Matthew 11:12: And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
Matthew 17:21: Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
MFM has been accused of subjecting people to fasting and prayers but here is an example of a case that the disciples could not handle and the Lord Jesus told them that, that kind of case, had to be dealt with, through prayers and fasting.
This means that there are some demons that will leave at a simple command, but there are some, that have to be chased out violently because they are stubborn and have probably installed themselves in the life of that person, through a covenant that has been in place from generation to generation.
I do not see anything wrong in going to battle over-armed. It is better than being under-armed. If you require only three bullets to finish the enemy and you take 1,000 with you, there is no harm in that; you will bring back the rest. But if you need three and took only one bullet with you, you would only succeed in provoking the rage of the enemy and he will rise again and finish you.
David took five stones when he was going to face Goliath. He would have thought that if the first one missed his forehead, one of the others would hit him hard. He succeeded at the first attempt and he went back with the rest.
Modern-day believers do not understand this principle but the people of the Bible did. Beloved, we have to know that dark powers are at the root of most of the problems that we are facing, though they will try to hide from us. We have a mission to identify them, confront and then conquer them. When we have this at the back of our minds, we will be unstoppable. Then the, unbelievable miracles will begin to happen. That is what we call WONDER. It is a bit higher than a miracle. It is something that happens and when people hear it, their ears will tingle and their mouths will open and will not close until they have overcome the surprise.
When the Bible says; “Ye shall be for signs and wonders.”
It means people who saw you last year, will see you this year and want to know what transformed you and you will tell them that you are serving the God of signs and wonders and they will ask you to take them to Him.
I pray that every enemy of your signs and wonders shall be disgraced today, in the name of Jesus.
The Apostles turned their cities upside down. WHY?
They knew the Lord whom they served, they bragged and boasted about Him, they upset the world in which they found themselves. They worried the devil, gave the rulers sleepless nights. They did not worry about where the devil would strike next; it was the devil that worried about what they would do in the next moment. They harassed demons and did not run away from demons, they were not diplomats; who would not tell people the truth about their deeds. They confronted the rulers and told them that they killed Jesus the Messiah. Those people were forced to ask them what they should do to be saved and the Apostles told them to repent and turn to the Lord.
They held Holy Ghost services on the streets; they got people baptized on the streets, they carried out deliverance sessions on the streets. They went about without fear; they were on fire. They had something that the prisons could not withhold; when they were arrested, the rulers had to release them speedily, when they wanted to interrogate them, the rulers had to be cautious, they could not apply force, they had to invite them for interrogation. When they got there, the Apostles repeated the same things they had been teaching about Jesus. They had something in them that fire could not burn; that water could not drown, that salt could not spoil.
What was their secret?
They CONFRONTED and CONQUERED.
Many years ago, there was a revival that broke out in a place. A brother used to go out for morning cry. It was a simple cry of; “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand”.
One day, this brother went out very early in the morning and was saying the same words as usual. It happened to be a day of sacrifice and the occultic men were at their shrine. Usually, nobody should come near the place and the villagers never did. This brother did not know that there was anything like that going on. The occultic men started chanting incantations on him and they found out that it had no effect on him. It surprised them and they all came out and brought their charms. The brother started feeling weak but he quickly started speaking in tongues. He regained his strength and the occultic men became weak and helpless.
Then, they resorted to physical beating. They beat him up because he could not beat them being a Christian. He became unconscious and they dragged him to the shrine in which they had their idols and left.
At about 5.30am, another brother was going to church for morning service, when he saw a Bible on the ground, then a bell; he became curious and looked round and went towards the hut and found that brother in front of the shrine. He ran to the church to call the Pastor who had already started the service. The brother interrupted and announced that, that brother had been sacrificed.
The whole congregation got up with a battle cry and went towards the shrine. They got there and found out that the brother was still breathing. He was revived and they destroyed the shrine and the hut. When the news got to the king of the village, he summoned the pastor and his congregation went with him. When he saw them, he had no choice but to say that he only wanted to make peace; that there is freedom of worship in the country and that they should learn to co-habitate.
As from that day, many people started to renounce idol worship and gave their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. The shrine was never re-erected and a revival broke out. No child of God died in the process, whereas, the people believed that the idol would kill anyone who dared move close to the shrine.
