Enemies Of Freedom

This week’s message entitled “Enemies of Freedom” focuses on the need to address the activities of the powers which hinder freedom. The moment a person surrenders his or her life to the Lord Jesus, he creates serious problem to all the diabolical spirits residing inside him or her. This is because the presence of Jesus Christ will cause them to become weak, therefore making it very easy to chase them out. This is why thorough deliverance ministration is necessary because the devil makes sure that those evil spirits hold on tenaciously to something, and would resist any form of attempt to get them out from the place. They know they would be penalized by the devil their master if they lose out, hence they strive to consolidate themselves by all means. A lot of people go for deliverance ministration several times and yet, they still complain that there is no freedom. This is why we must address the issue of the enemy seriously. We must note that true and complete freedom depends on a number of factors.

1. THE CONDITION OF THE HEART: The state of one’s heart determines whether he or she can be truly delivered or not. The Bible tells us in Philippians 4:8 the state which hearts ought to be all the time. 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.”

If the heart is not in accordance with the above passage, no matter the efforts made, the person will not be delivered. The heart can be likened to a garden where a lot of evil seeds have been planted and until all these are rooted out, one cannot expect God to plant His own good seeds there. The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9 that, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked who can know it?"

This means that the most powerful anointed prophet can minister to a person, lay his hands on the person and yet, the person remains undelivered.

2. THE STRATEGIC VALUE OF A PERSON TO THE KINGDOM: One secret we must know is that the devil knows those who are not serious with him among his servants. He knows those who are one leg in and another leg out, those who are tending towards that righteous man Jesus, and who may never come back to him anymore. Even though such people have not left his kingdom, he can still recognize them. Just like God recognized lukewarm believers in the church. So, the devil knows those that are likely to run away from him. Also, the devil knows those who would constitute a danger to his kingdom right from their birth and tries his best to hinder their deliverance. He would make them unable to do what God wants them to do. For example, if he noticed that the behaviour of a lady would eventually lead her out of the kingdom of darkness, he might cause her to marry a husband that would make her spiritual life cold and at the end of the day she would backslide. He might also organize all kinds of spirits to be pestering her about. Despite the fact that she is still in his kingdom, the devil would still map out strategies that would prevent her from getting out of his kingdom. That is why such people need to do serious warfare prayer.

3. THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE SPIRIT IS DEEPLY ENTRENCHED: You cannot expect a demon that has been residing in a person right from the day the person was named, and the one that just entered a person yesterday at the market place to be cast out the same way. The one that has been there for 65 years is firmly entrenched and will be more difficult to cast out than the one that has just got in. Sometimes, when you pray fire prayers for some people, they vomit blood because the demon has its root in the intestine. It is just a sign that such candidates are being delivered. Some deliverance cases are tougher and take longer time than others. This is due to the fact that some people’s cases started immediately they were born and in such situations, it takes more than a snappy prayer to deliver such cases.

4. FAMILY STRONGHOLD: If the stronghold in a family is tough, then deliverance too will be tough. A stronghold is a citadel of defence which is difficult to attack. A stronghold in the Biblical sense means a city surrounded by tall and thick walls, which is difficult to attack by the enemies. This means that if a person’s enemy is said to be hiding in a stronghold, it is bad news. A concerned mother came to a man of God to say that her five daughters could not marry. When the minister asked her why, she said that they all just refused to get married. And as the man of God wanted to pray, the Holy Spirit restrained him from doing so. Instead, he was told by the Holy Spirit to ask the woman where she had taken these daughters of hers to in the past. She explained to the man of God that they had been given to the family snake as wives i.e they were all married to the family snake. The man of God asked the woman how she expected them to marry again since they were all married to a snake. He said further that even though they were no longer serving the snake in the family, the covenant still held. So until that covenant is broken nothing will happen.