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.
