenant can also be described as bondage. God put Himself into this absolute bondage with Abraham. So, as long as the terms of the covenant were kept, there was no problem. Battles were won by the Israelites with ease. Food and water were obtained freely but once disobedience was allowed to creep in, sufferings came fiercely upon them.

 

CURSES

What are curses? They are the direct opposite of blessings. Nobody wants to be cursed. People prefer blessings to curses. To curse is to say that mischief should come upon a person, a thing or a group of persons; it is to bind a person with a spell.  Curses are words put together to torment people with great calamity. They are vehicles of problem and have harassed and destroyed many lives. Curses have their own laws by which they operate. These are:

i.   Undeserved curse will not come unless one allows or tolerates it.  Proverbs 26:2 makes this clear; “As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.” A curse will not land on a person unless there is a landing place in ii.   A curse will continue to operate unless it is broken. The Bible says that a curse can pursue and overtake, that is, it will continue to operate unless it is broken.

iii.       A curse is a spiritual problem and can only be solved by a spiritual means.

iv. Where sin remains, curses remain. As long as someone continues in sin. The curses upon his life will continue to operate.

v.  Evil spirits enforce and prepare curses. Any curse that is issued has a demon attached to it. When you see anyone issuing a curse or chanting incantation, all he is doing is inviting demons.

vi. Christ has redeemed us from curses by substitution, that is, He made Himself a curse for us. We don’t need to carry any curse unless we are ignorant and we don’t know what to do.

vii.      Unjust curses will return to the sender. If you know what to do.

viii.     God curses anyone cursing, whom God has blessed.

ix. A curse cannot affect a child of God who is walking in obedience.

x.  A curse can be acquired unconsciously.

xi. Curses can only come from three sources; God, man and the devil.

A man can stand in place of God and issue curses, or can stand as a satanic agent and issue curses. The curse of God cannot be lifted from an unrighteous person until he repents and begins to obey God. Any minister trying to cancel the curses issued on an unrighteous person is wasting his time, and taking sides against God. Curses from God can only be dealt with on God’s terms and conditions. When a curse is removed, blessings should be pronounced in replacement. These are the spiritual laws of curses.

Now that we have briefly dealt with the meaning of covenants and curses, let us see how they affect some professions in our environment. There are demons and evil powers attached to each profession no matter what you call it. This is why we call the topic “Curses, covenants and professions.” There is something popular in our environment which we call “Freedom ceremony,” which in the real sense should be called “Bondage ceremony.” This ceremony is usually performed after a person has gone through a period of apprenticeship on a certain trade and wants to stand on his own.  He would be asked to bring kolanuts, a cock and other items. Members of his family and friends come and pray, kill the cock and share the kola nuts. What that ceremony does is to ensure that the person is not freed but only forms a new and fresh covenant with that profession, even though it is called freedom ceremony. If the master who taught you the trade is a thief, you form a covenant with him. If he is an adulterer, you form a covenant with him and begin to do like him. Unless you break it, the covenant stands. This is the strongest backbone of poverty in the black race.

In the book of Proverbs 11:1, God used a strong word there “abomination.” It says, “A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight. “The best way to do freedom ceremony is to sit down, pray and go back home.  God wants you to organize what you are doing along the line of righteousness. If the way you make your money or do your business is abomination to the Lord, you form a covenant with the spirit of false balance or the spirit of mammon. The intention of people to get rich through dishonest means is evidence that there is something within them, which has formed a league with the demon of mammon. 

There is wealth from above as well as from below. There are true riches and there are false riches. The Bible says that a man shall receive nothing except, he is given from above (John 3:27). If anybody takes anything from anywhere apart from above, he will vomit it. The Bible says it is the blessing of God that makes one rich without adding sorrow to it. You can have money that is not from God. If you do your business in a crooked way, you form a covenant with the spirits that cause poverty and render yourself an abomination to God.

Bus Conductors:  Sometime ago, I took a bus to Oshodi in Lagos. The bus conductor stole some money not knowing that the driver saw him through the mirror. On getting to Oshodi, the driver demanded for the correct amount of money but the conductor lied. The driver conducted a search on him up to his underwear but found nothing. Yet he insisted that the conductor had not given him the total amount. Suddenly, he forced the conductor’s legs apart and the currency notes dropped from the conductor’s anus where he hid the money. This is why most bus conductors are poor. They steal, eat anyhow and go into fornication with the money they steal, because of the demons attached to the profession.

Mechanics: They lie to car owners. In most cases, they claim to have changed some parts without having done so only to pocket the car owner’s money. This is why many mechanics are having problems. Some of them commit fornication even in stolen vehicles with possessed girls. This is double tragedy. If you do things correctly, God will bless your efforts. I always counsel Christians to anoint any second-hand material they buy because sometimes these items are stolen goods that could bring evil repercussions on the buyer. Please, pray like this; “I break every unconscious evil covenant, in the name of Jesus.”

Tailors: A tailor who steals clothes from his customers brings curses upon himself. Tailors who sew indecent dresses bring curses upon themselves. 

Drivers: There are a few Christian drivers in public transport business because of the behaviour of commercial drivers. Many of them are dishonest. They use their ill-gotten money to over-eat, and patronize prostitutes hence curses are always on them.

Teachers: A lot of teachers are harassed by the demons of poverty because of curses issued on them by students.

Doctors: Many doctors carry out abortions for young girls. Many keep their patients admitted for longer periods than necessary to enable them charge higher fees. They frighten patients with verbose medical terminologies to make their ailments look big.

Nurses:  Many nurses abuse their patients and lack the spirit of love, which is very important for their profession.

Bricklayers:   Many of them divert their clients’ materials to their own sites and end up doing unfinished jobs for them.

Plumbers: They lie to get money.

Refrigerator Technicians:  To them all faults have to do with burnt compressors so that they can charge exorbitant fees.

Spare-part dealers:  They lie that one item is fake and the other original while all of them are fake products.

Bankers:  Many bankers are married to the spirit of mammon.

Carpenters:  They also steal.

Contractors:  Most contractors are liars and many women among them contract their bodies to get jobs and money.

University workers: In our universities, you find satanic agents; people possessed with the spirit of sexual perversion and cult spirits. Poor lecturers compromise standards in order to make money; some even form evil covenants with their lives.

 

THE WAY OUT

The first step to take is repentance. When you repent and ask God to forgive you, then you start in the way towards divine blessings and the yoke of poverty upon your life will be broken. There is no profession without curses and covenants attached to it which will in turn magnet poverty. When things are done righteously, these covenants and curses give way to divine blessings. The fact that we have money today does not mean that it will last forever if acquired unrighteously. Seek true prosperity and it will last.  The Bible says that a little that the righteous has is much in the eyes of he Lord. Allow the blessings of the Lord to bombard your life and stop running after fake riches.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   I dissociate myself and my family from every territorial blood covenant, in the name of Jesus.

2.  I dismantle every tribal blood covenant, in the name of Jesus.

3.  I dissociate my blood from every satanic blood bank, in the name of Jesus.

4.  Let the blood of any animal shed on my behalf lose its covenant power, (say it three times then you say,) lose your covenant power, in the name of Jesus.

5.  Every evil blood covenant formed with any organ of my body, be nullified, in the name of Jesus.

6.  I release myself from every curse attached to blood covenant, in the name of Jesus.

7.  I release myself from every evil collective blood covenant, in the name of Jesus.

8.  Put your hands on your head and pray this seriously, I release myself from every conscious and unconscious blood covenant, in the name of Jesus.

9.  I break every anti-prosperity covenant, in the name of Jesus.

10.       I break every curse of poverty, in the name of Jesus.

11. I drink to overflowing from the well of blessings, in the name of Jesus.

12. Let my business be too hot for any demon to sit upon, in the name of Jesus.

 

Spiritual weapons

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Beloved, the thrust of our message today is that our weapons of warfare are not carnal, and fights with our adversaries are never in the physical but in a realm that is invisible to the naked eye. Therefore I implore you to open up your spirit as you read through this message. It should be known that the first qualification for anybody at all who wants to fight spiritual battles successfully is that he must be born again. Now we are talking of being genuinely born again, often times the thing people call new birth is actually not new birth, as contained in the scriptures. The stance of the Bible is very clear on this issue: “If any man be in Christ, he becomes a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17). And 2 Corinthians 2:17: “For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.”

So, the truly born again are the people who have rejected their old forms of life, and have left the world of sin alone only to live in this world as sojourners, visitor, and  strangers with the strong conviction that there is a better place already prepared for them by their Creator. These are people who love God more than any other thing. These are the qualifications as far as the Bible is concerned. Anybody who is not born again is not a Christian for all Christians are meant to be born again. Being born-again is not church membership,  nor water baptism, nor the signing of  baptismal  card; neither is it bathing at the Bar beach or the  hanging of  a very big cross on your neck. New birth is a spiritual thing and those that are born again are the true children of God. They no longer have the urge for things of this world. Vices like drinking, smoking, telling lies, womanizing, anger and the likes are no longer part of their lives. These are the truly born again.

A long time ago I lived close to a place where people were being screened for admission into the police force. There, I saw a friend of mine who could not pass his first and second term examinations trying to enlist in the force. He did not also qualify because he did not meet the required criteria of good height and broad chest. So it is in the spiritual. You must be born again to qualify to use spiritual  weapons. I tell you one secret; the reason the enemy is driving many people from pillar to post is because he can find something in their lives which he is using against them. God, too, allows the devil and his evil spirits to be pursuing them. That thing is acting as a magnet, drawing evil into such lives.

2 Corinthians 10:3 – 4: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.” The Bible says our weapons are not physical but are spiritual. Some cigarette smokers give dubious reasons like nervousness as being responsible for their indulging in such dangerous act. This is a lie because it amounts to using physical means to solve a spiritual problem. It is not possible at all. For this same reason you cannot use candle and incense to drive away evil spirits. It is not possible! You cannot use a physical material to solve a spiritual problem. It is only a spiritual approach that will solve a spiritual problem. 

I was told a story about two boys who went on a journey to a village. They bought certain things and on their way back home, some people met them on the way, beat them up and took away all they had. When they got home they reported to their father who promised to assist them to prevent a future occurrence. So, during their next trip to that village, their daddy gave them a small ring and instructed them to use it on anybody who harassed them. He assured them that the ring carried enough power that if they slap their victim with it, he will fall down and begin to urinate. During the journey, they had the ring on but on the way nobody harassed them. But they themselves now started to look  for trouble. They deliberately provoked other people so that they could use the ring on them. They really trusted in the ring. They decided to fight one man but something happened; mistakenly the ring dropped on the floor and they could not pick it. Sensing danger, the man struggled with them and picked the ring, then trouble started.

When the boys had that  ring they were confident. The same thing applies to Christians. The reason many Christians are so fearful today is because they do not have power. The spiritual weapons are lacking and many are even ignorant of their usage. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual and when as a Christian you know how to use them you will begin to experience certain miracles you have never experienced before and you will be confident at all times. If anyone says you should not go to certain places, you will ignore him and go. If they say someone is powerful, you will throw the statement back by saying that Jesus is more powerful. Then you will march forward and employ your weapons there and experience God’s miracle.

The Bible is very clear about confident actions based on the power of God. When you take such actions based on faith, God will just be looking at you because everything you need is already within you. One spiritually troublesome man went to a village, generally regarded as highly demonic, to hold a crusade. As he was preaching he discovered that his interpreter was becoming very afraid. When he said certain things, the man simply refused to interpret them. The man then assured the interpreter that he (the preacher) was the one talking, therefore he should not be afraid but should interpret whatever he said. As the man was preaching people were putting their hands into their pockets and bringing out their juju (charms). But the man began to pray and was not afraid and the result was that most of the young men in the village who were partaking in the worship of the village idols got converted. They started to go to his church in the evenings when he held revival services. Certain demonic villagers got angry at the success of this crusade and planned to attack the church with their juju (charms). On the first day, they gathered themselves at the back of the congregation and started to invoke the powers of their juju, but the Christians were unmoved. On the second day, when they came, the Christians were ready for them. As they started calling on their charms, the preacher ordered the Christians to "bring out their own charms too" and they acted as if they actually had something in their pockets. And as soon as they brought their hands out of their pockets and burst into praises, confusion immediately ensued. Some of the men carrying charms instantly got paralysed. 

Beloved, these Christians did not ask for angelic assistance. They only used one of their weapons which is praises and pandemonium occurred.

When Christians  become very bold as it used to be in the past, they will not fear all those things witch doctors are hanging on their necks. They will speak the word of God and command the fire of God to fall. But to do this, you need to know the weapons. When David was going to fight Goliath, he did something very simple. He did not pick just one stone, he picked five. Why did he pick five? Because he concluded that if the first one could not get Goliath down, he will use others. He needed just one and by the time he used the first one, Goliath was no more.

Let us clarify one point about this: You must know that we must put our weapons to use  offensively. You must go out there to fight. You don’t sit in your house and say: “Well, God save me, protect me, don’t allow my children to die, make sure that your shadow is over my head.” If you only seek to protect yourself without carrying out any attack, you are looking for trouble.  No army in this world can win any battle if it concentrates its weapons on defense only. If it does not fight back it can’t win. This is the reason many people are not winning. Some people are Psalms addict. They just recite the Psalms to protect themselves.

Christians are soldiers and the type of warfare that we are fighting is not like that of the army of certain African countries where the generals just relax in their offices everyday. We don’t fight our own that way, we don’t sleep for 24 hours. We should stop our attitude of sitting down and wondering where the devil is going to strike next. It should be the reverse, the devil should be anxiously wondering  where we are going to strike. This is so because  Colossians 2:15: “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”

Jesus spoiled principalities and powers. Not only that,  he made a  show of them in the open.  He performed this feat  not for Himself but for us. He defeated principalities and powers for you and I. Some people often times use the following phrases: “I don’t know," "perhaps," "may be," "it could be," or possibly.” You must stop speaking this way and start confessing what the Lord wants you to say. The Bible says we are more than conquerors. The conqueror will not only win the battle, he will take captives as well. The Lord has given us weapons and has not left us ignorant concerning their usage. Of course ignorance is no excuse.

Our first spiritual weapon is prayer. Ephesians 6:18: “Praying always with all prayer and supplications in the spirit and watching, there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.” If you begin to read  from verse 6 you will discover issues of  spiritual defense and  many other  things that are spiritual. But when it begins to talk about spiritual weapons, the first thing that it mentions is prayer. Beloved, prayer is the greatest of all the weapons and it is in this that many Christians are weak. The devil can perform many functions highlighted in the Bible but he cannot pray because there is nobody he can pray to.  Apart from that the devil has fallen. Therefore, he does not fight a battle against a person that prays, because he knows that the advantage such a Christians has over him is that he can pray to God, but he (the devil) cannot do that.

For this reason Luke 18:7: “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?” So  prayerlessness is a serious disaster and unfortunately most Christians don’t pray. Every Christian must learn the principles of prayer. Some Christians complain that after praying for five minutes they don’t know what to pray about again, but we often counsel them that certain problems in their lives require more than five minutes prayer.

The weapon of persistent prayer produces outstanding results. Daniel  prayed for 21 days on a particular issue: he refused to give up until he received the answer. He just kept praying  until after 21 days when the angel of the Lord came to him and said: “Daniel, since the first day, the Lord answered but when I was bringing the reply, the prince of  Persia met me and has been fighting with me.” If Daniel had stopped praying the angel would not have had enough power to come and give answers to him. The angel also told Daniel: “I am going back now, the devils are going to fight me again.” This event in the Bible shows that there are three heavens. There is the  heaven which we call the sky or firmament, where we see the sun, the moon, etc. There is the second heaven, where evil spirits reside. Remember,  the Bible talks about spiritual wickedness in high places. This is the headquarters of principalities and powers. Then there is the third heaven, the throne of God. Prayer becomes hard sometimes because it has to pass through the first   and second heavens, before it gets to the third heaven; and evil forces try their best to prevent it from passing  through to the third heaven. It must struggle to get there before the miracle will happen. If you have not been praying, it means you are not using your weapon. Then you have to start doing so now. Praying as a whole can be divided into two groups: There is what is called praying in the Spirit and there is praying with understanding.

1Corinthians 14:14 –15: “For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also.”

When you are praying with understanding, that is with your brain, your mind and your intelligence, you are limited by your vocabulary or your knowledge, because you can only pray to the extent to which you are knowledgeable. You can pray only to the extent of the vocabulary that you have. Once you run out of words, nothing happens again. But if you can pray in the spirit, you have the power to bring confusion to the camp of the devil. If you cannot pray in the spirit you need to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The second weapon is praise. When Moses and the Israelites started praising the Lord in the wilderness, they experienced the manifestation of God’s power.  Exodus 15:10: “Thou didst  blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty water.” So, when somebody begins to praise the Lord, he has a great weapon at his disposal. Psalms 22: 23: “Ye that fear the Lord praise him, all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him;  and fear him,  all ye the seed of Israel.” And Psalm 149:5: “Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds.” When you do that, you are destabilizing the devil. Praises can do wonders. In Acts of the Apostles, we read about Paul and Silas in a prison. When they began to praise God,  their chain broke.

Another weapon for fighting the devil to a standstill is the blood of Jesus.  Revelation.12:11: “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

There is power in the blood of Jesus. When you plead the blood of Jesus  before you sleep, you have protected yourself.  No demon will be able to touch you because of the power in the blood of Jesus. And when we sing songs about the blood of Jesus we are singing powerful songs because the blood is responsible for our redemption, forgiveness, cleansing, justification and sanctification. One small girl of about two years did not know how to sing any other song in the church apart from “There is power, there is power, there is power in the blood of Jesus.” She sang this song both day and night. One day, something interesting happened. Her mother washed the girl' s underwears and hung it outside to dry and the wind blew it into the house of a herbalist. Immediately, everything that the herbalist put on the wall fell off. He was scared, and began to chant incantations, thinking that something great had come to attack him. He tried to pick up the underwear several times but felt some shocking sensations so he stopped. He tried  to use a stick but he still felt the sensations. He decided to pour oil on everything in his house to prevent the underwear from affecting them. He even cried because he had never seen such a thing in his life. He wondered aloud: “What sort of power is this, how can they attack people with an underwear.” As soon as the child’s mother discovered that the underwear was missing she started to inquire from neighbours if they saw it. The herbalist overheard her and then told her that it must be the one in his house. On getting there, the woman recognised the underwear as that of her child, but as she made to pick it up, the herbalist screamed warning her not to touch it. He told her that he had been fighting the mysterious object. As he argued with the woman, the little girl came in and simply picked up her underwear and went away. The herbalists stood dumbstruck.

This shows the power in the blood of Jesus. The little girl confessed the blood so much that it thoroughly soaked the underwear. When you know what you are doing, the devil will tremble. When you don’t know what you are doing, he knows. Evil powers can see. So, we need to equip ourselves with spiritual weapons. A sister who was kidnapped started praying and everything began to scatter in the place. Her kidnappers gave her a serious warning against praying but she persisted to pray silently. They sensed that she was still praying and ordered her to stop. They were almost going to finish her but she used her finger to write the "blood of Jesus" on the ground, then the whole place turned upside down because of the power in that blood. You must understand the weapons that you have and be able to use them. It is very important to know your weapons. Do not leave anyone behind. 

Another spiritual weapon is the fire of God. Hebrews 12:29: “For our God is a consuming fire.” What will God consume? He will consume the works of the devil. He is not interested in consuming pieces of paper, which cannot pose problem to anyone. He will simply ask them to disappear and become soil. Psalm 104:4: “Who maketh his angels spirits; His ministers a flaming fire.” God can turn you into a flaming fire so that when somebody touches you with the intention of doing you harm,  the person will have a serious problem because he will be touching fire. If you get to an environment and begin to say fire of God come into this environment and somebody says, “No, I don’t want you to pray like that, pray in another way," such a person has a  problem and should  be suspected.

Some years ago when I was in London, a woman came to me and complained that her husband, children and house girl were demonic. I could discern that that was not her first husband.   I asked her which of her  husbands and she said her fourth husband. I counselled her to go home and pray that the fire of God should come upon her and also upon the walls of her house. She went home that night and prayed the prayer point. The next evening, she was with us again and said that none of her children slept well and that the force that was pressing her down on the bed continued. The next day she prayed the same prayer and the children refused to sleep. She brought the children and we began to pray for them, they were seriously demonic, including the baby among them. They were all from different fathers. Then I said, “When you get home put your hand on your head and command the fire of God to enter into your life.” I  noticed that when she came to fellowship the next day her face was swollen. She seemed to have fallen down.  I asked her what happened? She said, “Please, sir, give me another prayer point. I don’t want to  pray this one again because when I prayed it,  I fell down and hit my head on the chair. I said, “Ok, since you don’t want to pray it again we will pray it for you.” You see, when you challenge evil things with the fire of God, they just have to leave and if they do not want to leave,  they will suffer. If you shout fire,  they will try to endure it, pretending that they are not there, waiting for you to keep quiet but when you are the stubborn type and you refuse to keep quiet, they will be forced to jump out. You are going to use these weapons now and command fire into several areas of your life and I expect you to have results, in Jesus’ name.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   I hold the blood of Jesus against every power of darkness working against my life, in the name of Jesus.

2.   Father Lord, fill me afresh with your fire, in the name of Jesus.

3.   I refuse to give up at the edge of my breakthrough, in the name of Jesus.

4.   Let the fire of God consume every hindrance to my spiritual breakthrough, in the name of Jesus.

5.   I loose myself from any bondage by the power in the blood of Jesus, in Jesus’ name.

6.   Let the arrows of fire locate my oppressors and cut them into pieces, in Jesus’ name.

7.   Let the stone of fire hit the forehead of my Goliath, in the name of Jesus.

8. I reject every spirit of fear, in the name of Jesus.

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Mantle of power

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Beloved, God has designed school of power for His children to enable them to flow in

His great power at the fullness of time. When we talk of going through the school of power, it means to pass through a learning process, and with great expectation that at the end of the day, you will succeed. Many people will enroll in a school but not all of them will conclude the programme. Some will pass while others will fail. Some will fail because of unseriousness, nonchalance, lack of knowledge, or their inability to cope with the rigour involved. Others will pass because they will follow the teachings and discipline. Even those that will succeed will come out in different grades. I want you to believe that you will succeed in Jesus' name. The questions are: Do you really desire to have power? Are you willing to pay the price, whatever it may cost? If your answer is in the affirmative, then you are ready to receive the mantle of power.

            When we talk about the mantle of power, we are talking of an outward manifestation of God’s power. 1 Corinthians 4:20: “For the Kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” Acts of the Apostles 1:8: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” The word “power” here is got from the Greek word “dunamis” from which we get the word dynamite. So, we can say, “You shall receive “dunamis” after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”

 

WHAT IS A DYNAMITE?

            Dynamite is a powerful explosive used in mining. It is used to break mountains. It means that when the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon you, it will break every impediment to the glory of God. When the power comes upon you, every hindrance on your way shall be exploded. This power will only come upon you when you yield your life unto the Lord. That is why Isaiah 55:12 says, “For yea shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”

            There is a going forth and a being led forth. When the Bible says you will go out with joy, it means that it is possible to go out with sadness. A lot of people go out and come back frustrated and unaccomplished. It says you shall be led forth with peace; that is talking about the peace of God being with you even when you walk through a bad environment. The Bible says that as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. As the Spirit of God leads you forth in this dark world, you will be at peace. The mountains and hills mentioned in that passage refer to hindrances on your way; such hindrances will break forth into singing. And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Everything will work for your peace. When the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon you, it will break up all the hindrances and they will give glory to the Lord. That is why you need the mantle of power.

 

Why do we need the mantle of power?

1. To witness Christ to the world: Acts of the Apostles 1:8 makes us to understand that the mantle of power will enable us to be God’s witnesses. Wherever you go, the fullness of Christ will spring forth through you.

 

2. To do exploit for God: Daniel 11:32:  “But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” In difficult situations, such people will be able to prevail by the reason of the mantle of power.

 

3. The mantle of power is an emblem of God’s presence: The presence of God causes terror to the enemies all the time. Psalms 16:11 : “In thy presence, is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” The joy of the Lord swells in you as the mantle of power falls upon you.

 

4. For ransom from destroyers: Hosea 13:14: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.” You need the mantle of power to be free from the powers of the destroyers. The enemy is out to steal, to kill and to destroy. But by this power, you will be preserved.

 

5. For the manifestation of Christ: Jesus, who is seated at the right hand of power, said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” He really gives this power to as many as trust entirely on Him. So, His manifestation is the mantle of power.

 

6. To prevent our hearts from fainting: Isaiah 40:29: "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength.” The mantle of power is needed to strengthen our hearts because a lot of people today cannot cope with the situation of the present world. Satanic technology is advancing and the rate of growth of many Christians today is not adequate to withstand it. As a result of this, a lot of people are fainting and cannot really stand for the Lord. But the Bible says that God gives power to the faint and to them that have no might He increases their strength.

 

7. To prepare us as God’s battle axes: We need the mantle of power to become God’s battle axes. As the battle with the kingdom of darkness is getting fiercer there is need for us to cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light.

           

HOW DO YOU RECEIVE THE MANTLE OF POWER

            Let us consider the case of Elisha. I Kings 19:19 – 21: “So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, let me, I pray thee, kiss my father, and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, go back again: for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, ministered unto him.”

            The passage is talking about the call of Elisha. The Lord led Elijah to cast his mantle on him, indicating God’s call on his life. We can learn some lessons from this passage.

1. The immediate response of Elisha to God’s call: The Bible says he ran after Elijah. A lot of us today know that God is calling us to specific things, but we find excuses to delay our response to His call. We procrastinate and by this, abuse His grace upon our lives. For you to receive the mantle of power, you have to immediately respond to God’s call. A lot of us would say that until this and that are fulfilled in our lives, we would not be ready to respond. If you really desire the mantle of power for yourself, you have to make up your mind to respond urgently to God’s call.

 

2. Elisha made preparations to follow Elijah diligently without looking back: He decided to give his parents a parting kiss. The Bible says that he took a yoke of oxen, slew them and boiled the flesh with the instrument of the oxen and gave people to eat. He organized a farewell party with all he had to tell his family that he was leaving them to follow the Lord whole heartedly and there would not be an occasion to turn back even if the way becomes tough. And even if he wanted to look back, there would be nothing to look back on.

            There is a need for you to prepare yourself as you respond to God’s call. You need to be ready to bear whatever it will cost you to follow the Lord. You need to be sure that you are not following Him just because of the earthly benefits that you will receive, but because of the eternal value attached. You need to count the cost if you need the mantle of power because if there is anything pulling you back as you respond, the fullness of the power will not be made manifest in your life. There is a  need for you to prepare your home, check yourself and environment, because you cannot receive the mantle of power and be idle. God will endue you with power for a purpose. And the purpose may be hard but you will make preparations for it.

            The Israelites had no water until they dug the ditches. (2 Kings 3:16). There was no healing for Naaman until he had the seven dips. There was no oil until the vessels were gathered. And Jesus did not turn water to wine until the vessels were filled with water. There can be no harvest until the ground has been broken up. So you need to break your fallow ground. There can be no reconciliation without repentance, and no entrance into heaven without being cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.

            Beloved, you need to count the cost and be ready to pay the price. What is the price? You must be ready to surrender your life and lay your all on the altar of God.

 

3. Elisha did not make provision for any eventuality: He did not try to keep anything he would fall back on in case things did not go on well with the call of God. The Bible says that he slew the oxen with the instrument thereof and it was not done gradually. He submitted totally. Unlike a lot of people would say, “I am trying, let me do it gradually.” God wants an entire submission. A lot of people are not flowing deeply in the power of God because they are yielding gradually. They don’t want to give all unto the Lord. They still consider some things in the world dear to them better than the riches of God’s glory. The Bible says that after bidding his family farewell, Elisha arose and went after Elijah, and became his servant.

            There will not be a quickening by the Holy Spirit until we are ready to give our all unto the Lord. The glory of the Lord will not be made manifest until all is laid at the altar. Elisha followed God diligently and the fullness of His power came upon him. 2 Kings 2:11-14: “And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces. He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan; And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.” He finally received the mantle of power.

 

            Elijah told him that for him to have a double portion of his power, he must be diligent until he saw Elijah taken up. When the whirlwind from heaven was taking Elijah up, one would have expected that Elisha would first lay hold of the mantle of power, which was his priority. But the first thing he did, according to the Bible, was to tear his garment into two before laying hold on the mantle. A lot of us are in a haste to flow in the power of God without being ready to pay the price.

            The Bible says rent your hearts and not your garments. Before laying hold on the mantle of power, there is need for you to rend your heart. When you rend your heart, then you will rend the heavens and the power will fall on you. The inability to rend the heart, which is a sign of unbrokenness has sealed up the heavens against many. For the heavens to open unto you, there is a need to break your heart before the Lord. For a broken and a contrite heart, God will not despise. When you are broken before the Lord, you will receive the mantle of power. There is a need for you to rend your hearts today if indeed you want to flow in the power of God. In every aspect of your life, show forth His victory in every place by rending your heart. Then you shall be His true witness and an emblem of His presence.

            It is God’s desire to endue us with power. But are you prepared to pay the price? Are you willing to lay all at His altar?

            Without this mantle of power, powers of darkness will operate in a greater dimension and a lot of people will be rendered captive. God is not just calling us to come, warm the chairs and shout Alleluia. He is calling us to confound the works of darkness in our environment. A lot of us are falling short of this because of our inability to lay all at the altar.

            You can take the decision to come all out for Him now without any further delay so that He will not leave you behind. If there is anything in your life that you find difficult to give up for the Lord, take a bold faith towards conquering it. Remember that His grace is sufficient for you.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. O Lord, I rend my heart today before You, in the name of Jesus.

2. O God, endue me now with the mantle of power, in the name of Jesus.

3. O Lord, let your glory overshadow my life, in the name of Jesus.

4. Pray that the Holy Spirit should put the sword of victory in your hand.

5. I paralyze every evil counsel against me, in the name of Jesus.

6. Let every evil priest ordained against me receive confusion, in the name of Jesus.

7. My body reject every evil arrow, in the name of Jesus.

8. Every spirit of war working against this country, be paralysed, in the name of Jesus.

9. All the satanic agents planning trouble for this nation, be paralysed, in the name of Jesus.

10. Let the spirit of peace reign in this nation, in the name of Jesus.

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Power of the emptiers

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

The Bible tells us in Zechariah 3 that Joshua the priest was standing before God and the devil at the same time was standing at his right hand to resist him. But Zechariah was lucky because the Lord rebuked the devil on his behalf. According to that passage, the problem of Joshua was that he was wearing a dirty garment and because of that dirty garment, the devil was able to resist him even though he was standing before God.

Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, Satan desired to sift you like wheat but I have prayed for you that your faith fail not.” This simple declaration by Jesus meant that everything was going to be all right for Peter as far as his faith did not fail. My prayer is that every spirit of faithlessness must be bound, in Jesus’ name.

The title of our message this week is the “Power of the emptiers.” What the title implies is that there are certain forces which drain things. Nahum 2:2: “For the Lord has turned away the excellency of Jacob as the excellency of Israel, but the emptiers have emptied them out and marred their vine branches.” Sometimes emptiers are referred to as destroyers.

Beloved, be informed that you cannot experience much of God’s power until you become spiritually violent. Another important truth is that violence is allowed in the spiritual world. The reason violence is allowed is that the powers that are working against people’s lives are stubborn, therefore Christians must be spiritually violent. This is the time for every believer to stir up and begin to remove every spiritual fat from his spirit and start fighting. This is the time to drop all idols and throw them into the fire: An idol is anything you place before God or beside God. The problem with having an idol is that it opens the door to the devil to come into a person’s life. And when the devil begins to live inside a person, he assumes ownership of the person’s life. The devil outside is easier to battle than the one inside. The devil inside is worse because he would operate from within. He would speak words of defeat, diseases and failure from inside. It attacks the mind and then disarms the person. At this stage, such a person cannot continue the external war because the devil inside would have weakened his inner man. So, as a believer, you must not give up at all, you should rather become violent and disarm the devil.

You may be wondering how you can become violent. The only answer is the word of God. The devil fears the word of God. Some people feel uncomfortable when they hear others discussing about demons. Such people need deliverance because God says we should not be afraid of demons. When you use the word of God to command a demon to loose his hold over a person’s life, or you command the spirit of infirmity to leave and never return to the body, you will be amazed at what will happen thereafter.

The devil does not understand nice words, phonetics or good grammar. One of the greatest men of God that ever lived was one man known as Smith Wigglesworth. On a particular day, somebody invited him to a hospital to pray for a man dying of cancer of the liver. When he got to the hospital, he suddenly jumped upon the sick man and gave him a powerful punch on his belly and the man instantly fell down from his sick bed. The shocked doctor yelled at Smith Wigglesworth: “You have killed him,” but a calm Wigglesworth told him to shut up and just watch him. Suddenly, the man’s swollen belly came down and he jumped to his feet. The doctor was by now truly amazed. Before the doctor could recover from his shock, Wigglesworth had gotten to the fourth bed in the ward. Beloved, this man called  Smith Wigglesworth did not have any educational qualifications.

The reason many people cannot exercise their faith and therefore experience the power of God is because they are too educated. Instead of exercising their faith, they think academically and examine things scientifically and logically. For example, a highly educated man will not dare hit that sick man in the belly. But when the Spirit of God asked Wigglesworth to do so, he did it without looking back. He used violence in that hospital and by the time he left the place, the beds were empty of sick people.

Beloved, you must begin to change your mode of praying. You have to learn to command rather than beg. If you are still under the bondage of fornication, you have to command the demon of fornication to leave you alone. If it is infirmity, command the demon of infirmity to depart from your life.

There is nothing wrong in your laying your hands upon your own body and declaring, “I am the temple of the Holy Ghost. So, you spirit of fornication, you have no room here, you are trespassing. Get out now, in the name of Jesus.” You can lay hands on your chest and say, “My mind is the mind of Christ. Satan, I am not going to think what you want me to think.” When you deal violently with negative forces like that, you become a terror to them and they would start to fear you.

When a whistling kettle placed on fire reaches its boiling point, it will start whistling. To stop the whistling, you may decide to quench the fire or remove the kettle from the heat. Your actions are geared towards stopping the whistling not to destroy the kettle or its content. The power of the emptiers will not quench the fire or put down the kettle from the fire, they will rather pour out the content of the kettle.

The emptiers empty good things from peoples’ lives. They would not kill the person. Their intention is only to empty. Sometimes, the emptiers would wait for the cup to be filled before they turn it over. Sometimes, as soon as any thing enters a person’s cup, they pour it away. Victims of the emptiers find it difficult to prosper, unless God comes to their aid. Unless they become violent and deal with the emptiers, they will remain poor.

Sometime ago, a man brought his daughter to me for prayers and the daughter told me that any money the man would ever made in his life had been tied to the top of an Iroko tree since fifteen years ago. This is the power of the emptiers in operation. They did not kill the man. It was not necessary as long as he remained a perpetual pauper. All the nice and kind children that could have looked after him have been poured out. These evil powers replace good children with contaminated ones in order to put their parents in trouble. Such parents have been emptied.

Beloved, that your former boy friend or girl friend might be responsible for the kind of predicament you find yourself in now. I know a man who consulted a so-called prophet concerning a girl he wanted to marry based on some people’s counsel. The prophet prayed and told him not to go ahead because the girl was a snake. So, he broke the relationship without the girl’s consent and the girl insisted that he must marry her whether he liked it or not. The man thought it was a joke. By the time he got to the office the next morning, a sack letter was waiting for him. The next day, some security men were sent from his company to eject him out of the company’s house where he was living and also to withdraw the company’s car in his possession. Things turned rough for him. Then after two months of suffering he started looking for a new job but couldn’t find any. Eventually, somebody advised him to go and beg the girl. He went to her and apologised. And the girl said, “Fine, now you are wise.” The next day, the company where he was sacked recalled him and things began to move again. He was now forced to marry that snake. That was the power of the emptiers.

Another time, they rushed a pregnant woman to me who was long over due. Before I could make two or three sentences of prayer, the Lord said, “Keep quiet. This woman has a sin to confess.” I asked the Lord what kind of sin and He said, “Adultery.” I opened my eyes and told her what the Lord said. She said, “Ha! Do you think somebody like me would do that?” I said no problem. I closed my Bible and said goodbye to her. She begged me not to go and she narrated her story. I then told her to kneel down and confess her sins to the Lord. She did and then she was able to give birth to her baby. The power of the emptiers pushed her into adultery. The father of a popular American singer who shot him dead was pushed by the power of the emptier. That father is alive now but has been emptied. All these are the operations of the emptiers.

They are behind all the horrible dreams that people have. For example, eating with dead relations, playing with snakes or being harassed by snakes, spiritual marriages, etc. They are behind incurable diseases, setback in businesses, broken marriages, homosexuality, lesbianism, drug abuse, alcoholism, etc. It is difficult to stop these things or break away from them because there are demons attached to them. Some people hear strange voices disturbing them or ugly thoughts permanently on their minds harassing them. It is the work of the emptiers who do not want them to concentrate on profitable things. When a believer is having trouble reading the Bible, worshiping the Lord, sitting down to listen to the word of God, or praying, know that these powers are at work. Some people have things moving all over their body, some sense or see dark things or sometimes they experience a black out. The power of the emptiers are at work in those lives. If you are the type of person who loses self control whether in thinking or in anger, or you find it difficult receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or occasionally you think of suicide, all these are the operations of the emptiers.

       There is something we call “automatic failure mechanism.” It operates like a trap which trips off when it catches a rat. A person under the control of this mechanism would succeed at nothing because spiritually, he is being manipulated by some powers which are bent on making sure he remains a failure. Many people make the mistake of believing that no other world exists apart from the physical one because that is the one they can see with their physical eyes. They do not know that the spiritual world is as real as the physical one.

In the spiritual world, when you start praying, the prayer may become a ball of fire, sword, knife, or any dangerous weapon to destroy things that have been programmed against you in the spirit world which actually controls the physical. The same way also things like joy, peace, love, blessings, etc are tangible things in the spiritual world.  Good and bad things can also be transferred in the spirit world. A lot of people do not know about the spiritual world because they are blind spiritually. Things like joy, peace, etc can be spiritually removed from the cup of one’s life and transferred, or can be stolen. In the story of Naaman in the Bible, we see how his leprosy was spiritually transferred to Gehazi. Gehazi didn’t have any leprosy but when he did something wrong, he received the curse of leprosy. When somebody is made a leper in the spirit world, physically he becomes a leper. If somebody’s peace were disturbed in the spiritual world, such a person would not have peace in the physical world. That was how Naaman’s leprosy was transferred to another person. So it is spiritually possible to transfer somebody’s problem to another person. These things are tangible things. They can transfer somebody’s husband to another person, and transfer somebody’s wife to another person. They can also transfer somebody’s children to another person and transfer somebody’s blessings to another person. That is why I always like to make people understand that spiritual power is  greater than physical power. If you are strong spiritually then you are strong in the physical world. But if you are weak spiritually, no matter how bold you may be physically, you are weak.                

Jesus said something to His disciples in Luke 10:5 - 6: “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.”

How many people have actually seen peace? But what Jesus was saying is that it is  spiritual. In the spirit world, peace is tangible, it can be seen and it can be transferred from one person to another. Jesus said, “If a child of peace is there, your peace will rest on him, but if he is not there, your peace will return to you.” So, the disciples were carrying peace about. No wonder the Bible says in Romans 10:15, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and  brings glad tidings of great things.”

A person’s brain can be spiritually transferred, to become a dullard. A person’s heart can be spiritually transferred and the person will be having heart problem. A person’s hand may be transferred, and the person will not be able to prosper. A person’s leg can be transferred and the person will always be having bad luck. Progress will stop anywhere he enters. Any company he enters will stop making profit. Even a baby in the womb can be replaced with a contaminated one. The emptiers can even empty people’s wombs.

We must also be informed that even some of the material things that we carry around carry spiritual power. This is an important information. Jesus did something very curious to a blind man when He wanted to heal him. The Bible says that Jesus spat on the mud and made clay out of it and used it to touch the man’s eyes about two times and the man regained his sight. So, the saliva of the Lord Jesus Christ carried power to restructure and recreate the eyes of that man. If His saliva could carry His anointing and good powers in it, then bad saliva too can carry evil powers. Handkerchiefs in the Bible were known to carry power. People prayed on them, placed them on the sick and they were healed. Likewise some materials can carry negative powers. (John 9:6. Mark 8:23. Act of Apostles 19:12)

I cited these examples because emptiers are now using some materials to distribute evil things around and it is the duty of ministers of God who want to be honest, to warn people about these things. A single material of an emptier in a house can completely suck away all the peace in that home. So, you better check the things you put on, especially your jewelry. If your rings, chains or earrings bear the image of a snake, you better throw them away as fast as you can. Or if they bear the symbol of a moon or a fish or have eyes in them, you better be careful for I know what I am talking about.

Sometime ago, a brother told me the story of how a hairdresser discovered a strange necklace of her customer, which she forgot at her salon. When the hairdresser was to close for the day, she took the necklace home with the intention of bringing it back the next day for her customer. She placed it on the table in her sitting room and went to sleep in the bedroom. Exactly at midnight, the voice of a little baby started coming from the necklace.

Beloved, we must pray aggressively against these powers so as to put a final stop to their activities.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   Let the blood of Jesus Christ wash me clean, in Jesus’ name.

2.  Let every garment of iniquity be removed from my life, in the name of Jesus.

3.   I bind the spirit of failure, in Jesus’ name.

 4. Every power trying to blow up my lamp of joy, I bind you, in the name of Jesus.

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Assassinated by the mouth

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Our topic this week is what I call “Assassinated by the mouth.” This means that a person’s mouth could lead the person to death. I Corinthians 10:14 – 21: “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. (Meaning that you must avoid putting anything before God). I speak as to wise men; (I am appealing to good sense. I am speaking to you because I assume that you are sensible.) Judge ye what I say. (See whether what I am about to say is true). The cup of blessing which we bless, (that is the cup of wine at the Lord’s table used for communion) is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? (Is the drink which we share together not a sign of the blood of Jesus?) The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? (Is the loaf which we share together not a sign of the body of Christ?) For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? (When an animal is dragged away from the altar, slaughtered and shared, immediately you eat out of it, you have formed a covenant with the god to whom that altar was raised because the animal came from the altar). What say I then? That the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, (that is the sacrifice of pagans) they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: (because a once and for all sacrifice had been made which is Christ Jesus) and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot  drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.”

 

            It is not possible for you to have half dove which is a symbol of the Holy Spirit and half bat which is a symbol of evil spirits. No. God will remove the half Holy Spirit and give you full bat, because it is written that we should either be hot or cold. God does not want us in the middle. He hates people sitting on the fence. If you want to be bad, be bad, and if you want to be good, be good so that it will be clear where you belong. That is what the Bible is making us to understand. Verses 22 –23: “Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? All things are lawful for me, (that is everything is permissible for people), but all things are not expedient: (But all things are not helpful. If you ignorantly drink a poisonous substance, your ignorance will not help you. The substance will still harm you.) all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.” (You may do all things as you like but not all things help in edifying other people. Some people are led astray by other people’s behaviour).

 

            The fall of man in the Garden of Eden was accomplished through the mouth gate.  A lot of us would have done so well if we had firm control over our mouths. The mouth was the cause of the fall of our fore-fathers and up till today, food is till a serious root of spiritual contamination and sickness. For example, it is very bad to eat in the dream because powers of darkness use that means to plant sicknesses into people’s lives, and weaken them spiritually.

 

            God in His infinite wisdom banned certain things from being eating. Leviticus 3:17: “It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.

 

            Jacob and his household went down to Egypt because of food, and entered into bondage that lasted for 430 years. Esau sold his birthright because of food. The young prophet from Judah whom God told to prophesy unto the altar, got into trouble when he accepted food from an older prophet despite God’s warning that he should not talk to anybody or eat anything on the way.  

 

            A lot of terrible disasters have happened through the mouth-gate. I know a brother who got a gift of a bottle of wine from somebody close to him. He kept it somewhere and did not drink it because it was alcoholic. A week later, a small plant with fresh leaves had started sprouting inside the bottle. If he had drunk it, that plant would have started growing in his stomach. There is no X-ray machine that would have been able to detect that kind of thing.

            I know a fellow who was given a piece of kola nut. Luckily for him, he did not eat it. By the time he went back to where he kept it, he found a human finger instead of the kola nut. If he had eaten it, the finger would have been moving around in his body. I have seen people vomiting pins, needles, cowries, small calabashes, etc. Many of these people went through x-ray and scanning machines but these equipment could not detect these evil materials.

 

            Close your eyes and pray like this: Every evil thing that entered into my life through my mouth, vanish by fire, in the name of Jesus.

 

            Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...” Some people prefer soft drinks to fresh fruits not knowing that the contents of the soft drinks are not good for their health. Many of these soft drinks contain a lot of sugar.

 

            At some parties which can be classified as demonic, polluted foods are distributed to people and they ignorantly eat them. Some people cook food and distribute it without telling people what they are celebrating. Sometimes, you see a fellow who is 60 years old saying he is 40 and he distributes food to people to celebrate the 40th birthday. There are people who consume cooked  animals used for sacrifices. Some have eaten evil eggs and drunk a lot of evil concoctions. Many people have got into trouble after eating bean cakes (akara) or dough nuts given to them by people who celebrated the 40th day anniversary of their late relatives. There are people who collect holy water and holy oil from satanic churches and after drinking them, got into trouble.

 

            The black man has a lot of cleverly hidden bondage. The open ones can be avoided sometimes. Sometime ago, a man came to me and said, “Sorry pastor, whether the Bible agrees with it or not, I must divorce my wife.” I asked him why. He replied that she brought a coffin with a pot inside to their bedroom which was a charm for making money. That is an example of an open or loud bondage. Even some decent unbelievers will not go into such. But there are some silent bondage which many walk into with their eyes open. For example, in many towns now, there are town festivals, new yam festivals, masquerade festivals, etc. During these festivals, satanic negotiations with the powers of darkness are made on behalf of the people. During the Christmas season, some people run back home to renew such covenants. 

 

            All these ceremonies look unharmful but they are highly demonic because before they take place, the priest of the village would have gone to his shrines for months to stand in the gap for the whole community. This is how community bondage is renewed, serviced, maintained and activated. It is a strong but silent bondage. Many Nigerians are into these kinds of bondage.

            Many children are initiated on their eighth day during their naming ceremonies when they are given all kinds of concoctions to drink. In some places, babies are left in the river for days, before they are given names. Many are given incisions and tatoos on their bodies. These are spiritual marks through which evil spirits are able to identify those dedicated to them. If you have such marks on your body, you need to go for deliverance. Children of God are supposed to have only the mark of the Lord Jesus on their bodies. Galatians 6:17: “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”       Sometimes when you pray for people who have evil marks on their bodies, strange voices would be speaking from them asking you to leave them alone that they belong to them. Just as the angel of death passed over the children of Israel who had the mark of the blood in Egypt, so also demons recognise those who bear their marks.

            The devil, as you know, is bad.  There is nothing good about him. The Bible tells us that he has come to steal, to kill, and to destroy. In fact, serving the devil is a tragedy because at the end of the day, you end up in hell fire. All the maintenance of contaminated names and titles are silent bondage. That is why some serious Christians always consult God before they name their children. But in our environment, some families, villages, or towns have names that are unique to them. They are usually terrible names.

            A friend of mine told me a story about a place called Orita-mefa in one of the cities in Nigeria. Orita-mefa means the meeting of six altars. Beside this Orita-mefa is one of the biggest hospitals in the country. Sometime ago, it was noticed that people were dying mysteriously at this hospital, so some prayer warriors of a church close by had to be going to the  Orita-mefa to pray. During this time, a Christian doctor in that hospital did  surgical operations on some people and a week after, he fell seriously ill. He was admitted at the same hospital and was being treated for malaria. Then a day before he was to be discharged, around 1.00 am, he saw the door to his ward opened while no one touched it and a skeleton moved in and walked towards him. Since he was just recovering from malaria, he had no power to pray hard. But as the skeleton almost got to him, he started to speak in tongues and discovered that his speaking in tongues slowed the skeleton down. Then as he spoke louder, the skeleton turned back and went out of the hospital. Then he now understood what was killing other patients. He made sure he was discharged that morning. All these things are silent bondage that we need to stand against.

            There is also a place called Orogun which means rivalry. Christians who moved into that area suddenly discovered that the anointing to marry many wives was coming upon them. They had to run away from that environment. At this junction, I would like you to pray like this: Every silent bondage working against my life, break, in the name of Jesus.

            Many states and towns in Nigeria are named after rivers and they are the source of some of the silent bondage we are talking about.

            There is another kind of bondage which most Nigerians are into. It is the bondage of kola nut. One way or the other, we all have something to do with kola nut. Secretly and quietly, the enemy has used this seed to cage the black man. But there shall be deliverance today, in the name of Jesus.

 

What is kola nut?

            Kola nut is a seed found in many parts of the world. It is used to make drinks and medicines. It contains something called caffeine, which is a stimulant. When you have a lot of caffeine in your system, you would not be able to sleep and you may have headache. Pregnant women are advised to keep away from caffeine because it is capable of deforming their unborn babies in the womb. It is also found in coffee and tea.

            For some strange reasons, the devil has captured this seed and has used it to cause a silent destruction of lives and destinies. It is spiritually unsafe for you to just pick up kolanut in the open market and begin to eat it. The Holy Spirit has asked me to warn you if you are in the habit of doing this. Locally, kola nuts are used as a means of divination by herbalists and witch doctors. Some cast them, while some break them or offer them. The kola nut, libation and sacrifice offered, form an evil trinity. If kola nut has been used to prophesy a course of action for you, you need to pray. It is an instrument of diversion. It is also a constant part of sacrifices offered to demons. In fact, it will be right to call it the snacks of satan in our environment. Demonic elders place it on people’s heads when they pray for them. If you have been prayed for like that you really need to pray because it is a covenant material, a means of substitution and a means of making appeal to wicked spirits. It is also used to issue curses on people.

            There are many other materials that are used but kola nut is number one. These other materials include eko or ogi (corn meal) coconut, sugar-cane, hens, cocks, ducks, pigeons, she-goats,  he-goats, sheep, ram, gin, cold water, palm-wine, palm-oil, pieces of cloth, dogs, egusi-soup, etc. These are serious matters which we must tackled.

            If you want to deal with an enemy you must understand his mode of operation. The Bible says: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” The agents of satan understand these things very well and use them negatively to harm unsuspecting people.

            In those days when people did not understand the operations of the agents of satan much, innocent children, especially in Sunday schools, were often invited by demonic agents to eat food used for sacrifice. The ignorant Sunday school teacher would then say to the children: “You can go, but make sure you come back.” The children would rush to the place and collect all kinds of food items. They did not know that they were being caged silently. Sometime ago, a man came for deliverance and said something strange. He said he belonged to a satanic cult before he gave his life to Christ. He said while he was still there, whenever they saw a child that was very brilliant and wanted to remove his virtues and transfer them to another child, they would call this kind of demonic party, hoping that the bright child would come. Immediately, the bright child ate the food, his brain would be transferred to another child and then the child who was formerly bright would become dull.

            Beloved, the kola nut spirit has affected many lives. The devil makes people to get addicted to this crop in order to ensure that the evil covenants formed with them or on their behalf are maintained. They also use it to ensure that people feed regularly at the table of the devil. All those who have offered kola nut as sacrifice, or have used it for divination or have broken it for ceremonies, really need to pray because it invites terrible ancestral spirits to operate in peoples’ lives. It is a material of spiritual gambling. If you buy it from the open market, the prayer of: “O Lord, bless this kola nut for Christ’s sake,” will not work.

            When you break kola nut and give it to people to eat, you form some covenants. Those who eat kola nut anyhow and anywhere, usually have terrible dreams. For example, they see masquerades or animals pursuing them or dead relatives. They see themselves carrying calabashes or holding the local white chalk, coins, cowries or pepper. They see themselves urinating all over the place, fowls picking coins in front of them, or goats eating things in front of them. These are the activities of witches who are trying to steal their blessings. They find themselves dancing in unknown groups or getting married to strange people. They also find birds flying around them or snails or tortoises moving around them. A person who has kola nut spirit may all of a sudden find that his or her palms are itching. As a Christian, it is better to avoid this crop.

 

HOW TO BREAK FREE FROM KOLA NUT BONDAGE

1. Avoid it completely. But if you must eat it, plant one yourself at the back of your house. Be pleading the blood of Jesus on it when it starts growing. Know that nutritionally, you don’t gain anything from it. And you may be sharing from the snack of satan.

2. Renounce any known and unknown covenant you have formed with it and reclaim all the benefits that have been stolen from you as a result of the evil covenants.

            Beloved, even if you were eating proper food, make sure you pray on them because the days are evil. One of our pastors abroad told us that in his locality, all the meat-sellers were unbelievers and they dedicated their meat to a demon before they started selling. So technically, they have taken over that place and the wealth of that place flowed into their pockets. The inhabitants of the place are getting poorer while the meat sellers are getting richer.

            Beloved, ignorance has stolen many things from us. Do not joke with the following prayer points.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   I command my stomach to reject every evil food, in the name of Jesus.

2.   Anything that I have eaten from the table of satan, come out now, in the name of Jesus.

3.   Every kola nut spirit, I bind and cast you out, in the name of Jesus.

4.   (Lay your hands on your head as you pray this:) Every cage working against my family, break by fire, in the name of Jesus.

5.   You my destiny, move forward by fire, in the name of Jesus.

6.   Every family pollution, vanish by the blood of Jesus, in the name of Jesus.

7.   I trample upon every tragedy programmed into this year by fire, in the name of Jesus.

8.   My hands must prosper by fire, in the name of Jesus.

9.   Tragedy will not befall me, in the name of Jesus.

10.       Any gathering summoned for my destruction, Oh God, arise and scatter them, in the name of Jesus.

11. I bind the spirit of the snail, I cast it out of my business, my carrier and my academics, in the name of Jesus.

12.       Every evil pretender, be exposed and be disgraced, in the name of Jesus.

13.       O Lord, give me a miracle by fire, in the name of Jesus.

14.       Thank you Lord, in Jesus’ name.

back Strength for the evil hour

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Wonderful God, we thank you for this time. It is so wonderful to be at your feet. Your feet are where people can gather and find true joy. We know that all the counterfeit joy of the world has no lasting effect. We pray that you bless us as we approach you. Lord, let your anointing fall upon us in a mighty way. Where there is failure, let there be success. Where there is disappointment, let there be encouragement. Where there is disaster, let there be rehabilitation and where there is backwardness, let there be progress. Manifest yourself in our lives as the Elshadai, Jehovah-Jireh, Jehovah-Nissi and Jehovah Rapha. We shall continue to praise You and You alone shall receive all the glory. Thank You Lord, for in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

            This week, we are looking at a message, which I call “Strength for the evil hour.” Our first text is taken from Luke 22:39-53: “And he came out, and went as he was wont, to the mount of Olives and his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast and kneeled down, and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed, more earnestly; and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, And said unto them, why sleep ye? Rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him? But Jesus said unto him, Judas betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss? When they which were about him saw what would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword? And one of them, smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. And Jesus answered and said, suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him. Then Jesus said unto the chief priests, and captains of the temple, and the elders, which were come to him, Be ye come out as against a thief, with swords and staves? When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”

            The Bible has another name for the hour of darkness. It calls it the evil day. This is made known in Ephesians 6:13: “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.” It is also called the “time of Jacob’s trouble.” Students of the Bible know that there is time for everything under the sun, a time for good and a time for evil. Jesus had His hour of darkness, which was a long one that started at the Garden of Gethsemane to the crucifixion at Calvary. All His friends fled, even Peter who boasted that if all men deserted Him, he would not. Peter tried for a while but the other disciples ran away. He still followed Jesus to the court of judgment where He was tried. But then, the hour of temptation of Peter came. He was accused of being one of the disciples of Jesus, judging by his looks and dialect. He promptly denied it and backed it up with curses. Immediately, Jesus looked at him in pity. Jesus would have said in His mind, “You see now, my only friend that followed me here has denied me at last.” It was Jesus' hour of darkness. During your hour of darkness, your best friend may desert you and those who have been co-operating with you may not continue to do so.

            For the disciples, another hour of darkness in the Bible was the storm in the sea. Jesus had told them that they were going to cross over to the other side. It was never the decision of the disciples but of the Lord Himself. So it was the will of the Lord for them. Jesus went into the boat with them and was sleeping when the great storm arose. The disciples waited for Him to move at that desperate hour when He was waiting for them too to move in faith. He waited for their prayers to move on their behalf, but they were busy battling the storm with their own energy, like a lot of people struggle by themselves using satanic techniques to control the storms of their lives. These people are fighting darkness with darkness. Some are fighting the powers of darkness with their brain; not knowing that human brain alone cannot contain the aggression of the storms of life.

            Right inside the boat, the disciples must have been arguing just like some Christians do today. Some might have said since Jesus was in the boat, the storm must be His will; therefore they needed not to bother themselves. Others might have concluded that if it was not His will, water would not have entered the boat and the boat would not have started to sink. Some might have opined that the end had come at last, after all, everyone would die of something, someday. Another group might have felt that probably God wanted to teach them a lesson through the storm. Some could have seen it as a satanic attack. There could be a lot of confusion during the hour of darkness.

            Many years ago, I experienced my own hour of darkness. I was dashing off to somewhere when somebody called me to help her remove her pot of oil burning from the fire. As I got to the door of the kitchen, I saw a ball of fire rise from the pot of the oil on the fire and landed on my leg and started to burn my leg! The three adults there, watched helplessly. They argued a bit on the kind of first aid I needed. One opted for ice water, another preferred wet corn flour and the third favoured raw egg. Before they finally decided to use ice water, my leg had been badly burnt. A few weeks later, I fell down and sustained a fractured hand! It was in the midst of this situation that I heard the voice of the Holy Spirit one night saying, “Don’t you see that these people don’t want you to take your school certificate examination? You better start praying or they would just kill you.” That was the day I started to learn how to pray aggressively. It was the same situation when everybody in the boat took to argument despite the fact that the boat was about to sink. I am sure the devil must have been there too telling them, “You will just perish in a watery grave. I pity your wives and children you left at home to be following this man called Jesus.” Eventually they remembered the word of God and it occurred to them to pray, and as they did, Jesus came to their rescue.

            A pastor in one of our branches once shared an experience with me. He said a strange girl strolled into their fellowship one day and after the meeting, she came to him for prayers and he prayed with her. Then as he was going home, the girl asked him for a ride in his car and he obliged her. But as soon as she entered the car, it developed one problem after another. At a stage, he got out of the car and started to pray and then the car started to work again. After sometime, he dropped the girl at a bus stop. The following day which was Sunday, he was surprised to see the girl coming forward to give testimony. She said, “I am now sure that God is here because yesterday, when I entered the pastor’s car, there were hundreds of us struggling for the pastor’s steering, even though I was the only one he could see physically. But as he was praying, the others ran and he dropped me too.”

            According to our passage, when Jesus arose, the evil hour instantly came to an end. What did He do? He simply rebuked the wind and spoke to the storm and there was a great calm. The hour of God’s voice came and as He spoke once, there was peace and there has been peace ever since. It is on record that the Sea of Galilee is the most peaceful in the world today, because since Jesus spoke to it, there has never been another storm. At this juncture, I would like you to pray like this:

a. Oh Lord, let your voice speak to my wind and storm, in the name of Jesus.

b. Oh Lord, let the hour of your voice come into my life, in Jesus’ name.

c. Let the hour of my darkness be destroyed by fire, in the name of Jesus.

            When the hour of the voice of Jesus comes, the evil hour will be terminated in your life. Make the following confession: “Because the hour of darkness of Jesus did not destroy Him, my hour of darkness will not destroy me, it shall promote me, in the name of Jesus.

            Most people will have to go down to the bottom of the boats of their lives to wake up the Master to deal with their hour of darkness. Consider these three scriptures:

a. John 16:33: “These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

b. Psalm 34:19-20: This scripture refers to the righteous and not sinners. It says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.”

c. Psalm 50:15: “And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”

            It is certain that darkness comes upon every person; no one can escape it.  And most of the time, it comes from the direction you least expected. Sometime ago, a mother brought her son for prayers at one of our branches. She could not tell what was actually wrong with him. When the pastor asked the boy what was the problem, the boy said snakes, lizards, goats ants, etc, were pursuing him. The poor mother was crying because she did not know what had become of her son. It was her hour of darkness. At the same branch, another person brought her daughter who was only gazing at the roof. She refused to look at anybody. When the pastor asked her what was wrong with her, she said she used to speak to Lucifer! The mother started to cry; it was her hour of darkness. So, if you are going through tough times now, do not think it is you alone, many people are passing through the same experience too. If problems are coming to you from every direction, do not lose hope like many people who refuse to stand up when they are knocked down. A knock down is not a knock out. Proverbs 24:16: “For a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again...” So, the Bible says you do not need to sit right down there. You do not need to be sorrowful and forget God. Also Micah 7:8: “Rejoice not against me, Oh my enemy for when I fall, I shall arise, when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light unto me.”

            All the great men and women of God in the Bible faced obstacles and challenges but in spite of these, they refused to quit. They continued to fight relentlessly until they won the battle. The truth is that no matter what has knocked you down, you can still rise up from where you fell. Since you are still alive you should not think that what the devil is writing about you would supercede what God is writing concerning you. No matter what you are passing through, the fact that the God we serve is still alive and still answers prayers, there is hope for you. Ever before the problem existed and before the creation of the earth, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit had sat together in a meeting to discuss about the problems and challenges you are to face, and had made ready the solutions to them before you started facing them. The only snag we have is the problem of sin. If you can live the kind of life God wants you to live, you might not need to pray as hard as you are praying now before God answers.

            Another problem is prayerlessness. Prayer is a two-way affair; we speak to God and He speaks to us. But it is surprising to note that prayer is an aspect of Christianity which a lot of Christians find difficult to practice. They prefer to chat away their precious time with their friends and relations and as a result, their prayer altars become dry. Of a truth, many Christians take prayer as a mere mechanical exercise. If you lack the desire to pray and read the Bible, it means something is wrong with you. Many believers need deliverance from anti-prayer and anti-Bible study demons. If you find it difficult to cope with a long prayer session and Bible reading, be honest with yourself and address the issue squarely. The way some Christians take prayer is like a kind of fast, superficial conversation which cannot even sustain a relationship between two friends, otherwise their love for one another would be questionable. But some people relate to God that way. If you say you love God and you acknowledge Him as your Father, the Rock of your life and your source of blessings, then you do not need to be forced to love Him from the depth of your heart. If you are being forced or persuaded to talk to Him, then something is wrong with you which you must check up. If you find it difficult to read the Bible which represents God’s love letter to humanity, it is evident that something is seriously wrong with you. Those who are married can remember that when they were courting their partners, any day they received a letter from them, they usually sat down to read the contents of the letter very well. This is how the Bible should be to those who claim they love the Lord. It is also expected that we should always desire to be in His presence talking with Him. The inability to do this would mean that we have abandoned Jesus right in the bottom of the boat. If the Lord is asleep in the boat of your life, you need to wake Him up by shaking away every anti-prayer and anti-Bible reading spirit from your life. Also, you would need to examine yourself, repent of all your sins and let go of all of them. To this end, lay your hands on your chest and pray with holy madness like this: “Every enemy of prayer and Bible reading in my life, come out with all your roots, in the name of Jesus. Also decree with your hands on your chest like this: “I shall increase my Bible reading time, so help me Lord, in the name of Jesus.”

            Let us also consider an example of someone in the Bible who faced an hour of darkness. 1 Kings 19:1-5: “And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, so let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life and came to Beersheba which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die: and said, it is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree: behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.” The woman sent a simple message to Elijah saying, “Mr Elijah, you are going to die.” This was a fellow who had just slain 450 prophets of Baal, he had also called down fire from heaven, but was now running away from the threat of the witch called Jezebel. This was the man who conducted one of the greatest revivals in the Bible and it was through Him we have the story by which we can acknowledge God as the “God that answereth by fire.” But this same man said he wanted to die. Verses 6- 8: “And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.”

            Now you pray like this:

a. Every witchcraft threat against my life, be destroyed by fire, in the name of Jesus.

b. Every evil voice speaking fear into my life, be silenced permanently, in the name of Jesus.

            Elijah was, no doubt, one of the most powerful men of God who ever lived. His birth was a mystery. There was no information concerning his parents. Notwithstanding this he was the first prophet to raise up the dead in the Bible. He was also the prophet who disciplined a whole nation by locking up heaven for three and half years, thus preventing rain from falling and pocketed the key. He was the first prophet to call down fire and won in a wonderful contest between him and some satanic prophets at mount Carmel. But in spite of all these, we equally read about his hour of darkness. We are told that he ran for his dear life when Jezebel threatened him.

            Here, we learn a very big lesson. No matter how spiritual you are, you may face occasional problems and the way you handle such problems would determine whether you will get out of them or not. Another lesson to learn is that hardship is not always from the devil. Such experiences may be necessary for a healthy Christian growth. We all know that only a bad school will promote unsuccessful students. Take the example of Joseph; God transferred him to Egypt because his environment was too aggressive for his dreams to come true. Over there, he went from one problem to another. He spent 13 years in prison in the land of Egypt for committing no offence. It was his hour of darkness. An attempt had earlier been made to lure him into sin by his master’s wife. Joseph got into prison simply because he decided not to commit sin. Supposing he opted for sin, it would have been no prison and no palace for him. So, that sin you claim is not bad after all, could prevent you from having a big breakthrough. That academic sin could hinder your financial breakthrough. The imprisonment of Joseph was an opportunity to glorify God. Therefore, if you allow your problems to push you into sin, you will hinder God’s solution and your promotion. As a lady, do not mess up with anybody because you want to be promoted. You do not need to make yourself the second wife of your boss for the sake of being elevated.

            Here was a powerful man of God in the wilderness, who said he wanted to die. But the word came unto him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” The question had nothing to do with Elijah as a person, but his location. God was saying in other words, “Is this where you are supposed to be? You are supposed to be over there claiming the battle you have won for the Lord, but how come you entered the wilderness of discouragement?” Many people are hiding in the wilderness of past experience which God no longer reckons with. Such people are fond of saying, “I have done this before. I used to vomit fire in those days, etc.”

            Beloved, all these “once upon a time” stories are no longer relevant. What matters is what are you doing for the Lord now? Some would say, “When I was younger, I used to be the secretary to so so man of God.” Others will say, “Whenever I led choruses in those days, fire used to fall down. I was at the 1930 revival at Ilesha.” Thank God for your life. But the question is, what are you doing for the Lord now?

            A lot of people are in the wilderness of defeat and if they do not overcome it, it would overcome them. Many people can only serve God when they have money, but when they are broke, they withdraw their services to the Lord. So, be serious with the Lord now and pull yourself out of discouragement. Discouraged people are bad companions who are fond of making negative confessions. You easily identify them by statements like, “I don’t know what my family has done to God. Why should the person sitting by my left receive a miracle, and I didn’t receive?” “I have taken this problem to many anointed men of God in this country and nothing happened.” “Let Jesus come and take me, I am tired.” Elijah was like that. But things can happen in your life if you believe God.

            It is very sad to note that many people sit down to read various newspapers, listen to Radio and watch Television and believe what they are saying, but find it difficult to believe what God is saying. The Bible says, “Say unto the righteous, it shall be well with thee, but say to the wicked, it shall be ill with thee.” For example, how can you doubt the scripture which says that, “He Himself took your infirmities.” You need to repent today so that God can make everything you touch to prosper. You have to go to that mountain of faith to receive strength for the evil hour now.

            To receive strength for the evil hour, you should not give up. Make sure that sin is not in your life. Wake up Jesus at the bottom of the boat of your life by prayer. Read more of the word of God and learn how to fight spiritual warfare.

            There are many who are lamenting their situation, saying, “When is my hour of darkness going to pass away?” Most of them have experienced good days before but the evil hour is stretching for too long in their lives. I command such satanic hour to be terminated now, in Jesus’ name. Every hour of sickness and poverty, be terminated now, in Jesus’ name. All the storms of life that have suffocated many lives, be silenced, in Jesus’ name. I speak to all sicknesses attached to serpents moving all over the body to come out now, in Jesus’ name. Lord, make the reader’s life, a life of blessings from now on. Thank you heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   Oh Lord, whenever my obedience is not complete, show me Lord and I will obey, in Jesus’ name.

2.   Let the testimony of Jesus Christ be confirmed in my life, in the name of Jesus.

3.   Let the prison of life release my blessings, in the name of Jesus.

4.   (Lay your hand on your head) Every power diluting my prayer life, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

5.   Every gathering summoned to pull me down, be scattered, in the name of Jesus.

6. All my blessings in the custody of witchcraft, be released now by fire, in the name of Jesus.

7.   Every occult operation against my life, be dismantled,

       in the name of Jesus.

 

 

 

Defeating evil and

strange forces

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 Beloved, the message for this week entitled "Defeating evil strange forces," will expose to you the wicked forces pitched against man and how a child of God can effectively counter their activities and defeat them.

There is a continuous battle between the forces of good and evil. Life is war and everyone is involved either you a Christian or not. Whether you are born again or you are an atheist, you are engaged in one form of war or another. And you either fight or perish. God in His infinite wisdom has given man the option to choose between evil and good, light and darkness. When you choose light and get born again, you automatically become a child of the light and immediately pitch your tent against the devil. In addition to this warfare, a born again child of God is faced with four extra battles. It is your ability to fight these four wicked foes that determines whether you will make heaven or not.

 

WHAT ARE THESE FORCES?

1. SIN: The first major force is sin. It is a serious one because it shortens the Lord’s hands. But we have consolation in the promise of God in Matthew 1:21: “And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins."

 

2. WORLDLINESS: The second war that you face as a born again Christian is that against the world. For serious Christians, we have the promises of God as consolation. The Bible says, “In the world, ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

 

3. DEVIL AND HIS KINGDOM: The third battle you have to fight is against the devil and his kingdom of demons. The Bible admonishes us not to give the devil any place in our lives. James 4:7: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Meaning that if the devil refuses to flee from you, you need to check your resistance for necessary reinforcement.

 

4. FLESH: The fourth one is against the flesh. This appears to be the major problem area since you have to bring your flesh to subjection yourself. In 1 Corinthians 9:27, Paul said, “But I keep my body under, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” The flesh has to be forced to go under for naturally it is unwilling to do so. The difficulties many face in this task makes the enemy to concentrate on this area in their lives.

To live a life of perfection and to realise fully ones divine potentials, victory must be obtained over all these four forces. A victorious Christian must also know the pillars of Christianity and ensure that he is firmly rooted in them all. The three pillars are:

1. The Word of God: Anybody who wants to overcome evil forces must be an addict of the Bible. Bible reading and study should be taken as a very serious affair. It is of no use reading it as if it is a magical book or just going over the Psalms. Any serious child of God must have a consistent programme for his Bible reading. You must also digest the Word of God. An average Christian ought to know a minimum of 52 memory verses on the assumption that a verse is learnt per week, if not, his Word level would be low and insufficient to fight satan.  Recall that our Lord Jesus defeated satan with the “It is written” weapon. A good knowledge of the Bible enhances prayer and this boxes the enemy to a corner. All imaginations that are against you should be cast down right from the source, using the Word of God and prayer. There are five main reasons for reading the Bible which every serious reader must look out for. 

 

FIVE REASONS FOR READING THE BIBLE

a. Sins to avoid: You get to know the things to avoid by knowing the commandments and seeing what happened to some characters that disobeyed these commandments.

b. Promises to claim: You know what God says about you and what you have to gain.

c. Stumbling blocks to avoid.

d. Examples to follow: The Scripture is replete with many good examples to follow.

e. Commands to obey: These are usually spelt out clearly with the “Thou shalt not” commands. 

Precious materials are not found on the surface of the earth. You have to dig deep to obtain them. Similarly, to get great knowledge about God, you need to study your Bible deeply. This is one pillar that the enemy attacks seriously.

2. Holiness: The second pillar is holiness. The Bible says without this no man can see the Lord. You may see your pastor, house fellowship leader or may even have access to the General Overseer without being holy, but with God this is impossible. It does not matter even if your father was the greatest apostle that ever lived. Without holiness you cannot see God.

3. Prayer: Prayer is the staff with which to work with God and the weapon to fight the devil.

A combination of these three is necessary for a victorious Christian life. Your life must be standing on these three pillars. When your Bible reading level is going down and your prayer level and the level of in-filling of the Holy Spirit is diminishing, the enemy will make an easy prey of you. Obadiah 17 puts this in a clear perspective. The keys to possessing your possession in that passage are: Deliverance and holiness. The church of Jesus Christ and believers in general are not getting the blessings God has for them because of lack of the necessary knowledge about deliverance. It is after your deliverance that you can be holy. Somebody can only be holy when he is fully sanctified and satan sees nothing in him.

The seven things you should know about spiritual warfare to enable you defeat all strange forces that may want to confront you as a born again child of God are:

1. Worship: Many people prefer to come to church when the praise worship session is already over. This is unfortunate because it is practically the most important part of a service for it goes to God. 

2. Know your enemies and focus on the spirit behind them: It is a useless exercise to fight the physical being for the battle is never against flesh and blood. Therefore, identify your enemies and fight the spirit behind them.

3. Know your own weapons: As a child of God, there are many weapons you can use. Our weapons are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. We have the blood of Jesus, the Word God, the angels of the living God, praises, aggressive prayers, the name of Jesus Christ, etc. Some enemies will respond to one weapon but would not respond to another, and for some, you have to use a combination of the weapons.

4. You should know how to bind and loose: You must learn how to bind the enemy and loose his captives.

5. Learn how to break down strongholds: A stronghold is like a high wall protecting the enemy and when we are fighting the enemy and the enemy decides to hide in a stronghold then we know there is a problem. You have to break down that stronghold to be able to hit the enemy.

6. Learn to cast down imagination: All imaginations that are against you should be cast down right from the source. The Bible says, “Casting down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God...” (2 Corinthians 10:5)

7. Learn to take your thoughts captive putting yourself under the obedience of Christ.

One of the most foolish things about man is that when his brain does not understand something, he concludes that it does not exist. This is complete foolishness because the brain of man is limited. There are many things the human brain cannot comprehend.

My grandmother told me the following story: In a village long time ago, at a particular time of the year, a spirit called ‘spirit of small children’ used to walk across that village at night and whenever this spirit was walking across, nobody lit any lamp and the crying of children would rend the air as it passed by, and no one dared come out to watch it. The question then is this: What can one call such a spirit? There were many evil things like that in those days and the olden days Pentecostal fathers grouped all of them into four categories:

1. Strangers: Psalm 18:45: “The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places.”

2. Evil trees: Matthew 3:10: “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the tree therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”

3. Mountains: Mark 11:23:  “For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.”

4. Serpents and scorpions: Luke 10:19: “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

Philippians 2:9-10: “Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth and things under the earth.” Whilst it is possible to know things on earth and in heaven, human brains cannot comprehend those things underneath the earth. If you see anybody who claims to know everything, it is most likely the person lacks understanding.

The greatest problems of the black man are demons, curses and evil covenants. Going by what Philippians 2:9-10: it means that right under our legs, there are some forces. Why is it that fake prophets, herbalists, and occult doctors pray with their shoes off their legs? It is because when they are barefooted they get direct link with those spirits that are underneath the earth. And when the current begins to flow into their legs they receive prophecies from the demonic world. Beloved, God is not under your feet. He is above and everywhere. If you have been a partaker of such demonic prophecies, you need to cancel and reverse them today. They confuse people with such prophecies. They will tell you that your enemy is your friend and your friend is your enemy. They get people confused so that they can pollute their destiny. The destinies of many people have been altered by this means. For example, some people quote a lame verse that God asked Moses to remove his shoes at the burning bush to back up their demonic acts. Meanwhile, they have never seen a burning bush that was not consumed in their lives, neither have they ever heard the voice of the Lord as Moses did. And the Bible does not record it anywhere that we should remove our shoes when we pray. In fact, Jesus told His disciples to carry their sandals.

As far as there is the history of idolatry in a person’s roots, such a person has been dedicated to demons or some sort of evil spirits. This evil dedication usually takes place on the eighth day during naming ceremonies. Unless you know how to pray aggressively, it may be fairly difficult to get out of this kind of bondage. Sometimes when some people come for counselling, they are followed by invisible companions. When you tell such people that they are being followed, they hardly believe. There are a lot of people like that. Usually when good things are coming to them these evil companions that follow them about knock them down. These strange forces are usually attached to people on the day they were named. Luke 11:24:  “When an unclean spirit is gone out of a man it walketh through dry places seeking rest and finding none he saith, I will return to my house whence I came out.”Note that the demon is calling a man’s body its house. These evil powers force themselves into people’s lives and thereafter continue to influence their  affairs and lives. You need to chase away such evil guardian spirits today with the fire of God. The Bible talks about the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the children of disobedience. (Ephesians 2:2) They work in people’s lives because they have been allocated to those lives. Some are allocated to families. Some people actually see them physically. There is a brother who at the age of eight saw a woman with a pair of long breasts and with a child strapped to her back. With the long breasts, she fed the child at her back. When she discovered that the boy had seen her, she called him and said, “My husband, so you found me at last.” The boy immediately replied that he was not her husband and ran to his father. He told his father his experience expecting that he would chase the woman away. But the father said, “Ah, this is unfair. How can she show herself to you instead of me your father who have never seen her before.” His father explained further that she was their family guiding spirit. But the meeting of this brother and the woman completely altered his life.

Another unusal experience took place at Oshodi market in Lagos sometime ago. A woman saw someone who looked like a woman she knew as Iya Tosin. She called her but the Iya Tosin did not answer. When she touched her, something gave her a dirty slap and the Iya Tosin disappeared. This so-called Iya Tosin had died one year ago in the house the woman was living. It was not Iya Tosin that she saw but a demon impersonating Iya Tosin. The demon decided to go to Oshodi market because it knew that the woman would come to that market place. Since it wanted to slap her, it had to impersonate Iya Tosin in order to give her the slap.

We need to pray aggressively against these delegated spirits that have the power to alter our destinies. Beloved, do you know it is these spirits that make a person marry the wrong person? Do you know they are responsible for making a person do what ordinarily he would not do? Many people are being controlled by remote control spirits and the day they break away from this control, the people who put them under such control will be sad. Some people do not have any problem when they are doing nothing important. But when they want to do something important, they lose their self-control and start behaving as if they were not normal. It appears as if a rope is pulling them back from achieving greatness. These demons have embarrassed so many people, and have destroyed many lives.

When I was in the university, there was a very nice lady who was always driven to the campus in a Mercedes Benz car. Those were the days Mercedes Benz cars were scarce on our roads. Most of her clothes were purchased from abroad. The amazing thing, beloved, is that in spite of all these affluence, she was still always caught stealing her colleagues' cheap undies. When queried, her reply always was that something kept on urging her to steal: Remote control forces! How could one explain the case of a thief who operated at the barbeach where some armed robbers were about to be executed? Evil remote controlling forces!

In this world we are living, spiritual things are more important than the physical ones and to be successful, one must first deal with the spiritual for that controls the physical. 

Many years ago, a lady went to a revival meeting and on her return told her husband, a medical doctor the testimony of a woman who said  there were houses under the sea. Her husband got annoyed and stopped her from attending that church. But one day, a woman who was six months pregnant called at his clinic and told him that she could take in and take out the baby in her womb. By the time the demonstration of this power ended in his presence, he was paralysed. It was then he realised he needed the healing prayers of the church he had asked his wife to stop attending. Many people have been enslaved by these powers. Such people go to witch doctors and herbalists looking for solution to problems inflicted on them by these same occult people who intentionally circulate their victims round their agents until they are sapped dry of their virtues and goodness. These strange powers send people’s souls on errand in the night while they are asleep. Such people work so much that by the time they wake up in the morning they are too tired to do anything useful to themselves.

You must reject this today, in the name of Jesus. This is why every Christian must memorise 1 John 4:4 and confess it regularly. It says, “Greater is He that in me than he that is in the world.”

Some believe in astrology and horoscope. This is another demonic strategy aimed at ruining people. If you have been involved in this before, you need deliverance. They group human beings under 12 categories under a demon called Zodiac. This spirit then imposes behaviour and situations on people and make them to follow the demonic arrangement. There are also many cases where boys and girls of between 10 and 12 years old engage in demonic social activities. This is another way through which many people invite spirit wives and husbands into their lives and receive the spirits of marital failure from youth. In some cases you find two small boys of about 10 fighting over a 7-year old girl. One would say, “She is my wife,” the other one would counter, “No, she is my wife.” And the mother of the girl would ignorantly add, “No problem, you marry her for one day and you marry her another day,” not knowing that the girl is being subjected to some evil forces. That kind of girl would really need to pray hard when she grows up because many men will fight because of her and none will marry her eventually.

Beloved, be informed that any woman who behaves like a man or a man that behaves like a woman is being controlled by some powerful spirits. Sometime ago, I was praying for somebody from United States of America and when I said, “Release him,” the voice of a young girl came from the man saying “Leave me alone.” Then I asked “Who are you?” The voice said, “I got into him through illicit sex hence nothing has ever worked for him.” All the sisters who are fond of wearing trousers are controlled by the spirit of rebellion. They are also indirectly teaching their children to be rebellious. I counsel you to burn those trousers or convert them into skirts. If as a young girl, your chest was flat and sacrifice had to be made to some goddess before you could have normal breasts, you need to go for deliverance because those breasts do not belong to you. You are using borrowed breasts and that would certainly affect your marital life.

There are some men who hate women and are very cruel to women. Any woman who is manipulated into marrying such men is in trouble. This is another satanic manipulation. Some people when they wake up in the morning, become moody and look unusually quiet. Sometimes they don’t talk to anybody and at little inconvenience, they flare up and start fighting. People like that are under a spirit called the spirit of death. There are some families that have been handed over to some evil powers which kill them when something important is about to happen in their lives, for example, when they are having their final exams, getting promoted or when they are getting married.

Beloved, do I still need to tell you that you have to pray hard so that all these evil assignments would fail woefully in your life? You have to command that all these evil forces should go to the desert and be buried in the hot sand. In some parts of Africa, we have something called Abiku or Ogbanje. It is the belief that certain children die and come back again. It is the joke of the devil. This kind of thing occurs when curses are issued on families. They will possess a baby in the mother’s womb and when the baby is now born, they kill the baby at an appointed time and hang around to possess the next baby. Hence they end up recycling the same baby.

So, if you know your parents gave you a name which means that you will not die for ever, you better pray. When God is on your side and you understand all these guidelines I have discussed with you, you can successfully fight these strange evil forces.

 

PRAYER  POINTS

1.   Every evil tree planted in my life, be uprooted, in the name of Jesus.

2.   You evil mountain before me, be removed, in the name of Jesus.

3.   You serpent and scorpion, I trample upon you and crush your head, in the name of Jesus. 

4.   I reject every satanic destiny, in the name of Jesus.

5.         All evil strangers, I command you to flee permanently, in the name of Jesus.

 

Looking unto Jesus

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 This week, by the grace of God, we are looking at a topic “Looking unto Jesus.” Our first text is taken from the book of Isaiah 8:20: “To the l aw and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” In a nutshell, what that verse is saying is that as far as what you are saying is not in accordance with the word of God, there is no light in you. The Bible says, “Jesus is the only true light that lighteth every man that comes into the world.” It also says that in Him is light and that light is the light of men and it is that light that shines in darkness, and darkness cannot even understand it let alone overcome it.

   One thing we should all know, even if we are not Christians is that man is a religious creature. Whenever there is anything to be worshiped, you can be sure you will find men there worshiping the thing. So you should not be surprised when you see men worshiping stones or even rims of tyres or candles or rivers. If you make a list of all the idols that we have in Nigeria alone, you will write a mighty book. Even, if you pick those in only one town, they are sufficient for a big book. So, basically, man is a religious creature. Unfortunately, beloved, much of the tragedies we have experienced in the world could be linked one way or the other to the religious nature of man. This is why we say that Christianity is not a religion. In religion, man believes in the existence of a God, a super being, for whom you have to perform certain rites in order to please. But Christianity is God’s way of seeking to save the lost. The religious act of man has caused him a lot of  trouble and it is so sad when you see a lot of people doing things they believe so religiously but they are wrong.

   Several years ago, I was somewhere in Harare for a conference. I noticed that every time we sat in the dining hall, a nice lady sat beside me. She would do the sign of the cross and pray quietly over her food. No other person was praying in that hall. She had a large cross over her neck and a rosary and I was impressed. When we got talking, she talked to me about science and all kinds of things and I told her about Jesus. One day, she said, “This your prayer that you have been talking about, maybe we should pray tonight.” I said, “That would be very nice.” We sat down and I called one prayer point. As we prayed, she suddenly started shouting: “Stop praying! Stop praying. Oh, look at these beautiful girls surrounding me.” I said, “Beautiful girls? Where are they?”  “Oh, can’t you see?” she said. And I said, “These are not beautiful girls, they are demon spirits, I cannot see any beautiful girl here, but since you say they are here, let them receive the fire of God, in the name of Jesus.” She said, ‘No, don’t harm them.” Here was a religious person following all the rules of religion but yet was seriously possessed by all kinds of spirits.

    Religion is something that the devil likes so much because it does not affect him in any way. As long as that religion is lifeless, the devil does not mind, you can do everything you want to do. For example, the devil does not mind if you build big altars and fill them with the bones of dead men. If you have very nice pews and pulpits as long as it is dead men ministering there, the devil does not mind. If you paint the pictures of all the angels on the walls, as far as the people worshiping there are dead, the devil does not mind. If you have doctorate degree in Theology or Masters in Bible Knowledge, as far as you are dead, the devil does not mind.

   I was invited to a church many years ago. When I got there, I noticed that they did not pray much in that church. So I said, “In this church, I know that you don’t pray much but today we shall pray differently.” After a very short message, I asked them, “Are you now ready to pray?” They said they were ready. We started to pray but within a few minutes somebody came in by the door and spoke in good English: “Stop it, stop it. We don’t pray like this here. Stop it. Where is the bell?” I did not know him so I tapped one of the ladies who was busy praying and asked, “Who is this man?” “That’s our pastor,” she said, “But me, I’m not going to stop.” I was so embarrassed. The ladies refused to stop. I banged the bench, they didn’t stop. They just went on. When the man saw that they did not stop, he walked out in anger and the next Sunday service, he dealt with them. That time I had gone. The sad thing was that the man who said we should stop praying had problem with his kidney and he died two weeks later. Probably if he had put religion aside and had allowed those ladies to pray for him his case would have been different.

  A lot of people are very religious but God is not interested in religion. He wants the reality inside your heart. Look at the number of people who have been caged and tortured. Many homes have been shattered and many young children have lost their lives in religious crusades. Because of religion twins were being killed in some parts of Nigeria before Mary Slessor came. Many people die because their religion forbids them from eating nutritious foods.

   Sometime ago, one woman, who was coming to our fellowship, gave birth to a baby and suddenly we found that she was looking malnourished. We asked her what the problem was. She said, “Ah, in my husband’s family, according to their idol, when you are delivered of a baby, the only food you could eat for about two months was gari soaked in water before you could start eating proper food, and palm-oil or groundnut oil must never be added to the woman’s food. The Bible says, “Be as quiet as a dove and as wise as a serpent.” So we made an arrangement, whenever the woman came to the service we prepared good food for her and she ate before she went home to take her gari. That was religion. 

  Many potentially useful young men have been rendered useless by religion. The other day, I was at Oshodi, Lagos and I saw some young men who scrapped their hair leaving a little bit at the centre of their head. They were beating drums and jumping up and I wondered endlessly why they were doing what they were doing. It was because of religion. Some people are poor because their religion wants them to be poor. Religion makes men blind. We have a lot of religious men and traditionalists coming to church and God wants to deliver them from that spirit for God hates religion with perfect hatred.

    Genesis 32:24 – 31:“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh got out of joint, as  he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And as he passed over Penuel, the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.”

     A closer look at this simple passage reveals  great lessons to be learned from Jacob's  encounter:

1. The power of prevailing prayer. It shows that you can pray until you prevail.

2. The long leg of Jacob that was used for evil had to be dislocated so that he could rely on God.

3. When you see the appearance of the Lord, remarkable changes come upon your life. No one who has had an encounter with God will remain the same. I always pray that God will show the vision of heaven to Christians and also the vision of hell fire, so that they can see the difference. When they see both, they can then take the decision whether to go to that place where worms of fire are coming out of people’s noses or where there is music and joy. The Bible says, “Ears have not heard, eyes have not seen, it has not even entered into the imagination of man what God has planned for His people.” You have to make up your mind where you want to be. I shall be in heaven by God’s grace.

   When a sinner meets God, or God meets a sinner, something must happen and it must be permanent. Maybe you haven’t had any encounter with God. The story of Jacob is telling you that you must have a personal encounter with God. If you do not have a personal encounter with God, then you are a religious person. You are just going to church. You can confess your sins to any priest or pastor. You can be confirmed twice. You can even sew mini wedding dress, you are still a religious person. You are not going anywhere. When you have an encounter with God, your life changes; it will be an unforgettable thing. When others are saying, “I’m even tired, I want to backslide,” you will say, “Ah, me, I dare not after what I’ve seen, I dare not.” 

    I could remember a church in England where women wore skirts and never came to church in trousers. They covered their hair when they prayed and it was a white man’s church. There was a time I was the only black person there and the members were so nice and loving. One day, after service, they surrounded me and were singing, “Happy birthday to you.” I first thought I was hearing the voice of angels, then when I heard ‘Daniel’ I checked my wrist watch and found that the day was my birthday. They had memorised it even though I had forgotten. So religion is not what we are talking about but the reality of people’s personal encounter with God. You will remember when you meet Him. You have been hearing of Him by the hearing of the ear but when you meet Him like Isaiah did, nobody needs to tell you how bad you are. You will know and you will adjust yourself very quickly. If you do not have that kind of encounter, everything you are doing now may still be religion. I am praying that the Lord will deliver you today, in Jesus’ name.

    We are not talking about where you were born or who your father is. As far as the Bible is concerned, that is completely irrelevant. There were so many people in the Bible who were godly sons of godless fathers and we also have godless sons of godly fathers. There are both camps, so what you should now pursue is where you want to be in God. Ask yourself, “What am I achieving in God?” If for example as you are reading this message, Jesus walks in and says, “Beloved, your time is up, what you have done is enough, come up!” Are you confident that you will go to heaven? That is the most important question. But when you have a personal encounter with God, it is not a question of looking at God from far away; He would be close to you. When you see the appearance of the Lord, there must be a remarkable change in your life. Every self- interest, self-ambition and worldly ambition will die. Your focus will change, your priority will change. Your life will be revived. You will stop pursuing what you were pursuing before for a new thing.  You will undergo a complete revision. Like somebody revises a book; that is how your life will be revised. What makes other people happy will not move you anymore. What would make you happy is your addiction to the Lord your God and the knowledge that at the end of the day you will reign with Jesus.

     Recently, I got one of the best letters that has ever been written to me. The person wrote me about two pages. He said, “Dr. Olukoya, we thank God for MFM. All I want to say is this: although I don’t have money, I have joy and that joy cannot be explained.” He said that he knew that with that joy in his heart, it was a matter of time, every other thing would work well.” 

4. The infirmity of Jacob meant that he had to lean on God. We too have to lean on God.

    Now, instead of learning the lessons that God wants us to learn from this message, let us see what men have done. Verse 32 says, “Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank.” Men have turned this to religion. They say, “Don’t eat that part of the leg, just as they have turned Good Friday to religion. They say, “Don’t eat meat or eat fish on Good Friday.” Some American churches have revised this. They say that you can eat meat but not much. What has eating of meat got to do with the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ? Absolutely nothing. Some cook a special meal for that day and some believers go and eat it with them. I am saying all these to let you know how men turn things to religion.  

   The cross is not the symbol of Christianity. An empty tomb or tongue of fire is the symbol of Christianity. If Jesus had remained on the cross, all of  us would have been finished. But thank God He died and rose from the dead.

     If you study church history and read your Bible, you would discover that the early Christians never considered the cross as a honourable symbol. To them, it was a device of death and shame. The disciples never trusted in the cross as an object, but they trusted in what accompanied the cross. They never hung crosses on their necks. All the hanging of cross on the neck took off from paganism. To make matters worse, the word ‘Easter’ comes from the name of a pagan idol, the idol they claim was responsible for the light of the day. So, it has nothing to do with Christianity.

     According to Numbers 21:8, the children of Israel had misbehaved and something had happened. Punishment will normally follow when you make God the tail and you make yourself the head. When God says this is what He wants you to do and you say, “Oh no, I want to do something else, punishment will follow because He knows more than you. Let us recall the story from Numbers 21: 6 - 8: “And the Lord sent fiery serpents upon the people, and they bit the people and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, we have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee; Pray unto the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent, set it upon a pole and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, he shall live.” There are lots of lessons too to pick from here. We shall look at the lessons later.

   In John 3, Jesus made an interesting reference to this incident. John 3:14 –15: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” The lifting up of the serpent.  It was serpent that was biting them; it was serpent they were told to look unto. Many died because it did not make sense to them. They would have complained thus: “Snake is biting us, they say we should be looking at snake to be saved.” But God did not ask you to rationalize or think about it until it becomes logical. If you are going to be rationalizing, forget the supernatural, forget true Christianity. All God is asking you to do is look. He did not say ‘think,’ but ‘look’ and once you look, you will be saved. So, this story teaches us many lessons.

1. It speaks of Christ becoming sin for us that we may be made righteous.

2. It speaks of looking upward and living.

3. It speaks of God’s power to deliver.

4. It tells us just to believe. Don’t try to rationalise. If you start thinking: How can a brazen serpent heal? Then you will be in trouble.

5. It tells us that the world having been bitten by that old serpent has its only cure in Jesus. So, it was a shadow of something that was to come, and the Son of man like that serpent was lifted up; and all He requires from you now is to just look. Fix your eyes on Jesus. But again instead of learning these facts, what did men do? 2 Kings 18:4 : “He removed the high places, and break the images, and cut down the groves, and break in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days, the children of Israel did burn incense to it and he called it Nehushtan.”  Instead of understanding what God wanted to teach them about the brazen serpent, men turned it upside down to religion. There are so many examples like that.

   Do you know that there are beautiful lessons to learn from the slaying of Goliath by David who used Goliath's sword to cut off his head?

1. The sword of the enemy shall be turned against the enemy because the Bible says, “No weapon that is formed against me shall prosper.” The cross that was used by satan to kill Jesus became a weapon against satan himself. But by the next time David wanted to use the sword of Goliath, they had wrapped it up; they had turned it to religion.

   The events in the life of Christ can be divided into three:

1. The wonderful way He was born. There was no ceremony attached to it. It was through His birth that our present calendar was divided into two. Angels came when He was born and the glory shone all around. Only a few shepherds and some animals witnessed His birth. 

2. His death. The day He died all the angels ran away. God the Father too turned His back. People ridiculed him: “You saved others, now save yourself,” they jeered. A large number of crowd watched the trial, the verdict, the crucifixion and the death but very few watched the birth. When he resurrected too, only a few Roman guards and one or two women were able to see him. The one incident that actually put a sealing on our faith was what happened the day He died on the cross. There was darkness at an unusual hour, the ground shook and satanic powers were defeated. However, on that day, the angels that announced His birth, that protected Him as a child; that ministered to him in the wilderness, that ministered to him in the Garden of Gethsemane, that came to roll away the stone later, that announced the resurrection, all ran away. It was a very important event. It was because of this we have what is written in Hebrews 12:2: “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right side of the throne of God.”

   Disaster follows when you fix your eyes on other things apart from Jesus. Peter tried it and he almost sank. Jesus Himself said that as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up. When you look, you shall be saved. What does that “looking” mean? It means to focus your attention on Jesus as your example. When you focus on Him as your example and as your physician, you shall be made whole. If you focus your attention on Him as a teacher, you shall be taught. If you focus your attention on Him as your comforter, you shall be encouraged. If you focus your attention on Him as your strength, you will never be made weak. If you focus your attention on Him as your life, then you have what is called abundant life. That is why the Bible says, “Look unto me and be saved.”

   Fix your eyes on Jesus.  Don’t fix your eyes on man. Man can fail you at any moment. The Bible says the only person that you can trust all the time is Jesus. When you have too much to do, fix your attention on Jesus. When you know it seems as if things are a little bit rough, don’t take your eyes off Jesus. When you fix your eyes on Jesus, everything like loneliness, frustration and depression will fly away. When there is no mother or father to love you, if you fix attention on Jesus, He will look after you. When others disappoint you, Jesus will take care of you.

   I remember a sister: on her wedding day, the service was supposed to start by 9 a.m. Between 10 a.m. and noon they expected the bridegroom and he did not show up. The man of God who was getting impatient asked, “Are you sure this man wants to come for this wedding?” “I saw him last night. We had our bachelor’s eve. He’s supposed to be here,” the bride replied. Eventually, the man did not come. At exactly 1 p.m. somebody decided to go and look for him at home. He did not find him there but he found somebody who said he left a message that he had gone to play tennis. They went there and found him playing lawn-tennis. “Ah, Mr. man, they’re waiting for you in the church,” they told him. He said, “Eh, I decided to ditch it, I’m not interested again.” The man who was sent to look for him said, “But if you’re not interested, why don’t you just go there and say so?” He retorted, “If they don’t see me, they will go home.” And they did. The man of God said, “This wedding is postponed for circumstances beyond our control.” In fact, the bride-to-be was carried home half dead. Some people were pouring cold water on the head of her mother who had invited the Morning Star society of her church to accompany her to the wedding. It was a good thing the Morning Star people were around for they were the people that revived her. The sister then decided to fix her eyes on Jesus and did not give up. She did not die as some people were expecting and she refused to drink acid. As she fixed her eyes on Jesus, things became clear one day. She realized that the Lord had a purpose and that it was good that the wedding did not take place because within two months from that time, the bridegroom to be died under mysterious circumstances. This sister is now married because her attention was fixed on Jesus.

   So, when you are sad, look unto Jesus. If there was a country with internal unrest, such a country would not be able to face an attack from outside. If a believer is sad, already there is problem from the inside so when attack from the outside comes, he will not be able to fight because already there are spies inside. So, fix your eyes on Jesus, even when you are dissatisfied, when you are afraid or when people misunderstand or maltreat you. When you are struggling financially, fix your eyes on Jesus. Do not fix your eyes on yourself. If you are looking at yourself, you will get into more trouble. Don’t fix your eyes on man because you don’t know what others are doing. Don’t fix your eyes on your trouble because if you do, you will sink. Don’t fix your eyes on the devil too, because the devil is looking for who will give him some attention. Don’t fix your eyes on false hopes; let your hope be in the Lord.

   You will not receive any forgiveness if you are forever focusing on the sins you have repented from. Somebody needing deliverance will not receive deliverance by buying books on deliverance and by reading about demons. That is not what will get a person out. What will get the person out is ministration.

   Some people make the mistake of always looking backward. When you look backward,  you are living in the past. You must refuse to live in the past. How can you come to the house of God and allow one mistake you made 15 years ago to spoil the rest of your future. Some people come and say, “Please, help me, 15 years ago, I was sexually abused. This is why I am having problems.” “Has God not forgiven you?” I would usually ask. They would say, “Yes.” “Have you gone for any deliverance?” “In fact, I did three.” “Then what is the problem now?” “Well, I just feel that nothing is happening.” How can you allow a mistake you made 15 years ago to be directing your present life? You must refuse to live in the past. Paul said, “Forgetting those things that are behind and looking forward...”

     This is one of the successes of Joseph. He refused to live in the past. He rejected the temptation to harbour resentment against his brothers. Many spoil the whole of their lives by carrying wounds and grudges about past events. They remember the way somebody treated them many years ago. With the ugly roots of bitterness inside, their lives do not bear fruits and they are wondering why. How can it bear fruit when there is root of bitterness inside? Beloved, if at any point in time in your life, you have said, “If it had not been for so, so and so, my life would not have been like this,” then, you are living in the past. You may have been unjustly treated but you must determine to leave the past behind and walk along.

    Do not be the kind of woman who would say, “After my husband had turned me to second hand, then he abandoned me.” Who told you that you are second hand? Do not be the kind of child who would say: “It’s my daddy. My daddy chased away all my mummy’s children and my step-mother stopped our education.” You are living in the past. Do not be the kind of girl who would say: “It’s my parents: they made me lose the best husband I would have married.” That is already gone. Yesterday is too late. Why do you want to worry your spirit about that? As long as you live in the past, you will never be a successful person because that root of bitterness will spoil everything for you. You must forgive and forget. You must do all things without grumbling and complaining.

     Some people too are experts at looking at unfavorable circumstances. They forget about Peter who was studying the waves and began to sink. All he needed to do was to face Jesus. As long as you focus your attention on Him and keep following Him, you will be secured. When Peter took his eyes off Jesus, he started to sink.

   People sink when they take their eyes off the Lord and look at somebody else. Somebody could go to a house fellowship and simply because he found the leader eating alligator pepper and kola-nut and drinking beer, he would say, “Ah, because of this I won’t serve God again.” Such a person is looking at circumstances. Don’t do that. Fix your eyes on Jesus. When you fix your eyes on Him, you can never go wrong. It is when we take our eyes off Him and begin to look at ourselves and at other people’s mistakes that we get into trouble. One problem that so many people will receive judgment for is this: when others are struggling to serve the Lord and are doing their best and you just stand at the back, not doing anything but saying, “It is wrong, it should have been done like this or like that, ” you make yourself a spiritual referee and as far as God is concerned, He is pleased with the people struggling. It is you that is not impressed. Your not being impressed does not matter as far as God is concerned. As far as God is impressed with the people, He cannot be concerned with what you think. If God is for you, it does not matter who is against you; but if God is against you, nobody can help you.

     Some people try to protect themselves so much that they wear bullet-proof vests and build their walls high with barb wires. What they forget is that there are thousands of things that can walk into their houses without bothering to open any gate. They can walk through the wall. Barb wires cannot prevent demons from walking in. There was a brother that a demon walked to and called by his first name that nobody used to call him. The demon said: “I have been sent to deal with you.” The brother said, “In Jesus’ name you made a mistake.” And light came from heaven on the demon and it grew weak and ran away. The house had a security system at the gate yet the demon came in. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Don’t fix your eyes on your problem because that is what satan wants you to do. Anytime you fix your eyes on your problem and pamper it, he is happy. Fix your eyes on Jesus and see what God can do. By sitting down to ponder and worry about your circumstances, you achieve nothing. By allowing circumstances to discourage, you achieve nothing. By looking at the roughness of the weather, you achieve nothing. Sometimes, when we say, pray, some people would be busy meditating on their problems. When the message is being preached, they would be meditating on their problems. During the Praise-worship session, they would meditate on their problems. After the service, they continue to meditate on their problems regardless of the powerful manifestations during the service. They do not play any active role in their deliverance. They want it automatically. You must play a role. The Bible says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.”

   It is like somebody who came for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. She prayed and nothing happened. I said, “Why now?” She said, “I have a feeling that somebody will drop something like a radio transistor inside me and the radio transistor would  be talking.” I said, “It’s not so. If a radio transistor is talking inside your tummy, that is a demon. But for the Holy Spirit, you will be the one that will be talking while the Spirit gives you utterance.” She said, “If that is so, sir, pray for me.” Then I prayed and she began to pray in tongues. After she did that for about 20 minutes, she sat down and was looking worried again. I said, “Madam, what is the matter again?” She said, “Why am I not rolling on the floor like those people?” I asked her, “Why do you want to roll on the floor? Those people are possessed.” She said, “But they are rolling on the floor. I too want to roll on the floor.” She was looking at circumstances forgetting that circumstances can discourage one. Take your eyes off them. What we call faith sometimes looks like madness. When you look at circumstances and you begin to envy other people, you forget that God’s plans for our individual lives are different. Don’t work by other peoples’ time-table. “Looking unto Jesus,” the Bible says, “the author and finisher of our faith.”

     Beloved, pray for that grace to fix your eyes on Jesus and on Him alone, not on the pastor, not on the house fellowship leader, not on the group leader.

 

            PRAYER POINT

1. O Lord, give me the grace to fix my eyes upon you all the time, in the name of Jesus.

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When God hides His Face 2

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 This is the concluding part of the message we started last week. In this edition, we are looking at the reasons God hides His face.

1. when we ARE LIVING in sin: Deuteronomy 31:16-18:“And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shall sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day. Are not these evils come upon us, because our god is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.”  

I feel sorry for some sisters and brothers because at times, when they get to the edge of their breakthroughs, when they have struggled to lift their spiritual height a bit, somebody turns up, sometimes a married man or an unmarried sister, and pulls them down. For the sister it could be her boss in the office, the one that had promoted her.  Suddenly, one night, a knock at the door and behold  it is the boss. She may ask, “What have you come to do here, Oga?” He may reply, “I came to greet you.” She may ask further: “But it is already late.”  “I know, I will sleep here and leave tomorrow,” says the boss. She goes into sin with him and the spiritual height she has struggled to attain collapses. She has to start from the scratch. Or a sister may say: “This my husband is a crazy man, he is busy running after strange women. Me too, I am going to try my own hands on strange men.” It is possible that the first strange man she meets has gonorrhea and problem starts. She would start to cry: “I receive deliverance from every spirit worrying me”. But God would say, “shut up” and hide His face from her.

 To be honest with you, many pastors will go to hell fire. This is the truth because what they are supposed to do, they have abandoned, and what they are not supposed to do, constitutes their major preoccupation.

Isaiah 1:15: “And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you, yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear, your hands are full of blood.” From just a peck on the cheek, people move into sin. Through this and abortion, one’s spiritual life is put under the bushel, and to bring it back will be difficult.

Isaiah 64:7 : “And  there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.” Anyone who finds pastime in free women or free men is merely playing with his/her life and is joking with hell fire. A person may be laughing when he is going to hell fire, but when he gets inside, there will be no laughter any more. Ezekiel 39:23: “And the heathens shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies, so fell they all by the sword.”

Some people’s problem is that they are not paying their tithes. As they are doing so, God’s face is hidden. For some people, it is stylish anger. The face is smiling but the inside is boiling like hot water. When God hides His face, what would He be doing? He would be laughing and mocking the person and this can be terrible. These are very serious words, which I want you to take to heart and pray seriously about. The reason the enemy is sitting on so many people’s lives is because there is a seat constructed for him.  When you remove the seat the enemy has no sitting place. There is an anchor in many lives holding the devil in place. When the anchor is destroyed, one’s testimony will be a sweet sing-song.

Proverbs 1:24-30: “Because I have called, and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded. But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;  When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer, they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would none of my counsel, they despised all my reproof.”

 If we call on God and He does not answer, it is our fault. Many blame God unjustly for not answering their calls. I remember something that happened many years back. I was preaching to a girl: “You are a young girl, the only daughter of your parents and by the grace of God you brought your mother to the church. Stop going about with sugar daddies; wait and pray, and God will show you who to marry. The sugar daddy is even a Muslim and is married. Don’t do this type of thing.” In reply, she abused me thoroughly and I went my way. The job of the prophet is very simple. He merely says, “Thus says the Lord,” and if you say, “I don’t want to believe that rubbish,” no problem, you can go. The girl and the man started committing immorality and not quite long the girl got pregnant. They went to a quack doctor. There are so many quack doctors now. They are even multiplying by the day.

The reason being that many students in medical schools would only be copying notes. They would not go for lectures, instead they go to disco parties, then come to the lecture room the next morning, collect somebody else’s notebook, photocopy and memorize the notes and during the examinations come out as doctors and perform abortion as quacks. One of them handled that girl’s case. I don’t know what happened. Maybe he punctured something and the girl began to roll on the floor. On getting home, she was writhing in pain. They rushed her to the church and quickly prayer warriors gathered to pray and began to bind, loose, demolish and pull down. The more they prayed, the greater the pain. So, one of them said, “Excuse me, this girl has done something. Let her confess, if she doesn’t want to confess, let’s take her to the hospital now.” 

Unfortunately, she did not talk until she breathed her last in the hospital. That girl is now in hell fire. Why did the prayer warriors bind, loose and demolish but God did not answer them. He was not ready to answer them .Sin covered His eyes. One day, many years ago, one woman rushed into our house and called my daddy saying, “Come and pray for my son, he has fallen into a coma.” My daddy jumped out hurriedly, ran to the place, laid his hand on the boy and prayed. Suddenly, the Lord held a hand before him and he stopped praying. The Lord said, “Don’t pray for this one. If you pray and he is revived, one of your children will replace him!” Then, my daddy said, “May the Lord bless this boy, and let His face shine upon him. Amen.” As he was leaving, the woman said, “He is not breathing yet, please continue and bring him back to life.”  But my father left. The cup of iniquity was full to the brim.

One day, I was alone somewhere and a woman brought her baby girl and reported that the baby girl was funny in her behaviour that I should pray for her. Immediately I said, “Father, in the name of Jesus,” the baby that her mother said was sick, started smiling. She brought out one hand and began to rub my face. Immediately, I knew that something had been deposited there against me. That child did not last one week before she died. No prophet could pray successfully  for that kind of child. God was not ready to answer. God hides his face when we are living in sin. You may think others are not seeing you. You may think you are being clever or smart. When calamity comes, He will laugh and mock.

2. god hides his face from ignorant believers: Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” One of the greatest enemies of a believer is ignorance. The devil likes ignorant Christians, those praying the wrong prayers but God hides His face. If you are asking God to do what He is expecting you to do, nothing will happen. Many talk to God like slaves, others beg for what is theirs. If you are begging when you should command, nothing happens. Bible says, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper, every tongue that rises against you in judgement  thou shalt condemn.” The Bible does not say you should ask God to condemn it for you. There are differences between commanding, advising, saying things, begging, asking, decreeing  and pleading. The prayer of petition will not work when you are expected to command. Ignorance is no excuse in the Bible. The Bible says, “The servant who knows the will of his master and does not do it will receive many strokes, but the servant that does not know shall receive fewer stripes.” Both the one that knows and the one that does not know. For example, when one is asked: “Why did you go and sleep with a mermaid? “Or why did you use juju (charm) waist band? You may say, “I did not know that time,” but you will receive stripes that are fewer than the person who knew and said, “I want the band.”

            Sometime ago, there was a brother who desperately wanted a visa to travel abroad. Somebody took him to a herbalist who asked him to swallow pins. He said, “I am sorry, I cannot swallow these pins because they will puncture my stomach.”  But while he was still talking, there was a girl who was also desperate to travel. She put the pins inside 'fufu' (cassava meal) and swallowed them. The man then said, “If a girl could do it, why wouldn’t I?” So, he swallowed his own. He  eventually got a passport. The idea was that once he got to the immigration, no one would see him. He would just move across the border unnoticed. But when he got there, in fact, they did not only see him but also refused him entry and deported him. Then the pins began to work. They were puncturing his intestines gradually and he had stomach pains so much that he could not eat. He ran to the herbalist who said, “Well, when things go wrong like this, there is nothing I can do.” He was in pain until he came to  Mountain of Fire and Miracles meeting and a  specific word of knowledge came. All the pins then jumped out. If after swallowing those pins, he began to pray at the airport, “God of Mountain of Fire and Miracles, I want to pass through the border unnoticed in the name of Jesus.” God would hide His face. Ignorance destroys because it is another king Uzziah that must die.           

3.  god hides his face when you deny him: Mark 8: 38: “Whosoever, therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of whom also shall the son of man be ashamed when he cometh with the glory of His father with the Holy angels.”

Jesus is interceding for us at the right hand of His Father but many are ashamed to be identified with Him. Many are making themselves secret disciples. Maybe you are reading this and you belong to the group of Christians who move under the cover of night. Such people wait and smuggle themselves into our meetings because they are afraid that the coordinator or the zonal leaders of a dead church to which they belong will see them and report them. There is fear in their minds, the fear of man which the Bible says brings snare. The attitude of  “I don’t want people to know that I go there” makes one become a modern-day Nicodemus. Many people are ashamed to preach in public. They quickly hide the church sticker on their Bibles so that a preacher will not say, “Brother or sister, I have preached, you now pray.” This is the spirit of deception. Two brothers entered a bus. One told the other to stand up and preach but he refused. The bold one stood up and preached. When he finished, his colleague, who had been ashamed, stood up and said the prayers. Jesus says in the Bible that He would be ashamed of such a person. When some Christians want to marry and they are told to bring ten cartons of kolanut, wine, alligator pepper, etc., the brother may complain that those things are not scriptural. But the sister may say, “No, don’t spoil the show, we must give those things to them:”  When those things are given to them, they pour libations, call on the name of the god under the earth, and problems set in. They would then rush back to the church and say, “We need deliverance.” This is the problem, beloved. Many people are not ready to stand their ground and say, “I am a Christian, I am sorry, I cannot do this.”

A couple who wanted to get married went to see the most elderly person in the family and he said, “I heard that you are Jesus people, but let me give you a note of warning, don’t come to the engagement without bringing alcohol. If you don’t bring it, no marriage will take place.” He added that he was ready to bet his life. Then the couple came to me and said, “Dr. Olukoya, our elders have said no marriage would take place if we don’t give them alcohol, and we do not want to take a drop of alcohol there.” So, I prayed for them and charged them to go. When they got to the place, the man did not say a word. God sent the spirit of malaria to arrest him. The king Uzziah, for denying God, must die.

4.  god hides his face when we apply the traditions of men: Matthew 15:3: “But he answered and said unto them, why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?” When you follow your own tradition, you nullify the commandment of God. Verse 9 says, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men.” When you practice the tradition of men, the Bible says you are worshiping in vain. Mark 7:8: “For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition for men as the washing of pots and cup and many other such like things ye do.” Verse 13 says, “Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered and many such like things do ye.” When Jesus started His ministry, the first thing He had to battle with among the Jews, was tradition. Traditions are so hard to break and many people are still following tradition today like the baptism of babies. The doctrine of purgatory is the idea that there is one place that is not hell fire and not heaven, that when one dies, one is kept there. This is a man-made idea. There is nothing like that in the Bible.

The Bible says, “It is given unto man to die once and after that judgement.” There is no middle place. Because some people think that there is a middle place they commit sins everyday and go to confess to another sinner on Saturdays. That is the tradition of men. Wearing special uniform at Christian ceremonies are also traditions of men. On Palm Sunday, people tie palm leaves and put some around their necks, put one innocent boy on a donkey and begin to follow him. Other traditions of men include wearing crosses on the neck, confirmation, the mass, forbidding to marry or celibacy, eating only vegetables when the Bible says that Jesus ate fish and bread. Who are they following? Is it Jesus or their tradition? Heaven have mercy on all these people because as far as one does any of the above things one simply blocks the face of God in one’s life.

5. unbelief:  Jesus could not operate in His town because of their unbelief.

6. disobedience: To obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams. Incomplete obedience is the same thing as disobedience. God prefers outright disobedience to partial obedience because He will spit the partial obedience out. God will prefer that you go out fully with your sin than to be a hypocrite, because you will be blocking the way for others. God asked Abraham to get out and did not tell him to take  along with him his father or  Lot. As long as Abraham took his father along, he did not make any progress until his father died. Then Abraham began to move. God did not ask him to take Lot. Until Lot was separated from Abraham the voice of God stopped coming to him because of disobedience. If you are disobeying God, I counsel you to quickly obey because the repercussion is that He will hide His face. 

7. god hides his face when we stay out of his will: Everyone has a place in God. God has no useless or unused members. If you do not take your place in the body or the church of Christ, the body is weakened because of it. So, you cannot be coming to church and just be warming the benches. You must  actively be doing something. You have to take your place. All of us cannot be mouths, or legs. We can distribute the functions. Some people are always critical. The truth is this, in the house of God, Holy Spirit is the only one qualified to criticize. No one has the right to place himself as a referee to the word of God. Our business is to find our place in the body of Christ and fill it. Until we find that place where God wants us to operate, we would pay the price for wasting divine time. The price one pays for wasting the time of God may be expensive. It may be sickness, loss of money or discomfort. God cannot protect anyone as long as he is outside His will. So, take your place. Don’t allow king Uzziah to block your way. Life will not have any meaning for anyone who is outside the will of God. The big thing in life is to be in the will of the Father. Jesus turned water into wine, the Bible tells us. If you are not where God wants you to be, you may turn your wine into water.

8.  god hides his face when we are proud: James 4:6 : “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisted the proud and giveth grace unto the humble.” It is therefore clear that God will resist the proud, God takes an active role to resist a proud  person and block his way, disgrace or humble him. So, any proud person is playing a dangerous game. Pride was the first sin in the universe. It is the sin the devil committed. Isaiah had not seen the vision of the Lord since the beginning of his ministry, Uzziah was on the throne of his life. He focused his mind and vision on the wealth and riches of king Uzziah, He took counsel from king Uzziah. He had no time for heart-felt prayers.

            So, what is your own king Uzziah today? Is it preventing you from having a close relationship with God? Drop that Uzziah.  Let it be uprooted and destroyed. Your Uzziah may be your best friend, your best food, your hobby, or your inability to fast. The Uzziah may turn to be Delilah or Jezebel. You may say they are helping me, but they may soon become a thorn in your flesh. Take the following prayer points and continue praying them because God wants everybody to be a priest unto Him. God wants everybody to be hearing from Him, and seeing Him, not depending on somebody else before you know what your Father is saying. It is time for you to re-adjust.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   O Lord, do not be a spectator in my life, in Jesus' name.

2.   Every seed of spiritual deafness, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

3.   Oh Lord, do not be silent unto me, in Jesus' name.

4.   O Lord, open my ears so that I can be hearing from You, in the name of Jesus.

5.   Oh Lord, do something in my life that will change me, in the name of Jesus.

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When God hides His Face 1

Dr D. K. Olukoya

 

This is the first part of a two-part teaching on what I call "When God hides His face." Over the years, people have been limiting God in their lives and when they do, God hides His face from them. See the following Scriptures.

 Psalm 78:41: “Yea they turned and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.”

Matthew 13:57:58: “And they were offended in him, but Jesus said unto them, a Prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house. And he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”

Mark 6:5- 6: “And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages teaching.”

The above Scriptures show how people applied break on God. There are many areas a man can shut out God in his life. A man can prevent God from working in his favour. He can prevent Him from working in his business, spiritual life and handwork.

At a crusade, a sister came for prayers. After she had told her story, four men of God prayed in holy anger with her. As they were praying, they noticed that the woman was not saying Amen. One of them opened his eyes and saw that the woman was just looking at them. He then asked, “Madam, are you not the one we are praying for? Why are you not saying  Amen?” The woman replied that her problem was above prayer. “Then, why did you come here for prayers knowing full well that prayers cannot solve your problem?” the man queried. “I just wanted you to try, she retorted.” This is an example of how to shut out God in one’s affairs. The woman had shut out God in her life and could not expect Him to work for her.

Many years ago, I prayed every week for a sister who had asthma. God touched her and healed her. One day, she was brought back to the fellowship, wrapped up in clothes. I inquired, “What happened again?” She answered, “I don’t know, the thing has started again.” We prayed and she became okay. It took me some time before I could recognise what her problem was. After her healing, when people asked her, "How are you now?" She said, “I am not well.” Even after God had healed her, this remained her answer. By doing this, she shut God out of her life. 

God has good intentions for our lives. He did not create a failure, He created people to fulfill His divine will. But a man can decide now to carry out a spiritual abortion on God’s intention or decide to destroy what God wants to do for him. In all his missionary journeys, anytime Paul was asked about his call, he would sit down and explain what he experienced. The school of experience is a very expensive one. Anytime he talked about his ministry, he would say, “I had a call and since then, I have not been disobedient to that heavenly call." He could choose to disobey the call. He would have said, “I am not going.” But he said, “I have not been disobedient to that heavenly call.”

 Are you terminating the plan of God for your life? This led to the lamentations of prophet Jeremiah as recorded in Jeremiah 14:8-12 “O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldest thou be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name, leave us not. Thus saith the Lord unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the Lord doth not accept them, he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry, and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them, but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.”

These are very serious words of the Scripture giving us an example of when God hides His face. A person can decide to terminate the presence of God in his life. When you have terminated His presence, God, in His own divine wisdom will hide His face. That is all. Many people are on spiritual probation now but they don’t know that that is their position. Some have circulated themselves or have been circulated by household wickedness, and they wander from church to church, seeking for salvation.

But hear this. If you don’t depart from sin, that sin will depart from you after it has pushed you into hell fire. So, take a decision now. God had a good plan for Adam, which was for him to live forever. Adam was more intelligent than all the professors of this world put together. He was stronger than all the strong men in this world put together. He was to live forever. His shorts and his trousers were the glory of God. He didn’t need to wear the kind of clothes we are wearing today. He was clothed in God’s glory. But Adam aborted the plan. The divine intention for Adam’s life was frustrated.

Similarly, Samson was called to destroy the Philistines. That was the divine plan for his life, but one day he woke up and asked his parents to marry Delilah for him not because God said that was his wife, but for the reason that she pleased him well. “Marry her for me for she pleases me,” Samson said. A bad marriage is second to hell fire. That means a man can start one hell fire here and go to another one when he dies. Samson went ahead and married the unbeliever and that became his undoing. “Tell me the secret of your power so that I can destroy you,” Delilah appeared to have said.  “Marry her for me.”  And they did. But what happened?  The divine intention was frustrated. The changers of destiny landed on the head of Samson. They messed him up, shaved his hair and plucked out his eyes. He went from being a champion to being a grinder of pepper. For those who are not married yet, when you say, “Pastor, this is the person I want to marry, he may ask you whether you have prayed enough. If you answer that you have prayed every prayer, he may still tell you to go back and pray more. That “go back and pray more” means there is something fishy.

There is the testimony of a brother who brought a beautiful woman to introduce to a pastor as the one he wanted to marry. The pastor looked at the woman and noticed that she was a fish, but he did not reveal the secret to the man. He simply told him to go and pray very well. But the brother said, “I have prayed very well.” They got married and when they came back from the reception, the man said, “Let us pray”. Then he began to pray. After sometime, the sister stopped saying Amen. The brother said, “Sister, say Amen now.” The woman answered, “I don’t want to hear the name of Jesus.” It was then that the brother understood what the pastor’s question “Have you prayed very well” meant. Eli’s case was another example of when God hid His face. Eli was called to be a priest but two of his children were misbehaving. They were committing immorality inside the temple. It got so bad that God had to send a message through a small boy to the old prophet. The summary of the message goes like this: “I have decided to make you a priest in Israel, and all your children. But because your children have refused to follow my way, I will do a thing in Israel which the ears of those who hear it will tingle. I will cut off  the generation of Eli.” God really did. So the divine intention for the life of Eli was frustrated.

Saul was also called to be the first king of Israel. He started the ministry with prophecy. He was prophesying and moving in power. This moved the people to comment: “Is Saul also among the prophets?” But destiny changers landed on the head of Saul and what happened? He translated from being a prophet to a person looking for a witch. Again, the divine intention for his life was frustrated.

Solomon was called to serve God as did his father, but he decided that it was too boring to have one wife. So he married 700 of them and kept about 300 girl friends. Making 1,000.  Just imagine this: somebody who has one wife finds it difficult to maintain her but another person goes to acquire seven, three of whom are witches, three from water and only one is good. The bad six will finish the good one and the man. That is exactly what happened to Solomon. By the time the women had finished with him the divine intention for his life was frustrated. When you terminate God’s programme for your life, you end up with trouble. Pray like this: “I will not terminate God’s intention for my life in the name of Jesus.”

I know the case of a sister whom God was calling to be a prophetess to Him. The devil knew this plan and started a counter plan. Soon this girl got a handsome man who according to her, had great potentials. She dragged the man to the pastor. “When did this person get born- again?” the pastor asked. She said, “Pastor, it is you who preach to us that it is not the length of time you have been in a place that decides how strong you are.” She went ahead and married the man. The first night, the man tore all her clothes, the ones in the box and the wedding gown and the ones she was wearing. The woman kept quiet. To whom would she report?  The following morning she wore the man’s shirt and tied a wrapper that had been torn into two. The man again tore that shirt and the wrapper. It was then the woman realized that she was in trouble and she had to run away from the place. Everybody she told her story could hardly believe her because the man looked so nice and innocent, smiling all the time. Pray like this again: “I will not terminate God’s programmes for my life, in the name of Jesus.”

That ended the call of that woman. God would have a long query for her on souls that have been lost and people who have gone into danger, whom she could have prevented from entering hell. God does not accept excuses. Let that ring a bell in your spirit. It is not in His nature. Adam’s excuse for disobedience was rejected, just like your excuse, “They are the ones that made me angry,” will be rejected. The excuse that, “It is my baby that disturbs me and prevents me from doing night vigil,” will be rejected, just like “It is because we close late at work that I am not able to participate in anything and that makes me a Sunday-Sunday Christian.” Eve’s excuse for disobedience was rejected.

Moses gave 11 excuses for not wanting to lead his people out of the land of bondage. All of them were rejected. As he was putting up the balloons, God was puncturing them, just like God will puncture every balloon of your excuses, no matter how academic or logical because what is logical to man is illogical to God. The ten spies who went to spy the promised land had excuses for not wanting their people to enter that land. But they were rejected. Israel’s excuse for wanting a king like other nations was rejected. Saul’s excuse for assuming priestly duties was rejected. Jeremiah’s excuse that he was a small boy, was rejected. Elijah had excuses for hiding in a cave. He got there and complained: “Lord God, they have thrown down your altar. They have killed your prophets. I am the only one left of all your prophets and they are seeking my life to take it away. Kill me now for I am not better than my father.” If the man had wanted to die he would have waited for Jezebel. God rejected that excuse. He asked him a direct question, “What are you doing here Elijah?” Those who were invited to that wedding feast, in that wonderful parable of Jesus, all their excuses, “I have just gotten married,” “I am going to the farm,” etc. were rejected. The King said he would throw them into darkness where there would be crying and gnashing of teeth. God will reject every excuse you have for staying put in your dead church and rusting away. Many people would please their denominations but they wouldn’t please God. If you are going to a church where you are not growing spiritually and your bondage is growing stronger, get out because at the end of the day, your pastor will answer his query and you will answer yours. Maybe before reading this, you have been taking steps to do a spiritual abortion, or you have already done it, then you need to fully repent. God will not accept excuses why a husband was unable to do certain things in order to move his matrimonial home forward. When a person terminates God’s purpose for his life, the person would do the wrong things. He would conceive for the devil.

Household enemies manipulate people so much so that through remote control they send them to wrong places and give them positions. They are known variously as: Father of the church, Mother of the Church or what have you, which in itself is a curse. It is a curse because the Father of the church is in heaven. The Mother of the church is in heaven. So, why should you accept such a title? Isaiah 6:1-7: “In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another,  and said Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said  I, woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:  And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away , and thy sin purged.”

The prophet did not see God until King Uzziah died. Part of the things we have to command to die in our lives is our individual Uzziah. It is a horrible experience for God to hide His face from us. The Psalmist very often lamented about it. Psalm 10 : 1: “Why standeth thou afar off, O Lord? Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?”

For the simple fact that God is not talking to you and that He is hiding His face does not mean that He approves of what you are doing. In the same vein, that you prayed two or three prayer points and God answered them does not mean that you are His friend. There are many people in this condition.The psalmist keeps lamenting:  Psalm 89: 46: “How long LORD? Wilt thou hide thyself for ever? Shall thy wrath burn like fire?”  Psalm 88: 14: “Lord, why castest thou off my soul? Why hidest thou thy face from me?” And in Psalm 44: 24: “Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and oppression?” 

Now, let us go to a specific place where God the Father hid His face. Many of us need to tell God to reschedule us because we have been wrongly scheduled. Matthew 27 : 45 – 47: “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli lama Sabachthani? that is to say, MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME? Some of the people that stood there, when they heard that said, This man calleth for Elias.” They did not understand. Jesus was suspended between heaven and earth. The heaven had rejected Him and people of the earth had rejected Him. His Father too turned away. No wonder that song writer says, “It is fit for heaven to shut its light because the Son of God is being rejected.” 

If you have a veil on your face, the barrier that hides the face of God from you, what is the result? The fact that God is abandoning you and He is showing other people revelations about you which you yourself cannot see, shows that some mechanical and surgical work is needed in your life. No matter how you may pamper yourself, no matter what name you call yourself or what name you bear or which Bible college you attended, a veil could be on your face hiding God from you.

Psalm 104:29: “Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.” When God hides His face, trouble will follow. Let me ask you some questions: Do you see the presence of God in your life during your prayers or your Bible reading or does God look far away? Do you receive a clear picture of what God wants you to do? Or are you the kind of person who wants to apply your life to dreams, you must dream about everything? If you are like that, then your Uzziah must die. 

Many people who are coming to the house of God are backsliders. When we say backsliders, many people think we mean people who have gone back to the world, drinking, smoking, running after free women or free men. No. Backsliding is when you are not where God wants you to be. For instance, when somebody in form two is promoted to form three and he stays there till those in form one catch up with him. That is one form of backsliding. Staying in one place is also backsliding, because if you are not moving forward, those at your back would catch up with you. That means that there are many backsliders amongst us. They need to pray to move from where they are to where God wants them to be, and when they get there nobody needs to tell them. They will know. The best thing that can happen to a man is for him to see Jesus, hear Him, and listen to Him for a few minutes. This is more than what the best preacher in the world can preach to a person.

But why should God go into hiding? Good things are easier to lose than bad things. For example, when people get fire and they are excited, it is so easy to lose the fire; but bad things are so easy to keep. Assuming people in a congregation are asked one after the other to name the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ, many will fail that test. But ask them to tell you something about some advertisement on the radio or TV, some can describe them from the beginning to the end. Some can sing certain particular juju music from the beginning to the end. They sing after the devil singers, mimicking the guitars and the drums, but to name the disciples of Jesus is a problem. It shows where our priorities are. A brother was preaching a very interesting message. He said, “When the Holy Spirit was about to depart from the life of Samson, He left quietly. But when the Holy Spirit was going to come on the disciples on the day of Pentecost, He came with a great noise. When He left He did it quietly.” This means that a person can still be basking in the euphoria of worldly glory, saying “I am the Mother in Israel, I am the Coordinator, Bishop, General Overseer, the Original member, the Foundational member,” still marching around not knowing that the Holy Spirit has left him a long time ago. When the Holy Spirit was packing His luggage, the person was busy doing nothing.

PRAYER POINTS

1. Oh God, remove from my life anything that scares you away, in the name of Jesus.

2. Every strange fire burning in my life, quench now, in the name of Jesus.

3. Father Lord, establish me in every good work, in the name of Jesus.

4. Spirit of God help me and increase me in the knowledge of God, in the name of Jesus.

5. Father Lord, let your word have free course and be glorified in me, in the name of Jesus.

6. Let the Spirit of the living God reveal my innermost being to me, in the name of Jesus.

7. Father Lord, give me the eyes of understanding and enlighten me, in the name of Jesus.

8. O Lord, make perfect what is lacking in my faith, in the name of Jesus.

9. Ask for the anointing to prosper in God's work, in the name of Jesus. 

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The Profitable Burial

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Before we go into this message, I would like you to lay your hand on your chest and pray like this: My heart, cooperate with the Holy Ghost, in Jesus name.  This message is for people who are tired of the valley and desire to live a mountain top life. People come to the house of God with different motives just like all kinds of people watched our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross for different reasons. His mother was there crying, there were some sympathetic observers, and some were there to ridicule Him, saying, “Come down from the cross if thou be the Son of God.”

There were also those who were fulfilling their duty as soldiers: they killed Him because they were instructed to do so. His disciples were there too filled with fear and distress.

There are only two grounds; you are either on the mountaintop or the valley. There is no middle ground. All kinds of evil things happen in the valley. For example, that is where witches hunt people down but it is not so on the mountain.  They cannot get to the mountain because on the mountain, you find the power of Him who is taller than the tallest, mightier than the mightiest and who is the most excellent. 

One of the terrible things that could happen to a minister of God was for him to conduct a burial ceremony for a person he knew had gone to hell fire. He got there with his Bible looking at a hopeless situation. It could be sad because he would be considering what he was doing at the burial ceremony of a man who had gone to hell fire and his friends gathered there smoking cigarette, chatting or doing something that would keep them from remembering that they had come to bury their friend and afterwards they went back home for refreshment to celebrate that a person has entered into eternal prison from where he could not come out again.

Sometime ago, a man of God on his sick bed refused to see anyone. Then one man who called himself an atheist and used to preach against Christians in the town came and the man of God said they should let him in. The man was surprised. When he was out to leave, he said to the man of God. I beg sir, why is it that you turned other people back except me?”  The man said, “It is because they are Christians. I know we shall meet again but I want to say a final bye to you.” When that atheist dies, his burial will be a profitless one. The Bible says that precious is the death of the saints in the eyes of the Lord. His angels will be there waiting to take them away. We have profitable burial and profitless burial. Romans 6:14: “For sin shall not have dominion over you. For ye are not under the law, but under grace.”

We must understand that the devil has his own trinity, which comprises sin, flesh and the devil himself. There is a serious cooperation between them. Now the Bible says, that sin shall not have dominion over us. It means that we do not have to commit sin. Sin is not a necessity as far as the Bible is concerned. It is important for us to understand this very well because it is when sin is in the flesh that demons will eat it. It is when there is sin in the blood that demons will drink it up. The Bible says, “Awake to righteousness and sin not, little children, sin not.” It also says, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid.” 1 John3:8-9: “He that committeth sin is of the devil.  Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remained in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” There is no middle camp. A child of God lives according to the standard of the Bible. Romans 8:10-14: “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Colossians 3:5-7 : “Mortify your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanliness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry. For which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.”

What does the word ‘mortify’ mean? It means to make dead. What are you to mortify? Things of the earth. Your members of the earth. Kill them; let them have no more dominion over your life. When you do that, you break the trinity of the devil in your life and it will not be able to work against you. Profitable burial is when you put your body to death or mortify it. The Bible says that the flesh profits nothing, It is the spirit that quickens. You may do all kinds of things to your body. You could dress it up to any level, do manicure and pedicure or change the colour of your skin, but all that cannot change the stance of God about the flesh. He says, “Dust thou art and unto the dust thou shall return.” Meaning that the body, which is the flesh, is not interested in going to heaven. Since it is not going there, it co-operates with the devil. Please pray like this: I command every evil cooperation in my life to cease, in the name of Jesus.

There was a brother called John who really wanted to serve the Lord. In those days when people came to the altar, they prayed their way to salvation, when they finished with that, they prayed their way to sanctification and after that they pray also to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. One day, Brother John got to the altar and prayed himself to salvation, sanctification and baptism in the Holy Spirit. As he began to read his bible, he found out that there were nine spiritual gifts that one could acquire. So, he decided to go on three days dry fast on each of them and he did a dry fast for 27 days because he wanted the gifts of the Spirit. He did all that but was still not satisfied. He felt that something was still wrong somewhere. Then one day he cried unto the Lord in desperation. He said, “O Lord, change me, use me mightily. I have committed my whole life into your hands. I surrender to you completely. O Lord, use me.” He cried unto the Lord and the Lord answered and said, “For me to use you, I have to kill you first.” He asked God what He meant by that and the Lord said he should continue to pray. After sometime an angel of the Lord stood before him with a piece of paper in his hand. On the paper, were written thirty-two things that were wrong with the life of John. They were listed in order of priority. They included pride, occasional wandering thought, weak praying, etc. The Lord said to him. “You work on these and power will come.” He started again praying and fasting. Then one day as he was praying, he had a vision. An angel of the Lord said to him. “Follow me to the cemetery,” and he did. The angel told him to look at that tomb before him and he saw written on it, “Herein lies the remains of John.” He asked the angel. “But I am still standing here?” and the angel said, “Yes but you have mortified the flesh. You are dead now and I can use you to the fullest.” The reason God is unable to use many of us to the fullest is because the flesh is reigning in our lives. Our spirits have become houseboys, hence we say, “Oh the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” If you do not discipline yourself, your flesh will eventually send your spirit to hell fire no matter how weak it says it is. This is a time of serious self-examination. Galatians 2:18: “For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” Instead of many people coming to church to conduct a final burial ceremony for evil things in their lives they are busy reviving those that are about to die. When some need deliverance, they look serious, but immediately God begins to deliver them, they will start to do all kinds of terrible things. Why should you allow the resurrection of what God has pulled down in your life? If you go back to your old sin, your old problems will come back. If you say God has healed me of impotence and you go back to the prostitutes, the impotency will come back. Have you ever considered those things you should eliminate if you want to make heaven?  Have you ever asked yourself a question like, “If I want to be on the mountain top what are the things I should get rid of in my life, or do I want to remain in the valley life? Have you asked yourself if the things you should eliminate from your life are getting stronger or weaker? Have you ever asked yourself if your own level of spirituality or fire can cause a revival in your church? Do you know who you are? Do you have recognition in hell fire? Because as a child of God on fire, you should have recognition in heaven and in hell fire. Paul had recognition in both places. Paul was taken to paradise while he was yet alive. He saw what was going on there. But when the sons of Sceva tried to drive out a demon, the demon asked them a question; “Paul, we know, Jesus we know, who are you?” It could not recognize them. Do you have recognition in hell fire?

A friend of mine went to pray for somebody that was possessed. He first of all began to confess scriptures. When he confessed the first one, the demon said, “Hold on, that Bible passage you quoted is wrong. It is not like that, but like this and it can be found in so so place not in the place you mentioned.” Then the brother said, I command you to shut up, in the name of Jesus.” And the demon said, “I command you to shut up, in the name of Jesus.” The brother was very wise as he quickly put his Bible under his arm and ran away. He came to me and said, “there is fire on the mountain. I spoke to a demon and the demon spoke back. It even said in the name of Jesus.” Then I frankly told him that something was wrong with him. If you see somebody who says, “I don’t know why I am always thinking of bad things,” the simple answer is that the person is bad since the Bible says that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. If you are good, good things will come forth from you. 

Are you running away from some things? Some people are in the house of God because they are running away from something or they are after something. Are you the kind of person who comes to the house of God to seek His hand and not His face? Someone could give you something with a sad face. Have you asked the Lord why He created you? Have you asked Him your purpose in life? If you do not know your purpose in life then you are running a useless race. Did God send you here to go to school and get university degrees, marry and have children, grow old, buy a big television, and buy a big car, build houses and after that you die and go? Is that what God asked you to come and do here? He has a purpose for each life.  One of the things that makes me very sad is to be praying with a person and realize that the person is supposed to be at step 23 but the person is still sleeping on step one at that particular time. And I begin to wonder when the person will catch up. Are you making the best use of your time? Are you the kind of Christian who can chat with a friend for two hours non-stop and won’t feel sleepy at that time but when it is a spiritual activity, you sleep off? If as you are reading this message, Jesus Himself comes and sits beside you, will you recognize Him? If you meet Him in the street will you recognize Him? Will you recognize the Holy Spirit or the angel of God? They are all over the place. The Bible says in the book of Hebrews that some people entertain angels unaware. So, they are in our midst. Ask yourself, “What is my most prevailing thoughts?” Is it money, comfort, marriage, revenge or bitterness? Do you use your free time to meditate on problems, listen to satanic lectures or think about heaven? I am sorry to say that many Christians do not think about heaven at all. They forget that whatsoever will not make them to qualify for heaven will also hinder them from receiving power from God. Can God trust you? Are you His ambassador in your place of work? Can He rely on you? Is your spiritual level where God wants it to be now? If you have been going to church for five years and you are not growing, I advise you to get out and look for a place where you will grow instead of allowing them to kill you and then come to sing at your burial. Some will say it is because it was their great grandfather that laid the foundation of the church, so they cannot leave. Are you a man of conflicting vision? Are you a young man who is a dream specialist when the Bible says dream is for the old and vision for the young? When Jesus sent out His disciples, demons fled, and miracles happened. But Jesus said, “Don’t rejoice because of these.” This is why we keep telling people that the ability to speak in tongues or prophesy is not the sign of spirituality. Jesus told the disciples not to rejoice over the miracles but because their names were written in the Book of life.

It is not bad to run after money but when it takes priority over your spiritual life, then you become a satanic “Christmas goat” which the devil is just feeding to get fat, only to destroy it afterwards. Are you allowing your happiness to depend on business success? Are you grateful for even the little blessings you receive? When you received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, Did you experience serious explosion in your spiritual life?  Do you have a greater love for studying the Bible, witnessing to people, a new ability to praise the Lord or a greater love for others? Or are witches and wizards still pressing you down? Have you ever had dreams about Jesus? After all you claim that you want to reign with Him.  Have you ever seen heavenly visitors? Or are you one of those who will find themselves glued down when rapture happens?

God has a purpose for your life, a plan, which you are not following because you do not know since you cannot hear Him because of too much of the flesh. God can remove things from a person’s life to get his attention and immediately He gets his attention, He will return everything that has been removed. But if the person fails to give Him attention, He will remove more things and push the person around. In such situations, it is useless to blame the devil or the herbalist. If the herbalist or devil is fighting you, there is no problem because your arrows of fire are enough to defeat them. Even if a pastor places a curse on you, a higher person in the Lord can cancel it. But when God is against a person nobody can help the person.  Since you received the baptism in the Holy Spirit do you still see yourself being threatened in the dream and you are running away? Do you have a clear direction and purpose for your life now? Is there joy in your life whether you have money or not? There is something called the joy of salvation. This joy is inside those who are genuinely saved. They are confident that no matter what happens or how pleasant or terrible, or how good or bad things are, they have a master who can never fail. Do you pray as much as you worry about your problem? Do you value God’s choice more than your own choice? Do you make up your mind and just ask God to put His stamp on it not caring about His will? Do you still believe the promises of God when all you see around you are contrary? Is there anybody you dislike? If there is, you are not going to heaven unless you begin to like the person no matter how terrible the person may be. You may hate the evil in the person but you just have to like the person. The Bible says that if your enemy is hungry, give him food, if he is thirsty, give him water, for by so doing you put hot coals of fire upon his head. How much have you grown spiritually in the first one year?   Have you grown in the knowledge of the Bible, wisdom and discernment? Are you deceiving yourself? How did you receive your calling? Did you go to a school where you were taught one or two things about the Bible and you now say you are a pastor? Pastors, teachers and prophets are not made in Bible Colleges, it is by divine appointment. Have you improved in your understanding of other people? Have you improved on your ability to cope with pressure and problems?

If Christ should come now to take you away, will you be ready to go or will you say, “ I am sorry Sir, I am not ready yet.” Ask yourself if you are raptureable in your present condition. This is not the issue of church post. Many people will find out that all the church posts they are pursuing and are killing themselves for now are just like labels on bottles when they get to heaven. God will tear off the labels because He is only interested in the contents of the bottle. If God looks inside the bottle of your life, what will He find? Does your life bring glory to God?  Is your life fragmented or together? Are you lazy? Do you spend your time in a fruitful manner? Are you the one controlling your habit or your habit is controlling you? What have you done in the last one week to further God’s kingdom? Are you spiritually lazy? Are your thoughts and imagination holy? Are you honest and pure in your business deals or do you tell what we call business lies? God will not change His standard because of one person. A lot of people are lost inside the church. What good things have you promised to do for God? Some people will vow that they will do this and that for God only to fail at the end of the day. How many people have you led to Christ since you got born again? How many people do you pray for? Do you offer selfless service? Do you place your personal opinion above God’s will for your life?

A lot of people are lost. Sometime ago, in a church where I used to be, the Lord showed us the real vision of the congregation. In that vision, some people were wearing their left leg shoes on their right legs. Some wore their clothes upside down. Some of the women were wearing trousers. Some were beating drums. It was a pitiable situation. However, the praise worship of the church was wonderful physically. We did not know that as long as God was concerned, the praise worship was not getting above the roof. Some wives of church workers and some pastors’ wives are lost because they have refused to yield themselves completely to the Holy Spirit. Do you hand over the affairs of your life to the Holy Spirit? How do you communicate with God? Did you talk to God about what you are putting on now? As a sister, was it God that said you should proceed to the market and buy yourself lipsticks, false nails, and extra attachment for your hair because the ones you have are too short? Or do you think those kinds of details are not supposed to be told to God.  Recently, I asked somebody if he has received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and he said, “Yes by faith.” I said No. That is not it. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you do not need faith to know it has come. You will know that something has happened to you. How can God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit enter into somebody and the person says he is not aware. There is nobody who comes under the fire of God and remains the same. Even people around you will notice that something has happened to you. Does your lifestyle or attitude towards people attract people to Christ or drive them away? Some people fight with their neighbours, as if they want to leave in this world alone and after sometime, they will start singing. “I am in that number, I am in that number, saved by grace.” Such people will tell you that they like minding their business after they have fought with everybody instead of praying that the Lord should deliver them from the spirit of strife. If all of us decide to mind our business nobody will preach the gospel. In fact, all preachers are experts at not minding their business. Beloved, think about it.  Have you ever asked yourself why your deliverance is taking so long? It may be because you have not succeeded in overcoming the flesh. Remember that the flesh is the food of the enemy. It may also be due to the fact that you are protecting your enemy through pride, stubbornness and stylish disobedience. Some of our sisters are stylishly disobedient. The Bible’s rule for marriage is that when a husband tells his wife to shut up, she should do so. Anything outside that is rebellion. The wife may say, “But I am not a fool, that is why I went to school,” forgetting that she did not marry her certificate. I am yet to see a woman that was seriously beaten up by her husband for not talking. In Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, we do not teach women to fight their husbands or to argue with them.  We only teach them not to comply when they are told to commit sin.  For example, some husbands ask their wives to go and buy them Indian hemp. Some even encourage their wives to do prostitution to bring in money.  Will you allow your enemy to laugh you to scorn? Why should you allow your enemy to grind you to powder because you want to please men? Why are you so concerned about your outside appearance when your inner part is useless before God? If everybody was blind and you are the only person who can see, will you still be painting your lips? A sinning man will stop praying and a praying man will stop sinning. Since the Holy Spirit has brought you to the Lord, why do you want to put your new wine into your old wine skin?

It is sad but true that many people who come to church are not broken. They argue with men of God. There are many people that are confirmed prophets and prophetesses of God, but are still busy taking soft drinks with straws and pursuing a life of comfort. If you attend MFM for 3 months and there is no change in your life, it means that you are holding on to something that God wants you to drop. If I with my own hands build up what I have destroyed, the Bible says, I myself am a transgressor. God knows those who come to church and are still living in adultery and fornication. Matthew 5:27-32: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time. Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you. That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offends thee, cut it off and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell fire. It hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced commiteth adultery.” In MFM we do not encourage breaking people’s homes. We prefer joining homes together.  Therefore, conduct a final burial ceremony for every fleshy attachment now. All the ungodly things that have died in our lives must be buried. God is not interested in your makes ups, jewelries, chains, bangles and hair attachment. He is interested in your spirit. If you decide to make yourself a deliverance candidate, that is your business. Anyone who wants to keep his or her demons can keep them. When trouble comes, those people you want to please can only tell you sorry. They will abandon you to your fate.

What are you doing with the flesh? It is the enemy in our camp. It is the strongest member in our lives that builds a camp for the enemy.  The Bible says, “Mortify it.” Pray against it until it is dead, resist it until it is dead. When the flesh is dead, you will not know whether somebody is looking at you somehow. You won’t even know whether people are gossiping about you. Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ nevertheless, I live…” So Paul died a long time ago. No wonder the devil could not defeat him. When the devil fires his arrow at some people and sees pride or anger, it enters their bodies quickly. Such people would be complaining that they do not know why their problems persist.  Have you mortified the flesh? Do you make conscious effort backed by the power of the Holy Spirit to see that every power and activity of the flesh dies in your life? Some people say, “I have already made up my mind about the person I want to marry. She must have long legs and neck.” After they have done that, they start to search. Sooner or later they will say, “I saw this sister or brother in my dream and God says he is His will for me.”  God did not say so. It is the picture they have in their mind that became a dream. They manufacture things and say that God said to them. We will know very soon those who are lying against God.

However, if you do not allow God to execute your flesh then you are going to watch another execution very soon. I wonder if you have watched execution. It is bad enough to watch somebody die a natural death but it is worse to see somebody being executed. Every reader of the Bible knows that God did a lot of execution in the Bible and there are so many people who are executing themselves. Jesus too was executed. There will be a permanent execution one day. The Bible says that everyone shall give an account before the throne of God, both young and old as long as they are of age of accountability and a book shall be opened and another book shall be opened. If any man’s name was not found written in the Book of life, he will be cast into the lake of fire. It does not matter whether the person is a pastor, general overseer, superintendent, or senior apostle. God is not a respecter of any man. Will you now say that you did not hear the truth?

 

HOW TO CONQUER THE FLESH

1.    The first thing to do is to vomit the power by which the flesh is failing you.

2.    You have to pray for cleansing by the blood of Jesus.

3.    You need to pray for the baptism of fire.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.    O Lord, change me to what you want me to be, in Jesus’ name.

2.    Every darkness in me, disappear now, in the name of Jesus.

3.    The power to execute the flesh, come upon me now, in Jesus' name.

4.    I crucify the flesh, in the name of Jesus.

5.    I bury all the activities of the flesh, in the name of Jesus.

Candidates for heaven and hell

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

  

Luke 16:19-31: “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and  fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores.  And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom the rich man also died and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.  And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.  But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things:  but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.  And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore,  father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest  they also come into this place of torment. Abraham said unto him, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.  And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.  And he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”

          This was not a parable but a real life story told by Jesus. Both men actually existed, for the Bible says there was a certain rich man. There was actually a rich man and there was indeed a Lazarus. Beloved, know today that there is great danger in your not being sure of your salvation. And if you cannot make up your mind which way you are going, you are not sure whether it is heaven or hell, then you are on your way to hell because those on their way to heaven know it. And it is very good to understand these things now.

            This message is for two groups of people: those who are candidates for heaven and those who are candidates for hell. You can divide the whole Christians into those two groups any day anytime. In the above story, the rich man died and when he opened his eyes, he found himself in hell fire. Lazarus also died and found himself in the bosom of Abraham.  Then the man shouted to father Abraham, “I am tormented in this place, let Lazarus put his hand in water and cool my tongue.” Abraham said, “No, it is not possible. There is a great gulf between you and us. You cannot come here. Apart from that, while you enjoyed yourself in the world, Lazarus suffered. So, while you are now suffering, he is enjoying.” What Abraham was telling him was that  there was no remedy at all. My prayer is  that you would not push yourself to a stage where the issues of your life will have no remedy. Saul got to that stage and God said, “I regret making Saul a king. He has disappointed me.” Samuel cried to the Lord all night: “Father, please.” God said, “Talk no more to me about this matter. I have made up my mind.” And that was it. He had got to the point of no return.

          You may ask, “Why did the rich man go to hell fire?” Luke 16:19: “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day.” Was it because he was rich? No,  Abraham was also a rich man. He  was rich in cattle and all kinds of things. So, a rich man can make heaven if the money does not become his idol, if he does not place that money above God, and if he learns the principle of giving out, not the principle of hoarding the money. Did the rich man go to hell because he was clothed in purple and fine linen? No. Being well-dressed is not a sin. Was it because he ate good food? No. Food is useful to the physical body. Was it because he did not look after the beggar at his door?  No. No one can look after all the beggars in the world. The reason was that at a stage in his life, he had said no to Jesus repeatedly. People like him would always argue and would  have no time for God.

          A long time ago, somebody died at the age of  70. Someone analyzed the 70 years he lived. He slept 23 years, worked 16 years, watched television 8 years ate 6 years, spent about 6 years  travelling and 4 years on leisure, was ill for 4 years, spent 2 years dressing up, and 2 years on  prayer and religious activities. So, this person was a likely candidate for hell fire. Candidates for hell fire can be known by the way they spend their time.

          Many of us deceive ourselves. If you go to a big stadium, you will find many people there. If you touch a young man and say, “Who is likely to die first in this place?” He would look for people with grey hair, whereas age does not follow at all. A visit to the mortuary will convince you. Sometimes, you don’t find a person with grey hair in a whole mortuary. You may think you have time,  but you don’t really have time. So, you must take a decision. Do you really have time for Jesus? Remember that each day we spend here takes us either nearer to heaven or nearer to hell fire.

          That rich man opened his eyes and found himself in hell fire. Death is a leveller. It levels everybody. It does not recognize the high or the low and it cannot be bribed. You can’t give it money. One professor prayed for a child for a long time. Then his wife got pregnant, and then put to bed. They brought the man the news that his wife was delivered of a bouncing baby boy.  He was so happy that he jumped up for joy, and by the time he got down, he was dead. He had what is called rupture of the vessel supplying blood to the brain. And that was it. Another man was shaking hands with his friend, saying, “Congratulations, you have just received a major award.” Suddenly, the man found out that his friend was not talking to him again. He was dead. Death is a leveller.

          So, this is the time to make yourself worthy of God’s calling. The rich man opened his eyes and found himself in hell fire. The Bible does not tell us that there is purgatory, a place which is neither heaven nor hell, and that you can stay there while somebody prays for you in the church and you eventually go to heaven. This is not in the word of God. Somebody who has no time for God but has time to look for money will pay dearly for it. The rich man had no time for God. His offering was always low. He did not attend fellowship neither did he pray. He did not bother to receive the Holy Spirit. But the other man had time for God, although he was poor. So, how do you spend your time? Time is one of the greatest gifts that God gives to us, and He gives everyone the same quantity of time. Your 60 minutes is my 60 minutes, your 60 seconds is my 60 seconds. But time is a perishable gift. Once you lose it, you lose it for ever. Your spiritual power is an indication of how you use your time. A fool may waste money but the greatest fool wastes his time. If somebody wastes 15 minutes every hour, and the person lives 100 years,  he would have wasted 25 good years of his life. So, to find out what a man worships and where he is going, study how he distributes his time. Does God have the largest share of your time? If it is money, do you spend most of it in serving God? If you spend your time to sleep with sister ‘A’ on Monday, B on Tuesday, C on Wednesday and so on  till Sunday before you get to your wife at home, you know where your are heading for. Can you account for the way you spend your day? Are you the type who does two hours work in four hours? Or you are the kind of believer who still has the time to be angry? Have you time to be moody, or to be gossiping and complaining? Or are you the type of Christian who talks too much, you say 200 words per minute? Do you say useless things or make purposeless visits?  Examine how you spend your time. Do unworthy things take up most of your time? Do spiritual things take less of your time? The activities you spend your time on most, will indicate where you are going.  Is it prayer? Bible study? Working for Christ? Witnessing or are you always idle? Are you one of those who worship the god of sleep, the god of entertainment, the god of television, or the god of games? Many people are addicted to television shows and the devil uses that opportunity to plant many arrows into many people’s lives because they substitute the time for prayer in watching television.

          People who say no to Jesus are people who refuse to give their lives completely, and they are candidates for hell fire. Remember that life is a one-way street. You can’t go back and correct what you have done. There is no repentance in the grave. So, if you keep saying no to Jesus, you will find yourself in hell fire. Judgment will begin in the house of God. It won’t begin in the film houses, it won’t begin in the house of those who claim to be worshipping the LORD.  In case today you have any malice against anybody, go immediately and settle with the person. Tell the person, “You did so, so and so to me and I didn’t like it,” because if Jesus finds that malice in your heart, you are a candidate for hell fire. No unclean thing shall enter heaven. God loves His people so much that He will not allow a single sinner to enter into heaven with them. The wages of sin is eternal separation from God. God is no respecter of persons and He has no useless activities.

          There was a girl, whenever her parents went to church, she showed no interest. She found more pleasure in her boyfriend who was in Form Two. Not quite long this boy put her in a family way. Then the girl said, “I cannot find my menses.” The boy said, “Search for it.” After three months, it was known that she was pregnant. Then the boy went to one of those local chemists, a person who had no medical experince, and bought a syringe and drugs which they told him to give the girl. After sometime, he asked her, “Have you found the thing?” She said, “I have not found it.” He  told her that he had something and the girl who had no time for church services, submitted herself to the boy to administer the injection. Then trouble started. They carried her all over the place, and she eventually died. Before her death, she confessed that somebody gave her an injection. Her  parents threatened to take the boy to court for manslaughter. But people advised them, “You are wasting your time. Where is the evidence? Who was there when he administered the drug?  You better forget it. Your daughter has gone for good.” The girl had no time to follow her parents to church. She had time to go to hell fire.

          One sin God can never forgive anybody is saying no to Jesus. Are you a candidate for hell fire? You better repent now. There is an opportunity now.  Or are you a candidate for heaven? 

Let us see how to recognise candidates for heaven.

1. They do the will of God: Matthew 6:10: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”  So, candidates for heaven are those who do the will of the Father. They don’t do their own will. They will not allow the foolish things here to prevent them from getting home. Hebrews 11:15-16: “And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”  The Bible says that if they put their minds where they had left, they would have had cause to go back. That is, the people who are heaven-bound  will not be remembering and be boasting about their lives as unbelievers.  They would not be saying for instance; “You are very lucky that I am  now born again.” If you had done this to me when I was not born again, the ground would have been higher than you now. You just praise God that I am now again.” They boast about their old lives. Any small thing you do, they would say: “Is  this what you are going to do to me in this place? I am not coming here again. People don’t even greet me. I am not coming again.” To candidates who are heaven-bound, the will of God is natural. They do not have to be pressurized. at all. It becomes just a natural thing for them to do. Once God says something, that settles it. No matter their own opinion, they drop it.  

2. There is no way that earthly powers can harm them: John 3:31: “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.” Those who are born again have come from heaven, and there is no way the earthly can harm them. They are masters over witches, wizards, juju (charm), and all the powers of the herbalists. If you are afraid of juju, and of witches and wizards, I am unhappy to tell you that you are on your way to hell, because candidates for heaven don’t suffer from such things.  The Bible says that a sinner is running while no one is chasing him. Such is the lot of people who are candidates for hell.

3. They are fools for Christ: Isaiah 35: 8: “And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those:  the way fairing men, though fools, shall not err therein.” They are fools for Christ. They are not wise in their own eyes, they are not wise in the deceit and the counsel of the world. That is why Peter in his first message, when he was preaching on the day of Pentecost,  told the Jews that God came in the image of His Son, and that they killed Him by their wicked hands. The Bible says that when they heard this, they were pricked to their heart, and they cried out: “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said, “Repent and be ye baptised, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus, and you shall receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost.” The Bible says that with more words he exhorted them to save themselves from that crooked generation. If one is not careful about this generation, he will find himself where he does not want to go.                 By the way candidates for heaven dress, other people will call them foolish people. By the way they walk, they would be called foolish people. By the way they pray, they would be called foolish people. By the way they refuse to react when people want to make them angry they would be called foolish people. Many people abuse them but when they refuse to be angry, they call them fools. The Bible says, “Though they are fools, they will not miss it.”  

4. They do not steal God’s money: Matthew 6:19-21: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt,  and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” So, the candidates for  heaven will not steal God’s money. They will give more than is required of them. Most believers today are not even giving enough. They are crying that they want financial breakthrough, can they get it when they are not giving? For the fact that you are hoarding  money,  the LORD allows devourers to take it away from you. You may spend 250 naira on one drug. Candidates for  hell will always steal God’s money for carnal purposes. Their hearts are where their money is. But those who are banking with God in heaven, will go to heaven. So, think about this.

5. They live holy lives, not dirty lives: Hebrews 12:14: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the LORD.”  It does not  say, “No man shall see miracles, but that no man shall see the LORD.” It does not say that no man can see vision, or can prophesy, or can even see the supernatural power of God working, but that no man shall see the LORD without holiness.  Think about this.

6. They are already living in  heaven now: Some of the worldly songs that are in our hymn book should be removed from there. A popular one says: "When I get home My sorrow will be over."

If it is not over here, it is not likely to be over when you get there. Believers are not supposed to be living carnally, but experiencing the life in heaven. If you are one to reign with Jesus for 1000 years but you have never seen His pictures, you have never seen His angels, you are always seeing masquerades and you want to reign with Him, how will you do it? You ought to start living in that heaven now. 2 Corinthians 12:2-5 says, “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.  And I knew such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will I glory; yet of myself I will not glory but in mine infirmities.”  Paul said, if you want to boast, that should be your boasting. Somebody who was alive was caught up to paradise to see what was happening there. Many believers are afraid of dying. It is necessary to find out from them where they want to go. Apostle Paul says in Philipians 1:23, “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better.” Verse 24 says, “Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.” So, the reason Paul was still alive was because he wanted to continue to minister to the people, not because he did not want to go to heaven. He was in a position to go or to stay. That was the life of somebody already living in the spirit.  Peter also knew when he was going to die. 2 Peter 1:14: “Knowing that shortly I must put to this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me.” He knew what he was going. There was a man of God in America called Godwin Peterson. As he was preaching one day he said: “Ladies and gentlemen, I am going home.” They did not understand what he was saying.  He went back to his seat,  sat down and  was gone. He  knew when he was going to die. That was somebody living in the spirit.

          Beloved, I want you to take a decision within you. Where are you heading for?  Is it hell or  heaven?  If it is heaven, you have heard. The Bible says that precious is the death of the righteous. This means that some deaths are useless to God. You have to check up where you belong. If your mind is too much in the world, the world will hold you down here. But if your mind is in heaven, then that is where you are going. Have you been saying no to the voice of the Holy Spirit on the faults He has been pointing out in your life? Where are you going?  Religion cannot save you. You say you are confirmed in a church.  Is there confirmation in the Bible? Can confirmation save you?  If you have not repented and they baptised  you, what happened was that you went into the pool as a dry sinner and came out as a wet sinner. There is therefore no difference between you and somebody who went to the swimming pool to have a bath. Church membership cannot save anybody. Many people will discover that too late.  “I belong to this, I belong to that,”is not relevant to God at all. What is relevant to God is whether your name is in the Book of life. So, if  now you have a feeling of secret, selfish pride, or pride about your position in life, you are not on your way to heaven. If you feel that an important and independent spirit is within you, or you are bitter over something that has passed which you cannot forgive, or you have no hunger for God at all or that anger is still stiring up inside your spirit, that your spirit is so sensitive and touchy, that people try to avoid you because they know you may spark off at any moment, or you have an unteachable spirit and you refuse to be taught, then you are not on your way to heaven. If you are always complaining or you like being noticed, you are not on your way to heaven. Or are you compromising your faith because of money?  Are you so unstable in the faith and you are afraid of God, of Christ and of the Bible? Do you love human praise and find fault with every other person? Or do you criticise things that you cannot do well? Think about all these.

          The rich man prayed too late. He prayed to father Abraham: “Let someone go unto them from the dead and they will repent.” Abraham refused to ask God to send back people from the dead.  We are very fortunate in this country. God has been generous to us. He has  been sending back people from the dead to talk to people here. It is not even enough to say, “I believe God,” or “My heart is clean.” The Bible says, “Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well,  for the devil also believeth  and he trembles.” Evil spirits have a strong malice against the children of men. They know that they are going to hell fire, and they don’t like the idea that sons of men are going to heaven. They don’t like the fact that hell fire was not created for man, but for the devil and his angels. 

            I remember the story of that man who wanted to steal a goat. He took his four children and said to them: “You hide there, you hide by my left, you hide at my back, you hide by my right.  If you see anybody coming, give me a sign that I will quickly stop whatever I ‘m doing. ”But as he moved  to catch the goat, one of the children exclaimed, “Papa, wait, wait.” The man said, “What is the matter? Is somebody coming?” The child said, “No, who is watching this way?” He pointed to the sky. In other words the father had taken care of the north, east, south and west but the small child pointed to and asked about heaven? How about God? Does He not see you? The man left the goat. Those of us who think we can hide anything from God deceive ourselves.

          It is not a sign of spiritual maturity when you are living above your experience, and you refuse to call the LORD to deliver you when you need deliverance. Do you say no to Jesus? It is time for you to repent. The invisible hand of death can come at any time.  That somebody is healthy at night does not mean that he will wake up the next morning. The thought that there is no visible danger does not mean there is security. The arrows of death are flying morning, noon and night.  The sharpest eyes cannot see them. Unbelievers and sinners are walking over the pit of hell fire. The pit may collapse at any time. The Bible says we brought nothing to this world, and it is certain that nobody will go with anything. One woman died in America at a time she had 10, 000 dresses in her wardrobe. When her relatives auctioned the dresses, they made 40, 000 dollars. But do you know how many of the dresses they used for her burial? Three! Out of the 10, 000. Think about this. Psalm 49:16: “Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; for when he dieth, he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.”

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   Father Lord, deliver me from carnality so that the flesh will not destroy me, in Jesus’ name.

2.   Father Lord, cut away from me all the chains and stings of iniquity, in Jesus’ name.

3.   Spirit of the living God, fall afresh upon me, in the name of Jesus.

4.         Father Lord, restore to me all my blessings that I have lost through sin, in the name of Jesus.

 

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The need for revival

Dr D. K. Olukoya

         ln I John 2:18, Apostle John writing to Christians, said, "Little children, it is the last time: and as  ye have heard that the antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time."

       Suppose somebody tells you as you are reading this bulletin that you have only one hour to live, what would you do? You may probably sit down and cry: “O God, why now? I have not done much. I don’t have a car, I don’t have a house, I don’t have this, I don’t have that.” Some people in that state may immediately take a biro and begin to write their will. Some will buy a carton of beer and start to drink. Many will kneel down and begin to confess their sins immediately. Others will ask for their best meal. Very few people will thank God: “O God, I thank You, I’ve got one hour to live and I want to spend it praising your name.” This is because the priority of most Christians is totally wrong. Their priority is not centered on where they will spend eternity.

          In that 1 John 2:18, we read the warning, “Children this is the last time.” This warning is applicable to us today. God warns His people and He has His reasons for doing so all the time. But once the patience and long suffering of God has been exhausted, judgment follows immediately.

       Let us look at the five reasons God warns men. These are also the reasons we need to be revived:

 

1. One day all men will stand before God to give account of their lives. Beloved, this is the only time you have to convince God that you are serious with Him. He will not accept excuses from anyone. Will you say that the blood of Jesus has no power or that the Holy Spirit does not exist? Or that you do not have a Bible? What will you say to God whose eyes can see everything? He can see the cleverly concealed intents of  the heart. God is warning: “Behold, I am coming one day and you will give account of everything you have done. Even if it was for this purpose alone, everybody should seek to be revived and spend the time they have now to convince God that the blood of His Son over their lives has not been shed in vain. This alone should cause you to be serious with whatever you are doing for God. It should cause you to do your best for the Master, so that at the end of the day when you stand before His throne He can, say “Welcome, thou good servant, enter into the joy of thy master.” If you miss out on this, all other miracles you have collected are useless because this is the key-miracle. How wonderful will it be if we all should stand before the judgment seat of Christ and He begins to shake our hands saying, “Well done, good servant. Take your crown, take your reward.” And how disastrous too will it be on that day for somebody to be pointing at others saying, “O Lord, that was the person I converted. Now, you are giving him three crowns and I don’t have any.” The Bible says God will test everything we are doing for Him with fire. And that if any man’s work stands he shall receive a reward. But if it burns, he himself shall be saved but as one that passeth through fire. And there is none that passes through fire and doesn’t get hurt. That is the first reason God warns.

 

2. The existence of a place called hell fire. It is a most horrible fact that many people would prefer not to look at the issue of hell fire in the Bible. But the Bible gives it a prominent place. Even our Lord, the tender, lowly, forgiving, merciful and healing Jesus, talked about hell fire. In the Old Testament, you won’t find much about hell fire, satan, devils and demons because satan was trying to hide the facts about them from people then. It was when Jesus came that He began to talk about these things. In fact, the first time hell fire was recorded  in the Bible was when the ground opened and Korah, Dathan and Abiram went to hell fire alive. So most information about hell fire was revealed by Jesus Himself. The kind, tender, lowly, healing, comforting Jesus talked a lot more than anybody else about hell fire. Mark 9:43-48: “If thy hand offend thee cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. If thy foot offend thee, cut it off. It is better for you to enter halt into life than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. It is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.”

      Is Jesus asking people to cut away their hands and legs and pluck out their eyes physically? No. What He is saying is that, no matter how useful or beneficial something is to you, if it is going to prevent you from entering into heaven, do away with it. Jesus makes it very clear that men would be cast into a place of darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Remember the parable of the rich man who was very comfortable while he was on earth and poor Lazarus who had sores and was feeding from the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. But when the end came, Lazarus went to the bosom of Abraham and the rich man went to hell fire. Both of them then saw the reality of life. A lot of people who believe that Christians are not being realistic today, will know better later. Some are even saying that hell fire is not real. They will believe when they get there. The important thing is that Jesus has said it. And we know that the voice of Jesus is God’s voice. Any man who takes the word of God lightly is doing so at his own peril.

     The book of Revelation tells us that the unjust would only come out long enough to receive judgment and punishment and go back to the same hell fire. So, when somebody dies, two things can happen. One, if he is a born again child of God, he goes to stay in paradise waiting for the time when we shall be raptured and he or she shall be brought down to us, because the Bible says Jesus is coming down with His saints. But if the person is still committing just one sin, (I do not say two)  because the devil was thrown down from heaven because of just one sin (pride), he will go to hell. Some people are committing a lot of sins and they hope to be in a better place than the devil. Unfortunately, such people would find themselves in hell fire where their worms do not die and the fire is not quenched.

        If God shows you a picture of heaven and a little bit of hell fire, you will never remain the same. You will vow that nothing will take you to hell fire. I am sure you do not want to go and keep those who are already there company. You don’t have to go there unless you wish to. This is the solemn truth which all true preachers of the word must tell people.

        Sometime ago, one medical doctor died and his wife, who is also a medical doctor, refused to give him up as dead and started praying. The man died around 6.00 P.M. and the wife kept praying until about midnight. People begged her to let them take the corpse to the mortuary, that he was dead and there was nothing anybody could do about it. The woman said, “No, this is not my covenant with God the Father. He is not going anywhere.” She refused to allow them to take the corpse away and prayed till the next morning. At around 9 a.m. the following day, the man opened his eyes and told this story:

       He said immediately he died, he saw a thick darkness. The darkness was so thick that you could cut it with a knife and as he was going, he felt a creature grab him by the right hand and another one by the left hand and they were pulling him along. After sometime, he began to feel hot on the way. In his heart, he said he could not be heading for heaven from what he was feeling. So, he began to tell the creatures holding him, “Leave me alone, I am a Christian. I am born-again. Leave my hands alone. I am not supposed to go to hell fire because the Bible says so.” They did not answer. They just dragged him along until he got to the gate of hell fire. He said the way human beings were being turned into hell fire was as if a tipper load of sand was tipping sand on the ground. As they were about to push him inside and he was crying bitterly, a voice sounded from above: “Release him!” So the two creatures released him and ran away quickly. He said the devil then came out and said, “O God, you have no right to take this man into heaven because he is free from all sins apart from one, and that particular one is immorality of the heart. (That was all.) For that reason You have no right to take him into heaven.” God said, "Yes, Mr devil, you are correct. I am not taking him into heaven. He is not qualified to be there. But at the same time I won’t allow him to go into hell fire. Look at this woman praying.” So the man was released for the wife’s sake. This man has abandoned his medical practice. He is now going about preaching the gospel and telling the story.

       God have mercy on those who do not want to believe that there is heaven and hell and those who would blame others instead of blaming themselves.

 

3. The glory of heaven.  John14:2: “In my Father’s house there are many mansions. If it were not so I would have told you; I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also.” 1 Corinthians 2:9: “But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”

          Personally. I do not want to miss that for any reason. It says, eyes have not seen, nor ears heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, meaning that human imagination has not even captured the kind of preparations God is making for us. Beloved, there is no enjoyment here. It is not wise to leave what God has prepared for us. A lot of people think enjoyment is dancing in the street till midnight, drinking beer and giving their liver hard job to do. The liver of a person who drinks beer will be working all the time to remove the poison from his body. That is what worldly people call enjoyment. Some of the men whose sex organs are snakes stand in the streets and dance with women whose sex organs come from the river. That is what they call enjoyment. They remove all the bright lights and put the dark ones there so that special evil anointing can be transferred. That is ‘enjoyment.’ Then they dance to music energized by the devil. I don’t call all that enjoyment, but suffer-head.  If God takes you to heaven to listen to songs, you will know what real music is. It is enough to get people revived.

          In 1975, God took me to heaven and I saw the joy on the faces of people there and many other wonderful things. I will never forget the joy on their faces. It cannot be likened to anything. I wanted to jump inside and join them but one man said, “No, not yet. You have not done your work. You have to go back.” When I woke up and found myself on my bed, I was crying. I did not want to come back here and face the W.A.E.C.

        This is the last hour. Any believer who notices that the same fear that was in his life before he got born again is still there now, it means he is not growing. If your faith is still as elementary as it was when you first accepted the Lord, if your knowledge of God is still second handed and you do not have a personal encounter with the Lord, you are not growing. If in your life as a Christian, you have never really used the name of Jesus to defeat any evil in anybody’s life or in your own life, you are not growing. This is one of the reasons God is warning. He does not want you to miss heaven. He wants you there because He wants your fellowship. He likes to relate to us. That is why the Bible says “I your God, I am a jealous God.” God is jealous when other things are sharing you with Him. And as far as God is concerned, if majority comes to Him, no problem. If majority decides not to come, He will make do with the minority. God is interested in quality not quantity.

 

4.The disappointment and unhappiness in the world. 1Timothy 6: 7: “For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” We will go back the way we came. If a corpse is dressed up in rich and wealthy garments, that only means calling a big party for the termites which will eat the things up. In fact, in some places now, if you are not careful and you dress your corpse too gorgeously, workers at the cemetery will steal both the dress and the coffin.

          The present world is a failure and this fact is not hard to prove at all. Homes have failed. One in every five marriages break down. Many couples live like strangers in the home. And children brought up in such environments rarely do well. The children too go out and get married and the same circle is repeated. Schools have failed. Secondary school students go about with contraceptives. Some of them are sniffing tobacco and cocaine.

        When I was teaching in the secondary school, all the young girls used to regard me as the most wicked teacher in the school. And what was my offence? My offence was that when the school closes and I see any student messing around with any teacher, I chase them home. The teachers that were meant to repair people’s lives were busy spoiling them. There was a time one of the teachers made a pass at one of the students who was a Christian. He gave her a description of his house on paper and the girl brought it to me. So, I took it to the principal and said, “Excuse me sir, this is bad. How can a teacher be doing a thing like this?” So the principal set up a committee to investigate the matter. The teacher denied ever giving  her such a description and said the girl should know that she would not pass Mathematics in that school. The teachers in the disciplinary committee made comments. I almost collapsed when the vice- principal said, “We all do it. But if they don’t agree, you don’t force them.” Then I rose up and said, “Look, if you are set up here to help people grow and do good in life  and you purpose in your hearts to spoil their lives, it shall be so with your own children."

       Those who are saved know themselves and those who are going to hell know themselves. Those with the spirit of anger, bitterness, pride, stealing, lying, double standards and hypocrisy are not going to heaven, unless we want to deceive ourselves. In this world, we must be able to differentiate between those who are going to heaven and those who are going to hell fire. Acts 10:34-35: “Then Peter opened his mouth and said, of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. But in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” Those that will be judged most are men because it can be seen from God’s word that the first human being God created was a man. The man is the head of all God’s creatures. God made man head of the woman. Even Jesus came into the world as a male. Check up all the strong prophets of the Bible, they were males. All the 12 apostles were male. Man is supposed to lead the country and the family. The head is very important to the body and men will bear the heavier part of God’s judgment if they are not careful.

          As a man, are you playing your role or  has it been turned upside down? Are you able to control your home like Abraham? God trusted Abraham and said this about him in Genesis 18:19, “For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment. That the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him.” So the promises that God made to Abraham were dependent upon the fact that he was able to control his household. Remember God changed his promise to Eli because of Eli’s children. Anybody who comes to the house of God and starts to commit offences thinking that nobody can see him is deceiving himself.

      I will like you to think about it seriously today. Are you the type of person who has hidden a wife or a child outside without telling your wife at home? Does God recognise that as a male, you are a priest to your family? Or are you the type of man who has never seen Jesus in his dreams but sleeps with assorted women in the dream? If you say, “Well, I exist for God.” Since you have been existing for God, how many people have you converted to Him? Christianity is not just wearing fine clothes to church on Sundays. You  may say, “I was there when they started so so so church; that is not the issue. The issue is, is your name in the Book of Life? Are you striving for heaven or are you  striving for church post? May be you do not know yet that it is your office that should seek you and not you seeking the office. Or are you the type that is not careful about how you handle family discussions? Or are you the type that says "I am poor so I can' t pay my tithe correctly"? Are you the type who cannot tell your children or your wife the truth? Or are you  the  type of person who does not drink beer, but serves it to others? Will you be able to stand before God and say that you have played your role correctly? In all these God is weighing us and time is going. If you remain unfruitful before God, my fear is that one day, that voice will cry out; “Cut him down.” What have you achieved since you started praying? What have you achieved for God? What have you achieved in the home? I would like you to think seriously about it.        

          There is an unchanging rule in the spiritual world: those who seek God with the whole of their hearts will find Him for these are the kind of people God is looking for. When God finds such people, He grabs them. It is not difficult to know people who have found God. They are revived. People around them will acknowledge that they are no longer the same. That is what we call revival. But a situation where a person distributes tracts from his or her fellowship and somebody looks at it and says, “This is Mama Lagbaja’s church, if it is the last place to attend, let me go to hell fire.” That Mama Lagbaja has become a stumbling block. The Bible says it is good that a big stone is tied around the neck of such a person and he is thrown into the river. When you make others to stumble or your life does not bring light into your community, or they do not recognize that you are prayerful and run to you when they are in trouble, then there is problem. There is no reason for them to come to you when they see you queue up at the pharmacy or where they sell herbs like them.

          I was seeing a Christian brother off one day, suddenly, I found that I was talking and he  was not responding again. By the time I would look back, he has started to climb a tree. “Brother, what are you doing there?” I asked. He said, “These leaves are very good for malaria,” and he began to cut them. I said, “My goodness, this is amazing!” And this person was an elder in the church. It is sad. This kind of thing is an evidence of people who are not revived. They are just going to church. God wants us to get to the level where we can hear His voice, receive visions and revelations and  pray in the Spirit. He wants us to get to the level where we can study the word very well and pray fervently. When we get on fire like that, if somebody who is going to witchcraft meeting passes by our house, that would be the last time he would attend the meeting. But when there is no fire, today prayer, tomorrow anger, the day after tomorrow quarrel and the other one, crying, weeping or lamentation, nothing will happen. You cannot move any mountain. All these indicate that we have a lot of unrevived people in the church today.

       Many people don’t want to be broken. We need to humble ourselves like Jesus and John the Baptist did. Recently, I was listening to somebody talking about John the Baptist. He said when people were praising John the Baptist, John said, “All of you, hear me, all I can give to you is water. But somebody is coming, the latchet of whose shoes I am unfit to untie. He will use fire. I am just using water. I don’t have the allocation of fire, but He does. I am just tapping from His allocation.” Humble man. Jesus Himself washed the feet of His disciples. When you humble yourself like that, then you are getting close to revival. A man stole a goat. Later when he got born again he was told to go and make restitution. He came to the church the following day with a rope saying, “This was what I stole.” They took the rope from him. That day, the man of God preached about partial restitution and its inherent problems. When he got home, he could not sleep that night. The next day, he came and told the truth that there was a goat at the end of the rope.

    When you start moving in God, you will know yourself. It is such men that God wants. Faithful, sincere  people. When prophet Nathan challenged David saying; "One man had many sheep and one poor man had only one. The rich man took the only one that the poor man had". David said the rich man was worthy of death and the prophet said, “Thou art the man.” When he heard that, he did not argue. He did not get the prophet arrested. He said, "I have sinned, ask the Lord to forgive me.” Isaiah cried, “Woe is me for I am undone.” The tax collector said, “Be merciful to me, I am a sinner.” When Peter saw first class miracle by our Lord Jesus Christ, he said, “Mister man, please, depart from me, I am a sinner.” He saw himself. The prodigal son got to a stage and said, “Father, I have sinned. I am not even worthy to be called your son.” Many people don’t want to get to that stage. When people are stubborn and do not want a change, there can be no revival. When the reason many people attend church is that when they have things to celebrate, they would have people to attend, there can be no revival. When the love of many has grown cold towards God, there can be no revival.

     I don’t gain anything from deceiving people. A day is coming, saith the Lord, when every truth shall be revealed. We will know those that are telling the truth and those that are telling lies. Pride and stubbornness that have kept many from receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit, will stand against them on that day. When, as a sister, you wear tight dresses to expose your shape for men to see and have more problems, there will be no revival. You are only assisting the devil to further his kingdom. When men decide to perm their hair like women and people decide to be painting their eyelashes, fingers and hands, and they are trying to improve on everything that God has done, there will be no revival.

    When a person cares much about how people will see him but cares less about how God sees him then, there can be no revival. Some men come to our meetings and purposely leave the neck of their shirts open so that we can see their 18 carat gold necklaces. I always tell them that we are not interested in their chains. It is better for them to button up and be serious with what they came to do. If that chain could solve their problems, it would have solved it many years ago. When believers help unbelievers to contribute money to buy Aso-ebi,(family uniform) there can be no revival. All this worldliness will block revival. When you think ill of somebody because he knows how to do some things better than yourself, you envy somebody who has a better husband, (better husband in quote because you really don’t know what is going on inside), you envy somebody who has a better job or a better talent, there will be no revival.

      When somebody is interested in slander and gossip and commits grievous sins against the Holy Ghost, there can be no revival. Also, if you are still the type of believer who gets worried about the nasty things that are said about you, you cannot please God. When you handle things with levity or take the name of God in vain and say, “God, I am sorry. What I am going to say now is bad but forgive me," it is wilful sin, there cannot be forgiveness for that. If it is sinful then don’t say it. Any form of deception, little lies, white lies, or lying to inflate your price, are all sins. Using another person’s passport is cheating and lying. If you are overpaid and you don’t want to return the extra, it is lying. All hypocrisy, robbing God and bad temper will block revival. You must work on all these.

    There is the need to get revived. There is the need to get on fire for God. There is the need to improve on your spiritual height. There is the need to take religion out of your life and get the supernatural power into your spirit. There is the need to stop being a mechanical Christian but a Christian who moves according to the leading of the Holy Ghost.

   There is the need for our words to become fire and our walk to become anointed. There is the need to live a holy life. Isaiah 35:8: “And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.” They will not make mistakes though they call them fools. People may be calling believers names like fools or idiots. Very soon, we shall know who are the idiots. The Bible says that Jesus, as a lamb before His shearers was dumb. He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation, justice was denied Him. Yet He went there to die. God will not take it lightly with anybody.

   I want you to talk to God now from the depth of your spirit in the following prayer points:

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. You the dry bone of my spiritual life, receive life, in the name of Jesus.

2. Holy Ghost, take your position in my life, in Jesus' name.

3. Holy Ghost fire, burn away every uncleanness in my life, in the name of Jesus.

4. Every demonic decree against me, be cancelled, in the name of Jesus.

5. Father Lord, do a deep work in my life today, in the name of Jesus.

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Defeating bewitchment

    Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Every geographical area has its own peculiar satanic technology.  The modus operandi of satanic agents vary from place to place. In attacking their victims what they use also varies from one place to another. Some employ what we refer to as “satanic bullets,” or demon idols after people, while some just suffocate their victims in the dream.

          Bewitchment is a common local satanic technology. What does it mean to bewitch? It is to bring continuous evil on a person. To bewitch is to charm a person using satanic power or to put a person under a spell using satanic power. In Galatians 3:1, Paul used the word bewitchment to describe the act of being led away into evil doctrines. And because the Galatians were bewitched, he referred to them as being foolish. He said, “Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?”

          Bewitchment is when someone uses evil power like witchcraft to charm, to enslave, or to mislead a person. This evil power can be used on a person, place or thing. Wicked people issue curses on good and innocent people who have not done anything wrong to them. It does not matter whether you have committed an offence or not before they decide to curse you. The mere fact that you have decided to make progress in life makes you their target.

          Bewitched people operate under an evil control. They would not listen to good counsel. They are always involved in errors and do the wrong things. Usually, their minds are closed to the truth. A sister went somewhere to pray, and the man of God there said, “You have a special problem, so you need special prayer.” And she said, “Any prayer point you give me, I will pray it.” But the so-called special prayer turned out to be something else as she was told to stand on a mortar naked and hold a candle in her hand until it burnt out, the hot molten wax running down her hands not withstanding. While this demonic prayer was going on the “man of God” was running his hands on her naked body. At the end of the “prayer,” she swore never to go back there again. But by the next day, she was back to this demonic man and his demonic prayer. Why? She has been bewitched.

          A bewitched person will experience continuous confusion of the mind, continuous fatigue, anxiety, distress, disjointed thoughts, sense of emptiness and loss of self-control all because he is obeying a strange command. He may be having continuous accident, loss of income, loss of position, loss of reputation, affliction with diseases and pains, etc.

          I know a man who married 19 wives, and each of them died after three months. And the foolish girls who heard of what happened to their predecessors still went ahead and married the man all because of the cars he was using to entice them. They did not know that the cars were certificates of death. But when he married the 19th wife, he met the Lord and that bondage was broken. That is what we call bewitchment.

          A few things make me sad these days, especially about the lives of present-day Christians. Many things we ought to address, are not being addressed I have come to the conclusion that many of the present-day Christians prefer to look for an easy way to live a victorious Christian life. There are some ministers now who teach people that violent prayer means focusing attention on the devil and by so doing, they discourage people from praying aggressive prayers against the devil. They teach people that just looking at Jesus, worshipping and praising Him is enough for their deliverance from demonic oppression. This is a wrong teaching.

          I was at a meeting somewhere a long time ago.  As we started praying, somebody fell down at the back of the hall and slid on the hard concrete like a fish towards me at the pulpit. What shocked me was that when I looked at her face, it was the lady that led the praise worship before we started the service and she did it excellently. The message I am trying to pass across is this: all her praise worship could not deliver her from her bewitchment. There was still a need for a proper deliverance to be conducted on her. This is where some ministers miss it all.

          There was a time Jesus was speaking in the temple. The priests, the Sadducees, the Pharisees and all the people working with Him did not recognise Him, but a demonic man did. Jesus was busy teaching and the demonic man interrupted Him saying, “What have you to do with us, you Jesus of Nazareth. Have you come to torment us before our time? We know who you are, the holy one of God.” They knew who He was, but the priests did not know. Then what happened? Jesus abandoned His teaching for a few seconds and dealt with him. If teaching had removed the unclean spirit from the man, Jesus would have continued teaching and ignored him. But He abandoned it a little bit, and said, “Come out of him.” So Jesus conducted deliverance on people.

          Those who are bewitching people are called witches. Psalm 69:23-28: “Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake. Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom hast wounded. Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous.”

          Today, all the witches shall be disgraced and shall flee out of their habitation, in Jesus’ name. I will advise that if you are not interested in breaking the head of serpents, then this message is not for you because whosoever is friendly with our enemy, the fire of the God of Elijah shall fall on him. And every instrument of bewitchment must be roasted today, in Jesus’ name. Therefore, right there, as you are reading this message, you are going to pray with holy anger, holy madness and violent faith like this: “Every instrument of bewitchment, be roasted, in the name of Jesus.”

          One day, I followed somebody to one town and he showed me one man, whom he said, had seven uncompleted houses in that town. The problem was that he would build one half way, abandon it and start another one. He never completed anyone.  As at that time, he was walking about without even wearing a pair of slippers and was still trying to buy land to start yet another house. He has been bewitched. 

          A land could be bewitched. Once a land is bewitched, no business will prosper there until the bewitchment upon it is broken. If a land is bewitched, even if you plant crops there, they will not do well. The reason many people find it difficult to complete their houses is because they are building them on bewitched lands. That is why sometimes we advise people to pour anointing oil on such places. What happens when you pour anointing oil on such lands is that all the former occupants will flee. It is just like somebody anointing his house. When you anoint the doorpost of your house with oil, if somebody who has a demon is coming in, his demon would wait for him when he gets to the door while he enters. When he goes out, he carries it again before going away.

          A house too could be bewitched. A person may build a fantastic house and all the tenants will just refuse to pay rent. Sometimes, it is not that they do not want to pay but immediately they get into the house, they become broke. Why? It is bewitched. Immediately some people enter into a particular place, their prosperity would be swallowed. Such a place is bewitched. The house may have what we call ‘poverty pregnancy.’ And whenever any tenant comes in, it delivers a baby into his hands.

          A town or village could be bewitched, and all the prosperous people there would only succeed if they run away. If they remain there, they would die like paupers.

          A marriage could be bewitched. Immediately after the wedding, there will be no money or business. Progress would stop, every good thing would stop and bad things would start to happen. The marriage has been bewitched. Bewitchment is therefore a very wicked satanic weapon that a believer should not treat with levity. It is the product of the work of witches that has turned some people to blind men in the streets. They have held up many people from progressing. They bewitch people by locking up their prosperity with demonic padlock. Such people can only be set free in Jesus’ name.

          Many people have been trapped by what we call “midnight caterers” who feed them every night. Sometimes, they bring things that such people do not like eating ordinarily and force-feed them with those things. Sometimes, they even wake up and see the traces of the food in their mouths. It is the work of witches. There are some who specialize in marrying people and they go from one husband to the other in the dream. Some bury people alive in the dream. Such people normally die in their sleep. They put evil marks on people, and such people will not be able to move the way others are moving. They perform spiritual operation on people. They may even replace some normal organs with the organs of an animal. All these are the works of witches. They render a person friendless. It is not a good testimony when as a Christian you say, “I don’t have any friend, because all the friends that I have had were bad.” It means that you are bad as well. The Bible even calls Jesus the friend of sinners. So, He has friends. Although too many friends are bad, but it is not a pleasant testimony for a believer to live the life of a recluse. You may not realise it but maybe your situation is that people find it difficult, if not impossible to get along with you. Then you are bewitched. 

          A man died sometime ago. A week to the burial, when the members of his family were meant to sit down and organize the burial, they started fighting. They asked the deceased’s wife for his will and she told them there was none. They said, “It is a lie, you are hiding it.” They started fighting and looting things. Nobody was bothered about the dead. This is the work of witches. They render a life hopeless and directionless. They turn people’s fruitful land into deserts.

          The manifestation of their operation at times is as if they gave their victim a demonic injection, and the person or object was operating under that influence. They are behind a lot of broken homes. The head of such witches shall break today, in Jesus’ name. They are the ones who put the stamp of multiple husbands on people. They sponsor “fire for fire quarrel” between spouses. They put the stamp of multiple girlfriends on some men just to render them destitute. Such men might be boasting that they are smart and handsome, but the truth of the case is that they are senior projects in the school of bewitchment. Think about this beloved.

          Sometime ago, a man went to a party and picked up a girl from there. He took the girl to her house to commit immorality. As they were about to start their immorality, there was a loud knock on the door. The man said, “Who is knocking?” The girl said, “It is my husband.” He said, “Ha, but you did not tell me that you are married, I don’t move with married women. Apart from that, how can you be married? You talk like a single girl.” The girl said, “This is grammar you are talking, you better hide under the bed.” So, the man tried to hide under the bed but something poured on him. He said, “Please, open the window. Let me jump out.” And when she opened the window and the man jumped out, he found himself at the centre of a cemetery. Then he knew there was trouble. Even if your case is like that man's, you shall be set free today, in Jesus’ name. The case of the man was bewitchment. His household enemy had so much bewitched him that he was being controlled by a remote controlling system.

 

HOW DO WE RENDER WITCHES POWERLESS?

1. By purposeful study of the word of God: A lot of believers are illiterates as far as the Bible is concerned. Purposeless study or religious reading of the Bible will not give anybody victory. When you read your Bible, you must always ask yourself what God is saying to you in the passage you are reading and how you can apply it to your situation. You must form the habit of memorizing scriptures. This will build up the level of the word of God in your life. There have been people who quoted scriptures against their enemies in the dream and the enemy queried, “Where is it written” Defeat followed when they did not know the passage. We have a lot of weapons in the Bible with which to defend ourselves. But God gave us the sword, which is the word of God, as the one to use for launching the offensive. In the story of Jesus in the wilderness, we were told that whenever the devil said something, Jesus always answered with “It is written.” So, you must know very well what is written and where it is written.

 

2. By unashamed holiness: It is better for you to be called names than for you to be bewitched. If people say you are looking dull and unattractive, it is better to look like that than to be bewitched. I feel sorry for those who tone their skin to improve upon God’s work which is already perfect. All they are doing is giving the enemy room to operate in their lives. It is very bad to misuse the image of God. When you look at yourself and say, “Oh God, you did not make me bright enough and did not paint some places red, therefore, I will help you,” and you go ahead and do so. You want to improve on what your Maker has done. No, you cannot. All you are doing is to open the door for the enemy.

          There was a woman who used heavy make-up. One day, a man married her and told her that he liked her make-up, so she should keep applying it. Eventually, she got to a gospel church where she was taught about the need to be holy both within and without. She was made to understand that the Bible talks about holiness inside and admonishes us to decorate our inside that is to give the spirit man more attention, because the outside will eventually perish. One day, she employed a housemaid and the housemaid became interested in her husband. The housemaid then took her box of make-up to her witchcraft meeting and got it bewitched. She continued using the make-up because she did not know that it had been tampered with. But as from that day, her husband just started to hate her until eventually, the housemaid replaced her as the wife.

          Let it be clear in your spirit that holiness has to be both within and without. Some people put on 20 bangles on one hand at the same time. There are some who, if it is not for God’s grace, will wear ten chains at the same time. And it is the same people who will say that they do not want to be bewitched. They are making a mistake because if bewitchers visit a person’s house, the first thing they look for is where they can hide. They look for the instruments of bewitchment around they can use and the easiest hiding place in this environment is ‘jewelry.’ Some people pray aggressive prayers, but after that, they put on bewitched materials and thereby renew their bondage. You better think very well about it, beloved.

3. Aggressive and prevailing prayers: This is another area which a lot of people do not understand. When you talk about aggressive and prevailing prayers, it must involve your entire being and faculty. That is why a person who is praying prevailing prayer does not even know whether there is mosquito around because the whole of his body, soul and spirit, are involved. Your totality is put into that prayer. It is not like the story of a man who wanted to pray on his food and a goat was starring at him. So, he closed one eye and used the other eye to look at the goat. He did not pray because the presence of the goat has divided his attention. That is not prevailing prayer. Prevailing prayer is like a woman in labour who keeps labouring until she is delivered.

          There are some people, before they pray for two minutes, they will be looking for their handkerchiefs to wipe their sweat. There are some too who fan themselves when prayer is going on. Such people cannot concentrate. You have to involve your body, soul and spirit in it.  Everything has to go along. God could instruct you to say one sentence for 20 days. If you have a mountain before you and somebody gives you a sledge hammer and says, “Break your way through this rock.” Even if you are a super human being, you will need more than one blow to do it. For some small problems, two or three minutes prayer is enough. But when you get to aggressive prayers, like prayers against bewitchment, you need some time. If somebody has been bewitched from the womb and has been under demonic control for 45 years, and the person wants to break free, it will be very fraudulent for a preacher to tell that person, “Just believe God, two minutes prayers and you will be through.” No, he may be on it for six hours because many things have piled up. The Holy Spirit needs to put oil into the screws in some peoples’ lives so that they can be loosened easily.

 

WHAT IS THE MINISTRY OF AGGRESSIVE PREVAILING PRAYER?

A. It is a ministry of discipline.  Prayer warfare is not a matter for the undisciplined. The body likes to enjoy, relax, dance and giggle, but when it comes to prayer, it becomes weak.

B. It is a ministry of tears.  Jesus prayed until He was shedding tears.

C. It is a ministry of travail. Travail is a burden in the heart. You pray it out.

D. It is a ministry of fasting. I don’t mean the fasting where you drink tea and coffee in the morning or orange juice and you say, you have not eaten. I thank God that many people who thought fasting could kill have found out that it is not so with the one day dry fast for the Power Must change Hands programme held by this ministry once every month. Instead of dying, they have become stronger. They have learnt to discipline their body by fasting.

E. It is a ministry of loneliness. The prayer warrior is mostly a lonely man. The Bible says, “Jacob was alone with God,” then he wrestled with an angel.

