Matthew 1: 28–30 says, “Come unto me 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 soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
WHAT IS A BURDEN?
A burden is a load. A burden can be a job or a duty. It can be a punishment or an inconvenience. A certain old woman was going somewhere with a heavy load on her head. Eventually, somebody drove past her in a Jeep and decided to give her a lift. The woman entered into the back seat of the Jeep and the driver took off. The man had gone a few kilometers, before he looked back and found that the woman was sitting quite alright on her seat but the load was still on her head. So, he said, “Mama, put the load down.” She said, “Thank you my son. I thought you gave me a lift and not the load.” She did not understand. There existed in her what we can call an “internal excess baggage.”
EXCESS LOAD
Excess load is a load you are not supposed to carry. Things are never easy for anyone carrying an excess load. A person may be a normal until a load comes on his head. The load may change him from the person from his or her normal self. I cannot help laughing sometimes when somebody comes to me and says, “Since the time I got married, they have been monitoring my life. They have been controlling my life. I can’t do what I want, things are tough now.” What happened to that person is that a new load came upon his or head and that is trying to change him or her.
The Almighty God knows that a lot of people will carry evil load. He knows that many people will carry excess luggage and baggage. Therefore, He was careful to put the following two verses for us in the Bible: Psalm 55: 22: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” That scripture does not say “Cast your burden upon your husbands, or upon yours pastors, but upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee. But if you refuse to hand your burden over to Him then do not blame the Lord for looking at you and doing nothing. Every man, one way or the other, will locate his own load or the load will locate him. So, you have to know what to do to cast it down. A certain man cried to the Lord and said, “Lord, this cross that I am carrying is too heavy for me, please change it.” He prayed hard and that night, he had a dream where he saw Jesus, who said, “Son, you want to change your load? You want to change your cross? He said, “yes.” Jesus asked him to follow Him and He took him to a very beautiful room. In the room were all kinds of crosses, small, big, nice, well polished, etc. The man who was excited said, “Why am I carrying this when there are all kinds of beautiful crosses around?” He put his own down in a corner and started trying other ones. He saw a nice little one, which was well polished and carried it. Although it looked small when he carried it, he realized that it was heavy. He expressed surprise at the weight and dropped it. Then he tried another one that looked like the size of his own but found that it was very heavy. He tried different ones and after sometime he found one, lifted it and said, “Lord, this one is better. Let me go away with this one.” The Lord said, “Are you sure this is the one you want?” He said, “Yes.” And before he went out, The Lord said, “Wait, that one you took is the one you dropped.” Before now, every man will locate his own load or his load will locate him. That is why the Bible says, “Comparing themselves by themselves they are not wise” (2 Corinthians 10:12). Sometimes, you hear somebody say, “I wish I were like so and so person.” If he or she knows what the person is going through, he or she will be praising God. 1 Peter 5: 7 says, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” This scripture does not say, “casting some,” it says, “all upon Him for He cares for you.” It is therefore very sad when you are carrying a load and you are not aware. A certain preacher was preaching in the market place and people gathered and were listening to him. Suddenly, a man dressed a three-piece suit came and everybody greeted him with a lot of respect. They said, “Ah, doctor, how are you? You are welcome. You too want to listen to the preacher?” He said yes. After sometime, the preacher said, “Before I pray for you, do you have any question? The man in three-piece suit put up his hand and said, “Yes preacher, you have been talking about heavy load, but I don’t feel any heaviness on my head. I am not carrying any heavy load, so what do you mean by heavy load?” And the preacher said, “Sir, if you put a bucket of water on the head of a dead man, will he feel it?” The man said, “No of course because he is dead.” The preacher said, “You are dead. So, your position is so bad that you cannot even feel it. There is a load on your head. All sinners are like that dead man.”
