Occupy

Occupy

AS soon as they finished the vigil service that morning

He knew there was a problem

His parishioners refused to go home

He made sure the vigil closed early enough

So why weren’t they going home?

They all live very close to the church

The one whose house was farthest from the church would be at home in less than ten minutes of brisk walk

The area was very safe and secure

He walked the streets at any time of the day or night and had never had any problem

They live in a closely knitted community

So why were they not going home?

He was trained in the Bible college never to leave the parishioners in the church

“Be the first in church and the last to leave” said his professor

The parish was the very first place of assignment he was deployed to after graduation

He really loved the people and the community

But the parish had a very lean purse and he was doing his best to manage resources

If the people stay in the parish all night, he would have to leave the generator on

Leaving the generator on has a lot of consequences

They usually have to travel as far as 22 kilometers to the nearest petrol station

For this reason, he usually bought fuel in bulk at the beginning of every month

This was their first vigil

It was not budgeted for

But when the parish members insisted, they wanted to have a vigil

He had to oblige them!

But to run the generator all night?

He didn’t budget for that at all

He decided to carefully find out why they had refused to leave the church after service

He went to the oldest parishioner

He spoke with the woman kindly

Then he asked “Mama, why aren’t you going home?”

The elderly woman looked at him and said “Nobody dares walk about in the middle of the night,

Were you not informed that those evil people who offer sacrifices and do other evil things do so in the night?”

WOW!

He couldn’t believe what she said

He thanked her and walked to one of the most vibrant workers in the church

He asked the brother the same question

The brother said “If somebody is unfortunate, such a person will go and see and herbalist and they will do some divination stuff for him or her. Then they will tell such to take it to the middle of the road and have his or her bath there. Anybody who passes through that road after such a spiritual exercise risk being robbed of his or her good fortune. The bad fortune of the person that did the spiritual exercise would be given to such a person and the good fortune of the person will be given to the person that bathed on the road.

So many cases of such had been recorded in this community…

This is why most of us avoid going anywhere early in the morning. We usually wait until daylight when we are sure other people must have walked the road ahead of us!”

WOW!

The two people he spoke with didn’t even seem to get how ridiculous they sound!

They were all born-again Christians

Spirit filled and tongue talking!

But it was too late to engage them on the issues

He walked out of the church

He knew all the residents of his church members

He started walking

As he walked, he prayed in tongues

The time was 2:30 AM

When he got to a T-junction, he saw a sacrifice

It was a goat’s head!

Just the head in a calabash!

He kicked it into the nearest gutter

He made sure he got to the house of every one of his parishioners present at the vigil

Then he went back to church

He got to church 3:15AM

He told all of them to go home

He had cleared all the sacrifices and misfortunes on the way by being the first person to walk through all the streets

The parish members looked at him as if he had gone mad!

They didn’t say a word

They left!

The next morning one of them came to his flat around 9am

It was the elderly woman

The woman didn’t mince words

Woman: One of the women in our area had a son who was mad, they did the sacrifice for his healing yesterday, they slaughtered a white goat for him! The boy is still receiving treatment at the herbalist’s house and I was told he was really doing well!

He: Praise the Lord

Woman: Pastor, don’t you get it. If the boy is doing well, it means his misfortune had been transferred to the person who saw his sacrifice

He: I saw the sacrifice, I kicked it into the gutter

Woman: Ha! Pastor, you know you are a young man! You are yet to know the works of wickedness

He: I know the finished works of Christ. I was the one who healed that young man, it was not the herbalist. Unlike the herbalist, when I heal, I do not transfer misfortunes, I destroy the works of the devil!

Woman: I hope you are right sir. I am just concerned about you sir.

He couldn’t believe it

The elderly woman actually believed something bad could happen to him

Didn’t apostle Paul say “We know that idols are nothing” 1 Corinthians 8:4

But anything you put so much faith in, (the way the people were behaving), must be something!

He worked in the parish for two years

Nothing untoward happened to him

As much as he tried convincing his parishioners that the idolatry practices are nothing

The less he was able to convince his parishioners!

His parishioners had seen the idol worshippers perform some feats

Like Pharaoh’s magicians did before Moses

His parishioners couldn’t be fully persuaded

At best, his parishioners could only grudgingly accept that he was an anointed as a man of God and the idols couldn’t harm him but they couldn’t even see themselves as powerful enough to be like him even though they were also filled with the Holy Spirit and they also speak in tongues!

