Dedication that Speak against You
Beloved, our message this week titled, “Dedications that speak against you” is for everyone. It is both preventive and curative. In the Book of Acts of the Apostles, some men made a vow that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul (Acts 23:12). It was the vow of the enemy! Also, in the book of Exodus, the Egyptians and Pharaoh made a vow that they would pursue, overtake and destroy. It was a vow of the enemy. But then, we can counter the vow of the enemy by praying “Counter-vow prayers.”
Sometime ago, a sister ran to us for help: she was facing very terrible situations. She had three children studying in three different universities abroad. All of them came back home on the same day without anyone sending for them. Two of them were deported, and they landed on the same day. The third one said he heard a voice urging him to go home. But coincidentally or by the arrangement of the enemy, he too arrived on the same day as others. All three children came back on the same day; what a terrible situation. However, when we started praying, we discovered that all the three men had been married to family spirit wives, and the day they all came back was the wedding ceremony day. So, one way or the other, they found their way back to the country.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO DEDICATE A PERSON OR THING?
- It means to devote a person or thing to the worship of a spirit.
- It means to set apart for a definite purpose.
- It means to inscribe or address as a compliment to a person.
- It means to perform a ceremony of religious acceptance.
- It means to consecrate.
- It means to ordain, induct or enshrine.
The principles of heaven have been in operation since men were created. Everything man is doing now and is working well is definitely based on the principles of heaven. That is why it is often said that order is the first principle in heaven. At the same time, heaven has power to organize what is called, “organized disorder.” Therefore, it means that the principles of dedication did not start with man, or the devil; it started with God. But like most things that God started, the enemy grabbed, polluted and counterfeited the act of dedication.
1 Samuel 1:11 says, “And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.” That was Hannah dedicating Samuel in advance, and immediately she said that, the stamp of heaven came upon it. Thus Samuel became a prisoner for God, a prisoner of hope. In the same vein, anyone whose parents named Samuel has become a prisoner of God because since it is the parents that did it, it is an official heavenly transaction. Anyone called Samuel, by virtue of that name must abstain from sin or sinful lifestyle if he does not want trouble. Anyone that is not serious with the Lord should not bear some Bible names because he will only put problems on himself by going about with such names.
In 1 Samuel 1:24, Hannah fulfilled her vow: “And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh: and the child was young.” The woman could not be bothered about the age of the child. “And they slew the bullock, and brought the child to Eli. And she said, Oh my Lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him: Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there” (1 Samuel 1:25-28). So, Samuel was dedicated to God- that was a spiritual transaction. Samuel was the first ruler in Israel; he was a judge and a priest.
His children did not do very well, but his own dedication endured.
Now, let us consider non-living things. 1 Chronicles 18:11: “Then also King David dedicated unto the Lord, with the silver and gold that he brought from all these nations; from Edom, and from Moab, and from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines, and from Amalek.” So, David gathered so many things such as spoons, golden vessels, golden apparels etc and dedicated them to the Lord. These materials were dedicated to God. It is a principle in Scriptures: when a thing has been dedicated to the Lord, God regards that thing with holy jealousy. Therefore, when somebody in the book of Daniel 5 began to mess up with those things that David had dedicated to God, the Lord defended the dedicated materials with aggression.
Daniel 5:1-4: “Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords and drank 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 (those things that David had already dedicated) that the king and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein. 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.” They did not know that a particular finger had departed from heaven. Verses 5-7: “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: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him 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…” That night, the man died. The vessels remained dedicated. No wonder, the Bible says, “I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day” (2 Timothy 1:12). That is how God operates. The devil copies the system, and practices the principles of evil dedication amongst men.
There are many people who do not understand what is going on in their lives. Sometime ago, when I was in England, a mother brought her five beautiful daughters to me: three of them were medical doctors, one a lawyer and one worked in a bank. They were ages 41 and below. They were very beautiful women but had no husbands. Men would come and run away; they would eat their food, take their money, ride in their cars, and run away. When I started praying with them, the Lord said, “Ask their mother what she knows about a waistband?" She screamed and said in her husband’s family, there was a waistband, which every girl child in the family must wear and that all the five daughters wore it. She said the same fate befell any woman in the family that used it, meaning that through the waistband, all the ladies were already married off to some spirits somewhere; they have been dedicated to them. Until those things were broken, these women never moved forward. The enemy would see to it that they followed the dedication through. The reason the battle of so many people is so hard is that there are some spirits battling against them.
Deliverance is a very good process, which sometimes takes place in stages. Sometimes after a deliverance session, evil dreams could become intense because for the first time, the victim can now see what has been hiding in his life.
FACTS ABOUT DEDICATION
1. A person is a property of what he is dedicated to.
2. Dedication is outright sale, and to be free, you must be bought back. That is, you must be redeemed.
3. Whether the person who did the dedication is dead or alive, the agreement remains binding.
4. Changing a name of dedication is also a spiritual transaction. If you are bearing a name that shows that you are already connected to an idol, it is good for you to change the name. In fact, it is the best thing to do. But after changing it physically, you still have to change it in the spiritual register or the power behind the name will still be looking for you.
5. A person is married to any power to which he/she is dedicated.
6. The powers to whom a person is dedicated see to it that the contract is not broken.
7. You acquire the nature of what you are dedicated to. A person’s character will conform to that of whatever idol he or she is dedicated to. For example, anyone dedicated to the god of thunder would be quick tempered.
8. Sex with a candidate of evil dedication also converts his or partner to a candidate because the Bible says, “Two shall become one.”
