The Vipers Series

THE VIPERS

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

In Matt. 3, we have the record of a man of God who picked his words carefully and said exactly what he meant. This man, John the Baptist, 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. They shall take up serpents.

d. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.

e. If they take any deadly thing, it will not hurt them.

We would be looking closely at the third sign. This third 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. This means that many people have different kinds of vipers hiding in them. People handle a lot of physical materials carrying spiritual power 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."