Ecclesiastes 9:3: “This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.” Nowadays, we have a lot of people who are spiritually insane. Many years ago when I was working in a scientific organization, a psychiatrist was invited to give us a lecture. The old man came and talked about decent madness and many other things. But there were some things he said that I couldn’t forget. He said that there were many mad people walking around the streets with clothes on, meaning that there are many properly dressed people who are mentally sick. He said that there is madness of the brain, and madness of the heart, which is the one the Bible is talking about here. He said that our present generation has become the generation of sleeping pills, tonic, paracetamol, aspirin, codeine, chloroquine, etc. He also said that many big men are mad people who go for psychiatric treatment. He also said that 55 per cent of Nigerians suffer from one form of madness or another, and that there is an epidemic of juvenile madness. Looking back now, although the man was not born-again, we could see that he was talking facts.
When a person is used to disorder, orderliness will become his enemy that is why average Nigerians hate to queue up. In fact, one Nigerian professor said that queuing is a British disease. The worst form of madness is when the spirit of man is mad. When you say madness, you talk about stupidity, absurdity, foolishness, etc. But your definition of a particular thing is not important. What matters is how God defines it. For example, a man may define religion as a way of man seeking God and trying to please Him. But the definition of religion in the Bible is found in James 1:27, which says, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” That is the Biblical definition. Adultery could be defined as somebody going about messing up with other men’s wives. But the Bible has its own definition and that is what matters.
Matthew 5:27-28: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” It means that a lot of people will go to hell fire because of adultery, even though they never touched another woman or man who is not their spouse. Such people can strip a woman or man naked in the laboratory of their heart. If you strip somebody naked in the laboratory of your heart, you’ve committed adultery. It is the divine definition that really matters. Heavenly vocabulary is different from ours. The Bible describes death as sleep because it knows that the dead will soon wake up whether to go to destruction or to go to life. Likewise, the Bible has its own definition of madness. It says that madness is in the heart of men.
This year, I have seen so many things I can call serious madness. For example, a woman, who was having problems with her husband went for prayers at a pastor’s place and the pastor said, "I will pray for you but I have to put my hand inside your pant to do the prayer." The woman did not know whether it was right or wrong because she was a young Christian so she allowed him and he was speaking in tongues. That is madness, spiritual madness. When a man gives bath to a married woman in the name of prayer, it is confusion. Somebody who knows that something is bad and does not favour him but keeps doing it, it is madness. Somebody who gets drunk is suffering from artificial madness. A man or woman who is practicing masturbation is mad. Perhaps this is how you have been living your life this year, you need to wake up and know where you are going. It is also madness for somebody to slap a believer in the chest and the believer loses his senses. That is complete spiritual madness.
One of the hard facts of Christian life is the discovery sooner or later that simply receiving Jesus Christ into your life as your Lord and Saviour does not instantly lead to holiness and deliverance in your life. It takes many pastors years to discover this. Rather they give people scriptures such as, “It is written, if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new." They will say that immediately you surrender your life to Christ, that is it. You don’t need deliverance or anything again. All the generational curses are gone. But the person now discovers to his amazement, that his old problems do not go.
The salvation that God gives to you is a door for you to enter into your complete deliverance. It takes time for people to discover that we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Daily worship, daily prayer, daily quiet time, daily holiness, daily sanctification are all parts of what we need. There are many people who claim to have been sanctified and they end up boxing their wives everyday. They come back shouting again at the altar, “Oh pastor, pray for me. I have lost my sanctification.” It is an everyday affair. The sanctification of yesterday is not sufficient for today because the devil, our adversary walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Why does he have to seek people to devour? He does that because he cannot devour everybody. There are some people that he cannot swallow and there are some people that he can swallow, so he has to look for those ones. I know that the enemy cannot swallow me. It takes people time to understand these things.
Some people wonder and ask why their problems increase after they have given their lives to Jesus. In fact, such people should be rejoicing because it means that certain powers were in control of their lives before which did not want them to serve the living God. So, they are fighting them hard. Such people should fight back. If you became broke after giving your life to Christ it could mean that your finances were under some evil dominion but now they want to change hands and so there is problem.
Our progress as Christians follow a pattern as laid out in the Bible covering the history of the Israelites. That is how our spiritual life runs. This pattern runs this way:
1. There is a new beginning just like when you start your Christian life. The new beginning came for the Israelites when Moses told them that they could be free.
2. There is a time of deliverance from the world. This can be likened to when they came out of Egypt.
3. There is a time called the wilderness experience. Many things happen in the wilderness and unfortunately, many Christians die in the wilderness.
