COMING OUT OF CAPTIVITY
It goes without saying that captivity is undesirable. No one who has ever tasted the cruel pangs of captivity will want to remain in that situation for one minute.
Every prisoner cherishes liberty. Men and women who are under bondage generally look for how to get rid of their chains. No one who is in his right mind will want to remain under captivity.
Today, more than in any other period of human history, men and women are looking for approved men of God and seasoned deliverance ministers to show them the
way out of captivity. It is not enough, therefore, to tell someone that he is under bondage. Every God anointed minister must go ahead to tell the captive how to get rid of his chains. If you paint a horrible picture of the terrible nature of what it means to be imprisoned before a frustrated prisoner, you have not solved his problem. To be sure, the prisoner is tired of his inhuman condition. More than any other thing, he hankers after liberty. In the same vein, men and women are tired of their chains. What they are looking for is sweet liberty.
Therefore, this chapter has been devoted to showing all who desire freedom the way out of captivity.
There are two ways of responding to sickness. A medical doctor can give two types of prescriptions. He can choose to calm down or reduce the pains suffered by someone who is sick. On the other hand, he can decide to attack the disease right from the root.
Palliative measures will only provide temporary relief and will not deal thoroughly with the disease. Therefore, a doctor who knows his onions would decide to prescribe drugs that would give permanent
cure. Our approach has always been centred on going to the root or foundation and attacking human problems from that point. The Bible says, ‘You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” Thank God the Bible does not say “You shall know the truth and the truth shall give you some temporary relief.” You must be ready, therefore, to receive the truth and apply it.
A patient whose life is hanging in the balance will not tell a doctor that the only drugs he likes to take are sugar -coated tablets. He has no option if it means he has to take bitter pills in his bid to survive and experience the revitalisation of his health.
I have no doubt in my mind that you are ready to take necessary steps to get out of captivity. Therefore, I want you to note these important steps. They are tested and proven. Thousands have applied them to their situations. Today, they are free from bondage, oppression and evil domination.
YOU MUST LEARN YOUR LESSONS
The problems with many today, is that they fail to learn their lessons when they enter into captivity. Even when such people experience deliverance through divine mercy and the manifestation of the power of God they sometimes go back into the same captivity after some time.
If you learn appropriate lessons from your journey into captivity you will save yourself unnecessary suffering, misery and woe. Failure to learn your lessons will make you a permanent deliverance candidate.
Let me make these points very emphatic.
You must learn your lessons in your present situation if you want the Lord to set you free from captivity. God will not turn your captivity away unless you are ready to learn your lessons.
Have you learnt your lessons?
Have you discovered the things that are responsible for your captivity?
Perhaps you got into captivity through impatience. Have you learnt your lesson? Who knows? Your marriage would not have been captured by the enemy if not for your impatience.
Did you get into bondage through anger? Are you ready to allow the Lord to deal with every trace of anger in your life?
Perhaps you got into bondage as a result of fornication. Have you learnt your lesson?
That reminds me of a brother whom it took multiple deliverance efforts to get out of captivity. How did he get into bondage? He was driving his car one evening when he came across a beautiful lady. He decided-to give her a lift, thinking that he got a partner for his fleshly desires. He was shocked when he took the lady home and wanted to commit immorality with her. By the time he removed his dress and moved near the lady, he was shocked by the fact that she had turned to a coffin. He shouted to attract neighbours.
That experience landed him into a terrible bondage. When he was delivered at last, he vowed never to give any lady a lift. Later he formed the habit of looking away from ladies in the street whenever he was driving his car. He had learnt his lesson. He did not want to pick up another coffin.
Have you ever got into bondage through sexual immorality? Have you learnt your lesson?
Are you under captivity as a result of nagging, back-biting, pride or lack of respect? Have you learnt your lesson?
Did you get into trouble through laziness and indecent behaviour?
I also remember the story of a woman who was driven out of her matrimonial home because of her failure to give attention to personal hygiene. She came to me for prayer and I decided to approach the husband. The husband simply told me that he would have liked to
keep their family matters to himself but would say one or two things because I am a pastor. He took me to the wardrobe and brought out the wife’s underwears with a long stick. I had to step backward. The husband said, “can you see how dirty my wife is. I can’t put up with such a dirty woman. That was why I sent her out.” Are you like that woman? Are you having family problems because of your own shortcomings?
Did you get into bondage as a result of disobedience to God?
