Wrestling with shadows
Our message this week
is very important">
Wrestling with shadows
Our message this week
is very important">
Wrestling with shadows
Our message this week
is very important">
Wrestling with shadows
Our message this week
is very important, especially to those who were born and brought up in this
environment. 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 in the same direction but Abel was successful while Cain was
overshadowed by failure and frustration. The world is exactly like that.
A lot of black 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 one 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.
In our environment,
wicked people succeed in making some people to be wrestling with shadows through
the mouth gate. Sometime ago, I went to somebody’s office and the person said,
“You are welcome. We have some meat that we just used for a festival.” I said,
“What do I do with it?” He said, “It is for consumption.” I said, “I don’t eat
food from the table of the devil.” He said, “What? Table of the devil?” I said,
“Jesus has been made a once and for all sacrifice. Anybody that is killing
anything after Jesus died is sacrificing to the devil and those who eat it are
eating from the table of the devil.” The scripture is very clear on this. It can
be very frustrating when somebody is fighting an external force when the problem
is internal. It can also be very frustrating when somebody has a physical object
in his possession, which is the vehicle of his problem and he does not know.
Sometime ago, we prayed for a sister and the demon spirit that spoke from her
said, “Well, ask her to bring the cloth we gave to her.” The sister brought the
cloth, which was destroyed before she could regain her freedom. It means that as
long as she had that cloth in her possession, she could sing all the praise
worship in this planet, and read all the psalms, but there would be no freedom.
Sometime ago, we held
a revival service in a church and when an altar call was made to those who
wanted to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I saw a dear old woman who
came crying and saying that she could not understand why it was difficult for
her to receive the baptism even after many revivalists had visited her church.
So, I said, “Madam, you will be filled with the power today.” She said, “Thank
you my son I will try.” I told her to pray and she prayed until she was
sweating. Her clothes were soaked. I was impressed with her prayers yet nothing
happened. I could get impressed but I am not the giver of the Holy Spirit. At a
stage, I left her alone and sat somewhere else to pray. I asked the Lord what
was wrong with her and the Lord said I should look at her hand. I looked at her
hand and saw a particular ring on her fourth finger. On the ring was the symbol
of a half moon. The Lord said that with that ring on her finger, His Spirit
would not enter into her life. Then I said, “Mama, open your eyes. Who gave you
this ring?” She told me that she inherited it from her great grandmother. I took
the ring from her and made her to understand that the half moon was the sign of
witchcraft. She gladly gave it to me and did not have to pray for one minute
before she received the power of the Holy Ghost. She did not know that her enemy
was on her fourth finger for 25 years. She slept with it, woke up with it,
bathed with it, went everywhere and did everything with it. So, she was busy
wrestling with shadows instead of the real thing, which was on her fourth
finger.
When you are
wrestling with shadows, you would be kept away from receiving the blessings of
God. God would be offering the blessings but you would not be able to get them.
Sometimes you may not even realize that there is a blessing to receive. Somebody
who is under witchcraft attack in our environment would be manipulated,
intimidated and dominated. What do I mean by manipulation? The following
illustration gives us the answer. Sometime ago, a man married a very beautiful
wife, who was light in complexion. But he noticed that in the afternoons, the
woman would take a knife and begin to scratch her body and salt would be coming
out of her body. He got worried and decided to visit a white garment prophet.
Before he got to the white garment prophet, the woman had visited the white
garment prophet to inform him that her husband was coming and that he should
charge him very high fees. They were members of the same evil society but the
man did not know. That is manipulation. How can you have a bed in your house and
somebody would tell you to be sleeping on the mat, or they remove your all the
protein food from your diet, that is domination and intimidation. The wife of a
man asked him for soup money and he had only N20. He gave her the N20 and she
took it, tore it up and said, “What do you want me to do with N20?” And the man
slapped her. The woman said, “Okay, you have just slapped yourself.” Right from
that day, the man started feeling as if somebody was whipping him. Even when he
was in the office, it was the same thing. He would be dancing in the streets and
people thought he was mad. He was in that condition until he got to a prayer
meeting where the Lord sent fire on the invisible evil whip. The man was
wrestling with what we call shadows. In normal wrestling matches, what we have
is a physical challenge. But when your challenger is a shadow, you have an
impossible task in your hands.
HOW DO PEOPLE GET
TO WRESTLE WITH SHADOWS?
1. Idol worship:
Worship and acknowledgement of false gods would lead somebody to wrestle with
shadows. Involvement with dark societies and occult powers would cause a person
to wrestle with shadows. If somebody’s father was a secret cult member, he would
be wrestling with shadows.