F. It is a ministry of total surrender.

G. It is a ministry of violence. Prayer must become serious business if we want to overcome the bewitchers in our environment. Prayer must become violent. It must become fearsome. It must become devastating and destructive to the enemy. Warfare prayer is to destroy the authority of the kingdom of hell over a situation. It roots out things, pulls down things, destroys things, throws down things, binds and looses, and executes written judgment. It also rebukes. Until we learn to do these things, many people will only succeed in renovating and refurbishing their prisons instead of destroying them. So, today, decide that bewitchers must be disgraced. Just look at your life. Have you noticed any trend that you don’t like? Do you feel that somehow, somewhere, some forces are laughing at you. Or somehow something is saying, “Give up, go back to the herbalist.” Think about it. 

          Let me tell you a secret. Forget about your family background. God is greater than your family background. Forget about other members of your family whose lives are upside down. Face the bewitchers! Sometimes we abandon the target and start fighting the houseflies. Holy anger, holy violence and violent faith are required to pray prevailing prayers.

          There is an important aspect without which nothing will happen. If you have not yet surrendered your life to Jesus, then you are already a candidate in the hands of the bewitchers. But if you want to be free from their grip, the first thing is to surrender to Jesus. If you are ready to do so, then say,  “Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. I want to get born again. I want to surrender to you. Forgive me my sins and cleanse me with your blood and come into my life, in Jesus’ name.   Amen. The Bible says, “Today is the day of salvation, tomorrow may be too late.” If you said that prayer, lay your hand on your head now as I pray for you:

          Wonderful God, I commit this person into your hands. I pray that every yoke of sin will be broken in his or her life, in the name of Jesus. And as he or she takes this decision now, he or she shall move on with you in Your power and might. Lord Jesus, come into his or her life, in Jesus’ name. Take control, Father Lord, in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.    I cancel every bewitchment against my life, in Jesus’ name.

2.    Every tree of bewitchment, be rooted up, in the name of Jesus.

3.    I paralyze every spirit of bewitchment, in Jesus’ name.

4.    Satanic bewitchment, go back to your sender, in Jesus’ name.

      (If you pray the next prayer point violently, beginning from tomorrow, there will be a change in your business).

5.    Every satanic embargo on my handiwork, be nullified, in the name of Jesus.

6.    I release myself from every bewitchment, in the name of Jesus.

7.         Any power that wants to attack me as a result of my praying these prayer points, be roasted seven-folds, in the name of Jesus.

 The spirit of Gehazi

Dr D. K. Olukoya

 

Let us pray. Wonderful God we praise your holy and mighty name for preserving our lives and for redeeming us. We thank you for laying your hands upon our lives and for making us candidates of heaven. Accept our thanks, in Jesus’ name. Today, Lord, minister to us, touch us by your power, and let our lives turn the world upside down for Jesus. Make us too hot for the oppressors to handle. Thank you heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

   Our text for this message is taken from 2 Kings 4:25-36: “So she went and came unto the man of God to Mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite. Run now, I pray thee, to meet her and say unto her, is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with your child? And she answered, it is well. (Although we know that the child has just died) And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away (evil zeal). And the man of God said, let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her: and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me. (Remember we are talking about the spirit of Gehazi. Already you can see the spirit of eye service in Gehazi’ life - trying to push the poor woman away). Then she said, did I desire a son of my Lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me? Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy lions, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child. And the mother of the child said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her. and Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him, and told him, saying, The child is not awaked. And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain and prayed unto the Lord. And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi, and said, call this Shunammite, so he called her. And said, Take up thy son.”

   We have just read a very interesting story about prophet Elisha. You would have heard about a man called Elijah. Elijah was an unusual prophet of God. His ministry was dramatic, devastatingly tough, he was a prophet of fire. Now Elijah had gone away and here was Elisha with a double portion of his anointing. Please, notice that Elisha was not the only servant of Elijah. He had another one, but that fellow did not collect a double portion. He was the one that was on errand to observe the weather after Elijah had unlocked the heavens for a drought of three and half years. One would have expected that the servant that used to see vision would be the one to collect a double portion anointing.

   One would have expected also, that the man who was with Elisha would have collected a four-fold portion anointing. He would have provided us with a chapter or two in the Bible to read about his works. Unfortunately, this was not the case and the good race from Elijah to Elisha, which was supposed to have continued, ended before the baton was handed over to Gehazi. We did not see anyone again bestowed with that kind of anointing.

   One would have expected that the servant of such a powerful man of God would be a spiritual person but the reverse was the case. One would have expected that Gehazi would have been the man who would not even need to get up from where he was sitting before the prophets of Baal would fall down and die, but the reverse was the case. What I am trying to say is that this man lived with the strongest prophet, the most powerful man of God around at that time, but it was all a waste. So, being born into a Christian family, or having a Christian name does not make somebody a Christian. Big post or big garments does not give spiritual power. The fact that you were sanctified and dedicated on the 40th day in a church does not mean that you have power. The fact that you have been around for 25 years in one particular place, and some big revivals started in your presence, does not give power. There are so many noise makers now, but very few prayer warriors, very few spiritual men. That woman must have known about Gehazi for her to have refused to go back without Elisha. Gehazi went to her with the staff of Elisha but the spirit of Elisha was not with him.

   We have many Gehazis today carrying about the staff of the living God, but the Spirit of God is far from them. And the Bible makes it clear that believers are to be powerful people. Acts 1:8: “Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you and then you shall be my witness.” Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. The Holy Spirit is the same yesterday, today and forever. The same Holy Spirit that manifested during the days of the apostles is still the same now. But today, we have many who just carry the names on their heads without the power thereof. The Bible says that some people have the form of godliness but deny the power thereof. They look like Christians; they speak quietly, walk quietly and do all kinds of things like Christians. They use Christian words but deny the power thereof. From such people we are told to turn away. We have so many of such people in the house of God these days. The manifestation of the power of the living God is lacking in the lives of so many believers. This is why some people are being driven about by the powers of the oppressors.

   All that most people call Holy Ghost baptism is just speaking in tongues. There is no power backing their tongues-speaking, so there is nothing worth emulating happening in their lives. God in His own mercy pours down the Holy Spirit on some people. Immediately God fills them with the Holy Spirit, the first thing they do is to backslide. And when I talk about backsliders, I don’t mean people who are no longer coming to church. 

   Backsliding is not being where God wants you to be. Stagnancy too, is backsliding. Once a person is in any of these states, sin and self are allowed to come in and the power of the Holy Spirit is hindered. When the fear of public opinion is allowed to come in, the pipe through which power flows is blocked. Many Christians are ready to compromise their faith immediately it comes to the issue of money. And so we have believers selling smuggled items. We have believers who tell lies. We have believers who are ready to collect ten per cent on illegal deals. Also, we have believers who make excessive profit. These kinds of people still wave their hands in worship and pray in tongues. There will be no power to follow their activities.

   The issue is that a lot of Gehazis have invaded the house of the living God. When a Christian refuses to set his priority according to the clear definition of the Bible, there can be no power in him. As a believer, you are not supposed to engage in certain trades like selling alcohol, that is inviting hell fire. And there is no money that you are going to make from that type of business that could be profitably used. If you use it to train your children, you are just putting them into more trouble. Beloved, maybe you own a pepper soup joint where all kinds of shady characters gather and talk about anything apart from godliness, I submit to you that it is an ungodly business. I dare ask you, what have you done with the money so far? And you say you are making money. What have you done with that money so far? Think about it. These are the things choking God’s power and creating Gehazis instead of creating people with multiple portion anointing to go out and work for Jesus.

   The Bible defines our priorities as Christians thus: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all other things will be added to you.” If you therefore refuse to concentrate on this priority, there will be no power.

          Using your God’s given power to commit sin and love for the praise of men will choke this power and you will become a modern-day Gehazi. Many churchgoers, I am afraid to tell you are totally wedded to sin, and see nothing wrong with it. A sister came to me and said, “Please give me permission to do deliverance in your church.” I asked her which church she attends and she told me. I later found out that she wanted to be run through deliverance because her pastor almost raped her at a time she went on a visit. Many who demand for deliverance do not need them. All they need is to discipline themselves and what they consider as problems would be over. I am aware of our strict stance with deliverance in this ministry. This has to be so because you need to ensure that you are able to monitor delivered candidates so that they do not lose the deliverance and more wicked demons do not come in.

   When somebody is totally wedded to sin, his spiritual pipe is blocked and the power of God cannot flow into such a life. Many believers are saying that they want power, but they still enjoy the jokes of sinners. They beat up their wives and husbands. Many are filled with thoughts of immorality and dirtiness. Many so-called Christians have no respect for their spouses. Many believers tell all sorts of lies to obtain money. Many are selfish and lazy to pray and to read the word of God. Many too find it difficult to live a holy life. This is why Gehazis are getting on the increase. There are many people seeking self-glory instead of the glory of God, wanting to be seen and respected. They have forgotten that the almighty God has His own way of knowing those who are His.

   God will take a new convert who prays, fasts and lives a holy life seriously than an old convert who is lazy and nonchalant with the things of God. It is possible for somebody to be born again for 20 years and not have power. It is sad to see many people who still speak in tongues after they have been possessed with the spirit of Gehazi. God will not withdraw the gift because the gift of God is without repentance. But the tongues will stand against them on the day of judgment. Many who speak in tongues have lost intimacy with the Lord. They have annoyed the Holy Spirit with the spirit of Gehazi, thereby boxing Him to a corner in their lives. They are stagnant.

   Please, get this clear: It is possible for somebody to command evil spirits to go out and they will obey, or for the person to say “Be healed,” to a sick person and the person gets healed. It is also possible for a person to pray for six hours non-stop, or to witness to people or to share tracts. A person can do all of these activities while living in sin. A person can be progressing while  living in sin. Samson and Saul were used while they continued in sin. Are you in this condition? If you are, I want you to know that your time will soon be up and if care is not taken, you will end up like Samson and Saul.

   Beloved, the world is entering into the churches, the churches are entering into the world. Some people who are in charge of house fellowships or groups are not bothered whether those places are growing or not. They are not interested in the welfare of their members. The functions of the church are being abandoned. Many unserious Christians are only busy expecting miracles. Let me ask you one question; How many times has God spoken to you this week and what did He say? Did you have time to listen to Him? Think about it.

   Gehazi was more interested in money. He was a commercial Christian. Ungodly love for money chokes the power of God in the life of a person and the person will not be able to move. God will be recording in His book that the person is useless.

   The way of the Lord could be rough sometimes for those who are really following Him the way He should be followed. If you do not really want to travel on any rough road, it means that you are not ready to follow the Lord yet. The way of the cross could be rough.

   If you are sincere and genuine with God, you do not have to beg people to respect you. The power will be upon your life. A lot of people sing songs like “The Pentecostal power is still the same today,” yet they are not ready to change in order to receive that power. Many complain that we are too rigid in this ministry and urge us to relax our stance on some issues to bring in more converts. Our position is that it is God that fills His own church and as long as He is in control, victory is certain.

   We do not wish to sacrifice quality for quantity. Some people run away saying all sorts of things. One of them said, “I cannot stop wearing trousers although, I am a woman.”  Another one said, “I am a pastor, I have the call of God upon my life. An angel told me that I should serve in Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries. But when I got there, they said I should throw away my lipstick and I still want to be using it. So, God did not say that I should be coming there again I am going somewhere else.” Confused people. They do not want where they would be told the truth. They don’t want you to talk about fornication and adultery. If you go to a church where they do not complain about these things, then the church is a graveyard.

   A lot of things are wrong. Many of us need to be completely overhauled. Many of us need to be turned down so that whatever is inside of us would be drained out, like in the story of one man. He was sleeping and a snake entered his throat. The snake got in and he woke up with  the tail of the snake in his mouth. Somebody who saw him, turned him upside down and began to give him blows at his back. As he did that, the snake dropped. Afterwards, the man had some backache and started complaining. But he realized that the backache was better than having the snake inside.

   If you are one of those people who clean off your make-up before  entering the church because you know they don’t like that kind of thing in the church, you are deceiving yourself. Some of our sisters do not bother to bring their scarves to church and when they get to the church, they use nylon bags or dirty handkerchiefs to cover their heads. It shows lack of seriousness.

   Many people are complaining that there is no power. How can there be power when there is no discipline. A lot of people do not want God to really drill them so that He can use them. They want to cook hot soup for Jesus but they do not want the bottom of the pot to get hot.

 

How do we recognise those with the spirit of Gehazi?

1. Lack of interest in spiritual growth: They are not interested in spiritual growth. They remain stagnant, praying the same kinds of prayers, singing the same songs and speaking the same tongues. They do not receive new revelations from the Lord. They still fight and do all kinds of things. They are comfortable with their present level.

 

2.Lukewarmness: Lukewarmness in worship, in reading of the Bible and in praying is part of the spirit of Gehazi. Do not deceive yourself. If you find that King James Bible is difficult for you to understand, there are simpler versions around. Do not say that many preachers are carrying it about, so you too want to use it. No. Go and buy the simpler one that you can understand. I have discovered that a lot of Christians do not read the Bible by themselves; they only depend on what the preacher says. You should read the Bible by yourself and understand what it is saying.

 

3. Heaviness in the spirit: Heaviness in the spirit makes one to pray useless prayers. For example, when a person prays like this; “Father, in the name of Jesus, thank you because you are the King of kings and Lord of lords. I want to commit my container into your holy hand, that it should be cleared, in the name of Jesus. I am praying for Ghana now, ” and he sleeps off. It is a useless prayer. God is satisfied when you take just one prayer point, remain alert and do it for five minutes. When you are heavy, you cannot get anywhere in prayer. When prayer strikes the right line, you will know and when you are still playing around you will know too. If it is an official or a formal kind of prayer you will know and if it is by the Spirit of God, you will know.

   The spirit of heaviness is in many hearts. A lot of people do not know how to bury the worries of the day. Jesus says, do not bother yourself about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”  The evil of that day is okay, put it behind you and start moving. Do not go and collect salary advance from the enemy when tomorrow has not even come yet. It is the work of the spirit of heaviness, it chokes the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

4. Inability to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit: This is part of the spirit of Gehazi.

 

5. Inability to speak in tongues fluently:  Whatever is making you illiterate in the spirit, is trying to choke the power of God and it is not the kind of thing you should play with. It is a worse enemy than household wickedness.

 

6. Long battle with a particular sin or habit without success: Some people have been born again for years, yet they are still fighting a particular bad habit. Some even give themselves pass mark and say, “At least, I am trying, I was not like this. They know me.”You cannot say you are gradually improving from sin, God wants a complete change. This is why so many single sisters and single brothers are losing their power. They sacrifice their anointing on the altar of fornication,  petting and kissing. They would say they did not go the full way. As far as the Bible is concerned, you have gone the full way. It will be recorded against you like somebody who raped another person. Although you only kissed, as far as the Bible is concerned, you are already guilty. You cannot keep a relationship with sin. It will break down. The devil will see to it that it happens. These are the signs to know when the spirit of Gehazi is at work.

   The money Gehazi collected was just the off-shoot of what had already been wrong inside. So, if you know that you are presenting an unclean vessel to God, you are living a life of sin and that sin is choking the Holy Spirit like water in a pipe, or you are harbouring anger and unforgiving spirit, you need to confess these sins and forsake them if you want a free flow of God’s power in your life. If not, the spirit of Gehazi will remain. The leprosy of Namaan will come upon you. 

               When you notice that you have been participating in things that do not improve your spiritual life, there are some things you can do. You must decide that what you do with your time must be spiritually uplifting.

   There is a lot of power in the world. Do not allow carelessness to destroy you. Take your stand. People of the world will only call you a fool or a fanatic. If somebody says he or she wants to commit fornication with you before marriage, say no. “Eh it is just 5 per cent alcohol, it cannot kill you,” say no. There is a lot of power in it.

   Evil spirits recognize powerless men. They know whom to respect. If you are sincere and genuine with God, they will respect you. If you are not sincere and genuine, they can see through the smoke screen no matter how black it may be. Your smoke screen may be “Praise the Lord, “Alleluia,” etc. You are deceiving yourself. If you go and do what you should not do, they know you have gone to do what you should not do. It is after people have disobeyed and a satanic decree has been passed upon them, that they begin to queue up and say, “Give me a deliverance form.” After the deliverance form, they go again to renew and begin to blame the devil.

   Nowadays, people do not show remorse for their sins any longer. In those days, in our secondary school fellowship, whenever it was announced that a brother or sister committed fornication, everybody would break down and cry. But now if you say somebody has committed fornication, people would hiss and say, “The pastors too are doing it.”

   Sometime ago, a policeman stopped me on the road. He asked my driver and another passenger sitting in the front who was the owner of the car. They told him it was a pastor. The policeman hissed. Why won’t he hiss when there are many pastors in prison for fraud offences?. There is no more respect for ministers of God. Then the policeman said, “Which pastor?” And they said “The pastor of MFM.” He said it was a lie. They don’t believe even the ministers any more.

   We have to really pray. Some prayers are more important than others. It is more important to pray that God should vomit His divine fire on your life than to bind household wickedness, because if God's fire is upon your life, the household wickedness cannot operate. Christian values are going down and God is not happy with all these things. We should not be contributors to these things.

   In case you are not yet born again, I encourage you to give your life to Jesus today. Make up your mind to start your journey towards heaven. Decide to disgrace your oppressors.

 

   Ask God to forgive you for not opening enough room for Him to walk in your life.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.            Oh Lord, forgive me for not opening sufficient room for you in my life, in the name of Jesus.

2.            Oh Lord, forgive me for struggling with you, in the name of Jesus.

3.            Every satanic egg laid upon my life, break now, in the name of Jesus.

4.            Oh Lord, vomit your fire into my life, in the name of Jesus.

5.            Every stubborn situation, be melted by the fire of God, in the name of Jesus.

6.            Every blessing at the point of death, receive life now, in the name of Jesus.

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The Sword of Deliverance 2

DR D. K. OLUKOYA

This is the concluding part of the message we started last week. As a quick recap we have looked at the sword as a weapon the use of the sword in the Bible, why we need to use the sword and the powers we should use the sword against. Then we went into reasons we should really fight against our oppressors and we looked at all those areas where the enemies of our souls become so stubborn. This week, we shall continue with the qualifications needed to handle the sword of deliverance and conclude the message.

QUALIFICATIONS NEEDED TO HANDLE THE SWORD OF DELIVERANCE

1.New birth: The first major qualification needed is a new birth. You must be born again and this is not negotiable. It is here that most people miss it. The MFM by the grace of God, is a do-it-yourself ministry. We do not teach people to be servants to prophets and priests. We teach them to be spiritually independent. Anybody who is not born-again as far as the Bible is concerned is not a Christian. He may be going to church but he is not a Christian. Standing at the abattoir does not make you a cow. You may be a priest, pastor, general overseer, general superintendent, general secretary of whatever, if you are not born again, you are not a Christian. This is the stance of the Bible.

John 3:3-5: “Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, l say unto thee; except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Jesus answered, verily, verily, l say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”

This is a clear statement that needs no argument at all. Become born again and have the ticket to heaven or perish. It does not matter whether you are the chairman of any committee of any church or if you are the one that helped them built the greatest cathedral in this country, you may do all that and still not be born-again. You may have degrees in Bible studies and still be a sinner .Put on the crudest form, it means being born from above; begotten from above, the Bible says you cannot commit sin. If you do, it must be accidental. But how many people today can say that their sins are mistakes? Are there not some people who pre-meditate on sins and carry them out?

 

The stance of the Bible is that the Lord winks at the time of ignorance but the one that you know and you do it, the Bible says, though they joined hand in hand, no sinner will go unpunished. So if you are born-again, sin will not become your habit. That is why this terminology has to be well defined for you to know and understand it. If you say you are born-again, how did it happen? How did you meet the Lord? Was it during a message or prayer or you just completed the back of an American tract? Or you shook the hand of an American Bishop and you said, Well, l am born-again” Being born again is a transformation. In the olden days, in Pentecostal churches, those who wanted to get born again, came to the altar to pray. They prayed themselves through into salvation because this is very important. Once you are saved, your name is written in the book of life, that is when you can say you are born again.

 

The greatest headache in the church today is that those who are born-again and speaking in tongues are not doing the business of God. That is why in the Bible arrangement of spiritual gifts, the first one mentioned is, “before they shall speak with new tongues” But today people have turned it upside down. When somebody who is not delivered and born again is speaking in tongues, problem happens.

 

Why is this new birth important in handling the sword of deliverance? According to 1 Corinthians 12:13, every born-again believer is a member of the body of Christ and that body is not polluted. Every born again is a member of the family of God in heaven and on earth. According to Ephesians 3:15, every born again Christian is a son or daughter of God.

John1:12: “But as many as receive him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”

Every born again Christian belongs to the Lord by adoption. According to Ephessian1:5, every born again Christian has been cleansed by the blood of Jesus.

 John1:7 makes us to understand that every born-again Christian has been forgiven, redeemed or brought back from the slave-market of sin and set free through the precious blood of Jesus. Born again Christians have been reconciled and regenerated. They have been accepted and are citizens of heaven. There is a level you get to with God and your problems will not be temptation harassing you because you would be immune to temptation. If temptation is still your problem as a child of God, check your salvation.

 

All born-again Christians have been elected and called to be holy persons. They are already seated in heavenly places with Christ. Jesus calls them the salt of the earth and the light of the world. He said, they have everlasting life. He calls them his sheep. The bible calls them saints, the temple of God and the temple of the Holy Ghost. They are free from condemnation. They are partakers of God’s grace and are called unto he fellowship of the son of God.

It is not a right thing to say, “l am born again” The bible calls it a new creation or an ambassador of Christ. Born again Christians are the children of light. They have been delivered from the powers of darkness unto the kingdom of the dear son of God and the bible then calls them kings.

The fact that somebody is ignorant of something does not mean that thing cannot affect him. For example, if you are ignorant about the eye disease called conjunctivitis (Apollo) and you use your hand to rub the eyes of somebody who is infected and use the same hand to run your own eyes, you will become infected too. Ignorance is no immunity; you must be born again before you can enjoy the benefits of salvation.

 

2. You must be free from bondage

You cannot use the sword successfully when your hands are tied. Right from the womb, a lot of people have been in bondage because of who they are. A lot of people are in bondage because of certain things they have done which they are not supposed to have done.. Many people are in bondage due to the places they have visited that they ought not to have gone. Many people too are in bondage because of what people have done to them. Beloved, when these kinds of things are in place in a person’s life effective use of the sword would be impossible.

 

3.You must win the battle of the mind

Sometimes ago, I read two news items that got me thinking. The first one was titled, Girl set herself on fire” When l read the details, l discovered that the girl set herself ablaze because she was jilted by a man who was supposed to marry her. The second day, I read yet another story titled Man drank acid” Immediately after reading the news items, a lot of things went through my mind and l started asking myself what was going on in the minds of these two people that made them to do these terrible things to themselves because for somebody to decide to do such things, the mind must have been bombarded by some forces. What was that force that was ruling the minds of these people to the extent that they took decisions to take their lives. The bible says that the human mind is very delicate and that there are so many things that can render the mind of a man unsound. Otherwise, the Bible will not say” for God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, of love and of a sound mind”

If the bible is talking about sound mind, it means there are many people with unsound minds. Many things can render a man’s mind unsound. I will tell you some of them so that you can know how to win the battle of the mind.

 

a. Bad health

 

This can set a man thinking horrible things, and the devil has a way of magnifying things for people. A minor ailment could be so expanded as to put the person in trouble. Before you finish telling person that the ailment is not as serious as it looks, the devil would have given the person lectures on the number of people the disease had killed thereby causing the person to start evil meditation. In his evil subtle way, the devil will not mention thousands and thousands of people that have received healing by prayer, but will mention one or two that died after they were prayed for.

One day, a boy came from his village to school in Lagos. At that time, he did not know much about Lagos, he fell down from a bus and the bus climbed his leg, he was rushed to the hospital and while awaiting to be attended to by the doctor, another patient there who was suffering from a pile died. The boy and other patients with more serious disease became afraid and started entertainining doubts about their  survival. They opined that if ordinary pile could kill, then they had no hope. Evil thoughts can render the mind unsound. For some people, the bad thought get to such a level that it will suffocate the word of God in their hearts. Such people cannot use the sword of the spirit.

 

b. Some character inherited from parents:

A common case is the spirit of worry. It is possible for both daddy and mummy to be worry bags and eventually transfer the spirit to their offspring. A statement such as Like father like son then becomes apt.

 

C. Lack of use; A mind kept busy with reading the scriptures and memorizing things will function adequately. But when a mind is kept out of use, it will be rendered unsound.

That popular 11Timothy 1:7: “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind”

So, the first question l would like to ask you, “Is your mind sound? The member one vagabond is the mind. It can wander all over the place. It is possible that as you are reading this message your mind has traveled to a far place. It is possible for you to be thinking about your wares or what you will cook tonight.

The mind likes to wander if it not controlled. But as a Christian, you must deal with the gatecrashers and intruders coming into your mind. If you let them in, then there will be problem. This is a serious issue and it is a major area of defeat for many. When God wants to start working in a person’s life. He starts from the mind. When the devil too wants to manipulate a person, he starts from the same place. You must win that battle. It does not make any sense if you teach a soldier how to shoot a gun, give him a gun and send him to the war front, and by the time he gets there, he is busy thinking about his wife at home instead of concentrating on the war. Certainly he will fail. Although he has the weapon, his state of mind will render the weapon useless.

 

HOW DO WE GET OVER THIS PROBLEM OF UNSOUND MIND?

1. Embrace the fact that a sound mind is your birthright as a Christian. It I s part of your inheritance and you must claim it. Do not start saying “Well, l am just being human, God knows that you are neither a goat nor a stick before he says a sound mind belongs to you. So, embrace that fact that a sound mind is your lot.
2. Submit your mind to God’s word and to the Holy spirit, it is important for you to do t                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           hat. Renew your mind with the word of God always. Do not read the Bible like a storybook. Read it to feed your spirit and regularly too.
3. Refuse to let your thoughts go on rampage like undisciplined children.

 

Understand this beloved, you have the right to decide what to think about. You have the right to throw out any useless thought from your heart. You have the right to be the immigration officer at the door of your heart, and decide what enters. So, bring the discipline of God into your thinking. Decide that your thoughts must act only under your jurisdiction. Many people’s thoughts are wayward out of control, immoral and doubtful. This makes it impossible for them to handle the sword of deliverance. When you handle the sword and your mind is undisciplined the enemy can see it.

I remember a student crusade we had a long time ago. On the last day of the crusade, we were ready to go to the villages for evangelism. But shortly before he left, we reminded the students that there would be confrontations by the villagers who might bring out their talking idols and ask them to make their Jesus do the same thing. And that anyone who was afraid could stay behind to intercede for those that would go. As expected, out of the initial 2000 people that signified their intention to go, only 57 went. The mind, that is where defeat comes. If your mind tells you that you are a poor man, you remain poor. If your mind tells you that you will be healed, it shall be so. But immediately you allow it to be wandering aimlessly, trouble then comes.

The mind is where the picture of evil things are taken. It is where the evil negative is developed. Once it is cancelled at that evil, things begin to work. Decide to be the immigration officer at the gateway of your mind.

 

THERE ARE SEVERAL GATEWAYS TO THE MIND.

1. The eye gate: Make a covenant with your eyes not to be looking at what you should not look at. If you are a television addict, your eyes need deliverance.

Somebody did a simple research, he had about fifty families in Europe and offered thirty of them money if they would refuse to watch television for one month. Then he allowed the remaining twenty to watch television. He later found out that the 30 families that were not allowed to watch television fell ill. It was as if a powerful drug they were used to had been withdrawn from them. Television is a modern-day witchcraft because it is everywhere and takes most prayer time away from people. I do not say go and throw away your TV set or break it. We are praying for the day when Christians will have their own TV stations, where you listen to the word of God day and night. But what l am saying is this, it is easier for you to become an idol of something you bought and it is easy for you to be in bondage of something you purchased. That is what we call “purchased bondage”

2. Ear gate: The mind has another gate we call the “ear gate” What do you listen to? Have you heard? Do you know? Gossip, collecting it into your ears. The reason we have gossips is because we have listening ears too. If your ears have received deliverance, when somebody says, “Did you hear what so, so and so person said about you? You say, Ok, can you repeat what you just said before this person? If he says no, then he needs deliverance. The ear gate pollutes the mind.
3. MEMORY GATE: A lot of people just sit down and daydream. They also bring back to their memories all things done in the past which the Lord had removed from their memories. It is rather tragic for a born again child of God to lie down on his bed and start recollecting all the girl friends he has had right from his primary school days.
4. The habit gate: It is possible for someone to continuously do something even when he knows it is bad. So beloved, make up your mind that only those thoughts carrying divine passports will be allowed to move into your mind. It is a personal decision.

Iv Strongholds: Pull down the stronghold, which the enemy might have established in your mind. A lot of minds have strongholds already built in them, which must be brought down no matter how hard.

v. Old nature: Refuse to allow your mind to go back into the old nature. When it wants to go back to what you used to think of as an unbeliever, aggressively address it to go back to its resting place, in the way of the psalmist.

 

Vi Open a bank Account quality thoughts: Philllipians 4:8: “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 lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things” Those are the kinds of thoughts the Bible asks us to fill our minds with. Let there be an endless supply of wholesome and nourishing material into y6our heart. I am staying long on this because this is where the defeat comes. Some people get defeated right from their beds in the morning. Do not forget, the devil is an early riser.

 

Vii Feed your mind on the word of God: Otherwise, the devil will feed it with his thoughts. An average Christian who has been born again for two years should know a minimum of fifty-two memory verses. It is therefore profitable to begin a programme of regular Bible study. Meditate on scriptures. Learn scripture by heart. This is how to keep your mind on the word of God and ward off Satan. 1. Refuse to give way to anxiety, worry or depression. You must win the battle of the mind to correctly handle the sword of deliverance.

 

4. Prepare for war: The next qualification for handling the sword of deliverance is to prepare for war. In warfare, the first thing to do is to be trained.

How do you prepare as a Christian solder? The Bible tells us how to prepare in Ephesians 6: 10-11: “ Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole Armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”

 

How do you prepare then?

1. Put on your spiritual Armour: To successfully destroy the works of Satan, you must first of all be able to stand against his attacks. All your defensive Armour has to be in place before you seize the sword and go out. We are not to allow the devil any place in our lives.
2. Know your response: Ephesians 6:12-18 “ For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole Armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all , to stand. Stand therefore, having your lions girt about with truth and having on the breast plate of righteousness. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the which is word of God. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.

Each piece of the Armour represents a specific truth. So, put that truth on by walking in the truth. So, if as a Christian, the attack of the enemy prospers in your life, the first question you should ask yourself is this, Is my Armour on? The Bible says, “Touch not my anointed, do my prophets no harm” But if an anointed is being touched or prophet is being harmed, then a thorough self-examination is necessary.

 

3. Train for battle: The Bible says we should take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. This implies that you must know your Bible by regular reading and thorough digestion of the word. Let it become part and parcel of your life. When you have done all, then you cannot afford to look back, for the arrows of the enemy will hit you at the back. You must know how to apply the blood of the Lamb as part of your training. Revelation 12:11: “ And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony….” You must know about the power of the Holy spirit. Acts1:8: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you….”

 You must know the ministry of prayer. You must also know the ministry of praise and thanksgiving. You must know the ministry of the word of our testimony. When somebody testify to what God has done he defeats the enemy. When you run away from the testimony, you strengthen the enemy more to fight you. You must know the fire of God. Hebrews12;29: “ For our God is a consuming fire” You must know about the angels of the living God, who are ready to fight for you. These are our weapons.

 

4. Know your adversary: We are fighting the devil who has a very wicked intelligence. This must be borne in mind.
5. Overcome the flesh: This is where the greatest problem comes from. You must learn to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit in all its ramifications. This is a sure way of destroying the flesh. It is only then that reading of the Bible is done with ease. Your life as a Christian will not be productive until you die. It is very sad that many times, we fail to recognize our battleground. You cannot cast out the flesh. Many abound, instead of disciplining themselves and praying to be crucified, they believe all they need is deliverance. You cannot deliver the flesh, it has to be crucified. If it is a demon, the demon can be cast out.

 

Beloved, you must learn these principles to be able to use the sword of deliverance. Many believers are carrying the sword but cannot effectively use it for they lack the knowledge of these principles. It is an offence to be an ineffective soldier. It is an offence too to doubt God. If you are not putting on your whole Armour, you cannot handle the sword of deliverance. That is why the song writer says, “Christian seek not yet repose, hear what your guardian angel is saying you are in the midst of foes, watch and pray.” It says, “Put your whole Armour on; put it on day and night and ambush lies the evil one, watch and pray”

We therefore need to pray.

 

Haven’t you noticed how many people are being defeated in their dreams? Countless numbers of Christians are being suffocated on their beds. Haven’t you seen many Christian sisters being sexually harassed in the dream? Haven’t you heard of people being pursued by masquerades and other agents of the devil in their dreams? Why are they not able to resist them? Why are they not able to turn the table around in those dreams? It is all because they cannot handle the sword of deliverance for they have not met with the conditions. You need to cry out to the Lord for His assistance to enable you meet all these conditions and become an effective soldier, a soldier who is battle-ready always and sure of victory, and you will be victorious in Jesus name.

 PRAYER POINTS

1.     Let every attack against my spiritual life be frustrated in the name of Jesus.

2.     I command the spirit of harassment to leave now, in the name of Jesus.

3.     I command the spirit of judgement to depart now, in the name of Jesus.

4.     O Lord, speak soundness into my mind and body, in Jesus name.

5.     every witch delegated against me, receive the sword of fire, in the name of Jesus.

6.     I reverse every witchcraft curse issued against me, in the name of Jesus.

7.     I condemn all the spirit condemning me, in the name of Jesus.

The Sword of Deliverance 1

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

This is the first of a two-part teaching on what I call the "Sword of Deliverance," and our working scripture will be taken from Judges 7:16-23. This is the story of Gideon.

 “And he divided the three hundred men into three companies and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand with empty pitchers and lamps within the pitchers. And he said unto them Look on me and do likewise and behold when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that as I do, so shall ye do. When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and say, The sword of the Lord and of Gideon. So, Gideon and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, and they had but newly set the watch and they blew the trumpets and brake the pitchers that were in their hands. And the three companies blow the trumpets and brake the pitchers and held the lamps in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal; and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon. And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran and cried and fled. And the three hundred blew the trumpets and the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath and to the border of Abemeholah unto Tabboth. And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali and out of Asher and out of all Manasseh and pursued after the Midianites.”

The book of Judges is a fantastic book to read. You will notice that in this book, God was put at the last position while human beings put themselves at the first position and generally when things are organized that way, problems inevitably come. Because of this ungodly arrangement, problems started and the children of Israel were suffering. The suffering was so much that after they had planted and they were about to reap the harvest their enemies, the Midianites would come and spoil everything. It got so bad that they should not find them preparing food if they should they would be harassed. At a time, Gideon was somewhere, trying to prepare some level of food and he was hiding to do it for the fear of the enemy.

While he was busy doing this, the angel of God stood by and said, “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour”. Gideon said, ‘Angel, come. Don’t deceive me. Which peace are you talking about? Don’t you see what I am doing here? I am hiding here because if they find me, I will be in trouble. Where are all the miracles our fathers recorded? The angel said, Okay, so you are wise. Go in this your might and deliver Israel. That was how Gideon took over the mantle of delivering his people from the oppression of the Midianites. Here, you see him in one of his favorite battles where the sword was used. They called out two swords: the sword of the Lord and that of Gideon and when the sword of the Lord came out, the enemies cried, ran, and started to fight themselves with their own sword.  So shall it be for your enemies in the name of Jesus.  The sword as a weapon of warfare has won so many battles. Through the sword of men, men have created and destroyed empires. The sword has also been used for aggressive warfare and also for protection. Let us begin a small bible study on the sword of  the bible then you will understand what I am saying better. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve misbehaved. They disobeyed God and God drove them out of the garden.

  So God did something in Gen. 3:24: “So He drove out the man and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life”.

 

 Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden. And an angel protected it with an interesting sword which the Bible called an interesting sword this particular, sword. The Bible says it is called a “flaming sword that turned every way”.

      A brother was living in a very demonized house. When he moved into that house, there were two herbalists living there. The first thing he noticed was that the two herbalists were always quarreling over customers . One would be accusing the other of taking his customers. So they fought and eventually, the more powerful won, and the other ran out of the house, leaving the stronger one and the brother. So the herbalist switched his fighting gear to this brother by complaining about his night vigils and his mode of prayers. Because the brother refused to stop praying, war started.

      One night, this herbalist decided to change into a creature and went into the brother’s room. When he got there, he saw the greatest film show of his life! Surrounding the brother was a sword of fire turning in every direction;  and this herbalist was so amazed that he stood there and watched the brother till day break:. And here was our brother snoring away; not knowing there was somebody there wanting to destroy him. The herbalist had no choice but to bow to the brother’s source of superior power for he was forced to narrate to the brother what he saw in his room the previous night.

      Close your eyes now and pray this prayer; “Let the sword of fire pursue my oppressors into the Red sea.” Let us proceed a little with our small bible study.

      Deuteronomy 32:39-42 : ‘See now that I, even I am he and there is no God with me. I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven and say, I live forever. If I whet my glittering sword and mine hand take hold on judgement; I will render vengeance to mine enemies and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drink with blood and my sword shall devour flesh and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.” What is it that this passage is telling us? God has His own sword. Whose functions are:-.

1. To render vengeance to His enemies,

2. To reward those that hate him and

3. To devour the flesh of the enemy.

Take notice that we have seen two types of sword now - the flaming sword, in the Garden of Eden and the glittering sword mentioned in the passage above. Keep this in your spirit as you pray this prayer point very aggressively - Let the sword of Jehovah render vengeance to my enemies in the name of Jesus. Don’t forget, our topic is The sword of deliverance.

      In Joshua 5, we read another interesting passage from vs. 13 “And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand; and Joshua went unto him and said unto him, art thou for us or for our adversaries? And he say, Nay; but as Captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship and said unto him, what saith my Lord unto his servant?" So we have the sword of the Captain of the host of the Lord drawn out; it’s the sword of victory. Are you ready to use this sword? Then pray again like this. “The Lord of Host, draw your sword against my adversaries in the name of Jesus.’

      In Jer.47:6 we see this empty appeal to the sword of the Lord. “O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest and be still”. “And what was the answer? Verse 7 says “How can it be quiet, seeing that the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon and against the seashore? there hath he appointed it.” God had given the sword an instruction. When the Lord appoints His sword, none can stop it and the sword of the Lord will not keep quiet until it has destroyed the adversary. It doesn’t matter what kind of appeal is made to it like the empty appeal seen in verse 6 above. . “The sword of the Lord will not keep quiet until it has destroyed my adversaries.’ in the name of Jesus.  Please do not be surprised about the tone of these prayers the enemy, satan, is far from being gentle and it is a time wasting exercise being gentle with him the only language he understands is force. If roasting the devil is not sufficient to make him release his captives, then bomb him - the important thing is to be free.

      Rev. 1:16: “And he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword; and his countenance was as the sun shineth. In his strength” Also, Rev. 2:16 : ‘Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth”. See also Rev. 19:15: "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. And he treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” This is the sword of the Lord Jesus Christ, coming out of His mouth and so shall He vomit sword against your enemies in the name of Jesus. What I have done thus far is to let you see that the sword is an important spiritual equipment.

      The sword of deliverance, beloved, must be used in aggression, both to protect you and to fight the enemy. The sword must be used against:

1.  The devil, whom the Bible calls a restless destroyer. We do not preach in MFM that the devil does not have power He has, but the power is limited. The only person with limitless power is the Lord Jesus Christ because He says, all authority, all power, in heaven and on earth have been given unto me. The devil has never said that one before. If he had all power in heaven, it would not have been possible to drive him down.  He’s a restless destroyer. You sleep, may be 8 hrs a day, they don’t sleep - demons don’t go to bed. They are busy prowling around seeking whom to destroy.

If you read the book of Job, you will find that the devil was said to be moving to and fro and up and down. Through this movement, to and fro, up and down. He walks about according to I Pet. 5:8, like a roaring lion. He’s a restless destroyer.

      Somebody said, talking about deliverance, one is glorifying the devil. This is not true for if we ask the demon of the river to get out of a person’s life and the thing goes out, who is that glorifying? Is it the devil or God? Or did n’t Jesus say, If I, by the spirit of God could cast out devil, then know that the kingdom of God has come among you. So deliverance is part of what is in the kingdom of God.

      From our findings we discovered that many pastors are scared of talking about evil spirits, with the fear that after they have finished, the evil spirits will descend on them back at home. This is not true unless there is no fire in the minister.

 

Satan is a restless destroyer and by so doing you are treating him with kid gloves. Pharaoh was sitting down, Moses was standing. The Bible says, Moses spoke to God face to face. Yet those magicians were so bold, they wanted to compete with somebody who has spoken to God face to face. Who was giving them that confidence? Devil. So they stood there he threw his rod down. Oh they said, that’s easy; we can do that as well.  So they threw their own rods down. It was a snake finish. 1-1 Moses said okay, if this is how you people are going to play the game, I command your river to become blood and it did. So the magicians said, no problem, we also can do that. So the rest of the water that people should have been drinking they turned it to blood.  Moses said okay, I will bring out frogs and Moses did and frogs were jumping everywhere and the people said, no problem, we can do likewise - they brought out frogs.  Then Moses said, okay, let there be lice on man, animals, trees, everywhere. Lice started. Then simple things like lice, they tried, they could not then one of them said, This is the finger of God.  Let us leave them alone and let them go . Which power did they use to do numbers 1,2,3,? So they have some power but it’s limited.

 

2. The flesh: The second thing you should use your sword against is the flesh. It has killed so many people. The flesh has destroyed more than all the witches and wizards put together. And it is this flesh that is responsible for statements like, they are annoying my spirit, they are calling me names, they are gossiping about me, etc. One day, I was going out with a brother and some people about a 100 m away were chatting. This brother then said to me, “Dr. Olukoya, those people are gossiping about me.” I did not believe he could hear what the two gentlemen were discussing so I ran to ask from them what they were saying. You know what? Those people were talking about football match. The flesh.

      Terrible habits like bleaching, wearing of false nails, piercing of noses all with a view of making you “look beautiful” is all as a result of uncrucified flesh. One major syndrome that has killed many in this is “This is how they do it.” And because many are still with uncrucified flesh, they too do it and run into trouble. I have had cause to challenge many to show me where it is written in the Bible that people should choose bride’s maid and best man or it is written that people should wear wedding gown. I challenge you to tell me where it is written that you must borrow money to rent a video man to cover your wedding. It is really amazing to see some men exhibiting their chests with big chains. It is nothing but the work of the flesh and you have to use your sword to kill this flesh.

3. The world: You are to use your sword against the world. This world system in which we find ourselves is a place we do not belong to for our citizenship, the Bible says, is in heaven. We operate under a different law from that which they operate.

4. Principalities: You use your sword of deliverance against principalities that is strange spirits walking about. You use your sword of deliverance against evil authorities, evil dominion and against the rulers of darkness. As soldiers of Christ, we are meant to be terrorising and harassing them, and not the other way round. They worry Christians instead of the Christians giving them sleepless nights it is rather unfortunate..

      A lot of families are under evil dominations. A single witch in a family could become a source of problem to every member of that family. You are to use your sword of deliverance against such a witch.         This sword should be used against evil thrones. There are many things that are reigning as kings around. You may have a boss in the office who bows down to an idol every morning before coming to work. That managing director is no longer the man you are seeing but that idol and it should be dethroned.  These days, herbalists are fully employed by people who want protection. A very important man in this country hired his own herbalist to ensure that he retained his job. The herbalist however, busied himself with good meals daily. Eventually, the man lost his position all the same.

5. Diseases, demons and evil names: You are to use the sword of deliverance against all diseases, demons, and every evil name; whether it is in this world or the world to come. When they finish mentioning the name of whatever they call, then you’ll say, I nullify it by the name which is above all names which is the name of JESUS and the evil name will frizzle away. When the enemies start their incantations, do not worry. Once they finish, just say, “Everything you just said now, I dissolve it, in the name of Jesus and of a surety, it gets dissolved.

6. The spirit of death: You are to use your sword of deliverance against the spirit of death and  against all antagonistic spiritual beings.

7. Possessed objects: You use your sword of deliverance against all possessed objects.

8. The host of hell: You use your swords of deliverance against the host of hell because the enemy is restless, untiring and desperately wicked. If the enemy is not desperately wicked, how can somebody’s head be removed and be replaced with another head and the person goes about with that wrong identity? The person continues to fall out of favour because he or she is carrying about the wrong head.

      The enemy fights with determination and firmness. The satanic world is much more disciplined than most churches. If you come late into satanic meetings, you could end up losing your first born as a penalty. This is at variance with what happens when somebody comes late to church and shows no remorse. The enemy will not give up anything unless he has to. He will not leave his victim unless he is forced out. They are ready to kill or do anything that will advance their cause. They will use anything they could; they will take the form of anything available e.g. crab, snake, lion, or anything just to perpetrate their devilish acts. They can decide to appear as an angel of light. And their tactics are legion. For instance, if you go to a prophet and he says, “Now, I want to prophesy. I want to go into the spirit.” As he is saying that to you, you find that in his hand, he is carrying the skull of human head, you may not be able to wait. Not many people will wait; they’ll run away. But they won’t carry skulls, they will carry the Bible to deceive more people. Even if the fire on the Bible is burning their hands, they will try to endure because they want to destroy somebody. They are working for a master who is ready to promote them when they destroy good people. I think you should close your eyes and pray with holy madness. “No demon will use my life for promotion, in the name of Jesus.” They will pretend to be building but they are destroying. They don’t mind giving people money if they can hand over their souls.

      We prayed for a girl to be delivered from powerful water spirits and she got delivered. After sometime, we found out she was sluggish in coming to the house of God. When we asked her what the problem was, she said those spirits kept coming back to ask her what she has got since she accepted Jesus, that when she was with them, she had never had to ride in a commercial bus. Immediately she came out of her house, a Mercedes Benz car would be waiting to take her to wherever she was going but now; she treks, rides in buses and sometimes do not even have money. “What’s the use in serving God?” They asked her. She too was getting carried away not knowing it is better to die a pauper and enter into life than for her to be very rich and go to hell. 

      It is better for you to watch black and white television than for you to watch super-colour ill-gotten television and then enter into hell fire.

      Our enemies are very good traders. They specialize in spiritual bargains. They are ready to allow one or two demons to leave a person to convince him that the minister is powerful. A little bit of relief is permissible to allow the demons to gain more ground in the person’s life. They can heal a person in order to win more people to hell fire. Somebody who has been blinded will say, “Well, I cannot leave the place because when I was poisoned and I was sick, they looked after me, they camped me because of that, I must show my allegiance, one should not be disloyal and ungrateful, whereas what they are doing is pampering the person to hell fire. Immediately you say you are going, they will say, “Remember, we are the ones that cured you.” They know people that are totally powerless. It is a pity that among the most powerless are people who claim to come to church.

     

The first time the Lord showed me the meeting of witches and wizards, I noticed that three quarters of them were women, while the remaining were men. They were rejoicing over people they have destroyed, things they’ve done, the confusion they’ve caused and they had somebody in the middle who did not know where he was, he was like a zombie. They had finished him. Only the carcass was walking about the streets. They know those who are totally powerless. They know those who can only read the psalms. They know those who only pray in the church and never pray at home. They know those who fight and are very abusive. They know those whose tongues are their abode. You know there are some demons living in the tongue just as there are some living in the head. Some people really need to pray very hard to deliver their tongues. They know who they can attack anytime, anywhere, anyhow and they know those they really have to sit down and plan before attacking for they know that failure to do that might make serious casualties. 

      As a Christian, you are supposed to have recognition in heaven and also in hell fire. That demons said to the sons of Sceva, “Paul, we know, Jesus, we know, but who are you? Your names are not in our register of dangerous men. As far as we are concerned, you are our meat. How come you are insulting us, asking us to go out?” So they dealt with them. Do you have recognition in hell fire? That is the question.

      They are prepared to make investment on a long term basis once their goal can be accomplished. They don’t mind, they wait just as the devil waited for 80 years to get at Moses, and thereby prevented him from getting to the promised land.

      They can pursue a person for years. You have to be very careful because they have their agents scattered all over the place. I counsel women contractors to ensure that they do not first contract their bodies before they obtain contracts else the money now becomes the reward of iniquity and it won’t favour them in any way.

     

I know of a woman who used to take her young beautiful daughter anywhere she went for contracts. So one day, I asked her why she always took the girl along. She said, “That is the bait. When I get there and once they see Funke, they’re finished.” Then I said, “Funke, let us pray.” She said, “Excuse me sir, what kind of prayer?” I said, “We just want to pray.” She then pleaded,  “Sir, whatever you pray please don’t mention fire.”

      Like I always said, it is abnormal to call prostitutes bush-meat. It is the men who patronize them that should be called bush-meat. The enemies of our souls know who is powerless. They ignore the command of powerless men. To even worsen it, they have sent so many people to sleep and they are busy sleeping.

      They like to work without being exposed, noticed or identified. Once you are able to see into their disguise, they will scream at you like they screamed at Jesus. How did they scream at Jesus? Luke 4:33-35: “And in the Synagogue, there was a man which had a spirit of an unclean devil and he cried with a loud voice, let us alone, what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth. Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. Thy holy one of God. And Jesus rebuked him saying, hold thy peace, come out of him.” Many people think that Jesus is a gentleman, we can see how wrong they are.

 

WHY WE MUST NOT LEAVE THEM ALONE

1. They want believers to stop praying against them and this is why people are attacking ministries where they do spiritual warfare. All they are saying is, “These people, leave us alone.” But if you leave them alone, they will operate unmolested and unhindered in many lives.  Do you  want to leave them alone?

2. We must not leave them alone because we can never lose. The Bible says, “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” We are more than conquerors that is why we must not leave them alone.

3. We must not leave them alone because we have received a commandment that we should fight and we must fight. It is not a suggestion. It is a commandment, a marching order which we must carry out.

4. We must not leave them alone because without resistance, the enemy will not flee. The Bible says, “Resist the devil and he will flee.” If you don’t resist him, he will not flee.

5. We must not leave them alone because if we run away from the battle, we’re finished. If you say, “I want to backslide,” you are finished because they will shoot you at the back so that you cannot run away. Even if you insist on running, where are you running to? Back to occultists, or to somebody who scatters cowries and gathers them together. If you run away, you shall be treated as rebel.

      There was a war somewhere and the soldiers who were tired of the war and wanted to go had a trick of discharging themselves. They would shoot themselves at the legs and the authorities would dismiss them as “wounded’ and they would go back home. They were doing that quite successfully until they brought a tough commander. For the first person who did it, the commander moved close to his leg and said, “This is not an enemy’s shot, otherwise the area will not be so dark. You shot yourself because you do not want to fight again therefore, let me finish the job for you.” He shot him dead and said, “Anyone who wants to shoot himself is free to do so,” and the trick promptly stopped. They stayed and fought and won so we can not run.

6. We must not leave them alone because winners do not quit.

7. We must not leave them alone because that will mean that we have refused to acknowledge the kingdom of God.

I would like you to close your eyes and pray like this: “Let the hidden places of the enemy in my life be exposed, in the name of Jesus.” “Let all evil groupings against me scatter now, in the name of Jesus.”

     

One day, a little child was fascinated by his own shadow. He looked at the shadow on the wall and got excited. He found that as he moved, the shadow moved, when he bowed down the shadow too bowed down. He found that sometimes the shadow will get bigger and then it gets smaller. The boy spent about thirty minutes playing with this shadow. He said to himself, “This thing must be a friend because anything I do, he does.” He then decided to hold his hand but found that he could not hold it. He was shocked. He tried holding the leg, the feet, etc, but failed. So, he started running away from the shadow. Then he was amazed to see the shadow following him then he started screaming. There are some shadow problems, anywhere you go, they follow you. When you bow, they bow. When you rise they rise. When you sit down, they sit down. I want you to pray with holy madness like this: “All shadow problems, I cut you off now, in the name of Jesus.

      Beloved, you can see that this message is for those who love Jesus and hate the devil. It is for those who hate bondage but love freedom. I am sure you would like to handle the sword of deliverance and put it into effective usage.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.   Every power of affliction working against me, be paralysed, in the name of Jesus.

2.   I stand against every operation of the spirit of death and hell, in the name of Jesus.

3.   Every force of oppression working against me, be paralysed, in the name of Jesus.

4.   Every evil effect of ritual killing by my ancestors, be cancelled by the blood of Jesus.   

The King of Kings

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

The topic we are treating this week reveals Jesus to us in His kingly role with dominion, glory and power. It reveals to us the extent and duration of Jesus’ reign and the length and breadth of His possession. It also reveals to us those who will reign with the Lord Jesus Christ: the faithful, the called and the chosen. We will be looking at this topic under five sub-titles. Before we go further, let us look at three scriptures: Daniel 7:13-14: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” I Timothy 6:15:, “Which in his times, he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords.” Revelation 19:16; “And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

 

Predictions of His kingship in the Bible

There are so many passages in the Bible where the kingship of the Lord Jesus was predicted. In Genesis 49:10, Jacob, just before his death predicted that the sceptre should not depart from Judah. He was the first to predict that a King will come out of Judah. In Numbers 24:17-19, Balaam the prophet was hired to curse the children of Israel, but the Bible says you cannot curse whom God has blessed. So, all his attempt to curse the children of Israel were turned to blessing and towards the tail end of his service to Balak, he started prophesying and part of the prophecy he gave was that a sceptre or a ruler shall rise out of Judah who will smite the camp of Moab.  He also talked about His dominion being an everlasting one.

Psalm 89:27: “Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.” Verse 29; “His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.” Verse 36; “His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.” Isaiah 9:6-7:  “Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders; his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” Part of that prediction was recorded in Daniel 7: 13-14. In Matthew 2:11, one of the gifts given to Jesus by the wise men was gold. Gold is for royalty; it was a prediction of His future kingship. They also gave Him frankincense; the office of the priesthood and myrrh which was a symbol of His death. In Luke 1:32-33, the angels of the living God spoke to Mary and predicted the form of His government. It says, “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of His father David. And He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His Kingdom there shall be no end.” Paul also predicted the coming of His kingdom in I Corinthians 15:24-28.

 

Why do we call Christ the King of kings?

We call Him the King of kings for the following reasons: 

1. A king must have a throne- Jesus has a throne. (Revelation 3:21)

2. A King must have a crown - Jesus has a crown. In Revelation 6:2, reference was made to His crown. “And I saw and behold a white horse and he that sat on him has a bow and a crown was given unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer.”

3. A king must have a sceptre: This is the staff of authority. Jesus has a staff of authority. Hebrews 1:8 tells us that Jesus has a sceptre of righteousness.

4. A king must have a sharp instrument of leadership. An instrument with which to lead because he is a defender of his people. In the case of Jesus, He has a sword. In Revelation 17:14, we are told that He fights war. “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.”

5. A King must have power. Ecclesiastes 8:4:, “Where the word of a king is, there is power and who may say unto him, what doest thou?” Matthew 28:18 reveals to us the unlimited power of the Lord Jesus. It says, “...All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” There can be no other power other than that of Jesus because He used the word “all.” No wonder His enemies are subdued under Him. He has subjects and we are part of His subjects. (I Peter 2:9)

6. He has dominion just like we saw in Daniel 7.

7. His subjects are also kings. Revelation 1:6 tells us that Jesus had made us kings and priests unto His Father God. We are kings but He is a higher King.

8. He is the King of kings because nothing can stand in the way of His reign and authority. The Bible says in the days of His reign, His subjects shall be willing. It also says He shall rule with a rod of iron. He shall smite to pieces all forms of resistance. Proverbs 8:15: “By me kings reign,” and this is why in Revelation 1:5, the Bible calls Jesus the "Prince of kings.”

He has the largest kingdom, the largest possession and the greatest dominion. Ephesians 1:21 tells us that He has been given a name that is above all principalities, power, might and dominion. His reign is eternal and is superior to the temporal reign of the kings of the world.

 

How did He EARN THIS title?

1. By the decree of God. Psalm 2:6: “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” Hebrews 1:8 : “Your throne O God shall be for ever and ever...”

2. By His victory on the cross over hell, death and Satan. Philippians 2:9-11: “Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which  is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and  things in earth, and things underneath the earth. And every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord...”

 

What is the role of the King of kings?

The reign of the Lord Jesus as the King of kings is three-fold:

1. He reigns already.

2. He is going to reign for a thousand years on earth.

3. In the new heaven and the new earth, He will reign forever. He is going to reign with the Father Lord forever. This is why the Bible says His dominion shall be forever and ever.

The reign of our Lord Jesus is both spiritual and physical. It is spiritual for the children of the kingdom. The kingdom of God begins in our heart. There is no kingdom without a king, and so, if the kingdom of God is in our heart, there must be a king over her and that king is the Lord Jesus Christ. He reigns in our hearts to bring down the power of Satan, the powers of darkness and the power of sin, to teach us the qualities of humility, love, obedience, honesty and submission. Jesus reigns in the heart of believers. Wherever He is not reigning, there is doubt. There is nobody who says, “I accept the Lord Jesus as my Lord and Saviour,” and refuses to submit his heart for God to reign therein.

The reign of Christ is currently on in the hearts of believers. Psalm 24:7:  “Lift up your heads O ye gates, be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in.” The gates here refer to our hearts. That is where the doors are situated. The King of glory wants to come in. Revelation 3:20:, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and will sup with him, and he with me.” That passage is talking about the door of our hearts. Jesus wants to reign in every believer’s heart.

How does He reign?

He reigns by the laws of sanctity and faith. The scripture  says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of our Lord Jesus shall be saved,” is a law. “Be ye holy for I am a holy God,” is a law of sanctity. Through these laws, God or Christ can prick our conscience so that we become sensitive to those things that could strain our relationship with Christ.

Christ also rules by love. Several times we hurt Him and still come back to say, “We are sorry.” The Bible says, “He is faithful and just to cleanse all our unrighteousness.”

Part of the reign of Christ is to defend His people. He is a refuge and a strong tower. He is a habitation where we can continually resort. Proverbs 18:10: “The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe.” Psalm 127:1: “Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh  in vain.” He is a defender that does not sleep nor slumber. He is also a King that has power to reward. Even currently, He gives joy and peace in abundance. In Deuteronomy 8:18 we are told that it is God that giveth the power to get wealth. So, He gives power to get wealth. He makes a way where there is no way. He shows signs and wonders in our lives. He reigns currently because it is in His name that all things are supplied, by Him and through Him are the benefits we are getting. Christ the King.

In future, there is going to be a reward for the saints. There is going to be a crown of righteousness for  them. In 2 Corinthians 4:17, the Bible says the reward we are going to get is an eternal weight of glory.

As a King also, He deals severely with His enemies. The Bible says, “He who is not with me, is against me.” Whoever has not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord is against Him. This is dangerous because such a person automatically makes himself His enemy. And there is no enemy of the Lord Jesus that shall survive because He has pronounced vengeance upon all of them. Psalm 110:1: “The Lord said unto my lord, sit down at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.” It is dangerous to be against God because He is wise in heart, mighty in strength and nobody can withstand Him. It is better to be on the side of the King of kings. It is also better to allow Him to rule in your life. Do not resist His reign.

 

How do I resist the reign of the King of kings in my heart?

You resist His reign when you are disobedient to His voice and you still have your eyes in the world. It is amazing to see people who say they have surrendered to Christ but still follow the fashion of the world. Hardly could you see a lady now, even in the church of God whose skirt is longer than her knees. If God is reigning in your heart, you will cover all your virtues for your King. Remember, you are married to Him. He is both your king and your husband. I always tell the spinsters that it is an unwise thing for them to show all the virtues and benefits that their husbands should enjoy to the whole world. It is unwise for the size of your breast and the colour of your thighs to be public knowledge. Every woman is a prize to her husband and as a prize, he should look at his trophy and say, “This indeed is a great reward.” But if everybody knows about that reward, it is no longer a reward.

When God says, “Go to the left,” and because you see everybody going to the right, you follow them and disobey Him, then you are not submitting yourself to His rulership. You are struggling with Him. All the disobedience, all those who have refused to submit to His reign will not be part of His kingdom. Check yourself. Are you still struggling with Him? The Bible says you are a king and a priest.

What is the role of a priest? A priest is supposed to offer up sacrifices unto God.  Romans 12:1 : “I beseech you therefore, brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service.” Offering yourself is to offer obedience and submission. It is not enough to be praising God. How could you praise the person you do not love?. The test of love is in the heart. Delilah told Samson, “How can you say you love me when your heart is not with me.” How can you say you love Jesus when your heart has been taken away from Him? How can you say you love Him when your heart is in the world? Search yourself. Are you a subject of the Lord Jesus? Is He reigning in your life? Because He is going to reign among His enemies by force. He will use the sceptre of righteousness to rule among His children and will use the rod of iron to reign among others. He must force them to submission. Do not be part of this because the Bible says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God; do not make that costly mistake. Check yourself.

Jesus will subdue His enemies by the greatness of His power. He will bring down their pride. Revelation 5:6 says Jesus has 7 eyes and 7 horns. One of the interpretations to this is that, He has extra sensitivity to be able to discern the plots, conspiracies, plans and schemes of His enemies and then He will use the horns to push them to submission.

Also, Jesus is going to reign for a thousand years on earth. This is a physical reign. The one first described is a spiritual one, going on in the heart of men. Revelation 20:4, 6: “And I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God and which had not worshipped the beast neither his image; neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.  On such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years.”

Beloved, Christ is coming back to reign on this earth for a thousand years. At that time satan will be bound and there will be peace on earth and restoration of all things. Even nature that is groaning under the yoke of the current dispensation will be released. JESUS IS COMING BACK and the Bible says, “Blessed and holy is he that has part in the resurrection.”

That first resurrection is referring to the rapture of the saints. The Bible says on such the second death has no power. Decide for yourself where you will be because those who are  raptured with the Lord Jesus are the same people who will come back with Him to reign and He shall reign for a thousand years. Daniel 7:18 and 22 talk about the reign of the saints with our Lord Jesus.

Finally, in the future kingdom which is the new heaven and the new earth where God will rule in the midst of men, where righteousness will be the order of the day, Christ will reign with His Father, God for ever and ever. That is after the one thousand year reign.

What are the implications for believers?

Jesus is King and He is coming back to judge. He is coming back to judge the use of our talents, commitment and dedication. He is coming back to judge righteousness and faithfulness. How are you doing the work of God? We must all appear before the judgment seat of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even if you are raptured you will still be judged. You will appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive  a reward for your level of faithfulness.

If all you are planting in the house of God is eye-service and superficiality, then when your work is tested by fire, it will burn, there will be nothing left and therefore, there may be no reward for it. Such people are going to be the ordinary people in the one thousand years of Christ’s reign. Those who will have rewards are those whose works will stand. Those who have done the work of God with all their hearts. And those are the ones who will reign in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus.

I always tell those who contest for one election or the other not to bother because after 4 years, it will end. But if Jesus makes one a governor, that governorship will last for one thousand years. Nobody will push you out. Even if one is a Senator with Christ it is going to be for one thousand years. Why don’t we look forward to such a reign? Before you can earn that position, that means you must work harder than you are doing now. Examine your work. If all the nations in the world are 1000, then there are going to be 1000 presidents, will you be among the 1000?

You want to be the president of Nigeria. There is an opportunity awaiting you but you must buckle up. You must win souls for Christ. You must become more righteous than you are now. You must increase your level of praying and fasting. The Bible says millions of people shall be saved but only a thousand will reign. It can be yours if you will only work for it. You must make up your mind and say, “Lord, I want to reign with you in the coming kingdom. I want to be one of the shining stars.” The Bible says God is going to give a crown of life. Are you going to wear the crown of life or the crown of death? Are you going to wear a crown of gold or a crown of brass?  The choice is yours.

Where will you be in His kingdom? Revelation 3:21:  "To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne...” What choice are you making for yourself? The Bible says, “Lay up treasures for yourself in heaven.” You must decide today to be a governor in God’s kingdom. Paul was able to say, “I have run the race set before me, I have finished my course, and  a crown of righteousness is waiting for me.”

There is a race to be run and a course to be finished. If only you will run well now, if only you will do the work that God has committed to you with all your mind, then you will become a winner. Examine your life to know what will stop you from wearing a crown of gold? What will make you not to become a king of the King of kings. Whatever it is , give it up to Him and say, “Lord Jesus, I hand this hindrance over unto you." As a King, He has an iron rod and can smash that hindrance to pieces today.

If you will refuse the rulership of our Lord Jesus Christ, you will be broken to pieces, but you can submit now by saying;

1. Lord Jesus, break me now and remould me. The Bible says, “I know whom I believe, He is able to keep that which I commit unto him, because you do not know the time, nor the day, nor the hour, it will happen.

2. Lord Jesus, I commit my spirit unto you that whenever it will be, I will not miss heaven, in Jesus' name.

3. (Hold your head with your 2 hands) My head shall not miss the crown of righteousness, in Jesus’ name.

Lord, we thank you for another message. Accept our thanks in Jesus’ name. We pray O Lord that whatsoever will prevent us from entering into eternal life, whatever will prevent our heads from wearing the crown of righteousness, whether we like the thing or not, Lord remove it from our lives, in the name of Jesus. Cause us to come to that place where doing your will become natural to us, in the name of Jesus. Thank you heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Rough handling

the enemy

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Do you know that as a child of  God, you have the power to harass the enemy instead of the enemy harassing you? This is because Jesus overcame Satan and has given you power also to do the same thing. Let us consider some examples in the Bible. In Mark 5, we read about the demon-possessed man that came to Jesus. Verse 7: “And cried with a loud voice, and said, what have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.” That spirit was begging not to be tormented, meaning that they can be tormented. In Luke 8:30-31 also, we see some spirits begging our Lord Jesus. “And Jesus asked him, saying, what is thy name? And he said, Legion; because many devils were entered into him. And they  besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep." So, there is a place they are afraid to go. They begged Jesus, “Please, do anything you want to do to us but do not send us to that place.  James 2:19: “Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well, the devils also believe, and tremble.” The first scripture indicates that all these powers that are harassing men can be harassed as well. The second one tells us that there are places they would prefer you do not send them. The third one teaches us that we can make them to tremble.

Beloved, the devil is very wicked. He has really dealt with humanity. One man came to me and said, “Pastor, I have a problem.” I said, “What is the problem?” He said, “You see, I slept with my sister.” I said, “Are both of you of the same parents?” He said, “Yes.” I told him that it was no problem, God will forgive him. He said, “That is not all, my father slept with her too.” I said, “Ha! That is serious.” As a man of God, how would you react to that? You could say these people are bad; terrible father and terrible brother. But, is that the answer? No. There is a spirit pushing these people to do evil.

If you see many things people cover up and are unable to talk about because most people would not understand. They just cover them up and many of these people are Christians. They love God, sing praise worship and do all kinds of things. It is a rape of humanity by the devil.

In my own opinion, I think believers are too soft on the forces that are destroying humanity. The Bible says, “Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil,” and destruction is not a gentle work. It says, “For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil.” (I John 3:8) Jesus came to destroy the works of the destroyer. He came to crush the head of the serpent. You will agree with me that crushing the head of the serpent is not a gentle job. Why do you think the apostles were so successful? They rough handled the enemy. They manhandled demons, humiliated them and made them to cry like dogs.  

There are many instances in the Acts of the Apostles where unclean spirits screamed and went out of many people. The apostles made evil spirits to beg for mercy, by revealing their secrets. They made the enemies to depart in a hurry. By the time they finished with these evil spirits, nobody wanted to worship them again. Believers are meant to cause trouble for the devil. When you give an unfriendly reception to a visitor, the visitor generally does not wish to stay. When you give an unfavourable reception to the enemy, he will not want to stay. But when they come and you make the place very comfortable, they will sit down and dine with you. When you give them a hot reception they move away fast. You make them so uncomfortable that they won’t like to stay in that place.

We have to deal with what the Bible calls the horse and his rider. The Bible says, the horse and his rider, God has thrown into the sea. Perhaps, at a certain time, you looked for a solution to one problem or the other. Then you went to a witch doctor or somebody who was demonic and the person laid hand on you. Know for sure that certain things might have been transferred into your body like evil spirits and other kinds of deposits. These are things you must command to go out.

If for instance, during your wedding, some people who you know that are not born again Christians laid hands on you, you need to pray. Do you know that, that could completely change the course of your life? Some girls are dispatched to spoil the lives of some men. These girls carry out their evil assignment by planting evil things in the lives of these men. Likewise some men are dispatched to some women for evil purpose. Perhaps you have attended a dead church and while you were there, you used to see vision and speak in tongues but now that you are born again, you are still speaking their tongues and seeing their vision, you need deliverance. Those things have to go. There are some women who wear beads on the waist. If you had worn it before, you need to pray well because those things are used to control the waist of many people. Some even have the invisible waistband, which they are ignorant of. So, they are under a foreign control. They need to pray. In many places too, when a child is born, they consult their oracle to find out the future of the child. They invite herbalists and demonic prophets who will then begin to prophesy. If they did that for you, you might have to cancel their prophecy.  

You have to battle both the horse and the riders. This is why the Bible says Jehovah, the Man of war, the Lord is His name. God does not deal with the horse and leave the rider alone, because the rider will live to fight another day. The horse is the vehicle of attack while the rider is the attacker. But one thing is certain, the evil horse and the evil rider will fall into the Red Sea at the appointed time. They may run for a long time, but one day, the Lord Almighty will say, “Okay, you have tried your own, I have given you a long rope and you refused to repent.” What follows then is cutting down.

When their cup of iniquity is full then God begins to act. They may harass and oppress God ‘s people, they may insult them or tell them all kinds of things. The best thing to do in this type of situation is to keep quiet. The Bible says, “You shall keep your peace and I will do the fighting.” If you could do the fighting, you would not be where you are. Do you see anyone cheating a child of God today? Don’t worry; when His God will begin to fight, even you will beg Him to stop. Sometimes, it may even appear as if God does not care about what happens to you. But one day, He will arise and the enemies shall scatter.

For many people, the problem is the time from when they cry to God and when God arises. It is a trying period for many people. The time God decides to arise is best known to Him. God programmes His work according to His will. God has His own time. And when it is God’s hour, the power of darkness cannot hold him back. Notice this also, that the devil and the powers of darkness have their own hour. But the important thing is that God never comes late. Whatever God wants you to become, you will become whether the devil likes it or not. When it is God’s hour, even stones and things will move into action. They will have to listen to their Maker. For example, Revelation 20:13: “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.” When it is time and God says let go, even the seas have no option but to release what is in its hand. The same thing is in Isaiah 43:5.: “Fear not, for I am with thee, I will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.” They have no option but to listen to their Maker.

There are men who have collected spiritual power and they want to help people. This is why the Bible says, “How beautiful are the feet of those that preach the gospel of peace.” That means that if the people preaching the gospel of peace enter into an environment, good luck and miracles will enter there and there shall be much joy in the place likewise.

The devil too has his own vessel which he sends to people. He gives them dangerous weapon, which they use against people. Sometimes, he sends them to churches to cause confusion, sometimes, to homes to break them and sometimes, he sends them to shops to spoil people’s businesses. Sometimes, they bring messages from the enemies.

It is a pity that some people allow themselves to be used by the devil. Anybody who submits himself or herself to be used by witchcraft spirit or familiar spirit, the Bible says, it shall be ill with him or her.

There was a couple in Uganda who were looking for a child for a long time. After some time, they went to a herbalist who gave them certain things to eat. The woman got pregnant but then something strange began to happen. As the tummy of the woman was protruding, the tummy of the husband too was protruding. At the time the woman was about to give birth,  the man too fell into labour. Then as the woman was delivered of the child, her husband died. That herbalist was a vessel. May be their enemies had been looking for ways of destroying them and never saw one. So, they prayed that one day, the couple would come to their camp and that was exactly what happened. I know cases of people whose enemies sat on their text books or business and those things did not move the way they should. And we find many such vessels on the streets. This is the reason why believers should not laugh or make fun of people. There are many people on the streets who dress haggardly to provoke laughter. And once you laugh at them, they transfer their problems to you. Why should you laugh at them anyway?

We have a lot of people living under the bridge. They go without food, clothes, and bath for weeks, yet they are stronger than those who sleep in air conditioned rooms. There is something extraordinary energizing them. There are thousands of such vessels in the market place. They pick up people’s goodness. They can also destroy. We have thousands of evil vessels in cinema houses. They are present in all the night parties. Believers should not go to night parties and should not hire any musician to come and play. Many people have put themselves into trouble because they wanted to display their wealth.

The thing about this world is that most times, the wicked people are hidden, you don’t know them at all. Those who make noise about charms do not have anything. Such wicked people come to ceremonies where you display your wealth and you will serve them alcohol, and the angel of God will be recording how you are wasting God’s money, how you are using it to feed your enemies and when they start fighting you, you will begin to call God. The musician you invited will not be able to help you.

Many of the so called prophets and prophetesses and holy mothers are possessed people with snakes and witchcraft spirits in them. They may prophesy and put on your head what has already been planned in their witchcraft gatherings. You may say, “But they carry Bibles.” If they do not carry Bibles, you will run away. Supposing they carry the head of a goat and begin to prophesy, nobody will wait. Where is it written in the Bible that unless you receive special bath with black soap and all kinds of soap, your problems will not be solved? Does a person need a physical bath before the person’s prayers could be answered? Why should prayers be classified as special prayers or ordinary prayers. There are many of such vessels around confusing people and complicating matters.

One day, I was passing by somewhere and saw one of these evil vessels. He had padlocks, horns, etc. He said the padlock was to lock people up. As for the horn, he said if you wanted to displace your boss, all you need do was to buy one horn, talk to it and that boss would just walk into the bush and you would take over his position. He even said if you wanted to know if your wife was unfaithful there was one you could use. I was shocked at what he was saying and people gathered round him. He said if somebody’s life was not destroyed another person’s life would not be good. He was saying this in an open gear and some people were pricing and buying those items. The people who bought those things would use them against people around them who do not know anything about them. I saw a lot of people queuing to buy the items from that vessel of the enemy.

A lot of people have what we call evil visitation. Such visits are never in vain.  When you are praying at night and suddenly, your head begins to swell up, know that somebody you cannot see is in that room. It is an evil visitor. When you feel a paralyzing shock all over your body while praying, or you are being choked on your bed, or you have a cold feeling running down your body or sudden intense fear and your heart starts to beat, know that strangers have come in. If you have experienced this before, you need to pray seriously because such visits are never in vain.  They may even go away but they have planted what they wanted.

But why should they be sending such evil spirits to God’s children and go back home without any harm? It is an insult. Why for example should they dispatch an agent of the devil to your place of work without you knowing about it? Beloved, we need to sit up.

Now that we know from the Scriptures that they can be tormented, sent to a place they do not like to go and can be made to tremble, we must be very aggressive in our prayers against them. If somebody says, “I bind you,” fine, he has prayed and another person says, “I paralyse you,” he too has prayed, but the prayer is a little bit different. Another person may say “Be roasted,” he too has prayed but in a different way. Another person can say, “Be swallowed after the order of Korah, Dathan and Abiram he has prayed too in a different way. Another person can say, “Okay is it me that you have gathered together against, begin to fight yourself,” and they start to fight and you start to wonder how you did it.

I remember a friend of mine, who is a man of God. One day, as he was praying for somebody, three demons came out and one of them gave the person he was praying for a dirty slap and the person fell down and died. So my friend got angry and said, “What an insult? I am praying in this place and you demons have the audacity to come out and slap the person I am praying with. Okay, let me first deal with one of you.” He faced one and commanded the ground to open up and swallow it. So, when the ground opened up, one of them entered and it closed back. The other demons started shaking and begging him.

When you rough handled them, when next they are assigned to you, they will say, “We are not going because the last time we went there, it was terrible.” But if they came and you gave them a good reception, they will always come back. If they come and find out that you are fighting with your neighbour, they will say, “Fine, this is what we want.” Or they come and find out you are fighting with your spouse or they find you busy watching a horrible film on the television or you are doing night vigil with a cup of coffee by your side. You pray a little bit, and sip the drink a little bit, they will say “Fine, that is how we want it.” They will then swing into action. Beloved, we must not take it easy with the devil.  

PRAYER POINTS

1. Father Lord, destroy the time table of the enemy for my life, in the name of Jesus.

2. Every evil assignment in my life, business and home, I terminate you, in the name of Jesus.

3. All the trees of non-achievement whether physical or spiritual, be uprooted, in the name of Jesus.

4. Every spiritual vehicle employed against me, I command you to crash, in the name of Jesus.

5. I recover every stolen blessing and let it start this week, in the name of Jesus.

6. Every evil horse and evil rider militating against me, be thrown into the sea, in the name of Jesus.

7. You spirit of anger, whatever form you may be operating, loose your hold upon my life, in Jesus’ name.

If you had ever worn a waist band, or something was attached to your waist so as not to die, or you just wore it for ornamental purposes, use your two hands to hold your waist as you pray this prayer:

8. Lord Jesus, whatever evil has been done to me by these waist beads or bands, be destroyed by the power in the name of Jesus.

9. I release myself from every bondage operating around my waist, in the name of Jesus.

If you recognize that when you were born, certain information were collected from the demonic world on your behalf , lay your two hands on your head as you pray the next prayer point:

10. Lord, You are the one that answereth by fire, let every demonic prophecy on my life at birth be cancelled now, in the name of Jesus.

Challenge by fire

Dr D. K. Olukoya

The Almighty God has many names that people use from time to time to adore, admire, worship and praise Him. However, God Himself has names by which He wants to be called. Many men of God had one form of description or the other of God in the Bible. The Bible also tells us that there are many gods and lords but to us, there is only one God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes when you are calling God, you need to identify the particular one you are talking about. God is known as one who knows no impossibility. God is known as one who is more than enough that is why we call Him- the Elshadai. When you have enough, that is when He starts to add more to you. God is described as one who shuts a door and no one can open, and when He opens it, no one can close it. When God says He is opening a door for you, anybody quarrelling or fighting with you is wasting his time. For instance, it will be foolish of a person to ask the sun why it is shining. That would be a useless exercise.

God is the one who calls the visible out of the invisible. He is known as the one who is able to do all things, the one who is able to rescue you from any problem, the God that answereth by fire. 1 Kings 18:19-27: “Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the grooves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s table. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel. And Elijah came unto all the people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people, I even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, it is well spoken. And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first, for ye are many, and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under. And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us, but there was no voice nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked.” Verses 31-32; “And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying Israel, shall be thy name. And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord: and he made a trench about the altar as great as would contain two measures of seed.” Verses 38-39; “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 contest between Elijah and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal was with a condition, which was agreed upon by the two parties. This was a contest between the living God and smaller gods. When it was the turn of the prophets of Baal to call upon their god, Elijah mocked them when there was no response from their god, but when it got to his turn, he called the people nearer and repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down by Baal worshippers. He used twelve stones to represent the twelve tribes of Israel and built an altar. He put the stones upon mount Carmel, laid the wood in order, cut the bull and put it upon the altar, then he instructed them to pour twelve barrels of water on it, so there would be no room for disbelief. Then he prayed for fire from above. His prayer was answered and fire consumed the sacrifice. What is this telling us? It tells us about the consuming fire. The Bible says the Lord God is a consuming fire. The fire can consume large stones, dust, water, etc. There is nothing that God’s fire cannot consume. His fire is unquenchable; the God who answers by fire is the unchanging God. When God answers you by fire, your problems are in trouble, for that is an end to their existence. Elijah called down fire to destroy God’s enemies.

Several years back, there was a crusade some where in Lagos. As the man of God was preaching, suddenly out of no where, thunder struck directly where he was standing and the microphone caught fire, and light went off. The man got angry in the spirit and said everybody should stand up. “Did you see what has just happened?” He asked, and they answered yes. The man of God asked everybody to close their eyes and send back the thunder wherever it came from. The whole of that place was full of dust as people prayed with holy anger. Suddenly, light came back and about twenty minutes after, a man was rushed to the crusade ground. When they brought him in, it was as if he was dipped inside boiling oil and then brought out. His skin was peeled off. He was angry that the Christians had come to disturb his customers, so he sent thunder to the crusade. Even though he sent the thunder, he did not have enough capacity to cope when the thunder came back. So when the believers prayed a prayer of “Back to the sender,” the angels must have gathered the thunder wherever it was, and sent it back to the man. He screamed and people came to his rescue. They wanted to take him to the hospital, but he said, “No, don’t take me to the hospital, take me to that crusade ground, I know what I have done.” So, they rushed him to the crusade ground. It didn’t take him long to give his life to Christ. It did not take him long to believe that there was a greater power than his own power. Nothing would have changed if that man of God had not adopted the back to sender approach. It is like Saul, the persecutor of the Christians in the Bible; if you tried to convince him, you would be wasting your time, if you worked a miracle before him, he would ascribe the power to a demon, but when God dealt with him, it did not take too long for him to submit to Jesus.

In Abuja, there was a pregnant woman living in the middle floor of a three-storey building. But unfortunately for her, the person living on top was a witch, the one leaving below was a witch, so she was sandwiched. But the woman was a believer. Things would have been going on smoothly if these witches had not started harassing her. She would see them in the dream trying to puncture her pregnancy. She prayed that God should show her their faces and God did. She attended a prayer meeting and there was a word of knowledge that there was a pregnant woman who was being attacked spiritually but she would see her attackers no more, and she said, Amen. By the next morning, she met the first one by the gate, stone dead, nobody knew what happened. How she got there and when it happened, nobody knew.  The second one was not at home, she traveled. On her way, there was an accident involving the vehicle she was travelling in, the person sitting beside her in that vehicle came out without a scratch, but this witch died. She was the only one who died in the accident. So, in one day God dealt with her enemies leaving the pregnant woman alone in the house. You may say this is wickedness, but if they had punctured the woman’s pregnancy with their knives, that would have been the end of it. So, you fight with what you have. The Bible says right from the time of John the Baptist, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent people take it by force.

God is still in the business of fighting for His people. The way He will fight may be too much for us to bear when He starts. He has the only true fire, so we shall challenge our enemies and situations by that fire. The true fire comes from the Lord and when it descends, it begins to work. It is an instrument of divine vengeance. If you are a good reader of the word of God, you will discover that during the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, fire came. Exodus too tells us about the burning bush. In the desert, while the children of God were going to the Promised Land the pillar of fire was going with them. This divine fire can protect us, it can act as a judge and can destroy God’s enemy.

However, there are still some Christians who are suffering from spiritual diabetes. Those who prefer comfortable life to the cross. They want a life of ease than the cross.  That is what we call spiritual diabetes, too much sugar. Such people need fire. When fire enters into their lives, the zeal to serve the Lord will enter, and they will be able to do extra work for the Lord. Many are in that category. They need to challenge their lives with the fire of the Holy Ghost. There are some brothers who want to lay their heads on Delilah’s laps and wake up in the bosom of Abraham. It is not possible. It is from the lap of Delilah to hell fire, they need the fire of God. Such people would say, “I don’t know what is happening, I just can’t resist this woman. When I see her, my resistance melts away.” It is not your resistance that is melting away, it is your bondage that is becoming stronger.

Many Christians also suffer from spiritual madness. They know that a particular thing is not God’s will; they read the Bible to understand the messages, yet they go ahead to do it. A lot of Christians are suffering from spiritual blindness, they hear nothing, see nothing and prophesy nothing. They are experts at falling in and out of the pit, they need fire. A lot of people suffer from spiritual diahorrea. Frequent stooling is the inability of the intestine to retain food. A lot of Christians cannot retain the word of the Lord in their minds. Evil birds are always coming to pick it away like in the parable of the sower. The problem is not that many do not receive blessings, but the enemy punctures a hole and leaks them away. Others receive outstanding miracle, but the candidate of spiritual diahorrea will not receive any. Many are scrambling for breakthroughs, whereas the first prayer they should pray is that the leaking holes should be sealed up. When they come to the stream to fetch water, many come with a basket; the enemy has stolen their buckets and replaced them with baskets, which cannot hold water. God will not pour water into baskets. Until those spiritual holes, making goodness and blessings to leak away are blocked, many people will not have their blessings. It is like the story of a fisherman whose fish jumped back into the river before it was being pulled out  he had lost his worm.

The bucket of the finances of many are leaking. A lady graduate got a job in a pharmacy shop where she was selling drugs to people. Her salary was N5,000.00, while others were receiving N2, 000.00 and N3, 000.00. On her first month, when her boss brought their salary, he said, “I want to congratulate you for another month’s salary but when we looked at our account and the inventory of our drugs, we found out that drugs worth N15, 000 have been stolen this month and since you people are unable to explain what happened to the drugs, our policy is that you will use your salary to replace the drugs.” He said, “Since we still take care of your transportation, Madam, you are supposed to have N5, 000, I will give you N1, 000 and the rest people N500.” The sister broke down and cried, saying, “First month at work, what kind of a place is this? I have been believing God that at the end of the month there would be salary.” That month went. The next month’s payday came, the boss was back with the salary with the same scenario and the sister was paid N500. She came crying to me and I told her, “You better leave that place. You haven’t gotten a job yet because the place is leaking with holes.

When somebody earns money and he does not know how it goes, he needs to challenge the situation with fire. When you work hard, but little or no gain comes in, fruitless effort, good jobs slip out of your hands, you need to challenge the situation with fire. Customers are avoiding your shops, the old customers are looking for another place instead of your shop, you need to challenge it by fire.

There was a brother who sold motor tyres and was doing well. After sometime, he noticed that sales were dropping. He also noticed that when buyers come, they would by-pass his shop and he was not selling at all. One day, he found one of his customers by-passing his shop, then with boldness, he challenged one of them; “I thought you were my customer, why did you suddenly change your mind?” and the man said, “I don’t know, I just don’t feel like coming to your shop.” There were demonic spirits at the front of his shop controlling the traffic and diverting his customers away. We need to command these demonic spirits to leave our businesses alone and also roast them with fire.

Perhaps you noticed that problems are mounting up and swallowing all the financial gain that you are making, you also find that debt just surrounds you like the sea, or you cannot keep a regular job, you have a problematic health, and buying very expensive drugs or there is financial handicap in your life, or thieves are always duping you, then you need to challenge the situation by fire.

The spiritual life of some people have holes in it, they used to speak in tongues but now they no longer speak in tongues, they once prophesied but no more prophecy again, they once saw visions, but no vision any more, they were once preaching in the buses but now they do not preach again. Today, they are on fire for God, tomorrow, they are cold. All the bad dreams are coming back, they cannot memorize scriptures. During fasting, they are busy consuming food in the dream. They are still at the same level they were many years back. They need to challenge these things by the fire of God. The ministry of Elijah is needed in these last days to confront these forces that are confronting Christians. Christians have to be more aggressive than they are now to get things to work.

PRAYER POINTS

1.         Oh Lord, give me the necessary aggression for battle, in the name of Jesus.

2.         I invite the fire of God and judgement upon every stubborn adversity, in the name of Jesus.

3.         Let the rod of unrepentant opposition be destroyed, in the name of Jesus.

4.         Every power eating up God’s people like meat, be disgraced, in the name of Jesus.  

5.         Every stubborn and demonic follower, go back into the pit, in the name of Jesus.

6.         I posses my possessions by the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, in Jesus’ name.

7.         Every evil power militating against my life, I summon you to appear by the fire of God, in Jesus’ name.

8.         Receive the fire of judgment, in the name of Jesus.

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UPROOTING SATANIC SEEDS

DR. D. K. OLUKOYA

Let’s start this message by knowing what a seed is. A seed is that part of a plant from which a new plant of the same kind can grow. A good seed grows into a good plant whereas a bad seed grows into bad plant. A seed is a very interesting thing because of it several characteristics. It may look seemingly harmless and small but all the elements that are necessary to make it a big plant are present within it. In every seed, there is a tree or plant. It follows that if you destroyed a seed, you have destroyed a would-be tree because the seed would eventually grow into a tree, if left to develop. Seeds also have some spiritual importance, as we shall see here. Just as a divine seed will produce divine plant, so also a satanic seed will produce a satanic plant. An undisputable fact is that anything that is not planted by God is from Satan. It is the process of removing satanic plantations and their seeds that we are concerned with in his message.

Matthew 13:24-30

    “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: [25] But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. [26] But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. [27] 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? [28] He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? [29] But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. [30] Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn”.

 

    The position of Christians today could be likened to these two types of plants growing in this sower’s field. At the time of harvest, the Lord will separate the faithful ones from the counterfeit and burn them off in hell fire.

 

Let us consider another analogy, a snake as we all know is a very dangerous creature, yet a little boy can destroy it without much effort at the egg stage. However if it allowed developing beyond this stage before attempting to destroy it, it will take the extra care, wit and skill of even forty-year-old adult to kill it effectively. What is manifesting in many lives today is as a result of seeds planted a long time ago. While the evil seeds in some people’s lives have grown into big forces, others are just growing into small plants whereas the seeds in some other people’s lives are yet to germinate.

 

Beloved, it is easier to destroy a seed than to uproot a fully-grown tree. If those wrong growths in your spiritual life are still at the germination or seed level, you will do well to start to deal with them by applying the principles in this message. If however, you feel that your problem has already matured into full grown tree, then you would have taken advantage of wise counsel if you read an earlier edition of this publication entitled “Send God’s fire to the Root” for with Jesus all things are possible.

Jesus likened the kingdom of God again to a mustard seed in Matthew 13:31-32

    “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: [32] Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof”.

 

That is to say that a single person filled with the Holy Ghost can convert one thousand people. This signifies that the word of God in the heart of man is considered a seed. So, as God sows seeds in the heart of men for their benefit and to make them candidates for heaven, the devil also sows seeds in the heart of men to make them candidates for hell.

 

When the seed of God’ s word is sown into a heart, two things  could happen. It could either grow or be killed. If God ‘s words grows in a person, then he will blossom into a heaven bound Christian, who will even be a blessing to others.

 

If on the other hand the devil’s seed grows in a person, he will receive the devil’s nature and grows to live for the devil. It is sad that the enemy has planted unprofitable seeds in many lives, homes, businesses and families. This has been done a long time ago, and it is the result that now manifests through the noticeable plants.

 

If an evil tree is already growing in a person’s life, the Bible gives three remedies of what can be done to it;

1.    Uproot it;

2.    Cut it;

3.    Burn it off with fire.

 

But you may wish to ask this question. Why is it that a person is born again and yet evil seeds still grow into plants in his life? Why didn’t the seeds die immediately he got born again? The answer is that. Some born again Christian may be either spiritually dead or asleep.

An evil seed will thrive in either of these lives.

At this point, I will want you to pray this prayer point; “l render every evil seed powerless in my life, in the mighty name of Jesus”

Let us examine briefly those people in whose lives these evil seeds thrive easily.

 

 

 

SPIRITUAL SLEEPERS

Ephes. 5:14

    “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light”.

 

   

All backsliders fall into this category.

 

2. SINNERS

Evil seeds thrive in the lives of those who still living in sin Proverbs 8:36

    “But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death”.

All the sinners are categorized by t he Bible as dead people , who may be alive physically but are spiritually dead. All fake Christians, clever sinners, liars, thieves etc, fall into this category. The enemy finds it easy to sow his satanic seeds in their lives and thereby convert their lives to “living corpses”

 

3.THE CARNAL PEOPLE : They never bother about heaven. They do not think about it all. The Bible says they and their thoughts are filled with earthly desires and dead works.

4. HATERS OF KNOWLEDGE: Proverbs 21:16

    “The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead”.

   

This set of people believe that they know it all and do not need any further knowledge. They think they are better left alone where they are.

 

5.THE PLEASURE SEEKERS The book of 1 Tim. 5:6

    “But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth”. Many churches are filled with this type of people who are only interested in singing, dancing and entertainment. This however is in sharp contrast to what the Church stands for. The Church of the Lord is a place where Christian soldiers are raised and not a place to entertain our carnal desires. It is worse still for those who see the Church as a place to parade their worldly fashions and passions. Isaiah 38:19

    “The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth”.

Similarly Psalm 115:17

    “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence”.

These two scriptures clearly show that the praise of the spiritually dead people are unacceptable to God. Thus, in such lives, evil seeds would still grow and thrive.

We need to do something about these situations beloved. Some people are already dead as far as God is concerned. Rev. 3:1-2

    “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. [2] Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God”. When someone or somebody is spiritually dead, anything can be fired into his life e.g. anything can be fired into his life e.g. frustration, cancer and all kinds of afflictions “if you belong to any of these five groups, evil seeds will thrive in your life. Christians who have evil seeds in their lives always make the enemies happy. A sleeping Christina is completely useless to the Lord, because he or she is completely unaware of his spiritual surroundings. This makes them unmovable and untouchable by any revival or the power of the Holy Spirit. They are the people whom would always use the cliché that “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” If God is to increase in your life, something in your life has to decrease. It is you that has to decrease so that God can increase.

 

 A sleeping Christian would invite problems into his life. For example, if something is pursuing you in the dream and you did all kinds of thing to escape and yet, the enemy did not give up, then the Lord is telling you that you can be pursued by any evil force, indicating that you are not Holy. God’s warning is that you must wake up today, because it is very dangerous to sleep spiritually.

 

The following are examples of those who are asleep spiritually

a.    People who do not dream or see visions, these ones have been cut off completely by the devil.

b.    A sister who is of marriageable age and all the suitors are unbelievers or vice versa for a bachelor brother.

c.     People who come to church to check people’s outfits. They have serious problems

d.    Believers who forget or omit paying tithes

e.    Haters of prayer. The spiritually dead and spiritually asleep are good targets for the seeds and trees of the enemy. In order to get out of this situation, the first thing to do is to give your life to God and if you have backslidden, go back to Him. There are three things about the life of a man, which does not know anything about.

1.    What will happen to him throughout his entire time.

2.    What happened at the unconscious stage of his life or at the beginning of his life.

3.    What happen after this life i.e. after death.

 

The Bible tells us about the end of all men. The devil picks the time when we were not fully conscious of our environment to plant evil seeds in our lives.

When a man commits immorality with a possessed woman, an evil seed is planted. Many are fighting battles in a war they never declared. Many people are carrying burdens for reasons they do not even understand. And this is due to the evil seeds planted by the enemy.

One terrible seed. Beloved, which has destroyed so many people is worry. The Greek translation of the word means to divide the mind. The bible says that worry is a sin, because whosoever is worrying has refused to trust God, and many sicknesses come as a result of this, therefore it is an evil seed, which must be uprooted.

 

An evil seed can make a person to commit suicide, if he does not have the fire of God. Beloved, you may not know what your life when you were yet unconscious of your environment, but one thing is sure, as a child of God, you have the right and indeed the power to uproot any seed that has been planted by the enemy with the intention to do you harm as you grow or alter God’s plans for your life. The way of exercising your right and power as a Christian is in no other than the following.

1.    Aggressive and strategic praying: these prayers must be done fervently and with all your might if you truly want these seeds removed. The sword of the spirit, which is prayer, and the word of God must be applied like one who means business.

2.    Violent faith: It is written that without faith it is impossible to please God” with violent faith evil seeds or trees will be uprooted.

3.    Holiness: We have noted before that without holiness a Christian would either be dead or asleep. Holiness is paramount in this issue.

You must stand against all evil seeds and satanic trees and get them uprooted. Today, l assure you of one thing, that is the fact that you will emerge victorious in Jesus name.

Please pray the following prayer points with holy madness 

PRAYER POINTS

1. Lord send your axe of fire to the root of all unprofitable trees in my life and cut them down in the name of Jesus.

2.  Father Lord, if l am spiritually dead of asleep, wake me up in the name of Jesus.

3. l refuse to be a dead person in the name of Jesus.

4. l break out of spiritual slumber in the name of Jesus.

5. Lord, help me to do the right thing at the right time in Jesus name.

6. Let every spirit of pharaoh refusing to let me go and serve my God, die in Jesus name.

7. Every Satanic seed in my life be uprooted in the name of Jesus.

 

CONVERTING MISTAKES TO MIRACLES

DR. D. K. OLUKOYA

Generally, people make mistakes in their daily lives. It may be on their jobs, finances, marriages etc. Effects of such mistakes can be devastating. It is therefore better to prevent a mistake from occurring than to start looking for remedy after it had happened. But l want to tell you that your mistakes could be converted to miracles if you are a true child of God. The basic aim of this message therefore, is to look at how this can be done. Indeed all your past failures could become future successes. Let us see what the scriptures are saying concerning this. Proverbs 24:16

    “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief”. 

Furthermore, Psalm 37:23-24

    “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighted in his way. [24] Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand”.

I don’t know what your situation is at the moment, but l know of someone who knows everything about all men, who by the words of His mouth can cause a change in any situation, no matter how serious or terrible. Get it settled in your mind that there is no human being who can claim to be hundred percent perfect all the time. The day you announce your infallibility to the world, that is the day you enroll in another school of failure and folly. However, let me correct the wrong notion that only dullards make mistakes. The truth is that as far as you plan to make progress, you will make mistakes. You may be criticized but it doesn’t matter. It is o only an indication that you are making progress. Proverbs 9:9

    “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning”.

Psalm 141:5

    Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.

The whole Bible was written for our correction and learning. It will not augur well for a Christian who refuses to admit his mistakes. If you study the Bible very well, you will definitely learn from other people’s mistakes. A good example was Eve who danced to the tune of the devil rather than God. Adam followed suit by taking to his wife’s counsel suit by taking to his wife’s counsel instead of God’s. Noah too committed a blunder. He found great favour in the sight of the Lord, but rather he survived the deluge, he planted a vineyard, where he got drunk. Abraham, the father of faith made may mistakes too. He had Ishmael through Hagar, who became the father of the Arab nations harassing the world today. Isaac made his own mistakes too. He was deceived into blessing the wrong person. Jacob too made a lot of mistakes during his time. He robbed Esau his brother of his birthright. He also demonstrated that he loved Joseph more than the rest of his children and this had an adverse effect on him. Moses made eleven mistakes when he was receiving call of God, one of which was when he complained that he was not eloquent enough for the kind of ministry God wanted him to undertake. His temper later because his greatest undoing in the wilderness. Christians make a lot of mistakes through negligence, laziness and indiscipline. Owing to the negligence of Eli the priest, his sons, Hophni and Phinehas messed up the temple by sleeping with women at the sanctuary and stealing meat offered for sacrifices, thus committing sacrilege. When reports on the disgraceful behaviour of his sons reached him, Eli failed to keep them in check. He was a negligent father, and as a result, he broke his neck and died. Another type of mistake that people make is that of curiosity. This mostly affects young people who are easily influenced by their peers. They form bad habits through the persuasion of others. They get introduced into smoking and drinking alcohol and finally graduate into taking hard drugs. Before they started taking these things, they must have been deceived into thinking that they could control their intake, but they eventually found out that it was not that easy. This is mistake borne out of curiosity. We have another type of mistake, which arises out of panic. People who get panicky abort any adverse situation are likely to make terrible mistakes which may cause them discomfort, severe pains and even death. Ignorance is another reason why people make mistakes. This was the kind of mistake Moses made when he killed an Egyptian and this put him into trouble. As you run through the Bible, you will find out that there are lots of God’s people who make mistakes, but recovered from them and forged ahead. They did not waste time mourning or getting discouraged. Elijah, the man of God who called down fire made a mistakes to o. he got to a stage in his life time when he became so discouraged and distressed, that he made this statement in1 Kings 19:4

   “ But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers”.

1 Kings 19:10

    “And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away”.

 He kept on repeating the same complaint and prayer, while God was asking him to do something else. He prayed in error. John the Baptist, inspite of his bold, fiery and heart-piercing messages, out of mistake doubted the messiah ship of Jesus Christ. He wavered in faith when he sent a messenger to Christ to inquire as to whether or not he was the expected Messiah of Jesus Christ. He wavered in faith when he sent a messenger to Christ to inquire as to whether or not he was the expected messiah. Peter also made a mistake when he denied Jesus Christ. However, despite the mistake of Peter, he eventually recovered. How about Paul the apostle? Whilst he was answering the charges brought against him before Ananias the high priest, the high priest commanded someone who stood commanded someone who stood by to slap him. It was an enraged Paul that said, “God shall smite thee, thou whited wall; for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commadest me to be smitten contrary to the law” (Acts 23:3) When he later realized that he was talking to God’s high priest, he quickly apologized.

HOW CAN WE CONVERT OUR MISTAKES TO MIRACLES?

1. DO not pamper your mistakes: It has been observed that an average person finds it difficult to admit his or her fault. Recognize and confess your mistakes to God. Don’t justify them for any reason. Do not allow pride to prevent you from admitting your mistake and asking for forgiveness when you have offended a person. If you are the type of person who apportions blame on others whenever there is little problem, then you are not yet serious about changing your situation. Understand that it is pride when you pamper your mistakes. A lot of people have been devastated by this attitude.
2. Identify the reasons for your past mistakes: evaluate your past life carefully to see where you had taken wrong decisions or made wrong statements. If you discover them avoid repeating them.
3. Learn your lessons: It is not the will of God for somebody to pass through a school for nothing. You must be able to show the evidence of the lessons you learnt in the school of mistakes that you have attended. Psalm 119:71

   It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.  Although, the Psalmist suffered afflictions, he learnt his lessons. God is an effective teacher, who will never allow one to move ahead until he or she has passed his promotion test. This is the reason why many people remain endlessly in the same class. The prodigal son in the Bible did not make any meaningful progress until he realized his mistakes and learnt his lessons. God sometime allows a particular thing to happen to you so that you can learn a good lesson from it. For example, if God foresees that you are going to have an accident, he can cause a vehicle to have a flat tire such that you will never arrive at the spot where the accident is bound to occur, at the time it was planned to happen.

Have you learnt lesson from your excessive talking habit? If not, you will be shocked to know how much of your secrets that have been revealed to the enemy. A sister dreamt that they made use of a Dane gun against her. She dodged the first and second shots whilst she grabbed the gun and the third time and broke it. When she woke up, she was quite perplexed. At her place of work the following day, the very person she narrated the story to was her enemy. This person ostensibly prayed that God should help her. With this information, she quickly went back to their witchcraft meeting to inform members that the gun given to her was not effective and that she needed a better one. When this was revealed to the Sister, she learnt how to control her tongue.

You have probably made mistakes that caused confusion and trouble for you and God is expecting you to learn your lessons from them. God will never build on the foundation of a person who has reused to learn lessons from past mistakes. God will maintain that He cannot build on a wrong foundation constructed with impatience. Most of the problems some people think are insurmountable can be removed easily, if they learn to be patient in all things. That, indeed is what God is looking for. Therefore in the school of God, you will continue to repeat your examination until you pass it both honourable and excellently. So, stop putting ammunition in the hands of the enemy. What this means is that you should stop supplying information to the enemy. It is very unfortunate that many people are fond of this. 

4. Make restitution where necessary Exodus 22:1

“If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep”.

This is restitution in the biblical sense. In the same vein Luke 19:8

    “And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold”.    

He was a man that Jesus decided to visit at home. Zaccheaus was a short man and a tax collector who climbed a tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus, who was expected to pass through a certain place Luke 19:9

    “And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, for as much as he also is a son of Abraham”. The reaction of Zaccheaus to the statement of Jesus vividly told us what restitution is all about. Check your house, do you have stolen items there? Most believers have stolen items like towels, spoons, biros, envelops etc, from their offices or hotels. Many people have stolen substantial things like cars from their employers. Restitution of such things must be done by returning them to where they belong. Those expecting miracles must correct all the wrongs in their lives as nothing must be concealed or spared. The devil being a legal expert knows the Bible in and out and will definitely capitalize on all the things you fail to restitute to accuse you.

You have to make restitution before your mistakes can be converted to miracles. Think about it. Sisters who had collected money and other gifts from their former boyfriends when they were in the world, have to do something about it quickly. I recall the message on the wicked man. In that message, l said that the reason why some people have poor finances was probably because they once stole from others. It may sound very strange to hear that some people develop stomach problems after eating stolen foods but it does happen.

5. Be a source of blessing to others: You should always meditate and think about what you can do to help others in need. In the Bible, it was the people that were ready to help others, that God sued and blessed as well. Consider the story of the widow of Zarephath. She gave herself out to be a blessing to people and she was adequately compensated for it.
6. Count your blessing and glorify the Lord always: Learn to show appreciation, even for what you call an insignificant blessing from the Lord. Cultivate the habit of praise and thanksgiving. You should always show gratitude for the seemingly small breakthrough you have, to pave way for a big one.
7. Never give up: A lot of people give up easily. They quit at an early stage. Such people complain bitterly of not getting any result from endless deliverance and dry fast programmes. However Psalm 145:14

   “ The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down”.

This verse serves as an encouragement in every trying situation, Christians, therefore should never give up   

8. Arrest the spirit of Error: If you are serious about converting your mistakes to miracles, then you have to bind and paralyze the spirit of error. Failure to do this will result in a drift back into the pit of ignorance. The early patriarchs of the Bible did not have any history to learn from but we do. The fathers of faith in the Bible did not witness a dead person come back to life to tell them about the reality of hell fire. But now, we have many examples to learn from. At the dispensation in question, Jesus had not come in the flesh and so the people did not have Jesus or the Holy Spirit. But in our time we have the Holy Spirit. They did not have much knowledge and information that we have now. Therefore if people who are opportune to belong to this generation refuse to learn from their mistakes then, they are committing a great sin. When someone who is regarded as a matured Christian suddenly commits a scandalous sin, it is the spirit of error that is at work. The spirit of error leads people blindly to commit sins against their will. It is the spirit of error that makes a person to fall into the same sinful trap twice. This is the reason why a person who was once on fire suddenly becomes lukewarm or cold. The spirit of error also cages the financial breakthrough of some people when they fail to pay tithes. This same spirit is at work when a believer finds out that all his efforts in the service of the Lord yield no dividend or something is compelling him to go ahead to do what he obviously knows is bad. When the person refuses to learn from the mistakes of others and therefore becomes unteachable then the terrible spirit of error will come into operation. It is the spirit of error that pushes Christians into consulting herbalists and soothsayers for solutions to their problems.

The second commandment says, “Thou shalt not make thyself any graven image nor likeness of anything whether in heaven or on earth. So the Bible forbids any pictorial representation of God, Jesus or any angel. There are many organizations where they wear uniforms in the name of serving God. Some even say that the best time to pray are as follows 9am, 12 p.m 3p.m, 6p.m and 12 midnight. Such people have been captured by the spirit of error. Have you been to a place where a so-called man of God asked you to stand on the Bible to repay? Or you have heard a false teaching about reincarnation giving the impression that a dead persons can come back to live again. This explains why some believers should discard some names like Tunde, Iyabo, Nneka etc. It will also interest you to know that any prayer that involves sacrifices and rubbing of eggs on the bodies of people are all erroneous. Consider the religious groups that make eating of meat a taboo. Such groups even go further to replace the blood of Jesus with that of animals. They burn incense and are better described as herbalists in disguise. The ceremonial visit to the mountaintop, such as mount taborrah or mount Ogere is undoubtedly the gateway to demonic possession. The lives of many people who visit such places have been ruined beyond repair because God does not approve of such exercises. All organizations that are baptizing sinners babies and the dead are operating under the guidiance of the spirit of error. What do you think of those who pray on alcohol for people to drink? Or those who do blood bathing and praying to God with fire. They have gone deep into error. The sit of erroneous practices are inexhaustive. Imagine those who make their followerers to drink all sorts of holy water. They make them depend on vision and thereby restrain them from exercising simple faith in God. Any Christian who goes to such people is controlled by the spirit of error. I recall the case of a Ghanaian friend of mine who went to pray for somebody. After the prayer, the person asked my friend, What did you see sir” My friend replied, “l saw you” this attitude is as a result of the activity of the spirit of error. Those who strip themselves naked to pray have been captured by this evil spirit. FI you had accepted revelations or prophecies from someone who gets caught way in the spirit for days, l will sincerely recommend you for deliverance. Because this kind of people travel in the spirit to the second heaven to file a case. It is quite awkward to know that some evil organizations are now merging Christiansnity, Islam and Traditional religion together. Some even go as far as leaving their hair uncut lie mad people. Such people are operating in error. Those who go to them will be possessed by the same spirit. It should be clear in your mind now, that people possessed by the spirit of error will make unpardonable mistakes. Therefore, if you had got involved with any of these places l have mentioned in the course of this message, then you should really seek for deliverance there is no way you will not need it Isaiah 8:20

    “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them”.

To this end, any believer who wants to arrest the spirit of error must guard against the following:

1.      Don’t have confidence in the flesh: Paul the apostles says “we have no confidence in the flesh”

2. Avoid pride: To do away with the spirit of error pride must be summarily dealt with in our lives.
3. Throw away impatience: Lack of patience will make you to lose what God wants you to get. In other words, you stand to lose many good things in the store house of God if you lack the patience with which to wait on Him.
4. Avoid spiritual carelessness: Don’t trifle with your Bible reading, prayer life and holiness. Notice that as far as God is concerned they are all important You cannot replace one with another

Beloved, if you follow these steps, whatever mistakes you might have made in the past, the God of yesterday, today and forever will convert them to miracles. But if you fail to decide today, you will remain where you were. There is no point crying over your past mistakes because god has promised to raise you up again from where you have been knocked down by your mistakes. Many believers who have fallen need to rise up again, to resuscitate businesses that have collapsed and to release brains that have been caged. Many people suffer from various complex afflictions today. God will definitely convert all your mistakes into miracles as you pray these prayer points fervently.

  PRAYER POINTS

1.      The devil will not use my relative against me in the name of Jesus.

2.      Let all my mistakes be converted to miracles in the name of Jesus.

3.      Let my presence begin to terrify the enemy in the name of Jesus.

4.      All evil records against me, be roasted in the name of Jesus.

5.      Any power that wants to put me to shame, receive disgrace in the name of Jesus.

6.      l bind and cast out every spirit of error in Jesus name.

7.      l reject every evil control over my life in Jesus name.

8.      Let every evil remote control system fashioned against me be consumed by the Holy Ghost fire in Jesus name.

9.      I paralyze every spirit of confusion operating against me in Jesus name.

10. Father Lord, as from now onwards, let the Holy Spirit direct me in all things in Jesus name.

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backTHE POWER AGAINST SERPENTS AND SCORPIONS

DR. D. K Olukoya

The purpose of this message is to expose the wicked activities of spiritual serpents and scorpions and to examine how to combat them. Let us first of all go into the word of God, the serpent is the representative of the devil, or the enemies who harass and destroy. Look at Psalm 91:13 “Thou shall tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon shall thou trample under feet”

This fact is also emphasized in Mark 16:17-18

    ‘And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; (that is number one) they shall speak with new tongues;(Number two) [18] They shall take up serpents;(three) and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them;(four) they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover’. (five) Jesus stressed the same point all over again in Luke 10:19

    “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you”.

  The question you may wish to ask at this point is why did Jesus Christ use serpents and scorpions to explain his ideas? The answer to this is simple. The Bible uses animals a lot to symbolize and express spiritual truth.

  For example, the fox represents a cunning person; one with evil wisdom. The goat represents a stubborn sinner who has planned to perish inspite of all efforts made to save him. The wolf represents fierce and bitter enemies. The lamb is used to represent the Lord Jesus Christ. (the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world). The dove is used to represent the Holy Spirit, an innocent and harmless bird.

  THE SERPENT

The Bible tells us that the serpent is subtle, crooked animal. The terrible thing about the serpent is that it is expressionless and does not give any sign about how it feels or what it is going to do the next minute. This is very unlike the dog that wags its tail when it is happy. The serpent is not fit for food as we can see Matt 7:10. Serpents are usually found in hedges, holes, forests and deserts. The Bible in Isaiah 59:5 also makes us to understand that serpents come from eggs. It is therefore advisable to break the egg of a serpent than to allow it to hatch before it is killed. Above all, the serpent is a cursed creature. Genesis 3:14

    “And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life”:

  Bible readers would wonder why the rod of Moses did not change to anything but a serpent. They would also wonder why Moses had to put a serpent made of brass on the pole so that when the people bitten by serpents looked at it, they would be saved. Its tongue is quite poisonous and therefore represents evil tongues of malice, destruction, death etc.

  THE SCORPION

  Let us consider yet another dangerous creature called scorpion. One prominent feature of the scorpion is that it is also the carrier of terrible part of its body, as its poison is stored therein. The Bible makes it clear that the scorpion is unfit for food. A scorpion represents wickedness in the spiritual realm. It therefore illustrates terrible and poisonous enemies who are ready to kill at the slightest opportunity.

  Matthew 10:16

    “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves”.

  This sounds a bit contradictory. The wisdom of the serpent is to blend with the harmless nature of the dove. The Bible means that you have to be careful and cautious like the serpent, because the serpent is always cautious of getting into trouble. It is rare to see a serpent coming back for another fight, unless it is sure that it will win or the manipulator of the serpent knows the objects of its attack so well, the wisdom of the serpent with the harmless nature of the dove. It was the wisdom that made him tell his captors that he was a Roman citizen by birth, to avoid being beaten. In another instance, he turned the Pharisees and Sadducees against each other to facilitate his escape. Apostle Paul had to apply the wisdom of the serpent again, when the inhabitants of a certain town where he went to preach discovered that he was Roman citizen. They told him to leave the town quickly. He resisted the attempt and told them that they could drive him away secretly after they had beaten him in the open. He gave such response probably because he still wanted to preach in that place. I believe that you can now understand what the wisdom of the serpent means.

  Sometimes ago, one of our sisters in the fellowship gave birth to a baby. However, she was not in a position to eat any nourishing food because the custom of her husband’s stipulated that when a woman gives birth, she should not eat any food prepared with oil or pepper for a period of time. She would therefore have to drink pap or gari. When we discovered that, we had to device a trick, through which she was fed with nourishing food right in the fellowship premises. She would therefore go back home to drink gari or pap. The wisdom of the serpent indeed!

  What are the spiritual functions of the serpents and scorpions? And why is the Bible so emphatic on our reading upon them?

1.    They steal

2.    They kill

3.    They intimidate and instil fear

4.    They control

5.    They manipulate

6.    They dominate

The solution therefore is to tread on them. If you fail, they will find there way up into your life and when they eventually get there, they will create problems for you. When they attack some people, it may take such people several years to get back on their feet. A lot of people are married to sin; hence serpents and scorpions have free access into their lives.

Let us consider a particular method used by hunters in catching monkeys. They would put a bait at the bottom of a narrow bottle and when a monkey puts its hand into the bottle and tightened its fist around the bait, it would become impossible to get its hand out of the bottle. The hunter would come and get the monkey. Likewise, those who are still holding on to their bait of sin will be caught by the serpents and scorpions, who will then go ahead to steal, destroy, intimidate, control, manipulate and dominate them.

  When man fell in the Garden of Eden, he lost control of the authority, which he had and the devil now capitalizes on that to afflict him. If you do not know what to do, the devil will capitalize on your ignorance.

  A man moved into a new house with his family. Soon afterwards, they noticed that strange noises were coming from the roof. So they contemplated on moving out. But when the man learnt of the power in the blood of Jesus, he went home that night to act. He and his wife addressed the noises in the roof aggressively by saying “whatever is making noise in this roof, we will not move out fort you. Hear the word of God and receive fire of God” The result was dumbfounding. After they had prayed, the noise on the roof increased as if a terrible fighting bout was on. Suddenly the ceiling cracked open and a huge python fell down. They were afraid and started to run when seven more pythons fell down. They were afraid and started to run when seven more pythons dropped on the floor! They could not go out therefore had to run into the bathroom. They prayed continuously and a fight ensued between the snakes. When they finally came out, they found the snakes dead all over the place. The enemy would have chased them out of that home, if they did not know what to do. In this black environment, snakes are sent to go and harm people and they would trace those people perfectly well without missing their way!

  I know of a bank manager who encountered a snake in her office, which was situated at the top floor of a building in Lagos. There was no way the snake could have gotten into the building under normal circumstances, but it got there all the same. The woman felt something cold on her legs and looked down to see what it was. On sighting a snake, she screamed “Blood of Jesus” The snake having heard “The Blood of Jesus” tried to escape. Thank God for the woman’s secretary who have divine fire of God in him. He began to rebuke the thing until it died. No one touched or hit the snake before it died. That was an evil messenger. Many times during the ministry of Jesus, he had to force serpents and scorpions to release their captives. This made the evil manipulators of the serpents unhappy.

  The boy in Mark 9 was already swallowed right form childhood. But when Jesus spoke the word of fire, they had to vomit the boy. When you pray correct prayers like “you serpentine spirit and scorpion power, challenge one another in Jesus name” or “you evil swallowers, vomit your captives in Jesus name” This makes them very angry Mark 9:17-18

    ‘And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; [18] And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not’.

  Mark 9:25-27

    When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. [26] And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. [27] But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.    When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.

  The boy was already swallowed, but a prayer was said by Jesus to vomit him out. The serpents and scorpions are out by injecting their poisons into people.

  Serpentine and scorpion powers can attack the following things, which are of great importance to every man and woman.

  PEACE: Peace is the most sought after thing by virtually all men and women. Once, this is gone, nothing else will work. Peace therefore becomes the target of serpentine and scorpion poisons.

  JOY: Serpentine and scorpion powers also work hard to destroy the joy of very many people.

  REST OF MIND: These evil powers continuously attack the rest of mind of very many people.

  SPIRITUAL STRENGTH: The serpents and scorpions’ poisons also sap the spiritual strength of a person, in such a way that the spiritual temperature of that person goes down. For example, if you were reading one chapter of the Bible per day in 1996, but now you are reading only five verses, the serpent has struck. If you were doing one day dry fast last year and this year, it is still the same, the serpent has struck. If your prayer life has gone down i.e. praying for only five minutes now when you used to pray for one hour nonstop before, you have been stung.

  HEALTH: one’s health can be under serpentine manipulation.

  PROSPERITY: This can also be attacked or swallowed, but thank God, that you can command them to vomit what has been swallowed or stolen. I was praying with a man who went from riches to poverty at a point in the past. But after praying for considerable length of time and there was no improvement in his condition, the spirit of the Lord told me to ask his man to bring his daughter for questioning. I then instructed the man directed by the Lord. It was when the man brought his daughter that we were able to get the root of the matter. She confessed that she seized the wealth of her father on the orders of her sister. She also confessed that her father’s wealth was kept on top of an Iroko tree in a particular town.

It therefore followed that serpentine powers had allowed the prosperity of man. The girl said that there were only two ways by which the riches could be recovered. One, by sacrifices and two by prayer. Her advice however was for us to pray because according to her the sacrifice approach would only be a temporary measure. My prayer for you is that all your swallowed blessings and prosperities shall be released today in Jesus name. Amen.

There was also another man who whenever he brought a cheque home would be unable to account for the money withdrawn thereafter from his bank account. Just as it was in the first example, the daughter of this man also confessed that she and her colleagues were in possession of the man’s money an his entire prosperity. There was another case of a woman who employed a lady cashier in her flourishing supermarket. What she did not know was that she had employed a serpentine power with which she polluted all the money that came from the sales of the supermarket goods. I pray that every one of such enemies will be exposed in your life too in Jesus name, Amen.

7. Faith: The attack of serpentine spirits can make you to lose all your confidence in the Lord. You will think that the Lord no longer has power. All they are trying to do is to bring you down to zero level where they can strike you. By worrying, you make the matter worse. If you then make the mistake of running to the enemy, you are preparing nothing for yourself other than your coffin. By reading the 6^th and 7^th books of Moses or other strange books, you are giving the problem a throne. The enemies will always want to give you the impression that a physical experiment must precede God’s work. I pray that such serpents be paralysed in your life today in Jesus name.

8.    TESTIMONY: They can sap one’s testimony until one become barren of testimonies.  

9. DIVINE MERCY: God says that He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy. These serpentine spirits will not even allow one to get to the place of mercy. What mercy is available for one who is consulting a herbalist for help? What mercy do you hope to get when you pitch your camp at bar-beach and talk to the prophets of the queen of the coast?
10. SPIRITUAL POWER: If for years you have been seeking for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and you are stagnant and cannot even speak one word in tongues, the truth is that your spiritual power is being sapped.
11. SUCCESS: The serpents and scorpions can sting, swallow and sap a person’s success. You are not to play with them at all. This is why the Bible instructs us to trample on them and in the process bruise their heads continually.  

12. PROTECTION: They can remove the divine lid of protection off one and cause one to walk straight into the wrong camp. A lot of businessmen would do themselves a lot of good if they could find time in the mornings to paralyze these powers.

13.  VICTORY AS A BELIEVER: When a person is always defeated in the dream, these powers are at work.

 

 

14. WISDOM: A lot of believers have knowledge but no wisdom because these powers are attacking them unawares.

 

15.FULFILMENT: These powers also attack Christians to the extent that God’s plan for their lives always aborted as long as they remain ignorant of their devices.

 

16.VISION: As the people are said to perish where there is no visions, so also serpents and scorpions make the lives of those without vision, fertile grounds for their activities.

 

17. BLESSINGS: They also steal people’s blessings. Brethren, you need to aggressively demand the vomit of those good things that have been swallowed. You may have been wondering why things are not working out well for you, or why complete success is evading you. Things are like that because these serpentine and scorpions spirits are in operation. If you want the divine blessings of God in your life to remain intact, and for the enemy to vomit any good thing that they have swallowed in your life, then you will need to pray aggressively. We must rise up to the serious task of treading on these wicked, but intelligent forces with the wisdom and violence that is expected of children of God at war.

 

 

PRAYER POINTS

 

1.      Every door of entrance for serpentine and scorpion spirits close forever by the blood of Jesus.

2.      All the joy that my enemy has stolen, be vomited by the blood of Jesus and come back to me in Jesus name.

3.      Every health and prosperity that has been stolen by my enemy, be vomited and come back to me in the name of Jesus.

4.      I refuse to become a candidate of serpents and scorpions in Jesus name.

5.       Every enemy of my breakthroughs and miracles, be disgraced in the name of Jesus.

6.      I refuse to allow my blessings to be caged by household enemies.

7.      Every strongman delegated against me fall down and die in the name of Jesus.

8.      Every household strongman fall down and die in Jesus name.

WHY THE STAR HUNTERS SUCCEED

DR D. K. OLUKOYA

  Last time, we brought you a message titled “The star Hunters” In this message, we are considering why these star hunters succeed. This is intended to teach us how to protect ourselves from those who pollute, trap and destroy people’s destinies and foundations.

Why do they succeed? The words of Paul the apostle give an insight into this 1 Cor. 9:26-27

    “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: [27] 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”.

  Furthermore 1 Cor. 15:56

    “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law”.

  That is to say that, sin has strength, which is law. At the same time, star hunters have their strength, which we are going to discuss in this message.

  We have read two very important scriptures, where Paul said he fought but not like some one who beat the air and that his running too was not with uncertainty. It is possible for a person to fight a foolish battle and that is why the Bible says, “fight the good fight of faith” It is equally possible for a person to beat the air, whilst the enemy is busy laughing at the person. An individual may decide to run a race that nobody asked him to run. By implication, such a person is busy fighting against himself. It is a fact however, that people actually sit down to manufacture weapons and train up soldiers to fight themselves. Do try to understand the important truth being emphasized here. Any failure in anybody’s life is not God’s fault or that of His word, but the person’s fault. On being born again, through the light of the gospel, a person’s life is completely transformed irrespective of the former background or demonic affiliations. Any failure in such a person’s life thereafter is not God’s fault. From my experience, a lot of people do not want to face the truth about themselves. A lot of people have turned themselves to personal masquerades and are busy pursuing themselves about. How long will you run away from yourself?    The first step in the school of spiritual maturity is to acknowledge the truth about yourself. Whoever wants to be free from any attack and wants the promise of God which says, “Touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm” to come to pass in his life, should take this first step and acknowledge the truth about himself. Failure to do this will mean repeating the same blunder Adam committed. Genesis 3:9-11

    “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? [10] And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. [11] And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?”

  It was not that God did not know where Adam was, but the problem was that Adam was no longer where God wanted him to be. The star hunters had dealt with him, because they had seen the glory, which God was packaging together for him. They also knew what he was going to enjoy, hence, they set a trap for him and he was caught. What eventually happened? Genesis 3:12

    “And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat”.

  Adam’s response by all indications shows that he blamed God and his wife for his woes, instead of blaming himself.  A lot of people are still blaming God like that today. They say, “God are you sleeping? Are you not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Why are you sleeping now? Are you really there? Well, l give you one more chance to answer my prayer and if you don’t answer my prayer and if you don’t answer this one you will never see me in your tabernacle again. They blame God when it is not His fault. As far as you do not want to face the truth about yourself, you are giving star hunters a foothold in your life. As a result of this, you will become a student in a dangerous school called the school of self-deception. You will then be fighting a foolish battle. However, it would do you a lot of good if you blame yourself for your wrong doing, don’t pass the buck to others. If there is any failure or defeat in your life, the blame is on you because God’s word cannot fail. For example, the Bible in many places, talks about diligence. It says, “…if you shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord your God to observe and to do all His commandments. Blessed shall thou be when thou comest in and blessed shall thou be when thou goest out” And in another place, it says, “For without faith, it is possible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” Diligence is not when you rush out to God’s presence after every prayer session or read the Bible to silence your conscience. Diligence is the opposite of Laziness or slothfulness. You cannot succeed in a life of faith when you are spiritually lazy or you are a spiritual sluggard. It is very sad to see girls below the age of 25 who cannot stand up to pray for 30 minutes. Whereas we have some sisters who are over 60 years old in our fellowship, who are just warming up by the time they pray for 2 hours.

A lazy Christian would abandon spiritual responsibilities at the slightest exercise and would rather listen to music for 3 hours, watch television for 4hours and pray for 15 minutes. Many people come to God’s house not because they really love God with all their hearts or love to do His work, but they come to try God. Beloved, a lot of people are battling against themselves whilst they think their battles are directed against their enemies. You may ask, but how do l fight against myself? Human beings can be divided into two caregories:the goat and the sheep. Each of them belongs either to the right or to the left. There is something in deliverance ministry known as “power from the left side i.e. the power of the goat. Hence we have those who are saved ad those who are lost. There are three levels of Christianity among those who are saved, which Paul identifies in 1 Cor. 3:1-8

   “ And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. [2] I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

    [3] For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? [4] For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? [5] Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? [6] I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. [7] So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. [8] Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour”.

1 Cor. 3:11

   “ For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ”.

In this passage, three levels of Christians are identified; namely Babes, Carnal and Spiritual. Your level will determine to what extent the star hunters succeed in your life.

A 50-year-old person behaving like a baby. We have many Christians who are like that, instead of addressing this; they resort to blaming God, enemies and household wickedness. They forget the commandment of God, which says, “Touch not”. When God says, “don’t touch” and somebody goes to touch, then there would definitely be trouble. Serious problems happened to disobedient people in the Bible. They got into trouble because they touched what God told them not to touch. Consider what happened to Pharaoh, Herod and Haman to mention a few. They probably thought God was joking. In the same vein, a lot of churchgoers are babies; they don’t take God’s words seriously. Of course there are certain things that God can overlook at the early stage of your conversion, particularly when you have just become a born again Christian.

  If you however remain stagnant and refuse to grow above the level of a baby according to God’s wish and expectation, enemies will seriously victimize you, because you are not found where you are supposed to be. By so doing, you are like Adam who left his place and became vulnerable to the enemies.

  A lot of contemporary Christians are spiritually shallow and are therefore not rooted in those things they should know and this includes pastors, choristers, church workers etc. Those in that kind of position would discover that demonic spirits like spirit husbands and wives are in control of their lives. Serpents and scorpions would pursue such people because they know they are babies and there is nothing they can do.

Imagine a baby on a bed who sees a python coming towards him. There is nothing the baby can do unless the parents or other people come to his rescue. This is the crux of the matter. One of the desires of a baby is that everybody should satisfy him. So, Paul said they should be given milk is that it is processed food. These people cannot sit down to study the word of God, gain something from it and begin to move with it. Many so called pastors and apostles are babies.

  Who is a carnal Christian?

  A carnal Christian is someone who has been saved but is still being ruled and motivated by the old nature. The devil is doing so much havoc in the lives of such people. When you are comparing yourself with others, then you are carnal.

It is a mark of carnality when you are always concerned about what others think about you. You are carnal if you want recognition anywhere you go. The desire for posts and elevation without merit is also mark of carnality. Carnal people cannot claim to be sons and daughters of God.

The issue of carnality explains why we find some people who speak Bible language and tongues but dress like demons.

It is carnality when you want to satisfy people who are in darkness by compromising your Christian faith. A carnal person will live like a servant, while star hunters are making progress in his life. Many people are quick to forget that the flesh cannot give in easily or in a hurry.

The flesh is determined at all times to defeat you, it does not easily give up the throne it is occupying in people’s lives. Unless you are determined to take away the throne from it, to will not allow you to maintain total control over your life. As a matter of fact, God issued a decree upon the flesh “dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return” The flesh knew where it will end up from that time. It is probable that some of us who don’t even know where we are going. Most people pay a lot of attention to their flesh while the inner man which is eternal is left to suffer.

This is the scenario of the old nature before a person receives Christ; the flesh is the king, the soul is the servant whilst the spirit is the slave. The flesh is the one in charge, taking control; the soul is the servant running errands, carrying messages, whilst the spirit is the slave doing all the dirty things and suffering all the punishments. Conversely, when you become a spiritual man (The third and highest class of Christians), the order changes. The spirit becomes the king, the soul still remains the servant (because the soul is a kind of robot which does what you tell it to do) and the flesh becomes the slave.

When you become the kind of spiritual Christian that God wants you to be, you will lose your desire for worldly amusement and pleasures.

I recall the story of a man who died and believers gathered around his corpse to pray for him to come back to life. As God would have it, after six hours of intensive prayers, the man came back to life. But then, he began to blame the people, that they were every wicked to have brought him back to earth from heaven, which he undoubtedly called a better place. When they served him food on the first day, he looked at it and said but this is sand, I cannot eat sand. He kept on making that complaint for days. As if that was not enough, whenever everybody had gone to bed, he would start to pray to die again.

When God shows you the picture of heaven like that and you see the things there, you will lose your desire for those things that many carnal people are running after. These are the things making many Christians to forget God. People running after earthly things cannot withstand star hunters or catch up with household wickedness.

When you become a spiritual man, you will lose the desire to satisfy the flesh, for those who live to do so are carnal. When you become a spiritual Christian, the new life within you will have different desire. You will lose interest in things you once loved. When Christ becomes the center of your life, you will emerge victorious and remain undefeated in life. Do you want to paralyse star hunters? Then move away from the baby class i.e. carnality to the spiritual. This is because as long as you remain a baby i.e. carnal Christian, you automatically open door to the enemy to deal with you. This is one secrete, star hunters know very well. God has called each and every one of us for a particular purpose, and if that purpose is not being fulfilled, he will be unhappy with us. God is teaching some people lessons, which He wants them to learn, but as they refuse to learn, He will keep on repeating them everyday.

Therefore you should talk to yourself now. Mention your name and say “be purged by the blood of Jesus depart from the school of babies/carnality and go to the spiritual school in Jesus name”

When you refuse to carry out a self examination, you are not fighting against God, but yourself. The Bible says that “if we judge ourselves, we would not be judged” It also says that we should examine ourselves….” You need to turn the searchlight of the Holy Spirit upon your life by asking yourself questions like; am l not proud?” Do l not exaggerate? Do l not tell lies? Am l not impatient? Do l really fast and pray? Do l not like Jesus for bread and butter alone? Am l serious with God when l have money? Am l not lazy in prayers? Do l not keep malice? Do l have Christian love? Do l like being told the truth about myself? Do l enjoy being criticized? Do l have faith? Am l fully obedient to God in every department of my life? Do l love to be noticed? Do l have the genuine baptism of the Holy Spirit? Do l tell lies against God? Am l a money addict who will not mind telling lies in order to get money? Do l say the Lord has spoken to me when He had said nothing? Do l think or meditate on immorality? Does it take great effort to switch my mind off it? Do l commit secret sin? Face the truth about yourself, or you will be fighting against yourself.

If you allow the enemy to use your weaknesses to strengthen your bondage and you continue to bind them  in that situation, you would only be binding yourself. It is like opening the window of your room at night and binding the air from coming in, that is not possible. It is indeed a useless and foolish battle. Beloved, apart from the devil, another powerful enemy waging war against man is self. When self is at work, God’s work ceases and man’s work begins and progresses. There are many lives in which God’s work has ceased and man’s work has taken full control. A selfish life renders valueless all the good things that one does for God. Are you a pastor or a church worker? If everything you have been doing in that capacity is from the flesh, they have no value before God. If your praise worship is done in the flesh, it is of no value. It is indeed true that the subject with the highest mark in the school of maturity is deliverance from self. Until you pass that subject, demons will continue to operate and feed on you.

Also, the subject with the highest mark in the devil’s school is self-exaltation i.e. pride. Every postponement of repentance is pride. It amounts to wrestling against the kingdom of God. A senior prefect in the school of self-exaltation would rather die than to ask for forgiveness. If the Bible says, “Touch not my anointed” and the anointed is being touched, then the anointed should carry out a self-examination. The enemy will use all the unconfessed sins and your weak points against you.

As Christians, we are supposed to be indestructible and unchallengeable. Those who challenge us should regret it, like the apostles made demons to regret. The problem of Paul the apostle was not that demons were not belong cast out because even before he got there they had disappeared.

To paralysed these powers, we must get to a level where we are able to astound them. Remember what Jesus said to those people, “have you not read in your law that ye are gods/” That is to say, that they were little gods walking on the surface of the earth. The apostles actualized and praticalised it.

When Paul was preaching to somebody and another person was disturbing him, he pointed at him and said, “you child of the devil, enemy of righteousness, would you not stop preventing the right ways of the Lord? Behold the hands of the Lord is upon you and ye shall be blind….” I  thank God for his life because he included the clause for a season”. As a result, the man became blind immediately. Because of the incident, Paul didn’t need too much preaching again to convert the astonished man.

We need to do things like that, to graduate from the school of self defence tot the school of the offensive, where we look for the enemies hideouts to fight or to fire our next arrow. We are not supposed to sit down and be nursing the fear of them next the devil would attack us. No it is the devil who should be perplexed, “l don’t know where these Christians are going to launch their attack now….” But a majority of believers cannot do this because, they are in the school of babies and carnality. Only a few Christians are spiritual and it is only those few that are going to heaven. Therefore, what is the seat of the enemy in your life? What is it that is gluing the enemy to a particular position in your life? The ideal solution is a strategic prayer, which can expose and remove the seat of the enemy in your life. When their seat is exposed and removed then, their habitation will become desolate. They will no longer be able to torment you again. My counsel therefore to you reader is, if you finds out through this message that you have been deciding yourself in your prayer life, without really talking to God from the depth of your heart, you should now cry unto God aggressively saying, “o God, l cannot continue like this, look at my spiritual life, look at my prayer life, look at my Bible reading, l cannot just continue like this, You must do something in my life…” The ball is in your court.

PRAYER SESSION

1. Let every seat of the enemy be exposed and removed in my life in the name of Jesus
2. l refuse to fight against myself in the name of Jesus
3. O Lord, remove me from the valley and place me on your mountain, in the name of Jesus.
4. Let all evil names affecting me negatively be changed by the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus.
5. All curses, evil covenants and evil decisions holding down my miracle should be revoked in the name of Jesus.
6. l disassociate myself from any unconscious evil vow, oath, agreement and covenants in the name of Jesus.

THE STAR HUNTERS

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

In this message, we are looking at the demonic powers, which hunt after the stars of the children of God, with the aim of preventing them from attaining their God’s-given destiny. These powers are called 'star hunters'. They will stop at nothing to hunt people's stars, with the aim to steal, to kill and to destroy them. In order to have a good understanding of whom these demonic powers are, we shall make an in-depth study of the word of God. We shall read first from the book of Obadiah verses 3 - 4,

"The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwelleth in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, who shall bring me down to the ground. Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord."

There are some enemies that feel secured because they hide themselves in the clefts of the rock.

There are also enemies living in very high places, who have vowed in their hearts to continually torment people. But verse 4 says, "though thou exalt thyself as the eagle and though thou set thyself among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord."

All faithful Christians are sure of this. As far as God is concerned, nobody oppressing His children will go unpunished. This message is therefore designed to make you spiritually aggressive so that you will fight seriously and defeat these powers with your violent prayers. To be quite honest with you, prayers against star hunters are not gentle ones. The devil promotes his agents when they are able to misdirect, darken, pull down or cage a person's star.

To this end, you are going to take your first prayer point, and if you are unable to pray, it is probably because you have been caged. "No evil power shall use my life to obtain promotion, in the name of Jesus."

Prayers against star hunters must be well targeted and done in continuous bombardment. It is only this that can guarantee anyone a good result.

Many years ago, a lady used to come to me for counselling. One day, she came and sat down as usual, and the Lord said to me: "Don't you know the person you are talking to? Look at her very well, she is operating at the level of principalities." As soon as I heard this, I now related to her whom she was. She too responded boldly by saying, "that is very interesting, now that you know me so well, help me to get out of this evil group." It was from this lady that I heard some of the most horrible confessions I have ever heard from demonic people. Her bad confessions got so interesting that I was spurred to ask her many questions about their operations in the dark world. Apart from answering verbally, she also demonstrated these things to me.

 At a particular point, I asked her a very important question, which is how the demonic people know what a person would become right from the womb, or immediately the child is born. She answered by saying that they use a traditional lamp, the kind of lamp used in the olden days for lights, to discover that. She said they would speak to the lamp, and it was within the tongue of the flames that they would see clearly what the child would become in future. It was within that same tongue of flames, that the child would be manipulated right from the womb or the day of birth. One of the most terrible mistakes made by many parents, perhaps out of ignorance is to go to the devil to inquire about a child's future. This is common in virtually all-Nigerian villages. They go to the herbalists to inquire after the future of their children. It is at that point that evil powers gain access into a child's life and manipulation starts thereafter. The star hunters will then have a field day with their destructive business. This is the origin of most stubborn problems.

Let me give you four examples derived from my counselling experience.

 The parents of a brother went to inquire what he would become in future, it was discovered that he would prosper in a foreign land. They were reliably informed that their son would be so brilliant that he would be controlling white people. But the irony of it, according to the idol, or the demon they contacted was that, once the brother traveled out of the country, he would never come back home, because the white people would find him so useful that they would not like to release him. With this information, the thoroughly bewildered parents of the brother decided to make it impossible for him to travel overseas all his life. The witch-doctor engaged to carry out the evil assignment, told the parents of the brother to produce his placenta, which they did. The witch-doctor then burnt it and mixed it with alcohol. The parents of the brother and the witch doctor drank out of the evil mixture, and threw the remaining part into the deepest part of the sea. Although the brother grew up to become a very brilliant person in his academics, he could not travel out of the country. The foreign scholarships he got were of no value after all. He could not forge ahead in life because his star had been destroyed at a tender age by star hunters.

This is the reason why you have to be serious in your prayers against the star hunters.

 In another case, the parents of a lady went about to find out what the future of the lady would be. The diviner told them that, through his divining ball he could see that the lady has different kind of cars. He assured them that their daughter would become an important person in the society, and own fleet of elegant cars. However, he added that one of the cars would be the source of her death. The parents who were not happy about the news of the fate that would befall their daughter in future, asked the diviner to find a solution to the problem. He told them that he would delegate the demon of poverty against their daughter, so that she would be so poor that she would not be able to buy a single car. At least, through that way, the lady would stay alive. He carried out the demonic ritual, and from that time, the spirit of poverty got into the lady.  The lady grew up to become terribly poor and poverty stricken person. She grew up to become a palm oil seller; she had twelve children and a jobless husband to the bargain. 

 In another case, a diviner told the parents of a certain brother that their son would prosper in life, but would not listen to them, and would not agree with them on any issue in future. The parents of the brother were then told to bring his placenta for sacrifice. The placenta was cooked in okro soup and was eaten by the parents of the brother. This brother grew up to become a complete imbecile who could not do anything by himself he could not take a simple decision without travelling home to consult with his parents. His wife ran from pillar to post complaining all over the place to whoever cared to listen to her. It was so bad that the man wrote a will and exempted his wife and children. The ignorant wife wasted years fighting the man instead of dealing with star hunters.

 Please consider yet another example. There was another man who wanted money at all cost. So he started going from one herbalist to another. They all prescribed many terrible rituals that he would have to carry out before he could become rich. He was given some terrible options to choose from. The one he accepted to do, was to locate three unwary women who by nature are sitting on divine gold mines. He was instructed to commit immorality with them, and then bring materials from their bodies for ritual. Thereafter, the divine prosperity in their lives would be transferred into his life. As a result of this demonic arrangement, the women became poor while he became rich, star hunters at work.

 I used to have a friend who struggled very hard before he could get a good job. When he eventually got it, he was given a big and comfortable office chair that could accommodate three people without stress. However, the man noticed that right from the first day he resumed, he would be feeling sleepy and drowsy, each time he sat down to work, and he would not be able to concentrate.  But immediately he left the office after working hours, he would suddenly become his normal self. One day, he attended one of our meetings where he learnt how to deal with such a situation. As soon as he got to his office the following day, he held his chair tightly and prayed with holy madness on it. As he was shaking the chair, he heard something drop from it. When he looked closely at the object, he discovered that it was something called "Tirah", a kind of juju [a local object of wickedness made of different threads).

 That is another strategy of the star hunters. 'Juju' is an inanimate object to which a demon has been attached to carry out satanic instruction or mission. Some of the 'juju' objects have the demons residing in them, while others don't. Juju objects without resident demons usually require incantations for them to come alive.

When somebody is therefore issuing incantations, he is doing three things. He is either issuing curses or giving satanic instructions or summoning demons to come into their covenant material. So, juju is not the kind of thing a serious believer should be afraid of. Any serious Christian can cause a lot of havoc to any juju practitioner or anybody pronouncing incantations.

For example, if somebody sees juju and says, "I command the demon attached to you to turn hungrily against its owner, in the name of Jesus" or,"let the angel of God begin to read scriptures to this resident demon, until it turns mad against its owner, in the name of Jesus", or, "let all the incantations attached to this juju be folded up and be thrown back at the pronounce in the name of Jesus", there will be pandemonium in their camp. People in the kingdom of darkness know the kind of power the believers have. Therefore if a believer wants to be terribly dangerous and wants to destroy evil powers, he can send evil incantations back to sender sevenfold using the word of God.

I plead with you therefore to pray this prayer point: "I paralyse every incantation rendered against me, in Jesus' name."

When the Bible says, "there is no divination or enchantment against Jacob, "It means that somebody is divining against Jacob, and making enchantment against him. Let us pray again like this: "I paralyse every satanic manipulator, in the name of Jesus."

This next story will interest you. Somebody was rendered impotent in England, and a girl here in Nigeria claimed responsibility for it. She confessed that she carried out the evil spiritual assignment. But when some people pleaded with her, she agreed to reverse it. She then led them into one bush and asked them to dig up a certain place.

When they started digging the place in a careless manner, she cautioned them to dig the place rather carefully to avoid doing any damage to what she has buried. Within a short time of digging, they reached a black folded bag, which was exhumed. When it was opened, a fresh male sex organ dripping with blood was found inside. As soon as the male organ was given to her, she confirmed that the potency of the man in England had been restored. The affected man phoned shortly afterwards, that he had regained his potency.

The question is, how did that happen? How was it possible for a girl in Nigeria to bewitch someone in England. The answer is very simple. It was the handiwork of star hunters and their demons.

Let us do a little bit of Bible study to establish what the Bible says about stars. Psalm 19 :1 "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handiwork." This verse confirms that even the things in heaven are continuously declaring the glory of God. But what they are declaring or the particular thing they are saying may not be clear to man, but are clear to God the creator. 

Geneses 1:14 -16, says "And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night: and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also."

So, God made these stars and put them there to declare His glory. If you are a good Bible reader, you will discover that one of the dreams of Joseph that annoyed his people was the one in which he said he found the sun, moon and eleven stars bowing down for him. His father, who could translate and interpret it straight away, therefore asked him if he thought his father, mother and brothers would be bowing down to him. Sometimes, stars could represent all that we stand for.

Psalm 8:3, says "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained." God has ordained them and decided what they should be doing.  Stars were therefore created and placed in heaven by God.

 Psalm 147 : 4: "He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names." God call the stars and heavenly bodies by names.

Job 38:31-33 give an insight into some of the names: "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of pleiades, or bloose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?"

The question is, why did God place stars in heaven? The Bible tells us the reason for this in the book of

Genesis 1:14. They are for signs and for seasons. A sign is a signal of things to come. It is intended to convey a message about a forth coming event.

A sign is normally provided in advance by somebody to direct, warn or give guidance concerning certain things. It therefore helps one to follow the right pathway without getting lost or getting into danger. It is like a road sign, which indicates that there is a narrow road or bridge ahead. A careful driver will therefore be prepared for what to do. God is against astrology in any form. He also forbids men from worshiping the stars and one of the cleverest methods of the star hunters is to make people to believe in astrology. There was one powerful man who used to believe in astrology. The day he changed his mind was the day he found out that a rich man living in a mansion had the same star as his cleaner. There is every possibility that whosoever might have been reading what his star says would have given the control of his life to the stars.

Deuteronomy 18 :10-11 clearly explain this: "There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer"

God does not want us to get involved in all these evil things.

Verse 14 of the same chapter 18 says this: "For these nations which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observer of times and unto diviners." Isaiah 47 : 12-13 read thus: "Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitudes of thy sorceries, wherein thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shalt come upon thee."

God is against astrology, and every of His creation should take the same stand against astrology.

When a person believes that his life has been programmed from birth by stars, he would find very little merit in prayer. He would find it difficult to believe that things could change for the better for him. They say "nothing can be done about it, what would be, would be, for what goes up must come down".

Christianity is indeed something to cherish throughout one's life time, because it offers you a living relationship with somebody who can change your destiny for the better.

So the first great strategy of the star hunters or of people who paralyze destiny is to make many people believe in astrology or what their stars are saying. This has affected all races of the world. My prayer is that those who have been caged like this, even through casual reading of this message, shall be delivered in Jesus' name.

If you have horoscope books at home, make sure you burn them today. Stop your children from reading them either, so as to prevent them from being manipulated.

Let us go to another aspect of our study in Matthew 2:1-2: "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him". They were able to locate the star of Jesus. God opened their eyes to see the star and they began to follow it.

Verses 9-10 read thus: "When they had heard the King, they departed; and lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy."

No wonder some people have fallen in love with the parlance, which says "wise men still follow him". Your spiritual eyes may not be open like that of the wise men, but you can do something about any evil eyes observing your star.

To this end, I encourage you to fire three bullets of prayers thus:

1. Every evil follower of my star, receive the thunder fire of God in Jesus' name.

2. Every prison warder of my star, release it in the name of Jesus.
 

3. The star of my life will not be wandering around in the name of Jesus.

Their purpose is to capture a person's star, and have it destroyed.

There was a particular family, where their grandmother was a star hunter. She was living with them and all the ladies there (i.e. her granddaughters) started experiencing broken homes. All but one of them returned home with tales of woe. However, the youngest of them who was a very stubborn person in the spirit, decided that she was not going to have a broken home and determined to go to any length to achieve that. She met with a man of God who counselled her to embark on 21 days night vigil. She started, and by the second day of the prayer, she greeted her grandmother, but she refused to answer her. After the third day of the prayer programme, the grandmother warned the lady not to kill her.  The old woman did all she could to stop her from praying aggressively, but the lady refused to be discouraged. Rather than stop her prayer or pray in the gentle way, she intensified it. By the fourth day, the old woman could not come out of her room. It was then that it clicked in the spirit of that sister that it was her prayers that were disturbing her grandmother. Therefore she became more violent and by the seventh day, the granny was dead. When they were looking through what she left behind, they found strands of hair with names of the grandchildren attached to them. The sister took her own strand of hair and set it on fire and commanded the fire of God to consume it. Within the next four days, her husband came back to her prostrating for her to come back to her matrimonial home. But others saw the whole thing and called it superstition and as a result, they are still out of their matrimonial homes. It was only the sister with violent faith that got out.

The star hunters could have their agents deeply rooted or planted in any family. We need to expose and disgrace them with the power of God.

Counterfeit body

As you are reading this message, you are a spirit living in the body with a soul. Your body is like a container housing your spirit and soul. The real you is the spirit inside of you. So that container or body can be completely altered and the person will be going around with a fake one. This is why some people look older than their age. It is equally the reason why some people do aggressive prayer and loose weight or their skin peel off like the skin of snakes.

Those going about with counterfeit bodies would always have bad luck. Unexplainable hatred and

uncomfortable heaviness would always be their lot. It would appear as if they want to go to one direction, while the body wants to go to another.

Serious ugliness, sluggishness and premature ageing would be written all over them. Such people would also experience marital failure. They would know that their bodies are not working as they should. The star hunters know that if they are able to change a person's body, the wrong body would not get the right blessings for the person.

Name manipulation
God takes the issue of name seriously, that is why in the Bible, you will find God changing people's names e.g. Sarai was changed to Sarah, Abram to Abraham and Jacob to Israel etc. If names were not important at all, God would not be taking those name-changing steps. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon who was a demonic man also understood the principle of name manipulation. He knew the power in names, so when he took the four Hebrew children to Babylon, the first thing he did was to change their names. For example, Daniel which means "God is judge" was changed to Belteshazzar meaning the presence of Baal, or Idol. The name, which Shadrach brought from Israel, was Hananiah, meaning the gift of the Lord. He changed it to Shadrach, meaning "the commander of a demon". The name that Meshach brought from Israel was Mishael, meaning, who is like unto God, was changed to Meshach meaning a semblance of a demon. The man called Abednego brought Azariah from Israel, meaning Jehovah's help, however, it was changed to Abednego, which means the servant of Nego, another demon. So when you hear Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they are all demonic names that the king gave to them. But thank God that those boys did not forget the sons of whom they were.

You must have read from your Bible that whenever God wanted to send a servant into the world, he gave a name in addition, e.g. "thou shalt deliver a son and ye shall call his name Jesus for he shall deliver his people from their sins. When John the Baptist was coming, his name was also dispatched early enough; it was the same with Isaac's. There was a king in Israel called Josiah, who did a lot of havoc to the worshipers of Baal. His name Josiah means "roaster of evil".

In the same vein God has an original name for you from heaven. Are you bearing names given to you by your enemy? Or are you carrying about names recorded down in demonic world for manipulation? Then you must change the names both spiritually and physically. Every demonic family name originating from idols is a manipulation of your star. This is why the spirits of the evil names that so many people bear are working against their lives.

Manipulation of the placenta
I have already discussed this in the message. When a person's placenta is cooked and eaten, such a person's life will be controlled by these evil powers.

Polluted Food
Another strategy they use is consumption of polluted food. As many as have consumed food polluted by wicked spirits will have one problem or the other. It could be through night feeding, demonic parties, demonically inspired sacrifice and feeding of a baby during naming ceremony. All these can be used to cage the star of a person. The purpose of these strategies is to capture the star of a person, and have it destroyed. All the programmed incisions are sometimes designed to manipulate people. I believe that you have suffered for too long and I don't think you should continue like this. Things have got to change now for the better.

Therefore, if you know that you are being hunted by the star hunters, the way out is by praying well targeted aggressive prayers for the star to be released. But then if you are not born again, there is no way you can uncage your star, except you first get born again. So if you are reading this message and you are not born again, and you have not openly committed your life to Christ, you may not be able to paralyze the star hunters assigned against you. If you are ready to give your life to Christ, say this prayer before going into the prayer points against the star hunters. "Father In the name of Jesus, I come unto you, I am a sinner, I confess all my sins and I repent from them. I know that you are my saviour, and that I cannot save myself, Lord Jesus come into my life now, take control. I give my life unto you.

Thank you Jesus."

PRAYER POINTS

1. I withdraw my star from every evil cage in the name of Jesus.

2. I release my star from the grip of household wickedness in the name of Jesus.

3. Let every evil eye monitoring my star, receive blindness in the name of Jesus.

4. I command every Amputator working against me to be paralysed in the name of Jesus.

5. Let all my oppressors be frustrated in Jesus name.

6. Father Lord, put all my miracle delayers to shame in the name of Jesus.

7. I recover all my goodness stolen by star hunters in the name of Jesus.

 THE SCHOOL OF STAGNANCY

DR. D. K. OLUKOYA

God   in His infinite mercies created you in His divine image. His wishes for you are that you will prosper and remain in good health. But you cannot come into your divine inheritance if you enrol in the satanic school of stagnancy. Whether you know it or not, people who came into God’s inheritance in the Bible were people who took steps of faith. They refused to stand still at the devil’s bus stop. They are too many to mention. Abraham for example had to move out to God’s own elected place even at old age. He refused to belong to the school of stagnancy.

If you are a student in this school, you need to prayerfully open your heart to this message and let God enroll you in His school of progress.

The school of stagnancy is a school that has a large number of students. My beloved, let us examine some scriptures to be able to establish some facts.

  Deut. 1:6-7

    “The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: [7] Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates”.

In the foregoing verses, the Lord was telling the Israelites to move on and not to remain stagnant, on that particular mountain. The same message is being directed to you today. Your maker, the almighty God is saying that you have stayed too long in your present spiritual level.

If you doubt the fact that you are stagnant, then consider what the Bible says in 

  2 Kings 7:3-5

    “And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, why sit we here until we die? [4] If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. [5] And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there”.

  When the leprous men took steps of faith, God defeated the Syrians for them. If they had stayed where they were, they would not have enjoyed what they enjoyed in 6 and 7 of the same chapter 2 kings 7:6-7

    “For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. [7] Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life”.

   Perhaps you will now understand the meaning of that popular MFM prayer point which says that the Lord should ordain terrifying noises against the forces of enemies. The Lord ordained terrifying noises against the forces of Syria and they fled 2 Kings 7:8-9

   “ And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it. [9] Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household”.

  Again they refused to be stagnant. Those men were lepers, yet they attacked their lack and were bold enough to move forward. With the simple decision to move forward and violent faith in their hearts they went into the camp of the enemy and obtained God’s supernatural intervention.

Whether you like it or not and whether you believe it or not, you are committed to something. God has deposited certain talents, abilities, knowledge, strength, prosperity etc in your life. But perhaps, you have consciously or unconsciously, killed the God’s given potentials in your life. The way you spend your time and money clearly shows what you are really committed to.

  A woman prayed one night that the Lord should show her, her position in the Lord. After she had prayed and slept in a night vision, she saw herself climbing a staircase, which had seventeen steps, she discovered that she was on the third step of the ladder, which was marked 1994, the year she saw the vision while the first step read 1964. By simple interpretation, for thirty years of her Christian life, she had only climbed three steps out of the seven steps the Lord expected her to have climbed. Her Master’s degree in Theology could not help her at all. And while she was still pondering over the vision, God showed her a score sheet, which reads 22%, and she screamed. Then the Angel of God told her, that even 991/2% is tantamount to failure in God’s school, only 100% is His pass mark.

  When people are stagnant, all kinds of evil things happen to them. All the periodical godliness is the same thing as hypocrisy. Being godly today and becoming ungodly the day after is the same thing as being stagnant. Many people have not yet realized that a sinner putting on expensive clothes is the same as the sinner in rags. A sinner living in a posh apartment is the same as a sinner living in squalor.

  I wish to ask a very serious question at this point, why should a person go from hell to hell, knowing that the earth is hell already? Why must someone allow sin to drive him or her from the earth, which is hell on its own right to eternal hell fire? A dead prayer life and unholy living are signs that you have the enemies of God inside of you, and those enemies must die, otherwise you will remain a candidate in the school of stagnancy.

If you realize that hell is beside you and that the devil is pursuing you, your surest choice would be to focus your total attention on God.

  You must also forsake your sins or else you cannot be God’s friend. The Bible makes us to understand that he that commits sin is of the devil. When you form the habit of committing sin, the Bible says very clearly that you belong to the school of stagnancy.

The school of stagnancy has many academic, religious and intellectual sinners. A lot of pen robbers and academic prostitutes belong to this school. A lot of people confess the scriptures and speak in tongues but after that thoughts of adultery, fornication, malice, unforgiveness overshadow their heats. So, they have remained at the place where the devil wants them to be.

  You can change from where you are now to where God wants you to be. I urge you therefore to pray these prayer points very aggressively.

  “O Lord, ordain terrifying noises against all forces trying to pull me down to Egypt, in Jesus name”

“O Lord, ordain terrifying noises against all forces of Egypt delegated against my life, in the name of Jesus”

 God has deposited so much blessings in your life and you cannot afford to be wasting them away, that will make you a selfish person.

Some people are missing out on all that God wants them to be, simply because they want to live worldly lives and at the same time serve God. For example, some ladies cannot do without putting on their trousers, therefore, they would prefer not to go where God wants them to go, because they wouldn’t want to get there in skirts. They would rather go to places where their enemies are waiting for them. It is an abomination for a man to put on what belongs to a woman. It is also an abomination for a woman to put on what belongs to a man. The Bible confirms this fact in Deut. 22:5

    “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God”.

Anyone who flouts this order or commandment is nothing but an abomination to God.

  A lot of people hate changing from evil to good, however, it is only such a change that can bring progress. Know this very well, that the more you stay in the school of stagnancy the more your enemies will be rejoicing over you.

You have to quit the school of stagnancy today, by allowing God to direct your entire life. Forget about vain religious exercises that you have engaged yourself in, before now.

  No church activities will take you to heaven. It is only the level of your relationship with God and your seriousness about things that concerned Him, that will put you where you belong at the end of this sinful world. The church position should no longer matter to you at this point in time. In fact, many people will go to hell fire because of the church positions they have held on to for years.

  What is your present testimony? Is it  the testimony of elevation to the mountain top from the valley or from the valley to the bare earth? Or is it a testimony of perpetual occupation of the fruitless valley? You must therefore change from where you are to where God wants you to be and not where your friends want you to be. Your friends may want you to be in hell fire because they know that that is their own final resting place.

  Are you a political Christian? There are many Christian politicians now. For example a brother will go to the house of Christian brothers and sisters to campaign for church posts. Some of the member will even assure the brother of their votes on the basis that the man will favour them in his activities when elected into office. This is how the devil will cleverly push some people to hell fire. Then they would realize that all those names people gave to themselves in the church of God are nothing.

  From now on, the way you witness to  people must change and your zeal towards the work of God must also change. If you don’t decide to change and praise God now, He will abandon the temple of your life like He did to Jerusalem.

  One ignorant woman poured the anointing oil, she brought from Jerusalem on someone who had some health problems. When the woman discovered that the anointing oil did not work, she started to cry. She felt that since she brought it from  Jerusalem, it would carry divine power. Probably, she does not know that Jerusalem is actually under a curse because of her rebellion.

  It was for this reason that Jesus cursed the people and commanded the place to turn desolate. He told them quite clearly that they would not hear from Him again until  they say, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord” Jesus wept on the city of Jerusalem. So the anointing oil from the place cannot be expected to  perform God’s own miracles. The fact is if you refuse to be purged by the Holy Spirit your house will be abandoned by God.

  When you stay too long in the school of stagnancy, then you are preparing to enroll in the school of backwardness and decay. When something is not moving forward it must compulsorily go backwards. If you stay too long in the school of stagnancy, you will continue to collect evil spiritual deposit. When the devil is looking for bodies to store some of his arrows, it is those in the school of stagnancy who will collect them.

  If you are stagnant, you will lose freshness in God and this is why some prayers are not effective because the devil knows exactly what you are going to say.

  A person in the school of stagnancy will become spiritually redundant and irrelevant. God will then instruct that such a person should be replaced with stones. And what does it mean to replace a person with stones? It means that God will pick a chronic herbalist and all those who do not want to hear about Jesus, change them fill them with the Holy Spirit and then put them at His service.

  THOSE IN THE SCHOOL OF STAGNANCY

If you have been born again for ten years and you have never read through the Bible once, then you are in that school

  You have been born again for  five years and you cannot count about five persons that you have brought to Christ, then you are also in that school.

  If since you got born again, nobody has ever told you that he or she has seen a change in your life then something is wrong you are in that school.

  If a person remains in the school of stagnancy longer than necessary such a person will lose his or her usefulness in God and will be demoted.

  So as you are reading this message you still cannot do without evil thoughts, alcohol, (either wine or beer) bribe, free women, free sex etc you are still in the school of stagnancy. Every fornication that you do whether or not you know it is called receiving salary advance. You will pay back every kobo. As if that is not enough, the devil will charge you interests which may be AIDS. It is to your own benefit not to fall into the sin of fornication and adultery.

  You are in the school of stagnancy if you continue to commit sins you have once or twice begged the Lord to forgive you of.

  If you cannot do without telling lies, even if they are business lies, you are a stagnancy candidate.

  If your own problem is fashion craze, then you have a serious problem.

All the ladies who come to our meetings dressing like old women only put on indecent dresses when they go to other places are not our members.

  If you cannot do without watching immoral and magic films or going to cinema houses, you belong to that school.

  Some Christians cannot do without watching people raining incantations on the TV when you ask them why they watch such evil things they will simple tell you that there are learning lessons from  them, they no longer learn lessons from the Bible.

  If you cannot do without fighting in your house, office or in the church of God, then you are a spiritually stagnant person.

If you cannot do without showing pride or boasting about your position, education and achievements then you are in that terrible school.

  I once asked a sister to go for a  deliverance, but she told me she had an M.A in English so she would not need deliverance, l was quite surprised.

I  then advised her to frame her Masters certificate and hand it around her neck. I told her that after doing that she would discover to her amazement that the demons in her would not depart.

  Indeed, there are many learned people engaging in demonic sacrifices now to bring a false and temporary end to their oppression.

If you are a motor mechanic and you cannot do without stealing spare parts of vehicles brought to you for repairs then you are a stagnant person.

  If as a driver you cannot do without reckless driving, you are also  a stagnant person.

Perhaps you cannot stop pretending to be holy. It will interest you to know that pretenders will go to hell fire straight. Many of the pretending sisters and brothers are terrible fornicators. They are all candidates in the school of stagnancy.

  Some believers cannot do without borrowing money even on the day they receive their salaries. Some believers will keep money in   their savings account and will be begging people for money, money has become an idol to them. They are all candidates in the school of stagnancy.

  If you cannot do without reading your stars, sexy novels, and magazines and you cannot do without watching funny worldly films particularly the Indian and the violent American ones, l can assure you that you will remain in that school forever. My advise to you is burn all such things today.

  If you still engaged in tribal sentiments, then you are still a student in the school of stagnancy.

If you cannot do without using abusive words slangs, cursing people, malice, strife, wrath, anger, pride, selfishness and covetousness, then you are one of the strong members in the school of stagnancy.

  Beloved, you need to take a step of faith today and move away from your stagnant and unprofitable position.

  If you expect God to intervene in your case today, you will have to convince Him that you are ready to drop your garment of laziness and iniquity.

 If there is iniquity in your heart, you will find it difficult to move forward. And you will be going gradually into the position the enemies want you to be. You will need to be free first, before you can move forward.

  Sin is a terrible weight that will keep you far off from God. For how long will you continue to wound God’s heart? Know this fact well enough that all sinners, no matter what name they call themselves are wounding God’s heart. You must trace your way back to God today. It is only then that you can begin to move up in life. As soon as you begin to climb the staircase of God, then you will be free from the powers of darkness. Take a step of faith today and God who is able to reward abundantly will surprise you Amen.

  PRAYER POINTS

1. O Lord remove me from the school of stagnancy in the name of Jesus
2. I pull down every evil kingdom working against me, in the name of Jesus.
3. Let every impurity in my life be flushed out by the blood of Jesus.
4. My heart will not be stony ground for the word of God, in the name of Jesus.
5. Let the power of resurrection; fall upon my life now in the name of Jesus.
6. All you spiritual Amputators, amputate yourselves, in Jesus name.
7. Enough is enough of poverty and sickness in the name of Jesus.
8. I refuse to be harassed by household wickedness, in Jesus name.
9. Every multiple cage, be roasted in the mighty name of Jesus.
10. I destroy the strength of every stubborn problem in the mighty name of Jesus.

 REJECT THE COUNTERFEIT

Dr D. K Olukoya

  I plead with you to open up your spirit as you read this message, as God is set to bless you with it in Jesus mighty name. The need for you to reject anything counterfeit is quite important, because counterfeit blessings can very well pollute the original. Anything that is not received from God is a counterfeit. Heaven is the only source of authentic blessings. This is made explicit in John 3:27

    “John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven”.

It follows therefore that any gift received elsewhere is a counterfeit. A counterfeit is something produced in imitation of another thing in order to deceive. That is when the original is closely copied for the purpose of deceiving people. It is important for us to know that God does not work on photocopy or duplicate, rather He works on original materials. The truth about a counterfeit is that it must have its original somewhere without the counterfeit cannot be produced.

  The Lord told me that a lot of people are rejoicing over counterfeit blessings. There are lots of people who at one time or the other received some blessings or gifts that were later taken away from them. Some other people even found out that their blessings did not last. The trouble is that a lot of such people did not receive from above what they were rejoicing over. For example, if a woman actually received her husband from above, it would not disappear, if a child was received from above, he would not be possessed by witchcraft and familiar spirits. Many things that people carry about were received from below that is to say that they were from the devil or its agents. However, it must be known that the devil has no free gifts. Gifts from above are the gifts that can never be forged and do not cause problems for their owners. If you have ever received gifts from below at any point in time, the bitter truth is that you will pay back. Perhaps, I need to tell you a story to support the fact that the devil indeed has no free gifts. Sometime in 1975, the parents of a particular girl took a decision they felt would help their daughter who had always fallen sick some few weeks to her secondary school certificate examination. She used to be healthy until the examination period. The terrible situation prevented her from writing the examination in 1973 and 1974. The parents of the girl felt they should no longer fold their arms while the strange problem of their daughter persisted. They then approached a certain herbalist in their village, who told them that their daughter was not doing well because the water spirits were angry and must therefore be appeased. They promptly bought the sacrificial materials and dumped them into the village river as directed by the herbalist. As soon as the sacrifice was done, the girl who had been a sickle cell patient and a failure in all her life became healthy. Not only did she pass her examination and got admission into the university. She read law and passed her degree examination in flying colours. But no sooner she graduated than trouble started. Things stopped working for her. She tried everything she could to reverse her fortune, but it was all to no avail. In order to get to the root of the problem the same old village herbalist they consulted some years before was again consulted for help. By the time the herbalist was through with his divination, he was able to establish that the water spirits were angry again because the lady refused to worship them on yearly basis as earlier on agreed. It took the lady a long time before she could get out of the bondage. She had to pass through a very serious deliverance process. Whatever the devil gives is usually taken back with terrible interests. Sometimes, when some people give their lives to the Lord, they usually notice that all the wealth they had accumulated when they were unbelievers would disappear in a way they could not explain. Then, they would start to wonder what God was doing to them. Well it is simple; God is kicking away those things, which received from below so that He can give then what He wants them to get from above. Many men received things but not from above. Anything that is not from above is counterfeit and God does not work on counterfeit. He will only work on the original. If somebody has been eating fake things and God wants to start feeding the person, He would first of all purge the person of those evil things, which he had eaten from below. When we started the MFM fellowship, many of our members came with big stomachs such that when they sat down, their stomachs folded in three layers. But when they started to fast and pray fire prayers, the folded stomachs disappeared. It was what they ate when they were in the world that made their stomachs to swell up. But the fire of God later purged them of the unwanted evil materials. Let me share the story of brother Paul with you. Brother Paul was once a terrible occultist. He was so powerful in it that he had three birds living inside his stomach. But God touched him and he gave his life to the Lord. He went in for deliverance but forgot that he swallowed three birds while he was still an occultist. As soon as he started to pray fire prayers, the birds that were inside of him became troubled as a result of fire, which they were not used to. So they started pecking at his intestine. It got so bad that he had to go in for a comprehensive surgical operation. God miraculously healed him and gave him new intestines. There is also the story of a sister who felt that her husband no longer loved her and that her marriage to the man was on the brick of collapse. She met a herbalist who promised to solve her problem. The man invited her and gave her water to drink from a container, which had electric fish. Shocked as the lady was, she went ahead to drink the water. But after she had drank the water, the husband ordered her to pack out of his house immediately. She lost her marriage to the evil water, which she drank. Why is it that people receive gifts from below and neglect gifts from above? It is because lots of lives have unprofitable seeds in them. We went to a particular place, where we saw a man beating his children. On enquiry, we found out that he had to do that, because his children were smoking paper. But the irony of the situation was that the man himself was a chain-smoker, who used to send the same children to buy cigarettes for him. While he kept on doing that, he did not realize that he was planting evil seeds in the lives of his children. A male child that grew up in a home where his father used to beat up his mother, will definitely get used to fighting women, because a seed has been planted in his life and it is only by divine intervention that the seed would be removed. A seed may be small, but when it germinates, it grows into a big tree. It only needs time to germinate once the seed is put in a proper condition. The most important lesson to be learnt is that when you destroy the seed, you have also destroyed the plant. And when you destroy an egg you have also destroyed the bird or reptile inside it. A snake is a very dangerous animal, but at the egg stage, a two-year old boy can hold it and break it, thereby destroying the snake. But if the same egg is left to mature and is hatched in the long run, a forty-two year old man will have to run for his dear life from the snake that comes out of it. What is manifesting in many lives now is as a result of unprofitable seeds that had been planted in them a long time ago. The seeds have since grown and have become the source of problems in such people’s lives. Some people are lucky that the enemy’s seeds in their lives have not germinated, while others are not so lucky as the germination process has started. And in some, the seeds have germinated into big trees. Beloved, I urge you in the name of God to deal with the evil plantation in your life. It is unprofitable seeds that make so many people to have counterfeit blessings in their lives, homes, families, businesses etc. Please know this fact again, that since God cannot work on the counterfeit in such people’s lives, He will uproot them and then start His own work on a clean slate. The only way you can eliminate a tree that is already grown, is to cut it down and throw it into the fire. If your own problem is still at the seed level, locate the evil seeds and destroy them with fire. If you want God to do that for you then you must be serious with what you are doing. I advise you to do some serious thinking today because an evil tree may be growing in someone’s life without the person realizing it. But when he or she does, the need to uproot it become compulsory. Do you know if an unprofitable seed or plant is in your life? Please sit down and do a thorough self-examination. You really have to be spiritually aggressive. Cutting down evil trees require serious planning and energy. The disciples of Jesus had prayed for many sick people who were made whole almost instantly. However, on one fateful day, they found it difficult to heal a certain sick boy after all the efforts made. When that happened, the father of the boy had to approach Jesus for assistance. When he told Jesus of the failure of his disciples, Jesus called his own disciples faithless people. And thereafter, He cast the demon spirit out of the boy. And His disciples came back to him to find out why they could not heal the boy, Jesus responded by telling them that such feats were usually done with fasting and prayers. So, there are some problems that will never get solved, until you apply fasting and prayers to them. The problem these days is that many Christians are lazy. When you see yourself being chased around in your dream and you are running away, then something is wrong. A seed has been planted in you and that is why you are not able to face your pursuers and declare that the Lord is your refuge and strength. The evil seed has made it impossible for you to put your evil pursuers to flight.

Can you boldly declare like Nehemiah that “shall a man like me run?” If not you have a property in your life, which is making them to run after you. When a believer cannot wake up in the night to pray, a seed has been planted. These evil powers know that the moment a believer starts to pray they will be destroyed. The truth is that most spiritual battles are won after twelve o’clock in the night.

As a Christian, you should get worried and do something serious if your life is always attracting evil things. Why is it that you are not enjoying the blessings of God as you should? Why is it that all the evil forces you once defeated are now turning around to defeat you? An evil seed might be at work in your life. Check it out. If after giving your life to Christ, you are still not interested in evangelism or bother whether or not anybody is saved or perishing, then it is certain that you have an evil plantation or seed in you that must be uprooted. There are three main things that are normally hidden from human beings.

1.      They do not know what is going to happen after life, apart from what the Bible tells us.

2.      They do not know what is going to happen during their lifetime before hand.

3.      They do not know what happened at the beginning of their lives, when they were not yet conscious of what is going on around.

The Bible tells us about end of all men. But one area that many people do not know is what happened when they were unconscious and did not know what they were doing. I am sure that only very few people can point to those that circumcised them. They therefore do not know what happened to the blood that came out of them. Many people have not succeeded in getting s thorough information about their names. For example, many do not know the meaning of their names. They also do not know who gave the names to them. Many people cannot say whether or not their names have idolatry implications. Most people have not checked whether or not they have family incantations that were specifically made for them? The incantations could even be the source of their curses, problems and woes. One of the greatest problems the devil has given to the black man is polygamy. A polygamous father does nothing but to construct coffins for his children. There is no way they are going to like one another and they will use all evil means to pull one another down. Some evil seeds manifest in form of sicknesses, which defy medicine. Unexplainable hatred may indicate the presence of evil seed in some people’s lives. Some other people may find it difficult to please their employers for no fault of theirs. It may be due to the influence of an evil seed. A lot of people go to herbalists to have their future predicted, but instead of getting their future predicted, evil seeds are planted in their lives. The seed of weakness has been planted in their lives. The seed of weakness has been planted in so many lives and as a result of this, problems walk into their lives easily. If those seeds in such lives were not removed, there would always be problems. But the good news is that the power of God can reach the deepest places. The power of God can go back to when you were an ignorant unbeliever. So, you have to hand over your life to God to root out the evil seeds in your life to God to root out the evil seeds in your life today. You must stop feeding your problems. Satan will not depart or desist in his destruction, when all we do is to make a polite request that he should go.

The Bible did not ask us to request them to leave. Rather it says that we should cast them out. The meaning of the word cast out is to expel forcefully. But if you leave them alone, they will just be walking unmolested in your life. The Bible says “a man can receive nothing except he has been given from above”. The first thing you are to do today is to root out those things the Lord has not planted in your life, so that He can plant His own seed now. In the spirit realm, many people holding baskets are praying to God to give them water. God will not listen to the prayer point until such people replace the baskets with basins through the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

Once a person has entered into a terrible situation, he or she needs some effort to be able to pull out because a permanent mark must have been put on such a person’s life. We have to clear the garden of our lives, before God can plant new things in them. I can tell you with all confidence that if God plants something in the garden of your life, no demon from the bottom of hell fire can uproot it.

But those things, which are not received from above, are easily uprooted. So you have to reject anything called counterfeit in your life. Stop rejoicing over counterfeit blessings. You must reject them today. Confess this statement very aggressively.

Oh Lord, I want the original; l want the best in the mighty name of Jesus.

  What do you still desire in your life today? Why do you go for the counterfeit when your heavenly father is the sole owner of the original items? Don’t forget that your heavenly father knows that only the original is good enough for you. But you need to take a step of faith to claim the original from Him. Reject your counterfeit blessing today, ask for the original from God and it shall be well with you.

  PRAYERS

1.      I challenge all unprofitable seeds in my life with the blood of Jesus Christ and the fire of God in Jesus name.

2.      I command all unprofitable seeds to manifest now and come out in the name of Jesus. (lay your right hand on your head and the left hand on your stomach while praying this prayer point)

3.      Oh Lord visit the foundation of my life and uproot all unprofitable seeds in the name of Jesus.

4.      Oh Lord, remove the affairs of my life from the memory of the enemies in the name of Jesus.

5.      I reject every counterfeit blessings, I claim the original in the name of Jesus.

6.      Let the blood of Jesus begin to flow into my head and break all curses concerning my head in Jesus name. (Hold some strands of your hair while praying this prayer point)

7.      Any goodness of mine that is buried anywhere; I exhume you in Jesus name.

8.      Every stubborn and unprofitable seed die in Jesus name.

9.      (lay your hand on your head while praying this prayer points) The great physician Jesus heal me and make me whole in the name of Jesus.

 

REJECT THE COUNTERFEIT

Dr D. K Olukoya

  I plead with you to open up your spirit as you read this message, as God is set to bless you with it in Jesus mighty name. The need for you to reject anything counterfeit is quite important, because counterfeit blessings can very well pollute the original. Anything that is not received from God is a counterfeit. Heaven is the only source of authentic blessings. This is made explicit in John 3:27

    “John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven”.

It follows therefore that any gift received elsewhere is a counterfeit. A counterfeit is something produced in imitation of another thing in order to deceive. That is when the original is closely copied for the purpose of deceiving people. It is important for us to know that God does not work on photocopy or duplicate, rather He works on original materials. The truth about a counterfeit is that it must have its original somewhere without the counterfeit cannot be produced.

  The Lord told me that a lot of people are rejoicing over counterfeit blessings. There are lots of people who at one time or the other received some blessings or gifts that were later taken away from them. Some other people even found out that their blessings did not last. The trouble is that a lot of such people did not receive from above what they were rejoicing over. For example, if a woman actually received her husband from above, it would not disappear, if a child was received from above, he would not be possessed by witchcraft and familiar spirits. Many things that people carry about were received from below that is to say that they were from the devil or its agents. However, it must be known that the devil has no free gifts. Gifts from above are the gifts that can never be forged and do not cause problems for their owners. If you have ever received gifts from below at any point in time, the bitter truth is that you will pay back. Perhaps, I need to tell you a story to support the fact that the devil indeed has no free gifts. Sometime in 1975, the parents of a particular girl took a decision they felt would help their daughter who had always fallen sick some few weeks to her secondary school certificate examination. She used to be healthy until the examination period. The terrible situation prevented her from writing the examination in 1973 and 1974. The parents of the girl felt they should no longer fold their arms while the strange problem of their daughter persisted. They then approached a certain herbalist in their village, who told them that their daughter was not doing well because the water spirits were angry and must therefore be appeased. They promptly bought the sacrificial materials and dumped them into the village river as directed by the herbalist. As soon as the sacrifice was done, the girl who had been a sickle cell patient and a failure in all her life became healthy. Not only did she pass her examination and got admission into the university. She read law and passed her degree examination in flying colours. But no sooner she graduated than trouble started. Things stopped working for her. She tried everything she could to reverse her fortune, but it was all to no avail. In order to get to the root of the problem the same old village herbalist they consulted some years before was again consulted for help. By the time the herbalist was through with his divination, he was able to establish that the water spirits were angry again because the lady refused to worship them on yearly basis as earlier on agreed. It took the lady a long time before she could get out of the bondage. She had to pass through a very serious deliverance process. Whatever the devil gives is usually taken back with terrible interests. Sometimes, when some people give their lives to the Lord, they usually notice that all the wealth they had accumulated when they were unbelievers would disappear in a way they could not explain. Then, they would start to wonder what God was doing to them. Well it is simple; God is kicking away those things, which received from below so that He can give then what He wants them to get from above. Many men received things but not from above. Anything that is not from above is counterfeit and God does not work on counterfeit. He will only work on the original. If somebody has been eating fake things and God wants to start feeding the person, He would first of all purge the person of those evil things, which he had eaten from below. When we started the MFM fellowship, many of our members came with big stomachs such that when they sat down, their stomachs folded in three layers. But when they started to fast and pray fire prayers, the folded stomachs disappeared. It was what they ate when they were in the world that made their stomachs to swell up. But the fire of God later purged them of the unwanted evil materials. Let me share the story of brother Paul with you. Brother Paul was once a terrible occultist. He was so powerful in it that he had three birds living inside his stomach. But God touched him and he gave his life to the Lord. He went in for deliverance but forgot that he swallowed three birds while he was still an occultist. As soon as he started to pray fire prayers, the birds that were inside of him became troubled as a result of fire, which they were not used to. So they started pecking at his intestine. It got so bad that he had to go in for a comprehensive surgical operation. God miraculously healed him and gave him new intestines. There is also the story of a sister who felt that her husband no longer loved her and that her marriage to the man was on the brick of collapse. She met a herbalist who promised to solve her problem. The man invited her and gave her water to drink from a container, which had electric fish. Shocked as the lady was, she went ahead to drink the water. But after she had drank the water, the husband ordered her to pack out of his house immediately. She lost her marriage to the evil water, which she drank. Why is it that people receive gifts from below and neglect gifts from above? It is because lots of lives have unprofitable seeds in them. We went to a particular place, where we saw a man beating his children. On enquiry, we found out that he had to do that, because his children were smoking paper. But the irony of the situation was that the man himself was a chain-smoker, who used to send the same children to buy cigarettes for him. While he kept on doing that, he did not realize that he was planting evil seeds in the lives of his children. A male child that grew up in a home where his father used to beat up his mother, will definitely get used to fighting women, because a seed has been planted in his life and it is only by divine intervention that the seed would be removed. A seed may be small, but when it germinates, it grows into a big tree. It only needs time to germinate once the seed is put in a proper condition. The most important lesson to be learnt is that when you destroy the seed, you have also destroyed the plant. And when you destroy an egg you have also destroyed the bird or reptile inside it. A snake is a very dangerous animal, but at the egg stage, a two-year old boy can hold it and break it, thereby destroying the snake. But if the same egg is left to mature and is hatched in the long run, a forty-two year old man will have to run for his dear life from the snake that comes out of it. What is manifesting in many lives now is as a result of unprofitable seeds that had been planted in them a long time ago. The seeds have since grown and have become the source of problems in such people’s lives. Some people are lucky that the enemy’s seeds in their lives have not germinated, while others are not so lucky as the germination process has started. And in some, the seeds have germinated into big trees. Beloved, I urge you in the name of God to deal with the evil plantation in your life. It is unprofitable seeds that make so many people to have counterfeit blessings in their lives, homes, families, businesses etc. Please know this fact again, that since God cannot work on the counterfeit in such people’s lives, He will uproot them and then start His own work on a clean slate. The only way you can eliminate a tree that is already grown, is to cut it down and throw it into the fire. If your own problem is still at the seed level, locate the evil seeds and destroy them with fire. If you want God to do that for you then you must be serious with what you are doing. I advise you to do some serious thinking today because an evil tree may be growing in someone’s life without the person realizing it. But when he or she does, the need to uproot it become compulsory. Do you know if an unprofitable seed or plant is in your life? Please sit down and do a thorough self-examination. You really have to be spiritually aggressive. Cutting down evil trees require serious planning and energy. The disciples of Jesus had prayed for many sick people who were made whole almost instantly. However, on one fateful day, they found it difficult to heal a certain sick boy after all the efforts made. When that happened, the father of the boy had to approach Jesus for assistance. When he told Jesus of the failure of his disciples, Jesus called his own disciples faithless people. And thereafter, He cast the demon spirit out of the boy. And His disciples came back to him to find out why they could not heal the boy, Jesus responded by telling them that such feats were usually done with fasting and prayers. So, there are some problems that will never get solved, until you apply fasting and prayers to them. The problem these days is that many Christians are lazy. When you see yourself being chased around in your dream and you are running away, then something is wrong. A seed has been planted in you and that is why you are not able to face your pursuers and declare that the Lord is your refuge and strength. The evil seed has made it impossible for you to put your evil pursuers to flight.

Can you boldly declare like Nehemiah that “shall a man like me run?” If not you have a property in your life, which is making them to run after you. When a believer cannot wake up in the night to pray, a seed has been planted. These evil powers know that the moment a believer starts to pray they will be destroyed. The truth is that most spiritual battles are won after twelve o’clock in the night.

As a Christian, you should get worried and do something serious if your life is always attracting evil things. Why is it that you are not enjoying the blessings of God as you should? Why is it that all the evil forces you once defeated are now turning around to defeat you? An evil seed might be at work in your life. Check it out. If after giving your life to Christ, you are still not interested in evangelism or bother whether or not anybody is saved or perishing, then it is certain that you have an evil plantation or seed in you that must be uprooted. There are three main things that are normally hidden from human beings.

1.      They do not know what is going to happen after life, apart from what the Bible tells us.

2.      They do not know what is going to happen during their lifetime before hand.

3.      They do not know what happened at the beginning of their lives, when they were not yet conscious of what is going on around.

The Bible tells us about end of all men. But one area that many people do not know is what happened when they were unconscious and did not know what they were doing. I am sure that only very few people can point to those that circumcised them. They therefore do not know what happened to the blood that came out of them. Many people have not succeeded in getting s thorough information about their names. For example, many do not know the meaning of their names. They also do not know who gave the names to them. Many people cannot say whether or not their names have idolatry implications. Most people have not checked whether or not they have family incantations that were specifically made for them? The incantations could even be the source of their curses, problems and woes. One of the greatest problems the devil has given to the black man is polygamy. A polygamous father does nothing but to construct coffins for his children. There is no way they are going to like one another and they will use all evil means to pull one another down. Some evil seeds manifest in form of sicknesses, which defy medicine. Unexplainable hatred may indicate the presence of evil seed in some people’s lives. Some other people may find it difficult to please their employers for no fault of theirs. It may be due to the influence of an evil seed. A lot of people go to herbalists to have their future predicted, but instead of getting their future predicted, evil seeds are planted in their lives. The seed of weakness has been planted in their lives. The seed of weakness has been planted in so many lives and as a result of this, problems walk into their lives easily. If those seeds in such lives were not removed, there would always be problems. But the good news is that the power of God can reach the deepest places. The power of God can go back to when you were an ignorant unbeliever. So, you have to hand over your life to God to root out the evil seeds in your life to God to root out the evil seeds in your life today. You must stop feeding your problems. Satan will not depart or desist in his destruction, when all we do is to make a polite request that he should go.

The Bible did not ask us to request them to leave. Rather it says that we should cast them out. The meaning of the word cast out is to expel forcefully. But if you leave them alone, they will just be walking unmolested in your life. The Bible says “a man can receive nothing except he has been given from above”. The first thing you are to do today is to root out those things the Lord has not planted in your life, so that He can plant His own seed now. In the spirit realm, many people holding baskets are praying to God to give them water. God will not listen to the prayer point until such people replace the baskets with basins through the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

Once a person has entered into a terrible situation, he or she needs some effort to be able to pull out because a permanent mark must have been put on such a person’s life. We have to clear the garden of our lives, before God can plant new things in them. I can tell you with all confidence that if God plants something in the garden of your life, no demon from the bottom of hell fire can uproot it.

But those things, which are not received from above, are easily uprooted. So you have to reject anything called counterfeit in your life. Stop rejoicing over counterfeit blessings. You must reject them today. Confess this statement very aggressively.

Oh Lord, I want the original; l want the best in the mighty name of Jesus.

  What do you still desire in your life today? Why do you go for the counterfeit when your heavenly father is the sole owner of the original items? Don’t forget that your heavenly father knows that only the original is good enough for you. But you need to take a step of faith to claim the original from Him. Reject your counterfeit blessing today, ask for the original from God and it shall be well with you.

  PRAYERS

1.      I challenge all unprofitable seeds in my life with the blood of Jesus Christ and the fire of God in Jesus name.

2.      I command all unprofitable seeds to manifest now and come out in the name of Jesus. (lay your right hand on your head and the left hand on your stomach while praying this prayer point)

3.      Oh Lord visit the foundation of my life and uproot all unprofitable seeds in the name of Jesus.

4.      Oh Lord, remove the affairs of my life from the memory of the enemies in the name of Jesus.

5.      I reject every counterfeit blessings, I claim the original in the name of Jesus.

6.      Let the blood of Jesus begin to flow into my head and break all curses concerning my head in Jesus name. (Hold some strands of your hair while praying this prayer point)

7.      Any goodness of mine that is buried anywhere; I exhume you in Jesus name.

8.      Every stubborn and unprofitable seed die in Jesus name.

9.      (lay your hand on your head while praying this prayer points) The great physician Jesus heal me and make me whole in the name of Jesus.

 

 

CHALLENGING THE UNCHALLENGEABLE

Dr.D.K.Olukoya

 

Beloved, l beseech you to read this message prayerfully and you will not remain the same in Jesus name. Amen. There is a very powerful word that men love a lot but few men have it. The word is called POWER. Power is a very wonderful word. Although the word power may sound simple, it is nonetheless difficult to define. For example, keeping quiet in a particular situation might be seen as power talking in a particular situation could also mean power. Sometimes a person’s attitude to a particular thing could even be interpreted to mean power. Therefore the word power can be defined in diverse ways. Power could sometimes mean force or strength. It could also mean the ability to do something or to act on a particular issue. Power could also mean the right to control other people or to exercise authority over others. But what does the Bible say about power? Let us check the scriptures to ascertain this 2 Chron. 32:7-8 has this interesting statement which Hezekiah uttered when Sennacherib, the king of Assyria led his forces to attack him and his people. It says.

    “Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him: [8] With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah”.

 

At this juncture, I would like you to confess this out with a loud voice, “There will be more with me than with my enemies”

It is an established fact that the arm of flesh cannot help anyone, that is why that popular song says: “Stand up, stand up for Jesus, stand in His strength alone, the arm of flesh will fail you, you dare not trust your own. Hezekiah knew that the arm   of flesh cannot save them and that it was only the Lord God that could fight their battles for them. Sennacherib relied on the arm of flesh and he ruined himself. Let us examine the Bible to fish out some other examples of those who trusted in the arm of flesh and their eventual tragedy. Nebuchadnezzar who headed one of the most important kingdoms in the whole world boasted in his strength, he felt none was like him in power and riches. He felt that as the Emperor of the kingdom of Babylon and indeed of all empires that surrounded it, he was incomparable with anyone in terms of glory and fame. That was why he boasted in Daniel 3:15

    “Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?”

 

  

The verse in the foregoing showed us how much Nebuchadnezzar trusted his arm of flesh. But when a superior power came into operation, he changed his tune Daniel 3:28-29

   “ Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. [29] Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort”.

 

  

Beloved, the arithmetic is simple: the arm of flesh must bow when it is confronted by the only superior power, which is the power of the Almighty God. Goliath is another example of a man who boasted openly about it. After a battle line had been drawn between his forces and the forces of Saul, he boasted openly for forty days, of his trust in his arm of flesh. 1 Samuel 17:8-10

    “And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. [9] If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us. [10] And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together”.

 

  

While the boasting in the arm of flesh continued the whole army of Israel went into hiding. Saul, their leader who was taller from the shoulder than all Israelites had to hide himself too. But at the eighth appearance of Goliath, which was on the 40 days at the battle, the superior power of God came into operation, through a small boy. Age is not a measurement of spirituality. It was a small boy who had the big God within him that posed a great challenge to Goliath. But Goliath was not done with his trust in the arm of flesh. He made another terrible statement in 1 Samuel 17:44

    “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”.

 

  

It was at that juncture that David made it clear to Goliath that his doomsday had come. In 1 Samuel 17:45. David made this interesting statement.

    “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”.

 

 The result of the challenge can be found in 1 Samuel 17:49-50

    “And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. [50] So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David”.

 

  

Goliath who was seemingly unchallengeable fell when he was challenged by the superior power of God. Many claims made many human beings collapse when they are challenged by God. Adolph Hitler, the strong man of Germany once boasted that he would capture Africa and turn it into rubber plantation. Where is Hitler now? His life ended in shame and disaster. We have had Jesus of oyingbo in this country before, who said in 1964, that he was God’s incarnate and that he would not die. But he died long ago and without prior notice. Even now, some people are also moving around the country calling themselves the holy spirit. A time would come when we would attend their funerals too, and we would be able to tell who the Holy Spirit is. Only one person whose hands made an unchallengeable claim, which stands today and will stand till eternity that person is Jesus. Matthew 28:16-18 confirms this

    “Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. [17] And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. [18] And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth”.

 

It is a wonderful statement and only Jesus has successfully made that unchallengeable claim. The following scriptures confirm this. In Ephes. 1:21-22

    “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: [22] And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church”,

 

  

And Philip. 2:9-10

    “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: [10] That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

 

  

So Jesus is powerfully personified and at his name all other power with no apologies have to bow. I dare you to name any power that has successfully challenged the power in the name of Jesus. Anyone challenging a Christian is challenging the unchallengeable. Jesus said “All power” and not some powers have been given unto him. Jesus did not say all powers in heaven alone, if he had said that, it would have suggested that the earth was excluded. He made it very clear by saying, “all power is given unto me in heaven and earth” So no power or persons fighting against the gospel have ever progressed. We know the story of Emperor Nero, who fought against Christianity and killed many of the Apostles, but he died a miserable death. Today, the gospel is till alive and well. Another French man called Voltaire boasted that he would devote the whole of his energy to destroy every Bible in France. Yet he died and after his death, printing was invented and a Christian press bought over his house. Bibles are now being printed in his house. If you are sure that you are a true child of God, do not bother yourself about your enemies who do not want to see you around or to prosper in all that you do. They are only challenging unchallengeable. Maybe your enemies have been pursuing you or they have converted the pursuit to a full time job, don’t worry at all. For they are challenging the unchallengeable. Hitler hated Christianity with terrible passion, so much so that some people referred to him as the anti-christ. Hitler is now dead and his head quarters which was in Berlin is now a Christian chapel. Martin Bow who was Adolph Hitler’s lieutenant was so cruel that he called Christianity a poison. He warned his wife never to allow his children to partake in Christianity. But his children refused to listen to him. And seven out of the nine of them became Christians even one of them was a missionary. It is true that the devil may be controlling most men, but the Bible says, that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof”. For by Him, The Bible says, all things were created that are in heaven or that in the earth whether, it is visible or invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or powers or principalities. All things were created by him and in him all things consist. We thank God because Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. When God rises and begins to fight, on behalf of a Christian, no herbalist can help the challenger. The moment you realized  that Jesus is your leader and your head and that he has all the powers, your difficulties will disappear in his presence, all your problems will be solved, your confusion will be removed, all your trials will eventually become triumphs and your temptations will become testimonies. Whoever challenges you henceforth is challenging the unchallengeable. I love that beautiful hymn which says “bruised is the serpent’s head, hell has been vanquished, death is dead and Christ has gone up on high and captivity is made captive” I do not know the type of challenges that you are facing now. But it is clear that challenges are usually from 4 sources.

1.      The world

2.      Sin

3.      Flesh

4.      The devil

 

If the above-mentioned powers are challenging you, there is nothing you can do by your own power but when you turn them over to the Lord and you let them challenge the unchallengeable, they will all fail and fall flat on their faces. The moment you recognize God as your head, and you trust in Him as well, you will begin to witness instant deliverance and instant miracles. The problem of many Christians is that they stay too long in the past that is why they still cry over things, which happened to them long before they knew the Lord. It is therefore not difficult to see a 40 year old Christian crying over what happened to him or her at the age of ten. My advice to such people is to get out of such terrible state, lest they allow their past lives to ruin not only their present life, but the future as well. You need to forget your inglorious past. Apostle Paul said he was pressing forward successfully because he had forgotten his inglorious past. I plead with you again to stop living in the past. Don’t forget that as a child of God, you are a new creature and old things have passed away. Behold all things have become new. Make a quality decision now and get out of that situation even if it means dying in trying to get out. It is better to die trying to get out of the backroom the devil has locked you in than to remain alive in that back room. Please make this confession now, “ I refuse to stay in the back room. I am getting out in Jesus name” You will initiate the fight and then turn the challenger over to the Lord. That was exactly what David did. He went to look for trouble by accepting Goliath’s challenge. Thereafter he handed Goliath over to the Lord. It was therefore easy for him to defeat Goliath. Elijah also went out to look for the trouble of the idol worshippers.  He also ensured that there was no rain in the place for three and a half years. So, he locked up heavens and kept the keys in his pockets, God was happy about it and faithfully committed Himself to what Elijah was saying. Being a Christian does not give you automatic victory over many things. Victory comes when you identify your position in God. Thank God that He has made all things available for you. It is true that spiritual warfare is tough. It is not easy but with the weapon that God has provided battles would be won easily. Many Christians will continue to live defeated lives until they rise up to fight like Esther did. Esther was not pleased about the way things were going for her people, so she went on three days fast. Thereafter, she declared, “ if l perish, I perish” That was a woman who decided to move forward. Do you know that God’s promise is that ye shall not die but live to declare His works? When you begin to declare that, your challenger will know that you mean business. Don’t continue to be in bondage to any problem or unfavourable situation. Decide now and declare this: l am getting out of my problems today. You devil, you have been using depression and worry and anxiety against me, l am getting out today. Special announcement to all you demon and all your hosts. I am getting out today in Jesus name. I used to have a good friend whose children were getting sick everyday and she kept on spending money on them until they almost turned her to a pauper. But when she could no longer afford the hospital bills, she turned her case over to God. She became born again and thereafter acquired necessary powers to put the enemies to shame. When the enemies saw her new position, they left her and her children alone. She had become an unchallengeable person. Perhaps the devil is suffocating your physical and spiritual life or you have reached a dangerous point. Perhaps your life has been turned upside down or you are even tired of life altogether. It is now time for you to get out. Declare boldly to the devil that you belong to Jesus. Tell him too that you are unchallengeable because your master Jesus is unchallengeable. Know this and know it well what if you do not resist the devil hard enough, he will not flee away from you. Challenge him today using the authority of Jesus and you will become free. God is waiting for you to do it. God will back you up and you will be free indeed. God bless you as you do so in Jesus name Amen. Jesus who declared that all power has been given to him is ready for you today, no matter the situation or circumstance that you find yourself. He will fight from heaven for you with heavenly weapons that cannot be destroyed Amen.

