Generational Impact

Ezekiel 16: 6 “‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!

I remember one of the ministers of the gospel I greatly love and admire had a confrontation with an occultist during one of their evangelism crusades

He said the herbalist came to the crusade ground

to make some trouble and disperse the crowd he

had gathered

He said he told the herbalist, “This is your last night

among the living”

By the next morning, the herbalist was dead

He said the crusade went on after with more

people attending from all over that town when they

heard the news of what had happened between him and

the herbalist

He said they saved more souls than they planned to

and established a thriving church in that community

He said when he got back to Ibadan after the

crusade the Holy Spirit said to him

“Must you kill the herbalist?”

Couldn’t you have made him blind for a season

as Peter did to Elymas or even sick for a while and

achieved the same result?

Do you not know that death is permanent and

I might have my own plans for the man regarding

spreading the light?

He was a witness even in death because the news of

his death brought many to Christ and convinced

many that you are backed by the power of God but he

could have served as a better witness among the

living

Learn from this.”

The same minister of the gospel said he apologized

profusely for his rash judgment and became less

aggressive whenever he encountered anyone with

the power of darkness in the mission field

He said he went to his hometown to have a meeting

with the local king about holding a crusade there due

to certain demonic activities taking place all over the

town which was costing the community the lives of

infants and young children

The local king agreed and a date was set

As he was leaving the palace, seven women came to

meet him at the car park with buckets of water under

their arms

They were all dressed as if they were going to the

river to fetch water

Their leader told him to leave the village and not to

come back because if he ever did so, his corpse would

be paraded all over the village like that of a dead dog

He said he realized immediately that these women

were witches

Moses said “Suffer not the witch to live”, so he could

have spoken a word and killed all of them but he knew

Jesus wouldn’t kill them

The law killed but the Spirit of Jesus gave life to the dead

The law and its bearer, Moses, raised no man from the

dead, for the law found all men unworthy of life and hope but grace and Truth (reality) came through Christ!

Christ was the one who brought to all men the possibility of leaving their old life and all their old sins and their consequences behind and moving into a new life as a new creature and starting over without stain, guilt, or any form of repercussion for their past deeds.

The Words of Jesus are Spirit and life

The words of the Law were sin and death

From his first encounter, this man of God had learned the difference

He said he turned to the leader of the witches and said

We will be holding the crusade in 14 days

This is my assignment for all of you and your kind

Go all over the village and all the other villages in

the vicinity and announce that the crusade will be

holding

Each of you must bring at least 200 people each

if you don’t, you will be sick for many months and

you will have to confess to the whole community

in public that you are witches before you can be

made whole

Then he got into his car and drove off

He said he did not get any feedback from the incidence

He and his team continued to plan their crusade

Then on the day of the event, he and his team

departed from Ilorin to the crusade venue

When they arrived at the village, the witches were

waiting for them at the main entrance

As soon as they were sighted, these witches led

by their leader jumped on the road and began to

announce

“This is our own man of God, the servant of Jesus,

the minister of the Most High God who has brought

us the good news, everybody must come out today

and listen to him”

He said the women formed an escort for his vehicle

and led him right from the entrance of the city

to the crusade ground

Not only that, they had gone from village to village

to gather people for the crusade as instructed

The funny thing was, the driver that drove the Evangelist and his team

had taken their vehicle to the vulcanizer while they were

still in Ilorin to check the tyres

He and the vulcanizer had somehow forgotten

to screw back one of the tires with bolts and nuts after

the tire was removed, patched, and inflated

The bus was driven like that all the way from

Ilorin to that village and they had eighteen

ministers of the gospel in it

How they traveled through 13 kilometers of bad

road and the highway without having an accident

was a shock to everybody

The witches influenced the vulcanizer and driver

so that they could get into an accident and use it to

show their superiority to the villagers but the

accident didn’t happen and they had to concede

defeat and give their lives to Jesus

Fear makes us want to kill things

In Africa, we are afraid of everything, and as a

result of this we kill everything

Some of the animals that we watch in documentaries

and learn a lot about our planet and nature from

used to be in Africa

Our ancestors killed and ate most of them

We do not think preservation or rehabilitation

We do not think long-term

We just damn, condemn and kill

I have heard it in many churches and I have said it

before now too several times

“Any witch that will not allow me to rise must die”

“Anyone standing in my way of success must die”

I used to think it was the right way to think and pray

I admit that I was wrong

Jesus said he came that we may have life and have it more abundantly

Why then do many African believers say Die! Die! Die!! when they are praying?

How can the same fountain be spewing forth both the waters of the river of life and death at the same time?