2. Disobedience:
Disobedience to God’s clear command would lead to wrestling with shadows. The
Bible says that at the time of ignorance, God winked at it. But if you
understand it and you are disobedient to it, you are inviting shadows.
3. Disrespect for
parents and the elderly:
This makes people to wrestle with shadows.
4. Sexual
perversion:
All forms of sexual perversion, as far as the Bible is concerned, make people to
wrestle with shadows.
5. Stealing:
All kinds of stealing and also being stingy with God make people to wrestle with
shadows.
6. Curses:
Anyone operating under a curse would be wrestling with shadows.
7. Remote control
forces: There are some forces called remote control forces. Somebody who
lives in London could be remote controlling the life of another person in
Nigeria like somebody operating a television set. Our environment is so filled
with wickedness that many people are already programmed to spend the better part
of their lives wrestling with shadows. This message gives you have an
opportunity to strike back and recover your blessings.
SIX AREAS BY WHICH
DARK POWERS MAKE PEOPLE IN THIS ENVIRONMENT TO WRESTLE WITH SHADOWS
1. Attack by
demon idols:
The first area by which they make people in this environment to wrestle with
shadows is what I call attack by demon idols. They send a demon idol to a person
to attack him or her. They cut off part of people’s clothes, steal their shoes
or underwear’s or collect things from people’s body such as their hair, nail,
etc and give them to the demon idol to enable it to identify who to fight. If
you lose things like that, and wave it off as one of those things, you will be
surprised to find that it is not one of those things, but an attack. These demon
idols which are usually short, come with big clubs in their hands. They are
generally used to kill or render people useless. I know a person who was
attacked with a demon idol. The thing came into his bedroom and hit him on the
right hand with its club. The hand got paralyzed immediately. If not for the
fact that he knew the name of Jesus, he would have been maimed in that hand for
life. A person who is spiritually blind would not be able to see a demon idol.
So, if it is sent to attack such a person, he or she will not know what hit him
or her. If you allow them to go free, you are giving them opportunity to stage a
comeback. So, you must deal with them.
Way out
1. Withdraw your
stolen materials or the parts cut off from your body from them.
2. Issue an
invitation to the demon idol to come by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ
and command it to go back to the sender.
3. Command the evil
materials that have been injected into your system to be neutralized by the
blood of Jesus. That is how to handle them.
If you are living in
a flat where a demon idol has walked through before, whether it succeeded or not
in its assignment in that place, something has already been deposited there, so,
you need to clean up the place.
2. Strange touch:
A strange touch is when you feel that somebody touched you but you did not see
the person or even if you saw the person, certain things began to go wrong as
from that moment. That is what is called a strange touch. When somebody with a
spiritual poison in his hand shakes your hand or touches any part of your body,
you would feel serious heat internally or a funny sensation. That is a strange
touch. Life would become meaningless as from that moment.
Way out
1. Shake off the
strange touch, in Jesus’ name.
2. Ask for the fire
of the Holy Spirit to saturate every organ of your body.
3. Return the strange
touch to the sender.
Beloved, if you
notice that someone is just looking for an opportunity to touch you, you better
beware. Women who do not mind men touching parts of their bodies carelessly are
playing with fire. They can receive a strange touch through that way. A believer
ought to angrily give such men a stern warning, plead the blood of Jesus and
shake off the evil touch. It may be the touch of wastage, which can result into
all kinds of female problems like late marriage, bareness, etc.
3. Encounter
with the spirit of death:
Wicked people can
send the spirit of death to a person. This evil spirit is generally a dark tall
shadow. It walks into the room and wants to touch the person. Or the person
could be seeing another personality inside him or he could be seeing coffins, or
he could be seeing himself being buried, or he could see people planning his
funeral. Another evidence of the spirit of death pursing somebody is when you
have masquerades running after you in the dream. A lot of people have this
encounter.
Way out
1. Bind the spirit of
death and hell.
2. Return spiritual
obituary to the senders.
3. Keep declaring
Psalm 118: 17 which says, “I shall not die, but live and declare the works
of the Lord.” If you have experienced this kind of thing before and you
did not cancel it, you maybe walking about the street three-quarter dead by now.
4. Strange call:
Some people have heard their names called out in the middle of a sleep, these
are strange calls. Sometimes, a person could hear a familiar voice call out his
name three times. If the person answers, he or she becomes a shadow fighter as
from that day. A lot of people have answered such strange calls. Many times they
call us like that but God just does not allow us to hear it. He sends them back
before we even have time to hear because He says, “Touch not my anointed and do
my prophets no harm.”