 

Prayer Points

1.      Let every satanic giant standing against me begin to fall after the order of goliath in the name of Jesus.

2.      Let all diviners and enchanters hired against me fall after the order of Balaam in the name of Jesus

3.      Let all giants standing against peace and unity in my home fall and die in Jesus name.

4.      I bind and set ablaze every sprit of marriage destruction in Jesus name.

5.      Let all Pharaohs perish in the red sea in the name of Jesus.

6.      Let all my Herods be devoured by spiritual worms in the name of Jesus.

7.      Woe unto the spirits that turn into cows, elephants, masquerades or any other object in order to hinder my blessings.

8.      Lord set my spirit on fire for you.

9.      Lord fill me to brim with your power.

10.  Let every architect of spiritual coffins enter therein themselves, in the name of Jesus.

11.  I command the stronghold of fear, worry and anxiety to be pulled down in my life in Jesus name.

12.  Let all drinkers of blood and eaters of flesh eat their own flesh and drink their own blood in the name of Jesus.

  

      

   

CERTIFICATE OF FAILURE

Dr.D.K.Olukoya

 

 

I plead with you to submit your heart, and your entire being to the control of the Holy Spirit as you read this message. The word failure may no longer strange to you. Perhaps you have failed at least once or twice, in a particular endeavour and you now know that failure is the inability to achieve something you set out to achieve. What may bother you at this juncture is, what certificate has to do with failure. We shall analyze this with close reference to the Bible. Readers of the Bible will recognize that the failure of man started right from the Garden of Eden. Adam could rightly be considered a failure. He disappointed God and lost the glory that God gave to him. He allowed himself to be deceived and so he fell. If Adam had not fallen, man would have lived forever and all the troubles and tribulations that we now experience would not exist. Perhaps there would not have been any necessity for prayer. But then Adam fell and lost both glory and paradise. He was therefore chased out of the beautiful garden. In addition, God put an angel to prevent Adam from finding his way back into the garden. So Adam failed and received a technical knockout from the devil. It then became necessary for the second Adam to come and resume the fight that the first Adam left unfinished. The second Adam was Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came in the flesh. But immediately, Jesus died and resurrected every failure of man had no reason to continue beyond that time. But in spite of all these, we have a lot of people who are going about with certificates of failure. What are the certificates of failure?

 

1.      Lack of Salvation

When somebody is not born again, he has already secured the greatest certificate of failure in his hands. He may go to church, he may have a Christian name, he may even be confirmed and all kinds of religious things may be happening to him, but if he is not born again, and has therefore not experienced what is known as salvation, he has the greatest certificate of failure anyone could think of. Sometimes, when people come to request for prayers concerning their troubled lives, the first question I usually ask them is, whether they are born again. If they say they are not born again, my usual response to them is the Bible quotation which says, “say ye unto the righteous, it shall be well with him, for he shall inherit the fruits of his labour, but say ye unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him, and God is continually angry with the wicked everyday” As far as a person is born again, it shall be well with him or her. However, the opposite is the result for whoever is not born again. The bible says that it shall be ill with the wicked and the person will get confused everyday because he has rejected the greatest miracle that God has for his life. I once asked  somebody who came to visit me whether or not he had received the gift of the Holy Spirit. He said that he had received that he cost him fifty kobo! I wondered what that meant! When I asked him further, I found that he was talking about his baptismal card, which cost him fifty kobo. He did not know what salvation was, even as a regular visitor to the church! This is why many people who go to church will advance from the church to hell fire straight away. We must go back to the foundation, because the issue of salvation is very basic. It is not enough for you to sit down and convince yourself that you are saved, when you are not. Everything in your Christian life builds up from the God’s given salvation. If l asked you, whether you were married. The answer l expect from you is either yes or no. It is the same thing with salvation; there is no sitting on the fence on issues concerning salvation. It is the purpose of salvation that brought Jesus to the world. 1 Tim. 1:15

    “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief”.

Again, Matthew 1:21

    “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins”.

Acts 4:12 tells us in clear terms

    “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved”.

 

So, Jesus is not only the basis of our salvation but he is also our saviour. Salvation is deliverance from the guilt and penalties of sin. It is also put in place for you to enjoy the unchanging favour of God forever through Jesus Christ, who gave his all at the cross of Calvary. The prison warden in Acts 16 had to sincerely ask Paul and Silas to teach him how he could get his own salvation. He reasoned that it was the salvation duo (Paul and Silas) had that gave them spiritual freedom. Although they were in physical bondage, they were nonetheless liberated in the spirit. This is the foundation. A man is lost without a saviour. Salvation is therefore your passport to heaven. Without that passport, you are going nowhere. If you are reading this bulletin and you are not born again, you already have a certificate of failure. Turn to God today in repentance. God wants you to be saved. Please know that salvation is not by works. This is made clear in Ephes. 2:8-9

    “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: [9] Not of works, lest any man should boast”.

 

It follows therefore that no church activity can save you. The Bible says that Christians shall be known by their fruits. Thus, when somebody who calls himself a Christian is exhibiting fruits that are not Christ like, one can then confirm that such a person is not a Christian. The bible tells us that “whosoever is in Christ has become a new creature and old things are passed away; behold all things are now new” It is very certain that many churchgoers these days are not born-again. Many just do what their minds tell them to do. Indeed, many find it hard to live above sin. The message that God has been preaching to them for many years has not changed them. It is not surprising therefore that brotherly love is dying out, and people no longer trust each other. Tribalism is fast creeping into the house of God and gossip and backbiting have taken over in many places. But for those who are truly saved, they will always receive whatever they want from the Lord. They will always seek first the kingdom of God and all other things shall be added unto them. Psalm 37:25

    “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread”.

 

   

Salvation is therefore the most important thing that you can receive. A permanent feature that is always present in those who are saved is the joy of salvation. So, if you see somebody who is always feeling sad as if the whole world is going to collapse on his head, it is unlikely that the person is saved. Those who are saved are people who will always speak to sinners about Christ. They will also speak to God everyday in prayer. Please close your eyes and pray this prayer point: “Oh Lord, touch my heart, if l’m not saved, take away my false security in the name of Jesus” Many people are wearing the garment of religion. I pray that such people will not die before repentance. God expects every Christian to sow the seed of salvation and not religion. Those who wear the garment of religion are not necessarily interested in salvation. Rather they want people to identify them with church titles and positions. That is religion and not salvation. And God did not call anybody to religion. God expects you to sow good seed. What seed are you sowing in your family? Does your family still come together for morning and evening devotions? If you don’t do this, you are putting your family on the express path of destruction. It is not surprising at all that many housemaids have taken over the spiritual control of many Christian families. Many children have been bewitched because of the inability on the part of parents to sow the seed of God in their lives. This again explains the reason why demonic housemaids find it easier to sow evil seeds in the lives of Children without the good seed of God. Parents who neglect the spiritual growth or well being of their children will certainly receive the wrath of God. What seed are you sowing as a Christian? You must be able to sow seeds of honesty, loyalty, dedication and integrity. Sometimes ago, a group of Christian students from University of Lagos invited me to speak to them on a particular topic. I would have honoured the invitation, but I didn’t honour it for an important reason. The envelope, which contained the letter, had NEPA inscription on it. I wondered when NEPA became a Christian body. The envelope was NEPA’s property. So, whoever used it to send a letter to me stole it. It was evident that there was no salvation in the life of whosoever did that. Believers cannot be doing things like that and expect to get to heaven. There is no salvation in a believer who gets to office at 9.00 am, but write 7.05 am in attendance register. A believer who does that is not only making a wrong choice but also sowing an evil seed. Do they know you as a Christian where you are, or do they recognize you as a hypocrite who goes to church to give a false impression to other people? Let us look at an interesting man called Lot in the bible, who made a lot of wrong choices, let us see what befell him. Genesis 13:10-12

    “And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. [11] Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. [12] Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom”.

 

Lot was nobody until he followed Abraham. It was then that God blessed him because he was following God’s elect. Unfortunately for Lot he did not know how to manage the blessings he received through Abraham. Covetousness took over his life. When Abraham called him to choose first the area he would want to stay, the greed in him controlled his choice. He could not even ask Abraham to choose before he made his choice. It was not surprising that Lot eventually chose Sodom and Gomorrah. His wrong choice was based on covetousness, He chose to put his tent towards Sodom and live near the place of sin. But when Sodom was in trouble with God  and God was going to destroy the place, Lot again made another wrong choice. Genesis 19:1

    “And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;”

What was Lot doing at the gate of Sodom? He was a member of the town council. He had gained worldly influence in Sodom. Again, Genesis 19:16 tells us what the angels of God did when Lot was reluctant to depart from Sodom.

   “ And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city”.

 

Lot had to be dragged out. He loved Sodom and the things that God hated. He loved the things that God was set to destroy. Lot chose to be weak, and because of his weakness, he had a lot of problems. When some people wanted to come into his house to rape his visitors, he was willing to give his two daughters to them for sin. And when he told his sons-in-law that God was going to destroy Sodom, the bible says in verse 14, that he seemed to them as someone who was mocking. That is to say, they took it as a joke. They felt he was not serious. As if that was not enough, Lot again chose to disobey the angels sent to him. When the angels told him, to run out of Sodom, Lot gave an unexpected reply. Verses 17 and 18 of the same chapter read thus Genesis 19:17-18

    “And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. [18] And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord”:

 

   

He preferred the valley to the mountain. Eventually, he got drunk and put his two daughters in the family way. Wrong choices eventually gave Lot an evil certificate. Today, we also have a lot of people who don’t have the certificate of salvation. We have considered the first certificate as the certificate of failure. Now

 

2. The love of money, love for the opposite sex and pride.

This is why witchcraft powers find it easier to operate in people’s lives. Many young lives have been ruined by immorality. It is a great certificate of failure when that certificate is in a person’s hand, then one has to really pray and seek for deliverance.

Unholy association with the opposite sex is an evident of being a student in the school of failure. This also has caused the failure of so many men in the Bible. 1 Cor. 6:15-18

   “ Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. [16] What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. [17] But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. [18] Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that commiteth fornication sinneth against his own body”.

 

So a man, who joined himself as one flesh to a harlot about twenty years ago, may be having problems now. That was where the problems of Samson started. He was a powerful person, whose birth was prophesied by an angel. His birth was a miracle even as his life was a miracle. But he fell when Delilah came against him. Many people who are having problems now, cannot but trace their problems to the evil certificate they once collected at a certain time in their lives. That is number on certificate in the trinity. There is inordinate affection for money. It is difficult to love both money and God at the same time. You may have the ability to work for two masters, but you must still serve only one of them. Therefore, your attitude towards money is very important. When you have money of affliction in your hands such money will chase away good money from you. It will also destroy the life of children you are using the money to train. This is why the bible talks about restitution. So if you took somebody’s money in a way that is not scriptural the bible commands that you go and make restitution and return that which you have violently or deceitfully taken away. This is well clarified in Leviticus 6:1-4

    “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, [2] If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the Lord, and lie unto his neighbour in that which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived his neighbour; [3] Or have found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely; in any of all these that a man doeth, sinning therein: [4] Then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took violently away, or the thing which he hath deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found”,

 

So, if you had defrauded anybody in the past or you had deceitfully kept somebody’s money the Bible says you must make restitution by returning the thing. When you attach unnecessary importance to money, it is an evidence of enrollment in the school of failure. When somebody who has lost some money reacts as if he has lost a human being, then it must dawn on you that the person is a student in the school of failure. Let me emphasize again that the love of money is an evil certificate. Nebuchadnezzar was in the bush for seven years because of pride.

 

 

3.Addiction: A lot of people are addicted to things, which should not be. However, a thorough study of the bible will convince you that God does not want His children to get involved in any addiction. He knows that addiction will keep them in bondage. A lot of people are addicted to alcohol, cigarette, and drugs and to all kinds of things. If you have read your bible thoroughly, it will be easier for you to know that alcohol has cause the downfall of so many people. Such people usually destroy the temple of God. And God is not happy with those who destroy His temple. They often quote the words of Timothy to support their drinking habits. Without knowing that Timothy preached the gospel in an area which was unhygienic and whose healthy situation was bad. God forbids alcohol and whosoever is drinking it can neither be God’s peculiar people, a holy nation nor a royal priest hood.

 

 

4. The spirit of fear. Fear is a spirit that is seated in many lives. And on many occasions, fear wins victory over people’s faith. People defeated by fear are defeating God’s love for their lives. This can result in a terrible and dangerous situation. Some of sleeplessness that people experienced as well as anger, bitterness and envy and spiritual paralysis can be traced to the problem of fear. The power of fear affects both the rich and the poor. The highest and the smallest. A person who is doing well in business will be afraid that the business may fail. A student who is facing an exam would be afraid of failure. A president would be afraid of coup or whether  he would not win the election. Many musicians also fear that their music may not sell. Many pregnant women are afraid of miscarriage and all kinds of things. There are all kinds of fear hunting people. But the trouble with fear is that it will make somebody a candidate for destruction. Once you begin to fear, you are breaking God’s law which says, ‘fear not’. Fear can kill and can cause confusion. It can also cause discouragement as well as cause the spirit of suicide to come upon a person. Fear can also cause loneliness, overeating etc. All these things are certificates of evil and anybody who has them must throw them into the fire because of the resurrection power of our Lord Jesus Christ Romans 10:10

    “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”.

 

Our lives today are as results of what we have been saying about ourselves. What you are now is as a result of what you were saying yesterday or what you said in the years gone by. When you begin to speak the word of God, you will start to be on God’s side. But if you begin to speak the word of the devil, you will be on the devil’s side. The last certificate of failure therefore is wrong confession. So the question you must ask yourself everyday is ‘what am I saying’? The words you speak will continually shape your life. God designed seven openings in the human head. It was God’s own design to create two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, one mouth. But the mouth which is the seventh one, and which is just a few inches below the nose, has caused more trouble than all the other six put together. The truth is that your word will determine your destiny. It was the positive confession of Joshua and Caleb that took them to the Promised Land. They confessed that the giants were meat for them. And so it was. The remaining people who were making negative confessions fell by the wayside. It was their words that determined their destiny. If you begin to say bad things to yourself, it would happen. If you magnify any small thing that is happening to you, it will become big. And there is nothing so powerful or so great that the tongue cannot control. Circumstances surrounding anyone could be controlled by his or her tongue. The devil, as a fallen angel with no creative power use the power of the tongue of man. So if you continue to speak in the negatives, wrong things will begin to happen. When you speak words of power, then powerful things will be happening. God Himself speaks words and His words bring victory. But a lot of people defeat themselves everyday by committing spiritual murder with their mouth. Some people after praying very serious prayers usually to destroy the conquests they have made with their prayers by resorting again to negative confessions. You, therefore need to control your tongue and bring it under the subjection of the Holy Ghost. If you do this, evil powers that hitherto controlled you will begin to fail in your life. Our enemies know the power in our words, so this is why they try to get people to speak words of doubt, fear and unbelief. Only heaven knows how many bad things believers have used their mouths to invite and how many good things they have cancelled. When a mother keeps saying “I don’t want this child to kill me’, such a woman is indirectly changing her child to a murderer. When you keep saying, ‘well, we would do it, let’s hope that it works; it has never worked, then you are already killing the project before you even start it at all. Satan knows that fact very well. He knows that his ability is limited. When you refuse to say negative things, it scares the devil. When the Bible says you are healed, the devil will say you are sick. But if you go ahead to say you are sick. All you have done is to agree with the enemy. When a woman says her husband is bad, the devil will confirm it immediately. The same goes for a husband who says his wife is terrible. If you have prayed that either your husband or wife should be good, then speak to him or her as if he is good. The power of binding and loosing is not in heaven, it is on earth here. It is on earth for you to use it. All you need do is to lock your mouth the moment you want to say something that is against your life or against someone else’s life. If you plan to train your spirit spiritually, the first thing is your mouth. You must learn to put it under the control of the Holy Spirit.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.Oh Lord, you know me better than I know myself, you know my strength, you know my weakness. Lord heal me in the areas where l am weak and make me strong in those areas where l am fainting.

 

2.      Lay your hands on your head and pray this way; “you Mr. Devil, collect your certificate of failure from me, I have nothing to do with it again in the name of Jesus.

3.      Father Lord, clothe me with the garment of righteousness in the name of Jesus.

4.      Oh Lord, enlarge my coasts in the name of Jesus.

   

THE WINE OF GOD

Dr.D.K. Olukoya

 

Let us pray, Our Father in heaven, we thank you for what you have been doing for us. Thank you for what you are going to do in our lives today. Accept our thanks in Jesus name. Lay your hand upon us, glorify your name in our lives, disgrace every oppressor and let us experience that mountain top life. Let every life of the valley be cancelled. Thank you heavenly father in Jesus name we pray. I would like you to give this message serious attention; it is called the wine of God. Now a man is a sprit living inside a body and having a soul. The greatest problem that can affect a man has to start with the spirit, once something goes wrong with the spirit, it is just a matter of time before it begins to manifest physically. The Bible describes various states in which the sprit of a man could be.

1. The troubled spirit: This is when a person’s spirit is in a disturbed state. For example when anxiety, agitation, alarm or even distress fill the spirit. There are so many troubled spirits like that. Everything may seem all right on the surface, but right inside the spirit, there is trouble. Many people have passed through these kinds of stages. Once a spirit is in that kind of state, it will pick up all other negative things going about in the environment. If God opens your eyes into the world of the spirit, you will see a lot of evil things in circulation, looking for whom to attach themselves to. Lay your hands on your chest now, close your eyes and pray like this: I reject every evil attachment in the spirit, in the mane of Jesus. When l was in the university, l had a classmate, who was always boasting that he didn’t need to read before he could pass his examinations, since he read all his books in the spiritual world. He went on to say that there was a better world under the water that was where he went every night. You may not believe it, but there is actually a fantastic world in the sea which is better than what we see here. Down there, they have a fantastic laboratory. It is from that laboratory that people bring materials for the production of most of the cosmetics you see around and there are also many satanic agents from there. What this former classmate of mine used to do, was just to allow his spirit to get out of his body and go into the world of the spirit. But one day, he met some wicked spirits on the way, which got him trapped and he could not come back to his body and problem started. Everybody ran helter skelter to save his life. Even though he was breathing, he could not wake up in spite of all effort made to revive him. A doctor came after examining the body, retorted, “l have never seen this before in medical science” After sometime, the boy was released and he came back into the body. But he was never the same again. Wicked spirits operate in dreams; this is why we take dreams seriously. What most of us call dream is not what it is rather it is an insight to what is going on in the spirit world. What operates in the spirit world is our spirits and our souls while our bodies remain where they are. If your spirit is weak and you go into the world of the spirit and encounter some powerful spirits there, they will beat that weak spirit into retreat, if you are not feeding your spirit with the word of God, if all you care for is to look after your body with perfumes and cosmetics, when the time of warfare comes in the spirit, that spirit that you have not fed will not be able to help you. This is the reason people scream for help when masquerades are running after them, because spiritually they cannot wait to fight. The spirit has no power and strength because the time you ought to be feeding it with the word of God and prayers you were busy examining and pampering your body.
2. The fainting Spirit: When stress is becoming too much for some people, the spirit can be overwhelmed like the psalmist described it. At this stage, they can give in to despair. Disappointments can also be so severe for some people that it will tap the life out of the spirit. In such cases, a lively spirit will suddenly become dim. People who are like that need to be revived. Now lay your hands on your chest and sing this song, sing it with all seriousness. “send down revival Lord, let it start within my soul, Holy Ghost revival, Pentecostal fire” Now convert it to prayer: Oh Lord, send down your revival, let it start within my soul in Jesus name.
3. The aggrieved spirit: This does not mean that a person is bereaved. It usually happens when a person suffers rejection or is experiencing pain and heat. Such people need comfort, the comforting oil of the Holy Spirit.
4. The fearful or timid spirit: 2 Tim. 1:7

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind”.

5. The broken spirit: The person with a broken spirit is someone who has lost courage. The spirit has been beaten down by the enemy such spirits need to be revived. When things are like this, what the person needs is the wine of God. Not many people know that God even has his own wine. His wine is sweeter than all the wine that you could ever think of. The secret of spiritual power and progress is to keep drinking this wine. Those who have ever been spiritually catapulted to any reasonable height are the men and women who normally got drunk with God’s wine. However, for you to drink God’s wine, you will meet the following requirements:

    

1. You must be a complete Christian: Who is a complete Christian? A complete Christian is one who is born again. He or she must have surrendered to God with notable changes. So many people have erroneous impression that they are born again because they have been baptized as babies or confirmed in their churches. Being born again is the assurance of the Holy Spirit that you are saved, that inner conviction must be there. You are sure within you, that if God says enough my daughter, enough my son come, you will be happy going, because you are sure that you are going to meet your father in heaven. But anytime they talk about your Father’s home in heaven and something within you say, “do you think you are qualified for what they’re talking about?” Then you must check your life. A lot of church members are not saved and it is very sad. A lot of church members are just playing religion. Some have not even been transformed. All that has happened to most of them is a change of name and not a change of life. A complete Christian must have the assurance of salvation and the joy of salvation. This is important because no man can serve the Lord with all his heart unless he is sure about his salvation. The reason some people are not happy when they are giving offering is because they are not sure of their salvation. Thank God at MFM our principle is in the word of God, which says, “let not your right hand know what your left hand is doing” We don’t have tithe or offering cards here whereby people write their names and what they are giving. It is the people who are not saved that are being forced to give to their father’s work. It is those who are not saved that ask questions like “what do the pastors do with the offering money” The answer is very simple. If you want to give your offering and you do not trust the pastor, take it to God yourself, as far as its get to him no problem. If you think that the pastor will not handle it well, just take a bus or an aircraft and say “God I have come to pay my tithe you can have it” It is when people are not saved that they look for church posts. When you have salvation you have the greatest gift of all. All other things become less important. If you are not careful at all those other things will even put your salvation in trouble. You cannot put your all into the service of the Lord, when you have some doubts in your hearts whether you will get to heaven or not.
2. You must be a happy Christian: The joy and happiness of Christian has nothing to do with circumstances because at the end of the day, whether positive or negative all circumstances will fade away. The day they say dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Or the day the trumpet will sound, everybody will forget about everything. Even money and wealth will no longer be important, Infact the Bible says that they shall be roasted with fire. A complete Christian must be a happy Christian. So if you find that you are not happy or that your happiness is tied to money clothes, houses etc, then you better seek for genuine salvation. If all the testimony you have to give is that l thank God, when I got in to this church l was wearing bathroom slippers, but now, God has given me Italian shoes. I came to this church with okada without an engine, now l have Okada with engine. Glory be to God. When l came here l had a Volkswagen beetle car now l have Lexus car if that is all you have to say check your salvation because your greatest testimony should be the salvation of your soul because all those other things are ending here. You can’t carry them beyond. When the trumpet sounds, your wealth will not fly with you.
3. You must be a soul winner: You must be a witness. Not everybody will be a preacher, but your life must be witness to others. When they see you, they must see the glory of God in your life. Your life should convert people not drive them away from the Lord. We have a lot of spiritual touts, who come to the house of God. All they come to do in MFM is to beg people for money, they do not want to pray to get their breakthrough, they just want to be parasites. They go to the car park look for those who have the big cars so they could beg them for money. These kinds of people are just blocking the way to their breakthroughs. A complete Christian must show by his life that he is a true winner. Let me go through this again, a complete Christian must be saved and have the assurance of salvation. He must be joyful and happy. He must be a soul winner. If any of these three things are lacking the believer will not be able to drink the wine of God. And the bible seriously warns us not to be spiritual babies Hebrews 6:1

“Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God”,

 

Don’t be a spiritual baby. In Ephes. 4:14

    “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive”;

    

Galatians 4:1-3

   “ Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; [2] But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. [3] Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world”:

 

   

We should not remain babies. God’s plan under the new covenant is for every believer to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And you find that in Ephes. 5:18

    And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

 

God’s plan under the new covenant is that every believer should be drunk with the Holy Spirit and not with the physical wine. The question is have you ever been drunk with the Holy Spirit? In Acts 19, Paul was encouraging the Ephesians to be filled with the Holy Spirit, stressing the need for the constant filling of the Holy Spirit. So to get catapulted spiritually, you also must continuously drink God’s wine. There is no way a Christian who prays in tongues for half an hour in the spirit before praying in English or whatever language can be compared to a believer who only prays for 5 minutes a day, without being in the spirit. That person praying in the spirit is charging his battery, while the other person is doing nothing. As many as want to live the mountain top life, the first step is to get to that level where they get drunk in the Holy Spirit. Below are some few points on how to get drunk in the Holy Spirit.

 

1.      Observing a regular spiritual retreat programme where you stay alone with God: A good soldier does not fight all the time. Jesus always observed spiritual retreats. Matthew 14:23

“And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone”.

This is Jesus, who might think does not need to pray. In Luke 5:16

    “And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed”.

 

    If you want to drink the wine of God, you must observe regular spiritual retreat. When you service your car, you send it into retreat. Many Christians do not receive information from the Lord because they do not stay long enough in His presence. You don’t have to start with a long story; you can decide to spend 1hour, 2hours or 3hours a day. You don’t expect to spend only ten minutes with the Lord and you get filled with the wine of God. So make a decision to start today. Lay your right hand on your head and pray aggressively like this: The power to climb the mountain of power come upon my life now in the name of Jesus. Spiritual retreat is a must; make a decision to start today. The problem with many people is that they put a long programme before them, which they cannot fulfill. It is like someone who had never done personal night vigil before, the day he wants to start; he wants to do ten hours. It is not possible, start with a short run, just one hour. After one hour go to sleep. God will act with that one hour that you are alert and awake.

 

2.      Praying at night: Night prayers do a lot of wonders because that is when a lot of wicked things happen. One man of God wrote a book titled “After midnight” And the clue of what he was saying was that major breakthroughs people record in their lives used to happen after midnight Psalm 119:62

   “ At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments”. In Luke 6:12

    “And it came to pass in those days, which he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God”.

This is Jesus, so most spiritual battles are won after midnight. If as a Christian, your life is controlled by the alarm clock, you should become more serious spiritually. If you cannot wake up in the night to pray then pray to God to give you the power because there are  lot of benefits in night prayers. Night prayer is beneficial because it is a period when evil powers meet. It is the most quiet period at least in this environment. This is the reason God speaks to a lot of people at night. Job 33:15-18

    “In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumbering upon the bed; [16] Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, [17] That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. [18] He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword”.

In the night, God comes to people in the dream to warn them and to give them information. Night prayers beloveth is a form of fasting and this is the power of night vigil. When night vigils are held, it is like fasting. You are fasting from sleep and comfort.

 

3.      Learn to flow in the Holy Spirit: How does one flow in the Holy Spirit? One flows in the Holy Spirit by praying for a designated period of time in the spirit. You could map out half an hour for that everyday. In1 Cor. 14:14-15

“For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. [15] What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also”.

It says I will do it; so praying for designated period of time in the spirit makes it easy for one to flow in the spirit. Col. 3:16

   “ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord”.

You can also learn to sing in the spirit. You can sing hymns, spiritual songs, psalms and make melody to the Lord. This is how to move in the spirit. Also, you must keep your heart clear and clean when you are in the presence of God so that He can minister to you freely. Whenever you want to pray, release your spirit always before the Lord and yield to the Holy Spirit. Don’t go with a divided heart. If you do, you will pray divided prayer and then nothing happens. You will not be doing yourself any good if you sit down to pray and suddenly you remember that you’ve forgotten your shoes under the bed and you rush there and remove it and then you continue praying. All of a sudden you remember that you soaked dirty clothes somewhere and you rush to remove it no.

 

4.      Meditate on the word of God: Anybody who wants to do something for God must spend time meditating on His word. Joshua 1:8

“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success”.

Psalm 19:14

   “ Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer”.

 

   

Now let us look at the new testament. In 1 Tim. 4:15 Paul was advising Timothy as usual

    “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all”.

If you have no time to meditate on the word of God, then you as well have no time to grow. The Gideon Bibles in schools went to a particular school to preach the gospel to the kids and gave them those small bibles. One boy took his  copy and read it through again and again, but could still not understand it. So, he started reading it verse by verse like a novel. He was reading and meditating on every verse to get the meaning. One day he read the book of Acts of apostles and learnt about the baptism in the Holy Ghost. He prayed and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, without receiving lectures from anybody. He received just by reading the word of God and meditating on it. This boy got on fire and his father started persecuting him, complaining that he has accepted a new religion and that he prays for too long. Then one day, the man decided to deal with the boy. As soon as he came from his retreat, the father went ahead to fish out his cutlass with which to deal a final blow on the boy’s head. But to his greatest shock, he noticed that the boy wasn’t coming alone. He saw two giants holding swords of fire accompanying him to the house. Then he screamed, “this is no longer our son!” And he ran inside. The boy was surprised at the father’s behaviour and started asking what the matter was with daddy. Immediately, God opened his eyes and he saw what was happening. There is power in meditating upon the word of God. Meditation and confession of the word of God are the greatest spiritual exercises that can get you to the top.

 

5.      Fasting: Fasting will give the human spirit an opportunity to build up by putting less demand on the flesh. The more the flesh is empowered, the more it pushes the spirit down. The secret of fasting is that flesh will be made weak so that the spirit can rise. When you want your prayer life to develop, fasting must accompany it. When you first of all start the ministry of fasting, you may grow lean and people will be making mockery of your new religion. But after a while, the Spirit of God will adjust your system and nobody will know whether you are fasting or not even if you fast for many days. Fasting humbles one before God, it helps in times of temptations. For example on power must change hands mornings, a lot of people will find it difficult to quarrel because there is no strength in them. Fasting helps to develop faith, it removes unbelief and gives you power over demons. If you read your bible, you will notice that all the men who God used mightily fasted. Daniel fasted for 21 days, Moses fasted for 40 days, Joshua 40 days, Elijah 40 days and Jesus 40 days. But the Bible says in Rev. 12:12

“Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time”.

 

   

So 40 days is no longer enough now, maybe you should try 70 days. However if you are fasting without prayers you are embarking on hunger strike. It is not the kind of thing we are talking about. The key to spiritual success is complete obedience. Anything God tells you to do, just do it. Don’t wait to say l want to understand. No! God is not looking for such people because you can’t understand everything. How many things do you know about your body? If you continue to say I understand everything very well before I do it, l’m educated by the grace of God, l have a university degree. I cannot jump into anything like that. I  traveled to England etc, then you had better forget power.

 

6.      Always accept spiritual responsibility: Don’t dodge spiritual work and later start praying for power, power to do what? God does not empower lazy people. He will give you power to cope with the work which you have decided to do for Him. Moses was by the burning bush. The bush would have been very good raw material for fire, but if the fire rejected the bush as its source of supply it then means that it was a self sustaining fire. That is what we call power by baptism of fire. Therefore, as many as will like to catapult themselves through the spirit of God to the mountaintop, should pray seriously. God is not looking for weak Christians, but soldiers who are ready to pull down strongholds. Pray with aggression and start to put these things into practice. To drink the wine of God is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. When the apostles were threatened, they went back to the upper room; they went back to their company and prayed for the power of the Holy Ghost. Then they said give unto thy servants boldness. That was the first prayer point they prayed.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. Oh Lord baptize me with the spirit of boldness in the name of Jesus.
2. Oh Lord ignite my spirit with Holy ghost fire in the name of Jesus.
3. Every spiritual desert, clear away from my life in the name of Jesus.

(When your spirit becomes fire, who is that pursuer that will come against you in your dream and succeed. Who is the herbalist or the juju that will wait to be affected the fire of the Holy Spirit).

4. Let my spirit be converted to hot coals of untouchable fire in the name of Jesus.
5. Lord Jesus shower your spiritual gifts upon me in the name of Jesus.
6. I quench every strange fire battling against my spiritual growth in the name of Jesus.
7. Father Lord, give me power to drink from your wine and be drunken with it like the apostles in Jesus name.

  

OCCUPY TILL I COME

 Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

The title of this message is taken from Luke Chapter 19 verse 13. It says, “ Occupy till l come”. It is a direct order from the Lord. But since you accepted the Lord, are you occupying according to His instruction? Perhaps, you have discarded the idea of watching and waiting for his second coming. What is your present position in the register of God? The Lord’s order should be taken seriously. What then must you do to occupy till he comes? The answer to this and other questions you may wish to ask are provided in this message. Please open your heart and let the Lord bless you with this message. Let us look at an interesting scripture in

Luke Chapter 19: 12-26: “ He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. [13] And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. [14] But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. [15] And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. [16] Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. [17] And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. [18] And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. [19] And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities. [20] And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: [21] For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. [22] And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: [23] Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury? [24] And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. [25] (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.) [26] For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him”.

 

Now we have read the parable of our Lord Jesus Christ, telling us to occupy until he comes. In this parable, Jesus represented the noble man who went to take a kingdom and so gave money to his servants to trade with. Some made profit but some didn’t do anything with theirs, and Jesus represented the noble man who went to take a kingdom and so gave money to his servants to trade with. The truth is that Jesus is coming again. When you begin to study the word of God, you will recognize certain things, one of which is that spiritual loss is different from physical loss. The losses are so different that if you don’t move in the spirit you won’t be able to flow in the laws of the Spirit. Sometimes, both physical and spiritual laws work in total contrast to each other. The way God reason is different from the way we reason. After all He says my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways. As a matter of fact, as the heavens are far away from the earth, so are God’s ways and thoughts far from ours. For example, God’s law of prosperity demands that whosoever wants to prosper must first give and thereafter he shall be given. However, in contrast to this, man’s laws require one to think of himself alone and to store as much as possible in his home. God’s law on faith says that when someone believes, then he will see. But man’s law says that seeing is believing. The Bible says, “Love your enemies, but man’s says hate and destroy them. Many people believe that death is the end of everything. But the Bible says “It is given unto man to die only once, after that judgement.” People often say there are many doors or many ways to God. They believe therefore that God could be reached through other deities, objects or even through some human beings. But in total contrast to that erroneous belief, Jesus says the following in the Bible: “I am the way, the truth and the life no one cometh unto the father, but by me” Likewise, many people who come to church don’t believe that Jesus is coming back again. And the book of 11 peter 3:3 tells us that we have to talk about this because at the coming of Jesus, he will ask us to give account of what we have done

 

2 Peter 3:3-4

    Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, [4] And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

 

Many people often said that since Jesus has not come till now, he may probably not come again. However the Bible’s position on the second coming of Jesus Christ is made explicit in 2 Peter 3:9-11

    “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. [10] But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. [11] Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness.”

The truth is that man is sitting on a time bomb, which is about to explode. It is clear that nobody brought anything into this world and it is quite certain that nobody will take anything out of it. So, holding on to the temporal and earthly things that will soon go away is not sensible at all. If you still do not make heaven after all the words of God which you have heard and after all your deliverance and your baptism in the Holy Spirit, and indeed after your earth shaking prayers, then you have succeeded in wasting all of your life and time.  It would have been better if you never attended any church, and you had spent your time doing your  wish. Anything you achieved on earth is only achieved in vain, if you are not able to reign with Christ. If a cripple man receives healing and begins to walk and then Jesus comes, and the healed person is not able to reign with Him, his healing is useless. All that people do is to come and sleep in the church after sleeping at home. Some come and don’t even concentrate on what is going on at all. They have taken it as a play thing, that which the Lord took seriously, as to allow His son to be crying in agony on the cross. All these sings are pointing to the fact that everything is coming to an end. All the things that are happening in the world, point to the fact that the final subject in the timetable of God is coming up and the last bell can ring at any time. What we are expecting now is the sound of the trumpet. When the trumpet sounds, the dead that are in Christ shall be raised and the living saints too shall at the coming of Christ be caught up in the air with the Lord. So, both those that are in the grave that have slept in the Lord and those that are still alive would have a common meeting point when the Lord shall come. That is what we are all waiting for. Anyone that cannot be found at that meeting has wasted his or her time coming to church, because that is when the roll would be called. Just like that song writer says, “ while the roll is called up yonder I would be there or when the saints go marching in the Lord, l want to be in that number” That is the number we are talking about. Once a person is not in that number”. That is the number we are talking about. Once a person is not in that number, it would have been better if the person were not born. Beloved after the children of God have been withdrawn, what the Bible calls the great tribulation would begin. The great tribulation is better read and imagined than to be witnessed. I pray that the Lord will help you in Jesus name. The Bible says that the tribulation would be so great that men would want to die, but death would be far from them. During this period, great tribulation would visit the earth. The saints and the Lord Jesus Christ that had gone above would come back to earth and would stay here for one thousand years after the great tribulation. Then, the new heaven and the new earth would come and we would forever be with the Lord. So, the next thing in God’s programme now is rapture. God had shown us the example of rapture before the time of Noah. Only eight people were saved during the flood that took place during the time of Noah. Do not allow anyone to deceive you; the final item on God’s time table would take place soon. But before God bless that, He would withdraw His people from the earth first before pouring out His undiluted wrath upon the rest. Although people are saying there is no peace now, the much-needed peace would be unavailable at the time of the great tribulation. It would be terrible because the Holy and the saints of God who had been praying day and night would have been withdrawn. It is as a result of this that there is this admonition in Matthew 24:44

    “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh”.

If you know you are not ready for the coming of the Lord, you better get ready now. God has given His own people an assurance of a prepared place. John 14:1-3

    “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. [2] In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also”.

 

Jesus will come back, l am confident of this because He said so himself. L want to ask you a question at this point. Do you really believe that Jesus is coming back? If you do, then, it should change your life. You should change from the way you are living now. The Bible says those who have this hope in them will purify themselves.

The story of the transfiguration is a must for any child of God to read. Mark 9:1-8

    “And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.

    [2] And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them. [3] And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them. [4] And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus. [5] And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. [6] For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid. [7] And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. [8] And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves”.

 

  

So, Peter, James and John witnessed the coming of the kingdom of God in power on the mount of transfiguration. Moses died and went to heaven several years before Jesus came. Elijah did not die he was just taken up to heaven. So, Moses and Elijah represent two sets of people that will be raptured. Moses represents those who died in the Lord while Elijah represents those who are still alive. Jesus will be the magnet to magnetize them to heaven that is why Jesus boldly declared that He is the resurrection and the life. Many people are loyal to their bosses, society and all kinds of things but are not loyal to God. Some believe that Gospel is for entertainment and as such, all kinds of songs are brought into the gospel. Some men of God are even more interested in vain shows and entertainment. Listed below are some of the reasons why rapture must take place.

 

1.      For Jesus to receive the saints unto Himself.

2.      To resurrect the dead that died in Christ.

3.      To take the saints to heaven to receive the reward for the good job done and for them to be able to attend the supper of the Lamb.

4.      To change the body to immortality.

5.      To represent the saints before God the father so that they can be forever with Him.

6.      To cause them to escape the tribulation.

 

So, all the prophecies in the Bible must come to pass whether you believe it or not. No prophecy of the Bible has ever failed. When God told Sarah that she would bear a son, and the son would multiply throughout the whole earth, it happened. If you want to know where the garden of Eden used to be, there are people who can take you there. Scientists no longer argue the fact that there was a great flood during the life of Noah. If the birth of Jesus Christ was a prophecy and it happened and all other prophecies happened to the latter, we therefore cannot push prophecy concerning the rapture aside. A particular woman of Jerusalem was crying after Jesus as he was being taken to the cross to be crucified. But the response of Jesus surprised all including the woman. Jesus said, “weep not for me, weep for yourself and your children” Jesus even had to say another worrisome thing; “woe unto those that are with child in those days. He told them that Jerusalem would be destroyed and Jerusalem was destroyed. Up until now, a part of Jerusalem is still in trouble. When Jesus pointed to the temple at Jerusalem and said “behold, the day is coming when there shall not be one stone upon another to be thrown down, they did not believe him, but not only that the stones have been thrown down, it is a mosque that has taken the place of the church. So, whether you believe it or not no prophesy in the word of God has never failed. The day of the Lord is coming and we must abandon the stubbornness in our spirits and the pride of our hearts before we can make it. I want you to think about this very well at this moment. All the prophecies concerning the end of the world, even in our country here, have all come to pass before our eyes and people don’t take heed to them. The Bible told us that false Christ shall arise. Hence, we have had Jesus of Agege, Jesus of oyingbo and Jesus of Ikot-ekpene. But where are they now? They are all dead.

Again, strange news fill the whole world today. It is therefore not strange to read in the pages of newspapers, stories of a father putting her daughter in the family way. A lot of men now impregnate their housemaids, yet they are not bothered at all about  the abomination. All these things are happening just to confirm the prophecies of the Bible. The Bible says, iniquities shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold. The bible also tells us of rumours of wars. War is now an everyday thing in many countries of the world. The time to put an end to the affairs of this wicked world is indeed at hand. The bible tells us an interesting thing that calls for serious meditation in Rev. 9:6

    “And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them”.

 

  

It could be that serious. So we need to think about all these things, which does not help the cross of Christ at all. Many Pastors and brothers are now going about with jerry-curled hair. Against all expectations, many men are now putting on ear-rings, yet they claim to be born again. It is quite difficult to differentiate between a church congregation and a disco crowd. Many women pastors now dress exactly like Jezebel of the Bible. Many men of faith even resort to all kinds of methods to raise money and to do all kinds of things. It is becoming almost impossible now for believers to dress modestly. Christians can no longer find their tears when they commit sin. Many preachers are even arranging abortions for their daughters. All kinds of things are happening now, but the time is almost here, when the trumpet shall sound and the Lord will be requiring many things from us. Christians that are presently alive will need more than they already have now to make the rapture. You must put on the whole armour of God right now. You must be filled with the Holy Ghost and you must keep yourself busy for the Lord. An idle hand is a tool for the devil. Christ is coming and you must be ready for that. Are you ready for that coming? Are you now occupying for the Lord? The answers you give will determine whether or not you are ready. Please pray the following prayer points as aggressively as you can.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.      He that said l should die by the sword should die by the sword in the name of Jesus.

2.      I turn the weapons of the enemy against the enemy, at every moment of my life in the name of Jesus.

3.      I claim perfect health for myself in the name of Jesus.

4.      Let the blood of Jesus cover me, my family and everything that has to do with me in Jesus name.

5.      Father Lord, catapult me to spiritual greatness in the name of Jesus.

6.      Everything in my life that the enemy has named as impossible, Lord make them possible in Jesus name.

7.      Every strategy of the enemy against me in my dreams, l command you to be frustrated in Jesus name.

8.      Every messenger of destruction will not prosper in my vicinity in the name of Jesus.

9.      I command every evil imagination against my peace to fail in Jesus name.

  

THE SPIRIT OF POVERTY

 Dr. D. k. Olukoya

 

The purpose of this message is to shed light on the activities of the spirit of poverty and to expose its roots in the lives of people. This message will also guide you on how to break the hold of this evil spirit. Even if you are rich, it is advisable to read this message for it will help to keep you at later against the invasion of the spirits of poverty. Whenever these spirits are in operation in a person’s life, all his wealth and riches will disappear. The doctrine that a believer should be poor and suffering from financial insufficiency is a very wrong notion. It is not in line with the word of God. As far as the Bible is concerned, Christians are not supposed to be in poverty of any kind. In case you have been programmed to think otherwise before, here are some scriptures to substantiate that point.

Deut. 8:18

    “But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day”.

   

Job 5:22

    “At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth”.

 

That is to say that when other people are suffering from lack and want, the believer should be in plenty and be laughing. Psalm 34:10

    “The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing”.

That is the stance of the scriptures. To confirm this further, Psalm 37:25

    “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread”.

   

Psalm 84:11

    “For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly”.

    

In the Bible, The New Testament also confirms the position of the Old Testament. 2 Cor. 8:9

    “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich”.

The Lord Jesus became poor that we might be rich. That was one of the exchanges that took place at the cross of Calvary. 3 John 1:2

    “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth”.

    

So the Bible says we should prosper physically and spiritually. You must prosper in your health and in your soul. Remember that the same Bible says, “Out of the mouth of two or three witnesses, the truth shall be established. Now we have got many witnesses. It is a common knowledge that one of the strongest spirits battling the black man is the spirit of poverty and it is a spirit that we have left unaddressed for too long, so they have been operating freely in the lives of people. And this has led to all kinds of evil things. All those involved in deliverance know that the hardest and the most terrible spirits are found among people who are plagued with poverty. 90% of children that are possessed come from poor homes. So, it is really a fact when Jesus said, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has sent me to preach the gospel to the poor….” We really need to preach the gospel to the poor in Africa. The Bible did not say that people should be running after money and forget God. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that poverty is just the absence of money. It is not completely so. Though part of it is the ability to meet your basic daily requirements for a good life. So if you are unable to meet your financial needs, as well as other essentials needs, that make for a good living, the spirit of poverty is in place. But the bible treats poverty as a person i.e. as a spirit. Hence Proverbs 6:11

    “So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man”.

Here, poverty is being addressed as an armed person, again Proverbs 24:4

    “And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches”.

      

The person with the spirit of poverty becomes just like the story of Nigeria. There was a time that the nation was very rich, but the spirit of poverty helped her to squander the money. This country has not recovered both physically and spiritually from this experience. It was during FESTAC 77, that the country invited all sorts of demons to come and display themselves right here in Nigeria. The country then used her oil money to sponsor them since then she has not recovered. The resultant effects are there for all of us to see. Poverty is without doubt a spirit and we must deal with it seriously. I preached the gospel to a particular man, who later   gave his life to Jesus. After we had prayed, I told him of his problems of financial hardship and of how his money had been disappearing without him actually spending them. The man then told me that if l knew that much about him, I must also be in a position to help him. Then we started to talk and he told me certain things. He said that whenever he got his salary and put it in his pocket, it would seem as if there was a hole in the pocket from where the money was dropped. But when he put his hands in his pocket, the money would still be there. All the same, he won’t know how he spent that money. The simple explanation is that, that money got removed spiritually. The man was just lucky to have been able to notice the bizarre incident, as some wouldn’t know what was going on. These are the activities of the spirit of poverty. In Luke 16 for instance, Jesus said that you cannot serve God and mammon. People know very little about the demon called mammon. Mammon is the devil’s salesman. He is the one that sells devil’s charms. Those who want to buy witchcraft spirit, fame and popularity go to him. He collects the money and he is responsible for distributing the spirit of poverty attacking the human race. When it notices that people are suffering from the spirit of poverty it has distributed to them, the same mammon will offer to give them money and dump their souls in hell fire at the end of the day. He is the controller of the demons of greed, selfishness and financial failure. Mammon seems to be giving a lot of people money but he only does this after he has afflicted them with the spirit of poverty and then gives them money, so that they will be blinded and go to hell fire. You’ll have to bind the demon of mammon and its weapon i.e. the spirit of poverty. The devil afflicts people with evil spirit through dreams. They are called poverty dreams, this should be taken seriously. These dreams come in different ways e.g.

 

1.       If somebody begins to have a dream in which he spends money lavishly, like pasting money on the forehead of women dancing on the streets.

2.       If after receiving some money, you dream of finding yourself in the market, buying things.

3.       When you dream of wearing rags, tattered shoes walking about, barefooted or you see yourself as a beggar.

4.        If you a trader and you see yourself in the dream having your wares unsold after putting them down for sale.

5.       If you dream that your properties are being auctioned in your presence.

6.       If you dream and see your pocket leaking or somebody stole some money from you or you lose some money and after looking for it, you never found it, before you woke up.

7.       If you have ever dreamt that rats are running around your house, whether they are big or small. For instance, if you have about 700 kilogram of gari in the house and three is only one rat around, the rat will put the gari to a serious waste. The rat will not finish the gari immediately. It will be taking it little by little and after some time, it will give birth to little ones who will be feeding as well. The gari will be reducing until it finishes.

8.       If you dream of your purse being stolen or you find yourself with counterfeit money. If any of these is happening in your life, then your dreams call for a serious spiritual warfare. The devil goes around with the spirit of poverty because he wants people to be serving him. He knows that when people are poor and don’t have sufficient money, they will go and serve evil spirits just to get money. I am yet to see anyone who has gone to receive money from the devil and has not paid the big price for it. The devil doesn’t have any free gift. He operates a primitive trade by barter. The only free gift we have is in the Lord Jesus Christ given to us by God. Even if you try, you cannot pay God back for his goodness. We should get it clear that devil has no free gift so you must recognize then that anything that is existing in the physical can be blocked or hindered at the spiritual level as well. Actually, it is the spiritual first, then the physical. Nothing can happen in the physical if it has not been decided in the spiritual. SO it’s possible that the whole money somebody will make during the whole of his life can be spiritually removed on the day that he was born. The spirit of poverty will stay in such life and begin to operate therein. I have seen many whose names were made popular by artists who waxed records for them, but are now Poor, because the spirit of poverty has taken its toll on them. Even if it does not manifest immediately, it will certainly manifest later. A girl was telling us about all what she did to her father’s business. She said that whenever her father brought a cheque home, she would take the cheque put it within her legs and then took it to their evil meeting and the father would not just know how he spent that money. We have had cases of people bruised their father’s money in the ground. The fact that this is possible shows you that it is basically a spiritual thing. The following signs show that the spirit of poverty is at work in a life:

1. When somebody has sufficient income and is still having problems financially.
2. Inability to keep a regular job.
3. Inability to eat the normal food others are eating etc. Such people may have been told either medically or otherwise to stop eating some food items, thereby making them the customer of expensive foods.
4. Inability to control child bearing and to send the children to good schools.
5. When you are always being duped or regularly attacked by thieves.
6. When you are surrounded all over by poverty stricken relatives and you are the only source of income.
7. Debt: Believers should cut down or totally avoid owing people money especially the ones they know may be difficult for them to pay back.
8. The spirit of gambling is another sign of sprit of poverty. The devil will be telling you play again and you will win and you end up losing. You may even keep doing it until you have lost all your possessions.
9. When a man patronizes prostitutes.
10. When somebody has health problems, which require a lot of money.
11. When you keep registering for the same exam again and again without success.
12. If you lack promotion and your properties are frequently destroyed.

 

When all these things are happening, then you must learn the art of aggressive praying. Instead of praying a lot of people blame several other things and leave the actual agent alone. When l was in the university, I used to feel sorry for some girls, who spent all the money on clothes and make up items without feeding well. Since their bodies were not sustained, they usually ended up breaking down. When a man brings out a biro and a piece of paper to calculate what his wife bought from the market, there is no point in fighting him, he just needs deliverance from the spirit of poverty. Ecclesiastes 6:  1- 2 read thus “There is an evil which l have seen under the sun and it is common amongst men. A man to whom God had given riches wealth and honour so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity and it is an evil disease”

We know the story of Rockefellar. Rockefeller was a billionaire, but there was a time in his life when all he could eat was milk and cracker biscuits. The money he had was useless to him. It is still the same spirit of poverty that tormented him. In Isaiah 65:22, we read the stance of God on some issues. “They shall not build and another inhabit. They shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of tree are the days of my people and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands” So, not enjoying the fruits of one’s labour is caused by the spirit of poverty. God warned the children of Israel against disobedience. He told them that if they disobeyed Him, the spirit of poverty would be released upon them. In Deuteronomy 28: 30-31, God cursed whoever disobeyed Him he says, “Thou shalt betroth a wife and another man shall lie with her; thou shall build a house, and thou shalt plant a vineyard and shall not gather the grapes thereof. Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes and thou shalt not eat thereof; thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face and shall not be restored to thee; thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies and thou shall have none to rescue them” Verse 33, “The fruit of thy land and all thy labour shall a nation which thou Knowest not eat up and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed always. Verse 38, “Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it” Verse 40, “Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit” Verse 43-44, “The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high and thou shalt come down very low, He shall lend to thee and thou shalt not lend to him, he shalt be the head and thou shalt be the tail” This is the operation of the spirit of poverty. Those are the various manifestations of that spirit which can lead to sickness or death. If you as a believer, takes no action, then nothing good will happen to you. Some families are under a definite curse and each person is affected. Even when they get to the point of making it, something goes wrong and everything falls apart again, and no one is really getting anywhere. Until that curse of poverty is broken, the spirit of poverty will remain in place. Any member of that family struggling to make it will just die away like a weak flame before a strong wind. But believers who are in this situation can do something about it. Some jobs are under a curse and until you break that curse, the spirit will still be in operation. Sometimes when a person is wrongfully dismissed from a company, he or she will out of bitterness curse the company and this can put the company in trouble. When bloody money is used to start a business, the business will be in trouble. If the owner of a company, like the Chairman or the Managing director of the company keeps harassing his female staff sexually and they give in because they don’t want to be sacked, the curse of poverty will immediately come upon the man and his company. The evil emptier spirit will carry all his money back to the demonic world. All these things can be broken today, if you repent and do something about it, things will change for the better in your life. They problem with many is buried potentials. One of the principles of success in life is to identify your God’s given potentials and to use them. The spirit of poverty has blinded many people and is therefore stealing their potentials. Your God’s given potential may be in your voice, memory, ability to organize things, business acumen, ability to understand and speak languages, analytical mind, ability to convince others, musical talents, powerful brain or foresight. Identification and development of these potentials are essential for a successful life. Unfortunately, the potentials of many have been removed, giving room to the spirit of poverty to operate. Those buried potentials must  be exhumed today in Jesus name. The spirit of Poverty has used many parents against their children. A boy may begin to build houses with clay at a small age and the unwary parent will keep warning the boy to stop it, thereby stopping the boy’s potentials. Many even warn their female children never to think of doing a job which they consider as jobs meant for men alone. If a child draws pictures, he or she is warned to stop doing an unserious job. The devil has deceived many parents to believing that there are only three honourable professions, which are Medicine, Law and Engineering. This erroneous belief had planted the seed of the spirit of poverty in many families. The bible has a very kind book, shows us the gateways to poverty. The gateways are as follows:

 

1. STINGINESS: Proverbs 11: 24-25 read thus, “ There is that scattereth and yet increaseth and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that watereth shall be watered also himself” So, if you are stingy, you need to pay to be delivered because it is a gateway to poverty.
2. LOVERS OF SLEEP AND SLUMBER : Proverbs 20:13  “ Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread” If you need to set alarm clocks before you can wake up, then you really need to pray”.
3. FOLLOWING VAIN PERSONS: Proverbs 28: 19  “ He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough” This act too leads to poverty.
4. LAZINESS: Proverbs 10:4, “He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand. But the hand of the diligent maketh rich.” Laziness is a terrible gateway to poverty.
5. MOCKING THE POOR: Proverbs 17: 5  “ whosoever mocketh the poor reproacheth his maker and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished”
6. FAILURE IN TITHES AND OFFERING: Malachi 3: 8-12 say that people who fail to pay their tithes and offering rob God. This act is the surest way to poverty.
7. NOT CONTRIBUTING TO GOD’S WORK: Haggai 1verses 6-8 explain this clearly.
8. GIVING TO GOD IN SMALL MEASURES: LUKE 6:38: “Give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete, wither it shall be measured to you again” Remember this always that with the same measure that you give, it shall be given to you.
9. ENGAGING IN WRONG BUSINESS: You will find examples of this in the words of God. Luke 5:1-10 is a good example.
10. NOT GIVING TO THE POOR: You’ll find that in Proverbs 28: 27
11. THE CURSE OF POVERTY: Galatians 3 verse 13 “ Christ has redeemed of us form the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree…” The curse of the law is in three-fold –POVERTY, DISEASE AND DEATH. Christ came to redeem us from all these. So today in your life is a day of powerful breakthroughs. If you have decisions to make or sins to repent from, start doing that now, so that you can break the evil stronghold in your life. God has no interest in the economic situations of the country. What He is interested in is that in whatever environment he has placed you, you must be a blessed person. It doesn’t matter if things are difficult in that environment or not. Even if there are problems around as a child of God, you must not be a partaker. The Lord is ready to reach out to you today, but you must first draw His attention. Heaven is ready to open up to you if you bombard it with your prayers. Remember that God is not the author of evil. The person to fight is the devil and not God, your tenants, your colleagues or family members. With every aggression in your spirit, pray the following prayer points.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. O lord, locate and revive all my buried potentials.
2. l break the curse of poverty in the mighty name of Jesus.
3. Spirit of poverty, I rebuke you and I bind you in the name of Jesus.
4. Every spirit drinking the blood of my blessing, l bind you in the name of Jesus.

                                                                                                    

    

THE GREATEST PRISONERS

Dr. D.K. Olukoya

 

You may have seen prisoners before. But the title of this message may begin to make you wonder who the greatest prisoners are. A prisoner is a person kept in stronghold for committing an offence.  The stronghold is not the best of place to be, for it is usually dreadful. It is not difficult to determine the purpose of a prison; it is to limit somebody’s freedom, or sometimes to eliminate the freedom totally. There used to be a terrible prison somewhere in North America. It had no walls and fences. Its surrounding was impenetrable and the building was popular because it was very far away from civilization. The prisoners were flown there because no road led to the place. It was somewhere in the middle of the forest, so the hardship of trying to escape discouraged any prisoner who wanted to get out. As a matter of fact, the closest town to that place was about 250 miles. Prisoners who tried to escape at a point in time ran back after they had terrible encounters with poisonous snakes, wild crocodiles and awesome animals. You may be wondering why l had to go this far to describe that notorious North American prison. The main purpose is to give you an accurate idea of how terrible prison could be. But here is a more terrible prison than what l have just described. That prison is the human heart. It will surprise you to know that the greatest battleground on earth is the human heart. The reason is this; most battlegrounds have only two foes that is just two parties fighting each other. But the human heart as a battleground has 3 groups of people fighting to possess it. God is interested in the heart and so is the devil and the owner of the heart is himself determined to keep it all cost. Although man sometimes does not wish to do as much evil as the devil is suggesting to him, but occasionally he finds himself doing so. This is very clear to the Psalmist hence his prayer in Psalm 19:14

    “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer”.

 That is to say that the words of the mouth and some thoughts of the heart may be unacceptable before God. And if you harbour unacceptable thoughts, it will put in spiritual trouble. This may also result in untold hardship and problems. This is why the book of proverbs tells us in Chapter 23 verse 7 that Proverbs 23:7

    “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee”.

Meaning that you are a product of what you think you are Proverbs 24:9

    “The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men”.

So the heart is where all our troubles begin and when God too wants to start working in your life, He would start from your heart. If we had the capacity to open people’s hearts and show on a screen what they have been thinking repeatedly, so many people will run away before that operation is carried out on them, because they are afraid of the rottenness of their hearts and would not want anyone to laugh them to scorn or pass terrible remarks about them. This is indeed a serious matter both in the physical and Spiritual realm. It was the wickedness that God saw in the heart of man that prompted Him to decide on destroying man and to wipe man out of the surface of the earth Genesis 6:5

    “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”.

  

It was the continual evil thoughts that prompted God to destroy man. Remember the episode of the Tower of Babel in the bible, when God confused the languages of the people. It was the wicked desires of man’s heart that brought about the unholy ambition. Genesis 11:6

    “And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do”.

    

God decided to confuse their languages because of the evil intentions of their hearts. This is why the scripture says in Proverbs 4:23

    “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life”.

     That we should keep our hearts with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. The need to keep your heart with all diligence is important because out of the heart are the issues of life. There is no doubt that many hearts today are fulfilled with iniquity. Above all things the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked and the bible asks who can know it? In chapter 12 from verse 34 to 35, the heart of man is seen as the fountain of all-evil. It reads thus Matthew 12:34-35

    “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. [35] A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things”.

        

The heart is the foundation of all evil. The bible did not say the brain, rather it says the heart. The heart of man can be blind and the blind cannot receive the things of God. It is a pity that many now go about with blind hearts Romans 1:21

    “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened”.

                                     

   

So biblically too, the heart can be blind 2 Cor. 4:4

    “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them”.

 

    Apart from being blind, the heart can also be mad Eccles. 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”.

    

Therefore, It follows that a man’s heart could be mad, unstable and uncontrollable James 1:6-7

    “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. [7] For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord”.

        

So it is easy to know now why a person with a doubtful heart cannot be blessed Mark 6:52 Tells us that a person’s heart can be hardened.

    For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.

Again, Psalm 101:5

    “Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer”.

     Know this fact today, that God will not regard anybody with a proud heart. In addition to being proud, Mark 7:6

    “He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me”.

This tells us that the heart of man could be hypocritical. The source of unbelief and covetousness is in the hearts. A person’s heart could be blocked and therefore be incapable of receiving spiritual light. The heart of a man could be so blind that what is obvious to a spiritual person, would be so much of mystery to him. The heart is also where sins begin. It does not begin from the eyes or from the hands. One’s eyes can be likened to a camera, because when it takes a picture the picture goes into the heart and the heart develops it. The film’s negative is right in the heart. Apart from developing the films, the heart passes information to every part of the body. Words that are spoken are first conceived in the hearts. Any wrong word uttered is therefore a product of the heart. As a matter of fact, Satan operates his tempting power in the heart. John Chapter 13 verse 2 tells us that Satan entered into the heart of Judas. Little wonder then, that Judas did his wicked act. Sorrow also starts from the heart. That is why John 14:1

    “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me”.

 

This is the reason why we should guard our hearts. It is the greatest battle ground. Once you loose the battle of the heart you will loose all the battles of life. The strongest hindrance or limitation to joy, miracles, prosperity and successes is the heart. Therefore, the strongest prison is the prison of the mind. The greatest prisoners therefore are those whose minds are in bondage. This is highly spiritual matter 2 Cor. 10:3-5

   “ For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: [4] (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) [5] Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”;

 

    The Bible makes it clear that a man’s heart is a stronghold; therefore, it has to be brought down and held captive. The scripture that we have just read reveal to us that though we are conducting our affairs as ordinary men, our battles are not fought with physical strength, education or technology. It also tells us that we fight and use weapons that are mighty that operate beyond what our eyes can see. The weapons have to operate through God, because God who is the father of all spirits can crush and destroy everything that goes against us. And through those weapons, we can cast down imaginations and every high thing whether they are thrones, governments, politics, laws, decrees etc. We can bring down anything that runs contrary to the knowledge of God, His promises, plans, love and establishment. The verse of the last scripture tells us we can arrest and bring into subjection every throne. By doing so, those thoughts can be made to conform to God’s own will. Men have been imprisoned by their minds for ages. I remember the story of a gorilla that has been in a cage all its life. Since the cage was not wide, the gorilla could only move the distance of 12 feet forward and backwards. It got so much used to that distance after a long period of time. But something happened one day, a certain millionaire who was passing through the place where the gorilla was caged, stopped to take a look at the gorilla. He felt sorry for it and sought out the means to set it free. He was told that if he could pay for the gorilla, his goal would be achieved, so he promptly paid the huge sum and was happy to see the gorilla walk away from its age long age. But to the amazement of the millionaire, the gorilla kept moving 12 feet forward and 12 feet backwards. Unfortunately that movement had become the reality of the gorilla. What is the reality of you? Is it possible that you have mentally accepted your life as it is? Do you think there cannot be any improvement? Are you like that gorilla that was only moving 12 feet forward and 12 feet backwards? What is the reality of you? Circumstances might have made you to accept that you cannot go beyond a particular level. Circumstances might make you to accept frustration, despair and depression as your lot. Non-friendly circumstances may have clouded your mind and you have accepted a cramped prison as your limit. Maybe somewhere back in your life you have mentally resigned yourself to imprisonment in an empty existence. Then you must get out today. Immediately you change your way of thinking, God too will change and things will start to work for you. But if you remain thinking lowly the way you have been doing, and thinking according to the tail, you can only receive the benefit of the tail. The whole creation as it is, is from the product of thoughts. The idea of fashioning the earth was conceived in God’s mind. It was planned first in His imagination. Your thoughts therefore have the power to create for you what you think. The powers of thoughts are released from within you and they create your desire for you, when they are backed up by the Holy Spirit and the power of God. So your thoughts are forces you can send out to work on your behalf. They have the power to bring to reality your thoughts. If your reality is that low position  is what you will have if you are sending out on a daily basis the thoughts of success, victory and breakthrough, you will definitely make it in life. It may take sometime, but you will get there. It takes sometime to reprogram and reorientate people who consider failure. Your thoughts are the invisible hands that shape your life, it will then manifest in the physical. Let us consider apostle Paul’s admonition in Philip. 4:8

    “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”.

 

    The Bible has clearly stated what you should be thinking about.  If you then decide to be thinking something else, then you will be attracting evil things to yourself. When you think life, then life comes, if you think joy, joy comes if you think health, health comes and if you think abundance, abundance will come. Your thought is that energy through which you can get whatever you desire. Let me emphasize this fact again, that your thoughtful life will either bring good things or bad things. Job 3:25

    “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me”.

   

 Tells us the source of the problem of Job, which he erroneous thought was from God. The source of Job’s problem came from his heart. The fear in Job’s heart gave the devil legal grounds to bring evil things upon him. It is certain therefore, that the source of all powers and the source of all weaknesses is from within and so it is wrong for you to look for power and strength outside. The source of wealth, health and power for prosperity, success and victory is from within. In God’s law of creation, God has a way of compressing what He wants inside a small thing. Then when you plant that small thing. The small thing then grows to become big. For example the tree started from a seed. So everything that will turn to the leaf, to the branch to the trunk, to the root is kept in the small seed. It is the same thing with the heart. The source of sickness, poverty, lawlessness and sorrow is in the heart. Laziness, failure and evil thought are from within. Therefore the key to unlock the doors to abundant life and to convert trials to triumphs, foes to friends, weakness to strength, trials to testimonies, fears to courage, sickness to health and failure to success is within. The most powerful forces are those forces of thoughts, which you send out. Your thoughts and imaginations count both in the physical and spiritual realms. A lot of Christians require deliverance from wrong thinking. A lot of people are in heart bondage and this is the strongest prison. One sister came to me and requested that we should pray an agreement prayer concerning a certain establishment she was visiting for contracts. We prayed and she went there. But when she got there and saw richly dressed women, those she perceived as society women, she refused to go into the office where the contracts were being given out. She reasoned that she was nobody compared to the society women she met at the entrance of the place. She then returned in fear to me and narrated her story and then requested for more prayers. I told her that there was no need to pray again, that she should go back to the place. The assurance that she would get the contract motivated her to return to the place. She had a particular problem common to many people today. Her heart was her problem. She thought very lowly of herself. Such thoughts even compel many people to terminate their lives. If you are like that and you are thinking of killing yourself then you need deliverance from mind bondage. When your heart is not aligned to the direction of God’s will for you, then you will be in trouble. Instead of sitting down to pray, some brothers and sisters sit down to imagine themselves growing grey hair with no husband and no wife. The devil will be happy to show them that picture just to bring their minds into bondage. Many businessmen think of business collapse. Many people are thinking of imprisonment. When some believers have headache, the first place their minds go to is asylum. Thoughts of uncertainty, fear, hindrance, confusion and thoughts of wickedness now reign supreme in many hearts. A lot of people even think of paralysis, they think they will be paralyzed and will therefore not be able to stand up again. Thoughts of poverty, disappointment, backsliding and failure in marriage, now enjoy a reign of terror in many hearts. You must get out of this prison by renewing your mind with the word of God and by fighting spiritual warfare to pull down strongholds. Your hearts will keep you at a low level until you fight your way out of it. Many do not know the fact that a person who is in the bondage of the heart is gradually digging his or her spiritual grave. The thoughts of God are backed up by God’s power. The thoughts of the devil are also backed up by the devil. If you must remain undefeated, you must align your hearts with the thoughts of God. When God’s thoughts become your thoughts, a serious power is generated in you. When the devil begins to operate against the believers, he starts with the heart. This is where the trouble starts. When somebody sits at home and is planning to come and steal in your house, you can hold him captive with your prayers, if you pray like this: “ I take every thought of robbery and violence against me captive and put it under the subjection of the lord Jesus Christ. Any robber planning against you is rendered useless because his thoughts have been taken captive. The foundation of all spiritual defeats is to allow your enemies to use your thoughts against you. Make a list of those thoughts and imaginations that give you the greatest anxiety, the ones that bother you most. If you don’t write them down, the devil will confuse you. Take them one after the other and demolish them with prayers of fire in Jesus name. That is what you should do. If the thoughts of your life for example are failure in marriage, sickness, cancer etc, write them down one after the other and demolish them with prayers of fire. If anyone of them tries to persist, plead the blood of Jesus on your heart. Then get two or three scriptures concerning them and begin to pray to pull down the strongholds, commanding the arrows of evil thoughts to go. Or if there is anybody somewhere fashioning evil thoughts against you command their imaginations and evil thoughts to fail. That is how to handle this situation regular renewal of your mind by the word of God is compulsory, if you want to pull down your spiritual strongholds. Without any controversy, this is the biggest problem of many people. They have their hearts, but they have no control of them something else is controlling their hearts. This is the reason why the enemies of some people find it easier to use remote control against them. The enemy knows that you normally think of failure and will always ensure that you harbour such thoughts. We were praying for three sisters in England to receive baptism in the Holy Ghost. The first one was flowing in tongues and the second was flowing too in the spirit. Then we prayed endlessly for the third one, but to our surprise nothing happened. After some time the sister sat down and started wailing that failure was always her pattern in life. She cried that things that work for everybody never worked for her. Since she has negative mind, things would not work for her. We then advised her to hold her thoughts of failure and backwardness captive, if she wanted to succeed in life. The battle of the mind is the most intensive battle to fight. Although it is easy for you to pretend because nobody can see the heart, but you know that what you have within may not help you. I remember the story of that king who was keeping a pig as a pet. He got the piglet immediately it was born. The king took the piglet into the palace and the piglet never saw anything called mud. The king used to dress the piglet in suits and all kinds of things. One day the king took the piglet for a walk. But to the uttermost surprise of the king, the piglet in spite of the three piece suits it had on, abandoned the kings and ran into the mud. So the problem was that the king took the pig out of the mud, but didn’t take the mud out of the pig. It is the same thing with people, they may be taken out Egypt, but the Egypt may still remain in them. All imaginations of the heart and thoughts that are against God are strongholds that must be pulled down.

 

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. You stronghold of evil thoughts and imaginations, I pull you down in the name of Jesus.
2. Blood of Jesus and the fire of the Holy Ghost, purify my heart in the name of Jesus.
3. Evil imaginations and evil thoughts, I will not give you a place in my heart again. I enthrone Jesus in your place in Jesus name.
4. Holy Ghost fire enter into my heart in the name of Jesus.
5. Spirit of the living God, purge me from every evil food in the name of Jesus.
6. I nullify every activity of strange children in my life in the name of Jesus.
7. Every secret of strange children, Lord reveal them to me in the name of Jesus.
8. I arrest every evil breeze that has been sent to me and I sent them back to the sender in the name of Jesus

 

 

 

SLAY YOUR GIANTS

Dr. D. k. Olukoya

 

In the physical sense, a giant is one whose physical body is immensely bigger than a normal man. Giants, because of their sizes and shapes, usually carve an awesome image for themselves. They are fearful not just in size, but in their actions also. Little wonder, they are considered as “god’ in their right whosover then that will fight and destroy any giant, must do a serous analysis of the tactics and the weaponry to put into use. As there are physical giants, so there are spiritual giants. How then do we deal with them? We shall look at some giant killers in the Bible and then establish strong points on how giants can be killed. Let us read first from the book of Joshua 15:14

    “And Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak”.

 God had promised the Israelites that they were going to inherit a land filled with milk and honey. As the Israelites were getting close to this promise land, Moses sent 12 spies to go and look at he place or better  to go and spy out the place. As there were 12 tribes in Israel, each tribe had to donate a man of cause they donated their greatest warrior that were available. So the people went to the Promised Land and came back with their reports.

 Numbers 13:26

    “And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it”.

 

Nevertheless, the people were strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains….” Fearful picture. The place in a nutshell is a no go area. It had been completely surrounded by enemies, and yet, it was the Promised Land. What then did Caleb do? Numbers 13:30-33 Numbers 13:30-33

    “And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. [31] But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. [32] And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. [33] And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”

 As a result of that evil testimony something happened in Numbers 14:1

    “And the entire congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night”.

   

It was only someone like Caleb who said, “we are able to overcome them” Numbers 14:9

    “Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not”.

   

Caleb was that man who refused to grow old; he was that vigorous and faithful, all through his life. He was therefore courageous enough to drive out the giants from his inheritance. There are so many inheritances today too that are being governed by giants. They need to be chased away and slain. David too was a giant killer that most people know in the bible as the killer of the giant Goliath. He too was courageous and he had violent faith. He refused to allow the threat of the giant to discourage him. He told the giant that although he had come in the name of his god, but he, David had come in the name of the Almighty Lord of hosts whom he had defiled. And he then prophesied unto the giant saying, “This day, l will bring down your head” And it happened just like that. If you are going to face the giants too, many things have to be quite clear to you. We all   have different giants working against us. Some people’s giants are sicknesses, while with some it is prayerlessness. There are also those whose giants are their inability to read their bibles or witness to anybody. We also have those whose giants are sleeplessness. The giant in some other people’s lives toss them right, left and center. With my experience in the ministry, I have come to realize that a lot of Christians harbour giants inside their expensive clothes. Those giants by all means have to die. Therefore, I want you to allow the anger of the Holy Spirit to burn inside of you. Decide that it is the giant that will give way. Be determined that you will lay hold on God. So you should get very angry in your spirit, like David got angry and called Goliath the uncircumcised philistine. “He wondered angrily why such a hopeless giant should be threatening the army of the living God. It will interest you to know that Goliath had threatened the Israelites 81 times before David arrived at the war front. Perhaps your physical or spiritual Goliath has also been threatening you for a long time. It is time for you to arise and slay it. Gone are the days when a witch would cry today and the next day a child would die. Witches who are wicked spiritual giants operate now on a more terrible scale. Whenever they cry now, a child dies; they no longer postpone the evil day. If you then choose to stand still and watch them operate, as they want in your life, then, you should blame yourself for the evil consequences and effects of their operations. We now have plenty of comedians who parade themselves as Christians in the church of God. Many of them have Goliaths that pursue them relentlessly day and night. But instead of addressing their Goliaths, they will choose to attend a bible college. Attending a bible college is by no means the solution to a pursuing Goliath. The solution is to get truly angry in your spirit, stand on the word of God and defeat your Goliath. If you stand and fight your Goliath, the trouble in your home and business will disappear completely. They will be left with no choice.

 

While l was in the primary school, l attracted many enemies amongst my classmates for no fault of mine. In those days, the teachers usually did not whip those who performed poorly in class tests and examinations by themselves. Rather, they assigned that duty to those who performed excellently well in the class. Since I was doing well in my academics, l was always asked to whip the poor performers. But after l had whipped them, they would gather themselves together and wait for me at the gate after the school hours and beat me up thoroughly. Thus terrible situation continued for a long time. Then one day, I purposed in my mind to do something that would put an end to the unpleasant situation. There and then, l bought the peppery balm called Chinese balm. Shortly before the school ended on a particular day, I rubbed my palm with the Chinese balm. As usual, my classmates that l had whipped for poor performance that day were waiting for me at the school gate. But as the first person attacked me, l just rubbed my palm very aggressively on his eyes, and the unexpected happened. He screamed uncontrollably. I did the same thing to the second person and that one started screaming too. Since they could not open their eyes, l was able to beat them up very well. That is how to deal with the giant. If l may ask you, where did the stone of David get into on the body of Goliath? It was the forehead, because of that Goliath could no longer see, so it was easy for David to finish him up in record time. Therefore, you are going to close your eyes now and pray aggressively like this. You the Lord that differentiated the land of Goshen from the land of Egypt, send blindness into the camp of my enemies in the mighty name of Jesus. Matthew 18:18

   “Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”.

 

That verse can be interpreted as follows, whatsoever you refuse to permit on earth, heaven will refuse to permit on earth, and heaven will refuse to permit it. So if you declare to the giant today that you must be free and that the giant must be slain, heaven will make the same declaration. If however you decide to watch your giant without taking any action, heaven too will stand still. There is nobody who can convince me that any witch is stronger than God. Who is the witch that will talk when God is speaking? The problems created by giants in the lives of men can be divided into twelve.

 

1.       Sin: Sin took the best life (Jesus) and nailed it to the cross. It was that terrible and it is even more terrible now. The only Son of God to die for the remission of other people’s sins. It follows therefore that whatsoever can make God to kill His own son cannot be a joking matter. It must be really serious. If God felt the only way to remove sins from the earth was for His own Son to die, then you should know that sin is a serious problem. We read in the bible that an ailing man stood by the pool of Bethesda for 38 years without receiving any form of healing. It meant therefore that the man had gotten there before Jesus was even born physically. Jesus finished his earthly ministry around 33 years of age. That man had been in that place for 38 years. God in those days used to send an Angel to trouble the water by which the man stood. Whosoever got into the water first got healed. Because of the man’s infirmity, he could not get into the water. He was in that position when God was passing by. Jesus healed him and warned him to sin no more, lest a terrible thing come upon him. It was then that the man could understand why he was in that situation for 38 years. It was sin that tied him down. A lot of people have been tied down by sin. But if you don’t untie yourself and the trumpet sounds, then you will be sitting in the same place while others will be gone. That will not be your lot in Jesus name. Know this fact that if you are heavenly minded, you will go to heaven, but if you earthly minded you will remain on earth. Please pray this prayer point with all aggression: I refuse to be magnetized to the world in Jesus name. So, anybody who comes to the house of God and is not born again, he or she is only wasting his or her time. Infact, such a person is just in the church to help contribute to the physical growth of the church without necessarily being a child of God. He is nothing but a mere contributor. If you give money to a church and you are not born again, you are only doing a useless business, which will bring no profit.

2.       Curses: A lot of people are labouring under heavy curses. And sad enough they don’t understand the situation they are in. However there is one simple sign with which one can know if he or she is under a curse. You will feel that there is something battling against you which you cannot understand. You cannot master the thing, but you know that there is a battle. Maybe you are in a situation where everything works so well for you only to scatter at the edge of success. If you have noticed a pattern like that, then you know that there is a curse in place. Perhaps you have noticed that in one particular family that all the sisters therein don’t stay in their husbands houses or all the men that marry from that family would be idle, while the wives would become the bread winners. Terrible curses are truly in place and they must be broken.

3.       Evil covenants: A lot of people have been given as promissory notes to evil spirits by their people without their knowledge. Once that has been done, the covenant remains biding. If you had  at a point in time in your life exchanged anything with a white garment herbalist, perhaps in form of sacrificial items to appease the demons troubling you, then you have already formed a covenant with both the herbalist or priest and the demons. It therefore must be broken. If you do not break the covenants, you will not have the abundance that God wants you to have. There are so many evil covenants like that; l knew a sister, who always took ill whenever her school certificate examination was around the corner. She wouldn’t take ill until it was a week to the all-important School Certificate examination. The Ugly situation continued for a long time. When the situation had defiled all solutions, the mother of the sister then consulted an oracle in her village. The oracle revealed that the sister was having problems because a particular river was hungry. The oracle reportedly asked the mother of the sister to buy a bag of rice, a bag of beans, a basket of tomatoes and dump them inside the river. The mother of the sister obeyed the oracle. She went and bought the items and dumped them inside the hungry river. By the next examination, the sister passed in flying colours. They all rejoiced greatly in her family. Meanwhile, the demon of the river kept quiet until the girl got into the university, read law graduated, got married and had the first child. Then the river demon came and reminded her that he was the foundation of her success. Therefore she must be worshipping him. The girl promptly told the demon that she was already born again. The demon then asked if she did not know that she was born again when her mother approached for help? There and then the devil started walking on her. One day, the husband just came back and brought another woman into the house and gave her a room in the flat. He then warned her that, if she made any trouble in the house about the new development, she would be sent packing. When all pleas from the woman fell on deaf ears, she decided to seek for divine intervention from God. As soon as a minister of God prayer for her, the Lord revealed that she had made a covenant with a demon which must be broken immediately. She prayed very aggressively and the evil covenant was broken.

 

Covenants breaking prayers are not gentle prayers. It is like you wanted to break the chains tying the hands of somebody, and the key was with the devil. There is no gentle method of breaking such chains because the key is not in your hands. It has been locked up and kept in the library of the enemy. Evil covenants are giants pursuing many people. They have to be stopped and destroyed completely in Jesus mighty name.

 

4.       Self-inflicted giants: A lot of people are their own enemies, and they inflict sufferings on their lives by them. Many people would not have had problems at all in their lives if immediately they started to talk, somebody put a little hole in their lips and then locked them up with a  padlock. Day by day many people harm themselves with their mouths. This reminds me of one man of God who observed three days dry fast with aggressive prayers using Psalm 35, that God should combat and defeat his enemies. During the first two days of his dry fast no word; vision or dream came from the Lord. The man of God nonetheless continued to pray. It was on the third day that the strange response from the Lord came to him. He felt a terrible whip at his back. When that persisted, he had to cry to God to deal with his enemies and not him. It was then that the Lord told him that he was his own enemy. The Lord said He would not have whipped him, if he had not persistently prayed that he should deal with his enemies. I hope you are not fighting against yourself. If you are, you better repent.

 

       5.Accidental: The Bible says, there are arrows that fly about at noon and there are destructions moving by night, seeking whom to devour. If then you just keep roaming about and you are the unserious kind of believer who will go and be serving them rice at unbelievers parties, and you even sweat to cook the food for them. When the arrows are flying about, you will be located easily and then problems will come. I know a man, who went to a party at Ikorodu  a suburb in Lagos state Nigeria. He would have done himself a lot of good by staying at home to pray with his wife and children. He did not do this, rather he went to the party and sat down and when food was served, his was the last one to be served. But as they put his food on the table, he suddenly saw from the corner of his eyes, a snake crawling towards him from the same house where his food was served. He tried to run, but the more he tried the more his legs were glued to the ground,. He couldn’t scream too. His heart was beating fast as the snake came to his table. No one else saw the snake. The snake then climbed up and moved round his body and finally put some poison into the man’s mouth and then went back into the house again. It was then he opened his eyes and regained consciousness. The question is who sent him there? If he had stayed at home he would have avoided it.

 

6.Demonic Problems: These are problems caused by the devil and his cohorts. These are giants too. A lot of people are saying they want deliverance, because certain spirits are in operation in their lives.

 

7.Spiritual Carelessness: This is when prayer is done haphazardly, and bible reading is done only when you feel inspired to do so. When you are spiritually careless, anything can happen. A careless soldier at the war front is only putting himself into serous trouble.

 

8.Inherited problems: These can come into a person’s life from the parents or ancestors and become giants. When such problems come, the giants will harass the affected person endlessly.

 

9.The flesh: Many people now find it difficult to put their flesh under control. If you cannot control your flesh, get ready for trouble.

 

10.Rejection: A lot of people are suffering from the spirit of rejection. There is a wound inside the spirit because of what somebody has done to them in the past which is really horrible and the devil is keeping it fresh in their minds. The evil spirit will continually remind them of what they did to them. If this is your case, then the sprit of rejection is there obviously in place and active operation too.

 

11.Household wickedness: There are terrible enemies within families that cause untold havoc. If a household enemy is harassing your life, why not tell it to Jesus. He will avenge you of their evil activities.

12.God Himself: God sent Jonah to Nineveh, but he decided to go to Tarshish. So the Lord Himself and not the devil decided to fight Jonah. He commanded the wind to rise against Jonah and when they threw Jonah overboard, He commanded the fish to swallow him. So when God is fighting you, the only solution is obedience. We are going to pray the following prayer points.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.       Every problem that has converted itself to giant in my life be slain in the name of Jesus.

2.       I release myself from the bondage of spiritual giants in the name of Jesus.

3.       Be specific and command any spiritual giants in your life to be slain in the name of Jesus.

4.       I release myself from the bondage of household enemies in the name of Jesus.

5.       I command every evil family tree to be uprooted in the name of Jesus.

6.       Every evil consumption from household wickedness, depart in the name of Jesus

7.       All my benefits that have been captured by household enemies be released now in the name of Jesus.

8.        All the evil masquerades harassing my life, begin to fight yourselves in the name of Jesus.

  

DIVINE PRESCRIPTION

Dr.D.K. Olukoya

 

Whenever the word prescription is mentioned, Medical Doctors readily come to mind. This is understandable because they are known to write prescriptions for their patients, suggesting what they think the patients should use to get well. Once a time, the government of an African country reasoned that their doctors were not performing as well as they should, so it decided that the knowledgeable Chinese medical doctors should be brought in. When the Chinese doctors came, they refused to sit or stay in any consulting room. Rather they chose to stay with the patients outside. But no sooner they started than problems ensued. The first problem was that they did not understand English very well; neither did they understand the local language. So all they looked at whenever a patient sat before them was where the patient was pointing at or was touching. It was on that basis that they wrote out their prescriptions. And within twenty minutes they usually would have cleared all the long queues before them. They would begin to read magazines. It soon dawned on all, that the Chinese doctors were actually giving out wrong prescriptions to their patients. Because instead of the patients to be cured of their infirmities their condition grew worse.

 God however does not make any mistake. The bible tells us that God has his perfect medicine bottle

Proverbs 4:20-23

    “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.   Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.  For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life”.

 Another meaning of health is medicine. God has his medicine bottle. That medicine bottle is his words. No wonder then that the bible is asking you to incline your ears to God’s sayings. They therefore should not depart from your eyes, even as you keep them in the midst of your heart, then they therefore should not depart from your eyes, even as you keep them in the midst of your heart, then they become the medicine that will go into every part of your body. God has the best prescription for all kinds of situations, sicknesses and trouble, whether physical or spiritual. Sometimes when we say Jesus is the answer, some people who think they are very clever will say what is the question. But they don’t know that the question is tied to the problems of this world. So Jesus is the way out.

God’s prescription does not include calming people down with Valium. He does not prescribe wrongly or forget His prescription slip. Some time ago, one sister kept praying and crying everyday because she was having pains in one of her breasts. She went to various hospitals and by the time the doctors examined her, they established the urgent need to cut off the painful one. The lady could not understand why that had to happen to her. She reasoned that even with her two breasts, she found it difficult to get a husband, how much more with just one breast. She therefore rejected the medical advice and remained stubbornly with Jesus. Thank God that she did that, for Jesus ensured that she got her healing. One day during a prayer meeting, the spirit of God said a needle was coming out of somebody’s breast. And a needle physically came out of the breast of that sister to the amazement of all that is God for you. God’s prescription was to extract the needle, although the prescription of human doctors was to cut off the breast. God does not make such mistake. Maybe you have been listening to Prophets, teachers, counselors, herbalists, doctors, those who press sand or who read palms or forecast. It is better to seek prescription from the Lord.       

 

Know this for sure, that it is only God’s prescription that cannot fail. God’s prescription and the way he reasons are far beyond human reasoning or understanding. There was a man that used to attend fellowship everyday in a particular church. He was so poor to such an extent that he had no money for transport fare. So he used to walk the long distance to the fellowship. Since he was that poor, he could not contribute money financially to the church. He was nonetheless a prayer addict. But because he couldn’t contribute money towards a particular project that was precious to the church, somebody taunted and ridiculed him. His accuser wondered why the man had to continue warming the church benches without contributing anything to the church. Because of that, the poor man felt aggrieved and decided to stop attending that church. He therefore sat at home. The church did not recognize the fact that it was only the prayer of that man that had helped them right from the time the church took off. Even though he had no money, his fervent prayers helped the church a great deal. But soon after the man stopped attending the church, it was as if the town planning task people were waiting for the man to take exit before taking a serious action on that church. They told the bewildered church that their church building was situated on the main road, and would have to be demolished within two weeks. But before the two-week ultimatum expired, the Spirit of God instructed the man to find his way back to the church he had abandoned. God told him clearly that abandoning the church was tantamount to abandoning his prosperity. The man took God’ words seriously and returned to the church immediately. As soon as the man resumed his fervent prayers, the unexpected happened. The same set of town planning task force, who had threatened to demolish the church because it was on the main road, suddenly changed their minds. They apologized to the church and assured them that church would no longer be demolished. One thing which baffled the man thereafter was the consistence promise of God to bless him to a dumbfounding degree. Although God kept promising to surprise the man, the manifestation did not come as the man expected. He kept on reminding God for almost five years. Then one day, God allowed the physical manifestation of His promises to come to pass. After the man had completed his normal quite time, God instructed him to go to the bar beach and await further instructions. It was at hat stage that Satan started suggesting to the man that god was out to deceive him. Thank God that the man refused to listen to Satan. He went straight to the bar beach and waited there as God had instructed. As he stood there, he saw a bottle floating on top of the sea. After some time, the bottle came to the shore. The spirit of God then told him to take the bottle and check the content thereof. So he took this bottle, behold it was a cheque leaflet. That cheque leaflet was a will of one strange millionaire in the U.S.A.As at the time the millionaire died, he had no wife, but a dog. At the point of death, he willed half of his wealth to his dog and the other half to whoever finds the cheque in the bottle thrown into the sea. The man that was wearing rags to church became somebody they took to America on a chartered flight. That is what happens when God fulfills His promises of blessing a person to a dumbfounding degree. That is His prescription, but if it is human prescription, one would be instructed to kidnap a baby, look for a calabash and put it on the boy’s head, call his name so that money will begin to flow. Sometimes God will prescribe different kinds of solutions to the same kind of problems. To understand it very well, let us look at how the Lord Jesus dealt with the blind. Matthew 9:29-30

    “Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.  And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it”.

 Jesus gave the man a healing touch.

    . Mark 9:23-26

    “Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. [24] And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. [25] When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. [26] And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead”.  

In the above verses Jesus, there was casting out an evil spirit in order to solve a problem  Mark 8:22-25

    “And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. [23] And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. [24] And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. [25] After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly”.

 Look at the process, Jesus first of all took the man by the hand and led him out of town. Meaning that he didn’t want to work his miracle in that town. So a person could come from an unprofitable town or village where nothing good is meant to happen .  

 You can see how far the enemies had gone with the case of that man, that even the Lord Jesus had to touch him twice before he could see. Not only that, Jesus had to apply saliva on his eyes before he could see, unlike the first one that we read, His prescriptions are to be carefully observed. Jesus could no heal that man where he was, he had to be taken out. It follows therefore that as far as a person remains in an evil environment, a religious society, or even a church where there is no fire, solution maybe far from such a person’s problems. Many will never prosper until they leave where they are working and living now. Even your closest friends could constitute a hindrance. The first touch of Jesus made that man to see, but he saw men like trees. The second touch then made him whole.

 When the case file of somebody has been transferred through the various spiritual departments, then such a person needs special prescriptions. If a case in the first heavens is transferred to the second heavens, from there to the land, underneath the earth and the sea, such a person will need the second touch. Perhaps you too need the second touch of the power of Jesus. I am sure you will receive it now in Jesus name. There was yet another case in Mark Chapter 10:51.Take Notice that in all case that we have read, Jesus had not said, you spirit of blindness, get out Mark 10:51-52

    “And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. [52] And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way”.    

In this case Jesus spoke and things began to happen John 9:6-7

       “ When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,   And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing”.

 Jesus first had to make clay with saliva to put on the eyes of that man. So the case of that man was different. There were no eyes there, so Jesus had to create the eyes and put them there. I don’t know about you beloved but I don’t think I would mind if Jesus pours his saliva on my head, because prescription would attack the problem from the roof. We all need divine prescription from God today.

In Exodus Chapter 12, God gave a prescription there to eliminate the enemies of Israel and to protect them. He commanded them to slay a lamb and apply the blood on their lintels. It was to keep away the angels of destruction from their homes. The same thing happened in Exodus Chapter 15, when there was no portable water. Again, God gave a prescription. He told Moses to cut a tree and put it in the bitter water. Moses did as he was told and the water was sweetened. The same thing happened in numbers chapter 21, when people were being beaten by serpents. As Moses sought for a solution from the Lord, he received God’s prescription to fashion a brazen serpent and put it on a tree so that whosoever looked on the serpent shall be saved, it was a divine prescription. In Joshua Chapter 6, there was a prescription on how to get rid of Jericho. God’s prescription was for the Israelites to march around Jericho wall for seven days, then on the seventh day, shout and the wall would fall down. It happened just like that. Another divine prescription is found in 11kings Chapter 2.the waters of Jericho were bad and they called for Elisha, and Elisha asked for a bowl of salt. He went to the source of the river and applied the salt to it. He then spoke to the river to receive it’s healing and that no more death or barrenness would be heard about the land again. The curse upon the land and water was finally broken. It was the third miracle of Elisha after he received power. The first one was when he crossed Jordan with the mantle of Elijah. The second was when he called out a bear to destroy 42 kids who mocked him. The third was the healing of the water and land of Jericho.Naaman the leper went to Prophet Elisha with a good idea of the kind of healing he wanted. He had worked out in his brain, how God should operate. Just like many people have ideas of how God should work, they will therefore insist that somebody has to lay hands on them to pray for them.

Naaman had his own prescription. He had it worked out and he felt so disgraced when he came and the man of God did not even bother to come out and see his face, a whole captain of Syrian Army. He considered the prescription to go and wash in the river of Jordan seven times as insulting to his person and status. He first wasted time arguing at the front of Elisha’s house. After he had argued enough, his servant appealed to him to obey the simple divine prescription of the man of God. Thank God that Naaman listened to his servant. He went as directed and God made him whole. Peter’s miracle was also by divine prescription. He had fished all night in Luke chapter 5, and caught nothing. But then all of a sudden, Jesus appeared and requested him to throw the net by the side. Although Peter was hesitant, he obeyed all the same and God’s prescription was made manifest immediately. He caught so much fish that his net was broken. Indeed, there are divine prescriptions all over scriptures. What I am I trying to emphasis here, is that God’s prescriptions does not sometimes make sense to man’s logic. Spiritual logic is utter foolishness to the carnal mind. I remember the story of the great man of God called Wigglesworth. He was holding a crusade where a woman with swollen belly was brought to him. They told Wigglesworth that the woman was dying of cancer. Wigglesworth commanded them to hold her up and they held her up. And he commanded that the woman should be made whole, he punched the belly of the woman, and she fell down, but as soon as she stood up she was made whole. That was God’s prescription. You need  to pray now concerning prescriptions for your breakthrough maybe for you to stop your grumbling and complaints for three months.

 A woman came for prayers, that she had ulcer and all kinds of things. As the man of God wanted to pray for her, the Lord said that the woman did not need prayers. God’s directive was for her to stop grumbling and complaining for one week and she would be made whole. But when the woman was told, she spent twenty minutes grumbling against the man of God. The man of God then confirmed that the source of her problem was due to grumbling. The woman obeyed eventually and by the time she came back to the man of God, she had become like a young girl. What she thought was a big problem and would require deliverance, turned out to be so. Sometimes, all that God is asking for could be for you to settle a minor quarrel or do one day fast or even resign from your present job, before a problem is solved. Sometimes, one could be required to receive the Holy Spirit or become fuller than you are in the spirit. God may want to forgive anyone who has offended you, or make a vow before Him concerning some people. To some people, He may instruct them to do three night vigils. If you have not received a divine prescription for your situations and everything you have done seems to have failed, then check out the following things:

1. Check out your life. Are you a good Christian?
2. Check your motives; Is it to boast before people? Is it to set you free, so that you can commit more sins? Why do you want what you want?
3. Have you broken up from all Occultic and false religion?
4. You have to check up the kind of friends you have. Do you have wrong companionship?
5. Have you failed to confess any specific sins? Maybe abortion or marital unfaithfulness. A lot of men would be shocked on the last day when God brings the films and tapes of their adultery to the open before their wives. If you have unfaithful to your marriage partner, the best thing is for you to just call the person and tell him or her before God makes it a public show.
6. Have you failed to forgive others? As far as you have bitterness in your spirit against somebody, God will not listen to you.
7. Do you have any unbroken evil covenants?
8. Are you part of a larger battle? In that case, you are under an umbrella of a big battle and you need to get yourself out.
9. Have you gathered sufficient and definite promises of God for your situation?
10. Have you checked up your confessions? That is, what you confess everyday. Is it positive or negative?
11. Are you praising God enough for the benefits you have received?
12. Has anyone placed you under a curse or a spell?
13. Are you a violent soldier? That’s why the Prophet Jeremiah said something very important. He said the most important thing is whether or not here is a word from the Lord. The answer is either yes or no. If the answer is yes, that is He saying? If your problem is on how to receive divine prescriptions then study very carefully the items explained below. They will guide you on how to get a word from the Lord concerning your situation:

1. Learn to cry to the Lord. Psalm 34 verse 6 says

    This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

God knows your problems and is waiting for your cry. You must learn to cry i.e. raise up your voice with aggression. Learn to utter a spiritual scream. You must turn to your God like a child crying for help. The Lord will always answer the call of man who is desperate

Isaiah 58:9

    “Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity”;

   

There was a king called Jehoshaphat in the Bible.Jehoshaphat was a very good king, but he had bad friends. He was fighting a war with the enemy of God on the ground that he was the friend of God. Ahab was the enemy of God. God dealt with Ahab and quickly finished him. But then the enemy surrounded Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat at that time was out of the will of God. But the bible says that when Jehoshaphat saw that trouble was coming, he cried to the Lord in desperation and God answered. God rescued him. Moses, many times in the bible faced riot, but each time he cried to the Lord, things happened. Whenever the children of Israel cried to the Lord in the Bible, armies of the enemies were put to flight, victories were won and troubles vanished. So cry to him now for a divine prescription for your situation.

 2. Learn to trust God. Believe that He has heard your cry. Believe that your answer is forth coming. Learn to lean on God. Don’t waste time meditating on past mistakes. Look upwards not downwards, Psalm 34:22

    “The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate”.

    

After crying aloud for deliverance, go forth declaring it to everyone that your God is able to deliver you.

 3. Learn to be broken. Have a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Psalm 34:18

    “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit”.

   

Don’t let any problem cause you to abandon what God has asked you to do. Perhaps you are saying if only this man knows my condition. I want you to know that no condition is beyond divine intervention Psalm 34:19

    “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all”.

  

Perhaps you have followed demonic prescriptions or you have eaten your feaces or drank your urine, just to stop any power from killing or harming you. You have indeed subscribed to evil demonic powers. The good news is that the Lord who is able to set free is near you, and will set you free today in Jesus mighty name. If you have received demonic prescriptions, you need to cancel those prescriptions now and receive divine prescription. Once you are ready, God too is ready. When the enemies have covered the path for your breakthrough, even when it is so close to your nose, you cannot see it. There is a veil covering the path to breakthroughs of many and there is a demonic angel waving good things away from such people. When your situation is like that, then you need to make a decree. Remember that you are a child of God’s kingdom and you have the power to bind and on earth and it shall be bound in heaven, also to loose on earth and it shall be loosed in heaven. Indeed you have the power to subject things underneath your feet.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.       You the angel of the devil chasing good things away from me, receive the fire.

2.       I receive divine prescriptions for my breakthroughs in the name of Jesus

3.       O lord give me the second touch in the name of Jesus.

4.       ( Grip your head with your two hands). Household wickedness carry your loads from my life in the name of Jesus.

5.       I reject and denounce every spirit of failure.

6.       Lord, let holiness unto you be my watchword and my lot in the name of Jesus.

7.       Lord clothe me with the mantle of fire.

8.       Lord make me your battle-axe.

  

STUDENTS IN THE SCHOOL OF IGNORANCE

 Dr. D.K.Olukoya

 Simply put, ignorance is lack of knowledge. An ignorant person is better seen as a living dead. Ignorance will bring not only ailments, but also untimely death. An ignorant person will find it difficult to do well in any environment. The vital key you open all doors will remain elusive to him. While he is still alive, an ignorant person is without doubt a dead person. Ignorance is not tolerated by anybody. It indeed has a leprosy effect. Even in the courts of men, ignorance is no excuse for disobeying the laws of the land. Any punishment due to that person will be meted out to him. If ignorance is this terrible in the physical world, how much more in the spiritual realm.  It is spiritual ignorance that force men to do things that are not biblical to solve their problems. Spiritual ignorance can be likened to a school. As a school, it boasts of a large number of students. It is indeed a wicked school. The flesh is at the center of every ignorant act, whether physical or spiritual. This flesh is not interested in going to heaven, because it has been proclaimed upon it, “dust thou art and unto the dust thou shall return”. So it knows where it is heading for. It is the spirit man therefore that talks about heaven. It is a sad thing however to know that the flesh can put the spirit in trouble. You will therefore challenge that flesh with the fire of God at this moment. Tell the fire of the Holy Ghost to penetrate into your body and eject every counterfeit thing that is not of God. Now that you have done that let us examine further the details about the school of ignorance. The Bible makes us to understand that it is a very bad school. It is a school that no child of God should belong to. Let us read our first Bible passage, Isaiah 5:13

   “ Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst”.

     God says His people have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge and not because they couldn’t pray, sing or read books but because they have no knowledge. The same thing is recorded in

Hosea 4:6

    “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children”.

     The first passage says that my people have gone into captivity; lack of knowledge was the reason. The second passage says “my people are destroyed’. The reason again is lack of knowledge. Physical ignorance is terrible but spiritual ignorance is even of greater calamity. Unfortunately the school of spiritual ignorance has a very large enrollment of students. Let me emphasize again that in simple physical things ignorance can sometimes bring very terrible results. There was an old English reader in those days. It had so may interesting stories. One of them was that of the three blind men and the elephant. Each of the blind men was asked to touch an elephant and then state what it looked like. The blind man who stood at the front of the elephant was able to touch it trunk, he then exclaimed, Oh! The elephant is like a big stick. Another one who stood by the side of the elephant used his hand to rub its side and exclaimed that the elephant is like a brick wall. The third blind man who stood at the back of the elephant held its tail and said no, the thing is like a snake. Then three of them started to argue unnecessarily. It is a fact that although they said the right thing in their own way, they were nonetheless wrong. They all belonged to the school of ignorance. This other story of an ignorant house girl is worth retelling. The house girl discovered that the baby she was looking after was in feverish condition and was therefore hot. The house girl who did not know what to do, reasoned that since her madam used to put hot things inside the fridge to make them cold, it would be okay if she put the child in the fridge to cool her temperature down. She therefore put the child in the fridge to bring her temperature down. Although the house girl might have thought that she did a logical thing, she was nonetheless dangerously ignorant, by the time the madam came back, her little girl was dead. school of ignorant!.

 A long time in the place where l had worked, an eye diseased called Apollo suddenly erupted without warning. Apollo as an eye disease does not really require any serious treatment as it lasts for only a short period of time. It got healed even without any treatment. But because of the large number of people who got infected people begun to suggest various local antidotes to use. It was suggested that urine should be used. A man who had an Apollo infection decided to try the urine solution. But at that time, the man had a chronic venereal disease. He nonetheless went ahead to apply his urine to his eyes. The disease in his urine made him blind soon after. His ignorance resulted in disaster.

 So if ignorance about physical things could be this dangerous, then spiritual ignorance is worse. Spiritual accident and injury are worse that physical mistake. Another bad thing about spiritual ignorance is that ignorance is no excuse for sin. Although you did not carry out an action on purpose, all the same you have committed sin. It is the same thing in the word of God. Ignorance is not acceptable to God, as it is not acceptable in the courts of men. Ignorance is the grandfather of error and error is the grandfather of poverty. Information is the grandfather of confidence and confidence is the father of abundance; let this be clear to you. Those who are in the school of spiritual ignorance can be divided into two. One, those who willfully get into ignorance. That is, those who have decided to be ignorant by choice. Then there are those who are unwilfully ignorant. The Bible tells us in

Job 21:13-14

    “They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave, therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways”.

 They told God to depart because they didn’t want Him. Because they have decided to be ignorant. In Romans 1:28

    “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;”

 

They decided that they did not want to know God. They were pleased with their confusion and ignorance. Consider the emphasis in 2 Peter 3:5

    “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water”:

 So that scripture further confirms that people could be willingly ignorant while some could be unwillingly  ignorant. But no matter what type of ignorance one has it is no excuse in the bible Leviticus 5:17

    “And if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity”. This is the stance of the word of God. A person may no it yet he is guilty and shall bear the iniquity thereof Luke 12:47

   “ And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes”.

 

Luke 12:48

   “ But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more”.

     Jesus our Lord and master was speaking here, so whether you know or not, you will still be beaten. The one who knows and decided to commit sin will receive a large number of stripes, while the one who didn’t know will receive his stripes too. If someone is ignorant in the following eight areas, then he or she is a student in the school of ignorance.

 THE WORD OF GOD

It is an area where you must not be ignorant Matthew 22:29

    “Jesus answered and said unto them, ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God”.

     Many are very ignorant about the word of God. This has indeed killed many Christians prematurely. Please understand that there are many gifted Christians scattered in churches and wasting God’s time. Many of them have received the baptism in the Holy Ghost for years but have not won a single soul for the Lord. I feel sorry for them because a time will come when the Lord will line them up and require the blood of sinners from them. Some of them are meant to be shaking the world for the Lord Jesus Christ. Unfortunately; their denominations have put them in charge of distributing biscuits to children every Sunday. God however expects them to be moving and doing something else for Him. They have a high calling but they are staying with pigs. Such people will have queries to answer from the Lord, that is if they are not already answering them now. Many people who should be working hard for God are playing politics in their churches. They run after church posts instead of posts running after them. They forget that any ordination that anybody gives here on earth is useless, if God does not have a hand in it. They have decided to sit tight in their dead churches because their parents were not only born there, but held several posts there. It is the ignorance that forces some people in distress to run after beggarly powers. Think about your spiritual life now. Maybe you’re the opposite of the word of God. The bible says some people will light their candle and out it under the bushel and indeed under their beds. Many comfortable believers are suffering from spiritual diabetes. They are not ready for any battle. God will definitely require the blood of sinners from their hands. Unless they wake up quickly and put politics and religion behind them and begin to further their Christianity. These people lack the knowledge; these people lack knowledge that God is not interested in their denomination. God is interested in His universal church. It is worthy to know that the members of the church of God are the same worldwide. All those denominations are just labels on the bottle. God will pull away all these labels on that day and we will see the content of the bottles.

Have you heard the story of John Wesley? He was a great man of God, who had a vision. He saw himself at the gate of paradise and made effort to enter therein. He was denied the opportunity of entering the place because it was not yet time for him to depart from the earth. Then he asked the angel at the gate if they had Baptists inside the place. The angel said there was not a single Baptist in the place. He then mentioned all the churches and to his surprise, the angel said that none of the church members of the various churches mentioned by him was there. He then wanted to know those that were in paradise. The angel said that those who have been washed by the blood of the lamb and have been washed by the blood of the lamb and have given their lives to the Lord Jesus were the occupants of the place. So sit tight Christians who refuse to move when God says move are only looking for trouble from God. If you have been going to dead church, leave immediately. The time is too short and God is noting for you, what He wants you to do that you have failed to do. When he will begin to require the blood, it will be much more serious than the warning l am giving you now, ignorance about the word of God is a great problem. The bible says seek ye first the Kingdom of God. It did not say seek your denomination. You are saved to serve and your star is suppo0sed to shine. So if you sit tight in a place where you’re not growing spiritually, get out in Jesus’ name because things are going to turn rougher. The bible says when the coming of the Lord is getting near; all kinds of things will begin to happen. Men’s hearts will fail them to fear. If you don’t get out of the dead place where you are not growing and go to a place where you can really move for the Lord, you will have yourself to blame later on. God told them that they would receive power after the Holy Ghost had come upon them, and they would then win souls for Him. Jerusalem was the starting point. Then from there they would move to Judea then to Samaria and finally move to the uttermost part of the earth. They were therefore not supposed to sit tight in Jerusalem.

 It was not surprising that calamities befell those that sat in Jerusalem, the repercussion was terrible. The angry people took one of the disciples and killed him. They caught Peter again and locked him up. Persecution started and the disciples were being stoned to death and were scattered. God scattered them through persecution. When God scatters people, He won’t wait for them to collect their luggage   

 I am afraid with what l see today in churches, so many of God’s talented people are lost in the churches today doing nothing for God and looking for empty church posts in the last days. It is time for you now to do something about it. The source of your present may be because you are serving God in the wrong place, or you are wasting your time practically nothing for God. Ignorance of the scripture is perilous and will lead to spiritual death. You went and started a business, and you did not know what the bible says about it. Before anyone builds a house there is a need to know what God says about it. Before a believer accepts to work where they sell cigarettes, he should find out from God whether or not he should be there at all. A believer will call family meeting and will use God’s money to buy beer for all kinds of people. A believer will allow unbelievers to be committing immorality in his room and then he goes there with air freshener and begin to say, “blood of Jesus, blood of Jesus”.Alll these things are due to spiritual ignorance. And the Bible says people err because they know not the scriptures. One secret you must know is that if God gives a promise and there is a gap between what God is saying and your life, God’s word will not change, it is your life that has to change. God’s word does not change. He said heaven and earth shall pass away but not a dot or little out of His words shall go away unfulfilled. And the Bible says behold I lay in Zion a stumbling block, and a rock of offence. If somebody allows the rock to fall upon him, he will be grounded to powder. If the person hits the rock, he will be broken into pieces. So if people refuse to change, the rock will fall and grind them, but it is better not to pass through that horrible experiences ignorance about the word of God is the first thing upon which you must never engage.

  2.RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

A believer must know of God’s righteousness. Romans 10:3

    For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Many believers do not know that Christ is our righteousness an that as long as we are in Christ, we have God’s redemption. The bible says our righteousness and good works are just like filthy rags and cannot save us. Your good deeds will not qualify you to get to God’s throne. Your deeds, prayers, sacrifice and alms to the poor are just like filthy rags. Some people are of the opinion that since they are not witches, wizards,adulstrous people, liars or thieves they will get to heaven. They think that morally clean people like them should go to heaven. But the Bible says that all those things are filthy rags before God. They do not count as far as God is concerned. What a count is what Jesus has done. Remember the story of the Pharisee and the Tax collector. They both went to the temple to pray. When the Pharisee got there he begun to exalt his righteousness which does not count before God. But the bible says that the Tax collector, beat his chest and prayed that the Lord should have mercy on him a sinner. The bible says that men went home justified than the Pharisee who was criticizing. The Pharisee used the Tax collector as the measurement of his spiritual life. This is why when some people are advised not to misbehave, they will start comparing themselves with unbelievers. That song writer says “rock of ages cleft for me let me hide myself in thee” and when he got to a particular place he said “the labour of my hand cannot purchase anything for me, so even if l weep and weep, it cannot buy anything for because we are saved because of what Christ has done” We have Christ’s righteousness before God. None of us is qualified to stand before God but through Christ who knew no sin but was made sin for us so that we can stand before the throne of Grace. So if you are ignorant of this and you exalt your righteousness, then do not be too shocked if God says He will not listen to what you are saying. The Bible says that comparing themselves by themselves, they are not wise. So don’t compare yourself with people. Do what the Holy Ghost asks you to do and not using another person’s standard.

 3.DIVINE MEASUREMENT OF TIME

 Some people are ignorant about divine measurement of time. Read 2 Peter 3:8-13

    “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. [9] The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. [10] But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. [11] Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, [12] Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? [13] Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness”.

 The Bible says you should not be ignorant of all those things listed above, concerning the divine measurement of time. Do not be ignorant of the following facts: a. That God’s timetable for our world will soon come to an end.

b. That you brought nothing here and you will take nothing out.

c.That God’s time to get something done for Him is now before death. The bible says you should not be slack concerning what God wants you to do, because the day of the Lord is like a thief in the night. At that time, God will move his capital from the planet earth to heaven and things will begin to happen and the believers will be rejoicing.

 

4. THE RESURRECTION AND SECOND COMING OF CHRIST: Read 1 Thes. 4:13-18

    “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. [14] For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. [15] For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we, which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them, which are asleep. [16] For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: [17] Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. [18] Wherefore comfort one another with these words”.

     The Bible says do not be ignorant about the resurrection and the second coming of Christ. What we are waiting for now as believers is to rapture with Christ.Many are misinterpreting what believers are waiting for we are not waiting for the end. What we are waiting for is the sound of the trumpet and the rapture and that can happen anytime. So you should not be ignorant. You should live your life waiting for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 5.SPIRITUAL GIFTS AND THEIR OPERATION: The entire Chapter 12 of 1corithians has admonished us that we should not be ignorant of spiritual gifts. I  would like you to take this warning very seriously. When you read the whole of that passage, you will find the list of all the spiritual gifts therein. I would like you to understand this very well, spiritual gifts are not by any means meant for commercial purposes. It is sad to know that many people nowadays are trying to commercialize the gospel at all cost. When God gives you any spiritual gift, it is not for commercial purposes. Some people come to church and want to be taught on prophecy, their responses are usually shocking. They would always emphasize that it is only the gift of vision that brings in money and financial abundance. They will argue that the gift of prophecy does not enrich anybody. So if you have gone somewhere in the past and you were asked to bring materials like money, candle etc then that gifts is not from God. Every gift of God has been freely given and freely should the person give it out..Don’t be ignorant about this fact. As far as you are a believer and you have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, you should be able to exercise at least one spiritual gift. If you cannot prophesy you should be able to give word of knowledge, words of wisdom etc. The gift you have would confirm the word of God. But another thing people don not know is that the spiritual gifts don’t operate anytime people want them. Many lives have been ruined by visions and revelations without anointing. Because somebody is a prophet many people then conclude that at all times the anointing to prophesy will be upon him, this is so. It is not by his will. It is God that brings the anointing to do it. So the fact that somebody is a prophet, does not mean that the anointing will be on him all the time. It therefore follows that if the man prays and the anointing is not there, then he will be forced to tell you something perhaps a lie. Sometimes we need to pray and hear from God concerning what a prophet says. We need the gift of the Holy Spirit today. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is the gateway to whatever you want. It is ignorance that makes people to believe that some gifts are for special people, not knowing that God can give it to them too. All the Christians that make up the body of Christ are created to function in their individual capacity. The duty is not meant for one man alone. Everybody is meant to move in the power of the supernatural. When you know about spiritual gifts, no one can terrify you with visions, prophecies and revelations because you can always find out from the Lord whether what they are saying is correct or not. Ignorance about spiritual things makes people become slaves.

 

6.YOU MUST NOT BE IGNORANT ABOUT YOUR IDENTITY In John1: 22 we have an interesting question John 1:22

    “Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?”

John knew who he was. the question is who are you? Ignorance about your identity can put you in trouble. One of Satan’s most effective weapons is to get believers to doubt their identity as God’s children. Since the devil used it on Jesus, it is certain that he could use it on anybody. To Jesus the devil said, “if thou be the son of God” showing that he wanted Jesus to doubt his identity. “if you are the son of God command this stone to become bread”. Jesus promptly said, “Man shall not live by bread alone” He said again, “if thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down” and Jesus gave an apt reply. Again when Jesus was on the cross, the devil spoke to him through men. They charged Jesus to come down from the cross if he was the Son of God. They wanted Jesus to doubt his identity. If Satan tempted Jesus, he will do it again and again to any Christian.ButJesus Christ knew who he was. When he was in the world, he was always saying it, “l am the bread of life, l am the way, l am the truth and the light” He kept declaring who he is. Now what does God say you are, if you don’t know then you are ignorant and the devil will pursue you relentlessly. Jesus said “l am the vine and you’re the branches” So you are a branch of God’s vine. The bible says you are a new creature as far as you have given your life to Chrsit.The Bible also says that we are God’s workmanship. And the workmanship of God knows no failure. The bible also says that we are more than conquerors. It tells us what we are. The Bible says that we are dead in Christ and our life is hidden in Christ, but the devil tries to bring the feeling of unworthiness into the lives of so many believers. Ignorance about your identity is bad. The day you know who you are in Christ is the day you will win your greatest battles. John the Baptist knew who he was. He was the forerunner of Jesus and the voice of one crying in the wilderness. He knew his purpose in life and power within him. Do you know your purpose in life and the power within you? Ignorance about this could cause serious spiritual headache. If you are supposed to be selling pepper and you are a bus conductor, then you are not rightly identified. Maybe you are supposed to be preaching the gospel and you are a manager in an office, then you do not know who you are. All these can spell plenty of trouble for the ignorant person.

 7.YOU MUST NOT IGNORANT OF WHAT JESUS HAS DONE FOR US John 10:10

  “  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”.

  Many do not know what Jesus has done for us. Forgiveness of sins, salvation, redemption, justification, sanctification, new birth, healing, deliverance from the power of darkness and abundant life. All these things have already been done for us. So we do not need to beg for them, for God is our father. So if you don’t know what Jesus has done for you, it is serious ignorance.

   

 

8. Satanic devices: Now if the bible says people should not be ignorant about something, it means some people are already ignorant about them

2 Cor. 2:11

   “ Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices”.

 It is the devil’s strategy to spread fear, tears and defeat in people’s minds. It is the devil that blindfolds some from knowing the truth. Many people cannot understand why their spouses are so hostile to the gospel. It is because the spirits that blinds the mind, has blinded their minds. If you stand against the spirit of mind blindness everyday, that spirit will leave the person. And then he or she can open his or her heart to the gospel. It is Satan that removes God’s seed from people’s life and instigates men to sin and makes them to think that man is the solution to all their problems. It is the devil that makes many people to think that physical people are their enemies, provide counterfeit miracles to deceive people, use hot temper and anger to fuel a problem, cause family strife, bring quarrel so that people miss their miracles, make men to be slack in prayers, when their blessing is around the corner, discourage people from attending meetings, where their spiritual needs will be met, convince people to mix their prayers with candles, incenses, juju, charms and with all things that Jesus never did. Etc

Hosea 4:6

    “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children”.

Many people, who come to church, don’t know whether they are saved or not. It is lack of knowledge. Fear and doubt have filled their minds. Some people don’t know what will happen to them after death. It is lack of knowledge. It is lack of knowledge that makes Satan appear great and for God to look so small. It is lack of knowledge that makes people think that God will hear their prayers when they wear a particular dress. God has nothing to do with what you are putting on when you are praying. If you wear a white garment and your heart is unclean, God will have nothing to do with you. Some people think God only answers prayers at 12.00 o’clock, 3o’clock and 6 o’clock etc

    It is lack of knowledge. Some people think that God only answers prayers at some particular places or on top of mountains. It is lack of knowledge. Other people think that God has escaped from Nigeria. So they traveled to Jerusalem and pray by the walls so that God will answer them. It is lack of knowledge. All incisions that people are putting on their bones are due to lack of knowledge. The greatest cause of spiritual ignorance is spiritual blindness. It is sad that there are many students in the school of ignorance. if you are there, you must get out today. Only God can heal and deliver you, but you must allow him to do it today. You will need to pray the following prayer points with spiritual anger so that physical and spiritual ignorance can end in your life.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. O Lord open my eyes to behold wondrous things from your throne.(When God opens your eyes and you begin to see wonderful things you will no longer be afraid. Nothing will move you anymore)
2. All problems that ignorance has brought into my life get out in Jesus name.
3. Let the anointing to live abundance life fall upon me now
4. You unbroken and stubborn problem break now in Jesus name (One hand on the head, one hand on the chest)
5. I drink the blood of Jesus and swallow the fire of god
6. All demonically organized seductive appearance to pull me down, be rendered null and void in the name of Jesus.
7. All demonic organized networks against my spiritual and physical ambition be put to shame.
8. Every demonic influence targeted at destroying my mission, dream and ministry receive total disappointment in the name of Jesus.
9. Father Lord, let all the dormant spiritual gifts and talents in my life begin to function for your glory in the name of Jesus.
10. I remove my name from the book of failure and demonic sidetrack.
11. I receive divine wisdom, knowledge and understanding in Jesus name.

 

 

     

THE BIG PREPARATION

Dr.D.k. Olukoya

 

From what is happening around us everyday, we know that the second coming of our Lord is right at hand. What you are seeing now will convince you of those unbelievable things that you have heard. You could be sure that you are watching the signs of the end times. Therefore you must be wary of the coming of the Lord and join in the big preparation and the time to start is now. The Lord will open your understanding as you read this message. Let us look at some scriptures on the Lord’s second coming.

Amos 4:12

   “ Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel”.

   

Matthew 24:44

    “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh”.

Luke 14:28-32

    “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it”?   Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.  Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace”.

 

All those three passages convey the same message, that all of us must be prepared to meet God. When you study those passages closely, you will easily discover that God is a God of preparation. If you read your bible every well, you will also find out that before Jesus went to any city, he first of all sent disciples there to prepare ahead of him. Even John the Baptist was sent as a preparation because he was said to be the voice of the one crying in the wilderness “prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight” If you read Genesis too you will find out that brother Noah spent 120 years preparing the ark. People were laughing at him but he continued and for 120 years he was getting ready. The Bible says that eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, neither has it come into the mind of man what God has prepared for his own people. The popular passage in

John 14:1-2

    “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you”.

   

And in the book of Matthew, you will find out that God also prepared hell fire for the devil and his angels and not for you and l, any believer who finds his way to hell fire is a trespasser because he is not meant for him. When God makes His preparation, he does it well. He goes into all kinds of fields, of science, mathematics etc to work. The apostles for ten days were in the upper room preparing. But before then, they were busy arguing on who was going to be what. So God used those ten days to train them, and when God finished with them, they were no longer worried about how to preach the gospel. Therefore God is a God of preparation. God who prepared the people of old is now talking to you and l, saying that we too must be prepared. During a particular church service, a man who came singing and rejoicing suddenly collapsed. Before anyone could say Jesus is Lord, he was stoned dead. In order not to cause any further uproar, a prayer point was called and the man was taken to the back of the church. By the time the church had prayed for about an hour, the man opened his eyes and asked the people if there was a wedding ceremony there the previous day. The people answered that a wedding indeed took place on that day. The man then told them that God took him to heaven and he found the wedded couple there. The people at the meeting did not take him seriously. They felt he was talking that way because of what happened to him. Many reasoned that he was probably suffering from a brain ailment. But to their amazement, before they closed the church service, news came that the husband and wife that went on honeymoon had an accident and both of them died. It was only then that they believed him. The main message the man was telling everyone there was for them to get ready to meet their Lord. Beloved, God’s judgement is always tempered with mercy. Jonah didn’t want to preach, but by the time God laid His hands on him, he had no choice but to comply with what God wanted. God does not plan his judgement without warning people. The Bible is filled with prophecies, promises and pronouncements on that coming day we are talking about. It will be a day of reckoning, you and l must prepare for that day. Why do we need to prepare for the day when our Lord would come? The answer is not far fetched. The meeting cannot be cancelled because it is certain. There is no amount of argument here on earth that can abort it. The meeting with God is unavoidable. We have a choice on how to meet God; but we have no choice as far as meeting Him is concerned. And the time of the meeting too is unknown to man, for Matthew 24:36

    “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”

The uncertainty of the time, coupled with the certainty of the meeting makes it urgent for you and l to prepare to meet God. You cannot be prepared to meet God in a sinful condition. If you are living in any known sin, then you are not ready yet. The meeting with God will come so suddenly without any advance warning. So, if you are still living in fornication, adultery and drunkenness, gossiping backbiting, anger and pride then you are not ready yet; it would come suddenly. As it is written in Eccles. 9:12

    “For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them”.

 

Although marriages will continue, the day of the Lord will nonetheless come. By the time he comes, whoever is not ready will have no room for any preparation? No one reading this message has a good reason for not preparing to meet God. God will not accept any excuse from you for your unpreparedeness. If the Lord calls you home now, there will be no explanation or excuse. Will you say you don’t know about the Bible? Or you didn’t hear about Jesus? Or you don’t know how to pray fire prayers? What will be your explanation? This reminds me of some Negro praise worship songs we used to sing in those days. It says, “It is nobody’s fault but mine, if I die and my soul gets lost; it’s nobody’s fault but mine. Because my mother taught me how to pray, so, if l die and my soul gets lost, it is nobody’s fault” We are living in days of great revival and many more people are getting born again now. Any crowd that you have ever seen in your life will be just a handful compared to the crowd explosion of the last meeting day. Daniel saw hundreds of thousands of people. John said he saw a multitude of people, which no man could number. If the Bible says no man can number anything, it means the worldly computer too cannot number it. The man called Adolph Hiltler had no time to attend any religious meeting. We shall see him, Some when they come to revival meetings, they refuse to close their eyes, some refuse to pray, some refuse to bow, some Christian hate kneeling down, some hate prayer meetings and many Christians are grieving the heart of the pastor by being absent from meetings they ought to attend.

 

Many come late to church, many believers are even poor at keeping appointments. But at that particular meeting, nobody will come late. Everyone will be there on time. Whether people know how to pray or not, they will pray. The important thing is that prayers cannot be said when it is late. The rich man died and Lazarus also died. It was after death that the rich man started to pray. But then it was too late. I pray that you will not pray when it is too late. In that meeting, the deaf and even the dumb will pray. Every tongue shall be loosed and they will talk. Ministers and Presidents will confess Jesus as Lord. For it is written in Romans 14 must compulsorily come to pass. The Bible says that the scriptures cannot be broken. Romans 14:11

    “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”

At a particular prayer meeting sometimes ago, the girl who was leading praise worship songs came to me after meeting asking me to help her. She broke down in tears saying, that she had aborted ten good times. I asked when she did the last abortion; she confessed that she did it the previous week to that time. I wondered why a person leading praise worship in the church could do such a thing. But the truth is that many people will die in their sins like that, unless they come to themselves and reopen. Don’t allow the enemy to deceive you by telling you that nobody is seeing you. There is an all seeing eye, the eyes that can bend into corners to see everybody. Think about it. If everybody coming to Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries is praying like you are praying and reading the Bible the way you are reading your own, will there be fire here? Examine yourself, for every tongue shall confess to God. You may embrace any religion now, but on that day you will acknowledge Jesus as Lord, willingly now or unwillingly then. It will be so sad if all those who have been coming to church singing and praising God and attending services, find themselves in a situation where the devil says “So you have arrived here at last I thought you were the one saying “I bind you”, I trample on you” we are now here together” Such people will suffer most in hell fire. That is why we have to be serious with what we are doing. Beloved, you must prepare now. God is God of preparation and He expects us to prepare to meet Him. Are you really preparing to meet God? It is easier to prepare for miracles and deliverance than to prepare for heaven. And most people do not understand that whatsoever will not make you qualify for heaven will also steal your miracle. It is a vicious circle. You may embrace any religion now, but on that day you will acknowledge Jesus as Lord, whether you like it or not. Indeed every one of us would give detailed account of our sins. A Christian brother died at he unripe age of 26.This made the other brethren in the church very sad, as a matter of fact everybody cried. But as they were about to bury him, God opened the eyes of one woman of God there and the woman of God saw a conversation going on between the dead brother and an old woman who was also a member of the church. The brother was telling the old woman that it was not her fault to have succeeded in killing him that it was due to his sin. The woman boastfully responded that all other brothers and sisters still living in sin and hypocrisy in that church would be eliminated like that one after the other. And the vision cleared.

Remember that you are going to give account of everything you do here on earth. You will account for every idle word, backbiting, gossiping   and demonic advertisement you have made. If you are backbiting or gossiping, then you are a demonic advertiser. You are doing the job of the devil for him. Many are quick to confess other people’s sin. They confess the sin of the Pastor, instead of praying for him. They confess the sins of the elders and forget about their own sins. But they will answer for their own be so much for a person who is a sinner to worry about, he won’t have time to be bothering about other people. You too will give account of everything you have done whether it is good or bad. Everybody must appear at the judgement seat of Christ. Some people hate the truth, but the trouble about the truth is that it is very stubborn. You can smash it down, knock it on the ground but it will rise up again. Even if you build up lies for 25 years, in one second the truth will catch up with it, and then where are all the lies? So many people are busy deceiving themselves, saying that they are attending their family church. That family church could as well be called the family coffin. A lot of people all over town are shouting Mountain of Fire, Mountain of Fire and some of our church members say it proudly that is my church but the person saying that is my church is a sinner. So, what is the person doing to help us here? Nothing. As a matter of fact, such a person is causing more problems for the Pastors. Any sinning member of this church is just causing more problems. Luke 12:2

    “For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known”.

 

The immorality you commit with your boss in the office is not covered. The alcohol in your fridge is not covered. The clever smoking of cigarette and then licking peppermint thereafter, gossiping and all the cleverly concealed sins are not covered, God sees them. All the fake holiness you exhibit is not covered. What some people understand to be holiness is suppressed fornication etc. But the real thing is still there, breathing inside. A time is coming when the secret of all hearts shall be made bare. We shall all see it. There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed neither hid, that shall not be made known. Therefore, whatsoever you are saying in secret shall be heard in the light and proclaimed upon housetops. Would you like what you are saying in secret to be amplified over the microphone to the whole world? Remember this fact always, that the Lord can hear what you think. Every secret thing would be made public for everybody to hear. When you know that what you are going to say is a sin, why don’t you just shut your mouth and don’t talk and let that thought die stillborn. It is true that your mouth belongs to you, but you cannot afford to say whatever you want with it. If you do, God will definitely mete out adequate punishment to you. Beloved please know this from today that transgression of the law is a sickness. It contaminates the whole being. Whenever you are living in sin, you will have a cloud covering your face from seeing God. When you are living in sin, there will be a binding power, which will hold you from receiving spiritual benefits. Living in sin is tantamount to writing letters to eaters of peace and health. The bible says that your sins shall find you out. Although hands may be joined in hands, no sinner would go unpunished. It will be disastrous beloved, to be a servant of sin at that glorious gathering. You will definitely not have excuses to give to God at that meeting of reckoning. You cannot wish that your sins be lost or stolen, it is not possible. You may keep your records and afterwards lose them. I have in fact seen somebody who lost his birthday certificate, school certificate and his University certificate all at once. But God will not loose his record. The position in which you are caught is the position in which you will be judged. We all have the glorious appointment to keep. It is one appointment that nobody will miss, it must be kept whether we like it or not. I once saw a man who came late for his wedding and because the Pastor stuck to time, the wedding service started without the bridegroom in attendance. The man came late to his wedding. But let me assure you now that nobody will come late to that inevitable meeting. You may be wondering about where God keeps all these records in heaven on the sin of everybody. Who invented shorthand? It is man. So, if man could write short hand and make compact discs, and put a whole library inside a computer, then God can keep any record. Any reasonable man must know that there will be a day of reckoning. But a lot of people try not to think about that kind of thing or read anything concerning it. It’s like they have made up their minds and don’t want to know any fact about the great meeting. God also has a speedometer. That speedometer is your memory. The white man by reasoning says, that when a person learns a thing, an average of six out of seven of it is forgotten. But in that meeting, everybody will have perfect memory. There was an interesting story of a man who was drowning. But as he was drowning, every sin he had committed, thin that twinkling of an eye flashed before his face. When they rescued him, he decided that he was going to live a righteous life till Jesus comes. God will say son, remember you were at Mountain of fire and Miracles Ministries. Daughter remembers that you read the Bible well enough, remember l spoke to you in prophecy. A time is coming when the cross would be changed to a sword and will judge everyone on that day. On that great meeting day beloved there will be no earth, moon, stars, calendars or clocks. There will be daylight throughout. It is important to pray beloved that the day does not catch us unawares. The bible says, ‘Let him that thinketh he stand take heed lest he falls” if you are walking about with some false confidence, then you will be caught unawares on that great meeting day. Yes, God loves His people so much that he would not allow a single sinner to enter into heaven to live with His saints. If God could cast angels that sinned into fire, then you and l should be wary of the lives we live. Are you really prepared? I  am not asking how many have their names in our church list or how long you have been coming to Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministires.the book of life will be opened and people will be judged from what is written in it. It does not matter whether you believe there is hell fire or not. The Bible remains true anyway, if as a contractor you use inferior materials to execute your contracts are you prepared to meet the Lord? All the tomato sellers that put the rotten ones beneath are they really prepared to meet the Lord? Men who make and drink alcohol, who criticize everybody around, are they ready to meet God? The questions are many for you to answer. But one thing is certain that God is the inevitable judge on the day of reckoning that we have been talking about here. Beloved be prepared!

 

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. Thank God for your redemption.
2. Confess your sins before the Lord and ask for forgiveness.
3. Father Lord, establish me in every good work in Jesus name.
4. Spirit of God, help me and increase me in the knowledge of God in Jesus name.
5. Father Lord, let your word have free course in my life in Jesus name.
6. Let every enemy of the gospel in my life be frustrated in Jesus name.

1.      

STONES OF FIRE
Dr.D.k. Olukoya

 Beloved, this message is God’s design to open your eyes to some fundamental truths in the Bible. If you had ever sought to know the weapons to use in defeating your physical and spiritual enemies completely, then the answers are here for you. If you had never used the effective weapon of stones of fire before, now is the time to do it. In this message, we shall examine the origin of the stones of fire, the qualifications a Christian must have to use them and finally identify those who deserve the stones of fire. In the beginning, there was no war or rebellion, everything was in perfect harmony. It was a wonderful world. It was at that time that God created the supernatural man, called Adam and put him in the Garden of Eden. Adam was to keep the place and live there too with its splendour. But something happened, and Adam lost his entire God’s given benefits.

In the beginning, no one opposed God and no contrary voice or opinion was uttered against Him. Something disastrous happened and the first sinner emerged. Let us trace the history from that first sinner. In Ezekiel 28:13-19

    “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.   Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more”.

       This is the emergence of Lucifer as the first sinner and his sin was rebellion. The above verses established the fact that he had many priviledges. For example, the last sentence in verse 16 says: “O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire” The last sentence in verse 14 says, “Thou hast walked up and down in the midst od the stones of fire” Not all angels could do that. The stones of fire refer to the Holy ground upon which the throne of God was placed. Not all angels could walk upon these stones. This is the history of the first sinner and unfortunately, all his children are still like him up till today. Now that we have identified the first sinner, what then is the first sin? It is found in Isaiah Chapter 14:13 which says

 Isaiah 14:13

    For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

This is one area where a lot of people have failed. They refuse to submit to the Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first thing the enemy does is to identify the weak points of Christians and use them to fight against them. As much as possible, they will struggle to know those areas in a Christian’s life that are still under their control and just one area under their control is enough to make Christian lose the warfare. This is the secret behind spiritual failure. Any uncommitted area is normally energized by pride. Let this be clear to you today that Satan hates God and hates all those who bring glory to God. He hates them with perfect hatred. If you are serving God, then know sincerely that the enemy hates you. In every battle we find ourselves, there are two opposing groups. While the fallen angels, satanic agants, ungodly elements are on one side of the battle, the living God, the holy angels and the redeemed are on the other side. When we are victorious, we have defeated Satan. In all Satan’s attempts to attack us, he is only trying to destroy the church of God whether we like it or not, human beings are the instruments that Satan uses to attack God. When we fail to be what God wants us to be, we are simply allowing Satan to throw a blow at God. During his earthly ministry, Jesus got angry and violently defended God on many occasions.

Mark 11:15-18 

    “And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;  And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.  And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.   And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. Jesus Christ was quite angry and unhappy about the corrupt and fraudulent practice in the house of God. So, he went there and violently defended the glory of God. This is what we are also called to do. We are called to do battle for God always. However, if you do not know the battle that l am talking about, it means that for a long time, you’ve deserted the battlefield. Please understand very well that Christianity is not bread and butter. Any minister that tells you that Christianity is bread and butter is teaching you what is contrary to the word of God”

 . 2Timothy2: 3-4 read thus

     “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.  No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier”.

 We are expected to suffer hardship. We are expected to cut off ourselves from worldly affairs. We are to do what has been ordered by our commander-in –Chief who is the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you are in this kind of warfare, you have to plan your strategies well enough. Luke Chapter14 verses 31-32

 

     “Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?   Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace”.

 That is the principle. No king goes to war, unless he understands the terms of battle and the powers of the enemy. He has to understand the value of what is at stake, his strength and resources. Likewise, as Christians, we must evaluate our lives and see how well we are doing in the race and the welfare, such as the blood of Jesus and the name of Jesus. However, whatsoever weapon the bible has given us we need obedience to make them work. Obedience to the word of God is very important if we are to confront and subdue the kingdom of darkness effectively. Our victory is connected to obedience because we have an enemy who is very cunning and operates tactically. He has many tactics for catching people to ensure that they lose their battles continually. For example, the devil uses the weapon of temptation in order to make his attack successful. Many people would not have been where they are now, if they had resisted the temptation that came their way at one time or the other. The devil removes the sources of strength from people and then begins to attack them, if Samson had been careful, he would have known that trouble was around the corner when Delilah was relentlessly asking him the source of his uncommon power. If the Bible study is getting difficult for you to do, your prayer life is gradually collapsing and your zeal for witnessing for Christ has disappeared altogether, then know for sure, that the enemy is trying to remove the source of your strength, know that danger is coming. You must arise and start fighting. Samson was fighting until his enemy shaved his hair. The head of my Samson will not be shaven in Jesus name. Please pray this prayer point with all aggression “The head of my Samson will not be shaven in Jesus name” Again our enemies like to strike while we are alone. The devil caught Eve while she was walking alone in the garden. David took was walking alone on the roof of the house when the devil caught him, so don’t be a lone ranger Christian. This is why we encourage people to have prayer partners and to fellowship with fellow Christians. Again, never remain idle because an idle hand is a tool of the enemy. Whenever you are not in the company of God. Satan likes to withdraw Christians from one another and attack them individually. This has spelt the doom of many Christians who keep to themselves always. Christianity is not a religion where people mind his business; he would not have died for you and I. In addition, the devil makes people unteachable, they feel they know better than everybody. Many Christians were known to have canvassed for church posts. Many got their posts in the church because of their wealth. It is certain now that church post will land a lot of people in hell fire. Infact, many would have gotten to heaven without difficulty if they had not accepted useless church posts. Furthermore, the enemy injects fake confidence into people that makes them believe that they can never fall. So, they move very close to sin and feel free committing it. That is why the bible says “He that thinkest he standeth let him take heed, lest he falls” Apostle Paul also warned against self-confidence. That is why he said: “We have no confidence in the flesh” It is therefore the device of the enemy for people to have confidence in the flesh. Again, the devil removes people from God’s favour and gets them trapped by joining them to sin. Our enemies are desperate and persistent fighters. They do not go on holidays, neither do they sleep. You therefore have to be watchful always. Apart from that, the enemy sends confusion in top people’s heart. Jesus knowing this said, “Let not your heart be troubled, believe in God and believe also in me” The devil knows that, once he succeeds in getting your heart confused, you will lose the battle and he will then bring fear, doubt and discouragement into your heart. So, if you are like that you are reading this message, l wish to remind you that Jesus is still on the throne and there is no reason for you to continue to be fearful or tearful. Another thing that the devil does is to make use of human agents with concealed identities to achieve his purposes. Also, the devil has his doctrines that he propagates. This is the reason many strange things are now creeping into the house of God and the meaning of born again has been completely bastardized and corrupted. Many so-called born again people have the impression that they could remain as they were in the world, provided they add Jesus to all they do. Many so called born again Christians reject proper baptism, all in the name that they had been baptized as small kids. They have forgotten that a baby doesn’t know anything about salvation. Anybody who is to be baptized must understand what salvation is and must therefore take a concrete decision that he wants to forsake the life of sin. In many places too where the baptism of the Holy Ghost has been antagonized and bastardized, many evil things are happening. In such places you see pastors being addressed as “His excellency”, “His Holiness”, “Senior Apostle” etc. All these things are open bastardizing of the word of God. Let this point be made clear, that any minister who knows and accepts money from any sinner for whatever purpose is also a sinner. For this, it is wrong for the churches of God to organize bazaars and harvests and print envelopes for donations, which according to them will be thankfully received. Who is thankfully receiving the donations of sinners? Is it God or themselves? Your sitting down in an evil church is an invitation to spiritual firing squad. Many Christians now sit in churches where the things of the Bible have been corrupted the caps on the head of the so-called Bishops and spiritual leaders and the terrible long crosses on their necks are the corruption the Bible is talking about. No wonder the Bible says that at the end of the day, corruption will stand in the holy place of God. It confirms the abomination Daniel was talking about. Please notice this fact, that Satan has power over all the evil people on earth, because they are his children. He owns them and they do his will. He blinds, traps and deceives them. No matter how nice a person is as far as he is not born again, he is a child of the devil. He is possessed and he is doing the will of the devil. An Egyptian who bleached her skin and painted her lips would still remain an Egyptian.

 

Take Notice of this fact too, that the devil has some powers to afflict God’s people. He can tempt them like he tempted David. He can afflict them often like he afflicted Job. He can oppose them like he opposed Zachariah.He can decide to sift them life wheat like he wanted to do to Peter. He can fool them like Paul said in the bible that he sometimes appears like the angel of light to deceive people. But glory be to God because Christ has triumphed over the devil. Also, notice that the devil is an excellent administration. He is an expert at division of labour, since he cannot be everywhere at that same time. But thank God he has no match to the Holy Spirit. I john 5:19 tells us that “the whole world lieth in wickedness” It is then time for us Christians to begin to throw the stones of fire guess you will want to do it with all your strength. Praise the Lord! Do you know that God himself had thrown stones at people before now?

 Joshua 10:11

    “And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword”.

 

God had to throw stones at people from heaven. Under what situation does God throw stones?

Please read Isaiah 30:30

    “And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones”.

And

Ezekiel 13:13

    “Therefore thus saith the Lord God; I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury to consume it”.

 

God throws stones when He is angry with the enemy. God’s stones are special stones; they go back to heaven after they had done their work here and stay there waiting for the next stubborn enemy. Do you want to successfully throw the stones of fire at your enemies? Then below are the conditions you need to fulfill to be able to do that.

 

1.      You must give your life totally to the Lord Jesus Christ. Submit yourself to God as a living sacrifice.

2.      Put on the whole armour of God.

3.      Submit yourself completely to God so that you can resist the devil. Ephes. 4:27

“Neither give place to the devil” You must learn to do this always.

4.      Learn how to pray about everything.

5.          Beware of gifts from unbelievers. If you are still eating food prepared during not biblical celebrations then you need deliverance. eating such food is like attending the party of the devil and you have accepted the meal provided by him. The bible says, that all the meat that is sacrificed after the death of Christ, is meal from the table of the devil.

6.      Never pay ungodly visit to the territory of the enemy. If you have commanded your enemies to receive stones of fire and you still go ahead to play in their territory, then you will partake in the stones of fire rain.

7.      Learn to cast every burden on God, no matter what is happening. Take your burden to the Lord and leave them there, then your stone throwing can be very effective.

What are the things that require the stones of fire? They are quite many but the major ones will be listed for discussion.

1.       Witches

2.      Wizards

3.      Satanic agents

4.      All the evil planners

5.      All the evil altars

6.      All the evil mouths

7.      All the satanic instruments and weapons.

8.      All the evil observers sent to observe God’s people.

9.      All the eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood.

10.   All the evil aid-de-camp that follow people around.

11.    All the stubborn pursuers

12.   All the masquerading problems

13.   All evil marriage planners.

14.   All the spirit husbands and Wives

15.   Strange Children

16.   Evil remote controllers

 

All these are qualified for the stones of fire. Let me assure you that when you begin to throw the stones of fire, something definite must happen to your enemy, the kind of thing that happened in the land of Egypt. It is now time for you to throw dangerous stones of fire at all your enemies. But for your stones to be effective you must be aggressive and do it with all your strength.

 

PRAYER POINTS

When you call out the name of a particular thing, cry out loud saying, “receive the stones of fire in the name of Jesus” twenty one times.

1.      All activities and powers of witchcraft spirit presents in my life now (please lay your right hand on your head and left one on the chest) receive the stones of fire.

2.      All the plans and activities of wizards and satanic agents, receive the stones of fire.

3.      Evil planners and evil altars working against my life at this moment, receive the stones of fire.

4.      Satanic instruments and weapons fashioned against my life, receive the stones of fire.

5.      All the eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood receive the stones of fire.

6.      All stubborn pursuers receive the stones of fire.

7.      All problems manifesting as masquerades, receive the stones of fire.

8.      I will arise and escape from the camp of the enemy in the name of Jesus.

9.      Thank God for answered prayers.

 THE EIGHT GREAT QUESTIONS

Dr. D.K. Olukoya

It is not difficult to know that only very few people think. While thinking may look quite natural, it is a very hard occupation and sometimes a very dangerous assignment. Only very few people do serious thinking and even fewer people engage in serious meditation. It is a fact that a lot of people do not really settle down to think about the world in which we find ourselves and about life in general. That is why the bible says “O that they were wise, they would consider their end” Even many do not think about their personal life and the devil ensures that people waste time thinking about un-important things. This is why you have to ask yourself these eight questions.

1. Where am l coming from?
2. Who am l?
3. Why am l here?
4. What happens when l die?
5. Where am l now?
6. What do l focus my attentions on?
7. When the Son of Man comes shall he find faith in me?
8. Would l be made whole?

If as a Christian, you had never really thought of these questions or meditated on them, then you need serious prayers because they are indeed serious eternal issues. Let us consider them one after the other.

1. WHERE AM I COMING FROM?

Most people have not bothered to ask themselves where they came from. Have you ever thought of that? Where is your origin? Although this is important, many people nonetheless do not think of their roots i.e. where they came from. It is certain that somebody who does not know where he is coming from would not know where he is heading for. If for instance you don’t know why you are a Christian, you will not know what you want in this life and thereafter. If your answer to the question, Where do you come from is I don’t know, that is quite unsatisfactory. You must know your origin. The Bible makes it crystal clear that God created you and I. It has this to say in Psalm 8:4-6

    “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?  For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:”

This tells us that man was created by God, but a time came when man lost all the glory of God and man got into trouble. So no matter how great a man is, his physical body is dust. The Lord told him, “dust thou art and unto the dust thou shalt return” It is only the spirit of man that goes back to God. So, the next time you feel like boasting remember “dust thou art and unto the dust thou shalt return” Let it be very clear in your spirit, that whether a person is rich or poor unto the dust shall he or she returns. We come from God and that is where we must compulsorily go back to, unless the person is a rebel and does not want to go back to Him.

 2.      WHO AM I?

That is the question of identity. You may be putting yourself into trouble if you are ignorant of your identity. If for example, you are walking along the street and a policeman asks you to identify yourself, your identity card, which reveals who you are, must be produced. Failure to produce an authentic identity card, in such a situation causes trouble. The bible tells us that man was made in the image of God. He was free, rational person and quite different from animals. The bible says each person is a spirit living in a body and having a soul. God made the man and the woman but because they both sinned they were both cursed. We are all made in the image of God, but unfortunately that image has been defaced and spoilt and man is lost. He has no hope in this world or even the next. Man is a lot soul walking about in wilderness and it is only by giving his life to Christ that he can find his way out. The question of identity is so important that apostles of old were asked questions that pertained to their identities. In John1:22, John was queried by the Jews. They were in doubt about the identity of John and therefore asked him John 1:22

    Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?

John the Baptist then answered: John 1:23

    He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.

God has a general purpose for all of us, but you must know who you are, if you don’t know who you are, then you are opening your door to problems. The lesson on identity is an important one. Jacob learnt that lesson; he knew that by his identity, he was not in the place of blessing. If you have read B, you will discover how he used foul means to get his brother’s blessing. He got it by claiming his brothers’ identity. Let this be cleared in your spirit that one of Satan’s most effective devices is to get people to doubt their identities. He did it to Jesus that if he was the son of God, he should command stones to become bread. He did not stop at that, again he told Jesus, that if he was the son of God he should cast himself down. And when Jesus was on the cross, Satan came again to tempt him. He told Jesus that if he was truly the son of God, he should come down from the cross. It is therefore possible for the devil to challenge you by saying that if you are truly a child of God you should not be suffering. It   is wise for you to know the answer to the important question, which says who are you? That is why as a believer, you should not confess negatively e.g. “I am not worthy” l am worn out,” I am unfit etc. That was your old identity tag, but once you have given your life to Jesus and if by the grace of God, you are living the kind of life God wants you to live, you should not call your self  strange names again. But if you still do, it means you don’t know who you are. The prodigal son was rotten and bad but at a stage he came to himself and remembered who he was, he remembered that he was a son and not a slave. So you too must remember who you are. When Jesus was in the world, he did not hide his identity. He identified himself as the Light, and the bread of life. The Bible tells us what our identity is. It says that we are the branches, new creatures and not refurbished ones. The Bible says we are God’s workmanship, we are more than conquerors and our lives are hid in Christ. All these point to our collective identity and you must know them. Do not be like Peter who was released from jail and did not know because he was surprised. The day you know that you belong to God, your creator, that day you will begin a victorious life. At this juncture, l like you to pray this way, O Lord show me who l am in the spirit, O Lord open my understanding in the name of Jesus.” It was possible for Elijah to do exploits for the Lord because he realized his position in Jesus, he knew his identity earlier enough. Who are you then in the spiritual scale of the Almighty God? What can you use to identify yourself in the spirit? Please pray again that the garment of ignorance should be roasted in the name of Jesus.

 

3.      WHY AM I?

What is your purpose on earth? God has put all of us here on earth for a purpose. Generally, God wants us to know him and to fellowship with Him. He wants us to recover all that we have lost through Adam. God wants us to experience His grace in our lives. We are here because of what Jesus did at Calvary. We are here so that others can learn from our lives, from the testimony of what Jesus did for us and what he can also do for them. We are here to worship and adore the Lord. We are also here to do battle with Satan. The question is what is your purpose as an individual? Have you found out from the Lord? A wasted life is a life without a purpose. Until your purpose for living is discovered, life may have no meaning. Your reason for being here on earth provides the key to your existence. These things must be cleared in your spirit. You cannot live your life on experiment or on trial and error. It is too short that you cannot experiment with it. You cannot afford to live on assumption. Pray again like this: “ O Lord make my purpose for living plain before my face. I bind every spirit of aimlessness” You must know this fact, that the spirit of this age is the spirit of aimlessness. For everything you do in life, you must have a purpose for it. Be it marriage, business etc. .The reason there is so much confusion now, is because people are outside God’s purpose for their lives they are busy pursuing their own little dreams. The carpenter is busy doing the driving job and the painter is hell-bent on flying the aircraft. When this happens, a person’s purpose is defeated and things won’t work the way they should.

 

4.WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?

The bible answers the question. The Bible paints the picture of two places and the contrast between them is frightening. The world we are in now is presently the Satan’s world. The kingdom of God will come and overcome this one. Jesus says clearly that when men die they go to either of two places, heaven or hell fire. The Bible’s graphic description of these two places makes the contrast very clear. It is given to man to die only once after that judgement and it is better for a person not to be born at all than to end up in hell fire. The Bible makes us to realize when the rich man died, he found himself in hell fire, while Lazarus too died and found himself in the bosom of Abraham. Talk to the Lord in prayers like this “Anything that will take me to hell fire, get out of my life now in the name of Jesus”

   5 WHERE AM I NOW?

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.”

 In contemporary English, the question becomes where are you? What an interesting question! Was it that God did not know where Adam was? The question was asked because Adam was no longer in the right place, he had left where God wanted him to be, because Adam was in the wrong place, God changed his original intention for him. He threw Him out of the garden and put an angel with the sword of fire at the gate so that the man will not find his way back there. Know this beloved, that when you depart from the path of God for your life, a forty days journeys will take forty years. It is a pity that so many people have never really found out God’s plan for their lives, but have abandoned the plans after listening to people of the world. I do hope you know that money, education and material possessions are not signs that you are enjoying God’s blessings. The sign can only be seen in you when you are at the center of God’s will. Are you at the center of God’s will for your life? Or are you like David who stayed at home while others were fighting or peter who stayed in the wrong place. No wonder, then that Peter at a point in time started to follow God from afar: Are you in the wrong place in your carrier, business, or spiritual life. When you are in the wrong place you cannot receive God’s blessings. All that you can get are crumbs here and there. You will not be in correct fellowship with the Lord and this will make you an easy target for the devil. When God asks, where are you? The meaning is where is your spiritual location in God? What do you weigh in His balance? Nebuchadnezzar was a very great king and there had never been a kingdom so great in splendour and might and glory like the Kingdom of Babylon that Nebuchadnezzar was heading. But God dealt with him when he got too proud. God sent him into the bush and humbled him completely, he ate leaves like animals. Whatever you are doing whether good or bad, God has His weighing balance. So if God were to put you in His scale at this moment, where you are, will determine your balance on the scale. A lot of people’s weight are equal to zero. Ask yourself where am l in the spiritual scale of the Almighty? If you love yourself say “I refuse to be used as a bad example in the name of Jesus” when you are not where you should be, you can become an easy target for the enemy. What is your spiritual temperature? Perhaps the Lord has searched for you amongst divine dreamers, visioners, prophets etc and your name  was not in any of these places. Then suddenly the devil shouts saying, “God, l have his name in my evil books! I have her name in my terrible records” So the voice of the Lord is ringing out to you today loud and clear saying, “Where are you? A lot of spiritually lame people come to church. Their gifts of vision have disappeared. They were on fire before but now they have become cold. We have spiritually deaf and dumb people too in large numbers in many churches today. They do not hear from the Lord, neither do they see any vision. They do not comprehend anything. It is not surprising at all that such people invest even in wrong places in the physical world.  Your answer to this question is very important. Where are you? Belteshazzar eventually knew where he was. God told him that he had finished the arithmetic of His kingdom and had weighted it, and found him wanting. Please close your eyes and talk to the Lord about yourself this way: “Set my life on fire for you and bury all my lukewarm ness in the name of Jesus. Looking inward, are you still being harassed by the spirit of fear. If the kind of things that used to put your heart on the race is still doing so now, it shows that you have not grown at all. Perhaps your faith is still as rudimentary as when you just believed. Perhaps your knowledge of God is so hazy that you have never used the name of Jesus to defeat any power of the enemy in your life. Perhaps you have been a believer for one year or two and you cannot differentiate between the voice of the Holy Spirit, your voice and the devil’s. The solution is to seek for help and not to console yourself by saying that you are better than someone else.

 6. WHAT DO YOU SEE?

Let us go to the book of Jeremiah. The Lord asked Jeremiah another interesting question in Jeremiah 1:4 -14

   “ Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.    Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,  Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.    Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

    But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.  Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.     Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.     See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.    Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.

   Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.  And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.   Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land”.

 So I ask you the same question what do you see? Was it that the Lord did not know what Jeremiah saw? Why was he asking that question? The lord may be showing you the vision for your life and you may not see it. Your spiritual vision may have what you call spiritual cataract, which can prevent you from seeing what the Lord wants you to see. If you have made up your mind on what you want to do, before you come to the Lord and say O Lord show me the way, you can be rest assured that you will not see anything for you have already made up your mind on what to do before coming to the Lord. Beloved, perhaps you are without a vision or plan for your Christian life, you really need to pray. The voice of the Lord is asking you, what do you see. God never calls a meeting for entertainment. At the Mountain of fire and Miracles Ministries for example there is no room for satanic entertainment. There are lots of entertainment churches all around for those wanting to be entertained. God has a serious purpose for bringing people to fellowship at MFM. God has His distinctive purpose and He has no useless exercise. Even if the whole world is aimless and purposeless, God has a purpose for everything he does. God believes in man so much that He invested so much in you by allowing His son to die, and He expects returns from you. If I may ask you this question, do you know for sure what is happening to you? What stage are you in the History of your life? Have you seen the personal vision God has for you? Do you know your purpose in life? If you don’t know the vision of God for your life, then you will not be able to plan. God does not experiment for He knows what He is doing, so the earlier you find out what He wants you to do and you begin to do it, the better. God is called the Alpha and the Omega because before He starts a thing He has completed it. God never starts a thing without finishing it. God determined that Jesus was to be born and that he would die to redeem man. All these were clear in His mind before he started to look for Mary who would deliver the child. Why did God conceive you? Don’t be one of those people getting confused or prospering in the wrong times. The fact that what you are doing is prospering does not mean that it is right. Please close your eyes and pray seriously to the Lord this way “Open my eyes to see your purpose for my life in the name of Jesus. Now there are two ways to recognize those people who don’t have visions for their lives. They will prophesy and disobey the prophecy; they will be the ones to say, my servant, my servant, l want to use you mightily. But it is the same person that gave the prophecy that will be committing sin. People always move from one business to the other without making headway, they don’t really know what God wants them to do. They choose their spouses through physical observations. They receive direct messages from the Lord and then throw them aside. They want to lead others but they don’t want to be led. Any small failure they experience, they will get discouraged. These are the people without visions. But for somebody who knows what he has seen, all the discouragement and failures on the way are nothing but fertilizers. Those without vision are the ones who see men looking like trees. They criticize others concerning sins which they themselves commit. They don’t know whether they are hearing from God or the devil. There are many of them in the churches agitating for church posts. Some find it hard to serve the Lord unless they are in Leadership position. Many of us dream very well but how many of us know what we are dreaming about? Have you got to that level when you will be having a dream and right there in the dream you will be asking the Lord what the dream was all about. Not that you will wake up confused, and then start praying for the meaning of the dream for three months without an answer? No, you have to do better than that.

7 WHEN THE SON OF MAN COMES SHALL HE FIND FAITH IN ME?

This is found in Luke 18:7-8

    “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

    I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”

Let us make this question personal. When the son of man comes to us shall he find faith in you and I ? You can see that Jesus never answered that question. He just asked and it is left for you and I to answer the question in our hearts. The angers of last days caught up with many Chrasitians. Supposing he comes today, since he may come at anytime will he still find faith in your heart?

8. WOULD I BE MADE WHOLE? The last question is found in John 5:6 Jesus directed his question to a man who did not know him (Jesus). The man was afflicted by the spirit of infirmity.

    When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? Will you be made whole too? If you say yes, I would l like the Lord to make me whole; do you know he can do so this moment? But if you are happy and satisfied with the level you are now, you will never progress. But when you know that God is calling you to climb higher, then you will dedicate yourself the more. You will be more committed, more prayerful and you will increase your bible reading time, your prayer time and your witnessing time. The Lord will help you in Jesus Name. God is interested in our total life. He is interested in how well we are doing. Do you know the biblical truth that a thousand years in His sight is like a passing night? God has His own arithmetic. The question is what do you weigh in his balance? How are you on His spiritual scale now? Are you a thermostat Christian, the type that the environment determines his temperature. While a thermostat Christian will make the environment to conform to him. He is not moved by what is happening around him. What God needs first is our spirit man. The fire that has entered the spirit is sufficient to melt all problems away. How can fire enter into the spirit when the spirit is already blocked. What adjustment has God been asking you to make in your life? Has He been asking you to correct your thinking, dressing, speech, prayer life or bible reading? Rise up today and do what the Lord wants you to do. Do not behave like a hypocrite because the hopes of the hypocrites shall perish. If the trumpet shall utter an uncertain sound, the Bible says, who shall prepare for battle? What kind of fruit is your life producing? Are they positive that will attract people to the Lord or are they fruits that will throw people down to the bottom of hell fire? You are going to open your mouth and pray aggressively   the following prayer points with your right hand on your chest.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1 I refuse to let sin have dominion over me in the name of Jesus.

2.I bind you spirit of anger in the name of Jesus.

3.Lord come into my heart in a different way in the name of Jesus.

4. Every tree of spiritual failure be uprooted in the name of Jesus.

  

CHURCH IN THE GRAVE YARD

Dr. D.K.Olukoya

 

The title of this message may indeed seems strange to you. It may set you wondering about the existence of a church in the graveyard. You may then wish to ask or perhaps to establish the differences between a church and a graveyard.

The church as you know it, is a place of worship for the living, while the graveyard is the final resting place for the physically dead people. It then follows that if a church were built in a graveyard, no activity would take place therein.

In order to understand this message, l beseech you to prayerfully read through. Open your heart and the proper digestion of the message will give you understanding in Jesus name. Amen.

Our bible passage shall be taken from Revelation chapter3 from verse 1to 6.Please take notice that the book of revelation was written by Apostle John and was addressed to the seven churches in Asia. Three of those churches were addressed in Chapter three. It reads thus.

 

 

    “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches”.

 

   

Verses one to six were particularly addressed to the church of Sardis. The Bible says that the church had a name. But as far as God was concerned, that church was diseased.

When you look at this fact very closely, you will find out that it is not what you call yourself that actually matters, but what God calls you. It is possible for you to call yourself double apostle or even angel, but as far as God is concerned He thinks differently about you. The Lord said that that church once had a name but was dead thereafter. It follows that it would no longer function as it used to be. A dead person will behave like the dead and a living person as the living. While some people in the churches today are spiritually awake, others are spiritually dead. The latter are those the Bible refers to as dead people.

A quick look at the word of God will tell you that the Bible talks about five groups of spiritually dead people if however the bible regards one as dead and the person is regarding himself as living, then such a person is deceiving himself or herself. The groups of dead people are as follows.

The first groups of dead people are as follows.

 

1.      THE BACKSLIDERS

They are those who have stopped following the Lord the way He should be followed. They are people whose spiritual lives are now very weak. Indeed they are people who find it difficult to pray and study the word of God. They find it difficult to witness to others about the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Lord is now asking spiritual sleepers to stay awake: He is also challenging the spiritually dead people to rise up. It is certain therefore that backsliders are spiritual sleepers. As far as the Lord is concerned they are dead.

 

2.      SINNERS

All sinners are spiritually dead people. The day a sinner becomes alive is the day that he repents from his sins and cries for forgiveness. When that happens, such a sinner has become aware that he was dead and needed to give his life to the Lord Jesus to come alive. All sinners as far as the bible is concerned are dead people.

 

3.     THE CARNALLY MINDED PEOPLE

Romans 8:6

  “  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace”.

 

   

It follows therefore that a person who is always thinking of carnal things is dead while alive. Such a person is not interested in how you can grow spiritually. He or she is only interested in how to make more money and to become more comfortable. A carnal mind is an abomination to God that is why the bible says that to be carnally minded is death.

 

4.     THE HATERS OF KNOWLEDGE

The 4^th group of dead people are found in the book of Proverbs 21:6

    “The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death”.

These are those who are not interested in learning more about the Lord Jesus Christ. They are just comfortable or contended with how they are spiritually. Such people think they have got it all.

 

5.     PLEASURE SEEKERS

The last group of spiritually dead people are found in 1 Tim. 5:6

    ‘But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth”.

As far as the Bible is concerned, pleasure seekers today attend churches. They are only happy when there are lots of singing and dancing and entertainment around. Dead people! As far as the bible is concerned they are not even qualified to praise God.

It is amazing that many have not known this fact that the spiritually dead people are not qualified to praise the Lord. Psalm 115:17

    “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence”

 

   

The book of Isaiah 38:19

    “The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth”.

   

Thus dead people are not qualified to praise God. Dead churches are not even qualified to praise the Lord too. Such people should not even expect anything that will last from God! Infact the bible says that they are not even qualified to handle the word of God.

Beloved, l would like you to close your eyes where you were now and cry quietly examine your spirit.

Perhaps you have been classifying yourself wrongly. Perhaps you are not aware that you are not in the classification of the Almighty God. Begin to talk to the Lord at this moment. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the true picture of your life today. Talk to the Lord now.

I do hope you have not forgotten a memorable story which involves Paul in Acts Chapter 16-19 While Paul was preaching the word of God in Philippians, a certain damsel who had the spirit of divination from the devil kept following him, She started prophesying that Paul and his ministers were servants of the most high God sent to preach salvation to the people. Although she was saying the correct things, Paul nonetheless had to keep her quiet. The reason why he did that was to ensure that an unworthy vessel who was possessed of satanic spirit does not speak the word of God. Little wonder then that he rebuked the spirit in the girl and commanded it to depart from her right at that moment.

Know this fact therefore that the lady could not be allowed to handle the words of God because she was not spiritually fit.

Many people stubbornly sit tight in their dead churches and many take solace in their dead environment. It is such places that the household enemies will ensure that such people are given church posts in order to tie them down and they would never be able to attend a living church where they would be saved. When such people are told to pray they would start naming their church posts instead of praying. The devil has deceitfully planted things in them. It is an evidence of life that is not alive to God at all.

I need to tell you my  story here. A long time ago, I was attending a very big church; l was an organist as well as a choirmaster of the church.  The church bought   a big organ practically because of me. The church was even indebted to the tune of ten thousand naira because of the organ. They promised me heaven on earth in that particular church. l resumed my choirmaster job in full as soon as I returned from England. The turning point came however with a night vision.

One day in a night vision, I saw something terrible. I saw a tall black man standing right at the middle of the church. All of us in the church that were very prayerful and who did not like the way things were going on in the church started fighting that tall black man with a horse whip. Each person had a horse whip in his hand. We were beating him with all our strength. But the more we beat the man the stronger he became. Then at a stage those of us who were beating him, conferred together on what to do. We reasoned that the more we beat this man the stronger he became. We then concluded that the man was the cause of the trouble in the whole church. As we conferred together in that vision somebody observed that the black demon was not affected because the horse-whip we were using was not effective. To confirm this, we decided to test the horse whip on the body of one of us. The horse whip was used to beat one of us and blood started oozing out of his body. Then the man we were fighting started laughing at us, that although we came to fight him we started fighting one another. almost immediately,. The voice of the Lord came to me in the vision very audibly that He the Lord did not ask me to stay in that church. I left the church immediately. Thereafter, about 6 of us started our fellowship meeting in a small shop. People laughed at me and in fact ridiculed me that if l had read mathematics they would have thought l was mad. They wondered how l could leave a big church to fellowship in a small shop with six people.

But l thank God that I did not listen to them at all. If l had listen to them, there would not have been MFM ministries today. What answer would l have given for the blood of numberless believers l would have on my head?

The lesson to be learnt here is that taking up post in dead church is tantamount to voting for the graveyard.

 

   

Numberless people are tied down with church posts, which later turn them to cemetery place. I hope you know this fact that, whatever effort a police man put in the burial ground to look after the dead is doing a useless exercise.

They make people churchwarden of the dead. Choirmaster for the dead, Patron for the dead, matron for the dead etc. All such posts are to ensure the deaths of such people themselves.

If somebody is spiritually dead he does not see the way any longer. Such people may not know the people they are in until the Spirit of God departs from them.

I was going to a church before where all we did on Sundays was dance, clap our hands and sing. We jumped on the benches . After we would have done  all that the Pastor would announce that our time was far spent, therefore he would not be able to preach any sermon. But we had enough time for endless offerings. Thereafter, we would say the grace and go home. While we were busy doing that, the devil was not only rejoiced but also planted endless calamities amidst us.

 

I was going to that church until one day when something happened to me which shook me out of that condition. Somebody was boiling oil on fire and l was sitting down nearby reading my book.

Then something strange happened. Before my very eyes, the oil on fire became a ball and traveled to my direction and fell on my leg. I could not move at all l cried out to the entire household for help. The first person who came said let us pour ice water on his legs, another person said let us put pap and another pleaded that they should put egg while my leg was busy burning, they were busy arguing. Eventually they agreed on what to do. I was nonetheless managing with one leg.

Then within two months my left hand broke again. So l had a broken hand and a roasted leg. Then one night, the Lord came to me and warned me that l would end up being killed in the dead church l was attending. The Lord told me that if l had been attending a living church l would have been able to reject calamities that befell me. It was at that time that l started calling on the name of the Lord the way it should be called. He heard me and promoted me from my terrible spiritual position to the top of the rock.

 

The problem of the church today is that many hypocrites are now in the church. They have refused to leave their sins and their dead churches, the Lord cannot help such people.

You do not do the work of the Lord deceitfully, you cannot cheat God, if you do, you will pay for it.

If you hide your spiritual condition, God will leave you to your problems. If you are struggling to do some other things that you are not supposed to do, then you must do something about it, for God is concerned about you.

 

If the trumpet of the Lord should sound today, the evidence that you are in good church is that you will reign with Christ.

 A lot of people are too worldly to be useful spiritually. They are afraid or ashamed of being tagged fanatical for Jesus. But the truth is that the Lord expects a believer. They have refused to leave their sins and their dead churches, the Lord cannot help such people.

You do not do the work of the Lord deceitfully, you cannot cheat God, if you do, you will pay for it.

If you hide your spiritual condition, God will leave you to your problems. If you are struggling to do some other things that you are not supposed to do, then you must do something about it, for God is concerned about you.

 

 

So many people do not want to serve the Lord because of certain things in their lives, which they do not want to drop. They are afraid that if they join the Christian fold, they would not be able to do such things that please them again. Those things have become idols to them. Anything at all that you cannot drop for the sake of God, then such things have become an idol in your life. All you want to do is to please human beings.

 

When the time of rapture comes these people you are seeking to please, will not be able to help you at all. They are totally useless as far as spiritual help is concerned.

Why should you design your life after the thoughts and the love of the people of the world? Why should a child of hell fire decide your dress pattern for you? How could they be the ones to tell you whether or not you are looking fine or dull? Even if you are looking dull is that the business of a child of hell-fire? If they say you are looking dull and heaven says you are looking bright, won’t you be happy? Immediately you begin to live the type of life, the Lord wants you to live; you will invite enemies automatically to yourself. Nobody would have the guts to invite you to worldly parties again, the moment you are God crazy, even if they had put your name unknowingly they would definitely erase it.

You cannot be hot for God without becoming automatic enemies of people of the world. It is a pity however that some people compromise their faith so much to please people of darkness.

When somebody is dead spiritually, good things that are spiritually inclined will not be opened to him or her.

A dead person cannot see God. Only a living person can serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

When everything is almost gone and all things are closing down, it is then many people will realise how much debt they owe to the Lord. Many of such people will realise the vanity of the world in which their lives had been.

Each person will account individually for his or her stewardship on earth, even couples will account individually. So, you therefore cannot blame your husband, wife or children for your lack of spiritual development. If you seek pleasure alone while you are alive, you are indeed dead

Why should believers follow unbelievers to their parties, and help them to do their cooking? 

If you are still worshipping God in your sins, then you are not in any way different from the dead church of the Sardis, a church that was in the burial ground.

Take a step of faith today by separating yourself from the churches or groups of the dead.

Separate yourself in your mode of dressing, conversation, attitude, faith, way of life etc.

Quite from the congregation of the dead people today. It really does not pay you. The end thereof is eternal death.

Are you still hot for God or you have started backsliding?

Do you find it difficult to witness to others?

Do you still harbour sins in your life?

Are you still carnally minded?

Do you as a matter of factly lack the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Are you still a pleasure seeker? If your answers to these questions are Yes then you are spiritually dead, and you are indeed one of the worshippers in the graveyard church.

Repent of all your sins today and the Lord Jesus Christ will receive you back into His divine fold with open arms.

Remember that you alone will give account of your stewardship.

Shun every worldly shame and criticisms. Come to God and He will bless you mightily.

 

Notice this: To be dead without Christ is hell! It is even more hellish to be spiritually dead without Christ.

He who has ears to hear what God is saying at this end time, let him hear.

Remember this fact that heaven will always listen to the cries of believers.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.      Let the Holy Spirit fill me afresh.

2.      Let every unbroken area in my life be broken in the name of Jesus.

3.      Father, incubate me with fire of the Holy Spirit.

4.      Let every anti-power bondage break in my life in the name of Jesus.

5.      Let all strangers flee away from my spirit and let the Holy Spirit take control.

6.      Lord catapults my spiritual life to the Mountain  top.

7.      Lord fill me with spiritual gifts.

8.      Let heavens open and let the glory of God fall upon me.

9.      Let sings and wonders be my lot in Jesus name.

10. Let the joy of the oppressors about my life be turned into sorrow.

11. Let all multiple strongman operating against me be paralysed in Jesus name.

12. Lord open my eyes and ears to receive wondrous things from you.

13. Lord, grant me victory over every temptation and satanic device.

14. Lord ignite my spiritual life so that I will stop fishing in unprofitable waters.

15. Lord, release the Pentecostal tongue of fire to burn.

 

SILENCING SATANIC STORMS

Dr.D.K. Olukoya

 

We are starting this message by reading two scriptures that are related. Mark4: 34-41 “But without a parable spake he not unto them and when they were alone he expanded all things to his disciples” This is Jesus. “And the same day when the even was come he said unto them, let us pass over unto the other side” They did not decide to pass over by themselves. Jesus said let us pass over. Their passing over has divine approval. “And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship; And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of waves and the winds beat into the ship so that it was now full. And he (i.eJesus) was in the hinder part of the ship asleep on a pillow, although the ship was filled with water. And they awake him and said unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, peace be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. And he said unto them why are ye so fearful; how is it that ye have no faith. And they feared exceedingly; and they said one to another, what manner of man is this? That even the wind and the sea obey him”. So shall every storm present here today be paralysed in Jesus name. Now we turn back to the book of

 

Matthew 8:23-26, the same story, “And when he was entered into ship, the disciples followed him and behold there arose a great tempest in the sea in so much that the ship was covered with the waves, but he was asleep. And the disciples came unto him and awoke him, saying Lord save us, we perish. And he said unto them, why are ye fearful, o ye of little faith? The he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm”.

 

Now from those two passages that we have read, we understand that Jesus rebuked the wind.

 

The language rebuked used there is the same language that Jesus used for demons, sickness, and powers of darkness, etc. He addressed the storms as if he was addressing a human being. It was like saying, be silenced or put in the proper Greek meaning, it means, be muzzled. The muzzle is something you put in the mouth of a horse to keep it from eating or causing trouble. He told the storm to be muzzled.

 

Life, as you know it is a mystery. There are powers that govern the universe and lack of understanding of these powers could lead to all kinds of problems. It sometimes makes the difference between success and failure. Life experiences could be very bitter and sometimes very sweet and it is filled with motion and counter motions.

 

We say that one man’s food is another man’s poison. Your most important desire may be detrimental to another person. This is what we call the battle of life. For example, when some people wake up, they make positive statements to counter the positive one without meaning any harm.

Another example, a farmer prays for rain to fall so that his crop can grow, and he can see them and be able to meet his responsibilities. But a footballer who wants to play a match would pray that rain should not fall. Both of them are praying to counter each other. A contractor too will be praying that rain should not fall at his site so that he can complete his work, and consequently collect his money. The man who builds coffins prays to prosper, but you and l will say, “l shall not die but live to declare the works of God’

So our good intentions are countered, that is the battle of life. A medical doctor will pray to have patients but nobody prays to be sick. The lawyer wants business, meaning that he wants more people to get into trouble. And the prison warder too will be jobless, if nobody goes to jail. This is why the world is full of trials and tribulations, such that princes are converted to those who run after horses.

 

Satan has converted those who should be ruling to those who draw water and cut woods. This is why we need to know what to do when the storms come.

 

As Christians are attending churches, the most sought after is our peace. Once peace has been withdrawn, every other thing is useless. If you go to the bar beach at night, you will find people having their bath, just to get or recover their lost peace. You find people hiding all kinds of juju underneath their garments because they are looking for peace. The devil knows that man is looking for peace. Jesus himself is the Prince of peace. So the first thing the devil likes to steal from people is peace. And when this has been stolen, storms will come.

 

Let us look at the characteristics of the storms of life.

 

STORMS OF LIFE COME UPON EVERY MAN

 

It does not discriminate I will give you an example of somebody’s testimony at our fellowship. Somewhere close to his reproductive organ was a swollen, which had been there for over ten years. It constituted a big problem and he went to the doctors but the doctors could not understand what was happening.

 

One day, after we had closed at a meeting, we gave the following prayer point to our members to pray when they got home ‘Any evil deposit In                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          my body get out in the name of Jesus’ So he got home and prayed. To his amazement by the following morning, that swollen place burst and things began to come out. When the brother looked at these things closely, he found out that they were alligator pepper. Now the question is, how did the alligator pepper get into that place? It is part of what we are talking about, it comes upon every man.

 

Another sister was doing very well until her mother died. Immediately the mother died, the father picked up another wife and then started her storms.

 

 

THE STORMS OF LIFE GIVE NO PRIOR WARNING TO ANYBODY

It is a very rude visitor. It won’t tell anyone how and when it would come. There will be no warning. So since it is a rude visitor, we have to know how to handle its visitation.

 

 

THE STORMS OF LIFE HAVE NO RESPECT FOR YOUR PERSON OR OPINION

It does not want to know whether you attended Cambridge or Oxford University. As a matter of fact, chains of degrees do not bother it.

 

I used to have a friend who was in the civil service for a long time and by the time he retired, they gave him a gratuity of half a million naira. Some men found out the sum he got as gratuity and they decided to dupe him. They set a trap for him and he fell headlong into it. They told him about some naira negatives that could be washed with some expensive chemical solutions to make more money. They convinced him beyond any doubt that if he gave them half of his gratuity, which was N250, 000:00 with which to buy the expensive chemical solutions, he would receive a sum of N84million.He fell for their bait and they duped him. As a matter of fact, he almost lost his life in the process. They never respected age experience or years put into service.

 

THE STORMS OF LIFE MAY DIFFER WITH INDIVIDUALS

What you are facing as a storm may not be what another person is facing. What you consider as a problem may not be so to another person.

 

HELPERS WILL BE HELPLESS WHEN IT COMES

When the storms come, your friends may be unhelpful or even add evil contributors to what is happening to you.

 

AGE IS NO SECURITY AGAINST THE STORMS OF LIFE

A long time ago, a couple got to the court and was asking for divorce, the man was seventy-five years old and the woman was seventy. The presiding judge was quite surprised that such an old couple, who had been married for thirty-five years, could seek for divorce. One thing, which the magistrate did not know, was that wherever the storm chooses to blow, even age would not be able to  stop its movement.

 

THE STORM OF LIFE IS NOT A GENTLE MAN NEITHER DOES IT INFORM

It is a stark illiterate. It will be advisable therefore to confront it with hard and aggressive prayers. Occultic prayers cannot help anyone who is battling against the storms of life.

 

THE STORMS OF LIFE COULD BE SENSELESSLY VIOLENT

It would be so much that you would be wondering why such a thing should happen to you.

 IT MAKES BITTER OR BETTER

The storms of life could make you better or bitter. It could either make or mar you.

 

RESPECTS ONLY ONE VOICE

The storms of life and indeed satanic storms will defy all voices apart from one. The only voice they cannot disobey is the voice of Jesus. You may then ask the following questions. How does the satanic storms come? What is its origin?

Satanic storms that human beings are facing could come from about eight sources. The fact to note here is that if you cannot discern where the storm is coming from you will not be able to address it.

 

SOURCES OF SATANIC STORMS

SATANIC STORM COULD BE INHERITED

I remember the case of a sister, who was 42years old as at the time l met her. She was married with four children. But there had never been any peace in her matrimonial home. It got so bad that her four children and her husband would beat her up. The four children even advised their father to marry another wife who would be able to deal ruthlessly with their mother. The man heeded their advice and married another wife. Whenever there was trouble, six people would beat up the sister in question.

The sister then found herself in a serious mess. She was therefore determined to seek for solution wherever she could get it. Thank God that she sought the divine assistance through the right way. She attended a prayer meeting where the prayer point given to her was for God to reveal the secret of her problem to her. The prayer point was titled, O Lord, reveal to me secret behind my problem. She had become an ailing person in the spiritual realm. And for her to know what to apply to solve the spiritual problem, she needed a diagnosis’ she prayed a one-hour prayer, from 12 midnight to 1a.m for one hour beloved, she prayed only one prayer point.

Some of us will have to pray a single prayer point 3000 times before we get results, why because the problems have been there for years, with deep root. Many people will require two hundred blows to even make appreciable impact on a problem.

The sister prayed quite aggressively. As she prayed very hard, she saw in a vision, a tall man in white garment who asked her if she was really serious about knowing the secret behind her problems. She answered affirmatively that she would want the angel to reveal the secret behind her problems. The response of the angel was shocking. The angel told her that her parents caused the problem. Both of them were related, they come from the same family and should not have married, but they did, which is an abomination. She found that out at the age of 42.The angel then disappeared, and from the spot where the angel disappeared, a big iroko tree stood therein like a colossus.

 

 

The woman again saw somebody carrying a small baby by the iroko tree, but she didn’t understand it. After that, she couldn’t sleep and by six a.m., she got up and ran to her parents, to confirm whether or not what she saw in her visions were true. To her uttermost surprise, her parents confirmed that they were true. They confirmed that both of them were related, but that they married in error in England. Before they could realize that they were related, they had completed their marriage ceremony. It was an abomination. As if that was not enough, the parents of the sister also confirmed that they cut the hairs of the sister when she was a baby in England and consequently sent it to Nigeria to be deposited by an Iroko tree. Storms indeed! If you are in such storms, l pray that the storms will be paralysed today in Jesus’ name.

 

THE ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH WE FIND OURSELVES COULD BRING IN STORMS

So many people are in the wrong environment. God had wanted them somewhere else but unfortunately they are in another place.

An environment influence could put the lid on somebody’s progress and the person may not be able to move as expected. You will notice beloved, that if you are the type that is very diligent in listening to testimonies, that some people’s progress die as soon as they move into some houses.

 

STORMS COULD COME FROM EVIL INFLUENCE

Without doubt, many people have unfriendly friends who ignorantly consider as reliable people, but they are not. They are enemies in disguise and can therefore influence a person for evil. Storms could readily come from them.

 

STORMS COULD COME FROM SOMEBODY’S DESTINY 

There is a divine destiny for everyone and at the same time, there is satanic destiny. Many people follow satanic destiny as a result of the evil things that the devil has planned for them.

 

THE STORMS OF LIFE COULD BE SELF INFLICTED

This is when the person involved is the one causing his or her problems. I can never forget the story of my friend a man of God, who found out that he was not making much progress. So he prayed aggressively saying, O Lord I want you to deal with my enemies, disgrace, paralyze and destroy them and send fire thunder and brimstone to them in the name of Jesus. He prayed aggressively with there days dry fast. Something happened on the third day, he just felt a whip lashing at his back, he was happy for he thought that God had brought him whip to deal with the enemies. He told the spirit of God to use the whip against the enemy and not on him. Before he could finish saying the prayer he had another round of beating. Then he screamed out saying, why are you whipping me? Only then did the voice of God speak to him, telling him that he was his enemy, causing problems for himself.

There are some people like that who are waging war against themselves. They have simply decided to wage war against themselves. Imagine someone who cannot manage one wife going ahead to marry seven of them, war! Out of the seven wives three are witches, two are from the water and only one is attending church. The other one does not even know where she belongs.

 

 

THE STORMS OF LIFE COULD COME FROM SPIRITUAL ANTAGONISM

 

People can be antagonized spiritually. Many of our educated people are so naïve and they just feel that as long as they do not offend anybody, nothing can harm them. How wrong they are?

The decision of anybody to make progress is enough to warrant the antagonism of the evil powers. The only people who don’t have enemies are those who are aimless and without any purpose in life.

One other fact, which must be understood, is that as long as anyone is born of a woman must have enemies. Jesus himself had enemies .The only problem was that His enemies made a mistake by nailing Him to the cross.

 

SATANIC STORMS COULD COME FROM CURSES AND EVIL CONVENANTS

A lot of people are operating under wicked burden of curses and covenants. Curses could run within a family for decades on end. Such curses and covenants can mar, destroy and paralyse the prayers of many generations.

If a curse or evil covenant is on the marital life of a family, both the men and women of that family will find it difficult to marry.

Strong curses and covenants can limit people’s advancement and can really stop them at the edge of their breakthroughs.

 

ANOTHER SOURCE OF STORMS IS THROUGH HOUSEHOLD WICKEDNESS

By the time you remove household wickedness from the problem of the Blackman, he has only about 10% of the problems left.

This is what the devil has been using beloved, to wage war against people. When the storms come money cannot help.

The American man called Rocky feller was so rich; he could buy up a whole city. But he got to a stage in his life when the only thing he could eat was cracker biscuit and milk. Although he was prosperous, but in reality he was poor.

A person could have millions in the bank but if he has cancer, he is poor indeed! The cancer will eliminate him and render everything he has useless.

 

 

SYMPTOMS

So if you are reading this message and you find that things are happening that you cannot explain, you should silence the storms today.

If you find that instead of going forward, you are going backward, there is a storm to silence.

If you notice that those who do not merit success are excelling more than you and you the superior man is being made inferior, there is a war to fight.

If you notice that you have a fresh problem that is becoming stubborn and does not want to go away, then you have a battle to fight.

When men who should be winners are failing, then there is battle to fight.

When somebody is being governed by powers contrary to his or her will, there is battle to fight.

When a brilliant student sometimes becomes dull during examination there is a battle to fight.

When a normally happy person becomes unhappy, there is a battle to fight.

When an obedient child becomes suddenly disobedient, there is a battle to fight.

 When a rich person is suddenly turning poor, there is battle to fight.

 

When you are being enslaved by a habit, that you cannot control, there is battle to fight.

 

If you fail to receive divine revelations concerning your life and you don’t even know what God wants you to do, then there is a battle to fight.

 

But when you are fighting the battle and silencing the storms, the wrong people to go to is what the Bible called wolves.

 

A lot of people take the battle of their lives to wolves.90% of those who go to church in this country, to the best of my knowledge, need deliverance. Christians need deliverance more than anyone else. So many people believe that deliverance is for witches and wizards alone. I must state with all emphasis that the deliverance of witches and wizards are easier than deliverance from the spirit of fornication. Somebody who is fornicating has sexual problems and to deliver such a person is more difficult than the deliverance of a witch.

Deliverance is a spiritual process by which you can remove the entire ladder through which the enemies climb into your life. When you clear the ladder they cannot come again.

When l was teaching in the University, I counseled a particular lady to go for deliverance because she needed to. She refused to listen to me particularly as she claimed to be born again.

Then something happened, she failed all her papers. Then she rushed to me to help her in any way l could. But as l was trying to find out how she could be helped, she started giving me startling revelation. She said she was planted into that university to initiate people because of the closeness of the place to the sea.

 

But when she got to the campus, she found the gospel very interesting and she started to attend the Christian meetings. She enjoyed the choruses, the Bible study and everything going on there. She got born again quiet all right. But the deeply entrenched things in her life needed to be removed.

Being born again is a doorway towards being completely delivered and not deliverance itself.

If you notice that things are happening to you, that you cannot explain, like having strange dreams, eating and committing immorality in the dream, travelling to places you don’t understand, then you know there is a battle to fight.

 

WHAT DO YOU DO TO SILENCE SATANIC STORMS?

 

 1.GET BORN AGAIN

The first thing to do is to give your life to Jesus. It is for you to come to the realization that you need the saviour and for you to give your life to him. And from that day, He will become the Lord of your life.

So if you are reading this message and you have not given your life to Jesus, do so now, going to church alone cannot make you a born again Christian. If you don’t take the first step, any other step you take will not work.

 

2. KNOW THE ORIGIN OF THE STORM

If you don’t know the origin of what you are fighting against, you will not succeed. You indeed have to understand where the storm is coming from.

 

3. GET TO KNOW JESUS CHRIST

He is the Master of the storms, be close to Him. And when this happens, you will be able to face the storm.

4. LEARN SPIRITUAL WARFARE

Wars are fought and won in the spirit, before the physical manifestation. It is the spirit that controls the physical. Once you solve it in the spirit, it is going to be okay.

We use the weapon of prayer to pull down strongholds. I will like to tell you that prayer is a hard work, and you will discover why as you read on.

There are three heavens; the second heaven belongs to the devil and his angels. The first heaven is that firmament that we can see. While the third heaven belongs to God, that is where paradise is. When we pray, our prayers have to go up, passing through the headquarters of evil, before getting to the third heaven. When the answers are coming too, they have to pass through this headquarters of evil before reaching us. So this is why prayer is hardwork.

A lot of hindrances against peoples’ prayers happen at that level. Brother Daniel prayed for 21 days and his prayers were answered right on the first day, but here in the second heaven, there was a temporary seizure of the answers to his prayers. But he persisted in prayer for 21 days, if he had stopped, that would have been the end of the miracle. He continued bombarding the place, until there was an outlet and he got what he wanted from the Lord.

So prayer is hardwork. Nothing can stop the power of well-targeted aggressive prayers done in violent faith. that is why when the devil wants to destroy a person, he starts by paralyzing the prayer life. Once the prayer strength is taken away, all other things are easy to take away. Let me share this testimony with you.

At a meeting l attended, there was a sister who had never done any menstruation at the age of 37.At that age, she had not experience what she supposed to have started as a teenager. But at that meeting, a prayer point was called that every power of evil load should carry their load in the name of Jesus. The woman prayed hard and after going through a vision in which an angel of the Lord assisted her, the owner of the evil load, which was a dead woman, carried her evil load. Almost immediately blood started trickling down the legs of the sister.

God is still very much in the business of silencing satanic storms and restoring the blessings.

But you must persist in prayer. I urge you therefore to pray the following prayer points with violent faith and divinely inspired aggression.

 

PRAYER POINTS

Lay your right hand on your head as you pray the following prayer points.

1.      I fire back every arrow of the enemy in the name of Jesus.

2.      Every owner of evil load, carry load now in the name of Jesus.

3.      I refuse to serve my enemies in the name of Jesus.

4.      Every serpent and scorpion delegated against me, l trample upon you in the name of Jesus.

5.      I command every evil pronouncement targeted against my life to fall to the ground and die in the name of Jesus.

6.      I command every evil pronouncement targeted against my life to fall to the ground and die in the name of Jesus.

7.      I paralyse every strongman walking against my progress in the name of Jesus.

8.      Every household wickedness lose your hold in the name of Jesus.

9.      I pursue, I overtake and I recover my properties from the hands of household wickedness in the name of Jesus.

10.  Every spirit of infirmity go back to your sender in the name of Jesus.

11.  Every satanic traffic warden diverting good things from me, be paralysed in the name of Jesus.

12.  I destroy all my personal Jericho in the name of Jesus.

 

  

VOMITTED BY GOD

Dr.D.K. Olukoya

 

Beloved, l thank God for the opportunity He has given you to read this message. One thing is certain; you are not reading this message by accident. God has specially prepared it for you at this end time, in order for you to sit up and remain in Him.

Do you want to remain in God or do you wish that He should vomit you? Well, the choice is yours. I trust the Holy Spirit to minister to you through this message, so that anything that makes you or can make you a candidate to be vomited by God will be taken away once and for all.

The main Bible passage for this message is taken from the book of

 

Revelation, Chapter3v15-16. It reads thus: “l know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot. I will spew thee out of my mouth”

 

We are all supposed to be what the Bible calls a living sacrifice. There is a difference between a dead sacrifice and a living one. A sacrifice is something you put on the altar and offer unto God. But a living sacrifice is someone who is on the altar of God.

Although the person is still alive, he is dead unto God that is what we call a living sacrifice. God is saying that there are certain people that he would vomit. Let us consider those things that can be vomited naturally. You can only vomit what you have not digested. Whenever you eat food, your stomach is meant to grind it into tiny pieces and absorb it. Once that has happened to a particle of food, there is no way it can be vomited again. It has become part of the body. You can only vomit what your body system has not digested.

Vomited people therefore are people who refused to be digested by the Lord Jesus Christ. When you are digested in the intestine of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will automatically be transformed into Jesus. Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless yet l am living. But the life I am living now is not me again but Jesus living in me.” So in order to remain in Jesus, you must leave everything and become like Jesus.

 Beloved, the truth of the case is this, the last days are approaching and we must take adequate steps to hinder the progress of the enemies in our lives, by allowing God to digest us thoroughly and completely. I want you to look back at your spiritual life right now. Maybe you have been praising yourself that you are working hard with praise worship alone. Unfortunately, these days, many preachers are now emphasizing that nothing else should be done apart from praise worship. I have even heard somebody say that the service should be 90% praise worship and the remaining 10% for the collection of offering. They have forgotten that worship from an unclean lip is an abomination to God. It will even make God angry the more. Praise from the hearts full of adultery or hearts filled with pride smells badly in God’s nostrils.

 They have also forgotten that sinners holding the banners of God with hands filled with sin are nothing more than rebels. You cannot grow spiritually if you just shout and praise. Neither can you experience any spiritual advancement if you do not feed on what the Bible calls the bread of life.

 The bible talks about sins that easily beset us. A lot of people usually wonder why evil should happen to them as believers. The truth is in the spiritual world nothing evil happens when there is no ladder through which the evil can enter in to a place or person.

 One of the best ladders the enemies use to get into people’s life is found in the book of John Chapter 8Verse44. It is one of the major reasons why God finds it difficult to digest and swallow some people and thus has to vomit them. It says, “Ye are of your father the devil, the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own for he is a liar and the father of it” Hebrew Chapter12:1 says “Wherefore seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witness, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily best us and let us run with patience the race that  is set before us”

 I want you to think about it very well. The verses that we have just read show us that many lives would incur God’s trouble and wrath and therefore will not be digested by Him, because somewhere inside that life, there is some falsehood residing there in. Lying and stealing, no matter how well polished they are, are both seen by God and the devil.

A person may ask God to prepare him or her a sanctuary. However, they have not realized that God does not dwell in sanctuaries built with lies.

 In the book of John Chapter 4verse24, one of the most important verses in the bible, you can in fact call it the summary of the Bible which says that God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth. It therefore follows that God can only be reached and worshipped by spiritual and truthful people. Unfortunately, this verse has not succeeded in penetrating into the lives of many Christians in spite of it’s deep meaning.

 There are so much half-truths and dishonesty in the world today, even among believers in the house of God. Money has made truth a scarce commodity. The truth you need to know is this: that the purpose of God cannot be carried out in the lives of people who are dishonest. God cannot do any thing useful with anybody who practices any form of lying,  whether or not, it is domestic, spiritual, business or diplomatic lies. God will do nothing with such people rather, He would vomit them.

Many who are professing to be Christians are fake believers because they possess lying, hypocrisy and deceit in abundance. This sometimes makes one to wonder whether or not they are fully converted. Sometimes even unbelievers will look  at some Christians and say ‘and you call yourself a Christian carrying Bible, look at you telling lies, useless person. If a fellow human being could say that to you what do you think God will record in His book?

 It gets me scared and worried that the conversion and the eventual rebirth of so many people have not terminated sins in their lives. Many truly do not know what they are doing.

When Abraham told lies, little did he know that the act would spread to his son? Isaac also told the same type of lie. He did not know that the repercussion of those lies would be so great. Then his wife Rebecca deceived him too by lying to him that Jacob should be sent away so that he would not marry heathen women. The same wife taught Jacob to deceive his father. Then at old age the sons of Jacob deceived him as well. Jacob started his own life with deceit. He thought he was being smart. He stole his brother’s birthright by deception. Then the repercussion started, when he went to work, his employer treated him with dishonesty and deceived him into marrying the wrong wife.

Every lie and every deception that you practiced will build up trouble for you in the future. Every dishonest notice, thought and action, would build up trouble for you.

 God can look at a person straight in the face and know whether there is any falsehood in his or her life. if there is any, He would vomit such a person! And once God vomits a person, the person becomes something to be trampled upon by witches, wizards and all kinds of demons.

 Remember Judas, he also cast out devil and healed the sick. He was one of those who came back and said to Jesus that the devil was subject to us in your name. Jesus in response said, don’t rejoice because the devil is subject to you in my name. But rejoice because your name is written in book of life. So Judas’ name was in that book originally, it was removed. Why? He fell out through deceit, lying, theft and hypocrisy.

Remember Balaam, he too was a prophet, but he was covetous and this put him into trouble.

 Remember Samson, he too was used but he got covetous and got killed as a result.

We need to cry out to God asking him to create a new heart within us. In saying this you must be honest with yourself. God likes honest people.

When Jesus healed the blind man, who had been blind since he was born, the Pharisees and the scribes didn’t so much like the healing act, particularly as they could not work any miracles. Although they tried to shut up the man who got healed, it was all to no avail as the man shouted and confessed and confirmed the healing the more. The man was honest with himself. A lot of Christians are not honest. They don’t pray honest prayers and they don’t come to God the way they are. That songwriter said, “Just as l am without anything, this is me”. Expose yourself to God.

 When you refuse to expose yourself to God and you cover up deceit, you are planning to be vomited by Him. You must recognize any trait of falsehood in every area of your life.

You must not be the kind of Christian who goes about with a smiling face, but deep down within, you have an axe in the heart. You must carry out the necessary restitution today concerning your lies, deception, pretence and dishonesty. Cry to God to be delivered from them. This is the time to repent and get out of this kind of life, for no secret is hidden before God. You can hide something from the Pastor or your parents because they are human beings and cannot see everything. But a day is coming when no secret shall be hidden. If you think nobody sees you, then you are deceiving yourself.