Let us examine the life of Job. He experienced adversity and captivity, but he learnt his lesson. What lessons did he learn? Job learnt that fear is evil and should not be allowed into one’s heart.
He also learnt that it is wrong to ascribe unto God what the devil has done. Job learnt that the devil is the brain behind human suffering, not God. Job learnt that he made a mistake by cursing the day he was born. He learnt his lessons and prayed for his friends. Immediately he learnt his lesson, “God turned the captivity of Job.
If you refuse to learn from your previous experiences you will ever remain a student in the school of failure. You will never be able to get into a new class. The lesson will be repeated time and again until you learn your lessons.
CLOSE ALL DOORS THROUGH WHICH THE ENEMY CAN GAIN ACCESS INTO YOUR LIFE
A lot of people get into captivity and remain there by refusing to close every door used by satan as entry points. Let me give you some illustrations of what I mean.
A man wanted to get married but he decided to approach it the wrong way. Instead of allowing the Lord to choose for him, he decided to depend on his personal choice. He identified three ladies whom he thought would make good wives any day. He decided to take the names of the ladies to God in prayer. His prayer was “Oh Lord, here are three names for your consideration. I don’t know
whom to marry but I like the three of them. Oh Lord, if you want to speak to me, go ahead. But I like the first one on the list. I’d be glad if you can allow me to marry her. I think she is okay. That was his prayer every time he handled that topic.
After satisfying himself, he came up with the idea of marrying the first lady on the list, believing that he had received approval from God. He succeeded in achieving his goal. He got married to the lady. No sooner were they married than he began to experience terrible problems in his life. His home was a sort of hell on earth. His business collapsed. He lost his retainerships. His clients were no longer ready to give him any job. Things got so bad that he had to resort to begging. He began to look for solutions to his complex problems.
He came to the church and started praying. He was ready to do anything to experience deliverance. He fasted for seven days nonstop. He decided to go further when he realised that his situation needed drastic steps. He went ahead and observed 21 days dry fasting. He did not stop there. He went as far as doing 40 days dry fasting. At the end, he experienced an unusual deliverance. Unknown to him, his wife was the spiritual force behind his problem. She was the one who drained away all his fortunes until he was reduced to a beggar.
Immediately he was through with the 40 days fasting and prayer, the wife came to him saying, “My husband, I would like us to go somewhere together.” At first he wanted to decline but the Holy Spirit told him to follow her. They went out together and the husband received the greatest shock of his life. After trekking a kilometre, the wife suddenly stamped her right foot on the ground and the atmosphere changed suddenly. They found themselves in a different world. They were no longer in the earthly realm.
As soon as they got there, thousands of children ran to the man’s wife calling her “Mummy! Mummy!!” The woman stepped aside and told these strange demonic children, “I am no longer your mummy from today. My husband has succeeded in removing me from this
spiritual world through his strange prayers. I am here today only to bid you goodbye. My husband has cancelled the link between me and this kingdom. I hereby renounce my association with every one of you. Goodbye.”
As soon as the woman finished speaking, she stamped her right foot on the ground again and they found themselves where they had been. The man was so shocked by the incident that he kept on shivering for the next 30 minutes. Although he came out of captivity, he later realised that he was the very one who opened the door for the enemy to come in.
Someone came to me recently to share a strange experience with me. He told me how a university student died in some mysterious circumstances. Here is the story.
A lady was getting ready to attend lectures. She rushed into the bathroom to have her bath and discovered that there was a fellow student in the bathroom. What she saw shocked her and she found it difficult to run back. The fellow student was washing her hair, but actually she had a headless body bending down to wash a head which had been taken off from her body. The lady wondered if she was dreaming. She fainted within a few seconds. It took the effort of concerned fellow students to resuscitate her.
Incidentally, she was the only one who saw the headless body and the separate head. When fellow students asked her what she saw she narrated how she saw another student in the bathroom in a very strange and abnormal condition. Immediately she finished speaking to them, she collapsed and died. They made a lot of efforts to bring her back to rife but they did not succeed. That was how she died prematurely. Why did the enemy succeed in killing that lady? There was an open door in her life.
A wealthy man once came to me with an unusual problem. He was extremely wealthy. However, he had no relationship with God. He decided to consult false prophets to solve his problem. Within a very short time, he became a vision addict. He avoided pastors who would tell him the truth and surrendered himself to fake prophets just
because they were seeing visions for him. He came across one strange prophet who told him something concerning his life. He became so fascinated and ended up being overly dependent on the false prophet.