Sometimes, there is no option for peace until there is war. Peace-loving people have had to take up arms, in order to defend themselves. There is an English adage that says; “No war, no peace.” In Yoruba, there is an adage that says; “The child that decides not to allow his mother to sleep at night, will himself be restless.” This means that the powers that have decided not to allow a child of God to have peace, must themselves, be restless. If they got up after midnight to do havoc, it means as a child of God, you must have been awoken before midnight, to bombard them with your prayer bullets and arrows. When you continually bombard them with your arrows and bullets, they will flee and will not dare come again. In fact, when they hear your name, they will run away.
One night, three witches were sent on assignment to pour leprosy on a Christian brother who was said to pray too hard and was disrupting witchcraft activities in his area.
As they were going, they had to pass in front of a church where a vigil was going on. This leader of the prayer meeting, sensed an evil spiritual presence and the Holy Spirit ministered to him to raise this prayer point; Let the Blood of Jesus become fire and burn every evil presence, in the name of Jesus.
Everybody prayed hard and aggressively. Immediately, the witches were arrested. One of them was stuck to the ground, the one carrying the evil pot carrying the leprosy fell with it and part of it poured on her, the third person, a man, fled. The other two could not move and were calling him to carry the pot and go and accomplish the assignment. He refused and ran away. The one that escaped, thought over the situation and acknowledged the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and he surrendered his life to Him. He was the one that lived to narrate the story. God spared his life so that he would be able to testify to the fact that God is greater than any power that can ever exist.
You may find it difficult to believe that life is a battle; but it is true. We have battles to fight and each person must fight. Some start their fight very early in life, some start in the womb, and for some is at particular spectacular stages in life, that their battle starts. For some, it is when they become adults or in their old age.
Anyone that will prosper or is a threat to the devil, will surely have confrontations from the camp of the enemy.
There are some powers that know what a person will become, right from the womb; they try to capture the star of the person or quench it totally. If parents are prayerful, they will save their children from a lot of havoc.
Most psychiatric cases are the handiwork of destiny quenchers and evil diversion. They know the potentials of these people and they hinder them through insanity.
If you look back at your achievements, you will find out that there were some obstacles that you had to pass through before you became successful. The Lord who saved you, wants you to serve Him sincerely in return.
Christians have to understand the ministry of conflict and spiritual confrontation, otherwise, many will continue to suffer. Many have accepted that there is no way out, that they have to bear everything as their cross.
If a preacher has never experienced a headache, he can never understand what migraine means. He would not appreciate what it means to have sleepless nights. Many pat people on the back and ask them to claim their victory by faith but nothing happens.
During deliverance sessions, we have heard vicious demons speak through their victims and have answered us and argued about our intervention and even cried but eventually, they are thrown out. You would have discovered by now, that problems are not removed by television show-business nor by “Jesus loves you” smiles. At least, not in the African environment, but by spiritual battle. Any Christian that does not deal with spiritual warfare is still wasting time.
A lot of Christians are playing lazy and lazy people are useless in spiritual battle. They are engaged in many activities that wear them out during the day and at night, they are too weak to pray. The enemy engages them in evil occupations and before they know it, he has captured them.
There is no nice way of cleaning a septic tank. All the methods are aggressive. In spiritual warfare, you pump out the demonic sewage, empty the tank of all the filth that has been accumulated and throw them out.
When I was a young Christian, an old preacher came to our church and before he started his sermon, he sang this song:
“There is vict’ry within my soul:
For the Spirit with me abides
Let the waves of temptation roll
Jesus keeps me whate’er betides.
Chorus:
Victory! Victory! Vic’ry in my soul;
I have glorious victory since Jesus took Control
Victory! Victory! Sweeping like a flood.
I have glorious victory through Jesus’ Blood.
When he finished singing, he asked how many people wanted victory and the whole congregation signified. He asked us to shout Hallelujah and we did; at the top of our voices.
He then asked; How many of you want to fight wars? No one answered. He then asked how we wanted to win if we did not want to fight.
If there is no problem, there will be no solution; if there is no conflict, there will be no victory. For the enemy to flee from before you, you have to first come out against him.
We need not fear the enemy but we must not under-estimate him nor ignore him. To ignore the devil, means entering your house and finding a stranger in your house; instead of chasing him out, you say; “Hello, I hope you are not a robber; and I hope you are not armed.” You then go to sleep. You will wake up to find out that your house has been emptied. You do not leave fire burning on your roof and go to sleep.
In MFM, we teach people warfare, we don’t tell them that the devil has no power. We make them realise that he has power but there is a Super Power that supercedes all other powers. We train them to know how to have and use this Power.