 Unbelievable things have happened to people who are supposed to be standing for the truth. So, it’s no time to boast. The Bible says we don’t have confidence in the flesh. It must die because it is not going to heaven. It is not interested. Why does it not want to make it? It is because a curse has been placed upon it. “Dust thou art, and unto the dust thou shall return” So it knows where it is going already. Most people don’t know where they are going. Perhaps you are in the habit of saying the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Have a re-think today.

 Sometime ago l was preaching the message called “the wicked shall bow” l said that three boys went to the farm with their father, who happened to be a thief. He was in the habit of stealing farm products from other people’s farms. But before he would start any operation, he would ask his three sons to stand at strategic points in order to warn him of anyone coming towards the palace. One day, as soon as he sent the boys to watch for him, his youngest son whispered to him that the man should look for someone who would watch God. You may think you are holy but God who sees you and will expose you in due time. There are people who come to MFM but don’t know where they are yet. There is no secret that can be covered in this place no matter how deceptive or hypocritical you are. There is no secret that can be covered permanently. At the end of the day, something will push you out and you will be making mistakes that will expose you. You are not here to help the place to grow.

If you have been trying to cover up with lies, you must repent. Have you lied to others in order to cover your sins? Then you must repent. Have you exaggerated the blessings from the Lord in order to exalt yourself?

There are some people who turn themselves to permanent prophets or prophetesses. Anytime you meet with them they will say the Lord gave me a message, the Lord gave me a vision or the Lord gave me a revelation. Meanwhile this same person that is speaking is a heavy sleeper. But in order to sound spiritual and have a lot of respect, he would say, l receive a word from the Lord-deception.

 Are you living above your experience? Do you pray high sounding prayers, but you are a jelly inside? Maybe you are even struggling with lust, adultery and hypocrisy inside of you, although people are praising God for you but you are nothing. Have you destroyed documents that you know can implicate you when you know you are guilty? Are you the kind of person who will put your tax from down and it four or seven children that you don’t have on it? Do you also state that your parents who are long dead are alive and are your dependants? Lies hypocrisy and deceit.

 Why Should you call yourself a Christian when you cannot tell the truth as it is? If you have grown spiritually, you will find it difficult to tell a lie. Infact, you will require an extra effort to do so. Liars cannot flow in the spirit of God. The reason is simple: two things cannot flow at the same time. One must stop flowing for the other. Your lies must stop flowing so that the Holy Spirit can flow. Maybe somebody has been trying to commit sin with you and you have resisted the person’s advances to a great length, but surprisingly you received the hampers the person sent to you. If you have done that, then you have taken to deception, lies, hypocrisy, half-truths and God cannot do but vomit you.

 Many Christians are ready to tell lies whenever it is anything concerning money and their temperature will rise wildly too.

Do you cheat and tell lies in your place of work? Do you take bribes to perform your duty? Or do you take bribe for a duty performed? All these are bad before God, who sent His son to shed His blood to save you from falsehood and half-truths.

 All those that God have entrusted with spiritual responsibilities and gifts should beware and be very careful. A lot of people have turned God’s gifts to something they can use to manipulate others and control them. God will judge them with greater severity.

 If God had deposited a gift in your life, and you are using it to control others in a bad way then you are preparing yourself for God’s wrath. He will judge you severely. A lot of people have been manipulated terribly by some funny churches and so-called priests, prophets, prophetesses etc before they realized the truth.

 Mountain of fire and Miracles has so many enemies because it is a do-it-yourself ministry. People who are taught what to do without necessarily carrying themselves on the ladder of just one man. Even if the Pastors are not around people will know what to do to solve a particular problem. It is hypocrisy to claim that you believe in something when it is not so. Once God has promised you a particular thing, doubting it, is saying that God is telling you a lie.

 The book of Numbers Chapter 23Verse 19, says that “God is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man that He should repent, hath he said, and shall He not do it? Or hath He spoken and shall not make good”

 So those who take their stance on what God has said, focus on it and they keep confessing it. They refuse to focus on the circumstances. In the midst of challenging circumstances and open turbulence that is so obvious to sight and reason, they are confessing the words of God. To such people, the promise of God will eventually come to pass. But if they fail to do, then nothing happens and they make God a liar. If you don’t tell lies but you doubt God, you are lying against Him. Faith will believe God. Faith is not moved by circumstances, what the eyes can see or by the number of reasons put forward for failure or with obstacles that are on the way. Faith will damn the consequences and will speak the truth. However, doubt will disbelieve the Lord. It will question the Lord. Doubt will agree with your physical eyes and with the opinions of your fellow human beings. It will not only believe and fear circumstances, it will lie against God. It overthrows God’s promises and withdraws from God’s chosen way.

 Are you a doubter? If yes, then you are a  liar, for you claim to have confidence in God forever, whereas you are not. You must be free from all sorts of lies, deceit, pretence and hypocrisy.

In the church where l used to be for many years, they used to call a prayer point every Sunday that we should confess both hidden and open sins. Sin is sin, whether it is open or hidden. Infact a person can stand at a spot and commit twenty sins without leaving the place and without touching anything. He commits them in his heart. We have to be free from all these.

 Are you committing adultery or fornication? Then you must repent at once because the services of such believers can neither bless God nor advance His kingdom. If you have once fallen into immorality with anyone, why are you still visiting the person or receiving letters from the person in order to invite evil again? If you live in immorality while doing God’s work you are exposing yourself to danger. You could die untimely because you could be fired with an arrow and would not understand.

Know this fact, even if your hypocrisy is a decent one, the devil can still see through it. You are just like somebody staying in the light that can be easily spotted or seen by a person hiding in the dark. It is indeed a terrible thing to become the devil’s prey. The result is hell fire. This is place you can go by choice.

 Jesus spoke about hell fire more than any other persons in the Bible. He warned us about the place because he does not want us to go there. So any Christian who goes to hell fire is a trespasser because it is not a place for believers. The Bible says it is for the devil and his angels. Why should l go to the place when Jesus promised me mansions in His father’s house?

Perhaps you are the kind of believer who is busy kissing and petting the person you are not married to. You will do yourself a world of good to run for your dear life by pulling out today because you are terribly polluting your spiritual life.

 Do you create fake reasons to enable you visit a place simply because you want to see somebody of the opposite sex? You have to repent immediately. This is why at MFM, we are very strict about people going to people’s houses to hold meetings. When brethren pack themselves and say they are going to the house of an unmarried sister to hold a night vigil, they are digging their graves. They have to repent immediately.

 Are you the kind of person who enjoys embracing and always sitting close to the opposite sex, who is not your wife or husband? Then you must repent.

 Are you the kind of sister who pretends to the person who wants to marry you that you are a virgin when you are not? All the l love you, l love you, whereas all you are doing is to be looking out for somebody else who is better and if a better person comes, you will throw away your long time partner just like that.

 Sisters are you in the habit of turning down offers of marriage simply because the men proposing to you do not have cars, colour Televisions, video tape recorders etc.?

 Are you disobeying God in any area of your life?

 Remember that at the end of the day, salvation is an individual affair. There is a no corporate salvation. God will sort you out and judge you separately. He will not judge people en-masse. No, God’s judgement would be done on individual basis. The wife would stand separately and the husband would stand separately and the children would stand separately to face God’s judgement. There would be no calendar and neither would there be no calendar and neither would there be night or day, so nobody would sleep on that day. Everybody would be there. Think about it.

 Is there anyone you have not forgiven from the bottom of your heart? If you will thread the path of life today, you should go to that person not minding the fact that the person is younger or older than you. Forgive the person, and tell the person what he or she is wrongly. Please be sincerely emphatic in saying. l forgive you.

 Are you the kind of person who tried to give a false impression of how much you pray? You will say in fancy, I'm just from the mountain where l did seven days dry fast, infact in two weeks time, l will be going to the mountain to do three days dry fast.

Do you pray in order to impress people? Or are you the kind of person who will try to use flowery language to impress people?

 A lot of people put themselves into problems during their weddings. They know that they don’t have enough money, yet they will rent a video man, camera man and also borrow money to print pamphlets, forgetting that everyone they owe will chase them from pillar to post to collect their money. Why do you have to borrow a Mercedes Benz car for your wedding and after that Saturday, you are back at the bus stop, deception for a few  hours.  

 Are you  saying that God should provide money for his work even when you refuse to contribute your own money? That is deception at its greatest height.

 Are you asking God to do something you do not believe that He can do? Or are you just guessing or hoping that perhaps by chance, God will answer your prayers?

 Do you make promises to somebody that you will intercede for the person in prayers, even when you know that you will not do it?

 Are you the type of Christian who will eat more than your belly can take and then end up asking somebody to pray on anointing oil for you to drink?

 Know that the end of all these things that you may be smiling at is hell fire.

If you call your brother a thief, you are liable to judgement.

Perhaps you have been saying that you will get to heaven by the skin of your teeth. No you will only get there if you plan to be there.

 Are you the kind of person who hides your food from visitors, or are you in the habit of inviting people to come and eat in a manner that will make them to decline the offer?

Are you the kind of person who will secretly eat and will pretend to be fasting and will join those fasting, in prayers although you fed yourself before you got there.

 Are you the kind of person who wastes time on important issues?

 Are you a lazy person in the spirit?

Do you intentionally waste time in order to reduce the time you spend with the Lord?

 Do you spend time in self pity and self defence?

 Are you the kind of Christian who replaces your prayer time with Christian novels and magazines?

Are you the kind of child who will go to his or her parent and require more money than is necessary?

Are you the kind of person that will forget to pay tithe?

Are you the kind of person who is always writing personal letters with the envelopes of your employers?

 Do you borrow money when you have money in your own account?

 Are you the kind of Christian who will remove spoons, towels etc. from hotels or hotels where you lodge?

 Do you have anything at home that you stole from your place of work? Then you are a thief.

Do you tell someone in need that you are broke whereas you have money?

Our love for money should be watched.

 You slept under the chair in your friends’ house, but the next morning you went to a hotel and arranged for a bill of five thousand naira. This is the reason why some are not blessed, because there is no much deception and false money in their pockets.

 If you are overpaid, do you return the extra?

 Or are you like that brother, who boarded a bus and found two fifty naira notes under the seat and started praising the Lord instead of returning it?

 Do you use another person’s car for ‘Kabu-kabu’ (Taxi) without his or her knowledge?

 Do you prophesy to some people based on the information you have on them?

Are you sending enough materials to your bank in Heaven so that when you get there you will have enough materials to build?

 

Are you planning to give tomorrow what you can give for the Lord’s work today?

 

Do you cover up your mistakes with lies?

Do you feel okay when one knows that you have made a mistake?

 

Are you the kind of Christian who fails to keep his or her quite time everyday?

Or you are fond of making fake promises to people?

 

Anyone engaged in what l have been explaining since cannot be said to be worshipping the Lord in truth. They are worshipping the Lord in deception and ?Jesus said that such people are of their father the devil, who is a liar and the father of it.

 Hiding your weaknesses and failure is deception.

Telling a story as if it happened in your presence is deception.

All the superficial and meaningless confessions and repentance is deception.

All the pretence to look quiet and holy so that people will say you are a quiet person and a holy man is deception.

 Doing things by eye service or making a show is deception.

 When you find it difficult to come and worship the Lord your God because you wore the same dress last Sunday, is deception.

Imitating and copying other people’s tongue is deception.

Refusal to return things like Christian books and cassettes that people lend to you is deception.

Somebody gave you twenty prayer points to pray, instead of you to pray them, you just read them through in one breath, it is deception.

 All these are lies, dishonesty and hypocrisy.

God is calling you to repentance, if you know that you are not worshipping the Lord in truth, it is time for you to cry to the lord.

 Listed below are the steps to take.

 

1. Recognise that there are some falsehood in your life.
2. Write down each of them
3. Confess and forsake every lie.
4. Carry out the necessary restitution.

 

Talk quietly to God and say, “Oh Lord, bring up in my mind areas where truth is not complete”, so that you will remember them all.

Tell God to uproot those things that easily beset you especially in areas where you lack control.

Another big truth is this, a lot of Christians are thieves.

When you pick up things that do not belong to you, it is stealing. When you dip your hand into another person’s pocket, even if he is your father or your husband or wife and you remove the person’s money without his or her knowledge, it is stealing.

When you deceive people into buying things from you, it is stealing.

And one of the tragic things happening in the world now, is that thieves sit in judgement over others.

A lot of people are stealing because of unbelief. They do not believe that God can provide for them.

A person who is stealing is a covetous person who is not satisfied with what he has.

Some people are stealing from God, and some from their fellow men, while some are stealing from themselves.

You steal from God, when you rob Him of the glory due to Him.

When you are boasting about your spiritual achievements, how rich or influential you are or how intelligent you are, as if you manufactured your brain yourself, then you are robbing God of the glory due to Him.

When the Lord has done something for you and you refuse to give the testimony, you are giving the glory to the devil.

Another person who steals from God is the person who doesn’t pay his tithe.

Stealing from God is a very common sin. Anybody who can steal from God can steal from anyone.

Many have forgotten about honouring the Lord with the first fruit of their offering.

Many Christians bookshops now sell the free Bibles and literature books they received free abroad.

 

Beloved, we really need to cry unto the Lord today, because falsehood has robbed us of so many things. The Bible says that they that worship the Lord must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Are you worshipping the Lord in truth? If you call yourself a man or woman of God, how well are you doing His work? This   is a serious matter.

In your prayers, talk seriously about yourself to the lord. Think about it, do you want the lord to vomit you? He will vomit the person who is going about with half-truth.

Lay your hands on your chest and confess any falsehood in your life to the Lord.

The Bible says that, “false balance is an abomination to the Lord”

Maybe you have been operating false balances or proving to be over spiritual, but you know that within you, there is pollution in the heart.

Do not pretend, be open before the Lord.

If there be any unclean thing, tell him to bring it to the open so that you can confess it to Him.

Tell Him you will not leave His presence, until he does something that will be permanent in your life.

 

Pray the following prayer points with all your might.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.      O Lord, anything that will make you to vomit me, remove it from my life completely.

2.      All the problems that falsehood has brought into my life begin to depart now in the name of Jesus.

3.      Create a new heart within me, O Lord.

 

  

       THE SEVEN WASHES

         Dr D.K.Olukoya

 

Have you ever prayed to God for several days to get a problem solved and the problem still stood like a colossus? Have you ever felt that the healing you sought after eluded you or perhaps came slowly than expected? Have you ever felt that God cannot perfect things that concern you in record time? If your answers to these questions are No, then the Lord wants to speak to you through this message. My beloved, I wish therefore that you open your minds and let this message dwell deeply in you. I am trusting God to open your understanding. The title of this message is called, “The seven washes”. In order to understand this message clearly, we shall draw our illustration from the bible. Our passage for this discourse is found in

 

2kings5: 1-16

“Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper”.

2 Kings 5:2

    “And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife”.

    2 Kings 5:3

  “  And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy”.

   2 Kings 5:4

“ And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.”

  2 Kings 5:5

“ And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment”.

 2 Kings 5:7

   “ And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me”.

   2 Kings 5:8

  “  And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel”.

   2 Kings 5:9

  “  So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha”.

2 Kings 5:10

“ And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean”.

 

 

2 Kings 5:11

    “But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper”.

2 Kings 5:12

   “ Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage”.

 

2 Kings 5:13

   “ And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?”

2 Kings 5:14

  “  Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”

  

2 Kings 5:15

  “  And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant”.

  

2 Kings 5:16

   “ But he said, As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused”.

 

  

From this passage, we learnt that Naaman dumped his leprosy in River Jordan. In verse 27 of the same chapter, 2 Kings 5:27

    “The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow”.

 

    We read that Gehazi, the servant of the man of God picked back that leprosy. The unexpected happened because Gehazi wanted the money that his master refused. He was hell bent on receiving the money and so decided to tell a lie to get it.

 

There are so many outstanding lessons to learn from this passage. According to Luke 4:27, “And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian”.

 

Elisha never healed any other leper in Israel apart from Naaman. Although Naaman was a great man, nonetheless his burden became both the rich and the poor to him. He was a burden in his town nobody then would like to rub skin with him. All his greatness could not solve his problem. It must be understood therefore, that every man has some “buts” in his life, but the severity of “the buts” vary.

 

According to the bible passage we are considering, one little girl was taken from Israel to Syria as a slave. But as small as she was, she did unto forget her God, and she remembered also where she came from. She told the people at home where she was serving as a slave that if their master were in Israel, he would have been healed of his leprosy. That vital information got to the knowledge of Naaman. When Naaman then knew that he could be healed somewhere, he took a step, which turned out to be a wrong step. He went to the wrong source the king of Israel.

 

When you think about it. What he did look a bit logical. He felt that if the leprosy could be healed in lsreal, then those who would do it should be under the king. And so, if they were under the king, then the king who was ruling over them could do it faster. He went to the wrong source just as many people are doing today. He equated spiritual power to kingly authority. He didn’t know that a king over human beings is not necessarily a king over demons. He didn’t also know that the devil has no regards for academic qualifications or positions.

 

Thank God that we Christians have the best life insurance policy. We don’t need to hide charms under our clothes while moving about on the streets.

 

I could remember what a friend of mine who is a Medical doctor told me some time ago. He said that one of our big politicians came to his clinic with his friend to check their blood pressure. After the Medical doctor had checked the blood pressure of the Politician’s friend, but the doctor was amazed when the friend of the politician insisted that he wouldn’t submit himself for checking until he has deposited what he had in his pocket into his car.

The doctor was quite puzzled at what he heard. Anyway the man went back to the car and promptly discharged all the amulets and everything he had on him so as not to kill the poor doctor with fear. Thereafter, he submitted himself to the doctor. We don’t have to go about doing that. Naaman after being healed, tried like many people today to pay for his miracle. Naaman and his entourage carried gifts to Israel. By modern day estimation, they went with nothing less than eighty thousand dollars, an equivalent of four million naira.

 

We see here that we cannot buy God gifts. God is not a businessman who sells spiritual benefits. If you go to someone to pray for you and he demands something from you before praying, know for sure that God is not there.

 

The Bible says in Romans 8:32 that “he that spared not His own son, but delivered Him for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

 

Now, Naaman almost lost his miracle because he wanted to dictate to God on how He should perform the miracle. You cannot teach God how to work. His own ways and methods are far glorious. Naaman got to know that he did not have to see the man of God physically before he could receive a miracle.

 

He learnt the lesson that hymn writer wrote a long time ago, the hymn says: In some way or the other, the Lord will provide; it may not be your way; But in His own way. He will provide.

 

He wanted the man of God to come out and lay hands on him. But then, he received the shock of his life. Although he was a whole captain of the Syrian army, the prophet nonetheless did not come out to see him. He sent a message to him at the door saying, go and wash yourself seven times in River Jordan and thou shall be clean. The way God will work your miracle may not be the way you think. The way He will start it may look a fresh problem that is coming.

 

Consider this, when Joseph was imprisoned, it seemed as if fresh problems had started not knowing that the prison was his ticket to the palace.

Again from this passage, we learnt the importance of good advice, not advice from miserable comforters, who would say: your husband said that you? Then you must return fire for fire. Thank God for good advisers. And this servants came near and spake unto him and said my father, if the prophet had bid thee to do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, wash and be cleaned? The servants told him to give it a try and if it did not work then he could have good grounds to go back to the man of God and complain. He gave it a try.

We also learnt from this passage how pride and anger could keep somebody away from receiving miracle. God wanted Naaman to learn some lessons on humility and obedience. He wanted him to learn that He the Almighty God has regard for human greatness. The message that was given to Naaman was express and plain. Go wash in Jordan, seven times. The message says “thou shall be clean” there was no ambiguity, it was a clear statement.

When Naaman came to Israel, he did not expect somebody to talk to him through a servant. He considered it insulting to go and wash in Jordan, a dirty river in Israel, when Abana and Pharpar Rivers of Damascus were better.

 

But God had no appointment with Abana and Pharpar but with Jordan. If God says your healing is in Jordan, it cannot happen somewhere else. The place of your breakthrough is decided by God. Some people will spend fifty years in a place where their breakthrough is not.

 

Eventually, maybe by prayers, as someone intercedes for them, and they find their way to the right place, they would say; l don’t want Jordan, l want Abana and Pharpar.Jordan may not be attractive, but it was the place of God’s appointment. The place of breakthrough may not look attractive, but it’s where the appointment is. Some people say, leave me, all churches are the same, l beg to disagree.

 

All rivers is not Jordan, although they are rivers. When there was drought in Israel, God told Elijah to go to brook Cherith, where he would be fed by ravens. From there, God asked him to go to a place called Zarephath, where a widow would feed him. God was prepared to sustain Elijah in a widow’s house (1kings 17:1-10). God sends many people to Jordan, but they prefer to pick a fine church with air-conditioner, Persian rugs and tinted glasses, thereby heading for Abana and Pharpar.

 

A saint in the wrong place and a sinner in the right place are birds of the same feathers, they will not receive blessings.

 

Psalm125: 5 says: “As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity, but peace shall upon Israel”

 

 Naaman could have washed himself at Abana and Pharpar and be cleansed from body odour or the dirt on his clothes. But to be cleansed from leprosy, Jordan was the appointed river and unto that Jordan he had to go there was no alternative. God does not proffer alternatives. Naaman responded in a rage like all baby husbands and baby wives do and turned to go home. But who would be the loser if you wall out on God because of anger.

 

A man came to our meeting when we were at Old Yaba road. While we were praying the man just opened his eyes like that and was shaking his head wondering what was wrong. He didn’t pray and didn’t seem to follow anything we were doing. He was just shaking his head as if he was feeling sorry for all of us. So when we closed the service, somebody brought him and requested me to attend to the man. I was taken aback because it was that same man who refused to pray during the service. He was angry according to him because there was no good music. But who was the looser?

 

Naaman was a grateful person. When he received his miracle, he went back to thank the prophet but another person went and collected that leprosy from Naaman through covetousness, greed, love for money and what we now call 419.he got two talents of silver from Naaman, but lost his health, honour, peace, service and his calling as a prophet. He also put his offspring into trouble. Let us assume that somebody wants to pray for a leper, who is from the family of Gehazi, such a prayer warrior or pastor won’t achieve much less if he goes back to the curse that Elisha issued upon him.

 

Why was it necessary for Naaman to wash himself seven times? Perhaps it was because seven is the sign of perfection. Perhaps he had seven covenants to break. Perhaps, he had a covenant with the river or perhaps he was living under seven curses. Perhaps there were seven demons in charge of his case. Perhaps his real king lived under that Jordan.

 

Many people are going about with fake bodies, and not the real ones. But certainly, God does not ask anybody to do a useless exercise. Perhaps he had connection with water spirits. But from the scriptures, we know that the number 7 is connected with completeness and perfection.

 

These are the three things the number 7 represents, in the word of God, right from the beginning of the scriptures; God had stamped the number 7 on finishing completing and ending.

 

God finished all His works and rested on the 7^th day. God appointed seven days to the week. The Bible talks about the voice of the 7 angels. It was seven days after Noah and his family entered the ark that the Lord came.

 

Also, before the walls of Jericho could fall down the children of Israel marched around the city seven days and seven times on the seventh day. On the cross, Jesus spoke for seven times on the seventh time he said “it is finished”      

 

Now make the following confession in Psalms 138:8 seven times “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: Thy mercy o Lord endureth for ever; forsake not the works of thine own hands’

 

When the enemy has put various layers of problems on a person, it becomes difficult to see the real person inside. A lot of people are very nice people but because they have layers of problems on them, people see them differently perhaps as wicked souls.

 

A woman used to drag her husband in through the door every night because the man used to return home drunk every night. The man would just manage in one way or the other to get home. A long press of the doorbell and a sudden heavy fall would announce his arrival. From that spot, the wife would drag him in. And that continued, until after a time when the woman thought within herself that the punishment she was meting out to her husband was not working. She therefore decided to go and fight her husband in his office. She went and fought with the husband and made noise in the office so much so that everybody knew that the man always got home late and drunk. So, those who pretended to be friends gathered round and began to blame the man. The wife thought she had done a good job and that would cure him forever. But after that day, for seven days she didn’t see the man again. It was then she knew that the problem is beyond going to shout in the office. She then reasoned that the man had a strange spirit that was trailing him and was therefore messing him up. She was prayerfully determined thereafter to cut off the spirit afflicting him, as all other methods of helping him would not work.

 

Beloved, if you were fighting such a man you are a sinner because he was not responsible for his behaviour. There were forces controlling him. When a force is controlling a person and you are fighting a physical battle with that person then you are a sinner because the person does not what he or she is doing. He or she is under evil influence. The woman understood this and started praying. As she prayed, the Lord stopped her and gave her just one prayer point. The Lord said “Pray that the next drop of beer that he drinks should make him sick and should give him serious stomach” She prayed and soon the husband was rushed home from his beer parlour. The next day, he was up and decided to change his beer parlour thinking someone had poisoned his beer in the former place. As soon as another drop of beer entered his mouth it was like acid dropped in his mouth. He fell down and started rolling on the floor from there, he was brought home and that cured the man for ever.

 

When the enemy captures a man, you can’t see his nice part again. When people have been filled with all kinds of problems a wash in the pool of God may not be enough, such people may need to do several washes before they are made whole.

 

Ordinary human beings have modernized their warfare. There were times when people used to throw stones at one another if they were fighting. if a person broke his enemy’s head, he would then capture such enemy. Later on, man began to fight with machetes and spears. From that, they began to use bow and arrow. Later they discovered that their enemies could dodge and they would have wasted their arrows; and if the person were stronger than they were, they would then be captured as slaves. From there, they improved upon their arms and they started using guns.

 

They fought in the open field where they would see their enemies and their enemies would see them. Later, they began to dig holes in the ground from where they could do their shooting. After a time, people began to use Aeroplane and tanks to fight one another.

The human race has improved warfare against one another. The improvement led them to the invention of missiles. It is now possible to fire missiles accurately at seemingly impossible targets. Our own archaic method of attacking the enemy will not avail against deeply entrenched and cunning enemies we have.

 

Funny enough, many Christians are going about with temporary and shallow defence, which cannot help them. A lot of prayers people prayed in the past were just defensive prayers. There is no defending army that can win any battle. Any victorious or triumphant Army must be on the offensive always.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

 

The reason why the persecution of Saul was so successful and so effective against the apostles was because he went out to meet them. If he had stayed at home, nothing would have happened. You have to resort to deeper tactics.

The fact that Gehazi could pick up that leprosy of Naaman shows that leprosy is a spirit.

So, we must learn a better method of attacking the wise enemies we have. We must learn how to bulldoze our ways into the four worlds where things are happening.

 

In the second heaven there are many spirits that are holding many people in bondage. On earth here, there are all kinds of spirits that operate in the celestial realm, underneath the earth, there are spirits operating there and finally, inside all bodies of water. We must know how to bulldoze our ways into all these four territories and take whatever belongs to us.

 

There is therefore the need to go through seven washes. Damascus means earthly power in greatness. Abana and Pharpar represent the highest manifestation of human power, the highest efficiency known to man.

The Bible has no useless information, Israel in contrast to Damascus means prevailing with the help of the Lord. Jordan means constant pounding. So Jordan flowing through Israel means to engage in constant pounding of the enemy’s position with the prevailing help of the Lord. Many problematic wars will not dissolve until we subject them to constant pounding. Those who are willing to prevail need to receive completeness and breakthroughs. Many problems will not shift until after the seventh bombardment. Now pray with all aggression the prayer points for the week.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. Let the angels of the living God roll away the stone blocking my financial, physical and spiritual breakthroughs in the name of Jesus.
2. I bind every spirit manipulating my beneficiaries against me in the name of Jesus.
3. I remove my name from the book of seers of goodness without appropriation in the name of Jesus.
4. Let God arise and let all the enemies of my breakthrough be scattered in the name of Jesus.
5. Let the fire of God melt away the stones hindering my blessings in the name of Jesus.
6. Let the cloud blocking the sunlight of my glory and breakthrough be dispersed in Jesus.
7. All secrets of the enemy in the camp of my life that are still in the darkness, let them be revealed to me from now in the name of Jesus.
8. All the evil spirit masquerading to trouble me be bound in the name of Jesus.
9. Lord let me not put unprofitable and heavy load upon myself in the name of Jesus.
10. All keys to my goodness that are still in the possession of the enemy. Lord give them unto me.
11. Open my eyes o Lord, and let my ways not get darkened before me.
12. All my sweat on the affairs of my life will not be in vain in the name of Jesus.
13. The pregnancy of good things within me will not be aborted by any contrary power in Jesus name.
14. Lord, turn me to untouchable coals of fire.
15. Lord let wonderful changes begin to be my lot from this week.
16. Lord remove covetousness from my eyes.
17. Lord fill the cup of my life to the brim.
18. Let every power stepping on my goodness receive the arrow of fire of God now in the name of Jesus.

 

 

NEGATIVE ANOINTING

Dr. D.K. Olukoya

 

If you had ever believed that anointing is in the positive form alone, then you have got it all wrong. Much as anointing can be positive, it can also be negative. Anointing therefore is an issue of two extremes: Positive and Negative. The question you may wish to ask then how negative anointing could be defined and identified. How can anointing be negative? Who are the negative anointing carriers? These and all other related questions will be answered in this message.

This topic is therefore very important and l will require you to prayerfully read it because it is what sometimes makes the difference between two people gathered in a place where God pours down his anointing and one person receives while others do not. Quite a lot of people are going about with excess luggage in their bodies, souls and spirits unconsciously. The enemy of their souls knows that if they dare finds out they will fight aggressively. What the enemy does then is to operate secretly. But all such secrets shall be exposed now in the name of Jesus. There are only three sources of power in the universe:

 

THE POSITIVE POWER

The positive or divine power that proceeds from the Almighty God. It is positive and it is divine. It is the first and most powerful source of power. Just in case you are thinking that God has gone on holiday and the devil is now reigning because of your problems, then you are wrong. The positive or divine power is the most powerful. It is creative, it does well and is benevolent, but by no means sparing the wicked.

 

THE NEGATIVE ANOINTING

 There is also the negative or satanic power, that is the power coming from Lucifer and that kind of power is evil. God did not create the devil, God created Lucifer who converted himself to Satan.

 

THE HUMAN POWER

Human power that is the power of man. This human power is a neutral one that can be influenced by the negative or positive one.

Note this: if you have ever consulted a negative power in your life, then you must have some marks acquired somewhere that must be rubbed off.

 

WHAT IS ANOINTING?

Many people have been misled with various forms of definitions. To some, anointing is to blow breeze into the microphone and everybody falls down; that is not anointing in their own definition. We read nothing of this sort about our Lord Jesus Christ, apart from the time He was attacked in the garden of Gethsemane, when He asked his attackers two or more questions and they fell down.

Some people think that anointing is the power to heal the sick and pray for few people that are demonized. But what exactly is the anointing? The anointing is a supernatural equipment that will enable an ordinary human being to achieve supernatural results in what he is doing.

 

It is a divine electric force. The anointing is the power of God on a person which brings sweat less results. It is the supernatural power to produce outstanding results.

 

I want this to be very clear in your spirit. There are may be two believers, with the same faith, experience, talent, resources, exposure and facility yet, their achievements may be miles apart. They may go to the same Bible college, read the same way, be of the same age and have the same amount of exposure but what they will achieve for the Lord would be miles apart. It is anointing that makes the difference.

Anointing therefore, is the expression or the manifestation of the extraordinary power of God’s Holy Spirit in a person’s life.

If you have the anointing of God, then, you will have the divine ability to do a particular thing outstandingly. That is to say that God has supernaturally touched your effort, skill, ability, memory and strength. When God’s touch is upon you, you will begin to operate under such power that cannot be equaled with anything else. It is the way to excellent and sweat less victory. When you receive the Holy Spirit and the rain of God’s power falls upon you, and there is a noticeable increase in the living water in your life, then you have the anointing of the Almighty God.

When the anointing of God falls upon your life, you will break bondages, you will reverse curses and there are certain things that cannot stick to your body again.

There was a big conference that had, morning and evening sessions. The conference boasted of large attendance. During one of the morning sessions, a man had the privilege of singing a special number from Psalm 23. After he had finished singing the Psalm everybody clapped, gave him a loud ovation, and thereafter sat down. In the evening of the same day, an old missionary who had been preaching the gospel for so many years came and sang the same Psalm 23, but with a difference this time. By the time the Missionary finished, everybody was crying. Somebody from the congregation asked him thereafter why everybody was crying while he was singing the song. The man asking the question told the missionary that when another man sang the same song in the morning of that day nothing happened. The response of the missionary to the question was quite brief but adequate. He said the man who sang in the morning knew the Psalm but he the preacher knew the writer. Who then is the writer the Holy Spirit, that is the difference, the anointing.

 

If you take time to read your Bible you will discover those people that were specially anointed by God to do great things. You will do your self a world of good to fish then out from the Bible.

You must know that the enabling power of God to perform supernaturally is in the anointing. In fact, there are counterfeit human beings on our streets now. When you see them, you will mistake them for nice men, women , girls or boys but they are in actual fact the opposite. They are not nice, they are simply satanic agents walking all over the place. The devil always finds a way of producing his own counterfeit. Everything created by God is good but the devil has corrupted some and because of that corruption a lot of people are entering into fresh bondage everyday.

 

In Leviticus 10:12, we read the story of the two sons of Aaron (Nadab and Abihu) Their father was a Priest and it was their duty to sacrifice on the altar, but they offended God and God did not want to know whether their father was a priest or not., He promptly executed them. Leviticus 10:1-2, put it thus; and Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer and put fire therein and put incense thereon and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not to. And there went out fire form the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord” They died before the Lord because they were offering strange fire before the Lord of Hosts. The Lord Himself executed them right there.

 

Beloved, the days have come when those people who are claimed to be filled with the Holy Spirit need to be checked.

 

Many have started to light strange fire before the Lord and it is therefore time to check every situation. The Bible tells us to check every spirit. The devil too can perform magic and he can work false miracles.

 

Do you still remember the story of Moses? Moses threw down his rod and it became a serpent and the magicians too threw down their own and it became a snake. However they lost their rod because the snake of Moses swallow theirs.

The example reveals the degree of the power of satan, that he can imitate some of the gifts of God. Therefore, we must be alert to his deception.

In acts 7:8, one of the most amazing statements in the scriptures was made there: “Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands: as saith the prophets. It therefore follows that no matter how well or beautiful you build your temple, God will not live in it.

 

Acts7:49-50, heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build Me? Saith the Lord: or what is the place of My rest? Hath not my hand made all these things? Believers are regarded as temple. Jesus Himself referred to His body as the temple of God.

 

I wish to say again that God does not live inside the room or the roof, He lives inside man an that temple is your heart.1Cor.3:16 says “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you/” The bible is saying that you are God’s temple. It is sad to know that many Christians who answer Christian names and whose fathers are priest and prophets fall easy prey to the devil. Their Christian Upbringing does not stop the devil from destroying the temple of God in them.

 

It does not prevent the devil from turning the temple of their lives to what is written in Revelation18:2, which says “And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying Babylon the great is fallen is fallen and is become the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird”

It is a pity that such spirit is dwelling in the lives of believers some with thee knowledge, some without knowledge.this is why sometimes it can be very sad when the angels of God pick only one or two people for blessing and miracles in a Christian meeting and others are not blessed because they are strangers in the presence of God. Of such people the devil can say, “l will return to my house” The demons call the body of human beings their houses.

 

What is supposed to be happening in a temple is for God to be there and for the worship of Jehovah to be taken place there because God dwelleth not in temples made with hands. When Jesus said He would raise up the temple in three days if it was destroyed, many did not understand Him, they thought it was a physical temple. However he was talking about the temple of His body.

 

When the worship of Jehovah is taking place in the temple of your life, no dirtiness can reside therein. When the glory of God fills the temple of your life, you don’t even need to paint your body and fingernails to look beautiful. You don’t even need to buy special soap to look lighter, because the glory of God which is in your life will make you radiant. It is when that glory has departed that men look for fake glory. They paint, panel beat, and re-spray their bodies because the glory of God fills your life, no dirtiness can remain there: but if it is filled with unclean things, then the glory cannot fill it. You may cry, jump or do all kinds of things but that temple is still unclean and the glory of God cannot fill it. That is why we have Jesus.

 

Jesus whipped and chased out people trading in the temple in Jerusalem. He knew that without that, blessing, favour, and mercies could not be received from the temple. When Jesus got to the temple at Jerusalem things happened. At the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus was there, the temple was there and the traders were there. The same thing today, Jesus is here now and so is the living word of God. The temple is you, and those traders are the dirty things residing in you.

There are many things that many people don’t understand about the temple of their lives. Have you ever thought about the fact that many people, like the powerful men of God who sometimes commit terrible sins and they will come out and say be healed and the people will be healed.

Why do some prophecy the words of the living God in one minute and the next moment they are abusing and cursing people, yet at the next service they will still prophecy? Why is it that some people pray and the power of God falls upon their lives and some pray and nothing happens? They can sing “anointing fall on me” from morning till night. Yet nothing will happen to them, then they will start vibrating their bodies without anybody touching them. Why? It is because there are strangers in their temples. Why should a child of God exaggerate what he or she has done for the Lord? You preached in the bus and one person gave his life and you went on to broadcast that twenty people gave their lives to Christ. Why do you boast in your power? Why is it that the unclean spirits put evil thoughts  in someone who has taken a decision to pray? He sat down to pray but evil thoughts will not just allow him. Instead of his mind to be calm, it would be wandering about. Why is it that after a hot session of prayers, fear will still be gripping their hearts as if they never prayed? Why is it that after a serious prayer  session, many still queue up saying man of God, woman of God l will require that you lay your hands on me. Why? It is because there are still traders in the temple.

One of the most horrible things that can happen to a person, is for two opposite spirits to operating in that persons life. It is a fearful thing, but it is true. This is what we call negative anointing. When it falls upon a person, the person gets under the influence of another spirit.

There is what we call the anointing of anger. When it falls upon it candidates, the body will be shaking while some will start to stammer

. Some will start to grow wild and violent. Some refuse to be pacified. Yet the same people will pray in tongues and prophecy.there are two spirits within such a person: the Holy Spirit and the Negative spirit. Such people usually box the Holy Spirit in them to a corner. A fearful thing would happen on the judgement day when Jesus would say get away from me you workers of iniquity. It would not matter on that such people had healed and work wonders in Jesus name.

People who would suffer such a fate or punishment would receive it because they refuse to cast away the evil spirit contesting for a place with the Holy Spirit in their lives. If you still have the spirit of anger in you pray to receive deliverance right now in Jesus name.

 

There is the anointing of sexual perversion. When it falls upon a person, he or she becomes senseless. If it falls upon a man, such a man will not even remember that the girl he is making passes at is his wife’s house girl The negative anointing is upon him, so he won’t remember anything again. He will not remember that  he is General Manager or a Professor. He will not even consider that supposing they catch him fornicating with the house help what a shame it would be. No he has forgotten all that because of the negative anointing.

If what you are reading now makes you feel uncomfortable, then you need deliverance. It is the blunt truth when the anointing of sexual perversion falls upon some sisters they will vow to marry even the common hemp smokers. They will vow to change the hemp smokers to a born again man.

 

There is also the anointing of evil speech and foul language. Once it comes upon people they will speak numberless words in minutes, nothing can really bring them under control at that point in time. There are people like that amongst us, disgracing the name of the Lord all over the place. Such people allow stark unbelievers to talk nonsense about the lord.

 

Many people are under the anointing of depression. It therefore explains why such people rejoice for a while, and then become bags of worry the next moment. They praise the Lord for a short time and weep at the next available time. At such a time they are down-cast beyond description.

 

There is also the anointing of bad inspiration. Some people do receive good inspiration and write good music under positive anointing. But the moment a negative anointing descend on them, they will lose control and begin to plan evil things. Unimaginable evil things.

  

There is the anointing of sickness. Many are afflicted with sicknesses on regular basis. Today they are healthy, tomorrow they are not. Regular sickness is therefore their lot. This is nothing but negative anointing. Remember this: God gave us power to be perfect, He made all things perfect and wants us to be perfect.

 

There is also the anointing of gluttony and drunkenness. The body will not just want to rest until it is overfed or until it is drunk.

Apart from this, there is the anointing of addiction. The body just keeps asking for useless things on regular basis. Things like kola nut, coffee, drugs etc. As a matter of fact a person that is afflicted to such things is ready to look out for then even in the middle of the night. There are examples to tell you that you may be a believer with the Holy Spirit dwelling in your spirit and as well possess demons afflicting your body. The affliction is a trader in the temple.

A lot of people would have remained solid in the Lord, if not for traders in the temple. The Holy Spirit has been boxed to a corner in the temple and indeed in the lives of many who have attended many Bible colleges. As a result of this, they will backslide. I hope you know what backsliding means?

Backsliding in the Bible does not mean that you have completely abandoned your faith. No,

 

1.It means standing away from the Lord.

2.It could mean leaving your first love that is leaving the Lord.

3.It could mean departing from the simplicity of the gospel.

4. It could mean spiritual stagnancy, that is to say, you are not growing.

5. it could mean weakness in your regular spiritual exercises.

6. It could mean hypocrisy.

 

It is very sad, beloved but it is true, that there are many people going about with two kinds of spirits in them. It is therefore time for serious examination and violent prayer. You must understand these things. If you see people attending a place of prayer and a place where they preach holiness and they still behave strangely outside, then you can be rest assured that the Holy Spirit in them has been boxed to a corner. There are other spirits in their temple, trading therein and doing very well in the business.

 

In Samuel 10:6 we read about one king called Saul. Saul was not only a king but he was also a prophet. “And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee and thou shalt prophecy with them and shalt be turned into another man. Verse 10 of the same chapter reads “And when they came thither to the hill, behold a company of prophets met him: and the spirit of God came upon him and he prophesied among them” Saul was prophesying. Unfortunately, he was an unstable character, self-willed, envious and of violent temper. Impatience finished him up and eventually, the spirit of the lord departed from him and an evil spirit took over.

 

I Samuel 16:14 Says “But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him” Verse 23 of the same chapter says, “And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed and was well and the evil spirit departed from him” He had temporary relief but the problems were still there. While the evil spirit was tormenting him, the good Holy Spirit was prophesying through him. The spirit of God had the upper hand in Him and that was why he was prophesying. It is for the same reason that you must be careful.

Spiritual inconsistency in your life could open the door to evil spirits and bring about the type of situation that Saul found himself in which two spirits were fighting each other to possess him.

At this point, let me ask you some questions, be faithful in your responses please. It is well with the temple of your life, when you received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, did your life get on fire or are you still your cold self? If you are still your cold self then there are strangers in your temple. When you pray aggressively do parts of your body begin to vibrate or become hot? If so there are strangers in your temple. Are you like some Christians who give long list of prophecies but disobey the prophecy thereafter? For such people two spirits(positive and negative) are controlling their lives. Or are you the type after giving your husband or wife dirty slap at home come to church to pray in the spirit? Do you prophecy the things people have told you instead of what God has told yoou? Were you in a place where you were once employed by your pastor to be prophesying to  her people? Have you ever prophesy fake things for good of your self and of the Pastor who employed you to do the evil job? Are you the type of –person whose ears always make noise and don’t hear anything? God wants to be talking to you, but it seems as if something are blocking your spiritual ears. It is like telephone ringing in your ears, and when you say speak Lord for your servant hearing, then everything goes blank. There are serious strangers blocking you from hearing from God. DO you hear strange ungodly voices asking you to do strange things e.g. jump into the river, cross the road etc.? Then there are strange things, strangers and traders in the temple. DO you have difficulty in reading the Bible? Can you sit down to read the bible for long hours? If you cannot do that, then there are strangers in your life.

 

Do you have more problems now that you want to become serious for the Lord than when you were not? It shows that there are strangers who are afraid  that at the rate which you are going, you will soon slaughter everyone of them, they are afraid. Do you ever go into blackouts and sometimes you don’t remember what happened? Do you experience nightmares? Do you lose self control and after sometime begin to regret, apologise, break down and cry only to fall into the same trouble again? Then there are strangers in the temple.

 

Are you the type of person or secretary who sleeps with the boss in order to retain his/her job? Then serious strangers are in your temple. Are you the type of person who has difficulty in receiving the Holy Spirit? Are you the type of person who is always thinking of committing suicide? Then there are strangers in the temple. How clean or unclean is the temple of your life? Was there any dramatic change since you received the baptism of the Holy Spirit? If you pray seriously does your whole leg and body shake terribly? Why is it that your mind is still on the boyfriend or girlfriend you have left behind? What is keeping the tie in place? Why is it that you, who ought to be boiling and be on fire for God is the  first person that will  get discouraged when there is a small problem? Strangers are undoubtedly in the temple of your life. What I am saying today does not exempt anyone because a lot of people have had the strangers planted in them at birth. You are going to pray now and the prayer must be very aggressive. You must be very determined against these strangers. If you are afraid of violent prayers, then don’t. But if you have decided that if God has something for you such a thing must be given to you then pray against the beggarly powers preventing you from receiving your potentials.

Many lives have been converted to a boxing ring and the good things in such lives have been boxed to some corners and the enemies keep raining blows upon blows on such people. It is time for you to strengthen, that which is at the point of death. Perhaps your problem is that the good things in your life have been boxed to a corner and the enemies have given the good things technical knockout, it is time for the wind of prophet Ezekiel to blow on the good things and for them to come alive again. Therefore very aggressively, you will pray the prayers of the week.

  

PRAYER POINTS

 

1.     Father Lord, let your fire fall on me now, and destroy every negative anointing in my spirit, soul and body in Jesus name.

2.     Father Lord let every negative anointing wall in my life fall now, after the order of the wall of Jericho in the name of Jesus.

3.     Every agent of negative anointing in my life be paralysed with the fire of God in Jesus name.

4.      Lord Jesus, walk back into every second of my life and deliver me from the clutches of negative anointing powers in Jesus name.

5.     Let every anointing that is different from the anointing of the Lord depart from me now in Jesus name.

6.     Father Lord, baptize me with your positive anointing in Jesus name.

7.     Father Lord, let me begin to experience your positive anointing in every area of my life in Jesus name.

8.     Father Lord, let the source of every negative anointing river flowing into my life dry now in Jesus name.

9.     From now henceforth, no evil spirit or negative anointing spirit will share with the Holy Spirit of God.

 

SPIRITUAL ADULTERY

Dr.D.K. Olukoya

 

 My beloved, thank God for the opportunity you have to read this message. The Almighty God has specially prepared this message for you in order to open your spiritual eyes to things, which irritate Him. Much as He does not want you to be involved in any way with physical adultery, He detests very strongly too you involvement with spiritual adultery. I want you to open your mind as you read this message and the Almighty God that cannot lie will bless your spirit soul and body mightily in Jesus’ name. In considering the topic called spiritual adultery, we shall be examining certain scriptures. Let us first of all consider

 

1John 2:15-17: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, if any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world the lust of flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof; but he that doesth the will of God abideth forever”

 

From the passage above, we can establish one premise: Those who love the world have one sickness that is the love of the father is not in them. James 4:4 says, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God. You must understand one fact therefore: if you are worldly, you are an enemy of God. There is a song that says Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered. You can be singing that song and still be an enemy of God. Let us read John8: 1-11 and make an in-depth study of it. Jesus was teaching in the temple very early in the morning at a time when all the people who want to be spiritual should be in the temple to pray. But there were some men that were not interested in hearing anything Jesus had to say. They were supposed to be the holy men, but on that particular morning the holy men were doing something unholy. They were dragging a woman on the floor whom they claimed they had caught in adultery. By the time they had dragged this woman to Jesus, she had bruises all over the body. They sought to tempt Jesus, not only with the Law of Moses concerning adultery but also with that of the Roman government. The divine wisdom of Jesus was however too much for them to cope with. They brought the woman caught in adultery, but left the man she committed it with. The man was probably one of them. Jesus did not answer them, he simply stooped down and began to write on the sand. He was probably writing the sins of those that brought the woman, for as they read what he wrote on the sand, one after the other they departed from his presence. Jesus uttered one statement that caught them napping. He said that he that was without sin should cast the first stone at the woman. What we have just read shows one big trademark of a spiritual adulterer-Hypocrisy. Even though these men were guilty, yet they were accusing another person. There was only one man at that time who was qualified to throw stone at that woman and that man was Jesus. He was the only one without sin. Others went to Jordan to confess their sins but he went there with no sin to confess. Jesus had the right to throw stones not only at that woman’s face but also at yours and mine. But Jesus did not throw stones because He came to save. He did not come to judge, but to rescue. Why did Jesus not tell them to do what Moses commanded? Was it because it was not a serious sin? No, all sins are serious. Was it because a woman was involved? No, the reason was that Jesus was already on His way to Calvary to die in the place of the woman. These men then ran away from Jesus instead of asking for help. They came face to face with the saviour, but they gained nothing. They came close to the saviour but they were far away. Hypocrites are the first group of people who will remain untouched in the house of God. They always throw stones at others.

 

 There was a youth programme I was invited to and the topic of my message that day was prevailing prayer. After the message we started praying. The boys were between ages 12 and 20. I was shocked when they started praying. I did not know that I had told them that much. When we jingled the bell and beat the drums to indicate end of prayer, they did not stop. It was after twenty minutes, that they stopped but by then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and some of the small boys were prophesying on the floor. Two of them were the children of an air-force officer. They also got filled with fire. When they got home, they joined their hands together and continued what was started in the church. Their parent who were coming from outside felt aggrieved because of their noisy prayers. They felt disturbed that their children had attended a fellowship of fanatics. The parents promptly plan to deal with them. But as their father entered the house one of them started to prophesy. He told the father that he should repent from his adultery. He then charged the father to break down and before the Lord and ask for forgiveness. The man then began to cry out to God for forgiveness. The revelation made the man’s wife to be angry. But as she started raining abuses on her husband the second boy began to prophesy about her too. He revealed her type of adultery which included going after sugar daddies. She was asked to beg God for forgiveness. The adulterous and hypocritical parents took over the prayers while the two boys watched. Consider the golden message in Isaiah 54:5: “For thy  maker is thy husband, the Lord of hosts is his name and thy redeemer the Holy one of Israel, the God of the whole heart shall he be called” This is one of my best scriptures and it makes me happy when I read it. He is a wonderful husband because he is going to marry both male and female one day. And when is that marriage going to take place? The answer to this question explicitly  stated in

 

Revelations 19:6-9 : “And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thundering saying, Alleluia for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he saith unto me, write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage super of the Lamb. And he saith unto him, These are true sayings of God.”

 

So now we know the husband and we know about the marriage that is coming up. I am ready to give up anything I have in this world for this event. I am not interested in any other thing, but this marriage. If you do not get to this marriage supper, it will mean that you just came to this world for nothing. It is true that we receive miracles and healings but what is the use of all that, if you don’t make the marriage supper of the lamb, when your name would not be found in the book of life? God is saying that, blessed are they that are just invited, those who got an invitation to watch, not that they are the bridegrooms. Your exploits on earth will amount to nothing if your name is not in that great and all-important book. They would have only made you a spiritual signpost, pointing to the way, but not going there yourself. Your head gear and cosmetics maybe visible, however it is only your bible that shows the sign that something is inside of you. God has been looking forward to seeing you doing things for Him but you are not. You need to repent today and make your way right before him, so that your name will not be left out of the book of life. Thy maker is thy husband and he will personally come to take you his wife home. You will not need someone to use a Mercedes Benz car with a just married sticker on it to carry you to heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ will stay in the sky and like a divine magnet will attract all the people with like spirit unto himself, for the greatest party that would ever take place. I cannot miss it for anything. All other things are useless when compared to the marriage of the Son of God. Rapturing with Christ is the greatest thing that could happen to any born-again Christian. It is not possible to be spiritually neutral. You cannot play spiritual bat game with God. You cannot put one leg in His kingdom of the devil. It is not possible. God will refer you to stay on one side. God wants you to be either hot or cold. If you want to be cold then be iced block, if you want to be hot be boiling. Do not stay in the middle, because He will spew you out if you do, if you are hot, God can use you and if you are cold, He can also use you, but as a bad example of somebody not to emulate. If you are on the fence you are both useless to the devil and to God. And both of them will be fighting you. Get it clear in your spirit, that God is not bothered about majority as one with God is  majority. From the beginning of Christianity, it has always been the same. All those who want to serve the Lord wholeheartedly will always be in the minority. God wants quality and not quantity. If I offer you three houses in Victoria Island and I offer you twenty houses built on top of the Lagoon with wood, of course you will prefer quality and therefore go for the three built with bricks at Victoria Island than the twenty built with wood on the sea. Enoch preached so did Noah. Although eight people were saved, God was not worried. Although 32,000 people were enlisted in Gideon’s army, only 300 people were left by the time they passed through God’s test. What is the ratio of 32,000 to 300? Out of over 600,000 people that left Egypt, only two of them reached the promised land. The percentage may be zero, but God was not worried. After Jesus ministered for three years, only 120 people were gathered in the upper room. Someone might preach at a crusade and one thousand people might get saved, but when the Lord himself came, only 120 people were left to spread the gospel. But the difference was clear, those 120 people were on fire. By the time they were filled with the Holy Spirit and went on the streets, they converted about 8,000 people within two weeks because they were people of great quality. In those days Christians do not beg people to get converted like we do now. Peter told his converts to repent and be baptized. They were then pricked in their hearts. He was not begging them to give their lives, yet the people were asking for what to do to be saved. It is in the same vein, I am urging you now repent and be baptized. Christians in those days were stripped of their possessions and driven from their homes. Indeed they sealed their testimonies with their blood. They were accused of doing bad things they did not do. Not only were their fingernails torn off, one after the other their beards were also plucked off too and their blood flow freely. Yet they were committed to Jesus. If you are heading for that marriage, your life will point towards it. A time is coming when that money you are running after will become valueless, when the body you are dressing up and exposing to people will become like wood, when all the designers wears will; be useless and when the definition of true enjoyment will be clear. True enjoyment is being in God’s presence. A time is coming when all the beer you have hidden in your refrigerator and all the breweries will be answerable to the fire of God, when you will sing the last verse of your beloved song, when you will wear your  last dress and have your last drink. At that time grammar will be useless and many knowledge you have acquired would be of no value.

 

Who are spiritual Adulterers?

 

1.Those who want God to share them with something else. When something else is sharing you with God, you are an adulterer. Sometimes the spirit of the Lord will come upon you and you will say “thus says the Lord, do this and do that” Then the same person who prophesied will still be getting angry. Prophecy and anger do not go together. This fact must be registered ion you spirit today. You are an adulterer when you put up a holy attitude, but inside you are bad. It is a big insult for God to share you with something else. Are you completely holy and given unto him? Hypocrisy means God sharing you with something else.

 

2.Worship of modern day idols. All those who are worshipping modern day idols are adulterers. An idol is anything you place before God or beside God. In the modern times, they are about five idols that men worship.

Ø    Money: people now worship money as if it is the only thing that exists and matters.

Ø    Pleasure: People now enjoy themselves outside Christ. Many Christians now take pleasure in leaving church premises for bar beach to relax, enjoy and socialize with one another, particularly during Easter seasons. It is a pity that this is happening. Why are they doing this? They have not seen the revelation of Jesus. There are many things that people are now wasting time on e.g. television. This has polluted many lives. It is one tool the enemy has used a lot. Thank God, there are plenty of Christian programmes on televisions now.

Ø    Another idol of the modern day people is power. They are ready to die for it.

 

3.Knowledge: A lot of people believe that when they acquire university degrees they are the most intelligent people and nobody else knows better. My advise to people who usually boast about their degrees is to go and frame their certificates, hang them around their necks and go around with them. The irony of the situation is that someone with a degree in one subject becomes a novice in another discipline or subject.

 

4.Having sex outside marriage: Having sex outside marriage is adultery. You can have a woman or a man at home and still be an adulterer or adulteress. This happens when you just put a woman in your house without marrying her, without paying her dowry and without any holy wedlock.

 

5.Permission of ungodly touching. Adultery of the heart. Addiction to alcohol, smoking, bad habits etc are indications that you are a spiritual adulterer. Such things are still sharing you with God. There are many idols sitting in the temple of human hearts. Many have demons playing there. If you have demons playing inside of you, you are an adulterer. Jesus is not coming for an unclean church; that is why the bible calls demons unclean spirits. He will not take you with those unclean spirits. They must therefore go. If you say that your maker is your husband, cry to the Lord in prayer at this moment. Pray it this way. Oh Lord, don’t divorce me in the name of Jesus. The prayer point is very important and you must treat it that way.  Anyone who breaks any of the ten rules of Christian living can be considered as a spiritual adulterer. What are the ten rules?

 

1.Consider your body as the temple of the Holy Spirit. Immediately you begin to do anything against your body, you annoy the Holy Spirit and you are an adulterer. You can sin against the Holy Spirit and you can also grieve and quench the Holy Spirit, when you do not consider your body as the temple of the Holy Spirit. Your body is not for fornication or adultery. It is the temple of God. The Bible says that whoever will pollute the temple of God, him will God destroy.

 

2.Have a firm control over your thought life. You have to be very careful over your thoughts. Make sure you don’t think evil. Those who have vagabond thinking pattern think anything. When you don’t have a firm control over your thoughts, then something is wrong.

 

3.Take time to be holy. Anything in your life that is not holy converts you to an adulterer.

 

4.Read digest and meditate on the word of God.  Every Christian must have a plan for bible reading everyday. The reason that you always have a busy day at work and that you are tired at night and in the morning is not acceptable to God. If you fall down and die one day in that working place that you are always running to, somebody else will be employed to replace you and that company will not collapse. Beloved readers, think about it. Why are you starving the inner mind and feeding the body that will not get beyond this planet, thereby punishing the eternal for the temporal. You must have a regular bible reading time. If you are so confused and do not even know where to read, go and buy our daily bread or daily guide. There are so many good devotional books in all Nigerian languages. You have to be a prayer addict. If something else is battling with your prayer life that means that you are an adulterer. The bible says pray without ceasing, if you are not praying at all, you are not just disobeying God, you are also an adulterer.

 

5.Neglect not the assembly of each other. If you neglect the house of God you are an adulterer. When you spend your time attending to friends or entertaining people when you should be in church then you are an adulterer. Those are not the kind of friends you should have. Your friends should be those who will be ready to follow you to the church. You should not have friends that drink alcohol. When you serve people alcohol, you are guilty o the same offence.

 

6.Be filled with the Holy Ghost. If you are not filled with the Holy Ghost, that space that is left will be copied by something else. If you fill your cup to the brim with water, you cannot put any other thing in the cup. So when you are filled with the Holy Ghost, there will be no space for any other thing to enter.

 

7.Be a witness for Christ anywhere you are. If you are hiding your Christianity because you do not want people to say that you are a fanatic then you are an adulterer.

 

8.Complete obedience to God. Total obedience. That means that you are ready to do whatever God tells you to do.

 

9.Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. If you are breaking any of these ten rules, then you are an adulterer. But there is a way out beloved, run back to your husband. If you have sold yourself to the enemy, God can buy you back from the market of the enemy. The story of that woman caught in the act of adultery tells us a lot about the nature of man. Although the bible does not write what Jesus wrote on the ground, the bible says think evil of no man. If you want to smear someone else with mud you first of all stain your own hand. It is a powerful force that hinders us and it is the force of hypocrisy. So if you are going to see good days, keep your lips from speaking guile and do not talk evil of anybody. Know that you are not perfect, but only trying to be. Take a look at yourself, that song writer says, take a good look at yourself and you will see others differently. So it is time for you to check yourself up beloved. The bad things you are suing your mouth to say about others is another key to spiritual adultery. The sins that we have in our nature have made us needful of God’s mercy. The bible says, “If thou shall mark iniquity, O Lord, who can stand?” No one could rightfully throw stone at that woman. Something darkens the heart of men and their knowledge, they want to criticize others and say all kinds of things. They want things exposed in others, while they want their own sins to be hidden. This is why beloved; every society should have no place in any church. It creates problems. God did not create us in the same way and we do not do things in the same way. It is therefore a terrible thing to be saying bad things about people. It is a sign of spiritual adultery and it will not help you to the way God wants you to live.

 

10.Many Believers are hypocrites. Hypocrites are counterfeit Christians. A counterfeit is a corruption of the original. He looks like the original, talks like the original, dresses like the original. Although hypocrites were so close to Jesus, yet they were far away. They were hypocrites.

 

The way out.

 

1.Repentance-repentance involves everyone. Nobody is left out. You need to check the situation you are in right now and change for the better. Make a decision and God will back you up. Is God sharing you with something else. You need to repent now!

2.Discipline-You must learn spiritual discipline i.e. to keep you under the discipline of God. Paul says, I put my body under, I bring it under subjection lest at the any time after I have preached to others, I myself will be a cast away.

 

3.Deliverance-You know that there are certain things in your life that should go. Do not be shy or afraid. Explain yourself no matter how shameful the thing is. A woman came to me sometime in the past for counseling. Her story was stunning. She opened her bag and brought out a candle, she said whenever she was in a place for a few minutes, something would order her to go to the toilet. She would then use the candle to excite herself sexually. If she did not do this she would not be okay. She was a married woman with four children. If she did not reveal her problem who would have known how to help her? Are you just looking good speaking good English, smiling at everybody and yet your husband is a candle. You need deliverance. The Lord set her free and she burnt the candle. Many people are doing sinful things like that and they are covering them with nice dresses. They are not telling anybody. How will you be free? Do you want to wait for the devil to use it against you? Is it not better for one or two people to know the problem and you find your way to heaven than hiding it and deliverance will not come.

4.Dominion- Understanding your authority in God. I have been invited to many places to preach and the worst one was a church in Akoka Lagos state. They said they were holding a week seminar on the second coming of Jesus. I was happy. I was to be the speaker on the last day of the seminar. At that time l had only one suit because prayer warriors do no wear suits. So, I went to dry clean the suit, took my bible and went to the church. With all the advertisement done on the seminar the oldest person I saw sitting in the congregation there was 12 years old. I sat down there, looking over dressed. The few elderly people came in and introduced me. I did not know where to start. I came expecting to teach the second coming of Jesus to old and young people alike led by the spirit of God. I read from the book of Zephaniah 1:14 which says “The great day of the Lord is near, it6 is near and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord; the mighty man shall cry there bitterly” Immediately I read the first verse, all those big men took their bibles and out they went. Later I discovered that they did not want to hold the programme they just wanted to use the forum to collect money from people. Hypocrisy in the house of God. Before hypocrisy could have been institutionalized there individual members will first of all have become hypocrites. If when you leave MFM Ministries and people talk and behave and if they concluded that you are a disgrace to the place, you must know then that you are a hypocrite. If human beings can brand you like that, I hate to see what God will write about you. I know that my redeemer and my maker is my husband and I do not want a divorce. I do not want Him on that day to call you an adulterer because you want to share Him something else. The end of the matter is eternity. I want you to benefit here in this world and in the world to come.

 

PRAYER POINTS

 

1.      Any area of my life  that is friendly with God’s enemy I separate you in the name of Jesus.

2.     O Lord purge me clean with your blood in the name of Jesus.

3.     I refuse to be trapped by anything in the name of Jesus

4.     Talk to God, expose yourself to Him, do not hide anything. Pray this way: O Lord, I am a… I refuse to deceive myself. Help me Lord.

5.     O Lord, help me to recover my wasted years.

6.     I remove my name from the register of failure in Jesus name.

7.     Let every limit to my life be roasted in Jesus name.

8.     I reject the spirit of lukewarm ness in the name of Jesus.

9.     I paralyze every power distracting me from the gospel in the name of Jesus.

10. I command every evil influence over my life to be neutralized in Jesus name.

11.  Father Lord, give me the grace to focus on Jesus all the time.

12. I destroy the activities of beggarly powers against my life in Jesus name.

 

SEND GOD’S FIRE TO THE ROOT

 Dr D.K. Olukoya

  

My beloved readers, I thank God for your lives and for giving you the opportunity to read this message. God has specially prepared this message for you, in order to bring problems associated with faulty roots in your lives to an end. It will therefore do you a world of good, if you could open up your minds to read this message. My prayer is that God will flush out every evil root bringing problems into your lives in Jesus name. There are some things, which one hears that cannot be explained with the normal reasoning. People blame the devil for everything but as you read on, you will discover that the devil is not to be blamed all the time. We do call a lot of prayer points here at MFM. Sometimes, when new comers in the school of warfare come to our services, they consider our prayer points rather strange. Later they begin to discover that these strange prayer points bring results. For example a prayer point like “O Lord, send your fire to the foundation of my life and let it burn to ashes, everything presently affecting me in a negative way”, may sound strange. What does it mean when a person prays like this, “I break and loose myself from any bondage which may be upon my family, O Lord, release me from any foundational problem that l might have”, “I refuse to follow any evil pattern laid down by my ancestors” or “Holy Ghost fire, descend on the roots of all my inherited evil plantations” What did all these prayer points mean? To some people they might not make sense, but these are very serious prayer points and they are the kind that you cannot pray through in five minutes prayer session. The reason for this is that in a generation comprising of 30 people, you may find that 25 of them have put their off springs into bondage.

 

Some people have lots of such bondages to break. We have discovered through counseling, listening to people and by the help of the Holy spirit that 95% of very difficult problems that people have are rooted in their backgrounds. If in one way or the other the spirit of God helps such people to get down to these roots, then they find instant solutions to those problems. Problems of evil background are enormous and they have messed up so many lives. Reading through the word of God, one finds out that even Jesus addressed this problem. He addressed the Jews by pointing accusing fingers at their backgrounds. In Matthew 23:29-35 Jesus addressed the Jews as the generation of those who killed God’s prophets. So, he pointed to their background as children who were just fulfilling what their fathers had done. He emphasized thereafter that the blood of the prophets which their fathers had shed would be required of them by God. It would then be foolish for anyone to deceive himself by thinking that his background has no effect on him. Think about all the participation in tribal rituals all the collection of names from oracles all the charms and amulets that people have used in the past; all the parents that have accepted the services of demons to protect their children; all the grandparents who were harsh to their slaves and the slaves issued curses on them daily, all those who had parents who were demonic to the extent that they pounded day old babies in mortars, those who come from polygamous homes where children were killed on regular basis etc. Therefore, it is not reasonable at all for people with these kinds of background to feel that all these will not affect them in any way. That is why at the beginning, I said that this message affects everybody. Let us consider two scriptures here; Leviticus 26:39 tells us that descendants rot away because of their fathers’ sins. Isaiah 65:6-7, declare that people from the background of idolatry will have problems. In Mark 9:19, Jesus described another generation as faithless. Here, it means that the inability to believe God by some people may be rooted in their backgrounds. A lot of people are reaping the bad seeds sown by their parents. The big truth that has not been taught in many places is the full scope of the effect of evil background. Present day believers have not adequately understood this, neither have many comprehended what is happening or seen themselves as afflicted persons. Therefore there are many people, Jesus described their generation as faithless. Here, it means that the inability to believe God by some people may be rooted in their backgrounds. A lot of people are reaping the bad seeds sown by their parents. The big truth that has not been taught in many places is the full scope of the effect of evil background. Present day believers have not adequately understood this, neither have many comprehended what is happening or seen themselves as afflicted persons. Therefore there are many people who are saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost and things still do not go on well with them. Until the fire of the Holy Ghost begins to work in the roots of their lives, there will be no freedom or Christian usefulness. All these lead to all kinds of bondages. I know the case of a woman who never menstruated at all and she did all kinds of things to change the situation. She fasted, prayed, read the bible made confessions, went to the mountain, prayed in the valley but nothing happened. One day she abandoned all these and prayed like this “O God, show me whether l am operating under any bondage or curse” She prayed and God directed her to a minister of God. When she got there, the minister of God said she had to really pray seriously. She first of all confessed the sins of idolatry committed by her ancestors and rebuked Satan’s bondage upon her life in the all-sufficient name of Jesus. After that, the minister then instructed her to pray that God should send His fire into the root of her life” Then she began to pray, for the first five minutes, she couldn’t concentrate, but she nonetheless went on praying. By the time she prayed the prayer point for half an hour faces began to appear before her. The first person she saw was her grandfather right in the middle of a thick forest with blood in his hands, she did not understand that vision, but she continued praying seriously. Next, she saw herself as a baby at the back of her mother who was fighting another woman. As the fight was going on, her own mother said to the other woman that, this child at my back will not prosper if l do not wound you today” Eventually, the fight ended but her mother could not wound the other woman, but the evil transaction had been done. She had issued a curse on herself and her daughter. Also the grandfather that had blood in his hands in the forest might have sacrificed a slave to protect himself. She continued praying and as she went on, she heard a voice saying, “their sins have been forgiven and the connection between you and them has been severed and you are free” Before she left the prayer place her skirt was already dripping with blood. This is what happens when you aggressively send fire to your roots. When you begin to hear voices or there are some terrible thoughts disturbing you or you have trouble attending church or reading the bible or you come to the house of God with the intention of serving God, but you cannot even hear the message or understand what the preacher is saying, then you should see these things as evidences that the fire of God needs to go to your roots. Some people usually say that certain things move around in their bodies and that they actually feel those movements, they undoubtedly need the fire of God. If life is harder for you than others and your problems are becoming greater by the day, and you are a born again Christian, then you should know that something has gone wrong with your roots. When somebody sees dark figures, hears strange noises, perceives strange smells or goes into uncontrollable anger against his/her will, or sometimes goes into trance or black out, and cannot remember anything or has continuous nightmares or occasionally looses self control, then such a person needs to pray aggressively and send fire to the roots of certain things in his life immediately, in order to receive freedom. An evil background could lead to complete spiritual blindness, wild Pentecostalism of uncontrollable spirits, thoughts and acts of suicide., marital problems, extreme bedwetting at old age and other unusual accidents. Let us think a little about what we call “foundation” When a builder wants to build a house or a big hall, he digs deep into the ground, in order to make a solid foundation. A foundation then, is the strong base on which something is supported or on which some other things are placed. There are usually blocks laid under the ground, which are not seen on the surface. It is dark there and the blocks are in darkness under the ones on top, which are enjoying light. Foundations are usually in darkness, underneath the ground. It is not something one can look at or inspect. Only God sees them and knows where things have to be repaired. It is exactly the same thing with the foundations of people’s lives. Therefore, if you get to a situation and you cannot understand how you got there, the first place to turn to is your roots or your foundation. Then send the fire of God there, the type of fire which the God of Elijah sent down. You would then see that a lot of things would begin to happen. However this is not something you do in five minutes and keep quiet, it is something you pray to a point when you know and feel that things are happening. When things have happened, you will find out that there is peace in that particular area of your life and things will begin to move forward.

 

 A young man discovered that everything he laid his hand upon was collapsing. He prayed very aggressively about the situation. One day, through vision God showed him his dead father and he saw himself in a hot argument with the man. They used to argue normally even when the man was alive. The man then put a curse on him that his own children would do that kind of thing to him and that they would curse him too. The Lord told him that the curse was the source of his problem. He then told God, that “Lord, but my father is dead, what should I do now? The Lord told him to pray harder to mend the situation. The man did something interesting. He went to his father’s grave and cried his eyes out there in repentance. It was then he started to have some breakthroughs. What happened was that something had gone to his foundation to accomplish certain things there.

 

I will tell you my popular story again for the benefit of those who have not heard it before. Somebody was pregnant with a set of twins. All through the pregnancy period the woman attended a herbal clinic and the herbalist told her that her fee on her delivery date would be N300.00. On the day she fell into labour, they rushed her to the herbalist. The first thing the man asked for was the N300.00 fee, but the woman’s husband was not at home. So the people begged him to go ahead and that when the husband comes they would bring the money. The man refused and insisted on receiving his money. Somebody rushed and brought N150.00 and the man took it and did whatever he usually did and the first baby came out, but the second one remained inside. The man then requested for his balance of N 150.00. They begged him to go ahead but he refused to attend to her without the money. The woman was in pains, because they did not get the money on time. Eventually, they got the money and the man tried but the baby did not come. He then told them to take her away, giving an excuse that the powers dealing with her were greater than him. The woman was then at the point of death. The husband decided to take her to her hometown to go and die there instead of dying in Lagos. So they got a vehicle to take her. Along the way, someone saw her inside the taxi and asked what the problem was. The husband narrated the story to the brother. The brother promptly asked the husband to bring the woman to his church, which was not far from that point. At the church, some member of prayer warriors put the ailing woman in their middle. As they started to pray, the woman gave birth to the second baby. Now, there is a problem, the woman’s first baby, Taiye was born in the house of a herbalist while the second, Kehinde was born in a Pentecostal church. One therefore would not expect their lives to be same, because they have taken off from different roots and backgrounds. If Taiye does not address his root with the right prayers even as a man of God, he will discover that they will not grow. Nothing good will happen until he goes back to his roots and sorts it out. If he sits there and believes by faith that it is gone without any warfare, he will remain in that position.

 

Dear readers, what you have just read in a nutshell, is responsible for 95 per cent of the problems of the black man, I would like this to be very clear in your spirit. When you address your evil roots with aggressive prayers, then things will change for better for you. A brother got married and he found out that by the time they spent one year in the marriage, they have moved into three different houses, because they were always getting into problems with their landlords, who usually ended up ejecting them. It got to a stage that they were sleeping in their cars and the young wife was thinking of running back to her parents. The man got worried one day and prayed with holy anger to God saying, “ Oh God, you did not say I would be like this. You did not say that my life would be floating like a dead fish. Tell me Lord what should I do now? Then the Lord showed him his dead father. He found his father who was a thrift collector (mobile rank) on a bicycle. He saw him collecting money from market woman and entering it into a book. Then after collecting all the money, he went and buried the money somewhere. Then these market women started crying and were cursing him. God then told him that the curse was the source of his problem. Until he began to send fire to that root, they did not have a stable home.

 

The Bible talks a lot about godless sons of godly fathers. What does this mean? It means that everything you want to do with your life depends on you. Esau had a good father but he sold his birthright. Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron had a good father, but God killed them at the altar. Hophni and Phinehas were the sons of Eli but they were disobedient and immoral. Even Joel and Abijah who were the children of Samuel took bribes and perverted justice. Absalom was the son of David who rose against David his father.mannaseh was the son of Hezekiah a very good king that Judah ever had. What I am saying is even if your immediate parents were very good, your grand parents could have been horrible. When a believer is having a stumbling block in front of him, blocking his progress and he begins to blame all the people around him (his wife, his mother-in-law, his children etc) and finds out that there is still no solution such a man should then go back to his roots. He needs to go back to his background and first of all examine it. If most black men could pray to breakthrough, they will find themselves more useful for God. Although Christianity got into Nigeria a long time ago, it did not take the turn that it is taking now. In those days, people were going to church with their juju in their pockets. They consulted both the church and the herbalist together. Even the preachers too put juju in their pockets because they were afraid of being attacked while preaching. In those days, most people were afraid of calling witches by their real names. They would rather call them “the elderly mothers”. They felt that if they dared call them by their real names by the next morning they would be dead. That was the type of Christianity that was here then. It was when a great revival rocked this country that people brought out their idols and destroyed them with fire. When they began to pray about their foundations, they were shocked to see what their fathers brought to revival grounds. Those demons included big idols that were actually talking, which had been in some families for as long as 600 years. How could anyone think that the idol that had been in a family for 600 years would not affect the brother who has not prayed to dislodge it. The unserious attitude of people to spiritual things is as a result of their backgrounds or roots. The spirit of failure hunting many people today is as a result of where they come from. The spirit of poverty is also from the background. These can only be removed by aggressive prayers. The God of Elijah who answereth by fire will answer you in Jesus mighty name. When this fire gets to the foundation, it will destroy all evil and unwanted things. But you have to pray very well to the point of breakthrough. Please do not read this message just for reading sake. Even if things are going on well now, it is good for you to maintain that good condition. If you do not have any problem now, it could be that the maturity date of the problem is not yet due. The bible says, “The sons of he Amorites will still come here in the fourth generation because the cup of their iniquity is not yet filled” (Genesis 15:16).

 

Many things are locked up in demonic banks, which really belong to the children of God. Until you forcefully enter into that bank and withdraw those things that belong to you, they will remain locked up.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.    Lord, let the fire of the Holy Ghost surround the whole of this place in Jesus name.

2.    Quietly confess your sins to God and pray like this, O Lord whatever sins I am committing that will not allow your fire to get to the root of my life, Lord forgive me in Jesus name.

        (Please put one finger on your belly button for the next prayer points)

3.Father Lord, send your fire to the root of my life in Jesus name.

4The root of my life receive the fire of God in the name of Jesus.

5. All the good things of my life, that are locked up in satanic banks be released in the name of Jesus.

6. O Lord, let your fire go into my root so that this wall of…. Before me will be melted away in Jesus name.

7. Every ordination of evil upon my lie will not prosper in the name of Jesus.

8. Begin to thank God for all the good things He has done for you in this prayer session.

 

 

PROBLEMS THAT ARE NOT FROM THE ENEMIES

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Today by the grace of God I would like you to open your mind and be very attentive, as you read this message. Don’t allow the enemies to make you miss one sentence from what you are about to read now. This message discusses the problems that are not from the enemies. A careful search of the word of God will make us to understand that there are five sources of sufferings for a Christian.

1.     It could be due to satanic activities: Job2: 7 confirms this, “ So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the top of his foot unto his crown” Job’s problem therefore was as a result of satanic activities. The woman in Luke13 that Jesus healed; the woman called the daughter of Abraham was bound up by the devil for 18 years. Jesus himself confirmed the fact. It is an established fact therefore that Job as well as the daughter of Abraham were both afflicted by Satan.

2.     Ungodly men: 11Timothy 4:14 says Alexander the copper smith did the much evil; the Lord rewards him according to his works. It is certain therefore that a believer’s suffering could come from ungodly men like Alexander the coppersmith.

3.     The world system: 11Peter2: 8: “For that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds” The world system too could constitute a problem for the righteous men. They really harass the souls and spirits of believers’ everyday.

4.     A believer’s suffering could come from man’s fallen nature: Romans7: 14&15: “For we know that the law is spiritual: but l am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I would that do I not; but what I hate that do I”. Man’s fallen nature without any doubt could give him problems.

5.     Carnal Christianity: Philippains1: 15&16:” Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of goodwill. The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds” 11Timothy4: 10: “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world and is departed unto Thessalonica”

 

Beloved readers, the five sources of believers suffering as far as the bible is concerned are what you have just read. It is important to locate the source of one’s problems. Remember the story of a farmer in Matthew, who planted wheat on his farm land but from nowhere tares started growing amidst it. The farmer knew straightaway that the enemy performed the wicked task. Whenever God plants good things in a place, the enemy or Satan is usually unhappy. It does not come as a surprise therefore that the enemy will make moves to destroy, pollute or choke them. I don’t know whether you will like what I’m going to say now. It is very tempting to blame everything that goes wrong on the devil. When things go wrong, people complain bitterly and say that it is the devil that pushed them to do it. The question is why did such people supply their backs for Satan to ride on? God does not at any point in time expect you to turn your back to the enemy and run. He expects you to wage war against him.

 

 A long time ago in England, there was a cartoon in one of the major newspapers. It was the picture of a church and of the devil. The devil was standing outside the church crying bitterly. Then somebody came to Mr. Devil to find out why he was crying. The devil responded tearfully that he was usually blamed for the entire evil taking place in the church. The devil then narrated what happened at a Christian naming ceremony. He the devil had afflicted the food to be served there. He said that a greedy brother who was supposed to have only one plate of rice collected three. As he was eating one, he kept the other two under the chair. The brother became greatly afflicted by his own greediness, he had a serious cholera. The devil said that the brother in question was responsible for the affliction that visited him. The problem in our lives in many instances are not always demonic in their sources, no matter how we sometimes claim to be innocent. The blunt truth is that most people are the cause of their problems. Many of man’s problems can disappear if he could just remove selfishness from his life. He will also get freedom if he thinks first before acting. The selfishness of a man or a woman can land the whole of his or her family in trouble. A lot of problems will disappear from your life if you remove selfishness. A lot of homes would still be standing if they had removed selfishness from the marriages. Many people shut themselves off from blessings they are concerned only about their own comfort. You must know this fact, that most of those that were blessed in the bible by God had always blessed others first, both in cash and kind. Have you ever thought of the fact that if Jesus was selfish; he would not have come to die for us. The bible says that one might even offer to die for a good man. But when a person decides to die for somebody who is evil, then there is need to think of the selflessness of that person. You and l are saved today because Jesus was not selfish. Selfish people often harm themselves.

 

There was this story of a man who had an accident and was rushed to the hospital. The nurse on duty was supposed to close at 8.00 p.m, the nurse refused to attend to them. She chose instead to paint her lips and change her clothes. The fact that the situation was an emergency one did nothing to change the heart of the lady. All pleas to make her change her mind fell on deaf ears. She insisted on going home. She went home only to discover that her husband was not at home. By the time she would run round to know where her husband was the injured man she refused to give the necessary service the previous night. The man died thereafter. Now if l may ask you this question was the devil responsible for the woman’s affliction? Many Christians may not like to face this fact, but a lot of believers are very selfish. And majority of the prayers that most people are engaged in are motivated by selfishness. Most people are angry because somebody has violated their rights. Maybe you are fond of saying, “ A whole me” the big question is “who are you”? If God withdraws your breath for five minutes, where will you be? When you are bitter against somebody because he or she has done something to harm your pride, you are undoubtedly a selfish person. Although this is very difficult for many people to admit, many problems are of people’s own making and a lot of people have specialized in what is called blame shifting. Try to accept blame for your own wrong doing and stop putting blame on someone else. Many problems we bring on ourselves are as a result of our words and our deeds. When you speak words carelessly in an angry way, those words could be missiles that have irrevocable results. The principle that the Bible highlighted in Galatians 6:7 can never be defeated. It says that, “whatsoever a man soweth shall he also reap” You cannot push it aside. David sowed a seed of family destruction, took another man’s wife and killed the man. David then reaped the harvest of family destruction from his son Absalom. If you must throw mud at others you must first of all stain your own hands. You must therefore not throw mud at people. It is just a simple law of repercussion. God himself can also be the source of our problems. Therefore not all problems are bad problems. God can design problems that will make you come closer to Him and also make you more prayerful. Naaman was a proud person who didn’t get his healing until dumped his pride and moved closer to God.

 

The flesh is another source of problem. Our own carnal nature is sometimes the source of problem. It is the old man. The demons and the evil spirits are like vultures that eat our flesh or our carnal nature. That is why problems from evil spirits can be solved by expelling the evil spirits. But if the problem is from your own flesh, death is the only one solution. That flesh must be crucified.

 

I remember the story of a serious Christian who boarded a bus and somebody gave him a dirty slap. Although the other commuters wanted the brother to retaliate, he refused bluntly. He said he would not slap the man back as his hands have been nailed to the cross. In essence, the brother was saying that his hands and indeed his entire body have been nailed to the cross. Beloved readers, the question you need to answer is this, can you do what that brother did? I am quite sure some Christians would rather deal countless blows on the person involved. Such people have not crucified their flesh. Satan will always send his demons into an already bad situation, if you are not wary. All you have to do is to avoid certain things. Every bit of anger that you put up could be your problem activator. Every exercise in worry that you engage in could be your problem activator. A good prayer point is for you to know your problem activator. Sometimes by memorizing and confessing scriptures that speak to certain life’s problems, Satan and his agents will stay away from you. You have to be determined to do this or else the flesh will keep you away from confessing the scriptures. Most things posing as problems to Christians cannot withstand regular bombardments of prayers. But the flesh will not do the regular bombardment of prayers. By the time people come to church and they are able to absorb the word of God, they will be able to deal with the spirit of worry, discouragement, impatience etc. They will also be able to repent and resist temptations. The problems would then disappear. By the time you come to the house of God and you refuse to work with other people’s clock, 90% of the problems are over. It will interest you to know that not all problems require casting out demons from believers’ lives. For example if the enemy has removed a part of somebody’s body such a person does not need deliverance, he needs a creative miracle. So it is a great prayer to ask for creative miracle where it is necessary in your life. Deliverance will not restore or replace any part of the body that is lost. Somebody that is not feeding well and becomes sick as a result of this does not need deliverance. He needs to feed very well. Sometimes it is after a situation has gone bad and terrible that the devil will send his demons there, meanwhile, the demons were not there originally. A creative miracle is required in those kinds of cases. And let me tell you one big truth today, many Christians need to check what they eat. You will find that the food recommended by the bible is not expensive but the problem is that what most people need is not what they eat.

Mark 12:30-31 “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength.”

 

This is the first commandment. And the second is in the same manner, “thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself”. There is no other commandment greater than these. There are three groups of people for you to love; you must love God, you must love your neighbour, then you must love yourself. Many will say I don’t need a lecture on how to love myself. The truth is that a lot of people have intense hatred for themselves. God made the body, soul and spirit. God is undoubtedly interested in every department of your life. You are the temple of God. Numberless people have nonetheless become the temple of Satan. If you then start to defile the temple of God, which is your body, the Bible says God will destroy you. So if you are destroying the temple of God, which is your body, or you are misusing it, you will have problems with God. It is destruction and you will think it is witches and wizards not knowing that it is God. God is interested in what you do with your body, physically and spiritually. It will interest you to know that God is interested in what you eat. A lot of Christians consume terrible poison everyday. When you overeat flesh, sugar, butter etc they will overtax your digestive organ because your body cannot process the food fast enough and unless you use up that energy supply that you have you will begin to have problems which you will think is demonic, when there is no demon involved. A lot of Christians kill themselves daily because of what they eat. Some people have become tea addicts, soft drink addicts, canned food addicts, chocolate addicts etc. Some hate fasting in any form, not knowing that it is another way of purifying their systems. God sometimes call people fools because they don’t know what they are supposed to know. A lot of people have intense hatred for themselves. And right now even as you are reading this message, do you know that you could be your own enemy. You may be fighting actively against yourself. But one thing is certain malfunctioning in anybody’s life is not God’s fault or the fault of his words but it is the person’s fault. People don’t like facing the truth. Like l was saying before a lot of people have turned themselves into masquerades. They are the ones pursuing themselves. How long will you run away from yourself? When will you stand up and acknowledge the truth about yourself? Acknowledging the truth about you is the first step in the school of spiritual maturity.  For how long will you repeat the mistake of Adam? Adam did not point at himself, he said the wife thou gavest to me, she gave it to me and I did eat’ As far as you do not want to face the truth about yourself, you will give your enemies a hiding place in your life. The person then becomes a student in the dangerous school of self-deception, and then you will be fighting against yourself. A person cannot succeed in Christian life when he or she is lazy. A spiritual sluggard cannot pray and cannot read the Bible. A lazy Christian will listen to music for three hours, watch television for four hours and pray four fifteen minutes. A lazy Christian will come to the house of God only to collect blessings and not to really do according to God’s words. So a lot of people are battling against themselves while they think they are battling against the enemy. Apart from the devil, a man has only one other enemy; that enemy is his own self. When self is at work, God’s work will cease and man’s work will continue. The enemy or the devil knows that you are doing your own will and not God’s will. The devil will then move in and contaminate you. God’s work has ceased in many people’s lives. Anything you do for God that is not energized by His spirit is of little value. So the subject with the highest mark in God’s school is deliverance from self. A lot of people are in bondage to themselves. They are spoiling themselves and pampering their own lives. The subject with the highest mark in the devil’s school is self-exaltation. Pride is exaltation of self. Every postponement of repentance is pride and tantamous to wrestling with God. The senior prefects in the school of self-exaltation will rather die than to ask for forgiveness or to apologise. Such people are fighting actively against themselves. Failure to carry out self-analysis or coming to terms with you is dangerous. It may lead to fighting against yourself. The bible says ‘examine yourself, whether you be in the faith or not’.

 

You need to turn searchlight of the Holy Spirit on yourself now. You need to ask yourself some questions like, am l not proud? Do l not exaggerate? Do I not tell lies? Am I not impatient? Do I really like fasting and praying or am I doing it because others are doing it? Do I not love Jesus for the bread and butter that he supplies? Do I really love Jesus? Can I die for him? Supposing ten people are asked to go for evangelism in a village that is demonic, how many will be willing to go? Am I serious with God when I am rich? Is it not when I am broke that I get serious with praying? Am I not lazy in prayers? Do I not keep malice? Do I have love? Do l like being told the truth about myself or do l avoid those who tell me the truth about my life? Do I enjoy been criticized or do l hate criticism in any form? Do I have faults? Am I fully obedient to God? Am I the kind of person who likes to be noticed? Do I really have the baptism of the Holy Spirit or I’m still relying on one funny dream l had a long time ago? Do l tell lies against God? Do I say God said, when he didn’t say anything? Do I think or meditate on immorality? What do you think when you are on your bed alone at night as a bachelor or a spinster? Face the truth, beloved, if you are fighting yourself. Except you do this, you will be making a mistake fighting against all the forces of darkness. It is like that boy who was preaching a message on putting  on the whole armour of God. In order to make people understand the message, he brought physical helmet, breastplate, shoes and shield to church and was wearing them one after the other. He put on the helmet, shield and everything he brought to the people. Then he asked the members of his congregation where the devil can attack from now after wearing all that. Then one old man who was sitting told the young man that the devil could come from the inside. If you are wearing the armour of God and the devil is already inside, you are just using that armour to cover him inside. What have you done about the one inside of you? It is that one that constitutes your greatest problem. The bible says touch not my anointed; if you are being touched then carry out a self-analysis. The enemy will use your weak point and the unconfessed sin in your life to attack you. Those who don’t want to carry out self-analysis are running away from themselves, they are fighting themselves and God like sincere people. How can God invest so much in a person and the person is not bringing any fruit? What type of fruit is your life producing? Or have you forgotten that Jesus does not put value on fruitless Christians? He however does not want you to be cut down. Remember that God is continuously crying that he saved many people, filled them with the Holy Ghost brought them to His sanctuary yet; they are not bringing any fruit. It is useless for you to be fighting witches, wizards and herbalists when you are not bearing fruits for God. Things cannot move for you until you allow God to possess you and your fruits. Do you want God to replace you? My prayer is that you will not be replaced in Jesus name. I also pray that you will bring forth fruits, such that God’s heart will be filled with joy. Many Christians will get into trouble because of their families. The bible says pour your anger on the family that calls not on the name of the lord, If your own family does not come together every morning and very night to worship God and to pray to Him, then you can be convinced that you are on your own. May God have mercy on you. What fruits are you producing for the Lord with all your intelligence, academic success, good job, financial position, influential personality, capacity to communicate and your natural leadership ability. Of what use are you putting it to further the course of the kingdom? A fruitless Christians is fighting against himself. Many keep saying, “I will fully participate when the Lord solves my problem” What a pity, you cannot blackmail God. Do not allow God to push you into where there is utter darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth. God can do it if you refuse to use the talents He gave to you. If you keep on burying your talents, you are giving your enemies opportunities to destroy you. Think about it. If you engage in strife, then you are giving enemies a chance to plant a stronghold in your life. You will also be hindering your own blessings. If you are keeping demonic materials in your house you are just inviting demonic invasions. You cannot attack demons successfully when you have their properties in your body or house. All the amulets and the waistbands will only strengthen the battle against you. If you obtain partial deliverance and you are attacking the enemies, you are only attacking yourself because part of the enemy is still in you. All those engaging in sexual immoralities cannot win any war against the enemy. It does not matter whether the person is your fiancée. You may think you are enjoying yourself now, but you are actually waging serious war against your life. The bible says that children that are disobedient to their parents are only inviting short life and they are fighting themselves. Those who are seeking worldly pleasure are killing themselves because they are strengthening their enemies. Why should you be strengthening your enemies? Why should you be fighting against yourself? Why should you not face the truth about yourself? Why not say Lord here I am. I want to be free from sins. Not all problems are caused by the enemies. Many play serious roles in their own problems.  Before you bind a problem, examine it carefully to ensuring that you are not binding your self. I want you to face the truth because one thing is certain, if you are blameless and you pray fire prayers, no witch from the bottom of hell fire can stand against you. If you then notice that something is hindering you, self-analysis must be carried out. Ask yourself questions and make confessional prayers. Now if you know that after reading this message, you have an adjustment to make with God, just put your hand on your chest and speak to the Lord yourself about that particular area. Face the truth, do it now and don’t allow the enemy to be using your weakness against you, so that when you spit fire in your prayers the fire will function. Make sure you do it very well. What you are doing now is tantamount to taking legal action against the devil, and he would not be able to operate successfully in you. Pray the following prayer points for the week with fire in your spirit.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.     Let every evil desire and expectation of the enemy concerning my life collapse now in the name of Jesus.

2.     I challenge every department of my body with the fire of God (lay your right hand on the head and the other one on the stomach) in the name of Jesus.

3.     Let every stolen organ from my body be restored in the name of Jesus.

4.     I reject every counterfeit blessing; I claim the correct blessings in the name of Jesus.

5.     O Lord reveal to me who l am (a lot of people are masquerades to themselves they don’t know themselves. Yet they want to be attacking their enemies)

6.     O Lord I repent from everything that I have done to aid the enemy.

7.     O Lord, deliver me from every accusation of the evil one against me in the name of Jesus.

        

THINGS THAT FRlGHTEN THE DEVIL

Dr. D.k. Olukoya

 

There is a piece of information many believers do not know. It is the fact that the devil too could be cowed into submission. As a matter of fact, the devil could be easily frightened like any coward! Quite understandably, the devil does not want this information to get into the hands and hearts of believers. But thanks to God, the information is all yours now! There are many secrets that the devil tries to make the believers understand that the devil has no limitations and he tries to make people think that he can do all things. Whereas when you look at the word of God and you study your bible, you will find out there are so many things devil can never do. For example, the devil cannot plead the blood of Jesus. It is impossible. The devil cannot pray simply because there is nobody to pray to. The devil cannot be in all places at the same time. He walks about seeking whom to devour” So, it is God that can be in all places at the same time. Satan does not possess all powers. He cannot enter into paradise. He does not know everything, for if he knew everything, he would not have crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. And another fact is that the devil can never be truly happy neither can he claim God’s promises. But you can do that. Many believers do not know that by their words, actions and attitudes they can frighten, discourage and frustrate devil’s efforts in their lives. But people are afraid when it comes to the matter of the devil. One problem of the modern man is fear. The problem is that such fear plays right into the hands of the devil. However, the bible tells us that Christians are immune to several things. Although the fear in many people will be hearing the shout of Goliath, faith will nonetheless be hearing the shout of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians must learn how to hold on to God’s words,

 

Number 23:23 is a scripture we should know off hand “surely there is no enchantment against Jacob neither is there any divination against Israel”

 

 The blood on the doorpost of the Israelites was enough to protect them from the devouring angels entering into the Egyptian houses. By the same token, every child of God today who is living the type of life God wants him or her to live is protected by the blood of Jesus. Every true child of God is beyond the reach of the powers of hell. All the witches, the spies, the curses, the demons and the powers of darkness will have no power over you if you are a true child of God. Be assured that the protection God has for His elects is impenetrable. So if you are a child of God and you are reading this message, then you need to be bold and courageous, because the man who fears the devil is the devil’s friend. Fear is an infectious disease. It can move from somebody’s eyes into somebody eyes into the spirit, into the body, into the general life and the person will start to live a life of fear. God prohibited the children of Israel from talking while walking around the wall of Jericho because if they keep talking, they would spread fear and doubt in the camp. You must know this fact that the devil is not afraid of the person who fears. Nehemiah was doing some serious work for God and some people urged him to flee for his dear life. He sent a reply to them that a man like him would not flee for any reason because God has not given him the spirit of fear but of power and love and of a sound mind Amen.

 

Let me share an experience of a man of God who once worked in a village where they threatened him that he would not last long if he kept on preaching the word of God to the villagers. He refused to listen to them. Rather, he would stand, right at the center of the market place to preach his sermons. When the villagers saw his persistence, they started to fear him. They reasoned that a man who could be talking boldly like that must have certain powers that they cannot overcome. Sometimes, a simple declaration made boldly by a believer has great effects! The unbelievers fear the gospel and the truths therein. They know that they are not serving the true God and they know what the bible says. The devil and his agents also believe and they tremble. They are afraid. They continued to threaten the man of God until one night when they took an evil step. While he was praying at night, he noticed that certain things were singing at his door. As the song was getting louder and louder, he stopped praying and opened the door boldly beloved what did he see? He saw six cats that were singing demonic songs. The man began to rebuke them in the name Jesus Christ and he poured every fire of God in him on them. All the six cats ran away. The man just slept and forgot about it. However, in the morning, the villagers rushed a woman to his door, the woman was shaking uncontrollably and was confessing all kinds of witchcraft actitivities she had ever done in that village. The woman confessing was already stark naked. She was running mad because she had the effrontery to attack a true child of God. My payer for you is that all those that are hired to issue curses on you as a child o f God will fall after the order of Balaam in the name of Jesus. The Bible says the evil shall bow before the good. Bible didn’t say the good should bow before the good. It has never happened. And it must not happen. That is God’s decree and it stands sure. So, the six singing cats were just one woman. But supposing that night when he heard the singing that he began to fear? The man did not do that. Rather he prayed louder such that the songs of the evil animals were no longer heard! This is the secret. The devil tries to instill fear into people. Sometimes when the fear of the devil comes, you may become afraid and start to wonder what evil will befall you. Immediately you start getting afraid, you’ve lost the first round of the battle. From there if you don’t stop that fear, it will do deeper into your entire life. It’s a strong weapon of the enemy.

 

Another man of God went to a country to preach in a revival. At night, he just noticed that he felt a heavy and it seemed as if cold sensation was passing through the whole of his body. He opened his eyes and behold what did he see? It was the devil himself standing before him. The devil told him that he was such a troublemaker to have left his country to cause trouble in another land. The devil then moved closer to deal with him there and then. The man of God said that something like fear struck through his soul just like lightening. Immediately that happened, he said that his hands and feet began to get cold. Then he stopped being afraid. He wanted to talk but the cold had blocked his mouth. The mouth could not open again, and then something began to swell up from the inside of him. Thereafter, it started to move within him. By the time it would move to his mouth, he began to pray in tongues. Immediately he began to pray in tongues, he could see fear in the eyes of the devil and the devil was then getting scared, and the man continued. As he prayed louder, the devil told him that he would be left alone for sometime. Then, the devil walked out. The man of God would have died if that fear had continued. Fear is a modern plague and the devil is using it tremendously and very successfully too in the life of Christians. A lot of People don’t know that there are some things that scare the devil. The need for you to know the things that frighten the devil has necessitated this message.

 

What are those things that frighten the devil?

1.      God’s Sovereignty: Is God’s ability to do what he wants to do at the time he wants to do it. Whether the receiver is ready or not, God will still go ahead to do it. He doesn’t care whether the person prayed or not. He doesn’t even sometimes care whether the person believes it or not. It is just His sovereign power, the devil fears that a lot. The fact that God could just arrive at a scene and just decide to do something which the devil does not even think about, makes him afraid, Psalm 115:3: “But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased”. Consider the example of Apostle Paul. Apostle Paul was on his way to Damascus. He was actually busy serving the devil. No sermon could have converted Paul, Nobody would have been able to sit down with Paul and teach him the bible, but God just converted him. The man that was serving the devil one minute ago became submissive to the power of God the next minute. God by his sovereign power just picked him up. That kind of event scares the devil a lot. Consider the Bethesda story. The Bible tells us that an angel of God would come down once in a while to trouble the Pool of Bethesda. The first person to get inside that water got healed. It did not matter whether or not that first person was a sinner. It did not matter whether he attended any church or not. That is God’s sovereign power. He does what he wants to do at the time He wants to do it without receiving query from anybody and without asking for permission from anybody. A paralytic man had spent thirty-eight years at the edge of the pool before the sovereign power of God took Jesus there. It was not surprising that Jesus just went to him, he didn’t call Jesus. God, by His sovereign power, just went to search for him with a miracle. God does what he wants to do. The Bible tells us in Psalm 65:4 that “Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causeth to approach unto thee…..” God just goes out and selects people for blessings whether they are qualified or not. By the same token, you can ask God to choose you for special blessings today. We cannot question God. Peter on the sea had broken all the spiritual laws and he was qualified to sink. The only thing that saved Peter was that he prayed the only prayer that was left. He asked for God’s mercy. And God said “l will have mercy on whom l will have mercy”. SO, God may endure with some people. But for vessels that are due for destruction, God will just be looking at them and will be observing them, and people will be saying what is God doing? But again, he might arise one day and you will find that everything has changed. The devil fears a lot. And when somebody is a believer at anytime without any warning, God could decide to come to your aid and then the devil will not know where to face again. That is God’s divine intervention for you! when that intervention happens, God in His sovereign power cannot be questioned. The devil knows that one very well.

 

2.      God has a book of remembrance: Let us run quickly through some scriptures. Genesis 8:1 “And God remembered Noah, and every living thing and all the cattle that was with him in the ark” Genesis 19:29: And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham” Exodus 2:24 : “And God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob” Psalm 136:23 has this to say “who remembered us in our low estate, for his mercy endureth forever’” Malachi 3:16 says “Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name”. It is not that God forgets things but his days for each person’s blessings and the types of blessings are recorded in this book. Although, enemies and sins may prevent people from obtaining what God has for them, but when they continue to pray, one day, the book of remembrance of God will be opened. It is good for you to pray that kind of prayer the robber on the cross prayed. He said “Lord Jesus remember me when you get into your kingdom” So part of your prayer points now is for that book of remembrance to be opened. Mordecai was in trouble and he was almost going to die, but one day something happened. The king began to open his book of rembereance and found that he had to do Mordecai a favour and that made a change in the system. The devil knows that God has His book of rembereance. He knows what is written there, that you are made for blessings and that God has that book and if you continue serving him, as he opens His book and as He remembered the children of Israel and remembered Abraham, and Isaac and remembered the Psalmist. One day, he will remember you. But as far as that person lives in sin, that book of remembrance may never be opened. The devil knows these things and they frighten him.

 

3.      Praises and Worship: Many believers have not realized the importance of praise worship. When you praise God, you are acknowledging God for what he has done. A lot of People take praise worship time as a wasted time, but the truth is that praises turn the hands of the clock around. It makes God to pour down untold blessings. Outstanding miracles happen when people learn to praise God with all their hearts. Exodus 15:11 “talks about God being glorious in holiness and fearful in praises”. As soon as you begin to praise God, God becomes fearful to your enemies and Psalm 22:3 tells us that “God inhabits the praises of his people. When you praise God,” He inhabits that praise. The devil knows this, so he tries to prevent many believers from praising God. He creates situations and circumstances that will make somebody say well if l am laughing now everybody will say that l am mad” so that person keeps quite. In Acts of the Apostles 16, we read  about Paul and Silas, who as they were praising God in the prison, a situation where they were not even supposed to praise God at all, their collective bondage began to break, the prison door began to open and many things began to happen as they were praising God. Do you want to impress God? If you want the Lord to say to you like he said to Moses, that this is my servant” then, learn to praise and worship Him. Even when the situation looks bleak and unfriendly, you will discover that you will receive many things even without asking God for them. God tells us in Psalm 50:12-15: “If l were hungry, l would not tell you for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof: Will l at the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most High. And call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you and you will glorify my name” he says flesh of bulls, I don’t eat, blood of goat, I don’t drink but l want your thanksgivings. When you begin to praise God, it scares the devil to death, because he knows that what you are doing would cause trouble for him.

4.      Learn to shout: The shout of the children of Israel sent terror down to the camp of their enemies. Consider Joshua 6:5 which says “And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city shall fall down flat” Joshua 6;5 tells us the result of their action, “So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpet and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat” Jericho walls fell with a shout! In many passages in the scriptures, enemies were overcome through a shout. Psalm 47:5 likewise tells us something very interesting. It says this: “ God is gone up with a shout the Lord with sound of a trumpet” when our Lord Jesus Christ will be coming down again, 1Thessalonians4:16: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout…..” One of the good things a believer can do to himself is to learn how to give holy shout. The shout of God’s people makes God to arise and scatter their enemies! After reading this message, you need to be prepared to shout continuously in holiness to God. This is why you find a lot of miracles happening in crusades. The shout that people shout in such places when they are praying and the songs of praise they sing get the devil really scared.

 

 Isaiah 12:6: “Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion; for great is the holy one of Israel in the midst of thee”

 

 Do you want the Lord to say to you today that you shall see your enemies no more? Then learn to shout. The camps of your enemies will become worried and they will begin to flee from before your face! The bible tells us that when Jesus got to the tomb of Lazarus, he yelled there he cried Lazarus come forth” Lazarus had to come forth.

 

5.      Prayerful life: The bible says that those that call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. God himself says “ Call upon me in the time of trouble and l will deliver you and you will glorify my name” You know the story of Jacob. You know also the story of that woman that refused to let Jesus go and you know that as they continued pressurizing in prayers things began to happen.

 

 

6.      Command the problems to have problems: this may sound strange to you. The bible says this in Psalm68:18 “Thou hast descended on high, thou hast led captivity captive and have given gift to all men: yea for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them” You can command the captivity to be led captive. You can issue a curse on bondage in the name of Jesus. In the scripture, somebody was disturbing Paul from preaching the gospel, and Paul in holy anger commanded the man to be blind! The man remained blind until Paul finished his assignment. You can also make your problems uncomfortable. There was a particular place, where about 5 men were plotting against a minister of God and they were asked to use demonic means to stop him from preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He warned them that they should desist as nobody can fight God and any of His ministers. They refused to listen, but persisted in their wicked plot, they kept on putting sacrifices at the door of the man of God. At that level, the Pastor got angry; he then vowed to teach the wicked people a bitter spiritual lesson. He went on three days fast. After the third day, the first man died, the second man lost his wife, the third man was being carried all over the place, the forth man got paralysed. Then the fifth man ran to the man of God to beg. He threw fear and panic into their camp. Psalm 41:8: “An evil disease say they cleaveth fast unto him and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more” That is the psalmist for you. He has sent an evil disease somewhere. If somebody is calling himself a witch or wizard and continues to threaten you, command him or her to have divine problems, and that person or the spirit will not be able to operate again.

 

7.      You must kill your doubt and exercise your faith: Your human reasoning and logic will in most cases feed your enemies and make them strong and in most cases our faith is hindered by human logic and reasoning. This then leads to fear because the tiny human mind and brain cannot think about how certain things can be possible. Sometimes too much book and too much knowledge will kill your faith, if you are not careful. The bible tells us in Matthew 19:26 : “With God all things are possible” That is why Jesus used to say over and again “ Fear not only believe” this one is more than don’t be afraid or take courage or be brave.” All the advice to be courageous will be useless advice because the spirit of fear is an equal force and only a strong belief and fearlessness will make you stand strong. If you fear, then you do not believe! James 2:19 tells us that the devil trembles. “Thou believest that there is only one God; thou doest well: the devil also believes and tremble” So, Satan trembles when you refuse to fear. It is fear that says, Oh the witch doctor next door will kill me. It is fear that says a lady will never find a husband. It is fear that says, stop praying, go and try something else. It is fear that says the sickness will never go. It is fear that says if you leave this boy friend or your sugar daddy, you will starve. It is fear that says just keep your money in the bank and don’t bring it out. Don’t serve God with it, if you serve God with it there won’t be anything left.. Remember the raining day! It is fear that says to a lady, go to your husband’s office and start fighting all the secretaries there because they will take your husband away. It is fear that complains that my mother-in-law is a witch my father in law is a lodge member so l am stuck. Discard the spirit of fear, because your faith is a multi-purpose weapon. When you as a saint begin to exercise faith, that your faith will frighten the devil. Believers are not supposed to negotiate with the devil; we are to cast him out. Many believers try to strike a bargain. When they see that the bargain is not working, then they come back to the house of God. Perhaps you are still contributing money to slaughter sacrificial goat, you are striking a bargain with the devil; you want to stay in two camps. Maybe you are saying that if you don’t give them your own part of the money the problem they are prophesying will happen and so your own part of the money, the problem they are prophesying will happen, and so you paid your own share. But you stayed with God because you are afraid of hell fire. That’s striking a balance with the devil. It does not work. Somebody bought medicine and brought them to church for sanctification, evil negotiation! Such a person does not want to stay in any camp. Believers must not do these things. You are found where you should not be found and you start to prostrate saying please don’t tell Pastor that you saw me here o. You are negotiating with the devil and that does not work. Some only begin to pray when all other efforts have  failed. Some begin to gamble with the devil but they forget that he is a master gambler. Today let it register in your spirit that your faith will frighten the enemy and that in Jeus name, you are the victor. And not the victim because Jesus crushed the serpent’s head and so God’s children have to be bold.

 

8.      A life of holiness filled with the Holy Spirit: A life of holiness filled with the Holy Spirit, throws panic into the camp of the enemy. Many problems that believers are having can be explained like this: the devil has a stronghold in that life and so he is using that stronghold to enter into that life. But if you will live a holy life, holy within and without, no stronghold can stand again in your life. When someone’s holy life is now filled with the Holy Ghost, then such a person becomes an absolute terror to the enemy. I have gone into he trouble of telling you all these so that you will now be living a fear –free life and you will no longer remain a student in the school of fear. Instead of you getting afraid now, refuse it and know the devil too can be frightened and that you can frustrate his efforts in your life. If your spiritual eyes can be opened and you see what your prayers do in the spiritual world, you will pray better than you are doing now! If God should open your eyes to see what prayer is doing, a lot of people will be begged to stop praying and they will refuse. The simple declaration that you make, while standing inside your house in the name of Jesus causes a lot of confusion. If you can see the confusion, you will enjoy saying it.

A case in mind is about a woman who left a revival ground and went home. They were given a prayer point to pray facing each section of their room“ “you wall, receive the fire of God” The woman got home that day with great anger. She never slept peacefully in the room because of bad dreams. If she was happy before, immediately she entered the room she would be sad. So she entered, closed the door and started praying the fire prayer. As she was calling fire her neighbour was having serious trouble. She took her clothes off because fire was already burning her. So she began to knock at the door and called other neighbours, begging them to stop her from calling that thing that she was calling. She kept yelling, tell her to stop, tell her to stop. This woman did not open her eyes to see them. She just kept on calling fire. They had to hold her, and it was then she opened her eyes to see the havoc her prayer had caused. A serious believer can frighten the enemy, frustrate the enemy and discourage the enemy. When a believer keeps doing that they will recognize him or her. If you will drain fear out of your spirit and you refuse to fear what happens, I am telling you devil will just be experiencing constant failure in your life until he leaves you alone. The reason some problems get worse is because the devil uses fear to strengthen them by making it to become bigger. When you say I command you this spirit, to go in Jesus name, of course, they will have to listen to you. They have no option. But after they have left, they will stay a little bit afar and will be blowing a cold breeze on the place they were before and then the believer feels the breeze. If such a believer is not strong, he or she will be afraid. Then the devil will say let us try him again; there is no harm in trial, that is the motto of the demonic world. They keep trying. Let’s send the snake back again and the snakes comes back and fresh problem starts. The kind of prayer that such a person prayed before to send them out will not be enough, he or she will require a stronger one. The former tempo will not work again, it has to be increased. One foe has brought in seven, so that they won’t be chased you that easily again. So, fear is a powerful demon. Infact, it is the demon called the door-keeper. It opens the door and others just walk in! but once fear is not at the door, the door is closed forever with the blood of Jeus.

 

Prayer Points

1.      Strength of God, flow into my life, the anointing of God flow into my life in Jesus name.

2.      Every garment of shame. I put them back into the head of the enemy.

3.      All the garments of sickness, I send back to the sender( confess these with aggression; for greater is He that is me than he that is the world and l can do all things through Christ who strengthen me. I pursue l recover my properties from the enemy in the name of Jesus.

4.      everything recorded as impossible in my life, because I serve the God of the possibility and my case is different. I command you to become possible in Jeus name.

5.      I command the fire, the thunder, the lightening and the tempest of God to destroy every evil alter against me.

6.      Lord choose me for special blessings today.

7.      Oh Lord open the book of remembrance for me today in the name of Jesus.

8.      Now l command all my problems to begin to have problems. Let all my captivity problems be led into captivity.

9.      Lord arise, hasten your word to perform them in my life in the name of Jesus.

10. You powers of the enemy take your legs off any of my blessings that you presently have your legs upon.

11. In the name of Jeus l cancel anything that anybody that anybody is doing against me in the nude.

12. I command every power sitting on the key to my victory and miracles to hand them over to me in the name of Jesus.

                                                                                                             

PULLING DOWN FOUNDATIONAL JERICHO

 Dr. D.k. Olukoya

 

This message concerns everybody. The topic is “Pulling down Foundational Jericho” Three things are included in this topic. The first one is a “Pulling down Exercise”, then there is a “Foundational” thing and there is a “Jericho”. We will analyze these three things one after the other. Firstly, we will look at Jericho. Readers of the bible who have read the book of Joshua will recognize that Jericho was a stronghold hindering the Israelites from their entering the Promised Land. There was a Promised Land to enter, but before the children of Israel could go into the land flowing with milk and honey, they had to pass through a well fortified city known as Jericho and the place took a lot of spiritual bombardment and Holy Ghost fire works before it fell. God asked them to march around the place for 7days. You may ask, “Did God not have power to point to Jericho and make it fall in just one second? If yes, why didn’t He just do that? He didn’t do it, because He wanted to teach His people the principles of warfare prayers. They went round the wall for 7 days and on the seventh day as God instructed, that when the priests sound the trumpet, they should all shout, they did as God had commanded them, and the wall of Jericho came tumbling down. Some bible scholars tell us that the more appropriate way to describe the incident is that the wall sank. The falling of this wall made way for the children of Israel and they were able to pass to the Promised Land. The Journey of the Israelites could be compared to our own journey as Christians too. Many of us have personal Jericho and you may be passing through your own now. You will have to pull it down. Psalm78:2: “ I will open my mouth in a parable: I will  utter dark saying of old”, this means that some sayings are dark. The bible is the most wonderful book in the world and no book can beat it. It stands in the middle of the creation, for it tells us about the past, the present and the future. Although the bible was written by about 40 men who never met themselves, within a time frame of about 1,000 years, yet one can see the coherence in what they wrote. The bible is the only book that will stand, when all other things are gone. The Bible has answers to all the problems of man and to every question than man can ask. When the bible that is supposed to be answering questions is itself asking questions then it must be viewed seriously. There are many questions in the bible. To some answers are provided and to others you may have to provide answers yourself e.g. “Has the Lord delight in burnt offering and sacrifices than hearkening to his voice?” To this an answer is provided; “Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice” Another one is, “Is there no balm in Gilead or no physician? Why is it that the health of the daughters of my people is not restored? To this there is no answer. In Psalm8:4, another question is asked, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visited him?” To this also, there is no answer. Also this question, “Is any sick among you?” This one has an answer “Let him call for the elders of the church, let them pray for him and anoint him with oil” Jesus asked another question, “When the son of man shall come, will he still find faith on earth?” This is also rhetoric. Many questions in the bible are quite challenging and they need serious consideration. Let us look at a very important question, which will lead us to various things. This question can be found in Psalm 11:3. No answer was supplied to this question. It says, “ if the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do?” this question takes us to the analysis of the second aspect of our topic, foundation. What is a foundation? If you want to make foundations for a building, you will dig holes into the earth and lay the foundation there. The foundation that makes the buildings stand is usually hidden and ugly. It suffers the most and it is the one that carries the whole weight of the building. The foundation is that thing by which things are supported or on which things are based. The foundation blocks are usually buried in the darkness at the base of the building. While it is possible to see the fine building, the foundation is hidden in the dark, where it cannot be checked after the building is completed. It is possible for some parts of a building to be changed or replaced e. g windows, doors etc, but if the foundation is bad nothing can be done about it. Another foundation cannot be ordered, like other parts of the building neither can the foundation be repaired. The foundation is hidden deep beneath a building. No one can see it, yet it accomplishes the task. All other blocks and structures on top of the foundation need it to be able to stand. Beloved the foundation of a person’s life is just like any other foundation we have described. In any thing we do whether physically or spiritually, there must be a foundation. The bible says, even the church of God is built on the foundations of the Apostles. It is the foundation that will determine whether a building will be durable, stable and withstand that which it is intended to withstand. It will determine the type of building and the purpose for which it was used. For anything we do or intend to do, the foundation is very important. For example the reason why many marriages collapse is because of bad foundation.

 

A case in mind was about a friend in England, this friend asked me to escort him to the airport to welcome his wife. I obliged him, and when we got to the airport, to my amazement, he put his hand in his pocket and brought out a picture and as people were arriving, he kept looking at the picture and at the faces of those that were arriving. I was embarrassed because they were both PhD students in England. I had to ask him, to confirm if he didn’t know the lady we came to welcome. He told me his parents arranged the wedding in absentia and that they have only posted the wife to him. He stayed there searching, then suddenly a light complexioned lady arrived he looked at her, called her name, the lady too called his name and they then embarrassed each other. That was how they got married at the airport! I was not surprised two years after, when the Nigerian girl, who was about 23 years old, ran off with a 60 year old white German. My friend wanted to commit suicide but I advised him to take it easy and told him that if he dies the girl will continue to enjoy herself. The problem of that marriage was due to bad foundation. When a marriage is based on accidental pregnancy and the couple was forced to get married as a result of the pregnancy, such a marriage will end up a failure as it was built on bad foundation. When a marriage is based on beauty, handsomeness and other physical features like long legs, long hands etc such a marriage has a bad foundation. When a marriage is based on the fact that the would-be husband has money, then the foundation is bad. Unfortunately, for many sisters many of the nice brothers do not always have money. When a woman marries a man because of money, the man will certainly treat the woman like an object. Not being born again before getting married is bad foundation because the choice of husband or wife was made randomly out of various men or women. These are some of the reasons why marriages collapse. If you find a marriage that is about to collapse, the first thing to check out is how it all started that is the foundation. Was it strong and solid? Or was it done because two influential families compulsorily joined them together. One of the most foolish things any builder can do is to build a house without foundation or use a bad foundation. We can therefore assume that where there is no foundation, there is no building or where there is poor foundation, there will always be a poor building. I remember the story of those two men who wanted to build houses. One built on the rock (strong foundation) while the other built on sand. When the winds came and the storm blew on the two of them, with the same strength and current while the building on the sand collapsed and great was its ruin, the one on the rock stood firm. The bible says “Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him from them all” However, any affliction that starts from the foundation of a person’s life needs very serious action because:

1.We cannot see the foundation

2.The person has now grown above the foundation.

3.The beautiful nature of the external structure will not tell you what is at the foundation. So, the instability of many lives today is due to their faulty foundation. 90% of stubborn problems brought to the house of God is due to faulty foundations. I’ I like to share this testimony with you. At the church we were long time ago, something happened.

 

There was a herbalist living around the church with two wives. Suddenly, one of the wives started to fellowship with us at our church. The woman heard the message and realized that it was wrong remaining married to a herbalist, so she decided not to marry the herbalist again. The herbalist did not like this. He came to the church and physically threatened us and told us to tell his wife to leave our church. We told him that we had no right to stop anyone from coming to church. The man threatened to use his normal means. He ended up running away from the area. There was another incident of a pregnant woman and was attending the herbalist antenatal clinic for care. They agreed that on the day of her delivery her fee would be N300.00. So, the day she fell into labour, she could not afford the N300. They rushed her to the herbalist, who insisted on having service fee of N300 before starting anything. They were able to raise N150 after running around so much. The man then began the process of taking delivery of the child. He began to rain his incantations and eventually the woman delivered the first baby of the set of twins. The herbalist now requested for the balance of N150 before delivering the woman of the second baby. The man tried all he could but the baby did not come out. The woman was in pains and at the point of death when the husband came back from work. He decided to take her to her home town when he saw her condition. He put her into taxi and headed for the woman’s hometown. Along the way, somebody who knew the woman saw her and inquired about her problem. When the man was told the woman’s story, he invited them to a prayer revival meeting-taking place at his church nearby. They put the woman in their center and before they could say, “Father, in the name of Jesus” the woman delivered the second baby. Now there is a problem, one of the set of twins Taiye was born in the house of a herbalist and the other kehinde was born in the house of God. We cannot expect the course of their lives to be the same because their foundations are poles apart. Foundational problems are the most difficult problems anyone can think of. Should you destroy a building to get to its foundation? What should you do? This is why the bible in its wisdom, prohibits so many things and sometimes it does not explain to you why. When you then begin to understand why God banned all those things, you will be surprised. There is too much wickedness amongst the black race. The first offence that anyone can commit is to be doing well. Some people will say that they have not offended anybody or done anything wrong. You don’t need to do anything bad to get them offended. The simple decision by you to do well is enough to get them offended, and they will be after you. It is not that whites do not have their own problems; they do. Just like their brains are sharp, their problems too are sharp. These wicked people among the black race do all sorts of wicked things to people. They collect blood from young babies and manipulate the blood. This simple collection affects the baby for life, and if this baby doesn’t know the way of the cross, he will go from the cradle to the grave with one problem or the other. People go around clinics asking for placentas to buy, and once they are given to them, they can permanently destroy the baby’s life through that means. They look for sand underneath people’s feet manipulate the sand and put the people in trouble. They collect fingernails and hairs and use them against people. They give bad concoctions to babies to drink and from that moment, such babies are  in trouble. Some people have the foundation of idolatry, they bear names like fawole, Ogunyemi, Babatunde etc. Many people were born without familiar spirit, but somebody gave things to them to eat and they suddenly discovered that they have acquired strange powers. They struggle to get out, but they find it impossible. There is currently a serious mass exercise of initiations in schools, warn your children that when somebody just comes with loads of biscuits as sweets to school claiming to be celebrating his or her birthday, they should be very alert and reject such items. This is dangerous because lots of children have been unconsciously initiated this way. Some people when they were young had juju(black magic) on their necks and waists and these are avenues of problems. All these foundational things are better known as foundational Jericho. They have to be pulled down because while they were happening you were not aware you did not know and you cannot even tell. Some people were raped at very young ages and those demons are still harassing them. In the house where l lived long ago there were lots of bachelors there and there used to be one woman who had a twin and used to cook beans every Friday. Most of these young men used to prepare in advance for her beans. They usually bought bread ready for the beans. She never knew that these twins were being put into trouble. What the enemy wants to spoil in many lives, he had already dome at the foundation, at the level or stage when there was little or no consciousness. Your being born again gives you a pathway to get out of these problems. Getting born again is not the solution it is only a way to the solutions. Unless specific praying is done, the problems will generally remain or try to hide. The Bible says, the habitation of the wicked is full of cruelty. There was a small boy who felt like using the loo at around 2.a.m. So as he was going to the toilet, one spirit told him to look through the keyhole of an old woman staying in the same compound, in order to see what she was doing. The small boy went to peep through the keyhole and to his amazement what he saw dazed him. He saw the old woman of about 80 years old, standing naked in the middle of her room as she began to transform to a young girl from the top of her head downwards. She completely transformed to a young girl of about 21 years. After she had dressed up in some lace materials she then prepared to go out. The boy was dumbfounded and was therefore transfixed at the woman’s door. He could not move away from the door, until she was opening the door. Although the boy ran away, his eyes had been bewitched. So this is the time for you to do a very serious fight with Satan. At MFM we call a lot of prayer points, which may look strange to new comers in the school of warfare, but these prayers work and bring results. For example what do you understand by the following prayer points; O Lord, send your fire to the foundation of my life and let it burn to ashes everything presently affecting me in a negative way”. “I break and loose myself from any bondage which might have been transferred from my parents” “O Lord release me from foundational problems”. “I refuse to follow any evil design or pattern laid down by my ancestors in Jeus name”. Holy Ghost fire, destroy the roots of inherited evil plantations” What do you understand by these prayer points and why do you understand by these prayer points and why do you think we pray them? It is because 90% of the problems that are resistant to normal praying are rooted in the foundation. The problem of the evil foundation is so enormous and has completely messed up many lives. When l was in Abuja recently, a sister came for counseling. She brought two hospital reports. One showed that she was 5months pregnant and the other report said that they could not trace the baby in her womb again. How do you explain this? The doctors got confused, but by the time we started praying, it was revealed that the problem had to do with her foundations. In her family, they had promised some idols that they will be supplying them a specific number of babies every year and the quota for the year had not been met, so they removed the baby, with plans to remove about three more. Our Lord himself understood this and at a point he pointed accusing fingers at the background of the Jews. Matthew 23:29-25. The Jews are called the generation of those who killed the prophets. For example, some women complain that their husbands don’t stay at home and that they always move around with strange women or strange vultures. What we are saying is that this problem may have nothing to do with your husband. It may be from your own foundation. Perhaps your father was a polygamist and that spirit has entered into you and you have transferred it to your husband. This is the spirit of polygamy. It creates the desire to have many women. Until this is broken, the problem will remain. You will be deceiving yourself as a black person and as a Christian, if you choose to dismiss with carelessness your background or participation in masquerades, tribal rituals, collection of your name from an oracle, being born by a father who has charms, armlets and idols at home, parents who accepts services from demons, parents who were harsh to slaves and being born in a polygamous set-up. You will be deceiving yourself to believe that all these will just fly pass you without any effect. It is not possible at all. The great truth is that the full scope of evil foundation has not been adequately understood or comprehended by present day believers. Many are saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost, thank God for them. All these are like spiritual soap to be applied for the washing of spiritual body. Until they are applied, they would not wash. It’s like buying the biggest bible in the world and wrapping it in the most expensive snakeskin. This will not achieve anything until it is applied. Until the Holy Ghost fireworks get into the root of our lives, many black Christians will never be free. There was a sister who at 36 years of age was not menstruating; she was fortunate to hear a message on evil foundation. She first of all sat down and confessed her involvement in ancestral idolatry and rebuked the burdens and bondages of the devil. She then started prayers. Note this: When you close your eyes to take a prayer point and begin to say it consistently and violently without allowing your mind to waver and you concentrate very soon things will begin to happen positively. However, when you say “Father, in the name of Jesus” and you are waiting for the bell to be jingled so that you can stop, it will disturb you from concentrating. But when you get aggressive and you concentrate and spend quality time on prayer points, then you will begin to get results. A person could spend up to 10 hours on just one prayer point, to get desired results. The bible tells us not to make vain repetitions. A vain repetition is when people repeat the same stereotyped, mechanical payer, ceremoniously day out like parrots. This is the practice in many churches today. The afflicted sister then started praying, “O Lord send your fire into the root of my life” She prayed the prayer point for one hour, sweating profusely. When you sweat during prayers, the sweat that comes out is healing. After one hour of aggressive praying, faces began to appear. The first face was her grandfather’s, who appeared with bloody hands in a forest. She didn’t understand this. Later, she found herself as a small child at the back of her mother, while her mother was fighting with another woman. Her mother swore that the child at her back would not prosper, if she did not wound the other woman. Eventually the fight ended and she did not wound the person she fought with. However, she had issued the curse against the poor baby at her back and the curse was then affecting her. Thank God, the aggressive prayers helped the sister. Sometimes when we are praying at MFM, it is easy to know the newcomers in the church or those who are old students but have refused to pass our exams. They are not serious with prayers. Sometimes they open their handbags to get handkerchiefs to wipe away sweat, some switch their head from place to place in an unserious manner as if they are playing with the enemy. The bible says that, “Right from the time of John the Baptist, the Kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent taketh it by force”. Some struggle with their  headgears, they do all these unserious things until the bell is jingled and they have not really prayed. These are the strategies of the enemy against these people. We have to be careful and we must take prayer points very seriously with holy madness and aggression, if we are to get desired results. Do you hear voices that others cannot hear? Do you hear disturbing voices? Are there thoughts pushing you where you do not want to go? Do you have problems attending church or reading the bible or hearing the preacher or praying? If you do, it then sows that there is something at the foundation that needs to be attacked. What l am saying has nothing to do with whether you were born in a mission house where pastors had been living for long. It has nothing to do with whether they brought you forward for baptism and sanctification on the 40^th day or not. Do you have pains that move round different parts of your body? Do people threaten you in your dreams? Is your sex life abnormal in any way? Is your life getting harder and your problems getting greater now that you are born again, whereas before you became born again there seemed to be no more problem? This means there is something at the foundation that does not want you to serve God and be in Jesus’ camp. Do you see or sense dark figures or smell unpleasant things? Are you the type of person that goes into uncontrollable anger. If you have anger in your life, it is terrible. This is because anger is the greatest door opener to other evil spirits. It will keep opening doors to evil spirits. Do you ever experience cold presence at night when you sleep? Do you faint? Do you experience continuous nightmares? Do you find it hard to control your thought, anger or your physical functioning? If you have any of these problems, you need to send fire to your root today, and gain your freedom. All these evil background that have  mentioned can lead to spiritual blindness, lack of progress in everything, thought of suicide, marital problems, strange accidents, violent deaths, health problems or serious sexual problems. You can get out of this situation today. This means that everything depends on you and what you decide to do with your life. There was a man who came for prayers. He just found out that at 34 years of age, he had not achieved anything and nothing is working for him. He still had to depend on his younger ones for sustenance. If he was given money to start a business, it would go down the drain. He would either be duped or something terrible would happen. It was discovered that, the man was not the child of his father. The spirit instructed the man’s mother who was always following him to the church, to reveal who the true father of the man was. The woman then confessed that, the man was actually the son of her husband’s friend. This man did not know this until he was 34. He had been relating to the wrong person as his father. Every money the fake father spent on him never yielded good results. When some parents attempt to dictate the sex of their children, they give birth to half men and half women. Some go to local herbalists to achieve this. Going to the herbalist marks the beginning of another round of problems, because evil designing will be put into their lives and the problem will go from age to age. How can we arrest these situations of foundational problems? The first thing is to know that God is not a failure and neither did he create failures. Therefore, no creation of his should be a failure. Everything and any problem of man was finished when Jesus said it was finished on the cross. Whether you want to apply it now is another thing.

 

Steps to be taken.

1.      Identify the source of the problem. This should be done by prayer. God will reveal things to you, if you pray aggressively.

2.      Have intense and perfect hatred for the enemy that opened the door of your life.

3.      Renounce and reject it out loud. Don’t be polite to the devil. Command him to leave in Jesus name. He will leave only if you harass him to do so.

4.      Break all former satanic associations. These include wrong friends, wrong churches, wrong literature etc.

5.      Fill that which is empty with the power of the Holy Spirit. Only God can go to the foundation and repair it without destroying the building. You have to pray to him seriously with total concentration and aggression in your spirit.

Please close your eyes and concentrate. Before praying ensure that you are born again, as this is the holy way your prayers can be answered. If you are not born again, confess and repent your sins now and ask the Lord Jesus to come into your life.

 

 

PRAYER POINTS

 

1.      I drink the blood of Jesus and swallow the fire of the Holy Spirit (Place your right hand on your stomach, close your to belly button while praying this prayer point)

2.      Lord Jesus send your fire to the root of my life.

3.      Lord Jesus release me from foundational problems.

4.      Let the fire of God destroy all my pictures being kept in the demonic worlds in the name of Jesus.

5.      I loose myself from every evil foundation bondage in the name of Jesus.

6.      I severe every problem inviting link between me and my parents in the name of Jesus.

7.      Every placental bondage in my life be broken now in the name of Jesus.

8.      Father Lord, I command all my buried virtues to be exhumed now in the name of Jesus.

9.      Every dead bone in my life, receive life now in the name of Jesus.

10. Father Lord, anoint me to be victorious in every area of my life in the name of Jesus.

 

  

YOU SHALL SEE THEM NO MORE

Dr.D.K. Olukoya

 

Beloved readers, I thank God for your lives and for preparing this message specially for you. Please know this therefore that this message you are about to read demands all your attention. Open up your heart to God as you read this piece, and God will bless your spirit, soul and body richly in Jesus name. The title of this message is: “You shall see them no more” But before you begin to read, please pray this prayer point very well. “Lord Jesus lay your hands on me today” Our first scripture is found in

 Exodus Chapter 14:13, it reads, “And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today: for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever”

 Please keep the last sentence in your heart; You shall see them no more. There is something known in spiritual circle as hitting a spiritual jackpot. The meaning of this is that, somebody at a particular time was fortunate enough to be at a place where the power of God was moving and therefore gained immensely both physically and spiritually. It is such a time when God pours out His indescribable blessings and that person happened to be there at that time. We say that such a person has hit a spiritual jackpot. God does so occasionally. Then you could ask questions as to why God does that occasionally? You will soon know the answer soon. There was a particular powerful meeting where the anointing of God was all over the place. One of those who attended the meeting was an unbeliever. He was a sick person and the devil was pushing him all over the place. But thank God that he attended the crusade, where the power of God was available in abundance. First of all, his sickness went away without anybody attending to him. Secondly, when there was an altar call of people that wanted to give their lives to Christ, he answered the call and gave his life to Christ. Thereafter, there was another call of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, he went there and he received the Holy Ghost baptism. Then, the minister began to call those that wanted spiritual gift. Again the brother went there and he began to prophesy. All on the same day. He received a spiritual jackpot. It is something, which happens, and nobody knows the reason. God sometimes just pours out his blessings. I want to tell you a secret, today is such a day for you in Jesus name. The children of Israel had left Egypt. But Pharaoh said, “I will pursue and I will overtake” True to his words, he began to pursue. But he did not realise that it is a dangerous thing to pursue God’s people, because when it seems as if the enemy wants to catch up with them, their God who does not slumber nor sleep will rise and begin to fight for them. When their God begins to fight, people will get sacred because the way He will do it will be so terrible. Threat of pharaoh threw fear into the minds of the Israelites. However, Moses the fearless man of God told them to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. God also instructed Moses to tell the Israelites to move forward, for the Egyptians that were seeing that day would not be seen anymore. God told Moses that the Egyptians have made a very serious mistake by pursuing His own divinely elected children. God did what surprised the Israelites. He ensured that their Egyptian pursuers were drowned in the red sea. As you read further, I pray that your spiritual memory will be opened. Consider another example of a man who because of divine intervention did not see his foes again. Jacob was that man. He started from his mother’s womb as a thief. His name Jacob means a supplanter and a deceiver and lived up to his name. He became thoroughly confused and didn’t know what to do. Just one day, he had an opportunity, which he grabbed, and got what he wanted. As an angel of God was passing, Jacob held him and insisted on being blessed. He vowed not to let the angel go until he blessed him. Then came the reply of the angel in

 

Genesis32: 28 “And he said, thy name shall no more be called Jacob but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men and hast prevailed”

Jacob stuck to that angel until the angel told him your name shall no more be called Jacob” That is, he shall see the woes and evil effects of the name no more. The Lord finished in one day all the problems that Jacob had accumulated in his life. Any problem at all, in anybody’s life, no matter how long the problems might have existed, does not take God more than one minute to solve. Look at the time that the Egyptians afflicted the Israelites for 430 years. But the Lord visited them in just one night. My prayer for you is that as from today, you will no longer see the people afflicting you.  You will see them no more. Look at how long Jacob had been out of God’s blessings and how long the bad name has been harassing him. But one day, he had an opportunity and he grabbed it. He was promoted from a thief and a deceiver to a king with God. For that is the meaning of the word Israel. If you are thinking that God is not interested in you, and that His anger has been waging war against you, please know this fact from today that you are  not alone. God is by your side always.

 

Psalm30:5: “for his anger endure but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning”

 

The Lord has asked me to give you this good news, that you shall see your Egyptians no more and you shall see your pharaohs no more. But you need to learn from a brother’s experience. As a brother was praying one night, he noticed that he could pray harder than he used to do before. He prayed until his clothes got wet, and when prayed to a particular level, he saw somebody in a white garment asking him to stop praying. The person in white garment told him that he had prayed to a break through level. The brother wanted to stop praying, but he reasoned that God does not tell people to stop praying. As he looked more closely at the person in white garment, he saw stains on the garment. The white garment was indeed very dirty. The brother then realise that he was facing an angel of the devil trying to pretend to be an angel of light. The brother then became more aggressive and began to praise the Lord. It was that night that he received victory for what he has been asking from the Lord for 21 years. Although Satan tried to stop him, he persevered and saw his woes no more. Many people have complained that they don’t experience the power of God. It is because they do no stay long enough in His presence. If you stay there long enough, he would come and would not tarry. Let us read 11samuel7: 10 which talks about the affliction of the children of wickedness.

 

 “Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more as before time”

 

God said the children of wickedness will not harass you any more. They will not disturb your life any more and you shall see them no more. And as you are reading this, I want you to close your eyes and build up an aggression in you spirit. With that aggression, declare a spiritual war on every bad spirit surrounding your life. What are the unfavorable condition you find yourself and to which you want God to say to you that, today you shall see the activities of the children of wickedness no more? There are steps you can take so that God can cage the desires, hopes and the problems of the enemy. These principles are in the words of God and you are going to put them into practice from now.

 

1.God in His sovereignty, sometimes does what he likes not caring whether or no the receiver of the blessing is ready. Psalm 115:3: “But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased” He however has his own purpose; I will give you an example. Look at Paul on the way to Damascus, where he was going to kill Christians. He was against believers and was persecuting them. Nobody could preach to Paul or dared go near him to tell him that he should accept Jesus Christ as his lord and saviour. No sermon could convert him. But that day on his way to Damascus, God himself touched him, threw him down from his horse and converted him. That is the way God works in his power, He just does it. There is also this story in the bible about the pool in Bethesda. It was the pool where the angel of the Lord would come and stir the water. The rule was first come first served. The first person to jump into the water would be made whole. It did not matter whether that person was the worst sinner in the world or the most terrible liar. As far as he got to the water first, he would get well. Although many people were standing by the Bethesda pool, Jesus just went straight to meet a helpless impotent man. The man didn’t call Jesus. He probably didn’t recognize Jesus. Nobody knew why Jesus did it. He went straight to the man and said to him, “will thou be made whole? Instead of the man to answer a simple question, he began to tell stories like many of us do today. Jesus nonetheless healed him and gave him a serious warning that he should sin no more lest a worse thing come unto him. God does what He likes. People, who are deaf and dumb, do come to Christian revivals. They do not even hear the message, let alone having any faith, but God touches them, just like that and they get healed. God can do anything that is why the Bible says that blessed is the man whom God has chosen. God himself chooses people. You can also tell God to choose you for special blessings this moment. We don’t know how God does His own arithmetic, because we cannot question him. Consider Peter’s example: Peter said, “if you are Jesus, ask me to come” Jesus said, come and he started following Jesus. But he was able to go as far as his faith could carry him. Immediately, he began to doubt, he began to sink. Peter had broken the spiritual rule; therefore, he was qualified to sink. Peter however prayed the only prayer that could save him. He asked for God’s mercy and God’s mercy does not require anything for anyone to qualify for it. Peter prayed that the Lord should have mercy on him and Jesus held his hands and drew him. Although Jesus called him a man of little faith, he nevertheless saved Peter. Many people after having prayed will be complaining that they have not received answers to their prayers and that nothing is happening, the fact is that, they are doubting. The only thing that can help such people is to call on God for mercy and God will have mercy on them. In Romans9;15&16, it is written “For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom l will have mercy and l will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy”.

 

 God shows His mercy sometimes, not because of the fact that the person involved deserves it. Verse 20 of that Chapter9 says, “Nay but, o man who art thou that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour? Romans9:22 has this to say too, “What if God, willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.” It seems that even for vessels that are going for destruction, God in His mercy sometimes saves them. So, the first thing you need to recognize is that God can do what He likes without consulting you or me. Psalm65:4 says “Blessed is the man whom thou choosest…” You can pray that God should choose you for special blessing. We are discussing and examining situations under which God can say to you: “You shall see them no more” The first one I have mentioned is that God in His power can do anything and that you can even ask for his mercy and He will show mercy.

 

2.God has what we can call a book of remembrance: Let us quickly run through the scriptures. Genesis 8:1, “ And God remembered Noah, and very living thing and all the cattle that was with him in the ark” Genesis19:29 “ And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt”. Genesis30:23 says, “And God remembered Rachel and God hearkened to her and opened her womb” God has a book of remembrance. Exodus 2:24-25 have these to say: “ and God heard their groaning and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel and God had respect unto them”

1samuel 1:19 says “and they rose up in the morning early and worshipped before the Lord and returned and came to their house to Ramah and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife and the Lord remembered her. Psalm 136:23: “Who remembered us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever” Malachi3:16 says, “Then they feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that fared the Lord and that thought upon his name” It is not that God forgets things but the days of our breakthroughs and the type  of breakthroughs are recorded in God’s books for an appointed time. Job 14:13 says, “o that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me” The day of our blessings and the time of our blessings have been recorded in God’s book, although our sins may make God forget to open our book of remembrance. I want you to pray now that God should remember you and open the book of your remembrance. The Psalmist is fond of praying that God should remember him, it is good for us to pray that prayer too. Remember the story of the two thieves on the cross by the side of Jesus. While one of the thieves was abusing Jesus the other one requested Jesus to remember him in his kingdom. To this, Jesus said, “Verily, verily I say unto you, today you shall be with me in paradise” That man shall be with him in paradise. That man hit a Jackpot on the cross of all places. He didn’t get baptized, he did not take any communion or get confirmed. Right there God saved him because he prayed that prayer, “ Lord, remember me” Psalm 25:6 says “remember O Lord thy tender mercies and thy loving kindness for they have been ever of old” So God in His sovereign power can say at this moment that you shall see your problems no more. God can open his rembereance book right now, and then you shall see those Pharaohs and Egyptians no more.

 

3. Praise Worship. God can talk to you through praise and worship concerning certain things in your life. A lot of believers have not realized the importance of praise and worship. It is the acknowledgement of what God has done. Many believers who come to fellowship consider praise worship time as a wasted time. So they would purposely come after the praise and worship must have ended. Many present day believers come late to church so as to avoid praise and worship not knowing it is a very important time in the presence of God. Those who want to turn the hands of the clock around and make God pour down blessings and outstanding miracles, will begin by praising and worshipping the almighty God with all their hearts. Exodus 15:11: “who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” So, when you begin to praise God, He will do fearful things that will terrorize your enemies. Psalm 22 :3 “that God inhabits the praises of His people”, and if you have read 11Chronicles 20, you will find that a battle was won simply by praising God. And if you have read Acts of the Apostles 16, you would have read of prison doors breaking open because of people who were just praising God in the night. So do you want to praise God? Do you want the Lord to say to you as He said to Moses that you shall see them no more? Then, you must learn to praise and worship God and you will receive so many things without even asking for them. Let us read verses 12-15 of Psalm 50: (God is speaking here), “If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine and the fullness thereof. Will l eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving; And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shall glorify me” What comes first in the above passage is that you must give unto God thanksgiving.

 

4. If you want God to say to you, you shall see them no more, then learn to shout and cry. This will surprise a lot of people. The shout of the children of God sends terror into the camp of their enemies. We will look briefly into the scriptures: Joshua 6:5-20 Let us examine verse 5 here while you read verse 20 on your own “ And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him” So, Jericho wall fell down with a shout. Consider 11Chronicles 13:15: “Then, the men of Judah gave shout, and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah”

The enemies were overcome with a shout. Psalm 47:5 : “God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet” So, you must learn how to give holy shout. The shout of God’s people makes God to arise and scatter their enemies. That is why a lot of miracles do happen in crusades when numberless thousands of people begin to pray. The noise is like thunder and it scares the devil. When children of God gather themselves together and raise up their voices in one accord and they make a holy shout, there will be confusion in the camp of the enemy. They will not know the kind of weapon to use again. It gets the devil really scared. The bible encourages us to shout. No wonder then that Psalm47:1: “O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph” Isaiah12:6: “Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion; for great is the holy one of Israel in the midst of thee” Do you want the Lord to say to you, you shall see them no more? Then learn to shout. You must learn how to call upon the Lord. We have read psalm50:15 which says, “And call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you and you shall glorify my name” Joel2:32, the Lord said that “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” What kind of calling are we talking about? It is the violent calling. We have some three good examples in the bible. One of them was Jacob. He said the angel would not go until he blessed him, and he was blessed. Another example was blind Bartimeaus who kept  on shouting, “Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me” the blind man just kept on shouting. Even when he was asked to stop, he refused, until he heard a reply. So, you must keep on calling, until the Lord does something about your situation. Like l was telling some people sometime ago, I said, it was a good thing that Bartimeaus did not allow Jesus to pass him by because Jesus did not pass through that place again, as he was on his way to the cross to die. If Bartimeaus had missed that opportunity that day would have been the end of it. Another example was a woman in Canaan in Matthew15. She shouted Jeus, have mercy on my daughter, my daughter is sick. Jesus then gave her a test by saying that he would not give the children’s food to dogs. She kept on crying. You must do something today until you hear them no more and see them no more. You keep on until the Lord does something about your life and indeed about your situation.

 

5.You can command the problems to have problems in Jesus name. Psalm 6:18: “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive” So you command the captivity to be made captive. If the thing is bondage, you can ask the bondage to enter into bondage. You can make the problem uncomfortable or sick. They wanted to use demonic means to stop a brother’s ministry. They then planned an evil thing against him. But three days to the time the evil thing was to happen, the first man died. The second man lost his wife and the third man had a serious malaria fever. Then, a day to the time, the fourth man became paralysed. Then the fifth man quickly ran to the man of God and began to beg him to spare his own life. The man of God didn’t even know that they were planning anything against him. But he only used to pray every night. Let us see the type of prayer he used to repay in Psalm 41:8 “An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him; and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more” That was the prayer the man prayed. Please pray this now: Every power that rises up against me, shall not only fall, but shall rise up no more in Jesus name. When you command the spiritual wings of a witch to break into pieces, it will not fly again. When you command sickness to destroy itself, it will not operate again in your life.

 

6. You must kill your doubt and then exercise your faith. Your reasoning and logic will in most cases, feed your enemy and make them strong. In most cases too, faith is hindered by human logic and the way you reason, this will lead to fear. Your logic, which cannot help you, will always ask you: Can God does this? How is this possible? That is why sometimes too much of academic logic can cause trouble. You will always be tempted to examine everything academically. Matthew19:26 has this to say “ But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, with men this is impossible but with God all things are possible” In Mark 9:23 “ Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth”

 

You therefore need to kill your logic and your doubt, and exercise your faith. The bible says all things are possible. Matthew 9 “But Jesus turned round and when he saw her he said Daughter be of good comfort thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. He said, thy faith had made thee whole. So, if your faith at this moment says that you will see your Pharaoh no more, that faith will make sure you don’t see them any more. If you have been having some recurring problems and your faith now declares, that today is the last day for the problems, it shall be so. That is what the bible says. Verse 29 of the same chapter says “ Then touched he their eyes, saying according to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened” Jesus said and is still saying according to your faith. In mark 2:5 says “ When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, son, thy sins be forgiven thee” So, Jesus saw the faith of the people that brought him. Their sick friend could not exercise any faith, but Jesus used the faith of his friends to heal him. So, your faith can help somebody else. Mark5: 34: “And he said unto her; Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole” And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the way. Luke7:50: “ And he said to the woman, thy faith hath saved thee go in peace” Luke17:19: And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole. Luke17:19 says  “And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole” Luke18:42: “And Jesus said unto him, receive thy sight; thy faith hath saved thee” It is faith that accomplishes the impossible. Do you want the Lord to say you shall see them no more? Then kill your doubt and exercise your faith. The bible says, call on the Lord and he will answer.

 

7. You can pray the anointing of the Holy Spirit: Isaiah 10:27 says the anointing will break the yoke of the enemy. When the anointing comes, all the yokes will be broken. A lame man was brought to a meeting. And he was sitting in front and was praying for the anointing power of God to come down. When the mighty power of God came down on the congregation, this man fell flat on the ground, such that many people laughed at him. Some people went to him and were trying to ask him to arise and walk in Jesus name. They did not know that the man had already been healed. He only fell under the anointing power of God. When the man jumped up, he began to run. The anointing fell upon him and all his yokes fell off. God said unto Moses that the Egyptians and the Pharaohs that you see today, you should see them no more. But note that, the bible says without faith, it is impossible to please God. I am yet to identify a problem that God had not solved before. There is no problem that is befalling you now that God cannot solve. If God could raise up the dead, then nothing else is impossible. We have a God who cannot fail. Now, you have to pray the prayer points of the week with all aggression.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.      Father Lord, choose me for special blessings today in the name of Jesus.

2.     God have mercy on me today in Jesus name.

3.     Father Lord, open the book of remembrance of my blessings and remember me for good today in Jesus name.

4.     Father Lord, let every demon and evil spirit harassing me run out of their hiding places in the name of Jesus.

5.     I reject the spirit of the tail and I claim the spirit of the head in the name of Jesus.

6.     Father Lord, reorganise my life to confuse all enemies of my breakthroughs in the name of Jesus.

7.     I reject every spirit of the valley in the name of Jesus.

8.     You spirit of failure, my life is not your candidate in the name of Jesus.

9.     I receive the anointing to prosper in every department of my life in Jesus name.

 

 

DELIVERANCE OF THE TONGUE

 Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

I believe that you have not picked up this publication to waste your time. You are reading it because you want to drink from the well of salvation. Before you go on to read, please pray this prayer as follows: O Lord, send down the fire of revival into my life in Jesus name. Our topic is “Deliverance of the tongue”. The tongue has destroyed so many and also, it has improved and blessed the lives of so many. From this topic, two things stand out: these are -deliverance and Tongue.

 General Definitions of Deliverance.

We shall begin by looking at the term “Deliverance” and try to define it.

 1.    Deliverance can be generally defined as release from captivity, slavery or oppression. This release could involve many things such as the following:

    (a) Casting out a demon from a place, a person or a thing. This means that demons can possess a person, a place or an inanimate object.

(b) Breaking of curses, spells and bewitchment.

© Breaking of evil yokes.

(d) Loosing the bands of wickedness

(e) Breaking evil-covenants, contracts or promissory notes of the enemy.

(f) Spiritual cleansing from evil marks

(G) Removal of satanic loads and burdens.

(h) Uprooting evil seeds

(I) Breaking of bondages

(j) Removal of satanic embargo

(k) Destroying the works of darkness.

A lot of people have a wrong idea of what deliverance is. Whenever people hear of deliverance, they usually associate it with getting delivered from witches and wizards. This is just a part of deliverance. By these definitions and descriptions, you should now understand the term “deliverance”

 

THE TONGUE

When God created man in the beginning. He gave man a lot of powers. God gave man power of imagination and power to dominate and subdue the earth. For example, no matter how dangerous an animal is, when it sees a human being, it initially gets afraid before gathering courage to attack. One of the powers God gave to man is the power of spoken word and the reason why a lot of people are in bondage could be traced to their tongues. Many tongues are under bondage. The book of James Chapter 1 verse 26 tells us that as far anyone is unable to control his or her tongue; such a person’s religion is in vain. Also, James 3:2-12: that when a man is able to control his tongue, he will also not be able to control the rest of his body. The passage also tells us that the tongue is a little member that boasts of great things. It also describes the tongue as a fire. You know that when fire is controlled, it can be very useful to mankind, but when fire becomes uncontrollable; it can be a very dangerous destroyer. The tongue is also described as a world of iniquity that defiles the whole body. This means that this little member can put the whole body into bondage. It is humanly impossible to tame the tongue or put it under control like we do with other wild animals, like lions, horses etc if you go to the zoo. You will understand what l am talking about. The tongue is an unruly evil. It is used to bless God, curse men and it is full of deadly poison. It is capable of good conversation as well as bitter strife. Although, it is a small member of the body, but the bible says it can start a big flame. The tongue has destroyed families, countries and nations. It is a dangerous member of the body. God gave man two eyes, two nostrils, two ears but one mouth containing one big fish; which is the tongue. The tongue can be used to serve God or serve the devil. At the same time, the tongue is one of the most effective passports to hell fire. That is why Jesus said, “By the word of thy mouth, thou shall be justified and by the same word thou shall be condemned” Man will give account of every idle word that he spoke on the day of judgement. If you do not control your tongue, it will end up controlling you. Many lives would have been so sweet, if at one stage in their lives, they were dumb like Zechariah and did not utter a word. A lot of people would not be where they are now, if they had not engaged in a particular conversation. To make it worse, there are demons living on people’s tongue and the bible says, if you cannot control your tongue you will not be able to discipline other parts of the body. When your tongue is under the control of God, you will speak God’s words but when it is under the control of devil and demons, you may speak God’s words for a little while, but you will eventually speak the devil’s words. Please ask yourself now, before we go further, “What have I been saying with my mouth”? Be assured that the words you speak will shape your life. As little as your tongue is, it shapes your life. Your present life today is as a result of what you have been saying yesterday with your mouth. This is why the bible says “that death and life are in the power of the tongue”. The tongue can kill and mar your life. God gave us seven openings in one head and the seventh one needs to be controlled. If you open your mouth more than the other openings (2 ears, 2 eyes and two nostrils) it will surely get you into trouble. God gave us only one mouth so that when others are opening twice it will open only once i.e. see twice, speak once, hear twice, speak once etc. There is nothing so great and powerful that the tongue cannot control because it speaks the words. The tongue could even control circumstances surrounding human beings and many believers do what we call “Spiritual execution” of their lives everyday.

 

 I met an American Preacher, preaching a particular topic and in the course of the sermon he stressed that “Your miracle is in your mouth” and when you check the scriptures you will find this to be true. The bible says with the heart, a man believes but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. But when the mouth that should bring forth the miracle is under bondage, how will the miracle happen? A lot of sisters could still have been in their husbands’ houses if they could glue their lips together. A lot of homes would have still been together, if husbands and wives were a little bit careful with their tongues. A lot of people insist on speaking out their minds” there is nothing wrong with this in itself, but when the mind is not renewed by the word of God and not washed by the blood of the lamb, then you will get into serious trouble. Let us examine some scriptures, Psalm 34:11-13 gave the prescription for long life and that is by keeping the tongue from evil and the lips from speaking guile. So, the fear of the Lord starts from the tongue. Proverbs13:3 “He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life” Beloved, the tongue has destroyed so many things. This is why baptism in the Holy Spirit is vital and necessary for every believer. When you receive baptism in the Holy Spirit. This is good for you, because whatever your tongue says will eventually happen to you. Does your tongue need deliverance? You will know by the time you finish reading these:

Signs- that a tongue needs deliverance

1.    Excessive talking- Proverbs10: 19 tells us that “In the multitude of words, there wanteth not sin; but he that refraineth his lips is wise” When you talk at the rate of 300 words per minute and not willing to listen to other people, then your tongue needs deliverance!

2.    Speaking idle or careless words: When you utter idle and useless words, it is a sign that your tongue needs deliverance.

3.    Gossiping and tale bearing- gossips are the devil’s broadcasting station. Even if it is only your husband you are gossiping with, it is still gossip and you are a broadcaster for Satan.

4.    Lying-Proverbs12: 22: “Lying lips are abomination to the Lord; but they that deal truly are his delight” When you tell lies, no matter how little, your lips are an abomination unto God. A business lie or any lie at all, told for whatsoever reason is still alive.

5.    Hastiness in speech-Proverbs29: 20:Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words, there is no more hope of a fool than of him” The bible says in this passage that there is more hope for a fool than a hasty talker. Moses was once hasty in his speech and that cost him Non-entrance into the Promised Land. Psalm106: 32&33 tell the story of Moses. It reads, “They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes. Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake advisedly with his lips” This put Moses in trouble. This was the man that spoke to God face to face.

6.    Swearing and cursing-Once you swear and curse you have a serious problem and you really need to repent. If you still use your tongue to curse and swear, it then means that your tongue is glued to the chain of the enemy. There are some believers who speak the languages of hell-fire. Their tongues are under bondage e.g. you cannot be calling God’s creature, “bush meat or chick” You cannot be using the devil’s vocabulary and expect miracles to happen. You cannot be uttering self destructive statements like “I’m dead”, l am finished”, l am undone or singing the devil’s songs or saying the devil’s prayer points (curses) and still expect good things to happen in your life. You cannot be using your tongue to extort money from people and expect God’s blessings.

7.    If you are a Christian and you have learnt or memorized incantations before, your tongue needs deliverance- The more you read the incantations, the more your tongue comes under bondage. If you have recited psalms or prayed to Angels as instructed by some white garment prophets somewhere, your tongue will be under bondage and it will need deliverance, because you have used it to pray to strange gods. Demons too can live on the tongue and this is why some people find it difficult to receive baptism in the Holy Ghost. This is why some people cannot flow in speaking with other tongues and it is also the reason why some people speak in demonic tongues. Some men got demons on their tongues by licking the sexual organs of women, and some women too got demons on their tongues by licking the sexual organs of men. This is what some people call oral sex. Such tongues will be in trouble. Those who have drank concoctions, demonic holy water or eaten sacrifices or kissed demonic men or women or shared cigarettes with people licked tobacco etc have their tongues under bondage. Such people will tell lies without realizing it. They talk about bad and filthy things easily. They utter unclean words and find it difficult to witness about Christ to anybody. They always say the negative aspect of things. They make others depressed and unhappy with their words and utterances. They speak words that will put other people in bondage. They exaggerate, nag, grumble, criticize and mock people. Many homes would have still been together if not for the power of the tongue that have destroyed them. Healing is needed for so many tongues. Deliverance is needed for many tongues and sometimes fingers have to be laid on people’s tongues to get them delivered. You too can pray to deliver yourself from this bondage but you have to be truthful to yourself. If you know that your tongue is not speaking the right thing, accept that it needs to be loosed and pray accordingly. It does not matter whether you are a church leader or you teach others in the bible, be truthful to yourself. Please get this clear, one of the basic factors of life which many people don’t know is that you will eventually get what your mouth says or is saying. If you say “I can “ then you will if you say “I cannot” then you will not be able to do it. If you talk negatively, then you will get a negative result because your words will of necessity create a negative atmosphere will be hospitable to negative reactions. Try to experiment this. Determine within yourself that you will speak only positive and hopeful things for the next 48 hours, about your job, your children’s academic performance, your health, your future, your business and everything about your life. This may be difficult at first because negative speaking and complaining have been programmed into the life of so many people. If you practice speaking only positive things for 7days non-stop, you will be surprised at what will happen. Perfect man is one who can rule his tongue. The influence of the tongue is so high that the Holy Spirit desires to use it. If you can control your tongue, then you can tame the other parts of your body. This is why you must check what you say. You must check to whom you are speaking, how you speak when you speak, where you speak. When you loose the control of your tongue, you will also loose the control of your life. Therefore the key to a beautiful life is to control and regulate your tongue. Prophet Isaiah got a vision that he was dwelling among people with unclean lips and an angel had to take a hot coal of fire from the altar and put it on Isaiah’s tongue to purge his tongue. Before then, something was wrong with the tongue of prophet Isaiah and he could not represent God until his tongue was cleansed. This is why some people prophesy and yet they still utter unprinted words with their mouths. When God wanted to judge the people at the tower of Babel, all he needed to do was to confuse their tongues, so that they could not be able to work together again. When God also wanted to send the Holy Spirit, he also used the tongues. The full impact of the tongue on our lives is yet to be realized, even by Christians. It is your tongue, more than anything else that determines whether you are beautiful or ugly, rich or poor. The tongue can give delight it can make a plain person beautiful and it can heal bruises and wounds. It can soothe the agitated temper. The bible says, “that a soft answer turneth away wrath” but when there is an exchange of hard or hot words, wrath will increase and the devil will take the advantage to create big problems. The tongue can give hope to the hopeless and point the way to God. It can make or break marriages or other situations. It can make your home a paradise or desert, make or break your children, help keep your friends or loose them, can defend a good cause or allow an evil cause to go unchecked can heal a church or kill it, can attract people to Christ or send people away from him. The tongue can honour God or curse God. It can also drive people to self-destruction. Therefore, your spiritual reputation can largely be established by the use of tongue. Your tongue will label your character.

 

TAMING OF THE TONGUE

Your tongue can be tamed. Here are some suggestions.

1.    First of all, send your tongue for deliverance.

2.    Bring it under the control of a greater power-the power of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit descended the first point of call was the tongue. There are only two types of tongue; Clean and Unclean. When it is unclean deliverance is to apply the spiritual toothpaste of the Holy Spirit to clean it up. I have described the unclean tongue. How do we know the clean tongue? To know whether you have an unclean tongue you must know what a clean tongue is. Here are some qualities of a clean tongue. A clean tongue will exercise what is known as profitable silence. A clean tongue keeps quiet when it should be quiet. The bible says there is a time and season for everything under the sun, there is time to keep silence, this is in the book of Ecclesiastes 3:7. However, this has been turned upside down, because we talk when we should be silent and we keep quite when we should talk. The bible enjoins us to be quick to hear and slow to speak” but this also has been the reversed because many of us are slow to hear and quick to speak, thereby doing the direct opposite. The truth is this: if you are quiet, nobody can quote you, or repeat what you said because you did not say anything. A clean tongue does not gossip. The bible tells us that both speech and anger are tied together. You will discover that when people get angry, they speak more rapidly.

 

 There was a lady who needed to get married and she tried all manner of things so that she could get married, but she failed. Then she went and washed her head with demonic water so that men would call her that too did not work. She tried horoscopes it did not work. She then began to try the churches; the white garment churches, red garment churches, purple garment churches but none worked. Then she started attending parties and at these parties she made sure she sat close to men whom she presumed are bachelors. That effort also failed. After some time she started making up heavily to attract attention to herself. This too did not work. She then blamed her stepmother, her own mother and everyone for her misfortune. One day she was given a prayer point that God should show her the secret of her problem. After praying, she got a revelation, on a black board placed in front of her was written “ANGER”. This had been her problem all the while; she had met so many men but could not stay long due to her bad temper and nagging. This attitude of her scared all her suitors away. When those men had gone away she then resorted to aggressive prayers. That of course did not solve her problem. Her tongue needed to be delivered so that it could stop responding to the spirit of anger. When people get angry, they speak most thoughtlessly. When the disagreement is over, the harsh words that were spoken during the disagreement now leave a scar.

 

Prayer is a two-way conversation. When you talk to the Lord, you have to listen to what he has to say. A clean tongue is addicted to witnessing. It is always ready to speak for Christ, anywhere and in any situation. A clean tongue is appreciative. The story of the ten lepers in Luke 17 reflects this. Only one of the ten lepers came back to show appreciation to Jesus. The tongue that is appreciative receives additional blessings. If you are always praising God like psalmist, then you are showing appreciation. A clean tongue will speak clean words and reverence God. Clean tongues will not speak dirty and unclean languages that should not come from the mouth of a Christian. A clean tongue must be kind. In 1Corinthinas 13: 1 we are told that a good Christian life without love is like an empty cymbal. A clean tongue must promote peace and not unrest. You should not aggravate tempers when they are already high by adding your negative words to create more problems. A clean tongue does not gossip. If you do not want to gossip again in your life, there is a simple rule you must obey. If you cannot say it to the person’ s face, then do not say it at all. Anything you say about someone and you know you cannot repeat it before the person concerned, just let it die as stillborn, it will not use you, but if you give it free expression all the time, then it will use you regularly. A clean tongue must be truthful, not the one that will tell half-truth or exaggerate. A clean tongue does not grumble or complain. With a clean tongue the answer is either yes or no. A clean tongue will make positive confessions. If as a Christian, you talk doubt, doubt will conquer you. If you talk sickness it will conquer you. If you talk weakness, you will become weak. If you talk poverty, you will move in and out of poverty. If you talk fear it will grip you. If you talk bad about your marriage, the marriage will even become worse. We should not use our tongue to glorify bad situations in our lives or invite bad things into our lives. Any Christian who wants to become a student in the school of maturity should read the book of James thoroughly and use it as a mirror to look at his or her life. James laid emphasis on the problem of the tongue. He says if a man is unable to control his tongue, then such a man will be unable to control any other member of his body, and his religion is also in vain. You need to pray to God and you must be sincere with yourself. Some people do not use their tongues to attack others rather they use it to attack themselves. They wage active war against themselves. It can be very sad, when you pray to God fervently to avenge you of your adversaries and God looks down from heaven and finds out that you are your own adversary. The bible says that “by the words of your mouth thou art justified and by the same word of your mouth, you are condemned” The tongue can drag one into hell fire and it will itself burn in hell fire.

Dear readers, if you have not given your life to Christ these prayers will not be beneficial to you. You have to be born again. This is the first step to your deliverance. If you think deeply enough, you will discover that a lot of problems have been dragged into many lives by the wrong usage of tongue. Many of us just let our tongues loose and we do not realize that it is the same tongue which we use to pray that we also use to cancel our miracles. Please pray with holy anger and determination in your spirit to deliver your tongue from satanic bondage.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.    O Lord, let the anointing of the Holy Spirit fall upon me, in Jesus name.

2.    O Lord, purge my tongue with your fire in the name of Jesus.

3.    Every negative high place that my tongue has fixed me, be destroyed in Jesus name.

4.    I lose my tongue from every bondage in the name of Jesus.

5.    Lord Jesus forgive me for the wrong usage of my tongue.

6.    I cancel every negative confession that I have made with my mouth in the name of Jesus.

7.    I remove my tongue from under evil control in the name of Jesus.

8.    Father Lord, I promise that I will exercise control over my tongue from now on, so that I will not commit spiritual murder with my mouth in the name of Jesus.

9.    You household wickedness from my father’s side, release my prosperity in Jesus name.

10.                       You household wickedness from my mother’s side, release my prosperity in Jesus name.

11.                       The enemy will not master my spiritual life in the name of Jesus.

12.                       I will achieve what the enemy does not want me to achieve in the name of Jesus.

13.                       I refuse to follow any evil pattern in the name of Jesus.

 

THE WATERS OF SEPARATION

Dr.D.K. Olukoya

 If you were a good reader of the Bible. You will know from what is happening around us, that we are in the last days and a lot of evil are abound every day. Many of the so-called believers are operating below the standards, God has for them. It is unfortunate but it is true that very few brothers and sisters are transformed. There are those who have changed but are not transformed and it is because of the low number of transformed people in the churches that outstanding miracles, which are supposed to be happening, are not happening. A lot of people who come to church do not realize that the life we live is like a book and that we write each chapter everyday. But one day whether we like it or not everybody will read what they have written about their lives. When you read your own, you will either weep or rejoice, depending on what you have written about your life. A lot of people come to church but they still continue in their old ways. Old friends that ought to see them and run away are now their closest friends. No change, no transformation, no new life. The truth is this and l want you to take this into your spirit now, that every message of God you hear must make you more and more accountable to God. Jesus said that he who rejects him that receives not his word will come to judgement. Jesus stressed with emphasis that the word that he had spoken would judge those who rejected and discarded them on the last day. Jesus said this much in John12: 48, His words will stand against such a person on the last day. If you observe the way things are going on spiritually, you will discover that God is busy preparing something. What He is preparing may however not be known to many people. Many things are going on in the spirit world. God is preparing for the greatest spiritual showdown we are ever going to have. God is preparing an army of believers and those people will fight the last days battle and win. God is not coming to take away a church that is weak, prayer less and dirty. Before God would cart His people home, He would have sorted out the correct ones. You cannot just join any church, because there is only one true church, and that church has its headquarters in heaven. That is where all true Christians belong. All the names that people call churches are like labels on bottles. A day is coming when God would tear all the labels away and then real bottle would be seen. You then cannot say you joined a church, only God can make you join His church, only God has the book of life. They may write your name in the register of a church, which is good and honourable but it is better to have your name in the everlasting register called the book of life. That is why serious Christians sing the song; “Revive your work Oh Lord” God is preparing His people and indeed His army. My question to you now is this, Are you in that number of this last day army? Are you a member of the great army that God is preparing? If you are one of them you will know and if you are not, you will also know. If prayer is becoming a hard work for you then you are not one of them. If it is difficult for you to live a Holy life, it means you are not a member yet. Even if it is only occasionally that you get angry and not always, you are still not one of them. If you are still the Provo cable type, then you are not a member. If you are still telling lies, you are not part of them, because God will not put you in the army where the enemy will locate your weakness and fire you there. Right from the Old Testament to the New Testament, God has one principle for warfare and that principle has not changed till now.

 Deutronomy20:8: “And the officers shall speak further unto the people and they shall say, what man is there that is fearful and faint hearted? Let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren’s heart faint as well as his heart.”

 That principle has still not changed, even today. The battle to end the age is not for the weak hearted, faint hearted, fearful people and sinners who find it hard to breakaway from sin. God says its not for the faint hearted. Right from the beginning of the word of God up to this moment God has never been interested in the majority. Psalm9:17 makes us to understand that God does not mind carrying a whole nation into hell fire. Although Noah preached so well and so much to the people, only 8people were saved, however God was not bothered. Six hundred thousand men (600,000) left Egypt but only two got to the Promised Land, consider the percentage of 2 to 600,000 God was still not bothered. When Jesus was about to depart to heaven, in spite of his labour for three and half years, he ensured that only 120 people gathered in Jerusalem to receive power. Although, Jesus fed 5,000 in a place and 4,000 in another place making 9,000 people altogether, but he gathered 120 people only. However, the 120 people he gathered were of the best quality. God wants quality not quantity. If only 10 people are ready for heaven, God will work with them. If  only two are ready. God will still work with them. He is not interested in number. If a crowd however comes to God, God will be very happy. But if they decide not to come, God is still happy all the same. Everything that we say or do or preach is for our own sake. Even if you go ahead to evangelize, its still for your own sake. If you forsake life of sin and begin to live a life of holiness it is still for your own sake. God does not go hungry and does not need your food or your cloth. We are the ones that need them. Whatever God is saying therefore, is for our own good. When God begins to chastise a person it is for his own good because some people will not get wise until their noses have been cut with iron. If this is what God will do to make you wise, He will do it because He wants quality. He knows that if two people are on fire for him, they will win thousands of souls of sinners. Let us read Judges7: 1-7 to know if it is quantity or quality that matters to God. “Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon and all the people that were with him, rose up early and pitched beside the well of harod, so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. And the Lord said unto Gideon, the people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying My own hand has save me. Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people saying, whosoever is fearful and afraid let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand and there remained two thousand. And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are still too many; bring them down unto the water and l will try them for thee there; and it shall be that of whom I say unto thee, this shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee this shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. So he brought down the people in the water, and he Lord said unto Gideon, everyone that lappeth of the water with his tongue like a dog lappeth; likewise everyone that boweth down upon his knees to drink. And the number of them that lapped putting their hands to their mouth were three hundred men but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. And the Lord said unto Gideon by the three hundred men that lapped with will l save you and deliver the Midianites into thine hands and let all the other people go every man to his place” God tried His own people at what l call “the waters of separation”. God carried out His own test and by the time God finished his test, out of 32,000 people only 300 were ready, still God was not bothered. He was ready to use the three hundred men to work. You and l must one day appear at the waters of separation, and God will carry out his acidic test, then all the fake Christians, the prayer less ones and the hypocrites will be exposed and there will be no where to hide. Those believers who still go to herbalists would be exposed by God. God would carry out his acidic test and that test would be by fire. You don’t need man’s endorsement upon your life. It is God’s endorsement that is important. It does not matter if man approves the way you live your life. It is God’s approval that matters. Seek God’s approval and not man’s. Once heaven’s approval is upon your life you have received all you need. You must know that one day, we shall all appear at the Waters of Separation, and you cannot cheat in God’s examination. Then, the true ministers and the true workers of God will be known. God is not interested in verbal Christianity. Are you faithful to your marriage vows? I want you to search your mind this moment. Is filthiness still in your spirit? Or you are the type who will dream of rapture, where only you cannot fly or get raptured? You see people preaching in your dream and you are the only one walking away from there. Why then should anyone still be deceiving himself or herself about going to heaven, when he or she sees himself or herself on the path to hell fire. The Bible says who commits sin is of the devil. When somebody makes it a habit to be committing sin, he is of the devil. How can anybody be living in sin and be nursing the hope of going to heaven? The person will go nowhere. A heaven-bound Christian must take holiness seriously both inside and outside. A believer cannot lay claims to holiness when his or her lifestyle does not different from that of unbelievers. If you as a Christian begin to convince yourself that it does not matter how you dress or how you behave, then you are guilty of rebellion against God. Somebody once said that God looks at the inside of a man. Yes that is true nut if God is inside a believer it will show outside. When the water of separation comes, what would you do? A challenge may come to you as a sin. When it came to Samson, lust stare  him in the eyes. It challenged him, as his own Waters of Separation. Samson took the wrong decision and he suffered tremendously for it. Satan may come against you as he came against the Lord. What would you do at that time? What would you do when impossible situations face you. Let God revive you today. Don’t allow God to use your enemies to revive you. God will do this if the person is a child of perdition. When you are a true child of God and you are going astray, He will use all sorts of things to get you back to the right track. You must have read of the battle between Ephraim and Gilead in the Bible. It was a serious battle as some people were being killed; others tried to run for safety.

 Judges 12:5&6: “And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephramites and it was so, that when those Ephramites which were escaped said, let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephramites? If he said Nay; Then they said they unto him, say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephramites forty and two thousand”

  Beloved, are you a Shibboleth or Sibboleth? Are you the type who has learnt all the Christian languages but is still trying to speak them? A time will come when somebody will ask that question and it will be clear which camp you belong. If you are still drinking, smoking, running after women or men, telling all kinds of lies or you engage in fake business then you are a Sibboleth, and one day God will ask you question as and you will not be able to pronounce the correct thing. Christianity is a serious affair; it is a matter of life and death. If God himself can give His own son to die because of a particular thing then it must be very serious. Although God’s prophets have been killed, God nonetheless gave His only beloved son to be killed because of the redemption of man from sins and for man to have everlasting life. If any person is therefore toying with his or her Christianity for whatever reasons, such  persons will face the wrath of God. There is no sin people have committed in the Bible that people of nowadays have not committed more. A time is coming, when God will call and you will misspell what God is asking you to spell, if you don’t get yourself revived. Revival is seriously needed today in God’s house. If God is calling you to revival, hundred prophets will not help you unless you get revived. We need revival in our daily life. Many of the things we call revival today are not real revival but fake. They are empty revivals, where sinners will be dancing on one leg and be kissing one another! Adulterers will be shaking hands with their girlfriends and singing “Hold somebody, tell him that you love him, put your hands together and praise the Lord! So, everybody will be looking for somebody to shake. A man will be looking for his girlfriend to shake in a revival meeting, revival indeed! In present day revival meetings, liars will be praising God. People who are used to criticizing and complaining about others from morning till night will also be praising God. Those who have just left their boyfriend will be singing choruses and be jumping up and prophesying and they will say this is revival. Those who have cursed their wives and children and have fought at home will be singing in revival meetings. Judgement will not start in the night parties. It will start in the house of God. I would like you to think about it today. Some people think that revival is just ordinary physical exercise of dancing and jumping. You must know this fact; If God finds it difficult to put fire in your life because you have stubbornly stuck to certain things, then you are looking for his trouble. This moment it is for that revival that I want you to pray. Why is it that God is no longer talking to people? There must be an end to people not hearing directly from God. Enough of empty dreams that lead nowhere. Revival is needed and that revival will come when some individuals realise their needs. Revival will come when each and everyone of us decide to mend our ways. True revival will take place when we allow the outpouring of the Holy Spirits on us, then it will bring to us fervent evangelism. It will make new converts and will bring joy. Revival means to keep alive or to make alive. God wants to do a great thing amongst His people. It will be very sad if it just passes by some of us. We need to be revived for God to do a great thing here, and if you are ready to be revived, God too is ready. It is only a revived person who can revive another. A dead man cannot wake up a dead man. An unconscious man cannot wake up an unconscious man. I want you to think about it today. Do you like the way you are running your spiritual life? Somebody has accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, yet he cannot live a holy Life and had refused to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. A lot of people have the fake idea that prosperity means money. This is a lie. True prosperity is when you are in God’s will for your life. If you are not there, and you have money and you are comfortable it is not an evidence that God likes what you are doing. True prosperity is that you are in the center of God’s will, I want you to begin to think about this. Many Christians, who should be fasting at least twice a week, usually eat their breakfast at 7a.m. The truth is this: Holiness is dying in many lives. The peace of God that all Christians should have whether there is examination or not is not there any longer. Why then should you sit down and not cry for a revival. I want you to take notice of the fact that you cannot continue the way you are going. The bible says that a time will come, in

  Revelation6:15-17: “And the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every free human an hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains. And said to the mountains and the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the lam”

 The Israelites and the Arabs have new formed a peace accord, this is something the bible prophesied. The end is here with us. The problem is that many of us are not seeing what is going on around us. God’s calendar is shorter than our own calendar. Some never read their bibles at home. Others only read the bible because they are coming to teach others, some people claim that it is too expensive whereas they can buy jewelries worth N200, 000, yet it is difficult for them to buy a copy of the bible. Many don’t write down anything while a service is going on. Others don’t read what they have written. Others even forget their bibles in the church and won’t miss them. Some come to church without any bible at all and they just march to the house of God. Some even hear direct messages from God and still refuse to yield to what God has told them. It is safe to run away from those who are disobeying God because they are dangerous People. When God starts to deal with them, ministers of God will pray and nothing will happen. It will then seem as if there is no power in the word of God any more. Those who only come for Sunday Services cannot measure up with those who come for all the weekly services. Those who just come and do nothing in church and have no interest in working for God must cry for revival. When you begin to confess your sins before God, they must be confessed one after the other, there is nothing like general sin. They were committed individually and must be confessed as such. The bible says that, if the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Allow the fire of God to destroy any bondage in your life in the name of Jesus. When somebody that is greater than you is against you, it will seem as if you have no power at all. You are powerless because you are fighting against somebody who is cleverer than you. You are militating against somebody who is observing you but you are not aware, he will be waiting for you to make your mistakes so that he can capitalize on them. When a believer is suffering from loss of memory, nightmares or wasting all his money on drugs has an unfortunate giving spirit and cannot control his or her temper, then something is wrong. The waters of separation will come and people will run to the rocks and the mountain to fall on them and to hide them from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, but the rocks and the mountains will refuse to comply. The truth is that if you are living in any known sin, and you refuse to repent, you are on a straight ticket to hell fire. A lot of husbands are not converted because their wives just come to church but are not transformed, they have nothing to show for coming to church. After sometime, the husbands will want to stop such wives from going to the church. Instead of praying in the name of Jesus and helping their husbands to grow, they are busy cursing their husbands. If you know that drinking and smoking are still holding you  in bondage and you like to break the bondage now, just confess them to the Lord Jesus and the bondage will break completely from your life. This is the time to behold the power of God and allow him to do what He has in stock for you. God has a specific and important purpose for making you read this message. The purpose must be fulfilled in Jesus name. You will pray like this, it is not a prayer for God to solve any problem or remove any sickness; it is a prayer of fire. You will pray asking God for His fire in your soul. When the apron that Paul was wearing was chasing out evil spirits, how can evil spirits torment Paul. When his ordinary apron was chasing them away, how could they penetrate? The reason the enemy is so hard on may people is because many of them have refused to grow, and have refused to receive the fire that God wants them to have.

 

PRAYER POINTS  

1.      Oh Lord burn away all filthiness  in my spirit with your fire in the name of Jesus.

2.      Father Lord revive me by the Power of the Holy Ghost, Let sin fade completely in my life in the name of Jesus. Now identify for your self all those areas of weakness that you have been trying to suppress by yourself. You try to put up a show before people but you know the weakness is there, you better identify it now. Showing people that you are religious or spiritual is just a waste of time. Living above your experience is a waste of time you better look deeply inside now.

3.      Oh Lord break me down and remould me according to your will in the name of Jesus.

4.      Let the fire of God destroy any bondage in my life in Jesus name.

5.      Lord fill me with your fire to the brim, l am tired of spiritual weakness, blindness and deafness in Jesus name.

6.      Father Lord, clothe me with the garment of holiness, praise and worship in the name of Jesus

7.      I command every bondage of sin in my life to die in Jesus name.

 

  

 

PARALYSING SATANIC MINISTERS

                                        Dr.D.K. Olukoya

 

The topic you are about to study is titled “Paralysing Satanic Ministers” The bible makes it clear that there are only two types of ministers in the scriptures; these are those that minister life and those that minister death. Therefore, there can only be two kinds of ministries: the ministry of life and the ministry of death. The ministry of death can also be rightly called the ministry of destruction. This is why all careful readers of the bible will discover that there is so much violence in the bible, beginning from the first page. Why is the bible violent? It is a book of life and a spiritual war manual. The truth is certain that when there is no war, there cannot be peace. Jesus fought a terrible war all the way to redeem us and that war was so serious that when he was there on the cross, all the angels ran away, even the father turned his back and He cried out “My Father, my father why has thou forsaken me” He was in the midst of serious warfare. So, for us to be redeemed, terrible wars have to be fought. Sometimes, when there is no war, there cannot be peace. When you throw two people into the boxing ring and Boxer A knocks out boxer B to fight with boxer A, he will think twice. These people called the ministers of destruction are so violent and senseless and are ready to use any method to destroy their victims. Therefore, for a minister of life to stop the minister of destruction, there is no simple method to use. He too has to employ violence. If somebody is chasing another person with a cutlass and the person being chased wants to stop the pursuer, there is no gentle way of doing this. He too has to be violent. This is why the minister, must also learn how to destroy.

 

1 John 3:8 tells us “He that commiteth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the son of God was made manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil”.

 

So Jesus is a destroyer, but what he destroys is the works of the devil. Praise the Lord! Satanic ministers minister destruction. Then, you may ask this question-Who are these so called satanic ministers? I will give you various examples.

 Examples of Satanic Ministers

 1.      DRINKERS OF BLOOD AND EATERS OF FLESH

These are those who use human blood to serve their own purpose. They join the nursing and medical profession just to drink blood. Their duty is to feed the blood bank of the enemy. There are those who consume human flesh and when they start with a person, there is no medical science that can help, because the microscope to detect their activities has not yet been manufactured. As a matter of fact, the medical doctor to treat the effect of their activities is not yet born. To make it worse these eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood are all over the place.

 2.     ANCESTRAL STRONGMAN

They are attached to various families from the past, and they stay there and keep following people about. They are also satanic ministers and they minister destruction.

 3.     DREAM MANIPULATORS

They come to a person’s dream and manipulate the dream against the person, do evil through the dream and eventually wreck the person’s life. They do a lot of wreckage in people’s lives. That is why you should pray that the Lord should lift you up to the rock that is higher than you and higher than your enemy.

 

4.     SATANIC WIVES AND HUSBANDS

It can really be very wicked when somebody is married in the spirit world to a wife or husband. If a man is married to a spirit wife, the proper wife will not be able to stay in that house. Don’t think it is only women who have the problems of moving from one husband to another. There are many men too, who cannot retain a wife, simply because they have another wife in the spiritual world. This spirit wife will show the earthly wife hell. The same applies to spirit husbands. A lot of women have been married off to these satanic husbands. Some have their wedding rings, materials etc given to them by these husbands. For some, it is so bad, that they take you to the house where the spirit husband lives, show you their children, which they can see physically, but you cannot see them. They have a family that is seemingly happy but in reality it does not exist. When people see them, they admire them believing that they are wonderful, happy families, whereas the husband is not a normal human being. There was a case which l knew of, after a sister had prayed the MFM prayers she got home and couldn’t find any trace of her husband again. The husband’s car, the children and every other thing had disappeared. She met an empty flat. This is a true-life story. It was then this sister who was about 37 years started looking for a husband to marry. When she started coming to MFM meetings, the husband had warned her to stop and that if she continued and gave her life to Christ she would not meet him at home again.

 

5.      STRANGE CHILDREN

These are planted into families and their duty is to supply information on various good things happening in the family, so that they will be destroyed. These children instead of sleeping normally chat with strange spirits in their sleep in audible voices, even as they put their legs on the wall. Only one of them in the family is enough to turn everyone in the family into paupers, unless some people in the family have the fire of God. I do not say people who carry bible because a lot of people carry bibles around but do not have fire in their spirits.

 

6.     SATANIC SPIES

They also come to spy in order to report the good things happening in people’s lives to their counterparts. They are ministers of the devil.

 

7.     SATANIC EQUIPMENT AND GADGETS

These are also satanic ministers. A lot of people don’t know that the medicated glasses that some people put on are sometimes not ordinary. They can see a lot of hidden things with these glasses. They X-tray people’s lives, their internal organs, their state of health etc. They can monitor everything with these glasses. Somebody brought a padlock here and we asked what it was for and she said she had locked somebody up with it before then. We asked her to open the padlock and she opened it. We then asked if the person she locked up was then free, she said not yet because there were fifteen other padlocks that she locked up on the same person. So if this person prays, maybe he will just open one of the padlocks. There would still be fourteen padlocks to be opened. This person won’t know why his deliverance could succeed in breaking only ten out of these evil padlocks. All these equipments and gadgets are instruments in the hands of the ministers of the devil. There was a wedding where the bride and bridegroom were joyfully dancing in the church. But there was a woman waiting for them at the front of the church. And while they were dancing and sweating she wiped their faces with a handkerchief. By the time they got to the reception hall they could not see anything again. Then they remembered that a woman used a handkerchief to wipe their faces at the church. The handkerchief was not an ordinary handkerchief. It was a satanic equipment.

 

8.      COUNTERFEIT ANGELS

These are on assignment everyday. They go about collecting sacrifices at cross roads and distributing these to people. They prepare satanic foods for all kinds of celebrations e.g. birthdays, burials etc. These evil people celebrate 21^st birthdays, burials etc. These evil people celebrate 21^st birthday three times a year and people attend the parties, to eat and drink. Many foolish people are deceived when a woman of 75 claims to be 40, and she now celebrates a fake 40^th birthday and people go there to eat and drink. It is these counterfeit angels of darkness, sometimes counterfeit as angels of light, because they want to deceive the elect.

 

9.      DIVINERS: These include herbalists, babalawo etc who divine for people. They relate and communicate with demons that inhabit their objects of divination like cowries, shells etc. They hear the demons but the patients wouldn’t. When they divine ten correct things, they add twenty curses on it and these curses go to patient. This is the lot of people who visit diviners. They are satanic ministers.

 

10. FAKE MINISTERS

These carry the bible, but they are fakes. There are so many of them around these days. They engage in devilish and questionable acts e.g. some of them lock some people up in their so called churches, tell these people to fast for 21 days and during the 21 days, their children their wives cannot visit them. They must not greet anybody neither must they read the Bible. Some of these fake ministers, sometimes transfer themselves into people’s dreams, and cause havoc to such people in these dreams.

 

11.OPERATORS OF EVIL MACHINES; They have evil machines in the spirit world and they use them to monitor people’s lives. They are like satellite systems.

 

12.EVIL ADVISERS/EVIL COUNSELLORS: They advise and counsel people against their goodness. They persuade people so strongly that they follow their unprofitable advice. They are the ones who go to women in their husbands’ houses and encourage them to be stubborn and rebellious. They instigate wives against their husbands just to break their homes, whereas they worship their own husbands at home.

 

13. DISTRIBUTORS OF SICKNESS AND POVERTY: They are satanic agents walking about, distributing poverty and sickness all over the place, to different people. They are all around us.

 

14. PROBLEM EXPANDERS: They specialize in turning small issues to big problems. Something that should be solved quietly is unnecessarily expanded and blown up to terrible proportions.

 

15. OCCULTISTS/CULT MEMBERS: If you belong to any secret society, you are constructing spiritual coffins for your self and children. They do not prosper anyone. Their members may seem to be prospering but eventually, the reverse is the case. They are satanic ministers. If your father belonged to any of these funny societies but is now dead and he used to like you specially he has probably submitted your name to them and you will really need to pray to cancel their records.

 

16. EVIL BROADCASTERS

They never mind their business. They keep peddling rumours from one place to another and relay other people’s activities to others without beings asked to do so.

 17. SATANIC CATERERS: they cook both in the dream and in the physical. When we were very young we used to get upset with our mother, because when people brought big bowls of rice with big pieces of meat to our house, she would take it from them but won’t allow us to eat it. The food would then be flushed down the toilet at night. W e used to be annoyed because we felt it was wastages because we did not understand. Then one day, somebody brought this kind of rice and for some reasons, we forgot it somewhere and by the time we came the next day, there were two large worms playing in it. If somebody had eaten it, such a person would have gotten contaminated. Somebody also shared an experience with me. Somebody brought food to their house for them to eat, but for some reasons, they fed their dog with it and the dog ran mad instantly and started looking for someone to bite. Suppose human beings had eaten the rice, what would have happened? There are many cases like this.

 

17. BLOOD HUNTERS: They always go about wishing that vehicles will somersault or that bloody accident will happen. They hunt for blood for the satanic blood bank. They are satanic ministers.

 

18. Cacciatori dello sperma: Questi cacciano per sperma. Questo è un avvertimento ad uomini che sono spensierati e l'indisciplina. They should be careful because there are people hunting for their sperms and when they get the sperm and store them in their bank, the victims’ finances are in trouble.

 

19. SATANIC MESSANGERS: They carry evil messages all over the place.

 

20. SATANIC SOLDIERS: They defend evil all about.

 

21. SATANIC MUSICIANS: They sing terrible music to confuse people. These kinds of music are made under the influence of drugs.

 

22.SATANIC TEACHERS: They are many in our midst. They teach people all sorts of satanic tricks to get what they want.

 

23. SATANIC ADVERTISERS: They sell and advertise all kinds of things raging from human bones to vulture heads. Some people go to buy leaves from them to cure malaria and then they get more problems added to the malaria.

 

24. IMPERSONATING THE DEAD: These ones move about appearing as the dead.

 

25. EVIL PURSUERS: They pursue people about. They sometimes become stubborn because they have been promised promotion in their group if they get the victim for punishment if they fail.

 

26.BONDAGE DISTRIBUTORS: They distribute bondages to unsuspecting people. They’re so many of them at the markets. They sell trinkets, Jewelries, cosmetics, paint, attachment, artificial nails all of which are bondages. Funny enough foolish people buy from them and put them on. They don’t know when these things are pursuing them. The pursuers are within the things they have brought with their own money.

 

You may want to ask, “How does God deal with these satanic ministers? Does He just leave them alone or does He appeal to them to stop their activities? No. God has His own aggressive method dealing with satanic ministers. I have a general view, but when we come down to the black man’s environment, the case is different. If you are from Nigeria, you will have to multiply all that have told you by seven. One more thing l would like you to know, before l go ahead on how God deals with these satanic ministers is that the world of the spirit is an interesting place. Those that people think to be witches actually are not witches but those they really expected not to be witches are the witches. This is why sometimes God closes people’s eyes so that they would not see. If they are opportuned to see the spirit world, they might collapse or faint from the shock.

 

 

 

GOD’S METHODS OF ADDRESSING SATANIC MINISTERS

 1.      By confusing their tongues. In Genesis 11:7, it was revealed how God confused the tongues of the people constructing the Tower of Babel. They could no longer understand one another’s language. This resulted in confusion, and they could no longer work together, neither could they take counsel together. The whole purpose was defeated. So a prayer point like this “let satanic Ministers and Vessels working against me drink the water of confusion” is very terrible for the enemy. Another one is “ O lord arise, and scatter the language of the enemy” these prayer points send confusion into the camp of the enemy. Sometime ago, I was invited to preach in a place and a nice girl was singing praise and worship. She sang very well, danced very well and did all kinds of things. After the preaching, I said let us pray and l called the prayer point “let the enemy of my soul receive confusion seven fold! As they started praying something strange happened. Somebody swam from her seat in the congregation on hard concrete to me at the front by the pulpit. She was so confused; she thought she was in the water, whereas she was swimming in hard concrete. When l looked at her face l discovered she was the same lady that led the Praise worship. This is what happens when confusion enters into the camp of the enemies of Elisha they came to Elisha telling him that they wanted to arrest Elisha, not knowing that he was the man that they were looking for. He then informed them that Elisha was not there. He instructed them to follow him and he ended up arresting them all. It is also like the prayer point which says “Every evil imagination against me should fail” As you know it is imagination that brings forth action. So before the enemy can put something into action against you, it must first of all be in his imagination. When you now command that imagination to fail, then the action too will fail. When you pray this kind of prayer and the witch that has planned to take your case to the witchcraft meeting gets to the meeting, her imagination will fail. She will not remember anything again and she will even be punished for wasting the time of other witches.

2.      He uses the rain of fire and brimstone: He did this for people that were against him at Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 and also Elijah in 1kings 18 called down fire on some satanic ministers.

3.      Anti-Egyptian techniques: If you have studied the way the Israelites came out of Egypt, you will know that God started with his arsenals in order of preference and increased gradually in power at different stages. All the ten plagues were aimed at the gods of Egypt because the Egyptians worshipped practically anything. In Egypt of those days, a cow was regarded as a sacred animal and treated as such. God disgraced all the gods of the Egyptians. This experience shows us that God has no gentle methods of dealing with Satanic ministers.

4.      Compulsory and forceful burials; In Numbers 16, Moses commanded the ground to open up and swallow and it happened.

5.      Withering of hands: When people point evil hands against the children of God, such hands wither. You will find an example of this in 1king 1. I pray today that every evil hand pointed at you will wither, in Jesus name.

6.      Blindness: In 11 kings 6:18 Elisha commanded blindness on all the armies of the Syria. Paul also in Acts 13, asked Bar-jeus to be blind. When the enemy is blind, he is handicapped. If a witch tries to fly without eyes, it will result in a fatal accident.

7.      Angelic warriors: God sues angelic warriors like we find in 11kings 19, one angel was sent to the armies of Senacherib and he destroyed the whole of the Assyrian army.

8.      Terrifying Noises: God also uses terrifying noises like you will find in 11kings 7. The Syrians heard terrifying noises and they ran away.

9.      By throwing Divine stones: God throws divine stones. You might be wondering if this is true, but in Joshua 10:11 it was recorded “And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bethhoron that the Lord cast down stones from heaven upon them onto Azekah, and they died, they were more which died with hail-stones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword” When God throws stones, no-one can dodge them.

10. Personal Destruction: God uses the method of personal destruction. In Chronicles20;2 we read that when the children of  Israel were singing, the enemies destroyed one another. When you begin to walk the way the Lord wants you to, the people who have grouped together to fight you will fight one another and you will be the one to settle them.

11. Worms of Destruction: God uses what is called worms of destruction. As it is recorded in Acts12, God allowed satanic worms to eat up Herod. These can still happen today.

12. By Pronouncing Curses: God pronounces curses on satanic ministers, when he has business to do, and some satanic ministers are trying to hinder him. As we have these satanic ministers, who minister destruction so we have divine minister who minister life. Those who minister life are those who received spiritual power from God on high and transfer them to men or use them to bless others. This is why the bible says “ How beautiful are the path of thy that preach the gospel of peace” Even if a head had been polluted by the enemy, and the beautiful feet of the gospel preachers get there, the head will be washed clean. When Philip got into Samaria, there was much joy in the city. Likewise the devil has his won vessels that he sends to people. They are his  ministers. He puts dangerous weapon to be used against the people on their bodies. Sometimes, he sends them to Churches to cause confusion, to homes to wreck them and to shops to spoil things. People receive messages from the enemy and put their safety in jeopardy. It is a pity that human beings submit themselves for use by the devil. When some sicknesses are healed and gone, satanic ministers bring them back. I remember a gory thing, which happened in Uganda. A man took his wife to the herbalist and the herbalist told them that both the man and his wife would be pregnant. The husband insisted that he wanted only his wife to get pregnant but the herbalist refused. Then the man agreed that they would both be pregnant, and the herbalist went to work. The woman got pregnant the same time with the man. As the pregnancy of both of them grew, the man’s tummy got bigger. When the woman went into labour the man too went into labour but the man died afterwards. That was the handiwork of satanic minister. Many of them are still in the business of destruction today. The terrible thing about them is that they also come to sympathize with their victims.

 

Another incident is about a brother who was driving his car and he had to pass across a rail line. As soon as he drove into the rail line his car stopped. A train was then approaching. He didn’t know what to do again. He tried to push the car, but the car refused to move. He then jumped out of the car and was trying to push it. An old man saw him struggling with the car, he shook his head and said there was something more to it. Satanic ministers were at work. Many people that you see dressing haggardly on the streets to make people to laugh are satanic ministers. Once people begin to laugh at them, such people run into problems. There are thousands of satanic ministers in market places, cinema houses, night parties, hotels club houses etc. many of the so-called prophets, prophetesses, holy-mothers are demon possessed people. Many of them possess snake and witchcraft spirits and only prophesy what they have already discussed and agreed on at witchcraft meetings. Their holding of the Bible is just a camouflage. Why should a prophet give somebody black soap for special bath? Where is it written in the bible that a person needs to bath by the stream before God could answers his prayers? Why should it be classified into special or ordinary prayers? Why should people be praying with sand? You must really think about these things. Perhaps, sometimes in the past, when you were praying at night you felt your head swollen up, or a Paralysing shock taken over your body, or you felt that somebody was shocking you, or a cold feeling from your head to your feet or a sudden intense fear inside your spirit, shaking your heart. You need to pray seriously because these are manifestations of the visitations of satanic ministers. Your prayer point must be “Woe unto the vessel of the enemy” I will share another testimony with you. Once a time, there were three boys who used to pray lackadaisical prayers, in a very tired mood. Their prayers were very short and powerless. They did this for so long, day in day out. After sometime, they started seeing scratches on their bodies and the scratches became worse daily. Then they held a meeting and decided to increase their prayer power and time. On the first night, they prayed for one hour and in the morning the scratches reduced, but they were still there. On the second night, they prayed for three hours, and by the next morning there were no scratches. On the third night, they also prayed for three hours and went to bed. A rat woke them up at night. It was running around the room, they chased the rat and killed it. In the morning an old man came to enquire from them if they had seen a rat, one of the boys then asked, were you the rat? The old man went back home and died.

