The Private Enemy

Beloved, as you read this week’s message which is entitled “The private enemy,” believe the Lord for outstanding breakthroughs.

The first thing you need to do is to address yourself because the greatest hindrance to God’s touch upon you is not the devil or household wickedness. When the prodigal son talked to himself, then he began to make progress. You will call your name and say, “Whatever will disturb you as you read this message, let it go so that you can be blessed, in the name of Jesus.”

2 Corinthians 12:7 says, “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” That was Paul talking. The messenger of satan was assigned against him.

Matthew 12:43-45 says, “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out, and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. (What he is calling his house are human beings.) “Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.” (His going to gather more wicked spirits means that spirits operate on different levels of wickedness).

Several years ago, a man who was practically at the point of death came to me for prayers. As he came in and sat down, I could see in the spirit, a lady waiting outside the door carrying a small coffin. So, I said, “My brother, somebody followed you here.” He said, “No. I came alone.” I could see that he did not understand so I then started to describe the lady carrying the coffin and he said, “Yes. That description fits a former girlfriend of mine whom I jilted and she promised to deal with me.” I started to pray but the Holy Spirit said, “Don’t worry yourself. This one is already gone.” I asked him why he jilted the girl and he said it was because his parents said he must not marry from the girl’s town. I also asked him why she was so angry and he said it was because she aborted five pregnancies by him and he still did not marry her. So, I asked him to go. All these took place on a Saturday and by the following Tuesday, he was dead, destroyed by a private enemy following him about.

The messenger of satan was specifically assigned to Paul and he was following him about. I want you to understand that when evil spirits are against a person, they can operate both within and without. Some spirits within a person could be telling the person to go and die, jump into the lagoon, drink poison, kill himself, twist the books, tell lies, etc. Just as some operate inside, some operate from the outside. It is not possible for an evil spirit to take over the life of a Christian who lives the kind of life God wants him to live. If however some evil spirits have found their ways into your life, you need to expel them. With the external ones, you fight and resist them.

Ignorance can be a very terrible thing. Many years ago, when I was studying for my degree overseas, a Cameroonian classmate of mine had malaria-fever. The white doctor who had never seen a case of malaria tested him and didn’t know what was wrong but we the Africans around, by just looking at him, knew what was wrong and we told the doctor that it was malaria. We advised that he should give him some chloroquine. But the doctor said, “No. We can’t just give a person drugs like that." The man’s case got really bad. They took his blood, sent it to a laboratory to detect what was wrong. The result took a long time coming and the man’s condition was deteriorating, so we Africans held a meeting and decided to carry out a protest at the hospital. We told them we would set the hospital on fire if they allowed the boy to die because we were sure that he had malaria. The doctor then asked us to sign an undertaking that if anything went wrong we would be held responsible. The fifty of us signed, and gave him the drug. After about half an hour, he began to sweat and three days later, he was discharged from the hospital. The ignorance of the doctors would have killed the man. So, if physical ignorance can be so bad, the spiritual one is worse.