One day, the false prophet conveyed a strange vision to the wealthy man. What was the message? “Thus saith the Lord, you must give your house to my servant, the prophet. If you fall to do so, all your children will die. Make sure you don’t disobey the voice of the Lord. Obey the Lord and it shall be well with you. Thus saith the Lord.”
The man found it difficult to part with a palatial building which he had spent over 25 m (300,000 dollars) to build. At the same time he was not willing to lose his children. At the end, he voluntarily did a change of ownership and documented the property in favour of the false prophet. That was how he lost his house. However, he came to know God years later. He began to learn how to pray aggressively. His prayers began to work against the fake prophet. Their effect was so unbearable for the prophet that he decided to revenge. The wealthy man was relaxing in his living room one day when the false prophet appeared from nowhere. The man was surprised because all the doors were securely locked.
It was then it dawned on him that the prophet was a first class demonic agent. The prophet opened his mouth and said, “I come to warn you because of your dangerous prayers. I know you have started attending a church where fire prayers are said against enemies. Yes, I took your house. It is mine forever. If you don’t stop your fire prayers we are going to deal with you.” The rich man had become bold because he had discovered the power of prayer. He looked at the false prophet and said, “You have no power to deal with me.” The false prophet slapped the wall and three masquerades came out physically. He and the three masquerades descended upon the rich man and dealt with him mercilessly. The rich man ran to the church for reinforcement. But, may I ask you. How did he get into that problem in the first place? He got into captivity because he was looking for visions and prophecy. The enemy did not force the door
open. The rich man opened the door through consulting fake prophets.
In what ways have you opened the door to the enemy? You must make up your mind to close all such doors.
My experience in the ministry has made me to know that by and large, human beings are responsible for their own captivity.
I was invited to minister in a particular church sometime ago. The leaders and the members of that church were tired of their problems and they decided to look for help. Of a truth their problems were really much. The church was besieged by very stubborn demonic forces. Its 520 members had more problems than they could cope with. Their pastors were dying one after the other. Members were also dying. The problem was indeed great.
When I got there I discovered that the pastors as well as the eaders had opened the door to the devil through their actions. I told them that I was going to help them, provided they were ready to carry out an important assignment. I distributed a spiritual evaluation questionnaire and appealed to them to be sincere with themselves. By the time the questionnaires were turned in I was shocked. An analysis of their individual responses brought out the following staggering facts.
Three hundred and eighty people had incisions all over their bodies.
One hundred and seventy had been involved in fetish sacrifices.
Sixty ladies had slept with more than seven men.
Almost all the bachelors had slept with more than seven ladies.
One man had slept with his daughter.
One man had slept with his mother.
One hundred and fifty members had been involved with the use of candles in prayer.
Three hundred had gone through ritual bath under the supervision of false prophets.
One hundred and sixty were involved with adultery and had concealed it from their spouses.
More than 100 were involved in stealing.
One hundred and fifty members had one form of linkage or the other with idols.
These facts show that they were responsible for what they were going through.
The devil is a legal expert. He knows the law. The devil is not as powerful as you think. His strength lies in his ability to use the law as an instrument of leading men and women into bondage. The devil has an organised system. He has clearly-stated laws which guide his operations. However, none of the satanic laws will function if human beings would not open one door or the other. Let us run through some of the satanic laws.
SATANIC LAWS
• No room for forgiveness
Satan and his agents have no room for forgiveness. You are wasting your time if you by to appease them. You cannot pacify a witch. If a man decides to call a family meeting and makes a public appeal to satanic agents to forgive him if he has offended any of them, such a man is wasting his time. Satan and his agents have nothing like forgiveness in their dictionary. If you ever make a mistake of offending demonic agents they will never forgive you. They will deal with you squarely. It is not in their nature to forgive anyone. Satan has no experience of forgiveness. Hence, he cannot forgive anybody. He has mandated his agents to deal wickedly with anyone who plays into their hands.
• No free gift
There is nothing free in the satanic kingdom. Although he operates a ‘buy now pay later scheme’ you cannot get away with whatever is
bought or borrowed from the devil. He will even charge you interest.
Satan operates a very primitive trade by barter system. He has no free gift. He is very thrifty. He makes people to pay for whatever they buy from him. His goods are the costliest. Some Christians often discover that their wealth begins to dwindle immediately they give their lives to Christ. If such people would sit down to evaluate the sources of their wealth they will discovered that most of it came from satan. God would simply allow the removal of satanic wealth to bestow upon them true and lasting riches.