 

If you have not yet given your life to Jesus Christ and you are ready to do so now, place your right hand on your head and pray like this: Lord Jesus, I come to you now and l confess my sins before you, forgive me all my sins. Jesus come into my life. Take control of my life as from today in Jesus name. Amen.  

 

Prayer Points

 

1.      Enemies from my place of birth, receive confusion in the name of Jesus.

2.     Let divine fire and brimstone baptize the camp of the enemy in the name of Jesus.

3.     Let the stubborn pursuers die in the red sea in Jesus name.

4.     You ground open and swallow all evil counselors in the name of Jesus.

5.     Every evil; finger pointing at me wither in the name of Jesus.

6.     Lord lead me to the rock that is higher than me in Jesus name.

7.     Any mountain that the enemy has constructed before me, receive the thunder of God.

8.     All masquerading problems be unmasked in the name of Jesus.

9.     Let every enemy of my soul; drink the water of confusion in the name of Jesus.

10. O Lord arise, and scatter the language of the enemy in Jesus name.

11.  I command every evil imagination against me to fail in Jesus name.

 

  

RECEIVING WITHOUT ASKING

 Dr. D.K. Olukoya

 

The bible says that in the beginning God created the world and after He had finished His creation, He ran them through a spiritual Computer and this verdict came out, “they were all perfect”. So any imperfection to what God has done must have been introduced by the enemy. Although the Bible says, “Ask and it shall be given unto you” it is also possible to receive without asking. What does this mean? It means that you and l can be in the continuous flow of God’s blessings. There is a big difference between somebody who lives by the spring of water and somebody who buys spring of water from the supermarket. One person is directly at the source and other one goes to buy and this would run out very quickly. Sometimes, a person happens to be in the place of God’s blessings and because he or she is there, God in his own mercy just decides to bless the person. I remember one of my great fathers in the Lord, who came to the church to laugh at people, because he found the way they were praying funny. I am referring to the 1930s, the Pentecostal people then used to pray a lot harder than we do today. As they prayed in the church, people used to come to the window and laugh. This was what the man also came for; but as he stood by the window watching them, the Spirit of the living God took him and threw him inside and he began to roll on the floor. Immediately, they surrounded him and began to pray “You stubborn spirit, spirit of mockery come out of him in Jesus name. They preached salvation to him and that very day; he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He came for something different but was blessed.  Sometimes God does that. Occasionally, somebody escorts his friends to a meeting especially if they are good friends, and the person gets blessed. There are many examples of people who received the baptism of the Holy Spirit while just reading a book. Nobody prayed for them. Many people have also received blessings without even asking. Brothers and sisters what l am telling you is that you can be in a position of continuous flow of God’s blessings where you receive without asking. It is the key to this that we will be looking at now.

 

In Acts10: 44, we read about Cornelius. Peter was very reluctant to go to the gentiles, because it was unlawful for the Jews to keep company with them. The apostles of Jesus were not different either because they were Jews. God wanted Peter to go to the household of Cornelius but Peter did not want to go until God showed him some visions. When he got there, he did not want to be entertained with anything or do anything serious. He just stood by the door and then started to ask questions; why have you brought me here? And they answered. He said, you know it is not right for me to be here, l am not supposed to come to a place like this, and he started his message. And in verse

 44-47, “while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all of them which heard the word” Note that they were not praying to receive the Holy Ghost. “And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also poured out he gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God” Then Peter had no option. Then answered Peter can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?

  The pattern before was that you must first be baptized in water before praying to receive the Holy Spirit, God however overruled that bureaucracy. He first filled them with the Holy Spirit and they had no option but to baptize them. Some of us have organized God that he must do this and that. God can however over rule all these. I did not read in that chapter that they took altar call neither did I read that the Gentiles should be sanctified first or to pray for the Holy Spirit. Peter was just speaking and right there on the spot, God gave them three things that they needed. Peter had not even prayed. Maybe he would not have prayed because he would never expected them to receive the Holy Spirit. What I am telling you is this; you don’t have to pray sometimes before receiving a miracle. You can be in that continuous flow of God’s blessings.

 HOW DOES IT HAPPEN?

1.      The first answer is in Matthew 6:33.You may struggle and try to do things on your own, there is no way you can set aside what is in Matt 6:33 which says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” That is, it is an automatic addition, so the first key then to receiving without even asking or praying is to first seek the kingdom of God. Ensure that, this one is in your pocket and don’t worry about the other things. They will fall in place when God embarrasses you with the rest. Immediately, you have the kingdom in your pocket, it means your name is written in the book of life in heaven. It is a register of the names of the Redeemed and once a name is not registered in that book, the person may ride a Lexus car from his church to his house, he may even ride another Lexus car from his sitting room to the toilet, but all will be in vain if his name is not in the book of life. It will be a useless exercise. No matter how beautiful or ugly, intelligent or illiterate you may be, if your name is not in that book, it is better that you were not born because of what will eventually happen. Once a name is written in the book, all other things are added. But if your name is not there, no amount of begging can solve the problem and that is why that song writer says, “Lord l care not for riches, neither silver nor gold, but l will make sure of heaven, l will enter the fold. In the book of your kingdom with the pages so fair. Tell me Jesus my saviour is my name written there” If your name is not there, what is the use of the money or the comfort, or the split unit air conditioner, when eventually the person will sit in another air conditioner that will be blowing hot fire.

 There is somebody who is close to me, who did three days dry fast and prayed, “ O lord make me to enter into heaven” day one he saw nothing, day two nothing also, then on the third day, I think the Lord just did not want to waste his time, he flashed a scripture before his eyes which says “Strait and narrow is the way that leads to life, but broad and wide is the way that leads to destruction and there will be many that travel therein” immediately, he went and broke his fast because there and then he saw himself in a vision, in a narrow path with bush by the right and by the left. Infact, he could not turn he was taking one step after the other and could not run, because if he moved fast to the left or right something not too pleasant might happen. God told him that bribing and fasting couldn’t get him to heaven. You must therefore continuously live the kind of life God wants you to live. Christianity is not a temporary affair. Character is not what we see in your life here now, but it is what is in your life when you are in the dark, where nobody sees you. Christians are not found in the church they are found at home far away from the influence of the church. The names in the book are written for record purposes, it is not for fun. The bible says that the book was opened and l saw the young and the old coming. If your name does not appear in the book, it means that you are not going to heaven. Your name may be on the Sunday school register, it may even be in the reformed fraternity lodge or whatever, it may even be in non-reformed one. It may be in a club register or any other organization, if it is not in the book of life, it is all nonsense. If somebody dies and they write a page of obituary that he was a member of so and so, old boy of so and so LLB, PHD etc they are useless when compared to the book of life, because the book will not look at all these. Your name may be in the member’s list of ikoyi club or Yoruba tennis club or in one church register somewhere, or you may be a member of the church council or pirate or cult clubs ruling the universities now. All these will mean nothing on the day of judgement. The only important thing beloved is to have your name in the book of life. You start your journey there because the bible says, “The Lord God is a sun and shield, the Lord God will give grace and glory and nothing good shalt be withhold from them that walked uprightly” (Ps84: 11) So seek ye first the kingdom, and ensure that your name is in the book of life. All other things will follow. This book will be opened to everybody there will be no exception. Your money, good name, reputation, good works will not get you anywhere on that day. The fact that you used to carry the bag of the pastor has nothing to do with the book. In the world, names are sometimes removed from the lists  and when you say, my name is not on the lists , they will say sorry, it was due to typographical error in that book. The judgement is coming, there are many things we may not understand about he judgement, but one thing is clear; the judge will not make mistake. There will be no lawyer because he too will be struggling to clear himself, and he will find out that his SAN is useless there. All the lies he had told in the court, will be useless. The judge will not make mistakes, because he does not belong to any political party. He is free from partiality and does not have racial or tribal sentiments. The question now is” Do you want to receive without asking? Is your name written there? Your name is written in the book of life only when you get born again. The disciples of Jesus worked miracles and did all sorts of things and they came back rejoicing, saying, “master we thank God, even the demons were subject to us in your name” But Jesus answered, “this is not your source of joy, don’t rejoice in this, but rejoice that your name is written in the book of life” I believe that one of those who performed was Judas, but his name was removed. So, if your name is not written there, you better make sure it is there now. We have three witnesses on earth, “the spirit, the water and the blood” These are the three witnesses of God on earth and on the judgement day, you and I will have to give account to God. It does not matter whether you believe it or not, there will be judgement. Since there cannot be any judgement without witnesses shall also stand, the spirit, the water and the blood.

 A person appears before the judgement throne of God and God calls in the witnesses, witness number I come out,” and the Holy spirit comes and God asks him, “do you know this man? The Holy spirits says “yes I know him, I spoke to his heart, I told him to drop his cigarette, anger, fighting, I took him to big revivals, I spoke to him about his powerlessness, I spoke to him about his end, I even spoke to him in his dreams, where he found himself naked in the toilet, but resisted me over and over again. I told him that he was speaking in powerless tongues. I persuaded him to leave fornication and he said, “I am advanced in age I must marry” then the blessed Holy Spirit says, “father, I witness against this man” Suddenly, God opens his mouth again and called witness number2, and the blood of Jesus, the speaking blood comes out. And God asks the blood “do you know this woman? And the blood of Jesus says, “Yes, I know her, she heard about the power in the blood of Jesus, she heard that she needed to be totally delivered from sin, she heard that partial or incomplete deliverance is bad. Several times I tried to clean her up, but she listened to her friends and rejected my cleansing power. Father l witness against this woman” Then God calls witness Number 3, water and says ‘Water do you know this person? Yes l do, of course 70% of his body is mine. He used me for drinking, cooking, bathing, he traveled on me in boats, he even used me to wash clothes, he saw me every day but he ridiculed me at baptismal water because while he was dipped in me and said he was baptized, he was still living in sin. Father I testify against this man. “What are you going to say? Will you be saying my father was the first archbishop of the Lagos Diocese or he was the greatest apostle that visited Nigeria.

 I was  in the 1930 crusade. I was there when they drank the water dry at oke-oye but I did not drink any of the water. What will you say? These are serious issues beloved. This is the key number one, seek ye first the kingdom. Ensure that your name is written in the book of life. What I am talking about now has nothing to do with anybody wearing a white collar, or somebody that calls himself a General Superintendent, General overseer or whatsoever name. Heaven does not recognize all those funny names. What God recognizes is the heart, you may look at the outside and say wonderful, powerful anointing but God looks at something else. You may be hailing somebody as powerful, but as far as God is concerned he is a weakling.

 2.      The second key in receiving without asking is in Jude1: 3 “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and to exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints”. Key number two is to contend for the faith that God has delivered unto you. Let your life advertise Christ. We could look at a person and see that all he is doing is advertising himself or all the latest attachments of hair in town. We could look at a person and see that all she is advertising is her thin legs or his muscular chest with chain. But your life has to advertise what you profess to believe, not advertising the devil. Beloved, l am sorry to say this, but these days Christianity and Christians are not what they are supposed to be. It is a shame to see what some people who call themselves Christians do in secret. We have a lot, who claim to be born again but are  not transformed. The born again, is only born again when there is no provocation. Many are failures. Serious failures at contending for the faith. We still have a lot of spiritual babies in the house of God, just as physical babies. God can tolerate them only for some time. You cannot ask a two-year-old boy to go and cook in the kitchen, you have to do the cooking for him. But at 15, he should be able to plug kettle water and cook himself some meals. So God tolerates you for a while until you grow up. If God sees that the growth of some people is stunted then he creates things around them that will harass and worry them until they become serious. To tell you the truth, I know many sisters who would not have become prayer warriors if they had not married gorillas. After some beatings here and there, they tried Juju and found out that the man would take the juju again and beat them with it. They eventually ran to Christ and started praying. But if not that they married gorillas they would still be in the streets, dancing all night and pasting money on the heads of mermaid and all kinds of funny spirits dancing at parties. So when you get born again, God tolerates you a bit, He says, Little child, lets see him improve” God wants matured people, who are willing to serve Him and ready to lay down their lives. Not those who keep telling God everyday, I love you God just as far as  you keep meeting my needs, but the day you don’t meet my needs I don’t like you anymore. I have told you this before; God has not and cannot be modernized. The old time religion is still what will take you home to heaven and God is expecting you to move with him in such a way that it will be impossible for witches to be walking on the streets. God wants us to move in such a way that we will empty the prisons and services will be full. God wants every one of us to be powerful evangelists everywhere we go, so that we only need to look at people and they will give their lives to God. He wants us to get to the stage that people will seek to commit their businesses into the hands of Christians. But look at the way it is now, sometimes the believers are the first to do 419, when sinners should be confessing even before we discover them. This is how God wants us to move and wherever we go, we should radiate the love of God towards everybody, and convert millions and millions of people to Christ and rid our nation of evil spirits. All these angelic visitations will be a common occurrence. There are always angels around, but the trouble is only a very few can recognize them. A lot of us are looking for an angel that will be a white man with wings. If an angel is in this service, he will be black, dressed just as you are and you will not know. Everybody will be telling the truth. When we move the way God wants us to move. Everywhere we go, we will spark revivals and God will be working for our sakes. How many people want to build themselves up to that stage? Then we must contend earnestly for the faith, which was once given to the saints.

 These days, it is very sad to know that some preachers equate Christianity with what you have in your bank account. Your wealth is not an indication that you are in the way of life; this is why we have a lot of noise makers, but very few deep Christians. You don’t recognize men of God by what they wear or how they behave. It is rather by what God planted into their lives. As l told you once before, Elijah did not have his bath for three and a half years, I know that he must have been smelling. Yet, he was recognized as a man of fire. Many people are rushing to God these days, and the reason is that the devil has failed them and they just want to use God as a more powerful fetish. But God is not looking for such people. God is looking for people who will write blank cheques with their lives and God will dictate the amount. Oh that we may go back to the faith that once delivered unto the saints! Why is there so much dishonesty and crime in this country now despite the number of churches springing up? Why do we have all the trousers wearing girls who say they are born again? It is because most believers are not seriously contending for the faith? Anyone who wants to receive without asking must first contend for that faith which was once delivered to the saints. Don’t be the one who will dilute God’s testimony, rather be the one to strengthen it. There was a time I was put in a committee and people were complaining. I don’t know why they put me there actually. Since they knew they would be talking about entertainment they should have left me out. They wanted to plan for a reception and made a long list of needed items. They estimated N20,000 for beverages, then l asked what they meant by beverages, they said beer, I rejected it and they all frowned at me.

 There is a man of God whose name is Billy Graham. At a time some people called on him and asked if he would like to become the President of America. He said with due humility, that it will be a demotion for him. There are some people; apparently new in MFM who will like to affix chieftaincy tittles to their names. It is a demotion. God calls you a king and a priest and you say you are a chief. Chieftaincy titles have put so many people in bondage. No true Christian will accept a chieftaincy title and undergo all those demonic ceremonies. Some people would deceive themselves by saying, “as they were putting the Akoko leaf on my head I was pleading the blood of Jesus” Who sent you there? Contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. Let them know that you are a fanatic for the Lord. Don’t say “I don’t want them to say that l am a fanatic” Let them know don’t hide it, show your true colours. It is when some sisters don’t show their true colours that unbelievers would be slapping their backs. When you show your true colours as a child of God, demonic men cannot touch you? It is because you dress like them, talk like them and walk like them that make them to slap your back.

 3.      You must have unshaken faith, to receive without asking. You must believe God for your healing; believe God for your domestic problems and children. I know of a business man who was in a deep financial trouble. After a while he just stopped praying about his business and went to the pastor and requested for the names of all those who had been coming for the healing ministration. He locked himself up and started praying for hem by name, one after the other. Before he got to the end of the list, he became a millionaire. When he abandoned the shadow and chased the substance, his lot changed. When things are rough, pray and believe. Most problems don’t get solved by you worrying about them anyway. So you have to believe God, no matter the situation.

 4.      Psalm 37:4 “Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart” Many come to the Lord but cannot rejoice before him. They wear sad looks to the church and cannot joyously praise the Lord. They fear and worry and this affects their appetite. When a believer gets to the level that he is so worried that he cannot eat, something is wrong. The bible says in Proverbs 17:22, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones” So, if you are going to be worried, the bible says that your bones will dry up and you will look older than your age. Worrying does not solve problem. Do an experiment, struggle to be happy for one month and see what happens. Delight your self the bible say in the Lord. The bible says “my soul rejoices in the Lord” Try and read 11 Chronicles 20 and army won a battle by simply praising the Lord. They did not pray but praised the Lord and as they praised the Lord things begun to happen. God inhabits the praises of His people. When you are happy then you are contented with what God has done for you, there is no way you are going to harass your system. Many people are only used to saying give me, give me but they must learn to delight themselves in the Lord and praise His Holy name. The scripture says, “The joy of the Lord is our strength.”

5.      Psalm 7:7 : “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him: Fret no thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of him who bringeth wicket devices to pass” This means don’t work your life by the timetable of another person’s life. Don’t do unprofitable comparison. Rest in the Lord. The meaning of rest in the Lord is do not worry. Worry you may not believe it steals so many things from us. Anxiety kills people before they even die, and to make it worse, it is a sin. When you pray with worry, anxiety and complaints in your heart, the devil says “ God look at this your child, he is praying but look at his heart, he is worrying, where as the bible says(the same devil knows the bible) Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God believe also in me” Since this person’ heart is troubled he cannot have this miracle, and it will be so because the devil will not tell lies to God. When you are not resting in the Lord, you are worrying. Job pray for his healing but he was not healed. Immediately, he prayed for his friends, he was healed. Many would have received healing if only they could stop praying for themselves and pray for others. So if you are still a worry bag, you cannot receive without asking, because the same devil will harass you. You don’t need to worry. All forms of worry are borrowed from people of the devil. You don’t see a week old baby worrying, so it means you were not born with it. You can therefore cast worry out of your mind. Some people say, “it is natural” no, if you say it is then you are giving the rein and control of your life to evil forces and the devil. You can decide what to do. Many waste most of their time worrying, because worry is one of man’s greatest plagues. It is one of those diseases that regularly send people to the hospital. Many worry about their past, future and some even worry about heir present positions. Do you want to die because of worry when you have the God who holds tomorrow in his hands. There is nothing you can do about yesterday, it is gone, and then only God holds the future, not a prophet. So when you know all these, why not just rest in Lord. Some people sleep at night, and right in the middle of their sleep they sigh. If you ask them what was wrong they will tell you not to worry. Ask them to eat they would only want tea, since they have lost appetite, why because they worry; they are dying gradually. It is like that strange song people used to sing and kill themselves with when we were in school. It is called “killing them softly” and people sang it a lot in my class and those who used to sing it, did not pass their exams.

 6.      Live a Holy life: Abraham lived such a life and he attracted God’s attention. I mean when you live a holy life, you are not the one who will be asking, but God will be looking for you, because your life is attracting divine attention, unlike those whose lives are attracting demonic attention. You could be in a situation where your life is attracting divine attention. Not that you will be praying, “Oh God, l want to see you, l want to hear others are seeing and hearing. Oh God speak to me” No! live a holy life and you become his friend. It is automatic, whether you like it or not. And when you become his friend, he will bombard you with so many blessings that you would not even know where to run to. If you want to challenge what l am saying, try it.

 In Gen18:17 the bible says “ And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham that thing which l want to do” Do you see, God wanted to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham did not pray that God should show him what he wanted to do, but he just showed him. The same thing happened to Paul, peter, Joseph, Daniel and Isaiah. They were all trusted with God’s secrets. One thing I find very interesting is this, God rained fire, brimstone on Sodom And Gomorrah and Abraham cried, “God you cannot destroy the righteous with the wicked” The Judge of this earth is always right, yet Abraham negotiated with God from 100 to 50 people. God said, its Alright, if I find fifty” Then Abraham negotiated more to 10 and God said its alright if I find 10, I will leave them alone” Abraham was happy because he had a brother there who had a wife, making two people, 2 daughters not married, and their other daughters married to one man each totaling 10 people, he had calculated rightly. When the angels took others out, eventually the number became three and a half. Why were they three and a half? Because Lots wife who was told not to look back, looked back. But while God rained fire and brimstone on that city and told them not to look back, the bible says that Abraham’s face was on the place and he did not become a pillar of salt. Holy life makes you God’s favourite person. You can pray all night, God l want to see vision and you won’t see anything. But if you live a holy life, he will be the one to come to you and tell you things.

 

 

PRAYER POINTS

 

1.      Lord purge me with your fire in the name of Jesus

2.      Lord, if my name has been removed from the book of life, rewrite it in the name of Jesus.

3.      I disallow the enemy from making me a bad example in the name of Jesus.

4.      As for me and my house we shall the Lord in Jesus name.

5.      O Lord restore me to the perfect way in which you created me. I reject every pollution in Jesus name.

6.      The devil will be publicly disgraced in my in the name of Jesus.

7.      I will become what God wants me to become whether the enemy l likes or not, in Jesus name.

8.      Every satanic agent delegated to my life, be roasted in the name of Jesus.

9.      Father lord, frustrate any attempt by the enemy to plant satanic tree in my life in the name of Jesus.

10. Let my hands break down the citadel of the enemy in the name of Jesus.

 

 

  

THE FORCES OF THE AMPUTATOR

By Dr. D.K.Olukoya

 

If someone has a great sore on his hands or legs, the doctors will do their best to treat him. But if the sore matures into gangrene, or becomes infected with gangrene, the other parts of the body may be affected and may be in trouble. The doctors will have no other option i.e. to save the other parts of the body from becoming infested. They will then resort into one medical option known as amputation. The process involves cutting off or severing the affected part completely from the rest of the body. Amputation, therefore, involves removing one thing from a place without an option of replacement. Amputation in the physical is terrible, but it is even more terrible in the spiritual realm. The topic of this discourse is called: The forces of the Amputator.  I would like you to prayerfully read the topic more that you ever read any other topic. One of the reasons why God started the Mountain of fire and miracles Ministries is to plunder hell fire and populate heaven. It is not to make the enemy regret that he ever moved close to you, and by the time you attend the Mountain of fire and miracle ministries for sometime, you should have received the following three qualifications:

 

            I.      B .A You must be born again

        II.      M.S.C. You must become a master over your situation and circumstances

     III.      PHD You must have power over the host of darkness and the devil. The forces of the Amputator do more harm than removing or cutting off parts of the body. Although physical amputation is bad, spiritual amputation is worse. It turns the person to what the bible calls “hewer of wood and the drawer of water”. The following scriptures put the spiritual Amputator in their proper perspective. Joshua 9:21 Don’t allow the enemy to remove your concentration or tell you that you are not involved thereby hindering you.

 

“ And the princes said unto them, let them live, but them be hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation; as the princes had promised them” verse 23 “ 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” Verse 27 “and Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation”

 

So the first thing the spiritual Amputator does to a person is to turn him to hewer of wood and drawer of water. Although such victims will still remain alive, they are essentially like the living dead. Haggai1:6 gives a graphic illustration of the type of life the victims of amputation live, “ Ye have sown much and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough, ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you; but there is none warm; but the that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes”

 

 Ecclesiastes6:2: “ A man to whom God has given riches, wealth and honour, so that he wanted nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it, this is vanity and it is an evil disease.

 

Ecclesiastes10:7 states that “l have seen servants upon horses and princes walking as servants upon the earth”.

 The powers of the Amputator will turn a prince to a servant. These powers do not kill; they have no intention to kill. Their intention is to limit a person. They make a living person looks like a dead person. The key activities of the Amputator are in five fold. They limit, pollute, reduce, retard and slow their victims down. You will agree with me completely that there is no way a person with an amputated hand can be at best of anything because it requires the use of a hand. Neither can a man with an amputated leg become the best runner in town, it is impossible. The amputations have their own strategies and these include blinding men to God’s gifts of success, but the powers of the Amputator will blind somebody so much that he will not see them. Let me emphasize something that is very important to you. The greatest gift is to do what God desired for you from the time you were created, that is to say, to be in the center of God’s will for your life. However, you would have noticed that a large number of people, even church faithfuls struggle through life. They usually try their hands on one thing or another, copy one method or the other. Let me tell you one great truth, until you get involved in what God desires for you from the foundation of the earth and you do it with all your heart even if it appears too small or bad, the forces of the Amputator will ceaselessly pursue you. The definition of success is simple; Success is the achievement of God’s purpose for your life, You might have money, goodness and everything but if you are not in the center of God’s desire and wish for your life, you are a failure because all those things will disappear when you leave this place, only your spiritual wealth matters. Your certificate becomes useless when you leave this place, as it will be sheer foolishness to ask people to bury your ten houses or cars with you when you die: The powers of the Amputator will make somebody lag behind God’s plan or forfeit the plan altogether. They are the powers that drink the blood of success and turn success into failure. I will like you to know this: God did not create failure; God did not create amputated spirits. You were designed to succeed. Failure is man-made operation energized by then powers of the Amputator. These powers manufacture counterfeit success or artificial acceleration to knock the person down.

 

 One certain man called Paul Ghetti tasted the bitter pills of the amputating powers. He married five times, and had two sons; one died a drunk and the other died of pneumonia. Although, he was worth four billion dollars, he died a miserable man. He was amputated. The enemy amputated his hands and his legs. When somebody’s hands have been amputated, whatsoever he lays his hands upon will not work. If the thing was working before, it will stop working immediately. If you employ an amputated employee to run your business for you, that could mean the end of your business. If you allow an amputated hand to touch your body in any particular place, you may be having problems closely tied to spiritual amputation. Some marry amputated husbands and some marry amputated wives. Young men and women planning to marry will have to pray very well. It is not every man that comes to the house of God that is a Christian and also, it is not every woman you see in the house of God that is born again. People have different assignments and they effectively get what they want. A person could have amputated health. We were at a prayer meeting somewhere Orile-Iganmu, sometimes ago, a woman who was always feeling lifeless also attended the meeting. As the prayers were going on, two rats jumped out of her. One was healthy with good skin while the other was a weak old rat. She did not understand what was going on, she called “fire” and almost immediately, hypertension and diabetes departed from her system. When she went for check up the next-day, the doctors emphatically certify her negative. The doctors equally told her that her heart was beating like that of a small child. Why? The forces of the Amputator had left. The intentions of the Amputator were not to kill her, but to render her useless! Somebody’s progress may be amputated by the powers of witches, wizards or familiar spirits, they are all amputating forces. The forces of the Amputator deal mercilessly with people who are not born again. Such people could appear religious, and could be following people wherever they go for services, but they will be ready made candidates for the Amputator. Beloved reader, if you’re not born again, l will advice you to get born again, so as to be free from the forces of the Amputator. But before l go into another angle, what are these God’s gifts for success that the Amputator don’t want people to know? There are basically twelve of them:

 

1.YOU MUST HAVE AN OBJECTIVE

You must know what you want. There must be a clear-cut objective in your life for you to experience success in every degree. God did not create anybody to l live an empty and purposeless life. Purposeless living is a sign of amputated living. However, many people live their lives not knowing what they want, infact not many people engage in purposeful thinking. I am not talking about worry. 70% of churchgoers are worriers but those who do purposeful meditation and thinking are very few. You must ask yourself some of the following questions in your heart; what is my singular objective for living? Why did God put me here? Did God put me here to get married, have certificates, and have children, die and go? What is my purpose in life? All these must be well understood. You must have a definite goal. It is the enemy that makes people not to have objectives. That is why we find Jesus in John 4:34 saying the following things.

 “ My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.

  That was what Jesus came for! Jesus kept repeating it all the time! You must ask yourself some of these questions repeatedly. Why did l come? Why am l on earth? Have l come just to make money only before l die? Remember one fact, that people have made more money than you, but where are they now? They are probably companions to the devil in hell fire. In John 9:4 Jesus again repeated the same thing.

 “ l must work the works of him who sent me, while it is  day : the night cometh, when no man can work”

  He was always saying it, that the night was coming, when nobody would be able to work. At that time, the night would come upon every man, and the time to work for God would have gone by. Socrates was reputed as one of the wisest men that ever lived on the earth. When he was about to die, he confessed that he did not know where was going. He wasted his time on earth. In another development, A man of God was about to pass on to glory and he said, he did not want to see anybody again. But when an unbeliever came, the man of God requested that the man be allowed to see him. The first thing the man did was to express his surprise as the man of God’s readiness to receive him, having turned away several people who wanted to see him. Then came the surprise of the man of God. The pastor said that he turned away all other people because they were believers who will re-unite with him in heaven. But for that man he was the only unbeliever, who he would no longer see because hell fire was his place! He therefore advised him to discover his objective in life before it was too late. Many people have tried doing a particular work, and when it did not succeed, they rushed into something else. And when that one too didn’t work, they began to sell sundry items in front of their houses, as that one fails, then they began to carry load at the sawmill. When that failed they vowed to become bus conductors. That too didn’t work! They tried their hands on so many things none worked out for them. They did not realize that something had gone wrong somewhere. When the Amputators are at work, you must sit down and sort them out. Without that a person will become purposeless and directionless.

 

2. YOU MUST BE COMMITTED TO THE GOAL GOD GAVE TO YOU

You must indeed be committed to the reasons why God created you. You must stand by what God asked you to do, come rain or shine. Some know that God wants them to do some certain things but they refused to get committed to the commission. If you are one of such people, may God have mercy on you. When you know what God asked you to do, and you are giving excuses and you refused to get committed, you are simply asking for God’s order to be swept aside. But remember this salient fact, the time is running out; the hour is coming when no man will be able to work again. I was listening to the testimony of one brother; he was excited because a rich and prosperous man got born again. How did he get born again? He honoured the invitation of a brother to attend a revival programme. After the revival, the Evangelist called people forward for prayers. When he got to the Evangelist, the Evangelist asked him, who the senior partner in his business was.? The businessman replied that he was the senior partner of his own business while his wife is the second partner. The evangelist laughed, and wondered why God was not his senior partner. He promptly told the man that he had planned to fail by not giving Jesus a chance in his organizational set-up. He then charged him to give his life to God. When the businessman gave his life to the Lord and began to pray for God’s direction, God told him that the business he was doing was not His will for his life. He therefore, had to abandon his business of bottling palm wine since God said the business had destroyed His people.

 3. HAVE A PLAN FOR REACHING YOUR GOAL  

 For example, if God has called you to be a prophet you must have a plan. Your days of fasting, prayer meeting, bible study, and evangelism etc.must be properly planned . Planning prevents disorder in a life. Once you have discovered your objective in life you must come out with a plan; a blueprint to achieve that objective. Gather information on the things God asked you to do. Improve on what God asked you to do. Remember that the difference between your today and tomorrow rests on information. You must gather information on the things God wants you to do. God does not want believers to be the tail. He wants them to be at the top. If unbelievers are reading their books for four hours, a believer must read to double the time. It is a shame for Christian students to fail. It is the spirit of the tail, especially if God told you to be doing the thing.

 4. YOU MUST SOW GOOD SEEDS

The book of the Galatians told us that “whatsoever a man soweth that he shall reap” if you sow to the flesh you will reap corruption. But if you sow to the spirit, you will reap eternal life. Everything you do day by day, the places you go, the things you say, and by these you sow seeds. We sow seeds in our words, our thoughts and our actions. Don’t think anything you say does not have seed. Whatsoever you sow will mature and bring out harvest for you. Jacob’s problem was that he sowed the wrong seed. He sowed the seed of deception. He thought he was being clever. He stole his brother’s blessing. He thought it was clever thing for him to do, but he did not escape the repercussion. He suffered for it in tenfold. He was the same person that eventually led the children of Israel back to Egypt. They went to Egypt and in Egypt they were enslaved for 430 years. I advice you to sow good seed always.

 

 5. MEDITATE AND ACT ON GOD'S WORDS

Remember that the book of Joshua 1:8 says, “ This book of the law shall not depart form thy mouth; but thou shall meditate therein day and night…By so doing He will make your ways prosperous, and then thou shall have good success”

  

6 IDENTIFY YOUR OWN WEAKNESS AND CORRECT THEM  

lf you leave them to grow without corrections, they would become lions one day and devour you. So, identify your weaknesses. To some people it is laziness, hot temper, carelessness, gossiping, worldliness and accumulation of bad friends. But the Bible says that those who accumulate friends do it to attract His terrible wrath. Find out the area you are weak.

 7.ALWAYS COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS AND REJOICE IN THE LORD.

   8. BE A MAN OF FAITH AND PRAYER

Keep an unflinching faith in God, and remain unshaken in your prayer life.

 9. ALWAYS FORGIVE.

Don’t allow unforgiveness to enter into your life. Unforgiving spirit is a bad business. It exposes people to the forces of the Amputator.

 10 REMOVE WORRY AND DISCOURAGEMENT FROM YOUR LIFE                                                                                                           

Let people start saying to you, why is it that nothing gets you worried?

 11. CULTIVATE INTIMATE FRIENDSHIP WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT 

 Become a friend of the Holy Spirit; The Holy spirit is the one in charge of God’s warehouse. He has the key and he is going to open it for you when you become his friend.  

 12. HAVE A RIGHT ATTITUDE TOWARDS EVERYTHING

There is a law of respect, what you respect will come. What you do not respect will get far away from you. Your reaction to everything that happens to you must be in line with the word of God. Jesus made a mysterious statement in the bible. He said, to him that has, more shall be given unto him, but he that has little, it shall be taken away from him and given to him that have much, it is therefore a question of attitude. The forces of the Amputator keep these keys from people’s eyes, so that progress will be far from them and this is why princes become hewers of woods and drawers of water in our environment. There are special amputating forces, which work ruthlessly to appraise people. How do they do this? They gather information from the past and future of a person and what the person is likely to become. Then they travel up into the spirit world to hinder the person. I have seen the case of a child refusing to walk because another person was sitting on her legs, to prevent the legs from walking. I have seen a person who bought vehicles for transportation and somebody went and urinated on them preventing them from performing effectively. These amputating forces bury things. The things are alive but dead, they hide things and the person will be looking for them all over the place. They replace things; they use the bad to replace the good. They initiate people unawares into witchcraft and convert them to slaves, many people roam about at night, and wake up exhausted. They ensure their victims never achieve any breakthrough in education, business, marriage etc. All these are the forces of the Amputator. How do we destroy their powers? There are five ways:

 1.    You must repent from every known sins   

From little anger to the least one. Form talkativeness to gossip. Repent from any known sin.

2.Renounce every involvement with the works of darkness

3.Revoke any conscious or unconscious contract with the Amputator and return them back to the sender.

4. Reclaim the amputated parts.

5. Rededicate yourself to the lord.

 

These five steps can stop the amputating forces from preventing you from achieving your full potentials for God. Repent from any known sin. The Amputator will make a person have spiritual k-leg and they will put the senior prefect of Satan in one’s heart. That senior prefect is the spirit of fear. We had a prayerful brother, called Amos attending our Yoruba services some years ago. Brother Amos came from the Eastern part of Nigeria. The first thing that used to excite me about him was that, in our church in those days many years ago, nobody spoke pidgin English, not to talk of English. All the prayers, and the songs were in Yoruba. Bros Amos did not understand one word of Yoruba apart from the usual pleasantries. But whenever a payer point was called, he would pray until his shirt was wet without understanding the language. We did not know that God was watching everything he was doing and God was ready to deal with the forces that were ready to pull the brother down. The brother was living in a single room without chair, carpet, rug. One day after he had prayed God told him that that was the final end of the Amputator in his life. He prayed his normal hot prayer that he was used to and slept. In the morning, the Lord told the brother that the amputating forces troubling his life had left, and therefore asked him to look under his pillow. He lifted it up, and behold he saw a red headed lizard that was already dead. It was a big one that that was about three times the size of the normal one.. God said he wanted Brother Amos to know that the lizard had been in his head right form the first day he was born. The midwife who was the enemy of his mother put it there. That was how God delivered the brother. The powers of the Amputator have no right to stay in anybody’s life. Immediately that Lizard came out of the of the brother’s head, it was as if everybody was interested in his plumbing business. All the houses were looking for him. He worked and worked; infact brother Amos rode a Mercedes Benz car to the church

The man, who had one room, became prosperous when the Amputator left   his life. The fullness of his life became known. The Bible says, “but the thief cometh not but to steal to kill and to destroy; but l have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly” But if you want to allow them to stay, they won’t kill you, they won’t even hinder you from getting to heaven but (God forbid) you may not be able to achieve your fullest potentials. At the end of the day, they might end up putting you in more trouble than you ever thought of. Please confess your sin before you start to pray the prayer points listed below.

 

Psalm 126 “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then were our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing; then said they among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for us, whereof we are glad. Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing the sheaves with him.”            

                             

PRAYER POINTS

1.I must recapture my lost miracles in the name of Jesus

(One hand on the head) You forces of spiritual Amputator,, release my head in the name of Jesus.

2.Every force of spiritual Amputator, release my hands now in the name of Jesus.

3.Every force of spiritual Amputator, release my legs now in the name of Jesus.

4.Every amputating force release my spirit now in the name of Jesus.

5.I withdraw every co-operation l am giving to the enemy in the name of Jesus.

6.I claim back all that the forces of the Amputator have stolen from me.

7.I paralyze the power of the Amputator working against me in Jesus name.

8.Let all my buried blessings be exhumed now in the name of Jesus.

9.Every door of my goodness that has been shut, be opened now in the name of Jesus.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

21 HIDDEN EVIL COVENANTS

By Dr D.K Olukoya

 

A covenant is an agreement between two or more parties to get certain things done on conditional terms. It is a form of agreement that is legally biding on the parties involved. A covenant made in the physical is as strong as the one made in the spiritual. A covenant is undoubtedly serious, particularly when it is made between human beings and unseen evil spirits. The consequences are indescribably terrible. It is possible for a person to accept to go into covenant willingly much as it is possible for others to make covenant making is an undesirable act which after all said and done, leaves a sour taste in the mouth of those involved. The discourse of this bulletin is an in depth analysis of twenty-one hidden covenants in our geographical environment. Before you read further, please consider the following statements from Psalm 18:44-45:

 

“ As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me, the strangers shall submit themselves unto me. The strangers shall fade and be afraid out of their close places’

 

 When an evil thing decides to go into hiding, then that thing is afraid of something. They are always afraid to face the challenge of the blood of Jesus. It is not surprising therefore that many people with sicknesses are usually relieved during prayer sessions. Why is this so? The answer is simple. The sicknesses and their demons leave them because they could not face Holy Ghost fire and blood of Jesus. When some people are possessed with evil spirits and go to the Christian gatherings, they usually keep their evil properties on the trees, rooftops etc, only for them to pick them up after the meetings. They are afraid of something. When an evil spirit is challenged to come out of someone, they usually protest and when they see that you are not tolerating their protests they will threaten you. When they find out that you are not afraid of being threatened, then they beg you. All these things should be rejected, whether it is a protest, a threat or an appeal. Hidden evil things thrive on ignorance. That is why the Bible cries out in Hosea 4:6:

 

“ My people are destroyed because of lack of knowledge”

 

Hidden curses and hidden covenants are called spiritual bats. Sometimes you might think that you are fighting a bird and suddenly, it presents itself as an animal. People step into covenants in diverse ways, I’ll endeavour to mention some of them here.

1. The first way is through Parents: Many people have entered into an evil covenants through their parents, while many have inherited evil covenants from their parents. Many parents have dragged their children into bondages by covenanting them to idols.
2. You can enter into a bad covenant by decision: You may decide to get involved for safety of reasons, so that as soon as you join the secret society you are protected. You may even get contracts and win your case in court. Joining the society then becomes your personal decision. When you look at somebody in the face, and you saying “oh! l love you, oh let us not leave each other, and so let us make a covenant. Thus, you take a blade and cut yourselves. The man will drink his own blood as well as drink the lady’s blood. The lady does the same, even though they are not witches, they have nonetheless entered into covenant, consciously by decision.
3. The third one is unconscious covenant: Without knowing it, a person may get into a covenant. The Bible considers covenant as a very strong thing such that when God wants to commit Himself to something and He doesn’t want to change His position, He enters into a covenant. A covenant is something looking like an irrevocable commitment and is like a chain biding two people together. The chain would always be dragging the partners along. Covenant may come through inheritance. A parent might have entered into a covenant agreement with some demons for the protection of their children. The covenant would remain a hidden evil to the children involved. An inherited covenant, even though  its an unconscious one is as strong as what one entered into by himself. Then the hidden covenant can be further divided into groups.

1. Entrance into the covenants willingly and

2. Entrance into the covenant unwillingly

 

Know and be sure in your spirit that people can be forced to do what they don’t want to do. As such, a person could be forced into witchcraft or an evil covenant. That is why the Bible says when thou art strong, then thou shall remove the yoke from off thy neck” If you are not strong, you cannot remove any yoke. If you try to remove them, your enemies will promptly replace them. The truth is that many Christians are completely ignorant of the covenants they have entered into. Please know too that those that are not born again have already entered into covenants with the devil, it is surprising to know that a lot of people who are suffering is as a result of some hidden covenants they entered into. Please know too that those that are not born again are suffering as result of some hidden covenants they entered into somewhere. Sometimes, it is due to some actions you have taken without realizing its implications. Beloved, this is why it is not good for somebody to be forgetting his dreams. Many people pick up their troubles from dreams. Without knowing it, people mistakenly enter into evil covenants. Bad spirits would plan the involvement of the person and before the person realizes it, he or she would have stepped into what he or she did not bargain for.  Many families where there are many girls who share under wears, a sister with a terrible covenant can distribute problems to others by initiating them without them knowing it. You may then wish to ask the question that “ how could you know if your own case is due to an hidden covenants somewhere?” A person with hidden covenant will have problems that are resistant to counseling and normal prayers. The problem will be resistant to confessing the Bible, like a man who gets involved in masturbation. Such a person wherever he goes, his covenants with spirit wives are still in place. Constant worry, anxiety, a gloominess and depression hanging around the person are evidence that something is hiding in the corner. Fear at all times, hearing strange voices and occasional madness are all evidences that something is hidden somewhere. Constant harassment in the dream, sleeplessness and regular terrifying dreams are all evidences that something is hiding somewhere. All the addiction to tobacco, to drugs, to food, to gambling, addiction to worldly music etc are signs that something is hiding somewhere. There are some people now although they are born again but anytime they hear the masquerade whistle they are excited. The fact that they remember their village idols is evident that something is hiding somewhere. Many are addicted to Indian and Chinese films. The Indian films represent mermaid dancing and singing and Chinese one is violent spirit fighting. Having all these together with Yoruba films show that something is hiding somewhere. Even if you know everything about religion and there is no reality of God inside of you then something is hiding somewhere. Constant accident, hurting oneself all the time, emotional instability, crying one minute and laughing in the next minute, unreasonable harshness, excessive pride, uncontrollable anger and temper, and constant unforgiving attitude are evidences that something is hiding somewhere. All the lack of submission to the husband by the wife is evident that something is hiding somewhere. Constant financial failure despite the fact that money comes to the hand, inability to concentrate, and unexplainable chains of failure and lack of favour are signs that things are hiding somewhere. Listed below are the 21 Local Hidden Evil Covenants that have turned millions of people into living corpses: -

1. SPIRITUAL BURIAL

This is the covenant entered into by the construction of coffin for ritual sacrifice. For many people when coffin is constructed for them something is taken away from their bodies into the coffin after which prompt burial is done. This is called covenant of burial or covenant with death. When a small coffin is constructed for one’s sake, such a person has entered into an evil hidden covenant. Sometimes many people are forced into it. When a person has formed a covenant with the powerful spirits of death and hell, perfect health will be far from such person. What the scripture says about this covenant is very terrible Isaiah 28:15:

 

“Because ye have said we have made a covenant with death and hell are we at agreement”.

 However, God has this to say in verse 18 of the same chapter.

“ And your covenant with death shall be disannulled and your agreement with hell shall not stand”

 

 A person could enter into this kind of spiritual burial covenant through one’s parents. If they feel that the life of their child is not safe, they might do it on behalf of that child. This is where they will mention all the names given to the person on the eight day. The person involved might even have forgotten about these events, but demons don’t have memory failure. They remember everything. It is human beings who will say, “l forgot, Demons never forgotten”

2. DEMONIC MARRIAGE CEREMONY  

Many bridal requirements take their origin from demonic worship. If you then supply the demonic materials during your marriage, you have entered into hidden covenants. Why does the Yoruba people during marriage ceremony ask for forty-two tubers of yam? Where does the figure forty-two comes from? Why do they ask for Forty-two of a particular type of fish? Why do they ask for forty-two kola nuts, bitter kola or alligator pepper? Why do they pray with wine or alcohol? Even if God were interested in drinking wine or alcohol, would He prefer that they pour the alcohol on the ground? I know that my God would never eat from the ground. However, let us look at the figures deeply: Add 4 and 2 together, they give 6, remember that 666 are the devils’ number. To cap it all, the number 42 was originated from Ifa oracle. If you ever used alligator pepper and some other fetish items during your marriage, then, you and your wife or husband have formed hidden covenant with powerful local spirits. You really must ask for forgiveness and break them right away. Alligator pepper and bitter kola marriages are characterized by disagreement and poverty; pouring of water on the leg of the wife and spreading of wrappers on the ground for the new wife to step on, are demonic covenants, which have to be broken immediately.

 

3.     LAYING ON OF EVIL HANDS

The holy Bible records 14 uses of hands. In Genesis 48:14-hands are used to bless the family. In Exodus 17:11-hands are used for prevailing prayer. In Deuteronomy 34:9- hands are used to transfer blessings. In Psalm 134:2 and 14:12- hands are used to worship God. Matthew 19:13 Jesus in his divine wisdom laid hands on his children. In Mark 16:18- hands are laid for healing. In Acts 6:6 hands are laid for ordination in Acts 13:3- hands are laid to wend out missionaries. In Acts 19:6 hands are laid for the infilling power of the power of the Holy Ghost. In Acts 14:3 hands are laid for miracles to happen. Galatians 2:9 talks about offering somebody the right hands of fellowship. In 1 Timothy2:8- hands are used for adoration and worship. In 1Timothy 4:14- hands are laid to impart spiritual gifts. In 11Timothy1: 6- hands are used to stir up gifts. Therefore, laying on of hands is an important doctrine in the Bible. In our local tradition, hands are also laid on people. From these Bible passages, we can see that the Bible’s reasons for laying on of hands is to impart blessings, authority and healing, Holy spirit, spiritual gifts, commission ministers and power. Now, the devil being a clever counterfeit producer has reversed all the issues that we see in the word of God. He is now laying strange hands on people to form covenants with their heads and their lives. This is why the scripture warns that laying on of hands should not be done suddenly, but rather as the spirit of God leads, If the spirit of the person who laid hands on you is not pure (may be the person has evil association or unconfessed sin) then, bad things have been transferred. But if you are the one laying hands and you lack power and lay it on strange heads, bad things will be transferred to you as your hands then become like a water pipe and evil things will start to happen. A friend of mine told me of a preacher who laid hands on somebody and as he did, something moved like a snake, into his hands. When he saw that something was entering his hands, he called the person back and required him to bow down for another prayer. He laid his hand again and prayed that the object should go back, and the snake crawled from the hand of the preacher to the person. If your father is a lodge member or a child of the devil and he was the one who prayed for you on your wedding day, when you are in trouble, the Bible says the prayer of a sinner is an abomination before God. So the lodge man annoys God. If your polygamous father laid hands on you, the anointing to gather women will descend upon you.

 

4.     CONVENANT WITH SERPENTINE POISON.

The children of the wicked have now shifted their attention to salons. This is the confession some new converts are making now; the evil powers know that most women go to salons and that a good number of them have no fire. Many had been initiated through this way. A newspaper published a story recently that one sister went to the salon; she had already washed her hair, while she sat under the drier with her head resting inside as usual, and she fell into something like a trance. While in the trance, she saw something directly opposite to where she was sitting. A salon attendant who she could not identify was removing rollers from the head of another customer, she saw the customer sitting under the direr removing her hands immediately all the hair on the head turned into snakes. The poor salon attendant who did not have Holy Ghost fire just caressed her hands on the snakes and as she did that, the snakes were passing poisons into her hands. When another customer came in, the attendant touched the head of the woman the poison entered into her head. These are the serpentine snakes passing poisons into people’s heads. Why should somebody submit herself to be used as demonic experimental animal? All the discoveries of the devil are tested on the human body. People who go about with local eyelashes that they bought from the market are just forming covenants with snake spirits.

 

5.     DREAM COVENANT

A large number of people enter into covenants through dreams without knowing. So eating with the dead, swimming in the water, serving people you don’t know, playing with evil snakes, marriage in the spirit world, having sexual intercourse in the dream, and having children that you don’t have physically in the dream are all evil covenants. If you are always staying with your old friends in your dreams, then something is still holding you together with them. If you are always seeing your home or village, something is still holding you back there. If you forget your dreams easily you really need to go and pray so that God will be reminding you, so as to break those things that have been done wrongly in your dreams.

 

 

6. RELIGIOUS COVENANTS

Mary is demonic. It is not Mary people are kneeling down to but a demon called SEMARAMICS. Mary the mother of Jesus never had a hollow around her head, all the Angel worship, incense burning, the candle prayer, special use of psalms, calling the name of Raphael, Ureal or calling Michael to help you are religious covenants. Evil consumption of food everyday in the church i.e. sugar, orange, banana are just express way into covenants. The more you eat the stronger the covenants becomes. Prayer uniform and possession of personal physical altars bring one into covenant with strange religious spirits.

 

7. SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE WITH PHYSICAL RING

If you must keep any ring in your house, it should only be your wedding ring. Mind how you put it on as they can easily be polluted by demonic powers. I know many sisters who were demonically wedded with physical rings. They found it impossible to get married until the rings were destroyed with the fire of the Holy Ghost.

 

8. SPIRITUAL BONDAGE WITH NECKLACE AND BANGLES

If a lady finds out that necklaces and bangles are the things that will make her look beautiful, then she must be very ugly. If she is hoping to marry a serious man of God, she must have other thoughts coming, as serious men of God won’t go about looking for women with bangles. A lot of people enter into bondage through all these. Many ladies deceive themselves by pleading the blood of Jesus or anointing the jewelries before they use them. The devil is a legal expert for he will ask why is this part of her uniform? What purpose is it serving?

 

9. SPIRITUAL SLAVERY WITH EARRINGS

Anybody who decides to become a spiritual slave is doing it at his/her own risk. All that the deliverance minister will do is to say to the demon come out, you can’t take the deliverance minister to the police station if the demon refuses to come out. A lot of women keep demons in their lives by the jewelries they love so much. That is why Exodus 21:6:

 

“Then his masters shall bring him to judges and shall bring him to the door or unto the door post and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul and he shall serve him for ever”

 

 As far as Bible is concerned, piercing of ear is an evidence of slavery. To pierce the ear is bad enough not to talk of decorating it.

 

10. DEMONIC BAPTISM

All the spiritual baths by prophet sand their agents are a corruption of the water baptism instituted in the scripture. If you have taken such baths before now, you have been baptized in opposition to the scripture. You need deliverance.!

 

11. PICTURE COVENANT

 Perhaps before you got born again, you posed for countless photographs with your former lover. Both of you took pictures together, but now that you are born again, the picture is no longer in your possession. Since this person still wants you back he can simply go ahead to tie the picture with strings and bury it somewhere. You have thus entered into covenant. It may remain there until Holy Ghost fire falls and destroy the picture, without that it may be difficult for that person to get married.

 

12. EVIL FAMILY NAME: Ask yourself these questions right now; Does the origin of your family name glorify an idol? As long as you use the name that is glorifying an idol, problems will accumulate in your life. What is the full meaning of the names you have? Don’t you think you should check where Famuyiwa comes from, Sangowanwa or Nwosu, Esubiyi that is the devil hath given birth to this one? Check today to ensure that you do not have an accursed name, family or otherwise.

 

13. COVENANT OF INCEST: When blood brothers and sisters commit fornication together, they form covenants. If a lady has ever been involved in this type of incest, such a lady would generally end up with a broken home unless she breaks the evil covenant.

 

14. DEMONIC CONSUMPTION: At traditional naming ceremonies, honey sugar; water, dead rats etc are used. These items lead to demonic covenants and indescribable complications.

 

15. CHIEFTANCY TITLE RITUALS: The truth is that all chiefs need deliverance, and for a believer to agree to be a chief is a spiritual demotion. The Bible says we are peculiar people we are kings and we are princes. If the people of the world invite you for a chieftaincy title and you accept thereby allowing them to put feather and leaves around your head, then you need deliverance.

 

 

 

16. ALL THE CIRCUMCISION RIGHTS

A person circumcised in a herbalist’s home may have sexual covenants to break. Such a person might even have caused problems for innocent women he has been having carnal knowledge of.

 

17. TWINS COVENANT: Some mothers of twins bring their twins into covenants by embarking on demonic prescription of begging people for money and of selling palm-oil, coupled with cooking beans every Friday. All these will put the children into covenants. Some twins usually form covenants with each other and this results into all kinds of trouble. The question is how was that possible? It was possible because they have entered into covenant, through which the strange power entered into them.

 

18. STRANGE MONEY      Your enemies might have been passing strange money to you to help you. Each time you say you are broke, they are always there. Even if you did not know that they were giving you strange money, you have nonetheless formed a covenant of poverty with such a friend. You must withdraw that money right now in the name of Jesus.

 

19. COVENANT OF DEMONIC PARTIES: Many people throw demonic parties under the disguise of celebrating birthday parties. Many of them celebrate their 40^th birthday over and over again. Whatever food items or drinks they serve at the occasion usually become their baits. Many innocent people have entered into covenants without knowing, simply for the fact that they ate at the devils table.

 

20. COVENANT OF FIRST SEXUAL PARTNER: The first introduction of someone to sex is very important. It is significantly important because the Bible says the two of you shall become one body. When you then join your body to a strange person and he is the first one, and there is blood, you have formed a covenant and it has to be broken. If it is done outside marriage, that means you are going the devil’s way. It is even worse, if the person was raped. Covenants formed from sexual experiences have to be broken.

 

21. COVENANT OF POLYGAMY AND EVIL PARENTAL ATTACHMENT: Many people who have experienced marital problems many times, usually have polygamous history behind them. This has to be broken, Schoolteachers labour, so that pupils can learn. The people who discovered plane, cars etc suffered before they could accomplish their tasks. For the same reason, Jesus Christ suffered to release us from curses and evil covenants. The reason why this was possible was because of his substitution sacrifice. Jesus decided to become a substitute for the unjust for salvation sake. If you remember the story of Isaac, he was about to be sacrificed to God, then God provided a ram as a substitute. Jesus decided to be a substitute for us so that the evil covenant will have no power over us. That is why the Bible says

“ He who knoweth know sin was made sin for us that we might become righteous in Him”

 The book of Isaiah 53:6 says “ All we like sheep have gone astray and the Lord had laid upon him the iniquity of us all.”

 Galatians 3:13 tells us that

“Christ had redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse fro us”

it is needless to say that good things don’t come easy. Mothers suffer to give birth to children, they also suffer to bring the children up. Christ too suffered that we might enjoy, so because of his substitution, instead of condemnation we have salvation; instead of eternal death, we have eternal life; instead of bondage, we have liberty, instead of the old sinful nature, we have become a new creature and we have become righteous; instead of curses, we inherited blessings; instead of evil covenants, we enter into covenants of blessings with God. It will interest you to know that the devil has a photocopy of all covenants that everybody has made. Only the blood of Jesus can rub off covenants from his own file and that will happen now if you call on Jesus name. What must you do, if you want to be free? I will give you five quick steps

1.     You need to repent from whatever sins you have committed consciously or unconsciously, as every sin is done against God. Your ignorance cannot exempt you from repentance, it does not matter whether you are aware or not. It still a sin and you must repent

2.     You must renounce all those things you have ever done, give them up. Do it with holy anger!

3.     You will then revoke the past covenants you have entered into either you know it or you don’t. Cancel them all in Jesus name.

4.     Bind the spirit in charge of evil covenants.

5.     Replace curses and covenants with Abraham’s blessings. There must always be a replacement as there is no amount of speaking in tongues, or fasting and prayer or confession that can release the person from under an evil covenant if the person does not follow these steps. Please go into these further serious prayer point. Pray them angrily and violently (Pray the prayer for the week)

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.    I take back all the grounds given to Satan by my ancestors in the name of Jesus.

2.    I curse you spirit enforcing evil covenants in my life and l command you to release me in Jesus name (When you have said it three times, begin to say release me in the name of Jesus Christ)

3.    Let everything that has been transferred into my life, be demonic laying on of hands, loose its hold right now in the name of Jesus.

4.    Let every serpentine poison that has been passed into my life, get out now in the name of Jesus (l flush you out with the blood of Jesus)

5.    Let fire fall on every spirit of death and hell, fashioned against my life in Jesus name.

6.    I break the head and crush the tail of every serpentine spirit in Jesus name.

7.    Let the spiritual bat and spiritual lizards that have been introduced into my life receive the fire of God.

8.    Let the sword of fire begin to cut off every evil parental attachment in the mighty name of Jesus.

9.    Father Lord reveal to me any hidden covenant that the devil might have arranged against me.

10. Every tree that the father did not plant in my life be uprooted in the name of Jesus.

11. Father Lord, l electrify the ground of this place now and let every covenant with the feet begin to shatter in the name of Jesus.

12. Let every hidden covenant break in the mighty name of Jesus!

                   SHORT BED AND NARROW BLANKET

      By Dr. D.K Olukoya

 

Isaiah 28: 20-21:

 “ For bed is shorter than that man can stretch himself on it and the covering narrower than that can wrap himself in it. For the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim, He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gideon, that He may do His work, His strange work and bring to pass His act, His strange act”

The message of today is titled “SHORT BED AND NARROW BLANKET”. Can you imagine a man of 6 feet in height, bench of about four feet; he would not be comfortable at all. Let us imagine a boy of 7years, who wants to sleep and to use his mother’s scarf as a covering; the scarf will not cover all the parts of his body. Some parts of his body will be exposed. In these end times, there is a book that every believer ought to be reading. This is the last book of the Bible-Revelation. If you have not sat down to read the book of revelation, please try and read it through. It is the timetable of God concerning our age. It is an important book and it can be called the grand finale of everything. Many people don’t read it because they regard it as obscure and unclear. Whereas the book is meant to reveal and unveil a lot of things to us. God will not write what he does not want us to understand. If you do not study this book, you will miss out a lot of information. Please take a decision to begin to read the book from now. Without this book, the scripture will not be complete. The book of revelation provides answers to a lot of questions about Christian life. It answers such questions as: Will sin continue? Will sorrow, death and pain go on? Where exactly are we in God’s plan? Is Christ coming to reign again physically in the world? What are we expecting before Christ comes again? What does 666, the mark of the Anti-Christ mean? Is the anti-Christ mark even in the world now? Will the world come to an end? Will the present heaven and earth exist forever? Do saints to spend eternity in heaven and earth exist forever? Are saints to spend eternity in heaven or on earth? The answers to all these questions can be found in the book of Revelation. Many spectacular things had happened in this world, but nothing is going to be as spectacular as what you will find in revelation chapter 1verse7 when it begins to happen. Please note that no prophesy of the Bible has ever changed and there is none of them that has failed. This passage says,

“ Behold, he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him, . All kindred of the earth shall wail because of him, Even so, Amen”

 Nothing will match this verse when it begins to happen. There are many believers whom God has shown the vision of Christ coming back. We have come across such people who have seen this revelation in dreams and in visions. They are enough evidence and support of the truth of this revelation. This shows that God is going around showing visions to people, that a time is coming when all that will count is what one has done with the Lord Jesus Christ, and not any other thing. It is then that people will understand the scriptures that “vanity all is vanity” Eccl.12: 8. People will then understand that everything else that man is doing is vanity. It is then it will begin to sound and appear strange why some people run after the world. These people run after the world, not knowing that they are running after vanity and leave the reality. It is very strange that many of the present day believers pay much more attention to their bodies than their spirits. These people feed their bodies with best foods, wear the best clothes and take care of their bodies in so many ways, but they neglect and starve the spirit that will last forever. It is of no use to do so much to the body and neglect the spirit. The flesh is not going to heaven, so it is not interested in salvation. It then pulls people back from attending to their spirits. There are many signs in the bible, the verse we read in Revelation is about to come to pass. As a matter of fact, practically all the prophets in the Bible talked about the second coming of Jesus Christ. The first prophet in the Bible was Enoch. The Bible says Enoch walked with God and he was not, because God took him and Enoch said Jesus would come. Even at that early time of Genesis. Other prophets like Jacob, Balaam, Zechariah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Daniel, Joel, Amos, Micah etc all talked about the second coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself kept saying it so many times in the New Testament. When Jesus went to heaven physically and the disciples were bothered and very worried, the bible tells us that some Angels stood by and said

“Men of Galilee, why are you gazing at the sky? This same Jesus that has been taken away from you will come back in like manner, as you have seen him going”.

 Those that pierced him will cry on that day some believers can claim that they were not physically there when Jesus was crucified and pieced, so they will easily absolve themselves from this prophecy. Piercing Jesus, by this scripture, it is no longer a physical act, it is a spiritual thing. The Bible says, after someone has known the way of salvation, tasted of the world to come, received the baptism of the Holy spirit, come to church and listened to messages and after all these, the person falls away again, such a person is nailing Jesus on the cross the second time. These are the people who are piercing Jesus on the cross. All the signs that Jesus will soon come again abound all around us. They include signs like the false Christ, wars and rumors of war, famine and pestilences. Hatred is filling the earth and iniquity is abounding in the church, the love of many for God is waxing cold and the gospel is being preached everywhere in the world without exception. The signs of the days of Noah, which were merriment and pleasures, are now common thing. Violence has filled the whole world, people have become lovers of themselves; covetous, boastful, proud, blasphemous, and disobedient. They have the form of godliness but they deny the power of God. The Bible says there will be increased satanic worship, and all sorts of negative things to tell us that the end is very close. Someone came to meet with me in the church sometime ago, and hid a charm in his pocket and was shaking the charm, hoping to harm me. This is an example of increased satanic activities. I felt sorry for him. If l had wanted to deal with him the Elijah way, l would have commanded all the charms in his pocket to turn against him. People will hear the word of God many times, but they will still continue in their sins. A time is coming when the bed will be too short and blanket too narrow, and secrets will be known. The present church is in a sorry state. Many times, we are called sons of God, instead of soldiers, because when one declares that he is a soldier of Christ, it means he has laid down his life, and he is ready to die for Christ. Nobody joins the armed forces with a promise or feeling that he won’t die. The Bible says, “ No man who weareth, entagleth himself with the affairs of this world; that he please him who has appointed him as a soldier”. Many People of the present generation unfortunately have never really seen any revival and if we are not careful, we might not experience any revival before we go. This is because of the way we are living our lives in this present day by allowing the world to mould our lives for us. One day, everybody will stand before Jehovah’s throne. That day the bed will be too short and the blanket will be too narrow and the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed. Some people say “ It’s my life and l want to live it my own way” But l will ask you, Is it actually your own life? If God wants to withdraw it, you have no power to withhold it. People believe they can do whatever they like with their hands or their legs, forgetting that it was the hands and legs of Jesus that were pierced. The greatest miracle one can receive is the salvation of one’s soul. If you fail to get saved here, or in any church, then all other miracles are worthless and meaningless. I am aware that a lot of people come to Mountain of fire and miracle ministries for miracles, but l implore them to get the first miracles, which is the miracle of salvation. Anything in your life that will not make you ready for heaven, or that will make you to be shaking before Jehovah’s throne will also prevent you from receiving your miracles from God. A lot of people have abandoned what God has for them. They are looking after their own things, running after business, contracts; etc while abandoning the main thing that God has given them to do. Somebody gave me a cassette last week in which a brother who was said to be dead for six days and later came alive, started to speak. He said so many things about what he experienced, but there was one thing he said which l will never forgot. He said he got to a particular place and they brought out what they called the record the “Record of service” and this record was so detailed that he was surprised. It had details like lateness to church, with 2 columns of faithful and disobedience, next was offering, Evangelism etc. Everything has been neatly planned out. He said when he got to his turn and he looked at the book, he saw that in the area of tithes, he was marked faithful but on offering, disobedience was marked for him. He wondered what happened and he enquired. They took him through what he did while he was alive. He was very worried. Anyway he came back to life because God instructed him to go and warn others. God has a controversy with the nations; and the Bible tells us that God will start his judgment in the house of God. From the book of Isaiah, it is clear that it is alien for God to judge people, cause it is said, “ God will arise and do his strange work and carry out his strange act” This shows that it is not something that God wants to do, but he has to do it. So, if you are reading this message, and you know that your life is not secured in the Lord Jesus or you are playing with sin or you are playing with your salvation, you better repent and change now. Today maybe the only day that God gave you to do it. After now, anything may happen to you, but the best thing is that, there is no point in continuing to live when you are not sure that your life is secured in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our main passage for today,

Revelation 20: 11-15: “ And l saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away and there was found no place for them. And l saw the dead, small and great, stand before God and the books were opened, and another book was opened which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead, which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judge everyone according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in book of life was cast into the lake of fire”

 Whosoever here refers to anybody and everybody irrespective of position or status; Pastor Sunday, school teacher, Evangelist, President, Director General, Engineer, Doctor whosoever. As long as the person’s name is not found in the book of life, such is cast into the lake of fire. This is the stance of God. God lifts up his curtain and makes it possible for people to see the white throne. God and Jesus will be the judges, but one thing is certain, the judges of this world may make mistakes, but God will not make mistakes. There are many things we do not know now and are not clear to us about what will happen at the end of the world, but one thing is certain, we know the judge, and he cannot make mistakes. A worldly lawyer or judge could be bribed, to get a judgment of innocence, but this is not possible with God. The purpose of the judgment is to ensure that God gives due punishment to everyone for the evil deeds they have done. Now, that you are still alive God is giving you a trail before your condemnation. He is giving you ample opportunity to decide and prove whether you want to go to heaven or not. The book of the Romans Chapter 2verses1-16 show us that the purposes of God’s judgment is to judge the secrets of men (according to verse 16 of Romans chapter 12) According to Matthew12:36:-

 “ But l say unto you, that every idle word that men speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement”

 The judgement is to judge all the idle words that we speak. It is also to judge all the thoughts, words, actions and sins of men, and God has his own methods of administering the judgement. For those who did not hear the gospel before dying, God gave them a conscience, which is God’s policeman, and there’s no one without a conscience. Once anyone does anything against his conscience, God will judge him according to his conscience, even if such a person did not hear the gospel. For those who got the Law of Moses, followed the law and were able to fulfill the law, they will go to heaven, but those that failed by the law will go to hell fire. Then if you are exposed to the gospel like many of us are now, and we refused to hear and do accordingly, we shall also be judged accordingly. Behold, the Day of Judgment is approaching when the bed will be too short and the blanket will be too narrow and it is necessary that we pray that this day does not meet us unawares. Because of this, God has given us the Bible; This is now man’s time to prove that he will go to heaven. The church is becoming worldly and worldliness is going into the church and all kinds of things are happening in the house of God. For example a man of God was caught committing fornication with a church member. The same church now gave him a rousing send forth, after he has been dismissed. This tells us those things that should not enter the church have entered. A lot of preachers are confused because many of the church members are wedded to sin. Whether you believe it or not that the judgment is coming, the judgment will come anyway. God will sit in His throne and the bible says the anger in his face will be so much that heaven and earth will flee away from his sight and presence. All those who have died from the time of Adam, all over the world from the time of Adam will show up, unbelievers will show up too, backsliders, rebellious school children, those who say they have no time for the gospel now, children who have reached the age of accountability, will be at the judgment seat of God. All those who want to wait to achieve material success before taking the worship of God seriously will have themselves to blame because they may never have the opportunity. Now is the time to prove to God that you are worthy of heaven. There is no second chance at this judgment and there is no room for repentance. If a man remembers the name of Jesus on this day, the name will only torture him. Prayers will be too late and excuses no matter how genuine and true will not be acceptable. I would like to advise you now, if you are struggling with an unbeliever for something, drop the thing and let the unbeliever have it. This is because there is no time and if God calls anytime now and you are not able to give a proper answer, then what will your going to church stand for? There will be a great roll call, and those who call themselves nominal Christians, attend beauty contests, watch TV as if it were the Bible. Husbands, who run after their house helps at night, will all be present and their secrets shall be revealed. The judgment seat shall have no class, the high and low shall be merged together. A day is coming said the Lord, when the secret of all earth shall be revealed. One day, l was in a church and after the Sunday message, l noticed that somebody was making a noise outside, threatening to beat up another person and they were begging her to be calmed and not to beat the person. It took me time to realize that l was the one she wanted to beat up. Why? She told the people that somebody must have told me about her secrets and that l used her to preach. So, l too started to beg her not to beat me up. This same person unfortunately is dead now. Those things, of which the Lord was speaking to her to repent from on that day, eventually killed her. When you die you appear in another world. The Bible says “it is given unto men to die once, after that is judgment”. Every hidden atrocity, cleverly concealed sins and hidden lusts will be exposed on this day. All the people who are spiritually submarines will be known. Some people come to church and behave as if they are serving the pastor, some try to physically avoid the men of God because they know that their activities are unclean, they keep other immoral books at home and carry the Bible to church to camouflage. If you are in this category of people, you are doing yourself a great harm. All these will be revealed that day. The parable of the dog going back to its vomit will then be applicable to you. You should not be interested in the honour of man or earthly posts. You should be interested in the honour and seek after it diligently. A lot of people who come to church are not interested in personal spiritual growth and in spite of the messages, they still do not change their ways of life. They feel sober when in church, but go back to those things they felt bad about as soon after they leave the church. Whereas the Bible says, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may about? God forbid” Miracles cannot multiply when we remained in sin. The devil keeps running after people because they possess his property. You have to repent. If you were to stand now before the judgment seat of Christ, what would you say?  There are only two ways, the broad way and the narrow way. There is no center. The broad way leads to hell and the narrow way leads to glory. There are only two types of people; the saved sinners and the unsaved sinners. The Bible calls them the sheep and the goat or the living and the dead. There are only two deaths, the death of the righteous and the death of the wicked. There are only two futures, the kingdom of heaven and hell fire. These days, a lot of people want to copy the fashion of the world, which the Bible describes as “fading away”.

The devil has taken hold of the literature world and he is using all the funning pornographic magazines to confuse people. Parents should be careful of the type of materials that circulate in their homes, so that God will not judge them for confusing their children. Anything not good for the youths is not better for the adults. It is a shame to our society that the best selling magazines and materials are the sexiest ones.  Many churches are beautiful outwardly but within they contain the bones of dead men. God is tired of lip services. He wants heart services. God will not expect benchwarmers but only true worshippers. Don’t be like the proverbial frog that wanted to fly on borrowed wings. He hit the rock and fell down, don’t live your life on borrowed spiritual wings. Your faith cannot rely on some one else’s own. You have to develop yourself personally; your relationship with God must be personal.

 

DESTRUCTIVE TRINITIES

There is what we call trinity of spiritual failure- Money, Alcohol and sex. If any of these are in your life, then you are to be assured that you are on a direct expressway to hell fire. There is trinity of defeat comprising doubt, Worry and Fear. If you entertain any of these, you are going to hell. The master of the trinities is the trinity of destruction which comprises-Sin, Death and hell. If you love yourself you must hate these triplets and there is no accident on the way that is so broad and wide. The good news is, God has not made provision for anyone to perish, so the decision to perish is personal. On the Day of Judgment, the bed will be too short and the blanket will too narrow. Every concealed secrets shall be exposed to all. Every evil deed will be exposed. Some people have the call of God for their lives but they are joking and playing with it. Some of us are seeking recognition that God doesn’t want them to seek. A lot of People carry fake smiles on their faces, even when they are not happy. For all these people, on that day, the bed will be too short and the blanket will be too narrow. If you have any sin to confess, confess it to the Holy Spirit now, repent and beg for forgiveness. You can also deceive yourself if you want to, by pretending that you have no sin. Please readjust yourself and rededicate your life to God

 

PRAYER POINTS

 

1. I rebuke the spirit of backsliding in Jesus name.
2. Father Lord, anything that will remove me from your presence, take it away from me in the name of Jesus.
3. Fire of God purge away every filthiness from my spirit in the name of Jesus.
4. Oh Lord give me power to subdue the flesh in the name of Jesus.
5. Oh Lord, give me the grace to focus on the Lord Jesus all the time.
6. Father Lord, help me to be heavenly minded all the days of my life in the name of Jesus

7.    Oh Lord, give me the grace to love you and cling unto you in the Lord Jesus.

8. I withdraw myself from the camp of the enemies of God in the name of Jesus.
9. Let the word of God prosper in my life in the name of Jesus.
10. Father Lord, remove from me every problem that sin has brought into my life in the name of Jesus.
11. I reject the spirit of rebellion in the name of Jesus.

  

THE GREAT EVENT THAT IS COMING

By Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

I would like you to open your mind as you read this message. It is not an issue many people like to talk about. Nonetheless, it is one of the greatest truths in the word of God. It is about the end of the world, the second coming of Christ, the rapturing of the saints, and indeed of the judgment of God. This message, therefore, discusses the events of which no man can do anything about, just as no man can stop the sun from shinning, and the morning from coming into being. It is really not important, whether you believe it or not. What is important is that the word of God says it is true, and the word of God is more than the word of any man. Everything that is happening now is pointing to the fact that this great event is around the corner. It is unfortunate that most people are not seeing it. The Bible tells us very categorically that there is a time when great trouble would come upon the world and the bible calls that period “The Great tribulation” The prophecies concerning this great event are already happening. Most of the prophecies are becoming history and many people are still shying away from the truth. Sometimes ago, the Lord showed me a vision of the tribulation. I saw in the vision that the lord came and many things beyond description happened. Although some people were raptured with him, numberless others just disappeared like that. Immediately the vision cleared off, I heard from the Lord that, what l saw was the great tribulation. What l saw worried me. I saw many dead bodies on the street, people trampled on them, but they did not bother about them. The Lord told me that during the tribulation period, life would become meaningless, as peace would be removed. It is because there is peace now, that people can move about the way they want. The Bible has a hard and terrible picture of what would happen. So, it does not matter whether you believe it or not. One thing is sure, everything the Bible has prophesied about the period has happened to the last letter. I can assure you that if you do not believe that the great tribulation would come, then, you do not believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ. The moment you don’t have God, as your Lord another god will replace Him in your life. You can never be spiritually neutral. You are either for God or for the devil. There is nothing like being a free thinker. All free thinkers are thinking for the devil. Let that be very clear to you. What you should be waiting for now should be the same as the earnest expectation of all believers, as it is written in

1Thessalonians4:13-18,

“But l would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this, we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we that are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them that are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch-angel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we, who are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words”

 So, this is what we are all waiting for now and that may happen at anytime. It may happen when we are sleeping and it may happen when we are awake. It can happen at anytime. The Bible repeats the same thing in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52

“ Behold l shew you a misery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed”

It will be too sad if a believer fails to hear that trumpet. The Lord is coming with his trumpet. The Bible divides the whole of God’s programme into seven and gives each programme one thousand years. The last one thousand years is what is before us. This is 2996 and as far as God is concerned, it could happen now. The Bible is quite emphatitic when it says; six days shall thou labour. “ The six thousand year of that labour is about to end now and the Lord is coming to receive his saints unto himself. He says,

 “ let not your heart be troubled, believe in God and believe in me also, for in my father’s house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place, when I prepare that place l will come and take you to my father, so that where l am you may be there also”

 Jesus indeed is coming to receive his own to himself. He is coming to resurrect the dead in Christ. He is coming to take the saint to Heaven where they will receive their rewards and where they will partake of the marriage supper of the lamb. He is coming to change the body to an immortal one. He is coming to present the saints to His father. He is coming to remove the author of lawlessness. He is coming to permit the revelation of the Antichrist, and he is coming to enable the saints to escape the great tribulation. Please open your mind to this message. Once that trumpet sounds, you will not be able to change your camp. Maybe you are still sitting in your dead religion or where there is no God at all. Maybe you say you are serving God and you are still living in sins and evil thoughts occupy your heart day by day. Maybe you are still day dreaming of witchcraft spirits and masquerades. Maybe you cannot remove yourself from the clutch of evil forces. You are still keeping malice and you are getting angry with people all the time. Maybe you are just coming to church and you are not a serious Christian. Maybe God does not speak to you, and you have never seen any vision in your life, nor know the voice of God when he is speaking. Maybe you are still committing sins in secret and you are covering them from the sight of man. Maybe you are still unfaithful to your husband or your wife. I wish to make it clear to you, that once you are living in any unserious type of life as listed above, and the trumpet sounds, you certainly cannot be raptured with Christ. No word can describe adequately the woes of the victims of the great tribulation. Tribulation comes from the word “TRIBULUM” :-interpreted as a threshing hammer. The Bible calls it the time of Jacob’s trouble. The Bible tells us the Jews have suffered a lot. Hitler killed six million of them, but God says there is more punishment coming for them, especially during the tribulation period. You may ask the question that why should God allow people to pass through the tribulation? The answer is simple; it is punishment for neglecting Christ, punishment for the unrepentant Jews, and the judgement upon the world for refusing to hear the call of the gospel. So, it would be a time of terrible trouble. It is better for us to read about it than to experience it. You should prayerfully read it in the Bible, and make yourself ready to be raptured with Christ, once the trumpet sounds. Make up your mind now not to be a partaker in the tribulation that will happen on earth hereafter. Various prophets gave the great tribulations names.

 

Daniel12: 1 “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people, and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time…”

 Daniel clarified the time as that of great trouble. 

Jeremiah 30:7: “ Alas! For that day is great, so that one is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved from it”

Isaiah 24:17-21 recorded the following fearful verses. “Fear, and the pit and the snare are upon thee, o inhabitants o the earth. And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of he fear shall fall into the pit, and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare; for the windows from on high are opened and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, and the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon I t and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high and the kings of the earth upon the earth”

If the Old Testament prophets have said so much about the great tribulation, then, no one should be in doubt that it would be a terrible day. Beloved reader, this message concerns a believer who does not want to miss the rapture and yet, he or she is not serious. It is that time that such people will see that their certificates are useless. Once death comes, the certificate is useless. The ability to speak English is useless. Judgment will be based on one’s stewardship and what one has done or did not do for his son Jesus Christ. Those who are in the lodge society will then see on that day, that a great punishment will await them. The punishment will also affect those who are hiding all types of things underneath their beds, and are mixing their Christianity with all kinds of satanic junks.

Matthew24:21: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be”

 

 That means, that type of tribulation has never been seen before. The bible says it will not be seen again. It is a great mystery that many have not seen the handwritings on the wall. When you want to observe God’s timetable, and you really want to know how God is operating, the nation to look at is the nation of Israel. God raised them up for a particular purpose and so many foes have attacked them, but they have not succeeded. In 1948, they fought a war, the Arabs outnumbered them with a ratio of about 1-40. The war lasted for about seven months, but Israel won. There was another one in about 1956, Israel won. There was yet another war in 1973 which they also won. These are the fulfillment of God’s prophecy. What God has been saying in the bible is becoming history now, and many people are becoming history now, and many people are not observing it. There would be a time of great tribulation. Immediately the saints are taken away, then hell will be let loose unto the whole world. The saints are the people who have the Holy spirits. They are the ones praying and interceding. When you remove the intercessor, or you remove those people calling on the Lord our God, hell will be let loose. A man will now take control of the whole world. He would take up the name of the Antichrist. Although he has not yet manifested physically for us to see, nevertheless, he has manifested in many lives. As Christ was an incarnation of Holiness, the Antichrist will be an incantation of sin. As Christ was filled with the Holy Spirit, the Antichrist will be filled with unclean spirits. As Christ had love, humility, mercy and patience, the antichrist will be filled with abomination, wickedness and hypocrisy. Christ received his power from above, and the Antichrist’s power is from below. Christ was here to minister to man for three and half years. The Anti-Christ shall give the unraptured people hell for three years. As Christ Humbled himself, the Antichrist shall exalt himself As Christ fulfilled the law, the Antichrist shall break the law. Christ made himself poor so that you may be rich. Christ was hated when he was in the world; men will l love the antichrist. Christ brought peace into the world; the Antichrist will bring organized confusion. As Christ came to do the will of God, the Antichrist shall come to do the will of the devil. As Christ is the good Shepherd, the Antichrist will be the devouring wolf. Just as the Holy Spirit heralded the coming of Jesus Christ, the demons will also herald the coming of the antichrist. It is already happening now, and is working in the lives of many people who claim to be coming to church. I was once at a wake-keep ceremony of a late Christian brother. While we were yet singing that the brother should sleep on in the land where no nights or day were seen, some people suddenly challenged us to stop singing. They said it was time for them to perform their own rituals! After sometime people began to enter with strange uniforms, they switched off the light and rushed to the man’s bedroom. The believers did not wait to be told to disappear before they did. But in the church on Sundays, before he died, he was a dutiful usher, but the role did not shape his Christian life. While he was ushering people into God’s kingdom, he had become a sign-post himself. The interesting thing about the sign is that it will never leave where it is. It will only point the way to the place. He was a signpost, which ushered people into God’s kingdom, but in the end he belonged to Satan’s kingdom. That is the spirit of an Antichrist and it is operating in many lives today and confusing many people. A brother also told me about the evils that took place in his former church before every church service. He said that they would prepare incense, and then drops a bit of marijuana (hemp) into it. When the people sniffed the thing, then the whole of that place would get confused. They would call it the spirit of God. But it was rather the spirit of the Antichrist. Any Spirit that will throw anyone on the ground and make him or her to disorganize the benches is not the spirit of the Holy Spirit; it is the spirit of antichrist. The Holy Ghost is a dove and a comforter. The brother also revealed that whenever they wanted a man to stop loving his wife, they would take a candle and write the name of the wife and thereafter perform certain rituals. Anti-Christ right in the church! The so-called prophets pray for thieves so that the course of right justice will be perverted, whenever they have a case in court, they will pray that the innocent person should be jailed. The spirit of antichrist is greatly at work! It is already in the world. Will you allow it to grab you? The question then is, when the trumpet sounds, where will you be? Or don’t you know that an unraptured unbeliever cannot do anything amidst the witches and wizards left behind. Revelation 13 gives an in-depth insight into what will happen that day. Read this chapter very well and understand it. This world is not a world you should live in anyhow. It is not a world you should be infatuated with. It does not make sense because it is passing away. If you refuse to leave the world, the world will leave you. A man of 150 years cannot be looking for prostitutes, people will have to carry him there and the prostitutes will not answer him.. So if you refuse to leave sin, sin will leave you. At that time it would have made his victim useless. Revelation13:1-18 “And l stood upon the sand of the  sea,(The sea there means people) and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which l saw was like unto a leopard and his feet were as the feet of a bearer, and his mouth as the mouth of the lion and the dragon(i.e. the devil) gave him his power. Verse 3 “And l saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed and all the world wondered after the beast. They will confess that the antichrist is wonderful. Verse 4 “And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto he beast, saying who is like unto the beast? Who is label to make war with him? People will ask, “ Who is able to make war with the antichr4ist? He will have lots of Military armory. Verse 5; “ And there was given unto him to continue forty and two months. Verse 6: “And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. Verse7: “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them; and power was given him over all kindred and tongues and nations. Verse 8-And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain form the foundation of the world Verse 12, “ And he execiseth all the power of the first beast before him, and caused the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed 13 “And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men” 14 “ And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth, by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword and did live. (He will be doing all kinds of wonders and it said all that are in the world shall worship him) 16”And he causeth all both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads” 17 “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, o r the number of his name” 18 “Here is wisdom, let him that hath an understanding count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred, three score and six 666”

 So if a person does not receive that mark, the person will not be able to buy or sell anything. It will surprise you that many products now carry the number.

 

Revelation14: 11:, “ And the smoke of their torment ascended up for ever and ever; and they had no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name” Rest assured, that anybody who receives his mark is doomed forever. People who don’t have the mark will not be able to buy food neither will they be able to go out. But people who receive the mark are forever doomed, and hell fire is their place. This is a prophecy of the bible that must come to pass. Some of the biblical prophecies have happened and other ones will happen as well, and that spirit of anti-Christ is already in operation now. What will you do when you cannot find those you are praying with again? What would you do when you look for the preachers and you can’t find them, particularly those people you consider to be strange; the chronic Sus’ (Scripture unions) who refuse to sit down in their homes; who are always preaching. You will discover that day that they did not just wake up to be preaching about. Maybe you say you don’t carry your own religion on your head. But Jesus carried his own religion on his head. So. Why do you want to hide your own Christianity? Did you not read it in the scripture that you cannot light your candle and put it under the bushel and the city built on the hill couldn’t be hidden? Why do you want to hide your own light and religion? The spirit of the anti-Christ is already on the streets. Strange things are happening in the churches as many Ministries are beginning to take their children to doctors for abortion. We have started having women bishops. The church of Orunmila now exists. There are bazaars all over the place. I  saw a van  written on it was “Chrislam”. All these things are signs that the spirit of the antichrist is already around. Somebody will be in the house of God and yet his mind will be flying about. That is to say his/her mind will be on many things e.g. Business, television, Food that is where the mind is: girlfriend, boyfriend etc. It is the sprit of Antichrist that is making all these to manifest. Once the truth is preached to you and something on the inside of you is rejecting it, then something is wrong. Some people come to the church with gum in their mouths and they will be chewing the gum the course of the service. The bible says that evil men shall wax stronger and stronger and wicked people shall continue in their murder. The bible reveals many group of murderers; it says if you hate your neighbour, then you are a murderer, you don’t have to physically kill somebody, once you hate your neighbour, you are a murderer. You are a murderer when you don’t have the love of Christ in you. Maybe you hate your wife; the kids or you hate your father and mother. The bible calls you a murderer. The Bible says that death and life are in the power of the tongue. People who are committing murder with their mouths everyday are murderers according to the standards of the bible. People who are aborting are murderers. Wives too who are committing fornication without looking for the children are murderers. The bible calls those who kill themselves daily with cigarettes and alcohol are murderers. Those who kill themselves with worry, they are so worried that their blood pressure keeps going up; by so doing they are destroying the temple of God. When you worry about temporal things, the bible calls you a murderer. There are so many people worshipping false gods now. They shall see their reward in due seasons. There are various grades of people the bible calls the thieves; they are stealing God’s time and money. The message there is this; the bible says, watch and pray, so that that day will not come upon you unawares. Be prepared! Remember that song which says “O sinner man, how dare you, you want to stand in the judgement unprepared to meet God. Many people who are coming to the church are not Christians at all! I don’t want you to be somebody who is just doing false Christianity or playing church because the great tribulation will come and you must make the rapture. Abandon anything that will disturb you from making the rapture now. You have no excuses whatsoever. Excuse of your husbands, wife, children, job e.t.c. will not be acceptable on the day of great tribulation. The maximum anyone could live is probably 100 or 200 years. But by the time one gets to that age, one is already useless. However, with eternity, the difference is district. Eternity has no beginning and no end. If you go to the Bar-beach and you begin to count the sand granules, no matter how long it takes you to do that, it cannot be long as eternity. Eternity is endless because at that time the Lord will remove calendars, clocks etc.

PRAYERS

 

Now, talk to the Lord. Anything at all, no matter how small that can prevent you from being raptured, will make you to qualify for the great tribulation. Pray the following prayer point to God now; Father Lord, examine my life this hour and whatever will prevent me from seeing your face, remove them from my life don’t want to come to the world in vain but l want to see you at the end of the age. The bible says God is not mocked. You cannot deceive God. You can only deceive yourself. You know the condition of your heart at this moment, and you know that there are certain things you need to confess and ask the Lord to forgive you for them. Say this, Lord, l want a transformation in my life now. If you know there are things you need to sort out with God this hour lay your hands on your chest and begin to talk to God about them. Speak to the Lord specifically about what you have been doing and what you have been engaging your hands in. Tell the Lord that you have not be spending your time with him. If you know you have not given your life to Christ before, you have not openly declared your life for him and you want to take the step this moment and you don’t want the devil to push you to hell fire, and you want to be serious with your Christian life; repeat this confession: Father, in the name of Jesus l come before you this moment, I know that the devil is bad and l know that he doesn’t have anything good for me. At this moment Lord, enter into my life in a new way and deliver me from the bondage of sin and the bondage of death. I give my life unto you, in Jesus name. Amen. Father Lord, l pray that you lay your hands on me and as from today, l will no longer be the same. Let your spirit ignite my spirit and your fire be upon my soul in the same name of Jesus. Bless me abundantly and give me the grace to stand in your presence in Jesus name. Amen.

 

 

PRAYER POINTS

 

Sprit of the living God, fall afresh upon me in Jesus name.

Lord, cover me with the blood of Jesus.

I bind every spirit of sudden and pre3mature death in the name  of Jesus.

I bind every spirit of death in my household and one close to me in Jesus name.

I bind every blood-sucking demon from the ways.

Lord, anywhere that l will put my leg and you will not support it, prevent me from going there.

Every demonic activity resulting in death, I bind you, and l decree that you will not operate in my life in Jesus name.

I bind every spirit of infirmity in Jesus name.

Father Lord, give me the power to live a holy life in Jesus name.

I cleanse my body, soul and spirit with the blood of Jesus from every filthiness.

Father Lord, remove from my life anything that will prevent me from entering into your kingdom.     

THE GREAT EVENT THAT IS COMING

By Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

I would like you to open your mind as you read this message. It is not an issue many people like to talk about. Nonetheless, it is one of the greatest truths in the word of God. It is about the end of the world, the second coming of Christ, the rapturing of the saints, and indeed of the judgment of God. This message, therefore, discusses the events of which no man can do anything about, just as no man can stop the sun from shinning, and the morning from coming into being. It is really not important, whether you believe it or not. What is important is that the word of God says it is true, and the word of God is more than the word of any man. Everything that is happening now is pointing to the fact that this great event is around the corner. It is unfortunate that most people are not seeing it. The Bible tells us very categorically that there is a time when great trouble would come upon the world and the bible calls that period “The Great tribulation” The prophecies concerning this great event are already happening. Most of the prophecies are becoming history and many people are still shying away from the truth. Sometimes ago, the Lord showed me a vision of the tribulation. I saw in the vision that the lord came and many things beyond description happened. Although some people were raptured with him, numberless others just disappeared like that. Immediately the vision cleared off, I heard from the Lord that, what l saw was the great tribulation. What l saw worried me. I saw many dead bodies on the street, people trampled on them, but they did not bother about them. The Lord told me that during the tribulation period, life would become meaningless, as peace would be removed. It is because there is peace now, that people can move about the way they want. The Bible has a hard and terrible picture of what would happen. So, it does not matter whether you believe it or not. One thing is sure, everything the Bible has prophesied about the period has happened to the last letter. I can assure you that if you do not believe that the great tribulation would come, then, you do not believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ. The moment you don’t have God, as your Lord another god will replace Him in your life. You can never be spiritually neutral. You are either for God or for the devil. There is nothing like being a free thinker. All free thinkers are thinking for the devil. Let that be very clear to you. What you should be waiting for now should be the same as the earnest expectation of all believers, as it is written in

1Thessalonians4:13-18,

“But l would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this, we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we that are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them that are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch-angel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we, who are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words”

 So, this is what we are all waiting for now and that may happen at anytime. It may happen when we are sleeping and it may happen when we are awake. It can happen at anytime. The Bible repeats the same thing in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52

“ Behold l shew you a misery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed”

It will be too sad if a believer fails to hear that trumpet. The Lord is coming with his trumpet. The Bible divides the whole of God’s programme into seven and gives each programme one thousand years. The last one thousand years is what is before us. This is 2996 and as far as God is concerned, it could happen now. The Bible is quite emphatitic when it says; six days shall thou labour. “ The six thousand year of that labour is about to end now and the Lord is coming to receive his saints unto himself. He says,

 “ let not your heart be troubled, believe in God and believe in me also, for in my father’s house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place, when I prepare that place l will come and take you to my father, so that where l am you may be there also”

 Jesus indeed is coming to receive his own to himself. He is coming to resurrect the dead in Christ. He is coming to take the saint to Heaven where they will receive their rewards and where they will partake of the marriage supper of the lamb. He is coming to change the body to an immortal one. He is coming to present the saints to His father. He is coming to remove the author of lawlessness. He is coming to permit the revelation of the Antichrist, and he is coming to enable the saints to escape the great tribulation. Please open your mind to this message. Once that trumpet sounds, you will not be able to change your camp. Maybe you are still sitting in your dead religion or where there is no God at all. Maybe you say you are serving God and you are still living in sins and evil thoughts occupy your heart day by day. Maybe you are still day dreaming of witchcraft spirits and masquerades. Maybe you cannot remove yourself from the clutch of evil forces. You are still keeping malice and you are getting angry with people all the time. Maybe you are just coming to church and you are not a serious Christian. Maybe God does not speak to you, and you have never seen any vision in your life, nor know the voice of God when he is speaking. Maybe you are still committing sins in secret and you are covering them from the sight of man. Maybe you are still unfaithful to your husband or your wife. I wish to make it clear to you, that once you are living in any unserious type of life as listed above, and the trumpet sounds, you certainly cannot be raptured with Christ. No word can describe adequately the woes of the victims of the great tribulation. Tribulation comes from the word “TRIBULUM” :-interpreted as a threshing hammer. The Bible calls it the time of Jacob’s trouble. The Bible tells us the Jews have suffered a lot. Hitler killed six million of them, but God says there is more punishment coming for them, especially during the tribulation period. You may ask the question that why should God allow people to pass through the tribulation? The answer is simple; it is punishment for neglecting Christ, punishment for the unrepentant Jews, and the judgement upon the world for refusing to hear the call of the gospel. So, it would be a time of terrible trouble. It is better for us to read about it than to experience it. You should prayerfully read it in the Bible, and make yourself ready to be raptured with Christ, once the trumpet sounds. Make up your mind now not to be a partaker in the tribulation that will happen on earth hereafter. Various prophets gave the great tribulations names.

 

Daniel12: 1 “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people, and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time…”

 Daniel clarified the time as that of great trouble. 

Jeremiah 30:7: “ Alas! For that day is great, so that one is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved from it”

Isaiah 24:17-21 recorded the following fearful verses. “Fear, and the pit and the snare are upon thee, o inhabitants o the earth. And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of he fear shall fall into the pit, and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare; for the windows from on high are opened and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, and the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon I t and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high and the kings of the earth upon the earth”

If the Old Testament prophets have said so much about the great tribulation, then, no one should be in doubt that it would be a terrible day. Beloved reader, this message concerns a believer who does not want to miss the rapture and yet, he or she is not serious. It is that time that such people will see that their certificates are useless. Once death comes, the certificate is useless. The ability to speak English is useless. Judgment will be based on one’s stewardship and what one has done or did not do for his son Jesus Christ. Those who are in the lodge society will then see on that day, that a great punishment will await them. The punishment will also affect those who are hiding all types of things underneath their beds, and are mixing their Christianity with all kinds of satanic junks.

Matthew24:21: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be”

 

 That means, that type of tribulation has never been seen before. The bible says it will not be seen again. It is a great mystery that many have not seen the handwritings on the wall. When you want to observe God’s timetable, and you really want to know how God is operating, the nation to look at is the nation of Israel. God raised them up for a particular purpose and so many foes have attacked them, but they have not succeeded. In 1948, they fought a war, the Arabs outnumbered them with a ratio of about 1-40. The war lasted for about seven months, but Israel won. There was another one in about 1956, Israel won. There was yet another war in 1973 which they also won. These are the fulfillment of God’s prophecy. What God has been saying in the bible is becoming history now, and many people are becoming history now, and many people are not observing it. There would be a time of great tribulation. Immediately the saints are taken away, then hell will be let loose unto the whole world. The saints are the people who have the Holy spirits. They are the ones praying and interceding. When you remove the intercessor, or you remove those people calling on the Lord our God, hell will be let loose. A man will now take control of the whole world. He would take up the name of the Antichrist. Although he has not yet manifested physically for us to see, nevertheless, he has manifested in many lives. As Christ was an incarnation of Holiness, the Antichrist will be an incantation of sin. As Christ was filled with the Holy Spirit, the Antichrist will be filled with unclean spirits. As Christ had love, humility, mercy and patience, the antichrist will be filled with abomination, wickedness and hypocrisy. Christ received his power from above, and the Antichrist’s power is from below. Christ was here to minister to man for three and half years. The Anti-Christ shall give the unraptured people hell for three years. As Christ Humbled himself, the Antichrist shall exalt himself As Christ fulfilled the law, the Antichrist shall break the law. Christ made himself poor so that you may be rich. Christ was hated when he was in the world; men will l love the antichrist. Christ brought peace into the world; the Antichrist will bring organized confusion. As Christ came to do the will of God, the Antichrist shall come to do the will of the devil. As Christ is the good Shepherd, the Antichrist will be the devouring wolf. Just as the Holy Spirit heralded the coming of Jesus Christ, the demons will also herald the coming of the antichrist. It is already happening now, and is working in the lives of many people who claim to be coming to church. I was once at a wake-keep ceremony of a late Christian brother. While we were yet singing that the brother should sleep on in the land where no nights or day were seen, some people suddenly challenged us to stop singing. They said it was time for them to perform their own rituals! After sometime people began to enter with strange uniforms, they switched off the light and rushed to the man’s bedroom. The believers did not wait to be told to disappear before they did. But in the church on Sundays, before he died, he was a dutiful usher, but the role did not shape his Christian life. While he was ushering people into God’s kingdom, he had become a sign-post himself. The interesting thing about the sign is that it will never leave where it is. It will only point the way to the place. He was a signpost, which ushered people into God’s kingdom, but in the end he belonged to Satan’s kingdom. That is the spirit of an Antichrist and it is operating in many lives today and confusing many people. A brother also told me about the evils that took place in his former church before every church service. He said that they would prepare incense, and then drops a bit of marijuana (hemp) into it. When the people sniffed the thing, then the whole of that place would get confused. They would call it the spirit of God. But it was rather the spirit of the Antichrist. Any Spirit that will throw anyone on the ground and make him or her to disorganize the benches is not the spirit of the Holy Spirit; it is the spirit of antichrist. The Holy Ghost is a dove and a comforter. The brother also revealed that whenever they wanted a man to stop loving his wife, they would take a candle and write the name of the wife and thereafter perform certain rituals. Anti-Christ right in the church! The so-called prophets pray for thieves so that the course of right justice will be perverted, whenever they have a case in court, they will pray that the innocent person should be jailed. The spirit of antichrist is greatly at work! It is already in the world. Will you allow it to grab you? The question then is, when the trumpet sounds, where will you be? Or don’t you know that an unraptured unbeliever cannot do anything amidst the witches and wizards left behind. Revelation 13 gives an in-depth insight into what will happen that day. Read this chapter very well and understand it. This world is not a world you should live in anyhow. It is not a world you should be infatuated with. It does not make sense because it is passing away. If you refuse to leave the world, the world will leave you. A man of 150 years cannot be looking for prostitutes, people will have to carry him there and the prostitutes will not answer him.. So if you refuse to leave sin, sin will leave you. At that time it would have made his victim useless. Revelation13:1-18 “And l stood upon the sand of the  sea,(The sea there means people) and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which l saw was like unto a leopard and his feet were as the feet of a bearer, and his mouth as the mouth of the lion and the dragon(i.e. the devil) gave him his power. Verse 3 “And l saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed and all the world wondered after the beast. They will confess that the antichrist is wonderful. Verse 4 “And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto he beast, saying who is like unto the beast? Who is label to make war with him? People will ask, “ Who is able to make war with the antichr4ist? He will have lots of Military armory. Verse 5; “ And there was given unto him to continue forty and two months. Verse 6: “And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. Verse7: “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them; and power was given him over all kindred and tongues and nations. Verse 8-And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain form the foundation of the world Verse 12, “ And he execiseth all the power of the first beast before him, and caused the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed 13 “And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men” 14 “ And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth, by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword and did live. (He will be doing all kinds of wonders and it said all that are in the world shall worship him) 16”And he causeth all both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads” 17 “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, o r the number of his name” 18 “Here is wisdom, let him that hath an understanding count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred, three score and six 666”

 So if a person does not receive that mark, the person will not be able to buy or sell anything. It will surprise you that many products now carry the number.

 

Revelation14: 11:, “ And the smoke of their torment ascended up for ever and ever; and they had no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name” Rest assured, that anybody who receives his mark is doomed forever. People who don’t have the mark will not be able to buy food neither will they be able to go out. But people who receive the mark are forever doomed, and hell fire is their place. This is a prophecy of the bible that must come to pass. Some of the biblical prophecies have happened and other ones will happen as well, and that spirit of anti-Christ is already in operation now. What will you do when you cannot find those you are praying with again? What would you do when you look for the preachers and you can’t find them, particularly those people you consider to be strange; the chronic Sus’ (Scripture unions) who refuse to sit down in their homes; who are always preaching. You will discover that day that they did not just wake up to be preaching about. Maybe you say you don’t carry your own religion on your head. But Jesus carried his own religion on his head. So. Why do you want to hide your own Christianity? Did you not read it in the scripture that you cannot light your candle and put it under the bushel and the city built on the hill couldn’t be hidden? Why do you want to hide your own light and religion? The spirit of the anti-Christ is already on the streets. Strange things are happening in the churches as many Ministries are beginning to take their children to doctors for abortion. We have started having women bishops. The church of Orunmila now exists. There are bazaars all over the place. I  saw a van  written on it was “Chrislam”. All these things are signs that the spirit of the antichrist is already around. Somebody will be in the house of God and yet his mind will be flying about. That is to say his/her mind will be on many things e.g. Business, television, Food that is where the mind is: girlfriend, boyfriend etc. It is the sprit of Antichrist that is making all these to manifest. Once the truth is preached to you and something on the inside of you is rejecting it, then something is wrong. Some people come to the church with gum in their mouths and they will be chewing the gum the course of the service. The bible says that evil men shall wax stronger and stronger and wicked people shall continue in their murder. The bible reveals many group of murderers; it says if you hate your neighbour, then you are a murderer, you don’t have to physically kill somebody, once you hate your neighbour, you are a murderer. You are a murderer when you don’t have the love of Christ in you. Maybe you hate your wife; the kids or you hate your father and mother. The bible calls you a murderer. The Bible says that death and life are in the power of the tongue. People who are committing murder with their mouths everyday are murderers according to the standards of the bible. People who are aborting are murderers. Wives too who are committing fornication without looking for the children are murderers. The bible calls those who kill themselves daily with cigarettes and alcohol are murderers. Those who kill themselves with worry, they are so worried that their blood pressure keeps going up; by so doing they are destroying the temple of God. When you worry about temporal things, the bible calls you a murderer. There are so many people worshipping false gods now. They shall see their reward in due seasons. There are various grades of people the bible calls the thieves; they are stealing God’s time and money. The message there is this; the bible says, watch and pray, so that that day will not come upon you unawares. Be prepared! Remember that song which says “O sinner man, how dare you, you want to stand in the judgement unprepared to meet God. Many people who are coming to the church are not Christians at all! I don’t want you to be somebody who is just doing false Christianity or playing church because the great tribulation will come and you must make the rapture. Abandon anything that will disturb you from making the rapture now. You have no excuses whatsoever. Excuse of your husbands, wife, children, job e.t.c. will not be acceptable on the day of great tribulation. The maximum anyone could live is probably 100 or 200 years. But by the time one gets to that age, one is already useless. However, with eternity, the difference is district. Eternity has no beginning and no end. If you go to the Bar-beach and you begin to count the sand granules, no matter how long it takes you to do that, it cannot be long as eternity. Eternity is endless because at that time the Lord will remove calendars, clocks etc.

PRAYERS

 

Now, talk to the Lord. Anything at all, no matter how small that can prevent you from being raptured, will make you to qualify for the great tribulation. Pray the following prayer point to God now; Father Lord, examine my life this hour and whatever will prevent me from seeing your face, remove them from my life don’t want to come to the world in vain but l want to see you at the end of the age. The bible says God is not mocked. You cannot deceive God. You can only deceive yourself. You know the condition of your heart at this moment, and you know that there are certain things you need to confess and ask the Lord to forgive you for them. Say this, Lord, l want a transformation in my life now. If you know there are things you need to sort out with God this hour lay your hands on your chest and begin to talk to God about them. Speak to the Lord specifically about what you have been doing and what you have been engaging your hands in. Tell the Lord that you have not be spending your time with him. If you know you have not given your life to Christ before, you have not openly declared your life for him and you want to take the step this moment and you don’t want the devil to push you to hell fire, and you want to be serious with your Christian life; repeat this confession: Father, in the name of Jesus l come before you this moment, I know that the devil is bad and l know that he doesn’t have anything good for me. At this moment Lord, enter into my life in a new way and deliver me from the bondage of sin and the bondage of death. I give my life unto you, in Jesus name. Amen. Father Lord, l pray that you lay your hands on me and as from today, l will no longer be the same. Let your spirit ignite my spirit and your fire be upon my soul in the same name of Jesus. Bless me abundantly and give me the grace to stand in your presence in Jesus name. Amen.

 

 

PRAYER POINTS

 

Sprit of the living God, fall afresh upon me in Jesus name.

Lord, cover me with the blood of Jesus.

I bind every spirit of sudden and pre3mature death in the name  of Jesus.

I bind every spirit of death in my household and one close to me in Jesus name.

I bind every blood-sucking demon from the ways.

Lord, anywhere that l will put my leg and you will not support it, prevent me from going there.

Every demonic activity resulting in death, I bind you, and l decree that you will not operate in my life in Jesus name.

I bind every spirit of infirmity in Jesus name.

Father Lord, give me the power to live a holy life in Jesus name.

I cleanse my body, soul and spirit with the blood of Jesus from every filthiness.

Father Lord, remove from my life anything that will prevent me from entering into your kingdom.

 

 

  

THE SLUMBERING SPIRITS Part 2

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 Now, We bring you the concluding part of the message: The Slumbering Spirit. Last week, we looked at the first and the second functions of man’s spirit, now we will be looking at the third function of the spirit.

 3.  TO ENABLE US HEAR FROM GOD

ln Numbers chapter 12, we see several ways that God talk to people. At least if you call yourself a born-again Christian and you have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, God should be able to talk to you in one of these ways. Unless, your speaking in tongues is fake. If it is true baptism in the Holy Spirit that you have received, there are some ways that God will be talking to you. In Numbers 12:6, the Bible says,

 “And He said, hear now my words; if there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known to him in a vision”

God can talk to you in a vision. “ l will speak to him in a dream”

He can talk to somebody in a dream.  Numbers 12:7-8a says,

“But my servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all my house, with him will l speak mouth to mouth even apparently, and not in dark speeches;”

So God can speak to some people in dark speeches. You can now see levels of prophets. God can talk to you in dark speeches if that is the level of your spirit, God can speak to you in visions if that is the level of your spirit. He can speak to you in the dreams if that is the level of your spirit. People who are awake have dreams or revelations or visions, you must have read about the hidden disciple called Ananias in the book of Acts. Although, we don’t talk much about Ananias today but he was the man who prayed for Paul to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So Paul should be referring to him as the father in the Lord. Ananias’ ministry may look quiet now, but he did a fantastic job for Christianity. He was praying in his house and God came to him and said: “Ananias” God called him by name and he answered “yes, here l am” God said now “arise”, specific instructions, no ambiguity, “go to a street which is called straight and enter a house, there you will find one man called Saul praying, lay your hands on him so that he might receive his sight and be filled with Holy Ghost. When Ananias hears this he said, God I am sorry oh, what did you call his name? God said “Saul”. And hen he said, ha! The man that has been arresting Christians. His purpose for coming here is to arrest Christians and kill them. I am sorry sir, l don’t think l want to die yet.” God said “No”, go; for this purpose, have l raised him up to be light unto the gentiles. For I must show him what great things he must suffer for my sake” And Ananias went; Just like that! And what the Lord said he met it so. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were like Ananias? But a lot of people don’t want to work themselves up to that level. People who are awake always hear from God and receive revelations. But people with slumbering spirit will never have a clear divine dream. They will never see a vision although it is by our spirits that God speaks to us. But to them, it seems that God is deaf and dumb. These people with slumbering spirits are deaf and blind and as such they cannot hear. Close your eyes again and lay your hands on your chest. Beloved, if this is the only prayer point we have to pray before we leave here today, won’t it be good that you could be hearing from the Lord, regularly and constantly? You should be able to commit even the smallest thing in your life to the Lord and get direct, straight answer. You must even be able to ask God, “ Shall l wear this headgear? Shall I use this cap? Shall l use these wristwatches? Shall l wear these shoes? And simple details like that. God has to be able to speak to you, but the problems are that, the ears are deaf, the eyes are blind and the spirits are not functioning very well. You are going to raise your voice, depending on how serious you want to take this prayer, Oh Lord, “open my spiritual eyes and ears, l want to see, l want to hear”. On what we have said in the past two weeks, if you turn the searchlight of the Holy Spirit on yourself, God might help you to locate some things making the spirit to be weak. People say that the same sun that melts the candle makes the clay strong. So the problem that will knock somebody down, and the person will not be able to rise up again, is the same one which another person will be boasting about and overcome.

4 TO INSPIRE US 

When your spirit is awake, ideas will be blossoming in your mind. Creative ideas will come out from within you and you will discover new ways of doing things. But people with slumbering spirits will not have fresh ideas about anything. They are like what some people use to play spiritual games. They are the kind of people who hear messages of eternal judgment, holiness and things that ought to challenge them, but they go out as if they heard nothing. They are the people who go out from under the anointing of God’s words and do the opposite of what they have heard. They are the people, who still embarrass us by their actions despite all the messages they have heard here. It is because the spirit is sleeping and if it is not woken up, that is exactly how the spirit will arrive at the judgment seat of God and end up in hell fire.

5 TO PROTECT US FROM DISEASES AND PREVENT SICKNESSES

Our Spirit protects us from diseases and sicknesses. Proverbs chapter 18:14 says,

“ The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity”

It is your spirit that will sustain any infirmity. Proverbs 17:23 also says,

“a merry heart doeth good like medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones”.

 When the spirit is sick inside, or is sleeping, any kind of junk can be put in it. Spirits that awake throw off sicknesses can never be sick because sicknesses bounce off them like football. But those who slumber in the spirit go down under every sickness that the devil throws at them. Somebody told me that, it seemed as if any new weapon in the kingdom of darkness is first tried on him. This is because his spirit is slumbering. The problems of such people become the dominating center of their lives. They don’t have what is called, “the see through ability, the stamina to wait before the Lord, and have lasting joy”. One function of the spirit is to protect us; if somebody’s spirit is then sleeping all kinds of things will just be happening to the spirit.

6 TO GIVE US A GOOD CONSCIENCE AS THIS HELPS US TO STAY OUT OF TROUBLE

For example, what stops us from stealing other people’s things is conscience. When you have the knowledge of the Lord that knowledge of the Lord reveals that certain things are wrong and should not be done, but mere knowledge never keeps anyone from sinning. That is why Christianity differs from other religions. The Bible says that as many as received him, he gave them the power to become the Son of God. You may know all the rules of “ thou shall not” just as other religions will tell you what not to do. But the power not to do this is not available. You know that something is wrong, yet you do it. What will you do? So the knowledge of the Lord does not keep any body from sinning. The fear that what you are doing may be discovered does not keep you away from committing adultery for example. But when your conscience is there, no matter how humble you are when you are doing something really bad, this policeman called conscience will talk. It will talk quietly, and you may shut it up. But when you have awakened spirit, you know that some kind of things should not be done and you don’t do them. But the sleeping spirit will not have enough check to do something before trouble happens. Such people are only aware that they have made mistakes, when it is already late. These are the problems, when the spirit is slumbering. Some people complain that they cannot pray for a long time. It is probably because the spirit is sleeping and you need your spirit for serious praying.

7 THE SPIRIT KEEPS THE BODY ALIVE AND FUNCTIONING

Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 7 says

 “ Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to the Lord who gave it”

 Immediately the spirit leaves the body, the body instantly begins to decay. Awakened spirits now will always be mentally and spiritually alert. A slumbering spirit will be dead although it is still living and it makes no impact on anybody. Then apart from that, there is another powerful spirit called the spirit of slumber. When somebody already has the slumbering spirit and is coupled with spirit of slumber, many of the following things may happen to the person. There is something we call the ostrich behaviour. You put your head in the sand, it is all-dark and you believe you can hide. Because it is dark there you think that nobody sees you. This is the ostrich behaviour. Clever pretence is an evidence that the spirit is asleep. Unreasonable silence;  when something has gone wrong and you refused to speak up because you don’t want to own up to your responsibility, this is slumbering spirit.

Forgetfulness: some people forget things easily. Some just find that their minds are dark, with no light at all. Anytime they pray, all they notice is that there is darkness around them. They have never experienced the bright light. The Bible says that Jesus is the light that cometh into the world and lighteth everyman that cometh into the world.

Daydreaming: such people just sit down and day dream, about good old days and the future. Inability to settle down and read the word of God. If you can read other books, but find it difficult to read the bible, it is evidence that the spirit of slumber has taken over.

Inactivity: When you just come to the house of the lord and you are not interested in anything. You just sit down, enjoy the prayers, or the word of God, take what you like and you think you are more clever than anyone else, it is an evidence that the spirit of slumber has taken over.

Complete spiritual blindness: When you cannot see beyond your nose. A witch is standing before you, another one is serving you a meal but you cannot recognize them, something is wrong, something is asleep that should be awaken. You see, the reason why many possess slumbering spirit dates back to the foundation of their lives. Let me try and explain it; the human being is the only creation which will not become like his own kind, if it is not raised by his own kind.

That is, if somebody drops a baby among lions after birth, and for some reasons the lions refuse to kill the child, when the child grows up, he will behave like a lion. When you take a human baby to a foster parent, when the baby grows up, he will be behaving like the foster parents. But other animals don’t behave this way. If you raise a goat among sheep, it will still be behaving like a goat. If you raise a duck among the chicken, it will still behave like a duck, but human being among wolves he would sooner or latter begin to act like a wolf. A human being is dependent on his parent, or his environment to influence how he will react when he grows up. The reason why some people have slumbering spirit is because they were not properly looked after when they were young. This is the reason why broken home is not good.

When a child is being looked after by single parent, and the child never had affection from both parents, that is one reason why some people have slumbering spirit. Another reason is that the enemy of man’s soul may send the spirits of some people to sleep. We need to pray that such spirits get awakened. Beloved, l like you to close your eyes and to pray with your spirit and your strength. You are going to speak out, “That any department of my life that is asleep, wake up in the name Jesus”. There are different levels of sleepers. The Bible even talk about dead sleep. There are some people that you will tap or push still they will not wake up. The alarm will sound but they will still be sleeping. Do you know that the spirit also behaves like that? To wake up some people’s spirit is only when a tragedy happens. Then they will wake up and start praying. Do you have to wait for that to happen?

Lay your right hand on your chest and say  “Father in the name of Jesus, wake me up from any spiritual sleep” Why do you think some people are suffocated in their dreams or something is pressing them down? They will call on the name of Jesus many times before they are given some comfort. Others will say l command you to be roasted in the name of Jesus and they will not even move from where they are. The spirit needs to wake up. Spiritual robbers have sneaked in have given the person spiritual Valium and therefore he is sleeping. As long as the person is sleeping he constitutes no threat to whatsoever to the powers of darkness. Because they know that they can catch the person at anytime they want. Won’t you speak to the lord again and pray like this: Every spiritual battle that l have lost through spiritual slumber. I claim back my victory in Jesus name. We have talked about spiritual injury and spiritual slumber.

Now, for a few minutes l want to talk about

Spiritual Imprisonment: In psalm 107 verse 16. For those of us who do not know too much about the psalmist, he was a man who had problems, and understood what the host of darkness means. He was a warrior and so when you read the psalms, you will find out that there are lots of war-strategies there. He says, he teacheth my hands to war. When you read the Psalms, and some of his languages are not too clear, when you look at them in the spirit, you will understand the deep meaning of what he is saying Psalm 107verse 16 says

“ For he has broken the gates of brass and cut asunder the bars of iron in sunder”.

 Which prison is this one? Certainly it cannot be a physical prison where they put somebody who had stolen yam or something from the market. He has broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron asunder. There are prisons in the spirit world, and this is a very serious situation because spiritual imprisonment is a situation when somebody’s spirit has been trapped. The spirit has been imprisoned inside a spiritual cage. You move around a little bit depending on the size of the cage and this thing can never happen from birth.

The enemy can cage a child immediately after birth and replace the spirit inside him with a completely different spirit. Sometimes when we tell some people, that this is not your body, your body is somewhere else” They will say”, Ha! What do you mean? How do you know that my body is somewhere else? Yes, it is because your body is somewhere else and you are here that is why things are not working well. “They will say, you mean I’m not like this? And we say” yes, your correct body is better than this, this one is second hand, get the original. There are many people like that, who are trapped from birth; others are locked up inside their bodies. The spirit is inside the body, but it is locked up, and really cannot express itself.

This is the third secret of failure. How do you then recognize spirits that have been imprisoned? Such People will always be feeling empty as if something is missing. They just have this feeling that they are not normal and that something is missing somewhere. Such persons have been caged. A caged woman can never settle down in the husband’s home and a caged man will not get married. A caged person will not be able to achieve the potential that God wants him to achieve. He will be feeling vacant inside. He may be praying in tongues and do all kinds of things but somewhere deep, deep down, something is missing. Feeling of loneliness even in the middle of a crowed is a sign of imprisoned spirit.

So also, when a person feels being tormented when there is no physically tormenting him or you have looked at yourself and you found out that there are talents and powers within you, which you cannot reach. You know that you have the talent. You know you could do certain things, but somehow, something has locked up your talent and therefore those who are supposed to be saying yes sir, to you, are the ones telling you what to do. This is because somewhere within, the Moses has been locked up. God will release your Moses today. Or it appears that, you are just moving farther and farther away from success, as you are growing older. It is because the right person is probably not just there. A feeling of being lost inside when everything seem to be going on well outside is an evidence that somebody has been spiritually locked up.

Sometimes when ministers are invited to big men’s meeting you find a lot of interesting things there. Sometime when you talk about money, they are not impressed, talk about security, they are not impressed because they have private jet and if anything happens they will jump into their planes and fly out. It is the people who ride motorcycle that will be left behind. If you talk about armed robbers, no problem, they are walled round about, with giant gates and barbed wire. But then, when you stand there and say beloved although this place is surrounded with barbed wires and tall walls, yet there are some powers that don’t need to pass through the gates. They pass through the walls and they will enter into the bedroom, and you won’t see them. They will say, “ ha its true” Do you know that somebody who is in the midst of affluence can still be lost inside? You just feel that trouble and danger are around the corner, but cannot locate where they are. Inwardly, you feel unsafe, whereas on the outside you are perfectly safe, the spirit is imprisoned.

Internal anger against no person in particular, that too is an evidence of a trapped spirit. When you get to a prayer meeting, this never ceases to amaze me, when everybody is praying and you see somebody sleeping right there while the prayers are going on. That one is an evidence of a trapped spirit, sometimes when prayer meetings are powerful, and you suddenly start to become dizzy, that person has been trapped. If you find that during satanic attacks in the dream, you are always unable to move when the enemies come, you cannot run, or stand and talk, they seem to achieve everything they want to achieve each time they come, the spirits is trapped. There are powers are too that can extract a man’s human spirit and substitute with another demon spirit to live in that man’s body and when you look at the person and say “ you are not the person l used to know, what happened to you? 

The spirit has been trapped somewhere, such imprisoned spirit wherever they are, they are under the control of that power, and will never experience the fullest potential in life. I am not talking about physical prison now, l am talking about spiritual prisons. Now, when you put all these things together and think about them the wounded spirit, they are the secrets of spiritual defeat. All other defeats take their roots from threat place, right there within the spirit. When Jesus was in the world, sometimes he will speak and speak and speak and some people will look at him and say get lost. Is this not the carpenter’s son? Are his brothers and sisters not here with us?” others will say, “ Lord, what shall we do? “ These are the two groups of people. Those sleeping, trapped, imprisoned and cannot even see the light when it is shinning. This is the truth why defeat is so easy for the devil to perpetuate. May l then ask the question, now supposing somebody is not born with all these, how then when he is an adult, can he start to sleep in the spirit, get spiritual wound, and be imprisoned in the spirit? “ l will tell you, the main gate of the enemy, these days is in three things.

1.     Disobedience

2.     Stubbornness

3.     Rebellion.

Disobedience to God’s command in any way will dull our spiritual senses. As a person continues in disobedience, his perception and the ability to hear from God will diminish and begin to fade away little by little until God withdraws his presence. So it is a great prayer, to say God cast me not away from thine presence. But as you continue to disobey God, His love will be getting smaller until the person hears nothing again from Him.

My prayer is that you will not get to that level in Jesus name. If you say “Amen” you too depart from the school of disobedience. As a person continues to disobey God, stupidity will increase, and errors will continue. The truth is this, no one can break God’s law, you are only breaking yourself, you cannot say you want your own way and escape from the consequences. God despises disobedience.

Some people complain about us in this place say “You people you don’t mind your own business. You always threaten people with suspension and you are too strict. The truth is this; it is actually our business not to mind our business. That is the business of all missionaries; Men of God cannot mind their business because if any one is going quietly and sees somebody possessed, he will command the serpentine spirit to come out in Jesus name. What concerns him? If he goes way, he is not possessed, the serpentine spirit is not in his body. Saul was dethroned because he was disobedience and he lost his kingdom. God hates disobedience with perfect hatred. When you are still disobeying God in any area, no matter how small, you are looking for trouble, serious one, because disobedience was the first sin in the Garden of Eden through which the whole of the human race is in trouble today. Just like pride was the first sin that the devil committed. Let us look at Psalm 107verse 10

“Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron”.

How did they get into darkness? How id they get to be bound in affliction and iron? Because they rebelled against the words of God and contempt the counsel of the most high God. They neglected what God told them to do. Rebellion against the word of God holding God’s counsel in contempt will bring drastic consequences. And what it would bring, no prophet can assist, no prayer warrior can assist, nothing can assist, until you fall down on you knees and say oh Lord have mercy on me a sinner, that’s where you start from at the feet of the cross again. Saul disobeyed, God did not pardon him, Adam and Eve disobeyed, God did not pardon them; Moses disobeyed, God did not pardon him.

Samson disobeyed, God did not pardon him. So think about it very well beloved; think about it very deeply. Everything God has been asking you to do, do you do them? All the warnings that God gives here, are to you not the kind of person who will come back and say, “ l made a mistake there some places where Christians are working now; no Christian can work there and go to heaven because everything there is just dirty business. Don’t deceive yourself. A believer is asked to go and represent his company somewhere and he slept in his car. After sleeping in his car, he went and bought a receipt from one hotel with twenty naira, and later claimed N600 for sleeping in the hotel. Rebellion! Because you have taken a stand against your God. That is what we are talking about, with all the messages and those things that we say here do you know that some people still go to tie extra things to their hairs and so give our deliverance ministers sleepless nights, it is rebellion.

A sheep must listen to the shepherd, if he wants to belong safely in the fold, if not when the wolves come they will grab the sheep that has gone astray. This morning by the grace of God we have to pray about all these things. These will make a difference between our spiritual live which whether you want to succeed or you want to fail; and my prayer is that you will not fail. God Let us close our eyes, We will go into first prayer seeing, Ask the Lord to restore all the spiritual years through one thing or the other, ask the Lord the Lord to restore the spiritual years. All trapped spirits, be released whether it is under a tree, inside the body, under the water, all imprisoned spirit be released in the mighty name of Jesus. if you want freedom from these things. There is no sense in being ashamed when the enemy is busy working upon your life. We want to cancel every evil design.

  PRAYER POINTS

 1.     You spirit of slumber and heaviness, release me in the name of Jesus.

2.     Holy spirit, help me to really discover myself.

3.     My spirit, l command you to wake up from any spiritual slumber in Jesus name.

4.     Oh! Lord, set me on fire in the name of Jesus.

5.     Father lord, remove from my life, anything that is putting my spirit to sleep in the name of Jesus.

6.     l bind and cast out of my life, you spirit of the tail in Jesus name.

7.     Let every evil eye monitoring my life; receive everlasting blindness in the name of Jesus.

8.     Father Lord cause me to do the right thing at the right time in Jesus name.

9.     Father Lord, give me an excellent spirit in Jesus name.

10. l command all mistakes to be converted to manifold blessings in the name of Jesus\

11. l stand against the spirit of Pisgah in my life in the name of Jesus

12. Father Lord let your glory completely cover my life in the name of Jesus.

13. Father Lord, cause my life to please you I n every way in the name of Jesus.

 

 

  

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 says: “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 2002, 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.

 

 

MEDICINE FROM ABOVE
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Isaiah 53: 4-5 says, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” The above passage is in the past tense because it was a settled case. God wants to touch you and heal you everywhere you are hurting. That is His own will.

Many years ago, a certain man was celebrating his 60th birthday. People brought cakes, wonderful cards and so many other things as gifts. He was a multi-millionaire but was on a wheel chair. After sometime, the people gathered round him and started to sing a song to wish him a happy birthday. Then one of the guests said to him, “Sir, make a birthday wish.” The man said, “What good is it to be rich if I am forever going to be on this wheel chair. I want to get out of this wheel chair.” There are sicknesses and there are sicknesses.

Money cannot buy you health. It may buy you drugs but cannot buy the medicine from above, which God gives free of charge. Unfortunately, there are more sick people in the world today more than ever before in history. At a time when there are more doctors, more medicine and more hospitals, yet more people are sick. There are more hospitals, more clinics, more and better medical equipment, more and better techniques both in developed and under-developed countries, yet there are more sick people. I never could believe that a day would come in developed countries when the hospital beds would be so full that patients would be arranged on the corridor and the doctors would not be able to diagnose the problem of the majority of the people.

In the past, people used to think that only people from countries that are over-crowded and poor or where they are very superstitious suffer from diseases and sicknesses. Now, things have changed. Even comfortable people who are very rich have their own diseases such as heart disease, overweight, cancer, etc. So there are various grades of sickness. One of our pastors abroad told me that one day, somebody who was a pilot phoned him and said, “Hello sir, are you the pastor of MFM?” “Yes,” the pastor answered. He said, “Anything you know how to say begin to say it now, because I have a gun and I'm about to blow my brain out.” God helped the pastor and he was able to convince him not to kill himself. That is another kind of sickness. It is not a Nigerian one; not many Nigerians would want to shoot their brains out.

The only way out is through God’s word which is filled with healing from cover to cover. Exodus 15: 26 says, “And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.”  This was a life-saving guarantee to the Israelites. This promise was so effective that many many years later, David could say in Psalm 105:37, “He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.” None of them was sick.

Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 58: 6 declares as follows: “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” Verse 8 says, “Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward.” There is living healing power in the word of God. Proverbs 4: 20-22 says, “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” Another version of the Bible says, “…And medicine to all their flesh.” You find this spread out through scriptures. That was in the Old Testament. Now, we have a better covenant.

In fact, one out of every seven verses in the gospel is about healing. Jesus Himself devoted two third of His time ministering to the sick, all kinds of sicknesses ranging from spiritual leprosy, which is sin to physical sicknesses. Look at the powerful scripture in Acts 10: 38. It says, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” Matthew 8:16 says, “When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” Matthew 9: 35 says, “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.” Matthew 12: 15 says, “But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence. And great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all.”

Beloved, the Bible is a healing book. It teaches without a doubt that God wants to heal you. Whenever healing prayers are being said, do not take anything for granted because in so many lives, the seed of infirmity has already been planted. It may not have grown to a level where you can recognize it. But if you kill it at the seed stage, it will not develop into anything. Although a serpent is very dangerous, a small boy can destroy it at the egg stage. But once it becomes a big python, then it becomes a problem. So, healing prayers are both preventive and curative.

The Bible is a healing book, it depends on whether you believe the Bible or not. God has said in His words that He would heal you, do you believe His word? If you believe God, then you have to co-operate with Him for your recovery. This is why some people say, “God said it, I believe it, I receive it.”

If Jesus tarries in coming, all of us would have to die one way or the other. It is very sad sometimes when you see some people doing bad things that would shorten their lives and warn them against it, instead of repenting, they would say, “Please leave me alone, one would surely die of something.” If somebody has to die of something, must you speed up the death? Remember that, that life does not belong to you. As a believer, even if it is time for you to die, you are supposed to depart in peace because His servant must depart in peace. I do not believe that a child of God has to be rolling on the floor, crying in pain or going all over the place, and suffering before he dies. If you die out of persecution for Jesus, fine. His servant must depart in peace if he has to depart at that time. So, you do not have to be terribly sick in order to die. The best way to die, is for you to close your eyes here and open them in heaven. So, disease is not necessary for death. A righteous person can lie down to sleep and wake up in heaven. That is why Psalm 104: 29 says, “Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.”

So far, we have settled the fact that it is God’s will to heal. The next thing is the issue of faith. It is so easy to talk theory, but it is the practicality of it that matters. In Mark 9:18, a certain man was complaining to Jesus about his son. He said, “And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him and he groaneth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away; and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.” That was his complaint to Jesus. In verse 23, Jesus gave him an answer. “Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. Verse 24: And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.” What he was saying was this, “If my faith has been battered by problems, and has become low, help me.” This passage exposes the faith problem, which troubles many Christians. Actually, the problem is not the presence or absence of faith, rather, it is a struggle between positive faith and negative faith, between belief and unbelief. The truth is that everybody has faith, the difference is how the faith is used. If you do not have faith, you will not buy a tin of milk from the market without asking them to open it. You believe that when you take it home, you will see milk inside, so you have faith. The fact that you sit down on a seat without checking whether you will fall down or not, means that you have faith. So, faith is like the gear in your vehicle, which can be shifted forward or backward. It depends on where you are shifting your own. When you shift it forward, you are exercising positive faith, and when you shift it backward, it does not go anywhere. What does that mean? It means on Monday, you have powerful faith, by Tuesday, the faith is gone, by Wednesday, you have a large one again, and by Thursday, it is gone. Friday, you have it, Saturday, it is gone, Sunday, you have it, forward and backward. Such a person will not go anywhere. That is why the Bible says that a doubter is like the waves of the sea, tossed here and there. It then made a very fearful pronouncement: “Let not such a man think that he can receive anything from the Lord.” You do not have to draw up more faith or try and pump it up until it is a very big size. Faith simply means believing what God has said in His word and that He will do what He has said. It is having the confidence that God will keep His promises. Whereas, negative faith has many forms:

1.  Fear: Fear is a forerunner of calamity, the creator of bad things. It brings captivity, confusion, frustration, inner conflict, tension and defeat. It is the favourite weapon of the enemy. It is negative faith. You have faith, no problem, but you are exercising it in the reverse direction.

2.  Doubt: Another form of negative faith is doubt. This one is cruel and destructive. When there is trouble, a doubter blames God. When there is blessing, a doubter will fear whether it would last. As you are reading this bulletin, you have sufficient faith to heal you of any sickness. It depends whether you are going forward or backward or whether it is negative faith or positive faith. The Bible says that faith without work is dead, meaning that, you must act on the word of God and do what God asks you to do. That faith must be expressed in action. You do what God tells you to do, and then expect Him to do His own side. It was Noah that built the ark, but it was God that flooded the earth. It was Moses that stretched out the rod, but it was God that parted the waters. It was Joshua and his people that marched around Jericho, but it was God that fell the wall. It was Elijah that smote the water, but it was God that parted the water. It was Elisha that threw the stick into the water, it was God that made the iron’s head to swim. It was Naaman that dipped himself into the water seven times, but it was God that healed his leprosy. So, you do your own part and He will do His own part. Do not come to a meeting, expecting nothing to happen. You come with expectancy believing that what God has said in His word, you will receive it.

Many people confuse feeling with faith. Feeling has nothing to do with faith. Our healing is not dependent on how we feel but what God has promised and what His word declares. There may be no immediate sign of healing when you pray to be healed. But as soon as you are exposed to the healing power of Jesus, your healing has come. When you begin to say, “God has healed me, and by His stripes I am healed", His healing power would be  released. It is now your turn to set your faith loose. Activate your faith so that you can touch the hem of His garment. You may ask, how can I activate my faith to be able to drink the medicine from above? I will tell you.

Know that the Bible says that God has given to every man the measure of faith. The fact that you have picked up this bulletin shows that one way or the other, you believe that there is power in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is sufficient to get you through. But if you are going to expect something dramatic to happen before something supernatural happens to you, then, you will be hindered.

 

HOW TO ACTIVATE

YOUR FAITH TODAY

1.  See yourself the way God sees you. You too should say like Apostle Paul: “I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.”  That is how God sees you. You may be looking at yourself somehow else. Paul could see what God could see. God does not see you being hospitalized, He does not see you roaming about with infirmities and diseases. He sees you as a person who can do all things. So, you need to see yourself the way God sees you. God can see a person one way, and the person could picture himself another way. One of the outstanding statements of God was to Saul. He said, “Though you are small in your own eyes, but I have exalted you to be the king of Israel. I made you king and blessed you.” So, see yourself the way God sees you.

2.  Replace every fear with love and power.   2 Timothy 1: 7 says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” So, replace the thoughts of fear with thoughts of love and power. That is, replace every thought of sickness with thoughts of health. Replace every thought of death with thoughts of life. Visualize your healing, see yourself strong and well, see yourself absolutely whole from the top of your head to the sole of your feet.

3.  Take your burdens to the Lord and leave them there. Take those burdens to the Lord today and leave them there. Believe that He alone can best handle it.

4.  Confess your healing with your own mouth. You speak it with your own mouth. Confess what the Lord has done in your life with your own mouth. Say it to anybody who will care to listen. This is how we can light up our faith.

5.  Be obedient. There is something called the obedience of faith. When God says, “Do this,” just do it, do not rationalize or analyze His word. Do not even think about the history of the problem because if you do, you will reduce the effectiveness of the power of God in your life.

Luke 4: 18 –19 says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to bring deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind. To set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

It is exciting when a blind person sees. But know for sure that there are many kinds of blindness. There is no blindness as bad as spiritual blindness. So, take your burdens to the Lord today and leave them there. No matter the hard blows you have received, His power sets at liberty them that are bruised.

The first thing to sort out is spiritual sicknesses. If you do not that, the physical healing will not come. Therefore, if as you are reading this message, you are not born again, that is, you have not given your life to Jesus, it is time for you do so. You have to do so as a first step towards enjoying God’s divine blessings.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.  O Lord, let your hand of miracle, healing and deliverance be stretched out upon my life, in the name of Jesus.

2.  O Lord, terminate the life of any sickness in my life, in the name of Jesus.

3.  I rebuke every refuge of sickness in my life, in the name of Jesus.

4.  Every spirit hindering my healing, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

5.  Every knee of infirmity, bow, in the name of Jesus.

6.  Any power that does not want to see me around, you shall not be seen again, in the name of Jesus.

7.  I command death upon all sickness, in the name of Jesus.

8.  Every power constructing coffin for me, enter into your coffin, in Jesus’ name.

9.  Every Jericho of infirmity, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

10. I receive my divine healing today, in Jesus’ name.

 

  

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 spirit, 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 says, “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 can 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 them to their own. They save alive the souls that should not live by lying to the people that hear their lies.

Verses 20-21 say, “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 band to sell 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 goes to a herbalist and says, “I want to destroy this person,” and he is 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 thyine 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 says, “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.

Do you know that the gospel got to Africa before Europe? Do 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. Sometime 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 has 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.

Sometime 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 are koboless 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 refuse 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.

 

  

PARALYSING SATANIC DOGS
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Our message this week is
            entitled “Paralyzing satanic
            dogs.” I encourage you to read it prayerfully. Exodus11: 4 -7 says, “And Moses said, “Thus saith the Lord, about midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt. And all the first born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first born of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.”

Verse 7 says, “But against the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue.” The Bible does not contain any useless information. Every detail in the Bible serves a purpose. The people of Israel had been in bondage for over four hundred years and it was time for them to get out. But like all stubborn enemies, the Egyptians who were using the Israelites as slaves made up their minds not to let them go. God therefore had to take them out by His strange hands and sent ten plagues, which were terrible blows to them. All the ten blows were specifically addressed to their gods (idols), for in Egypt in those days and even up till now, people worship River Nile, the great river in Egypt. God destroyed that river by turning it into blood.

The Israelites worshipped anything you can think of in those days. So, they were confident that they had all the power. They worshipped the sun. That was why God commanded darkness to fall upon them. This was a serious blow to the god of the sun, which they worshipped. Bible students know that firstborns in Egypt were almost worshipped like God. So, God dealt a blow on the firstborns. When that happened, then they were ready to let go but not without a struggle, because when they went out of Egypt, the Egyptians still pursued them.

In modern day Christianity, Egypt can be interpreted as the world and Pharaoh as the god of the world holding God’s people from worshipping God in Spirit and in truth. But with a strong hand, God’s people have to be delivered. My prayer today, is that all those still held in bondage in Egypt shall be released, in Jesus’ name. Dogs are known to howl when people die. So when the first born of the Egyptians died, there must have been some howling that day. But God said it would not happen in the camp of the Israelites.

 

WHO ARE DOGS?

Dogs have spiritual counterparts and these spiritual dogs are moving their tongues against many. But my prayer is that they must be silenced, in Jesus’ name. In Deuteronomy 23: 18, the Lord describes what is referred to as dogs. “Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination into the Lord thy God.” We can see the way the Bible handles the issue.

The Bible refers to homosexuals and lesbians as dogs. Anyone who has ever engaged in these kinds of things would need to receive deliverance from the spirit of the dog, which has entered into him or her. Generally, in the spirit world, dogs symbolize sexual perversion. So, if you see yourself being pursued in the spirit by a dog, check your sexual life. It means that something must be wrong somewhere, whether in your heart or your activities. Psalm 22:16 says, “For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.”

Dogs also include men and women who use any material to excite themselves sexually, i.e. masturbation. The spirit within such people is the spirit of the dog.

Verse 20 of Psalm 22 says, “Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.” It means that wicked men and enemies of Christ are also referred to as dogs. Isaiah 56:10 –11 says, “His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, everyone for his gain, from his quarter.” In the foregoing, the Bible refers to false prophets as dogs. So, if you consult them, the spirit of the dog would enter you. 2 Peter 2: 20 -21 says, “For if after they have escaped the pollution of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” All backsliders are referred to as dogs in the Bible. Revelation 22:15 hits the nail on the head. It says, “For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” The Bible calls all lost souls dogs, and it says that they shall be outside, they will not be inside. So, when the Psalmist said, “Deliver my soul from the power of dogs,” he was praying a very great prayer. These in a nutshell are the kinds of people the Bible calls, dogs. Before you read further, I would like you to lay your right on your chest and pray aggressively like this: “O Lord, deliver my soul from the power of the dogs, in the name of Jesus.”

The spirit of the dog is seriously in operation but the promise of God for us Christians is that no dog shall move its tongue against us. Unfortunately, there are people that the dogs are pursuing day and night such as backsliders and those who remain outside God’s kingdom. Those who are possessed by the spirit of the dog find it very difficult to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. They do not understand the scriptures even after they have been taught over and over.

 

STRATEGIES OF THE SPIRIT OF THE DOG

1. The spirit of outside: The number one method the dog spirit uses is the spirit of the outside. Those five virgins that were foolish were thrown out and locked out. Such people, when they are at the edge of their breakthroughs, have what is called dreams of spiritual failure. They see themselves in the dream preparing to go to church but they would spend a long time looking for what to wear. The church clothes would appear to have been stolen. It is the work of the spirit of the dog. Some would find themselves in a large congregation but when they are told to preach, sing, or teach, they would not be able to find their hymnbooks or Bible or whatever they would be looking for. Some would see themselves in the dreams with torn Bibles or the Bibles would be completely stolen away from them. They could be looking for the book of Matthew, they would search and search and would not find it. These are signs that the spirit of the dog is inside a person. If the person does not arrest it on time, the person will end up being thrown outside the programme of God because the Bible says that without, are the dogs. When you have dreams of spiritual failure it could mean that the enemy is after your spiritual failure. When you find yourself moving around in the forest and never getting anywhere till you wake up, God is telling you something. It means that you have prayers to pray. Some people also see dogs attacking them or biting them in the dream. If you notice these kinds of attacks, you have to check your spiritual life, the way you have operated your life and done things generally.

Sometime ago, a man came for counselling and his major problem was that he used to see dogs walking around him in the dream. He noticed that anything he did never prospered. Naturally, he hated dogs. As I was about to start praying for him, the Spirit of God said, “Do not pray for this man. Tell him to go and bring the list of all the women he has slept with.” To my amazement, the following day, he came with a big notebook. I thought he might have used just a few pages but I was wrong because the whole book was filled up and he was saying that those were the ones he could remember. No wonder those spiritual dogs were after him.

When somebody is bitten by dogs in the dream, spiritual poison would be released into his or her body and this may lead to spiritual death. When somebody is being chased by dogs in his dream, it shows that he is under a serious attack. And if care is not taken, the person would see himself operating at the periphery of miracles, periphery of blessings, etc. If somebody finds dogs leaking his body, it shows that the person has a covenant with sexual demons.

Beloved, we must fight against these things. When God says that no dog shall move its tongue against us, it means the demons of dogs will lay no hands on us. Sometime ago, at one of our branches, one woman gave a testimony of how on her first time at the church, the pastor raised a prayer point which said, “O Lord, give me divine insurance, in Jesus’ name.” She prayed aggressively. By the following week, there was a terrible accident and about sixteen persons in a vehicle died. Only one person got out alive. It happened to be the husband of this sister. It was discovered that dogs have conspired against the man. But thank God he had a wife who could pray. If she had been second, third or sixth wife, the prayer would not have been answered because God does not answer prayers of glorified girlfriends who have refused to repent. By the same token, God does not answer prayers of a man who has one wife and other girlfriends he calls wives. The spirit of the dog would be pursuing such people until they make restitution and make their ways right before the Lord.

 

2. The spirit of fear: Another method these dog spirits operate is by the spirit of fear. When the spirit of fear is in operation, fear of death, of sickness, of darkness, fear of water, and all kind of things give these spiritual dogs power to operate.

 

3. Worry and anxiety: Another strategy of the spirit of dogs is worry and anxiety.

 

Way Out

You have to chase out the spirit of the dogs from your thoughts and from your life.

 

WHAT MAKES THE SPIRIT OF THE DOG TO ENTER INTO PEOPLE’S LIVES?

1.   Lack of control of the tongue: Your tongue must not be used for gossiping, backbiting or singing praises to demons. It must not be used for destructive criticisms. It must not be used to find fault in every small thing. The Bible says that by your words you are justified and by them too, you are condemned Matthew 12: 36 says, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement.”

 

2.   Evil friends: Another way through which the spirit of the dog operates is evil friends. 2 Corinthians 6: 15 says, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” You will not be able to resist evil if your friends are worldly. They would pollute you or put you in trouble. Many people make mistakes because they do not understand that most of the powerful spirits that destroy men are bad spirits that are outside. These kinds of spirits do not stay inside human beings. When you are close to a person who is not a child of God, who is a demonic bank, such a person could transfer materials into your life regardless of the fact that you call him your childhood friend. So, evil friends would expose you to spiritual dogs. If you do business with a child of the devil and you ask God to bless it, you would be making a mistake because you cannot bless whom God has cursed. You cannot be asking God to bless His enemy.  

 

3.    Wrong places: You have to beware of where you go. The programme of a believer is directed by the Holy Spirit. The devil can plan a ceremony just to catch a single believer. It happened to a man I know but he had a wife who could pray and she rushed him to a prayer meeting. The man took off from Lagos to another town on a weekend for a party. He did not know that his enemies were waiting for him. The big party was celebrated just to catch him. There were many people there. The enemies were watching him and he did not know. When a person is being followed like that by the enemies, the person needs divine intervention to be free from their grip. At the party, a girl came and served him rice and he started to eat. Immediately he started eating the food, the girl ran back to the building she came from as if to bring him some water, but a snake came out towards him. He saw it but could not move. He just sat down there. The snake got to him, climbed on his chain, moved to his face, licked his face and crawled back to the room and the girl who served the rice came out again. That was the beginning of his troubles. Beware of where you go. Do not go to a place where the angels of the living God would say, “Sorry we cannot follow you there.” The Bible says that the angel of the Lord is around the camp of those who fear God and delivers them. But we are not supposed to go where the angels would not enter. Believers do not go to night parties, disco parties or places where bright lights are removed and dark bulbs are used to replace them. Anyone that goes to such places exposes himself or herself to the spirit of the dog. 

 

4.   Evil consumption: Another way through which, they operate is through food and drink. You have to beware of what you eat and where you eat. People who eat anything, anywhere, and anyhow would not be far from the power of the dogs.

 

5. Evil wear: Beware of what you wear. You can wear what will put you in bondage if you are not careful. 

 

6.   Sharing your plans with the enemy: A person who is talkative may not know when he tells his life plans and programme to his enemies. It is also dangerous to tell your plans to your friends who are not born again. They could transfer your case to satanic places.

If you are not yet born again, that is, you have not given your life to Christ, your prayer against the spirit of the dog would be a waste of time. So, the first step to deliverance from the spirit of the dog is to give your life to Christ. If you want to do so, then say the following prayer with faith: “Lord Jesus, I acknowledge you as my personal Lord and Saviour. I repent and forsake all my sins. Come into my life now and help me to serve you, in Jesus’ name.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.    Let every dog barking against my progress, be paralyzed, in the name of Jesus.

2.    I cancel every dream of spiritual failure, in the name of Jesus.

3.    Every evil thing uttered against me by the tongue of the dead, be cancelled by the blood of Jesus. 

4.    Let the tongue of my oppressors be confused, in the name of Jesus.

5.    Let my miracle cause revival in my family, in the mighty name of Jesus.

6.    I close every satanic door, in the name of Jesus.

7.    I refuse to be used as satanic experiment, in Jesus’ name.

8.    I ask for angelic assistance to paralyze every satanic army directed against my home, in Jesus’ name.

9.    Every water spirit operating against me, receive the thunder of God, in Jesus’ name.

10.  I break every demonic crown upon my head, in the name of Jesus.

11.  Let the fire and thunder of God attack all the powers of witchcraft working against me, in the mighty name of Jesus.

12.  Every agent of the devil sent from the bottom of hell fire, receive madness, in the name of Jesus.

13.  Every herbalist working on my name, be frustrated, in the name of Jesus.

14.  Every satanic prayer uttered against me, go back to your sender, in the name of Jesus.

15.  I refuse to reap any satanic harvest, in the name of Jesus.

16.  You devil, hear me and hear me well, you cannot steal my blessings anymore, in the name of Jesus.

17.       Father Lord, I thank you for answers to my prayers, in the name of Jesus.

 

 

I SHALL NOT GIVE MY ENEMIES THE INHERITANCE
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

The first thing I want you to do is
      to  tell the Lord that you want to
experience His raw power, the kind of raw power that Elijah and the apostles experienced. Say, “O Lord, let me experience Your raw power, in the name of Jesus.”

The title of our message for this week is taken from I Kings 21. If you can open up your mind as you read this message, the Lord will do some deep works in your life. I Kings 21:1-3 says, “And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house: and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money. And Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee.”

Here was Naboth, he had a vineyard, which was beside the king’s palace. King Ahab was already a wizard because he married Jezebel who was a witch and it was his witch wife that was controlling all his activities. In fact, the havoc that Jezebel did to Israel can still be felt today. She was the woman that moved in 850 prophets of Baal and Balim. She was the one that threatened Elijah and he ran away. She manipulated the life of Ahab and got him to a terrible level. Ahab was an Israelite, the king of Israel who knew very well that it was against the law to give out the inheritance of your forefathers nevertheless, he went to Naboth and requested for his vineyard, which he had inherited from his forefathers. Naboth said, “No, I might be poor, there may be no money but God forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers. Even if you are the highest king in the land, God forbid that I should hand it over to you.”

Beloved, apart from your life, the most priced gift that you have is your salvation. Our Lord Jesus Christ humbled Himself, put Himself in a ridiculous position in order to redeem us and show us the way of life. The people whom He came to save, arrested Him like a common criminal. They came with sticks, clubs and lantern to locate the man that had come to help them. They arrested Him, bound Him up and scourged Him. They gave Him 39 strokes of the cane.  They took the King of kings, stripped Him naked and mocked Him. They said to Him, “You trust in God, let Him come and deliver you. If He delights in you, let Him deliver you now. They laughed Him to scorn. When He said Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthani?” they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” They spat on His face, slapped Him and pulled His beard. You try and pull out one strand of hair from your head and you will see how painful it is then, you can understand what it is to pluck out hairs from a man’s beard. They tied His hands and pressed a crown of thorns upon His head. As they did that, the sharp things entered His skull and blood poured out on His face. They divided His garments amongst themselves and condemned Him as an unjust man. They ridiculed His mission, drove spiles into His body, hands and legs. Terrible things they did to the Master.

The life of Jesus could be divided into three sections:

1.   His birth.

2.   His death.

3.   His resurrection.

When Jesus was born, a handful of shepherds witnessed it. The birth of Jesus, which divided our calendar into two - AD and BC had more of animals as witnesses than human beings. The Bible did not even bother to call the names of the shepherds. Angels came down and the glory shone around. The same angels predicted that Jesus was to be born, they announced His birth, protected Him as a child, and even ministered to Him in the wilderness. They also ministered to Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, rolled away the stone at His sepulchre and announced His resurrection. On His resurrection day, a couple of witnesses stood by. But on the day that He was going to die on the cross, the angels completely avoided the cross; they stayed away on that day. God the Father Himself turned His back. They ridiculed him: “You saved others now save yourself." A large crowd gathered to watch His trial, verdict, crucifixion and death. Unlike when He was born, only a few people were there. Jesus Himself shouted, “My Father my Father, why hast thou forsaken me.”

Of the three events in the life of Jesus, the one that shook everywhere was His death. That day, nature itself went into convulsion; there was darkness at unusual hours, the ground shook, tombs cracked open and  dead people came out. The sky went black and the angels kept away. The question is, why? It is because of one thing - sin.

SIN

Sin means success in nothing. How can anyone who calls himself a lover of Jesus knowingly continue in sin? Why is it that we have multitude of believers today who continue to cling to lusts, bad habits, grudges and bitterness? Why do Christians come to church every Sunday to raise their hands in praises to God for delivering them, go out to witness about Christ’s power to break bondage but cling to their own sin. Sin has entangled itself around the hearts of many modern-day Christians. Sin already has full control of many lives that is why the ancient power the Bible talks about is going down. The apostles did not have to wait for Paul or Peter before they could pray for anyone. Somebody like Stephen did not even belong to the group of the apostles.

The longer we indulge in besetting sin, the stronger its hold on us becomes. The longer you stay in any sin, the tighter the hold will be on your neck. No matter how gifted you are or how talented you are, as far as sin is in your life, you are not going anywhere. Secret sins have decaying powers, which cause destruction in every area of our lives. It is a cancer that spreads throughout the entire being, defiling our thoughts and action. There are so many people around who think they are better than others. There are some pastors who feel they are the best and other pastors are inferior. Some people who are sinners, consider others as sinners too. The trouble is that sin never dies of itself. No! If it is not uprooted and destroyed, it takes over the throne of a person’s life. If it is allowed to stay for long, the person then becomes a sermon-proof Christian, meaning that the person is no longer responding to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Such a person would annoy God and his eyes would still be dry. He gets defensive when he is confronted with his sin. God’s promise to break every bondage and set the captives free is only for those who are sick of their sin. The Holy Ghost cannot release His full power on anyone who does not see his sin as a serious matter. This is why there is a scarcity of the power of God. This is why things that ought to take two minutes are taking five hours. This is also why we have pastors, ministers and teachers with no fire at all. You are deceiving yourself, beloved, if you think the Holy Spirit will release you from the grip of sin without your co-operation. The Holy Spirit is just a helper and would help you only when you are ready.

It is time for you to cry out like this: “Oh Lord, if there is any sin in me deal with it. I do not want to be a castaway, in the name of Jesus.” Sin will make a person a castaway. You need to sit down and ask questions, if not, you will eventually give the inheritance of your fathers to the enemies. You need to sit down and ask yourself questions such as: Why do I continue in my sin? Why does the evil bondage still hold me? Why am I not free?

Many Christians are still living in sin because they do not have the fear of God. Please pray like this: “Lord, if there is any sin in me, deal with it now, in the name of Jesus.” It will be a tragedy if after reading this message and your life remains the same. Without the fear of God, you cannot experience lasting deliverance from sin. Unfortunately, in many churches now, the subject of the fear of God has become a taboo. Many people do not talk about it anymore. The fear of God includes a full understanding of the danger and consequences of sin.  The longer you continue in sin the more you are in danger of hardening your heart and the more you harden your heart, the more spiritual blessings flow out of your hand; the more the anointing flows away. You may make noise and jump up, that is not a problem for the devil for he can see you in and out. If anyone continues in sin, he will eventually face the wrath of God. If you continue in sin, you will experience a constant drain of peace and strength. If you continue in sin, you will lose your usefulness in the kingdom of God. It is a serious matter.

You can see what our Saviour passed through because of sin. He went through humiliation and suffering to hand over salvation to you and I. If we now begin to joke with it, it means we are looking for trouble. Genesis 25: 29 -34 says, “And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. 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 sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.”

Recently, I received letters from four sisters who were not married. All four were going about with married men who kept them as concubines or girlfriends. They bought them houses, gave them cars and took them to London and America. They kept their lives on a shelf. But when they came to our meeting, they heard the word of God and were convicted in their hearts. I expected that the next thing they should have done was to leave the relationships. Instead of going ahead to do that, they wrote letters telling me that the houses they were living in were given to them by their men friends, including their cars and drivers, shops, etc. Now, if they break the relationships, they would die of hunger. The bottom line is that these women have sold their birthright without knowing it and the longer they stay in it, the longer the devil would keep them in slavery. They must get to the level of Esther who said, “If I perish, I perish. I will not sell my birthright.”

WHAT IS A BIRTHRIGHT?

A birthright is the privileges you are entitled to from birth. What is your spiritual birthright? They are spiritual and physical privileges you are entitled to as a born again Christian. There are so many things attached to birthright. For example now, Esau was entitled to the following things as his birthright:

1.   His family inheritance.

2.   The ruling head of his family.

3.   The right to collect his father’s blessings first.

4.   The spiritual leadership and priesthood of his family.

5.   The best of all the family land.

6.   A special providence meant for him alone.

7.   A special party to the Abrahamic covenant.

This birthright belongs only to the first son and that is why he was entitled to a double-portion of the inheritance. Unfortunately, he sold it away for some pottage. If you pick an ant and say that it should be picking all the sand from the barbeach in Lagos to Abuja one by one by trekking, the day the ant succeeds in evacuating the whole of the sand cannot be compared to eternity. It is a tragedy for a person to use his life here on earth to destroy his eternity, even if the person lives 150 years. Unfortunately, Esau sold his birthright; he exchanged his inheritance for a pot of pottage, which is a temporary thing. Anyone who sells his birthright, which Jesus Christ suffered and died for, would be lost for ever. To trade this important thing for worldly things is sad indeed.

Sometime ago, a certain man offered me a Mercedes V boot car. He smelled of adultery and the chain on his neck was almost touching his belly button. I said, “I am sorry, I don’t want. The reason for a vehicle is for me to move from one place to the other. You are not born again and broken and you are giving me a Mercedes Benz car. The day I preach what you do not like, you would ask for your car. I prefer to tell the truth without the car than to have it without being able to preach the truth. The day I see that your life changes and you are broken, I will take it from you so that you can be blessed. But if you are not broken and you are not a child of God and I take things from you, I am a transgressor like yourself."

It is a dangerous thing for you to have an important material and not realize it. Before you give your life to Christ, God has attached some blessings to your life. When you now give your life to Jesus, more blessings are attached. Many do not know what it means to be born again. Being born again means to be begotten from above. The reason many people are undergoing deliverance now is because they are in trouble for selling cheaply, their birthright to their enemies.

Some years ago, we were at a crusade and people were divided into different groups depending on their needs. There was a group for those who were possessed by witchcraft spirits. There was another one for those who were looking for employment. I was moving around. I got to the group of those possessed by witchcraft and familiar sprits and found that many of them would qualify for Miss Nigeria and some of the men too, would qualify for models you see in magazines. All of a sudden, one girl opened her mouth and vomited three birds; red, black and white. The birds were very ugly. The evangelist who was conducting the meeting moved back and pointed at me to do something about it. The girl now pointed at a pastor in a far corner who was calling prayer points for those who were experiencing failure at the edge of breakthrough and said, “You see that one, he slept with me yesterday.” I was shocked. I said, “Well, if he slept with you what is the implication?” She said, “The prayer he is calling there are curses because already I have polluted his life.” This man of God had sold his birthright for a cheap price.

There are sisters who sell alcohol, attachment, jewellery and things that are Jezebelian in nature because they are looking for money; may God have mercy on them because they are trading their birthright cheaply. Many have sold their birthright to their enemies like the pastor I told you about and they are busy rejoicing. The foolish man did not even know that he had sold it just like Esau. Esau’s problem started with a small appetite. The appetite for food has destroyed so many precious souls that is why the Bible says that the belly of some people is their God. The reason you find so many churches in every corner is because the belly of many people has become their God. If they can tell lies to one or two people and get money from them, they are okay. I pray that your belly will not kill you, in the name of Jesus. Stealing or cheating to buy what you cannot afford is selling your birthright. Why do you want to eat what you cannot afford? It is better to die of hunger than for you to sell your body because of food. Many so-called believers do not want to leave their boyfriends because they are afraid of starving. They are just selling their birthright. Have you sold your birthright because of food? You better repent today. Many sisters and brothers have missed God’s will for their lives by being too greedy. A lot of people sold their birthright cheaply through sex. They need to pray so that God will deliver them and restore their inheritance, which they have sold to the enemy.

OTHER WAYS OF SELLING YOUR BIRTHRIGHT

1. Self-centeredness: Putting yourself first before others or exploiting and using others to accomplish your selfish goals, is a way of selling your birthright. You should pray for your inheritance to come back if you are like that. If you give because you expect something in return, you have sold your birthright and need to buy it back. If you do good only when you will be given praise for it then you have sold your birthright. If you like self-display; you want people to know that you are the one there, you have sold your birthright. If you are primarily concerned with what others are thinking about you then you have sold your birthright.

2. Doubt and unbelief: If you are full of doubt and unbelief then you have sold your birthright.

3. Sin: If you enjoy sinning but hate the consequences, then you have sold your birthright. If you are always thinking of covering your sins instead of repenting them, you have sold your birthright. If you are so self-conscious that you can commit sin in order to please others, then you have sold your birthright. If unfortunately you are one of those who prefer to spend money for burial ceremonies than to pay your children’s school fees, you have sold your birthright. If you justify your sin instead of saying, “Oh God, I am a sinner, deliver me,” then you have sold your birthright.

4. Hypocrisy: All hypocrites have sold their birthright. If you refuse to admit that you are what you are and need to change, you are only caging yourself which amounts to selling your birthright. God forbid that I should give my enemies the inheritance of my fathers. Rejoicing when other are failing, pretending to be loyal, using your mouth to pull others down and backbiting are ways of selling your birthright.

5. Being revengeful: If you are always looking for somebody as a scapegoat instead of facing your own sin, it is selling your birthright.

6. Impatience: If you who have been born again for one or two years and you still act before you think and take rash decisions then you have sold your birthright.

7. Unteachable spirit: If you cannot really listen to others and you are not teachable then you have sold your birthright.

The greatest inheritance that Jesus gave to us is our salvation. It will be very sad for anyone to sell it to the enemy. The church is a place where you find the highest number of hypocrites. The heathens worship their idols with all seriousness. They dance and roll on the floor with all their strength. But in the house of God, you find people who are lazy and unserious.

The fact that somebody is a pastor does not mean that he is born again; the fact that somebody is a house fellowship teacher does not mean that he has encountered Christ. The only thing is that he has a label. At the end of the age, all the labels of pastor, deacon, G.O., bishop, etc shall be taken away and we shall see what people are inside. A bachelor who is sleeping with a woman outside marriage is already dead, likewise a spinster who sleeps with a man she is not married to. Such people are the ones disturbing the power of God from moving in a place. They are inside the church but the church is not in them. 

It is important to pray that whatsoever is making the devil to rejoice in your life should go, no matter how much you like it. It is also important to pray that whatsoever is making your enemies to rejoice in your life should go out whether you like it or not. What I am talking about is both preventive and curative. Some prayers are called curative prayers while some are called preventive prayers. Do not feel unconcerned. You better pray. Paul said, “We have no confidence in the flesh,” “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

Review your life in the last one week. Does it glorify Jesus? Is there no malice in your heart? Have you not been telling lies? Have you become a habitual sinner? Have you been entertaining the thoughts and imaginations of sin? Have you lost your vision of heaven?

Are you neglecting the calling of God upon your life? Have you lost the presence and anointing of God upon your life? Is the peace and joy of the Holy Ghost still in your heart? Is your birthright still there or have you sold it on the altar of sex, food, money, malice or anger? Have you sold your inheritance to your enemies? It is time to review your life.

The God of MFM is the God of holiness and power: He will by no means welcome people who want to live in sin and experience power. Why should He send His Son to die for you and you want the death to go in vain. Look at what Jesus went through. Do you think He would be happy with anyone who wants His suffering and death to go in vain? Please, tell the Lord to remove any sin that is demoting you out your life, repent of them, and possess your possession.

The Bible says, “Narrow is the path that leads to life, few there be that find it," meaning that not many will find it. You may be a bishop’s wife or daughter, son of priest, you may have gone to apostolic this and that, Elijah this, gospel that and every where but all you did while going around was to collect arrows that would demote you further. Will you not cry to the Lord today from the bottom of your heart so that He can rescue you from the well of the enemy? Open your mouth and pray like this: “O God, deliver me from this wicked generation, in the name of Jesus. This generation must not mess me up. I will not sacrifice my destiny on the altar of this wicked generation, in Jesus' name. I shall not surrender to my enemies, in the name of Jesus. If I have sold my birthright to the enemy, blood of Jesus, buy it back for me, in the name of Jesus. I refuse to be wasted, in Jesus’ name. The enemy shall not waste my life, in Jesus’ name.”

The first problem of Peter started when he began to warm himself in the fire of the enemy; and of course temptation came and he fell flat. He got too close to what he should run away from. Make the following declarations: “I shall not warm myself in the fire of the enemy, in the name of Jesus.” “I shall not surrender my inheritance to the enemy, in the name of Jesus. 

Samson died with his enemies. Although he killed them, the place was also his burial ground. “I shall not die with my enemies, in Jesus' name.

PRAYER POINTS

1.  The arrow that fly by day shall not locate my destiny, in the name of Jesus.

2. O Lord, sweep away anything that does not glorify You in my life, in Jesus’ name.

3. I shall not be a worker of iniquity, in the name of Jesus.

4. My life will not cooperate with the enemies of God, in the name of Jesus.

5. Holy Ghost fire, purge my life, in the name of Jesus.

6. I shall not be an unprofitable servant, in the name of Jesus.

7. My legs, hear the word of the Lord, you must not walk the path of destruction, in the name of Jesus. 

8. Every stronghold of sin in my life, I pull you down, in the name of Jesus. 

9. The sin of my ancestors shall not cage my life, in the name of Jesus.  

10.     O God, arise and kill every iniquity in my life, in the name of Jesus.

 

HOW TO DETECT AND DESTROY CURSES
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

What is a curse?

It can mean many things such as:

1.  Uttering a wish of evil against somebody or a thing.

2.  Calling for mischief or injury to fall upon a person.

3.  Binding a person, a thing or a place with a spell.

4.  An evil pronouncement against a person, a place or a thing. Inanimate objects such as shoes, cars, buildings, clothes, food, etc. can be subjected to curses.

5.  Vehicle of evil supernatural powers which can be transferred and can continue from generation to generation

6.  The opposite of blessing.

7.  A kind of fence to protect demons and to give them a legal ground to operate.

Issuing curses on people is common in Africa. In fact, in some areas, people wake up their children in the morning with curses. In some places, too, whenever people are angry they issue curses. The wife would curse the husband; the husband would curse the wife. They would curse their kids together. At school, the teacher would curse the students and the students, too, would curse the teachers. At bus-stops, there are a lot of curses. So, they are quite common. While some curses are disappearing, satanic agents renew some day by day. Let us look at some interesting Scriptures:

Romans 10:15 says, “How shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.”

When gospel preachers enter into a place they bring in beautiful things. When Phillip arrived in Samaria, the Bible says, there was much joy in that city. So, when a gospel preacher is in an environment, there is joy, deliverance and salvation because the feet of the preachers of the gospel are beautiful. Likewise you have the ugly feet of the advertisers of the devil. When they get into a place, even if things were going on well there before, they would begin to turn sour. When you employ them in your shop, business will go down. When you take them as housemaids, your husband will become poor, your wife will become poor, and they will start to sell the property. When you take them into your house, the spiritual lives of people there would go down. These are signs that bad feet have entered into your house, the ugly feet of the advertisers of the devil.

Matthew 10:14-15 says, “And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily, I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.”

So, when the preacher of the gospel of peace decides to shake the dust off his feet inside a house or a city, calamity would befall the city or the environment. So, there is power in the feet. Jesus said, “I give unto you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” So, woe to that city where the dust was shaken off.  Please, pray like this: “Oh Lord, help me to detect every evil that is hiding in my life in Jesus’ name.”

When the preacher of the gospel shakes the dust off his feet, whether you are an indigene of that place or not and whether you are aware of it or not, everyone living in that place would be cursed. I am trying to tell you that a person’s feet may carry blessings or curses.

 

HOW DO YOU RECOGNIZE

BAD FEET?

1.  They introduce bad luck into the environment.

2.  They go about purposelessly and aimlessly.

3.  They go from place to place, thinking that geographical relocation is the answer.

4.  They have peppery feeling all over their legs.

5.  They succeed at nothing.

 

THE HAND

Zechariah 4:9 says, “The hands of Zerubabel has laid the foundation of this house, his hands also shall finish it and thou shall know that the Lord of host sent me unto you.” Here, the Bible is talking about the hand that would finish the work it started, meaning that some hands may not finish the work they started. Ecclesiastes 6:1 says, “There is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is common among men. A man to whom God has given riches, wealth and honour so that he wanted nothing for his soul, of all that he desired, yet God giveth him not the power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it, this is vanity and it is an evil disease.”

When cursed hands start a project, they will not be able to finish it. They end it up at the foundation stage. They are not fruitful. Whereas the Bible says that you are the image of God, and one of the signs of a true image of God is that they always finish their work. Jesus said, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work. Paul also said, “I have finished my course.” The hands that are cursed will not finish any good thing.

 

HOW DO YOU RECOGNIZE

A CURSED HAND?

1.  Anything that it touches does not work, or it works a bit and packs up. Such a hand introduces problems into the thing.

2.  Unprofitable trading: Cursed hands are unprofitable in business. There was a certain sister who used to sell food in a primary school. The pupils never patronized her, but they patronized other sellers who came to the school. She used to go home and consume her own rice. One day, she got enlightened and started to pray. She anointed her hands and prayed and then the buyers shifted to her side. If she had not taken action or had said that things would get better by and by, the problem would have continued.

3.  Unprofitable doctors and midwives.

4.  Unprofitable tailors, carpenters and bricklayers: They would always spoil people’s houses, furniture and clothes. They are always in debt although they are working.

5.  Lack of money.

     The Psalmist says, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.” The Lord does not do things halfway. His image too does not do things halfway. We can see that a curse could be on just one section of the body, or one section of a life. As long as you leave it there, it will sit down and enjoy itself.

 

SATANIC SCANNING MACHINE

Christians who are serious with their spiritual lives are always special targets for curses by the enemy. Dark powers have a kind of scanning machine that they have in the hospitals. Before they put a curse on somebody they will use the scanning machine to see the kind of person that he is. And through communication with their evil spirit, they can learn of areas in that person’s life that are open to attack. In most cases, something in the person allows him to fall in agreement with the curse and then it begins to operate. And if you don’t know this, know it very well, that demons are very hard working. You may sleep six or eight hours but they have no sleeping hours. They work round the clock and do not give up in a hurry. They always try hard to prevent believers from using their effective weapons. The question is, if you should fall under the scanning machine of the devil now, and he wants to scan you to see whether there is an area where he can put his curse, will he find any? This is where the trouble lies.

When the Lord says, “Stop this, stop that” and you refuse to stop, they would know that the Lord has spoken to you but you refuse to obey. So when they bring their scanning machine, they will say, “Yes, we can see an open door in the legs.” They would find that the legs are painted in danger colours. They will enter through them and say, “After all, the Lord did not ask her to paint them red.” Or they could look and see a door of anger and they will enter. Whenever something in the person agrees with the curse, the hardworking demons will go in.

It is not very clear why women seem to be more susceptible to curse than men.  May be it is because they are weaker vessels or because they were the ones that talked to Adam and Adam got confused. I don’t know. However, if curses are not addressed, they have long-lasting, drastic and catastrophic effect. They entangle and hinder people. So, whenever you are asked to pray against curses, don’t hesitate to do so. If there is no curse in place and you pray, you don’t lose anything. It is even better for you to do that, than to overlook it and it would cause problem later. In fact, at a stage in your spiritual life, you can pray every night: “Oh Lord, as I am going to bed now, post an angel by my door to deflect any curse that are sent here, in Jesus’ name.” And He would do exactly that. God’s people  should not accept curses from the enemy at all. They should resist them.

 

HOW CAN SOMEBODY KNOW IF HE IS UNDER A CURSE?

How do you detect it?

     There are about 70 specific sins in the Bible that could bring curses on people. If you run through all of them and you don’t find anyone affecting you, I congratulate you. You have passed the first test. 

1.  Those who curse or mistreat the Jews fall under a curse. (Genesis 12:3).

2.  Anybody who is a willing deceiver comes under a curse (Jeremiah 48:10).

3.  An adulterous man or woman falls under God’s curse  (Numbers 5:27). When somebody is playing games with the Almighty, he is inviting a curse.

4.  Disobedience to the Lord’s commandment will lead to curses  (Deuteronomy 11:28). No matter how small the commandment is, if God says, do it and you don’t do it, you will come under a curse.

5.  Idolatry. Any form of idolatry brings a curse (Exodus 20:5).

6.  Those who keep or own cursed objects. If you have an object or a material in your possession that God does not approve of or that is spiritually contaminated, you come under a curse (Deuteronomy 7:25-26). God does not expect us to decorate our houses with images of evil animals such as owls, vultures, cats, etc.

7.  If you refuse to come to the Lord’s help you will come under a curse.  When God is calling for you to come and help and you refuse to help, the Bible says you are under a curse (Judges 5:23). When people are trying to do something for the Lord’s sake, and you refuse to come out, you come under a curse.

8.  The house of the wicked. The Bible says the house of the wicked shall be cursed (Proverbs 3:33). If  somebody comes from the house of the wicked, he will be cursed. For example, if your daddy was a herbalist, who dealt on charms to repair or destroy lives and properties, there is no way you are going to be free from troubles, unless you break the curse. If your daddy is a lodge member, the Bible classifies him as wicked. If he was into things like pressing of sand and occult things, then his house becomes the house of the wicked.

9.  Somebody who has and does not give to the poor comes under a biblical curse (Proverbs 28:27).

10.     The earth is cursed by the reason of man’s disobedience (Isaiah 24:3-6).

11.     Jerusalem is a curse to all nations, as far as the Jews are rebelling against God (Jeremiah 26:6).

12.     All thieves and those who swear falsely by the Lord’s name fall under God’s curse. If you have ever had to go to court and promised to tell the truth and nothing but the truth and your next sentence was a big lie, you are cursed. You have sworn falsely (Zechariah 5:4).

13.     Ministers and Christians who fail to give glory to God but instead praise themselves or hide what God has done, come under a curse. Remember the 10 lepers who came to Jesus for healing. Only one of them came back to show appreciation. And Jesus said to him, “But 10 were healed, where are the nine? Only this stranger came to give thanks to God. Therefore, thou art made whole.” All the others were healed but Jesus said to that one, “Thou art made whole.” It is better to be made whole than to be healed. To be made whole means that everything is now new. To be healed means that old things are patched up and are doing well (Isaiah 48:11).

14.     Those who rob God of tithe and offering are under a curse (Malachi 3:9). When you fail to pay your tithe or offering or you always borrow it, or you think it is too much and pay less, you are inviting God’s curse.

15.     Those who prefer to listen to their partners than to God also come under a curse. When God is saying something, your partner is saying something else and you listen to the partner instead of God, you will come under a curse (Genesis 3:17).

16.     Those who insult their parents come under a curse (Deuteronomy 27:16).

17.     Those who make graven images (Deuteronomy 27:15). When we say graven images, they include crucifix, images of dead and living saints, all kinds of graven images, idols, etc. And God says that such people fall under a curse.

18.     Those who willfully cheat people out of their property fall under a curse (Deuteronomy 27:17).

19.     Those who take advantage of the blind because they cannot see, or the deaf because they cannot hear, are under a curse (Deuteronomy 27:18).

20.     Those who lie with their fathers' wives fall under a curse. You may think that this is strange, but it happens (Deuteronomy 27:20).

21.     Those who lie with beasts (Deuteronomy 27:21).

22.     Anybody who lies with his own sister (Deuteronomy 27:22) is under a curse.

23.     Those who smite their neighbours secretly come under a curse (Deuteronomy 27:24).

24.     Those who take money to slay the innocent, including doctors who abort, come under a curse (Deuteronomy 27:25).

25.     All fornicators and adulterers fall under a curse.

26.     The proud fall under a curse (Psalm 119:21).

27.     Those who trust in men and not in God fall under a curse (Jeremiah 17:5).

28.     Those who do the work of the Lord deceitfully and their families fall under a curse.

29.     Those who keep themselves from blood when there is spiritual warfare. That is, those who run away when there is battle to fight are cursed (Jeremiah 48:10).

30.     Those who reward evil for good are cursed (Proverbs 17:13).

31.     Illegitimate children are cursed (Deuteronomy 23:2).

32.     Murderers (Exodus 21:12).

There are many more examples in the Bible.

1.  The first thing to check is actually the Bible, to see whether you fall into any of these categories. If you do, you will need to break the curse and confess your sin.

2.  Number 2 method is by comparing your life with the blessings for those who love life. Look at yourself, are you a lender or a borrower? Are you always suffering from one sickness or the other? Are you prospering or not? Do you enjoy God’s favour? Are you increasing or decreasing? Are you the head or the tail? Are you free from harassment of enemies, both physically and spiritually? Are you at the centre of God’s will for your life? How good is your relationship with God? If your answer to these questions are positive, it is okay because those are the marks of a blessed life. There is no middle camp, you are either enjoying blessings or suffering from curses. There is no middle ground at all.

3.  The third method is to check for the effects of the curses. The effects of curses include poverty, debts, failure, chronic sickness, torments, insanity, deceit, regular traumatic experiences, circle of tragedy, spiritual hindrances, domination by inferior forces, abandonment by God, suicide tendencies, family breakdown, etc.

 

IDOLATRY

     However, there is one big curse on black nations as a whole. This is the curse of idolatry. There is no way we can dance away from that. In Psalm 115:1-8 we see some interesting things. It says, “Not unto us O Lord, not unto us but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens; he had done whatsoever he hath pleased. (There are some gods that are beneath). Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouth, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not. They have ears but they hear not, noses have they, but they smell not. They have hands but they handle not: Feet have they, but they walk not, neither speak they through their throat. (Then the curse comes). They that make them are like unto them; so is everyone that trusteth in them.”

It means that idol worship causes several parts of the body to come under a curse. So, if your great grandfathers were worshipping idols, do not be too surprised if right now your mouth is cursed because it says that they have mouth, but they speak not. The descendants of such people cannot witness for Christ. Sometimes they fail to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes they speak fake and powerless tongues because their mouth is already cursed. They are not meant to utter powerful things. Sometimes their mouths attract problems.

Do you know that if you padlock some people’s mouths they will not have problems again because it is through their mouths, that their problems increase day by day? This is the curse of idolatry, a cursed mouth. Their eyes too are cursed. Such people cannot receive spiritual revelation, no matter how hard they try. They wonder when people say, “I saw the Lord, I saw angels, I saw this.” They wonder how they see these visions. Sometimes by simple prayers, they break the curse of the eyes. Cursed eyes see only evil. When good things would happen, they will not see them. They will always be eye witness of the evil ones. They cannot perceive spiritual things, although they are born again. A lot of preachers deceive their congregation by telling them that once they get born again and give their lives to the Lord and shake the preacher’s hand, their problems are over.  No, it is wrong.  Your salvation helps you to break and destroy those evil things which were passed down to you by your ancestors. But if you are ignorant, it will lead to death. Ignorance is the father of death.

Ears may be cursed. Such a victim will not hear God’s voice. The ears may be deaf to God. There will be low spiritual sensitivity. The affected person cannot sense the Lord’s  presence.

Hands could be cursed. The Bible says that they have hands, but they handle not. Your hand represents your ministry. Hands that cannot handle things are cursed.

Feet, too, can be cursed. The Bible says that they have feet but they cannot walk. Feet that cannot walk are evidence that somebody is crippled in the ministry.

The curse of idolatry has exposed the black people to all kinds of things. Any hand that has ever carried sacrifices is cursed, because the person has converted himself to the devil’s caterer. The person is feeding people who eat at the table of the enemy.  Also, heads that carry sacrifices are cursed. Any part of the body where they put incision is cursed. All bearers of names that glorify idols come under a curse because the Bible says that if you don’t give God the glory, you are cursed. Eating of things sacrificed to idols places the whole body under a curse. The deposits from the sacrifice will be eating one particular organ away. People who put on magical rings put their hands under a curse. If you have tried to solve a problem by going to the forest or river in a new dress and leaving the dress there for an old one, you are under a curse. There is no way somebody’s father would be an idolater or lodge member and the person would not be affected. Reading occult books will place the hands, brain and eyes under a curse. Wearing chains, bangles or necklaces broken off from the body of an idol places you under a curse.

Unfortunately, there are so many people labouring under curses now. The abdomen of somebody may be under a curse. He had been laying on strange women, or strange women had been laying on him. Somebody could be under the curse of alcohol. Incurable sicknesses are a sign that a curse is in operation.

 

HOW DO WE BREAK THEM?

All curses are broken on the basis of Galatians 3:13-14 and Colossians 2:14.

What are the steps?

1.  Repent from all known and unknown sins. When you are asking for forgiveness, first of all ask for forgiveness from those sins that you don’t know anything about.

2.  Renounce all ancestral sins.

3.  Accept God’s forgiveness and also forgive yourself. A lot of people find it hard to forgive themselves.

4.  Forgive all who have ever offended you.

5.  Renounce all contacts with demonic religions and objects.

6.  Destroy any demonic object in your possession, including the devil’s music.

7.  Break the curse by aggressive prayer.

8.  Cast out every demon of curse because there is always a demon that will ensure that the curse works.

9.  Claim the blessings, that is, offer a replacement.

God has a reason for making you to read this. I am sure the reason is for you to move into the highest blessings that you are created for and you are entitled to.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.  I  break and loose myself from all curses, in the name of Jesus.

2.  Every demonic bondage through parents and ancestors, break, in the name of Jesus.

3.  Lay your two hands on your head and pray like this: I choose blessings and I refuse curses, in the name of Jesus.

4.  I claim life and not death, in the name of Jesus.

5.       Every demon of curse, release me, in the name of Jesus.  back

 

HIGHER FOOLS 
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

The Bible says that “They that
          wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like the eagle. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40: 31).

There is power to mount up and  there is power to pull down, but the best power is the power from on high, which will make you to mount up like the eagle.  That is the kind of power that we should ask for. There are some Christians whose names have been taken to the dark places by the evil ones and the evil ones succeeded.  But some other names were taken there and the satanic agents said, “Sorry, we cannot touch these ones. It is impossible.”

There are fools and there are fools. When you say that somebody is a fool, perhaps you mean that he is silly and does not think very well or that he has a poor sense of judgment. The question is, who is the best person to describe a fool? If a fellow human being calls you a fool, you may have nothing to worry about, but if God calls you a fool, you must be really foolish.

WHO ARE FOOLS ACCORDING TO GOD?

This is the first thing we are going to look at before we see who the higher fools are. Psalm 107:17 says, “Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted. Their soul abhoreth all manner of meat: and they draw near unto the gates of death.” Here, fools are people who are being afflicted because of their transgression and they do not even know that it is because of their transgression.  They are unable to locate the fact that their problem started as a result of the sin in their lives.  The Bible says that they are foolish because they refuse to know that the reason they are going through what they are going through is their transgression. Having failed to repent of their transgression, trouble started.

Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” This means that the beginning of knowledge is not ‘A’ for Apple, ‘B’ for Ball and ‘C’ for Carrot, but the fear of the Lord. The Scripture goes ahead to say: “But fools despise wisdom and instructions.” When somebody who knows more than you is talking, who has passed through experiences and has the Spirit of God in him, you will be a fool not to listen to him.

Verse 22 says, “How long ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge?” Here, fools are those who despise knowledge and correction, they are those who hate knowledge and follow their own opinions.

People all over the earth, no matter where they come from, have choice of three authorities to operate under.

1. Personal opinion: The first authority is your own opinion. If you begin to say things like, “Well, it’s my own opinion, it is my own opinion,” and you believe that your own opinion is right while other people’s opinions are wrong and that your own opinion about Christianity is the only correct one, then perhaps, you will be the only one to go to heaven and you will be very lonely there. You may say, “Preacher, what if what you are saying here is wrong too?” If it is wrong, it then means that Jesus is not the King of kings and the Lord of lords after all, because the word of God is straightforward. Everything having to do with the salvation of man is well spelt out.  The Bible makes itself plain and clear. It says, “He that committeth sin is of the devil.” It does not put any middle class. It does not say, “Those who commit little or minor sins.” Pastor, apostle, evangelist or whatever you call yourself, once you commit sin, you are of the devil. Committing sin means that you are taking sides with the enemy of God. When Jesus came, He was not ready to listen to people’s opinions. He was not ready to listen to the truth of others, because He is the truth. You may also say, “What if you are wrong too?” Well, I still prefer my lifestyle to a lifestyle outside Christ. Someone may say, “Well, I don’t know whether Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. I don’t know whether there is hell or there is heaven.” Well, I don’t lose anything because I know that heaven and hell exist and that Jesus is the Kings of kings and the Lord of lords.  Those who fail to believe this will lose because when they die they will discover that the same Jesus that they have rejected is the King of kings.

Sometime ago, two groups of people argued whether God exists or not. The first group says that He exists, while the second group says that He does not. The group that says that God does not exist always asks questions like, “If actually God exists, why does He permit motor accidents? Why does He permit people to die anyhow, and children to die in hospitals, and all kinds of evil things happening? There is definitely no God.” The second group who says that God does not exist would say, “Well, the things that we find in the world make it unreasonable to say or believe that God does not exist. It appears there is one intelligent brain behind all these things, and that intelligent brain is what people call God."

These two groups argued for a week and many Christians backslid during the debate. On the last day, their professor, a white man, who was to conclude the debate came and made the following statement: “It is more logical to believe that God exists because if you say that He does no exist, and you die and discover that He exists, He will deal with you.” That closed the debate. So, some people are labouring under their own opinions, and that is one authority.

2. Other people’s opinion: Another authority is other people’s opinion, which may be right or wrong.  These are the things that control our lives. You may say, “No” but this is true. If everybody was blind and could not see, many of us would change our dressing. Some people who paint parts of their body like masquerades and do all kinds of things will stop when they discover that nobody admires them. They won’t even bother to wear bathroom slippers to work. So, people also labour under other people’s opinion.

3. God’s opinion: The highest opinion is that of the Almighty God and His Book. 

The devil has no opinion.  He has a mission and his mission is to destroy. Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.” It means that a fool is a person who is always right in his own eyes, and immediately you begin to correct him, you hurt him, you hurt his feelings. Proverbs 28: 26 also says, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.”

So, one whose ways are right in his own heart, is a fool according to God. For example, the Bible’s order of marriage is just twofold. It says,  “Wives, be subject to your husbands, and husbands, love your wives.” If people will just obey these two instructions, there will be no problem. “Wife be subject to your husband” means that if as a wife you are stating your opinion and your husband opens his mouth and says, “Shut up,” you should respect him and keep quiet. If you are not ready to do that, you shouldn’t have got married, your needn’t have dropped your father’s name to pick up another man’s own. If people will obey this, many homes will remain standing. If you say, “Well, I studied Biology in the university,” So what? Do you marry Biology? Your insistence that “I must talk, I am educated, I have my own opinions,” would only break the home into pieces. Most of the people asking you to talk and return fire for fire will later be laughing at you and saying, “He has thrown her out.” A fool is always right in his own heart.  Drop your opinion and follow what God is saying. When there is no subjection, love does not follow. It is just like Christ and His church.  If you refuse to subject yourself to the leadership of Christ, there will be problem for you.

Proverb 14:9 says, “Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous, there is favour.” It means that fools take sin lightly and forget the word of the Bible. If the Son of God, the ‘water of life’ could suffer so much for Him to say, “I thirst, give me water,” and instead of being given water, He was given vinegar, if He cried out in pain and God watched it happened, then woe unto that preacher or that Christian who would take sin lightly. This is why God is withdrawing His children from the dead churches. He shed His blood for them and will not allow them to perish in those dead places. His blood cannot go in vain, His children must be set free.

Proverb 16:5 says, “A fool despiseth his father’s instruction: but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.” Children who despise their fathers instructions are fools.  The Bible says that their days will not be long.

I know a man who is a lawyer and his father too was a lawyer.  He was very rude to his father. He thought he was a good match for his father because they were both in the same profession.  One day, the father said to him, “What you are doing to me, your children will do to you in future.” The man replied and said, “That is rubbish, shut up.” The man later died.

After the death of the father, the young man started having problems.  When he wanted to marry, he was manipulated into marrying the highest witch in the city. Right from the first night after the wedding, when both of them slept on the bed, the bed was turning around in circle and continued so until daybreak. He used to urinate once or twice at night, but with the circling around of the bed he began to bedwet. When they woke up, his wife would say to him, “Useless man, I didn’t know that you are like this.  After messing up now, you will put on your suit and be arguing in the courts.  One day, I will go to the court and tell them that you are a bedwet.”

With this kind of manipulation, the wife became the husband and the man became the wife because he was afraid that they would find out that he was bedwetting.  One day, he went to court to defend someone. It was as if the judge woke up on the wrong side and everything he said was termed rubbish. After sometime, everything went wrong in the court and he was ordered to be kicked out. And right from there, things ceased to work. One day, he met a preacher who said to him, “God said, you have offended somebody and you need to make a restitution.” He said, “The only person I know I quarrelled with was my father.” The preacher asked after the father and he told him that he had died. The preacher told him how serious the matter was and the man then begged God to forgive him.  He went straight to the grave of his father and wept and wept for almost six hours asking for forgiveness.  God saw him and said, “Ok, I forgive you.” But somebody does not have to pass through all that.  Although he was a lawyer, learned men as they are called, as far as the Bible is concerned, he was a fool.

Knowledge is different from wisdom. Education is different from wisdom. The fact that you attended school and passed your examinations does not mean that you are wise. The Bible calls such people fools.

Proverbs 20:3 says, “It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling.” It says that they will be meddling, they will be fighting until people would say, “Are those two people not Christians and we see them carrying the Bible.” The Bible calls them fools.

The Bible says, “Be quick to hear, but be slow to speak.” Most times, when you keep your mouth shut, people will not know that you are a fool, but it is when you start talking that they will know that you are foolish. You will expose yourself.

Sometime ago, two sisters were fighting and people ran to the mission house to call the pastor. The pastor came in his bicycle and said, “It ‘s okay.” One of them said to the pastor, “Oga, this is not church. This is a personal thing. I cannot, because I am born again, become a tablemat. So, Mr. Pastor, when I come to church, you can talk. This place is our house.” And she continued fighting. She is a fool, according to the Bible.

Psalm 92: 6 says, “A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.” It is my earnest prayer that any fool reading this message will receive deliverance, in Jesus’ name. And all those whose eyes have been blinded to the truth of God’s word shall be set free, in Jesus’ name.

Proverb 18: 6 -7 says, “A fool’s lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes. A fool’s mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul.” All wrong users of the mouth are fools, according to the foregoing. Proverb 26:11 says, “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” All backsliders who have refused to slide back to Jesus are fools.

The next class of fools is in the book of Ecclesiastes 7: 9 which says, “Be not hasty in the spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.” Angry people are regarded as fools by God.  If you still get angry, then you are a student in the school of foolishness, and you must depart quickly from that school.

 

HIGHER FOOLS

Psalm 14: 1 says, “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” The Bible says that the fool says in his heart, and not that he speaks it out. He does not talk, he is just thinking it and yet the Bible says that he is a fool. If the Bible could call somebody who is thinking that there is no God a fool, how about the one who is saying it? That one must be a higher fool.

We have a lot of people today who keep saying that there is no God. It is not their fault. If they were to be alive before the gospel came into this land, they would understand better. Before the gospel came to this land nobody wore good clothes and came out. If they did, witches would eat them up the next day. Only a few people who were strong could do that. If you have not read about the darkness in this place before the gospel came, please, do so. Demons were walking in the streets in the daytime. They were not hiding in the night. In some places in this country, witches were flying in the afternoon. But now, they dare not try it. A small child of God can now point his little finger and command fire to come down. It was not so before, because in those days many people did not know that there was fire anywhere.

In Luke 24: 25 Jesus says, “O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory?” At a stage, Jesus described His own disciples as fools because of their sluggishness in understanding spiritual things.

Luke 12:16-21 says, “And he spake a parable unto them saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do, I will pull down my barns and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night, thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth treasure up for himself, and is not rich toward God.” These are the highest fools. The Bible also says, “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end”(Deuteronomy 32: 29). This is saying that when a man is wise, he would not be thinking of the immediate profit.  So, everyone who lives and dies without making adequate preparation about where he or she is going is a fool.

When last did you think about heaven? Where are now the rich men of yesterday? Where are the popular ones? Have you not forgotten them. In a few years to come, the children that will be born will not know some names that are popular now, unless they read about them. Sooner or later, many people who have been doing things will become “Ex this and Ex that.” You have to plan towards heaven. You have to be rich towards God. A lot of people are busy doing only what is convenient for them. Don’t do what is just convenient for you. If the service is not convenient for you, you don’t come. It is better not to have been born than to have been born and you fail to make sure of eternity, or you are unprepared for death.

Birth is your opportunity, it is your beginning from where there is no returning. Once you have been born, you cannot say, “Mummy, I don’t like the world. Oh, let me go back into your womb.” No, it is impossible.

Death, too, is a commitment from which there is no escape. At birth, we all commence the journey from this world to the next. You cannot turn back from the journey. Only the body is the creature of this earth. It is therefore utter foolishness for any man to presume that he can find his way to God on his deathbed. God gives no such guarantee to anybody.

Sometime ago, in England, I was made the head of a Bible study group in a particular hall. We held our Bible study on Tuesdays. The first day that I taught, I found that many people felt uncomfortable.  The next time I was to talk, immediately I entered the study room, I found that somebody had ironed some clothes there. We didn’t know that the sister we were to hold the Bible study in her room was getting ready to go for a party with an unbeliever. She was just waiting for us to complete the Bible study. I started to talk by saying, “Well, God will meet you the way death meets you and there is no guarantee that in the next five minutes, you will still be here. Those who still patch their Christianity, who are not yet ready to stand out, are planning for destruction because when Jesus was around, He was very rigid.  So, in case you are looking for somebody who will bend the rules, not the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ kept saying woe to the enemies of the gospel. He called the Scribes and Pharisees the sons of those who killed the prophets. But He spoke good words unto those who loved Him.

As we closed the Bible study, the sister said, “Daniel, wait, I want to talk with you. What you said today is just what I needed to shake me out of my slumber. But, you see, I am a young girl, you are old. How then do I enjoy myself. You can afford not to go to disco but me, a young girl, how will I get on.” Then I opened to Psalm 119: 9 which states how the young should live their lives. I made her to understand that what she called enjoyment was not enjoyment but destruction coated with sugar. When you finish eating the sugar, the bitterness would enter into your mouth.  A lot of people are like that and we call them chameleon Christians. It is very risky not to be sure of heaven because an unexpected accident can suddenly throw someone into hell or heaven to spend eternity there. One man of God used to say, “Sudden death, sudden glory.” That was because he was ready for death. Someone who is not ready cannot say that. If you are not rich towards God, you cannot say that.

Nobody is born into the way of Christianity. The fact that you were born into a Christian home does not automatically make you a Christian. Christianity has to be sought.  It is a way.  The Bible says, “Seek and you shall find.” You have to find the way and move therein. Neglect of this opportunity that God presents to you is rejection of grace. If you persist in unbelief, and refuse to respond to God’s call, it is spiritual suicide. One of the most worrying verses in the Bible, which many people wish that it should be removed, is in I Peter 4: 17-18 which says, “For the hour is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear.” Consider the fact that the righteous shall scarcely be saved.  Think about it. Ask questions like, “What am I doing here? Where am I going? When I die, what will happen?” If you have never thought about these, then you need serious prayers. When you are tied to the world, it will glue you down. When the trumpet sounds, it will glue you down. The church is in the world, but the world should not enter into the church.  This deceptive world we are living in will sink one day and those who are not ready to separate from it, shall sink with it. Many Christians are too worldly-minded to be heavenly good. The world is constantly seeking to defile the child of God and if you allow it, it will have its way.

Today, I want you to think about it very well. There is a little thing in electricity called a fuse.  The current passes through it.  When God looks at you and sees that the fuse in your life has blown, no matter how powerful your environment may be and fire is coming out, it won’t enter you.  Some people have inferior fuses and cannot carry any power.  Such people should really cry unto the Lord.  One of the greatest tragedies of Christianity is the re-arrangement of priorities.  Many Christians are very active when they are praying against their enemies whereas the Bible says, “Seek you first the kingdom and all other things shall be added.” It means that those things will be pursuing you and not you pursuing them.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. Lord, lay your hand upon my life and make my life a miracle, in the name of Jesus.

2. Lord, give me the power to mount up with wings like the eagles, in the name of Jesus.

3. I refuse to become the serpent’s meat, in Jesus’ name.

4. Lord, anywhere my name is called for evil, let fire and thunder fall there, in the name of Jesus.

5. I command the Red Sea to swallow all my Pharaohs, in the name of Jesus.

 

 

  

THE SLUMBERING SPIRITS Part 2

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 Now, We bring you the concluding part of the message: The Slumbering Spirit. Last week, we looked at the first and the second functions of man’s spirit, now we will be looking at the third function of the spirit.

