IMMUNITY AGAINST OPPRESSORS

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Daniel2:22:“He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.”

There is only one person who qualifies for the above description and that is the Almighty God. He can reveal what is deep and secret, He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with Him. He is the only Person who can see into the two worlds very well.

In this message, we would be considering some of the secrets of freedom from the hands of the oppressors, particularly in our environment. Anything that is affecting your body, soul, spirit, life or business in a negative way is an oppressor. When you earnestly want to grow up spiritually but something seems to be dragging you back, that thing is an oppressor. Anything that is ruling a person’s life in a hard or cruel way is an oppressor.

CERTAIN THINGS YOU OUGHT TO KNOW ABOUT THE POWERS OF THE OPPRESSORS

1. Their main purpose is to keep men from serving the true God. If witches, wizards and demons do not succeed in that, they will ensure that a person who has started with God does not make much progress.

2. They need a door to enter into any life. They just cannot enter anywhere and begin to operate. a door is required for them to get in. Many people open these doors for them by themselves. Others get the doors open by their parents.

3. The oppressors vary in power. A man of God prayed hard to God for somebody to be delivered from a particular thing. While he was praying, he saw a vision that the person was being guarded by some soldiers and lions. Each time he tried to move near, the lions roared and tried to jump at him and he ran away. This continued until the vision cleared. The problem of that person remained and the man of God cried unto the Lord saying, “Why is the lion preventing me from setting this person free?” The Lord said, “You need to obtain sufficient power because the power oppressing this person is higher than you think.” So, he went into fasting and prayer. It was then he could conquer the lions and the person was set free. Sometimes, certain things go easily when you order them once to do so, in the name of Jesus. But some would not go at a single command.

4. Oppressors like unhappy people. They like them because a sad spirit creates a gateway for demons to enter into a person’s life and oppress him. So, anybody suffering from depression would continually have a traffic of evil spirits in his life.

5. They have agents in every family.

6. Most of the time, human beings invite them in through many things they do. For example, at the time a small girl was raped at a very small age, a big door is opened in the world of the spirits to something that may happen to her later. Immorality is an open door. Sacrificing things to idols or eating food anyhow anywhere maybe because you do not have enough food in the house or because the food is attractive, is opening doors through which these spirits enter. If you eat beans cooked on Fridays for twins, you are opening doors to the oppressors.

A person who is guilty concerning a matter and is cursing himself that he is not guilty is opening a door to the oppressors. When a young person of about 14 or 15 peeps through the keyhole of a door to see what a man and a woman are doing inside a room, he is opening a door through which oppressors can enter. When they have entered, the person could struggle all his life and may not be able to find the cause of his problems.

The Bible says that it is wrong to pray with the name of angels. There is nothing like Six and Seven Books of Moses anywhere. Moses never wrote any Six or Seven Books. If a person begins to read such books, he gets into trouble and the Lord would look at him twice before he gets deliverance.

I want you to look back a little bit in your life to identify where you went wrong so that you can retrace your steps.

A certain mother brought her son to me and said that he was reading the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses because he wanted a visa. She asked me to appeal to him to stop reading the books before he got into trouble. But before I talked to the boy, he had read a little bit and that was enough for the devil to operate in his life.

Somebody whose father was a chief hunter learnt and memorized demonic incantations. When he became born again he forgot about them and did not even pray to God to wipe them off from his brain. Now that he is excited when he sees masquerades, he should know that there is an open door in his life. His father put his leg into something and it must be taken out.

When a young girl of 15 sees men coming to sleep with her in the dream, it is quite possible that she has been committing fornication in real life, and through that has created a ladder for oppressors. Such a girl needs to repent.

Carrying of sacrifices to the cross-roads is also an invitation to oppressors. Those who visit false prophets, obey their instructions and use their materials are also opening doors for the oppressors to come in. Whether those instructions are simple or complicated, they are invitations to tormentors or oppressors.

Borrowing clothes from people to wear is a dangerous thing to do in this environment. If the person you borrow from is possessed, you too, would be possessed and a transfer would be carried out through the clothes. Since the anointing power of God can be transferred through handkerchiefs, and it will heal the sick, evil spirits too can move through people’s clothes.

Mothers who seek the fruit of the womb through charms are not only endangering their lives, the children would also get their share of the trouble. All those who invite the oppressors cannot blame the devil or God because they issued the invitations themselves.

Many people have been spiritually contaminated and have to be purged. There are different types of ink. Some you can easily clean off with water and some you cannot. In the spirit world, spiritual marks are like that. There are some you can easily remove by praying for half an hour while others cannot be easily removed like that.