The issue of evil load is so serious that the Bible takes time to tell us the solution. A load is anything, person, or experience from the past or present that hinders your walk with the Lord. Many believers carry heavy load everyday and this heavy load ranges from experiences from childhood, broken relationships, experiences and issues that people are not willing to talk about. It is something that people prefer to keep buried in the past. It is something over which you have no control. Loads can be issues you don’t even want to think about. The issue of evil load is so serious that the Bible says in Isaiah 10: 27: “It shall come to pass on that day that the burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder and the yoke from off thy neck . And the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.” So the issue of burdens and yokes is so serious that you need the anointing to deal with them. The Bible specifically tells us that the anointing of the Holy Ghost is needed to destroy them. In that verse also we see the simplest definition of anointing. You can define anointing as the burden removing and the yoke destroying power of God. It is interesting that the first time anointing will be described in the Bible; it makes reference to yokes and burdens. It is therefore a serious matter.
WHAT DOES A LOAD DO?
It is placed majorly on the head the symbol of destiny. An evil spiritual load compresses the destiny of a person. It slows down a destiny. It weighs down a destiny. It weakens the destiny. These are the bad effects of a load. If God opens the eyes of many people and they are able to see the spiritual state of people moving around the street, many will become intercessors forever. You will see some people carrying coffins, big fishes, and sometimes big baskets but the people carrying them will not see what they are carrying. A load puts one’s destiny under tension, it suffocates the destiny, it stretches the destiny, and it creates inconvenience for the destiny.
The load is sometimes placed on the shoulder, which is the symbol of dignity. It compresses the dignity of a person, it stresses and inconveniences it. It is sometimes placed on the back which is the symbol of strength, puts it under tension and stretches it. A load is sometimes placed on the hand which is the symbol of work. It compresses one’s work. So a load is burdensome, troublesome and oppressive.
Everything that we can suffer or enjoy are spiritual entities in the spirit world. In the spirit world, they are very real. This is why we preach deliverance a lot at MFM, because deliverance is a way of shedding of evil loads that the enemy has put in place to prevent the movement of God’s power into people’s lives. The power of God cannot upon the life of a person who is carrying a load on his head, until that load is completely destroyed. In Matthew 10:12-13, Jesus gave His disciples a very interesting command. It says, “And when you go into a household, greet it. If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.” A man of God can release blessing, and he can also withdraw it. A man of God can ordain a pastor; and can also withdraw the ordination. A man of God can pray anointing into a situation and he can also withdraw it. He can give you a certificate and can also withdraw the certificate spiritually. All these things are spiritual things. Jesus said that when you say, “Peace be upon you,” the peace as an entity goes to rest upon them, but if there is nobody there who is qualified for it, the peace will go back. This is why it is possible to transfer a load. Some people go to herbalists and witchdoctors who ask them to buy sponge so that they can wash their heads, and as they are washing away the load, they are also washing away their miracles and anointing, which they later transfer to other people. At the end of the day they end up with nothing. Ignorance is a terrible thing. Ezekiel 8:7-12 “And when I looked behold a hole in wall. And when I looked behold a door in the wall, then said he to me son of man… and behold every form of creeping things…”
This little description of what the prophet of God was allowed to see in the secret places is a film show of witchcraft powers. What are the powers that specialize in preparing heavy loads? They are witchcraft powers. They prepare unconscious loads, put it on people, cause trouble for them, paralyze their lives, and slow them down.
WHAT IS WITCHCRAFT?
It is the use of evil powers to subdue other people, and to carry out evil activities. It is accessing power from below, that is using weapons in satanic armoury to attack others, and many people are under this bondage every day. They go about with heavy loads on their heads.
WHO ARE THE CANDIDATES OF EVIL LOADS?
Let us look at the symptoms or evidence that show that there is a heavy load on a life and such a person needs the anointing to break free.
1. If you are being tormented by intelligent forces. What do I mean by intelligent forces? They are the powers that will not follow you to church because they know that it will be a disaster if they come. They wait for you to get home, and then they start. The day you decide to go for deliverance, it would seem as if all the problems have disappeared, so you relax and they come back.
2. If you discover that you are being denied your rightful place in life, you need to bombard every load of the enemy with holy anger.
