FIGHTING THE WAR BEFORE PLANTING SEED || Slaves who love their chains, shall remain in their bondage Dr. D.K. Olukoya

FIGHTING THE WAR BEFORE PLANTING SEED

Why is it that many good

things find it difficult to

survive in the lives of so

many                              people?

However,                           when

problems knock at the

door of such lives the

door joyfully opens and

the problems are given

a rousing welcome.

A lot of people, today,

find it difficult to cultivate the habit of receiving and maintaining

spiritual  and  physical  blessings.  Many  people  are  only  able  to

experience  temporary  victory  and  truncated  breakthroughs.  The

major reason is that many people are trying to plant their crops

before clearing the bush. A farmer who plants yam in thick forest will

harvest nothing at harvest time. A wise farmer will clear the bush and

make sure that the land is conducive for planting before putting his

seed in the heart of the earth. There are lots of problems today

because many people ignore clearing the bush before planting their

seeds. Those who take such steps end up losing a lot.

A man came to see me in the month of March of a particular year. His desire was to experience greater prosperity but he was not prepared to fight for it. Instead of making progress financially, he lost everything he previously had. He had 26 million (about 300,000 US Dollars), when he came to me in March. By December, he had only  6,000:00 (about 70 US dollars). I asked him, “what did you do with  26 million? What exactly did you buy?” “Nothing,” he answered. More

than 25 million had gone down the drain. I decided to run him through a serious prayer session.

As we prayed the Lord gave me a revelation. I saw a naked woman carrying a basket and holding on to one side of the basket while the man was holding the other side of the basket. The Lord told me that he had thrown his wealth into a leaking basket. It then became clear that the man had planted his seed without fighting the war. He failed to deal with the spirit of the basket which was placed in his life by a woman.

Are you putting your blessings into a leaking basket? If you are in that position you will end up wasting the divine blessings placed in your life. Why don’t you pray at this moment to get rid of every basket attached to your life. Close your eyes and take this prayer point.

I drop and destroy every evil spiritual basket, in the name of Jesus.

A lot of people have suffered untold agony and frustrations as a result of failure to fight the war before planting the seed. This reminds me of the story of a particular sister who wanted to get married but had one disappointment after another until she got tired of everything. The first man was snatched by her best friend. The second man was stolen by her younger sister. She went out one day and came back to find her suitor’s car packed in front of their house. Initially she was happy thinking that her lover was waiting for her. She was shocked when she opened the door and discovered that the man, who promised to marry her, was committing immorality with her younger sister. That was how she chased the man out of her house.

The third experience was equally bitter. She found another man and liked him. She was joyful, but joy for those who do not know how to fight the battles of life, has a slender body that breaks very soon. She soon discovered that the new man was a drug addict. That was how the relationship ended.

The fourth man who came was so nice and suitable for marriage by all standards. The lady felt that she had found the best man on earth. The man was so qualified that she wondered why he had remained single despite the fact that he had everything going for him. She asked him time and again if he had married before. The man simply said, ‘No’. The wedding was planned and a date was fixed. A few days before the wedding she went to the man’s house and, met a young girl who told her, “You are welcome. I am told that you are getting married to my daddy very soon. Well, you must be ready to cope with both of us. Go ahead and get married to him if you are ready to cope with me. No one can separate me from my daddy”. That was how she cancelled the marriage.

The fifth man she met happened to be a pastor but hardly had they started their courtship when the pastor ran mad.

The sixth man brought the greatest shock into her life. He died on the day of the engagement. He fainted while the dowry was been conveyed to his in-laws. He was rushed to the nearest hospital. His corpse was brought back after a few hours.

The seventh man ran for his dear life. He had a strange experience on the very day he made a marriage proposal to the lady. He had a dream in which three giant men challenged him saying, “You are in trouble. You have misfired by proposing marriage to that lady. That lady is our wife.” They gave him serious beating until he collapsed. The man did not need any further investigation. He ran away from the lady.

The lady ran to me asking for help. I gave her just one prayer point which was, “All stubborn spirit husbands, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.” She had a dream that night, in which she saw three coffins with the three spirit husbands in them. At that point the Lord removed the hindrance and she soon became happily married. She had taken the wrong steps at the beginning. She was trying to plant her seed without fighting the war. She would not have gone through all those bitter experiences if she had taken the right step. She got

married after clearing the bush which stood between her and her marriage.

