Let There Be Light

How much light is inside of you?
Knowledge is light
There are many who pray and pray 
and pray but they have no light in 
them
Prayer warriors full of fear, dread, 
and darkness
Believing that everything they need 
to do about prayer is casting and 
binding and cursing and wailing! 
I know someone who had been 
born again for forty years, a very 
prayerful person who had headed 
the prayer and intercession team 
of many churches
We were having a conversation and 
she said "It is the enemy that we 
have to focus on and fight, that is 
what the bible called the good 
fight of fight. This life is a warzone 
and we must continually wage war 
against the power of darkness that 
wants to destroy our testimony and 
rob us of our gains in life"
For some believers, she would make 
a lot of sense but not to me"
I patiently listened to her and asked 
her very simple questions
I said "Ma'am, are you filled with the 
Holy Spirit with the evidence of 
praying in tongues?
She said no
I said "Why not"
She said "In our church, only a few 
people, the elders, and the prophets 
do that"
I said "Really!"
She said Yes
I said "What about healing 
the sick by the laying on of hands
She said "I don't do that so that 
I don't become a partaker of any 
man's sins as instructed by Paul 
to Timothy"
I said "OK"
She said "I fast a lot and I do a lot 
of vigils to prevent the enemy from 
attacking me and my family"
I said "Okay"
Then I 
brought out my Bible and opened to 
the book of Timothy
I said "The laying on of hand here 
and the one Jesus told us to do are 
different in their interpretation"
Jesus was talking about healing and 
Apostle Paul was talking about ordination
If you ordain someone who is not fit into 
ministry and the person misbehaves, 
people will say "Didn't you pray or do 
any investigation before the ordination?"
That way you will be blamed for the 
person's misdeed but you cannot be 
blamed for healing the sick
She looked at me like "What!"
She had never seen it that way 
Then i addressed the issue of enemies 
and demon conscious prayers
I said "Let us look at all the prayers 
prayed by the apostles in the 
New Testament
We started with the prayer of Jesus 
in the book of John and then to the 
prayers of Apostle Paul, Peter, and John
I said "Did you see 
then mentioning demons, enemies, 
curses and sin?
She said "This is Africa, do you know 
what our forefathers were doing before 
the gospel came?"
I said okay, lets look at Moses then
He was born and raised in Pharaoh's 
court and there were many demons 
and idols in Egypt which as a 
prince he would have been part of their 
worship when he was a child
Did you hear Moses binding and talking 
about them or their effect on him or 
his spiritual life ever?
She kept quiet
I said "Do you know that as a believer 
you are greater than Moses?"
She said "How?"
I said you 
were born after Jesus had come and 
died for the sin of the whole world
Moses came before and therefore he 
operated in a very limited capacity! 
Imagine what Moses would have done 
with the name of Jesus.
She said "Wow, I never saw the 
scriptures this way before"
But I was not done, I said "Do you 
know that from the day you gave your 
life to Jesus you became the 
righteousness of God in Christ Jesus?"
She said "What does that mean?
I said "Your sins have been forgiven 
and you have been set free from 
every curse of Adam!"
She said "You mean I am not bound 
by the incisions and charms my 
father made us swallow as children?
I said "Ma'am, old things passed away, 
behold, all things became new for 
you in Christ"
She busted into tongues...
Just like that!
She cried and wailed and shook and 
screamed
I just watched her and prayed along 
When she was done, her arthritis 
was gone
She said "I feel no pain, no heaviness, no 
stress at all
I feel light, Brother Gbenga, I feel so 
happy and free"
I kept quiet
I didn't expect the reaction she gave 
earlier and I was shocked too by the 
response of the Holy Spirit to our 
simple discussion
She said "I have been so fearful, for 
many years, that my father's sin 
(Her father was an herbalist) would 
affect me and my children. 
This is why I have led a life of prayer
I always see the idols in my father's 
shrine and I bind them every day so 
that they won't 
harm me or my family
I laughed
I said "Do you know that idols are 
nothing?" I opened the Bible to 
1 Corinthians 8:4 and made her read it
She said "I have never seen that 
scripture before"
I nodded
Most of those who attend fear-mongering 
churches are not taught the gospel in its 
simplicity
The prayers mention idols, evil altars, 
witchcraft covens etc, in fact their 
members know more about demons 
and the devils than Jesus, the Holy Spirit, 
the ministering spirits, the spirit of just 
men made perfect and so on.
She said "Why didn't anyone teach me 
this, I converted to Christianity from 
another religion and nobody taught 
me anything like this.
I was taught that life is war and any 
minute I spend without being mindful 
of the devil can lead to an attack on 
me and my family"
I told her I understand
The gospel is light
Jesus is light 
The Holy Spirit is light
God is the Father of light with whom 
there is no variableness or shadow 
of turning
We are the light of the world, a city 
set upon the hill that cannot be hid
We have no business with the fruitless 
deeds of darkness, we don't give the 
enemy any foothold by staying immersed 
in the light of the Holy Spirit at all times
We were told to put on Christ
We were not told to memorize the name 
of all the demons and where they dwell...
I held hands with the lady and we 
prayed, she came to me with a walking 
stick and left without one!
How much light is in you?
Peter told us to grow in grace and 
knowledge of our Lord and saviour 
Jesus Christ!
There is right knowledge and a 
wrong knowledge
Which one are you growing in?

-GSW-