• All curses must be enforced
The sources of the curses notwithstanding, the devil ensures that all curses are enforced. Curses pronounced on you by others and the curses you brought upon yourself will be enforced whether you like it or not. Satan’s law enforcement agents are always standing by to enforce all curses.
- The maturity date of every covenant must not be exceeded
If your grand parents entered into a covenant without consulting you, if the maturity date falls into your own time you cannot escape it. The maturity date will be strictly adhered to even when those who are parties to the covenant have forgotten all about it.
A woman had a problem and ran to a fetish priest. The fetish priest said, “Woman, there is a great problem in your family. You have a daughter who has been covenanted to the dark kingdom. She is going to die on the 3rd of October. There is nothing you can do about it. The maturity date for the covenant cannot be exceeded.” The woman became afraid. She pleaded passionately with the fetish priest to do whatever he could to avert the situation. He told her that the die was cast and there was no hope. The woman abandoned him and went out in search of a false prophet. She had not told the prophet what her problem was when the prophet said “Woman, you have a
daughter who will die on the 3rd of October. She will surely die. The covenant must be kept.”
Again the woman pleaded with him to do whatever he could to prevent her daughter from dying. The prophet said, “I am sorry, there is nothing I can do about it. The powers in charge are stronger than I. You can by another prophet” The woman ran to the church and we told her and her daughter to give their lives to Christ.
Eventually, death was averted through repentance and deliverance prayers. The young lady would have died but for divine intervention through anointed men of God. On the second of October there was a great battle between evil spiritual forces and the power of God. There was pandemonium outside the lady’s room. There were lots of sounds of movement but nobody was visible. The noise and all the pandemonium became calm immediately it was a minute after midnight. The lady had been delivered. The devil did not forget the appointed day. He actually came. But he lost out as a result of the manifestation of the power of God.
The problem with that kind of situation is that the powers behind such covenants may not give you any reminder. The covenant might have been made when you were in your mothers’ womb. Hence, you will never get to know about it. Your parents would not tell you all the covenants they went into before you were born. But the powers behind these covenants will be there at the right time to enforce them. The maturity date remains boldly written in the diary of the enemy. These powers may tell some people ‘You will die on your wedding day’ That is what will happen, unless the covenant is broken.
At this point, please, take this prayer point:
Every unconscious evil covenant, break, in the name of Jesus.
• Strike first at anything good and strike hard
This is a very wicked satanic law. That is why evil powers generally attack innocent children because they have been able to see into the future of those children. Whenever you come across a child who is
bombarded with all kinds of harassment, then you must know that there is something good about that child. Evil powers have a mandate to strike and destroy all good things. This is exactly why we encourage Christians to strike the enemy at their earliest opportunities.
• It is compulsory to steal, to kill and to destroy
This is a law which all satanic agents are compelled to obey. Both small and great agents of the devil know that their duty is to steal, to kill and to destroy.
• All sinners must receive evil arrows
All those who are living in sins are exposing themselves to evil arrows. Clever sinners are self-deceivers. They only treasure up wicked arrows for themselves.
- Every inherited evil must be propagated unto destruction
If evil powers know that you have inherited certain evil things from your parents they will ensure that such evil inheritance is used as a weapon to destroy you.
• Offer destructive assistance whenever required
Satanic agents look for opportunities to offer destructive assistance. A woman became envious of her friend’s wealth, not knowing the source of the wealth. She wanted to become rich like her friend. She called her friend and told her: “Why do you call me your friend when you have not shown me how to become wealthy like you. I want to be rich like you. Please, show me the way. I am ready to go all the way to become rich.” Her friend’s reply was simple: “Don’t worry. It is very simple. I’ll take you somewhere. I didn’t know that you were interested. You will become rich once you are ready to pay the price.”
She followed her friend sheepishly to the house of a voodoo priest. Certain rituals were performed on her behalf. She went back home expecting riches. One afternoon her only son fainted. She raised an alarm and made desperate attempt to bring him back to life. She was still struggling with the son when the friend who took her to the house of the voodoo priest came. The woman was crying uncontrollably, asking her friend to assist her bring the boy back to life. Her friend simply told her to sit down and relax. She said, “Friend, you don’t need to worry about anything. Let the boy die. It is unavoidable. That is the price you must pay if you want to be rich. That is why I took you to the priest. Do you think that I did not pay any price? I lost my own son, and that was how the money came. You cannot get our kind of money unless you are ready to pay for it with the life of your son.”