Do you have a great project ahead of you? Then you must clear the bush. Are you going into business? Do you want to get married? The starting point is the clearing of the bush. In other words, you must be ready to fight the war. You must get rid of every hindrance if you want to succeed in your plans. Maybe, you are saying I want to travel abroad. I want to work for God. I want to be a missionary. I want to be a millionaire. I want to become great in life. Then you must get started by praying off any thing that constitutes a hindrance to the fulfillment of your dreams.

There are people who want to work for God without proper preparations. They refuse to get rid of anger. Whenever such people are offended they are ready to pronounce curses on those who offended them. They don’t mind destroying lives in order to assuage their anger. It is unfortunate, today, that many people have received the anointing for moving from grace to grass. Some people attempt university education without fighting the war before planting the seed. They end up failing woefully. Eventually, they are advised to withdraw. Why? they did not fight the war. If you must succeed in life you must apply the principle of fighting the war before planting the seed.

Let us examine the book of Genesis and learn an important lesson as regards our topic.

And God bless them. God said unto them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion, over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over everything that liveth upon the face of the earth (Gen. 1:28).

God gave Adam an important mandate. He was told to subdue the earth. God gave him the key to success. He must exercise dominion over the earth before he can experience the actualisation of his dreams and desires. That was how fighting the war before planting one’s seed became a secret of success in life.

This truth was further emphasised in the book of Joshua.

Everyplace that the soul of your foot shall tread upon that I have given unto you as I said unto Moses (Joshua 1:3).

Joshua was told to possess the land of Canaan. He was to posses the land if he must experience total victory. You must fight the war before planting your seed. Some people go into marriage without clearing the bush, without proper preparation. They think that they can approach things the way they did while they were with their parents. Such people are not ready for marriage.

When you look at the New Testament principles you will discover that they are in line with what had been stated in the books of Genesis and Joshua.

For example, Matthew 11:12 says,

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and only the violent taketh it by force.

We must be aggressive in prayer before we can experience total success in life.

Again, Matthew 16:18 says,

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

We must be forceful and aggressive if we want to succeed in binding the strongman. We are also told that no one can enter a strongman’s house and spoil his goods without first binding the strongman.

You must bind the strongman if you want to experience victory in every area of your life. Strongmen are very stubborn, they do not easily give in to defeat. You must deal with them with total aggression if you must prevail over them. We must fight the war before we can plant our seed. This principle came into force in both the Old and the New Testament.

Psalm 2 is one of the most beautiful psalms. It is rich and edifying.

Let us go through part of it.

Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.

This passage shows us that we have to contend with so many forces. We face different situations in life. What you are facing is different from what another person is facing. When you want to clear the bush of your own personal life the kind of battle you will fight depends on several factors.

For example, some people pray for 30 minutes and receive answers to their prayers while others pray for six months without any answer. What is responsible for such a difference is the time it takes to receive a miracle? The time it takes you to experience a breakthrough is directly proportional to the kind of battle you have to fight.

There are ordinary battles while there are stubborn battles. Some battles can be fought and won with little or no effort while others will take persistent bombardment before the first stage of victory becomes possible. Some people even spend more than two years fighting certain problems.

The success of our fight depends on so many factors. We must examine these factors one after the other.

FACTORS THAT DETERMINE THE LENGTH OF OUR WARFARE

• How deeply entrenched the enemy has been in your life

For example, a woman who went to fetch water in the stream got into trouble there. A spirit being came out of the stream and said to her, “I am going to help you to fetch your water. I am also going to make you extremely rich, if you allow me to be joined to the pregnancy in your womb.” The woman said, “I am sorry I can’t allow that.” The spirit pleaded, “I am not going to hurt you.” Then she agreed. The spirit entered her. She got home and did not disclose her strange encounter with the demonic being to her husband or anyone else.

A few months later she gave birth to a bouncing baby girl. The young girl grew up until she entered the university. That was when the battle of her life started. Things became terrible during her final year. She was carried up and down without any success. Her condition grew from bad to worse until she was brought to the church. She discovered, later, that her problem started from the womb. The battle she had to fight could not be compared with that of other people’s. The enemy had deeply entrenched himself in her life.