Way out
1. Ask for
forgiveness for not being a proper sheep of Jesus, because He says, “My sheep
know my voice and a stranger they will not follow.” If then as a child of God,
you heard a strange voice and you answered, it means that something is wrong
with your spiritual life. So, the first thing is to ask for forgiveness for
answering the call that is not from Jesus.
2. Rewind the call.
3. Return the call
back to the sender. If you had answered, withdraw your answer by this simple
prayer: I withdraw the answer, in Jesus’ name.
5. Serpentine
spirits attack:
Serpentine spirits are very dangerous demons. They represent the dragon we read
about in Revelation 12. A person under serpentine attack may be pursued by a
snake in the dream. A snake may spit on the person or bite the person. The
person may be playing and discussing with a snake in the dream. What are the
implications of all these? They would prevent the person from achieving goodness
in life. They would scare the person away from good things. If the person has
received saliva from the snake, he would have an evil mark on him. But the blood
of Jesus can rub it off. If a snake has bitten the person then spiritual poison
has been released into his or her body. This would cause sickness and death in
the person’s life. The snake venom that has been spiritually introduced into a
person’s life can amputate the person’s spiritual life. If somebody plays and
discusses with a snake in the dream, it means that he or she has a covenant with
the snake and water spirit as well. The person may be unconscious of this.
Way out
1. Rebuke the
serpentine spirit, in Jesus’ name.
2. Withdraw your
name from their register because they just don’t send the snake to anybody. They
have a book from which they consult.
3. Plead the blood
of Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit to neutralize the serpentine saliva and every
poison injected into your body.
4. Release
yourself from every conscious and unconscious serpentine covenant. Now you can
command any obstruction to leave your way. If a snake is running after somebody
in the dream, the truth is that the snake is trying to chase the person away
from the blessing that is about to come to him or her.
6.
Demonic signature: A certain young female undergraduate, who used to make
a mockery of her lecturers who preached the gospel to her changed her music when
she woke up one morning and found a signature on her palm. The signature was
written in a strange language she did not understand. She used all kinds of soap
to wash it away but it did not go. Eventually, she had to go to the preachers
she had mocked for help. These lecturers preached to her and prayed that the
evil signature should go off and it disappeared. That was an evil signature. She
was lucky to have seen it physically. People who have evil signatures on their
bodies do not prosper. Whatever they lay their hands on will not work. Marks of
scratches that people see on their bodies when they wake up from sleep are evil
signatures. They must be rubbed off.
Way out
1. Clean off the
marks and stamps by the blood of Jesus.Invite the Holy Ghost power to burn away
the demonic pen used to write them.
2. Release
yourself from any evil linkage. Psalm 97: 10 says, “Ye that love the Lord,
hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the
hand of the wicked.” Psalm 149: 5-9 says, “Let the saints be
joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of
God be in their mouth, and a two- edged sword in their hands. To execute
vengeance upon the heathen and punishment upon the people. To bind their kings
with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron. To execute upon them the
judgment written: This honour have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord.”
These scriptures give us the right to rewind or recall any evil that has been
done to anyone in the past and to execute judgment on behalf of God. Colossians
2:14-15 says, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them
openly, triumphing over them in it.” That is the stand of scripture. 1
John 3:8 says, “…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he
might destroy the works of the devil.” You will be amazed at how many
people the devil has tormented and is still tormenting with shadows. You must
pray aggressively to defeat them because we know that they do not have the final
say on your life. It is only God that has the final say but if you don’t bring
God into the situation, He will be watching you. If you bring Him in, you can
take back what has been taken away from you by violence.
PRAYER POINTS
1. I refuse death
and curses, in the name of Jesus.
2. I choose life
and blessings, in Jesus’ name.
3. I cancel all
satanic claims against me, in the name of Jesus.
4. I shake off
every strange touch, in the name of Jesus.
5. I bind the
spirit of death and hell, in the name of Jesus.
6. Every strange
call upon my life, go back to the sender, in the name of Jesus.
7. You snake
spirit, I bruise your head, in the name of Jesus.
8. You demonic
handwriting, I rub you off with the blood of Jesus, in Jesus’ name.
9. (Place one hand
on your head and the other one on your stomach as you take this prayer point)
Holy Ghost fire, begin to burn in my body, in the name of Jesus.
10. I break every
curse of blindness, in the name of Jesus.
11. Wonderful God, I thank you, in Jesus’ name.Dr. D. K. Olukoya
Dr. D. K. Olukoya
Dr. D. K. Olukoya