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“And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, satan hath desired to have you, that he may SIFT you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy FAITH fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren”—Lk 22: 31-32 Recently, the Lord gave me a great revelation from a very serious trial of faith I just passed through. As a matter of fact, the trial or battle is still on… In my last sermon (The Blessedness of Trials), I shared my testimony of how God supernaturally led me to the lady I’m about to marry soon. The Lord led me to her through several scriptural revelational media… Through dreams, small still voice, word of knowledge/wisdom, scriptural insight, witness of the spirit and wisdom. But oblivious to me, as soon as I stepped out to her from my convictions, the hordes of hell were let loose against my faith… How Did I know? Right from the day I called her over and shared my revelations with her, and she accepted me, mind binding devils started sifting my faith against her. While the whole process was going on, I suspected the devil and my flesh. But God gave me the true revelation of the battle on a fateful day, recently as the mind attack became very fierce. The mind attack became so fierce, that at the moment, I forgot all the revelations and convictions of the Spirit. And I was even considering backing out of the relationship… But as I remembered all the convictions again, I had to pray (both in my understanding and in other tongues), desperately asking the Holy Spirit what was going on in my mind… Because, the demonic forces attacking my mind and faith, were mimicking the conviction of the Holy Spirit (But the difference was that, there was no scriptural backing like the Holy Spirit- if it is the Holy Spirit, he will refer you to a scripture). As I prayed, the Lord revealed to me that it was actually the devil and his cohorts that were fighting to derail me from the will of God. And that I should remove my mind from any magic cure or quick fix formula… Then as I meditated on the word, a scripture quickly came to my mind to fight the good fight of faith, which I have already professed a good profession amongst so many witnesses (1 Timothy 6:12). As I got that, I sat down and started speaking in tongues for hours until finally those strongholds of the enemy against my marital destiny, were pulled down by the power of the Holy Ghost. But then, just as the Lord revealed to me, the battle hasn’t been a one night stand affair… The enemy and his cohorts have kept on contending for my faith concerning my marriage since then, and I have always been defeating them (by the grace of God). By standing on the voice of God and spending quality time in prayers (especially praying in other tongues). And at every instance, after my prayers, I’ll feel the power of God, go through my mind and practically clean up all the binding powers of the enemy, and I’ll be freed. As a matter of fact, the last episode just took place yesterday night during my time of personal prayers before going to bed. So What’s The Essence of My Story? I’m sharing this my experiences, to underscore the fact that for every revelation of God’s perfect will to any believer, the deceiver and his cohorts will be out to contend. They will fight the believer to ensure he misses out on God’s best and suffers the consequences. As a matter of fact, so many believers, including ministers of the gospel, have been defeated so much along this line of the fight of faith. They will pray for God to give them something or a blessing… Then as God blesses them, the devil comes along with his strategies and accusations against the believer, and before long, he loses it. He loses out of fear, self-righteousness, religious dogmas and unbelief. Many a time, the devil uses human agents to get believers to lose out on God’s best for their lives… For instance, there are people who have given up on spiritual gifts just because people criticized them. Women have also rejected ministerial calls from God as a result of religious dogmas that says women should not preach in the Church. Such, was the experience of Maria Woodworth Etter, who got a call from God to go into the ministry, but refused as a result of religious dogmas. And as a result of her disobedience, she lost her children and husband and almost lost her life too, before accepting to answer the ministerial call. And when she did, she became God’s powerhouse. So when we receive a blessing or an assignment from God, let’s be aware, that our faith must be tried alongside. Both by the devil and humans- but God does not expect us to give in to pressure, criticism, fear and unbelief, and disobey him… Instead, he expects us to resist and overcome every trials of faith and obey him and enjoy his blessings. As the trial of your faith gets fiercer, both from the devil and men (even from those in authority), to be able to stand, get back to your Bible, and spend quality time in prayers of inquiries before God, through the Holy Spirit. And as you do that, you will always come out triumphant. You will no longer be swayed by every wind of doctrine. You will no longer be confused and lose out on God’s blessings. Jesus said, in him we’ll have peace, but in the world we’ll have tribulation, but that we should be of good cheer, because he had overcome the world for us (John 16:33). Then again, the scriptures says, whatsoever is born of God, overcomes the world, and the victory that overcomes the world is our faith (1 John 5:4). Hence, God is aware of our battles of faith and he expects us to always win and never lose out to the devil and any of his cohorts. So from today on-wards, receive the grace to always win your battles of faith in the mighty name of Jesus Christ! Remain Blessed! Emeke Odili