Eventually he was transferred away from the parish

He tried to keep in touch with many of them for as long as he could

But as he grew in ministry, he met more people and lost touch with many of them

Several years later he was posted to a big city

The very week he resumed at his parish a lady came to see him

The lady said she had always been in good health until a few months before that day

She had a job interview and she left her house as early as 4AM in order to beat traffic

The interview was holding in the city and she and her parents were living in the village as at that time

The lady said as soon as she got to a junction not too far from her parent’s house

She stumbled into a calabash of sacrifice placed right in the middle of a T-junction

It was still dark and she couldn’t see clearly

Somehow, she fell down and scratched her leg

She didn’t think anything of it

She went for her interview and she got the job

Two weeks later she resumed at work

But the small scratch refused to heal

Within eight weeks it had begun to stink

She had been to several hospitals

She had seen many traditionalists

The doctors couldn’t find a cure

The traditionalists kept telling her she had annoyed the deities

She had spent so much trying to appease them to no avail

The deities kept feasting on her leg

The more they feasted, the bigger the gash grew

She didn’t know what to do!

She decided to come to church

Perhaps where the doctors and traditionalists had failed

Jesus could come through for her!

Woah!

The lady was wearing pop socks to cover the wound

Her perfume was also extraordinarily powerful

She said it was to control the stench

He told her to go to the ladies and remove the pop socks

He got anointing oil

It was time to pray

As soon as the lady left

He started praying in tongues

He needed to fortify himself for the task at hand

He prayed and prayed!

He waited for a while

10 minutes, twenty minutes, 30 minutes

Why the delay?

The lady never came back

He couldn’t believe it

What could have happened to her?

He asked somebody to check the ladies

She had vanished!

Woah!

He took it as one of those things

He forgot about it

Three weeks later

The lady was back

He didn’t recognize her

When it was time for testimonies

The ladies stepped out to give her testimony

She said as soon as the pastor asked her to go and change in the ladies

He met a brother in Jeans and T-shirt walking into the church compound

The brother greeted her

She asked the brother if he knew where she could get some bandages

The brother asked why

She told the brother the pastor wanted to pray for her

But told her to remove the pop sock and bandages

She would have to change the bandages after prayer

She needed some really fast

The brother in Jeans and T-shirt looked at her and laughed

He suddenly laid his hands on her head and said “I command the wound to dry up now, I come against the activities of demons of affliction in your life, legs be healed right now, wounds dry up, in Jesus name”

Then he said “ If you believe you have been healed go home but if you don’t believe go back and meet pastor to pray for you, perhaps then you will believe”

She left with the intention of getting the bandage and coming back to see the pastor

But when she got to the main road, the wound started itching uncontrollably

The itching was nothing new

Whenever it was itching that way, she would remove the bandage and expose it to the fan

It would relieve her after a while.

She quickly got in a taxi and rushed home

When she got home, she exposed the wound to the fan

She didn’t know when she slept off

When she woke up, for the first time, the leg wasn’t stinging

She was able to walk without feeling any pain in the leg

Though physically the wound was still glaring

The next day the smell stopped completely

After a week, she noticed that the wound was healing

There was a covering, some patches of flesh and skin

By the end of the second week the week was totally healed

She started walking about without her pop socks

And that Sunday she had come back to give her testimony

The pastor listened intently

He thought the sister met an angel that prayed with her while he was praying

He wanted to be sure

He said “Do you see the brother in Jeans and T-shirt who prayed with you that day here?”

She said “Yes” and pointed to the brother

The pastor was shocked!

The brother was just a church member!

He would never have guessed in a million years the brother knew the Holy Spirit that way

They glorified God and celebrated his work in the life of the sister

After service, the pastor told one of the ushers to call him the brother in Jeans and T-shirt

They met

It was a meeting of like minds

One in a cassock, the other in Jeans and T-shirt

PS: It is true that conjurers and magicians can act as demonic agents

They would trade favours with fellow binders to loosen one and bind another

But they can only do this with the unsaved

Why do you think Jesus asked us to occupy till he comes?

The kingdom of darkness is determined to keep the light from shinning

We as the light must keep darkness from spreading

If you are a spirit filled believer and you still find yourself in the bondage of demons

It means only one thing

You are being robbed blind because you are walking in your true identity!

If death, the grave, demons, hell, the devil couldn’t hold Jesus

Death, the grave, demons, hell and the devil cannot hold you

You have been placed far above principalities and powers

You dwell in indelible light

Darkness can’t come near you!

Amen!