4. There is a time for conquest of the land.
5. There is a time for entering into the Promise Land.
Our salvation follows this pattern. Many people have been born-again for years but they find it difficult to break free from the world and its methods. Many wander about in the wilderness till they die. Many fight for the land that they have promised them but never take possession. God requires a life time of hard work and diligence on our part. God wants us to grow in maturity in Christ and to follow the basic instructions for Christian living.
WHAT ARE THE BASIC INSTRUCTIONS FOR CHRISTIAN LIVING?
1. Regular time with Scriptures.
2. Adequate prayer time alone with God.
3. Adequate prayer time with other Christians.
4. Fellowship with brethren. There is no Christian who can do well in isolation. We have to be close and intimate with the family of God. That is what will produce maturity in our lives.
Many people who get born-again may not be aware that there exists certain powers and certain strongholds. These strongholds have been a source of problem to many. Most times when we come for deliverance what we do is pulling down these strongholds. All these internal battles and inner pharaohs need to be pulled down. There is a proverb that says, “If the internal death does not kill a person, the external one cannot succeed." When your internal enemy has been rendered powerless, the ones outside cannot really get to you. The strongholds in the heart are the areas that God wants to occupy but the enemy have held them captive. These strongholds can be passed from generation to generation. Many people inherit these strongholds from their parents just as we can inherit natural, biological, genetical and cultural things. Some people have lived in terrible environments in their childhood, and now the effect is showing on their lives. Most of these strongholds of satan are in people’s inner lives. Although, they are born-again, they remain in the place and every wrong and selfish choice they make in life strengthens the enemy’s hold on that inner captivity. Some strongholds in our life have very deep root that is why somebody can pray for one year and the stronghold will still be there. Some are not so deep, so once you say, “Father, in the name of Jesus,” they come out. This internal stronghold is responsible for the madness of the heart. It is sad to know that many people are insane spiritually.
HOW DO YOU RECOGNIZE SPIRITUAL INSANITY?
1. Fear: If you have deep-seated fear, there is madness in your heart. The Bible says that perfect love casts out fear. So, if you want to be free from this kind of spiritual insanity, you must sit down and discover what your fears are, find out where they are coming from, and why they haven’t disappeared then you will make a surprising discovery that will move your life forward. Cast out the demon of fear within you. A lot of people leave in absolute fear and fear is the commonest demon in the whole world. If you investigate deeply, you will find that most of the people who die daily in the hospitals are killed by fear. Many people give up even before they die. So, check your heart if there is any fear there. Are you the kind of person who is afraid of darkness? Are you the kind of person who cannot sleep in the house alone? Are you the kind of person who runs away from everything including rats, wall geckoes, lizards, etc. Check yourself very well and discover why the fear is still there to get information that will move your life forward.
2. Self-centeredness: The Bible says, “Let no one think more highly of himself than he ought to think.” When somebody is excessively self-centered, has an exaggerated opinion about himself and is always protecting his own interest; there would be problem. That is why you find that there are only few effective ministers around. Those who want to minister must do so with compassion. But when somebody is doing God’s work for selfish reasons, he is self-centered and cannot be successful. If you are the kind of person who cannot do something for somebody free of charge and you say that God is calling you, you are not serious. It must be Satan that is calling you. The Bible says, “Freely are you given and freely ye give.” Anywhere you go and somebody charges you money for prayer, you must be careful. Whatever gift such minister may have does not come from the Lord.
3. Compulsive behavioural patterns: Compulsion to steal, to tell lies, to live in superstition, etc. is madness.
4. Sexual disorder: Sexual immorality and perversion is madness.
5. Repeated terrible dreams: Having bad dreams repeatedly for a long time is madness. Sometimes you wake up and cannot sleep anymore because you are afraid of what will happen in your dream. It is a sign that there is a stronghold of the enemy in your heart. Something within you needs redemption and you need to tackle it. When you have repeated terrible dreams leading to sleeplessness, it means that madness has set in and you really need to address it. A certain woman told me that one day, as she was sleeping, she noticed that there was a man between her and her husband and she tapped her husband at the other end and asked him if he could see the man and he said no. She was touching the person and the person was smiling but her husband could not see the person. It showed that something in the woman needed redemption.
6. Anxiety: The Bible says, “Be careful for nothing” but you are always worried and anxious, it is madness. Your heart is not stable because of anxiety, it is madness. It is madness because the Bible says that you cannot by your power help yourself. Jesus says, “Take no thought about tomorrow for tomorrow will sought itself out.” He also says, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Therefore, don’t carry the problem of today into tomorrow. Yesterday is already gone, what you have now is your future.