• YOUR KIND OF FAMILY BACKGROUND

Your family background determines the kind of battle you are going to face in life.

For example, if your mother was a senior prophetess in a white garment church and saw a lot of fake visions, you have battles to fight if your father was a wizard, that background must have brought a lot of battles into your life.

Bush clearing can take a lot of time and hard work. The kind of battle you are going to fight cannot be compared with the battle of a man who was brought up by Christian parents.

A christian brother found a very lovely christian sister. He was fascinated by her beauty. Unknown to him, the girl’s father was the most powerful fetish priest in her village. The girl’s father was so wicked that if he said that somebody was going to die, within two days it happened exactly that way. He decided to go ahead and

marry her, in spite of the fact that he knew the girl’s father during their courtship.

On their wedding day, something strange happened to them. They slept in the night and the husband felt something cold around his legs. He opened his eyes and discovered that a mighty snake curied itself around his legs. He shouted, “Snake! Snake! Snake!” His wife simply smiled saying, “Don’t worry. That is my messenger.” The husband turned to her and said, “What?” The wife replied, “That is my messenger. It is part of my life. You are already married to me, there is nothing you can do about it. This marriage cannot separate the snake from me.” I am sure you know that a deliverance minister who will take care of such a case has a great battle to fight.

• FOUNDATIONAL CURSES AND COVENANTS

The kind of battle you are going to face in life is also determined by foundational curses and covenants. The presence of foundational curses and evil covenants in your life shows that you have a complex battle to fight. The battle of foundational curses and covenants is not an easy one.

I know a particular family who had a serious curse in their foundation. Every male person in that family got married to a witch no matter how careful he was in his choice. They ended up marrying witches. The last person to get married in that family got born again and decided not to take a wife. He feared that he was going to marry a witch. It took serious deliverance prayers to free him from the evil family curse.

Those who are from royal families have serious battles to fight Royal families have royal problems.

• PREVIOUS CONSULTATION OF DARK POWERS

Another factor which determines the kind of battle you will fight in life is your previous involvement with evil powers. If you examine your background and discover that you were involved with evil powers before you became born again, then you must realise that you have

serious battle to fight. If you had dabbled into cults and the occult before knowing the Lord, you can be sure that you have a lot of forces to contend with.

A woman came to me with tears. She complained that she had multiple problems. She had to remove her head gear to stress her point. I saw lots of incisions on her head. She told me that she received those incisions to solve problems which came up in her life. The incisions were so many that I had to ask her to tell me the number. “Oh,” she replied. “I have lost count. I can only remember that the first incisions I received were exactly 21.” To be sure, such a woman had a serious battle to face.

Another man came from the United States of America to see me. He had a serious problem. Before he came to me he had visited a false prophet who said that his problems would only become solved after giving him and his daughter incisions in their bodies. He decided to start with his daughter. The young girl, who was only 13, stepped forward not knowing what the prophet was about to do. To her surprise, the man brought out a sharp knife and asked her to remove her dress. He told the young girl that she was going to give her incisions on the breast.

The girl stepped backwards and shouted, “This man is a cannibal, he is going to eat me. Is this one of the cannibals which I learned about in Africa? Take me out of this place or else I will call the police.” The father tried to calm her down but she was reluctant. She said “If this cannibal lacerates my body, Daddy, I will report you to the child abuse organisations in the U. S. A. and you will be in trouble.” The father volunteered to receive the incision on her behalf. No doubt that man’s deliverance was not going to be easy.

Why don’t you close your eyes and take this prayer point right now? You must pray it with holy madness if there is any incision in your body.

Every consequence of satanic incision, I wipe you off by the blood of Jesus.

• THE SPIRITUAL QUALITY OF YOUR PAST SEXUAL PARTNERS

Sexual experiences are varied. There are people who have had strange sexual experiences. Some human beings we come across are not ordinary human beings. Some of them are goats, serpents and fishes in the spiritual realm. A lot of ladies are marine agents. If you sleep with such people you are bound to have problems in life.

For example, a man who slept with ten prostitutes, eight of which were witches, might have thought that he was smart. But he was only piling up battles for the future.