You can only give what your source is

You cannot be life and be shouting Death all the time

I know for a fact that no witch can ever afflict a Christian who is full of the Holy Spirit

When you hear of a Christian who got afflicted, know that he or she is full of fear and not of the Holy Spirit

Fear opens the door to affliction

Faith opens the door to whatever it is you believe

As an undergraduate, I was part of the BSF team

that visited Bode Osi village in 2005

Motivated by the fear of evil arrows, our prayer team prayed for several weeks toward the outreach

The prayer points were all about the devil, evil arrows,

The notion was that the devil was not happy we were going to set the

village free, and he would strike and attack us if we lost our guard and all sorts of drama

Some of our coursemates dropped out of the

mission outreach

Some started having evil dreams and nightmares

close to the day

We had been confessing all sorts of negativity in the

place of prayer, it was affecting us psychologically

I made it to the final team

When we landed in the village, right in the midst of

the pre-crusade rally

I discovered I had this strange tummy upset due to fasting which was imposed upon us due to the fear of evil arrows

It was so bad I had to return to the classroom we

were assigned as a male hostel to lie down while holding my tummy in pain

I didn’t want anybody to know I was ill

I knew it was not an evil arrow but that was how

they would term it and then I would be the one

everybody will finger as the soft head the enemy

was attacking anyhow

There was a very perceptive sister named Blessing among us

She went to call two other sisters and they came to

see me in that classroom (They were not supposed

to come to the male side of the camp)

They brought me food and water

They also brought me some painkillers

I ate, drank water, and took some of the pills

Within an hour I was back on my feet

I ministered that day and interpreted for the

main minister

I led many to Christ and got them filled with the

Holy Spirit on the crusade ground

I can never forget that incidence

Had it been it were sister Aduke and one other sister

of the BSF that year that discovered I had taken

ill, I might have lost my faith or become even more

sick based on how they would have treated the issue

Perfect love casts out fear

There is no fear in love

There is no fear in Christ

Fear makes you pray some prayers you term

dangerous prayers

Fear is the reason you are labeling everything evil

“Evil bed”, “Evil cat”, “Evil Cockroach”, “Evil Wall Gecko”

“Evil Spider”, “Evil snake”, “Evil neighbour”, “Evil husband”

“Evil Wife”, “Evil man”, “Evil woman”, “Evil River” etcetera

A fearful Christian is already being tormented

Fear can only bring torment

And there are a lot of them who are even pastors

Their prayers and sermons do not bring liberation

to their listeners

They torment themselves and all their listeners with

stories of witchcraft and glory hunting and destiny

changing and evil arrows just so their listeners can

pray or become conscious of evil

Isn’t it funny?

That the gospel that was supposed to set free is being

used to put many in bondage of sin and fear?

Somebody mentioned Ananias and Saphira the

other day to justify ministers cursing fellow Christians

who had done something wrong

Read the account again and open your eyes to see

the truth

Acts 5

Ananias and Sapphira

5 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.

3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”

5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6 Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.

7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?”

“Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”

9 Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”

10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

 

Look at verse 11

Great FEAR seized the Church.

There is nowhere in the New Testament where fear was to be

used to lead the church

Fear is a negative spirit and believers are not to be fearful

Revelations 21:8 8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

 

Peter could have given another judgment to Ananias and Saphira and his judgment as the head of the church would have stood

Ananias and Sapphira were not filled with the Holy Ghost

They behaved like unregenerated souls would do

So, killing them served God no purpose

If we all killed all those who work with the Christian ministry who lie all the time, nobody would be left

Some of us would even be dead now as an example to the church so that fear can spread like wildfire

My driver tells lies a lot

Sometimes he wouldn’t even know I already knew the truth and he would still be lying

Would I then kill him and say I am doing this to prove a point that nobody should lie to the Holy Spirit?

Peter learnt from that episode and it never repeated itself

When we read things in the Bible and we situate them in context we will see that some things are bad examples that we are not to encourage while others are good examples we are to emulate

That something is written in the Bible does not mean it is

automatically the correct thing for us to do.

Finally, when Jesus said, “Nothing shall by any means hurt you”

He meant it

You belong to the Kingdom and light and love now

You dwell in the midst of angels in this kingdom

Fear not

Know that your word is weighty

If you tell someone to die, such a person will die

If you tell the person that their powers are nothing

their power becomes nothing

You are the one with the divine nature and ability to dispense

righteousness all over the earth

Know this and live in its reality

You were given the power to rule and reign over all things

The fearful cannot rule and reign

You have dominion but if you kill everybody and everything

What will you have dominion over?

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

Read your Bible, Pray in the Holy Ghost, and make your declarations

(Positive and affirming words) and then go about doing good like Jesus did

This is how to change the world

 

-GSW-

 

PS: GSW and GSWMI Team will be in Bayelsa from Tomorrow

We will minister and teach

The impact will be Transgenerational

If you are in Yenagoa and its environs

Come for the meetings at GraceWorld Heritage Tabernacle Int’l

It will be a fellowship of the Spirit of Grace!