 3.  TO ENABLE US HEAR FROM GOD

ln Numbers chapter 12, we see several ways that God talk to people. At least if you call yourself a born-again Christian and you have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, God should be able to talk to you in one of these ways. Unless, your speaking in tongues is fake. If it is true baptism in the Holy Spirit that you have received, there are some ways that God will be talking to you. In Numbers 12:6, the Bible says,

 “And He said, hear now my words; if there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known to him in a vision”

God can talk to you in a vision. “ l will speak to him in a dream”

He can talk to somebody in a dream.  Numbers 12:7-8a says,

“But my servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all my house, with him will l speak mouth to mouth even apparently, and not in dark speeches;”

So God can speak to some people in dark speeches. You can now see levels of prophets. God can talk to you in dark speeches if that is the level of your spirit, God can speak to you in visions if that is the level of your spirit. He can speak to you in the dreams if that is the level of your spirit. People who are awake have dreams or revelations or visions, you must have read about the hidden disciple called Ananias in the book of Acts. Although, we don’t talk much about Ananias today but he was the man who prayed for Paul to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So Paul should be referring to him as the father in the Lord. Ananias’ ministry may look quiet now, but he did a fantastic job for Christianity. He was praying in his house and God came to him and said: “Ananias” God called him by name and he answered “yes, here l am” God said now “arise”, specific instructions, no ambiguity, “go to a street which is called straight and enter a house, there you will find one man called Saul praying, lay your hands on him so that he might receive his sight and be filled with Holy Ghost. When Ananias hears this he said, God I am sorry oh, what did you call his name? God said “Saul”. And hen he said, ha! The man that has been arresting Christians. His purpose for coming here is to arrest Christians and kill them. I am sorry sir, l don’t think l want to die yet.” God said “No”, go; for this purpose, have l raised him up to be light unto the gentiles. For I must show him what great things he must suffer for my sake” And Ananias went; Just like that! And what the Lord said he met it so. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were like Ananias? But a lot of people don’t want to work themselves up to that level. People who are awake always hear from God and receive revelations. But people with slumbering spirit will never have a clear divine dream. They will never see a vision although it is by our spirits that God speaks to us. But to them, it seems that God is deaf and dumb. These people with slumbering spirits are deaf and blind and as such they cannot hear. Close your eyes again and lay your hands on your chest. Beloved, if this is the only prayer point we have to pray before we leave here today, won’t it be good that you could be hearing from the Lord, regularly and constantly? You should be able to commit even the smallest thing in your life to the Lord and get direct, straight answer. You must even be able to ask God, “ Shall l wear this headgear? Shall I use this cap? Shall l use these wristwatches? Shall l wear these shoes? And simple details like that. God has to be able to speak to you, but the problems are that, the ears are deaf, the eyes are blind and the spirits are not functioning very well. You are going to raise your voice, depending on how serious you want to take this prayer, Oh Lord, “open my spiritual eyes and ears, l want to see, l want to hear”. On what we have said in the past two weeks, if you turn the searchlight of the Holy Spirit on yourself, God might help you to locate some things making the spirit to be weak. People say that the same sun that melts the candle makes the clay strong. So the problem that will knock somebody down, and the person will not be able to rise up again, is the same one which another person will be boasting about and overcome.

4 TO INSPIRE US 

When your spirit is awake, ideas will be blossoming in your mind. Creative ideas will come out from within you and you will discover new ways of doing things. But people with slumbering spirits will not have fresh ideas about anything. They are like what some people use to play spiritual games. They are the kind of people who hear messages of eternal judgment, holiness and things that ought to challenge them, but they go out as if they heard nothing. They are the people who go out from under the anointing of God’s words and do the opposite of what they have heard. They are the people, who still embarrass us by their actions despite all the messages they have heard here. It is because the spirit is sleeping and if it is not woken up, that is exactly how the spirit will arrive at the judgment seat of God and end up in hell fire.

5 TO PROTECT US FROM DISEASES AND PREVENT SICKNESSES

Our Spirit protects us from diseases and sicknesses. Proverbs chapter 18:14 says,

“ The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity”

It is your spirit that will sustain any infirmity. Proverbs 17:23 also says,

“a merry heart doeth good like medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones”.

 When the spirit is sick inside, or is sleeping, any kind of junk can be put in it. Spirits that awake throw off sicknesses can never be sick because sicknesses bounce off them like football. But those who slumber in the spirit go down under every sickness that the devil throws at them. Somebody told me that, it seemed as if any new weapon in the kingdom of darkness is first tried on him. This is because his spirit is slumbering. The problems of such people become the dominating center of their lives. They don’t have what is called, “the see through ability, the stamina to wait before the Lord, and have lasting joy”. One function of the spirit is to protect us; if somebody’s spirit is then sleeping all kinds of things will just be happening to the spirit.

6 TO GIVE US A GOOD CONSCIENCE AS THIS HELPS US TO STAY OUT OF TROUBLE

For example, what stops us from stealing other people’s things is conscience. When you have the knowledge of the Lord that knowledge of the Lord reveals that certain things are wrong and should not be done, but mere knowledge never keeps anyone from sinning. That is why Christianity differs from other religions. The Bible says that as many as received him, he gave them the power to become the Son of God. You may know all the rules of “ thou shall not” just as other religions will tell you what not to do. But the power not to do this is not available. You know that something is wrong, yet you do it. What will you do? So the knowledge of the Lord does not keep any body from sinning. The fear that what you are doing may be discovered does not keep you away from committing adultery for example. But when your conscience is there, no matter how humble you are when you are doing something really bad, this policeman called conscience will talk. It will talk quietly, and you may shut it up. But when you have awakened spirit, you know that some kind of things should not be done and you don’t do them. But the sleeping spirit will not have enough check to do something before trouble happens. Such people are only aware that they have made mistakes, when it is already late. These are the problems, when the spirit is slumbering. Some people complain that they cannot pray for a long time. It is probably because the spirit is sleeping and you need your spirit for serious praying.

7 THE SPIRIT KEEPS THE BODY ALIVE AND FUNCTIONING

Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 7 says

 “ Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to the Lord who gave it”

 Immediately the spirit leaves the body, the body instantly begins to decay. Awakened spirits now will always be mentally and spiritually alert. A slumbering spirit will be dead although it is still living and it makes no impact on anybody. Then apart from that, there is another powerful spirit called the spirit of slumber. When somebody already has the slumbering spirit and is coupled with spirit of slumber, many of the following things may happen to the person. There is something we call the ostrich behaviour. You put your head in the sand, it is all-dark and you believe you can hide. Because it is dark there you think that nobody sees you. This is the ostrich behaviour. Clever pretence is an evidence that the spirit is asleep. Unreasonable silence;  when something has gone wrong and you refused to speak up because you don’t want to own up to your responsibility, this is slumbering spirit.

Forgetfulness: some people forget things easily. Some just find that their minds are dark, with no light at all. Anytime they pray, all they notice is that there is darkness around them. They have never experienced the bright light. The Bible says that Jesus is the light that cometh into the world and lighteth everyman that cometh into the world.

Daydreaming: such people just sit down and day dream, about good old days and the future. Inability to settle down and read the word of God. If you can read other books, but find it difficult to read the bible, it is evidence that the spirit of slumber has taken over.

Inactivity: When you just come to the house of the lord and you are not interested in anything. You just sit down, enjoy the prayers, or the word of God, take what you like and you think you are more clever than anyone else, it is an evidence that the spirit of slumber has taken over.

Complete spiritual blindness: When you cannot see beyond your nose. A witch is standing before you, another one is serving you a meal but you cannot recognize them, something is wrong, something is asleep that should be awaken. You see, the reason why many possess slumbering spirit dates back to the foundation of their lives. Let me try and explain it; the human being is the only creation which will not become like his own kind, if it is not raised by his own kind.

That is, if somebody drops a baby among lions after birth, and for some reasons the lions refuse to kill the child, when the child grows up, he will behave like a lion. When you take a human baby to a foster parent, when the baby grows up, he will be behaving like the foster parents. But other animals don’t behave this way. If you raise a goat among sheep, it will still be behaving like a goat. If you raise a duck among the chicken, it will still behave like a duck, but human being among wolves he would sooner or latter begin to act like a wolf. A human being is dependent on his parent, or his environment to influence how he will react when he grows up. The reason why some people have slumbering spirit is because they were not properly looked after when they were young. This is the reason why broken home is not good.

When a child is being looked after by single parent, and the child never had affection from both parents, that is one reason why some people have slumbering spirit. Another reason is that the enemy of man’s soul may send the spirits of some people to sleep. We need to pray that such spirits get awakened. Beloved, l like you to close your eyes and to pray with your spirit and your strength. You are going to speak out, “That any department of my life that is asleep, wake up in the name Jesus”. There are different levels of sleepers. The Bible even talk about dead sleep. There are some people that you will tap or push still they will not wake up. The alarm will sound but they will still be sleeping. Do you know that the spirit also behaves like that? To wake up some people’s spirit is only when a tragedy happens. Then they will wake up and start praying. Do you have to wait for that to happen?

Lay your right hand on your chest and say  “Father in the name of Jesus, wake me up from any spiritual sleep” Why do you think some people are suffocated in their dreams or something is pressing them down? They will call on the name of Jesus many times before they are given some comfort. Others will say l command you to be roasted in the name of Jesus and they will not even move from where they are. The spirit needs to wake up. Spiritual robbers have sneaked in have given the person spiritual Valium and therefore he is sleeping. As long as the person is sleeping he constitutes no threat to whatsoever to the powers of darkness. Because they know that they can catch the person at anytime they want. Won’t you speak to the lord again and pray like this: Every spiritual battle that l have lost through spiritual slumber. I claim back my victory in Jesus name. We have talked about spiritual injury and spiritual slumber.

Now, for a few minutes l want to talk about

Spiritual Imprisonment: In psalm 107 verse 16. For those of us who do not know too much about the psalmist, he was a man who had problems, and understood what the host of darkness means. He was a warrior and so when you read the psalms, you will find out that there are lots of war-strategies there. He says, he teacheth my hands to war. When you read the Psalms, and some of his languages are not too clear, when you look at them in the spirit, you will understand the deep meaning of what he is saying Psalm 107verse 16 says

“ For he has broken the gates of brass and cut asunder the bars of iron in sunder”.

 Which prison is this one? Certainly it cannot be a physical prison where they put somebody who had stolen yam or something from the market. He has broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron asunder. There are prisons in the spirit world, and this is a very serious situation because spiritual imprisonment is a situation when somebody’s spirit has been trapped. The spirit has been imprisoned inside a spiritual cage. You move around a little bit depending on the size of the cage and this thing can never happen from birth.

The enemy can cage a child immediately after birth and replace the spirit inside him with a completely different spirit. Sometimes when we tell some people, that this is not your body, your body is somewhere else” They will say”, Ha! What do you mean? How do you know that my body is somewhere else? Yes, it is because your body is somewhere else and you are here that is why things are not working well. “They will say, you mean I’m not like this? And we say” yes, your correct body is better than this, this one is second hand, get the original. There are many people like that, who are trapped from birth; others are locked up inside their bodies. The spirit is inside the body, but it is locked up, and really cannot express itself.

This is the third secret of failure. How do you then recognize spirits that have been imprisoned? Such People will always be feeling empty as if something is missing. They just have this feeling that they are not normal and that something is missing somewhere. Such persons have been caged. A caged woman can never settle down in the husband’s home and a caged man will not get married. A caged person will not be able to achieve the potential that God wants him to achieve. He will be feeling vacant inside. He may be praying in tongues and do all kinds of things but somewhere deep, deep down, something is missing. Feeling of loneliness even in the middle of a crowed is a sign of imprisoned spirit.

So also, when a person feels being tormented when there is no physically tormenting him or you have looked at yourself and you found out that there are talents and powers within you, which you cannot reach. You know that you have the talent. You know you could do certain things, but somehow, something has locked up your talent and therefore those who are supposed to be saying yes sir, to you, are the ones telling you what to do. This is because somewhere within, the Moses has been locked up. God will release your Moses today. Or it appears that, you are just moving farther and farther away from success, as you are growing older. It is because the right person is probably not just there. A feeling of being lost inside when everything seem to be going on well outside is an evidence that somebody has been spiritually locked up.

Sometimes when ministers are invited to big men’s meeting you find a lot of interesting things there. Sometime when you talk about money, they are not impressed, talk about security, they are not impressed because they have private jet and if anything happens they will jump into their planes and fly out. It is the people who ride motorcycle that will be left behind. If you talk about armed robbers, no problem, they are walled round about, with giant gates and barbed wire. But then, when you stand there and say beloved although this place is surrounded with barbed wires and tall walls, yet there are some powers that don’t need to pass through the gates. They pass through the walls and they will enter into the bedroom, and you won’t see them. They will say, “ ha its true” Do you know that somebody who is in the midst of affluence can still be lost inside? You just feel that trouble and danger are around the corner, but cannot locate where they are. Inwardly, you feel unsafe, whereas on the outside you are perfectly safe, the spirit is imprisoned.

Internal anger against no person in particular, that too is an evidence of a trapped spirit. When you get to a prayer meeting, this never ceases to amaze me, when everybody is praying and you see somebody sleeping right there while the prayers are going on. That one is an evidence of a trapped spirit, sometimes when prayer meetings are powerful, and you suddenly start to become dizzy, that person has been trapped. If you find that during satanic attacks in the dream, you are always unable to move when the enemies come, you cannot run, or stand and talk, they seem to achieve everything they want to achieve each time they come, the spirits is trapped. There are powers are too that can extract a man’s human spirit and substitute with another demon spirit to live in that man’s body and when you look at the person and say “ you are not the person l used to know, what happened to you? 

The spirit has been trapped somewhere, such imprisoned spirit wherever they are, they are under the control of that power, and will never experience the fullest potential in life. I am not talking about physical prison now, l am talking about spiritual prisons. Now, when you put all these things together and think about them the wounded spirit, they are the secrets of spiritual defeat. All other defeats take their roots from threat place, right there within the spirit. When Jesus was in the world, sometimes he will speak and speak and speak and some people will look at him and say get lost. Is this not the carpenter’s son? Are his brothers and sisters not here with us?” others will say, “ Lord, what shall we do? “ These are the two groups of people. Those sleeping, trapped, imprisoned and cannot even see the light when it is shinning. This is the truth why defeat is so easy for the devil to perpetuate. May l then ask the question, now supposing somebody is not born with all these, how then when he is an adult, can he start to sleep in the spirit, get spiritual wound, and be imprisoned in the spirit? “ l will tell you, the main gate of the enemy, these days is in three things.

1.     Disobedience

2.     Stubbornness

3.     Rebellion.

Disobedience to God’s command in any way will dull our spiritual senses. As a person continues in disobedience, his perception and the ability to hear from God will diminish and begin to fade away little by little until God withdraws his presence. So it is a great prayer, to say God cast me not away from thine presence. But as you continue to disobey God, His love will be getting smaller until the person hears nothing again from Him.

My prayer is that you will not get to that level in Jesus name. If you say “Amen” you too depart from the school of disobedience. As a person continues to disobey God, stupidity will increase, and errors will continue. The truth is this, no one can break God’s law, you are only breaking yourself, you cannot say you want your own way and escape from the consequences. God despises disobedience.

Some people complain about us in this place say “You people you don’t mind your own business. You always threaten people with suspension and you are too strict. The truth is this; it is actually our business not to mind our business. That is the business of all missionaries; Men of God cannot mind their business because if any one is going quietly and sees somebody possessed, he will command the serpentine spirit to come out in Jesus name. What concerns him? If he goes way, he is not possessed, the serpentine spirit is not in his body. Saul was dethroned because he was disobedience and he lost his kingdom. God hates disobedience with perfect hatred. When you are still disobeying God in any area, no matter how small, you are looking for trouble, serious one, because disobedience was the first sin in the Garden of Eden through which the whole of the human race is in trouble today. Just like pride was the first sin that the devil committed. Let us look at Psalm 107verse 10

“Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron”.

How did they get into darkness? How id they get to be bound in affliction and iron? Because they rebelled against the words of God and contempt the counsel of the most high God. They neglected what God told them to do. Rebellion against the word of God holding God’s counsel in contempt will bring drastic consequences. And what it would bring, no prophet can assist, no prayer warrior can assist, nothing can assist, until you fall down on you knees and say oh Lord have mercy on me a sinner, that’s where you start from at the feet of the cross again. Saul disobeyed, God did not pardon him, Adam and Eve disobeyed, God did not pardon them; Moses disobeyed, God did not pardon him.

Samson disobeyed, God did not pardon him. So think about it very well beloved; think about it very deeply. Everything God has been asking you to do, do you do them? All the warnings that God gives here, are to you not the kind of person who will come back and say, “ l made a mistake there some places where Christians are working now; no Christian can work there and go to heaven because everything there is just dirty business. Don’t deceive yourself. A believer is asked to go and represent his company somewhere and he slept in his car. After sleeping in his car, he went and bought a receipt from one hotel with twenty naira, and later claimed N600 for sleeping in the hotel. Rebellion! Because you have taken a stand against your God. That is what we are talking about, with all the messages and those things that we say here do you know that some people still go to tie extra things to their hairs and so give our deliverance ministers sleepless nights, it is rebellion.

A sheep must listen to the shepherd, if he wants to belong safely in the fold, if not when the wolves come they will grab the sheep that has gone astray. This morning by the grace of God we have to pray about all these things. These will make a difference between our spiritual live which whether you want to succeed or you want to fail; and my prayer is that you will not fail. God Let us close our eyes, We will go into first prayer seeing, Ask the Lord to restore all the spiritual years through one thing or the other, ask the Lord the Lord to restore the spiritual years. All trapped spirits, be released whether it is under a tree, inside the body, under the water, all imprisoned spirit be released in the mighty name of Jesus. if you want freedom from these things. There is no sense in being ashamed when the enemy is busy working upon your life. We want to cancel every evil design.

  PRAYER POINTS

 1.     You spirit of slumber and heaviness, release me in the name of Jesus.

2.     Holy spirit, help me to really discover myself.

3.     My spirit, l command you to wake up from any spiritual slumber in Jesus name.

4.     Oh! Lord, set me on fire in the name of Jesus.

5.     Father lord, remove from my life, anything that is putting my spirit to sleep in the name of Jesus.

6.     l bind and cast out of my life, you spirit of the tail in Jesus name.

7.     Let every evil eye monitoring my life; receive everlasting blindness in the name of Jesus.

8.     Father Lord cause me to do the right thing at the right time in Jesus name.

9.     Father Lord, give me an excellent spirit in Jesus name.

10. l command all mistakes to be converted to manifold blessings in the name of Jesus\

11. l stand against the spirit of Pisgah in my life in the name of Jesus

12. Father Lord let your glory completely cover my life in the name of Jesus.

13. Father Lord, cause my life to please you I n every way in the name of Jesus.

 

 

  

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 says: “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 2002, 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.

  

MEDICINE FROM ABOVE
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Isaiah 53: 4-5 says, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” The above passage is in the past tense because it was a settled case. God wants to touch you and heal you everywhere you are hurting. That is His own will.

Many years ago, a certain man was celebrating his 60th birthday. People brought cakes, wonderful cards and so many other things as gifts. He was a multi-millionaire but was on a wheel chair. After sometime, the people gathered round him and started to sing a song to wish him a happy birthday. Then one of the guests said to him, “Sir, make a birthday wish.” The man said, “What good is it to be rich if I am forever going to be on this wheel chair. I want to get out of this wheel chair.” There are sicknesses and there are sicknesses.

Money cannot buy you health. It may buy you drugs but cannot buy the medicine from above, which God gives free of charge. Unfortunately, there are more sick people in the world today more than ever before in history. At a time when there are more doctors, more medicine and more hospitals, yet more people are sick. There are more hospitals, more clinics, more and better medical equipment, more and better techniques both in developed and under-developed countries, yet there are more sick people. I never could believe that a day would come in developed countries when the hospital beds would be so full that patients would be arranged on the corridor and the doctors would not be able to diagnose the problem of the majority of the people.

In the past, people used to think that only people from countries that are over-crowded and poor or where they are very superstitious suffer from diseases and sicknesses. Now, things have changed. Even comfortable people who are very rich have their own diseases such as heart disease, overweight, cancer, etc. So there are various grades of sickness. One of our pastors abroad told me that one day, somebody who was a pilot phoned him and said, “Hello sir, are you the pastor of MFM?” “Yes,” the pastor answered. He said, “Anything you know how to say begin to say it now, because I have a gun and I'm about to blow my brain out.” God helped the pastor and he was able to convince him not to kill himself. That is another kind of sickness. It is not a Nigerian one; not many Nigerians would want to shoot their brains out.

The only way out is through God’s word which is filled with healing from cover to cover. Exodus 15: 26 says, “And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.”  This was a life-saving guarantee to the Israelites. This promise was so effective that many many years later, David could say in Psalm 105:37, “He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.” None of them was sick.

Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 58: 6 declares as follows: “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” Verse 8 says, “Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward.” There is living healing power in the word of God. Proverbs 4: 20-22 says, “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” Another version of the Bible says, “…And medicine to all their flesh.” You find this spread out through scriptures. That was in the Old Testament. Now, we have a better covenant.

In fact, one out of every seven verses in the gospel is about healing. Jesus Himself devoted two third of His time ministering to the sick, all kinds of sicknesses ranging from spiritual leprosy, which is sin to physical sicknesses. Look at the powerful scripture in Acts 10: 38. It says, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” Matthew 8:16 says, “When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” Matthew 9: 35 says, “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.” Matthew 12: 15 says, “But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence. And great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all.”

Beloved, the Bible is a healing book. It teaches without a doubt that God wants to heal you. Whenever healing prayers are being said, do not take anything for granted because in so many lives, the seed of infirmity has already been planted. It may not have grown to a level where you can recognize it. But if you kill it at the seed stage, it will not develop into anything. Although a serpent is very dangerous, a small boy can destroy it at the egg stage. But once it becomes a big python, then it becomes a problem. So, healing prayers are both preventive and curative.

The Bible is a healing book, it depends on whether you believe the Bible or not. God has said in His words that He would heal you, do you believe His word? If you believe God, then you have to co-operate with Him for your recovery. This is why some people say, “God said it, I believe it, I receive it.”

If Jesus tarries in coming, all of us would have to die one way or the other. It is very sad sometimes when you see some people doing bad things that would shorten their lives and warn them against it, instead of repenting, they would say, “Please leave me alone, one would surely die of something.” If somebody has to die of something, must you speed up the death? Remember that, that life does not belong to you. As a believer, even if it is time for you to die, you are supposed to depart in peace because His servant must depart in peace. I do not believe that a child of God has to be rolling on the floor, crying in pain or going all over the place, and suffering before he dies. If you die out of persecution for Jesus, fine. His servant must depart in peace if he has to depart at that time. So, you do not have to be terribly sick in order to die. The best way to die, is for you to close your eyes here and open them in heaven. So, disease is not necessary for death. A righteous person can lie down to sleep and wake up in heaven. That is why Psalm 104: 29 says, “Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.”

So far, we have settled the fact that it is God’s will to heal. The next thing is the issue of faith. It is so easy to talk theory, but it is the practicality of it that matters. In Mark 9:18, a certain man was complaining to Jesus about his son. He said, “And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him and he groaneth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away; and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.” That was his complaint to Jesus. In verse 23, Jesus gave him an answer. “Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. Verse 24: And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.” What he was saying was this, “If my faith has been battered by problems, and has become low, help me.” This passage exposes the faith problem, which troubles many Christians. Actually, the problem is not the presence or absence of faith, rather, it is a struggle between positive faith and negative faith, between belief and unbelief. The truth is that everybody has faith, the difference is how the faith is used. If you do not have faith, you will not buy a tin of milk from the market without asking them to open it. You believe that when you take it home, you will see milk inside, so you have faith. The fact that you sit down on a seat without checking whether you will fall down or not, means that you have faith. So, faith is like the gear in your vehicle, which can be shifted forward or backward. It depends on where you are shifting your own. When you shift it forward, you are exercising positive faith, and when you shift it backward, it does not go anywhere. What does that mean? It means on Monday, you have powerful faith, by Tuesday, the faith is gone, by Wednesday, you have a large one again, and by Thursday, it is gone. Friday, you have it, Saturday, it is gone, Sunday, you have it, forward and backward. Such a person will not go anywhere. That is why the Bible says that a doubter is like the waves of the sea, tossed here and there. It then made a very fearful pronouncement: “Let not such a man think that he can receive anything from the Lord.” You do not have to draw up more faith or try and pump it up until it is a very big size. Faith simply means believing what God has said in His word and that He will do what He has said. It is having the confidence that God will keep His promises. Whereas, negative faith has many forms:

1.  Fear: Fear is a forerunner of calamity, the creator of bad things. It brings captivity, confusion, frustration, inner conflict, tension and defeat. It is the favourite weapon of the enemy. It is negative faith. You have faith, no problem, but you are exercising it in the reverse direction.

2.  Doubt: Another form of negative faith is doubt. This one is cruel and destructive. When there is trouble, a doubter blames God. When there is blessing, a doubter will fear whether it would last. As you are reading this bulletin, you have sufficient faith to heal you of any sickness. It depends whether you are going forward or backward or whether it is negative faith or positive faith. The Bible says that faith without work is dead, meaning that, you must act on the word of God and do what God asks you to do. That faith must be expressed in action. You do what God tells you to do, and then expect Him to do His own side. It was Noah that built the ark, but it was God that flooded the earth. It was Moses that stretched out the rod, but it was God that parted the waters. It was Joshua and his people that marched around Jericho, but it was God that fell the wall. It was Elijah that smote the water, but it was God that parted the water. It was Elisha that threw the stick into the water, it was God that made the iron’s head to swim. It was Naaman that dipped himself into the water seven times, but it was God that healed his leprosy. So, you do your own part and He will do His own part. Do not come to a meeting, expecting nothing to happen. You come with expectancy believing that what God has said in His word, you will receive it.

Many people confuse feeling with faith. Feeling has nothing to do with faith. Our healing is not dependent on how we feel but what God has promised and what His word declares. There may be no immediate sign of healing when you pray to be healed. But as soon as you are exposed to the healing power of Jesus, your healing has come. When you begin to say, “God has healed me, and by His stripes I am healed", His healing power would be  released. It is now your turn to set your faith loose. Activate your faith so that you can touch the hem of His garment. You may ask, how can I activate my faith to be able to drink the medicine from above? I will tell you.

Know that the Bible says that God has given to every man the measure of faith. The fact that you have picked up this bulletin shows that one way or the other, you believe that there is power in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is sufficient to get you through. But if you are going to expect something dramatic to happen before something supernatural happens to you, then, you will be hindered.

 

HOW TO ACTIVATE

YOUR FAITH TODAY

1.  See yourself the way God sees you. You too should say like Apostle Paul: “I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.”  That is how God sees you. You may be looking at yourself somehow else. Paul could see what God could see. God does not see you being hospitalized, He does not see you roaming about with infirmities and diseases. He sees you as a person who can do all things. So, you need to see yourself the way God sees you. God can see a person one way, and the person could picture himself another way. One of the outstanding statements of God was to Saul. He said, “Though you are small in your own eyes, but I have exalted you to be the king of Israel. I made you king and blessed you.” So, see yourself the way God sees you.

2.  Replace every fear with love and power.   2 Timothy 1: 7 says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” So, replace the thoughts of fear with thoughts of love and power. That is, replace every thought of sickness with thoughts of health. Replace every thought of death with thoughts of life. Visualize your healing, see yourself strong and well, see yourself absolutely whole from the top of your head to the sole of your feet.

3.  Take your burdens to the Lord and leave them there. Take those burdens to the Lord today and leave them there. Believe that He alone can best handle it.

4.  Confess your healing with your own mouth. You speak it with your own mouth. Confess what the Lord has done in your life with your own mouth. Say it to anybody who will care to listen. This is how we can light up our faith.

5.  Be obedient. There is something called the obedience of faith. When God says, “Do this,” just do it, do not rationalize or analyze His word. Do not even think about the history of the problem because if you do, you will reduce the effectiveness of the power of God in your life.

Luke 4: 18 –19 says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to bring deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind. To set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

It is exciting when a blind person sees. But know for sure that there are many kinds of blindness. There is no blindness as bad as spiritual blindness. So, take your burdens to the Lord today and leave them there. No matter the hard blows you have received, His power sets at liberty them that are bruised.

The first thing to sort out is spiritual sicknesses. If you do not that, the physical healing will not come. Therefore, if as you are reading this message, you are not born again, that is, you have not given your life to Jesus, it is time for you do so. You have to do so as a first step towards enjoying God’s divine blessings.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.  O Lord, let your hand of miracle, healing and deliverance be stretched out upon my life, in the name of Jesus.

2.  O Lord, terminate the life of any sickness in my life, in the name of Jesus.

3.  I rebuke every refuge of sickness in my life, in the name of Jesus.

4.  Every spirit hindering my healing, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

5.  Every knee of infirmity, bow, in the name of Jesus.

6.  Any power that does not want to see me around, you shall not be seen again, in the name of Jesus.

7.  I command death upon all sickness, in the name of Jesus.

8.  Every power constructing coffin for me, enter into your coffin, in Jesus’ name.

9.  Every Jericho of infirmity, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

10. I receive my divine healing today, in Jesus’ name.

  

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 spirit, 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 says, “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 can 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 them to their own. They save alive the souls that should not live by lying to the people that hear their lies.

Verses 20-21 say, “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 band to sell 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 goes to a herbalist and says, “I want to destroy this person,” and he is 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 thyine 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 says, “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.

Do you know that the gospel got to Africa before Europe? Do 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. Sometime 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 has 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.

Sometime 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 are koboless 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 refuse 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.

 

PARALYSING SATANIC DOGS
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Our message this week is
            entitled “Paralyzing satanic
            dogs.” I encourage you to read it prayerfully. Exodus11: 4 -7 says, “And Moses said, “Thus saith the Lord, about midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt. And all the first born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first born of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.”

Verse 7 says, “But against the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue.” The Bible does not contain any useless information. Every detail in the Bible serves a purpose. The people of Israel had been in bondage for over four hundred years and it was time for them to get out. But like all stubborn enemies, the Egyptians who were using the Israelites as slaves made up their minds not to let them go. God therefore had to take them out by His strange hands and sent ten plagues, which were terrible blows to them. All the ten blows were specifically addressed to their gods (idols), for in Egypt in those days and even up till now, people worship River Nile, the great river in Egypt. God destroyed that river by turning it into blood.

The Israelites worshipped anything you can think of in those days. So, they were confident that they had all the power. They worshipped the sun. That was why God commanded darkness to fall upon them. This was a serious blow to the god of the sun, which they worshipped. Bible students know that firstborns in Egypt were almost worshipped like God. So, God dealt a blow on the firstborns. When that happened, then they were ready to let go but not without a struggle, because when they went out of Egypt, the Egyptians still pursued them.

In modern day Christianity, Egypt can be interpreted as the world and Pharaoh as the god of the world holding God’s people from worshipping God in Spirit and in truth. But with a strong hand, God’s people have to be delivered. My prayer today, is that all those still held in bondage in Egypt shall be released, in Jesus’ name. Dogs are known to howl when people die. So when the first born of the Egyptians died, there must have been some howling that day. But God said it would not happen in the camp of the Israelites.

 

WHO ARE DOGS?

Dogs have spiritual counterparts and these spiritual dogs are moving their tongues against many. But my prayer is that they must be silenced, in Jesus’ name. In Deuteronomy 23: 18, the Lord describes what is referred to as dogs. “Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination into the Lord thy God.” We can see the way the Bible handles the issue.

The Bible refers to homosexuals and lesbians as dogs. Anyone who has ever engaged in these kinds of things would need to receive deliverance from the spirit of the dog, which has entered into him or her. Generally, in the spirit world, dogs symbolize sexual perversion. So, if you see yourself being pursued in the spirit by a dog, check your sexual life. It means that something must be wrong somewhere, whether in your heart or your activities. Psalm 22:16 says, “For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.”

Dogs also include men and women who use any material to excite themselves sexually, i.e. masturbation. The spirit within such people is the spirit of the dog.

Verse 20 of Psalm 22 says, “Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.” It means that wicked men and enemies of Christ are also referred to as dogs. Isaiah 56:10 –11 says, “His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, everyone for his gain, from his quarter.” In the foregoing, the Bible refers to false prophets as dogs. So, if you consult them, the spirit of the dog would enter you. 2 Peter 2: 20 -21 says, “For if after they have escaped the pollution of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” All backsliders are referred to as dogs in the Bible. Revelation 22:15 hits the nail on the head. It says, “For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” The Bible calls all lost souls dogs, and it says that they shall be outside, they will not be inside. So, when the Psalmist said, “Deliver my soul from the power of dogs,” he was praying a very great prayer. These in a nutshell are the kinds of people the Bible calls, dogs. Before you read further, I would like you to lay your right on your chest and pray aggressively like this: “O Lord, deliver my soul from the power of the dogs, in the name of Jesus.”

The spirit of the dog is seriously in operation but the promise of God for us Christians is that no dog shall move its tongue against us. Unfortunately, there are people that the dogs are pursuing day and night such as backsliders and those who remain outside God’s kingdom. Those who are possessed by the spirit of the dog find it very difficult to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. They do not understand the scriptures even after they have been taught over and over.

 

STRATEGIES OF THE SPIRIT OF THE DOG

1. The spirit of outside: The number one method the dog spirit uses is the spirit of the outside. Those five virgins that were foolish were thrown out and locked out. Such people, when they are at the edge of their breakthroughs, have what is called dreams of spiritual failure. They see themselves in the dream preparing to go to church but they would spend a long time looking for what to wear. The church clothes would appear to have been stolen. It is the work of the spirit of the dog. Some would find themselves in a large congregation but when they are told to preach, sing, or teach, they would not be able to find their hymnbooks or Bible or whatever they would be looking for. Some would see themselves in the dreams with torn Bibles or the Bibles would be completely stolen away from them. They could be looking for the book of Matthew, they would search and search and would not find it. These are signs that the spirit of the dog is inside a person. If the person does not arrest it on time, the person will end up being thrown outside the programme of God because the Bible says that without, are the dogs. When you have dreams of spiritual failure it could mean that the enemy is after your spiritual failure. When you find yourself moving around in the forest and never getting anywhere till you wake up, God is telling you something. It means that you have prayers to pray. Some people also see dogs attacking them or biting them in the dream. If you notice these kinds of attacks, you have to check your spiritual life, the way you have operated your life and done things generally.

Sometime ago, a man came for counselling and his major problem was that he used to see dogs walking around him in the dream. He noticed that anything he did never prospered. Naturally, he hated dogs. As I was about to start praying for him, the Spirit of God said, “Do not pray for this man. Tell him to go and bring the list of all the women he has slept with.” To my amazement, the following day, he came with a big notebook. I thought he might have used just a few pages but I was wrong because the whole book was filled up and he was saying that those were the ones he could remember. No wonder those spiritual dogs were after him.

When somebody is bitten by dogs in the dream, spiritual poison would be released into his or her body and this may lead to spiritual death. When somebody is being chased by dogs in his dream, it shows that he is under a serious attack. And if care is not taken, the person would see himself operating at the periphery of miracles, periphery of blessings, etc. If somebody finds dogs leaking his body, it shows that the person has a covenant with sexual demons.

Beloved, we must fight against these things. When God says that no dog shall move its tongue against us, it means the demons of dogs will lay no hands on us. Sometime ago, at one of our branches, one woman gave a testimony of how on her first time at the church, the pastor raised a prayer point which said, “O Lord, give me divine insurance, in Jesus’ name.” She prayed aggressively. By the following week, there was a terrible accident and about sixteen persons in a vehicle died. Only one person got out alive. It happened to be the husband of this sister. It was discovered that dogs have conspired against the man. But thank God he had a wife who could pray. If she had been second, third or sixth wife, the prayer would not have been answered because God does not answer prayers of glorified girlfriends who have refused to repent. By the same token, God does not answer prayers of a man who has one wife and other girlfriends he calls wives. The spirit of the dog would be pursuing such people until they make restitution and make their ways right before the Lord.

 

2. The spirit of fear: Another method these dog spirits operate is by the spirit of fear. When the spirit of fear is in operation, fear of death, of sickness, of darkness, fear of water, and all kind of things give these spiritual dogs power to operate.

 

3. Worry and anxiety: Another strategy of the spirit of dogs is worry and anxiety.

 

Way Out

You have to chase out the spirit of the dogs from your thoughts and from your life.

 

WHAT MAKES THE SPIRIT OF THE DOG TO ENTER INTO PEOPLE’S LIVES?

1.   Lack of control of the tongue: Your tongue must not be used for gossiping, backbiting or singing praises to demons. It must not be used for destructive criticisms. It must not be used to find fault in every small thing. The Bible says that by your words you are justified and by them too, you are condemned Matthew 12: 36 says, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement.”

 

2.   Evil friends: Another way through which the spirit of the dog operates is evil friends. 2 Corinthians 6: 15 says, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” You will not be able to resist evil if your friends are worldly. They would pollute you or put you in trouble. Many people make mistakes because they do not understand that most of the powerful spirits that destroy men are bad spirits that are outside. These kinds of spirits do not stay inside human beings. When you are close to a person who is not a child of God, who is a demonic bank, such a person could transfer materials into your life regardless of the fact that you call him your childhood friend. So, evil friends would expose you to spiritual dogs. If you do business with a child of the devil and you ask God to bless it, you would be making a mistake because you cannot bless whom God has cursed. You cannot be asking God to bless His enemy.  

 

3.    Wrong places: You have to beware of where you go. The programme of a believer is directed by the Holy Spirit. The devil can plan a ceremony just to catch a single believer. It happened to a man I know but he had a wife who could pray and she rushed him to a prayer meeting. The man took off from Lagos to another town on a weekend for a party. He did not know that his enemies were waiting for him. The big party was celebrated just to catch him. There were many people there. The enemies were watching him and he did not know. When a person is being followed like that by the enemies, the person needs divine intervention to be free from their grip. At the party, a girl came and served him rice and he started to eat. Immediately he started eating the food, the girl ran back to the building she came from as if to bring him some water, but a snake came out towards him. He saw it but could not move. He just sat down there. The snake got to him, climbed on his chain, moved to his face, licked his face and crawled back to the room and the girl who served the rice came out again. That was the beginning of his troubles. Beware of where you go. Do not go to a place where the angels of the living God would say, “Sorry we cannot follow you there.” The Bible says that the angel of the Lord is around the camp of those who fear God and delivers them. But we are not supposed to go where the angels would not enter. Believers do not go to night parties, disco parties or places where bright lights are removed and dark bulbs are used to replace them. Anyone that goes to such places exposes himself or herself to the spirit of the dog. 

 

4.   Evil consumption: Another way through which, they operate is through food and drink. You have to beware of what you eat and where you eat. People who eat anything, anywhere, and anyhow would not be far from the power of the dogs.

 

5. Evil wear: Beware of what you wear. You can wear what will put you in bondage if you are not careful. 

 

6.   Sharing your plans with the enemy: A person who is talkative may not know when he tells his life plans and programme to his enemies. It is also dangerous to tell your plans to your friends who are not born again. They could transfer your case to satanic places.

If you are not yet born again, that is, you have not given your life to Christ, your prayer against the spirit of the dog would be a waste of time. So, the first step to deliverance from the spirit of the dog is to give your life to Christ. If you want to do so, then say the following prayer with faith: “Lord Jesus, I acknowledge you as my personal Lord and Saviour. I repent and forsake all my sins. Come into my life now and help me to serve you, in Jesus’ name.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.    Let every dog barking against my progress, be paralyzed, in the name of Jesus.

2.    I cancel every dream of spiritual failure, in the name of Jesus.

3.    Every evil thing uttered against me by the tongue of the dead, be cancelled by the blood of Jesus. 

4.    Let the tongue of my oppressors be confused, in the name of Jesus.

5.    Let my miracle cause revival in my family, in the mighty name of Jesus.

6.    I close every satanic door, in the name of Jesus.

7.    I refuse to be used as satanic experiment, in Jesus’ name.

8.    I ask for angelic assistance to paralyze every satanic army directed against my home, in Jesus’ name.

9.    Every water spirit operating against me, receive the thunder of God, in Jesus’ name.

10.  I break every demonic crown upon my head, in the name of Jesus.

11.  Let the fire and thunder of God attack all the powers of witchcraft working against me, in the mighty name of Jesus.

12.  Every agent of the devil sent from the bottom of hell fire, receive madness, in the name of Jesus.

13.  Every herbalist working on my name, be frustrated, in the name of Jesus.

14.  Every satanic prayer uttered against me, go back to your sender, in the name of Jesus.

15.  I refuse to reap any satanic harvest, in the name of Jesus.

16.  You devil, hear me and hear me well, you cannot steal my blessings anymore, in the name of Jesus.

17.       Father Lord, I thank you for answers to my prayers, in the name of Jesus.

 

 

I SHALL NOT GIVE MY ENEMIES THE INHERITANCE
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

The first thing I want you to do is
      to  tell the Lord that you want to
experience His raw power, the kind of raw power that Elijah and the apostles experienced. Say, “O Lord, let me experience Your raw power, in the name of Jesus.”

The title of our message for this week is taken from I Kings 21. If you can open up your mind as you read this message, the Lord will do some deep works in your life. I Kings 21:1-3 says, “And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house: and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money. And Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee.”

Here was Naboth, he had a vineyard, which was beside the king’s palace. King Ahab was already a wizard because he married Jezebel who was a witch and it was his witch wife that was controlling all his activities. In fact, the havoc that Jezebel did to Israel can still be felt today. She was the woman that moved in 850 prophets of Baal and Balim. She was the one that threatened Elijah and he ran away. She manipulated the life of Ahab and got him to a terrible level. Ahab was an Israelite, the king of Israel who knew very well that it was against the law to give out the inheritance of your forefathers nevertheless, he went to Naboth and requested for his vineyard, which he had inherited from his forefathers. Naboth said, “No, I might be poor, there may be no money but God forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers. Even if you are the highest king in the land, God forbid that I should hand it over to you.”

Beloved, apart from your life, the most priced gift that you have is your salvation. Our Lord Jesus Christ humbled Himself, put Himself in a ridiculous position in order to redeem us and show us the way of life. The people whom He came to save, arrested Him like a common criminal. They came with sticks, clubs and lantern to locate the man that had come to help them. They arrested Him, bound Him up and scourged Him. They gave Him 39 strokes of the cane.  They took the King of kings, stripped Him naked and mocked Him. They said to Him, “You trust in God, let Him come and deliver you. If He delights in you, let Him deliver you now. They laughed Him to scorn. When He said Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthani?” they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” They spat on His face, slapped Him and pulled His beard. You try and pull out one strand of hair from your head and you will see how painful it is then, you can understand what it is to pluck out hairs from a man’s beard. They tied His hands and pressed a crown of thorns upon His head. As they did that, the sharp things entered His skull and blood poured out on His face. They divided His garments amongst themselves and condemned Him as an unjust man. They ridiculed His mission, drove spiles into His body, hands and legs. Terrible things they did to the Master.

The life of Jesus could be divided into three sections:

1.   His birth.

2.   His death.

3.   His resurrection.

When Jesus was born, a handful of shepherds witnessed it. The birth of Jesus, which divided our calendar into two - AD and BC had more of animals as witnesses than human beings. The Bible did not even bother to call the names of the shepherds. Angels came down and the glory shone around. The same angels predicted that Jesus was to be born, they announced His birth, protected Him as a child, and even ministered to Him in the wilderness. They also ministered to Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, rolled away the stone at His sepulchre and announced His resurrection. On His resurrection day, a couple of witnesses stood by. But on the day that He was going to die on the cross, the angels completely avoided the cross; they stayed away on that day. God the Father Himself turned His back. They ridiculed him: “You saved others now save yourself." A large crowd gathered to watch His trial, verdict, crucifixion and death. Unlike when He was born, only a few people were there. Jesus Himself shouted, “My Father my Father, why hast thou forsaken me.”

Of the three events in the life of Jesus, the one that shook everywhere was His death. That day, nature itself went into convulsion; there was darkness at unusual hours, the ground shook, tombs cracked open and  dead people came out. The sky went black and the angels kept away. The question is, why? It is because of one thing - sin.

SIN

Sin means success in nothing. How can anyone who calls himself a lover of Jesus knowingly continue in sin? Why is it that we have multitude of believers today who continue to cling to lusts, bad habits, grudges and bitterness? Why do Christians come to church every Sunday to raise their hands in praises to God for delivering them, go out to witness about Christ’s power to break bondage but cling to their own sin. Sin has entangled itself around the hearts of many modern-day Christians. Sin already has full control of many lives that is why the ancient power the Bible talks about is going down. The apostles did not have to wait for Paul or Peter before they could pray for anyone. Somebody like Stephen did not even belong to the group of the apostles.

The longer we indulge in besetting sin, the stronger its hold on us becomes. The longer you stay in any sin, the tighter the hold will be on your neck. No matter how gifted you are or how talented you are, as far as sin is in your life, you are not going anywhere. Secret sins have decaying powers, which cause destruction in every area of our lives. It is a cancer that spreads throughout the entire being, defiling our thoughts and action. There are so many people around who think they are better than others. There are some pastors who feel they are the best and other pastors are inferior. Some people who are sinners, consider others as sinners too. The trouble is that sin never dies of itself. No! If it is not uprooted and destroyed, it takes over the throne of a person’s life. If it is allowed to stay for long, the person then becomes a sermon-proof Christian, meaning that the person is no longer responding to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Such a person would annoy God and his eyes would still be dry. He gets defensive when he is confronted with his sin. God’s promise to break every bondage and set the captives free is only for those who are sick of their sin. The Holy Ghost cannot release His full power on anyone who does not see his sin as a serious matter. This is why there is a scarcity of the power of God. This is why things that ought to take two minutes are taking five hours. This is also why we have pastors, ministers and teachers with no fire at all. You are deceiving yourself, beloved, if you think the Holy Spirit will release you from the grip of sin without your co-operation. The Holy Spirit is just a helper and would help you only when you are ready.

It is time for you to cry out like this: “Oh Lord, if there is any sin in me deal with it. I do not want to be a castaway, in the name of Jesus.” Sin will make a person a castaway. You need to sit down and ask questions, if not, you will eventually give the inheritance of your fathers to the enemies. You need to sit down and ask yourself questions such as: Why do I continue in my sin? Why does the evil bondage still hold me? Why am I not free?

Many Christians are still living in sin because they do not have the fear of God. Please pray like this: “Lord, if there is any sin in me, deal with it now, in the name of Jesus.” It will be a tragedy if after reading this message and your life remains the same. Without the fear of God, you cannot experience lasting deliverance from sin. Unfortunately, in many churches now, the subject of the fear of God has become a taboo. Many people do not talk about it anymore. The fear of God includes a full understanding of the danger and consequences of sin.  The longer you continue in sin the more you are in danger of hardening your heart and the more you harden your heart, the more spiritual blessings flow out of your hand; the more the anointing flows away. You may make noise and jump up, that is not a problem for the devil for he can see you in and out. If anyone continues in sin, he will eventually face the wrath of God. If you continue in sin, you will experience a constant drain of peace and strength. If you continue in sin, you will lose your usefulness in the kingdom of God. It is a serious matter.

You can see what our Saviour passed through because of sin. He went through humiliation and suffering to hand over salvation to you and I. If we now begin to joke with it, it means we are looking for trouble. Genesis 25: 29 -34 says, “And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. 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 sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.”

Recently, I received letters from four sisters who were not married. All four were going about with married men who kept them as concubines or girlfriends. They bought them houses, gave them cars and took them to London and America. They kept their lives on a shelf. But when they came to our meeting, they heard the word of God and were convicted in their hearts. I expected that the next thing they should have done was to leave the relationships. Instead of going ahead to do that, they wrote letters telling me that the houses they were living in were given to them by their men friends, including their cars and drivers, shops, etc. Now, if they break the relationships, they would die of hunger. The bottom line is that these women have sold their birthright without knowing it and the longer they stay in it, the longer the devil would keep them in slavery. They must get to the level of Esther who said, “If I perish, I perish. I will not sell my birthright.”

WHAT IS A BIRTHRIGHT?

A birthright is the privileges you are entitled to from birth. What is your spiritual birthright? They are spiritual and physical privileges you are entitled to as a born again Christian. There are so many things attached to birthright. For example now, Esau was entitled to the following things as his birthright:

1.   His family inheritance.

2.   The ruling head of his family.

3.   The right to collect his father’s blessings first.

4.   The spiritual leadership and priesthood of his family.

5.   The best of all the family land.

6.   A special providence meant for him alone.

7.   A special party to the Abrahamic covenant.

This birthright belongs only to the first son and that is why he was entitled to a double-portion of the inheritance. Unfortunately, he sold it away for some pottage. If you pick an ant and say that it should be picking all the sand from the barbeach in Lagos to Abuja one by one by trekking, the day the ant succeeds in evacuating the whole of the sand cannot be compared to eternity. It is a tragedy for a person to use his life here on earth to destroy his eternity, even if the person lives 150 years. Unfortunately, Esau sold his birthright; he exchanged his inheritance for a pot of pottage, which is a temporary thing. Anyone who sells his birthright, which Jesus Christ suffered and died for, would be lost for ever. To trade this important thing for worldly things is sad indeed.

Sometime ago, a certain man offered me a Mercedes V boot car. He smelled of adultery and the chain on his neck was almost touching his belly button. I said, “I am sorry, I don’t want. The reason for a vehicle is for me to move from one place to the other. You are not born again and broken and you are giving me a Mercedes Benz car. The day I preach what you do not like, you would ask for your car. I prefer to tell the truth without the car than to have it without being able to preach the truth. The day I see that your life changes and you are broken, I will take it from you so that you can be blessed. But if you are not broken and you are not a child of God and I take things from you, I am a transgressor like yourself."

It is a dangerous thing for you to have an important material and not realize it. Before you give your life to Christ, God has attached some blessings to your life. When you now give your life to Jesus, more blessings are attached. Many do not know what it means to be born again. Being born again means to be begotten from above. The reason many people are undergoing deliverance now is because they are in trouble for selling cheaply, their birthright to their enemies.

Some years ago, we were at a crusade and people were divided into different groups depending on their needs. There was a group for those who were possessed by witchcraft spirits. There was another one for those who were looking for employment. I was moving around. I got to the group of those possessed by witchcraft and familiar sprits and found that many of them would qualify for Miss Nigeria and some of the men too, would qualify for models you see in magazines. All of a sudden, one girl opened her mouth and vomited three birds; red, black and white. The birds were very ugly. The evangelist who was conducting the meeting moved back and pointed at me to do something about it. The girl now pointed at a pastor in a far corner who was calling prayer points for those who were experiencing failure at the edge of breakthrough and said, “You see that one, he slept with me yesterday.” I was shocked. I said, “Well, if he slept with you what is the implication?” She said, “The prayer he is calling there are curses because already I have polluted his life.” This man of God had sold his birthright for a cheap price.

There are sisters who sell alcohol, attachment, jewellery and things that are Jezebelian in nature because they are looking for money; may God have mercy on them because they are trading their birthright cheaply. Many have sold their birthright to their enemies like the pastor I told you about and they are busy rejoicing. The foolish man did not even know that he had sold it just like Esau. Esau’s problem started with a small appetite. The appetite for food has destroyed so many precious souls that is why the Bible says that the belly of some people is their God. The reason you find so many churches in every corner is because the belly of many people has become their God. If they can tell lies to one or two people and get money from them, they are okay. I pray that your belly will not kill you, in the name of Jesus. Stealing or cheating to buy what you cannot afford is selling your birthright. Why do you want to eat what you cannot afford? It is better to die of hunger than for you to sell your body because of food. Many so-called believers do not want to leave their boyfriends because they are afraid of starving. They are just selling their birthright. Have you sold your birthright because of food? You better repent today. Many sisters and brothers have missed God’s will for their lives by being too greedy. A lot of people sold their birthright cheaply through sex. They need to pray so that God will deliver them and restore their inheritance, which they have sold to the enemy.

OTHER WAYS OF SELLING YOUR BIRTHRIGHT

1. Self-centeredness: Putting yourself first before others or exploiting and using others to accomplish your selfish goals, is a way of selling your birthright. You should pray for your inheritance to come back if you are like that. If you give because you expect something in return, you have sold your birthright and need to buy it back. If you do good only when you will be given praise for it then you have sold your birthright. If you like self-display; you want people to know that you are the one there, you have sold your birthright. If you are primarily concerned with what others are thinking about you then you have sold your birthright.

2. Doubt and unbelief: If you are full of doubt and unbelief then you have sold your birthright.

3. Sin: If you enjoy sinning but hate the consequences, then you have sold your birthright. If you are always thinking of covering your sins instead of repenting them, you have sold your birthright. If you are so self-conscious that you can commit sin in order to please others, then you have sold your birthright. If unfortunately you are one of those who prefer to spend money for burial ceremonies than to pay your children’s school fees, you have sold your birthright. If you justify your sin instead of saying, “Oh God, I am a sinner, deliver me,” then you have sold your birthright.

4. Hypocrisy: All hypocrites have sold their birthright. If you refuse to admit that you are what you are and need to change, you are only caging yourself which amounts to selling your birthright. God forbid that I should give my enemies the inheritance of my fathers. Rejoicing when other are failing, pretending to be loyal, using your mouth to pull others down and backbiting are ways of selling your birthright.

5. Being revengeful: If you are always looking for somebody as a scapegoat instead of facing your own sin, it is selling your birthright.

6. Impatience: If you who have been born again for one or two years and you still act before you think and take rash decisions then you have sold your birthright.

7. Unteachable spirit: If you cannot really listen to others and you are not teachable then you have sold your birthright.

The greatest inheritance that Jesus gave to us is our salvation. It will be very sad for anyone to sell it to the enemy. The church is a place where you find the highest number of hypocrites. The heathens worship their idols with all seriousness. They dance and roll on the floor with all their strength. But in the house of God, you find people who are lazy and unserious.

The fact that somebody is a pastor does not mean that he is born again; the fact that somebody is a house fellowship teacher does not mean that he has encountered Christ. The only thing is that he has a label. At the end of the age, all the labels of pastor, deacon, G.O., bishop, etc shall be taken away and we shall see what people are inside. A bachelor who is sleeping with a woman outside marriage is already dead, likewise a spinster who sleeps with a man she is not married to. Such people are the ones disturbing the power of God from moving in a place. They are inside the church but the church is not in them. 

It is important to pray that whatsoever is making the devil to rejoice in your life should go, no matter how much you like it. It is also important to pray that whatsoever is making your enemies to rejoice in your life should go out whether you like it or not. What I am talking about is both preventive and curative. Some prayers are called curative prayers while some are called preventive prayers. Do not feel unconcerned. You better pray. Paul said, “We have no confidence in the flesh,” “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

Review your life in the last one week. Does it glorify Jesus? Is there no malice in your heart? Have you not been telling lies? Have you become a habitual sinner? Have you been entertaining the thoughts and imaginations of sin? Have you lost your vision of heaven?

Are you neglecting the calling of God upon your life? Have you lost the presence and anointing of God upon your life? Is the peace and joy of the Holy Ghost still in your heart? Is your birthright still there or have you sold it on the altar of sex, food, money, malice or anger? Have you sold your inheritance to your enemies? It is time to review your life.

The God of MFM is the God of holiness and power: He will by no means welcome people who want to live in sin and experience power. Why should He send His Son to die for you and you want the death to go in vain. Look at what Jesus went through. Do you think He would be happy with anyone who wants His suffering and death to go in vain? Please, tell the Lord to remove any sin that is demoting you out your life, repent of them, and possess your possession.

The Bible says, “Narrow is the path that leads to life, few there be that find it," meaning that not many will find it. You may be a bishop’s wife or daughter, son of priest, you may have gone to apostolic this and that, Elijah this, gospel that and every where but all you did while going around was to collect arrows that would demote you further. Will you not cry to the Lord today from the bottom of your heart so that He can rescue you from the well of the enemy? Open your mouth and pray like this: “O God, deliver me from this wicked generation, in the name of Jesus. This generation must not mess me up. I will not sacrifice my destiny on the altar of this wicked generation, in Jesus' name. I shall not surrender to my enemies, in the name of Jesus. If I have sold my birthright to the enemy, blood of Jesus, buy it back for me, in the name of Jesus. I refuse to be wasted, in Jesus’ name. The enemy shall not waste my life, in Jesus’ name.”

The first problem of Peter started when he began to warm himself in the fire of the enemy; and of course temptation came and he fell flat. He got too close to what he should run away from. Make the following declarations: “I shall not warm myself in the fire of the enemy, in the name of Jesus.” “I shall not surrender my inheritance to the enemy, in the name of Jesus. 

Samson died with his enemies. Although he killed them, the place was also his burial ground. “I shall not die with my enemies, in Jesus' name.

PRAYER POINTS

1.  The arrow that fly by day shall not locate my destiny, in the name of Jesus.

2. O Lord, sweep away anything that does not glorify You in my life, in Jesus’ name.

3. I shall not be a worker of iniquity, in the name of Jesus.

4. My life will not cooperate with the enemies of God, in the name of Jesus.

5. Holy Ghost fire, purge my life, in the name of Jesus.

6. I shall not be an unprofitable servant, in the name of Jesus.

7. My legs, hear the word of the Lord, you must not walk the path of destruction, in the name of Jesus. 

8. Every stronghold of sin in my life, I pull you down, in the name of Jesus. 

9. The sin of my ancestors shall not cage my life, in the name of Jesus.  

10.     O God, arise and kill every iniquity in my life, in the name of Jesus.

 

HOW TO DETECT AND DESTROY CURSES
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

What is a curse?

It can mean many things such as:

1.  Uttering a wish of evil against somebody or a thing.

2.  Calling for mischief or injury to fall upon a person.

3.  Binding a person, a thing or a place with a spell.

4.  An evil pronouncement against a person, a place or a thing. Inanimate objects such as shoes, cars, buildings, clothes, food, etc. can be subjected to curses.

5.  Vehicle of evil supernatural powers which can be transferred and can continue from generation to generation

6.  The opposite of blessing.

7.  A kind of fence to protect demons and to give them a legal ground to operate.

Issuing curses on people is common in Africa. In fact, in some areas, people wake up their children in the morning with curses. In some places, too, whenever people are angry they issue curses. The wife would curse the husband; the husband would curse the wife. They would curse their kids together. At school, the teacher would curse the students and the students, too, would curse the teachers. At bus-stops, there are a lot of curses. So, they are quite common. While some curses are disappearing, satanic agents renew some day by day. Let us look at some interesting Scriptures:

Romans 10:15 says, “How shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.”

When gospel preachers enter into a place they bring in beautiful things. When Phillip arrived in Samaria, the Bible says, there was much joy in that city. So, when a gospel preacher is in an environment, there is joy, deliverance and salvation because the feet of the preachers of the gospel are beautiful. Likewise you have the ugly feet of the advertisers of the devil. When they get into a place, even if things were going on well there before, they would begin to turn sour. When you employ them in your shop, business will go down. When you take them as housemaids, your husband will become poor, your wife will become poor, and they will start to sell the property. When you take them into your house, the spiritual lives of people there would go down. These are signs that bad feet have entered into your house, the ugly feet of the advertisers of the devil.

Matthew 10:14-15 says, “And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily, I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.”

So, when the preacher of the gospel of peace decides to shake the dust off his feet inside a house or a city, calamity would befall the city or the environment. So, there is power in the feet. Jesus said, “I give unto you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” So, woe to that city where the dust was shaken off.  Please, pray like this: “Oh Lord, help me to detect every evil that is hiding in my life in Jesus’ name.”

When the preacher of the gospel shakes the dust off his feet, whether you are an indigene of that place or not and whether you are aware of it or not, everyone living in that place would be cursed. I am trying to tell you that a person’s feet may carry blessings or curses.

 

HOW DO YOU RECOGNIZE

BAD FEET?

1.  They introduce bad luck into the environment.

2.  They go about purposelessly and aimlessly.

3.  They go from place to place, thinking that geographical relocation is the answer.

4.  They have peppery feeling all over their legs.

5.  They succeed at nothing.

 

THE HAND

Zechariah 4:9 says, “The hands of Zerubabel has laid the foundation of this house, his hands also shall finish it and thou shall know that the Lord of host sent me unto you.” Here, the Bible is talking about the hand that would finish the work it started, meaning that some hands may not finish the work they started. Ecclesiastes 6:1 says, “There is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is common among men. A man to whom God has given riches, wealth and honour so that he wanted nothing for his soul, of all that he desired, yet God giveth him not the power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it, this is vanity and it is an evil disease.”

When cursed hands start a project, they will not be able to finish it. They end it up at the foundation stage. They are not fruitful. Whereas the Bible says that you are the image of God, and one of the signs of a true image of God is that they always finish their work. Jesus said, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work. Paul also said, “I have finished my course.” The hands that are cursed will not finish any good thing.

 

HOW DO YOU RECOGNIZE

A CURSED HAND?

1.  Anything that it touches does not work, or it works a bit and packs up. Such a hand introduces problems into the thing.

2.  Unprofitable trading: Cursed hands are unprofitable in business. There was a certain sister who used to sell food in a primary school. The pupils never patronized her, but they patronized other sellers who came to the school. She used to go home and consume her own rice. One day, she got enlightened and started to pray. She anointed her hands and prayed and then the buyers shifted to her side. If she had not taken action or had said that things would get better by and by, the problem would have continued.

3.  Unprofitable doctors and midwives.

4.  Unprofitable tailors, carpenters and bricklayers: They would always spoil people’s houses, furniture and clothes. They are always in debt although they are working.

5.  Lack of money.

     The Psalmist says, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.” The Lord does not do things halfway. His image too does not do things halfway. We can see that a curse could be on just one section of the body, or one section of a life. As long as you leave it there, it will sit down and enjoy itself.

 

SATANIC SCANNING MACHINE

Christians who are serious with their spiritual lives are always special targets for curses by the enemy. Dark powers have a kind of scanning machine that they have in the hospitals. Before they put a curse on somebody they will use the scanning machine to see the kind of person that he is. And through communication with their evil spirit, they can learn of areas in that person’s life that are open to attack. In most cases, something in the person allows him to fall in agreement with the curse and then it begins to operate. And if you don’t know this, know it very well, that demons are very hard working. You may sleep six or eight hours but they have no sleeping hours. They work round the clock and do not give up in a hurry. They always try hard to prevent believers from using their effective weapons. The question is, if you should fall under the scanning machine of the devil now, and he wants to scan you to see whether there is an area where he can put his curse, will he find any? This is where the trouble lies.

When the Lord says, “Stop this, stop that” and you refuse to stop, they would know that the Lord has spoken to you but you refuse to obey. So when they bring their scanning machine, they will say, “Yes, we can see an open door in the legs.” They would find that the legs are painted in danger colours. They will enter through them and say, “After all, the Lord did not ask her to paint them red.” Or they could look and see a door of anger and they will enter. Whenever something in the person agrees with the curse, the hardworking demons will go in.

It is not very clear why women seem to be more susceptible to curse than men.  May be it is because they are weaker vessels or because they were the ones that talked to Adam and Adam got confused. I don’t know. However, if curses are not addressed, they have long-lasting, drastic and catastrophic effect. They entangle and hinder people. So, whenever you are asked to pray against curses, don’t hesitate to do so. If there is no curse in place and you pray, you don’t lose anything. It is even better for you to do that, than to overlook it and it would cause problem later. In fact, at a stage in your spiritual life, you can pray every night: “Oh Lord, as I am going to bed now, post an angel by my door to deflect any curse that are sent here, in Jesus’ name.” And He would do exactly that. God’s people  should not accept curses from the enemy at all. They should resist them.

 

HOW CAN SOMEBODY KNOW IF HE IS UNDER A CURSE?

How do you detect it?

     There are about 70 specific sins in the Bible that could bring curses on people. If you run through all of them and you don’t find anyone affecting you, I congratulate you. You have passed the first test. 

1.  Those who curse or mistreat the Jews fall under a curse. (Genesis 12:3).

2.  Anybody who is a willing deceiver comes under a curse (Jeremiah 48:10).

3.  An adulterous man or woman falls under God’s curse  (Numbers 5:27). When somebody is playing games with the Almighty, he is inviting a curse.

4.  Disobedience to the Lord’s commandment will lead to curses  (Deuteronomy 11:28). No matter how small the commandment is, if God says, do it and you don’t do it, you will come under a curse.

5.  Idolatry. Any form of idolatry brings a curse (Exodus 20:5).

6.  Those who keep or own cursed objects. If you have an object or a material in your possession that God does not approve of or that is spiritually contaminated, you come under a curse (Deuteronomy 7:25-26). God does not expect us to decorate our houses with images of evil animals such as owls, vultures, cats, etc.

7.  If you refuse to come to the Lord’s help you will come under a curse.  When God is calling for you to come and help and you refuse to help, the Bible says you are under a curse (Judges 5:23). When people are trying to do something for the Lord’s sake, and you refuse to come out, you come under a curse.

8.  The house of the wicked. The Bible says the house of the wicked shall be cursed (Proverbs 3:33). If  somebody comes from the house of the wicked, he will be cursed. For example, if your daddy was a herbalist, who dealt on charms to repair or destroy lives and properties, there is no way you are going to be free from troubles, unless you break the curse. If your daddy is a lodge member, the Bible classifies him as wicked. If he was into things like pressing of sand and occult things, then his house becomes the house of the wicked.

9.  Somebody who has and does not give to the poor comes under a biblical curse (Proverbs 28:27).

10.     The earth is cursed by the reason of man’s disobedience (Isaiah 24:3-6).

11.     Jerusalem is a curse to all nations, as far as the Jews are rebelling against God (Jeremiah 26:6).

12.     All thieves and those who swear falsely by the Lord’s name fall under God’s curse. If you have ever had to go to court and promised to tell the truth and nothing but the truth and your next sentence was a big lie, you are cursed. You have sworn falsely (Zechariah 5:4).

13.     Ministers and Christians who fail to give glory to God but instead praise themselves or hide what God has done, come under a curse. Remember the 10 lepers who came to Jesus for healing. Only one of them came back to show appreciation. And Jesus said to him, “But 10 were healed, where are the nine? Only this stranger came to give thanks to God. Therefore, thou art made whole.” All the others were healed but Jesus said to that one, “Thou art made whole.” It is better to be made whole than to be healed. To be made whole means that everything is now new. To be healed means that old things are patched up and are doing well (Isaiah 48:11).

14.     Those who rob God of tithe and offering are under a curse (Malachi 3:9). When you fail to pay your tithe or offering or you always borrow it, or you think it is too much and pay less, you are inviting God’s curse.

15.     Those who prefer to listen to their partners than to God also come under a curse. When God is saying something, your partner is saying something else and you listen to the partner instead of God, you will come under a curse (Genesis 3:17).

16.     Those who insult their parents come under a curse (Deuteronomy 27:16).

17.     Those who make graven images (Deuteronomy 27:15). When we say graven images, they include crucifix, images of dead and living saints, all kinds of graven images, idols, etc. And God says that such people fall under a curse.

18.     Those who willfully cheat people out of their property fall under a curse (Deuteronomy 27:17).

19.     Those who take advantage of the blind because they cannot see, or the deaf because they cannot hear, are under a curse (Deuteronomy 27:18).

20.     Those who lie with their fathers' wives fall under a curse. You may think that this is strange, but it happens (Deuteronomy 27:20).

21.     Those who lie with beasts (Deuteronomy 27:21).

22.     Anybody who lies with his own sister (Deuteronomy 27:22) is under a curse.

23.     Those who smite their neighbours secretly come under a curse (Deuteronomy 27:24).

24.     Those who take money to slay the innocent, including doctors who abort, come under a curse (Deuteronomy 27:25).

25.     All fornicators and adulterers fall under a curse.

26.     The proud fall under a curse (Psalm 119:21).

27.     Those who trust in men and not in God fall under a curse (Jeremiah 17:5).

28.     Those who do the work of the Lord deceitfully and their families fall under a curse.

29.     Those who keep themselves from blood when there is spiritual warfare. That is, those who run away when there is battle to fight are cursed (Jeremiah 48:10).

30.     Those who reward evil for good are cursed (Proverbs 17:13).

31.     Illegitimate children are cursed (Deuteronomy 23:2).

32.     Murderers (Exodus 21:12).

There are many more examples in the Bible.

1.  The first thing to check is actually the Bible, to see whether you fall into any of these categories. If you do, you will need to break the curse and confess your sin.

2.  Number 2 method is by comparing your life with the blessings for those who love life. Look at yourself, are you a lender or a borrower? Are you always suffering from one sickness or the other? Are you prospering or not? Do you enjoy God’s favour? Are you increasing or decreasing? Are you the head or the tail? Are you free from harassment of enemies, both physically and spiritually? Are you at the centre of God’s will for your life? How good is your relationship with God? If your answer to these questions are positive, it is okay because those are the marks of a blessed life. There is no middle camp, you are either enjoying blessings or suffering from curses. There is no middle ground at all.

3.  The third method is to check for the effects of the curses. The effects of curses include poverty, debts, failure, chronic sickness, torments, insanity, deceit, regular traumatic experiences, circle of tragedy, spiritual hindrances, domination by inferior forces, abandonment by God, suicide tendencies, family breakdown, etc.

 

IDOLATRY

     However, there is one big curse on black nations as a whole. This is the curse of idolatry. There is no way we can dance away from that. In Psalm 115:1-8 we see some interesting things. It says, “Not unto us O Lord, not unto us but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens; he had done whatsoever he hath pleased. (There are some gods that are beneath). Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouth, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not. They have ears but they hear not, noses have they, but they smell not. They have hands but they handle not: Feet have they, but they walk not, neither speak they through their throat. (Then the curse comes). They that make them are like unto them; so is everyone that trusteth in them.”

It means that idol worship causes several parts of the body to come under a curse. So, if your great grandfathers were worshipping idols, do not be too surprised if right now your mouth is cursed because it says that they have mouth, but they speak not. The descendants of such people cannot witness for Christ. Sometimes they fail to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes they speak fake and powerless tongues because their mouth is already cursed. They are not meant to utter powerful things. Sometimes their mouths attract problems.

Do you know that if you padlock some people’s mouths they will not have problems again because it is through their mouths, that their problems increase day by day? This is the curse of idolatry, a cursed mouth. Their eyes too are cursed. Such people cannot receive spiritual revelation, no matter how hard they try. They wonder when people say, “I saw the Lord, I saw angels, I saw this.” They wonder how they see these visions. Sometimes by simple prayers, they break the curse of the eyes. Cursed eyes see only evil. When good things would happen, they will not see them. They will always be eye witness of the evil ones. They cannot perceive spiritual things, although they are born again. A lot of preachers deceive their congregation by telling them that once they get born again and give their lives to the Lord and shake the preacher’s hand, their problems are over.  No, it is wrong.  Your salvation helps you to break and destroy those evil things which were passed down to you by your ancestors. But if you are ignorant, it will lead to death. Ignorance is the father of death.

Ears may be cursed. Such a victim will not hear God’s voice. The ears may be deaf to God. There will be low spiritual sensitivity. The affected person cannot sense the Lord’s  presence.

Hands could be cursed. The Bible says that they have hands, but they handle not. Your hand represents your ministry. Hands that cannot handle things are cursed.

Feet, too, can be cursed. The Bible says that they have feet but they cannot walk. Feet that cannot walk are evidence that somebody is crippled in the ministry.

The curse of idolatry has exposed the black people to all kinds of things. Any hand that has ever carried sacrifices is cursed, because the person has converted himself to the devil’s caterer. The person is feeding people who eat at the table of the enemy.  Also, heads that carry sacrifices are cursed. Any part of the body where they put incision is cursed. All bearers of names that glorify idols come under a curse because the Bible says that if you don’t give God the glory, you are cursed. Eating of things sacrificed to idols places the whole body under a curse. The deposits from the sacrifice will be eating one particular organ away. People who put on magical rings put their hands under a curse. If you have tried to solve a problem by going to the forest or river in a new dress and leaving the dress there for an old one, you are under a curse. There is no way somebody’s father would be an idolater or lodge member and the person would not be affected. Reading occult books will place the hands, brain and eyes under a curse. Wearing chains, bangles or necklaces broken off from the body of an idol places you under a curse.

Unfortunately, there are so many people labouring under curses now. The abdomen of somebody may be under a curse. He had been laying on strange women, or strange women had been laying on him. Somebody could be under the curse of alcohol. Incurable sicknesses are a sign that a curse is in operation.

 

HOW DO WE BREAK THEM?

All curses are broken on the basis of Galatians 3:13-14 and Colossians 2:14.

What are the steps?

1.  Repent from all known and unknown sins. When you are asking for forgiveness, first of all ask for forgiveness from those sins that you don’t know anything about.

2.  Renounce all ancestral sins.

3.  Accept God’s forgiveness and also forgive yourself. A lot of people find it hard to forgive themselves.

4.  Forgive all who have ever offended you.

5.  Renounce all contacts with demonic religions and objects.

6.  Destroy any demonic object in your possession, including the devil’s music.

7.  Break the curse by aggressive prayer.

8.  Cast out every demon of curse because there is always a demon that will ensure that the curse works.

9.  Claim the blessings, that is, offer a replacement.

God has a reason for making you to read this. I am sure the reason is for you to move into the highest blessings that you are created for and you are entitled to.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.  I  break and loose myself from all curses, in the name of Jesus.

2.  Every demonic bondage through parents and ancestors, break, in the name of Jesus.

3.  Lay your two hands on your head and pray like this: I choose blessings and I refuse curses, in the name of Jesus.

4.  I claim life and not death, in the name of Jesus.

5.       Every demon of curse, release me, in the name of Jesus.  back

  

HIGHER FOOLS 
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

The Bible says that “They that
          wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like the eagle. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40: 31).

There is power to mount up and  there is power to pull down, but the best power is the power from on high, which will make you to mount up like the eagle.  That is the kind of power that we should ask for. There are some Christians whose names have been taken to the dark places by the evil ones and the evil ones succeeded.  But some other names were taken there and the satanic agents said, “Sorry, we cannot touch these ones. It is impossible.”

There are fools and there are fools. When you say that somebody is a fool, perhaps you mean that he is silly and does not think very well or that he has a poor sense of judgment. The question is, who is the best person to describe a fool? If a fellow human being calls you a fool, you may have nothing to worry about, but if God calls you a fool, you must be really foolish.

WHO ARE FOOLS ACCORDING TO GOD?

This is the first thing we are going to look at before we see who the higher fools are. Psalm 107:17 says, “Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted. Their soul abhoreth all manner of meat: and they draw near unto the gates of death.” Here, fools are people who are being afflicted because of their transgression and they do not even know that it is because of their transgression.  They are unable to locate the fact that their problem started as a result of the sin in their lives.  The Bible says that they are foolish because they refuse to know that the reason they are going through what they are going through is their transgression. Having failed to repent of their transgression, trouble started.

Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” This means that the beginning of knowledge is not ‘A’ for Apple, ‘B’ for Ball and ‘C’ for Carrot, but the fear of the Lord. The Scripture goes ahead to say: “But fools despise wisdom and instructions.” When somebody who knows more than you is talking, who has passed through experiences and has the Spirit of God in him, you will be a fool not to listen to him.

Verse 22 says, “How long ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge?” Here, fools are those who despise knowledge and correction, they are those who hate knowledge and follow their own opinions.

People all over the earth, no matter where they come from, have choice of three authorities to operate under.

1. Personal opinion: The first authority is your own opinion. If you begin to say things like, “Well, it’s my own opinion, it is my own opinion,” and you believe that your own opinion is right while other people’s opinions are wrong and that your own opinion about Christianity is the only correct one, then perhaps, you will be the only one to go to heaven and you will be very lonely there. You may say, “Preacher, what if what you are saying here is wrong too?” If it is wrong, it then means that Jesus is not the King of kings and the Lord of lords after all, because the word of God is straightforward. Everything having to do with the salvation of man is well spelt out.  The Bible makes itself plain and clear. It says, “He that committeth sin is of the devil.” It does not put any middle class. It does not say, “Those who commit little or minor sins.” Pastor, apostle, evangelist or whatever you call yourself, once you commit sin, you are of the devil. Committing sin means that you are taking sides with the enemy of God. When Jesus came, He was not ready to listen to people’s opinions. He was not ready to listen to the truth of others, because He is the truth. You may also say, “What if you are wrong too?” Well, I still prefer my lifestyle to a lifestyle outside Christ. Someone may say, “Well, I don’t know whether Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. I don’t know whether there is hell or there is heaven.” Well, I don’t lose anything because I know that heaven and hell exist and that Jesus is the Kings of kings and the Lord of lords.  Those who fail to believe this will lose because when they die they will discover that the same Jesus that they have rejected is the King of kings.

Sometime ago, two groups of people argued whether God exists or not. The first group says that He exists, while the second group says that He does not. The group that says that God does not exist always asks questions like, “If actually God exists, why does He permit motor accidents? Why does He permit people to die anyhow, and children to die in hospitals, and all kinds of evil things happening? There is definitely no God.” The second group who says that God does not exist would say, “Well, the things that we find in the world make it unreasonable to say or believe that God does not exist. It appears there is one intelligent brain behind all these things, and that intelligent brain is what people call God."

These two groups argued for a week and many Christians backslid during the debate. On the last day, their professor, a white man, who was to conclude the debate came and made the following statement: “It is more logical to believe that God exists because if you say that He does no exist, and you die and discover that He exists, He will deal with you.” That closed the debate. So, some people are labouring under their own opinions, and that is one authority.

2. Other people’s opinion: Another authority is other people’s opinion, which may be right or wrong.  These are the things that control our lives. You may say, “No” but this is true. If everybody was blind and could not see, many of us would change our dressing. Some people who paint parts of their body like masquerades and do all kinds of things will stop when they discover that nobody admires them. They won’t even bother to wear bathroom slippers to work. So, people also labour under other people’s opinion.

3. God’s opinion: The highest opinion is that of the Almighty God and His Book. 

The devil has no opinion.  He has a mission and his mission is to destroy. Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.” It means that a fool is a person who is always right in his own eyes, and immediately you begin to correct him, you hurt him, you hurt his feelings. Proverbs 28: 26 also says, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.”

So, one whose ways are right in his own heart, is a fool according to God. For example, the Bible’s order of marriage is just twofold. It says,  “Wives, be subject to your husbands, and husbands, love your wives.” If people will just obey these two instructions, there will be no problem. “Wife be subject to your husband” means that if as a wife you are stating your opinion and your husband opens his mouth and says, “Shut up,” you should respect him and keep quiet. If you are not ready to do that, you shouldn’t have got married, your needn’t have dropped your father’s name to pick up another man’s own. If people will obey this, many homes will remain standing. If you say, “Well, I studied Biology in the university,” So what? Do you marry Biology? Your insistence that “I must talk, I am educated, I have my own opinions,” would only break the home into pieces. Most of the people asking you to talk and return fire for fire will later be laughing at you and saying, “He has thrown her out.” A fool is always right in his own heart.  Drop your opinion and follow what God is saying. When there is no subjection, love does not follow. It is just like Christ and His church.  If you refuse to subject yourself to the leadership of Christ, there will be problem for you.

Proverb 14:9 says, “Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous, there is favour.” It means that fools take sin lightly and forget the word of the Bible. If the Son of God, the ‘water of life’ could suffer so much for Him to say, “I thirst, give me water,” and instead of being given water, He was given vinegar, if He cried out in pain and God watched it happened, then woe unto that preacher or that Christian who would take sin lightly. This is why God is withdrawing His children from the dead churches. He shed His blood for them and will not allow them to perish in those dead places. His blood cannot go in vain, His children must be set free.

Proverb 16:5 says, “A fool despiseth his father’s instruction: but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.” Children who despise their fathers instructions are fools.  The Bible says that their days will not be long.

I know a man who is a lawyer and his father too was a lawyer.  He was very rude to his father. He thought he was a good match for his father because they were both in the same profession.  One day, the father said to him, “What you are doing to me, your children will do to you in future.” The man replied and said, “That is rubbish, shut up.” The man later died.

After the death of the father, the young man started having problems.  When he wanted to marry, he was manipulated into marrying the highest witch in the city. Right from the first night after the wedding, when both of them slept on the bed, the bed was turning around in circle and continued so until daybreak. He used to urinate once or twice at night, but with the circling around of the bed he began to bedwet. When they woke up, his wife would say to him, “Useless man, I didn’t know that you are like this.  After messing up now, you will put on your suit and be arguing in the courts.  One day, I will go to the court and tell them that you are a bedwet.”

With this kind of manipulation, the wife became the husband and the man became the wife because he was afraid that they would find out that he was bedwetting.  One day, he went to court to defend someone. It was as if the judge woke up on the wrong side and everything he said was termed rubbish. After sometime, everything went wrong in the court and he was ordered to be kicked out. And right from there, things ceased to work. One day, he met a preacher who said to him, “God said, you have offended somebody and you need to make a restitution.” He said, “The only person I know I quarrelled with was my father.” The preacher asked after the father and he told him that he had died. The preacher told him how serious the matter was and the man then begged God to forgive him.  He went straight to the grave of his father and wept and wept for almost six hours asking for forgiveness.  God saw him and said, “Ok, I forgive you.” But somebody does not have to pass through all that.  Although he was a lawyer, learned men as they are called, as far as the Bible is concerned, he was a fool.

Knowledge is different from wisdom. Education is different from wisdom. The fact that you attended school and passed your examinations does not mean that you are wise. The Bible calls such people fools.

Proverbs 20:3 says, “It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling.” It says that they will be meddling, they will be fighting until people would say, “Are those two people not Christians and we see them carrying the Bible.” The Bible calls them fools.

The Bible says, “Be quick to hear, but be slow to speak.” Most times, when you keep your mouth shut, people will not know that you are a fool, but it is when you start talking that they will know that you are foolish. You will expose yourself.

Sometime ago, two sisters were fighting and people ran to the mission house to call the pastor. The pastor came in his bicycle and said, “It ‘s okay.” One of them said to the pastor, “Oga, this is not church. This is a personal thing. I cannot, because I am born again, become a tablemat. So, Mr. Pastor, when I come to church, you can talk. This place is our house.” And she continued fighting. She is a fool, according to the Bible.

Psalm 92: 6 says, “A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.” It is my earnest prayer that any fool reading this message will receive deliverance, in Jesus’ name. And all those whose eyes have been blinded to the truth of God’s word shall be set free, in Jesus’ name.

Proverb 18: 6 -7 says, “A fool’s lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes. A fool’s mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul.” All wrong users of the mouth are fools, according to the foregoing. Proverb 26:11 says, “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” All backsliders who have refused to slide back to Jesus are fools.

The next class of fools is in the book of Ecclesiastes 7: 9 which says, “Be not hasty in the spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.” Angry people are regarded as fools by God.  If you still get angry, then you are a student in the school of foolishness, and you must depart quickly from that school.

 

HIGHER FOOLS

Psalm 14: 1 says, “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” The Bible says that the fool says in his heart, and not that he speaks it out. He does not talk, he is just thinking it and yet the Bible says that he is a fool. If the Bible could call somebody who is thinking that there is no God a fool, how about the one who is saying it? That one must be a higher fool.

We have a lot of people today who keep saying that there is no God. It is not their fault. If they were to be alive before the gospel came into this land, they would understand better. Before the gospel came to this land nobody wore good clothes and came out. If they did, witches would eat them up the next day. Only a few people who were strong could do that. If you have not read about the darkness in this place before the gospel came, please, do so. Demons were walking in the streets in the daytime. They were not hiding in the night. In some places in this country, witches were flying in the afternoon. But now, they dare not try it. A small child of God can now point his little finger and command fire to come down. It was not so before, because in those days many people did not know that there was fire anywhere.

In Luke 24: 25 Jesus says, “O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory?” At a stage, Jesus described His own disciples as fools because of their sluggishness in understanding spiritual things.

Luke 12:16-21 says, “And he spake a parable unto them saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do, I will pull down my barns and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night, thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth treasure up for himself, and is not rich toward God.” These are the highest fools. The Bible also says, “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end”(Deuteronomy 32: 29). This is saying that when a man is wise, he would not be thinking of the immediate profit.  So, everyone who lives and dies without making adequate preparation about where he or she is going is a fool.

When last did you think about heaven? Where are now the rich men of yesterday? Where are the popular ones? Have you not forgotten them. In a few years to come, the children that will be born will not know some names that are popular now, unless they read about them. Sooner or later, many people who have been doing things will become “Ex this and Ex that.” You have to plan towards heaven. You have to be rich towards God. A lot of people are busy doing only what is convenient for them. Don’t do what is just convenient for you. If the service is not convenient for you, you don’t come. It is better not to have been born than to have been born and you fail to make sure of eternity, or you are unprepared for death.

Birth is your opportunity, it is your beginning from where there is no returning. Once you have been born, you cannot say, “Mummy, I don’t like the world. Oh, let me go back into your womb.” No, it is impossible.

Death, too, is a commitment from which there is no escape. At birth, we all commence the journey from this world to the next. You cannot turn back from the journey. Only the body is the creature of this earth. It is therefore utter foolishness for any man to presume that he can find his way to God on his deathbed. God gives no such guarantee to anybody.

Sometime ago, in England, I was made the head of a Bible study group in a particular hall. We held our Bible study on Tuesdays. The first day that I taught, I found that many people felt uncomfortable.  The next time I was to talk, immediately I entered the study room, I found that somebody had ironed some clothes there. We didn’t know that the sister we were to hold the Bible study in her room was getting ready to go for a party with an unbeliever. She was just waiting for us to complete the Bible study. I started to talk by saying, “Well, God will meet you the way death meets you and there is no guarantee that in the next five minutes, you will still be here. Those who still patch their Christianity, who are not yet ready to stand out, are planning for destruction because when Jesus was around, He was very rigid.  So, in case you are looking for somebody who will bend the rules, not the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ kept saying woe to the enemies of the gospel. He called the Scribes and Pharisees the sons of those who killed the prophets. But He spoke good words unto those who loved Him.

As we closed the Bible study, the sister said, “Daniel, wait, I want to talk with you. What you said today is just what I needed to shake me out of my slumber. But, you see, I am a young girl, you are old. How then do I enjoy myself. You can afford not to go to disco but me, a young girl, how will I get on.” Then I opened to Psalm 119: 9 which states how the young should live their lives. I made her to understand that what she called enjoyment was not enjoyment but destruction coated with sugar. When you finish eating the sugar, the bitterness would enter into your mouth.  A lot of people are like that and we call them chameleon Christians. It is very risky not to be sure of heaven because an unexpected accident can suddenly throw someone into hell or heaven to spend eternity there. One man of God used to say, “Sudden death, sudden glory.” That was because he was ready for death. Someone who is not ready cannot say that. If you are not rich towards God, you cannot say that.

Nobody is born into the way of Christianity. The fact that you were born into a Christian home does not automatically make you a Christian. Christianity has to be sought.  It is a way.  The Bible says, “Seek and you shall find.” You have to find the way and move therein. Neglect of this opportunity that God presents to you is rejection of grace. If you persist in unbelief, and refuse to respond to God’s call, it is spiritual suicide. One of the most worrying verses in the Bible, which many people wish that it should be removed, is in I Peter 4: 17-18 which says, “For the hour is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear.” Consider the fact that the righteous shall scarcely be saved.  Think about it. Ask questions like, “What am I doing here? Where am I going? When I die, what will happen?” If you have never thought about these, then you need serious prayers. When you are tied to the world, it will glue you down. When the trumpet sounds, it will glue you down. The church is in the world, but the world should not enter into the church.  This deceptive world we are living in will sink one day and those who are not ready to separate from it, shall sink with it. Many Christians are too worldly-minded to be heavenly good. The world is constantly seeking to defile the child of God and if you allow it, it will have its way.

Today, I want you to think about it very well. There is a little thing in electricity called a fuse.  The current passes through it.  When God looks at you and sees that the fuse in your life has blown, no matter how powerful your environment may be and fire is coming out, it won’t enter you.  Some people have inferior fuses and cannot carry any power.  Such people should really cry unto the Lord.  One of the greatest tragedies of Christianity is the re-arrangement of priorities.  Many Christians are very active when they are praying against their enemies whereas the Bible says, “Seek you first the kingdom and all other things shall be added.” It means that those things will be pursuing you and not you pursuing them.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. Lord, lay your hand upon my life and make my life a miracle, in the name of Jesus.

2. Lord, give me the power to mount up with wings like the eagles, in the name of Jesus.

3. I refuse to become the serpent’s meat, in Jesus’ name.

4. Lord, anywhere my name is called for evil, let fire and thunder fall there, in the name of Jesus.

5. I command the Red Sea to swallow all my Pharaohs, in the name of Jesus.

 

 

  

DEVIL'S FIRST SERMON
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Genesis 3: 1 – 6 says, “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”

The serpent was a preacher and Eve was the listener. A careful study of the Bible reveals that the serpent was beautiful and graceful. A lot of people do not have the right idea about what the devil looks like. They think that the devil is ugly, short, dark, looking fearful and terrible. The serpent was subtle, that is, it was hardly noticeable, clever, cunning, full of guile and highly fascinating. From Genesis 3: 14, we know that the serpent used to walk upright, otherwise the curse that it would be crawling on its belly would not be meaningful. He was wise. Even Jesus Himself says we should be as wise as serpent.

What was the method that the serpent used on Eve? The method was temptation. He put a question mark on what God has said. The last sentence in Genesis 3:1 says, “And he said unto the woman, Yea hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”

He misquoted the Scriptures intentionally. In order to arrest it, Eve said unto the serpent in verses 2-3, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” In Genesis 2: 16-17, we see the correct thing that God said: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” But Eve misquoted that Scripture. She added “neither shall ye touch it.”

When God’s word is doubted, it leads to sin. God said they shall die and the serpent in chapter 3 verse 4 said, “Ye shall not surely die,” and then trouble started. He showed it to Eve, and it was appealing to her. She said it was good for food, it was good for the eye and it was to make people wise. So, she went ahead and ate it.

In his message, satan instigated Adam and Eve to become disobedient. He made them to doubt God’s words. He made them to question the goodness of God. He made the fruit to appeal to their eyes and appetite and gave them the idea that it could give them wisdom and they listened to the voice of their enemy.

Why are we going back to this basis? It is because the enemy’s method for derailing men and women and for dribbling them out of God’s will has not changed. It is the same old method. It is the same old serpent. He still uses the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

When the devil came to Jesus to tempt Him too, he used the same method. He told Him to convert stones to bread. There we see appetite. Then he showed Him the kingdoms of the world; again the lust of the eyes. Also, he asked Him to jump from the pinnacle of the temple - pride of life.

The question is, when the devil comes to you does he fail or succeed? The more the success of the enemy in a persons’s life, the closer the person is to hell fire. The more the failure of the enemy in a person’s life, the closer to God he comes. If you want to know God intimately, then the enemy has to record failure in your life. But if the enemy is succeeding, like the devil succeeded in the lives of Adam and Eve, then you are getting farther and farther from God.

It is a wonder of wonders that these days, the created one is challenging the Creator. The clay is inviting the porter to a boxing match. The dry leaf is changelling the whirlwind. The one whose breath was given to him is busy challenging the One who gave him the breath. People are using the understanding and wisdom that God has given to them to fight God. That is why the Bible says, “Why do the nations so furiously rage together and the people imagine a vain thing?” Why should people be trying to fight against God with what He has given to them? They are still listening to satanic sermons. The speech of Gamaliel comes to mind these days. He told the council that wanted to kill the apostles to let them go just in case what they were doing was of God, so that they would not find themselves fighting against God. And they listened to him and let the apostles go.

What are we saying? No one can fight against God and prosper. No one can fight against God and succeed. Eve made a lot of mistakes and many people are repeating the same mistakes today.

 

THE MISTAKES OF EVE

1. She thought that everything nice to the eyes was good. It is commonly said that all that glitter is not gold. The fact that something is beautiful does not mean it is right. The Bible says that there is a way that seems right unto men but the end thereof is death.

2. She thought that she knew better than God. God said, “Don’t eat, if you eat, you will die.” But she said, “I will eat it.” And we see what happened to her.

3. She too, had an ambition to become like God.

4. She sought for the wisdom she did not need. Sometimes, a person can be over- clever and would over-cleverly play himself into destruction.

5. Eve moved too close to what she should have abandoned. When the Lord said, “Don’t touch this thing, the attitude of anybody who fears God should be to run away from that thing. The Bible says, “Flee from all appearances of evil.”

6. Eve chose to believe the serpent rather than believe God. When a person chooses to believe the devil instead of God, problems happen.

 

THE MISTAKES OF ADAM

Adam also made many mistakes. And many people are still making these mistakes today.

1. He gave his wife an autonomy that should not have been given to her. He asked his wife, “Where did you get this from?” She said, “It is that thing that God said we should not eat. Take and eat,” and he ate.

2. He abandoned his God’s given role of leadership. There are many men like that. They cannot lead at the family altar. They would say, “Madam, you pray and I will pray after you. But make it brief.” All they are interested in is going about with their worldly friends. On Sundays, they pretend to be holy but they are something else. Some of these people go to church on Sundays because they are afraid that  witches would eat them up. But during the week they do as they like with their time. They have no time for fasting or any spiritual thing. It is madam that should fast and pray and do everything. Such men are abandoning their God-given role as priests in the house. They will be held responsible for it. This is very important.

3.  Adam yielded to his wife’s offer without confronting her with what the Lord has said.

4.  He obeyed his wife rather than God.

5.  He blamed God instead of crying for repentance.

These are the mistakes of people who listen to satanic sermons. I think the devil is the best lecturer. He can coach people very well. It would be very sad for people who come to the house of God, come to services and listen to the word of God, to be called the enemies of God by God Himself, at the end of the day. The Bible says that some Christians are carnal. It is just a way of saying that some Christians will go to hell fire from the church. Many people are actively pitching their tents against God and some are unconsciously battling against God. God has given them brain and intelligence but they are using it to fight Him. They turn the Bible upside down and quote what suits them. When they want to commit sin, they quote David’s many wives, when they want to tell lies, they would say, “After all Abraham said Sarah was not his wife.” They turn the Bible upside down. They use their brain to work against God.

You cannot outsmart God. Your education is meant to be used to serve the Lord and not to turn yourself into a clever devil. Instead of striving towards holiness, some would say, “But the Bible says that we are not perfect.” They always look for a way to wriggle out, instead of facing the reality. If you tell them that they need to be broken, they would say, “Everybody needs to be broken.” With things like this, they use their brain against the Lord. They wage war against the Lord of hosts.

May be as you are reading this bulletin, you have been listening to satanic sermon, you need to close your ears to it henceforth for it is a path of destruction. If you want to academically excuse yourself from sin, you are an academic sinner. You better repent now. If you did not do something and you said you did, you are a sinner and God sees you. You cannot bribe God with activities after you have committed atrocities. He would prefer that you sort yourself out and then come back and serve Him.

If you are enticing men and women, you are fighting against God. You are misusing your body and talents. Many people are using the beauty of what God has given to them to fight against God. A time will come when everything we are putting together shall become raw materials for fire. Very soon, the faces that are being used to seduce people will become wrinkled. That is, if the people do not die before they become wrinkled and nobody will be interested in looking at the faces again. We must not use what God has given to us against Him.

God gave us a gift of free will and a lot of people are using it against Him. They do what their mind tells them and not what the Holy Spirit says. They do not care whether God is happy or not. They even ridicule the things of God. They kick their conscience to a corner. They would say, “Well, don’t worry, it is okay since I don’t feel bad about it.” Such people are still listening to satanic sermons. Some use their wealth against the Lord. They cheat and oppress the poor. They boast and reject God. They use their money to promote anti-God programmes. Some run after money and totally forget to seek the Lord. Then they use the money to finance charms and demonic interest. They would say, “I am not interested in serving your idols but you take this money and buy my own goat.” They are using their money to finance the devil. Some people were steadfast when they were poor but now that they are rich, they refuse to become steadfast. Some even disappear from the church after receiving financial breakthrough, only to come back when something goes wrong again. The question is, “Who do they think they are deceiving?” Some people spend their money buying useless things. Some use their talents against the Lord. They have a very good voice but they are serving the devil with it. They use their talent to further the kingdom of Babylon. They speak eloquently against God. These are the people listening to satanic sermons. A day is coming when the judgment of God would come upon His enemies.

A lot of people are secretly committing sin. Many Christians are guilty of this. They wear the garb of Christianity, but secretly, they are obeying the voice of the enemy. Please pray like this: “I refuse to listen to any satanic message, in the name of Jesus.”

 

What is the result of this satanic message which is still with us now?

Man was turned into sin by his enemy. God therefore issued curses on him and all that are committing sin, whether secretly or openly, they come under the curse of the Almighty. That was why Jesus had to come. The serpent too was cursed. It was changed from the most subtle and beautiful creature to the lowest and most despised. It crawls on its belly. The devil too was cursed. He lost his dominion and authority. The woman too was cursed. Hers was the most painful and the most humiliating of them all. God said, “You will surely multiply, but delivery will be in pain."

Man too, was cursed. He has to earn his living by toil and sweat physically and spiritually. Even creation was cursed. The ground would from now bring out thorns and bristles. The atmosphere was not left out. Germs, diseases, shame and fear came in. Then to make it worst, spiritual death came in. 

Because somebody paid attention to what the enemy said and followed his instruction, look at what has happened. That is why I often say that secret sin must be killed and not allowed to grow. Until the issue of sin is dealt with, all other things we are saying in the church is a joke.

Many people need to be completely broken and transformed. When that transformation comes upon their lives, several things will happen. They would no longer be interested in claiming their right all the time. They will not get provoked. They will not fight or beat up people. They will shun evil because something has happened to their lives.

The devil would always say, “Compromise, just compromise. Don’t worry, this one is not too bad.” But immediately you do it, he knows what would follow. This is why sometimes, God watches His people with interest. He says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

A long time ago, there was a poultry farmer who was said to have gone to the mountain and there, he found the egg of an eagle. Eagle’s eggs take longer time to hatch than those of a chicken. The man took the egg of the eagle and put it together with the chicken’s to hatch. After sometime, they hatched and the eaglet moved about with the chicks and was imitating the chicks’ ways of life. The chicks were always looking up but the eaglet was always looking at the ground. It picked stones and worms in the soil. Sometimes, it took shelter under the mother hen. It was raised up like the chicks but it did not look like them.

The farmer was observing the eaglet. One day, something happened. A mother eagle flying above saw the eaglet behaving like the chicks. The mother eaglet made a loud cry, which made the eaglet to look up for the first time. For the first time, it heard a sound similar to its own. The mother eagle made a second cry, and with that captured the eaglet’s attention. It dawned on the eaglet that it did not belong where it was but up there. Then it started to try to fly. The mother eagle made the third cry, which sent something into the blood of the eaglet and it flew high into the sky and the farmer could not see it again. What we are saying is that you either fly like an eagle or you become a chick. To become a chick is a disaster because the hawk is there.

The natural man is like that eaglet, which was found where it did not belong, stolen away by the devil. The brotherhood of darkness characterizes the life of the natural man. What is brotherhood of darkness? It is sin, sickness and death. The devil is not your master and he did not create you. But he has incubated many people under the rule of darkness of this world. Man got to that incubation stage because he decided to listen to the enemy.

You are hearing the cry of mother eagle now, saying you do not belong to sin, sickness and death. So, come up to the high mountains where you belong, where you will climb higher to God. But if you are still struggling with sin, you have a hidden sin or you have to be persuaded not do certain things which you are not supposed to be doing, then it is very sad.

Many people do not receive the fulness of God before they die. And we know that there is no repentance in the grave. So, it is a dangerous thing for you to come to the house of God where holiness is preached and you are still living in sin. Then you want to make yourself a ready meat for satan. That is why I said that you should not belong to the chick. You are above that. The mother eagle is calling now and you should fly up there. The Bible says, "They taht wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like the eagle."

The psalmist says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not answer my prayer.” He did not say if you are committing sin but mere regarding it in your, that is, meditating upon it, the Lord would not answer you. Perhaps sin has paralyzed your spiritual life. You have been complaining, “I don’t know why my problems are not solved. I don’t know why things are going like this?” But the Lord is saying, “Get away from under the hen and move up to your mother eagle. Fly above.” Why should a flying eagle become a chick? The devil deceives people into looking for trouble and then kills them there. Think about it. Talk to the Lord and to yourself. Ask yourself: “Do I have any secret sin? Am I a hypocrite? Do I put up a different picture in the church and another one at home? Am I faithful to what I am doing? Am I faithful to my husband, wife, or children? Am I honestly saying that I have defeated the devil? Can I honestly say that if I am provoked I will not fight?” These questions would help us to examine ourselves.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. I don’t want to be a lower eagle. I don’t want to be a chick under a satanic hen. I do not want to listen to any satanic sermon, in Jesus’ name.

2. Heal me Lord and I shall be healed, save me Lord and I shall be saved, in the name of Jesus.

3. Every power delegated to kill my potential, die by fire, in the name of Jesus.

4. O Lord, anchor my head to my breakthrough, in the name of Jesus.

5. Every spirit of Haman delegated against me, fight against yourself, in Jesus’ name.

6. Every satanic consultant delegated against me, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

7. Let the rod prepared against me by the enemy be the burial ground of the enemy, in the name of Jesus.

8. Every personal Goliath and Jericho, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.  

ENCOURAGE YOURSELF
By. Dr. D. K. Olukoya

1Samuel 30: 1-8 says, “And it came to pass, when David and
       his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire. And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way. So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. And David’s two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. And David inquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.” Verse 18 says that David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away.

Discouragement is a terrible disease and a very powerful weapon in the hand of the enemy of our soul. Consider this illustration. Something went bad for a lady and she became so sad that she cried herself to sleep. As she slept, she saw a vision where she was in a big market place. As she moved round the market, she found a particular shop called Mr. Devil’s shop. She said, “Wonderful, the devil has a shop in this place.” She went in to see what the devil was selling and found on the shelf, Anger, Hypertension and Diabetes with their prices attached. She said, “Mr. Devil, what is the most expensive material in your shop?” He brought something out on which was written  "Discouragement,” and said, “This is the most expensive thing. When I get Christians to be discouraged and worried, I send fear into them and from there all kinds of other things will go in. 

It is sad but true that many people actually wage war against themselves. Imagine that you take your car to a mechanic and he says, “I should have been a bricklayer. All the cars I have repaired pack up. In fact, I don’t know what I am doing here.” What will you do? Of course, you will take your car away. Or you go to the hospital for surgery and the surgeon complains: “I should have been a motor mechanic. All the patients I operated on die.” I am sure that you will go somewhere else. 

Many people downgrade themselves continually with their mouths. Whenever the devil wants to box you to a corner, encourage yourself in the Lord.

 

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE WORD "DISCOURAGE?"

It is a simple English word that is made up of two words: "Dis" and "Courage." Discourage means lack of courage. The trouble with discouraged people is that they cannot hear from God. The Bible says, “Therefore with joy shall you draw water from the well of salvation.” The devil knows that discouraged people cannot commune with God properly or hear His voice.

Encouragement brings hope but discouragement causes hopelessness and despair. It is so easy to know the size of a person’s faith by observing how much trouble it takes to discourage him. I read an article about a man who tried to sell soap to a certain customer. He started going to the customer in the morning and continued until the customer got wearied and said, “Ah! This is the tenth soap seller that has come here. What is the problem? Okay how much is the soap? I will buy so that they stop worrying me.” And he bought the soap. The man then said, “Point of correction sir, I am the only one that has been coming. In the morning, I wore a suit and you turned me away. I went and changed and came back. I have been here ten times. Thank you for buying.” This is the kind of people who can make a headway.

When people are encouraged, they keep on their feet and smile even when it looks like they are faced with defeat. But discouraged people have a lot of loose ends to tie up. When discouraged people are sick, they give up and die quickly. I have seen where some people were trying to purge a lady who swallowed excessive tablets because she wanted to die. As they were doing that, she kept saying, “Leave me, let me die, let me die.” Why? She was discouraged.

Discouraged people sometimes forget that certain mistakes might have been made in the past and God would require time to correct them. So, they conclude that God has gone on holiday.

Discouraged people believe that life is a failure. To be quite honest with you, I think discouragement has killed more people than typhoid and malaria. Discouraged people snatch defeat from certain victory. They see victory coming and snatch defeat out of it.

They borrow problem from the future. They are worried about tomorrow even though they do not know what will happen tomorrow. They borrow the problems of the future and transfer them to the present. This does not make sense at all. Tomorrow is too early now to worry about.

Discouraged people drink the wine of frustration. When you hear somebody always saying, “I don’t like this, I don’t want this at all,” there is frustration in place. It is very easy to know frustrated ladies. They paint their hair in different colours, use wigs, scrap their eyebrows, put lead pencil, paint their lips and nails, etc. They also wear tight or transparent dresses that expose their bodies.

Discouraged people advertise the devil’s disgrace. Devil is already disgraced and they are advertising it. They have faith but the faith is in failure. So, before David could hear God, he had to encourage himself. He shook off discouragement and believed that God would turn his calamity into goodness. Therefore, it is only a heart that is encouraged that is conditioned to hear good news.

In Exodus 6:9, we see the situation of the children of Israel in Egypt. God had already raised a deliverer for them. What happened when the deliverer came? Exodus 6:9 says, “And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.” They could not accept the good news because their spirits were down. But when David encouraged himself in the Lord he prayed with confidence and the wonderful promise came from the Lord: “You shall surely pursue, and overtake and by all means recover.” David would not have heard anything if he had chosen to remain discouraged.

I would like you to take note of the following important truth: that discouragement is a personal decision. A person could decide to give up on something that would help him or her. When a woman says, “I am tired of begging the man. Everyday I kneel down and say forgive me, forgive me. Even when I have not committed any offence, I still say forgive me, forgive me. Why am I always the one begging? I am tired of begging.” It is better for such a woman to keep begging. If she gives up, discouragement will come in. One man said, “I am tired of greeting people without any response from them, after all I am not wood. I am tired. I greet them and they answer with their heads and eyes. Don’t they have mouth to answer?" Please, keep greeting them.

Some people would say, “Prayer has finished in the house of prayer warriors, deliverance has finished from deliverance ministers.” Keep praying or someone may say, “I am tired of coming to meetings and laying hands on the same place everyday.” Keep laying hands. Your breakthrough may come with the next laying of hands.

The mountains that we are facing get weaker as we pray against them.  So, it is dangerous to get discouraged because it could be when you are just about to have your breakthrough.

Discouragement is very expensive in the devil’s market because you pay with your life. Someone may say, "I have been paying my tithes. I have been very faithful in doing it, but I have not had any big breakthrough.” What you should do is to even give more violently. But if you say you would no longer give, you would be like the man whom God blessed and by the time he made his first breakthrough the tithe was N5000. As he held the N5000, his hands were shaking and he said, “Ah should I put the whole of this down? Ah! do we really have to pay tithe?” He ran to the man of God and said, “Excuse me, sir this money is too large to pay just like that.  For example I can invest it in this, that, that, that, that. Why can’t I just pay part of it and thank God?” The man of God answered: 'Do you want the Lord to return you to your former state, when you were earning N10,000 per month and paying N1000 tithe?” He said, “No, that too is not good.”

If you have been sowing your seed and it is like no blessing is coming, sow more violently instead of being discouraged. See all impossible situations as opportunities in disguise.

Discouragement is a personal decision.  You need to make a conscious decision to be discouraged.  This is why sometimes they call people who have faith mad people. They call them mad people because when they are supposed to be rolling on the floor and crying they are busy jumping and rejoicing. No one can discourage you except you decide to discourage yourself. Do not say, "Ah! It is our pastor. He does not give me much to do. He does not recognise me." If you go to a bus stop and lay your hands on two mad people and they get healed, or  you convert 200 people per week, no matter who your pastor is, he will show you recognition. So take a conscious decision not to be discouraged. Take a decision this moment to always encourage yourself in the Lord, then you can hear Him clearly. 

Do not wait for somebody to come and encourage you. There is scarcity of people who encourage others. Rather when you tell them your problem, say, that your husband ran away, they would tell you that your own problem is even better. One would tell you, “My own husband is running after me with an axe." So, what kind of encouragement is that?

Encourage yourself in the Lord and render thanksgiving to Him.  Tell Him you appreciate His blessings and faithfulness.  Decide that circumstances will not enslave your soul no matter what.

The Lord once said to me that many people who come to church need deliverance from grasshopper spirit.

 

WHAT IS

GRASSHOPPER SPIRIT?

It is the spirit of “we are not able,” the spirit that afflicted Israel, whom God told to go and take possession of the Promised Land. They said, “No, we are not able, we are like grasshoppers.” You need also to stand against the spirit of evil expectation.  It would be very sad if something happens and a believer opens his mouth and says, “I know that problem would occur and now it has occurred. It is a very powerful spirit which we must stand against.  It is the devil who should be wondering when we will shoot our arrow next, not we saying that we don’t know when to attack.

 

WHAT THEN IS THE MEDICINE AGAINST DISCOURAGEMENT?

There is no one that trial and frustration period will not face at one time or the other.  Somebody has said that life is a jungle. That is true.

1.  Release your situation into the hands of the Lord: A songwriter says, “take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.” Refuse to doubt, refuse to waste your night working it out with your brain. The Bible says, “Casting all your cares upon Him for He cares for you.” It does not say cast some, but all. If you do not hand your cares over to Him, then don’t blame Him if He does not work on them.

2.  See divine possibilities: See that the blessings you need can come You must see that every problem has an end and that the end of a trial will come. Begin to see that God can do something in your life, that the pain, the fear and the financial problem can come to an end. Begin to see that possibility and things would begin to happen.

In the Bible, those who violently claimed their blessings did so because they saw that it was possible. They pursued it seriously, they did not give up, they kept going and going until what they wanted came into their hands.

Look at the woman with the issue of blood. Before she left her home she had it settled:  “I know that all I need to do is to touch the helm of His garment and I shall be made whole. I don’t even want the man to pray for me. It is not necessary.” She had already seen the possibility.

It does not matter what any doctor has said about your problem. It does not matter what any prophet has said.  Neither the prophet nor the devil has the last say about anybody’s life.   God has the last say.  The woman saw the possibility and that was it.

Jacob too saw the possibility and stood there until he got it. Blind Bartimaeus saw the possibility. The Syrophoenician woman asked Jesus to heal her daughter and Jesus said, “No, I cannot take the food of the children and give it to dogs.” The woman was not discouraged. She was not upset. She was determined to get what she wanted. She stayed there until the Saviour had to answer her prayer.

May be men of God have disappointed you, made you  frustrated and bitter.  There are some people who have resolved never to step into the church again because of what one pastor or the other did to them. If you are like that, encourage yourself in the Lord.

A man and his wife had a terrible fight one day. The woman decided to beat the man seriously.  When the man saw that the fight was too hot for him, he ran out of the house and went to report to the pastor to come and settle the quarrel.  But a few metres to the pastor’s house, he found that the pastor and his wife were also boxing each other.  He stood and said, "Ah! I better go and sort out my own problem. If you are like that man, encourage yourself. Stand against all forms of anxiety. One great problem that God has with us is that we hold on to our problems and are not experts at solving them. At times when we have messed everything up we carry the leftover to God.

3.  Believe that all things are possible:  Jesus says that all things are possible to him that believes.  Perhaps you have problems that seem to defy solution. You have come to your wits end. You have decided, “well, this place is my last stop. I am going to run away from God. No, all things are possible to him that believes.

The Bible does not say that all things are possible to him that worries.  When we say things are impossible, it means that we have arrived at self-defeat. God is a gentleman, He will not grab the problem out of your hand if you do not hand it to Him.  So, whatever the situation may be, believe that all things are possible.  I remember the testimony of a six-year old boy who could neither walk nor talk. His mother was carrying him all over the place and brought him to our crusade.  As the crusade was about to close, I said, “We have a project to do here and people should give to the Lord.” The woman cried and said, “I have been here for one week and nothing has happened and she took all the money she had and dumped it in the offering bag. It was then the word of knowledge came that the boy had been healed and right before her eyes, the first thing that happened was that the bent bone of the boy stretched and a cracking sound could be heard as it moved. By the time God finished with the boy, a medical doctor at the meeting could count 26 miracles performed on him. The enemy had finished his case completely but God turned it around. That God is till around. So, see that possibility and you will see what the Lord will do.

4.  Do not give up: When the whole of your eyes are turning red, do not give up. When life is becoming disjointed and disorganised, don’t give up.  When you feel you cannot take another step ahead, don’t give up. When trials surround you everyday and your enemies are showing themselves as friends, don’t give up.  When you think that all is lost, don’t give up.  When all things are moving up and the road is so rough and tiring, when you try to smile and the smile is hardwork or when the debts are so much, do not give up.

Many strugglers have given up at the edge of success. One sister was praying, “O Lord, give me breakthrough.” The Lord said, “You have already had it.” And still after five years there was no breakthrough.  You know that God is a God of suddenlies. One morning, God sent an angel to go and give the sister what she wanted. The angel came to church before the service and waited for her to arrive, but that morning the devil went to her to give a satanic lecture.  A certain pastor said that the devil is  a great pastor. He knows the house of every member, he knows their names, he knows where they work, he knows everything about them. He is present at every table where they eat. He is present at all their family meetings.  No pastor can do all these.  The devil came to the sister and said, “Look at you, at your old age you are sweeping the floor of the church for the mates of your children, cleaning benches.  Since you have been going there, what have you brought out of this place? Stop wasting your time." And for the first time in five years she listened to that lecture and did not go to the service that day the angel came for her.  The angel waited in vain till the end of the service. Well, the Bible says, “The word which I have spoken from my mouth shall not come back to me void.” So after the grace was said, the angel gave the blessing to somebody else and departed.

Many strugglers give up at the edge of success, but David encouraged himself in the Lord and his spirit became calm.  While he was crying he could not hear God, but immediately he stopped crying and  encouraged himself in the Lord, his spirit was now calmed. All the crying exercises did not let him hear God but immediately he stopped crying and he encouraged himself in the Lord, the voice of God came to him saying, “Surely you shall pursue, overtake and by all means recover.”

Discouragement is a very clever spirit.  If somebody used to run to service and now he is walking slowly to the place, the spirit of discouragement has started working.  When somebody who used to pray and smile is now depressed and unhappy, that spirit is setting in. Discouragement has many powerful children, like fear, worry, depression, death, sickness and hindrances.  That is why the Bible says, “Let not your heart be troubled."

Get to the level where the devil will say, “This one? I am not able to defeat him.”

The Bible says Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God in the prison. With all the wounds in their bodies, they just refused to be discouraged. 

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.  Every spirit of discouragement, I am not your candidate, I bind you, in the name of Jesus.

2.  Every good thing I have lost because of discouragement, I recover it, in Jesus’ name.

3.  Every enemy of joy in my heart, fall down and die, in Jesus’ name.

4.  I pursue my enemies, I overtake them, I recover my stolen properties, in the name of Jesus.

5.  I bind every spirit of evil expectation, in the name of Jesus.

  

FACING BOTH WAYS
By. Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Matthew 7: 21-22 says, “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devil? And in thy name done many wonderful works.” Some people have not even done one work but the people in the passage say they have done many. Verse 23 says, “And then will I profess unto them (God forbid), I never knew you (although you worked miracles in my name and prophesied) depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” These are heavy words.

An ancient proverb says that there was a foolish ruler. When it was hot, he wanted it cold and when it was cold, he wanted it hot. He was always looking for what was not. It is amazing that many people do not know what they want and many come to the house of God blind.

There is a class of animals called amphibians. They are defined as animals that can live both on land and in water. There are many Christians like that, they are facing both ways.

Elijah told the people at Mount Carmel, “If God be God serve Him, if He is not go away, don’t patch up. Don’t put one leg in His kingdom and another one in the kingdom of the devil.” You would not be dinning with the children of the devil and be receiving divine vision at the same time. Those facing both ways have not identified thoroughly with what they believe. All such people, according to Jesus, would miss heaven. He says, “Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Even if you worked miracles, prophesied, sang, taught or did anything else. As far as you did not do the will of the Father, I will say to you, sorry, I don’t know you. You are a worker of iniquity because you did all that with a double mind.” Such people will eventually miss heaven unless they repent. This is very important.

Those facing both ways are not committed to God. They do not realize that God has a purpose for bringing them to church. He has no useless exercise. Such people come to church, pray fire prayers, listen to the word of God and yet, it is not certain where they belong. They are Christian amphibians or sub-marine Christians. They want miracle but do not want the miracle worker. When the mouth and the heart are playing different games, the person is not heading to heaven. The mouth is saying, “Lord, Lord,” but the heart is saying something else. It is strange to know that the most diligent preacher around now is the devil. He is never out of the church. You cannot find him idle. It is the Christians that become idle, not the enemy. He is present in every service. His agents are anywhere God’s name is magnified, to report back to their master. He is also available. You do not need a long invitation to get him to work. It does not take you a minute to slap somebody now. It does not take you a minute to get angry. So, he is always available and does not sleep. Unfortunately, many are serving him without knowing. His best job is done by those who claim to love God. They are his best agents. Masquerades dance very hard in market places. You can see sincerity, commitment and hard work in them as they work for the devil. They do not come late to their meetings. But in the church, you have many children of God that are not committed. They are one leg in, one leg out. In their houses, you will hear worldly music which they memorize.

It is possible for somebody to be coming to the house of God and remain what you call a sweet sinner. There is also bitter sin, for example, armed robbery. Christians are the greatest sweet sinners. But sweet sins will get more people into hell fire. There could be a person who does not smoke, womanize, drink, attend parties or gamble, but he cannot witness for Christ. Such a person is still a sinner, a sweet sinner. There are people who know the Bible from the first page to the last but they have terrible temper. Any small thing provokes them. They are sinners although they know the Bible. A person could teach at the Sunday school, do praise worship, yet possesses an acidic tongue, is a sinner. Some sinners are the kindest and most respectable people you can find. They would say, “Yes sir, how are you sir?” and so on and so forth but they are terrible sinners inside. This is why the kingdom of heaven is going to be very interesting. Some people you expect to find there will never get to the gate. Jesus said to the Jews, “You keep calling yourself the children of Abraham.  But I tell you on that day, you will see prostitutes, adulterers, etc, sitting at the table with Abraham and you would be locked out.” They claimed that Abraham was their father but the spirit of Abraham was not in them. That is why James 2: 10-11 says, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, do not commit adultery, said also, do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.”

There are thousands of people who say, “I am trying my best. I have done this, I have done that.” But the Bible says, “If you offend in one point, you have committed all the sins.” So there is no difference between somebody who tells small lies and a witch. Both of them will end up in the same place when they die. There are many people who speak religious language but unfortunately, they are perishing. There are many pastors who shall perish. There are many people who, although they bear Christian names, will perish, unless they repent. Those who are putting time and money into the things of God but have no love and sincerity, will miss heaven. There are people who come to church but have not totally forsaken their sins or are not truly broken. They may be working for God, sweating, but they are sinners. The most dangerous ones are those who have unforgiving spirit. My prayer is that the Lord shall perform a surgical operation in their lives, in Jesus’ name. Some labour to hide their sins from man but they stubbornly refuse to let all the sins go. They refuse to uproot the world from their hearts. The world is deeply entrenched in their lives although they come to church. They look different in the church from what they are outside.

Many people talk and sing about being free, while they are still bound by lust, greed and covetousness. A certain sister telephoned me and said, “Please, sir, help us.” I said, “What is the problem?” She said, “My husband is a deacon in our church. But we have had accident three times on the road because when he was driving, he could look forward only when there was no woman by the side of the road. Whenever there was a woman, he would not look forward until he ran into something.” That was a deacon. What was his problem? Sin. Jesus would say to such a man, “Although you are a deacon I don’t know you. Your name is not in our book.” A person’s name can be in the book of exploits because the Bible says that they that know their God shall be strong and do exploits. It could be on record in the book of exploits that you converted so, so and so, yet your name is not in the book of life. It could be recorded that you sang and people got converted. But that is in the book of exploit. What about the book of life?

Some people decide to miss heaven because of worldly things. But I made up my mind a long time ago that come what may, I will not miss it.

A certain armed robber saw a vision of heaven and appreciated the beauty so much that he said to the angel that was conducting him, “Excuse me sir, let me stay here.” The angel said, “No, you cannot. There is still one more place for you to see.” He dragged him to hell fire where he saw his fellow- armed robbers, who were already shot, burning in hell. Worms of fire were entering in and out of their nostrils and they were screaming. He told the angel that he preferred the first place. The angel said, “If you don’t repent, this is where you will end up like your friends. When he woke up from his dream, he went and submitted himself to the police. He said, “Please lock me up. It is better for me to die in prison and go to heaven than to be a free man and go to hell fire.” You may go to hell fire laughing but when you get there, the laughter will disappear. You may play games and be clever now, but over there, there are no games because you would meet the master game player.

When God shows you the truth, your life should not remain the same, unless you have decided to be what the Bible calls a child of perdition. There are some people who have decided to perish. There is nothing you can say to change them. Their conscience has been seared with hot iron. When somebody commits sin willfully, he grieves the heart of God, he crucifies the Lord Jesus Christ a second time. Whenever a believer commits sin, he quenches the power of the Holy Spirit. Every sinner is making attempt to overthrow God. It does not matter if the sin is still in the mind, the person is doing a lot of harm to the Creator.

Husbands, your sins could damage your wives, unless you repent.  Wives, too, your sins will damage your husbands unless you repent. Murmuring, complaints, disrespect, jealousy, disobedience, anger, pride or rebellion will hand over a family to the devil for punishment. This is why at Mountain of Fire and Miracles, we do not teach anybody to fight the husband or the husband to beat the wife. We teach that the husband is the head of the home and the wife should submit to him. That is the proper order, provided what the husband wants you to submit to is not sin. That songwriter says, “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.” He says, “The cross before me, the world behind me.” Is the world behind you or at your front? Have you left the shackles of the world behind? For example, if the prince of the world comes to you now, that is the devil, can he say, “I cannot find anything in this man? I cannot find anything in this woman? Can he say that about you? Not all that are called pastor, priest, singer, Sunday school teacher or whatever shall enter. The Bible says that iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold. It does not say, “it may,” but that “it shall” wax cold. Pray like this: I remove my name from evil prophecy; it will not happen in my life, in the name of Jesus.

The reason some people are having backache is that they are sleeping on stolen beds. The reason some people are having stomach ulcer is that they are eating with stolen spoons. Somebody goes to a hotel and when he is checking out, he steals the towels and the cups and goes home with them. Now he says he has skin rashes. The reason is that he is using the stolen towels.

A sister stole a television set and watched it for years. But she noticed that there was no single breakthrough in her home. Each time she switched on that television the devil would start to dance because they were watching his property. In the same house, they held night vigil every last Friday and everybody prayed. But the devil was laughing because of the stolen television in the sitting room and a stolen carpet. So, nothing happened.

A certain brother who claims to be a Christian tried the first time to get a visa, he was turned down. He tried the second time and still did not succeed. Then he got another passport and changed his name from Olowu to Owuto. He now said, “Pray for me so that I will obtain a visa to travel abroad.” And children of God were praying aggressively. That is an amphibian.

Ask yourself: “Have I cheated somebody in any way? Have I even been paid money that I ought not to get and I kept quiet. Have I ever cheated my employers in any way?

Have you ever stolen money, equipment or anything? Have you made a false claim to exaggerate things? Have you claimed money for any work you did not do? If you are committing secret sins like that, the voice will sound out, “I know you not.” Or are you the kind of person that close your eyes when people are committing sins? Have you ever stolen anything from anywhere? Are you the kind of person, they give change and the change is over what you should get and you do not return it? There was a time that I had something to do and I employed three carpenters. I said that I was going to give them a test to see who I should continue with. I asked them how much they needed to do the work. The first one said, N2,500; the second one said, N2,500, and the third one said, N2,400. Each of them was given N3,000. I wanted to know the honest one. Of course, two just said, “Thank you sir” and went away, and never returned any change. Only one of them came back and said, “Sorry sir, there is a mistake, the money is supposed to be N2,500, but there is extra N500, so I have brought it back.” I decided that he would be the permanent worker. The others kept quiet and later started complaining, that that one, whom I was giving jobs, was not good: he was bad, he was mad, he was this and that but they were thieves.

So, sometimes when you think you are being clever, you cannot be smarter than the devil. Are you the kind of person who borrows from people and decides not to pay back. Some people keep their money in the bank. They have N40,000 in the bank and are roaming around looking for somebody to lend them N5,000. It is madness, because that money has become an idol. If you say, “I want to keep it there to yield interest,” whose interest, when the Bible says, “owe no man.”

Not all they that call me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.

If you are reading this bulletin and you falsified your age to get admission, or to obtain a job, you are a sweet sinner, an amphibian. Anytime you have the opportunity of getting into somebody’s house, where you can use free telephone and you overuse it, you phone the whole world, you are a sinner. You propose marriage to somebody and later find somebody better and you break your first promise, you are an amphibian Christian. May be you got somebody pregnant and because you have no money, you now say, “I didn’t do it,” you are an amphibian. You smile at people, but internally, if they fall down and hit their heads on the ground, you really do not mind. God sees your heart. If we all gather into the house of  God and the only thing we want is for His glory to be manifested, nobody will fight. If all that God requires from you is to be cleaning shoes for His glory to be manifested, then you do it. If all He wants you to say is Amen, and it is for His glory to be manifested, that is okay. But the moment people want their own glory, there will be fight.

A man, a very top official in a church, came to me and said he was in trouble. He wanted prayer. I said, “Why do you want prayer now?” He said that when he wanted to take up the church post, four other people wanted it. So he went to a herbalist somewhere close to Ikorodu, who he learnt was every effective. He gave him a charm so that he could win the post. Now he won the church post by using wicked herbal means and there was a quarrel. The herbalist threatened to come and report him to the church, that he was the one that did this and that for him to become this and that. Now he wants prayer from me so that he could defeat the herbalist. I said, “Who did you want to serve with the post?” He said, “God.” I said, “If it is God you want to serve, and you want only His glory, why should you go and use satanic means to get the post?” I thought it was the end. I did not know that all the other contestants had been rendered paralysed. The ignorant members of that church would sit down and say, “It is my father’s church, I will die there.”

So, serving God with an unclean heart is like you are saying, “Lord, Lord,” but in reality, you do not belong. It is possible for you be coming to a church and not contributing anything to the holiness there. The world is just looking at some people to change so that their lives alone would make thousands to rush into the kingdom of heaven. God is waiting for that change, but they are not moving fast. Instead, they are advertising the enemy. They use their attachments to advertise him. They paint their fingernails to advertise him. They wear their 666 chain over their necks to advertise him.

Do you know where you are going? Pray like this: I remove my name from the list of backsliders, in the name of Jesus.

Confess your sins to the Lord and refuse to be used as a bad example. Talk to the Lord yourself. He uses His x-ray machine to look into your innermost being, to the deepest part of your life.  He can see the areas where people have covered so cleverly. Confess your sins to Him. Tell Him that you are sorry, tell Him to help you. He is available to help.

 

Prayer Points

1. O Lord, deliver me from every bondage of sin, in Jesus’ name.

2. Every power quenching the power of the Holy Spirit in my life, release it, in the name of Jesus.

3. I must rest in the Lord and not on any other thing, in the name of Jesus.

4. O Lord, lift me up, in Jesus' name.

5. Every spirit of lukewarmness, depart from my life, in the name of Jesus.

6. I refuse to be intimidated by any stranger, in Jesus' name.

7. O Lord, manifest your power in my life, in the name of Jesus.  

CARRY OVER FROM EGYPT
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

The journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan can be likened to our spiritual growth as Christians. Also, the way God deals with us as individuals is similar to the way He dealt with the children of Israel as a nation. They had to move from Egypt through the wilderness into Canaan. God promised the children of Israel the land of Canaan while they were yet in Egypt. Likewise, today, God promises us a victorious life, which can be interpreted as Canaan, when we give our lives completely to Him.

 

THE JOURNEY OF THE ISRAELITES

When you study the Bible very well, you will find that the journey of the Israelites was in five stages. Let us look at these five stages and compare them with our lives today

 

1.  EGYPT

     Egypt was a place of slavery. It represented slavery to sin, sickness and death. People normally interpret Egypt as sin or the world, but it is a lot more than that. In Egypt, the Israelites suffered terrible bondage. Their enemies dealt with them in a harsh manner. To us now, our Egypt represents the world with all its set-ups. When we say that someone is still in Egypt, it means that his soul and spirit are in the world, he is still in bondage to sin and satan is the one controlling him. So, spiritually, all unbelievers are in Egypt because they are still in bondage.

 

2. The Red Sea

When the Israelites left Egypt, they moved to the second place, which is called the Red Sea. They passed through the Red Sea. The passage of the Red Sea represents salvation to us.

 

3. The Wilderness

The wilderness represents to us wandering, where we do battle with the flesh. That is, when a person who was inside Egypt gets out, he has to battle with the Egypt that is already inside him. That is the mark of a life in the wilderness. The wilderness represents to us bondage to self, carnality, immaturity and unbelief. It represents a life that co-exists sometimes with satan. That is why you see some born-again Christians who still need deliverance.

 

4. River Jordan

This stage represents our identification with Christ, our death and our personal funeral. Passing through the Jordan River represents the process of dying to the flesh.

 

5. Canaan

This is a stage where self has been defeated. This is where you are not in bondage to satan anymore but in bondage to Christ. This is your life as an adult in the faith, where Christ is the centre of your life and the Holy Spirit controls you. Here you can sing like the songwriter:

“I am moving in Canaan land.

¨  Egypt representing the world

¨  Red Sea, representing salvation

¨  Wondering and fighting of flesh

¨  Jordan River, Where you identify with Christ, die to the flesh

¨  Canaan, where now you are living in heaven or earth.”

There is no point believing that your trouble will be over when you get home. If your sorrows are not over here, they are not likely to be over there. Unfortunately, many Christians die in the wilderness like most of the children of Israel. They keep fighting against the flesh until God says, “You have done enough, come up.” Such people never really lived in victory. They never really got to the kind of life God wanted them to live. This is why the devil is so successful in what he does to many believers. They are still living the wilderness life. They have not left that stage of struggling with God.  It is sad that many believers end their journey at this stage. It took one night to get the whole of the 3,000,000 Israelites out of Egypt. But it took 40 years to get Egypt out of them. That is worthy of note.

There was the story of a woman who was coming from a farm with a big luggage on her head, and suddenly someone drove pass in a jeep. And she said, “My son, my son, give the old woman a lift.” The driver stopped and said, “Mama, come inside.” She entered. After the brother had covered some distance, he looked back and discovered that the old woman still had her luggage on her head. So, he said, “Mama, keep the load down.” She answered, “But it is me you are giving a lift and not my luggage.” A lot of Christians are like that. There are so many things that can slow down or stop your journey as a Christian. They can be classified under three headings.

 

1.  Evil veil: When a veil is covering the face of somebody, there would be problem. The person may be dressing nicely, he may be a very nice person, educated and had all the degrees available in the world. But when there is a veil, he cannot see. Such a person will stumble even at noonday. A lot of Christians have veils over their faces and this is why they cannot move. Sometimes when such people eventually arrive at their destination, it is at a great cost. They would have wounded themselves and done all kinds of wrong things. A spiritual veil slows people down. That is why God says, “My people are destroyed because of lack of knowledge.” Lack of knowledge, the Bible says, can lead to death.

 

2.  Entanglements: 2 Timothy 2: 4 says, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” When somebody is tied with a rope, his mobility would be hindered. Even if he likes Canaan and wants to arrive there, he cannot because of the entanglements tying him down. He would have to drop those things before he can move forward. This is why the first counsel to be given to people who just get born again is that all relationship with the opposite sex, which is not marriage should be stopped. Even if the wedding remains only three days to hold, the new birth automatically puts an end to the relationship. This is because an Israelite cannot marry an Egyptian. How can someone who is on his way to Canaan marry someone who is sitting down in Egypt. The marriage cannot work. It amounts to entanglement. Such people would just be patching it up and the journey of 40 days would become one of 40 years.

 

3.  Unprofitable load: This slows people down. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

These are the three things that people generally carry over from Egypt.

The story of a white man who gets born again is different from that of a black man who gets born again. It is a fact that most white men have never seen shrines before in their lives. Some do not even know what a herbalist looks like. Some of the foreign evangelists who come to Nigeria find it hard to believe certain things. For example, if you say, “Evangelist, do you know that someone has been pregnant for five years?” He would say, “No, that is impossible. It cannot happen.” “Evangelist, do you also know that some people put their legs on the wall at night and their spirits get out of their body?” He would say, “Ah, that is superstition.” Foreign evangelists find it hard to believe these things because their own environments are quite different. In our environment, you do not find many women who get drunk. There are countries where 30 per cent of the women are alcoholics. Some would be so drunk that they could put their babies in the oven and switch it on. We do not find such things around here.

A white man could name his child anything that comes to his mind. He may decide to call the child stone or valentine. But in Nigeria, it is either an old man is called from the village to name the child or an oracle is consulted to get a name for the child. In that case, the child could be given a name such as “Shongowanwa (god of thunder has visited me).” Most white men are born in the hospitals. Most of them are also from monogamous homes and are not dedicated to any idol. So when they get born again, sometimes their journey is easier than ours. When a black man gets born again, many powers come to ask questions such as: “Why are you going to Jesus, you have forgotten about your father’s idols? You want to abandon it?”

A man had three children, two girls and a boy. One day, the three children went to fetch water from a stream. While the girls were washing their clothes by the stream, suddenly, there was a wave, and they were all swept away. That was how two of them died in a moment. The boy ran home and reported the incident to their parents. He had expected that they would be sad but to his amazement, they just smiled and kept quiet. They knew what happened, they knew where the girls came from and they knew that they had gone back there. This is the kind of thing that happens in our environment.

There was a certain black man who was a minister. When he first started to minister to people and to pray for them, he found that whenever he asked an evil spirit to depart, the evil spirit would say, “No.” He became worried about the embarrassment and went ahead to fast and pray about it. He was shocked by the reply God gave to him. God said, “How can you cast out what is in your own body?” He said, “Lord, I don’t understand.” The Lord said, “I will explain. Although you are in England now, you were the only child of your parents and they did all kinds of things to protect you so that witches would not kill you when you were young. Those spirits are still in you in spite of the fact that you are born again. You have to go to another minister for deliverance.” I thank God for this pastor. He swallowed his pride and looked for someone else to pray with him. He is such a powerful man of God today. If you are carrying loads of Egypt, your Christian life will be unfulfilled.

 

CARRY-OVERS

You must identify your carry- over from Egypt and discard them into the fire. Situations are worse when a person does not realize that he has a carry-over. There are people who would spend 20 years in the church and yet they would not know what is happening to them. They cannot talk about their progress. People who try to run the Christian race with veils on their faces and loads on their backs will not be able to move. They need to shed the load. Before, in the university, if you failed a course, you would come back for a re-sit, but now if you do not pass, you carry it over. This means that somebody can be in year three and still be doing a course of year one in addition to his year- three work. Many believers are just like that, they congratulate themselves over a level that God expected them to have left ten years ago. They are so happy and do not know that as far as God is concerned, they are still in the wilderness struggling. Likewise if you have any carry- over from Egypt, many troubles will happen. Carry-over is inconveniencing and makes life hard.

 

WHAT ARE THESE CARRY-OVERS?

1.      UNCONSCIOUS INITIATION: This is when somebody is a witch or wizard or has familiar spirit and does not know. You may ask if that is possible. Oh yes, it is possible. There are witches by decision, there are witches by inheritance. Some people may not know that they are witches. Unfortunately, majority of the witches are the unconscious ones. About 90 per cent of the people who see themselves drinking cola drinks in the dream and eating suya, without realizing that they are eating human flesh and drinking human blood, are unconscious witches. Such people are the normal transport vehicles for satanic agents. They ride them to the meetings and so when they wake up, their bodies would be as heavy as iron and they do not know why they are having problems. All kinds of sicknesses will be on their bodies. A 35 -year old woman would look like a 60-year old because she is a commuter bus to witchcraft meetings.

Please, close your eyes and pray like this: “I release myself from any unconscious bondage, in the mighty name of Jesus.” There are many blind witches and blind familiar spirit people around. If a person has been initiated like this, it would be difficult for him to grow spiritually. This is because at each stage of the way, certain powers would challenge him. They would say, “Ah, where are you going to? Slow down a bit, you don’t have to take it that serious.” And then they will slow down. This is why sometimes, when some people do some serious praying, they would fall sick.

A certain sister came to me and said, “I am 38 years old and I cannot find a man to marry me. Men run away from me as if I am smelling.” I prayed to find out what was wrong and the Lord said that she had been married off to three different spirit husbands. She had gone for so many deliverance programmes and at the end, she was delivered from only one of them. At the time she came to me, two were still standing. I gave her some prayer points. Immediately she started to pray, she fell ill. The sickness was terrible but she kept on even on her sick bed. After sometime, she got well and still continued to pray. The following week after she left the hospital, she got three marriage proposals. What happened? She was initiated and in that dark kingdom, she was married to three husbands. That was an unconscious initiation.

 

2. CARRY- OVER FROM PARENTS: A demonized mother would transfer the demon to her innocent unborn baby in the womb. If somebody’s mother is a witch, there is every likelihood that such a person would be a witch whether the person knows it or not. A polygamous man is only constructing coffins for his children. Some people are fond of keeping their children with their old relatives whose spiritual lives are not ascertained. They would say, “Mama, be looking after this girl. Let her be helping you to run errands.” Yet they do not know the spiritual condition of the mama whom they have handed their child to. Favorite children of the wicked receive or inherit evil gifts from their parents when they die. Also, parents who try to dictate the sex of their children put such children in bondage. They ask herbalists to convert a female to a male and when they fail, such female children would come out having serious marital problems, behaving like a man, refusing to be subject to the husband and causing so much problems. There are a lot of parental covenants and parental promises still in place which are affecting the children in negative ways. All these things would slow down a person’s spiritual life.

 

3. DEDICATION TO IDOLS: Anyone who has been dedicated to any idol or bears the name of an idol, demon guards would be monitoring his life. Such powers will be preventing good things from coming to him. They chase good things away. Sometime ago, I told a certain lady to go for deliverance and she said, “What? I am born again, I am a child of God, I am sanctified and I have the Holy Spirit. I don’t need any deliverance.” So, I left her alone. Six months later, as I was going home from work one day, I noticed that somebody was calling me. I stopped and behold she was the one. I asked her what was the matter. But tears would not let her talk. She was crying bitterly. I tried to calm her down and she began to tell me her story. She said, “My mates got me admission into this university. Although I did not pass the exam because the place is close to water so that I could initiate as many university students as possible. But when I got to the campus and found that they were worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ, I decided to join them. My mates came to me several times and warned me to stop attending the Christian fellowship or I would be disgraced. I told them it was a lie, in Jesus’ name.” She would have been okay with that initial confession if not for the fact that she had been originally dedicated to something else by her parents. The demons would have ran away if not for her dedication. They told her that since that was the way she would go about it, she would see. The day she cried and came to me, she had gone to check her result and discovered that she failed everything, including the subjects that every other person got A. I said to her, “But I told you to go for deliverance and you refused.” This time around I did not need to preach any sermon before she agreed that she needed to go for deliverance. She went for deliverance and that was how she was able later to pass and get out of the university.

I also know another sister who was always falling ill any time she wanted to sit for her exams. Her mother decided to find out from the herbalist what was responsible. The herbalist told her that the water gods were hungry, that she should give them food so that they would allow her daughter to sit for her exams. The woman accepted and bought bags of rice, beans, gari, etc, took them to the river and dumped them inside the water. After that, the girl was able to sit for the exam and she passed. After sometime she got born again but her mother was still doing the sacrifice on her behalf. But after seven years, she forgot about it. Immediately, the spirits appeared to her in the dream and said, “You have not paid us for this year and we are going to make you pay.” She said, “I reject what you are saying, in Jesus’ name” The spirit told her that in case she did not understand, she should go and ask her mother. They told her that the first thing that would happen was that they were going to provide another beautiful wife for her husband. And before she knew it, her husband picked one girl, put her in a flat and stopped talking to her. She rushed to me and said, “Dr. there is fire on the mountain.” I said, “Well, you have to go back home, there are certain things to do.” We thank the Lord because she was delivered at last.

 

4.  CONSUMPTION OF BEWITCHED FOOD: This is the greatest cause of stubborn sicknesses. I heard the story of someone who was given a bottle of wine but he did not drink it. He kept it somewhere and after a few days, when he picked it up, he found that in the bottle, which was cocked and wrapped, was a small tree already growing inside. If he had drunk the wine, he would have had a spiritual tree growing in his stomach.

There was a lady who listened to our message entitled, “The table of the Lord and the table of the devil.” She laid her hands on her stomach while she prayed the prayer points and she vomited a snake. God made the snake to manifest so that she could praise Him. So, if you have consumed bewitched food as an unbeliever, you need to pray very well against it. The evil food that you ate 20 years ago from the devil’s table might still be in your stomach and now working against you spiritually. Those things could have been converted to stones, wood, snakes, pots, etc. in the body.

Sometime ago, a friend of mine organized a crusade somewhere in this country. The first night, the trap of Jesus caught a big fish. The big fish was one woman called Halima. Halima was the best moi-moi (beans pudding) seller in the place. No other moi-moi seller would sell hers until Halima finished selling hers. During the crusade, the man made an altar call and said, “If you know that you are an eater of flesh and drinker of blood, come forward.” Halima was the first person to come out. She confessed that  human blood was added to the moi –moi she was selling and that was why it was very sweet. It means that anyone who had consumed Halima’s moi -moi had taken human blood and if the person did not go for deliverance, it would remain in his system working evil.

 

SIGNS THAT A PERSON HAS BEEN FED WITH BEWITCHED FOOD

a.  If you have eaten bewitched food before, you will find that when you want to fast and pray, that is when you will be eating in your dream.

b.  In your dream, you may find yourself in meetings you do not know how it came about and yet it is not a Christian meeting.

c.  You may notice things moving around your body.

d.  You may suffer sleeplessness when you are not sick.

e.  You could be hearing strange voices.

f.   You would earn salary and would not know how you spend it.

g.  You may not be able to concentrate during prayers. Your heart would keep on wandering.

h.  It may be difficult for you to receive the Holy Spirit.

All Egyptian loads must be roasted today, in Jesus’ name.

 

5.  USAGE OF CHARMS AND INCISIONS: Charms and incisions introduce things into the body, soul and spirit. They are responsible for slow spiritual growth and delayed miracles. You have to disconnect yourself from all these things.

 

THE WISDOM OF EGYPT

Acts 7:22 says, “And Moses was learned in all wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.” The question now is what is the wisdom of Egypt? According to Isaiah 31:1, the wisdom of Egypt is not of God. It says, “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help…” Isaiah 19: 1 – 3 says, “The burden of Egypt, Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it. And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.  And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof: and I will destroy the council thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.”

In the Bible, you find that the first magicians were Egyptians. Before other people understood magic, the people of Egypt had practised it for a very long time. The kind of powerful magic they performed in Egypt would make Nigerian magicians look like babies. Egyptians were the earliest people to be known as a nation. Before other people understood what agriculture was all about, it had started in Egypt. Egyptians built pyramids and were very good architects. They invented one form of writing. While people like Abraham was living in tents and wagons, the Egyptians were already living in cities. But there is something wrong with Egypt. It is a land where all things always seem to be the same. It is supposed to be the cradle of civilization but there was no change there. When you examine the lives of those who acquired knowledge from Egypt, all those who read horoscope or are involved in palmistry, you would find that they rarely make progress, just like Egypt from where they derived their knowledge. Also, in God’s programme, you would find that Egypt itself had always played an important role in the career of God’s people. Moses was raised in Egypt. He ran out of it twice. He went out, came in and went out again. Abram, too, at a stage went to Egypt. Joseph became great in Egypt but because he had foresight, told the Israelites, “I know you will leave this place, when you are to leave, please, take my bones along. Don’t allow my bones to remain here.”

When you read your Bible very well, you would find that in cases where the Lord delivered His people from Egypt, He did it with a strong hand. So, departure from Egypt is not usually a light thing. It needs a very strong hand. That was why Moses had to battle all the demonic powers in Egypt and defeated them before the people of Israel could be allowed to go.

The 12 plagues were God’s method of destroying the idolatry of Egypt. The River Nile that was turned to blood was being worshipped. They worshipped frogs, lice, flies, cattle and all the Egyptian firstborns. God dealt with all these things one by one. So, carry-over from Egypt is not sin alone, it also involves spiritual bondage. Things could be deposited in a person’ body and the person would keep carrying them all about. That is what we call spiritual deposits. For complete destruction of these deposits three things are necessary.

1.  Salvation.

2.  Deliverance.

3.  Holiness.

Without salvation, there can be no deliverance and without deliverance, there can be no holiness. You can preach the entire holiness message that you know but it will not prosper in the lives of those who are under satanic bondage or having carryover from Egypt.

 

BAD HABITS

Another thing that people carry over from Egypt are bad habits. Many habits are innocent and of little consequences; however, some are deadly. Habits are so important that they can affect our eternal destiny. 

All detrimental habits are carry-overs. If you were restless before you got born again and you are still restless, you must be delivered. If you were the kind of person who cannot work until you are under pressure as an unbeliever and you are still like that, you must get delivered. If you are the easily discouraged type, or you are emotionally unstable, or you have a bad temper, or violent anger, or you are easily offended, you need deliverance because all these things are carry-overs from Egypt which must go. If you were slow and lazy when you were an unbeliever and you are still lazy and slow as a Christian, you need deliverance. These habits have to go so that you can be completely free.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.  I release myself from any unconscious bondage, in the name of Jesus.

2.  Every citadel of failure, break into pieces, in Jesus’ name.

3.  I will not fail in my Christian journey, in the name of Jesus.

4.  I refuse to die in the wilderness of faith, in the name of Jesus.

5.  Everything that is cooperating with evil in my life, die, in the name of Jesus.

6.  My life, begin to cooperate with the Holy Ghost, in the name of Jesus.

7.       All the negative things that I have been feeding, I refuse to feed you anymore, in the name of Jesus.

 Deliverance from the rod of the wicked

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Our message this week is entitled, “Deliverance from the rod of the wicked.” Psalm 125: 1-3: “They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion. Which cannot be removed, but abideth forever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even forever. For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous.” This is the living God declaring that the rod of the wicked that has been resting upon the lot of the righteous for some time now will no longer rest upon them, “lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity.” That is a very loaded verse. It explains why some people do what is unexpected of them.  When you see people behaving in a way that is not expected of respectable people, you should know that the rod of the wicked has rested on them and their own righteousness has been taken into iniquity. I pray that anybody under the rod of the wicked will receive deliverance by fire, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Isaiah 14:1-5: “For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land, and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids; and they shall take them captives whose captives they were and they shall rule over their oppressors. And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve. That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased the golden city ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.”

The Lord will break the staff of the wicked upon your life, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The rods of the wicked come in various shapes, colours and sizes. When the enemies desire to terminate the good things in a life, they may plant their rod in such a life or in his or her home. Sometimes, they carry the wicked rod on their head and stay with the person.

There was a certain man who dealt in cars. He travelled to bring new cars to his base. But anytime he went for the new vehicles, the ones that were supposed to be his profit would have accident. He did everything to stop the misfortune but it did not stop. He began to lose his profit and his capital was affected. The number of vehicles he bought reduced to 15 from 24. When the situation became very bad, he decided to go to the mountain to pray. His only prayer point was “Oh Lord, give every enemy of my life a knock, in the name of Jesus.” He prayed with all his might and came back home. On getting back home, they set food for him to eat and he asked for his mother. The mother came and as they were eating, the mother said, “Do you know that one of your naughty children came to give me a knock?” The man then said, “Excuse me, mummy, I went out since morning. Please, allow me to eat my food.” As the man was eating, his mother received the second and the third knock. After she received the third knock she could no longer sit. The man carried her to the bedroom and he asked her what happened and she asked back what happened. The man, being a prayer warrior, started praying again and as he said “in Jesus name,” God asked him, “Who asked you to pray now?" He said, “My mother is sick.” God said, “Were you not the one who said I should give her a knock?” Then the man understood and said, “We would use the price of one car to do her burial,” because the mother died in the process. That was how the rod of the wicked stopped operating in his life.

When you want to do anything open your heart to the Holy Spirit and He will open your understanding. The rod of the wicked symbolizes the authority of the enemy in your life. The rod that we are talking about, the enemy operates with it to punish people.  It comes at different stages of a person’s life. For some people, this rod manifests in their life right from the womb when some people have a quarrel with their parents.

A minister of God got married and was expecting that a baby would come in the first year. He and his wife prayed and fasted but up to the sixth year no baby came. They did not understand what was going on. They continued to pray. In the eighth year of their marriage they had a baby. The baby started growing and one day, they decided to visit their people in their village. As they got to the village their parents were so happy and thanked God that they had the baby. The baby started running about. As he was doing so, its grand-parents said to its parents: “Come, you don’t know this village, don’t allow your son to run about too much.” But the minister and his wife laughed and said, “Don’t bother about that. We prayed for him, no evil would befall him.” As the boy was running about, an old man came to the minister and said, “Come, I want to see you.” They told him that the man was the head of the wicked people in the village that he should not go near him. But he said, “no problem” and went to see him. As he entered the old man’s house, the man said, “My son, welcome. I have something to show you.” And the man removed his cap and on his head were nails all over. The minister wondered how the man could get nails all over his head. Then the old man now said to the minister: “I will tell you the story. When you were getting married, we were three in number and we said that nothing good would come from the marriage and we started to fight you. Any time your wife got pregnant we removed it. But something started to happen. We would all sit in our homes and a man would come with a nail and a hammer, put the nail on our heads, hammer it and walk out. The other two are dead and the man told me the last time that there was no more space on my head to put the nail, that he was going to put it in my chest. That was why I said, okay it is because I am holding your wife from having a child and I removed my hand so that the man would no longer give me nail. That is why you are able to have that baby. He asked for the name of the boy and the minister told him and he said, “My son, can you forgive me?” The minister answered that he should ask God to forgive him. He said, “Good day, sir” and the man left.

The Lord that could locate the enemy of this family will locate your own, in Jesus name. Amen.

The living God made a declaration: He said He was always angry with the wicked.

 

WHAT AREAS DO THESE WICKED RODS ATTACK MOSTLY

1. They attack the whole life of a person, the one called destiny. When they lay their rod of wickedness upon the destiny of a person the person will find it difficult to excel in simple things.

2. They attack marriages.

3. They attack the vision of a person.

4. They lay the rod on the business of some people. When this happens, the people would just be there. They will not have anything to show that they are doing business.

5. They attack parts of a person’s body, for example, the womb, the reproductive organ, the hand, the legs, the heart, etc.

What do they usually achieve or what do they want to promote when they lay this rod of wickedness on a person?

1. They want to promote scarcity of blessing. If there is a regular flow of good things into that life, they will terminate it.

2. They use this rod to direct a person into a contrary path and the person will think he is still on the right path.

3. They promote frustration. A young man came to us about two years ago. He had a good job with a Federal Government establishment and was doing fine. But he suddenly packed his load and ran to a place he had no job.  People asked him why he came there and he said that the people at the place from where he ran wanted to kill him. They asked him to explain how they wanted to kill him, he said that any time he entered his office, his head would be turning and he was frustrated.  They frustrated him so that he did not see anything good in that job and he had to leave the place.

4. They promote hardship. Something that should not take more than six weeks will take nine to ten months. When you don’t challenge this rod, it leads to death. When it is laid upon a person it demotes the person spiritually. But the enemy should not rejoice over our lives.

5. It promotes emotional turbulence. It brings problems that will make you say: “I had not been having this kind of problem. Why now? I pray, I fast and I am closer to the Lord. Why now? It is because the rod is laid on you.

6. They promote sloughtfulness. Sometimes some people would say, “I cannot do more than I am doing now. If anybody wants to die let him die.” Where they ought to run they will be crawling.

 

When do these enemies lay their rods

¨   When your star is shining.

¨   When you are doing better things.

¨   When your hopelessness is disappearing.

¨   When the joy of your accomplishment is increasing.

¨   When you come forward and say, “Praise the Lord. When I came to this place I was trekking but now I have bought a car.

¨   When your breakthrough is visible.

¨   When you say, “I want to rest from all my labour. Let me relax with what I have now and serve the Lord."

A man and his wife retired and were doing fine with their children. They lived in their own house. All of a sudden some people came to the man and told him that they would help him to do fast moving business whose turnover would be great.  Without telling his wife, the man went to the bank and collected all their savings.  And they told him that the money would not be enough that he should bring the papers of their house. Without telling his wife he also gave them the papers. Weeks later, some people came and said, “We give you four days to leave this place.” The wife asked what they were talking about, and told them that the house belonged to her and her family. They told her that she was joking and showed her the papers.  The woman ran to her husband and asked him to come and hear what she was hearing.  And the man said, "It is true. I did not know how to tell you.  Some people did business with me and I gave them the papers." The woman nearly tore the man to pieces.  The man said they would look for a house to rent.

They come when you think nothing can harm you.

They come when you are experiencing the power of the world. 

They come  when you start to experience the Holy Spirit.

They come when you are standing for God’s honour and righteousness more than you have ever done in your life before.

A minister of God arranged a crusade at which God told him that the devil would be disgraced. He gathered his team together, prayed and fasted for the meeting. As the crusade started, he discovered that all the ministers sitting behind him started leaving one after the other.He wondered what was happening but continued his preaching until he was the only one left there.  Later somebody in the congregation came forward and said that he wanted to give his life to Jesus. The minister said it was not yet time for that. Later the man said the minister had the spirit that could not be killed.  He said he came to the altar with a cane to beat all the ministers, that is, he laid a rod upon all of them and that made them to leave.  But as he was beating the minister, the minister became stronger, that was why he said, “This one has the power that I should not play with,” and decided to give his life to that power.

 

What must we do now?

Beloved, you need to understand that when the rod is operating in a person’s life or in a family, bitterness comes in just like that. You would see that you are just bitter but cannot explain the cause of the bitterness. When you begin to have worldly wisdom instead of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and you say, “If I do this thing, there will be nothing bad with it," then the rod is around the corner. When you avoid your night vigils and say, “Body no be stone,” the rod is around the corner looking for you. However, God has a declaration for us in Isaiah 60: 18. It says, “... But thou shalt call thy walls Salvation and thy gates Praise.”

There are five steps to take before you pray:

1. Understand that it is only the living God that can deliver you from the rod of the wicked.

2. Do a thorough self-examination. If you are not born again yet, get born again.

3. Start to walk in the perfect way of God.

4. Refuse to habour pride in your heart.

5. Call upon the Lord for deliverance from this wicked rod.

If you pray the following prayer points very well, the God that answereth by fire will answer you by fire, in Jesus' name.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.  Oh Lord, give the enemy of my progress the knock of death, in the name of Jesus.

2.  Oh Lord, visit my enemies in a wonderful way that they will never forget your anger, in the name of Jesus.

3.  Every wicked rod in my family, receive the fire of God and burn to ashes, in Jesus’ name.

4.  You wicked authority dragging my life behind, be paralysed by fire, in Jesus’ name.

5.  (Hold your head:) My head, reject the influence of the rod of the wicked, in the name of Jesus.

6.  Blood of Jesus, deliver my head from the authority of the wicked, in Jesus’ name.

7.  You rod of the wicked, I terminate your affairs in my marriage, in Jesus’ name.

8.  You wicked rod that is opposing my open heaven, roast, in the name of Jesus.

9.  I release my reproductive system from the authority of the wicked by fire, in the name of Jesus.

10.(Put your two hands together and pray:) Oh Lord, accelerate your glory in my life by fire, in the name of Jesus.

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CANDIDATES OF EVIL ARROWS
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

An arrow is a very dangerous
weapon. It is more dangerous when it is used for evil purposes. In the physical, men have so perfected its use that the size is no longer important. In the world today, arrows can be used to transfer poison into people’s lives in order to kill them. Many lives have been lost through evil physical arrows.

Apart from the physical arrows, there are also spiritual ones. Spiritual arrows cause more havoc than physical arrows because they work day and night. A lot of people are on admission in the hospital as a result of arrows, which they have received. Many people have backslid from the faith because of arrows that were fired at them. Psalm 91: 5 tells us about spiritual arrows. It says, "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day." This means that there are arrows that fly by noonday. Why do they fly by noonday? It is because they have been designed to harm by that time. That is the time they go out looking for their targets.

Psalm 11: 2 says, "For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart." This scripture makes it clear that they aim cleverly at the upright in heart, that is, the righteous ones. Proverbs 7: 23 says something interesting: "Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life." The whole of this chapter talks about spiritual arrow.

In the New Testament, we see an interesting Scripture in Ephesians 6: 11. It tells us about how to defend ourselves and how to fight against our enemies. Verse 16 says, "Above all, taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." So, it talks about the fiery darts of the enemy, the arrow that has fire in it, which the enemy is firing at people.

In this environment, arrows are flying about everyday and unfortunately we cannot stop them until Jesus comes to restore peace. Beloved, let this be clear to you: witches, wizards and the wicked are not going to clear off from the earth. We shall continue to coexist with them on earth until Jesus comes. But the important thing is for you to be able to retain your immunity as a child of God and to fight back when necessary. Praying to God to destroy witches is a useless prayer because their destruction is coming later. They are here with us but you must take your stand and hold your gun as a believer. You must not allow them to toy with your life. If by any chance a Christian makes a mistake and allows one witch somewhere to mess him up, it would be a disaster. He could miss heaven because God would accuse him of laziness or lukewarmness. It is even more terrible when you consider the fact that a witch or wizard who destroyed somebody can by chance come to a crusade and get born again and eventually go to heaven while the person destroyed can go to hell fire. From hell fire, he may be talking to God saying, "Oh God, that was the woman that ate up my leg." The Lord would say, "She is now born-again, she is a child of God." Therefore, beloved, we need to really sit up. Evil arrows will continue to fly about as long as the world has rejected the Prince of peace, but we, as Christians, can protect ourselves. We can send back arrows and pray for spiritual surgical operations where we have carelessly allowed them to enter.

WHY DOES THE ENEMY

FIRE ARROWS?

1. To kill.

2. To steal.

3. To destroy.

4. To slow down progress.

5. To confuse.

6. To introduce spiritual poison.

When an arrow is fired at a Christian, many things can happen. Many years ago, some brethren and I went to pray for a woman in her house. The woman was always suffering from oppression. She always woke up with terrible body pain. She tried using some hot balms, but it was as if the hot balms were fertilizer to the body pain. Immediately we entered her house, we felt a big cloud of darkness on top of her roof. Then we could understand why every prayer she prayed there never seemed to get beyond that roof. She was being fired with evil arrow. We asked her how she got there and she told us that she inherited the house. So, we told her that she must make up her mind on what to do, whether to get on fire and fight back or move out of the place.

If an arrow is fired at a believer, several things can happen depending on who he is.

It can bounce back to the sender.

It could enter into the body and stay there to carry out evil activities.

It may pass through the body and come out at the other end, creating spiritual injury in the body, soul and spirit.

It may keep following the person like a remote control until an opportunity to enter is created.

When spiritual arrows have been fired at a person, there is no physical medicine that can remove them. X-ray and scan machines are useless in such matters. This is why sometimes during aggressive prayers, things come out from the body of people. Those who do not understand would be asking how those things got there.

Sometime ago, a woman who was pregnant for 24 months came for prayers and God intervened. But before she could give birth, she was first of all delivered of a nylon bag and the baby followed. The question is: how did the nylon bag get inside her body? That was an arrow of the enemy. But the position of the Bible for the Christian is very clear. Isaiah 54: 17 says, "No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper…" That is the stand of the scripture but that does not mean that it would work for everybody. It must be understood that many promises of God are conditional. Salvation, for example, is free, but anyone who refuses to accept it would have himself to blame when he gets to the judgment throne of God.

Psalm 105: 15 says, "Touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm." The foregoing further stresses the stand of scriptures concerning the position of the believer. But when the hand of the enemy and his weapon are prospering in the life of a believer, then something is wrong somewhere. When a prophet begins to have problems he needs to check himself. Psalm 125: 3 says, "For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous…" That is what the Bible says. But it is sad to note that the hands of the wicked are prospering in so many lives today. Many people are unconsciously carrying evil arrows about. The devil is using the opportunity to pump spiritual poison into people.

CHARACTERISTICS OF

THOSE WHO FIRE ARROWS

i. Hunters fire arrows from a long distance. This means that an arrow can come from a far country. An arrow could be fired at somebody in America from Nigeria.

ii. They expect some effects. They would be checking on their victims in a suspicious manner to find out how they are getting on.

iii. Their arrows may miss their target and get at someone else close by. The arrow meant for a father could get at his son, or the one meant for the son at the father. Arrows can be designed for a particular person and it would continue to run after the person until it catches up with him. If such a person is spiritually sensitive, he would have the feeling that a demonic arrow has entered into his body at a particular time.

 

SIGNS BY WHICH YOU CAN RECOGNIZE SOMEBODY WITH ARROWS IN HIS LIFE

1. Physical weakness and body pain.

2. Backsliding.

3. Sudden love for things that had once been rejected.

4. Dreams that spark off problems.

5. Sudden lack of interest in spiritual things.

6. Sudden feeling of lifelessness.

One of my professor friends refused to stop womanizing in spite of all my admonitions. But one day, something happened that shook him to his foundations. At about 1a.m., he heard the meow of a cat where he parked his car and came out to see what was happening. When he got there, he saw the cat and threw stones at it but it did not bulge. He went back into the house and brought his cutlass. As he was to hit the cat, it stood up on its legs and rubbed its two hands together begging for forgiveness. He was so shocked that he threw the cutlass at it and ran back inside. The following morning, he found only the cutlass at the scene. That was how he received an evil arrow and was almost dead within a week but for the mercy of God.

Sometimes, some people see unusual sights which others may not believe. It is the trick of the devil through which he fires arrows into people’s lives.

Sometime ago, as a certain man going somewhere, saw somebody who looked like his late father in front of him. He said, "Daddy, daddy" and as he moved closer to the man, he moved faster. He decided to run after the man. As he almost caught up with him, before he could say Jesus is Lord, the man or whatever it was, turned and gave him a dirty slap and he fell down. By the time he got up, he was talking nonsense. He had received an arrow. That person was not his father. He was probably the strongman attached to his life to destroy him, who after trying several techniques and could not get at him, decided to impersonate his late father.

7. When people who are friendly and generally cheerful to you suddenly become your enemies, you better watch out, an arrow may have been fired.

8. Stubborn disobedience. A person who refuses to take good counsel is a candidate of evil arrow. He would not hear until he is destroyed.

9. Feeling of somebody following you.

10. Pride. When you feel that you have arrived spiritually and that you know everything, it is a sign that an arrow is already inside.

11. Unteachable attitudes.

12. When an obedient child suddenly turns disobedient.

13. Sudden unexplainable big loss in business.

14. Committing serious unpardonable mistakes.

These are evidences that wicked arrows have been fired and that they are carrying out evil assignment. It is time for you to resign from the school of arrow incubators. Your life is meant to incubate good things and not the arrows of the enemies.

QUALIFICATIONS FOR

EVIL ARROWS1. Lukewarmness: Revelations 3: 15 –16 says, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold not hot: I would that thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." Once God spits someone out of His mouth, the person becomes an easy target for the arrow of the enemy. So, the first group of candidates that demonic arrows enter into are those who are lukewarm, those who refuse to be on fire for God. They want to stay in the middle, having one leg in the camp of God and the other one in the camp of the enemy. They want to dress like children of God to church, and like demons and masquerades to their places of work.

2. Carelessness with the opposite sex: The Bible says, "Flee from all appearances of evil." Show me a man who is careless with the opposite sex, and I will show you a man who has more problems than all the witches and wizards in Nigeria put together can provide. Show me a lady who is careless with the opposite sex and I will show you a lady who has more problems than all the witches and wizards in Nigeria put together can provide. Those who are careless with the opposite sex are candidates for evil arrows.

3. Anger: Ecclesiastes 7: 9 says, "Be not hasty in thy spirit for anger rested in the bosom of fools." The Bible describes angry people as fools because they endanger their own lives. If your friend says you are a fool, you may not need to worry about it; but when the Bible calls you a fool then you have a lot to worry about.

4. Fear: The fourth group of people are the fearful. Once a person is afraid, satanic arrows would easily enter into his body. Fear is a bad thing.

5. Prayerlessness: Prayerlessness would lead to incubation of arrows. When you can really pray, you have nothing to fear.

6. Lack of the fire of the Holy Ghost: Those who lack the fire of God in their lives will receive satanic arrows.

7. Keeping malice.

8. Doubt: The Bible says that a doubter would receive nothing from the Lord.

9. Anxiety and worry: The Bible says, "Be careful for nothing and let not your heart be troubled." A person who worries and is always anxious would receive evil arrows. Even if he spoke in tongues, the arrows would enter because already, he has opened the door.

If all these things are in your life, you better do something about it. There is an adage that says, "Prevention is better than cure." God would prefer that you have immunity against the arrows of the enemy than for you to allow them to enter and then begin to run around to get them off. The Bible says that we are supposed to be immune against all the arrows of the oppressors, whether they are terror by night, arrows flying by day, pestilence walking in darkness, destruction wasting at moonday, the forces of defeat, the young lion, the dragon, serpents or scorpion. The Lord says, "Behold, I give you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the powers of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you." My prayer is that your immunity will not break down, in Jesus’ name. These are really outstanding promises of God for us. But you still find some people suffering all kinds of things that the enemy pass them through. The reason is that they lack immunity, which they are supposed to have, therefore, they have no protection.

The immunity of a believer would break down when he allows evil to overcome him. The Bible says, "Do not be overcome with evil but overcome evil with good." Do not repay bad for bad but good for evil. Do not allow the wrong attitudes and actions of others to stir up the same thing in your life. If someone hurts you, do not habour resentment. If someone lets you down, do not broadcast it to the whole world. Never repay evil for evil and never try to revenge because when you do that, you are overcome by evil and your immunity would break down and many things would get in. Many people would say, "I was annoyed, they got me annoyed." The reason you are getting annoyed is that they did not meet your personal expectations. People get angry when they feel that they have not received a fair treatment. People get angry when they think that their rights have been violated. People get angry when they are not ready to put up with some inconveniences here and there. The devil, who is a clever fighter, always allows people to get to that level so that their immunity can break down and his weapons can succeed.

If the devil is now cleverly working on you to use carnal methods to fight, know that you are opening up yourself for the evil arrows to enter because he knows that the Bible says, "You shall keep your peace and I will fight for you." When a child of God begins to use abusive words on people, for example, idiot, nonentity, riffraff, old monkey, etc, he is breaking down his immunity. Angry outburst from a believer weakens his immunity. When a believer begins to criticize and to gossip, his immunity goes. So, never repay evil for evil. When a believer is wrong, the right thing for him to do is to agree that he is wrong. He should not blame others for his mistakes. He should not go about saying, "Hey, you made me do it." "If I had money, I would have had better education, I would have done better." "If you gave me more time and you love me well, I would have been different." "It is because of my father, it is because of the society that I find myself in this mess." All these are satanic excuses and they break down immunity.

10. Living in any known sin: If you practice any known sin or willfully commit sin, you open up yourself for demonic attack. The devil would attack you because he can see that you are a sinner.

 

WAY OUT 1. Repentance: If you know that you have opened up your life for the enemy, you need to repent.

2. Pull out the evil arrows: You have to pull out every arrow of the enemy, whether it was fired at you when you were in the womb or as an adult.

3. Nullify the effect of the arrow and pray for the healing of the wound.

4. Put up a good defensive system.

5. Make a covenant with the Lord that you will not be a candidate of satanic arrows.

A lot of people would have been useful to the society, themselves, their families and the house of God if not for evil arrows that were fired into their lives at one time or the other.

Perhaps, you have discovered that you are a victim of evil arrows after reading this message. You must attack them. You have to do some aggressive work today. But before you can expel evil arrows from your life, you need to give your life to Christ so that your prayers will not be in vain. In case you have not given your life to Christ and you wish to do so, please, make the following declaration: "Lord Jesus, I come to you today, I invite you to come into my life and change me completely. Become the Lord of my life. As from today, let my life no longer remain the same. Forgive me my sins and cleanse me with your blood. Thank you Jesus, in Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Now, I will pray for you, Father, I commit this one into Your holy hands. Thank You Lord for making this one Your child. Lay Your hands of fire upon him/her and let his/her life never remain the same again. Take complete control of his/her life. In Jesus’ name I pray.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. I command every hidden evil arrow in my life to come out of its hiding place, in Jesus’ name.

2. Angel of the living God, carry out a surgical operation on my life, in Jesus’ name.

3. Let strange hands and their negative effects be removed from my life now, in Jesus’ name.

4. Every evil crown upon my head, be roasted by fire, in the name of Jesus.

5. Every problem in any organ of my body, receive divine solution, in Jesus’ name.

6. Let every arrow fired into my life, go back to the sender, in the name of Jesus.

7. I destroy every evil arrow ordained against my life, in the name of Jesus.

8. Let my life be barricaded by the fire of God, in the name of Jesus.

9. Every wicked hunter fashioned against my life, roast by the fire of God, in Jesus’ name.

  

BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES OF LONG LIFE

Dr. D. K. Olukkoya

In the last few years we have witnessed or heard about a lot of tragedies.
People that we expected to be alive are dead. A lot of young people are dead and some of them are born again. Is it God’s will? No. We must also realize that the devil has some power to kill but the only strongest power is the power of God. Just as the Bible has principles for long life, it also outlines what could cause short life.

God’s original plan for man was life not death, health not sickness, energy not weariness and radiance not dullness. So, if Brother Adam had not sinned, he would have lived forever. The Bible emphasises that God is not interested in short life. One man of God said that it was a tragedy for a plant to die at the seed stage because it could not become a plant. A situation where young people are dying shows that a lot of things are going wrong.

Deuteronomy 6:1-2 says, "Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it. That thou mightiest fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged." Here, we can see that God is not interested in short life. Job 5:26 also says, "Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season."

Proverbs 3:3 says, "My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments. For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee, bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart." Proverb 9:11 says, "For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased." Proverbs 10:27 says, "The fear of the Lord prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened."

God is not interested in short life for His children. Proverbs 16:31 says, "The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness." That is, if you hair is gray it is a crown of glory if you are in the way of righteousness. Psalm 90:10 says, "The days of our years are three score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow. For it is soon cut off, and we fly away." This verse is a curse and not a blessing. It is the minimum, which a lot of people now claim whereas they should not claim it. But even this minimum, which is a curse, is difficult for a lot of people to attain. Psalm 91:16 says, "With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation." Isaiah 65:22: "They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." The Bible is telling us that it is a tragedy for somebody to sweat to gather, but before he would begin to reap the fruit, he dies. Ecclesiastes 6: 1-2 says, "There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men. (The Bible calls it an evil thing). A man to whom God has given riches, wealth and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it, this is vanity, and it is an evil disease."

Six major ways by which people die on earth

1. A person can die by his own hand: This is when a person just destroys himself, for example, by personal execution, personal murder, or assassination. It is possible for a person to eliminate himself. Sometime ago, a man fainted in the street and people rushed to help him. By the time a doctor that was passing by got there, he found a packet of drugs in his pocket, which he must have taken. As a medical personnel, he found out that they were hard drugs which he ought not to have taken. But he went to the chemist bought it and swallowed it. He decided to kill himself.

2. A person can die by the hands of another man. It may be robbers, witches or wizard, etc

3. A person can die by fear, especially the fear of death.

4. A person can die by breaking natural laws. For example, if a person decides to jump down from the top of a 25-storey building he would die. Or if a person knows that he cannot swim, but decides to go and swim, it could lead to his death.

5. A person can die by succumbing to the aging process. When everything in the body is old, the system may stop working.

6. A person can die by sickness or disease.

What Are The Causes Of Short Life?

1. Disobedience to parents: Ephesians 6:1-3 says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise. That it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth." If you don’t honour your father and mother, the reverse too will be true, and that is untimely death. You may say that your parents are very bad, but any assignment that the Lord has given to you, you must do. We are not taught to hate any human being but if there is any evil spirit within them walking against our destiny, we must contend with the evil spirit. The Bible says that we wrestle not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12). Also, the Bible says that he who does not look after his family is worse than an infidel. You may say, "But anytime I give them money, they use it against me." Anoint the money and send it. A lot of young people are dying today because they decided not to listen to their parents’ cry. Some will go out with their fathers' cars after their fathers have warned them several times not to drive the cars. They decide to do otherwise and their corpses are brought home.

2. Not walking in the way of the Lord: Failure to walk in the way of the Lord will bring short life. Deuteronomy 5:33 says, "Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord thy God had commanded you, that ye may live and that it may be well with you, and that he may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess." When you walk in the part of righteousness, the Lord will prolong your life. The Lord has no obligation to protect you when He knows that your life is a disgrace to Him.

3. Failure to teach the word of God at home: If you fail to teach the word of God at home, it lead to short life. Deuteronomy 11:19-21 says, "And ye shall teach your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shall write them upon the doorposts of thine house, and upon thy gates. That thy days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth."

4. Not fearing the Lord: Proverb 10:27 says, "The fear of Lord prolongeth days; but the years of the wicked shall be shortened."

Please, note very well that nothing happens by chance; everything is programmed in the spirit. There is nothing like a stray bullet or somebody using cutlass on you accidentally. It has been programmed in the spirit. What will make these seeming accidents not to happen are the kinds of things we are talking about in this message.

The fear of God is rapidly jumping out of the house of God now. People are not afraid of God any more. They dress anyhow, talk anyhow, and insult the men of God without knowing that they are inviting curses upon themselves. When you insult a man of God, his anointing will fight you, the blood of Jesus will fight you, the angels will fight you, anything can fight against you. The fear that people had when they got born again in those days is fading out. We need to bring that fear back into the house of God. You need to fear the Lord from the bottom of your heart and know that there are certain things you cannot do. It may be convenient and comfortable for others but you cannot do them. There are certain things that a Christian does not touch at all because of the fear of the Lord. It is these days that people come to the house of the Lord with their chewing gum in their mouth. Sometimes it seems as if the Lord was not quick in punishing us. But we must not take that for granted because the devil would be doing a deeper harm.

Do you fear the Lord? If you do, then your days will be long, but if you don’t, your days will be short. Some people talk to the Lord anyhow. For example, they would say, "I am sorry Lord, that I committed that sin, this is not the first time. Any way you wrote that even if my sin is as red as scarlet it will become as white as snow, so forgive me for I am a human being." They command God to forgive them without fear. In those days, people used to cry at the altar showing godly sorrow for their sins. There is no fear of God again, believers fall into fornication and all kinds of sins and still smile, saying that there is a limit to human endurance. These are the causes of short lives. When arrows are fired in the spirit world it goes around looking for loopholes. If they see that there is no fear of God in your life, although you are coming to the house of God, they would enter into your life.

5. Failure to control the tongue: I Peter 3:10 says, "For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile." One of the greatest causes of short life is the tongue. If it were possible to padlock the mouth of human beings, a lot of people would not have died when they died. Many have gone into bondage because of their tongues. It is not everything that we have to say. Sometimes you just have to keep quiet. Most of the time it is better to listen. If your tongue has no control and you can speak 200 words per minute then you are writing an invitation to short life. Some people can talk and abuse an angel of God without knowing that the fellow that they are talking to is an angel of God, and they end up inviting curses because angels don’t operate like us. They don’t tolerate indiscipline and they can be easily provoked. That was why God warned the Israelites: "I will place my angel before you to go on the way that you will go but take heed that you do not provoke him. If you do, he will not pardon you. Don’t provoke him because he does not understand the word please. The angel did not forgive Zechariah when he doubted him and said, "Can these things be? I am old and my wife is advanced in age." The angel said, "I am Gabriel, I came from the throne of God to give you this message and you are talking rubbish. For that, you shall be dumb." He had to close his mouth and send him on a compulsory holiday. The tongue has killed so many people. I pray that the Lord will deliver us from the trap of the tongue, in Jesus’ name.

6. Pursuing evil: Proverbs 11:19 says, "As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death." If you are pursuing an evil agenda, you are doing so at your own hurt.

7. Forgetting the laws of God: This leads to short life.

8. Allowing an evil weight on your heart: Proverbs 17:22 says, "The merry heart doeth good like medicine but a broken spirit drieth the bones." So, when you allow evil weight in your heart or when you allow a spiritual wound in your heart, you will waste away. Whatever is in your heart, whether it is envy, anger, cruelty, fear, immorality, it would affect your body, soul and spirit. Many people do not understand that what goes on in the heart determines whether the body, soul and spirit will be healthy or not. Many sicknesses can be directly related to the attitude of the heart. Proverb 14:30 says, "A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones." When a heart is polluted with bitterness, anger, malice or is filled with sin, it will shorten the life span of the person. If all you are thinking about is sin and lust, it means that you want to die young. Eventually, you might develop high blood pressure.

9. Wounded heart and negative emotions: This can cause all kinds of sicknesses. It means people being cruel to themselves.

10. Lack of knowledge of spiritual prevention: This also shortens life. An English adage says that prevention is better than cure. God wants the totality of our being to be in good health and not for us to be seeking for healing. It is better to be immune than to have a disease and start taking drugs. The word of God shows clearly that Christians are supposed to have some immunity. To have immunity is better than having to evacuate the enemy anytime he gains entrance. So, we have to clothe ourselves with the fire of God and the blood of Jesus so that the enemy will not gain entrance.

Prevention, even in the spiritual world, is better than cure. Some people say that it is because they are living in a particular town that they are having a particular problem. But when they move to another town, the problem continues. Some, even when they move to another accommodation, witches would still be pressing them down on their beds. Such people should realize that it is because the enemy has entered inside them. The evil dreams are being played from inside. A man may sleep and another world opens up to him. Sometime ago, we were praying with somebody and a whole human being wearing rags walked out of him. We and the man saw the thing left. It waved at the man and he waved back. Later, for the first time in his life, he had a financial breakthrough. It would have been better not to allow the spirit to enter into him than for it to enter and he had to go on seven days dry fasting.

Many believers find it very hard to memorize scriptures. Some will tell you that their brains are getting older, whereas unbelievers spend quality time memorizing incantations which they use against the children of God. The word of God says that we can build an hedge around us which the enemy cannot penetrate.

There are some passages in the Bible that believers should know off hand, if they want prevention and protection and do not want the enemy to shorten their lives. We call them immunity scriptures

1. Exodus 15:26 says, "If thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and will give ear to his commandment, and keep all these statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee. Which I have brought upon the Egyptians for I am the Lord that health thee."

2. Deuteronomy 7:15: "And the Lord will take away from thee all sicknesses, and will put none of the evil disease of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee, but will lay them upon all them that hate thee."

3. Isaiah 43:2: "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee, when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." This is talking about immunity against the waters of tribulation, immunity against the rivers of trouble and immunity against the fire of affliction.

4. Isaiah 54:17: "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord."

5. Psalm 46:1: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."

6. Psalm 27:1-2: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?. When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell."

7. Psalm 91:1: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." This Psalm tells us about immunity against the power of the night. It might interest you to know that most people do not sleep at night. The Psalm also talks about the arrow that flies by the day. It tells us about immunity against pestilence that walks about in darkness. It tells us about the power that causes destruction at noonday. It talks about power against the lion and the dragon. It talks about immunity against evil in all its ramifications.

8. Psalm 105: 14-15: "He suffered no man to do them wrong, yea he reproved kings for their sake, saying, Touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm."

9. Zechariah 2:5: "For I saith the Lord will be unto her a wall of fire around about her and will be the glory in the midst of her." Verse 8: "For thus saith the Lord of hosts, after the glory hath he sent me unto the nations, which soiled you for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eyes."

10. Psalm 34:7: "The angel of the Lord encampeth around about them that fear him and delivereth them."

11. Proverbs 3:24: "When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid; yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet."

12. Mark 16:18: "They shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them, they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

13. Luke 10:19: "Behold I give unto you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you."

My prayer is that your spiritual immunity shall not break down, in Jesus' name. We have so many outstanding promises that God will protect us, but if we break certain laws this immunity will break down. If you don’t know what to do or you do the wrong thing your immunity can break down. So many things can break down the immunity. For example, wrong attitude. If somebody hurts you and you harbour resentment in your heart against him the enemy can see the dark cloud in your heart and that will break down your immunity.

Following the fashion of the world is another way you can break down your immunity. When someone lets you down or disappoints you and you begin to broadcast it to the whole world, your immunity will be broken down. When you pay evil for evil, when you decide to pay people back in their own coin, your immunity will break down. When you are very angry and you throw tantrums on people, your immunity will break down. Calling people insulting names, gossiping and not forgiving those that have hurt you will make your immunity to break down. All the demonic jewelry that people put on make their immunity to break down. Demonic herbal concoctions and other terrible things that people swallow make immunity to break down.

Leviticus 17:11 says, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." For you to be healthy and be moving about without any sickness, your blood must be immune. All the diseases that are available actually drink people’s blood. If a person loses a lot of blood, and nothing is done to restore it, he will soon die. Malaria is a terrible disease because it sucks people’s blood and uses it to produce more of its kind. Surely every sickness came as the result of the failure of Adam and Eve.

Somebody had fever in the Bible. Let us see what Jesus had to do. Luke 4:38 says, "And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house. And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever and they besought him for her. And he stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her and immediately she arose and ministered unto them." It means that you can talk to the fever or to your blood. You may say that this is madness. That would not be strange, after all, people said that Jesus and Paul were mad.

But when you learn to pray the following prayer points, you give yourself immunity:

1. Let the blood of Jesus be transfused into my blood, in Jesus’ name.

2. I render my blood untouchable to any disease, in Jesus’ name.

When you pray like this, any disease that comes in contact with your blood will die.

There are so many other things that you can do. For example, you can anoint your body or put the anointing oil in your cream. You must be careful the kind of food you eat. You must always pray on your food and your water. Make sure you don’t over eat things.

The children of darkness often fortify and prepare themselves because they know that they can be attacked, but sometime the children of God are so foolish that they don’t fortify themselves. In the light of this, I want you to pray the following prayer points aggressively.

prayer points

1. (Lay your hands on your head): I challenge my body with the fire of God, in Jesus’ name.

2. Every evil eternal enemy, come out by fire, in the name of Jesus.

3. O God, establish your kingdom in every department of my life, in the name of Jesus.

 

 

BANNED FROM HEAVEN
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Our message for this week entitled "Banned from Heaven" is a message for those who do not want to miss heaven. So, I implore you to open your heart and allow the Holy Spirit to minister to you.

Beloved, it is one thing to come to this world and it is another thing not to waste the opportunity. Jesus gathered His disciples and told them that one of them was to betray Him. He even tried to assist Judas by answering him, "You said it," when that question "Is it I?" was posed to Jesus. But as the saying goes, "To a dog that is destined to get lost, the hunter’s whistle becomes useless," Judas still went ahead and missed heaven. There is only one class of people who come to the world in vain: those who are banned from heaven. The Lord made it clear that it would have been better if such people were not born.

At this point, I would like you to close your eyes and pray like this: "O Lord, search my heart, and chase out anything You do not like inside, in the name of Jesus."

In 1 Corinthians 2: 9, we read one of the most glorious verses in the Bible. It says, "But as it is written, eyes hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man, the things (many) which God has prepared for them that love him." This verse is telling us about the beauty of heaven. It would be a tragedy for anyone to miss it. The only prerequisite to make this beautiful place is holiness. A man may get to heaven without good health, wealth, fame, big name, certificates, beauty or handsomeness. He may get to heaven without earning big salary, but he can never get to heaven without holiness. You may enter a church without holiness. You may fill the register without holiness, you may be in the choir without holiness, you may be a pastor without holiness, but you cannot get to heaven without holiness, for the Bible says, "Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord." That "no man" includes everybody; your earthly title being totally irrelevant. Unfortunately, this very important word ‘holiness’ has been relegated to the background in many churches these days. Nobody talks about hell fire anymore. But the truth is that the fear of hell has sent many people to heaven. I recall what happened to one old Christian who was sick. One day, some young Christians came to pray with him and they said, "Daddy, are you going to heaven?" The old man replied to their amazement that he was not just going to heaven, rather he was already living there. That is the way a Christian who is sure of his salvation should end his life. For you not to be banned from heaven, you must start from here. Jesus says, "The kingdom of God is within you." It is already inside. Jesus came to this earth from heaven that we might go to heaven from the earth. He came down that we might go up. So, we cannot enter heaven unless the heaven first of all enters us. Therein lies our problem.

 

WHERE DO YOU

SET YOUR AFFECTION?

The Bible says, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Col. 3:2. The reason for the ineffectiveness of so many Christians now is that they have ceased to think about heaven. Nowadays, there is no day without news about wars, earthquakes and many other terrible things foretold by the Bible. The Bible says that on the last days, there shall be wars and rumours of war. But those that are truly born again have nothing to fear. For them such calamity will be like an express ticket to see Jesus. But those who do not know God will go from their beds to hell fire. Many Christians are so ineffective because the thought of going to heaven has departed from them. If you study your Bible well, you will find that the most effective Christians in the history of the church were those who set their affections on things above. There was a brother, by name Henry Ben, who was dying and was therefore rushed to the hospital. After examination, the doctor told him that his case was hopeless. To the amazement of all present, Brother Ben started jubilating. He was able to do this because he was sure of meeting Jesus. If you are a member of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries and you miss heaven, your coming to the place would have been a bloody waste of time. You would not say that you were not told to set your affections on things above. Ignorance is no excuse; and the Bible talks about it extensively. In the New Testament, you find in several places where it is written, "I will not have you ignorant."

I am sure when Noah began to build his oversize boat, many people would have mocked him. He was not deterred and for 120 years he was busy on the God-assigned project. People saw him as an eccentric old man, a foolish prophet. Eventually Noah was right and his contemporaries were wrong. They might have been very intelligent people, yet ignorant of God’s programme. Another way the Bible expresses ignorance is by, "they knew not." It says, "As in the days of Noah, when they were marrying and getting married, and they knew not when the flood came." Some academicians may not agree with the fact that one of the major characteristics of this generation is ignorance. There has never been a generation like ours where people are so clever, very smart, highly sophisticated, and well read, but at the same time, very ignorant. We have so much smartness and cleverness mixed up with stupidity, knowledge about so many things but not about God. Whatever else a man may know, if he does not know what God wants him to know, he is ignorant. You can call yourself a professor or a philosopher, but if you do not know what God wants you to do, you are highly ignorant. In our days now, everything is fast. Men travel faster than ever, live fast life, and enjoy fast food, etc. But what is the use of your speed, when you are going in the wrong direction. You are travelling fast to the wrong place. Many modern men may dress in the latest attire, have university degrees, drive a Rolls Royce or a Limousine but they are as foolish as a sheep for they do not know what God wants them to do. At the end of the day, they would end up in eternal hell. Adolf Hitler had great knowledge and was an eloquent speaker, but he had no knowledge of God. So, as far as heavens were concerned, he was an ignoramus. He left God out of his programme. He built one of the most powerful war machines human beings have ever seen. He overran many countries and bombed many at night. He wanted to become a world ruler. But his ignorance made him to attack one race about which the Bible says, "Whosoever blesses you is blessed, whosoever curses you is cursed." The moment he decided to land on the Jews, he incurred the trouble of the God of Abraham who disgraced him thoroughly. So with all his knowledge, he was ignorant of that sacred truth. If he had not touched the Jews, he would have ruled the world. The book of Ecclesiastes summarizes the world thus: "Vanity upon vanity, all is vanity." It is therefore spiritual madness to glue yourself to this present world, because it is going away. Running after the world is like a dog chasing its own tail. It would never catch it. People that had engaged themselves in such a folly had passed on into hell fire.

Musicians who flatter people with stupid songs telling them they would never die should have paused to ask where their own grandfathers are.

In some parts of this nation, women are fatted before marriage. This world is a fattening room as far as the devil is concerned. He is fattening people in order to eat them up as big meat later. That is why the Bible says, "We brought nothing into this world and it is certain that we shall take nothing out of it." Is it this kind of world you want to glue yourself to? All entreaties by men of God to people not to commit fornication fall on deaf ears because many have never seen the picture of hell. When you see men and women in hell fire burning, you will not need to be told not to commit fornication. No present worldly pleasure can compare to what God has for us in heaven. No party can compare to the party of the marriage supper of the Lamb. If you say you are born again and you still go to worldly parties, you are lost completely because you do not have your right focus. You do not know what you are doing. I can never cease to recount my own experience of the first time I saw heaven. It is an unforgettable experience. It was in 1975. Do you think you have seen nice gardens here? You need to see the ones over there. You think you have seen nice houses here? You need to see those ones up there. You think you have seen good cities here? You need to see the heavenly cities. You think you have heard music here? Beloved, there is no good music in this place. I saw the saints rejoicing and singing joyfully. The joy on their faces could not be described. I wanted to rush inside and join them; but I was stopped at the gate. "You have work to do," I heard a voice say to me. Even as a small boy, I woke up crying for having been prevented from joining those saints.

It is very strange to see old men and women who are Christians but who still glue themselves to this present world. People of 50/60 dressing as people going to disco parties makes me wonder what they are aiming at. Some young people talk about enjoying themselves, and the enjoyment they are talking about is immorality, drunkenness, hard drugs, smoking and reckless living. They call these enjoyment. Some of them are so happy when they get admission to the university because they believe that they have escaped from the harassment of daddy and mummy. They think they are free to do whatever they like, not knowing that they are entering into another danger and only God can call them out of it. They allow the devil to trap them, and then they start running back to God. They forget that God is not a fool. Many years ago, I spoke to a sister who was a nurse. Her specialty was to carry out abortions for schoolgirls. I told her to stop it and she told me that that was the only way money could come into her clinic. When it boomeranged, I felt sorry for her. I was almost crying when I saw her. I got to her bedside and as I closed my eyes to call the name of the Lord, I felt my prayers bouncing back on my head. I could not continue, so, I opened my eyes. Then she said, "I call upon God in the day of trouble, and He does not answer me." I said, "Well, I told you." She said that I should call upon God for her. I said that I had called upon Him, and He asked me to shut up. So God is not a fool.

There are many people that are strong and healthy now but will not do any work for God. When they are getting old and moving close to the grave then they start engaging themselves in spiritual affairs. What the Lord wants us to do is to remember Him in the days of our youth. A time will come when you will say, "Now, I am ready to serve you Lord," and He will say, "But when I was calling you where were you?" Many old people are yet to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit because they believe that it is just for the young ones. Such people need a lot of prayers for in the eyes of the Lord, age is no excuse. There was a sick Christian who refused to see anybody on his sickbed because of the fellowship he was already enjoying with the angels of the living God. He was turning everybody away but received an atheist. He told the atheist that he turned away the other people because he knew that he would still meet them in heaven but for the non-believer, that was the last opportunity of their meeting unless he gave his life to Jesus there and then. There is no other way of enjoying heaven than making preparation for it right from here. A pastor feels sad when conducting the burial service of a non-believer for he knows that his destination is hell fire. But if a person has gone to be with the Lord, it becomes a celebration of life.

In heaven, which is a country better than all countries, there is no sickness, no pain, no death. It is free from war, bloodshed and poverty. There is no old age, no tiredness, no separation, no disappointment, no sin, no accident, no funeral, no cemetery, no death, no prison, no jail, no cripple, no blind, no deaf, no dumb, no asylum, no beggar, no hospitals, etc. What a glorious place. I am determined to get there. What about you?

 

 

Matthew 18: 3 says, "Verily, I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Mark 9: 36 also says, "And he took a child and set him in the midst of them and when he had taken him in his thigh, he said unto them, whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth not me but He that sent me." Mark 10: 13 –14 says, "And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and His disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God." So, if you do not want to be like little children, you will be banned from heaven.

Heaven-bound citizens always consider ten vital questions before they participate in, say or do anything.

1. Is it a sin? If it is a sin, do not do it.

2. Does it glorify God? If it does not glorify God, take your hands off it.Gossiping and backbiting must be avoided. One of my lecturers used to say that it is better to say what you want to say in the minimum amount of words because the more words you write, the more words are available to be questioned. So use few words in what you want to say and get out of the place. Check whatever you do. Does your giving your wife a dirty slap glorify God? Does your coming home late glorify God? Does your drinking alcohol secretly glorify God? Does your spreading rumours glorify God?

3. Does it edify God or is it profitable? If it does not edify and is not profitable, drop it. When somebody speaks to you, allow the Holy Spirit inside you to get into action before you start talking. If not, you will fall into grievous mistakes.

4. Will it make others to stumble? Does your lifestyle discourage others from accepting the Lord? Do unbelievers look at you and shy away from the gospel? If your answers are yes, you must make amends.

5. Is it really necessary? If it is not necessary, drop it fast. Punching extra holes in your ear, is it necessary?

6. Does it help my testimony? For example, can you publicly grab the microphone and testify that you just had an abortion yesterday?

7. Would I be able to thank God for it? For instance, can you say, "Lord I thank you, I give glory to your holy name because today, when I was coming to church, somebody drove his vehicle in a rough way in front of me and I looked at him and said, "Your father is a mad man."

8. Can it bring me into bondage? Can it enslave me? Or does it have the slightest possibility of enslaving me? If your answer is in the affirmative, then drop it. This is why you should not drink, smoke or use sniff tobacco for they all have the power of enslavement.

9. Will Jesus do this thing or will Jesus say it? What comes out of our mouths must be watched.

10. Can I do this thing in the name of the Lord? There are a lot useless prayers people offer. For example, it is a useless exercise to put alcohol before you, close your eyes and say, "I bless this alcohol, in the name of Jesus." This you cannot do in the name of the Lord. Somebody says, you are a fool and one spirit says, "Why don’t you give it back to him?" You will say, "Can I really call this person a bastard, in the name of the Lord?" If you cannot do it. Then do not say it.

 

WHY DO WE NEED TO HAVE THE SPIRIT OF CHILDREN TO MAKE HEAVEN? ̈ Children have very simple faults. They believe you without argument or debate. I remember the story of John and his father. Their building caught fire and the fire brigade came to rescue the occupants. John was the only person left in the house. He was at the top of the building. Officials of the fire brigade said, "John, jump down." He said no and the fire was almost getting to him. Fortunately his father came and just looked up and said, "John, it is me, daddy, jump down." The boy did not even look at where he was jumping, he jumped immediately since it was at the command of his daddy. This is the type of childlike faith we need to make heaven.

̈ Children are full of trust. They do not live a life of suspicion. A child would continue to trust you until you prove that you are not trustworthy.

̈ Children have a freshness that cannot be debated. They have a new way of looking at life.

̈ Children forgive very quickly. It is not easy for them to hold grudge against anyone.

̈ Children are not afraid to ask questions. They are perpetually curious. They are learners.

̈ Children are hero worshippers. The easiest thing is for a child to look up to someone or the world and try to be like them. We too should make Jesus our hero in order to make heaven.

̈ Children have natural humility. They realize that they are little and they have much to learn from someone bigger and wiser, somebody stronger than they are.

̈ Children are unsophisticated and do not discriminate against others no mater how poor.

̈ They are innocent. They are not alive to the ugly things of the adult world.

̈ Healthy children are joyful. They enjoy little things tremendously.

̈ Children love. They find it natural to hug and cuddle people, and to throw their arms into their parents’ hands.

̈ Children are playful. They spend a huge amount of time playing and that is the primary way they develop and learn.

̈ Children enjoy unique simplicity. They are not as complicated as adults.

̈ Children are zealous. Whatever they do, even if it is not the right thing, they want to do it well with their strength.

̈ Children live in a world of absolute; to them it is either wrong or right, good or bad. They have not learned the meaning of the word compromise; that is why they copy people. They are God’s little spies. I remember the story of a man who went to steal yam in another man’s farm. He positioned his four children in four different corners to help watch out for anybody coming. But as he was about to steal the yam, the smallest child whistled and the daddy said, "What is it?" The boy pointed upwards and said, "Daddy, who is going to watch the man up there?" And the man could not steal the yam again.

Beloved, today, decide that you are not going to compromise with sin anymore. Decide that you are going to seek for spiritual growth. Obey the marching order of Christ to preach the gospel everywhere. Be sure that your life does not contradict what you say. Be sure you are filled with the Holy Spirit and if sin comes between you and the Lord, have it removed at once by telling Him about it. Do not miss this beautiful place. The Bible says, "In my father’s house, there are many mansions." If people could fight tooth and nail to protect their parents’ properties which they have inherited, Christians should do all they can to make heaven and possess the beautiful mansions there.

PRAYER POINTS

1. O Lord, open my understanding, in the name of Jesus.

2. O Lord, I want your presence to overshadow me this day, in the name of Jesus.

3. You demon of ‘almost there,’ I command the ground to swallow you up, in the name of Jesus.

4. You spirit of slow progress, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

5. I refuse to fail at the edge of my miracle. Failure shall not be my lot, in the name of Jesus.

6. Any attempt by any herbalist to dispatch demons to me backfire, in Jesus’ name.

 

 

ATTACKING THE SPIRIT OF JEZEBEL
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

A lot of people are struggling and tiring themselves out with a closed door whose key they do not have. In the absence of the key, banging, shouting, crying or general struggle trying to get in, is a useless exercise. Unfortunately, this is the position of many Christians.