3. If you find that you are pursued by unrepentant and house-hold enemies, then know that you have a load to deal with.
4. If you find that you are experiencing unexplainable marital turbulence, there is a load to fire off.
5. If you notice an “almost there” anointing, then you need to fight seriously against the load of the enemy.
6. If you find that you are being bombarded by sicknesses that defy medicine, then you need to strike today.
7. If you discover that since you started living in a particular house, for 10 years, 15 years you have made no progress. Instead of progress, there is demotion, you need to pray.
8. If you have been having terrible and frightening witchcraft dreams, it is evidence that there is a load somewhere you need to shed off.
9. If you have been facing unexplainable financial embarrassment, you need to pray some prayers really hard.
10. If you notice that you are spiritually stagnant, you need to shed off that which is slowing down your spiritual life. Or if you have seen visions of rapture where other people around you went up but you could not fly, it means there is a load pressing you down. When there is a load of the world in your life, buried down here; you won’t be able to move up. That which is making you to sleep when you are reading your Bible is a load, and you must shed it off.
11. If you notice an attack by devourers; they are devouring your money, property and everything, then you have a load to deal with.
12. If you find constant hindrance to your breakthrough, then you have a load to shed.
13. If you know that you are talented but useless; you know that God has deposited a lot of things in your life, but one way or the other you are getting old and these things are dying with you, you need to pray hard.
14. If you find that your helpers are disappearing or unwilling, then you have a load on your head to shed off.
15. If you are experiencing chain problems, as one goes, another comes, it is evidence that there is a load somewhere that you need to deal with. There is an excess baggage somewhere.
15. If you find that you always have to fight hard before you get anything useful done then you have a load to shed.
16. If you know that you have children or spouses who are alive but it is like they are unavailable, it is a load. There are so many old men and women suffering in the streets of Nigeria, whose children are stinkingly rich abroad, but somebody has told the children that their mothers are witches, and they are enjoying while the parents are suffering. You need to shed off the load of darkness.
17. If you find that you always occupy the wrong positions, then you need to shed off some load.
18. If you find that your promotion is being denied or delayed, you need to shed off some loads.
19. If you notice untimely death in your family, you need to pray hard. It is a load and it has to be shed. Sometime ago, a boy of 17 came to me and said that he needed counseling. He asked me where he could get a coffin to buy and I asked him what he wanted to do with a coffin, He said that his father just died. I told him to get his uncles and other members of his family to do that and he said that he was the only one left, that everybody was dead. So I had to ask our church to help him. The whole family was dead, he is the only one remaining now. It is a load and it has to go.
20. If you notice that you are running a desert business, that is, a business that is not profitable despite the hard work you put into it, you need to shed the heavy load.
21. If you notice that you have an unexplainable high debt, then you need to shed off some load.
22. If you find that your prayer life is paralytic and your spiritual eyes are blind, you need to pray.
23. If you notice a mark of hatred, that people just hate you for no reason, you need to do something about it. Jesus says, “Come unto me he all ye that are heavy laden, labouring under pressure, labouring under heavy burden; and I will give you rest.” It means that without the removal of the yokes and the burdens, there is no rest. This is why you find a lot of restlessness around. All over the place, you see people rushing, there is a lot ————————————— and bustle. But we know that out of those rushing; only a few percentages make something out of the rush.
WHAT IS THE WAY OUT?
1. Come unto Him. Come unto Jesus.
2. Cast your load at His feet. You drop it there. You can’t have the load on your head, and at the same time at His feet, it has to be somewhere. When you take your problem to the specialist and then you are trying to manipulate it yourself, you will end up with more trouble.
Declare war against the load of darkness, and the powers that make people to carry the load they are not supposed to carry.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Angelic firing squad, shoot my evil load, in the name of Jesus.
2. Every owner of evil load, carry your load by fire, in the name of Jesus.
3. Every internal evil load, die, in the name of Jesus.
4. Anointing that destroys loads; fall upon me, in the name of Jesus.
5. Pick three things in your heart that you know are bothering you and pray this with holy madness: Thou power of God, trouble my troublers, in the name of Jesus.