9. All dedications have the voice of authority; they speak for or against. A person that has already been dedicated to a spirit wife may have difficulty leaving his location because the spirit wife will be crying against his moving forward. A person who is about to be ordained as a pastor could suddenly fall into the sin of fornication or adultery which could result in pregnancy and a week to the ordination, a letter will come to say, “This pastor has made me pregnant.” That will be the end of the ordination. So, all dedications have a voice of authority. Many cases of failure at the edge of breakthroughs happen because there is a voice that said, “No.”
Practically all indigenous cultures are saturated with one form of idolatry or another. This is very clear from some of the ceremonies that are conducted. For example, during child naming ceremonies, babies are fed with dead rats. How can a person move forward when as a baby, somebody had fed him with a dead rat and alligator pepper? So, our culture is a culture of dedication to many things. Even the coronation of kings takes its root in dedication ceremonies. Burial ceremonies are not left out. All the ceremonies to initiate people into adulthood, dedication of buildings, worship centres, market places, etc are all rooted in idolatry. So if you or your parents have ever been through any of these ceremonies, know for sure that one way or the other, you have been dedicated to something. And this kind of dedication is an evil marriage.
One terrible thing about evil dedications is what you find in Psalm 106:28: “They joined themselves also unto Baal-poer and ate the sacrifices of the dead. Thus, they provoked Him to anger with their inventions: and the plague broke in upon them.” All kinds of terrible things happen once a person gets involved in these things. Most of what we call tradition and culture are dedications: habits of eating, drinking, and pouring of libations to the dead. These situations establish and strengthen bondage.
Once a person is dedicated to a particular power, you will notice a particular pattern of operation and herein lies the root of many problems facing Africans. For example, Africa is extremely rich, but is not benefiting from all its natural resources. It is blessed with all kinds of raw materials but other races who enslaved Africans come and buy them and sell them back to Africa. In a certain magazine, it was reported that 54 per cent of the world’s gold reserve is in Africa; yet Africa does not determine the price; other nations do that. These evil dedications have resulted in backwardness. Many parents in their ignorance have sold out their children. Many people are suffering now long after those who sold them have gone.
SIGNS OF EVIL DEDICATIION
1. Deadness of the spiritual senses: Victims would notice that their spiritual senses are deadened. No matter how hard they struggle, their spiritual growth will be slow; they will notice that there is a force pushing them back. They would cry and cry but find that they really cannot move. And anytime they want to make an aggressive move in their Christian life, there would be a counter-attack by forces of darkness.
2. A victim of evil dedication easily magnetizes satanic attacks: If a witch is supposed to attack somebody in a house and cannot find the person she is looking for, she will transfer the attack on the body of the victim of dedication because he has a magnetizing power towards witchcraft.
3. Poverty: There are some gods or idols that automatically transfer poverty to people that are dedicated to them. Such people remain poor throughout their life time.
4. Unpardonable errors: Victims of evil dedications make inexcusable mistakes. This is responsible for situations where a young man of twenty-two rapes a woman of eighty.
5. Spiritual crash land syndrome: A person dedicated to idols would suffer from “spiritual crash landing.” When he goes very high in God, all of a sudden, he comes down and would not be able to explain what went wrong.
6. Acute marital problems: Once a person who is dedicated to an idol does not break the covenant before getting married, there will be serious problems. That is why in Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, some deliverance prayers have been introduced into marriage ceremonies.
7. Early widowhood: Evil dedications lead to early widowhood and all kinds of moral disorders.
8. Addiction: It leads to destructive addiction to alcohol, tobacco, etc.
9. Untimely death: It leads to untimely death. There are some families, where somebody must die every year.
10. Obedience to evil commands: People dedicated to idols obey evil commands. There are people abroad who were summoned home by some strange voices.
11. Dreams of backwardness and limitation. They are signs of evil dedication.
12. Rising high and falling big: Victims rise high in life only to fall flat after sometime.
Most of the yearly pilgrimages that many people make to their towns and villages during festive periods are seasons of negotiations with evil powers and the enemy. The initiation of children into family cults, tribal marks and tattoos are forms of evil dedication. In some places, they leave the babies by the riverside for one or two weeks after birth. All these evil practices make people properties of evil spirits; wherever they go, they believe that they belong to them.
If you find that there was a time you were very ill as a young person and because of that, incisions were made on your body and face, know for sure that you have been dedicated to whatever power kept you alive at that time. Names and locations of evil dedications put people into bondage. Unreasonable ban on certain food items by some people lead to evil dedications.
WAY OUT
1. Repentance: Repent properly before the Lord.
2. Examine your background: Take a thorough look at your background; how did your great grandfather, grandfather and father die? Is there any evil pattern running in your family? How many times was your mother married? Check out all these things.
3. Personally identify any dedication that may be speaking against you, so that you can silence it and move forward.
4. Prayerfully rectify your foundation. The trouble you are in could be as a result of evil dedication. If your spouse has a background of evil dedication you are in trouble too because by that marriage, you have already dedicated yourself. But you can deliver yourself through prayers.
5. The last thing to do is to destroy every altar of satan and dedicate yourself to the Lord. One way to be free from evil dedication is by dedicating your life and everything that belongs to you properly to God.
PRAYER POINTS
1. My Father, I need help, arise and help me, in the name of Jesus.
2. Thou power of evil dedication speaking against my destiny, die, in the name of Jesus.
3. Any power pretending to be my parent in the dark, die, in the name of Jesus.
4. Any foundational dedication in my family line speaking failure into my destiny, die, in the name of Jesus.
5. Every unconscious evil dedication, die by the blood of Jesus, in the name of Jesus.
6. Every yoke of evil dedication, break, in the name of Jesus.
7. I dedicate my life and everything that is mine to the King of kings and the Lord of lords, in the name of Jesus.