Every involvement with demonic agents brings evil things to people’s life. One of the weapons used by the devil to lead people into bondage is sex outside marriage. Therefore, a man who has slept with 25 prostitutes, including two Indians, two Americans, and the rest from all over Africa is indeed in a great trouble. He has a great battle to fight. The battle may take years to expunge evil deposits which had mixed with his blood. Certain materials might also have been taken from his body to witchcraft meetings and his blood might have been deposited at more than ten witchcraft meetings. A man who had an encounter with international demons will fight a great battle before he can experience victory.

• THE LEVEL OF YOUR PAST INVOLVEMENT IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS

Somebody who was a witch before cannot be compared with someone who does not know anything about witchcraft. Those who had some involvement with familiar spirits have more battles to fight than somebody who had never had any form of spiritual contamination. If you have been deeply involved with the dark kingdom, then you have a long way to go. If a man went into a bush to ask for the power of witchcraft and was told that the consequences of such power were grave, he will obviously face tough battles in life.

Those who entered into blood covenants in the shrines of fetish priests are in trouble. If such fetish priests die without cancelling the effects of the blood covenants, those people would face great battles in life.

A brother once narrated a strange experience to me. It was a spine-chilling one. Whenever his father wanted to have his bath, the brother would prostrate himself and his father would climb on him and take his bath, standing on top of the brother. That took place every morning for several years. The brother did not understand the implication of what the father was doing, until he got born again and discovered that he had multiple problems to contend with. He realised that he had been involved in the dark kingdom and it had affected him adversely.

• THE KIND OF PLACES YOUR NAME HAS BEEN CIRCULATED

If you have ever made progress in any area of your life, then you can be sure that those who were envious have circulated your name in so many evil places. The kind of battle you will fight in life is determined by the number of places your name has been mentioned. Do you know how many people from your place of work have taken your name to herbalists to get rid of you? They take your name from one town to another. Some people’s names have been circulated in many covens and evil places. These evil powers would work against your person through your name.

• THE DEGREE OF STUBBORNNESS AND WICKEDNESS OF YOUR ENEMIES

The battles you have to fight in life are determined by how wicked or stubborn your enemies are. There are some enemies who are so stubborn that they would not easily yield to pressure.

A woman came to me to ask for help. She told me what her past life looked like. According to her, she was involved with the dark kingdom. She was a prophetess during her days of wickedness. It

was customary for prophetesses in white garment churches to sit in the front. One day, this woman went to church, sat close to another prophetess, and mistakenly kicked the leg of the second prophetess who shouted, “Please, don’t touch my leg. It is heavily loaded with power. I don’t joke with my leg.” She said that the second prophetess should stop the joke maintaining that there was no power in her legs. The second prophetess kicked her legs and immediately both of them found themselves in a rock. The first prophetess discovered that she had no power at all compared with that of the second prophetess. She discovered that her own power came from the sea while the power of the second prophetess came from the rock.

The first prophetess was amazed by the wealth of the rock kingdom. There were beautiful houses with modern gadgets like the television, disc-players, telephones, etc. Her prophetess friend had proved the supremacy of her own kingdom. They came back to the church and the service was going on smoothly.

All of a sudden, the wicked second prophetess went into trance and started speaking: “Thus saith the Lord. There is a rich man here. Enemies are after your life, come out and let me lay hands on your head.” The man came out and she placed her hands on his head and prayed for about 20 minutes. At the end she told the man to go back to his seat. After the service the second prophetess called her friend and told her that she was actually sent on assignment against the man who came out for prayer.

According to her, she had been sent from the dark kingdom to destroy that man. She had to become a prophetess to carry out evil assignments. She succeeded in diverting the man’s blessing through laying on of hands.

I plead with you to close your eyes right now and take this special prayer point,

Every negative hand stretched towards me, wither, in the name Jesus.

• THE SPIRITUAL POSITION OF ANYONE PLACING CURSES UPON YOUR LIFE

There is a great difference between parental curses and curses from wicked demonic agents. Curses from witches and wizards should not be toyed with. If such demonic agents have placed curses upon your life, your battle is indeed great. Let me give you an important spiritual principle. If anyone places curses on you, you need someone with a higher anointing to break that curse.