Jesus said unto Peter, “I give to you the key of the Kingdom and whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.” Peter had a key, Paul too, had a key. I want the key that would open the door to my breakthrough physically and spiritually, in the name of Jesus.

The Lord meant our body to be His temple. But before the glory of God can fill a particular temple, the temple has to be cleansed and purged. Therefore, Jesus had to purge the temple at Jerusalem. He said to them, “My house shall be called a house of prayer but you have turned it to a den of robbers” and He chased them out. The body of man is meant to be the temple of the Lord. But to many people, the body is not the temple of God but virtually a caged or imprisoned entity by powers greater than them. I want you to proclaim liberty and freedom to yourself. The Bible says, “If the Son makes you free, you are free indeed.” It also says that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty and that Jesus came to proclaim liberty to the captive. Please, pray like this: “Freedom from the Lord Jesus, soak me from the top of my head to the sole of my feet, in Jesus’ name." The Bible says, “If God be for us, who can be against us.” When God is for somebody, anyone who decides to go against that person must be mad. If a witch or wizard or powers of darkness decide to wage war against a child of God, it would be the beginning of their end. In fact, it is madness to attack a child of the most High God.

A lot of Christians never grow because they spend 90 per cent of their prayer time battling internal and external enemies and spend only 10 per cent on their spiritual growth. When the spirit of freedom is upon you, anyone who turns against you is planning to run mad. Beloved, enough of useless battles. In many places in the Bible, God set against themselves the enemies who prepared themselves and trained their armies to fight against the Israelites. They destroyed themselves while the Israelites moved in and collected the spoil. This is why you must pray this prayer point: “Let all the enemies of my soul get busy as from today fighting against themselves, in Jesus’ name.

 WHO IS JEZEBEL?

The first introduction of Jezebel in the Bible portrays her as the rebellious and domineering wife of a king, called Ahab. She dominated and manipulated her husband. Unfortunately, for the nation of Israel, her husband happened to be their king. I Kings 16: 30 - 31 says, “And Ahab, the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.” God had warned His children never to marry the Zidonians. The warning is true today that no believer should marry an unbeliever. If you do that in spite of the fact that you know that it is wrong, you have only constructed a coffin for your home. Eventually, it will become a foundational problem that will be very difficult to solve. This was what a whole king of Israel did. Apart from that, he was serving the idol of Jezebel called Baal. My prayer for bachelors is that they will never marry Jezebels, and the spinsters too, will never marry Ahabs, in Jesus’ name. Ahab raised up an altar for Baal and built a house for it in Samaria. The Bible says that Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. His problem started when he married Jezebel.

In the book of Revelation, we see Jezebel again surfacing. Revelation 2: 20- 21 says, “Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou allow that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.”

Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, was so powerful that she forced 10 million Jews to bow to Baal. Only about seven thousand plus Elijah were faithful to God. In fact, Elijah thought he was the only one, until God said, “No, I have seven thousand more somewhere.”

 THE SPIRIT OF JEZEBEL

The woman Jezebel is now dead physically, but the spirit of Jezebel is still very much around and has caused and is causing many problems for Christians. This spirit has thousands of people in its grip. It is responsible for the worldliness and unseriousness you find in Christians nowadays. It is the spirit converting many houses of God to entertainment halls, where people just go to be entertained by actors. It is the spirit of Jezebel that has produced a lot of psychedelic and disco pastors. You see pastors with 'jerry curls' and 'Tyson' hairstyles. In such places, you cannot differentiate between the pastor’s wife and a club girl. It is responsible for the conversion of the house of God to a place of merchandise and fashion parade. It is now introducing witchcraft into the house of God very cleverly and people are not aware of it. The spirit of Jezebel is responsible for the perversion of the authority in the home, where the wife is converted to the husband and the husband is converted to the wife.

Jezebel incited her husband to do evil and eventually led him into trouble with the Almighty God. God got fed up with Ahab and called a meeting of His angels and said, “Which of you will go down and deceive Ahab to die.” They all gathered and gave different suggestions. All that time, Ahab was comfortable. Eventually, God put a lying spirit in the 200 prophets of Ahab. Sometimes, when one wants to go into destruction, he would be deaf to every wise counsel. All the 200 prophets prophesied and said, “Go and the Lord will give these people unto your hand.” Only one man was different, a true prophet of God. He said, “No, if you go, you will not come back,” and Ahab promptly commanded that he should be locked up.

The spirit of Jezebel is the spirit responsible for the revengeful spirit in many believers now. A lot of believers want to retaliate what other people did to them just like Jezebel wanted to retaliate on Elijah. This is wrong. The spirit of Jezebel is responsible for the idolatry that is in the church now. A man came to the house of God and said he was broke and that he wanted to be prayed for so that he would begin to prosper. Some brethren prayed for him. Shortly after, he went to his bank account, which had been dormant for a long time and found that somebody had mistakenly paid N30,000.00 into it. He jumped up and said that the Lord had prospered him. He went ahead and withdrew the money and gave testimony that God had prospered him. That is modern idolatry.

The spirit of independence and ambition to be popular is the work of the spirit of Jezebel.  It is the spirit that kills God’s prophets prematurely. It is the power behind seducing spirits. The work of the spirit of Jezebel is getting so common nowadays. All the panel-beating and the spraying of the body by Christians and careless eating are the works of the spirit of Jezebel.

 THE NAME, JEZEBEL

What does the name Jezebel mean? It means ‘without co-habitation.’ That is, Jezebel will not dwell with anyone,’ unless she can control and dominate that person. It has destroyed preachers and politicians. It makes people to commit abortion. It is responsible for family strifes and unsettled homes.

 PRISONERS OF JEZEBEL

There are many secret prisoners of Jezebel today. They have no control over their sexual desire. They run after their house girls at night or any other woman, apart from their wives. Anytime they are not busy praying or clapping and singing, pictures of immorality fill their hearts. When you see a man who enjoys being in the company of girls alone, know that he has a problem. If you see a woman too, who prefers to be with men all the time, something is wrong somewhere. All these are secret prisoners of the spirit of Jezebel.

The truth is that the spirit of Jezebel would stop attacking a person only when it knows that the person can withstand it, because Jezebel’s worst enemies are the prophets of God who speak against it as the true prophet of God spoke against it in the Bible. The spirit of Jezebel hates repentance, prayer, holiness, purity and has captured many modern day Christians. Some people go to church to seek deliverance, only for them to get possessed by the spirit of Jezebel. This then worsens their case.

  THE FOUR POWERFUL STRONGMEN IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION

1.    The spirit of death and hell: The first strongman is the spirit of death and hell. Death is the reaper while hell is the storehouse. So, one goes to work, and the other stores what is brought back.

2.    The spirit of the anti-Christ: This is the spirit responsible for lukewarmness. It takes people farther away from the Lord and the more somebody goes away from the Lord, the more he moves into darkness.

3.    The spirit of Babylon: This is the spirit of compromise. Believers should not compromise their faith at all.

4.    The spirit of Jezebel: This message is centered on this strongman.

 THE AGE LONG WAR

There has been an age long war going on between the spirit of Elijah and the spirit of Jezebel. Elijah represents the interest of heaven, the call to repentance and a return to God. Jezebel on the other hand, represents principalities or powers whose purpose is to hinder the work of repentance. Looking deeply into the scriptures, we can see that Elijah was very bold. But Jezebel too, was also very bold. Elijah was violent against evil while Jezebel was violent against righteousness. Elijah spoke about the ways of God while Jezebel spoke about the ways of witchcraft. This war still continues today.

In the book of I Kings that we have read, Jezebel had systematically murdered God’s servants, the ones she could lay her hand upon. It was not that she did not look for Elijah, but the God of Elijah kept Elijah out of her hands. Ahab looked everywhere for Elijah and when eventually Obadiah found him, he said, “We have searched for you everywhere. You just locked up the windows of heaven and put the key inside your pocket, the king is looking for you.” But something happened in I Kings 18. There was a contest between the prophets of Jezebel and Elijah. The contest was on mount Carmel. The contest was very simple. The prophets of Baal, who were 450 in number, were on one side while Elijah was on the other side. Elijah said unto the people, “I even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, it is well spoken.” So they began to call on the name of baal and nothing happened. They did this for almost 12 hours. The Bible 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. (Elijah did not stop there like many Christians would do). And Elijah said unto them, take the prophets of Baal; let no one of them escape. And they took them and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.” And so will you slay your Baal today, in Jesus’ name.

The God of Elijah is the God of fire. He will fight for you today against any spirit of Jezebel, in the name of Jesus. Now, after this kind of super victory, why on earth should Elijah run away and say that he wanted to die. I Kings 19: 14 says, “But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, it is enough now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.” This was Elijah talking because in verse 2, Jezebel threatened him. “Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah saying, So let the gods do unto me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.”

 FEAR AND DISCOURAGEMENT

What came over the person who prayed and fire fell? How could such a mighty prophet turn and run? The answer is simple: Jezebel had released a flood of witchcraft and demonic powers against him. It was not that the witches were eating up his flesh or drinking his blood. No, they could not, but they put two things in his hearts, which are already in the heart of many people today. The two things are fear and discouragement. When those things entered into the spirit of Elijah as a result of an attack by the spirit of Jezebel, the great prophet of fire turned and ran when he could easily have stood at the palace of Ahab and call fire down so that Jezebel and her whole household would be destroyed. He turned and ran because two of the greatest weapons of the enemy were used against him.

A lot of people think that witchcraft is only about eating their flesh, drinking their blood and breaking their legs. No.

When there is fear and discouragement in a person’s spirit, the person would run even if it is only a cockroach that is talking. And then in that position of fear, the person becomes an easy target for the enemy. They would be able to touch the person because he has not placed sufficient fire around himself. Witchcraft would first of all send its two disciples; fear and discouragement. If you allow them to touch you, then they start clearing the road. They discourage people so much that they would not be able to pray well and you would be thinking it is one man somewhere. These two powerful weapons are what the spirit of Jezebel uses a lot today.

Elijah went away in his chariot of fire. John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah. And the dancing daughter of Herodias got John killed. She danced very well and Herod the king promised to give whatever she wanted. The girl now said, “I want the head of John the Baptist.” So, the man who came with the spirit and power of Elijah, was killed just like that. What the spirit of Jezebel did to Elijah, Herodias, too, did it to John the Baptist. But before John was beheaded, the two evil disciples of Jezebel had attacked him; that is fear and discouragement. It was so much that John sent a messenger to Jesus asking, “Are you the one that is to come or should we look for another?" Here was the forerunner of Jesus Christ who said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world.” He baptized Jesus yet, he sent a messenger to Him to find out because fear and discouragement had entered into him

 THE SPIRIT OF ELIJAH

The ministry of Elijah is not over. In fact, the book of Malachi tells us that towards the end of time, God will still send Elijah to us. Malachi 4: 5 – 6 says, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”

God is still raising up a company of prophet Elijah. These are Spirit -filled Christians who are supposed to kill the prophets of Jezebel and to drink the blood of the prophets of Baal. But you cannot be in the company of Elijah if Jezebel still has a hold on you. If your enemy cannot attack you directly, he would seek to bring you into sin, thereby positioning you for the judgment of God. That is true about the enemy.

The movement of the power of the spirit of Elijah is what we need now to put the spirit of Jezebel to flight. Addiction, adultery, arrogance, broken marriages, fear, fornication, jealousy, unclean thoughts, masturbation, perverted sexual relationships, spiritual blindness, the spirit of religion, witchcraft and all occult involvement manifest in the lives of those who are controlled by the spirit of Jezebel. For example, if the spirit of Esau is upon somebody, the person would sell his birthright, meaning that the person would stay at the tail instead of at the head. If the spirit of Menasseh is upon somebody, the person would also operate at the tail region. If the spirit of Pisgah is upon somebody, the person would be seeing good things but would never taste them. If the spirit of Saul is upon somebody, the person would start off on fire for God and end up with the spirit of witchcraft. If the spirit of Pharaoh or Herod is upon somebody, good things will die at infancy in their lives.

The spirit of Jezebel is the spirit that kills God’s anointing in people’s life. Such people would receive no revelation. They pray and see nothing or hear nothing. This spirit kills the prophet inside of you. It is the spirit that pushes people under God’s judgment like it happened to Ahab. Jezebel kept pushing Ahab until he entered into trouble. The spirit of Jezebel is the spirit that prefers artificial glory to the glory of God. It is the spirit that causes constant strife in the home. It turns husbands into babies and wives into giants. It is the spirit of immoral activities.

2 Kings 9: 30 -33 says, “And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master? And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? Who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs. And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses; and he trod her under foot.”

Beloved, today, you have to throw the spirit of Jezebel out of your life. Let the dogs lick her blood and you will trample upon it. Jehu had no mercy for Jezebel. He was not ready to reform Jezebel. There should be no mercy or compromise or sympathy towards the spirit of Jezebel. Jehu trampled her under foot. Right now, God is giving you the spirit to participate in the internal judgment of Jezebel. You have to cast her down, let the judgment of God come forth. It is time for the children of God to unite against this spirit with the power of the Holy Spirit, under the Elijah anointing and the anger of Jehu. Start to proclaim holy war against the spirit of Jezebel.

WAY OUT

There are six ways to deal with the spirit of Jezebel operating in the home. The devil tries to keep people from understanding these facts.

1.    Do not raise your voice against your spouse because the Bible says that a soft answer turneth away wrath.

2.    Identify the issue.

3.    Do not dig up old wounds. Bringing up old wounds will bring up further tension.

4.    Do not call your spouse names. This is character assassination.

5.    Do not generalize by telling your spouse, “You always do this or do that.” All these are destructive exaggeration.

6.    Finish the discussion. Do not burst into tears or get out of the house in anger.

 PRAYER POINTS

Please pray the following prayer points with holy anger.

1.   You spirit of Jezebel, I command you to release your captives, in Jesus’ name.

2.   You spirit of Jezebel, you will not kill the prophet of God inside of me, in Jesus' name.

3.   I cast down every evil imagination against me, in the name of Jesus.

4.   I break any ungodly association with the spirit world, in the name of Jesus.

5.   O Lord, set my enemies in array against themselves, in the name of Jesus.

6.   The key to open the way unto my breakthrough physically and spiritually, Lord give it to me, in the name of Jesus.

7.         I pull down the altar of witchcraft against my life, in the name of Jesus.

SPIRITUAL CRIMINALS (PART 1)
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

If I ask you where we can find criminals you may probably say in police cells, or in the prisons or in courts or on the streets or generally in dark and unholy places. But you may be surprised to know that there are actually criminals in the house of God. That is the topic we are looking at today.

Luke 15:3-9 says, and he spake this parable to them, saying, what man of you having a hundred sheep, if you lose one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lifts it on his shoulder rejoicing. And when he cometh home he calleth together his friends and neighbours saying unto them rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you that likewise, joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than ninety-nine just persons, which need no repentance.

(Therefore, witnessing and evangelism is still the heart-beat of God. We cannot dodge from it, it is an assignment given to all of us).

Either, what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece does not light a candle, and sweep the house and seek diligently till she finds it? And when she has found it, she calleth her friends and neighbours saying rejoice with me for I have found the piece which I had lost. 

Beloved in those verses that we have read, we see two things that were lost. One is the sheep and the other is the coin. The lost sheep is easy to find, because it can cry out if it is in danger so that people can find it. So the lost sheep in this case represents sinners who are outside the family to God.

That is why the Bible says that if one of them repents, there will be much joy in heaven. Even if you launch a crusade with twenty thousand people there and only one person gets born again. There will be joy in heaven for this one person. The sheep sometimes gets into trouble and cries out. Then somebody hears, and says "something is crying in that corner", and he goes there and fetches it. So much for the lost sheep, many of us were like that before we got born again. The lost coin represents those who are lost in the church. On Sunday, Monday Wednesday and when there are services, the Holy Spirit has to take a torch light and search for them under the benches and under the beds, where they have hidden themselves. The lost coin is so difficult to find as it could have rolled anywhere. It could roll under the rug, under the carpet or under the bed. So you have to really search for it.

Many people are like that, dodging, God. God says, "Go to Nineveh, but they are on their way to Tarshish. The spirit of Tarshish has come upon them because they are not in the right place. Because a sinner in the right place and a righteous man in the wrong place are birds of the same feather. Both of them will not receive any blessing. One of the most serious verses that I can find in the Bible which will make any backslider become serious is what Peter wrote.

I Peter 4:17 & 18 says, "For the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God: and if it first begins at us. What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? "It is therefore very dangerous beloved, to be in the church and be lost inside it. The state of the church these days is very lamentable. For those of you who are members of the Mountain of Fire & Miracles, God is going to clean this place and any unprofitable tree shall be uprooted. God is looking for quality not quantity. If God had 120 quality people in the upper room, they were sufficient to turn the world upside down. Last week I told you about the pastor that the angel of God put his congregation on the scale.

Out of 2900 people in the church only 80 were ready for heaven. It will be very sad beloved, if the trumpet sounds and God says, "okay", or even if there is no trumpet but is no trumpet but God says, "Son, Daughter enough, come up". What will you say? Will you plead for more time because you want to sort out a few things or because you want to get rid of anger first? That is impossible. There are many spiritually lost coins in the house of God. The church has therefore become like the ark of Noah. It had elephants, rats, pigs, cockroaches, two of each creature. In the ark, they had their toilet, and ate there with human beings as well. The church is just like that. If not for the fact that there is flood outside, many people cannot stand the smell in the church just like in the ark of Noah, and they know that running away is running into perdition. Paul says, "we are not of them that draw back into perdition". There are many like that who are lost in the house of God.

 

WHO ARE THE LOST COINS?

Those who are under partial control of the Holy Ghost.

Supposing you buy a house and when they want to hand the house over to you, the estate agent says, "there are ten keys to this house, but I will give you one or two". Instead of getting all the keys, you got one or two, meaning that, you can only enter one or two rooms. You own the house, you are in the house but you are not yet in total possession, although you are the owner. You are yet to possess your possession.

IT IS THEREFORE VERY DANGEROUS BELOVED, TO BE IN THE CHURCH AND BE LOST INSIDE IT.

So it is with the Holy Spirit. He dwells in us but has not taken complete possession of many of us. Some of us have given him the control of our minds, but our eye and tongues are not under his control. You have refused to give the Holy Spirit all the keys he needs to enter into every department of your life. The Holy Ghost is a gentle dove, he will not gate crash. But he will be watching you until you decide, and say, "okay, take my eye, my tongue, my legs, my stomach, and every part of me" Then he will gladly collect the keys and move in. When a believer is completely possessed by the Holy Spirit like this and the totality of his being is filled with power, who is the witch or wizard or familiar spirit or herbalist that can pursue the believer? 

Who is the boss in the office that will be harassing the believer? The reason we are being harassed beloved, is because many of us have only partial salvation. We did not hand over everything to the Holy Spirit because we are afraid of what will happen to us if we drop all the keys. Some are afraid of going to the extreme, they say, "if I become too serious with the Lord, that will mean no painting of the nails, no wrestler’s belt, no chain and no party. I have to be memorizing the Bible, oh what a boring life"." They are afraid of going too far. I feel sorry for such people and they need to be more serious with the Lord. The Holy Spirit is only in one room, the other rooms in your heart have been caged against him.

Such people are lost in the church. When there are things in your private life that you are not willing to surrender, and you are not willing to discuss, then you are lost. I told you of a man who came to me sometimes ago with a piece of bread in his hand. He said, "Doctor, this bread is my wife." I could not understand him initially, but when I realised what he was saying, I found out that he had been committing sexual immorality with the bread. How could you tell a person that kind of thing? But he had to confess it so as to be free. There are many things hidden in so many lives and many of us have one funny feeling that God cannot see us. Behold, he sees all what you do, he hears all what you say. Once you give the key to the Holy Spirit then he will come inside, and do a proper cleansing. There may be plenty of commotion, when that is happening. When you give him all the keys, He will clean under the door and sweep the whole house. There will be a commotion because people will turn against you.

All your money may go and people will laugh at you and call you all sorts of names. But the Holy Spirit is doing his work, as a gentleman. The thing about the Holy Spirit is that if he says, "Son, Daughter, do this, do that, "and you say, "I am not going to do it, "he will leave you alone, and write it against you. If you try to argue with Him, he will leave you alone and write it against you. After sometime, you will no longer hear His voice. At that level, you have gone too far. I pray that we do not get to that level in Jesus name. If you have kept the Holy Spirit in one room for too long and then today you surrender all, not 5%, you surrender all, there will be commotion, because things will happen.

I remember this European friend of mine, who said that they told him that once he received the Holy Spirit, his problems would be over. But the day after he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, he was chased out of his church because, he could not pray the way they were praying there again. He could not understand their cool and frigid type of Christianity.

When the Israelites left Egypt, they first of all had a Red Sea experience. They crossed the Red Sea and started their journey in the wilderness. When they were about to enter the Promised Land, again, they crossed river Jordan. So two experiences, they crossed the Red Sea, and River Jordan. When you are going to your Promised Land, you have to cross the Red Sea and the River Jordan. But when you box the Holy Spirit into a corner, and He cannot do anything, then the gap between your Red Sea experience and your River Jordan experience will be very wide. That believer will stay for a long time in the wilderness of life, because the Holy Spirit has been boxed into a corner.

We have so many wilderness pilgrims, filling the churches everyday; they are lost. Cosmetic Christianity is so easy. All you need to do is to smile at people and say "praise God!" Glory be to the name of the Lord," then you sing all the funny songs that people always sing. Christianity from the heart is different from that one, it will demand something from you. It is so nice the way we are gathered here, but when we leave this place, how do you represent God?

Are you a true member of the Mountain of Fire & Miracles? Or do you just come in for the miracles and the blessings, which are part of the reasons why God established this place? The main purpose is to prepare a large army of people who are going to heaven and they will be unstoppable no matter the obstacles? So are you like that? Are you are under

 

WHEN THERE ARE THINGS IN YOUR PRIVATE LIFE THAT YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO SURRENDER, AND YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DISCUSS, THEN YOU ARE LOST

Partial control of the Holy Spirit? Are you the kind of person when asked about his pride would say that it is reducing gradually". What are you doing about anger? I thank God it is getting better now. What are you doing about fornication? Well, I have graduated from physical activity to just looking. What are you doing about drinking? Well, I really do not drink, but Madam and I just share a glass of wine before going to bed. What are you doing about all your strange friends? 

Well, you know old friends are better than new ones, we have been coming together from the primary school and it will be so sad if because of religion I drop them at this level, they helped me when I was in need." Those helpers when you were in need may eventually end up being your undoing. According to the Bible, what is the friendship between darkness and light, what fellowship is between the temple of God and the temple of an idol? "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

Or are you the kind of person who is saying that, "my boyfriend is still in the world, I have been inviting him to Monday and Wednesday meetings. I believe that God will touch his life and he will change, then I will marry him". Did you have the power to change yourself? Do you know that you can take a horse to the stream, but you cannot force the horse to drink. The horse may be pretending to drink water whereas it is not taking in anything. You can dip your mouth into the cup and not swallow liquid, and somebody will be rejoicing that you are drinking. Are you lost in the church? I told you the testimony of Brother Ucheme before. He fell down one day and died.

Suddenly he saw himself going to heaven and met an angel of God standing at a gate asking questions. There were three people before him on a line. The angel asked the first person, are you a Christian? The person said, "yes". The angel said, "wait". Then he pressed a button and one TV set that looked like a shoe polish suddenly appeared. Everything the man had ever done in his life was being played back on the TV and he was watching it. At a stage, the man cried out to the angel "please turn it off". Those things he thought were covered were being revealed. He said, but I have asked God to forgive me all these". The angel said yes, "God has forgiven you, so we will close that chapter. But now what do you have in your pocket?" The man put his hand in his pocket and brought out a charge of lying. In another one, he brought out a charge of anger. The angel said, "you call yourself a Christian, how come all these things are in your pocket?" He said, "the devil deceived me". Then they brought the devil. Who said, "I deceived you, when I came to you, was I a white man or a black man? How did I come? The man couldn’t answer and the devil then laughed.

Then they took him to hell fire, why? Partial control by the Holy Spirit. It is so easy to be vibrating on the spot while praying but when you come down from that your vibrating mountain and you face the reality of life, it is then we will know whether what you are saying is in your heart or only in your tongue.

Those who have been elevated above their spiritual level by church post.

The second group of those who are lost, are those who have been elevated above their spiritual level by church post. Unfortunately, this includes so many pastors and church worker so many pastors’ wives, so many pastors’ children, so many superintendents, so many elders. These people because they seem to be so close to the altar, take the issue of salvation for granted. Many of them are just convicted but not converted.

Unfortunately many are after these positions but not after the possession of the power God. There are also so many people who call themselves, ministers, but their eyes are always on the gifts, something that someone will give. If you are like that, be assured that even though you are a minister, yet you are lost. You are completely lost. The Bible says, "the gift will blind the eyes of the prophet. Freely you have been given, freely you give."

THE DARK WORKERS

They know they are possessed, they know they have familiar spirits, they know they meet in the water and yet they still come to church. They collect sicknesses, arrows and all kinds of things from the house of God. Witches, wizards, familiar spirits, know who they are, but they try to hide not knowing that God can locate them easily.

A brother was coming to one of our meetings at Old Yaba Road, one day while we were praying, word of knowledge came that, one brother had been followed there by an evil followed who had received the fire of God. That brother did not recognize that it was his mother, but by the time he got home from the meeting, the body of the mother was hot and she was vibrating and she confessed that she followed her son to the church. "I put you in so many bondages but everything was broken apart from one and I wondered where they broke it for you. So I followed you but when I got there, there was fire, and it was burning me". The mother confessed everything before she eventually died.

Such evil people, if they come to the Mountain of Fire & Miracles, they become dustbins to collect problems and sicknesses, that God is removing from people’s lives. This is the truth beloved. I remember one powerful man of God in this nation who had a vision, many years ago. In the vision he saw three farmers, the first farmer was planting yam and watering it and it was growing. The second farmer was planting stone and he too was working on it, watering it, knowing fully well that that stone will not grow. The third farmer was planting nothing, but he was still watering it, and looking after it. This man of God was surprised and he did not understand the vision. All three people were inside the church working, then he asked the Lord about these people.

The Lord said that, all church members can be grouped into these three categories. The one who planted nothing are those who come to church, but are not born again, they are not saved and do not have the baptism of the Holy Ghost. They are empty barrels and trunk-less elephants. The ones who planted stones are the people with satanic powers. They know that it will not grow but they are just planting, they want to try. The third group are his children. Which camp do you belong to? If you do not have the baptism of the Holy Ghost it will be a tragedy for you to be sitting at home when there is a Pentecostal meeting in the church. You cannot be saying funny things like, "I dream and it comes to pass. "Herbalists may dream and it will come to pass. Moslems dream likewise. You cannot say you have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit until it is done the Biblical way.

Think about it, witches and wizards are foolish people really. What good benefit can you derive from being a witch or a wizard? Why should you be playing inside the water when other people are playing on dry land? What sense is there to eat your own children and other people’s children? Why should you terminate the progress of those who will help you at old age? How many of the children of the witches have scholarships? How many of them are brilliant? How many of the children of possessed people are doing well? It is a useless society, so if you are there, you had better get out now.

I remember a girl, who went to a crusade, and said, "Man of God help me, I want to get out of this cult." They asked her what the problem was and she said, "there were four of them in the family. One was a medical doctor, one was a lawyer, the third one had a hunchback and she was the youngest. The members of the cult ate the lawyer and the doctor, with all their qualifications." Academic excellence without fire makes you bush-meat for the enemy. They are now asking for the life of the man with the hunchback. The sad thing is that it was the medical doctor and the lawyer who were paying the girl’s school fees. They have eaten-up the two and she knew that if they ate the hunch back, she would be the only one left, so she wanted to get out of the cult.

There are people like that, who come to church. People usually say that witches do not come to church. If they do not come to church where else will they go? If you have a church and you do not see witches there, it means that there is no power there they will send spies to look at how their colleagues are being killed. If they abandon your church, it means they have captured it because they are in charge there.

Are you lost in the church? This is not a question of collar on your neck or headgear of painting, these are physical things and they will perish. When the person dies, it is dust to dust and ashes to ashes. All the pride and fashion are gone then you face God, who you have deserted for so long. What will you say to him when you meet Him? When you face Him and He brings your life programme out for you and you see that you have only done two out of twenty three things and you cannot go back to continue. The journey of life is a one way street. Think about it.

SPIRITUAL METHUSELAH

This is another group that is lost in the church. Methuselah the Bible says was the oldest man. He was just old for nothing, we did not see anything spiritual that he did for the Lord.

Spiritual Methuselahs are those who have stayed long in the church and know everything about it. They know when the Pastor in Charge was born. In fact they were present at the naming ceremony. They know the history of the church how it started. In fact all the young pastors were born in their presence. They come late to church and even when they come early they still sit at the back. They have made covenant with the back sit. There are some people, even if there is space at the front seat, they still prefer to sit at the back. They go to the very last row, near the wall. We call such Methuselahs in the house of God, sinners in Zion.

There at the back seat, these Methuselahs can gossip and sleep, read thee Sunday papers. Crack dirty jokes and disturb others when the message is going on. Many of such people are the Pastor’s friends. They are close to him and like him. You will see them running after him and think that they must be serious. No it has nothing to do with it. You may be carrying the bag of the Pastor, without the anointing of the Pastor. After all Elisha collected double portion of the anointing of Elijah. Yet Gehazi instead of collecting four portions, collected leprosy. Most of those who have been so long in the house of God and are not doing anything specifically for God are unsaved. They should retire from the school of past glories.

What are you doing for the Lord now? "I was choir master/church warden in those days." Fine. What are you doing now"? I was in the battle arm of the fellowship in those days"? Which battle are you fighting now? Think about it beloved.

 

WONDERFUL JESUS DELIVERED FROM PROSTITUTION.

I was a prostitute for many years but one night In my dream, I saw Jesus weeping. When I Woke up, I was shocked and started asking God If my sin was beyond redemption. I told God To send me someone to help me out of this rotten job. One day a man approached me and Asked me where he can get food to buy. After Telling him, he invited me and I agreed. At Meal, he started preaching to me that God Loves me and that Jesus is willing to deliver Me if I am prepared. I was touched, I then told This man of God that I will reduce my prostitution to only weekends. Whilst I was doing this, I remembered that I have promised God to change fully if he would send someone to me.

So, I gave my life to God immediately. Around this time the land-lady of the hotel picked my menstrual pad from the dustbin for an evil purpose. Since then, my period ceased. I decided I will not expose myself to any man again. At one of our monthly programmes, the General Overseer gave a word of knowledge that there is a lady here on whose menstrual pad an old woman was sitting. You’re being delivered now in Jesus name. This word of knowledge was repeated at a subsequent service. I claimed it. Since that day God has healed me and I now experience a regular cycle. Praise God with me for my salvation and healing

SISTER GRACE

 

PRAYER OF THE WEEK

Open your life up to the Lord. Tell him how you are. Tell him to forgive you and help you get out of your situation. Don’t cover up your sins and let the enemy rejoice over you.

Lord change me to what you want me to become.

Lord, let all falsehood depart from my life.

Lord let all lukewarm-ness depart from my life.

You are going to make a covenant with God. Mention the particular sin that has captured You can tell God you want to be released from it now.

I command every oracle prophesying evil against Its master in the name of Jesus.

I will make heaven whether the devil likes it or not.

Everything that I have lost because I was not where God wants Me to be, I recover them this morning in the name of Jesus. VICTORY OVER THE THIEF
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

We shall start this message by going into prayers. Pray aggressively as if you don’t have anything to lose.

1. All those who are obeying strange commands be delivered now, in the name of Jesus.
2. Forces of affliction, and forces of oppression, be paralysed in the name of Jesus.
3. Every chronic disease, go back to your sender in the name of Jesus.

I destroy every stronghold, of darkness in my family in the name of Jesus. Wonderful God, we thank you for you are the mighty God, we thank you, because unto you shall the gathering of your people be. You are the gatherer, and when you gather, none can scatter, accept our thanks in Jesus name. Today, we must tread upon serpents and scorpions, we must trample upon the lion and the adder, for you have given us authority, over every power of the enemy and you said, nothing shall by any means hurts us. We pray O Lord that you open our ears today and let this revelation be cleared in our spirit. Thank you heavenly father in Jesus name we pray Amen. This is a practical message so don’t be surprised if we have to be praying as we go along. In the book of John 10:10 we read a revealing passage about the enemy. It says this, "The thief cometh not, but to steal, to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly" You see, there are thieves and there are thieves. A man spoke about his experience. At around one o’clock at night some people came knocking at his door. He answered by asking who it was and they boldly replied "we are thieves". The man said. "In the olden days, thieves used to hide and steal things, not coming in the open and claiming you are thieves, they replied him and said, "well when you finish blowing your grammar open the door." Then the man began to scream, thief! Thief! Neighbours save me, thief! Thief! Instead of the neighbours to come out, he found out that those who had their windows opened before, closed them up quickly so when he stopped shouting the thieves asked him "have you finished?" We shall help you to shout more, so that they can hear" And the thieves now began to shout more, so that they can hear" And the thieves now began to shout thief! Thief! Thief! After a while, they stopped and then asked him to open the door. Sounds incredible but true. Now, the most successful thief is the devil. He is so successful that people will blame every other thing, but leave him alone. People will blame their bank, the economy, their father-in-law, mother-in-law, or whatever. While the actual thief remains free.

 

THE HIGHER THIEF

Everybody on earth, no matter who you are, has been robbed in one way or the other by this great thief and it is sad to note that many of the inheritance of the saints have been locked up. All the thieves around now, snatching cars etc are lower thieves. A lower thief will steal your bed but the higher thief will steal your sleep, a lower thief may come and steal all the books in your library, but the higher thief will steal the brain, a lower thief may steal food from the house the higher one will steal the appetite and perhaps the intestines, a lower thief may steal the medicine that a person has bought, the higher one will steal the health; a lower thief may steal wedding rings, the higher one will steal the marriage and home. So there are thieves and there are thieves. Immediately you give your life to Jesus, whether you like it or not, you have plunged into a warfare against the devil and the devil is never happy that you are leaving his kingdom. Do you know that even when you were serving him, he stole from you? That’s why he is a terrible thief. When you are not serving him too, he tries to steal from you. The trouble is that sometimes, after the devil has stolen things, we will come crying to God as if God was the thief. God never steals from anybody, but yet he gets the blame, and a lot of Christians expect God to replace what Satan has taken. When things are stolen by the enemy, there are several ways to recover the stolen property from the devil. However, these ways cannot give you permanent victory.

 

TRADE BY BARTER

Primitive Trade by Barter. This is when you give something in exchange and the devil says okay, take your thing, but what he may ask for in return may be your soul or your peace of mind. A boy who was preparing for JAMB examinations read something in the newspaper to the effect that he could pass his exams without actually preparing for it. So he went there, he didn’t know that he was approaching an academic herbalist. He was given things to read, and asked to go and sleep on top of a tomb in the cemetery. The boy said, "sorry sir, is there any other thing I can do to avoid going to the cemetery at night? The herbalist replied sleeping at the cemetery would be very effective. You will score high marks, but since you cannot go at night, at 12 mid-day give money to those people at the gate of the cemetery and move into the place lie down there for 3 hours reading this thing. The boy took it because he wanted to pass the JAMB examination. After doing what the herbalist told him, he sat and passed, but by the time he got into the university, his peace of mind was already sold because he kept on seeing himself in the cemetery. Anytime he closed his eyes he would see dead people in the cemetery. Although he got admitted, remaining in the school now created a fresh problem. So the devil has no free gift. Beloved therefore if any of you has taken anything from the devil, the earlier you throw it back at him the better. For instance, a man decided to make money in a demonic way. He was given two options to either swallow a lizard or take a cat home. They assured him that both animals will yield money, but what they did not tell him when he was asked to make a choice was that a day would come when the lizard he swallowed will not come out as usual and this day he would die. Neither did they tell him that the day the cat refuses to vomit money he would have three days to live. The devil has no free gift.

 

UNGODLY CO-OPERATION.

This is when a person decides to worship Satan just to obtain solution to a problem. The person rushes to the devil who gives a fake assurance, by saying that there is no problem. He then gives the person what he wants, but ensures that he agrees to become either a witch or wizard. This person accepts the terms, saying, "well if that will solve the problem. He has co-operated with the Enemy, then he becomes healed he receives the miracles. Automatically he becomes a disciple or follower of the devil. He has co-operated because he wanted certain things. In the church where I was, many years ago. One herbalist had his satanic clinic at the front of our church. He sited his clinic there before we established our church. He had two wives. Nobody knew how he got his second wife, until this second wife heard the gospel and gave her life to the Lord. She told us that once she was very sick and her mother brought her to the herbalist for healing. The herbalist however made a pact with her mother; demanding to marry her if healed. Her mother agreed. Now that she has given her life to Christ she decided to leave the herbalist. She knew it was not right being the man’s second wife. The man came to warn us in the church seriously, saying, "better leave my wife alone, you people are doing your business, and I’m doing my business. Don’t let the two businesses disturb each other, and if you refuse to listen, you will see trouble. I will show you power". He threatened. Beloved, he lost that wife for good. But how did the wife get there? Ungodly co-operation. People use their life to buy temporary health.

 

USING LOWER THIEF.

It is sending a lower thief to go and steal it. You see, in the world of darkness, they tell each other lies. There is no truth and that is why sometimes when a demonic person is confessing, 90 percent of what he is saying is all lies. The bible calls the devil "the father of lies". He is the manufacturer, he owns the company, where lies are manufactured, he is a Ph.D. holder in the school of lying. So how can you, a primary school student beat him? They steal from each other even in the dark world, because there is no law, it is an area of lawlessness. I know a man who was rendered impotent, he therefore decided to go and look for help and the "prophetess" he met, said well "if you bring so, so and so, I will help you by going to the satanic bank to withdraw what they’ve taken from you. The prophetess had no husband, just like many prophetesses today. She asked, "if I help you regain your potency, will you marry me? This man, 16 years younger than the prophetess agreed to marry her. The prophetess succeeded in withdrawing the man’s organ back from the satanic bank. But the man ran away without fulfilling his pledge to marry the fake prophetess. By the time the man was brought back to her, he had lost more than he lost initially. That is the danger in co-operating with the devil.

 

SOLUTION

The only method that can give you a permanent recovery of stolen property by the enemy is:-

 

SPIRITUAL WARFARE.

This is the only effective way of recovery. The thief cometh not but to steal and to kill and to destroy, but I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. The bible says, "Behold I give you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over every power of the enemy, nothing shall by any means hurt you". So it is thus our responsibility to command the thief to return to us what he has stolen from us.

 

JESUS DID NOT STEAL ANYTHING FROM ANY BODY, THE THIEF IS THE DEVIL.

The Lord Jesus did not steal anything from anybody, the thief is the devil, so we must take everything from the thief, and force him to return what he has stolen. We need to find out whether we are the ones giving the thief the encouragement. If you refuse to lock your door or you leave your property unattended to, you are encouraging the thief. One day there was a conversation, between the hook and fish. The hook had already caught the fish, and was telling the fish "don’t you see that I’m very brilliant? See how I caught you so easily? The fish argued and said well "It is not your fault, you are not brilliant, you are an ordinary iron. Can you talk? You are not brilliant. The only problem was that you had something attached to your bottom, which attracted me, and I was caught. This is how many people get into the trap of the enemy, thereby allowing the enemy to steal from them. He uses bait on the hook. Something very attractive to start with, but when you then swallow it, you find that there is problem. What I’ve been telling you so far, is that, Jesus did not steal anything from anybody. The thief is the devil, so what the devil has stolen, you cannot be asking Jesus to restore, it is the thief that will return what has been stolen. You are going to pray aggressively like this at this juncture; "I walk out of any satanic net in the mighty name of Jesus.

 

YOU MUST FIGHT.

You see beloved, in the battle of life, you must fight, it has been said that man is the master of his own destiny, the Captain of his own ship, but it is not true, man is sometimes affected by invisible powers he does not understand. When you see people wearing juju rings, they are trying to fight, if you see people sleeping at the bar beach, they are trying to fight, people attaching safety pins to their clothes so that nothing will go wrong with them, they are trying to fight. All those bathing at streams close to the express way, are also trying to fight. All those eating sacrifices, wearing amulets, making incisions, roaming around prophets, all are trying to fight. But all these attempts are useless, because no battle can be won without God, and when the battle is going on, several things may be lost or captured. So you must do battle, not only to defend yourself but to take back what belongs to you, especially what has been stolen even before you became aware of whom you are. A person may be suffering losses that he or she cannot explain. There are so many Christians who have not suffered loses, but even what they are meant to have they do not have. A person is working everyday but there is no success, something has been stolen somebody loses money in ways he or she cannot explain, something has been lost. Instead of a person progressing, he is going backwards, something has been lost. When a man meant to be a winner is failing, something has been stolen. When somebody is controlled contrary to his or her own will something is lost. When you fail to get a good sleep because there is something worrying you, something is lost. Sudden hatred between husband and wife, something has been lost. A brilliant student just becomes dull, and senseless, during examinations something is lost. A rich person suddenly becomes poor, problems suddenly multiply, something is lost. So what can we do if the enemy has stolen from us? I will tell you but before I tell you, I will like you to close your eyes and pray even more aggressively like this. No items of mine shall remain in satanic bank in the name of Jesus.

 

WHAT DO WE DO TO RECOVER OUR STOLEN ITEMS?

Avoid spirit of error, because once you make mistakes e.g. you insert your car ignition and forget it there, you have committed an error, someone could steal it. You first of all made a mistake. So you must avoid or resist the spirit of error. There is no one who does not make mistakes occasionally, the good thing is for you to correct your mistakes and learn from them. In fact many bible characters made outstanding mistakes, take Eve for example, Eve listened to the devil, and listened to her eyes, other than to God, she made a mistake. Adam, the husband listened to the wife, rather than God, the result of that mistake is with us now. Noah, escaped from the flood disaster and the pollution of the old world, only for him to now plant a vineyard, and he got drunk eventually. Abraham was the father of faith, he made so many mistakes. He took Hagai the maid of Sarah, gave birth to Ishmael and the Ishmaelites are now harrassing everybody today. He went down to Egypt during famine and almost lost his wife. Isaac too made his own mistakes, he loved Esau, because Esau was bringing bush meat, and the wife knew this.

 

YOU KNEW THAT SOMETHING IS BAD, YOU UNDERSTAND THE AFTERMATH, BUT YOU STILL WENT AHEAD TO DO IT; THIS IS THE SPIRIT OF ERROR

The wife loved Jacob and then trouble happened. Jacob is a bundle of error, he made multiple mistakes and he paid dearly for it. He used deception to obtain his brother’s birthright, he deceived his brother to obtain his blessings, he too loved Joseph more than all the other children, causing problem for Joseph.

Moses, was a man of God, who spoke with God face to face, but he openly lost his temper and struck a rock, instead of speaking, to it. Joshua too made his mistake, he listened to the lies of some people that called themselves Gibeonites and did not even ask the Lord anything, until those people deceived him.

Eli, too made many mistakes, he refused to disciplined his children. The children eventually led to his death. The children were treating the offering of the Lord with contempt and were sleeping with women by the temple.

Samuel did not discipline his own children too, his children took bribes and perverted justice. 

Saul was the King who prophesied but impatience led him to commit a grievous mistake. He followed people’s demands instead of God’s commandment this put him in trouble.

David, the man after the heart of God, made his own mistakes too, he took the wife of Uriah and killed him.

Elijah made his own mistake. After a fantastic drama at Mount Carmel where he defeated the enemies of God, then a woman threatened him, "You are going to die. He ran away, only to start praying to die. He wanted to retire, instead of him to re-fire.

John the Baptist, after he had been locked up in the prison, sent some people back to Jesus, who he baptized saying; "Ask him whether he is the one or it is somebody else?

Peter, I don’t need to describe Peter to you, too forward, too self-confident and eventually, even when he became an Apostle, he tried to run away from being seen eating with gentiles. Good people do make mistakes.

There was a time somebody commanded Paul to be slapped, and he said you whitewashed wall. You put me here according to the law and you said they should slap me in opposition to the law. They said, "You are abusing the high priest" he apologized I’m sorry, I didn’t know that he’s the high priest. So good people make mistakes. In fact, there is a big difference.

Beloved between what happened during the bible time and what is happening now. The things God winked at in time past will be judged now. In those days, most of them had no example to learn from.

Look at Moses, he had never seen anybody crossing the Red Sea, no bible to tell him that it has happened before. They had no example to follow, but we have examples. They had no bible, even if they had bible, they would require about 3 or 4 people to carry the bible, because it was written on leather, there was no paper. Jesus had not yet come at that time, Jesus had not yet come in the flesh for salvation, but now Jesus has come. The Holy Spirit was not yet given to them, like he is given to us now. They didn’t have chain reference bibles. Nobody has commentaries, no Christian books, no tapes, no television preacher. They had to rely on the word of God. So if we in our generation refuse to learn from their mistakes, then we are committing sin willingly.

The bible says the time of ignorance, God winks at. Furthermore the whole of the scripture is given for our learning, so if you mistakenly commit sin and you ask for forgiveness, and you do not repeat the sin, God forgives you. The cases described above falls under mistakes, which is different from spirit of error. Somebody, who is regarded as a mature believer, suddenly commits an unbelievable sin, spirit of error. Then you give the devil the right to do anything with you.

We used to have a fantastic evangelist in those days, really wonderful, 30 minutes before the crusade would start, his wife would be there singing choruses and miracles would be happening, but suddenly his wife ran off with an Alhaji. Why? Spirit of error.

Every time people would say I don’t know what made me do this. Something was telling me to stop, but I couldn’t stop that is the spirit of error. When you fall into the same spiritual trap twice, it is the spirit of error. For you to be able to recover your property from the hand of the enemy, you must resist and fight this spirit.

A person gets to a stage where the word of God is bouncing off the body and he is not absorbing anything. It becomes, "Let them say their own, the ones that I want to take, I will take, the ones that I don’t want to take, I will leave. I will not allow some young boys to deceive me and mess me up". It is the spirit of error. You knew that this thing is bad, you understand the after effect, but then you still went ahead and did it – spirit of error. If you did not know, and did it in ignorance then God forgives you but if you know and went ahead it is the spirit of error. For instance somebody says "well what I’m going to say now, God forgive me." Why bother to say it when you already know it is wrong and already you are asking for forgiveness, it means it is a willful sin. Spirit of error.

When somebody have gone deep into errors in their lives. Do you know that some people go to observe other people’s lives to get information. A person goes to somebody who is pressing sand to know the future, whereas the bible says your life to the hands of the sand. Now they are pressing the thing for you and you are asking "what is the sand saying? You know the sand has no mouth to talk, but there are some demons under the ground. That is why the bible says "At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things on earth, of things underneath the earth." Demons underneath the earth can give information. Spirit of error.

All those who carry the bible and read strange words, before they read the Psalms-spirit of error. Any form of respect for any image is spirit of error. Any prayer where a male is bathing a female is the spirit of error. Any sitting or standing on the bible, is spirit of error. Any teaching that supports re-incarnation, that says don’t worry if you mess up here God will send you back again as a goat, is all the spirit of error.

Every prayer involving robbing eggs on your body, (and if you have robbed eggs on your body before you better pray today, is an error). Any prayer involving sacrifices, is the spirit of error. Any organization you are going to and they refuse to meet in the day, all meetings are hold at night it is the spirit of error. If you have been there before, don’t be surprised that many materials from your life will be in the hand of the thief. They have stolen it when you were holding your night meetings with their agents. You didn’t know what you were doing but they knew what they were doing.

Any religion that replaces the blood of Jesus with rings, crosses, incenses is the spirit of errors. There are some people now, they will first of all breathe in..…, deep and out, in, out and then they will start praying, spirit of error. Any organization that is advocating polygamy is the spirit of error.

I read something in the newspaper, it was very annoying. A senior Apostle somewhere, said that he used to have four wives before, but he has increased them to seven. He noticed that as he was increasing the number of wives his power was increasing. This is error. Any ceremonial visit to any mountain for special prayer is just going there to get demonised – spirit of error. 

Baptizing of sinners and baby, baptizing of dead people, praying on alcohol to drink, all these are doors that people open and then the thief comes in. Drinking perfumed water, praying to God with flowers, painting every furniture with white colour.

We went to pray in somebody’s house and he has a big nice chair somewhere painted white and on top of it was written holy, holy, holy. And the girl that went with me made a mistake, she almost sat there. They screamed, don’t sit there, that is the seat of God. It is the spirit of error. Any person that gives you prayer point and says when you get home remove all your clothes and start to pray it nakedly. First of all face the east, and then the west, entering into the spirit for days, is the spirit of error. When somebody combines three religions together spirit of error. When somebody says well you see, don’t cut the hair of this baby, let it grow long, because he is a Nazarene, so leave him like that. And the poor child is carrying the hair about with bacteria and parasite in the hair and the scalp is itching and you say one prophet says if you cut this hair the child will die. I cannot remember how many we have shaved in Mountain of Fire. We have scraped the thing clean and pour anointing oil on the head. And they don’t die.

Smoking of marijuana, cigarette, all you are doing is opening the door to the thief. So think back now so you can know when the thief entered and then you can start to address it.

 

STEPS TO FREEDOM

     Avoid and resist the spirit of error that is point number one.

     Know your right and recognize what you have lost, know that some things might have been lost before you were even born.

     Challenge the thief and command him to return what he has stolen. What does the bible say? In Proverbs 6:30-31, "Men hungry, but if he be found he shall restore seven fold, he shall give all the substance of his house." In Proverbs 13:22, Know that the wealth of the gentile belongs to us "A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just." Proverbs 28:28 says "When the wicked rise men hide themselves, but when they perish the righteous increase." God is saying to us, the wealth of the substance belongs to us and so we will command the thief to return sevenfold everything he has stolen.

 

PRAYER POINTS.

1. Repent if you remember that one way or the other you opened the way to the thief.
2. I claim back every good thing that the enemy has stolen in my life in the name of Jesus.
3. I paralyse every demon dispatched to steal from me in the name of Jesus.
4. I claim back and I receive my stolen property seven fold in the name of Jesus.
5. I claim back every good thing that household wickedness has stolen from me in the name of Jesus.

 

TESTIMONIES

GOD DELIVERED ME FROM THE EMPTIER.

I was to be a believer but when wealth came, it went into my head and I started forsaking the gathering of other believers, although my house is used as a house-fellowship centre. Satan confused me to the extent that it was fellowship time I spend in chasing my debtors. I had about six cars and millions of naira in my bank accounts. But in February 1995, something that was going to spell doom in my life started happening. My mother-in-law brought a young lady from the village to be assisting my family. My chains of cars started slipping away so also my money until I was left with nothing. About this time last year, I was involved in a road accident in Israel with some other Nigerians and a number of people lost their lives. So this year, I decided to thank God for sparing my life and allowing me to be forty years. But after the party, disaster struck. I could not stand on my feet again. This very day, a whirlwind blew into my house, and it was as if the whole world was coming to an end. My hair stood erect while a strange spirit was instructing me to tear my dress and run out into the street. I countered this voice and shouted, Jesus help me, this is madness. Lord please forgive me, I know I have sinned against you. Please help me today. Instantly the girl that was brought for the village by my mother-in-law became transfixed to a point and started screaming: Mummy, mummy, I love you, it is mama that sent me to bring your hair and I have cut your hair and given it to her. I was the one that laced your vehicles with "juju", the reason they all disappeared. I emptied your shop and all your money is being kept under the water somewhere. This girl confessed all the havoc she has done and that she was specifically sent into my home to empty me of all my success. I thank God that at the peak of her evil assignment, the Holy Spirit intervened, uncovered her secrets and delivered me. Praise the Living God for His never failing power to deliver.

SISTER JOYCE.

 

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK

1. You spiritual thieves, release all my property in your possession in Jesus name.
2. Holy Spirit, any area of my life that is still wandering about, arrest them in Jesus name.
3. Every anti-heaven spirit within me, get out in Jesus name.
4. I break every curses brought upon me by my past generation in Jesus name.
5. Let all enemies begin to reveal their true identity in Jesus name.
6. Every spiritual Pharoah, Herod and Goliath in my life, be bound in Jesus name.
7. You power of oppressors, you should begin to sit in the seat you made for me in Jesus name.
8. Any problem rooted to bad inheritance receive solution in Jesus name.
9. You changers of destiny, loose your hold upon my life in the name of Jesus.
10. O Lord, let me be at the right place at the right time in the name of Jesus.
11. I challenge every strong man attached to my case to appear now in the name of Jesus.
12. I command you strong man to release my property now in the name of Jesus.
13. My God arise now and fight my battle in the name of Jesus.
14. I refuse to be suppressed by any power of oppressor, and I command the fire, thunder lightening, and tempest of God to destroy every evil power against me.
15. Everything co-operating with evil in my life, cease in Jesus name.
16. I refuse to feed any negative thing – (sickness, poverty, failure etc) in my life in the name of Jesus.
17. I rebuke every activity of the devil in my life in the name of Jesus.
18. I close all the doors that I might have opened to the devil in my life in the name of Jesus.
19. Father Lord, make my spiritual life to be too hot for the enemy to handle in Jesus name.
20. I disengage my property from the hands of the strong man.

 HEARING FROM GOD  (Part 1)
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

The first passage I want to read is the popular passage in the book of Job. 42.5, it says. "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now my eyes seeth thee". I have some questions for you.

THE ENCOUNTER

Do you have an encounter with the Lord? Could you really say that you have met the Lord? Everything starts from there. Have you had an unforgettable encounter with the Lord? The question I am asking is not how many churches you have been to so that you can open your mouth and say, well, I was born a Methodist, then I became an Anglican, from there I went to Elijah Apostolic church and then to Wesleyan Qua-Iboe, and so on and so forth. That is not the question. You could circulate yourself round all the churches and still not meet God. That is not the question. Have you had an unforgettable encounter with the Lord. I am not asking whether you are a Pastor or which important post you have held in the past or whether you are from a Christian home, that is not important. Can you honestly say to yourself like job said? May be you have been hearing of him before by the ear but now can you confirm that your eyes have seen the Lord? Have you met the Lord? If your answer is yes, how did you meet him? Was it when somebody was singing or preaching or praying? What date was it? Do you have the record in a diary at home? I am not asking for your birthday. A person could be 70 years old, if he got born again last year, he had spent 69 years serving the devil. So the 70 years birthday that he is celebrating is like, he is marking the day that he started committing sin. The day you got born-again, is your correct birthday. Every other thing is not relevant to the Lord because a thousand years in His sight is just like a passing night. Therefore that 70 years of God is only 1/100 of a second. So how did you meet him? Do you have a record? Can you really point to an instant in your life when you can say, "yes". I met the Lord. I knew when it happened to me and nothing can remove that meeting, from my memory or from my spirit. I knew the time I heard the voice of God. I knew the time, God took me to heaven; I knew what I saw there; I knew when I got born-again; I knew that my life was completely reversed: I knew that everything I was doing then, I couldn’t do again; I knew that my friends changed, Amen" So have you met the Lord? It is a very important question, because if you have met the Lord you will know the day it happened. The situation is very simple.

There is no way somebody can come across the Almighty God and something will not happen to him. If nothing happened to your life, then it is doubtful whether you have meet the Lord. It is like somebody may ask "have you received the baptism in the Holy Spirit? You now answer and say "yes, I received the baptism, by faith." No, it will manifest, everybody will see that something has happened to you, there is this testimony about a friend of mine who was preaching in one church. As he preached that day and took the first alter call, a woman dashed to the front crying. My friend begged the woman to keep quiet and told her that since she has come to Jesus, everything should be okay. But, she kept on crying bitterly. After sometime she said, please let me talk to the congregation, I have a restitution to make. "She took the microphone and said. "Do you all know me in this church?" The congregation said yes we know you madam, you are our treasurer. "She said, "well what I want to tell you is this for the past 5 years I have been stealing money home, every Sunday. Today, I met God. That is what happens, when you meet the Lord, your life will be reversed; you will undergo a complete overhaul; a new thing will

 

THE DAY YOU GOT BORN IS YOUR CORRECT BIRTHDAY

Begin to happen. When you meet God too, you will know your position as that woman did. The Bible says that the word of God is like a mirror. You could look at the mirror and find out that your powder was heavily applied on your forehead whereas in other places, there is no powder. You could decide to look at the mirror and say, "well I like the way my head is grey at the front," and you went away dancing. The fact remains that the mirror has shown you the correct situation. So when you meet God, you meet the greatest mirror, because He is a spiritual mirror who tells you what you are. You will see yourself very clearly and nobody needs to describe this to you. When Peter encountered Jesus, he had fished all night and caught nothing, just like many of us fished and caught nothing before we came to the Mountain of Fire, because we were fishing in the wrong waters or at the wrong time, or with the wrong net. Peter was there doing what he thought he knew how to do best. He didn’t know that in the book of God in heaven, what was written there for him was fisher of men. He was fishing on the day he met the Lord and had toiled all night and caught nothing. The Lord said, throw your net to the right. He said, Oga, I have been doing this business before you were born. Anyway, according to your word I will obey. So he did and when he had a big catch of fish, he exclaimed Ah, just depart from me, a sinner. He saw himself a sinner. When you meet the Lord, your argument will cease. All those who encountered God in the Scriptures had a permanent mark in their lives. Have you met the Lord: When you come to the Lord, stubborn spirits will leave; Something will happen. Isaiah saw God and he said "Woe is me". Ezekiel saw God and fell on his face. Daniel saw God, and said, "I was like a dead man. "Moses saw the appearance of the Lord. John, who wrote the book of revelation, saw the Lord, and fell down also like a dead man. When Paul too came across the Lord, the effect on him, never wore off.

He was blinded on the way to Damascus, and by the time his eyes were opened, he was a different Saul. Were you different when God touched you? The encounter is very important. Ask yourself can you say, I have encountered the Lord. You can encounter a church, but have you really met God?

 

THE SECOND HAND CHRISTIAN

Many churchgoers are second hand Christians and disciples. What does this mean? Those of you who are married know that you are married. If you are not sure, it means that you are not married. When you were going to get married to your wife, you didn’t send somebody to woo her or say "you just help me to be talking to her because I don’t want to see her." You will be a second hand husband if you did that. You talked to the woman and got to know her. How much more God? You will not be satisfied if someone is just telling you about her, you want to know her yourself, this is the way it is with the Lord. It is one thing to have someone tell you about the Lord, it is another thing for you to have a personal encounter with Him.

Majority of people who call themselves Christians are the second hand type of Christians because for you to have an effective power in your life, your contact with God must be a first hand matter and not second hand, Christianity is not a ritual of books services, ceremonies, processional and recessional hymns. We read about an interesting story in Acts 19:11," And God wrought special miracles by the hand of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And these were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? And the man in whom the evil spirit was, leaped on them and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that they fled out of that house naked and wounded." The sons of Sceva were sons of a priest, but they only had a second hand knowledge about Christ so they were no match for the evil spirits. It is interesting to know that the demons even knew better than them.

So second hand Christians beloved are always overpowered by first hand evil. The impotence that we experience today is due to the fact that many Christians are second hand. For the name of Jesus to exert power it must be through a first hand knowledge of Him.

YOUR HEAD ON THE ROCK

You must have your own personal encounter with Him. How do you do that: For you to be a first hand disciple, your head must be on the rock. What does it mean for the head to be on the Rock? In Gen.28:10 "And Jacob went up from Beersheba and went towards Haran. And he alighted upon a certain place and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; so he took of the stones in that place, and put them for his pillows and laid down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and behold the angels of the Lord, ascending and descending on it. Look at verse 3-13 very interesting "And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father and the God of Isaac; the ground wherein thou lieth, to thee will I give it and to thy seed. God talked to Jacob there. So, what does it mean, that your head has to be on the rock: For you to be a First hand Christian, you must be able to hear from God. When you begin to hear from God you begin to grow. Every Christian can and should know how to hear the voice of God. If you do not hear from God, your spiritual life will be stunted; you won’t grow the way you should grow. If you are only going to rely on somebody always, to tell you what the Lord is saying, then it is very sad. When people come to me, with a long list of names, especially mothers because they are the worst offenders, and say excuse me sir, this my daughter wants to get married and there are about eight people here. Help me pray sir, so that I will know which one of these men is good." Whereas the Bible says that when God created everything in the beginning, everything was good. I therefore tell such women, "sorry I don’t do that, bring your daughter herself to the church, because it is not you who wants to marry, it is her and God should be able to talk to her on what she wants to do.

Marriage is not a five minutes contract, but an eternal one. It is not something you hand-over to another person to do and he just closes his eyes and does a guess work and finish. Is that how you get married? So, it is important to hear from God; if you don’t your spiritual life will be at low level. This is what makes educated and enlightened people servants of illiterates. Somebody who failed primary six is standing at the bar beach and shouting that he is hearing from God, after he had tried to make it as a mechanic and failed. He then sewed some white garments and stood at the bar beach vibrating and screaming that God is talking to him. You park your expensive Car by his side, in spite of all your overseas degrees expecting to hear God through this questionable character. Hearing from God, is not something for spiritual giants alone. Jesus said, "my sheep know my voice and a stranger they will not follow. "John 10:4-5 God wants us to experience daily communion with him. In fact it is abnormal for a Christian not to hear the voice of God because He is the Shepherd who will eventually blow the last trumpet. The good news of the new covenant is in Hebrews 8:11 "And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying know the Lord; for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. So, all of us have the capacity to know the Lord. You may ask, "how do I hear from God then, "God speaks to your spirit, not your brain. The greatest problem of people wanting to hear from God is sometime their brain. When you want to hear from God, sometimes your brain might have to be switched off. Some medical doctors in our midst, who first thought that science was the solution to everything, have changed now because they have seen strange things that are not in the medical books and a powerful hand reversing situations. But if the brain was going to function, it will say, "this is impossible, this is not what medical books say. "God will speak to your spirit and not your brain. When you come to God, forget your university education it is useless before Him because He created the university.

 

THE BUSY MARKET

The human mind is often like a busy market or sometimes like a radio turned on full blast and you have to deal with this one too. We hear from God from our inner-man deep inside. Naturally, there are many ways you can communicate with a person. You can speak to a person, you can use your hand to signal, you can nod at the person and you can make some facial expressions. These are all different kinds of ways of communication. God too can communicate with us in a variety of ways. So the most important need of every child of God is to hear clearly from God. The problem is not that God is not speaking but that we are dull of hearing. We are not hearing, but He is speaking. If you are hearing God occasionally, intermittently, once in two years or once in two weeks, it is not that God is not talking all along, the thing is that you are not hearing. God is a great Communicator. He says, "behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hears my voice and then opens the door, I will come in and sup with him, Rev. 3:20. So the fact that you are not hearing from God does not mean that he is not speaking. Many people are spiritually deaf. However, God is under no obligation to speak to rebellious people. If you are a rebellious child, how do you expect Him to be talking to you? He says that my sheep hear my voice and not my goat.

If you are a sheep-Christian listening to the Lord you will hear him. If you are a goat-Christian the only time you listen to God is when He bashes your head against the wall or allows a serious problem to come your way. If you are not born again, you do not expect God to be talking to you like a child.

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING:-

God does not speak to your brain,
He speaks to your spirit.
You have to deal with the human
And which is sometimes like a busy market.

God can communicate in a variety of ways.
The fact that you are not hearing from God does not mean
That He is not speaking. You may be missing what He is saying.
God is under no obligation to speak to rebellious children.

There are always three broadcasting stations or three voices speaking all the time.
The voice of man, your own very personality.
The voice of the devil trying to confuse and derail.
The voice of God.

Who you tune the radio of your spirit to will decide on the type of information you receive. You may vibrate your body while praying from night till daybreak and still be hearing from the devil. Something happened in a white garment church where I was invited to preach. After the message, somebody started to prophesy, vibrating seriously he said, "Thus says the Lord, open to the Book of Daniel 28, or so, and somebody said Prophet, the Book of Daniel is not up to 28 chapters" The Prophet then replied, no it is the Book of Daniel in heaven not the one you are carrying in your hand." I then exclaimed "Aha, trouble, which book again in heaven. "For your information, the book of Daniel has only 12 chapters, and he wanted to open to chapter 28. This means that the voice of the devil can quote the Bible or didn’t the devil tell Jesus, jump down, is it not written, that He shall give His angels charge over you. On their hands they shall bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. "Three voices are always broadcasting.

 

RECOGNISING GOD’S VOICE

How do you recognize which one is God’s?

You must commit your life completely to the Lord. If you are half committed, then half of the time may be you will hear a little bit from the Lord and the other half from the devil or yourself. Complete commitment to the Lord is the only way. If you are not completely committed, then God will not be able to be talking to you like a friend. Do you know that God can hold up to one hour of conversation with you? This happens when you are completely committed. If it is God speaking it will cause you to love Him more. Anything contrary to what I have explained is not God’s voice. Matthew 7:13 says, Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit" Verse 20 says, wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." The life of a prophet must match his words. When somebody is speaking from the Lord and his life does not match the message, so that what the Bible is saying is different from what you see, then something is wrong. For example, how can a child of God sit down in a place where he went to greet a pastor and as he was about to shake his hands, his juju dropped from his (pastor’s) pocket and he picked it up and said sorry and put it back in his pocket, yet you still knelt down and said, "pray for me" , Something is wrong somewhere.

 

WAYS GOD SPEAK

All believers must have at least one way that God talks to them regularly. This will make us now look at the ways God speaks.

THE SCRIPTURES

God’s Words is his will. It’s his Holy Spirit that inspired those who wrote the Scriptures. The reason why some people find it difficult to understand the Bible is because without the Holy Spirit bringing those words to life in your life it is more like reading a novel or story book. So by the help of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God will be able to bear fruit in your life. You are hearing the word now, you can read the Bible to see what God is saying. God himself will come and show you things and speak directly to you. So through his Word, (the Scriptures), God speaks. You may be reading the Bible and God brings certain things there to your spirit and you will know what to do after the Holy Spirit has interpreted them to you.

 

PEACE OF MIND

Through the peace of mind. One common way in which God speaks is by giving peace of mind to you, when you have prayed about a situation confronting you whether you should go ahead with your plan or not and you can’t find any peace in your spirit, the best thing is to hold on and not to go ahead at all. So in prayer, while seeking God for a direction, He will speak by His peace. When you pray and notice a sudden lack of peace in your spirit or a caution inside you or something is checking you deep down, God is saying to you, no, something is wrong somewhere. Sometimes when some people pray, they find that deep down their spirit they feel uncomfortable yet they still go ahead. Failure will definitely be the result. He has spoken, but you didn’t understand. That is why I say God speaks in a variety of ways. He can shout at a person and say stop! Or he can just wave you down. It is still the same thing depending on who you are and how close you are to the Lord.

 

JOY IN THE HEART

Through Joy. When you hear from God, the joy in your heart will confirm whether it is his will or not. For that joy to manifest you must first of all have what we call the joy of salvation; you must be saved. A believer who is saved and knows that he or she is saved will be a kind of Christian that will always be happy no matter what he is going through, because he knows that his name is written in the book of life.

 

DREAMS

Through Dreams. This is where we have many experts. Does God really speak through dreams? Yes He does and the Bible confirms this in Joel 2:28. "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams and upon my servants and my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy." So God speaks through dreams and there is nothing wrong if God speaks to a person through a dream. If you have read the book of Genesis, you will find that Joseph was a dreamer. That is Joseph Number on Joseph Number two father of Jesus, was also a dreamer. You can see that God gives dreams for several reasons. A dream can be an instruction or teaching. A dream can also be prophetic, that is, God speaks to you about something that is coming to happen to you in your life. A dream can be a warning as in Job 33:15-18. There, God uses the dream to warn men of impending dangers. There are many other examples in the Bible. However, if God does not speak to you at all, at least you sleep. It is a major disaster if all you do is to lie on your bed and sleep until the alarm clock sounds or the cockcrow’s or somebody shouts, then you wake up. If that is what is waking you up or the vendor, something is wrong somewhere. You should really go for a serious deliverance, because the devil has closed up one major avenue, by which God can talk to you. And you know in this our environment, the only quiet time is sometimes the night because all the sellers and the buyers have gone to bed. So if you lose that time, then you have a problem.

 

VISION

Through Vision: Ps 89:19 says "then thou speakest a vision unto thy Holy One and said I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one, chosen out of the people". A vision is something you see in the spirit when you are sleeping. The Bible tells us about three kinds of vision that people can have. There is a vision we call OPEN VISION - that is, you are not sleeping, you don’t even close your eyes and yet you are seeing things. Suddenly you stop seeing what other people are seeing and you begin to see something else. There is an example of this in Acts 10, where Cornellius saw an angel who told him that his prayers and alms are accepted, but they will not save him and he should send for Peter. He saw an angel without sleeping, the angel moved in and talked to him. There is another one we call CLOSED VISION. May be when you are praying and you close your eyes you begin to see things. Sometimes the things you are seeing are just still, and not moving, and sometimes it is like you are watching a television programme over there in the spirit. That is seeing with the eyes of the spirit; you remain conscious of your surrounding but you are seeing a true-life programme with your eyes closed. That is what we call the closed vision. The third one is the TRANCE. At least for some seconds or minutes your physical senses are suspended and you begin to see things, just like Peter saw something being dropped from heaven and a voice said unto him, "arise, kill and eat. "He said, "no it is unclean, I don’t want to eat it. "This happened three times like that, after he had just finished praying. These are the three kinds of visions that we have. The Bible talks about dreams to the old and visions to the young. It is sad that these days, it is the reverse that we see.

 

STILL SMALL VOICE

God can speak to you through the still small voice as in 1 Kings 19:11, "And he said, go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord pass by, and a great and strong wind rend the mountains, and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind; after the wind was an earth quake, but the Lord was not in the earth quake. And after the earth quake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voice.

And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave, and behold there came a voice unto him, and said what doest thou here O Elijah? The still small voice is like you put on headphone, which is speaking directly in to your ears. God speaks to people like that. You will hear a still small voice, warning you or giving you instructions, like telling you to keep quiet or to sit down, or to take another direction.

 

AUDIBLE VOICE

God can also speak to you through an audible voice. The voice sounds distant to you and you may even feel that others around you are hearing, but no, just like the voice that spoke to Saul, He and his traveling companion heard the voice but saw no one; they didn’t know who was talking. You can hear God like that. It was the same way God wanted to start speaking to Samuel, when he called him. The Bible says, "But Samuel didn’t yet know the voice of the Lord’s so he ran back to his master, did you call? He said no. He came a second time, and Eli said okay it is the Lord, you just sit down and say speak Lord for thy servant heareth. And Samuel went back and God gave him a whole breakdown of what he was going to do in the land of Israel. The first time I heard the voice of the Lord audibly in my ears, I ran out of the room, checked the windows and the doors, but didn’t see anybody. It was around 1 a.m. so I ran back inside. The voice continued, I ran out again, I did this because in the church I was attending then nobody taught us anything about hearing from God. Then suddenly, the Spirit of God brought the case of Samuel to my mind, then I went back inside and stayed there while the voice continued, like mighty thunder. I pray that you begin to hear from God, and when you do, things will begin to change in your life.

 

ANGELS

Through His angels. You see, there are angels amongst us all the time. The reason most of us don’t recognize them is because the Colonial Masters gave us the idea that angels are white. Also our teachers in the primary schools told us, that angels have wings and so you are expecting to see somebody with wings to talk to you no, they are not like that. They are exactly like you , dressed exactly like you, and they talk to you even in your language, sometimes cracking jokes. Many people have been rescued from danger by angels like this, and they won’t know that it was the angel of the Lord that rescued them. There was this testimony of a sister who said that she went to buy clothes somewhere, and somebody slapped her. She didn’t know what was happening again until she found herself in a place where, they were killing human beings but the people couldn’t touch her. An angel of God rescued her from that place and dropped her near Moremi Hall, Unilag and disappeared. So, angels are around us all the time; they don’t look extraordinary. He may even be sitting close to you, that is why you must never insult anybody. You might just finish abusing him and he gives you a little punch, then you wonder what has happened to you. We have many examples like this in the Bible. Angels of the living God can go directly to a person, sometimes may be not directly during a discussion, and he will be the only one who is speaking sense to you there while others are talking rubbish. Sometimes when there is riot on the streets and people are helpless God can dispatch his angels to rescue his people. A brother said that he was going to church one day and was arrested at Yaba railway crossing people started shouting thief, "Before he could say Jesus is Lord, they had put tyre on his neck. He pleaded his innocence but they accused him still and the mob brought petrol and matches to lynch him. The brother was lamenting, "Is this how I am going to die, Lord help me. They shouted him down, and suddenly somebody turned up and said, "well, it won’t be nice if we take the law into our hands. May be we should take him to the police station. Does he have and identity card? The brother too doesn’t have one so they dragged him to the police station and immediately they entered there, the policeman at the counter knew this brother and that was what saved him. By the time he looked back to thank the person who saved him from the mob and brought him to the police station, He was gone, an angel of the living God. You see them but you cannot recognize them. I pray that God will open our eyes in Jesus name.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1.    Lay your right hand on your head and pray aggressively, the following prayer points.

2.    I command spiritual cataract to clear out of my spiritual eyes in the name of Jesus.

3.    Everything blocking my ears from hearing from God, clear off in the name of Jesus.

4.    Hindrances to Divine communication clear out of my life in the name of Jesus.

 

WONDERFUL JESUS! (TESTIMONIES)

JESUS ANSWERED ME TO THE LAST LETTER

I was at the power must change hands programme on January 6, 1996 where the G.O. preached on limiting God. I believed what he said that God is limitless and challenged Him (God) for what seemed impossible. I told God I wanted to become a millionaire, this year 1996. Meanwhile, my Boss earlier on in the month had called a meeting during which he accused all members of staff (including myself) of being lazy and that we shouldn’t expect any salary increase. It was against this background that I petitioned God when I heard that God has no limit. Children of God, a week after attending power must change hands, I got a letter of offer of appointment from a company offering me a salary close to one million naira per annum. But I asked God at the meeting for one million naira. The high point of this miracle is that before I took up this appointment, a letter of salary review for an individual yet to start work. It happened to me by the power of God that is limitless.

My annual salary was reviewed to over a million naira. Praise God. Yes, Jesus Christ answered that prayer to the letter and by His grace I am what I said I wanted to be today.

Sis. Ayodele

 THE MIRACLE CRY
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Beloved, before we go into the message, let us start by uttering a miracle cry. Pray aggressively like this: "Oh Lord, convert my disappointment into miracle, in the name of Jesus."

We will start by looking at some verses on miracle cry in the Bible. Psalm 56:9 says, "When I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies turn back. This I know, for God is for me."

Psalm 61: I - 2 says, "Hear my cry, O God: attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I."

Psalm 107:26-27 says, "They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end." (That is, they have done everything they can, doctors have done their best and everybody has said, "Finish, this is the limit which we can help you," then what did they do.)

Verses 28-31 say, "Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so He bringeth them unto their desired haven. Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men!"

You can say well, these are Bible theories, but there was a man who practicalised it. Mark 10:46 says, "And they came to Jericho: and as He went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus thou son of David, have mercy on me." That was his cry.

Jesus was going out of Jericho on His last journey to Jerusalem and blind Bartimaeus was sitting there begging. When he heard that it was Jesus, he cried out, "Jesus thou son of David, have mercy on me."

Verse 48 says, "And many charged him that he should hold his peace. (Shut up, die in your blindness) but he cried the more a great deal, (Meaning that he increased the volume) Thou son of David, have mercy on me." So he was asked to keep quiet, but he refused to be silent.

In verse 49, the cry did something to Jesus, "And Jesus stood still, (He could not go further because it is not possible for the Lord to neglect a deep cry) and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man (the same people who said shut up) saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise He calleth thee."

Verse 50: "And he casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus."

When he was told to keep quiet, he refused and Jesus sent for him. He cast away his garment that was disturbing him, so that his movement would be fast.

Verse 51 says, "And Jesus answered and said unto him, What will thou that I should do unto thee? (a very interesting question, just as He is asking you as you are reading this message now.) The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight." Why did Jesus ask him that kind of question? Jesus asked him that question because his first prayer point was mercy, and as far as the Bible is concerned, there are different kinds of mercy in it. So, Jesus wanted him to identify the one he wanted.

There was a crusade somewhere and the Lord was doing quite a lot of wonders there. But everyday, there was this blind man by the door, begging alms. One day, a brother after coming from evangelism was annoyed and said to him, "Mr. man, there is miracle happening there and you are sitting down here, begging. In holy anger, the brother laid hands on him and said, "Receive your sight, in the name of Jesus," his eyes opened and he could see. People who saw it, jumped up and were rejoicing. But to their amazement, the man who was formerly blind was crying. He said, "Do you see what you have done now, where will I get the kind of money I was making here, did I beg you to pray."

So it was important for Jesus to ask blind Bartimaeus what he wanted. And Jesus used to ask this kind of question a lot. Look at the man he found by the pool of Bethesda, He looked at the man and asked him, "Wilt thou be made whole?" May be all that blind man wanted was ten kobo. The man was busy telling stories: "There is nobody to put me inside the water, etc," instead of the man saying what he wanted. Jesus asked many questions in the Bible. I counsel you to find time and study them. It is a very good Bible study.


SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS

If you are a good reader of the Bible, you will find out that the Bible uses blindness a lot as a figure of ignorance and darkness. So, when it talks about the Messiah as the light of the world to open the blind eyes, it is talking about the darkness that the enemy has constructed in the lives of people. This darkness is being taken away by Jesus Christ who is the light of the world and the Son of God. When the Bible says, "In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of those that believe not;" it is talking about another kind of blindness. Those with blind hearts find it very hard to understand the gospel no matter how much you preach. Jesus called the Pharisees, "Thou blind Pharisees," not because their eyes were blind, but because they were spiritually blind. It is only the light of Christ that can remove ignorance and spiritual darkness. He says, "I am the light of the world, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life."

When you see a Bible story or parable, don't just look at it like that on the surface. God uses them to teach deep lessons. Blindness and darkness are serious problems. The effect of blindness is very bad. A spiritually blindman will not see where he is going in the spirit. He will be stumbling over unseen objects in the spirit. Such a person can go to the enemy's camp to receive help, because he cannot see beyond his nose. He will be warming himself in the fire of the enemy and he will be getting in the ways of others and obstructing them. When you are spiritually blind, you will be confused and even spoil things for other people around you. For example, a blind father will bring charms home and distribute them to his children who are ignorant. A blindman will miss all the beauty of light and beautiful things that God has made around him. So, spiritual blindness is worse than physical blindness. I want you to pray the prayer of the Psalmist which says, "Open thou my eyes that I might behold wondrous things." Was the Psalmist blind? No. He was talking about the eyes of the spirit man. I like you to lay your hands on your chest and pray this one aggressively: "Every spiritual darkness, fly away from my heart, in the name of Jesus.

What are the other lessons we can pick from the miracle cry of Blind Bartimaeus?

1. Do not waste time: Ask for the touch of the Lord while He is still around. That popular song says, "...While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by." Jesus never passed that way again. He was on His way to die. Bartimaeus had his last opportunity and made very good use of it. Many people hear the gospel not knowing that they could be hearing it for the last time. Perhaps, if they had listened, they could have been saved.

WIGGLESWORTH'S EXAMPLE

Brother Wigglesworth who was an aggressive evangelist said that one day, God said to him, "Stand up son, and go into the market place. I have eleven souls to save through you today." He went to the market place and stayed there. As people were passing by, he kept asking the Lord, "Is it this one Lord?" If the Lord said no, he would let the person go. But when the Lord said, "Yes that is the one," Wigglesworth in his known crude manner, would rush to the person and say, "Are you born again?" If his answer is no, he would say to him, "You must get born again now." And right there in the market place, he would open the Bible and begin to teach the person.Generally, all the people he approached that way gave their lives to Christ.

There was a day the Lord told him that eleven people would give their lives through him in the market place on that day. He got ten, and the eleventh person was not forthcoming before the market started closing and he too was getting impatient. He stood there until everybody went away from the market. Suddenly, somebody came along on a chariot and the Lord said, "That is the man." Wigglesworth ran and jumped on the chariot. He said to the man, "Is it because of you I have been waiting for so long, give your life now," and the man said, "Yes sir," and gave his life. Two days later, Wigglesworth saw in the newspaper that the man died the next day. This is why spiritual opportunities are to be used to the fullest.

I do not believe that you are reading this bulletin by chance, so the opportunity God has given to you to read this message must be used to the fullest. Jesus never passed that way again.

2. Learn to cry out: Bartimaeus cried for mercy. He understood the act of begging very well and he applied it. If men will take the place of blind beggars before God and call for mercy, they will find it. Romans 10:13 says, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Sometimes, all we need to do is to cry for God's mercy. His power is able to deliver. I like you to close your eyes again and pray like this: "Lord have mercy upon me, in the name of Jesus."

3. Have faith: The man had never seen Jesus before because he was blind but by faith he believed and cried unto him. It was first a cry and later, he saw. The world's order of doing things is seeing before believing, but heaven's order is believing before seeing. When Martha said to Jesus, "If you had been here, my brother would not have died." Jesus answered her with a straight single sentence, "Thy brother shall live again." She said, "Yes I know, he would rise again on the resurrection morning." And Jesus said, "I am the resurrection. Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God." Very simple, if you don't believe, the glory of God will be far away from you.

4. Do not let others kill your faith: Many people asked blind Bartimaeus to keep quiet, but he did not listen to them. The person who is saying, "A whole you," can not lift one finger to help you out of your problem. There was one boy that used to come to Mountain of Fire and Miracles ministries and his parents did not quite like it. They tried to stop him but could not, so they tried using charms. After putting some charms in their mouths, they woke the boy up at 12 midnight and said, "Hear now, you will not go to that place again. Do you hear, as from today, the memory of that place will be removed from your brain, you will not go there again." While they went away rejoicing, the boy was laughing at their foolishness on his bed. The next day, he was the first to arrive here.

Millions of people are kept from heaven by the thought of what others will say. Sometimes, when an altar call is made, some people will open their eyes and first of all look around their surrounding to see whether there is anybody with his hand up before they raise theirs, and when they cannot find any, they keep their hands down. This is how many people perish. Some people come to crusades with their girlfriends and boyfriends and when the word of God hits them where they are, they will not be able to come out because of their partners. Let it be clear to you that whether you do good or bad, people will talk. Jesus said, "Woe unto you when they say that you are good." It means that you are one of them. But immediately you begin to live the kind of life God wants you to live, you will be criticized and attacked. If you are going to be listening to what people are saying or thinking about you, before you serve the Lord, you will end up in trouble.

Millions of people are kept away from their breakthroughs by listening to what others will say. God will hold you responsible if you allow your life to be directed by men. Bartimaeus refused to be influenced by those around him. He told them, "It is easy for you to be saying keep quiet, but I am the one that is blind." He screamed and Jesus stopped.

5.Perseverance: The Lord has a method of sometimes waiting for sometime before He answers. Not because He does not know that there is problem, but He likes to test the reality of your desire. When you refuse to be discouraged, that is the mark of true faith. Some people fall under pressure. A man had problems. One night, he felt so sad that he went to bed discouraged. As he slept, he had a dream in which he found himself in a market place. At the market place, he stumbled into a particular stall, with Mr. devil written on it and the devil was there too. The man said, "Mr devil, so you too are selling things in this market? The devil said, "Yes." Then, he began to look at what he was selling and saw items like hypertension, bad luck, cancer, all kinds of terrible things. He looked through and said to the devil, "Hello sir, what is the most expensive thing in your stall? And he pointed at "discouragement," and told the man that when he wants to catch Christians, he uses it. So when they get discouraged, their faith goes down and they will not be able to pray and then fear will move in. And when that happens, worry will follow it, and then, he the devil will move in. Discouragement is a powerful weapon of the enemy.

6. Violent faith: Another thing you can learn from this miracle cry of Bathimeaus is the principle of violent faith. Jesus said to him, thy faith has made you whole. Jesus healed him because he believed and asked. God honours faith. It is the appointed medium through which blessings come to us.

7. The holy haste of Bartimaeus: When Jesus told him to come, he moved like thunder, threw away his garment so that it would not hinder him and came to Jesus. Remember, in countries that are cold, beggars used to have lots of heavy clothing. So, he had lots of things to discard. He pulled them off and started to move and then his eyes got opened immediately and he started seeing. You too can call upon Him before He passes by. And now, He is calling all men to repentance.

I will like you to utter twenty-one miracle cries that can fetch you twenty-one miracles after reading this message. But before you do that, let us look at some enemies of miracle cries.

1. Unrepentance: Sin is an enemy of holy cry. Any willful sinner is going to hell fire no matter what they call him or her.
2. Unbelief: You must cast the garment of unbelief away so that it does not hinder you.
3. Hatred: If you hate anybody, the Bible says, you are a murderer. There was war in a city. The enemies were pursuing two men. These two people were arch enemies, they did not like each other at all. One of them ran and hid himself inside a pit. The other one ran into the bush and hid himself there. The enemies were searching for them and after some time, they got the man in the pit and wanted to kill him, and he was begging them saying, "Please sirs, my wife just delivered a baby five days ago, please have mercy, don't render my baby fatherless. But the other man hiding in the bush shouted and told them that his enemy was lying and in the process, he exposed himself and the people looking for both of them were able to kill them. That is what hatred does. Believers should not hate anybody, the only person they should hate is the devil.
4. Unforgiving spirit: If you refuse to forgive those who offend you, you will be looking for tormentors. You must forgive all who have offended you.
5. Ingratitude: If you are not grateful for what God has done for you, if you do not count your blessings, you are inviting trouble into your life.

You must utter these miracle cries aggressively. Determine that your situation must change today. God does not mind going to the uttermost part of the earth to root out your blessings. God does not even mind removing a whole town because of one person.

A man shared a testimony with me. He led a prayer meeting somewhere and called a fire prayer point which says, "All those who are planning evil against me, gather here now in the name of Jesus. Everybody prayed and the spirits started coming. When they came. He told the congregation, "Now, issue the fire of judgement upon them," and they began to call on the fire of judgement. The man said he prayed like a mad person until his clothes were soaked. A week after that time, he started to get information from his village. The first person to die was their chief priest before others followed. Many of us do not know those who are in charge of our cases but when you fire a divine arrow, anything can happen.

Miracle cries:

1. I break every hold of witchcraft over my life, in the name of Jesus.

2. All my unfavorable situations, change now, in the name of Jesus.

3. I command all my battles to be converted to blessings, in the name of Jesus.

4. You mountain confronting me, crumble now, in the name of Jesus.

5. I bind every desert spirit, in the name of Jesus.

6. Oh Lord, beer me up on the wings of eagle before my enemies, in the name of Jesus.

7. Lay your hands on your eyes and pray like this :O Lord, anoint my eyes to see my divine opportunities, in the name of Jesus. As you are laying your hands on your eyes, where you never thought good things could come, I pray, that the Lord will begin to open your eyes to see them. I also pray that all your enemies that have been hiding as unfriendly friends shall now be revealed unto you. I pray that every unrepentant witch, working against you, shall confess and die before you, in the name of Jesus.

8. I refuse to allow my past to disturb my future, in the name of Jesus.

9. I bind the strong man of financial problems, in the name of Jesus.

10. Let every satanic battle confronting me, fall apart now, in the name of Jesus.

11. Every crooked and difficult area of my life, straighten out now, in the name of Jesus.

12. Let the spirit of excellence manifest in every area of my life, in the name of Jesus.

13. Let the fear of me fill the mind of my enemy, in the name of Jesus.

14. Let divine harvest meet harvest in my life, in the name of Jesus

15. I receive power to leap over every wall that the enemy has built against me, in Jesus' name. 16. Let the mockery of my enemy result into my advancement, in the name of Jesus.

17. Oh Lord, turn my mourning into dancing and my tears to joy, in the name of Jesus.

18. Oh Lord, display your power against every unrepentant opposition, in the name of Jesus.

19. Oh Lord, convert my opposition to promotion, in the name of Jesus.

20. Let every Goliath defying my prayers. be paralyzed, in the name of Jesus.

21. I laugh my enemies to scorn, in the name of Jesus.

 THE BATTLE AGAINST WASTERS
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

The Bible says that no man can enter into the house of a strongman and spoil his goods except he first bind the strongman. Our topic this week focuses on the activity of the evil powers that has dealt a deadly blow on the black race in particular and has truncated its developmental process. We are talking about the power of the wasters. These wasters must be dealt with for they are responsible for destroying God's plans for individuals. Therefore, I want you to pray the following prayer points before we continue:

1. Every virtue of my life that the enemy is sitting upon, come to me by fire, in the name of Jesus.

2. Any thing planted into my life to disgrace me, come out now, in the name of Jesus.

A man of God went to preach in a particular place and as a mark of courtesy, he first of all went to the palace of the chief of the town. He greeted the chief and preached the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to him. The king challenged him by telling him to first assist them solve a problem they had with their river and then they would listen to his message. So, the man of God went to the river and prayed for seven hours. Then the demons in charge of the river came out and protested that they be left alone to accomplish their mission of spoiling the lives of the inhabitants of that place. A dialogue then ensued between the man of God and the demons. The man of God asked them whether they were the ones that got to the location before the river and they said that the river got there before them. So, the man of God said, "Since it is the river that got here before you, then you are strangers and it is written that the strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places." (Psalms 18:45.) That was how he succeeded in chasing them away and of course, he needed not preach much for the villagers to accept Christ for they had seen the raw power of God.

Isaiah 54:16 says, "Behold I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work, and I have created the waster to destroy."

Verse 17 goes further to say that, "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise up against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord."

The spirit of the waster is the most terrible demon that has demoted the black man. It has done and is still doing a lot of havoc. This evil spirit is at work in every African country.

 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO WASTE?

a. To waste is to use wrongly. For example, pouring diesel into a kerosene lantern.

b. Not using a thing maximally.

c. Rendering a useful thing idle.

d. To render something worthless or to make it useless.

e. To damage something completely.

Before the spirit of the wasters can take over an environment, it must first of all have grabbed the individuals who make up the inhabitants of the place. One thing that worries my spirit and breaks my heart is the fact that there are so many people around who are not working according to God's time-table for their lives. You will understand what I am talking about better by asking yourself the following questions:

i. Do I really know where my God-given prosperity lies? Some of us spend years and years drawing water and hewing wood. Some of us spend years serving our oppressors. Do you know where your God - given prosperity lies? As you are reading this message, do you really know what you should do to prosper?

ii. What are the things that I am happy doing?

iii. What are those things in my life that I know can help others to attain their maximum when I do them?

iv. What are those things that God has planted in my life that have capacity of demand?

v. What are those things that I can accomplish with minimum assistance?

If you don't have clear answers to these questions, then the wasters are already in place in your life. That is the truth.

If you don't know how to pray in anger before, you have to learn to do so to really confront the wasters. Once they are operating in one's life, crying is not the answer. Blaming others won't get you anywhere. The only way out is to fight and defeat them.

A lot of men are being wasted everyday because they never found out what God wants them to do. The devil finishes such people completely by making them to engage in activities that will make his job easier, for example, womanising, smoking, drinking and moving about in the night, and little by little, their lives are wasting away. Such people forget the fact that nobody is getting younger. Every day, everybody gets older and if by the time you are 40 and you have not discovered the direction you should follow, then you are lost. Some people say that a fool at 40 is a fool forever; but I believe that nowadays, a fool at 21 is a fool forever.

A lot of women's lives have been wasted. Some women are in the mess they are now because of accidental pregnancy. They may not have been meant for the men they are married to but because the men have put them in the family way, they were compelled to marry them, even though there is no love between them. Many women are collapsing under this heavy burden now and the enemy is wasting their lives. The same thing goes for some men. That is why I said earlier that if you don't know how to pray in anger, better learn to do so now.

The powers of the wasters are strong forces working against Africa as a whole. Even if you don't know the whole of Africa, Nigeria serves as a good specimen. This country is so fertile that any seed you put into the soil will grow. There is virtually nothing that can't be grown in Nigeria. God has blessed her with virtually everything. She has abundance of minerals. Her pilots have been rated as one of the best in the world. A lot of very good brains are found there. The question is, what is happening to her that has prevented her from being great? The answer is not far-fetched. It is the spirit of the wasters. And this cuts across all black nations. The problem is not leadership. You also get it wrong by saying it is bad administration or the inability to plan things properly. The problem is the demon of wastage wasting things. But before this demon took over the nations, it had started with individual citizens. This is really sad.

One of the strategies of the wasters is to blind people from recognising opportunities. Even when they are right under their nose, they would not see them. These spirits are deceptive in nature. When opportunities are available to people under the manipulation of these powers, they will never have the true picture of what the situation is. The opportunities they are supposed to seize will look shapeless, impossible or sometimes they perceive them as set-backs or failure. The situation will disguise as something else and make people waste their lives by missing opportunities that can never be repeated.

Unfortunately, some of those who should go on three days dry fast and address the wasters believe that their problems are as a result of bad luck. There is no such thing as luck. A person is either blessed or cursed. What many people call bad luck is actually the activity of the wasters.

These wasters are the powers that plant spiritual diseases into people's lives, especially the spirit of impatience. Impatience has made many people to lose great fortunes in life. It operates everywhere - in the banks, post offices, highways, markets, homes and churches. It is commonly said that the patient dog eats the fattest bone. So, if you are going to move permanently from poverty to prosperity, from defeat to victory, from failure to success and from nobody to somebody, you need to deal with the power of the wasters. The other time a professor was jailed for a rather pathetic reason. He appropriated the rice meant for distribution to people in his local government area to himself. When he was being taken to jail, he was protesting that it was a waste for the country to lock up a whole professor in the jail. But his problem really was impatience. He wanted to get rich quick with minimum effort.

Many think that money is the answer to their problems. How wrong they are. If you don't deal with the wasters and you are given millions and millions of money, it will vanish in no time because this spirit will ensure that nothing good is done with it. It will waste it. It happened to the prodigal son.

The powers of the wasters make people give up when they have temporary set-backs. And it could be that they are just at the edge of success. They make people think aimlessly. Such people just move through life without a divine purpose. It is unfortunate. There are some people who go through life expecting the worst to happen to them and if anything good comes their way, they say, "Well it is too good to be true," meaning that they expect failure all the time. These people end up blaming others for their predicaments when they should have faced the demon of the wasters responsible for their problems.

It is unfortunate that many lives are being wasted. The Yorubas have an adage which says that if a man spends 20 years planning to run mad, what time is he going to be released into the market place. Close your eyes and pray this prayer point in boiling anger: "I reject every manifestation of backwardness in my life, in the name of Jesus."

It is this spirit of the wasters that does not allow people to understand that God has to expose His people to painful training in order to turn them to champions. A champion is somebody who has triumphed over great enemies. David was a champion. There is hardly someone who can become a champion without fighting. But the power of the wasters will not allow people to understand this.

People are said to be great for God because they have won many battles. It is only the fellow who passes examinations that is promoted. God may be testing you at this moment. The test of God for your life is to make you a champion. When God tested Belshazzar, He found him unfit. "Thou hast been weighed in balances, but have been found wanting." That was the conclusion of the Almighty concerning the life of Belshazzar. So, in a sense, God was telling Belshazzar that he had wasted his life.

All the physical trials that Christians are passing through today are in reality, spiritual strategies for promotion. An untested product from the factory is as unrealiable as the weather. But when an item is tested, it can be used and you can also have guarantee on it. Great spiritual assignments are reserved for vessels that do not break under trial. So, any man or woman who is looking at his or her problems from beneath will be boxed to a corner by those problems. But the man who gauges his problems from God's position, will see all his problems as opportunities to record God's testimony. Peter when he was looking at the storm from the position of Christ, remained afloat, but when he looked at it from beneath, he sank. There are many of us who are busy wasting our time throwing stones at Moses, complaining over very little discomforts instead of forging ahead.

What do I mean by stoning Moses? By stoning Moses, I mean blaming others for our problems. Some people are in the habit of heaping blame on their pastors or their former churches instead of realising that they still have battles to fight. Your destiny is in your hands. Avoid looking for excuses for your present predicament. Rise up and challenge the spirit of the wasters and you will become a champion.

When the powers of the wasters are working in people's lives, carrying out God's assignments becomes difficult for them. They live aimless lives - a life of spiritual procrastination. Time has no friend. A lot of people are wasting time. Money is being wasted by many people who put a lot of money into very useless projects. The man who has money today, becomes poor overnight because of the spirit of the wasters.

Somebody wrote me a letter which made me really sad. In the letter, she said she invested all her money on something that somebody told her was hot cake in a particular country only for her to get there and find out that she had sunk all her money on what was not needed there at all. She never prayed before embarking on the business. She ended up wasting all her resources.

A lot of families are being wasted. It is the waster that circulates a woman from one husband to the other and also circulates a man from one wife to another. Somebody came to me and said that she wanted to marry. I asked her whether she had found God's chosen one for her and she said yes. The man she wanted to marry was 57 years old while she was 48. She further told me that the man had married five times and all the wives were dead. Unfortunately, the sister could not see that the man had the spirit of the wasters working on him.

The Israelites wasted all the opportunities to hear the Lord by themselves. Esau wasted all his opportunities. If the powers of the wasters were to be working on blind Bartimaeus, he would have missed his healing. But he refused to lose the opportunity.

Some are wasting their talents. They are using them to glorify the devil. Some are even burying theirs. There are many things that could get a Christian to hell fire but one which is clear in the Bible, is the burying of one's talent. The person will become like the unprofitable steward who said, "You gave me one talent and since I did not see you and because I was afraid, and know that you wanted to reap where you did not sow, I buried it." The master had no other option than to throw him into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Some people come to the house of God just to sit down, warm the benches and go away in spite of the great talents that they have. God is recording these wasted talents against them and they have to give an account of them.

Satan can waste a person's health by keeping the person on a job that wastes his or her health, energy and abilities. A person's blessing, properties and spiritual power can be wasted too. Beloved, we really need to pray hard. The power of the wasters can make people work like elephants but eat like rats.

Cain was a wasted man. Although Samson's birth was prophesied by angels but unfortunately, he was a wasted man. Somebody like Goliath was a waste. In spite of his threats against the Israelites for forty days, he only succeeded in promoting David.

You can waste anything but the most painful thing to waste is your life.You can put a halt to the activities of the wasters now.

Before you were born, God had designed a purpose for you. If you are not fulfilling that purpose, your life is in danger. So, you really have to decide to use your life to fulfill divine purpose. May be you are winning the race nobody asked you to run or you are effective doing the wrong thing, you better be careful. The fact that what you are doing is good does not mean that it is right. It is said that a good idea does not necessarily mean it is God's idea. So when a person's life is not fulfilling the divine purpose, the person is wasting his life.

We have a lot of wasted lives around. You have an opportunity now to fight back with all the powers that you have. The Psalmist did not want his life to be wasted so he prayed radical prayers. He prayed violent prayers. He prayed red hot prayers. He prayed calling the thunder and lightening of God to strike his enemies. He prayed that the ground should open up and swallow his enemies. He prayed that the teeth of the ungodly should be crushed. He got really violent. You too have that power. You only need to exercise it in faith and pray against the wasters.

Now, look at yourself: are you walking in God's plan for your life? He has designed specific ways for us to follow. The fact that God has designed the way you should follow means that if you do not walk therein, no other path can bring you blessing. This is the truth.

There are so many of God's children roaming about the streets now. They cannot be blessed until they run back to the Saviour. Once God has decided that this is what you should be and in one way or the other, you depart from it, you have opened the door for the wasters.

A lot of pastors have been wasted. A lot of elders have been wasted. A lot of deacons and deaconesses have been wasted and many more are still being wasted. When they should be apostles to the nation, they are still busy distributing biscuits in one church or the other. Some women whom God has promoted are still busy downgrading themselves by being the fifth or the tenth wife of somebody somewhere. And God is lamenting about such lives for failling to do what He has purposed for them.

Today is the day when you really have to break yourself loose from the wasters. So, take a hard look at your life. What things of lasting value have you done so far for Jesus? He is saying, "I spent so many years for you, but how many minutes have you spent for me?" "I suffered a lot for you, what have you done for me?" Think about it. If as you are getting older, you look back and really cannot put your finger on something you can say that you have done for the Lord, something that people can remember and glorify the Lord because of you, then your life is being wasted. Maybe all you can point to is that you have become a chief not knowing that by calling yourself a chief you are demoting yourself. How can the children of the Most high God be calling themselves chiefs? It is a demotion.

Do you want your life to be like that of a certain sister who died and all that could be said of her was that she married 7 husbands, had 15 children, 2 for each of them and nobody could tell the father of the last child. Some funny priest would say, "Thank God for her life. She has gone to heaven." She did not go to heaven, she was wasted.

A lot of pastors are wasting themselves like Gehazi. They are running after gifts and money. They run after people who will give them things. They are operating with the anointing of Gehazi. This will not get anybody anywhere.

Beloved, you have one life to live and it is on a one-way traffic. There is no reverse journey. It is like an arrow that has been fired from somewhere. It is going somewhere and it is not coming back. By the time your life ends, what is going to be written in the Book of life about you? Will it be said that you spent your life fruitfully or that you wasted it?

One man of God said that there are two ways people pass away: they either die or they are killed. Those who die are the ones who fulfill God's purpose for their lives. Conversely, those who are killed are those who did not fulfill God's purpose for their lives.

We need to battle against the wasters. This is what is affecting Africans as a whole. When there is a witch in the family of twenty and the witch wants to eat up eighteen people within two years, she will first of all eat up all the bright ones. Anyone who wants to be bright gets attacked by the witch. Any child that is intelligent would be attacked by the wasters. If you see any child that is seriously sick in school, check, he must be a bright person. Such children usually see strange things that other people around them cannot see. So, when the useful ones are finished, who will help the others?

A lot of people who could benefit our country now are busy cleaning streets and washing gutters in London and America. Medical doctors have been converted to security guards in America. African dentists are washing plates. In Saudi-Arabia, top African professors are working under people who are not qualified to be their students because they want money. Where are we going? This is a waste which first of all started with individual lives.

People are running away from the farms. They want to work in the cities and when they get to the city and discover that there are no jobs, they take to arm robbery. God forbid that somebody will read this bulletin and the wasters will still be working in his life. Review your life. Is your life not being wasted as it is now? If it is, then you need to reverse the trend.

If God says you are to be a blessing to this nation and it has not been so, it is simply because you have been doing the wrong thing, succumbing to the powers of the wasters. You must refuse to be wasted because God did not create you to be wasted.

PRAYER POINTS

1. I refuse to be wasted, in the name of Jesus.

2. Every waster of my prosperity, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

3. Every aggression against my prosperity, be paralysed, in the name of Jesus.

4. My blessings shall not stagnate, in the name of Jesus.

5. I reject weak financial breakthrough. I claim big financial breakthrough, in Jesus' name.

6. Every hidden devourer, be bound, in the name of Jesus.

7. I release myself from every evil family pattern of poverty, in the name of Jesus.

8. All my prosperity on every evil altar, I withdraw you now, in the name of Jesus.

9. Every spirit of leaking pockets, come out with all your roots by fire, in Jesus' name.

10. Every prosperity paralysis from household wickedness, come out with all your roots by fire, in Jesus' name.

11. Every clever devourer, come out with all your roots, in Jesus' name.

12. Every spirit of fragmented life, come out with all your roots, in Jesus' name.

13. Every spirit of debt, come out with all your roots, in Jesus' name.

14. Every handshake of poverty, come out with all your roots, in Jesus' name.

15. Every financial paralysis by witchcraft, come out with all your roots, in Jesus' name.

16. Begin to tell the Lord the type of prosperity that you want and He will give it to you, in Jesus' name.

17. Every satanic insect prepared against me, be dissolved by fire, in the name of Jesus.

 DISMANTLE PERSONAL BABYLON
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

This message focuses on those areas in our lives that can be regarded as Babylon before the sight of God and how to get rid of them. Revelation 17:5 says: "And upon her forehead was a name written," "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."

One of the saddest things about human beings is the lack of understanding of spiritual things and that is why many times in the scripture, you find this serious ignorance about spiritual things being demonstrated. For example, in John 2:19-21, in reply to the Jews, "Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. (Let us see how the Jews understood it.) Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body." They did not understand. Spiritual things are difficult for many to understand.

Also, in John 3:3, while responding to Nicodemus: "Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Let us see how Nicodemus understood Him. Verse 4: "Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" In John 4:14, Jesus says, "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" How did the woman of Samaria understand that? Verse 15; "The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw."

John 6:32-33 says, "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world." How did the Jews understand that? John 6:52 says, "The Jews therefore strove among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat." They did not understand. John 8:21 says, "Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins; whither I go, ye cannot come." How did the Jews understand that? Verse 22 says, "Then said the Jews, will he kill himself? Because he saith, whither I go, ye cannot come." Revelation 17:5 that we read at the beginning says, "And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."

God has His own kingdom, and satan too has his own kingdom. When Jesus was in the world, He said a kingdom divided against itself should fall.

 

THE KINGDOM OF BABYLON

What is the kingdom of Babylon? How does it affect us personally? Why do we have to dismantle this kingdom?

We trace the origin of Babylon to the book of Genesis which is the book of beginnings. In Genesis 10:8-10 it is written, "And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." That is the origin of Babylon. The Hebrews call it Babel and the Greek call it Babylon. Now let us see how Babylon derived its name. The origin of the name is in Genesis 11:8:9 which says, "So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth." So, Babylon started in confusion and it is still the same thing today. The hallmark of Babylon is confusion and so many lives are filled with confusion.

Babylon was enlarged and headed by one man called Nebuchadnezzer. This kingdom was a large one surrounded with a great wall and well fortified. It was called, "The Glory of Kingdoms" or "Babylon the Great." It was popular for its wealth, naval power, military power, greatness, and also for its idolatry, magic and sacrilegious activities. It was popular for its arrogance and self-confidence.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SPIRIT OF BABYLON

1. THEY ARE ENTERPRISING: Though there is nothing wicked people can do and be ultimately successful, we must admire their enterprising spirit. The people at Babel were very enterprising; they planned to do something very daring and difficult and they began to carry it out. People with this spirit carry out daring assignments for evil.

2. THEY ARE INTELLIGENT AND PERSEVERING: They have the spirit of intelligence and perseverance. They engage in very difficult activities. Just like the people at Babel had stone and mortar, but preferred to use bricks. They sat down and started to build and were not easily discouraged by inconveniences. Unfortunately many people are like that now. They are enterprising when it comes to committing sin. It is often said, "Educate a man and you make him a clever devil." When you educate a sinner, you make the sinner a clever devil. Today, we have academic thieves and intellectual fornicators.

In those days, some people who did not want to be deported from abroad married white women temporarily. They lived under fake marriages and the devil made them to believe that everything was okay. After sometime, the authorities later found out that those marriages were fake. So, they devised other means. A friend of mine escorted his wife to the airport when she was going on holiday to England. After the woman had entered the airport to board the aircraft, the man sat down to drink beer. While he was drinking, all of a sudden he saw the wife being brought back with handcuff by security agents. When he inquired to know what happened, he was told that his wife had cleverly concealed some hard drug inside a tube of toothpaste and sealed it up. Meanwhile, she was pretending that it was toothpaste at the security check point before they caught her. The husband just fainted. What she did was to put a little bit of fresh toothpaste on the top after she loaded the substance beneath. Evil intelligence, it is the spirit of Babylon.

A brother in our Mission Outreach, once told me a story of a place they went to for missionary work. He said that the pre-occupation of the men there was to marry six wives each. They did not engage in any meaningful job but moved from one house to another; visiting, eating and drinking. This was not enjoyment but manifestation of the spirit of Babylon.

A sister wanted to take her fiancée to her pastor. She knew that the man was not born again but she schooled him on what to say when they get to the pastor's place. To a question like "Are you born again?" He should say "Yes." "Have you received the baptism in the Holy Ghost?" He should say, "Yes," and if they asked him "With what?" He should say, "With speaking in tongues." "Have you been baptised in water?" He should say, "Yes." The sister thought she was smart. Evil intelligence! Later, it caught up with her.

Some people go into so much trouble to commit sin. When God's Spirit fills your life and your life is hid in Christ, it becomes very difficult for you to tell lies. It will take a big effort for you to tell lies. But when you are not born again or you are born again with the spirit of Babylon, it flows smoothly. There are many people like that; perpetual liars in the house of God. That is the spirit of Babylon. It is really mysterious when somebody sits down, hears the word of God, prays fire prayer and at the same time he or she commits sin. The Bible calls it the mystery of iniquity (2 Thessalonians 2:7). When somebody who has lung cancer is still smoking cigarettes knowing fully well that the more he smokes the worse it becomes, it is the spirit of Babylon controlling the person.

3. THEY ARE HARDWORKING: The people that built the tower of Babel were hardworking; they were ready to suffer inconveniences. Likewise, a lot of people are busy doing nothing for the Lord. They are only busy going into trouble to satisfy the enemy.

4. THEY ARE UNBELIEVERS: One of the reasons the people at Babel were building the high tower was that they were afraid there would be another flood, so that they could have a place to run into. It means that they did not trust God. They were unbelievers, for God had promised Noah that He would not destroy the earth with flood anymore. They were placing more confidence in the works of their hands than in the promises of the Almighty. People with the spirit of Babylon believe their husband, the weather, CNN, radio stations, etc. but cannot believe the Lord.

5. THEY SEEK POWER AND FAME: Genesis 11:4 says, "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven: and let us make us a name." They wanted to make a name; they wanted to build something by which they would be remembered. They were seeking position, fame, and popularity. The Bible says: "Seeketh thou anything great for thyself? Seek them not?" When somebody is puffed with pride, he would begin to seek what he should not seek. It is the spirit of Babylon.

There was a politician who wanted to win an election by all means. He went to a herbalist who told him to do certain things. First, he was to pound yam in a mortar, sufficient to feed a thousand people, and throw all into the sea. So, he employed caterers and did that. The second thing was that the herbalist would have to put 2001 incisions on his back. So, he took blade and put the incisions on his back. Why? Because he wanted a post. Thirdly, the herbalist told him that he had to eat cooked lizard. He asked whether he could close his eyes while eating it and the herbalist said he could. "Seeketh thou anything great for thyself?" The Bible says "Seek them not." He wanted to make a name for himself. God will have nothing to do with such people. Are you trying to make a name for yourself and neglect the word of God? Be wise.

6. THEY ARE DISOBEDIENT AND HAVE EVIL UNITY: Another reason they gave for building the tower was, "Lest we be scattered abroad about the face of the earth." They did not wish to scatter. But God said in Genesis 1:28: "Go and replenish the earth." They wanted to build a high tower so that no matter where they go they could see the tower and come back home. God asked them to go around and replenish the earth, but they said: "No, we must live and die together." Evil unity. They were united to serve an evil purpose.

7. WORLDLINESS: People with the spirit of Babylon are worldly-minded. They love riches and they pursue it. They love greatness. They arrange their thoughts and affections in opposition to the divine will. They live in vanity and confusion.

8. IDOLATRY: Babylon represents counterfeit religion under which some people are worshipping other gods today. The ancient kingdom of Babylon and the spirit behind it is the foundation of all the false religious systems we have today. False religion attracts people with low mentality and those who have love for material things. Men worship all kinds of things today and many are even ready to die for what they are worshiping. These false religions have caged many people. The ancient kingdom is no longer standing now physically but the spirit behind it is still with us. We have around us people with the deposits of Babylon in their lives gathered together and causing a lot of problem. They mock the true God.

The first time the Israelites suffered defeat under Joshua was when one of them, a man called Achan, stole a Babylonian garment and put it in the camp. The consequence was defeat for the whole nation of Israel. God told Israel to destroy all the Babylonian nations, they failed and the spirit of Babylon continued. The Babylonian spirit took over during the time of one king in Israel called Ahab, when the worship of Jehovah was banned and Baal was introduced. At the end of the day, even the people of God were taken captive to Babylon.

When our Lord Jesus came, He began to attack Babylon and He was immediately recognised for what He was and still is.

If you read your Bible very well, you will discover that God has no facility for priesthood in the New Testament. It is human beings who have introduced priesthood into it. A priest is a man who stands as a mediator between man and God. It is no longer possible now. The Bible says we are a holy nation and a royal priesthood. You are your own priest now. To label anybody as a priest is not in consonance with the New Testament of the Bible. It is a worship of Babylon. So also, the worship of angels, calling the names of angels and wearing religious regalia. The shoeless religion, astrology, confession to human beings, occult books and over decoration of altars, are all from the kingdom of Babylon. Forbidding this food, that food, forbidding marriage and all false doctrines are the marks of Babylon. Today you find men of God committing immorality and members of their churches organise send-off parties for them when they are dismissed. Also, you find people eating meat that have been sacrificed to idols, distribution of oranges and fruits, the love of money, covetousness, the misuse of God's power for personal gains and doing things independently of God, these are all signs of the spirit of Babylon in operation.

Think about it, beloved. Do you have any particles of Babylon in you? Anyone who has the deposit of Babylon in his life is far from God and is on his way to hell fire.

The pity of it all is that today, the spirit of Babylon has crept into the so called end-time churches. You find people who are directly opposed to the Bible. You find people who come to church because they are looking for wives or husbands. Immorality is so rampant. You also find ministers who patronize prostitutes. You find pastors who claim that they were pushed to commit sin. In many church gatherings today, the word of God has been down- graded and personal opinion raised above the Bible.

We have to really pray. Many of us have been inside this Babylonian kingdom before and therefore have been polluted all round. We have eaten its meat, drunk its water, constructed its coffins, sewn its clothes and done all kinds of other things.

Revelation 18:4 says, "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." That is God's command to His people. So, the Holy Ghost is asking us to come out of them so that we will not share in their destruction.

The kingdom of Babylon can be recognised in individual lives by the following:

1. Pride: Babylon is a very proud kingdom and this is one of the reasons God wanted to destroy it. If there is pride in your life, then know that you have a Babylonian deposit which has to be dismantled if you will not share in the destruction of Babylon. A lot of people are being destroyed everyday because of pride. When they should cry for help, pride, will not allow them. When they need to go for deliverance, pride will stand in their way. When they should fast and pray, pride will say no. It is the deposit of Babylon.

2. Love of pleasure: Men and women who love to enjoy themselves, drink and be free are unfortunately flooding the house of God now. These days, do not be too surprised when you find churches by the bar beach, not preaching the gospel but eating and entertaining themselves. And many people love it like that because it conforms with what they were used to in the world. They bring it into the church and coat it with the language of Christianity; it is part of Babylonian deposits.

3. Immorality: When fornication and adultery have captured a person, he may be a leader or anything in the church, but he is going to hell fire, unless he repents and come out of it. When you come out, you stand out. You do not merge with them. Now many of us are trying to merge with them. They would say, "If we run away from them, how can they be born again? How can they be saved if we set ourselves apart?" But the Bible says, "Be ye separate." If not, you share in what they are going to suffer.

4. Unholy wedlock to sin: When a person just noticed that certain things have caged him and he finds it difficult to detach himself from them, even when he knows they are wrong, it is the spirit of Babylon. God will not take any excuse from anybody.

5. Communication with demons: Some people converse with demons and they know it, while some do so without knowing. This is why some people have all kinds of strange dreams. Whether you are a conscious or unconscious communicator, you are still a communicator and the deposit is there.

6. Living above your spiritual experience: When a person is living above his spiritual experience, the person is part of the kingdom of Babylon.

We have to ask the Lord to pull all these things down. The terrible thing about the devil is that he will not warn his people that sudden destruction would come. Proverbs 6:15 says, "Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy." And Proverbs 24:22 says, "For their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both?" The devil will not warn a person that what the person is doing will result in very serious problems. The kingdom of Babylon is still with us. What is keeping it in check now is the Spirit of the living God. But the Bible says, "This kingdom shall be destroyed." How shall it be destroyed? Jeremiah 51:6 says, "Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul; be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the Lord's vengeance; he will render unto her a recompense." The Lord is going to destroy this kingdom and all those who collude with it. That is why God is raising up Elijahs, Elishas and Daniels to put all these elements of Babylon on the run. Endeavour to receive the mandate and the anointing to paralyse this contrary spirit moving around us. It is getting so bad now and even getting difficult to recognise those who are true Christians because there are so many Babylonians around us.

A man came to me for counselling and said he escorted his friend to a prophet and like the pattern of many prophets, the prophet switched off from the person who wanted to see him to this brother that accompanied him. The prophet told him that he was going to prepare a "Special anointing oil" for him to get out of the evil prophecies he had told him. The prophet sold the anointing oil to him for N20,000.00 yet, after using the oil, there was no solution, rather the problem got compounded.

These are the Babylonian kingdoms that we need to paralyse and pull down. Pulling down the kingdom of Babylon is not just by ordinary word of mouth, it is by serious repentance and aggressive prayers. I want you to call upon the Lord to help you. A person may be an unconscious or conscious evil candidate of a thing. But the fact remains that such a person is a candidate.

Now, I pray for you: "Wonderful Lord, we thank you because we know that there is nothing beyond your power. When we were in the world, a lot of havoc was done in our lives. There are thousands of people who have satanic deposits in their lives. There are some with Babylonian smells all over their bodies. There are thousands that have eaten materials from the table of the enemy. There are thousands who are struggling day by day and living a life of spiritual defeat. It is for the sake of these people I call upon you now that by your power of deliverance and by the resurrection power in the blood of Jesus, You touch them, in the name of Jesus. All those who have been paralysed by household witches, let them receive their deliverance and get away from underneath the evil canopy. Be delivered now, in the name of Jesus. All those that the enemy is pushing to the verge of giving up and there is satanic music sounding in their ears saying, "What is the use, you have been praying, you have been reading your Bible, yet there is no breakthrough," all those that the enemy has been pushing like that, knowing fully well that their breakthroughs are around the corner, I am praying specially, Lord that You open their eyes so that they can see the table you have prepared for them in the wilderness, in the presence of their enemies, in the name of Jesus. Let the evil powers sitting on any benefit of the children of God be unseated now, in the name of Jesus. We thank you Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Pray the following prayer points aggressively:

PRAYER POINTS

1. Every conscious or unconscioud evil altar that the enemy has built into my life, be dismantled now, in the name of Jesus

2. O Lord, deliver me from sins that easily beset, in Jesus' name.

3. Lord Jesus, dismantle every Babylon in my life, in Jesus' name.

4. I destroy every satanic altar fashioned against my life, in Jesus' name.

5. O Lord, let me vomit fire in your name, in Jesus' name

6. I will not partake in an evil sleep, in the name of Jesus.

7. I pull down every kingdom of Babylon within or without, in the name of Jesus.

8. O Lord, I cannot continue my spiritual life like this, therefore change me, in Jesus' name.

9. Every satanic garment, be roasted by the fire of the Holy Ghost, in Jesus' name.

10. Every circular problem, I trample upon your serpents and scorpions, in Jesus' name.

11. Every stubborn witch pursuer, receive the slap of the angels, in Jesus' name.

12. Every evil deliberation upon my life, be nullified, in the name of Jesus.

 THE SHADOW OF DEATH

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

O Lord, open our understanding and let us know and experience your power. Let great things happen in our lives as we study your word. Blessed Holy Spirit, we put our lives into your hands, do that which no one else can do in our lives. Wonderful God we thank you, in Jesus' name. Amen.

I implore you to read this message with serious concentration. Let us start by looking at the following Bible passages: Job 12:22 says, "He discovereth deep things out of darkness and bringeth out to light the shadow of death."

Job 16:16 says, "My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death."

Psalm 23:4 says, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: (Why?) For thou art with me..." Psalm 44:19 says, "Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death."

Psalm 107:10, the Bible says, "Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron."

Isaiah 9:2, says, "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined."

Two words stand out in these passages: Shadow and death.

SHADOW

A shadow is the image you form by intercepting the light. An image formed when sunlight is blocking something or is being blocked by something. This is usually on the ground or on anything between the light and the image. A shadow is therefore a replica of something or somebody.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A SHADOW

1. Shadows vary with the direction or intensity of light. You will notice that during the day sometimes, shadows are long, and sometimes they are short.

2. A shadow is not the real thing but an image of the real thing. Once you see a shadow of something, you know that the real substance must be close by. So, when the Bible says the shadow of death, it means that death itself is not far. Therefore, if the person living inside that shadow does not get out of it on time, eventually the real thing will catch up with the person because there is no shadow without a substance.

3. The shadow and the substance are so close that you cannot separate them. For example, if the shadow of somebody begins to get long on the ground, it is a sign that the end of the day is coming, the day is about to come to an end.

Atimes, if you wish to know the time without looking at the clock, somebody will go out into the sun and look at his shadow, and from the length of that shadow, he will be able to tell you what the time is. One thing is certain, no matter the length of the shadow the real thing is around the corner. It is therefore a dangerous activity for somebody to walk in the valley of the shadow of death.

WHAT IS DEATH?

The Bible has about 8 groups of dead people.

1. Ephesians 5:14, says, "Wherefore he saith, awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light."

The Bible regards those who are sleeping spiritually as dead people.

2. Ephesians 2:1 says, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." As far as God is concerned, all sinners are dead.

3. Romans 8:6 says, "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." The Bible regards everybody with a carnal mind, as dead.

4. Proverbs 8:36 says, "But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul; all they that hate me love death." So all haters of God are dead people according to the word of God.

5. Proverbs 21:16 says, "The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead." The Bible regards all the haters of knowledge as dead people.

6. I Timothy 5:6 says, "But she that liveth in pleasure, is dead while she liveth." Pleasure seekers, those who go to the beach on a Sunday morning instead of going to worship God or watching one film or the other instead of going out to serve the Lord, the Bible says, they are dead while they are yet living.

7. Revelation 20:14 says, "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire and this is the second death." There is a second death, which is eternal death.

8. James 2:26 says, "For as the body without the spirit is dead..."

Those are the eight groups of dead people you will find in the word of God.

These eight groups are grouped into three categories:

A. Those who are dead physically.

B. Those who are dead spiritually and

C. Those who died eternally.

The Bible however makes us to understand that no believer should die physically before his appointed time because God promises us long life. Job 5:26 says, "Thou shall come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season." That is the promise of God for us. And in the popular Psalm 91:16, it is written, "With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation." Isaiah 65:22 says, "...they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands."

There are however evil powers that shorten people's lives. Death itself is a spirit. In I Corinthians 15:26 the Bible says, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death," and verses 54-55 of the same chapter say, "So, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal must have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

Rev 20:14 also says, "Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire and this is the second death." When did this spirit begin to operate? There was a time when man did not need the forgiveness of sin because sin had not come into the world. There was a time when man did not need any healing at all because there was no sickness and there was no disease. There was a time when man needed no food at all. Man could not eat anything for God's glory was upon his life. However, he was advised not to eat a particular fruit in the garden. But man ate it and got into trouble. Before then man needed no clothing because he was innocent and pure and the glory of God was his clothing. At that time man needed no protection for God had given him dominion over every creature. That time too, man needed no church, no fellowship, for God Himself used to come down to talk with him in the cool of the evening. But one particular day, man disobeyed, and death began its operation. That day, a double curse of sin and sickness came upon man. Those initial people God chased out of the garden of Eden lived for 900 years and over because they still had the glory of God. But as their generation got farther and farther away from the garden of Eden, their ages became shortened.

If you ask people today what they fear most, they will tell you it is death. When you take death apart, the next thing they fear most are snakes because they are afraid to die. The fear of death holds some people in bondage even when they are in the presence of God. The truth is that as a child of God, you cannot die unless you kill yourself. That is why Hebrew 2:15 says, "And deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage." Because of the fear of death people are in bondage all the days of their lives. The fear of death brings man into bondage.

There is a powerful spirit called the spirit of death and hell which forms a wicked trinity with sin. The first member of that trinity is sin. The sin will sow like a farmer. The second member of the trinity is death. Death will reap the harvest. Then the third member is hell. Hell will gather all those that death had reaped and keep them. Sin, death and hell are all members of the wicked trinity. The Bible says, "Death and hell are cast into the lake of fire." The Psalmist says, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me." It is one thing to walk through the valley of the shadow of death and it is another thing to build a little house for yourself and live there. There are many who have built houses for themselves in the valley of the shadow of death and are waiting until death catches them unaware.

Pray this prayer point with thunder in your voice, "Any house that I have constructed in the valley of the shadow of death, receive the fire of God, in the name of Jesus." A song writer said, "You need not look for me down in Egypt, for I have built my tent far away in a bigger land." Another song writer said, "Those who want, may stay in Egypt; but I am going to the promised land." Those who want may stay in the valley of the shadow of death but I am going to the mountain of victory. Pray again like this: "I refuse to stay in the valley of the shadow of death, I refuse that any member of my family should stay in the valley of the shadow of death."

There are those who have made covenants with death. Is this possible, you may ask. The word of God says it is possible. Isaiah 28:18 says, "And your covenant with death shall be disannulled and your agreement with hell shall not stand."

So we know that people can make agreement with the spirit of death and hell. Some people actually prophesy to die at a particular age. As you are reading this bulletin, whether you like it or not, you will not die since God has brought it your way. Even if you try to, it will not be possible. Some people have prophesied to die on their wedding day. Some, on the day they are giving birth to their first, second or third child. These are evil covenants made with death.

A woman went to a herbalist to look for a child. The herbalist told her that it was beyond his power. He however took her to a river in the village at 1.00 am. When they got there, he gave her a calabash to fetch water from the river. As the woman fetched the water from the river, somebody came out of the river carrying a small baby. The herbalist then said to the strange person, "We have come to you, please give this baby to this woman." And as the baby was about to be handed over to the woman, she was told that it would live for only 15 years, and that if she wanted one that would live for 30 years she must bring a goat and some other things. The woman then said, "Even if the baby will die after one week, just give it to me." Now the child was born, and by the time she was 15, the covenant that her mother made on her behalf came into effect. Meanwhile, the mother did not tell her how she came into the world. That poor child had been unconsciously covenanted. If nobody broke that covenant before the maturity date, no prayer would help that sister. Unless somebody identified that covenant before the maturity age and did something about it.

Some people receive wealth from the enemy in exchange for their souls. After becoming prosperous, suddenly you will hear that they slept and did not wake up. Or their stomachs would start to protrude and they would not know what was there until they died with it. Many people already have the sickness that the spirit of death put on their body. Sometimes, some people pray for healing when all they need to do is to bind the spirit of death and hell. This spirit is a clever one. It hides inside the body waiting for people to be weak or for one small sickness to come, then it takes advantage of that sickness and snatches the person's life.

Some people faint at the slightest shock. They need deliverance from the spirit of death and hell. Some are candidates in the kingdom of the spirit of death and hell. They will actually threaten that they will die if they are beaten and as soon as you touch them, their eyes will turn over and they are gone. Those are advanced candidates. Many people will turn the white part of their eyes on when serious prayer is going on. Such people have the spirit of death and hell. They need to pray for deliverance. When prayer is hot and some people say they feel lifeless, such people need to pray against this spirit. So, I want you to make today a chaotic day for the spirit of death and hell by praying against any date the enemy has written down against your life or your loved ones. Pray that the gate of death and hell should loose its hold completely on the children of God. The Lord has not called us to bury dead people. He has called us to dedicate men filled with the power of God. That is why the Psalmist says, "I shall not die but live to declare the works of God." Repeat this statement seven times.

 

CHILDREN OF THE SPIRIT OF DEATH AND HELL

The spirit of death and hell has children it gives out free of charge. They are sickness, cancer, bad breath, all choking diseases, dry bones, sleeplessness, intense ear ache, epilepsy, weakness, terminal illnesses, uncontrollable exhaustion, uncontrollable sleep, unexplainable pain, fainting, obesity, convulsion, high blood pressures, migraine and paralysis.

Some people are under the curse of death and they need to break that curse today. This is what causes premature death, accidents and tragedies that take away lives. Whether the cause of death is self- inflicted or from satanic agents, it must break today.

The body of man is a complicated structure. The most powerful wicked spirit inside the body of a man is the spirit of death. This spirit causes sudden death. It usually stays in people's heads or other organs of the body. Therefore, you have to be careful who touches your hair or your head. For the same reason, you have to avoid sex outside marriage. Those who disobey the commandment of God are killing themselves instalmentally because the spirit of death enters their bodies whenever they commit sin. Jesus prayed for somebody in Mark 9:25 and commanded the demon to leave the person, "When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the foul spirit saying unto him, thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him."

Verses 26 -27 say, "And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, he is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose." So, the deaf and dumb spirit was in this person but underneath it was the spirit of death hiding. When the cover was removed, the spirit of death came to the surface. But it made a mistake that day as it suddenly found itself standing before the Lord of resurrection and life. Jesus told the man to rise up, and he rose up. He, who has power over death also shouted at the tomb of Lazarus, "Lazarus, come forth," and Lazarus came forth.

So, the spirit of death may use other spirits to cover itself up. It may be the spirit of fear, or the spirit of destruction, like smoking and drinking. You must understand the strategies of the spirit of death and hell before we start praying.

STRATEGIES OF THE SPIRIT OF DEATH AND HELL

1. If something keeps whispering to your ear that you are going to die, it is a sign that the spirit is already in you. 2. If you feel sharp pains in your body as you take a breath.

3. If you have a sickness or disease that refuses to yield to prayers or medicine.

4. If you have an urge to hurt yourself or you think of suicide.

5. If you have sudden loss of appetite. All these are signs that you are walking in the valley of the shadow of death.

 

The secret is this; a person first walks in the valley of the shadow of death before the real thing happens. If you have ever seen a shadowy figure in your room, that dark figure was the spirit of death, and you should stand up against it. Sometimes when prayers are really hot, some people see a whole human being walk out of them. Somebody may be saying, "I am Rufus," but the truth is that there are two Rufuses in that person. The second Rufus has to walk out, that is the spirit of death.

Many things happen when you command strangers to leave. If you have been having some strange dreams, like a vehicle hitting you in the dream, or you hear your name being called and you do not know who called you and from which direction. That is an example of somebody walking in the valley of the shadow of death already. If you find yourself being shot in the dream and you wake up and found marks all over your body, and you are feeling as if there was pepper all over your body, or you fell into a pit and was unable to get out, or you were attacked by snakes, dogs, crocodiles or lion, white cow, etc, it is an evidence that you are now in the valley of the shadow of death and you must get out quick.

Also if you found yourself being flogged seriously or you dreamt that your hair fell off and you are now bald, it is an evidence that you are walking in the valley of the shadow of death.

Again, if a person cursed you in the dream, or you found yourself eating with the dead, or inside a coffin, or discussing irrelevant things with dead people, or you were being chased about by dead people, or you were being attacked by a giant-looking creature, or you got married to dead people, or you sang funeral hymns in the dream, or walked about in the grave yard, then you should really pray to revoke these evil things. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Many things have been planted into the body of many people, waiting for the unguarded hour for them to come out and begin to operate.

As you are reading this bulletin, this may be your final opportunity of handing over your life to the protection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says, Our lives are hidden in Christ, but before your life can be hidden in Christ, you must make a commitment that you are with Christ. So, if you have never given your life to the Lord Jesus; you have been coming to church but the church has not entered into your life, you better give your life to Jesus Christ now. The Bible says, the righteous man is saved from trouble, but the wicked is used to replace him. Before you are used to replace a righteous man, it is good for you to give your life now if you have not done so before.

PRAYER POINTS

1. I plead the blood of Jesus over myself, in the name of Jesus.

2. I bind every remote control spirit working against me from afar, in Jesus' name.

3. I withdraw all the bullets and ammunition that are in the possession of my enemies, in the name of Jesus.

4. I stop any further operation of any spirit of death in my life, in the name of Jesus.

5. You strongman, I forbid you to send any further errand to me, in the name of Jesus.

6. I cancel every ungodly death date, in the name of Jesus.

7. I bind the spirit of death and hell, in Jesus' name.

8. Every conscious and unconscious covenant with the spirit of death and hell, be revoked, in the name of Jesus.

9. My name should become thunder, fire and lightening to those calling it for evil purposes, in the name of Jesus.

EATERS OF FLESH AND DRINKERS OF BLOOD
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Beloved, I implore you to pay special attention to this message entitled, "Candidates of Eaters of Flesh and Drinkers of Blood," because as you read on by the power of the Holy Ghost, God will reveal certain secrets to you about your life which you will work on prayerfully.

SPIRITUAL IGNORANCE

Ignorance is a very bad spiritual disease. The Bible says that God's people are destroyed because of lack of knowledge. Ignorance also is no excuse in spiritual matters. It does not matter whether you know or not, what will happen will happen once you break a spiritual rule. We thank God for medical science, otherwise, many people would have been in hell fire by now. When people are sick, they are taken to the hospital for treatment and are made well. While we thank God for giving mankind the knowledge of medical science, with all its usefulness, it has its own serious limitations as it can only heal physical diseases and not spiritual ones. There is no x-ray machine or microscope that can detect a demon neither is there any injection that can cure anybody from fornication. Also, we thank God for the Red Cross Society with its good work, but it can only take care of the physical. After being energised by demons, some people would begin to shoot and destroy lives and property, then the Red Cross people would begin to treat them; giving them food and medicine. Thereafter, the same people that have been fed and treated would start fighting again because the demon power energising them with its spiritual disease has not been removed. So, the Red Cross Society looks after the physical only but can do nothing about the spiritual.

MAN IS A TRIUNE

Beloved, as you are reading this message, you are not just a human being because the Bible says that you are a spirit living inside a body and you have a soul. Some people are not happy whenever they are hungry and therefore with little physical discomfort they find it difficult to do any spiritual work because that which affects the body also affects the spirit. So, it is a serious matter when the body is being eaten up. The Bible makes us to understand that there are two types of bodies; the celestial body and the terrestrial body. The terrestrial body is the one we possess now, but a time will come when the trumpet shall sound and this terrestrial body shall be transformed to the celestial one and then we go and join the Lord. My prayer is that we shall not be found wanting on that day.

It is very clear also from the Bible that evil spirits can live in any part of the body. Sometimes, when an evil spirit is living in any part of the body and that place is destroyed, the surgeon could help you by cutting that part off and by so doing, you are given partial healing. Luke 13: 16 says, "And ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom satan hath bound, lo, this eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?" For 18 years the devil kept her bound. So, the devil does not mind keeping somebody bound throughout the person's life. He does not mind starting problems for a person from the womb to the grave. Verse 11 talks about the woman's problem: "And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity 18 years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself." So, she went about bent. The Bible says it was the spirit of infirmity that was responsible. Jesus commanded that spirit to leave and then the woman straightened up again.

We talk about demonic possession when somebody is possessed by demons and his spirit, soul and body are completely taken over by evil spirits. Therefore, the person lives under the influence of evil spirits. These evil spirits talk through the person. No Christian who has received the baptism of the Holy Spirit can be possessed. So if you don't have the Holy Spirit baptism, go and get it.

DEMONIC OPERATIONS

1. Demonic oppression: Demons oppress people by choking them or by giving them bad food to eat. Another form of demonic oppression is when things are moving all over a person's body. Devilish people do all these just to punish people. It does not mean that their victims will not get to heaven, they will, but the demons punish them here.

2. Demonic obsession: A person being obsessed will be under demonic influence. All these things show that there are powers that we cannot see with our eyes which we need to fight.

ACTIVITIES OF EATERS OF FLESH AND DRINKERS OF BLOOD

When the spiritual representative of an organ in a body has been eaten up, the organ will be there physically but will not function. No matter the amount of medical check-up you carry out, nothing would be found because the fault has gone from the physical to the spiritual. Drinkers of blood and eaters of flesh form covenants with many things. They can form a covenant with the air, water, earth, and fire. So, the person they are trying to eat up will never have peace as long as that person comes into contact with air, water, earth and fire knowing fully well that no human being can avoid these four things.

A long time ago, a boy who was the only child of his mother was sick for many years and his mother was doing her best to look after him. She took the boy to many places, even to England, but there was no solution. Then, one day, she took the boy to a prophet who looked at her straight in the eyes and said, "Madam, what has this boy done to you?" She started to cry and said, "Well, in my witchcraft meeting, we were told to donate our children. The others have brought their own children and we have eaten them. Now, it is my turn to donate my son and they have started to eat him little by little." When this was discovered, prayers were then made against those who had eaten part of the boy's flesh that the Holy Ghost should force them to vomit it and that the organs should go back to their places for the Bible says that by Christ all things consist. It was then the boy became okay. But it was disaster for his mother because she had to replace the boy. The Bible tells us that the children of darkness are wiser in their ways than the children of light. You may be surprised to know that the children of darkness are always carrying out researches to find out new and clever ways of destroying people. This is why you find some people using their own hands to pull off their hair. Even though it pains them, they still do it because in the spiritual, that hair has already been pulled off. When some people's intestines have been eaten up, all the doctor would say is that the person has ulcer. Such people would be hungry, but their stomachs cannot accept the food. Psalm 27:2 says, "When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell."

Eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood can convert people to all kinds of animal for consumption. They put them up for sale in the local markets and unsuspecting buyers will not know. This is why we must always pray on our food before we eat it. Many people eat human flesh without knowing and also use human blood as palm oil without knowing. Many people who use lipstick are actually licking the blood of dead babies. These eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood ride people like horses and heaviness of the body will follow. They urinate on people's heads and such people will never prosper in any way. Their handiwork will not yield any result. If they urinate in front of a house, no matter how beautiful the house is, tenants will not come to rent it. Even when they rent it, they will not be able to pay because they will stop prospering. These powers are responsible for the sudden satanic cobweb which gather on people's wares and as a result, they find it difficult to sell them. There is nothing in darkness or in light that these evil forces cannot see. They can see even a one-day pregnancy. They are the ones who send cows and snakes and other terrible things to people. They send women with male organs to other women. Many people die in their sleep as a result of attacks from these powers.

FAMILIAR SPIRITS

We have what we call "familiar spirits" all over the world. They live among men and inhabit them. They are called familiar spirits because they have been living with men for long and know all their secrets. When people call up the spirits of their dead relatives and the spirits tell them specific secrets about them and all the members of the family, without seeing the face of the person talking, they do not realise they are dealing with familiar spirits. Familiar spirits can possess animals too. They have agents among men that they usually work with. They know several events that happen in the world. They can obtain information from the past, and can provide information about the future or about persons. They deceive men. Sometimes, they mix up with religious converts. All herbalists, chief priests and fake prophets work with them. Fetish mystic centres also work with them. Anything that has to do with bathing in the sea, river and graveyard is connected with them.

On Easter Mondays, some people gather together, saying they are going to the cemetery because they feel that Jesus would rise up on that day. I normally correct them by telling them that He has already risen from the dead. If you still see Him in the grave, you are in trouble. If you see Him on the cross, you are in trouble. He has risen, and He is at the right hand of God. So, don't look for Him at the graveyard. Don't seek the living among the dead. Anyway, those people know what they are looking for. They are not really looking for Jesus. The members of the church would think they are looking for Jesus, but the man who takes them there, knows they are there to meet with familiar spirits.

Many of these evil spirits are wandering about. They have no homes where to live. Sometimes, they organise themselves into clubs and societies. They can appear in various forms to people. But if they appear to you in the dream and you challenge them by the authority of the word of God and strip them off their garments, you will find out that they are very ugly. They always take or assume the physical form of a dead person, and this has destroyed many people. Therefore, one of the greatest problems we have in this country is the activity of familiar spirits and water spirits.

WATER SPIRITS

Water spirits are half fish and half human being. Some people call them marine spirits. They prevent people from serving the Almighty God. Sometimes, the unholy music people play attracts these spirits to them.

WITCHCRAFT SPIRITS

In this country too, we have witchcraft all over the place. People who practise it leave their physical bodies and with their spirits go about doing terrible things. I feel sorry for people with witchcraft spirits, because most of the wicked things they do they do not do them physically. They wake up regretting. But once they are in the spirit realm, they can do and undo. They can make and unmake. The white man has polished his own witchcraft and calls it white witchcraft. But they are exactly the same thing. The devil is only using crafty methods to deceive many people.

If you are praying in the name of holy Michael, holy Raphael, holy Uriel, you are worshipping angels. Any worship of angels is demonic. Colossians 2:18 says, "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." Anybody who is interested in astrology is looking for trouble because the person is indirectly selling himself to the eaters of flesh and the drinkers of blood.

Consultation with witches, wizards and diviners will expose someone to the eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood. They offer temporary assistance to their victims. They blind them with temporary benefits before they put bigger problems. Eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood can see visions. They can fall into a trance and can prophesy. Some of the practitioners of these things wear all kinds of uniforms. Some of them claim to be prophets but the Bible says, "By their fruits, we shall know them." Most of the visions they see are things they have planned in their demonic world. They use rats, cats and all kinds of animals to harass people. So, this is the right moment for you to think and pray seriously concerning these people. When you start to pray, you will see that they too would start to vent their anger but the power of God would hold them in check and defeat all their counsel in Jesus' name.

Many things are happening that sometimes you do not know even after you have tried all kinds of solutions. It is the activities of this group of spirits. When a man who has a snake inside him is committing immorality with women, these women soon develop unexplainable problems. We thank God, for the power of Jesus is superior to all those things. I have seen magical feats being frustrated by the power in the blood of Jesus. I have seen diviners rendered blind and impotent in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have seen situations where false miracles have been prevented by the power in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have seen witches and wizards confess after they have been bombarded by the power of the Holy Ghost. You must go back to the days of Moses and Elijah, two people who challenged occult powers face to face, and God did not disappoint them. God will not disappoint you. Amen.

Beloved, some of the things we do innocently can put us in trouble. Things like incense, flowers, and certain kinds of perfume that people use, easily attract flesh eaters and blood drinkers. If you are the type of person who is fond of going about with perfumes like Six Flowers, Dongoma, Friday Water, or Bintu, you will attract demons because they are perfumes loved by demons. Believers should be careful about this kind of things. This is the time our eyes have to be wide open. As they are doing their own research, the children of God too should improve with their own research. You must pray seriously so that you do not put yourself in another bondage and expose yourself to eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood.

As a sister, if your husband does not insist on your dressing in a particular way, then dress normally and as naturally as you can. You may not have heard what I have heard or seen what I have seen spiritually to know that everyday, they are putting people into bondage in the name of fashion and all kinds of worldliness.

Close your eyes and take these prayer points:

1. Today, all the activities of eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood, fail completely in every area of my life, in the name of Jesus.

2. Father Lord, today, give me a fresh anointing to defeat every negative force, in Jesus'name.

There are three heavens: There is the starry place, i.e. the sky we see with our eyes. The second heaven is the headquarters of the devils, where they gather and is the most wicked place in the universe. The third heaven, is the throne of God where the paradise is.

In the demonic world, they have what we call "infirmity stores" or "sickness bank." It contains things like leprosy, blindness, deafness, poverty, dumbness, madness, paralysis, odour, drunkenness, laziness, restlessness, stomach trouble, various kinds of skin rashes, and some sicknesses that are not yet on earth. A witch cannot go there, purchase anything and easily transfer it to a person unless that witch has contacted another witch in the family of the victim. That is the rule. Witches who are family members can only give these infirmities. Some people think they are very clever by using charms to protect themselves. The reason such charms work for sometime is because certain demons are attached to them. But when a more powerful demon comes, it will chase away those smaller ones and harm the person. This is why we say the greatest power in the universe is the power of prayer. But if you are using juju (charms), one day, you will discover somebody who has a more powerful one. Likewise, if you are engaging in lighting candles, one day, you will meet somebody who can light bigger or more powerful candles. Then you will be in trouble. But with the power of prayer, nobody can defeat you. Those who put charms on the body suddenly discover that the charms stop working. It is because the powers that want to attack them will first nullify them before they launch their attack. Eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood send insects like mosquitoes to suck people's blood until the victim begins to suffer. They can kill anybody anyhow, especially when they need to donate blood for their ceremony. They cause accidents by road, by sea or by air to get enough blood for that particular ceremony. These things are happening everyday around us. The problem is that many believers are ignorant.

Another secret I must tell you is that: these people love tobacco and kola-nut. Anybody involved in smoking or snuffing tobacco can never be free from the activities of eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood.

Some people's problem started when they went home to spend their leave and they distributed money to some people and left some out. There was a man who went home and distributed 50k to the children around and left out one little girl. Little did he know that the little girl was actually a witch. The little girl started afflicting him by drinking his blood. When she was told to stop, she demanded tobacco and kolanuts. They gave these to her, and the man received temporary relief because she merely changed the method she was using to oppress him. She changed it to pools staking and that was how the man played himself to poverty. This is a common method with herbalists. You always find them with kola nuts. So, going to herbalists or fake prophets amounts to spiritual trade by barter. They take one thing from you and give you another. But the one that they give you may not manifest in ten years or even 20 years.

About 4 years ago, I was in church one day, and a girl was brought with her eyes red. As fat and big as her mother was, she could not hold the girl who was slim. She said that after the girl had failed her exam, she refused to talk to anybody again. She was behaving like a mad person. She begged me to pray for the girl. We prayed, and the Lord said that the girl needed deliverance and her parents needed deliverance also before she would be all right. I told them so, but they said that my method was very slow. They went to a prophet who asked them to bring all the girl's clothes. They gave them to him and he poured kerosene on them and burnt them. Immediately the last clothes got burnt, the girl started talking again. The mother was happy. Little did she know that it was just trade by barter. Two years later, they transferred one funny husband to the girl. Somebody, who was crying that she failed her examination two years earlier was now put in the family way by one demonic man, and her problem came back. It was trade by barter. So, if you need something, it is better to go to God, our maker. Do not put your trust in man.

When it is time for witches to offer the members of their families for consumption, they will do so no matter how nice or how rich that family member is. That is why Exodus 22:18 says, "Suffer not a witch to live." It is not the person that is a witch but the spirit inside the person. When eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood want to go on a mission, and you happen to be living in the same house with them, they can either put their underwear on your chest like pant so that you will not wake up until they are back from their mission. They can put a leaf on a person or cross their legs on the person and a deep sleep will fall on the person. Until they finish eating all the organs of his body he will not know.

I know a man who was impotent and went somewhere to find help. He was told to bring certain things, after which the herbalists went to the demonic world to find out how he became impotent. They found out that a certain lady he had disappointed had taken his sex organ to a demonic bank and that the organ had to be bought back. So, they offered sacrifices and his sex organ began to function well again. Unfortunately, immediately this man saw that he was well, he ran away and did not complete his payment to the witchdoctors. They just took the organ back into the bank and his problem started again. So, there are organs stored in the spiritual world and only the blood of Jesus can buy them back completely.

Another strategy of the eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood is that they take the image of a person and carve it on a wood according to the sex of the person and through that image they can cause the person to be barren, paralysed, useless, or to marry late. They can also make a person to have what we call "hot love" for a man she does not really love. They get a person through his clothes or any other thing he wears. They put it on that image and invite bad spirits on the image, then that person is in trouble at night. If they put the image on fire, the person will feel terrible heat all over the body. If they put ground pepper on the image, the person will suffer the effect. Such a person will not be free until the fire of God destroys such images. Therefore, if you are Taiye or Kehinde and your mother has constructed an image for you, you better go and look for it or pray that the fire of God destroys it now because its effect on your life will be terrible. They also use this method to attract weak girls who don't have Jesus in their lives to enter into relationships with men they do not love. The girls will never know when they pack out of their parents' homes to live with those men. They could put a pin in the heart of the image and the person becomes hypertensive. Until that pin is removed by the power in the blood of Jesus, there will be no cure. They also use such images to kill people by putting pieces of their clothes on the image, construct a coffin, and put the image in the coffin. Then, they would carry it to the burial ground, invoke the angel of death which would come out as dark clouds and get inside the coffin and the person dies. They do this mostly on Saturdays.

But all these things enumerated above do not work on people who are born-again, filled with the Holy Ghost and know their rights. If you say you don't want the Holy Spirit and the fire of God in your life, they would eat you up because you refuse to get what will protect you. Only the power in the blood of Jesus Christ can set you free from these things.

If a brilliant student suddenly becomes dull, it could be that eaters of flesh have started with him. Some cases of unexplainable loss of memory are the activities of eaters of flesh. A long time ago, when I was in Akure, in western Nigeria, one boy was brought to the crusade ground. His problem was that anytime he went for an examination, the moment the examiners said, "Start," he would sleep off and wake up after the examination. Through the Holy Spirit, it was revealed that somebody took his brain out and put it inside oil. So, whenever the oil slept, he too slept. That was the work of eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood. A long time ago too, two women were quarrelling and one said to the other, "Today, you go know say woman pass woman," and beginning from that time, this woman of 45 could no longer control her bladder. She began to urinate uncontrollably. She had to go about with nappies. The Lord eventually delivered her at a revival ground. In her testimony, she said, "Now, I know that woman pass woman." Many things that are difficult for people to explain are caused by eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood. They can take away somebody's organ occasionally. At the time the organ is with them, its owner will not be able to use it. They can grab babies in the womb, carry them out, and bring them back after sometime. But the Psalmist says, "When my foes, and the wicked, come upon me to eat my flesh, they stumbled and fell."

There was a lady who participated in acrobatic dancing. She would jump and jump, and roll and roll. At the end another person would feel the pain, because she was not using her own legs but some other people's. During a revival at Ketu in Lagos State, one evangelist was praying for a girl with demonic spirit to be delivered. The girl was getting stubborn and was not listening. So the man got a horse whip and began to beat the girl. As he was beating her, she did not move. She just stood as a stick and was looking at him. The man suspected that something was going to happen and stopped beating her. Something started to beat the man too and he began to cry. All the other counsellors had to abandon what they were doing to pray for him. You may say how can that happen to a man of God? It can, because the Bible says, "In my name, shall they cast out devils" and not with horse whip. He broke God's law.

I know people who beat their housemaids and ended up being punished. It is the activities of eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood. A man told us the day he was converted that the free food some people distribute to children in the streets is a strategy of demonic people for killing the children or transferring their virtues. Some old people do not grow old because they replace the organs of their bodies with those of other people. Isaiah 43:4, says "Since thou was precious in my sight, thou has been honorable, and I have loved thee; therefore, will I give men for thee, and people for thy life." So, it is possible to substitute one life for another. In an office somewhere, somebody was promoted and one of his colleagues went to him and said, "That promotion is not yours, and because of that you won't last seven days here." He said it openly. Six days later, problem started. This man became so sick that his family started to carry him about. They made a mistake and went to a herbalist who asked them to bring a goat which he would use to substitute the man. They made a mistake by killing the goat, and that was the end. The man died. During the next promotion exercise, a Christian was promoted to that seat. The same man came and threatened that he would not last seven days on the seat. But because the second man was a believer who knew what he was doing, he went to the demonic man's office everyday to let him see that he was still alive. If he were an unserious believer, the demonic man would have finished him up.

We are against incision because through it, people form covenants with their lives. Remember that life is in the blood, and we should not give room for our blood to be sucked. There is no use saying, "Well, my blood is bitter, so nobody can drink it." It does not matter whether it is sweet or bitter. If you don't have the fire of God in your life, they would drink your blood any how. Isaiah 49:26 says, "And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh. And they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine; and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob." As we were praying one day, three rats ran out of a man's body. The man could not believe it because he was very slim and the rats were big. He wondered how the rats could have been in his body. But they were there all the same, the only thing was that they had been challenged. Do you know that the eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood can eat up a marriage, and the marriage will collapse? They can drink the blood of a business, remove the life from it, and the business will collapse. So, they don't only work on human beings, they remove life out of useful things. You must really pray hard against them.

PRAYER POINTS

1. Father Lord, I cover myself with the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. All eaters of flesh, I command you to stumble and fall, in the name of Jesus.

3.You eaters of flesh, any good thing you have eaten in my life, I command you to vomit it, in the name of Jesus.

4. Holy Spirit, go to the bank in the spirit world and if I have any property locked up there, retrieve it for me immediately, in the name of Jesus.

5. My possession, depart from the bank of the devil, and come back to me, in the name of Jesus.

6. You eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood, I command you in the name of Jesus, eat your own flesh and drink your own blood, in the name of Jesus.

7. Everything that the enemies from home have destroyed in my life, Father Lord, repair them, in the name of Jesus

WARFARE PRAYERS
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Beloved, our message this week focuses on one thing that seems very difficult for a lot of Christians to do and yet is the only solution to their numerous problems and that is Warfare Prayer. In this message, we will examine how to fight and win warfare through prayers. Revelation 12:7-8 says, "And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels. And prevailed not; neither was their place found anymore in heaven." Verse 12 says, "Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." The devil therefore wants to spend that short time very well. Psalms 2:1-5 says, "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his anointed saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh and the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure."

Psalms 2: 9 says, "Thou shall break them with a rod of iron and thou shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel." The above statements are so tough that they do not sound like that of gentlemen. 1 Samuel 2-10 says, "The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces, out of heaven shall he thunder upon them, the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king and exalt the horn of his anointed."

There is a raging battle going on day and night between two opposing forces. You may not believe it. But whether you believe it or not, you are involved in that battle anyway. This battle is going on between negative and positive powers, evil and good, the real thing and the counterfeit, light and darkness, right and wrong. Even if you are a perfect gentleman and you do not like to talk about wars and bloodshed or violence, you have no option when it comes to spiritual wars because you are already involved. Some people got involved from their mothers’ wombs and are still fighting. Some started as soon as they were born. It is a serious battle where no one can be neutral. We have been born into it and we have got no choice but to fight it out. We cannot run away from it. The world is not like a commercial bus where you can stop your journey at any moment. No, you are in it and therefore, you are part of it. It is a fiercely contested conflict. Satan is an intelligent strategist and an obstinate fighter. He refuses to acknowledge defeat until he is completely defeated. Therefore, all the lost grounds must be recovered from him. Because he sometimes renews his attack, any ground that you have recovered from him must be properly defended. It is not enough to find yourself in the promised land, you must also defend it. Satan never gives up, he keeps trying. If he fails on Monday, he will come back on Tuesday. You have to consistently defend your ground.

Prayer is not preparation for the battle, it is the battle. This is why the enemy will first take away the prayer life of any christian he wants to finish up. Once that prayer life is finished, all other things are easy. If you notice that your prayer life is going down, know that the Holy Spirit is blowing an alarm indicating that there is a renewed battle against you. You must stand up and start fighting. Let it be clear to you that the flesh does not want to pray. It is not interested in it so, you have to force it.

You and I find ourselves in a geographical location where demons were already ruling before we were born. It is an environment where practically all our land has been donated to demons, a land where market places are places of spiritual transactions. We find ourselves in an environment where the average person believes hundred per cent in herbalists, and anything they say goes. In this kind of environment, you have to know what you are doing. I have an American preacher friend who preaches American messages to Nigerian demons. He is the kind of person who puts his two hands in his pocket and will be talking about "Gad." One day, he was invited to a certain church to preach and he preached as he normally did, jumping all over the place and sweating. That day he got to a level where he was able to settle a bit and the Holy Spirit said, "Son, make an announcement that anybody here with charms in his pocket should bring them out now and throw them in front of you. He said, "Holy Spirit, which kind of announcement is that in the church, it is not possible." He attempted to bind the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit said, "You cannot bind me, say what I am telling you." Then he made the announcement thinking that he was going to face a serious embarrassment and would likely be banned from coming there again. But to his amazement, he saw hands coming up and things began to fly and were dropping by his side.

The priest almost ran away. That singular incident changed his message. The environment in which we are, is not particularly friendly. It is high time a believer replied with about seven blows when he is pinched. So they will learn not to pinch you again. This is the situation, beloved, and this is where warfare prayer comes in. There are different kinds of prayers, e.g. prayer of faith, prayer of thanksgiving, prayer of praise, prayer of petition, prayer of commitment, prayer of consecration and prayer of agreement. But then, there is warfare prayer. That is why the Bible says in Ephesians 6 :11, "Put on the whole amour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Why do we have to put on the whole amour of God if there were no enemies? The Bible says the whole world lies in the hand of the evil one. It also says that the prince of the power of the air is the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. No matter how nice a person is, if he is not born again, the spirit controlling him is the spirit of the prince of the power of the air. The reason we have trouble sometimes is because our greatest enemy is left untouched. Satan keeps harassing us because we encourage him. Satan’s success depends on two things: darkness and ignorance. Therefore, when you turn on the light to expose him, you scuttle his operations.

Although spiritual warfare is not a popular subject, and some people are afraid of preaching it, they say that those who do warfare prayer are glorifying the devil. But the truth is that it is something from which no man can escape. We need warfare prayers to successfully fight the battle that is facing us. It is only warfare prayers that can arrest the spiritual jailers holding people captive. And there are so many of them. A lot of educated people do not understand this. This is why the devil messes them up very easily. Many preachers, too, do not understand this and the devil messes them up easily.

One medical doctor, one day, got home from work and discovered that his wife had gone to a christian meeting. When she came home, she said, "Darling, today, I heard something that I have never heard before in my life. The husband asked, "What did you hear?" She said that there was one lady in that meeting who confessed that she and members of her secret society used to hold meetings inside the water and that there were beautiful laboratories inside the water, that it was from these laboratories inside the water that they manufactured materials used in trapping people. She also confessed that they sent girls out of the sea every night to go and capture foolish men." When she finished narrating her experience to him he dismissed it as fables, saying that the preachers were only looking for money.

A few weeks later, a woman who was seven months pregnant came to his clinic and said, "Doctor, I want to abort this pregnancy." He said, "Why do you want to do that?" She said, "If you don’t want to do it for me, I will help myself." And suddenly, her stomach became flat. The doctor then started pushing her out of his clinic and she said, "Don’t touch me." Immediately she left, the doctor’s right hand could not function properly again while the left one got paralysed completely. His family began to carry him from place to place until he got to a Pentecostal church somewhere and the brethren there held his hands and legs and prayed the kind of prayer he had never heard before. The prayer point was: You water spirit, holding his hands and legs, release them now, in the name of Jesus. Suddenly, he felt something rushing out of his hands and legs. It was after the prayer that he could use his hands and legs well again. Even if you tell him now that there is a mansion inside the moon, he will believe you.

 

What is warfare prayer?

Warfare prayer is the kind of prayer that brings the victory of Jesus over the host of evil. The Bible calls believers christian soldiers. You don’t join the armed forces with the promise that you will not shoot anybody and nobody would shoot you, or that you will not see blood at all. The spirit world is the same. There is a battle going on. We are to hold up the victory of Jesus over the host of evil. You know the kind of victory Jesus has won. The victory can be summed up in the following words. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto me and at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow." When you hold that up against evil, you are praying warfare prayer. Warfare prayer is a prayer to hinder evil operation in a place, a person’s life or a thing. Just as Moses’s hands were held up until victory was won, so the prayer warrior holds up the victory of Christ over evil until victory is won. At this juncture, pray like this: "Every Goliath and Pharaoh inside the garden of my life, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

Warfare prayers are directed at the host of hell. So Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries do not pray against any physical person. We pray against the host of hell. If anybody now decides to go and form covenant with the host of hell, and decide to issue an evil vow against the child of God, whatever happens to the host of hell can happen to the person. Nobody can blame the believer for that. If the believer says the spirit of witchcraft should fall down and die and somebody somewhere says, "No, instead of me to lose the spirit of witchcraft, I want to die with it," so be it.

Christians have been praying all kinds of prayers since the beginning of Christianity. Certain prayers do not bother the devil at all, but there are some prayers that really worry him. An example is warfare prayer. A woman was about to give birth to a baby but powers of darkness surrounded her. The doctor and the nurses were confused. Then somebody said, "When things begin to happen like this, we usually call on one crazy sister who is always calling fire, go and call her." She was eating yam when they came to call her. She did not even bother to wash her hands before she rushed to the clinic. Immediately she got there, the woman was delivered of her baby even without the sister opening her mouth to pray. Later, the lady who gave birth said that immediately that sister came into the labour room, some voices started saying, "They have gone to call that trouble maker who calls fire, let us go. And the next thing she knew was that she was delivered of her baby. They did not even wait for her to start her prayers before taking their exit. You may ask, "Why is it that before the woman started praying they disappeared, but we sometimes pray for one hour before they can leave?" The answer is simple. The level of obedience to you by demons will depend on the level of your own obedience to the Almighty God.

If you are 10 per cent obedient to God, by the time the fellow who is 90 per cent obedient has finished, you will still be struggling. If your obedience is zero, you cannot hinder demons. This is where the trouble lies. It is the secret behind quick answers to prayers or no answers at all. Somebody can come and say, "Receive your healing," and people are healed instantly, and another one comes and prays for three hours before somebody can be healed. So, make up your mind to be 100 per cent obedient to the Almighty if you want to be a successful soldier in the army of the Lord. I have seen many people who have talked to demons and the demons asked them, "Why are you harassing us? Our senior uncle is inside your body, and you are asking us to go. We shall not go." There are some people who are "satanic broadcasting stations." All they do is gossip. Instead of saying, "Thank God, brother so and so has travelled abroad," a gossip will say, "Do you know that, so and so has travelled abroad. He borrowed money to buy the tickets." If you listen to gossips, you are one of them. God will give the same judgement to gossips and those who listen to them.

There are so many people like that in the house of God. If you are like that, you will notice that demons will not respect you, because they know that you are one of them. When you say, "leave," they will say, "how can we leave?" Instead of saying, "When you were annoyed and wanted to walk out of the house, your husband pulled you back, you would say, he smashed your head against the wall. But that was not what happened. You are a broadcasting station of evil. The Bible says, "And having in readiness to avenge all disobedience..." When your obedience is not complete no matter what you do in the name of Jesus, demons will not depart. How about your eyebrows that you have removed with blade, how about the colours on your finger nails. Anyone that comes to you and claims that certain things were said by a person, you should ask him if he would be able to repeat the same in the presence of the person. If he says no, then tell him to get away from you. Hundred per cent obedience is what God is looking for. Then you can command demons to depart and without winking, they will run away.

Since Lucifer and his supporters were cast out of heaven, they have been opposing the human race. That is why Lucifer was renamed satan, which means adversary. He is the one who sows tares amongst the wheat. He plants strange children among good ones and bad thoughts among good thoughts, and fights to make the good bad and the bad worse. Like all personalties, evil spirits can think, listen, communicate, experience things, act, react, speak to our minds and hear what we say. They watch our reactions and make their plans and strategies. Because of these character in them, we need to speak to them when we do warfare prayer. That is why Jesus said, "If any of you shall speak unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be so." We need to rebuke them and verbally deny them access into our lives. In the Bible, Jesus addressed the devil and demons directly and He told us that greater things than these should we do. Every miracle that Jesus performed in the Bible can be found in the Old Testament. The only thing that Jesus did that was never done before by any prophets was the way he dealt with evil spirits and those evil spirts recognised Him. At this time when the devil has come against us in greater anger. Any believer with no knowledge of warfare prayer is still joking. Try and understand this: a spirit of wicthcraft can never repent, it can never be pacified. All evil spirits are defying God. They are never going to make peace with God. When the Bible says, pray for your enemies, it does not say, pray for demons.

In fact, it is a sin to pray for demons. Jesus did not pray for peace with the devil. He dealt with them with the most ungentlemanly language we can think of. I am sure you will consider it extremely unreasonable and ungentlemanly if I jump inside the congregation and look at somebody and say shut up and get out. That was how Jesus dealt with evil spirits. These spirits know that they are going to hell fire, they are not ready to reconcile with God and they will never agree to submit to God.

A sister came to me crying that a man she did not know just landed on her while she was sleeping on the bed. She could not push the fellow away, all she could do was to cry. She knew that she had been violated and did not know what to do. She ran to her pastor. After she had explained everything, the pastor asked, "When last did you see your doctor." She said she was not sick. He asked her to bring her husband. The husband came with her and the pastor told her husband to take her to a psychiatric hospital. Since they were sure that she did not have any mental problem she did not go to hospital or take any further action. The devil who knew that she was ignorant and had no protection continued to harass her. Many people are under silent bondage like this. They cannot talk to anybody about what they are going through. If such people do not understand warfare prayer, they may die prematurely. And a lot of people have died just like that. Some people would say, if God does not kill, nobody can kill. It is a big lie. People can die before their time. But when you pray warfare prayers, things begin to happen.

A sister bought one of our books, "How to Obtain Personal Deliverance." She had never visited M. F.M. before. She read the book and then started the prayers. Suddenly, from her own seat, she somersaulted. Members of her family did not know what to do. They were just saying, "Blood of Jesus, blood of Jesus, blood of Jesus." They did not understand. Warfare prayer will locate the enemy that has been hiding. A lot of people notice that when they start praying, they start having strange dreams. It is because, for the first time, they are praying the kind of prayers that touched the root of their problems. When the problems are exposed, it is now your duty to deal with them one by one.

 

What do you pray about during warfare prayer?

1. Declaration of your faith. You start by making some scriptural confessions. Then you go on to praise and worship. It is not good to abandon any of the above things and just start praying. They have their functions. Bold declaration of your faith is warfare praying. Somebody who stands up and says, "Through the blood of Jesus, I am justified, through the blood of Jesus I have peace, is making a declaration.

2. Resisting the devil: When you say, resist, it means that you do not want to give that thing any chance. There is a Bible passage that says, "Be angry, but sin not, let not the sun set on your anger." Another verse says, "Give the enemy no place," meaning that your anger can create a place for the enemy. So if you want to resist the devil, when he says, "Okay begin to boil," you will say, "No, I refuse to boil, in Jesus’ name." If he says, "Talk now, look at how they are abusing you," you will say, "I refuse to talk, in Jesus’ name."

3. Confession of sins: Confess your sins to the Lord. Tell Him that you are sorry for your sins. This is very serious because it is that sin that will give the devil a foothold. Once you confess it to the Lord, the devil will have no where to hide in your life.

4. Forgiveness of sins: If anybody has offended you, forgive him and also ask the Lord to forgive you your own sins. Not forgiving anyone who has offended you is a very bad business because you lose more, for you will be released unto the hands of what the Bible calls tormentors and they will torment you day and night.

5. Breaking soul-ties: A lot of people have tied their souls to evil people, e.g. old boyfriends, old girlfriends, satanic priests and fake prophets. Warfare prayer is needed to break these ties. A man got married on a Saturday and by the following Sunday he rushed back with a complaint that he was not settled as he could not keep his mind off his former girlfriend who had equally married. Many of our spinsters and bachelors need to break soul ties so that they can be released.

6. Release from evil domination and control: When a person says, "I refuse evil to dominate me," or "I refuse evil to control me," he is praying a great warfare prayer. Release from evil domination is necessary for spiritual growth.

7. Release from acquired and inherited bondage: When a person has acquired or inherited a bondage, the kind of prayer that will set him free is warfare prayer.

8. Breaking of curses, spells, charms, jinxes and bewitchment: When you break a curse or a spell, you command a charm to become powerless, or you decree that a jinx should not continue to operate or release something from bewitchment, you are doing warfare prayer.

9. Renunciation of the occult: When somebody has been a member of a secret society or in the wrong church where they practice unscriptural things and you pull out of the place renouncing your involvement, it is warfare praying.

10. Destruction of evil communication: You can pray like this: "I don’t want anything evil to communicate with me" and then you break that communication system.

11. Taking authority over the strongman wherever he may be.

12. Commanding Satan to release all he has stolen: For every thing the enemy has stolen from you, you can say "Yes, I want it back now, seven folds, in the name of Jesus."

13. Arresting and binding territorial spirit: In the territory wherever you live, there must be some spirits around controlling the place. You will arrest them and bind their powers. There is no where in the world that is free. Anywhere you find yourself, do warfare praying. If a believer happens to travel out and has to lodge in a hotel, he must arrest and bind the spirits there because you never can tell the person who slept on that bed before you.

14. Claiming back lost ground: A ground that is lost is claimed back through warfare praying.

15. Praises: Praise the Lord always.

The enemies of our soul can attack many areas of our lives. They can attack the physical body through diseases, food and physical objects. These things require warfare praying. When an object is made for occult purposes it carries some powers. If a person then touches the thing or hangs it on his or her neck, the demon attached to it enters the body of the person. The only way to get them out is through warfare praying.

It will be 100 per cent foolishness for a man to assume that since he grew up in a christian home and his parents are christians, he does not need deliverance, and therefore does not need to learn aggressive praying. Some men of God in England spent two days praying for a girl of 17 who had never visited Nigeria to deliver her from evil spirits. She was born in England and has been there all her life, she has never travelled to Nigeria. But to their shock, demons from Nigeria began to cry out of her body.

Beloved, the truth is that millions and millions of apparently normal and respectable people need serious deliverance. Many have gone to several places for protection. But if you then say, we do praise worship and there is no problem, you should know that praise worship that is done from unclean lips does not go anywhere. Everything we do in the house of God, the devil can do a lot of it better. The only thing he cannot do is prayer. It is not a joke that the largest church in the world is the church where prayer takes 90 per cent of the time and every other thing takes 10 per cent.

What the church of God needs now is a surgeon and not cosmetologists. We must go back to traditional Pentecostal hard praying, then we will throw fear into the camp of the enemies again. They will know without being told that no matter how far they have travelled, there is a power that can catch up with them in just one second and disgrace them. Bow down your head and begin to confess every sin that will make the devil to rejoice in your life to the Lord. Ask the Lord to forgive you, so that you will have victory. Ask the Holy Spirit to expose any secret sin to you.

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. Every gathering of the ungodly against me physically or spiritually, be scattered, in the name of Jesus.

2. Every evil report brought against me in the kingdom of darkness, I cancel you, in the name of Jesus.

3. Every operation of darkness commissioned against me, be aborted, in the name of Jesus.

4. (Lay your right hand on your head and the second one on your stomach) Every evil presence in my body, loose your hold, in the name of Jesus.

5. Every arrow of darkness militating against me, go back to your sender, in the name of Jesus.

PROBLEMS AT THE ALTAR OF PRAYERS
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

The topic you are about to study is titled "Problems at the alter of prayers."

Our first text for this message is Luke 18 verses 1 to 8. In this passage, you will see the need to continuously trouble God with prayers as God would not hesitate to answer those who cry unto Him day and night.

I Thessalonians 5 verse 17 says "Pray without ceasing."

This topic has two important things to it., which are PRAYER and ALTAR. However, there is problem at this altar of prayer.

PRAYER

It has been well said that prayer is the key to open every door. When you want to start the day in morning, prayer is the key to open with, and to sleep at night, prayer is the bolt that you apply to lock your door.

Prayer takes the highest energy which human being is capable of generating. Jesus fought a terrible war at the garden of Gethsemane. The Bible says "His sweat were like drops of blood." If Jesus had to pray, what about you and I? A short prayer will reach the throne of God, provided, you are not too far from that throne. If you are far from the throne, short prayers will not help, and many believers are at different distances to the throne of God.

Prayer is so deep, wonderful and mysterious that it's power is not yet even clear to many Christians. This is why prayer does not need proof. What it needs is practice. The Bible does not say "preach all the time, but commands us to pray all the time.

When you pray prevailing prayers, what you get in your life is perpetual power. Your prayer life then, is an indication of your spiritual life. Where there is less prayer there is less power.

When you then study the scriptures, you will discover that Moses prayed and his prayers saved a nation from death. God had wanted to destroy Israel but the prayers of Moses stopped him from doing so. It then means that the prayers of Moses held the hands of God from destroying the Israelite.

Joshua prayed, the sun stood still and his enemies fell.

Solomon prayed for wisdom and God made him the wisest king.

Elijah also prayed with great desire, and what happened? God gave rain and also sent fire after his 63 seconds prayer.

The three Hebrew men that were thrown into the flames prayed, and the son of God came into their midst.

Daniel prayed, the lions' jaws and claws were closed when he was thrown into their den.

The thief prayed by the cross of Jesus saying "remember me when You get to Your kingdom." He got immediate answer as Jesus said "verily I say unto you, this day shall thou be with Me in paradise."

The apostles prayed, and the place where they gathered shook.

Therefore, when Christians pray the way they ought to pray, revival fire will sweep the land. If you want this country to change we have to go back to our knees, "show-business evangelism" will not change this country, because the strongman in charge of this country is yet to be brought down. The only thing that can bring him down is aggressive prayers by Christians.

So, there is power in prayer.

ALTAR

Altar is a structure on which sacrifices are offered. The altar is useless without the priest and the offering.

The word of God made us know that we are priest, a holy nation and peculiar people (I Peter 2:9). God has called us to be priests. Revelation 1:5-6, says "He has called us to be priests and kings unto Him." So, all Christians are priests. It is therefore scripturally wrong for somebody to stand in the office of a priest now. So don't say the priest of our church. There is no such language in the Bible. Everybody is a priest now unto God.

But a priest must have something to offer, and our offering as new testament Christians is spiritual sacrifice. We cannot start slaughtering animals again, since Jesus died in substitute for us. This is why anybody offering any sacrifice different from that which Jesus has done, is committing a very grate abomination, because it is a corruption of the death and cross of Christ. We are priests and as priests, we must have something to offer.

In those days, the priest was the one that would stand as a mediator between God and man; but that office has been removed. We are now direct priests. Things God wants us to offer as Christians are as follows:

OURSELVES.

The first thing that God wants us to offer is OURSELVES. Roman 12 verses 1 and 2 say "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world."

Don't copy their fashion, dresses and manner of talking. As a matter of fact, don't conform to their tradition. "But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." God wants you. The first sacrifice is you. Get on the altar, die there and then see what happens. Some people are running away from God's altar. They are afraid of what would happen to their lives there. They are afraid of the requirements of the Almighty. They have seen people who have died on the altar, and they are saying "Ah, if God did this to you! I don't think I would want to become this serious, I would want to be doing it gently." No, God will not accept that. You will not serve God on your own terms. You will serve Him on His own terms alone. If you say "When I like, I will come and when I don't like, I won't come", then, you are not serving God yet.

So, the first thing to offer is ourselves, meaning that everything we have must be placed on the altar, then, God can use us. When you are still struggling with the thought of fornication, and still cuddling your pillow on the bed at night, imagining that the pillow were a woman or a man, you're in trouble. People may not see your thoughts, but God does and He knows that you are not serious. You cannot put cockroach inside a drinking glass and ask someone to put clean water in that same glass, the person will say, "please, kindly clean the cup." The same thing happens when you hold up your cup to the Lord praying for Him to fill it to the brim. God will first ask you to clean it up for Him to fill it.

PRAISE

The Bible tells us in Hebrews Chapter 13 verse 15. "By Him therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name." So, another sacrifice we can offer is the fruit of our lips, which is a sacrifice of praise. That's why we sing "We bring the sacrifice of praise, into the house of the Lord, as we offer unto Him, the sacrifice of thanksgiving, sacrifice of praise." So, praising God is an offering. However, sacrifices of praise from dirty hearts are unacceptable to the Lord.

PRAYERS

Revelations 8 verses 3-4, say, "And another Angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand."

Incense in the foregoing stands for worship, praises, and thanksgiving. Both go hand in hand. This is why Paul said "Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayers and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be known unto God" (Philippians 4:6).

Now the altars of so many people are weak that they are unable to sustain long prayer battles, which is needed, to win the battles of life. Some people ought to stay on top of prayer mountains for 3 months before coming down, because of the kind of problems the enemy has gathered for them. Unfortunately, such people are still lost in disco churches either distributing biscuit to the kids or singing worthless praises. There are many people like that, whose enemies have diverted, and tied down with church posts. Their prayer altars are weak.

The Bible recognizes this and emphasizes the need for constant and aggressive praying. In Matthew 26 verse 41 Jesus said "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Romans 12 verse 12 says "Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer." Also, James 5 verse 16 tells us that "...the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

Therefore, beloved the greatest spiritual injury that can be inflicted on anyone is to paralyze the prayer life. That is why a white man said "Prayer will keep you away from sinning, and sinning will keep you away from prayer." With a weak prayer life and altar, it is impossible to receive the breakthrough that many are asking for. It is not a sin to 'over-pray', but it is a sin to 'under-pray'. You won't lose anything by over-praying; but under-praying is a problem. That is why the Bible says, "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony" (Rev.12:11).

Sings of a weak prayer altar are as follows.

Ability to pray only when you are in the church.

People who only pray when there is a serious problem but when everything is going on well, there will be none. They wait till things go wrong before they start praying.

Inability to wait before the Lord for a long time. Some people are so restless. They cannot just sit in a place for 2 hours at a go. They always want to move. Something always tell them to 'get out', 'stand up', 'go away', etc. They are restless. Restless people don't get anywhere with God. If you have that type of vagabond prayer spirit inside your life, I command that spirit to depart from you now, in the name of Jesus.

Breaking your fast out of forgetfulness. If somebody is on a fasting programme and for 90% of the time, he is busy looking at the clock, he is not fasting. It has become hunger strike or personal starvation because it is the clock you are watching.

Somebody is fasting and in order to while away the time, he is busy reading newspaper, or looking for somebody to talk to just to while away time.

When prayer time gets boring. You don't enjoy prayer anymore but get bored easily.

Blaming somebody else for your prayer failures. For example somebody who says "It is because daddy refused to pray with the family, that is why the family is not praying, or it is because mummy does not cooperate, that is why the family is not praying", he is only using other people as excuses for prayer failures.

When prayer period has been replaced with sleep.

Believing that only those who have problems should pray. A person who feels this way has the greatest problem. It means that Jesus must be the greatest problem carrier.

If you harbour the spirit of slumber.

If you get tired very quickly and easily during prayers. I never cease to get amazed sometimes when we start praying, I see 60 year old women praying for 2 hours without sitting down, or getting tired, but young girls of 18 and 21, get tired easily. They want to relax on the wall.

If you cannot pray in the spirit or pray in tongues, your prayer altar will be weak.

If you find it difficult to concentrate, when you are praying.

When television or newspapers have taken up your prayer time; then you have a weak altar.

When you lack prayerful friends. If you are a Christian sister or brother, the day you get born again, ends any intimate relationship you have with anybody who is not born again. Whatever marriage promises you have made, ends. It does not matter whether the wedding has been fixed or not. You get born again today, that is all, the wedding is cancelled. Then you start looking for somebody, who is a child of God. Doing otherwise, is subjecting your life to eternal destruction.

Eating very heavy meals at night will make your spirit heavy, so you cannot pray, resulting in a weak prayer altar.

You will have a weak prayer altar if you are only interested in listening to music than in praying.

Hatred for night vigils.

Inability to sustain a prayer point for a long time.

When you pray and your visions are always unclear, or when God speaks to you only in parables or proverbs, beyond your understanding, your altar is weak.

When the problem seems to be waxing stronger and your prayer is getting weaker, is evidence of a weak altar.

Inability to hear at all from God even when He is speaking- is a weak altar.

If you have never prophesied before in your life while you are praying you have a weak altar. Because the Bible says everybody can prophesy, at least out of all the spiritual gifts, it says everybody can have that one.

If you're living above your experience and trying to prove super spiritual, what God did not show to you, you claim you have seen, then your altar is weak.

If you are testimony swallower, then, you have a weak altar.

You are ashamed to praise God in public, but you are not ashamed to get annoyed in the public, then your altar is weak.

If you spend all the time, begging from God and you never really have the time to thank Him. You have a weak altar.

If you only resort to prayer after other methods have failed.

Only a strong altar can bring down the mighty hands of God. If you are tired of peanut miracles, playing spiritual games, and you really want things to happen in a big way, then steps have to be taken to repair the altar of prayer that has collapsed. You need to strengthen the weak altar of prayer with spiritual pillars. Inject vitamins and tonic into the weak altar.

Moab had a weak prayer altar. Isaiah 16 verse 12 says "And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, he shall come to his sanctuary to pray, but he shall not prevail" Why? The reason is in Jeremiah 48 verse 11. "Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity, therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed." Why? Moab loved ease and comfort. He made no attempt to be aggressive. So, he remained where he was. He only rushed to God after his little idols had failed him.

Look at it now, beloved education has failed, philosophy has failed, and science has failed. What is it that has not failed? The only thing that has not failed is Jesus. Even in many places, the church has failed because the world has entered into the church and the church has entered into the world. The two of them are going hand in hand, which is very sad.

The prayer altar of Saul in the Bible was broken down because of the sin of disobedience. When he could not pray again, he had to look for other sources of power. He went to consult a witch doctor, which was a terrible mistake, because he received his death sentence.

So something serious has to be done, beloved, about the prayer altars of many before the showers of blessings can fall on them.

I was amazed the first time I heard about this Korean Church. The man of God there said if he calls a prayer point and refuses to stop them, that single prayer point and refuses to stop them, that single prayer point can be prayed for two hours. They just go on, the prayers are like many thunders and waves of the sea rolled together. No wonder, they had a breakthrough.

For all those who have weak altars, god has a message for you today. This is found in two scriptures. Hebrews 12:12 "Wherefore lift up the hands, which hang down, and the feeble knees". Revelation 3:2 also says "Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die."

A person with a strong prayer altar will always move in the supernatural. He or she will always be happy to attend prayer meetings. He will enjoy praying alone and singing praises in his heart to the Lord. He will have supernatural insight into things, and God will be telling him secrets. He will not worry about anything. People would look at him and wonder what a strange person. Such a person will never be afraid.

It is about such people that God has promised that while they are yet speaking He will answer them. Beloved, the altar has been bombarded by serious problems and indeed by the enemies of prayer.

The following things weaken the prayer altar

Iniquity. The Bible says "if I regard iniquity in my heart, (not even performing, but just giving it opportunity to operate) the Lord will not answer my prayer." Sin weakens the prayer altar.

Ignorance or lack of prayer.

Not receiving genuine baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Bible says, "We know not how or what we should pray the way we ought to but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us, with groaning that cannot be uttered"

Laziness. A lazy Christian cannot be a prayer warrior. It is not possible.

Bad Christian foundation

The powers known as "the emptiers",

Demonic bondage (when somebody has been bound)

Listening to the devil.

Fear of being alone.

Staying glued to the Television for late movies is a modern day anti-prayer strategy.

Perpetual children's sicknesses is a modern day strategy of the devil.

Visitors who will not go away on time, until it is very late.

Eating heavy meals before going to bed.

Reading large volumes of useless story books take away prayer time.

Oversleeping and drowsiness take away prayer time.

The type of work that will tire a person out resulting in not being able to pray the way he/she should, is not the kind of job God wants you to do. If the person falls down dead the work will still continue.

Persistent sicknesses.

Noise from night parties is another anti-prayer strategy.

Attending unprofitable parties.

Aimless and purposeless visits.

Playing games like Ludo, Scrabble, Whot etc, instead of praying is an enemy of prayer life.

POWER BASE OF PRAYER

Prayer has something we call power base. The power base of prayer is fourfold. They are:

The word of God.

That is, you must know the word of God to enable you pray effectively. If not, the enemy will give you a knock on the head when you cannot quote the scriptures to support your prayer.

Fasting.

We must not wait for others to do it before we start.

Holiness

Spiritual retreat. That is, being alone with God. The Bible says "and Jacob was alone with God" and because he was alone with God, he met God for the first time in his life. His life was in a serious mess until he met God. Some will never see God until their businesses collapse; or they are dead broke. Many are like the prodigal son, they only start to reason soundly after suffering. But life is not supposed to be like this.

When you don't realise that something is wrong with your prayer altar and repair it quickly, the enemy will dig deeper into your life. Some strange people do come to Christian meetings while serious prayers are going on, they will be looking for their handkerchiefs. What do they want to do? They want to wipe away sweat. They are not serious yet. Some will be opening one eye and closing the other. Some will even habour bad thoughts during prayers. Such people lack words to use, while other feel uncomfortable during prayers.

These are the thing you should readjust. You have to pray silently under your breath when you are engaged in any activity. You have to be schooled in the school of fasting . You have to be holy so that your prayer may not be a stinking odour before God. You have to acquire the habit of praying over everything. You have to keep your tongue from speaking evil. The more you are a talkative, the less the power that will be on your tongue. You have to pray no matter how you feel.

Today is another great day and therefore, since you love yourself, pray and do what Elijah did. When Elijah got to mount Carmel he threw a challenge to the prophets of Baal, asking them to call on the name of their god and he would call on the name of his God then the God who answers by fire, He is God. Both parties prepared their offerings. When it was Elijah's turn, the first thing he did was to repair the altar of the Lord that has been broken down. What are you going to do about your altar of prayer that has broken down or are you comparing yourself by yourself.

The Bible says they that are comparing themselves by themselves are not wise. If you are looking for somebody to compare your prayer life with, go to Jesus. Do not compare with any human being, because that human being has a different father, and mother from you, so your problems and backgrounds are not the same. You cannot be using them as examples. We have all been taken out from different wells. Some people's wells are deeper than others. Therefore, you can not compare yourself with others. Please pray the following prayer points with aggression:

PRAYER POINTS

O Lord, Examine my life today and reveal my weaknesses to me in the Mighty name of Jesus.

O Lord, let the spirit of prayer come upon me.

I challenge every anti-prayer life with your fire, in the name of Jesus.

O Lord, revive my prayer life with your fire.

O Lord, restore back onto me, everything I have lost through prayerlessness in Jesus name.

Every tree of sorrow, be uprooted in the name of Jesus.

Woe unto that vessel, that the enemy is using to do me harm in the name of Jesus.

  

DIVINE INSURANCE
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Many people use all sorts of charms as means of protection. Others put incisions on their bodies to protect themselves. But for the children of God, there is only one form of protection known as divine insurance. It has never failed. As you take this divine insurance for yourself, you will begin to live your life at its fullest.

The popular Psalm 125 says, "They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion which cannot be removed, but abideth forever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth, even forever. For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel."

Sometime ago, I boarded a taxi cab and inside the taxi cab, I saw several things. By the inside mirror, there was a cross. Close to where the driver kept his money, there was a phylactery. There were also small calabashes tied all around with strings. I was surprised and I asked the driver why he had all those things. He explained that the cross by the mirror was his Christian insurance, the phylactery, Islamic insurance and the small calabash was local insurance. He was trying to insure himself, but was using the wrong insurance policies.

A lot of parents have insured their children with wrong policies, that is why most of us are having problems. The insurance agents are demanding for payments and the parents that did the business with them are dead.

Please pray like this: I cancel every satanic insurance upon my life, in Jesus' name.

There are three groups of people in the school of spiritual insurance:

1. Those who are insured by divine power.

2. The uninsured. There are many such people around. Even though they come to church, they refused to be born again. And if they get born again, they do not bother to receive the Holy Spirit. My prayer is that God should deliver such people, in Jesus' name.

3. Satanic insurance: A man thought he was wise and got a local insurance. The local insurance was a charm that should lift him away whenever an accident happened. One day, he had an accident and the charm lifted him correctly, but placed him in front of a trailer.

So, satanic technology for insurance has many disadvantages. It is only by divine insurance that a man can be kept safe. The Bible says we are kept by the power of God.

Sometime ago, a sister came to me immediately we came out from an aircraft. She told me that she wanted to start praying before she sighted me inside the aircraft. I told her that my insurance did not cover her. As you are reading this bulletin, I hope you are not insured by satanic technology. It is useless beggarly power.

What are the disadvantages of satanic insurance?

1. It makes people to be indebted to satanic powers. If you went to satan for protection, he would require payment. The devil does not mind giving a person money and comfort as far as he is able to hold the person in bondage. And when the devil comes for his payment, even if you barricade your house with barbwires and very high walls, he has evil spirits that can pass through the fence.

2. People who use satanic insurance are gambling with wickedly intelligent spirits whose sole aim is to destroy.

3. It is warming oneself in the fire of the enemy and all the warmth that is collected from there shall be taken back by the enemy.

4. It is feeding the enemy and as a result, the enemy is able to fight harder.

5. It makes people to become double the children of hell fire. In case you have not heard of that before, Jesus used that expression. He said the Jews used to make people double the children of hell fire. Single children of hell fire are those who perish because of ignorance or by decisions. These are mostly pagans.

Pagans are those who are ignorant because they do not know or have heard the name of Jesus. When a sister Deborah or a brother Michael drops his or her Bible to try juju (charm) or local satanic technology, he or she becomes four times the child of hell fire.

6. It makes people to trade off their souls to wicked spirits.

Many people sell off their souls quite easily. A lot of people moving about on our streets do not have peace. Many have amulets, waist bands, etc, hidden under their clothes. They are looking for something to protect them.

7. It is forming a covenant with evil powers.

8. It enrolls people as candidates of eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood.

I know a place in this country where idols are put in rooms with split air conditioners. Those who do that are candidates of eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood.

Sometime ago, I had a phone call from New York one morning. The person calling me said he woke up that morning and found a sacrifice by his door. I was surprised that people could do that kind of thing in New York. He asked me to pray for him in Yoruba language because he believed the demon would understand Yoruba language better than English since it was a local technology.

The person who carried that sacrifice to New York has made himself a candidate for eaters of flesh and drinkers of blood.

9. It is throwing stones at your own house and hiding your hands. This is why the children of so many people are in trouble. Only those who have given their lives to Christ are exempted.

I have not seen the children of witch doctors doing very well. I have not seen them winning scholarships. What their parents are doing affect them adversely. When you use satanic technology, you are not only going to reap the fruit, it will also affect your children.

10. It is digging your grave and hiding the spade. Evil angels will welcome such people home.

If you have used satanic technology in the past, you must cancel it incase you have not done so, because it will be laying claim on your life.

Why do we need divine insurance?

Psalm14: 4 says, "Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord."

So, there are people who eat God's people like bread.

Psalm 27:2 says, "When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell."

Isaiah 49:29 says, "And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh: and they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob."

In this part of the world, witches are real. Whether you believe that they exist or not, the Bible says they do. Many of us have listened to people who have made confessions of killing human beings like rats, drinking human blood like water, eating human flesh, frying Akara (bean cakes) with human blood, etc. I have personally seen many. They do a lot of havoc. This is why we need divine insurance.

I was at a revival meeting and during the praise and worship session, a woman brought a girl of 7 to me and said the little girl had something to tell me. The girl said she was a witch. She also said that her mother was not a witch, but she always carried her to witchcraft meetings every night. Then I asked her to bring her mother. When I saw her mother, she was a 30 year old woman but she looked like a woman of 60. She had diabetes, hypertension and different ailments because her daughter had been taking her to witchcraft meetings without her knowledge.

A witch followed a brother to one of our meetings. Immediately he arrived, there was a word from the Lord that somebody had been followed and that the follower was receiving the fire of God. The brother did not know that the word of knowledge was for him. But when he got home, he found his mother on the bed with a very high fever. She confessed that she followed him to the church.

If our Christianity has no fire against all these evil powers, then it is better for us to close all the churches and go home. But we cannot go because we know that all powers in heaven and on earth belong to our Lord Jesus Christ. At His name, every knee should bow. And He has a name that has been lifted far above every principality and power and far above every name that is to be named.

There was a woman somewhere who used to sell moin-moin (steamed bean cakes). Her moin-moin was so delicious that whenever she was in the market other moin-moin sellers would not sell anything until she had finished selling hers. One day at a crusade, she got born again and began to confess that she was using human blood to prepare her moin-moin. So, when the Bible says, pray on your food, it knows what it is talking about.

Exodus 22:18 says, "Thou shall not suffer a witch to live." In times past, people threw physical stones at witches. However, under the New Testament, we throw spiritual stones. So, every obedient child of Jesus is supposed to be a witch killer. That is what the Bible says in Luke 10:19, "Behold I give unto you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over every power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you." When you tread upon something, it is supposed to die. Psalm 91:13 says, "Thou shall tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shall thou trample under feet."

Numbers 23:24 says, "Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain." So instead of us complaining that the wicked are drinking believers' blood, the reverse should be the case. That is the correct order, not the other way round.

Deuteronomy 32:42 says, "I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy." All believers are meant to be witch killers.

How do I become a witch killer?

John 6: 53 -54 says, "Then Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him."

What does this mean? It means that you have to be a partaker of all the blessings purchased by the blood and death of Jesus. If you are not a partaker of that, there is no life in you. It means you must have appetite for Christ. Hunger and thirst for Him. "Eat my flesh, and drink my blood means "Eat Jesus, drink Jesus. You apply Christ to your situation. You delight in Christ and derive your nourishment from Christ.

As far as the Bible is concerned, all unbelievers are controlled by the spirit of the power of the air, no matter how nice they are. They may study in any university, have degrees, and be morally upright, the Bible says they are controlled by the spirit of the power of the air.

Born again believers have the choice to become dangerous or cold in God's army. God's dangerous men are needed today to shake down the gates of hell. You have the opportunity to transfer yourself from a spiritual insect to God's danger man.

I have shared this testimony before. Let me share it again. A pregnant woman bumped into some sango worshippers in a market. She apologized, but the sango worshippers rang their bells, put charm in their mouths and fire started coming out of their mouths. People begged the pregnant woman to run away because they would issue curses on her considering her state. She looked at the fire and said, "I command the fire burning in your mouths to quench, in the name of Jesus," and the fire quenched. This is the kind of people God is looking for.

There was a brother God used to turn one village upside down. The first day he started preaching there, his interpreter was afraid because of what he was saying. He turned the village upside down and by the next masquerade festival, they could not find enough young men to participate in it because most of them were already converted and had become spiritually hot in that village.

If some enemies are claiming that they are stubborn, we have a more stubborn Jesus. Acts 6:8-9 says, "And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake."

Some wonder why God has not committed His work into their hands. It is because they are too cold. You cannot give a gun to a six year old child, it will be too much power for the child.

When there is competition among students for academic excellence, it is the bright ones that will be put forward. The Bible says, "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might," meaning that some people are already weak.

Before you start to confront powers of darkness, you have to take a decision to start living a holy life. This is the only guarantee for success.

What are the characters of those who want to become witch killers and God's dangerous people?

1. Life of holiness: If you cannot live a holy life, forget power.

2. Your prayer life must be on fire. You have to be a prayer warrior. You have to be filled with the Holy Ghost. When you are filled with the Holy Ghost and His fire comes upon your life, there are certain things that cannot dwell inside your body again.

3. Violent faith. You must have the faith that can never be shaken by any storm.

4. Complete obedience to the Lord. When God says, "Stand up," you stand up. When He says, "Sit down," you sit down.

5. You have to become addicted to studying the word of God. You study and eat it until it becomes honey in your mouth.

If you have been coming to Mountain Of Fire and Miracles Ministries for one year and you know less than fifty-two memory verses, you are not our serious member yet. If you do not know how to learn it, there are materials to help you.

God is looking for people today to turn the world around for Jesus and turn things upside down for the enemy. Such people will not fear the revival of the enemy; they will operate the way God wants them to operate.

The Bible says, "They that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagle; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."

Of all the birds in the air, eagles are the best flyers. They select the tallest trees on the mountain and the tallest branches. No hunter can gun down eagles because the bullet cannot reach where they are. However, it is possible for an eagle that is supposed to be mounting up to have its wings clipped by the enemy. So, that high eagle will become a lower eagle. And because it is a lower eagle, it can be trapped. Sometimes, believers get into satanic traps because they have done things which affect their divine insurance.

Things that can hinder divine insurance

1. Carrying a third party insurance. When you have a third party insurance for your car, it covers the third party and not you. But when you have a comprehensive insurance, it covers both you and anybody who hits you. Those who go for third party insurance do so just to avoid police harassment. If there is an accident, they will have to repair everything.

What is THIRD party insurance in the spirit?

It is good to cast out demons, receive healing and pray breakthrough prayers. But that is just third party insurance. A comprehensive insurance spiritually involves dealing with your flesh and the world. Many want their problems to go but do not want a transformed life.

When problems go, what do you do to barricade your life?

A lot of people are not patient enough to sit down, study the word, crucify their flesh and break down all the old bridges, yet they are saying they do not know why problems are coming back. Just as comprehensive insurance is expensive in the physical, the duty of sitting down to deal with the flesh, and worldliness is hard too, but it is a permanent one.

A man came to a crusade at Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos. While the ministers were praying for blind eyes to open, he laid his hands on his eyes and God restored his sight. He was happy and went home rejoicing. He was advised to be attending Bible study and prayer meetings regularly. But the man never showed up again in any Christian meeting. Rather, he always went to palm wine bars. This was a man who never knew how ladies looked, now started to lust after them. He was sitting in a palm wine bar one day when his eyes closed again and he started saying that Christians are liars. Somebody there reminded him that since the day his eyes were opened, he had never gone back to fellowship let alone share his testimony.