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh-for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”- 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 From a myopic view or understanding of the above scripture, many Christians have been spending the better part of their time and energy fighting the lesser battles. That is, warring against the devil and his cohorts… Although, they are supposed to wrestle against those forces according to scriptures, but they are supposed to be wrestling from a triumphant position by faith. From scriptures, we understand that Christ has given us victorious authority over the devil and all his cohorts (Lk 10:19); and also, that we are seated together with Christ in heavenly places, far above principalities and powers… And as such, as a true Christian, dealing with the devil or any of his cohorts, shouldn’t take so much time and energy that so many well-meaning Christians spend fighting battles that Christ has already won for us. You know, many a time, we see folks organize an all-night meeting, just to scream on top of their voices for the devil and demons to be cast out. More so, individual Christians spend hours in prayers, fighting against the activities of the devil and his agents- instead of fellowshipping with the Father and the Son through the Holy Ghost... Church leaders spend quality time that is supposed to be used to share the truth of God’s word (that brings true deliverance), to be laying hands on people, and even pushing them around in order to cast out the devils or demons-that most of the time are not there. They lay hands, and get the devil manifesting and getting people to fall, yet the peoples’ lives after all the whole manifestations are not in any way bettered after such a long period of time… All these are the wiles and strategies of the devil to distract and completely get the eyes of the Church from fighting the major battles we are admonished to fight in the opening scripture (2Cor 10:3-5). He gets Christians to focus on fighting with him and his demons so he can be always successfully carrying on with his maneuvers. He gets Christians screaming and sweating at him and his agents instead of using their weapons (the whole armor of God) to cast down vain imaginations; every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God; and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ… Because he knows he can only defeat or oppress a believer in any area of life through their imaginations, thoughts and untamed/unrighteous fleshly desires. Once these doors are properly secured, he must always loose against the believer in any battle of life. The Major Christian Battles From the opening scripture (2 Cor 10:3-5), it is very clear, that the major battles of a Christian, is casting down vain imaginations that always bombard his /her mind every now and then. And bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ… And all these battles we’re supposed to be fighting on daily basis with our mighty spiritual weapons, which are the whole armor of God (Eph 6:13-18)… And also, we’re to always render our bodies as living sacrifices to God and consistently renew our thoughts with the word of God every day and minute (Rom 12:1-2). As we pay the major part of our spiritual attention to the obedience of these scriptural injunctions, dealing with the devil or his demons becomes very very easy. When your body and thoughts are sanctified at all times, each time you sense the devil or demons in any area of your life, a single command of faith, will just be enough to stop them from their maneuvers and strategies… Just like our Lord Jesus, each time you see someone oppressed or obsessed with demons as revealed to you by God, a single authoritative command of faith will dispel them out. And sometime, even with a quiet command… You may not need to shout-He is a small and finished devil. And Christ has given us great authority over him and all his cohorts. And our position in Christ, is far above all principalities and powers (Eph 2:6). But however, rendering our bodies as a living sacrifice, renewing our thoughts and casting down vain imaginations consistently, is discomforting to the flesh, hence, folks prefer the other alternative… That is, allowing their flesh to still have its way (instead of crucifying it); and allowing their thoughts and imaginations to wander as they want- then as an easier fix, they go on screaming and sweating at the devil and evil spirits… Then sometimes, they can go to someone to be helping them cast out evil spirits, even when the devil is not connected to their problems at all in any way. Many a time, what these folks who doesn’t want to take the responsibility of obedience to God’s word, call demonic activities are merely works of the flesh, which they fail to discipline themselves to let go. For instance, someone is into seeing pornographic movies and consequently into masturbation, then instead of disciplining his flesh and eyes to stop seeing such obscene movies, he consistently runs to a pastor to get evil spirits of masturbation cast out of him, and after the exorcism session, he continues with it, blaming it on the devil. All these are all self-deception. If you take a strong stand against any unrighteous habit with the whole armor of God, including prayers, you can live above sin, and consequently enjoy your authority against the devil and his cohorts sweatlessly. I see you getting into that realm of supernatural authority against every evil forces, all your life, as you take responsibility to fight the right Christian battles, from now onwards, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ! Remain Blessed! Emeke