Tormented

His father was a shipping magnate

The story was once told of how his father stowed away on a ship with the intention of going abroad and how he starved until he died in the ship’s engine room

When his Father’s body was discovered, he was critically examined and he was confirmed dead

The ship’s crew conducted a memorial service for him and threw his body into the sea

According to his father, immediately he landed in the ocean, he found himself in a strange place

He saw a woman or was it a mermaid with whom he had a long conversation, consensual sex and the woman gave him a spoon of something like gold dust which he swallowed? To cut the long boring story short, his father survived

His Father’s body was found intact and alive in the shores of Ellis island approximately one month after his funeral was conducted

He was intact

No fish bites, no scars, nothing!

Once he was rescued and taken ashore, he regained consciousness in the hospital and had no symptom at all of having been at sea for such a long time

Doctors observed him for a few hours and eventually had to let him go!

Everything was easy for him afterwards

A man picked him up at the hospital and accommodated him! The man was a shipping magnate

The shipping magnate did not say much to him.

He was provided with free accommodation, a job and free food

He worked as a deckhand on one of his benefactor’s ships for a few years and when his benefactor died he was named as the sole beneficiary of his benefactor’s entire estate

Nobody contested the will

His benefactor was once married with children but by the time he died, his wife and children had all been dead and buried for some years

It was a seamless transition

By the time his Father returned to his home country at the age of 35, he was already a billionaire

He was not the noisy type. He faced his business, paid his taxes, kept away from politics and all the noise

He got married a year later and had five children

Once a year, his Father would go on a personal cruise of the Caribbean, he usually went alone with the crew.

At a point he would disembark from the ship and walk through the shore into the forest dressed only in survival gear. It was a ritual he did every year from the age of 40. He would sometimes be gone for as long as five days!

Once he returned, the cruise ship will take off or he might take the helicopter on the cruise ship to the airport from here he would fly back to his base

Nobody knew why his father always did his survival exercises in the same forest year in, year out

The rich are entitled to their idiosyncrasies!

By nature, he took after his father!

He was quiet, taciturn and very intelligent

One night, when he was in 200L, he got a call from home that his father was very ill

The next day, the driver came to pick him and his brother

When they got to the hospital, their father beckoned unto them to come close to him

His breathing was heavy and erratic

The doctors said it was a heart attack

He beckoned on them to give him their ears, they bent towards him, he mumbled some incoherent words followed by “…the forest”

Neither of them got it

Their father died afterwards!

It was hell!

They had the funeral and returned to school

A month later, their eldest brother who was working as an expatriate with an oil company in West Africa died in a ghastly motor accident!

What!

When their mother was informed, she flew to the country.

Immediately she saw her son’s body, she ran mad!

While they were still wondering what to do with all the tragedies, their youngest sibling went swimming a drowned in the swimming pool

Within a month, their father and two other children were dead! Their mother had been committed into a psychiatric hospital

The only three left were his brother, himself and their sister (The only female child of his father)

Then they came for him!

He was asleep when he first saw them, emerging from the waters! They were men, thousands of them! They were all in shackles! They looked very familiar! He had seen them before!

Yes!

His father had many documentaries about the slave trade and slavers dumping shackled slaves into the seas

They looked exactly like a horde of shackled slaves!

One of them grabbed him!

He resisted and jumped out of the vivid dream into reality

From that moment, every time he closed his eyes, they were right there

For almost two weeks, he couldn’t sleep and he began to fall apart!

He couldn’t eat, he was paralyzed by fear, wouldn’t leave his room, and was scared of everything

Eventually he started screaming, he would do so suddenly right after dozing off, “Leave me alone!”

Sometimes he would struggle violently until he fell of his bed unto the floor

Everybody decided he needed to go to the hospital

He was once he got to the hospital and they gave him an injection to sedate him, he would sleep and would never wake up again

Take me to the pastor!!! He screamed over and over

They took him to the pastor

Pastor advised that he should be taken to the hospital.

He refused

Pastor told him to sit down and relax

Pastor sneaked out of his earshot and called campus security!

He told them the issue at hand and ordered them to come with the campus ambulance and paramedics

It was the sensible thing to do

The young man had lost the ability to make rational decisions for himself and he needed to be cared for by professionals

Campus security arrived with the paramedics

He saw them

He went berserk

Six grown men couldn’t handle him

It was like trying to shackle the incredible hulk without harming him!

He kicked, and raved and bit and fought, like a cornered viper

He was eventually overpowered and tied like a lunatic

As they came out of the Pastor’s house, he continued to scream hoarsely, wriggle, and struggle with his “captors”

Students had gathered around the pastor’s house out of curiosity

The young man in Jeans and T-Shirt heard the commotion

Young Man in Jeans and T-Shirt: Pastor, what is going on?

Pastor: He is one of your fellow students, he has gone mad

Young man in Jeans and T-Shirt: He is not mad sir, can’t you see? He is being tormented!

Young man in Jeans and T-Shirt: (Addressing the campus security people) Please sirs, can you drop him?

The security people looked at the pastor, pastor told them to comply

They dropped him

Young man in Jeans and T-Shirt: (Addresses him) what is your name?

He: (In a strange voice) My name is Ishtar, this boy is mine. (In a normal voice) That Pastor is a liar, he promised he would help me and he betrayed me

Young man in Jeans and T-shirt: 24Can the plunder be snatched from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be delivered? 25For this is what the LORD says: “Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the plunder of a tyrant will be retrieved; I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children

He: No! This family was promised to me in exchange for my gold. He took my gold and I will take my slaves!

Young man in Jeans and T-Shirt:  18“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

He: SHUT UP!

Young Man in Jeans and T-Shirt: No! You shut up and leave here with your hordes in Jesus name!

He: Nooooooo!

Young man in Jeans and T-Shirt: (Turns to pastor) Sir, can I get anointing oil?

(Pastor runs into his apartment and came out with it, by now the crowd watching the unusual ministration had swelled into hundreds)

 Young man in Jeans and T-Shirt: (pours the oil on his palms, rubbed the palms together and held the boy’s head) In Jesus name, I set you free! (He breathed into the boy’s face, the boy fell on his knees and on his face

He was there for a while

When he came to, he was totally free. He was feeling so groggy, he walked right back into the pastor’s house and slept off on his couch

The boy’s elder brother was also in the crowd, he approached the man in Jeans and T-Shirt. He had been having nightmares too

Young man in Jeans and T-shirt prayed for him and gave him the anointing oil

Young man in Jeans and T-Shirt: Your mummy is fine, so is your sister. Anoint your house and properties with this oil (that will be a temporary check) if you want to be totally free, you need to accept Jesus Christ into your life and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

That is your only guarantee of victory in this life.

The boy’s brother gave his life to Jesus!

When he woke up, the boy also gave his life to Jesus

Two weeks later, their mother and sister came to their school, the word of God was sure!

They also gave their lives to Christ!

PS: This event happened in a university campus in Nigeria (2007) before many witnesses

The young men are happily married today and blessed with children, their sister is in medical school. Their mother is healthy and happy

If you are under any form of demonic affliction and bondage, don’t run to other demonic sources to help. There is only one true Light of the world, His name is Jesus.

It doesn’t matter where you are right now, if you call upon the name of Jesus, and confess him as your Lord and savior, you will be placed in a light that has no shadow of turning! Nothing would be able to touch you.

*Isaiah 49:24

*Luke 4:18