Sometime ago, as I was praying with somebody, a spirit spoke to me from the person’s mouth: “Leave me alone. This girl has been dedicated to me from birth, so leave us alone. After all does she tell you that she wants to be free?” A door had been opened and the enemy had rushed in and there was trouble now.

When somebody is suffering from spiritual contamination his problems would be multiplied. God did not create drug addicts. He did not create mad people. He did not create ulcer patients or broken homes. These things happen since the world became contaminated. Many people have been spiritually contaminated, some from birth. Even some people who call themselves Christians still need deliverance in one area of their lives or the other. Hot temper opens the doors for the oppressors even in a life of a Christian. A Christian who is hot-tempered needs to repent so that he can be delivered.

Many people come from idolatrous homes and some bear idol names. All these are open doors. Some people are fond of praying and at the same time consulting herbalists, while some are stylishly worshipping nature. Looking at the stars and believing that the horoscope is dictating your life is opening doors to evil powers. You have life and they do not have life, so they cannot control or dictate your life in anyway.

Our lives are in the hands of God, not in the hands of stars. A star may fall down and crash but God will never fall down and crash. We may not know about tomorrow but we know the Person who owns tomorrow in His hands. Let this be settled in our spirits.

People dedicate their children to idol, thereby starting problems for them early in life. Sometimes at naming ceremonies, people eat dead rats and from there, trouble begins. You must withdraw yourself from all these things today through prayer.

Many times while evil spirits keep to themselves, people go to look for their trouble. Distributing cakes and things like that to people have no biblical backing at all. Collecting names of a child from false prophets creates an evil door. Such names must be changed because they will not do him any good because their spiritual source is evil.

Many people are doing what you call astral travel. They read books that help them to take their bodies from this physical world to the river or somewhere else. The devil allows them to do all that, but contaminates their spirits before they come back to their bodies, and when they come back they will start behaving funny.

Some people worship angels. That is wrong. The Bible says that we would judge the angels. Peter was addressing an angel and when the angel spoke to him, he prostrated. But the angel said, “No, no, no, don’t worship me. Just worship God.”

Incense burning is a serious invitation to demons. All the special perfumes and special use of psalms are invitations to the oppressors.

A woman came to one of our meetings about three years ago and said that her husband was not loving her enough. One white garment priest told her to bring the picture of her wedding and she took it to him. He tied some strings around the picture and did something to it saying, “As from now when you say, ‘go’ the man would go and when you say, ‘run’ he would run to you.’ She found that the thing was working and was excited. However, her husband made a roundabout turn and it became so serious that the woman rushed back to the white garment man and told him that the charm was no longer working. Then the man started making passes at her and she knew that there was trouble. So she came to our meeting and the Lord revealed that she did something that she hid in her room. She was asked to bring the picture. It was after we destroyed that picture and prayed very well that the man began to follow her to church.

All these things are traps that people put their legs into. You must seriously examine everything you put on your body. Find out where they came from. Be sure that you get them from a source that you can explain or a source that is not cloudy. These things may be open gateways for the oppressors.

A lot of black people are worried by ancestral spirits which have caused them one trouble or the other. Some people kiss the dead and from there the demons that are yet to go out of the dead person gets into them. It is like a trap set by the devil and when people get into it, they start struggling to get out.

At times, the devil operates like the fly. When the fly lays eggs in a particular place, the eggs may be difficult to see. The same stands for the eggs of evil spirits. They may be difficult to see but when they start becoming maggots and develop further, then we will see that there is trouble.

HOW PEOPLE GET INTO THE CAMP OF THE OPPRESSORS

If you know that you are being oppressed, it is not good to leave the oppressors alone. Give them no peace. Take action and do not allow them to work unmolested in your life.

But you must first clean the temple of your life. Once you clean the temple of your life God will fill it for you, because He will not live in a dirty environment, just like you would not find houseflies living in a very clean environment.

HOW TO BE IMMUNE AGAINST THE OPPRESSORS

1. Live a life of holiness: I have said that things do not just happen; may be a gate or a door has been opened. A holy life annoys the devil. A Christian with a pure heart, mind and body is surrounded by fire which burns brightly all the time. Your naked eyes may not be able to see it, but satan and his agents can see it, and they avoid people with such fire because they know that when they are attacked they react violently.

Unfortunately, today, sin and immorality have removed holiness from many people’s lives and many Christians have been unequally yoked with unbelievers. When they mix so much with unbelievers they make themselves vulnerable to all the attacking forces. When we begin to say foul things with our mouths and begin to do things that are bad, we are giving the oppressors a foothold. But when we clean our temples and fill them with good spirits, we are immune.