Beloved, the Lord is calling out today for aggressive Christianity; He is looking for violent Christians. The battle is not for the chicken-hearted, neither is it for those who cannot fight, nor for the easily discouraged. He is looking for those who will slay giants; those who will go up to the gates of the enemy and call him out for a fight.
Jesus says; “Behold, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
This means there is conflict and we must fight.
All those who were successful in the Bible, were confronters;
Moses
Exodus 10:28-29: And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die. [29] And Moses said, Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more.
Although Pharaoh was a powerful king, Moses dared to confront him.
Elijah
1 Kings 18:17-18: And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? [18] And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim.
1 Kings 21:20: And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord.
David
1 Samuel 17:43: And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
1 Samuel 17:45-47: Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. [46] This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. [47] And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands.
Although David was a small boy and Goliath was a giant, David confronted him with small stones and the confidence he had in God made him to hit the big forehead of the giant and he died. He also used, the big sword of the giant, to cut off his own head.
I say unto you this day beloved, that the Lord shall deliver your enemies into your hands in the name of Jesus. Amen.
If David had listened to those who did not want him to confront Goliath, the giant would have pestered Israel and the Philistines would have killed them all.
Say this aloud; I will confront my enemies and I will conquer them in the name of Jesus.
Paul
In Luke 13:10–11, he confronted Bar-Jesus who wanted to disrupt the preaching of the Gospel. He commanded him to go blind for a while and it happened.
Daniel
He made it known that he was praying to the Living God and did not mind being arrested and thrown into the lion’s den. Of course, the Lord kept him and the lions did not eat him up.
What would you say of Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego who confronted Nebuchadnezzar, later refusing to bow to the golden image. They told him that their God would deliver them. They even added that, in case God decided to allow them burn in the fiery furnace, they still would not bow.
This means that they dared the authority of the most powerful king at that time and they conquered. In fact, through the incidence, the king came to the acknowledgment of the Lord God and recommended that He should be worshiped.
All these men were all confronters and when you are violent like this, the devil tries to avoid you. In fact, as a child of God, any power that dares confront you, should receive its obituary instantly. That is my own testimony.
There was a herbalist near MFM and whenever a problem was brought to him that he could not solve, he would send the people to the church, that only Jesus could save them. One day, he came to confess that in their witchcraft meetings, they had been trying to destroy me and each time they made an attempt, they were confronted by a Rock; which shielded me. So, he on his own, decided that any case he could not handle, should be taken to Jesus.
Romans 9:33: As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Take this prayer point aggressively:
Every evil hand pointed at me, be paralysed in the name of Jesus.
HOW TO CONFRONT AND CONQUER
Identify the problem -What are you battling with?
1. Is it a physical sickness or spiritual affliction?
2. Is it a curse?
3. Is it a covenant?
4. Is it demonisation?
5. Is it self-inflicted?
6. Is it the activity of drinkers of blood and eaters of flesh?
7. Is it bewitchment?
8. Is it household wickedness?
9. Is it unfriendly friends
What is it?
Note: Nothing is ever conquered until it is openly and clearly identified.
If you put soldiers on the field and command them to shoot the enemies it means you have briefed them on the enemies. They would ask who or what the enemies look like, what they are likely to be putting on, and from which direction they are coming from.
They would map out a strategy and work out the best way of conquering.
If they are not briefed beforehand, it means you want them to shoot in the air for nothing and in the process, the enemies will get them.
All fear must go
If you look at the examples of the confronters I mentioned above, you will notice that none of them feared the adversary. When the devil sees that you are not afraid of death, he will flee. The weapon he uses in discouraging people from confronting him, is DEATH but if you are like Paul, who sees death as no threat, the devil will flee, you have become dangerous to his kingdom.
Philip. 1:21-23: For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. [22] But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wont not. [23] For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
Peter too was not afraid of death. There was a medical doctor who had a well-equipped clinic, well-trained staff but no patient. The patients that came in once in a while came in for treatment of slight malaria or headaches and so, she was going bankrupt. She incurred debts here and there and was advised to come to MFM for prayers. She did. As we were praying one day, the Lord revealed five trees and she said she remembered that their parents had five children living out of the seven they had and they were advised to plant a tree for each of them.
She remembered that as they were growing up, they were not allowed to play around the trees, which were still small and delicate; so that they will not mistakenly uproot or destroy it. As the years rolled by, anything that happened to the trees, happened to them wherever they were.