7. Depression or the spirit of heaviness: I know many people who have cried for years but did not achieve anything. Crying does not change anything. If crying could solve any problem, the whole of the nation would be wailing and crying. When your spirit is low and your heart is down, you lose a lot of things. The enemy will move in and begin to work. And if you begin to pray, the same enemy will protest and say, "Oh Lord, you can’t listen to this one because it is written, Let not your heart be troubled, believe in God and believe in me also. This one’s heart is troubled."
8. Excessive daydreaming: Some people just daydream and do not take any action. They would say, “I can see myself in Singapore and from there to Czechoslovak etc yet they do nothing about it. You come from work, go to play Table-Tennis, after that you watch television, after that, you eat and sleep and when you wake up at night, instead of praying, you will take valium so that you can sleep again, you are not taking any action towards fulfilling your divine destiny. There are many people who day dream. Household enemies have finished their agenda. They have to stand up and start fighting.
9. Inferiority complex: Some people are excessively shy and because of that they have a lot of unconfessed sins in their lives. Sometimes, they become very lonely and don’t talk to anybody. They do not greet other people. It is a terrible madness of the heart.
10. Stupid violence: Somebody who loses his temper and causes problems almost to the point of killing people is spiritually mad. The Bible calls anger madness especially if it is unrighteous anger.
11. Addiction: Those who are drug and alcohol addicts have what we call spiritual insanity.
12. Inability to manage resources: Those who are bad managers of money and other useful resources are suffering from spiritual madness. They mismanage their worldly resources and do all kinds of terrible things with them. They lose any money you give to them. You start a business for them and they spoil it. It is because something is wrong inside their spirit. Mismanagement is a sign that something is wrong somewhere.
13. Compulsory eating or drinking: It is not only fat people that eat too much. Some slim people do too because it is a spirit. Compulsory eating or drinking is madness. You have to be careful about how and where you eat because it is on the agenda of Satan’s children to use food against people. We know that everybody must eat and drink, but we must be careful.
14. Difficulty in dealing with others: There are some people who cannot keep friends. They even fight their spouses. Everybody is against them and they are against everybody. Such people have become modern day Ishmael. Nobody likes them and they too don’t like anybody. It is madness.
15. Keeping a list of those who offend you: Keeping a diary of those who have offended you is a sign of madness.
16. The final madness is not to be ready for heaven. If you don’t know where you are going when you die, then you are suffering from spiritual madness. We need to ask the Lord to deal with our internal madness .We need to ask Him to heal the madness in us.
HOW DO WE DO THAT?
1. Cultivate a teachable spirit. There are some sisters who are still struggling with their attachments, make-ups, etc and can quote all kinds of Bibles and show you all kinds of pictures to prove their point. Such people should cultivate a receptive act.
2. Win the war of your mind: If you lose the war of your mind, you will lose all the way.
3. Wage war against the enemy of your mind: Whatever captures your mind captures your destiny.
4. Prepare to meet your God everyday: Make it a daily affair. Failure to do these would make a person to go from insanity to hell fire.
Examine your heart to see if there is any madness in it. The prodigal son was a mad man. He left the place of prosperity and began to feed with swine. But one day his madness cleared and he came to himself. The day you realize that where you are now is not good, you would have solved a lot of problems. For you to move forward, you must consider your present condition.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Power of God, kill my internal pharaoh, in the name of Jesus.
2. Every wicked power that killed my father, what are you waiting for? Die, in Jesus’ name.
3. Every wicked power working against my parent and is attacking my life, what are you waiting for die? Die, in Jesus’ name.
4. Any sickness that killed my parents and is now trying to attack me, go back to where you come from, in the name of Jesus.
5. Every madness of the spirit, die, in the name of Jesus.
6. Every register of witchcraft that is containing my name, fire of the living God of Elijah, burn them to ashes, in Jesus’ name.
7. Let the yoke of stubborn witchcraft be broken, in Jesus’ name.
8. All my blessings remaining in this year, gather together now and locate me by fire, in the name of Jesus.
9. By the power that disgraced Goliath, by the power that put Haman to shame and by the power that sent worms upon Herod, let my stubborn enemy die, in the name of Jesus.
10. Every power that has refused to let me go, be broken now, in the name of Jesus.
11. Every tragedy that is remaining this year shall not be my lot, in Jesus’ name.
12. Every power seating on the mat against me, what are you waiting for? Die, in the name of Jesus.