But the fact is that a lazy Christian can never be holy because holiness requires reading the Bible, it requires disciplining our bodies, it requires our praying very well, and it requires our praying in the Holy Ghost which is vaccine number one. So if we want to be free from oppressors, we must go back to holy life which the devil cannot pollute or touch. We must examine our lives very well and see to it that there is nothing there which can invite the devil in: no envy, no malice, no quarrelsome spirit, no spirit of anger. All these things must go, to render the devil powerless.

Sometime ago, a man took his friend’s case to a herbalist. The herbalist asked him, “Have you quarrelled?” He said, “No, we have never quarrelled.” The herbalist said, “Go and quarrel with him then come back.” The man did not succeed because his friend was somebody who when you look for his trouble he would not talk. He would smile at you and go away. Such people are difficult to attack. When you attack them, the evil will come back to you.

2. Walk in the Spirit: Galatians 5:16-17 says, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

When you give your life to the Holy Ghost and you are genuinely baptized in Him, one of His symbols is fire. It makes the environment too hot for the devil. It brings every thought to captivity. When you begin to walk in the Spirit, your life will be filled with Him. You would pray in tongues in the morning, pray in tongues in the afternoon and at night, and even before you take your actions you would ask the Holy Spirit. When somebody talks to you, before you react you would say, “Holy Spirit, what should I say to this person.” But when the flesh is in control we open the gate for the enemy.

3. Be humble: When you set humility against the devil, he will flee. The Bible says that the humble man occupies a high place. He takes the place of the fallen angels. Isaiah 57:15 says, “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” So, the Lord would actually bless those who are humble and He hates the proud because pride is a character of the devil. The devil committed only one sin before he was cast out of heaven. He wanted to exalt himself above God.

So, demons would be far away from any person who is humble, but to an angry or proud person they will always be close. What we are saying is that, you must totally submit yourself to God. That is the easiest way to force satan out of his stronghold. You must totally submit your body to God. The devil recognises that once you are living a life of submission to God, he cannot touch you. Every area of your life must be brought under the power of God. 1 Peter 5: 6-9:“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” James 4:7 also says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

It is when you submit yourself to God that you can resist the devil. The reason all the parts of the body are functioning well is that they are under a particular authority. So, submit yourself to God in every area of your life and let us see how the oppressor can come in.

4. Read the Word of God and meditate upon it daily: The word of God is the mirror of the Spirit. All our faults are exposed in the mirror and the word is able to transform our lives.

5. Keep the right company: 1 Corinthians 15: 33 says, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” We are supposed to be separated and we must keep away from possible sources of contamination.

An unbeliever should not be a believer’s closest friend. In fact, the Bible asks us to keep away from certain groups of people. If God delivers you from drinking of alcohol, you must not go back and fellowship with those who drink it because you are now a different person.

6. Make sure you go to the right church: It is important for you to go to a Bible-believing church, a church where you can grow. You must not stay in a church where your spiritual life is dying out and you are not doing anything to improve it. If you stay there because you were born there you may end up in trouble. Look for a Bible-believing church which believes in the totality of the word of God, which believes in the power of the Holy Ghost and which believes in the gift of the Holy Spirit, not where there is corruption and where people are doing things contrary to the word of God. Look for a Bible-believing church where the power of God is present.

7. Put on the whole armour of God: Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Verses 13 -18: “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.”

All these things are the armour of God. Deuteronomy 7: 26 says, “Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a curse thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it, for it is a cursed thing.” You must remove all demonic materials from your house so that you don’t have a ladder through which oppressors come in. Re-examine all the pictures that you have, examine all those things that are put in your house as decoration. Look at them deeply again from your spirit. Removing abominable things from your house would help to set you free from the oppressors. The devil uses them to set traps and deceive people to step into bondage from which they will be struggling to get out. The people I feel sorry for most are those who enter into these traps unconsciously.

One day, a girl who could not walk was carried to our church. What happened to her? Her classmate belonged to a mermaid group which told its members to bring one person each within a specified period. The girl tried but could not get anybody to join voluntarily. So she went and wrote down the name of this girl. And from that night the girl would find herself swimming at the Bar-beach without knowing what was happening to her. It was later that she discovered that her friend wrote down her name in the group, and the important thing for her was to get out.

Please pray the following prayer points very well. Do not allow your mind to wander. Forget about past failures. Trust God today. Stand against monitoring spirits with great anger and violence because the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent takes it by force.

PRAYER POINTS

1. Every Spirit Monitoring Any Area Of My Life, I Bind You, In Jesus' Name.
2. I Withdraw My Leg And My Life From Any Monitoring Spirit, In Jesus' Name.
3. Holy Spirit, Incubate Me With Your Fire, In Jesus' Name.
4. You Foul Spirits Tormenting And Harassing My Life, Loose Your Hold, In Jesus' Name.