For example, if a pastor has placed a curse on you for one reason or the other, you may meet the General Overseer to cancel that curse. If Elisha places a curse on someone, it is not the same thing as receiving a curse from Elijah. One is higher than the other. Elisha had a double anointing. To receive a curse from such a man means to be under a double curse.

There are many situations where some external assistance is needed. The advantage we have as a large church is that our corporate anointing is unusually high. To participate in such corporate service is to have the opportunity of experiencing freedom from all kinds of stubborn yokes.

• YOUR POTENTIAL USEFULNESS IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Devil attacks you in proportion to your potential usefulness in the kingdom of God. The devil is very intelligent. He knows those who are going to be useful in the kingdom of God as well as those who are going to destroy his kingdom. Whenever he discovers the latter he vents his anger on them. You become a target of satanic attack the moment God lays his hand upon your life. The devil will not waste his time on those who do not constitute any threat to his kingdom. Take a look at the football match. The footballers who are tackled most are those who generally score the goals. That is why three or four people are generally placed against a particular player who poses a threat to the opponents. Such footballers are hardly given a breathing space.

The best footballer is a marked man and that exactly is what happens to those who are likely to be useful in the kingdom of God. The devil does not give them any respite. If you are a special instrument in the hand of God, the devil will see you as a dangerous threat to his kingdom. He knows that if he allows you to continue to gain spiritual grounds you will unleash terror on his kingdom.

That has remained the situation throughout human history. The devil has continued to attack those who are likely to give him problems. That was why Herod decided to kill Jesus. That was why the king of Egypt decided to kill Moses when he was an infant. Both kings killed all the small children in order to get rid of two people.

A demonic boy once made some confessions. He said that he was given a satanic assignment against a boy who was likely to pose serious threat to the kingdom of the devil. His assignment was to kill the boy. The child was born in Australia.

The demonic agent went to the house of the boy’s parents in the company of other demons. Unfortunately, their task was made easy by the parents of the boy. The parents were having a fight when they got there. The child was abandoned somewhere within the house while his parents were exchanging blows. By the time they were through with their fight the boy was dead. That was how the evil powers succeeded. No doubt, the blood of that child is on the head of the parents.

The parents who were Christians were careless. They allowed the satanic plan to succeed. In one word, if God has a promise for your life, you are a marked man.

• THE LEVEL OF YOUR SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE

The kind of battle you will fight in life depends on the level of your knowledge. The enemy would generally steer clear of people who appear too strong to be handled by him.

• THE LEVEL OF YOUR ANOINTING

A great anointing would easily destroy any kind of battle. On the other hand, insufficient anointing will keep you on the battle field for a very long time. For example, Elijah was attacked by 51 people (50 soldiers and one commander). He defeated them. Another group came against him. He overcame them. Another set of 51 people were sent, making a total of 153 people. He defeated all. In the case of Elisha, man with double anointing, a whole army came to attack him. The undeniable fact is that the more power you have, the more vicious your attackers would be.

Let me end this chapter by quoting once again from Psalm 2: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us” (Psalm 2 :2-3). We are told here that a class of demonic beingscame against the Lord. Kings and rulers are classes of spirit in the demonic world. We see here, the calibre of spirits that have the audacity to set themselves against God. You can be sure that the spirits who could be bold enough to challenge the Almighty God were not ordinary spirits.

These spirits held a conference. They formed a council of high-ranking demonic spirits. They were so proud that they felt it was an insult to posses ordinary human beings. They went for a higher assignment. If you try to cast out ordinary demons you may not bother the devil much. But the moment you touch his kings, queens, princes and princesses, you have touched a sensitive spot in his life. The devil reacts violently against such affront.

The strongmen are stubborn, wicked and aggressive. They know where everybody’s placenta is buried. They are also able to trace everybody’s family.

PRAYER POINTS

1. Every counsel of evil spirits against my life, I dismantle you, in the name of Jesus.

• Every wicked finger pointed at me, wither, in the name of Jesus.

• Every wicked power that has refused to leave me alone, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

• Every dry bone in my life, revive, in the name of Jesus.

• Every evil plant disturbing the plant of my life, be uprooted by fire, in the name of Jesus.