2. When you lack love. A lot of us need to pray for God's kind of love to be inside our hearts. Strife is the work of the devil. When you lack love, divine insurance breaks down. The reason some husbands do not follow their wives to their churches is that they have not seen any evidence of true change in their lives. Because the same mother will curse the children and when the father says, "It is okay, you are coming from church, " she will say, "And you too." That way, she will revoke the divine insurance because her guardian angels will say, "Father Lord, you asked us to encamp around this sister to protect her but if she continues to speak this kind of language, we will slap her and she will be dumb forever. So we prefer to leave her alone." And the angels will go.

3. When you allow evil to overcome you. Romans 12:20-21 says, "Therefore if thy enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."

When the Bible says, be not overcome with evil, it means there is a possibility that evil can overcome a person. Do not allow wrong attitudes and actions in others to stir up the same thing in you. If someone hurts you, do not harbour resentment. If someone lets you down, do not broadcast it to the whole world. Never repay evil for evil. Never be the kind of Christian who will say, "Well I am a green snake under the green grass, I will strike back at the appropriate time, you are lucky today that I am born again. If you had done what you did now when I was not born again, you would have seen yourself." Believers do not say that. It means you are going back to your old self. We are overcome by evil when we decide to pay back those who offend us in their own coin. Comments like: "They do not greet me, so I will not greet them, they are not smiling at me, I will reduce my own smile, when it was raining, they did not remove my clothes from the line, now it is raining, I will leave their clothes to soak; they did not sweep the front of my house, so, I will not sweep their own, they ignored my advice; you do not love me the way I wanted you to love me; my food was not served when I asked for it, they are too slow for my liking." When you are doing that, you allow evil to overcome you.

Anytime you pay people back in their coin, what you are doing is taking the position of God. You are setting yourself up as a lawyer, a judge and an executioner at the same time. This will break down your insurance. Most people get annoyed when others do not meet up to their personal expectation. All kinds of useless warfare that a believer should not engage in must be avoided because before you know it, they will begin to take your attention away from the main point.

Fighting, pushing, jumping queues and getting angry are things that the devil uses to remove divine insurance. People get angry when they are not ready to put up with any inconvenience and divine insurance breaks down as a result. People get angry when they feel others have hurt them. The devil who is a clever fighter will always allow you to see the faults in others and if you are ignorant, you will not know that he is cleverly trying to remove your insurance. If you do not stop at this stage, you will begin to use carnal method to fight. You will rain abuses on others. And when you go out and something goes wrong, for example an accident, you will say, "And I prayed before leaving the house." Yes, you prayed but at the same time, there was a clearing away of divine insurance.

When you call people names like idiot, monkey, nonentity, etc, you are removing your divine insurance. When you threaten people, the insurance breaks down. When you fail to forgive those who have hurt you, the insurance goes. When you fail to allow God to fight for you, the insurance goes. You can pray fire prayers and call down the hand of the God of Elijah but if you have no love, your divine insurance will break down.

Any area you know you need to correct in your life, talk to the Lord about it. Ask Him to forgive you of any situation that has removed your divine immunity and insurance.

I want you to pray the following prayer points with holy madness because if somebody has gone to insure you without your knowledge, it will still be operating in your life. Ignorance is no excuse.

PRAYER POINTS

1. I destroy every satanic insurance upon my life, in the name of Jesus.

2. (Lay your right hand on your head) Every agent of disorder in my life, be scattered, in the name of Jesus.

3. Every power fueling problems in my life, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

4. Every spiritual vulture delegated against me, fall down and die, in Jesus' name.

5. Every cleverly concealed problem, be uprooted now, in Jesus' name.

DEFEATING HOUSEHOLD WICKEDNESS
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

A household enemy is an enemy found within the household. Such an enemy is quite powerful and terrible because he or she is usually in possession of vital information on everyone in the family, and can therefore use the information to destroy the lives of people of the same household.

A household enemy is like an internal thief who opens the door of a house to external thieves.

Household enemies are therefore terrible and desperately wicked in all ramifications. It will interest you to know that household wickedness is not a new thing. It has been there from the beginning. Household enemies are so terrible that our Lord Jesus Christ, made this declaration in Matthew chapter 10 verse 36:

"And a man foe's shall be they of his own household."

In Genesis 37:8, we read the story of Joseph who was evidently a victim of household enemies. "And his brethren said to him, shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more fore his dreams, and for his words."

These were people from the same household. Eleven of them came together to fight against one person. The hatred was so much that they took a wicked decision in verse 27 of Genesis chapter 37:

"Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hands be upon him for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content."

So Joseph's enemies were members of his household. He was sold to external enemies the way many people are now being sold to external enemies by their own flesh and blood. The truth beloved, is that many people would not have been where they were today if evil forces had not caged their lives. Most people who are supposed to have been highly educated remain fools because household enemies stopped them from going to school either by afflicting them with poverty or disease. Many that were meant to be high flying eagles have been turned to eaglets because of household wickedness.

There is another example in the book of Judges 15:9-13 of how some household enemies sold one of the best people in their land over to the enemies.

"Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah and spread themselves in Lehi. And the men of Judah said, why are ye come up against us? And they answered, to bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us. Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson "Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? What is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, as they did unto me, so have I done unto them." And they said unto him We are come down to bind thee that we may deliver thee unto the hands of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves. And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand; but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock."

The members of Samson's household gathered forces together to bind him and hand him over to the enemy.

Beloved, household enemies are indeed terribly wicked, this is how many people have been handed over to the enemies by their own people. God will deliver you today in Jesus name.

Micah 7:6 says, "For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law, a man's enemies are the men of his own house."

Many are busy looking for the enemies outside not knowing that they are actually inside. You really need stubborn violence to deal with household enemies.

Your aggressive confession must be made with words in Micah 7:8 which says:

"Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me."

These internal amputators have to be dealt with if you are going to move ahead. You will notice that in the black man's environment, the winners are usually pulled down, while the looser are exalted; the inferior is raised up, while the superior is pulled down; the life of the good is terminated very quickly, but the evil ones are kept alive. This is the handiwork of the internal amputators.

STRATEGIES OF HOUSEHOLD WICKEDNESS

For you to successfully battle these forces, you need to understand some of the strategies of household wickedness. They are very many, and serve different purposes. We shall consider nineteen of such strategies here.

Familiar spirits. According to the name, they are familiar with the family and therefore become the agents of evil in the family. They know everything about everyone in the family right from the beginning to the present day, and they can impersonate anyone. They go from generation to generation. Just one of them in a family can turn the whole family into a desert. If you don't have the fire of God in your life, and you have familiar spirits in your family, they can turn you into something else. If they attack a family that is without the fire of God, such a family can be ruined forever. These evil powers will do their possible best to ensure that poverty and failure are unleashed on a particular family, so that the intelligent children do not get educated. But I assure you of one thing now, that if you take a violent stand against them, they will flee away from you. You therefore have to paralyse the familiar spirits in your family on a daily basis. Even if they choose to turn some other people's lives into a desert, declare very boldly to them that your case is different, because you are a child of God.

Demonic family names. If your name originated from an idol, e.g. if part of your name begins with Ifa, Awo, Ogun, Omi, Aro, etc, then, I can assure you that at a point in time in your life, you have been dedicated directly or indirectly to that idol which forms part of your name. You may find this funny or quite hard to believe, but then, it is still the truth and you must pray fervently about it.

Bad names. Another evil strategy is the bad names given to some children on their christening on the eight day. Witches and wizards that have gone on holidays are usually invited to return and witness such naming ceremonies. No wonder then, that the source of many people's problems comes from the bad names which they bear.

Internal agents. When evil powers want to attack a person, they first of all look into his or her family, to find out whether or not there are agents in that family to assist them in their evil assignment. When an evil agent that can open the gate for external enemies is present in a family, he must be sent packing.

Manipulation of the placenta. I am quite convinced that many people cannot clearly state what happened to their placentas. We have cases of people whose placenta were cooked and eaten up by members of their household. Such people usually grow up to become fools or imbeciles, who are easily controlled by their household enemies.

Demonic journalists or evil spies. Sometimes, they enlarge the number of the demonic journalist and evil spies for effective operation.

Useless arguments. This is an effective tool in the hands of household enemies. They do this by expanding a trivial matter into a big one and then a great quarrel starts. This is why you see husband and wife or two brothers fighting each other over something that could be settled easily.

Corrupted circumcision. This is when they organize for somebody to be circumcised by evil agents. In the process, they steal the person's virtues and pollute his or her life. Victims of corrupted circumcisions usually end up with broken homes.

Unconscious contribution to promote evil. What they do through this strategy is to make a person contribute money to promote evil, like paying money to a market association for the purpose of commissioning a herbalist to produce charms that will ward off evil from the market. Although the person has not participated directly in the exercise, he or she has nonetheless participated indirectly by contributing his or her money for the evil exercise.

Evil assistance. Household enemies do this by going about to receive help on behalf of a person, without the knowledge and cooperation of the person involved. The terrible thing about this strategy is that anything they do on behalf of a person is binding on him or her. You will therefore be doing yourself a world of good by praying regularly to cut off evil assistance on your behalf.

The hair. Household enemies cut off people's hair either physically or spiritually to use for evil purposes.

Evil incisions. Household enemies will pretend that they are helping a person to solve his or her problems, by putting incisions on him or her. However, the incisions are done to harm the person either temporarily or permanently.

Mental barrenness. They cast mental barrenness on their victims. Such people will forever live with old ideas. They will never be able to think of new ideas that will prosper their lives. Their brains have been removed and can therefore not function properly.

Targeted sicknesses. The sickness will only come when something good is about to happen to their victims. The sicknesses then stay with a view to stopping such people from getting their much needed breakthroughs.

Naming a child after the dead. It is the strategy of household enemies to destroy a person, particularly when the person is named after the wicked ones. This is why we preach against names like Yetunde, Iyabo, Babatunde, Nneka, etc. in MFM. It is dangerous to be named after a dead person, because such an individual is indirectly bringing the dead person back to life. And that person's life will be patterned after the departed person.

Evil manipulation. Manipulation of people from the place of victory to a place of defeat is one of the strategies of the enemies. The evil powers lure people away from the place of prayer or make sure that their victims don't have the time to pray at all, because they simply don't want them to be delivered or even to prosper at all.

Unreasonable request. Making unreasonable request in order to find fault with people is an evil strategy.

Polygamy. The spirit of polygamy is another powerful weapon in the hands of household wickedness. They use it to such an extent that destruction becomes the lot of their victims. This particular weapon has affected so many Nigerian families to almost an irredeemable point.

Self display. Perhaps you do not know this, that nothing qualifies a person for the selective arrows of household enemies than senseless display. Some people are in the habit of displaying all the blessings God has given them before all and sundry. By so doing, witches, wizards and other household wickedness are well informed of the person's present position, both financially and materially. The forces of wickedness can then turn the tables on them.

Now that you have known the strategies of household enemies or household wickedness, it is important that you take violent action against them. It is only then, that power can change hands.

HOW TO DEAL WITH HOUSEHOLD WICKEDNESS

I must let you know that there are many methods of defeating household wickedness.

The Joseph's method. Joseph just kept being good, truthful, hardworking and God-fearing in all his ways. He was not worried that he was being harassed. Eventually he triumphed. If you continue to serve the Lord with holiness and faithfulness like Joseph did, you too will triumph over your enemies.

The Samson's method. It is called the method of fresh fire. Samson requested for new energy and fresh fire when he had lost everything he had, including his eyes! And when the fresh fire came, what he achieved in one day was more than he achieved throughout his life time. When the fresh fire of God falls upon you, and His anointing is released into your life, then every evil yoke in your life must break. It will interest you to know that every mighty vessel of God in history succeeded because they sought for and got fresh fire from the Lord on a daily basis. The apostles did the same in the Bible. Acts chapter 2 tells us of how they got the first fire, while Acts chapter 4 informs us of how they received fresh baptism of fire. Believers should experience a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis. You will turn the battle against your enemies. Instead of you running away from them, they will be the ones that will be running away from you. When you form the habit of recharging your spiritual battery, great things will then begin to happen. Don't be satisfied with the spiritual battery, great things will then begin to happen. Don't be satisfied with the spiritual fire that you have just received. It may not be sufficient to break the yoke that your household enemies have put upon you. You must always recharge your battery.

 

NOW COMES THE IMPORTANT QUESTION

Have you received fresh fire? When last did you receive another baptism of the Holy Spirit? Do you know that the initial baptism of power is different from the final one? You will need to have repeated intake of power at every point of your life. The anointing of yesterday may not be able to cope with the evil forces and wickedness of today. Many of us do not understand that returning to God for fresh fire is a proper reaction to many crises that we face. We need continuous baptism of fire. If you receive a fresh fire at this moment, you will be delivered from long standing problems. It does not matter whether the man or woman who locked away your blessing is dead. Fire is the answer to all stubborn problems.

Beloved, the truth is that several things can happen at the falling of fresh fire. Concrete bondage will break, problems will melt away, creative miracles will begin to happen and demonic powers will flee; then, you will receive power to stand up and fight, and your enemies will be defeated. You must therefore cry to God for fresh fire today. When you are immersed in God's fire, your life will explode in His life , and fear will vanish. The reproach of the enemy will be taken off and the fire will lead you into a new direction. Your enemies will realise that they have made a mistake by planning to hurt you contrary to the will of God for you.

The way out is to know the divine strategies to use against the household enemies, put them into use, and all shall be well with you.

STRATEGIES OF THE CHRISTIAN AGAINST HOUSEHOLD WICKEDNESS

Spiritual research: This is done by asking questions which will help you to locate any evil trend or pattern in your family. Don't just sit down and assume that what is going to be, will be, and there is nothing anyone can do about it, No! Don't ever accept defeat. Rather, ask questions that will unmask the source of your problems.

Forgive everyone that has offended you. If not, you'll present a loophole for the devil to use against you.

Carry out a thorough self examination. Be sure that God does not have anything against you.

Gather your spiritual weapons and learn how to use them

Declare war against the enemies and when you do that, you are expected to engage yourself in violent and aggressive prayers that will make positive things to happen in your life.

     Many lives have been polluted by household enemies by making them to commit immoralities either with their sisters or their mothers.

     They also make them to transfer pregnancies to wrong fathers.

     They make many others to drink and bathe with human blood.

     They manipulate fathers to commit fornication with their own daughters.

     There are cases where they forced some sisters to drink the blood from their own menstruation.

     It is the same demonic powers that let people build house and make them not to live therein.

These evil powers do all kinds of things.

If your own approach is to watch the evil powers prosper without taking any violent stand against them, then, you need to change today.

Remember that the Bible says in Matthew 11:12 that "...the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it by force."

You must learn to attack you spiritual enemies with violence from today. If you do not forgive those who have offended you, the enemy will use it against you, and you may find it difficult or altogether impossible to defeat your household enemies.

Please know this fact that God is ready and willing at all times to help you. But He cannot build on any corrupt foundation. Check your foundation today, and root out whatever corruption hiding therein. I plead with you to be aggressive in your spirit now and turn your household enemies troubling your life against one another, in Jesus' name.

Now you are going to raise up your voice as you go into the following prayer points:

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. I withdraw the control of my life from the hand of household enemies, in the name of Jesus.
2. I withdraw my future from the control of any household enemy, in the mighty name of Jesus.
3. Whatsoever household enemies have destroyed in my life that cannot be repaired, be replaced, in Jesus' name.
4. I release myself from any unconscious satanic bondage, in the name of Jesus.
5. I cover myself with the blood of Jesus.

All localities in this country are controlled by some specific evil forces. In fact, there are many instances to show that household enemies actually handed their own people over to the forces of darkness. That is why many people, in their dreams always find themselves returning to their villages, towns, secondary schools etc. It shows that there is an entity controlling every aspect of our environment, reminding people of the terrible locality they belong. It is as a result of this that you will pray the following prayer points:

1. You principality controlling my town, release me now, in the name of Jesus.
2. Let the organization of the host of hell against me break down, in the name of Jesus.
3. Let the joy of the enemies of my life be turned into sorrow, in the name of Jesus.
4. You spiritual vultures wishing me dead, receive the stones of fire, in the name of Jesus.
5. I break every placenta bondage, in the name of Jesus.
6. I cut off any link with my parents that is inviting problems into my life, in the name of Jesus.
7. I cut off any evil attachment to anyone, or anywhere, presently inviting problems into my life, in Jesus name.

 

FIGHT BACK
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

This week, we are looking at a message entitled "Fight back." Before we proceed, I encourage you to pray the following prayer points aggressively:

1. Every evil monitoring eyes, receive blindness, in the name of Jesus.

2. Every power of the enemy, I command you to take your flight now, in the name of Jesus.

3. Every satanic scheme devised against me through any course and at any time, I command you to crash, in the name of Jesus.

4. I destroy the power of the oppressor with the blood of Jesus.

5. I pursue, overtake and recover my breakthrough from the hand of my enemy, in the name of Jesus.

6. I paralyse every satanic limitation of my progress, in the name of Jesus.

7. I paralyse every witchcraft activity against my progress, in the name of Jesus.

8. Every owner of evil rag, wear your rag, in the mighty name of Jesus.

 

I Samuel 30:1-5 says, "And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire; And had taken the women captives that were therein they slew not any either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way. So David and his men came to the city and behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons , and their daughters were taken captives."

The city of David was burnt down and his wives and children and those of his countrymen were taken captives while they were away from home.

Verses 4- 8 says, "Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep. (satanic entertainment) And David's two wives were taken captives Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his son and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. And David inquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shall surely overtake them, and without fail recover all."

Verses 18 - 20 say, "David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives. And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor anything that they had taken to them: David recovered all. And David took all the flocks and the herds which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David's spoil."

SIGNS OF THE END TIME

These are the last days and the Bible tells us that the last days shall be characterised by intensive demonic revival. It is so bad now that somebody could be starring at you and you would think it is an ordinary look. As he is staring at you and wishing evil in his heart against you, that evil can manifest. It is that bad. Revelation 12:12 confirms that the last days will be characterised by demonic revival. So if you see a revival of evil power taking place now, it has been prophesied. "Therefore rejoice ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."

SATANIC ARROW

So, we should not be surprised at what is happening. The Bible tells us that the wicked will fire arrows at the righteous. It does not hide this fact. Psalm 11:2 says, "For lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart." They are aiming their arrows at the righteous. There are arrows that fly about which can hit a person accidentally if it misses its target. Psalm 91:5 says, "Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day." The Bible also tells us that satanic attack may come to us without warning.

But 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." That is also clear from the word of God.

There are people who design evil day and night. Whether you are a mature Christian or not, there is someone somewhere or a power somewhere targetting your life to destroy it. Do not be in any delusion that such things do not happen. You do not have to offend anybody before he comes after you.

When arrows are fired, three things may happen:

1. You may receive it.

2. It can bounce off your body.

3. It can miss you and hit somebody else.

 

THE LAW OF SUBSTITUTION

What God does for His people when arrows are fired at them is found in Proverbs 11:8: "The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead." So, when evil is dispatched, the Lord replaces the righteous with another person. This is what we call the law of substitution. It happened in the life of Daniel. An arrow was fired at Daniel when he was thrown into the lion's den, and the Lord took him out of the place and replaced him with those that threw him in. It happened in the lives of Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego. The Lord took them out of the fire and replaced them with other people. Therefore, it is important for you to know how to fight back, especially how to send arrows back to the senders.

There are so many arrows fired at believers these days. For some people, they choke them on their beds. Sometimes, they scream the name of Jesus and something happens, sometimes they have to scream for a long time, sometimes they cannot even scream at all. Take this prayer point at this juncture:

Every power that chokes me, choke yourself now, in the name of Jesus.

 

There are also weapons and arrows of voices from evil spirits. There are so many of them now.

1. Strange voices: Many people are hearing strange voices that others cannot hear. A boy killed his father recently, and when he was asked why he did it, he said a voice asked him to do it. He said that the voice kept harassing him until he did it and the voice kept quiet. These evil voices start by speaking to people's minds. If you do not stop them, they make more progress.

Sometime ago, at a naming ceremony, everybody was crying because they could not find the father of the child. What happened? At about 3.00 a.m. that day, a voice spoke to him saying, "Rise up, go and buy ram for the naming ceremony." He stood up, took money and went out, and he was never found until a week later, at Kano. In the train he took to Kano, somebody noticed that he was speaking Yoruba language and asked him what he wanted. He said he was going to buy a ram. The person asked for what purpose and he said it was for the naming ceremony of his child. The person asked when the naming ceremony was to take place and he mentioned a date that was six days back. The person told him that they must have done the naming ceremony and he was still looking for ram. He said they had not done it. From that discussion the fellow conversing with him could sense that something had gone wrong. He dragged him out of the train and put him in another one going back to Lagos. That was how he was found.

There was also the case of a sister. She was the only Christian in her compound, all others were idol worshippers. At the same 3.00 a.m, this sister heard a voice which said to her, "Rise up and walk out." She got up from the side of her husband, naked. The voice said, "Go out," and she strolled out naked into the street and was going. Thank God for the voice of the Holy Spirit which spoke gently to her and said, "Children of Jesus do not run mad." When she heard that, she quickly came back to her senses and asked herself, "What am I doing here at night?" So, she went back home and woke her husband up who was still sleeping and told him what happened. The man said, "Keep quiet and sleep." These evil voices speak to people and call their names. We cannot sit down and say well, let them fire and let us see what will happen. Nothing good will happen if you don't fight back.

2. The spirit of heaviness: This is also known as the spirit of depression. It comes upon people suddenly even when they are happy. Somebody singing choruses suddenly becomes dumb and deaf in the spirit. It is the arrow of the enemy.

3. The spirit of fear: There is also the arrow of needless fear. Some people are afraid without knowing what they are afraid of. They just know that the fear is there. Such people trip off in fear at the slightest sound in their room. You may think "it is one of those things." No, it is a satanic arrow.

4. The paralytic wind: Some people say they went to the toilet, a breeze blew and they could not move again. And when they got to the hospital, the doctor called it stroke, whereas it was not. It was an evil wind that blew upon them.

5. Heaviness in the head: If you just notice that your head is heavy. It seems as if you were carrying a big load. It is a satanic invisible load that the enemies have put on you and if you do not take it off on time, they will introduce other things into your life. So, you must take immediate action. David made the mistake of sitting down and crying instead of pursuing his enemies. But after sometime, he repented, pursued them and recovered his possessions. Are you ready to pursue and recover?

6. Unexplainable shaking of the body: This is when somebody is just shaking aggressively without knowing the cause. Sometimes, when some people are doing aggressive night vigils at home, they notice that a particular part of their body shakes uncontrollably. It means there is an arrow in that part of the body. What happens is that the prayer points are challenging the things that are hidden there and the things are trying to come out.

7. Strange items inside food: A person bought food and as soon as he dipped his spoon inside, he found the head of a cockroach inside. Someone careless would have just removed it, plead the blood of Jesus on it and continue with the food. But somebody who is careful will stop eating the food. You find pins, broomsticks, etc. inside food these days. Some people would have swallowed it before they know what is happening. These are strange weapons that the enemies are using against people, especially Christians. These weapons are usually effective on those people who wear transparent dresses because they are looking for husbands and also those who go to the parties of unbelievers to dance. The insects you find inside cooked food look dead, but immediately they get into the stomach they become alive and begin to work.

8. Body parts: The enemies cut people's hair, fingernails and parts of the body at night, take them away and deposit them on evil altars. That part of the body taken away is what they will always use to locate the person wherever he is. It is like a police dog running after a thief and then the handkerchief of the thief drops and the criminal runs into the market place. The police picks the handkerchief, puts it in the nose of the dog, and as soon as the dog smells it, that is all he needs to locate the criminal. They take the hair, nails, urine, etc. away to their meetings, give them to the demons to smell and the demons will be looking for the person. These are very serious matters. The enemy of our souls are improving their armoury everyday. We have to be more devastating in our attack. Take this prayer point: "Every material in my body, at present on any evil altar, be withdrawn, in the name of Jesus."

9. Idols: We have also noticed recently that the enemies send idols to people physically. There was the case of a particular brother who first wasted his time going to a dead church. When he discovered that this did not have any effect on the enemy, he gave his life to Christ but did not understand much about spiritual warfare. One night as he slept, a demon idol walked into his room while all the doors were locked. The demon idol screamed out his name, "Josiah Adigun Akande Famodimu." The brother opened his eyes and said, "Who is calling me by my names." He was surprised because nobody used to call him Famodimu. It was a name he had discarded a long time ago. The thing called all the names three times again and said, "I have been sent to destroy you." The brother said, "You cannot destroy me because I am a child of God." And it answered, "Prove it." The brother did not know what to do again. As the demon idol moved closer to him, a light shone from heaven. When it saw the light, it grew weak and moved out like that. The brother experienced what we call divine mercy. But he should have paralysed the thing so that it would not come back, because it could probably go and reorganise and come back again.

They also sent one to somebody very close to me. Before he could talk, the idol hit him on the hand with a stick and the hand became paralysed. He had to call on the name of Jesus before the hand became normal. The thing came back again and this time, he didn't even pray, he just cleared its legs off the ground, it landed on the floor and ran away.

Beloved, you cannot sit down there and say, "Well, God is our defense, let's be looking at them." No! Each soldier they lose is to your own advantage. When they send them to come and attack you, they will say, "No, I am not going to that brother or that sister. Please send me to an unserious Christian.

10. Sending physical and spiritual snakes to people: Some of these snakes talk. Sometime ago, in one of our meetings, a sister vomited a snake physically, not in the dream. The snake must have been sent to her and since she did not have fire, it entered.

11. Heat in the head: Another thing that you notice these days is heat in the head. It is a satanic weapon which is becoming rampant. The system of calling people's names at night in their sleep which I discussed earlier can result to heat in the head and then problem starts.

12. Feeding people in the dream: They feed people in the dream with what they ordinarily would not eat.

13. Sexual perversion in the dream: They cause female having affairs with female in the dream and male having affairs with male in the dream.

14. Rodents: They also attack people with rodents like rats or cats running against people in the dream. These are not ordinary rodents.

15. Periodic sicknesses.

16. Putting the life of people inside coffins. They send a feeling of lifelessness into a person. They also make people to see the spirit of the dead.

17. Satanic emergency calls: When a person receives an emergency call summoning him to a place when there is no need for such, they have slated the person for attack.

All these and many more are the arrows of the enemy.

DELIVERANCE CANDIDATES

People become deliverance candidates because they were attacked by one or more of these forces. If somebody was attacked when he or she was still a baby, the arrow could still be there. If the attack was before he or she got born-again and she has gone through deliverance, the arrows could still be there. If the attack was due to ignorance, the arrow could still be there. We have to gather these arrows and send them back to the senders.

Psalm 7:16 says, "His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate." That is what the Bible says. The enemy is the one planning mischief and unto him shall it return.

Psalm 9:15 says, "The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made; in the net which they hid is their own foot taken." When the trap is set and they hide it where you cannot see it, the Bible says that they will make a mistake and walk into that trap.

Psalm 35:8 says, "Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself; into that very destruction let him fall."

Psalm 70:2-3 says, "Let him be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul let them be turned backward, and put to confusion that desire my hurt. Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, Aha."

When you command the arrows of the enemies to go back to the senders, it teaches them a lesson. They won't come back. They will learn to leave you alone when you are in the church and come to you when you are on your own. If for any reason you just notice that an arrow has been fired at you, take the following steps:

1. Don't panic. Don't announce yourself to unbelievers because they will not offer you anything useful. Evil powers work in a highly organised network. They will arrange the problem and also arrange their own deceptive solution. We have the testimony of one woman whose son was dying. Little did she know that the person in charge of her problem was the man next door. The man had a nail inside the wall. When he hit the nail on the wall the little boy would start to convulse and the woman would start to pray. After some minutes of prayer, the nail would fall off and the boy would become all right. This wicked man would wake up again and put the nail back and the problem would come back. After sometime, the man pushed the nail in so well that the boy almost died. Then he knocked on the woman's door and said, "Madam, is there any problem?" The woman said there was no problem. He asked after the boy and she said he was well. Then he said, "Let me see him." When he saw the boy's condition, he said, "I have one powerful charm that can cure him, let me give it to him." The woman said no. If she had agreed, that would have been the end of the little boy. When you panic, you cause more trouble. Unbelievers are usually quick to rush things to you when there is a problem. By collecting those things, you are just postponing the evil day and entertaining the devil.

2. Don't exercise fear because fear is a sign of defeat.

3. Don't try the devil's method.

What do you do? Gather the arrows together and send them right back to the sender.

PRAYER POINTS

Lay your two hands on your head as you pray the first two prayer points.

1. Every satanic arrow fired into my body, go back to your sender, in the name of Jesus.

2. Every arrow fired against me in the dream, go back to your sender, in Jesus' name.

Lay your hands close to your navel as you take the following prayer points:

3. Every arrow I received from the womb, go back to your sender now, in the name of Jesus.

4. Every arrow fired into my life while I was an unbeliever, go back to the sender, in the name of Jesus.

5. Every satanic arrow fired against my health, go back to your sender, in the name of Jesus.

6. Every satanic arrow fired against my home, go back to your sender, in the name of Jesus.

7. Every vessel of evil arrow, I command you to fall down to the ground and die, in name of Jesus.

8. I withdraw all my secrets in the possession of the enemy, in the name of Jesus.

9. Every arrow of the oppressor, go back to the sender, in the name of Jesus.

Erasing evil marks
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

Galatians 6:17 says, "From hence forth let no man trouble me; for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus."

What is a mark?

Simply put, a mark is something used to recognize a particular thing. It can also be an object that serves as a guide to something. We have physical and spiritual marks because everything existing in the physical has its spiritual representative.

Characteristics of spiritual marks.

Spiritual marks can either be positive or negative. Let us consider some examples. In the olden days, the Lord commanded the Israelites to apply blood on their door posts as a token so that when the angel of destruction would be passing by, he would not enter their houses. It is the same thing with somebody who applies the anointing oil on his door post. The evil spirits in any visitor entering his place will jump out of the visitor, wait outside and go into him again when he comes out. The anointing oil on the door post will serve as a danger signal to the evil spirits.

There was a ghastly motor accident somewhere and it took two days before the vehicle was discovered in a ditch. All the passengers died except a two months old baby who was found playing in the bush by the scene of the accident. There was a mark on that baby which prevented him from being destroyed in the accident. That was a positive mark.

In 1987, a sister whom I knew was going for a deliverance programme and met three men on her way. They introduced themselves as evangelists that God had raised up to revive this country. They asked her how they could get to the National Stadium and she told them. After that, they requested to pray for her for her kindness. But before they prayed, they put their saliva on her palm and she noticed that the saliva disappeared. As she turned the palm upside down on their instruction, the saliva and a sign of the cross reappeared at the back of her palm. She became afraid and thought that the men must be angels. They took her to the back of a school building and raped her one after the other and warned her that she would die any day she disclosed the experience to anybody.

One day, I called her to confirm what I already knew had happened to her because she was one of my students at the time. She started shivering and could not say anything. Two weeks later, another terrible thing happened to her. Somebody slapped her on the chest and ordered her to bring her mother’s jewelleries and other valuable things in their house. She had given everything to the person before she came back to her senses. All these things were happening to her because there was a mark on her life which was inviting evil to her.

A spiritual mark can be applied by either a divine or demonic ink. The blood of Jesus Christ represents the ink of the Almighty. When this divine ink is applied on someone, no witch or power of darkness can touch the person. But when the demonic ink is applied, evil people will have access to him. Spiritual marks cannot be seen with the ordinary eyes. Only those who possess either positive or negative supernatural powers can identify those who have evil or divine marks.

Sometime ago, a herbalist felt challenged by a crusade which was held near his base. He discovered to his dismay that most of the people who came forward to give testimony referred to him as their former consultant. He got so embarrassed that he had to relocate. In spite of that, he continued to lose his customers to the church which organized the crusade. So, he decided to redress the situation by launching an attack on the church through his satanic power. He came right into the crusade ground to start his operation. But when the first prayer point was called, he fell down flat on his face and all the charms in his pocket poured on the ground.

Eventually, he gave his life to the Lord that day, got baptized in the Holy Spirit, started to prophesy and became a serious prayer warrior. But then, he had a problem. His wife was not happy about his new life in Christ, so, she refused to follow him to church. All his pleas to her to join him in serving the Lord fell on deaf ears. She insisted on remaining in the six witchcraft societies which the man initiated her into. However, the man was counselled to intensify his prayers, and as he continued to pray fervently, his wife could not attend her witchcraft meetings any longer. At a point, she told him that she had a bird inside her, but she could see a bigger one inside him. When the man told his pastor that, the pastor made him to understand that the bigger bird she was seeing is the Holy Spirit.

There is a herbalist who recommends the M.F.M. stickers to people. He tells them to paste them on their vehicles, houses, grinding machines, etc, so that their lives and businesses will prosper.

It is possible for a spiritual mark to be on a person right from the day he was born. Meaning that a person can collect a mark right from the day he was conceived. Some people were conceived at disco parties where their mothers committed immorality with their male dancing partners. Some were conceived in the streets where their mothers were hawking fried bean cakes (akara). There is no way children conceived in these manners would not have bad marks from birth. If nothing is done to remove these evil marks they could be there until the affected persons die.

A person can have more than one spiritual mark on his life. There was a man who did not know that he had the evil marks of wastage and amputation. When his father died, he told the villagers that he would beat the record of the last person who killed seven cows to bury his father by slaughtering ten for his own father’s burial. But as he was running around looking for money to buy the cows, he suddenly fell down and died and he was buried before his father. His family killed five cows for his own burial and only one for the father’s. At the end of the day, he could not beat the record. What was wrong with that man? Evil marks.

A spiritual mark can have good or bad smell. Somebody with the mark of sweet smell would always be favoured while somebody who has the mark of bad smell would always experience misfortune. One man complained to me saying, "Sir, pray for me, I don’t know why I get mad at my wife anytime I see her." He could not explain why he got angry with her whenever she was around. The problem was that she had a mark of bad odour on her. A spiritual mark can also manifest in form of positive or negative magnet. The positive magnet will magnetize goodness while the negative one will magnetize evil. Evil marks can also be used to monitor a person. Psalm 56:6 says,

"They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul."

This means that the enemy monitors people’s activities through the marks to get at them.

Evil spiritual marks can attract evil arrows. Lamentations 3:12 says, "He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow."

Spiritual marks are generally on the foreheads, hands and legs. Ezekiel 9:4 says,

"And the Lord said unto him, go through the most of the city (through the most of Jerusalem) and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof."

The Bible also mentions the mark of the anti-Christ in Revelation 13:16 which says, "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads."

It is like when an African in anger says, "Your head is bad." The mark of the anti-Christ is an evidence of one with the greatest "bad head" because it is a sign of eternal destruction. An evil mark may be on somebody’s feet and anywhere he goes he introduces problem there for example, financial lack and terrible misfortunes. Experience has shown that sometimes, when you lay your hands on the heads of some people and begin to challenge them aggressively with the fire of God, they become dizzy or their bodies will begin to vibrate.

People with satanic marks are often hunted by demons. There was a man of God who went to the cemetery to conduct the funeral service of a woman who had nine children for five different men before she died. The man of God took pains to read out the names of all the children and their respective fathers. Why did the late woman live such a life? Evil marks were at work in her life.. Anti-marriage marks is the reason many men and women find it hard to settle down in marriage, no matter how good looking or rich they may be. Others have marks of periodic sorrow which cause problems for them occasionally.

Those marks that you cannot explain how they came to your body are spiritual marks.

People can be divided into two groups:

Those with the mark of the Lord and those with evil marks. Some people have the mark of the Lord on their lives while others have the mark of the devil. So, the concern of this message is to pray specifically against all evil marks. Gen. 4:9-15 says,

"And the Lord said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: am I my brother’s keeper? And he said, what hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, It shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, Lest any finding him should kill him."

The mark was to retain Cain alive so that he would not die before his time and his punishment would be cut short. Also Malachi 3:18 says,

"Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not."

In Ezekiel 9, we have a wonderful story of when God issued judgment on Israel and only the wicked ones were destroyed. To implement this, God sent His angels to put marks on the foreheads of those who were on His side. The most important question now is, do you have the mark of God upon your life? God told the Israelites during the first Passover in Egypt; "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." Jesus said, "I know my sheep and my sheep know my voice, a stranger they would not follow." A blessed man would have a blessed mark on him while a confused man would have the mark of confusion.

Evil marks can come on one in several ways:

1.They could come as a result of concoctions drank by one’s mother when the person was in the womb. Or through baths she took at the beach. Problems start as soon as a person collects evil marks no matter where he is because evil spirits will always locate him through the marks.

2. A person can obtain evil marks by decision. It is like the story of a boy, who after failing JAMB examination three times, decided to follow somebody to the burial ground to acquire means of passing the examination the fourth time. At the end of the day, he passed the examination and got admitted into the university. But he eventually ran mad during his final year.

3. One can also receive mark through inheritance.

4. Another way of getting evil marks is through corrupting the image of God. The Bible says that God created man in His own image. When you are looking at a new born baby, you are looking at an innocent and pure image of God. But any evil treatment given to that image invites the marks of the enemy. This explains why the Bible is against incisions, bleaching of the skin, putting holes in the ears, sexual perversion, etc. Those with tribal marks must pray to wipe out the effect of those marks on their lives. God in His infinite wisdom knows why He made you the way you are. Any attempt to alter the original image of God in your life amounts to corruption.

Nobody who bleaches his skin can receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit and his chances of getting to heaven is slim unless he repents, makes restitution and prays. If God wanted your fingers and lips to be coloured, He would have done it right from your mother’s womb.

5. Following after the pattern of your parents’ ungodly lifestyle will invite evil marks to your life. I Corinthians 5:5 says, " To deliver such a one unto satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus"

This passage shows that the devil can have a hold on the flesh or body of a believer even though his spirit is saved.

When Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden, they were covered with the glory of God and did not need to put on any clothes. But when the glory of God departed from them, they began to engage in all kinds of corruption. It is lack of the glory of God that makes people to bleach their skin, perm their hair and perforate their ears. Before now, it was only those who had water and familiar spirits problems that put on chains on their legs in this part of the world. But nowadays, people wear chains on their legs in the name of fashion and end up putting themselves into bondage.

Many people invite unnecessary troubles into their lives by putting on demonic things which they do not bother to find out their origin. They forget that the Bible says that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, on earth and underneath the earth. I have prayed with numberless women who were not enjoying their marriages because of a ring or chain. I have also witnessed wedding rings disappearing from many people’s fingers after some aggressive prayers. This is why we wed couples with only the Bible in the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries and not rings. Since no herbalist or power of darkness can steal the Bible, such marriages can never be stolen.

6. Sometimes, evil spiritual marks are given to people in their dreams. It is a pity that the devil makes sure that some people cannot remember their dreams so that they will not be able to do anything about the evil things he plants in their lives in the dream. God speaks to people through dreams and satan harms people through dreams as well. Therefore it is not a good thing if you see or hear nothing when you sleep. If that is your case, you need to pray because it is a sign of an evil mark.

The only people who are completely free from evil marks are those who have never been involved with dark powers in any way. They are those who live consistent holy lives and are watched by the angels of the living God. If you want to get an idea of how angels operate, you take a look at the way soldiers and policemen do their parades on special occasions. The orderliness of these colourful parades are nothing compared with how the angels of God operate. If you run to Jesus, every evil mark on your life would be cleared, for He is the only one that has the power to erase evil marks completely from a person’s life.

Evil marks are not to be commanded to come out like evil spirits, they are to be rubbed off. Acts 7:22 makes us to understand why the devil struggled so hard for the soul of Moses after his death. "And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and indeed."

This is telling us that Moses was learned in all the magic, witchcraft and other mystic things of Egypt. No wonder we come across things like incisions and other form of abominable things in his books.

Other signs of evil marks are the following:

1. Masturbation.

2. Prostitution.

3. Addiction.

4. Incurable diseases.

5. Forgetfulness.

6. Interest in pornography.

7. Inability to forsake fornication.

8. Lack of progress in life.

2 Corinthians 7:1 says, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."

I am sure it is clear to us that the book of Corinthians was written only for Christians and not for unbelievers. So we are told here that there could be filth both in the flesh and in the spirit. No wonder one of our wonderful hymns says, "Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Have you been washed in the blood of the lamb?..."It is when the whole of your being is dipped in the blood of the lamb that all evil marks will disappear.

I was in a prayer meeting sometime ago where God opened my eyes to see a chain hung on the neck of a man. When I moved closer to him, I could not see the chain. When I started to wonder, the Lord told me that it was spiritual chain. I asked him who he was and where he come from. And he said he was a pastor of a church. I told him he was having a chain on his neck and he confirmed that his grand mother gave him one a very long time ago which was at home. I counselled him to go and destroy the chain, but he called it a "false doctrine" Then I told him that his inability to see the truth was another mark of its own because the enemy had blinded him from the truth.

If you notice that failure has been trailing you physically, spiritually and financially, you must take this message seriously. If you can pray aggressively now, all the evil marks on your life will be replaced by good ones. I pray that God will help you as you do so, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer Points

1. I cover myself with the blood of Jesus, in Jesus’ name.

2. (Grip your head with your two hands) With the blood of Jesus, I wash my head clean, in the name of Jesus.

3. Every mark of failure, infirmity and defeat on my life, be rubbed off with the blood of Jesus, in Jesus’ name.

4. (Put one hand on your head and the other on your stomach) Every satanic mark, be erased by the blood of Jesus, in Jesus’ name.

5. Father Lord, take your heavenly sponge and give me Your own bath, in Jesus' name.

6. From henceforth, let no one trouble me for I have the mark of the Lord, in Jesus’ name.

7. Evil marks go, good marks come, in the name of Jesus.

8. Every evil mark that has been removed from my life, be gone for ever, in Jesus’ name.

GOD OF ELIJAH
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Beloved, the intent and purpose of our message this week is to appreciate our Lord God from the view point of that great prophet, Elijah. You will recall that it is written that Elijah was a man of like passion as you and I, yet our Lord God manifested Himself in his life in such extraordinary ways that sometimes makes one wonder why such responses from God are not so common today. What was it about Elijah that distinguished him from the rest and made God so endeared to him? You will discover as you read along. Our first scripture is taken from 2 Kings 2:11-14,

"And it came to pass as they still went on and talked that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire and parted them both asunder and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven: And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof: And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces. He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan. And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and smote the waters and said. "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" And when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither and Elisha went over."

There is a significant position for Elijah in the whole of God’s programme. Look at Malachi 4:5-6 "Behold, I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."

So, if Elijah did not come, the Lord said He will smite the earth with a curse. Luke I : 5-30 tells us the wonderful story of John the Baptist; the way he was conceived and the prophecy about him. For 400 years, God did not speak to anybody and the first time He decided to start talking was through a tremendous and wonderful man called John the Baptist, a fore-runner of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that "There is no prophet greater than him." How can a prophet be greater than a fore runner of the Lord Jesus Christ? It is not possible. Jesus Christ is the fullness of the divine revelation to man. So anybody that came to advertise Him has to be the greatest of the prophets. Luke 1:12-13 says, "And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him. Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John." Then in verse 14, He gave a wonderful prophecy; "Thou shall have joy and gladness: and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb. And many of the children of Israel shall turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." When John the Baptist was born, he was an unusual man. If Elijah and John the Baptist were to be pastors of churches today, I am sure many people will run away from them, be cause fire will fall down on fornicators inside the service, and they will roast there or sinners would be somersaulting at the back for committing an offence against the Lord God of Elijah.

In addition their clothes would be smelling, because they did not change clothes too often neither did they put on perfume, but they had power. Please note, we do not say that people should not have their baths. No, after all, physical cleanliness is said to be a good compliment of godliness. One good thing about the ministry of John the Baptist is that he was a very precise person. He always went straight to the point and his words were like fire. It was John the Baptist that said, "The axe is laid to the root of every tree and any tree that does not bear a good fruit shall be cut down and thrown into fire." He was the one that called the scribes and Pharisees. "You generation of vipers, who asked you to flee from the wrath to come?" Hot messages. Those are the kinds of preachers we need now. The Elijah kind of message, the Elijah kind of spirit, the Elijah kind of power; the spirit of violence in the kingdom. Those are the kinds of people we need to operate in our generation. The church of God is not looking for cosmetologists or powerful dressers, what we need in the house of God now, are surgeons who would take knife and cut her through. It may be painful but these are the kind of pastors that we need now whose messages are the messages of the last days. The message of John the Baptist was "Any tree that does not bear good fruit shall be cut down and thrown into the fire." And God is still doing that now. All the useless trees growing in the house of God, all the useless ministers, useless workers, useless members, that are all over the places are now being cut down and removed as the last days are here. Where do you stand? That is the question.

When Jesus was leaving the earth, his disciples did not know the kind of kingdom that Jesus came for. They asked foolish and political questions like, "O Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" It was painful to Jesus. They were all looking for different things just as there were many people at the cross who only came to spectate. Even when Jesus was on earth, they were looking for the wrong things. Somebody like the thief, Judas Iscariot also would have said, "When will this man take over the government and make somebody like me a governor, so that I can steal money." Judas knew that Jesus had power to take over because several times they wanted to make Jesus king but he ran away. Judas knew that he had that power to rule if he so desired. But Jesus was not interested in ruling, so when he saw that his desires and ambitions were failing, he went and betrayed him. His inordinate ambitions had blinded him from seeing the real blessings that Jesus came for.

The other disciples too like John and his brother were more occupied with sitting at the right hand and at the left hand of God, in the kingdom of Heaven when they were still living here on earth. They wanted promotion without work, their cares were more in their personal glory. People like Thomas, as an academic man rationalised everything; he could not even believe the words of his own master as to his return. Someone like Peter did not want Jesus to die for ever: They were all selfish. There are some people in the church who work hard only when they see the General Overseer. That is "Eye service." It shows they are not serious. I hope you are not like that; "Show-glass Christians."

Jesus told them that it was not for you to know the time and season, the Father Almighty has fixed by His authority to return the kingdom to Israel. Jesus said it was not for them to know but that they shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon them, and they shall be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and unto the utter most part of the earth. After the Pentecost, they did not preach the kind of message Jesus wanted them to preach in Jerusalem. The only man that preached the correct message of the spirit and power like Elijah was one man called Stephen. By the time he finished, people were grinding their teeth. The Bible says, they put their fingers in their ears; they did not want to hear anymore of what Stephen had to say and they pounced on him at the same time at the command of the devil.

Unfortunately beloved, what many of us want, is not what we need. The Bible says, the time is coming when they shall no longer listen to sound doctrine, but they shall look for their own preachers who will be tickling their ears and be exciting them; a sinner is jumping up on one leg and shouting on stage and preaching cute messages and people just love him for that. A satanic deception and error of the last days. It is that message we need now and it is with the same spirit and power that we can operate in the last days. Elijah operated at a time when the powers of darkness had completely paralyzed Israel so much that they threw down the altars of God and forgot about serving God. So, when Elijah ended up at the celebrated contest at Mount Camel, the first thing he did was to repair the altar of God that had been broken down. They had forgotten the worship of Yahweh and were worshiping Baal. That was the level Israel got to and Ahab was in-charge. Ahab was a female-man controlled by his demonic wife, Jezebel who brought the demon from her country and established it in the whole place. That was the time Elijah came. We need that kind of ministry now; the ministry of fire and power and for us to have it, we must work harder than we are doing now. If you have spent a year or two in MFM and you can still sit down and say, "I do not know why this person is making face at me," God have mercy on you. For how long will you tarry in the primary school department of faith? When will you grow above malice, envy, playing with your enemies and leaving your target to fight shadows? Think about it. We are supposed to move in that kind of ministry. Our shadows are supposed to chase demons. That is how the God of Elijah operates. When we are passing by, witches and wizards are supposed to be hiding from us. Our houses should be so charged that it is only a witch that wants to commit suicide that will decide to fly over them. Even the saliva from our mouths should become fire and if you spit the saliva on the floor and somebody decides to collect the sand and use it for evil purpose, it would explode in his hands. This is how God wants us to move.

I remember the church I was many years ago. Everybody knew that anytime we gathered for service, we were at the war front. I find it difficult to believe today, how a serious man of God can wear a whole 10 yards of clothes (agbada) that makes it difficult for him to move and he is busy folding it up and down when there is a lot of work to do. In that church, if you wore agbada (African design) there, you would carry a demon home. If you want to survive in that kind of place, you have to be on fire just like any man of God that wants to survive now. The issue of fornication and adultery are supposed to have disappeared from your life as a believer. But if you are still battling with these, you cannot be in the last day army. In that place, when we start praying, unbelievers became afraid of taking the bridge by the back of our church. Only born again Christians could use the bridge. Some of them even started speaking in tongues without being our members.

Instead of evil people running from one herbalist to the other looking for how to deal with a Christian, the reverse is the case. It is Christians that are running around seeking for counselling against evil spirits. Your lot as a believer is that if somebody takes your case to herbalists, they will refuse to work with your name. Why is it that many of us have never even seen one single angel in our dream, let alone recognising them physically. Whereas in those days when they lock people up, angels come to set them free. Why? It is because we are not consecrated enough. We have been wrongly programmed.

 

What do we do?

We need to call on the God of Elijah. And when we call upon Him, things will begin to happen. Many of us need to be touched a second time. That you have been speaking in tongues for five years will not help you. You need to collect a new fire. Let fresh fire of the Almighty start to burn in your life. Drop the primary school things. The Bible says some people when they are supposed to be adults, are still babies. At such time they are supposed to be teachers, they themselves need to be taught the basics of the doctrine of Christ. There are some of us who used to be healthy before, but now they are sick. Such people still carry tablets in their bags when they come to spiritual clinics. Some used to see visions of heaven and the Lord Jesus but now it is bad dreams or slender beautiful women. Believers who are meant to vomit fire on the enemies are eating in their dreams and seeing the dead. Some used to hear music from heaven; but now they are hearing strange noises. God used to speak to some people clearly before but now they hear very little. We need to call on the God of Elijah.

Elijah was an important prophet in the Old and New Testament. Although we do not know much about his parents, yet he made history in the name of the Lord. He was the first prophet to announce that there will be drought to punish God’s enemies. He was the first prophet to lock up heaven and put the key in his pocket and said, "There will be no rain except by my word;" the first prophet to multiply food, raise the dead, pray for immediate rain, write a death letter to a king and the first prophet to call down fire. When Elijah had gone by a whirlwind to heaven, his servant was stuck at a place called "Jordan." He could not build a bridge to pass nor swim over. He was in trouble and could not do anything. He would have been destroyed by wild animals but then he screamed, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" And as he did that, that God answered.

 

Who then is the Lord God of Elijah?

1. The Lord God of Elijah is the one that makes a way where there is no way. He can path your Jordan so that you can cross over.

2. The God that multiplies with nothing.

3. The God that brings the visible out of the invisible.

4. The God that can provide for His people by humanly impossible means. The Lord God of Elijah was the one that fed Elijah through the ravens.

5. He is the one who looks after all those who loose themselves in Him, like the widow of Zarephat.

6. He is the God of resurrection. He gave power unto dead bones, and they came alive again.

7. He is the Lord that can give supernatural strength. Elijah ran 30 miles by feet and the chariots could not catch up with him. The Lord of supernatural energy.

8. The Lord God of Elijah is the God that answereth by fire.

May be you are at the end of the road now and a particular problem seems to have caged you in, call on the Lord God of Elijah, let Him answer by fire. One big truth is that the man who can really pray has nothing to fear. Lots of people are at the point of despair and the Bible does not want anybody to despair. Sometime ago, a sister was planning to move out of her husband’s house because they were barely able to eat half a meal a day. Her salary and that of her husband put together would not even pay the house rent let alone buy food. The husband was praying for breakthrough. One day, in anger, he called on the God of Elijah to answer by fire before going to work. He could speak Arabic and English languages. His work was to serve food in a Restaurant.

One day, an Arab came to eat in the Restaurant and could not place his orders because he could not speak English. So, this brother helped him out. And the man was happy to meet somebody who could speak Arabic. As he was eating, he called this brother and wanted to give him another job after asking for his salary. The Arab offered him a job as his interpreter with a salary of 1,000 pounds a day. The brother thought he was joking. The Arab paid him a month in advance and so the brother resigned and they left together. When the brother got home and showed madam the money; madam ran mad. She could not believe him for ten minutes.

That is what happens when a person decides to call upon the God of Elijah. He will always answer by fire. You are going to call on the Lord God of Elijah like Elisha did when he was by his own River Jordan. You might have arrived at your own River Jordan and enemies are laughing at you and asking you to show them what your God can do. It is also good to tell them, "I serve the God that answereth by Fire."

PRAYER POINTS

1. I will not reap any satanic harvest, in the name of Jesus.

2. Untouchable power, indestructible power and unchallengeable power, fall upon my life now, in the name of Jesus.

3. Let the fire of the Almighty God soak my hands now, in the name of Jesus.

4. Let fire come down and suppress all my oppressors, in the name of Jesus.

5. Let the God of Elijah divide my Jordan, in the name of Jesus.

6. Lord God of Elijah, convert my disappointments to miracles, in the name of Jesus.

7. Lord God of Elijah, sack all those who are sitting on my seat, in the name of Jesus.

8. Lord God of Elijah, bring the visible out of the invisible for me, in the name of Jesus.

Sing "The God that answereth by fire, He will be my God."

9. Lord God of Elijah, paralyse every household wickedness, in the name of Jesus.

Sing,"Let there be glory, and honour and praises, glory and honour to Jesus, let there be glory, let there be honour, glory and honour to Him."

10. Lord God of Elijah, remove inherited limitations from my life, in Jesus’ name.

  DISGRACING THE EVIL GATES
By Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Beloved, our message for this week entitled, "Disgracing The Evil Gates" is a message that will spell great disaster to all your enemies. So, I implore you to read it with full concentration. Genesis 22:17 says, "That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies."

Psalm 107:16 says, "For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder."

Matthew 16:18 says, "And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." In these three scriptures, the word gate is very prominent.

Beloved, it is time for many of us to wake up from what I call satanic slumber, and unless we decide to storm the camp of the enemy, plunder his gates and bring him to submission, it will be impossible for us to enjoy our benefits. If we do not become spiritually violent, the sons of disobedience will take over our benefits. If you read your Bible very well, you will see that gates were made at the entrance of cities (1 Kings 17), it could be to a house (Acts 3), to temples (Acts 3), to prisons (Acts 12), to camps (Exodus 32), by the beach to some rivers (Nahum 2) and to palaces (Esther 5).

In the Bible, important discussions were held at the gates of cities. The courts of justice were usually at the gates. When people wanted to sell their land or to redeem it, they did the transactions at the gates. Incantations that would affect the whole city were made at the gates. Conferences were held at the gates. When someone was to be commended for something publicly, it was done at the gate. When there was war, the enemy’s first area of concentration was at the gate of the cities. Therefore, they normally placed experienced officers at the gates. There are some examples where idolatrous rites were performed at the gates. Even criminals were punished at the gates. These gates were shut at night.

What are gates in the Bible?

A gate is a meeting place of wicked spirits and wicked men. It is a place of assembly, a place of dissemination of information and deliberation. It is also a place of decision and action. As we have physical gates, there are also spiritual gates. This implies that a spiritual gate is a place of meeting to plan wickedness, destruction, and a place of satanic assembly. It is a satanic house of parliament, where the devil assembles demons and territorial spirits for wicked purposes. We also know that it is at the gates that entrances to and exits from cities are regulated. A gate then is the totality of the government, economic and social life of a city. In the scripture, it is a very significant place. Genesis 28: 10-17 says, "And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went towards Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed. And behold a ladder was set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it, and, behold, the Lord stood above it and said. I am the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed: and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth and shall spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and said, Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

How did that place become the gate of heaven? Very simple. Genesis 12:7 says, "And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him." In that place Abraham had already built an altar to the Lord. So, altars are spiritual gateways that permit spiritual traffic. Therefore the altar that Abraham built there many years ago became the gate of heaven, a place of spiritual traffic. It was an altar to the Almighty God. Immediately you erect an altar for the Almighty God, you open the gates of heaven. No wonder Jacob said, "This is none other than the house of God and the gates of heaven" because the angels were moving up and down there. Supposing when Abraham got there, he erected an altar to the devil instead, Jacob would have seen a different thing. It would have been a traffic of demons going in and out. Therefore, altars and shrines which are so common in our environments are gates opened to demons. When an altar is erected against you, then a demonic traffic channel is put in place and demons will keep going up and down in your life. The gate of evil will continuously release evil angels into a person’s life. When you offer plantain, oranges and all kinds of fruits to demons in what you call a church, a gate is opened directly into that house of demons and they will come in and out as they like. There was a time when we did not have financial problems in Nigeria. Then, our leaders said that our problem was not money but how to spend it. So, in 1977 we invited idols from different parts of Africa here and they all came with different gates. We are still closing the gates. We have not yet finished closing them. Sometime ago, some brethren were given prayer points to pray at Festac and the first thing they did was to cancel the name Festac and changed it to Favour city. It is a place for the remembrance of the days when Nigeria invited demons and idols into her shores. There was even a time we had the Festac symbol on our money. While other countries were having things like ‘In God we trust’ on their money, we had the head of an idol on ours. We opened the gates to poverty through our money. This issue of gate is so serious that Psalm 24:7 says, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory, the Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory." To declare the gates open requires a man of battle, the Lord mighty in battle. Jesus had to go to the gates of hell to fight, to complete our redemption and to take the key of that place from the enemy for our benefits to be released. That passage which says, "I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," can be interpreted, ‘I will build my church and the satanic house of parliament will not prevail against it.’ We have opened a lot of demonic gates in our land. There are cities in this country where you find a shrine practically at the back of every house. So they open gates, and when the demons finish dealing with those in the village, they take the addresses of those who are in the cities all over the world and start pursuing them. I know a brother whose father married six wives. Each wife had her own idol that she brought into the compound and the man too had his own. Life was a mess for this brother. At night, he would be hearing strange sounds. He always failed at the edge of success and as a result, he developed high blood pressure. He was almost killed before his time. He was not a Christian then, so he tried to run away from the country. He got a passport but could not travel because he could not get a visa. In fact, they warned him not to come to the embassy again, so he took a sailor’s passport, went abroad as a sailor and got married. One night he had a dream where a big dog was pursuing him. He jumped, the dog jumped. He crawled, the dog crawled. He went to a place where dogs could not enter, but was surprised when he got there, the dog landed on him. He screamed and opened his eyes. Immediately, he realised that they had got him, and the next morning, he got a letter from Nigeria. He did not know how the people who had not seen him for ten years got his address. The first thing he did was to look for the sender’s address and he saw the address of his family house here in Nigeria. The next day, beloved, some police men came, brought a document and asked him why he signed it. He explained that he did not know then that it was an offence to sign such a document. He was still wearing his jeans shorts when he was repatriated to Nigeria. No matter how far away you may be, if the gates have been opened and they are not closed, the enemies will locate you. The Bible tells us that the habitation of darkness is full of wickedness.

There are a lot of wicked things done in the dark. At these gates, they operate in darkness. Some gates are in isolated places such as water, rock, Iroko trees, etc. Many of us would have heard stories of roads, cars and houses inside Iroko trees, and buildings under the water. No one knows for certain the exact location and time of demonic meetings, only God knows. I have seen a small girl confessing that she and her demonic group held meetings inside her mother’s fridge in the house. No wonder the woman never made profit from her soft drink business because those who came for the meeting finished the soft drinks before she started selling. If you have previously been to dark or occult meetings, you really need to pray because you need a lot of cleansing.

A sister thought that she had found a very handsome man, and all her colleagues were hailing her for capturing that kind of man and she was happy. One day, mistakenly, the man unbuttoned his shirt and on his stomach was an engraved picture of a scorpion. When the sister inquired what that was, he quickly buttoned his shirt. She insisted that he should open it and he said, "If I open it, you will become one of us. This is an altar." She left him and the next day, wrote a letter to him cancelling the relationship. But right from that day, scorpions started pursuing her everywhere she went. Why? A gate had been opened and scorpions were released. Why do you think they operate at night mostly? Because they want to maintain their secrecy. Therefore pray like this: Every hidden thing done against me in the night, be frustrated, in Jesus’ name.

Those who meet at evil gates are into powerful covenants of destruction. Isaiah 28:14 says, "Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, we have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us. For we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves; therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgement also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it."

 

Some of their characteristics are:

1. Satanic confidence. It is believers who are afraid of death. Those who operate at the evil gates are not. That is why they can enter into a vehicle and cause it to have accident, because they have covenants with death. But the Bible says that that covenant shall be disannulled and their agreement with hell shall not stand. Some people wonder why enemies are harassing them since they have done nothing to them. Somebody wrote me a letter saying that he got married to somebody when he was not yet born-again. Since he got born-again, each time he took prayer points home to pray, the woman would run out of the bedroom. One day, the woman got angry, grabbed the paper containing the prayer points, tore it and commanded him not to pray like that again. The man memorised his prayer points and continued to pray. One day, their bed got broken and madam fell on the floor and started confessing that she belonged to a group where everybody was meant to donate her husband. She had wanted to donate her husband but he was "undonatable." She had to die as a replacement, and she died. At this juncture, let me ask you this question, "Are you donatable?"

2. They enter into strong agreements.

3. They are very stubborn. They try to endure the bombardment of the fire of God. So when you pray, ‘Receive fire, receive fire,’ they will try to endure it believing that very soon you will stop.

A man almost got his name in the Guinness Book of Records. He shot at a snake which was supposed to be the longest snake in the world. The bullet entered the snake and it was rolling in pain. Suddenly there was blood all over the place and the snake cut off the part of its body that was hit and disappeared. When you say, ‘I bind you in the name of Jesus.’ Of course, they are bound, but they would be struggling to get away. They can be that stubborn. So you must be ready to fight to defeat them. David the warrior took five stones when he wanted to fight against Goliath, meaning that in case the first one missed him, the second one would hit him. But thank God, by the time he threw the first one, he threw something more dangerous than a stone. He said, "...I come against you in the name of the Lord God of the armies of Israel..." Immediately he said that, Goliath was finished.

4. They operate a clever network. They gather information from their various units and pass them to their headquarters. They have a spying system which they use to spy on every home, business, marriage, etc. There is something known as bugging a telephone. When someone bugs your telephone, it means he uses a device to listen to what you say on the phone. Many lives are being bugged like that. The bugging devices include evil marks, wicked incisions, satanic decorations, occult materials at home, jewelry that are spiritually contaminated, objects with bad spirits attached to them, all the snakes and ladder games, the demon on the ‘Whot’ and ordinary cards, all the demonic crosses that people wear on their necks, stolen clothes, wedding rings, stolen menstrual pads, etc. All these things are used by them to collect information about people.

5. Lying. The Bible makes us to know that the devil is a liar and the father of all lies. At the gate, they manipulate people into lying. If you attempt to build anything on the foundation of lies or half-truth, it will not stand. Lying will disturb God’s guidance over your life. Lying would cause you to take steps that are not right for you. It would produce greater loss to you than whatever gain you made by indulging in it. For every lie a person tells, the person will need another lie to cover it. The trouble with liars, is that when they see the truth coming, they run away. This is why liars panic a lot. Liars are chameleons. From the gate they manipulate people to tell lies, and once they succeed, they will use it to grab them. So when you are lying, you make yourself a child of the father of all lies, the devil. You build a foundation of sand for your life, you take over the ground floor of hell fire, you attract liars to yourself and will have a lack of understanding. It is a strategy of the demons at the gate. Eventually people end up in bondage and God will still punish them. Then the lies will eventually come back to the person who ends up a failure, and this bad habit is transferred to his offspring. Whatever profit you make from lying, at the end of the day, you will vomit it.

6. They create demonic landing places or anchors in people’s lives. They start on people at a very young age. For example, were you greatly embarrassed when you were a child? Can you see a pattern of sadness which began early in your life and built up on each other? Do you have difficulty recording anything about your childhood? If you find out that your childhood was totally blank to you, it is their work. They do not want you to remember so you cannot work on it.

Do you sometimes dislike yourself and wish you were someone else? It is their work. Do you have unreasonable fears? Do you have a recurring memory of something that someone did to you in the past which was very bad, and it still troubles you when you think about it? Do you over-react to things? All these are their handwork.

 

HOW TO DEAL WITH EVIL GATES

1. The first step is true repentance. Any true repentance will bring godly sorrow. Repent for opening the gates to the enemy. If you are not born-again, you cannot deal with evil gates.

2. Revelation. You need to have a revelation. Ezekiel 8 : 5- 6 says, "Then said he unto me, son of man, lift up thine eyes now towards the way north. So I lifted up mine eyes towards the way of the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar is image of jealousy in the entry. He said furthermore unto me, son of man, seesth thou what they do? Even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations." And Ezekiel began to look. Verse 11 says, "And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every one his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up." You need to pray for revelation because it was through revelation that Ezekiel was able to see what the ancients of Israel were doing in the dark.

3. Disband the evil gathering using Isaiah 8 : 9 - 10 which says, "Associate yourself, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces, and give ear; all ye of far countries; gird yourselves and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, it shall come to nought, speak the word, and it shall not stand; for God is with us."

4. Declare the gates closed by the blood of Jesus. Close them so that there will no longer be any traffic working against you.

5. Pull down and destroy the gates. The Bible says that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty even to the pulling down of strongholds.

6. Pursue the demons at the evil traffic and recover your stolen materials.

7. Forbid the re-establishment of evil gates in your life. Make this declaration: "You cannot re-establish yourselves in my life, in Jesus’ name."

 

PRAYER POINTS

1. O Lord, inject battle aggression into my spirit now, in Jesus’ name.

2. O Lord, empower me to possess the gates of my enemies, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

3. I uproot every evil altar, in the name of Jesus.

4. Let the counsel of God for my life be enforced upon the enemy, in Jesus’ name.

5. Every chain used to hold down my progress, be roasted, in Jesus’ name.

6. Let every word anointed by evil spirits against me, fall down to the ground and die, in the name of Jesus.

7. Every agent of spiritual and prosperity paralysis, be dismantled now, in the name of Jesus.

8. Let life be squeezed out of my dream attackers, in the name of Jesus.

9. Every evil cabinet installed against me, be disbanded, in the name of Jesus.

10. O Lord, install your agenda for my life, whether the devil likes it or not, in the name of Jesus.

11. Let every power of household wickedness be confounded and be put to shame, in the name of Jesus.

 Jokers on the Battlefield
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Who is a joker? A joker is somebody who is generally not serious or who should not be taken seriously. At a particular night vigil which was attended by about 200 people, there was somebody who was a tough child of the devil. He was very effective because his spiritual eyes were open. He had what you could call "X-ray eyes." X-ray eyes give satanic people the ability to look at you straight in the eyes and know your spiritual level as a Christian without consulting anything. So, as the people at the night vigil were singing a popular song which describes satanic powers as powerless power, this man with the demonic x-ray eyes could see that if these powers referred to as powerless powers should come there, only about one third of those singing could successfully counter them. This means that two third of them at the vigil were spiritual jokers fooling themselves as far as warfare is concerned.

As far as God is concerned, there are many jokers on the battlefield of life. It is so serious that God actually concluded that some of them are as good as dead men, i.e. corpses on the battlefield. Revelation 3:1 says: "And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write: These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead" As far as God was concerned, those people did not exist. They were corpses on the battlefield or jokers at the battlefront. In the eyes of the satanic powers too, they are jokers. The worst spiritual jokers are those who do not know and do not agree that they do not know. There are other jokers; those who know but do not even know that they know.

Who are the greatest jokers?

Deuteronomy 32:29 says: "O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!" The greatest fools are those who do not think about the end. They are only concerned about the present. No matter what a man is today, everything ceases to operate immediately he stops breathing. Many people have the erroneous impression that it is only old people that die quick. But the young die too. It is unfortunate that the only time some people think about the inevitable end is when they see a funeral procession or when they pass by a cemetery.

There was a sister who by the time she died, had 670 dresses and 300 pairs of shoes in her wardrobe. Only one of those dresses was used to bury her, all the others were useless to her. It is a pity that many people die like fools. It is better not to have been born at all than for somebody to fail to make eternity. It is a big disaster to be unprepared for judgement. That is why that song writer says, "It is sad to face the judgement unprepared, because judgement will find you the way death finds you." We know that death generally does not give any warning. Your being born into this world is your opportunity to prove to God that you are qualified for heaven. It is a beginning from which there is no return. There is no reverse journey in life, even with the so-called "ogbanjes," who they claim come back to life after death. It is a lie of the devil. It is a demon power or familiar spirit that enters into the baby each time the mother gets pregnant, to manipulate the baby as soon as he is born. Death is a commitment from which there is no escape.

A scientist can discover all kinds of medication to stop all kinds of problems, but when the scientist himself is having problems, and cannot help himself, it then becomes a very serious problem. The other time they brought a doctor to me, I perceived immediately that the devil had dealt with him. I asked him if he had tried to treat himself. He said, "yes, but there has been no solution." So, I told him, "It is good for you to know that there is something greater than medical knowledge, something greater than your certificate, and for you to know of the existence of another doctor who can do more than a medical doctor." We prayed. The Lord touched him and he was healed. Here was a doctor who was keeping people from dying but could not help himself. When he found that he was dying, he had to look for help from the source of life - Jesus.

When you are born, you commence on a journey from this world to the next. That journey must be continued to the end. So, it is utter foolishness for any man to presume that he can find God on his death bed, God gives no guarantee to foolishness. If you are neglecting the opportunity God is giving to you, you are rejecting His grace. If you are resisting His divine call, it is spiritual suicide. As far as the spiritual world is concerned, there is no sudden destruction. It is always a gradual process. For example, if you are sleeping with anybody outside marriage, it is spiritual suicide. You are killing yourself gradually and making the enemy to rejoice.

The greatest jokers are those who do not think. They are people with logs in their eyes who are struggling to pick out the specks in other people’s eyes. Sometime ago, a sister came to me and said, "Help me to pray, I want to get married." I asked her to bring her fiance. But her fiancée said that he would not see any pastor. While I was praying for her, I saw a strange thing: the sister was dressed glamourously in a wedding dress while the man she was to marry was looking like a small boy by her side. She was stooping down to hold his hand. I asked the Lord what that meant and He said that the sister was marrying a baby. Two years after the marriage, the man started chasing the sister with cutlass and later with a gun.

There are many jokers in the house of God. They are Christians, born again for a long time, and they claim to have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, yet they are being pursued everyday in the dream, and there is no power in them to withstand the pursuers. There is nothing in their subconsciousness to make them say, "I bind you, in the name of Jesus." They are jokers at the war front. They do not even bother to find out why their pursuers succeed. If you dealt with whosoever are attacking you in the spirit, they won’t come back. If they see you in the morning, they will run. The fact that they are not running away from you shows that something is wrong. As a sister, why should a demonic mother-in-law come into your home and say, "Well, I will make sure I get you out of this house," and she succeeds? Something is wrong. How can evil people be carrying a Christian to witchcraft meetings and he comes back weak and tired, or is terribly sick. Something is wrong. Psalm 78: 9-10 says: "The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law."

It is wonderful to belong to a living church where the truth is preached. Every information given to you by the Holy Ghost is to make you a better soldier of the Lord. The children of Ephraim were highly privileged. They got trained and were given arms, but they went to the battle front and turned back. What a tragedy? The children of Ephraim disappointed our Commander-in-Chief. Ephraim looked tough with his weapon and good on the outside but was a failure inside. No wonder Jesus lamented in Luke 11:39: "And the Lord said unto him, now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness?" This lamentation shows the true picture of many of us today: Broken outside, while the inside is ungodly, beautiful outside but unserious inside. Such people are jokers as far as God is concerned. A sister was working as a secretary in London. One day, she worked late and three of her female colleagues walked up to her and asked, "When are you coming to the meeting?" She said, "Which meeting?" They said, "You are one of us, never mind, your marks are being compiled."

When the sister got home, she asked the Lord to explain to her what those ladies were saying. The Lord said, "They told you the truth, you are one of them." If a person has a familiar spirit and is confessing that Jesus has delivered him from the power of darkness and has translated him into His light, while his heart is still dirty, still belongs to the camp of the enemy. Sometime ago, I watched a mile race. As the athletes warmed up, at the extreme of the track was a very big and muscular man. Many people believed that the big and muscular man would not have any problem winning the race. But to everyone’s amazement, he collapsed shortly and they had to feed him with glucose to revive him. At the end of the day, it was a hungry looking man that won the race. So, it is not a question of being big and beautiful, but a question of having power. That is why Jesus says that not all that call Him Lord, Lord, shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. He says, "Some shall come unto me on that day saying, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not heal the sick and raise the dead?" But He will say, "Sorry, I do not know you, your name is not recorded in my book of life." You may say, "Lord, but I was a chorister," He will say, "Yes, but you sang with a dirty heart." You may say, "I was a house-fellowship leader," but you did it with envy." You may say I was a pastor. He will say, "But your eyes could not cease from adultery." You may say "I was a bus evangelist," He will say, "But you were beating up your wife at home." The Lord will not permit any unrighteousness.

Before somebody can prophesy, raise the dead, heal the sick, etc, he must have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. But a lot of people will do all these and still go to hell fire. That was the tragedy of Ephraim. The first time he came to battle armed, he failed. Look at what happened the second time in II Chronicle 25:7-10: "But there came a man of God to him saying, O King, let not the army of Israel go with thee, for the Lord is not with Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim. But if thou will go, do it, be strong for the battle, God shall make thee fall before the enemy, for God hath power to help, and to cast down. And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered. The Lord is able to give thee much more than this. Then Amaziah separated them to wit, the army that was come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again..."

This time around, it was God who disqualified Ephraim. The divine summary of the life of Ephraim is that:

-Ephraim was good on the outside but bad inside.

-Ephraim was no longer dependable.

-The fire of Ephraim had gone out just like the fire of many people have gone out and they are just pretending.

- Ephraim even became a fire quencher like many who are quenching the fire of revival today. If Ephraim goes with you, you will lose because the Bible says so. The Bible makes us to understand that though he wears an armour, God has abandoned him without his knowing it. He has been judged without his knowing it.

-Ephraim was a walking corpse. A dead man cannot go to battle.

-Ephraim was a joker.

Saul was another example of a joker. The spirit of God was upon him. But in I Samuel 15, the Spirit of God departed from him, even though he was still a king. He was therefore a fake king. A person can be a very nice signboard, pointing to the right place, while himself is not going in. When Goliath began to challenge the armies of the God of Israel, Saul could not face him because God had dethroned him and the Spirit of the living God had gone out of him. Underneath the uniform of Saul, was a corpse, underneath the uniform of the armies of Israel were corpses. Something now happened to Saul after the spirit of God had departed from him. The Bible says in I Samuel 19: as he was prophesying, he was also rolling on the floor until he became naked, he was still prophesying. Meaning that, two spirits were upon him, the Holy Spirit and the demonic spirit. It is a fearful thing. That is why you could see somebody who speaks in tongues but by the time she sleeps at night, spirit husband will be oppressing her. That weak flesh will eventually drag the spirit into hell fire.

Carnal people are closer to hell fire than they can imagine. This is why many people who speak in tongues may find themselves in hell fire if they are not careful. There are people who speak in tongues every day and yet they are unloving. They keep malice and have envy, jealousy, anger and bitterness in their spirit. The tongues will stand against them on the day of judgement. Many churches today sponsor and promote death. Many church goers listen to dead sermons, pray dead prayers and associate with dead members. There are many dead pastors preaching dead messages to dead churches all over the place. And some of us have decided to glue ourselves to the dead places. If we believers copy the people of the world, we will end up where they are heading to. If there is no difference between them and us, there will be no difference after death.

A lot of people do not involve their churches in their social activities because they know that their pastors will frown at certain things they will want to do. If you are worried about what the world would say about you for being faithful to the Lord, then you are a joker on the battlefield. I pray that God will deliver you from such delusion. As far as heaven is concerned, many present- day Christians are jokers.

Paul said, "No man who warreth, entangleth himself with the affairs of this world, that he may please he who has sent him to fight." Entanglement reduces the power of a Christian so much that when he commands a demon to be bound, the demon would refuse. Our Commander-in- Chief is not happy with us when we are entangled. Are you entangling yourself with what God has delivered you from? Are you thinking about the end? These are questions we must answer.

Amos 4:12 says, "Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." One of the most powerful parables that Jesus told, is the parable of the prosperous fool who had a big harvest and was happy. Then he said to himself, "My soul rise up, drink, eat and be merry for you have food stored up for many days." That was what he was saying, but heaven said; "Fool, tonight you are going and to whom will all these things you are storing up belong to?"

Some people do not attend midweek service because of overtime in the office. They fail to understand that if they fall down in the office and die, the work will continue. You should be prepared to meet God. And like I have been saying, God Himself is a God of preparation. That was why He sent John the Baptist to come and prepare the way for Jesus Christ. Noah preached for one hundred and twenty years. Moses made the Israelites to prepare for the Passover. God himself says, "Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, what the good God has prepared for his people." It will be very sad to miss that preparation. Jesus also says in John 14:2, "In my Father’s house, there are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you..." The Bible makes us to understand that hell was prepared for the devil and his angels.

Below are reasons we need to prepare to meet the Lord.

1. The meeting with God is sure and certain. It is unavoidable. The Bible says that many people will look for death on that final day but will not find it. The day of reckoning will come and you have to explain to God what you have done with your life and what you did with Jesus.

2. The time of the meeting is not made known to man. The uncertainty of time coupled with the certainty of the meeting, makes it important that we prepare. As the world was carrying on during the time of Noah, it will be the same when rapture comes. There will be no time for preparation after this life is over, that is why we preach against procrastination which is the grandfather of failure. No one has a good reason for not preparing. We live in a world where people are planning and preparing things. Some are preparing where to spend there annual leave now, others are preparing how to celebrate some religious, cultural and social meetings. Many are busy making business or education preparation, etc. We are either preparing for heaven or preparing for hell.

These are the two areas, there is no middle ground. There are some people who prepare for heaven on only one day of the week and spend the other days preparing for hell fire. Some are busy praying, "O Lord, provide for me, I want money, I want to marry," when their main prayer should be how to make heaven, because the Bible says, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and it’s righteousness and all the other things shall be added unto it." Prepare, stand firm, be established, be reliable, be steadfast and be determined, that is what it means to be prepared.

We must be very careful. If we are not ready, it means that we are jokers in the battlefield of life. We must not give the enemy points to use against us. Revelation 20:15 says, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Once a person's name is not written in the book of life where the names of the redeemed are written, the person is finished. There is no begging, no bribing, no appeal. The names are written for record purposes and not for fun. Your name may be in your church register or any club’s register, but as long as it is not in the book of life, you will not go to heaven. We may not understand many things about judgement, but one thing is clear: the Judge will make no mistake. Every thing shall be looked at dispassionately according to the word of God. The judge is free from partiality or tribal sentiments. That is why that song writer says, "Lord, I care not for riches, neither silver nor gold. But I will first of all make sure of heaven, I will enter the fold. In the book of your kingdom with its pages so fair. Tell me Jesus, my Saviour, is my name written there?"

When the apostles cast out demons for the first time, they were excited. They came to Jesus and said, "Lord, even the devils were subject to us in Your name." Jesus said to them, "Do not rejoice because of these, but rejoice because your name is written in the book of life." That is the joy of a Christian. The source of our joy is not miracle, casting out demons, signs and wonders, church posts, money or theological degrees, but the fact that our names are written in the book of life. If your name is not written there, your coming into this world and attending Christian meetings are all in vain. The Bible also makes us to understand that names could be erased from the book of life. There are many examples in the word of God, of people whose names were blotted out. These include Judas, Demas, Ananians and Sapphira.

One day, we shall all give account of our lives to God. There will be judgement, whether we believe it or not. Judgement will come after death and you do not need a thousand years to get ready. All the neglect of talents, unprofitable spiritual development, religious attachment to dead churches, activities for activities sake, disobedience after the order of Jonah; God is saying go to Nineveh and you are going to Tarshish. All the unscriptural marriages, family strifes, husband and wife fighting, ungodly relationships, etc, shall qualify for judgement. The average modern Christian is afraid of being called a fanatic. Until you get to the level where you are described as a mad person for the Lord, you stand the risk of having your name blotted out of the book of life. People are afraid of a complete transformation of their lives. The Lord is requesting that they leave certain things but they want to leave some and keep others.

Today, I want you to think about it. Are you a joker on the battle- field? It doesn’t matter what you call yourself or how long you have been born again, the important thing is: are you ready to meet your God? It is time for personal spiritual examination. In the balance of the Almighty, what do you weigh? Church activities, posts and titles cannot save you. Confess your sins to the Lord now. Do not hide anything from Him. He is ever ready to help you if you are sincere. Open your heart to the Lord and tell Him what you are. That is the way to obtain breakthroughs.

PRAYER POINTS

1. Every darkness, be dispersed from my life, in the name of Jesus.

2. Every stubborn problem, receive the arrow of the Holy Ghost, in the name of Jesus.

3. Anti-profit, anti-testimonies, and anti-miracle forces, be paralyzed, in the name of Jesus.

4. Every eye of doubt, be blind, in the name of Jesus

5. Every power planning captivity for me, be disgraced, in the name of Jesus.

6. Lay your right hand on your head and pray aggressively like this, I renounce every evil parental dedication, in the name of Jesus.

 7. I refuse to feed my doubt. You doubt, I command you to die, in the name of Jesus.

 

WHEN GOD IS SILENT
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

There could be worrying occasions in a believers prayer life when it appears that God is silent. Our message this week focuses on the possible reasons this may be so. I therefore would like you to open your hearts as you prayerfully read along. As our working tool, let us consider three different texts from the scriptures. Psalm 28:1 says,

"Unto thee will I cry, Oh Lord my rock: be not silent to me lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit."

Psalm 83:1 says exactly the same thing, "Keep not thou silence, Oh God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, Oh God."

Psalm 50: 16-22 says, "Unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statues, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and casteth my words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence: thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver."

Beloved, I have heard many sermons in my life, but very few were as moving as the one I heard over 20 years ago titled, "God's lamentation and failure over His creatures." The preacher took his text from Genesis 6:5 which says, "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually". The summary of that particular message was God's decision to wipe off man from the surface of the earth as a result of man's refusal to hearken to His voice. So once the words of God does not change a person and the person stubbornly sticks to his opinions and ways, the end is always destruction. The word of God did not change Adam and Eve and that is why the whole of humanity is in trouble now. The word of God did not change Cain, hence he became the first murderer. The word of God did not change Lot's daughters though they received angelic visitation. Korah, Dathan and Abiram also refused to be changed by the word of God and became the first people to go to hell fire without dying, they were swallowed alive. God lamented in so many places in the scriptures.He also laments when His words do not change men. However, God may even choose not to speak at all. Let us examine some of the possible reasons He may take this line of action:

1.When He is not happy with you and has forsaken you. It was God that chose Saul, installed him as king over His people and helped him win his battles. But he disobeyed God and God refused to have any further dialogue with him, either through prophecy, vision or dream. Saul eventually fell and died with his three children the same day. Eli and Samuel were sleeping in the same environment, but God chose to speak to Samuel because Eli's activities had since evoked the displeasure of God. So when you are not hearing again from the Lord, you probably have started doing some things which have evoked His displeasure and He has therefore forsaken you. At this juncture, pray to the Lord like this:

"Any sin blocking my ears, any sin scaring God away from me, depart from my life now, in the name of Jesus."

2.When He is speaking to you but you are not hearing His voice. He is talking but somewhere along the line, your own frequency is different from His own. If God is speaking to you and for some reasons something is in your life and you are not hearing Him, it is as if He is silent but He is speaking. You just cannot pick it up. Most believers are very good at talking but their ability to listen is under- developed. Most Christians have become experts in using their mouths and have rejected the act of hearing. In the present world there is so much noise and to be truly silent is very hard. This is the reason some people go for retreat to get out of the crowd and create a conducive atmosphere for hearing from God.

I Samuel 3: 1 says, "And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision."

In order words there were not many people around that were attentive enough to hear what God was saying. To many of us, God's voice is either indistinct or does not exist. Many people walk according to their minds. Anything their minds tell them they will do even though the minds, whose dictates they are following, are unregenerate, dirty and polluted. Certainly such minds can not produce anything pure. Isaiah 55: 2 says,

" Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And you labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live."

Our blunt refusal to incline our ear to hear therefore may be construed to mean silence from God, for Jesus says, "Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hears my voice and opens the door I will come in."

3. When what you are talking to Him about is not His will for your life.

If a person decides to convert personal and selfish ambition to a prayer point God remains quiet.

A fornicator who has just committed sin with a sister and thereafter approaches God to find out if the woman is God's will for his life, will hear nothing from God. Even if you receive any answer in this sinful nature, the answer will be in accordance to the idol in your heart. Anytime we therefore decide to embark on a course of action that is at variance with His will for us, the reward from God may be silence.

A sister prayed about somebody to marry, but the trouble with this would -be husband was that he smoked marijuana a little bit. But outside the marijuana smoking, he was a perfect gentleman, very nice, sociable, and respectful. The mother of the sister liked the man and wanted him to be her son-in-law. This sister new the sin in the life of this brother and had the knowledge of the scripture which forbade believers from being unequally yoked with unbelievers. Yet because of what she wanted which is not what God wanted for her, she decided to go on three days dry fasting to inquire of the Lord if she should marry that brother. She heard nothing from God!

4.When He has nothing to say. Maybe you are doing very well and He is pleased with you then he will be silent . For God is the Almighty and the sovereign. God is not like the microphone you tap and you say hello! hello !! testing ! testing !! testing !!! Neither is He a toy. Our God is not talkative. Neither does He speak for fun. The president of a nation only addresses his subjects on matters of national importance. In the same vain, our Sovereign Father will only speak to us when there is the real need. Psalm 62: 11: says,

" God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God."

God speaks once but if He decides to repeat a thing, the implication is that it is a serious issue. The recurring dream that some of us are having maybe as a result of our refusal to hearken to His voice for He will continue to bring such to our notice till it is addressed. There- after, He keeps quiet. It is doubtful if most of these so-called "Thus says the Lord" from the same person every prayer meeting day is truly from God. He does not waste His words.

5.When you are living in any known sin. The Bible says the time of ignorance God winked at. But when you are committing the sin willfully then He will remain silent. Isaiah 59:1-2 says,

"Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear, But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear". Iniquity drives God far away. If God the Father can abandon Jesus Christ on the cross when He was bearing the iniquities of the world, then He would not hesitate to distance Himself from any one living in sin. Grace can not abound and the scripture is very clear about this. It is no use saying I will repent after this particular one. God cannot be mocked as your thoughts are known to Him. Beloved, if there is a request you have been making to God and it appears He is not talking to you about it, you may need to seriously search through your own life to see if you are living in any known sin. Deal with that first and the result would surely amaze you.

6.When you exercise incomplete obedience.

God does not want people on the fence. You are either for Him or you are for satan. God prefers you to be absolutely disobedient than to be partially obedient.

In Genesis 12 : 1, God gave an instruction to Abraham;

"Now the Lord had said unto Abraham get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house , unto a land that I will shew thee."

But Abraham obeyed partially and took both his father and Lot along. Let us read further what happened to him in Acts 7: 3-4:

"And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Charran and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell." Abraham did not make much progress until his father that he carried along died. And he started hearing from God again only after Lot was separated from him. Perhaps there is a lot in your life right now that you are carrying about as a luggage. God will not speak when that extra luggage is there because as far as God is concerned, that is partial obedience. When your obedience is complete, God speaks to you clearly. God will speak today as clearly as it was in the Bible days He has not, and will not change. The problem has always been with the hearers.

7 When He has spoken to you and you thought that it was an ordinary man that spoke to you. A clean case of this situation was what happened in Acts 27. Paul was in a ship en-route Rome. As they were about to set sail. Paul said, "Brethren, I perceive that this journey will be dangerous not only for our luggage but our lives as well." They refused to listen to him being a prisoner. But that landed them in trouble. The Bible says almost two weeks they could not even see the sun. There was confusion. They could not eat again because they refused to listen. God spoke through Paul but they thought it was Paul speaking. Many times, we discountenance the fact that the Lord can use anybody to speak to us. In most cases, this is due to pride, stubbornness, rebellion or familiarity. It was with the same contempt born out of familiarity that Christ was held - "Is this not Joseph's son?" It is very dangerous to neglect the voice of God because of the kind of vessel being used. A command from God, mistaken can cause you your life. Remember the story of the young prophet in the Bible. God sent him to Bethel with a clear message to Jeroboam. He was not to eat or drink and not to return by the way he went. And the prophet went there as God instructed. He met the king at the altar and just pointed to the altar saying, "Altar, altar, hear the word of the Lord, by this time next year instead of the bones of animals that are here, it is the bones of these priests that will be on you." The man prayed and left after a successful outing for the Lord. But on his way back he met an older prophet who made him to disobey the clear command from God. He had a devastating end. Mistakes like that could cause a person his life.

A girl was told by a servant of God not to travel, but she disobeyed the word of God and went ahead. As she was getting to the airport, the plane she was about to enter was departing. So she missed that one, but still went to board a train. That plane eventually crashed but sadly the train she eventually boarded also crashed. So she ended up dying all because of the contempt with which she held the voice of the Lord.

8. When the voice of your own life is TOO loud for Him. Many lives are conditioned to noise. In this noise-dominated world, it is sometimes difficult to live with silence. Noise seems to be the characteristic of our time. If you go to a campus, you would find students claiming to be reading their books with disco music or noisy programmes on TV and radio. So when you are too loud like this, when will God talk? This is why the only free time God has to speak to many of us is in our sleep. This is why many of us are dreamers. Because you are not quiet enough for Him to talk and the only quiet moment is when you are sleeping. Sometimes God speaks in a still small voice and if you are too busy, or you are too noisy you would not hear him. Sometimes the voice of God in a meeting maybe coming from the most inferior and insignificant person, but that person maybe the one the Lord wants to use. One good thing about Namman was his listening to good advice. A small girl told him to go to Israel for healing, and he listened and got his healing. Saul on his way to Damascus was going to destroy Christians. In that furious state, it was impossible for God to speak to him. He was thereafter knocked down with blindness to quieten the voice of his own life. Then it was possible for him to hear from God. I want you to close your eyes and pray aggressively like this:

"Let every distraction preventing me from hearing God clearly be destroyed, in the name of Jesus." This is the reason sometimes God allows sickness to hit people because that is the only time he can talk to them.

9. When He has set an appointed time to answer you. He has decided that this is the time answer will come for your prayers. Aggressive fire prayers may not help in this situation, because He has set an appointed time; the time He knows the answers will benefit you.

Let me share with you the testimony of this sister. Before she got born again, she used to pray, "Oh Lord, I want to marry a pilot." And so she got one. But the problem with that pilot was that he beat up people. He used to give this sister serious beating that sometimes she jumped the fence to escape. Later, the sister became serious with Jesus and went into three days dry fast and prayed, "Oh Lord, this man is beating me up and preventing me from serving you. Please do something about it." On the third day of the fast, Jesus Himself appeared and said, "My daughter, before I address what you are praying about, let me first of all show you something that I have done for you during your fasting programme". She saw a little boy in her hand and a boy of twenty standing close to the little boy. The Lord said, "That is your boy when he would twenty, something has been planted in his life now which will not manifest until he is twenty. But because of the prayers you are doing now I have removed that one. But for your husband, do not talk to me about that man again because he will change at the appointed time. But if you find that the beating is terrible, pack your things and leave."And as a matter of fact, the beating got worse, and the sister left. Then somewhere along the line, God met this man and he wanted to go into full time ministry. The first question they asked him was the whereabouts of his wife. He couldn't answer and they told him to go and fetch her. He went to his wife and apologized. They reunited and not only did the beating stop, the sister also had the freedom to worship her God with her husband. Her appointed time had come. I pray that your own appointed time will come, in Jesus' name.

10.When He wants to multiply the punishment of the enemy. A sister came to me saying, "I am disappointed with God. I mean this is unfair." Our discussions revealed that she had lost three of her elder sisters to a witch in their family who had confessed to be responsible for their death. She was therefore wandering why God had not done anything about it. I was able to convince her that the silence of God did not mean inaction. He was just keeping quiet to multiply the affliction of this witch. God said to Abraham, "Say to the son of the Ammorites that in the fourth generation they are coming back here because their cup of iniquity is not filled yet." That means in two hundred years time they would coming back to suffer for what they have done because their cup was not filled yet.

11. When He is reserving His anger for the enemy. Nahum 1:2 says, "God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies."

12. When He has given a person a period of probation to change.

God is not slack concerning His promise according to 11 Peter 3: 9 which says, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness but is longsuffering to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." God does not want anybody to perish. So the fact that a sinner is "enjoying" himself and God seems to be doing nothing about it does not mean God is weak. No. He is watching because He has given a period of probation.

13. When He has done all you want Him to do. If this is the situation, all you need to do is to wait for the manifestation. All further requests beyond this will be met with the Almighty's silence.

14.When He wants the testimony to be complete. Peter was in prison and people prayed that the Lord should release him. The absence of Peter drove the Apostles into night vigils and prayers. God waited until it remained a day for Peter to be killed before He brought him out to make the testimony complete. The prison doors opened of their own accord and Peter got out. His glory He will never share with anyone.

15.When He is waiting for a crucial period to do a thing. It is only when a thing is needed most that God acts, just like He did for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. When Nebuchadnezzar was making noise and threatening these three men, God could possibly have slapped him then but He waited until the crucial time. It was only when they were thrown into the fury furnace that the fourth man appeared in the fire. The king had no option than to decree immediately that every one must serve the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

16. When He wants an audience of unbelievers to demonstrate His power.

The Bible says, "Thou prepareth a table for me in the wilderness, in the presence of my enemies.

17. When you give room to discouragement. When you are discouraged, you cannot hear anything. Discouraged people do not hear from God. A discouraged and a distracted heart will not hear God, so ensure that you do not enroll in the school of cold water ministry.

18. When He has something better to offer you than what you are asking . He knows your needs more than you do. When you are asking for something inferior to what He has in stock for you, He will be silent.

19. When He wants to test your loyalty. The Lord allowed the devil to toss Job up and down; testing him. Thank God the man passed.

So what do you now do to prevent confusion? The Bible says, "Be still and know that am God." We must learn to be silent before God. We must have the quiet mind , the quiet heart and the quiet tongue. We must rearrange our lives, we must discipline ourselves. If you are a believer and do not observe quiet time you better start now. We must learn to be quiet before the Lord. It can be tragic when God comes to you and cannot find a quiet place to stay. You must be willing to change your character, your direction and your values, so that God will start talking to you.

Remember that Pharisee and the tax collector. Both of them went to seek God. One was humble while the other was proud. And the Bible says that the humble man went home justified than the other. We need to pray very well because the way to spiritual growth is the ability to hear what God is saying. Anything preventing us from hearing God is our greatest enemy.

PRAYER POINTS

1. Every seed of spiritual deafness, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

2. Oh Lord, do not be silent unto me, in the name of Jesus.

3. Ask the Lord, to open your ears so that you can be hearing from Him.

4. Oh Lord, do something in my life that will change me, in the name of Jesus.

5. (Lay your right hand on your head and pray like this). Any Symbol representing me in the dark world, be destroyed, in the name of Jesus.

 

FOUNDATION OF MARITAL FAILURE

If the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do (Psalm 11:3).

Spiritual pollution has destroyed or demoted many marriages. The satanic pipeline supplying evil fuel to many marriages originate from the foundation of that marriage. The spiritual pollutants causing the problem take its origin from the foundational pollution.

God is the only genuine matchmaker since He is the manufacturer of man. Once the foundation is sick, the whole building would be sick.

The protective fuse in many marriages have blown up igniting great fires. It would appear as if many are completely helpless. Divorce rates are climbing. "Separated but married" cases are rising.

Beloved, the truth is that many marriages need to be delivered from foundational pollution and bondage.

"If the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do".

What kind of marriages come under foundational pollution? They include:

     marriages contacted while one was an enemy of God

     marriages originating from accidental pregnancies

     sex before marriages

     marriages after demonic consultations

     marriages enforced by ignorant parents

     marriages established and formalized without divine approval

     marriages in which blood covenants were formed

     marriages based on demonic manipulations and domination

     marriages established on the principles of "it is better than nothing"

     marriages solemnized by satanic rituals

     marriages based on trial and error

     marriages based on physical attraction only

     marriages established by occult means

     marriages based on material interest

     marriages based on satanic prophecy

     marriages established by donation of spouse at a young age

     marriages based on polygamy, etc.

"If the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do."

The righteous can only fall upon what is written in Jer. 32:17: "Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:"

STEPS TO BE TAKEN BY THE RIGHTEOUS MAY INCLUDE:

1. Identification of family foundation

2. Confession of sin and repentance

3. Aggressive and well-targeted prayer

4. Breaking of evil covenant

5. Breaking of curses

6. Restitution

7. Intercession

     We have to take steps to clear satanic pollution from our marriages.

     We need to allow the divine axe to go right down to the root of our marriage and uproot unprofitable plantations.

     We need to pray for the deliverance of our marriages from the polluting influences of anti-marriage forces.

     We need to paralyse and dismantle every evil pipe releasing pollutants from the foundation of our marriage.

     We need to invite the God of the suddenlies and the God of new beginnings into our homes.

 

POWER QUENCHERS
Dr. D. k. olukoya

This week we are examining a topic that is necessary for our spiritual wellbeing, and it is aimed at keeping us in a place of power and fire. Before we proceed, let us pray. Father, we thank You for Your call upon our lives. We thank You because You want to do great things in our lives. Lord, fill us with Your blood, and we pray that every leakage in our lives be sealed up by the fire of the Holy Ghost, in Jesus’ name.

The first question to ask is this: Can the power of God in the life of a person be quenched? The answer is yes. Therefore, you and I should be very careful that power quenchers will not quench the power of God in our lives. I Sam 2:30-31 says: "Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy Father, should walk before me for ever but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me: for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed, Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father’s house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house."

This scripture tells us that the power of God was established in a home but suddenly that power stopped existing. 1Sam 2:32 says, "And thou shall see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel: and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever."

The programme of God for that family changed for the worse.

Beloved, you must be prepared to do some serious prayers as we go along because this subject concerns people who have spiritual power but are on the verge of losing it and for those who desire to have spiritual power. It would be a calamity that a person flows in God’s power one day and the next day the power is gone. This tantamount to aborting God’s programme in the life of the person. At this juncture, pray like this: The programme of God for my life shall not be aborted, in the name of Jesus.

The Bible says that as a believer, you shall possess the gate of your enemy. That is the ideal situation, but when the power of God in a life is quenched, the situation is reversed and the enemies take possession of the gate of the person. Pray like this: The enemies shall not rule over my life, in the name of Jesus.

The Bible is full of references to the fact that the power of God in the life of a person can be quenched.

1 Thess 5:19 says, "Quench not the Spirit of God," Eph. 4:30 says, "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption."

When a person quenches the Spirit of God inside of him, he will still be going about. If he is a big man in the church, he will still be called a big man, but he is now a carcass. The power of God can depart from the life of a person suddenly or gradually. This can be illustrated as follows: Somebody plugs an electric iron and 30 minutes later, he disconnects it. Although disconnected, the iron will still be hot for the next 20 minutes or so. This happens in the lives of people. When certain symptoms begin to rear their heads in your life, know that the fire is about to be quenched. If a believer finds it easy to wake up in the morning and go to bed at night, without praying, that person has embarked on a fire quenching journey. If coming to the house of God has become a burden to you, you are quenching your spiritual power. If you are not excited about reading the Bible, it means that the power in your life is being tampered with and if you do not take steps to change, it is only a matter of time before the power in you goes out.

WHAT ARE POWER QUENCHERS?

1. THE SPIRIT OF PRIDE: Pride goes before destruction. If somebody is proud, God will disconnect Himself from the person. He may still be manifesting some powers, but as far as God is concerned, he is no longer His own. The danger is that a person who has the spirit of pride assumes that he manufactured the power he has. But one who believes that God gave him this power, would not be proud; he would reverence God in everything he does. I Corinthians 4:7 says,

"For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?"

For any spiritual, physical or any form of power a person has, he must understand that it has flowed into his life from God, and if it has flowed into his life from God then he should operate it with every sense of humility. The one cure for pride is to submit yourself to God and ask the Holy Spirit to purge you of that spirit.

2. LIVING IN SIN: Job 11:14 says: "If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles."

If iniquity is removed and one abstains from living in sin, what Job 11:17-18 says will apply: "And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning. And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope, yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety."

The power of God will constantly be in a person who is living in holiness and he will be enveloped with the safety of God, so that power quenchers which are all over the place will not be able to prevail against him. But a life lived in sin creates open doors for power quenchers to quench the power of God in such a life. The way out is for one to confess one’s sins to the Lord and ask for what the Bible calls the power of the overcomer. When that power comes into your life, if temptation comes, you will be able to resist it.

3. SPIRITUAL LAZINESS: The Bible says a little slumber, a little folding of the hands and poverty shall overtake a person. As it is in the physical, so it is in the spirit realm. Spiritual laziness will create an open door for power quenchers to enter a life. Romans 12:11 says: "Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit, serving the Lord."

A lot of people are not serving the Lord fervently. It is like somebody who does not pass, yet does not fail very badly, who is just going along. A person operating his Christian life that way, just going along, will be overcome by power quenchers.

4. EVIL COMMUNION: Eph. 5:11 says, "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." You should ask yourself what kind of association you are keeping. Some people could be in a church and while the message or prayer is going on, they will be discussing business instead of listening to the message or taking part in the prayer which is vital for their lives. I Cor.15:33 says, "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners." So, no matter how much you feel you know, or that you can guide yourself, if you are moving with evil people, the power of God will not prosper in your life. I Corinth. 5:9-10 says, "I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world." Note the kind of people you should not move with, because they will quench the fire of God in your life. You should consider the kind of friends you have, whether they are helping your spiritual growth or not.

5. FAILURE TO ABIDE IN THE TRUTH: The Bible makes it clear to us that without God we cannot do anything.

What is abiding in the truth? This means living your life according to the word of God, not only in the church but even in your compound or place of work. Sometime ago somebody told me to caution a sister. I asked him why. He said that the sister fights everyday in her compound. That is not supposed to be her testimony. We must be Christians anywhere we are. Psalms 34:5 says, "They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed."

When you dwell in the light, you will not be ashamed and your face will be lightened. But failure to abide in the truth will lead to the quenching of the fire God in the life of a person.

6. DENYING CHRIST FOR CARNAL GAIN: 2 Kings 4:29-31 says, "Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child. And the mother of the child said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her. And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him and told him, saying, the child is not awaked."

The power of God in the life of Gehazi, who was a student in the school of prophets got quenched and the programme of God for his life was terminated because he denied Christ and pursued carnal gain.

7. PUTTING CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH: This leads to the desertion of the power of God in the life of a person. Peter was supposed to be a person with so much power inside him because of his closeness to Christ, but at a point he was supposed to rely on the power of Christ, he felt that he could help himself and did not understand the warnings of Christ. He eventually denied Him and wept bitterly. But there is the case of a woman called Hannah in the Bible who understood how not to rely on the flesh. In 1 Samuel 2:9, Hannah said, "He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail." To rely on the flesh is to start a process of failure. Prov 21:31 says, "The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD."

8. INORDINATE AMBITION: This will lead to the quenching of the power of God in a person. That was the problem of the man called Absalom. Instead of increasing, he was cut off. The truth is that the multitude of churches we have in Nigeria today are not a direct consequence of a thirsting for God, but the inordinate ambition of people to build their own churches. If you are to go by the number of churches even in Lagos alone, the intensity of evil would have decreased. But a lot of church leaders are people of questionable character. What do you expect in the case of somebody whom his church leader tells to co-ordinate a new group of about 20 people but he feels that he is too big to do so, he wants to lead a crowd of one thousand people, and the second day, before you know it, he comes with a paper to the overseer and claims that the Holy Spirit wants him to move to another place to start his own church. A church that is born out of the spirit of Absalom, what fruit will it bear? That is the reason the number of churches is increasing while godliness is decreasing because the spirit behind them is not the Spirit of God.

9. LOVE FOR TIME WASTERS: Some people are time wasters. If you are one of them or you cherish them, the power of God in you will just drain away. If you have ungodly friends, or you love and are addicted to worldly television programmes or newspapers, or as a member of a Pentecostal church you can travel to Calabar from Lagos to attend a party, you are a time waster. The time that some people ought to use to pray so that their lives would be changed, they spend it doing useless things.

10. SPIRITUAL COMPROMISE: This will drain the power of God in your life. A sister got married and when she arrived her husband’s house after the wedding, the father-in-law told this sister, who used to be a fire brand Christian, that from that day she should be called "Wosilatu" and no longer her Christian name. Immediately the man said that, the sister started to weep. My questions are: Was that the moment the sister got to know that the family of her husband was not a Christian family? All along, did she not know that the members were not born again? What was she crying about? Such unequal yoke would quench the fire of God.

11. THE SPIRIT OF RELIGION: Some people worship in the wrong place. They know that they are not in the right place, but they remain there because of one demonic attachment or the other. For instance, they would say, "How would it be said that a whole me, I am going to a little church? How will I leave this big cathedral?" This way they are glued to the wrong place.

12. APPROPRIATING GOD’S GLORY TO ONESELF: This happens when God has used you to do something and something begins to tell you that if it wasn’t for you, that thing would not have happened. The glory you suppose to give to God, you now appropriate it. It is clear that God is a jealous God and His glory will He not share with anybody. When a person begins to appropriate the glory due to God, the power of God in him will be quenched. The Bible says this of Saul in 2 Samuel 1:21: "Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings; For there, the shield of the mighty is cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil."

The power of God is supposed to increase in our lives, not the other way round. Spend some time to reflect on your life and see where you have opened doors to the power quenchers. Nahum 2:2 says, "For the Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have empited them out and marred their vine branches." The power of God in your life is not supposed to be quenched.

PRAYER POINTS:

1. I shall not lose my authority to the enemies, in the name of Jesus.

2. Holy Ghost fire quench all strange fire in my life, in the name of Jesus.

3. My staff of authority shall not be broken, in the name of Jesus.

4. The anointing of God in my life shall not be emptied, in the name of Jesus.

5. O Lord, forgive me of the sin of quenching the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus.

Power Quenchers is a message delivered at the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, by the General Overseer, Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 THE RAGE OF THE ENEMY
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

This week, we are looking at a topic which I feel you should give very serious attention. It is entitled, "The Rage of the Enemy." Why do the enemies rage, and against who? What is the outcome of their rage? What are we to do when the enemy is raging? Find out as you read on.

Psalm 2:1- 12 says: "Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us, He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then He shall speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure: Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten thee, Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shall break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him."

Let us look at verses 1-2 closely: "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us."

What is the reaction of God? Verse 4 says, "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision." Close your eyes and take this prayer point: My God and I shall laugh the enemy to scorn, in Jesus' name. Psalm 7:6 says, "Arise, Oh Lord, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: and awake for me to the judgement that thou hast commanded."

When evil spirits get angry they attack ministers for setting their captives free. This is the reason Apostle Paul said, "Brethren pray for us." As a counsellor, sometimes you will wonder why the enemies are very angry. That is what the Bible calls the rage of the enemy. The word rage in the original Bible language means hot anger, serious anger, hot displeasure, wild anger, or anger to the point of gnashing the teeth.

Many do not know that evil spirits can act in a rage and when they are in that state, they exhibit the worst wickedness you can imagine. Although they might be mad and angry, they act with the fullest intelligence. When human beings get angry, they do the most foolish things. It is not so with demons. When they are mad with anger they still act intelligently, they are fully aware of what they are doing. They operate under very serious rage like a mad cow. Their anger is with determination. It is skillful anger. Mark 9:20-27 says, "And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground and wallowed foaming. And he asked his father how long ago is it come unto him? And he said of a child."

Now you may ask a question, "Is it that Jesus did not know?" He knew but he wanted those around to learn a lesson. That demon had been inside the man since he was a child, and therefore had settled down very well. The father begged Jesus saying, "...But if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us." Jesus said unto him, "If you can believe all things are possible to him that believeth." And straightaway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, "Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief." When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying to him, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee (meaning I put you under authority) come out of him, and enter no more into him." And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, he is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him up; and he arose. And when Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn’t we cast him out?" And He said, "This kind can only come out by prayer and fasting."

This means that there are different levels of demonic possessions. When Jesus gave that command, he invited the rage of the enemies. They picked him up, struck him down and rolled him on the floor, came out and killed him. But the hand of resurrection grabbed him and pulled him up.

Why do these spirits get very angry?

1. They are afraid of losing their accommodation. They consider the body, spirit and soul of human beings as their house.

2. They will be faced with the problem of looking for another host. It is usually difficult for them to get another person to inhabit comfortably. So, it is good to pray this way: "I render my life uncomfortable for the enemy, in the name of Jesus.

3. They are proud personalties so they consider it a shame to be sent out just like that.

4. They sometimes remain very stubborn because Lucifer will punish them if they lose their host.

5. They are afraid of being demoted.

So, it is a great prayer point when you say, "The enemy will not use my life to obtain promotion, in the name of Jesus. In the satanic kingdom there is discipline. It is only in Christianity that someone comes to church late and will stroll in as he likes. Nobody comes to a witchcraft meeting late. Such a person will be dealt with.

6. They are eaters of flesh and blood drinkers and when you deprive them of their meal, they get enraged.

7. The enemy will rage when the evil spirits concerned are avengers of blood. Whenever blood is shed unrighteously things are invoked and evil spirits that are to avenge the blood are set in motion. There was a medical doctor above 60 who aborted pregnancies for young girls. Some of these girls were not rich, so, he gave them the option of sleeping with him and their pregnancies were aborted at a reduced rate. Many of them chose the second option as it was cheaper. He sacked the first doctor that advised him to stop this wicked act. When the demons that avenge blood were set in motion and started pursuing him, he was hearing the cry of babies everywhere he went. A person may commit murder and escape the law, but he will be pursued by demons.

There was a case of one man who bought a car and shortly after, as he was driving along, he ran into a big tree, broke his skull and died. His relations sold the engine which was the only thing they could get out of the car and gave the money to his family. The person who bought the engine used it to replace the one in his car.

A few days later, he too ran into a tree, broke his skull and died. Again it was only the engine they could recover. They sold it again and gave the money to members of his family. All those who took the money died in an accident. The man that bought the engine the third time was a Christian. He too had an accident. He did not die but the people who hit him died from broken skulls. After the accident, he went to a Pentecostal church and started praying with some brethren. As they were praying, a man came with a big stick and stood in front of them. When they wanted to know who the man was, he replied saying, "I am the avenger of blood. The man who had the car with the engine originally put a curse on it that, "Whosoever steals the car will die."

The first person to buy the car did not know that it was stolen but the avengers of blood did not want to know that. They were killing until they got to this Christian who bought the engine unknowingly. He could not be touched because as a child of God, there is atonement by the blood of Jesus and so the avenger of blood was sent back. Demons rage when they are sent to avenge blood.

8. The enemy rages when there is parental covenant, vow or promises to the devil over a child.

One woman sought for children several years. When she could not get one, she went to a herbalist who gave her certain things to eat, took her to a river and asked her to kneel down and beg the river to give her a baby. She knelt down and begged the river and something answered her from the river: "You have it," and she got pregnant. Was that child from God or satan? It is clear that satan does not have creative power. What happened was that satan and his angels were hindering this woman’s blessing. They wanted her to come to them for assistance so that they could manipulate her life.

When she bowed to their wishes, she got the child. When the child grew up and got born again, the enemies kept harassing him. He was the best in everything he did but he was always placed last. Evil spirits were raging and gnashing their teeth against him. Why? They wanted him to return and serve them because of his mother’s promise and her covenant with them. Some people do not know the promises that their parents have made over their lives. They do not know the promises or vows they have made to the enemy on their behalf.

When the enemy begins to rage, they will be arguing not knowing that someone had handed them over to the powers of darkness. Sometimes, those who did this handing over have died. So, it is only the Holy Spirit that can save them. Thank God, the blood of Jesus can make atonement and paralyze raging demons.

I know a girl who did not take the entrance exam before getting into the university. She got in through the help of dark powers. She was sent on assignment, to recruit people in that university. Since the place was close to the water, it was easy for her to drag people inside. But along the line, she became born again. The demons came to her at night and reminded her that she was sent to recruit people in the university and not to join those talking about Jesus. She said, "Well, I want to serve Jesus now." They told her, "We shall see to it that your glory is submerged." She thought they were joking.

When the result of her first semester exams came out, she failed every paper and those that she helped passed. Then she cried to God and lamented to me saying, "Ah, I didn’t know that they were that powerful. I thought Jesus was going to allow me to pass." I told her, "You will have to break the covenant with them before they can allow you to go." It is like the case of a woman who is married to a spirit husband and her mother had collected spiritual dowry on her behalf while she was praying to get married. She should return that dowry in the spirit and break that marriage vow before she can be free. Mothers have to be very careful. It is wrong to call a boy the husband of your daughter. You may be uttering very serious curse on your daughter because you do not know what that boy will become or even the kind of child he is.

Demons could go on rampage when a person who has already been handed over to them is trying to be free. It is not their fault after all, they were on their own when the parents took their children to them. When you give your children names that glorify idols you have handed their lives over to the demons associated with those idols. This will cause serious problem for those children.

9. They go on rampage when somebody donated to them is trying to break loose to serve Jesus.

10. They will go on rampage when somebody touches their materials carelessly. That is why Ezekiel 4:23 says, "And they shall teach people the difference between the holy and the possessed and cause them to discern between the clean and the unclean." God regards some materials as clean and some as unclean.

Many Christians do not know those things pronounced unclean by the Lord. When you handle demonic materials it can lead to serious problems.

I know a sister who heard a message that charm is bad. She secretly went into her father’s cupboard and took the big calabash into which he had been pouring blood before she was born and destroyed it. That was the beginning of her problem. She did not know that before you touch demonic materials, you must pray, ask the Holy Spirit to lead you, cover yourself with the blood of Jesus and destroy them with fire. Careless touching of idols and demonic materials would cause demons to rage.

11. When you live on polluted land may be the ground on which you built your house was an altar of the devil and you did not know. You did not sanctify the land, instead, you brought people to bury their own charm there. You now erect your house and start calling the name of Jesus. The demons will be enraged.

12. Living in polluted house. Some people put charms inside the walls of their house as they are building them. Some burn candles and bury things in the foundation of their houses. When they get born again and start calling on the name of Jesus, the demons will fight because the house belongs to idols. Believers should not touch idols or demonic materials. They should not eat their food. If you do and start praying against them, they will rage.

13. Demons rage when they have been attached to a curse and the person is not fulfilling the conditions for that curse. Therefore, beloved, when the enemy is raging, it will be very foolish for you to just wave it aside and say, "Well let’s wait and see what happens." No, what you should do is to quench the rage of the enemy.

How to quench the rage of the enemy

1. Identify the nature of the attack against you. Is it your marriage they are attacking? Is it sickness they are using to attack you? Is it your finances, or your peace? Identify it first. In some cases they attack peoples’ progress, in some it is their sons, their finances or their marriages, while some are being attacked in all areas.

2. Find out when the attack started. If you don’t know how to think and get answer, you can ask people questions or ask the Holy Spirit. Your prayers should start from that moment.

3. Find out if there is a similar trend in your family. If you discover that it is right there in the family then you know there is a curse to which the demons are attached and they are ready to protect that curse.

4. Completely repent from all ungodliness, pride, malice, anger, bitterness, resentment, fornication of the heart, adultery of the heart, etc. The Yorubas say, "The person that others want to roast should not use palm oil to rub his body, because he will make their job easy, "So someone the enemy wants to destroy and is living in sin, simply wants to die." The Bible says that whosoever is corrupted and is looking for something will be destroyed suddenly and there will be no repairs. So we must obey God in all ways.

This means that you should not be the type of Christian who would drink beer at night and then start night vigil, because you will be praying under an evil influence. Believers do not drink alcohol because the Bible says we are princes and kings unto God, and God does not want his prophets and priests to drink alcohol. Only valley candidates look for an excuse to drink.

5. Seek for God’s mercy to bring peace to the rage of the enemy. The enemy may be raging against you righteously if they have a demonic legal reason for raging against you. If the enemy is raging against you because you are serving God, no problem because the Lion of Judah will just hold him by the neck and crash him to the ground. But if it is not that type of rage then you have to ask for God’s forgiveness.

6. Make reconciliation. Apologize where you have offended people. Don’t be too proud to meet someone who is 20 years younger than you and say, "I am sorry." When you do not offer an apology, you create a legal ground for demons to operate. Sometimes when wicked people want to put a curse on somebody, they will first of all look for a reason for doing it. So when you apologize and say, "Please, forgive me," you break the ground. The Bible says, if your enemy is hungry, give him food, if he is thirsty, give him water, by so doing, you put hot coals of fire on his head. There is no one with hot coals of fire on his head asking for music to dance because he will not be comfortable. Return whatever you have in your hands that is not legally yours. This is part of the reconciliation and always give honour to whom honour is due. Settle all quarrels. Live peacefully with all men.

7. Command every rage of demons against you to cease. You have to ask them why they are raging. Say to them: "Why are you imagining a vain thing against me? God shall laugh you to scorn and shall dash you to pieces like a clay pot." When you address them like that they will say, "Ah this one knows what he is saying."

8. Engage in prayer warfare. There are different kinds of prayers. Warfare prayers are addressed to the enemy, intercession prayers are to God.

What is warfare prayer?

In warfare prayer, you declare your faith through the blood of Jesus, "I’m justified, I am redeemed. My body is the temple of the Holy Ghost." You declare your faith boldly and loudly, not in the heart. Say it out for words are the vehicles of power. Warfare praying is resisting the devil. To resist means to fight. It includes true confession of sins and breaking of soul ties. It includes release from evil domination and control. It includes claiming back lost ground. It includes taking authority over the strongman in your home town, business; it includes breaking curses, charms and bewitchment and paralyzing spirits of witchcraft.

It includes renunciation of sexual sins and bondage. It includes declaration of God’s sovereignty over a situation. The people I feel sorry for most are those the enemies are raging against and who go to the raging enemies for solution. They keep passing them from one person to the other. When they want to go to any herbalist, one demon will get in there before them to say, "One meat is coming oh, just take N2, 000.00 and don’t do anything." The person having problems will be getting leaner and leaner while the herbalists will be getting fatter and fatter. In fact, many herbalists go about now with V-boot cars. The old impression of herbalists going about with dirty clothes is long gone. Now they put their oracle in briefcases and go to big offices, close the door and spread the thing on the rug. They will ask the demon what it is saying and it will say, "It shall be well," when God says it shall be ill for the wicked. So if the rage of the enemy does not get you sufficiently angry to pray, it means a particular part of your life has been caged.

If the rage of the enemy does not cause you to take aggressive action, if you are happy with the way he has been doing, boasting, and threatening you all over the place as if he has all the powers, something is wrong somewhere. The Bible does not say you will build a house and others will inhabit it, it is because of the rage of the enemy. The Bible did not say you will spend all your life serving one man and at the end of the day when you should be enjoying, the man asks you to pack out of his house and he brings in one small girl into the house. It is the rage of the enemy. He has waited for the appropriate moment and then he struck. You too have to strike back. If you have not given your life to Christ there is no way you can quench any rage. Your first step should be to give your life to Him.

PRAYER POINTS

1. Let every candle and incense ignited for my sake, be quenched, in Jesus’ name.

2. Let every satanic oracle directed against me, be disgraced, in the name of Jesus.

3. Let every satanic ritual directed against me, be disgraced, in Jesus’ name.

4. Let the counsel of every evil counsellor be turned to foolishness, in the name of Jesus.

5. Every demonic sacrifice offered against me, be disgraced, in Jesus’ name.

6. Let the plot of the enemy against my life turn against the enemy, in Jesus’ name.

7. Every power waging war against me, be silenced, in Jesus’ name.

8. Let blindness and deafness fall upon the raging enemies, in Jesus’ name.

The Rage of the Enemy is a message delivered at the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, by the General Overseer, Dr. D. K. Olukoya

 

SILENCING SATANIC STORMS
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

We are starting this message by reading two scriptures that are common: Mark 4:34-41,

But without a parable spake he not unto them and when they were alone he expounded all things to His disciples. And the same day when the even was come he said unto them, let us pass over unto the other side. They did not decide to pass over by themselves. Jesus said let us pass over. Their passing over has divine approval. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship; And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of waves and the winds beat into the ship so that it was not full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship asleep on a pillow, although the ship was filled with water. And they awake him and said unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, peace be still. And the wind, ceased and there was a great calm. And he said unto them why are ye so fearful; how is it that you have no faith. And they feared exceedingly; and they said one to another, What manner of man is this? That even the wind and the sea obey him.

(In like manner shall every storm present in your life be paralysed, in Jesus' name). In the book of Matthew 8:23-26, we find the same story:

And when he was entered into a ship, the disciples followed him, and behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea in so much that the ship was covered with the waves, but he was asleep. And the disciples came unto him, and awoke him, saying Lord, save us; we perish. And he said unto them, why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

Now, from these two passages, we understand that Jesus rebuked the wind.

The word 'rebuked' used here is the same language that Jesus used for demons, sickness, powers of darkness, etc. He addressed the storm as if he was addressing a human being. It translates "to be silenced" or put in the proper Greek meaning, it means, to be "muzzled." The muzzle is something you put in the mouth of a horse to keep it from eating or causing trouble. He told the storm to be muzzled.

Life, as you know is a mystery. There are powers that govern the universe and lack of understanding of these powers could lead to all kinds of problem. It sometimes makes the difference between success and failure. Life experiences can be very bitter and sometimes very sweet and it is filled with motions and counter-motions.

We say that one man’s food is another man’s poison. Your most important desire may be hurtful to another person.

This is what we call the battle of life. For example, when some people wake up, they make positive statements, while others make contrary statements to counter the positive ones without meaning any harm.

For example, a farmer prays for rain to fall so that his crop can grow, he can sell them and be able to meet his responsibilities. But a footballer who wants to play in a match would pray that the rain should not fall. Both of them are praying to counter each other. A contractor too would pray that rain should not fall at his site so that he can complete his work, and consequently collect his money. The man who builds coffins prays to prosper, but you and I will say, "I shall not die but live to declare the works of God."

So our good intentions are often countered: that is the battle of life. A medical doctor prays to have patients, but nobody prays to be sick. The lawyer wants business, meaning that he wants more people to get into trouble. And the prison warder too will be jobless if nobody goes to jail. This is why the world is full of trials and tribulations, such that princes are converted to those who run after horses.

Satan has converted those who should be ruling to those who draw water and cut woods. This is why we need to know what to do when the storms come.

As Christians attending churches, the most sought after thing is our peace. Once peace is withdrawn, every other thing becomes useless. If you go to the bar beach at night, you will find people having their bath, just to have or recover their lost peace.

You find people hiding all kinds of charm underneath their garments because they are looking for peace. The devil knows that man is looking for peace. Jesus Himself is the Prince of peace. Therefore, the first thing the devil likes to steal from people is peace. And when this has been stolen, storms will come.

Let us look at the characteristics of the storms of life.

It does not discriminate. I will give you an example of somebody’s testimony in our fellowship. Somewhere close to his reproductive organ was a swelling which had been there for over ten years. It constituted a big problem, and he went to the doctors, but the doctors could not understand the nature of his sickness.

One day, after we had closed at a meeting , we gave the following prayer point to our members to pray when they get home: "Any evil deposit in my body, get out, in the name of Jesus." So he got home and prayed. To his amazement by the next morning, that swollen place burst and things began to come out. When the brother looked at these things closely, he found out that they were alligator pepper. Now the question is, how did alligator pepper get into his body? It is part of what we are talking about, it comes upon every man.

Another sister was doing very well until her mother died. Immediately the mother died, the father married another wife, and her storms started.

 

It is a very rude visitor. It won’t tell anyone how and when it will come. There will be no warning. So since it is a rude visitor, we have to know how to handle its visitation.

 

It does not want to know whether you attended Cambridge or Oxford University. As a matter of fact, chains of degrees do not bother it.

I used to have a friend who was in the civil service for a long time, and by the time he retired, he received a gratuity of half a million naira. Some tricksters found out about the money and decided to dupe him.

They set a trap for him and he fell headlong into it. They told him about some currency note negatives that could be forged with some expensive chemical solutions to make more money. They convinced him beyond any doubt that if he gave them half of his gratuity which was N250,000.00 for the purchase of the expensive chemical solutions, he would receive a sum of N84 million. He fell for their bait and they duped him. As a matter of fact, he almost lost his life in the process. The storms never respect age, experience or years put into service.

 

What you are facing as a storm may not be what another person is facing. What you consider as a problem, may not be so to another person.

 

When the storms come, your friends may be unhelpful or even add to your problem.

 

A long time ago, a couple went to the court asking for divorce, the man was seventy years old. The presiding magistrate was quite surprised that such an old couple who had been married for thirty five years could seek for divorce. One thing which the magistrate did not know was that whenever the storm chooses to blow, even age cannot stop its movement.

 

It is a stark illiterate. It will be advisable therefore to confront it with hard and aggressive prayers. Gentle prayers cannot help anyone who is battling against the storms of life.

 

It could be so much that you would be wondering why such a thing should happen to you.

 

The storms of life can make you better or bitter. It could either make or mar you.

 

The storms of life, and indeed satanic storms will defy all voices apart from one. The only voice they cannot disobey is the voice of Jesus.

You may then ask the following questions. How does the satanic storm come? What is its origin?

Satanic storms that confront human beings can come from about eight sources. The fact to note here is that if you cannot discern where the storm is coming from, you will not be able to address it.

 

 

I remember the case of a sister, who was 42 years old as of the time I met her. She was married with four children. But there had never been any peace in her matrimonial home. It got so bad that her own four children and husband would beat her up. The four children even advised their father to marry another wife who would be able to deal ruthlessly with their mother. The man heeded their advice and married another wife. Whenever there was trouble thereafter, six people would beat up the sister.

The sister then found herself in a serious mess. She therefore became determined to seek for solution whenever she could get it. Thank God that she sought divine assistance through the right way. One day, she attended a prayer meeting and the prayer point given to her was for God to reveal the secret of her problem to her.

The prayer point was "O Lord, reveal to me the secret behind my problem." She had become a sick person in the spirit realm. And for her to know what to apply to solve the spiritual problem, she needed a diagnosis. So she prayed a one-hour prayer, from 12 midnight to 1 a.m. For one hour she prayed only one prayer point!

Some of us will have to pray a single prayer point 3000 times before we get results. Why? The problems have been with us for years, with deep roots. Many people will require two hundred blows to even make appreciable impact on a problem.

The sister prayed quite aggressively. As she prayed very hard, she saw in a vision, a tall man in white garment who asked her if she was really serious about knowing the secret behind her problems. She answered affirmatively that she would want the angel to reveal the secret behind her problems.

The response of the angel was shocking. The angel told her that her parents caused the problem. That her father and mother are closely related; they come from the same family and should not have married, but they did, which is an abomination. She found that out at the age of 42. Then the angel disappeared, but standing like a colossus from the very spot where the angel had appeared was a big Iroko tree.

The woman again saw somebody carrying a small baby by the Iroko tree, but she didn’t understand the vision. After that, she couldn’t sleep and by six a.m., she got up and ran to her parents to confirm whether or not what she saw in her visions were true. To her uttermost surprise, her parents confirmed that they were true. They confirmed that both of them were related, but that they married in error in England.

Before they could realise that they were related, they had completed their marriage ceremony. It was an abomination. As if the damage was not enough, the parents of the sister also confirmed that they cut the hair of the sister when she was a baby in England, and consequently sent it to Nigeria to be deposited by an Iroko tree. Storms indeed. If you are in such storms, I pray that the storms will be paralysed today, in Jesus’ name.

 

So many people are in the wrong environment. God wanted them somewhere else but unfortunately they are in the wrong place.

An environmental influence could put the lid on somebody’s progress and the person may not be able to move as expected. From the testimonies of people you discover that some people’s progress die as soon as they moved into some houses.

 

Without doubt, many people have unfriendly friends who they ignorantly consider as reliable people but they are not. They are enemies in disguise, and can therefore influence a person for evil. Storms could readily come from them.

 

There is a divine destiny for everyone and at the same time, there is satanic destiny. Many people follow satanic destiny as a result of the evil things that the devil has planned for them.

 

This is when the person involved is the one responsible for his or her own problems.

I can never forget the story of my friend, a man of God, who found out that he was not making much progress. So he prayed aggressively saying, "O Lord, I want You to deal with my enemies, disgrace, paralyse, and destroy them, and send fire, thunder and brimstone on them, in the name of Jesus."

He prayed aggressively with three days dry fast. Something happened on the third day, he just felt a whip lashing on his back, he wrongfully rejoiced for he thought God had brought His whip to deal with the enemies. He then told the Spirit of God to use the whip against the enemy and not on him. Before he could finish saying the prayer, he had another round of beating. Then he screamed out saying, why are you whipping me?

Only then did the voice of God speak to him, telling him that he was his own enemy, causing problems for himself.

There are some people like that who are waging war against themselves. They have simply decided to wage war against themselves. Imagine someone who could not manage one wife going ahead to marry seven of them, war! Out of the seven wives three are witches, two are from the water, and only one is attending a church. The other one does not even know where she belongs.

 

People can be antagonised spiritually. Many of our educated people are so naive. They assure that as long as they do not offend anybody, nothing can harm them. How wrong they are.

The personal decision of anybody to make progress is enough to warrant the antagonism of the evil powers. The only people who don’t have enemies are those who are aimless and without any purpose in life.

One other fact that must be understood is that as long as anyone is born of a woman same must have enemies. Jesus Himself had enemies. The only problem was that His enemies made a mistake by nailing Him to the cross.

 

A lot of people are operating under wicked burden of curses and covenants. Curses could run within a family for decades on end. Such curses and covenants can mar, destroy and paralyse the prayers of many generations.

If a curse or evil covenant is on the marital life of a family, both the men and women of that family will find it difficult to marry.

Strong curses and covenants can limit people’s advancement and can even stop them at the edge of their breakthroughs.

 

By the time you remove household wickedness from the problem of the blackman, he has only about 10 percent of the problems left.

This is what the devil has been using to wage war against people. When the storms come, money cannot help.

The late American millionaire called Rocky Feller was so rich that he could buy up a whole city. But he got to a stage during his life when the only thing he could eat was cracker biscuit and milk. Although he was prosperous, but in reality he was poor.

A person can have millions in the bank, but if he has cancer, he is poor indeed! The cancer will eliminate him and render everything he has useless.

 

So, if you are reading this message and you find that things are happening that you cannot explain, you should silence the storms today.

If you find that instead of going forward, you are going backward, there is a storm to silence.

If you notice that those who do not merit success, are excelling more than you and you the superior is being made inferior, there is a war to fight.

If you notice that you have a fresh problem that is becoming stubborn, and does not want to go away, then you have a battle to fight.

When men who should be winners are failing, then there is a battle to fight.

When somebody is being governed by powers contrary to his or her will, there is a battle to fight.

When there is sudden hatred between husband and wife, there is a battle to fight.

When a brilliant student sometimes becomes dull during examination, there is a battle to fight.

When a normally happy person becomes unhappy, there is a battle to fight.

When an obedient child suddenly becomes disobedient, there is a battle to fight.

When a rich person is suddenly turning poor, there is a battle to fight.

When you are being enslaved by a habit that you cannot control, there is a battle to fight.

If you fail to receive divine revelations concerning your life, and you don’t even know what God wants you to do, then there is a battle to fight.

But when you are fighting the battle and silencing the storms, the wrong people to go are what the Bible calls wolves.

A lot of people take the battle of their lives to wolves. 90 percent of those who go to church in this country, to the best of my knowledge, need deliverance. Christians need deliverance more than any group of people. So many people erroneously believe that deliverance is for witches and wizards alone. I must state with all emphasis that the deliverance of witches and wizards are easier than deliverance for example, from the spirit of fornication! Somebody who is fornicating has sexual problems, and to deliver such a person is more difficult than the deliverance of a witch.

Deliverance is a spiritual process by which you can remove all the ladder through which the enemies climb into your life. When you destroy the ladder, they cannot come in again.

When I was teaching in the University, I counselled a particular lady to go for deliverance because she needed to. She refused to listen to me particularly as she claimed to be born-again.

Then tragedy struck: she failed all her papers. Then she rushed to me to help her in any way I could. But as I was trying to find out how she could be helped, she started giving me startling revelations. She said she was planted in that University to initiate people because of the closeness of the place to the sea.

But when she got to the campus, she found the gospel very interesting and she started to attend Christian meetings. She enjoyed the choruses, the Bible study and everything going on there. She got born again quiet alright. But the deeply entrenched things in her life needed to be removed.

Being born-again is a door way towards being completely delivered, and not deliverance itself.

If you notice that things are happening to you, that you cannot explain, like having strange dreams, eating and committing immorality in the dream, traveling to places you don't understand, then you know there is a battle to fight.

 

GET BORN - AGAIN - The first thing to do is to give your life to Jesus. It is for you to come to the realisation that you need the Saviour and for you to give your life to Him. And from that day, He will become the Lord of your life.

If you have not given your life to Jesus, do so now, going to church alone cannot make you a born again Christian. If you don’t take the first step, any other step you take will not work.

KNOW THE ORIGIN OF THE STORM - If you don’t know the origin of what you are fighting against, you will not succeed. You indeed have understand where the storm is coming from.

GET TO KNOW JESUS CHRIST - He is the Master of the storms, be close to Him. And when this happens, you will be able to face the storm.

LEARN SPIRITUAL WARFARE - Wars are fought and won in the spirit before the physical manifestation. It is the spirit that controls the physical. Once you solve it in the spirit, it is going to be okay.

We use the weapon of prayer to pull down strongholds. I will like to tell you that prayer is hard work, and you will discover why as you read on.

There are three heavens. The first heaven is the firmament, which we can see. The second heaven belong to the devil and his angels. The third heaven belongs to God that is where paradise is. When we pray, our prayers have to go up, passes through the headquarters of evil before getting to the third heaven. When the answers are coming too, they have to pass through this headquarters of evil before reaching us. So this is why prayer is hard work.

Lots of hindrances against peoples’ prayers come up at that level. Brother Daniel prayed for 21 days and his prayers were answered right on the first day, but there in the second heaven, was a temporary seizure of the answers to his prayers. But he persisted in prayer for 21 days, if he had stopped, that would have been the end of the miracle. He continued bombarding the place, until there was an outlet and he got what he wanted from the Lord.

Prayer is hard work, but nothing can stop the power of well-targeted aggressive prayers done in violent faith. That is why when the devil wants to destroy a person, he starts by paralysing his prayer life. Once the prayer strength is taken away, all other things are easy to take away. Let me share this testimony with you.

At a Christian meeting I attended, there was a sister who had never done any menstruation at the of 37. At that age, she had not experienced what she was supposed to have started as a teenager. But at that meeting, a prayer point was called that every owner of evil load should carry his or her load in the name of Jesus. The woman prayed hard and after seeing a vision in which the angel of the Lord assisted her, the owner of her evil load which was a dead old woman carried her evil load. Almost immediately blood started trickling down the legs of the sister.

God is still very much in the business of silencing satanic storms and restoring lost blessings.

But you must persist in prayer. I urge you therefore to pray the following prayer points with violent faith and divinely inspired aggression.

 

Lay your right hand on your head as you pray the following prayer points:

1. I fire back every arrow of the enemy, in the name of Jesus.

2. Every owner of evil load, carry you load now, in Jesus' name.

3. I refuse to serve my enemies, in the name of Jesus.

4. Every serpent and scorpion delegated against me, I trample upon you in the name of Jesus.

5. Every incantation uttered against me, become impotent in the name of Jesus.

6. I command every evil pronouncement targeted against my life to fall to the ground and die, in the name of Jesus.

7. I paralyse every strongman walking against my progress, in the name of Jesus.

8. Every household wickedness, lose your hold, in the name of Jesus.

9. I pursue, I overtake and I recover my properties from the hands of household wickedness, in the name of Jesus.

10. Every spirit of infirmity, go back to your sender, in the mighty name of Jesus.

11. Every satanic traffic warden diverting good things from me, be paralyzed in the name of Jesus.

12. I destroy all my personal walls of Jericho, in the name of Jesus.

SLAY YOUR GIANTS
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

In the physical sense, a giant is one whose physical body is immensely bigger than a normal man.

Giants, because of their sizes and shapes, usually carve an awesome image for themselves. They are fearful not just in size, but in their actions also.

Little wonder, they are considered as ‘gods’ in their own right. Whosoever that will fight and destroy any giant, must do a serious analysis of the tactics and the weaponry to put into use.

As there are physical giants, so there are spiritual giants. How then do we deal with them? We shall look at some giant killers in the Bible, and then establish strong points on how giants can be killed: For example Joshua 15:14 says,

And Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman and Talmai, the children of Anak.

God had promised the Israelites that they were going to inherit a land filled with milk and honey. As the Israelites were getting close to this promised land, Moses sent 12 spies to go and look at the place or better put, to go and spy out the place. As there were 12 tribes in Israel, each tribe had to donate their greatest warriors that were available. So the people went to the promised land and came back with their reports.

Numbers 13:26 says,

And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran to Kadesh, and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation and shewed them the fruit of the land.

And they told him, and said, we came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South and the Hittites and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the Mountains ..." Fearful picture. The place in a nutshell was a no go area. It had been completely surrounded by enemies, and yet, it was the promised land. What then did Caleb do?

Verses 30-33 of the same chapter say,

And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.

But the men that went up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than us. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, by saying, the land through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers and so we were in their sight."

As a result of that evil testimony, something happened in Numbers 14:1;

And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried and the people wept that night.

It was only someone like Caleb who said, "We are able to overcome them."

Numbers 14:9 says,

Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us, their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us, fear them not.

Caleb was that man who refused to grow old. He was vigorous and faithful, all through his life. He was therefore courageous enough to drive out the giants from his own inheritance.

There are so many inheritances today too that are being governed by giants. They need to be chased away and slain.

David too was a giant killer that most people know in the Bible as the killer of the giant Goliath. He too was courageous and he had violent faith. He refused to allow the threat of the giant to discourage him. He told the giant that, although he had come in the name of his god, but he, David had come in the name of the Almighty Lord of hosts whom he had defied. And he then prophesied unto the giant saying, "This day, I will bring down your head."

And it happened just like that.

If you are going to face the giants too, many things have to be quite clear to you. We all have different giants working against us. Some people’s giants are sicknesses, while other people’s giant is prayerlessness.

There are also those whose giants are their inability to read their Bible or witness to anybody. We also have those whose giants are sleeplessness. The giants in some other people’s lives toss them right, left and center.

With my experience in the ministry, I have come to realise that a lot of Christians harbour giants inside their expensive clothes. Those giants by all means must die. Therefore, I want you to allow the anger of the Holy Spirit to burn inside of you. Decide that it is the giant that will give way. Be determined that you will lay hold on God.

So, you should get very angry in your spirit, like David got angry and called Goliath the uncircumcised Philistine. He wondered angrily why such a hopeless giant should be threatening the army of the living God.

It will interest you to know that Goliath had threatened the Israelites 81 times before David arrived at the battle field.

Perhaps your own physical or spiritual Goliath has also been threatening you for a long time. It is time for you to arise and slay it. Gone are those days when a witch would cry today and the next day a child would die.

Witches who are wicked spiritual giants now operate on a more terrible scale. Whenever they cry now, a child dies instantly. They no longer postpone the evil day. If you then choose to stand still and watch them operate as they like in your life, then, you should blame yourself for the evil consequences and effects of their operations.

We now have plenty of comedians who parade themselves as Christians in the Church of God. Many of them have Goliaths that pursue them relentlessly day and night. But instead of addressing their Goliaths, they would rather engage in useless ventures. The solution is to get truly angry in your spirit, stand on the word of God and defeat your Goliath.

If you stand and fight your Goliath, the trouble in your home and business will disappear completely. They will be left with no choice.

While I was in the primary school, I attracted many enemies amongst my classmates for no fault of mine. In those days, the teachers usually did not whip those who performed poorly in class tests and examinations by themselves. Rather, they assigned that duty to those who performed excellently well in the class.

Since I was doing well in my academics, I was always asked to whip the poor performers. But after I had whipped them, they would gather themselves together and wait for me at the gate after school hours and beat me up thoroughly. This terrible situation continued for a long time.

Then one day, I purposed in my mind to do something that would put an end to the unpleasant situation. So, I bought the peppery balm called Chinese balm. Shortly before the school ended on a particular day, I rubbed my palm with the Chinese balm. As usual, my classmates that I had whipped for poor performance that day were waiting for me at the school gate.

But as the first person attacked me, I just rubbed my palm very aggressively on his eyes, and the unexpected happened. He screamed uncontrollably. I did the same thing to the second person and that one started screaming too. Since they could not open their eyes, I was able to beat them up very well. That is how to deal with the giant. If I may ask you, what part of Goliath’s body did David’s stone hit? It was the forehead, because of that, Goliath could no longer see, so it was easy for David to finish him up in record time.

Therefore you are going to close your eyes now and pray aggressively like this: "You the Lord that differentiated the land of Goshen from the land of Egypt, send blindness into the camp of my enemies, in the mighty name of Jesus.

Matthew 18:18 says:

Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Matthew 18:18 says:

Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

That verse can be interpreted as follows, whatsoever you refuse to permit on earth, heaven will refuse to permit it. So if you declare to the giant today that you must be free and that the giant must be slain, heaven will make the same declaration. If however you decide to watch your giant without taking any action, heaven too will stand still.

There is nobody who can convince me that any witch is stronger than God. Who is the witch that will talk when God is speaking?  

The problems created by giants in the lives of men can be divided into twelve, namely:

Sin took the best life (Jesus) and nailed Him to the cross. It was that terrible and it is even more terrible now. The only Son of God had to die for the remission of other peoples’ sins. It follows therefore that whatsoever can make God to kill His own Son cannot be a joking matter, it must be really serious. If God felt the only way to remove sins from the earth was for His own Son to die, then you should know that sin is a serious problem.

We read in the Bible that an ailing man stood by the pool of Bethesda for 38 years without receiving any form of healing. It meant therefore, that the man had gotten there before Jesus was even born physically. Jesus finished His earthly ministry around 33 years of age. That man had been in that place for 38 years.

God in those days used to send an angel to trouble the water by which the man stood. Whosoever got into the water first, got healed. Because of the man’s infirmity, he could not get into the water. He was in that position when Jesus was passing by. Jesus healed him and warned him to sin no more, lest a terrible thing come upon him.

It was then that the man could understand why he was in that situation for 38 years. It was sin that tied him down.

A lot of people have been tied down by sin. But if you do not untie yourself and the trumpet sounds, then you will be sitting in the same place while others will be gone. That should not be your lot, in Jesus’ name.

Know this fact that if you are heavenly minded, you will go to heaven, but if you are earthly minded, you will remain on earth.

Please, pray this prayer point with all aggression:

I refuse to be magnetized to the world, in Jesus’ name.

So, anybody who comes to the house of God and is not born again, he or she is only wasting his or her time. In fact, such a person is just in the Church without necessarily being a child of God. He is nothing but a mere contributor.

If you give money to a Church and you are not born again, you are only doing a useless business which will bring no profit.

A lot of people are labouring under heavy curses. And sad enough, they do not understand the situation they are in.

However, there is one simple sign with which to know when one is under a curse. You will feel that there is something somewhere battling against you which you cannot understand. You cannot master the thing, but you know that there is a battle.

Maybe you are in a situation where everything works so well for you only to scatter at the edge of success. If you have noticed a pattern like that, then know that there is a curse in place.

Perhaps you have noticed that in one particular family that all the sisters therein do not stay in their husbands’ houses or all the men that marry from that family would be idle, while the wives would become the bread winners. Terrible curses are truly in place, and they must be broken.

A lot of people have been given as promissory notes to evil spirits by their own people without their knowledge. Once that has been done, the covenant remains binding.

If you had at any point in your life exchanged anything with a white garment herbalist, perhaps in form of sacrificial items to appease the demons. It therefore must be broken. If you do not break the covenants, you will not have the abundance that God wants you to have.

There are so many evil covenants like that. I knew a sister who always took ill whenever her School Certificate Examination was around the corner. She would not take ill until it was one week to the important School Certificate Examination.

This ugly situation continued for a long time. When the situation had defied all solutions, the mother of the sister then consulted an oracle in her village. The oracle revealed that the sister was having problems because a particular river was hungry.

The oracle reportedly asked the mother of the sister to buy a bag of rice, a bag of beans, a basket of tomatoes and dump them inside the river. The mother of the sister obeyed the oracle. She went and bought the items and dumped them inside the hungry river.

By the next examination, the sister passed in flying colours. They all rejoiced greatly in her family. Meanwhile, the demon of the river kept quiet until the girl got into the University, read law, graduated, got married, and had the first child. Then, the river demon came and reminded her that he was the foundation of her success, therefore she must be worshipping him. The girl promptly told the demon that she was already a born again Christian. The demon then asked her if she did not know that she was a born again Christian when her mother approached him for help? There and then the devil started working on her.

One day, the husband just came home and brought another woman into the house and gave her a room in the flat. He then warned her that if she made any trouble in the house about the new development, she would be sent packing.

When all pleas from the woman fell on deaf ears, she decided to seek divine intervention from God. As soon as a Minister of God prayed for her, the Lord revealed that she had made a covenant with a demon which must be broken immediately. She prayed very aggressively and the evil covenant got broken.

Covenant breaking prayers are not gentle prayers. It is like you want to break the chains tying the hands of somebody, and the key is with the devil. There is no gentle method of breaking such chains because the key is not in your hands. It has been locked up and kept in the library of the enemy.

Evil covenants are giants pursuing many people. They have to be stopped and destroyed completely, in Jesus’ mighty name.

A lot of people are their own enemies, and they inflict sufferings on their own lives by themselves. Many people would not have had problems at all in their lives if immediately they started to talk, somebody put a little hole in their lips and then locked them up with a padlock.

Day by day, many people harm themselves with their own mouths. It reminds me of one man of God who observed three days dry fast with aggressive prayers using Psalm 35, that God should combat and defeat his enemies.

During the first two days of his dry fast no word, vision or dream came from the Lord. The man of God nonetheless continued to pray. It was on the third day that the strange response from the Lord came to him. He felt a terrible whip on his back.

When that persisted, he had to cry to God to deal with his enemies and not him. It was then that the Lord told him that he was his own enemy. The Lord said He would not have whipped him if he had not persistently prayed that He should deal with his enemies.

I hope you are not fighting against yourself. If you are, you better repent.

The Bible says there are arrows that fly about at noon and there are destructions moving by night, seeking whom to devour. If then you just keep roaming about and you are the unserious kind of believer who goes about serving rice at unbelievers’ parties as well as cooking their food for them, when the arrows are flying about, you will be located easily and then problems will come.

I know a man who went to a party. He would have done himself a lot of good by staying at home to pray with his wife and children. He did not do this, rather, he went to a party and sat down and when food was served, his was the last one to be served. But as they put his food on the table, he suddenly saw from the corner of his eyes, a snake crawling towards him from the same house where his food was served. He tried to run, but the more he tried the more his legs were glued to the ground. He could not scream too. His heart was beating fast as the snake came to his table.

No one else saw the snake. The snake then climbed up and moved round his body and finally put some poison into the man’s mouth and then went back into the house again. The question is, who sent him there? If he stayed at home he would have avoided it.

These are problems caused by the devil and his cohorts. These are giants too. A lot of people are saying they want deliverance because certain spirits are in operation in their lives.

This is when prayer is done haphazardly, and Bible reading is done only when you feel inspired to do so. When you are spiritually careless, anything can happen. A careless soldier at the war front is only putting himself into serious trouble.

These can come into a person’s life from the parents or ancestors and become giants. When such problems come, the affected person is harassed endlessly by the giants.

Many people now find it difficult to put their flesh under control. If you cannot control your flesh, get ready for trouble.

A lot of people are suffering from the spirit of rejection. There is a wound inside the spirit because of what somebody has done to them in the past which is really horrible and the devil is keeping it fresh in their minds. The evil spirit will continually remind them of what they did to them. If this is your case, then the spirit of rejection is there obviously in place and in active operation too.

There are terrible enemies within families that cause untold havoc. If a household enemy is harassing your life, why not tell it to Jesus. He will avenge you of their evil activities.

Jonah was sent to Nineveh by God, but he decided to go to Tarshish. So the Lord and not the devil decided to fight Jonah. He commanded the wind to rise against Jonah, and when they threw Jonah overboard, He commanded the fish to swallow him.

When God is fighting you, the only solution is obedience.

We are going to pray the following prayer points.

1. Every problem that has converted itself to a giant in my life, be slain, in the name of Jesus.

2. I release myself from the bondage of spiritual giants, in the name of Jesus.

3. Be specific and command any spiritual giants in your life to be slain, in the name of Jesus.

4. I release myself from the bondage of household enemies, in the name of Jesus.

5. I command every evil family tree to be uprooted, in the name of Jesus.

6. Every evil consumption from household wickedness, depart, in the name of Jesus.

7. All my benefits that have been captured by household enemies be released now, in the name of Jesus.

8. All the evil masquerades harassing my life, begin to fight yourselves, in the name of Jesus.

9. O Lord, arise, and let every giant confronting my breakthroughs scatter.

10. I refuse to give up at the edge of miracles, in the name of Jesus.

11. I use the axe of the Lord, to cut the head of every giant occupying my promised land, in the name of Jesus.

12. Every evil collaboration of household wickedness against my prosperity, scatter by fire, in Jesus' name.

 

STAR HUNTERS

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

In this message, we are looking at the demonic powers which hunt after the stars of the children of God,

with the aim attending their God-given destiny. 

These powers are call 'star hunters'. They will stop at nothing to hunt people's stars, with the aim to steal,

to kill and to destroy them. 

In order to have a good understanding of who these demonic powers are, we shall make an in-depth study

of the word of God. We shall read first from the book of Obadiah verses 3 - 4, 

"The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwelleth in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation

is high; that saith in his heart, who shall bring me down to the ground. Though thou exalt thyself as the

eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord." 

There are some enemies that feel secured because they hide themselves in the clefts of the rock. 

There are also enemies living in very high places, who have vowed in their hearts to continually torment

people. But verse 4 says, "though thou exalt thyself as the eagle and though thou set thyself among the stars,

thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord." 

All faithful Christians are sure of this. As far as God is concerned, nobody oppressing His own children will

go unpunished. 

This message is therefore designed to make you spiritually, aggressive so that you will fight seriously and

defeat these powers with your violent prayers. To be quite honest with you, prayers against star hunters are

not gentle ones. The devil promotes his agents when they are able to misdirect, darken, pull down or cage

a person's star. 

To this end, you are going to take your first prayer point, and if you are unable to pray, it is probably because

you have been caged. "No evil power shall use my life to obtain promotion, in the name of Jesus." 

Prayers against star hunters must be well targeted and done in continuous bombardment. It is only this, that

can guarantee anyone a good result. 

Many years ago, a certain lady used come to me for counselling. One day, she came and sat down as usual,

and the Lord said to me: "Don't you know the person you are talking to? Look at her very well, she is

operating at the level of principalities." As soon as I heard this, I now related to her whom she was. She too

responded boldly by saying, "that is very interesting, now that you know me so well, help me to get out of

the evil group." 

It was from this lady that I heard some of the most horrible confessions I have ever heard from demonic

people. Her bad confessions got so interesting that I was spurred to ask her many questions about their

operations in the dark world. Apart from answering verbally, she also demonstrated these things to me. 

At a particular point, I asked her a very important question, which is how the demonic people know what

a person would become right from the womb, or immediately the child is born. She answered by saying that

they use a traditional lamp, the kind of lamp used in the olden days for lights, to discover that. She said they

would speak to the lamp, and it was within the tongue of the flames that they would see clearly what the

child would become in future. It was within that same tongue of flames, that the child would be manipulated

right from the womb or the day of birth. 

One of the most terrible mistakes made by many parents, perhaps out of ignorance is to go to the devil to

inquire about a child's future. This is common in virtually all Nigerian villages. They go to the herbalists to

inquire after the future of their children. It is at that point that evil powers gain an insight into a child's life

and manipulation starts thereafter. The star hunters will then have a field day with their destructive

business. This is the origin of most stubborn problems. 

Let me give you four examples derived from my counselling experience. 

The parents of a brother who went to find out what he would become in future, discovered that he would

prosper in a foreign land. They were reliably informed that their son would be so brilliant that he would be

controlling white people. But the irony of it, according to the idol, or the demon they contacted was that,

once the brother travelled out of the country, he would never come back home, because the white people

would find him so useful that they would not like to release him. 

With this information, the thoroughly bewildered parents of the brother decided to make it impossible for

him to travel overseas all his life. The witch-doctor engaged to carry out the evil assignment, told the parents

of the brother to produce his placenta, which they did. The witch-doctor then burnt it and mixed it with

alcohol. The parents of the brother and the witch-doctor drank out of the evil mixture, and threw the

remaining part into the deepest part of the sea. Although the brother grew up to become a very brilliant

person in his academics, he could not travel out of the country. The foreign scholarships he got were of no

value afterall. He could not forge ahead in life because his star had been destroyed at a tender age by star

hunters. 

This is the reason why you have to be serious in your prayers against the star hunters. 

In another case, the parents of a lady went about to find out what the future of the lady would be. The

diviner told them that, through his divining ball he could see that the lady was different kind of cars. He

assured them that their daughter would become an important person in the society, and own fleet of elegant

cars. However, he added that one of the cars would be the source of her death. The parents who were not

happy about the news of the fate that would befall their daughter in future, asked the diviner to find a

solution to the problem. He told them that he would delegate the demon of poverty against their daughter,

so that she would be so poor that she would not be able to buy a single car. At least, through that way, the

lady would stay alive. He carried out the demonic ritual, and from that time, the spirit of poverty got into

the lady. 

The lady grew up to become a terribly poor and poverty stricken person. She grew up to become a palm oil

seller, she had twelve children and a jobless husband to the bargain. 

In another case, a diviner told the parents of a certain brother that their son would prosper in life, but would

not listen to them, and would not agree with them on any issue in future. The parents of the brother were

then told to bring his placenta for sacrifice. The placenta was cooked in okro soup and was eaten by the

parents of the brother. 

This brother grew up to become a complete imbecile who could not do anything on his own, he could not

take a simple decision without traveling home to consult with his parents. His wife ran from pillar to post

complaining all over the place to whoever cared to listen to her. It was so bad that the man wrote a will and

exempted his wife and children. The ignorant wife wasted years fighting the man instead of dealing with

star hunters. 

Please consider yet another example. There was another man who wanted money at all cost. So he started

going from one herbalist to another. They all prescribed many terrible rituals that he would have to carry

out before he could come into money. He was given some terrible options to choose from. The one he

accepted to do, was to locate three unwary women who by nature are sitting on divine gold mines. He was

instructed to commit immorality with them, and then bring materials from their bodies for ritual. Thereafter,

the divine prosperity in their lives would be transferred into his own life. As a result of this demonic

arrangement, the women became poor while he became rich, star hunters at work. 

I used to have a friend who struggled very hard before he could get a good job. When he eventually got it,

he was given a big and comfortable office chair that could accommodate three people without stress.

However, the man noticed that right from the first day he resumed, he would be feeling sleepy and drowsy,

each time he sat down to work , and he would not be able to concentrate. 

But immediately he left the office after working hours, he would suddenly become his normal self. One day,

he attended one of our meetings where he learnt how to deal with such a situation. As soon as he got to his

office the following day, he held his chair tightly and prayed with holy madness on it. As he was shaking the

chair, he heard something drop from it. When he looked closely at the object, he discovered that it was

something called "Tirah", a kind of juju [a local object of wickedness made of different threads. 

That is another strategy of the star hunters. 'Juju' is an inanimate object to which a demon has been attached

to carry out satanic instruction or mission. Some of the 'juju' objects have the demons residing in them, while

others don't. Juju objects without resident demons usually require incantations for them to come alive. 

When somebody is therefore issuing incantations, he is doing three things. He is either issuing curses or

giving satanic instructions or summoning demons to come into their covenant material. So, juju is not the

kind of thing a serious believer should be afraid of. Any serious Christian can cause a lot of havoc to any juju

practitioner or anybody pronouncing incantations. 

For example, if somebody sees juju and says, "I command the demon attached to you to turn hungrily against

its owner, in the name of Jesus" or ,"let the angel of God begin to read scriptures to this resident demon, until

it turns mad against its owner, in the name of Jesus", or, "let all the incantations attached to this juju be

folded up and be thrown back at the pronouncer in the name of Jesus", there will be pandemonium in their

camp. People in the kingdom of darkness know the kind of power the believers have. Therefore if a believer

wants to be terribly dangerous and wants to destroy evil powers, he can send evil incantations back to

sender sevenfold using the word of God. 

I plead with you therefore to pray this prayer point: "I paralyse every incantation rendered against me, in

Jesus' name." 

When the Bible says, "there is no divination or enchantment against Jacob, "It means that somebody is

divining against Jacob, and making enchantment against him. Let us pray again like this: "I paralyse every

satanic manipulator, in the name of Jesus." 

This next story will interest you. Somebody was rendered impotent in England, and a girl here in Nigeria

claimed responsibility for it. She confessed that she carried out the evil spiritual assignment. But when some

people pleaded with her, she agreed to reverse it. She then led them into one bush and asked them to dig

up a certain place. 

When they started digging the place in a careless manner, she cautioned them to dig the place rather

carefully to avoid doing any damage to what she has buried. Within a short time of digging, they reached

a black folded bag, which was exhumed. When it was opened, a fresh male sex organ dripping with blood

was found inside. As soon as the male organ was given to her, she confirmed that the potency of the man

in England had been restored. The affected man phoned shortly afterwards, that he had regained his

potency. 

The question is, how did that happen? How was it possible for a girl in Nigeria to bewitch someone in

England. The answer is very simple. It was the handiwork of star hunters and their demons. 

Let us do a little bit of Bible study to establish what the Bible says about stars. Psalm 19 :1 says, "The heavens

declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handiwork." This verse confirms that even the

things in heaven are continuously declaring the glory of God. But what they are declaring or the particular

thing they are saying may not be clear to man, but are clear to God the creator. 

Geneses 1:14 -16, says "And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day

from the night: and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights

in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights;

the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also." 

So, God made these stars and put them there to declare His glory. If you are a good Bible reader, you will

discover that one of the dreams of Joseph that annoyed his people was the one in which he said he found

the sun, moon and eleven stars bowing down for him. His father, who could translate and interpret it

straight away, therefore asked him if he thought his father, mother and brothers would be bowing down

to him. Sometimes, stars can represent all that we stand for. 

Psalm 8:3, says "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou

hast ordained." God has ordained them and decided what they should be doing. 

Stars were therefore created and placed in heaven by God. Psalm 147 : 4 also has this to say: "He telleth the

number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names." God call the stars and heavenly bodies by names.

Verses 31-33 of 

Job chapter 38 give an insight into some of the names: "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of pleiades, or

loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? Or canst thou guide Arcturus with

his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?" 

The question is, why did God place stars in heaven? The Bible tells us the reason for this in the book of

Genesis 1:14. They are for signs and for seasons. A sign is a signal of things to come. It is intended to convey

a message about a forth coming event. 

A sign is normally provided in advance by somebody to direct, warn or give guidance concerning certain

things. It therefore helps one to follow the right pathway without getting lost or getting into danger. It is

like a road sign, which indicates that there is a narrow road or bridge ahead. A careful driver will therefore

be prepared for what to do. 

God is against astrology in any form. He also forbids men from worshiping the stars and one of the cleverest

methods of the star hunters is to make people to believe in astrology. 

There was one powerful man who used to believe in astrology. The day he changed his mind was the day

he found out that a rich man living in a mansion had the same star as his cleaner. There is every possibility

that whosoever might have been reading what his star says would have given the control of his life to the

stars. 

Deuteronomy 18 :10-11 clearly explain this: "There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his

son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an

enchanter, or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer" God

does not want us to get involved in all these evil things. 

Verse 14 of the same chapter 18 says this: "For these nations which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto

observer of times and unto diviners." Isaiah 47 : 12-13 read thus: "Stand now with thine enchantments, and

with the multitudes of thy sorceries, wherein thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou

art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly

prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shalt come upon thee." 

God is against astrology, and every of His creation should take the same stand against astrology. 

When a person believes that his life has been programmed from birth by stars, he would find very little merit

in prayer. He would find it difficult to believe that things could change for the better for him. They say

"nothing can be done about it, what would be, would be, for what goes up must come down". 

Christianity is indeed something to cherish throughout one's life time, because it offers you a living

relationship with somebody who can change your destiny for the better. 

So the first great strategy of the star hunters or of people who paralyze destiny is to make many people

believe in astrology or what their stars are saying. This has affected all races of the world. My prayer is that

those who have been caged like this, even through casual reading of this message, shall be delivered in Jesus'

name. 

If you have horoscope books at home, make sure you burn them today. Stop your children from reading them

either, so as to prevent them from being manipulated. 

Let us go to another aspect of our study in Matthew 2:1-2: "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea

in the days of Herod the King, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, where is he

that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him". They were

able to locate the star of Jesus. God opened their eyes to see the star and they began to follow it. 

Verses 9-10 read thus: "When they had heard the King, they departed; and lo, the star, which they saw in

the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star,

they rejoiced with exceeding great joy." 

No wonder some people have fallen in love with the parlance which says "wise men still follow him". Your

spiritual eyes may not be open like that of the wise men, but you can do something about any evil eyes

observing your star. 

To this end, I encourage you to fire three bullets of prayers thus: 

1. Every evil follower of my star, receive the thunder fire of God in Jesus' name.

2. Every prison warder of my star, release it in the name of Jesus.

3. The star of my life will not be wandering around in the name of Jesus.

Their purpose is to capture a person's star, and have it destroyed. 

There was a particular family, where their grandmother was a star hunter. She was living with them and

all the ladies there (i.e. her granddaughters) started experiencing broken homes. All but one of them returned

home with tales of woe. However, the youngest of them who was a very stubborn person in the spirit,

decided that she was not going to have a broken home and determined to go to any length to achieve that.

She met with a man of God who counseled her to embark on 21 days night vigil. She started, and by the

second day of the prayer, she greeted her grandmother, but she refused to answer her. After the third day

of the prayer programme, the grandmother warned the lady not to kill her. 

The old woman did all she could to stop her from praying aggressively, but the lady refused to be

discouraged. Rather than stop her prayer or pray in the gentle way, she intensified it. By the fourth day, the

old woman could not come out of her room. It was then that it clicked in the spirit of that sister that it was

her prayers that were disturbing her grandmother. Therefore she became more violent and by the seventh

day, the granny was dead. When they were looking through what she left behind, they found strands of hair

with names of the grandchildren attached to them. The sister took her own strand of hair and set it on fire

and commanded the fire of God to consume it. Within the next four days, her husband came back to her

prostrating for her to come back to her matrimonial home. But others saw the whole thing and called it

superstition and as a result, they are still out of their matrimonial homes. It was only the sister with violent

faith that got out. 

The star hunters can have their agents deeply rooted or planted in any family. We need to expose and

disgrace them with the power of God. 

Counterfeit body

As you are reading this message, you are a spirit living in the body with a soul. Your body is like a container

housing your spirit and soul. The real you is the spirit inside of you. So that container or body can be

completely altered and the person will be going around with a fake one. 

This is why some people look older than their age. It is equally the reason why some people do aggressive

prayer and loose weight or their skin peel off like the skin of snakes. 

Those going about with counterfeit bodies would always have bad luck. Unexplainable hatred and

uncomfortable heaviness would always be their lot. It would appear as if they want to go to one direction,

while the body wants to go to another. 

Serious ugliness, sluggishness and premature ageing would be written all over them. Such people would also

experience marital failure. They would know that their bodies are not working as they should. The star

hunters know that if they are able to change a person's body, the wrong body would not get the right

blessings for the person. 

Name manipulation

God takes the issue of name seriously, that is why in the Bible, you will find God changing people's names

e.g. Sarai was changed to Sarah, Abram to Abraham and Jacob to Israel etc. If names were not important at

all, God would not be taking those name changing steps. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon who was a

demonic man also understood the principle of name manipulation. He knew the power in names, so when

he took the four Hebrew children to Babylon, the first thing he did was to change their names. For example,

Daniel which means "God is judge" was changed to Belteshazzar meaning the presence of Baal, or Idol. The

name which Shadrach brought from Israel was Hananiah, meaning the gift of the Lord. He changed it to

Shadrach, meaning "the commander of a demon". The name that Meshach brought from Israel was Mishael,

meaning, who is like unto God, was changed to Meshach meaning a semblance of a demon. The man called

Abednego brought Azariah from Israel, meaning Jehovah's help, however, it was changed to Abednego,

which means the servant of Nego, another demon. So when you hear Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach and

Abednego, they are all demonic names that the king gave to them. But thank God that those boys did not

forget the sons of whom they were. 

You must have read from your Bible that whenever God wanted to send a servant into the world, he gave

a name in addition, e.g. "thou shalt deliver a son and ye shall call his name Jesus for he shall deliver his

people from their sins. When John the Baptist was coming, his name was also despatched early enough, it

was the same with Isaac's. There was a king in Israel called Josiah, who did a lot of havoc to the worshipers

of Baal. His name Josiah means "roaster of evil". 

In the same vein God has an original name for you from heaven. Are you bearing names given to you by your

enemy? Or are you carrying about names recorded down in demonic world for manipulation? Then you must

change the names both spiritually and physically. Every demonic family name originating from idols is a

manipulation of your star. This is why the spirits of the evil names that so many people bear are working

against their lives.

Manipulation of the placenta

I have already discussed this in the message. When a person's placenta is cooked and eaten, such a person's

life will be controlled by these evil powers. 

Polluted Food

Another strategy they use is consumption of polluted food. As many as have consumed food polluted by

wicked spirits will have one problem or the other. It could be through night feeding, demonic parties,

demonically inspired sacrifice and feeding of a baby during naming ceremony. All these can be used to cage

the star of a person. The purpose of these strategies is to capture the star of a person, and have it destroyed.

All the programmed incisions are sometimes designed to manipulate people. I believe that you have suffered

for too long and I don't think you should continue like this. Things have got to change now for the better. 

Therefore, if you know that you are being hunted by the star hunters, the way out is by praying well targeted

aggressive prayers for the star to be released. But then if you are not born again, there is no way you can

uncage your star, except you first get born again. 

So if you are reading this message and you are not born again, and you have not openly committed your life

to Christ, you may not be able to paralyze the star hunters assigned against you. If you are ready to give your

life to Christ, say this prayer before going into the prayer points against the star hunters. "Father In the name

of Jesus, I come unto you, I am a sinner, I confess all my sins and I repent from them. I know that you are my

saviour, and that I cannot save myself, Lord Jesus come into my life now, take control. I give my life unto you.

Thank you Jesus." 

1. I withdraw my star from every evil cage in the name of Jesus.

2. I release my star from the grip of household wickedness in the name of Jesus.

3. Let every evil eye monitoring my star, receive blindness in the name of Jesus.

4. I command every amputator working against me to be paralysed in the name of Jesus.

5. Let all my oppressors be frustrated in Jesus name.

6. Father Lord, put all my miracle delayers to shame in the name of Jesus.

7. I recover all my goodness stolen by star hunters in the name of Jesus.

 

LORD, BEHOLD THEIR THREATENING
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

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."

 

Notice certain points about that parable. A king invited people to his feast. He did not force people to attend but there was an enemy at the feast. Every enemy at the feast of your life, shall be disgraced today, in the name of Jesus. The enemy who walked in by his own legs became the criminal. Then the executioners of the firing squard quickly removed the criminal. But it is interesting that the members of the firing squard were also present at the feast. Whenever God is doing something good in people's lives, a proportion of unworthy forces try to attack them. Whenever God is doing something great in your life, a proportion of members from the camp of the enemy will attend the meeting. No matter how good your spirit system is, they creep in unawares.

 

God wants to use good materials. If a person then decides to be a useless material, the person will have himself to blame. People should understand that just as this man went from the wedding feast to hell fire, the same thing happened to Korah, Dathan and Abiram. There are powers like that. The feast is what God is doing in your life, the king is Jesus, those invited, the guests without the wedding garments are the enemies that have come in; satanic agents. All such agents shall be paralysed now, in the name of Jesus. So this is why God calls His people the apple of His eye, the delight of His eye and the joy of His eye.

 

Make this declaration: "Evil powers might be drinking other people's blood and wasting their lives, my case is different. Every power designing shame and embarrassment for me, be paralysed, in the name of Jesus. Any power that say I should eat sand, should eat sand, in the name of Jesus.

 

All those who have been harassing the children of God are probably not reading their Bibles. They have read about Pharaoh, Hamman, or those who threw Daniel into the lions' den. The big truth is this, there is no one who has battled against the saints who were not ruined by the God of the saints. Check it out. Those who fought against Daniel were runined by the God of Daniel. Those who fought against the Israelites including Pharaoh, were ruined by their God. An angel just gave Herod a little slap, not a big one because if he did, that would have roasted him. In fact, we need to ask for angelic assistance today because when God sends His angels, they can slap our enemies, block their transport routes, they can invite special fire, attack with the sword or give a last warning.

 

Angels too can issue curses. They can stretch out their hands for destruction. They can chase or persecute people. So, when you see the Psalmist praying, "Let the angels of God pursue them. Let them have no rest day and night."

At this juncture, I will like you to pray like this: "Let the angel of God pursue and persecute all the enemies of my soul, in Jesus' name.

 

PRAYER POINTS

 

1. Let God be God in all my situations in the name of Jesus.

2. Lord, let it be known that your are God in the name of Jesus

3. Lord, do a new thing to my enemy

4. Let the earth open up and swallow every stubborn pursuer in the name of Jesus

5. Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, manifest yourself in your power.

6. Lord God of Elijah answer my prayers by fire in the name of Jesus

7. Every power challenging divine power in my life be disgraced now

8. Every satanic plan against my life be rendered impotent in the name of Jesus

9. Every evil power assembled against me, be scattered unto desolation in the name of Jesus

10. Lord behold the threatening of my enemies and silence them

11. I shall laugh last in the name of Jesus

12. Lord let my prayer letter arising in your signs and wonders to me .

13. Every rage of the enemy, be quenched in the name of Jesus

THE VIPERS
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Our topic for this week is what I call "The Vipers." In Matt. 3, we see a man of God who picked his words carefully and said exactly what he meant. This man was the forerunner of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Matt 3:7 says, "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O! generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"

John the Baptist called the Scribes, the Pharisees and Sadducees, "Vipers."

Mark 16:17-18 says, "And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay their hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

The five signs in that passage are:

a. They shall cast out devils.

b. They shall speak with new tongues

c. If they take any deadly thing, it will not hurt them.

d. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.

e. They shall take up serpents.

The fifth sign is not very clear to many people. It does not mean that we should start carrying snakes on our hands and become like magicians. It simply means that they shall deal with vipers. Jesus made this statement after His resurrection to tell us that we will encounter serpents. John called the people that he preached to a generation of vipers." We have all kinds of vipers; vipers in the form of human beings and snake vipers. Also the third sign does not mean that believers should start drinking poison, challenging their lives to see whether it will hurt them. That will be foolishness.

Many years ago, a woman was annoyed that her children came to MFM. So, she came with some people to attack me. One of the people who came with her was a herbalist and all the time they were talking to me, he had his hand in his pocket and was shaking something. The women said, "I don’t want my children to come to this church. You people have laid hands on their heads and now they are confused." The herbalist brought out his hand and shook hands with me saying, "Young man, good morning." As I was holding his hand I said, "Mr. Man, do you think that thing in your pocket can harm me?" He was surprised and said, "There is nothing in my pocket." I said "May I put my hands in your pocket and bring it out?" He said, "How can you put your hand inside my pocket?" If you have no fire in you and you shake hands with somebody like that, a viper will enter into your body. If an unbeliever tries it, a viper will enter into his hands, meaning that many people have different kinds of vipers hiding in them. There are a lot of physical materials carrying spiritual power that people handle day and night, not knowing that there are vipers in them.

The story on which we are going to concentrate our prayer is in Acts 28. Please, note that the book of Acts of the Apostles can also be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit. The book tells us what the New Testament church should be like. Many churches have now deviated from the Acts of the apostles. In the book, you find the celebration of the triumph of the church over forces of darkness with the arrival of men who gave the enemies headache. They gave the rulers of their time sleepless nights. If you have not read the Acts of Apostles, I advise you to read it. It is a very glorious book. The apostles harassed demons. I was in a dead church before, but the first day I saw what a living church should be like, I thought it was a strange gathering. Somebody was prophesying with the spirit of divination. As he was saying this, somebody from the back suddenly said, "How dare you come here to prophesy with the spirit of divination? I shall strike you with affliction." Then the fellow who prophesied said, "Sorry O! Forgive me, I did not know that there’s fire in this meeting." I was shocked because I had never seen that kind of thing before.

Acts 28:1-10 says, "And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita. And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness: For they kindled a fire and received us everyone, 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 from the sea yet vengeance suffereth him not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm. 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, others also, which had diseases in the Island, came and were healed: who also honoured us with many honours and when we departed, loaded us with such things as were necessary."

We can see at the end of this book what satan planned against the apostle. He planned death and defeat for Paul. He planned to terminate his assignment disgracefully. For how would it have been said that the man who raised the dead and healed the sick, was killed by a viper? That is what would have been written in the Bible. "And behold, a viper fastened on Paul’s hand, and bit him and his hand got swollen and he fell down and died." That was the kind of testimony the devil wanted to write about Paul. The devil had hidden a viper within the woods to bite Paul just as he hides a viper within the woods too to bite believers today. Satan could hide a viper for you as you go about your daily duty.

The viper could be in a person’s soul, it could be in his spirit or body. There was a viper in the life of Gehazi. He did not get rid of it on time. One day, the viper came out, struck Gehazi and that was it. This was a man who would have had four times the anointing of Elijah. He would have become one of the most powerful men in the Bible, but he was covetous. Although he was living in the house of a pastor or prophet, the viper was living there with him. One of the greatest prayer points I think you can ever pray for yourself is, "I refuse to become history while I’m still living, in the name of Jesus."

What is a viper? What does it represent in the spirit?

The viper is a poisonous creature and its bite spells death.

What is a viper in the spirit? It is a very poisonous and dangerous spirit. Lucifer, our arch-enemy, cannot be found walking about physically. He is busy walking around inside human beings. If you know a little bit of Biology, you will know that the viper feeds on scorpions. So when a scorpion which is a poisonous thing is the food of the viper, it means that the viper’s poison is stronger.

What am I saying? A viper is a power which drains power from lower demons.
The viper has a very beautiful skin, but inwardly it is very wicked.
Vipers are like people who look innocent and attractive but have poison in them, e.g. poison of lust and error.

I went to somewhere to minister and one lady there did almost everything. She led the praise worship and the opening prayer, she set up the microphone, made the announcements and led in the sharing of the grace. My duty was only to teach and leave. After the meeting, she said, "Man of God, man of God, pray for me." I wanted to pray but the Spirit of God said, "Don’t lay your hand on this fornicator." I said, "My sister, stand up. Come and see me later. I have no time now." When she came, I said to her, "Well, you’re a fornicator." She started crying and said, "Anytime I’m growing in spiritual life, there’s this man in my place of work. The man will just come in at midnight and won’t want to go home. At the end of the day, he forces me to sin and my spiritual life goes down again." I told her that that was a viper. "If you don’t deal with it, it will deal with you and eventually the man will come the day that your household wickedness would have arranged to attack you. They would wait for the man to finish and then launch an attack and that will be the end of your life." She said, "Sir, what can I do now? I told her, "Don’t open your door when the man comes again." She said, "The man will keep banging it and neighbours will be embarrassed. I said, "Let them be embarrassed." She said, "But he may sack me."I said firmly, "It’s better to be sacked than for you to go to hell fire."

What is a viper?

Vipers eat their way through their mother’s belly. They have no mercy. They are very dangerous. The female viper is worse than the male. When the male viper bites a person, there will be two holes on the body, but if it is the female, you have four holes. The Lord showed me in a vision that He has exalted many people but serpents and scorpions are surrounding the ladder, so they cannot climb. The disturbing aspect of the vision was that I saw a fellow who, instead of climbing a ladder surrounded by serpents and scorpions, was busy feeding them. Satan has hidden the vipers of seduction, arrogance, pride, anger and strife in the lives of many and they strike at the appointed time. Many have fallen and never rose after being bitten by these vipers.

I know a very powerful man of God. He and his wife were about 50 years old. One day he said, "Well, this woman is not modern, I want a modern woman." He was told that it was wrong for him to take another woman. He said, "The Holy Spirit asked me to do so." He did and that was the end of the power of God in his life. What happened? A viper bit him.

There was a sister who was very powerful spiritually. Before her husband got to a crusade organized by his church, she would start singing, and healing would be happening. One day, we learnt that the woman ran away with an unbeliever who was living in their house. What happened to that woman? The viper that was hiding inside her life came out. It is a bad testimony to say that Mr. so and so was on fire for God in the 60’s, 70’s or 80’s but now he smokes and drinks all over the place. One of the most powerful men of God who ever lived was one American. When he was preaching, you could physically see the halo of fire around his head. A lot of preachers have to pray and study hard before they can make any headway. But all that this fellow did was to read his Bible and any time he wanted to preach, an angel would be standing by his side telling him what to do. If you attended his meeting, the only way you would go away with your problem was if he was too tired to get to you.

Sometimes, he had to be carried out on a stretcher because he was tired. He was that powerful. But after sometime, he began to preach strange things. He said the fruit that Adam and Eve ate was not fruit but sex. He was preaching things like that. Little by little, this spiritual man backslided and eventually, died as a drunkard. This is why we must be prayerful. When we look at the story of Paul, we can see that the devil carefully selected the kind of audience before whom he wanted to disgrace him. These were:

1. His captors, Roman soldiers.
2. Other prisoners like himself.
3. The barbarians of the Island of Melita.

Remember that in the ship, Paul had preached to them and they had seen signs and wonders. It was before this selected audience of the enemies of God, church members and strangers that Satan wanted to disgrace Paul. It is amazing how Satan plans the kind of places and people before whom he plans to disgrace God’s people. He plotted to disgrace Samson before the same Philistines God had used him to disgrace, and he succeeded. The man died as a pepper grinder in the land of the enemy. He went to the war-front and died there. The same devil plotted to disgrace Moses before the same people that he led out, and he succeeded. The same person who said, "Let us go to the promised land. Let my people go that they may serve me," the same man did not enter the promised land. This was what satan tried to do to Paul. But at the end, he was disgraced before the same audience.

The viper lost the battle and Paul carried the day. Certainly, God knows how to turn the table against the devil. The viper must lose the battle, in the name of Jesus. Paul was promoted from what they thought he was; a murderer to a god. When the viper is cast into the fire, all the bad names they have given to you shall change. God brought out Paul as a bait to pull out the viper and then destroyed it in the fire. My prayer is that God will use you too as a bait to pull out the enemies and destroy their power. So, do not wait for satan to act first. When you shake off the viper it will leave you alone and fall into fire. That viper in the passage where we read had been hiding among the cold dead wood. Satan loves to dwell in cold lifeless people and inside the lives of those who lack the fire of God. The fire of God is an expeller. When there is sufficient fire in your life, satan will not be able to stand you anymore because of the heat. If your fire is going out, you will know. When you notice that your prayer tempo is going down, your Bible study is going down, your zeal for the things of God is going down, then the fire is going. If that is the case with you, you better go and gather wood and fan it back to life.

When you look at this passage again, the fire that Paul lit brought life and warmth to Paul but death to the viper. It brought warmth to the child of God but judgement to the enemy. What shall be your deliverance shall be the enemy’s doom because the same Red sea which meant deliverance to the Israelites meant destruction and watery grave to the Egyptians. The night that brought joy to Israel and brought Passover to Goshen brought sorrow to the Egyptians. The den of lion which promoted Daniel disgraced and terminated the lives of his oppressors. The fiery furnace which became an air-conditioner for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, burnt to death the strong men of Babylon who went to throw them into it. Just as the fire brought warmth to Paul and death to the viper, that which is life to you shall kill your enemy. Your blessings and promotion will destroy your enemy, in the name of Jesus. The villagers knew the viper. They knew that people had been killed by that viper, so the viper had fearful credentials, but it was publicly disgraced. A lot of people had a high impression of Goliath when he was coming out for 40 days to intimidate the Israelites until God sent a little boy to publicly disgrace him.

I pray that all evil champions against your life shall be disgraced, in Jesus name. Satan may have vipers but God has dangerous men. Satan’s previous records may want to intimidate us but we have the most powerful power. Your enemies may be calling upon trees and rocks, they may be consulting water spirits, lighting different shades of candles, carrying beggarly powers all over the place, but you have the Living God who will always win the battle.

The viper represents death, oppo-sition, challenge, bondage and Satan. We find that the viper fastened itself around the hand of Paul. Why the hand? Why not the legs? It was because he worked with the hands. The hand which he laid on the sick and they were healed. That hand represents the ministry and effectiveness of Paul. That was where the viper chose to fasten itself around to bring Paul into bondage. This hand would have been of little use to him as long as the viper had it in bondage. Many hands are in chains like that, you may not see it physically. A lot of people walking about in the streets have their legs and hands tied. Some find cobwebs all over their bodies. These are signs of the viper in such lives. There is judgement already waiting for the viper. It must be cast into the fire of judgement.

Why should a viper refuse to leave the hand of a person?

1. Lack of deliverance or incomplete deliverance.

A good deliverance process takes place in five stages:

a. New birth. You must be born again.
b. Detection of the troublers of Israel.
c. Ejection of the unprofitable tenants.
d. Removal of their deposits.
f. Repair of what have been destroyed.
g. Barricade yourself against future attacks and re-entry.

Many people have become the feeding bottles of the enemy. Their lives are drained away slowly and their strength is decreasing. When this happens, it means they are feeding on the blood of their lives. Resurrection of bad dreams that have gone, especially eating in the dream shows that there are vipers to be dealt with. All these sudden and unexplainable depressions - vipers. When you pay little or no attention to scriptural warnings, drinking and smoking, going all over the streets with strange women, etc. All these are signs of the viper in a life.

I pray that every rebellious husband will receive the hand of God, in Jesus’ name. When men roam about the streets, live with strange women, drink beer and smoke, they bring fresh demons home every night. So if your husband is the type who keeps late night, you have to be praying and anointing your house everyday, because everyday he brings fresh demons into the house. The viper is at work in the following situations: When you do not read the Bible regularly or you read it as a duty, maybe once or twice a week. If you have been reading your Bible in order to argue successfully.

When you read the Bible in order to look for contradictions. When you read the Bible to teach others instead of being taught yourself. When you mutter lifeless words during prayer. When you no longer feel bad when you commit sin. When bad things are replacing good ones in your life. You have to stir up yourself today and shake off all these serpents so that they do not have any hold at all upon your body, soul and spirit.

2. Disobedience to the Almighty

God is not looking for illiterates, educated people, rich or poor men, popular men, handsome men, ugly men or people with certificates. He is looking for obedient people. What is it that man has to glory about? Is it popularity, certificates, riches, beauty, influential family? If these are what you display before the Almighty, you have a poor understanding of what God wants of you. Success is finding out the will of God for your life and moving in it. All those who want abundant peace and want to disgrace the viper, must make it a point of duty to obey God. Total, complete and absolute obedience to God. Adam disobeyed God and lost paradise. Cain disobeyed God and lost his salvation. Moses disobeyed God and lost the promised land.

The 600,000 Israelites disobeyed God and only two got to the promised Land. Samson disobeyed God and lost his eyes and died with his enemies. Saul disobeyed God and lost his throne. Eli disobeyed God and God overthrew His good intentions about his family; he died a shameful death. So, God can change His mind. Jonah disobeyed God and ended up in the belly of the whale. Achan disobeyed God and died a shameful death. But Abraham obeyed God and inherited blessings. Joseph obeyed God and inherited divine promotion. Daniel too obeyed God and received divine promotion. Paul obeyed God and became the apostle to the Gentiles.Why don't you check your life and see if you are living in obedience or disobedience.Make the necessary adjustments. Then pray the following prayer points with Holly madness.

Prayer points

1. I forgive all who have hurt or disappointed me, in the name of Jesus.

2. Lord, forgive me and I also forgive myself of all my many faults and failures, in the name of Jesus.

3. I break every power and covenant associated with any incision on my body and I release myself from their grip, in Jesus' name.

4. I renounce and denounce any conscious and unconscious association with familiar spirits and spirit husbands and spirit wives, in the name of Jesus.

5. In the name of Jesus, I now renounce, break and loose myself from all demonic subjection or control and from any ungodly soul- tie, in the name of Jesus.

 The vipers is a message delivered at the mountain of fire and miracles ministries
by the General Overseer, Dr. D. K. Olukoya

REVERSING HIDDEN CURSES
Dr. D. K. Olukoya

The most stubborn curses to deal with are hidden curses. Men and women who know that they are under some kinds of curses often get delivered with ease. Those who have no inkling whatsoever concerning the kinds of foundational curses which have been in hiding in their lives since they came into the world often remain victims of stubborn curses throughout their life time.

Hidden curses are the most wicked weapons used by the devil, the enemy of our souls. You owe yourself the duty of reversing all hidden curses in your life. Your life will be transformed the moment all hidden curses are cancelled. You will begin to experience the joy of living life at its fullest.

 

Curses are the direct opposite of blessings.

When you curse a person, you utter an evil wish against that person, causing mischief or injury to come upon that person.

To curse a person is to bind that person with a spell like witches do.

To curse is to engage in a violent expression of evil against a person.

Curses are words put together to torment with great calamity.

When we study evil effects of curses on mankind, we find that they have been vehicles of problems. You can also curse a thing.

A curse is an invisible barrier that keeps people or things away from what God has for them.

 

Let us look at some characteristics of curses as recorded in the books of Nehemiah and 2 Kings.

Nehemiah 13:2 says,

Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them that he should curse them: howbeit our God turned the curse into blessing.

God has the power to turn curses into blessings.

Again 2 Kings 2:13-21 says:

He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan: And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, they parteth hither and thither: and Elisha went over. And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him. And they said unto him, Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master: lest peradventure the Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not send. And when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, Send. They sent therefore fifty men, and they sought three days and found him not. And when they came again to him, (for he tarried at Jericho,) he said unto them, didi I not say unto, you, Go not? And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my Lord seeth: but the water is naught and the ground is barren. And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters: there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.

When the anointing of God falls upon you your enemies shall bow unto you.

Close your eyes and pray violently as follows:

1. Lord, send Your healing power into the foundation of my life.

2. Lord, send Your healing fire into the foundation of my life.

When the healing power of God gets into the foundation, the top too will be healed. For the Bible says, "If the foundation be destroyed what can the righteous do?" Many of the problems we go about with, are problems due to faulty foundation.

When God created everything in the begining and passed them through his quality control laboratory, the verdict that came out was that "everything is very good." Even up till now, the plants have no problem, water has no problem, animals have no problems and are not complaining.

I happen to be a scientist and I have studied Biology to doctorate level. I am yet to find two plants fighting. People caused the problem of Jericho. It is men that are complaining and it is men that caused the problems.

Jericho stood in the way of the children of God when they were going into the Promised Land. And we saw how a curse was issued on Jericho. Jeircho stands for the people living therein. Their problem was disobedience. Just like today, many come from good homes, but are disobedient.

Many have been going to church from their youth but now it is as if they had never been to any church. Many go about with good looking faces, but underneath the farcade, the enemy has planted ugly things. Many are born without any scars or marks but they have now acquired some.

Many try to drink and look happy, and some even use makeup to look happy, but they have found out that, that is not the source of happiness. The foundation of Jericho was good, but trouble came when a curse was issued against it. (Joshua 6:26)

 

A person operating under a curse is easy to recognise, because he will be struggling against something, and will be unable to master the thing and overcome it. At the point of success, frustration comes in because the curse is limiting that person.

If a curse is placed upon a person not to advance beyond secondary school education, all the persons attempts to pass examinations for admission into a higher institution will prove abortive. The person's efforts will be frustrated because there is a force in operation acting as an invisible barrier which the person cannot go beyond.

Curses have long lasting effects. They can run from generation to generation. The curse on Jericho was not borken till 300-500 years after it was issued. When the man of God came and identified the problem, he added salt, and the curse was broken immediately. So shall all curses be broken, in Jesus' name.

Curses have catastrophic effects. A person should never hesitate to release himself or herself from the effects of any curse. If you handle certain prayer point, no harm is done.

However, when you overlook necessary prayer, you can suffer many problems.

Curses act like fence, to protect evil spirits and give them legal grounds to operate. They can come from so many sources. If a curse comes upon a person from God, then the person needs to repent and move away from what brought the curse which only God can remove.

All curses from God are as a result of disobedience. God was the first person to place a curse in the Bible. He placed it upon Adam and Eve when they ate the forbidden fruit. Till today, every disobedience invites curses from God and only He can remove them.

 

 

Proverbs 26:2 says,

As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.

An undeserved curse will not come unless a person tolerates it. This means that when there is no landing space, no welcome, nothing to feed upon, a curse cannot come and stay in the life of a person. When there is a reason, the curse can come. This means that nothing can take root unless there is an underlying reason. There must be reason for a curse to stay.

 

 

 

 

For complete freedom there must be complete repentance.

 

There is no curse without a demon attached to it. It is the demon attached to the curse that will make sure that terrible things happen to the cursed person.

A person under a curse may find it hard to take progressive steps. For example, if such a person intends to get a visa for further studies in abroad, the demon will ensure that he does not get it. If he succeeds in getting in, the demon will ensure his deportation.

 

He made Himself a curse for us. A man who knew no sin was nailed to the cross and by His death on the cross and His blood that was shed. We are redeemed from all curses (Galatians 3:13,14).

 

If someone has issued a curse without a reason, it will go back to that person.

 

So, do not curse whom God has blessed.

 

 

You may not know. When a person is under a curse, normal prayers will not influence the breaking of the curse. There are thousands of people whose problems cannot be solved through normal prayers.

Many are fighting a battle they did not initiate. Hidden curses are a source of real problem. The devil causes many people to forget their dreams because he knows that if they wake up and remember their dreams, they will cancel them, break them and return them to the sender.

So he removes that from their memory. Why does the Bible say the strangers shall be afraid, and shall run out of their hiding places? Why are these strangers hiding? They do not want people to know that they are there. So are hidden curses.

Curses could result in all kinds of evil things. They can lead to chronic frustration and problems. They can be transferred to a person’s possession, and from parents to children.

 

 

This is why many people are suffering. When a woman leaves her husband and marries a rich man, or a man leaves his wife and marries a younger woman, a curse is set in place.

When a man has five wives, all the wives except the first one are under curses, because when the angel wants to bring their own husbands, they will turn back when they see the married men they are illegally hooked to.

Married men running around with married women put themselves and the women under curses. All curses from married women against husband snatchers work like fire. It does not matter whether the women are born again or not. If you are going out with a married man and the wife at home is a witch, any curse she issues against you will surely thrive, whether you are born again or not.

 

When a woman sponsors a man to school and the man turns around to dump the woman after his graduation, the curse from the frustrated wife will blossom. When you refuse to obey your superior for whatever reason, curses come into place. If a woman who comes from a rich family tries to underrate her poor husband, curses will come to her.

 

That is why the Bible has two expressions for sex: "laid with" and "knew his wife". While the first word (laid) is negative, the second word (knew) is positive. Whenever the Bible says "laid with", it means fornication or adultery. When the Bible says "knew his wife", that is the right thing. All the wrong kinds of sex bring curses.

I was praying with a man who could not get any breakthrough. Three girls turned up in the spirit realm carrying small glassess containing certain things. They said, "We trapped him when he was in the university because he was going out with the three of us at the same time". They disclosed that they collected things from his body which they had kept in a container under the water. So, there was no way he could prosper. The man was running up and down, without knowing that curses had been issued on him.

A man who used his money to 'buy' sex is under a curse.

Girls releasing themselves to be used as objects of satisfaction to men in order to get a job, promotion, accomodation, etc., come under curses.

A woman permitting herself to be abused sexually because of money comes under a curse.

A father sleeping with his daughter, or a mother sleeping with her son, come under a curse.

People sleeping with animals or their brother’s wives or sister’s husbands, come under curses.

A man places himself under a curse when he sleeps with his father’s wife.

Fathers sleeping with their step-daughters, or parents entertaining guests with their daughters or using their daughters to get contracts, or husbands using their wives to get businesses are also cursed.

Leviticus 19:29 says,

Do not prostitute thy daughters.

Pasting pictures of naked women on the wall, or buying such calendars and magazines puts a person under a curse.

Curses from sexual immorality are the strongest curses to break. They can take weeks to break during the deliverance of a victim. That is why the Bible says that God is not too worried about sins outside the body as He is worried about sins in the body, i.e. fornication and adultery.

 

The Bible says the blessing of the Lord "maketh rich without adding sorrow to it." That means there is wealth you get that will add sorrow to it.

Bribery or stealing the wealth of the dead, invites curses.

Many people make the wives and the children of their relatives to suffer, because as soon as the man dies, they come and cart away his property. They come under a curse. If you want to share in the property of the dead, you have to be very careful.

A brother died and his relatives went there and carried everything. His wife begged them to leave a fridge so that she could be selling iced water and minerals to look after the children, they refused. They all come under a curse, including the person who took only the bathroom slippers.

There are also curses on policemen and other people who search the dead and accident victims and take away their money.

All those who sell polluted capsules and tablets are under curses.

Whenever the innocent is pronounced guilty, those who did it come under a curse.

When you murder someone by witchcraft, you come under a curse.

A woman thought her husband was not loving her, so she gave him "love medicine" which he ate and died. The woman came under a curse.

False acquisition of land, shedding of innocent blood, building houses on lands acquired falsely, and murderous drive for quick wealth, all attract curses.

 

This should not be taken lightly.

 

A woman gave birth to a child and when she met a man who wanted to marry her she killed the child since the man did not want to see the child. Such an act attracts automatic curse.

The same goes for people who dump unwanted babies in bushes or refuse bins.

 

This is why any Christian who buys any second hand material must anoint it and pray.

For example, when a car was stolen in Belgium from somebody who sweated for 15 years to buy it, the owner removed his clothes and placed a curse on whoever will use it. The car is brought to Nigeria. The curse will follow whoever that buys it.

When hidden curses are in place, you find youself taking the wrong decisions, and failure follows. The heart will become polluted, unexplainable sorrow will begin, strange thoughts and desires will come into place, and you will go from one problem to the other. Things will go wrong at the edge of success.

 

The victim will be doing a bad work, and may chase away good people who would have helped him.

 

People curse themselves everyday without knowing it. A woman used to say, "My poor legs, my poor legs" and eventually those legs developed problems. Negative words directed at oneself is a curse.

 

All things that the Bible lists as unclean should not be touched by believers. When this is violated, there can be mental or physical illness. There can be failure, profitless hard work, defeat, poverty or family breakup. Even when there is sufficient money coming in, the cursed person is broke. Corruption of reproductive organs, chronic sickness, bad reputation and oppression are some of the end products of an accursed life.

When the situation is like this, you need to break the curse. I want you to know that God wants you to live a curse-free life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you have done all these, you must stop walking in the path of unrighteousness. You must walk in the path where you will be blessed. God has a solution. Elisha applied the salt of heaven to the source. Salt is a purifier, a preserver and a seasoner. So it is important to pray that God, the salt preserver of our lives, should pour His heavenly salt into the foundation of our lives so that all curses can be completely broken.

Please, use all your strength to handle the following prayer points:

 

1. I refuse to drink from the fountain of sorrow, in the name of Jesus.

2. I take authority over all curses issued against my life, in the name of Jesus.

3. Ask God to remove any curse He has placed on your life as a result of disobedience.

4. I command any demon attached to any curse to depart from me now, in the name of Jesus.

5. Let all curses issued against me be converted to blessing, in the name of Jesus.

6. When you mention any of the following curses, you will aggressively say, "Be broken, be broken, be broken, in the name of Jesus."

Every curse of mental and physical sickness

Every curse of failure and defeat

Every curse of poverty

Every curse of family break-up

Every curse of oppression

Every curse of bad reputation

Every curse of personal destruction or suicide

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                

 

 

 

 

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