Wrestling With Shadows

WRESTLING WITH SHADOWS

Life is something many people fail to understand because there are so many questions those men cannot answer. For example, Cain and Abel were two men born of the same parents. They had similar backgrounds, similar abilities and were headed towards the same direction but Abel was successful while Cain was overshadowed by failure and frustration. The world is exactly like that.

A lot of people are wrestling with shadows. What does this mean? Some people have done all there is to do for them to be successful, yet they remain failures. Some even have higher degrees and have done everything that qualifies them for resounding success yet success remain elusive; their children are disobedient, their marriages are unstable and sicknesses are becoming a routine affair. A person just discovers that in one particular area or in many areas of his life, he is struggling with something he cannot understand or identify. He just goes from one problem to another. He is always at the edge of good health but never really achieving good health. Sometimes the way may look clear once in a while but as some people try to go to the clear way, they stumble and fall. This is what we call wrestling with shadows. Many people cannot get a grip of what is happening. They are struggling with something they cannot understand or identify.

We are in a world of powerful forces that harass men. These powerful forces do not operate according to natural laws. There is a lamentation on this, in the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 9: 11 says, “I returned, and I saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” This lamentation proves that there are forces operating on the lives of men that men cannot understand. The forces that determine the course of our lives are both visible and invisible. The powers that confuse the lives of men most can do so through what we call the mouth gate. A lot of people are in such bondage. 1 Corinthians 10:16 talks about the kind of communion we have in the church now. It says, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” During communion service, when the cup and the bread have been blessed, the cup then has the power to transmit the blessings of the New Covenant to those who drink it. Therefore, by simple spiritual interpretation, it shows that a physical object like a cup used during the Last Supper can transmit spiritual power. Likewise in Numbers chapter 5, we read about what happens when a woman is suspected of being unfaithful to her marriage vows in those days. Numbers 5: 18 says, “And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering. And the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that caused the curse.” (They would have water inside a cup and issue a curse on the water). Verses 19 - 22 say, “And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse. But if thou hast gone aside unto another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband. Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell. And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot. And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.” In this case, the cup of water is the vehicle through which the destroying power is transmitted. So, if the woman had been truly unfaithful, that water would transmit the curse and the belly would swell and explode. So, destroying powers can be transferred by physical objects. Therefore, if you have been served meals from the devil’s table, you may live your life wrestling with shadows unless you are purged. Once you get something from the table of the devil you would be wrestling with shadows and won’t know what you are fighting against unless you are purged. The reason is that what you are fighting against is inside your body and you are thinking that it is one old woman or one relative somewhere. The thing has already been deposited inside, and you are going around with it.