The woman’s eyes opened and she screamed, “Please, I don’t want that kind of money. Take me back to the priest, my son’s life must be returned.” They found their way back to the house of the fetish priest who asked them to buy a white goat and the son was revived. This is a clear example of the readiness of demonic powers to offer destructive assistance.
• If one weapon falls try another weapon
Servants of the devil do not give up easily. They keep fighting.
• All demons must hate Christians with perfect hatred
This is another wicked law. They hate all Christians.
- All human minds must be blinded from the gospel of truth
They work tirelessly to fulfil this law.
- All attempts must be made to corrupt and destroy marriages
Satan and his agents hate the institution of marriage and they are out to corrupt and destroy it.
• The demon of sin must be the most attractive demon
The devil’s servants make sure that sin is made beautiful and attractive at all times.
The laws listed above only represent very few among the whole lot. Since the devil is a legal expert, he expects all his followers to keep to all these laws. However, I thank God that He has given us a higher law.
How then can we close every door that we have carelessly opened for the devil and evil spirits to use against us. What steps must you take to close every door which the devil and his demons are likely to use.
HOW TO CLOSE DOORS OPENED TO THE DEVIL
• Acknowledge the presence of the enemy
The truth is that most of the battle you are fighting today do not come from external forces but from within. Some witches are sleeping because there is nothing for them to do. Why? You have made the assignment very easy by cooperating with them.
• Ask God to show you all the open doors
The Bible says: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). Behonest with yourself. It may take you weeks or months to discover all the open doors.
• Close the open doors
Get rid of all besetting sins. Settle your account with God. Deal with all unconfessed sins. There are some people today who have remained under bondage because they have refused to own up to
their sins. They refuse to confess their sins. When such people find their way to my office, I used to ask them, “Have you gone through deliverance?” “Yes,” they would answer. Then I would probe further: “Did you confide in any of the deliverance ministers? Did you confess that sin to them.” They would say, “No I could not because of the fear of being misunderstood. I didn’t want all those pastors to begin to look at me as a very bad fellow. That is why I decided to keep these things to myself.”
I have discovered that all those who had that kind of problem were never truly delivered. They ended up retaining their problems as a result of their failure to close all open doors once and for all.
• You must be able to deal with the problems
You cannot come out of captivity until you are ready to deal thoroughly with your problem. Jesus asked the man at the pool of Bethsaida, “Wilt thou be made whole?” In the same vein, do you want to be made free?
• You must act in faith
You must exercise faith in God if you want to come out of captivity. You must be fully persuaded that the blood of Jesus is more powerful than all satanic weapons. You must be willing to step out of captivity by faith in the finished work of calvary.
I cannot end this chapter without referring to something which is very crucial. The problem of generational curses has remained the greatest problem of the black man. Africans have suffered immensely from generational curses and bondage. Today, many people are paying for what their forefathers bought in the devils’ supermarkets.
Reflect a moment on all the problems you have passed through for the last ten years or so. Let me ask you: What did you do to deserve all those problems? It is clear that you are only paying for what your parents bought Majority of the problems of the black man can be classified under generational problems. Generational problems are very difficult to deal with.
If anybody prays, “Beginning from Adam and Eve, on both sides of my family, I uproot every evil tree”, don’t mock such a person. He is praying a very important prayer. By the time that kind of prayer is said for one hour a lot of things will take place.
STEPS TO FREEDOM FROM GENERATIONAL CURSES
You must take the following steps if you want to separate yourself from generational curses:
• Acknowledge the sins of your forefathers.
And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land (Lev. 26:39-42).
- Ask God to forgive the sins of dead or living forefathers.
If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death (I Jn 5:16-17).
• Confess your own sins and be honest with yourself.
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land (2 Chr 7:14).
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy (Prov 28:13)
- Ask God to forgive and cleanse you and your forefathers.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I Jn 1:7-9).
• Repent of those sins completely.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7).
• Believe that Jesus became a curse for us.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: (Gal 3:13).
- Use your authority in the name of Jesus, and by His blood to declare the curses broken.
Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, (Eph 1:20-22).
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death (Rev 12:11).
- Spend quality time speaking God’s blessings into your life.
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