This lady studied medicine in England but her life was being controlled by a tree. I told her to go to their village to cut down the tree representing her and she was afraid. She said her father would not allow her. We concluded that she employed a hewer of wood, who does not understand the local language. She took the man there and described the tree to him and she stood afar. The man succeeded before anyone could challenge him. They brought the pulled-out tree to Lagos and it was burnt.
Very soon, the clinic began to blossom and the woman was able to pay off her debts and is prospering today.
The enemy has to be confronted; you should not back out, you cannot employ a prophet to pray your prayers for you. Do it yourself.
There was a woman who was asked to move out of her residence. She refused and one day, she found a human skull in front of her house. She was scared and came to me. I told her to claim her authority as a child of God and burn the skull. She thought she should inform the Police because she could not touch it. She then realised that the police could accuse her of murder. She regained boldness and prayerfully destroyed the skull.
The person that did it started confessing immediately and behaving abnormally until he surrendered his life to the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you have fear in your life;
i. Admit that it is there and identify it. Face facts and bring the reality to yourself.
ii. Commit it to the Lord.
Be particular and specific as you go before the Lord, so that He will, handle it for you.
iii. Release it.
Cast the fear upon the lord and leave it there because He cares for you.
Psalm 55:22, 1Peter 5:7
iv. Stand firm and don’t look back
Faith must come in
Have violent faith in the Lord.. Faith is not knowledge, neither is it certainty; it is the use of your spiritual hands to accept what God is offering you, using your spiritual eyes to see beyond the circumstances surrounding you. It goes beyond the superficial, to the spirit behind a problem. It goes beyond the symptoms and handles the root of the cause. It is a decision, and action, not just something passing. It is great to just trust God like a child and lift things up to Him.
Spiritual violence must flow.
The Bible talks about righteous anger. Holy anger is exercised when God’s enemies are assuming positions outside their right. You can rebuke the enemies and aggressively stop them in what they are doing. The Bible says; “Resist the devil, and he shall flee from you.”
Today is a day to confront and conquer. You should know what you want to conquer and I want you to conquer and I want you to aggressively address it as you pray the prayer points I am suggesting below.
However, if you have not yet surrendered your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, I would like you to do so now. You might be regular and fervent in church attendance and not have a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now is the time to look inward and see yourself as a sinner. Know that you cannot approach God in your sinful state. Confess your sins to Him and ask Him to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Claim the redemptive power in the Blood of Jesus Christ, which was shed on the cross at Calvary for the remission of your sins.
Ask the Lord Jesus to come into your life and become your personal Lord and Saviour. Enthrone Him over the affairs of your life and tell Him that you will never go back to the world and Satan anymore.
I congratulate you for this decision that you have just taken. I pray that it shall be permanent in your life. I pray that the Lord shall uphold you in His strength and power and keep you from all wrongs. He will keep your feet from falling in the name of Jesus.
Prayer points
Now, pick that thing that has been harassing your life. Call it by name and say;
1. You . . ., I come against you, in Jesus’ name.
2. You the chariots of fire from heaven, chase away every anti-promotion spirit in the name of Jesus.
3. O Lord, glorify yourself in my life, in the name of Jesus.
4. Every power that has written: “Impossibility” upon any part of my life, be paralyzed, in the name of Jesus.
5. I prophesy unto my problems, become testimonies, in the name of Jesus.
6. You the Goliath confronting my destiny , receive the stones of fire, in Jesus’ name.
7. I break the power of any demonic spell issued against my life, in the name of Jesus.
8. Let all the footholds and seat of the enemy in my life be abolished, in the name of Jesus.
9. O God, be my hiding place and preserve me from evil in all areas of life, in Jesus’ name.
10. I cast every masquerading problem into the Red Sea, in the name of Jesus.
11. Lord, send Your angels to battle on my behalf.
12. All attacks and traps of the enemy, be frustrated, in Jesus’ name.
I walk in divine safety and I refuse to enter into the net of the enemy, in the name of Jesus.
Let all those who trouble my Israel be disbanded and confused, in the name of Jesus.
I break the power of every evil ritual aimed at me, in the name of Jesus.
I break every demonic bondage to any fetish priest, in the name of Jesus.
I release myself from the spirit of my town and village, in the name of Jesus.
I refuse to follow any evil design for my life , in the name of Jesus.
I break the stronghold of witchcraft upon my life, in Jesus’ name.
I claim complete liberty, in the name of Jesus.
