MINISTERIAL CASUALTIES | When The Deliverer Needs Deliverance By Dr. D. K. Olukoya

MINISTERIAL CASUALTIES

How can we detect the evidences of lack of foundational deliverance?

Let us examine common problems that are found in the lives of those who fail to obtain deliverance from foundational bondage.

1. Multiplication of problems.

To have one problem as a minister is bad enough. To have multiple problems is worse. Show me a minister who has not obtained deliverance from foundational bondage and I will show you a minister whose life attracts multiple problems. Such a minister will spend his energy, time and resources battling with problems rather than get meaningfully involved in the work of the ministry.

If your life has continued to magnetise problems it shows that you have not been set free from foundational bondage. Ministers who fall into this category will have financial problems, family problems, health problems, spiritual problems and ministerial problems at the same time. Such a minister will have the type of problems that cannot be found in the lives of ordinary members of the church.

When one problem is solved, three or more will emerge at the same time. The fact that the minister is involved in God’s service will not reduce the avalanche of problems that are being hauled at him. It is just that such ministers would manage to keep some of the problems under cover. Such people are hardly ever able to fulfill their ministerial destiny.

SATAN ON THE PROWL

Multiple problems will end up making a shipwreck of a pastor’s ministerial destiny when nothing is done about deliverance from foundational bondage. If such ministers are expected to serve the Lord for twenty or thirty years, the productive years may never amount to move than a year or two. They generally move from one problem to another and they are left with no time for real Christian service.

If you fall into this category, you may not have time to develop your ministry. Even when God has endowed you with spiritual, gifts multiple problems will make you feel as if you don’t have a single gift. Your spouse will create lots of problems, your in-laws will trouble you sore and nothing works simply because you have not dealt with your foundation.

SATANIC ELDERS

There was a minister who had multiple problems because he did not address his foundation. He started his ministry on a good note. The Church grew. By the time he could no longer cope with the explosion, he decided to appoint some elders. However, the elders became so powerful, that he could no longer control them. Having enjoyed the trappings of ministerial leadership, they decided to come together and sack the General Overseer.

They invited the G.O. to an emergency meeting in which they announced their intention to compel him to resign from active leadership. Strange enough, the G.O. was only 32 years old at that time. He wondered why they should decide to force him to retire. He grew angry in the Spirit and declared “Since I am the one the Lord used to appoint you as elders, I revoke the appointment in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Ghost” “No it is impossible. We reject the cancellation of our appointment in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost” chorused the elders in response.

ANOTHER SATANIC ARRACK

There was an open fight between the elder and the G.O. That was how the church collapsed. The pastor decided to start afresh. He left for another city and began a new church. The church grew and things were moving on fine.

Tragedy struck when he decided to conduct water baptism for some of the young converts. The first baptismal candidate happened to be a pregnant woman. By the time he dipped the woman under water, the woman slipped off his hands and disappeared into the water. The pastor made frantic efforts but the pregnant woman was gone.

The other baptismal candidates grew restive and decided to confront the man of God believing that he had a hand in what happened to the pregnant woman. They unanimously agreed to call the police. The pastor was arrested. The episode marked the end of his attempt to start a church in that city.

THE EVIL DEDICATION

After the two ordeals, he made yet a third attempt to start a church. As soon as the church got underway and members were flocking in, the pastor got: involved in a terrible scandal. He committed immorality with his driver’s wife and she got pregnant. Hell was let loose.

It was at that point that he came for counseling and prayers. When he came, we asked him, “Why did all these happen to you?” We probed further. “What does your father do for a living?” His answer was revealing. “My father is the head of all the fetish priests in our village”. We told him, “Your father has covenanted you. He has dedicated you to several idols. Those dedications are now speaking against you”.

THE POWER OF DEDICATION

Many of us, today, undermine the power of dedication. When you dedicate something to an idol, the idol will exercise legal and spiritual rights over what is dedicated. Again, when you dedicate something to God, God will defend His glory and name: If anyone dares touch who or

what has been dedicated, God will deal squarely with the trespasser.

When Jacob came to Bethel and said ‘This is the house of God’, and he built .and dedicated an altar to God, God took charge. By the time Jeroboam became king he put an altar in Dan and Bethel. God did not contest for Dan because that place was not dedicated to Him. God contested for Bethel. By the time Jeroboam started sacrificing in Bethel; the prophet from Judah turned up and commanded the altar to be broken to pieces. God defended His interest.

Also if a child is named Isaac by his parents, such u child has no choice but to serve God. If you are dedicated to idols, the power behind the idols will not allow you to fulfill your ministry.

If you happen to be the first pastor in your family line, you have to pray like a mad prophet if you must fulfill your ministry.

• The enemy will organize a conference in order to deal with you.

The purpose of the conference is to demonstrate their anger. They will wonder why someone who was previously in their camp can decide to fight against them without severing the ties that once existed. The enemy will give you a hard fight. You will be bombarded by hostile powers from the north, south, east and west. You will fight battles in the morning, afternoon and evening. Even when you are asleep, during the hours of the night, it will be battles galore.

When you come across a minister who is facing intense battles, you can be sure that such a minister is being bombarded by a conference of hostile forces. Many ministers wonder why they live their ministerial lives as if thy are at the eye of the storm. They fight battles from dawn to dusk without respite.

A DEADLY TRAP

One minister that I knew suffered the kind of battles that I am

describing in this section. He was posted to a branch of his church. I didn’t know what went wrong with the pastor. Instead of facing his ministerial assignment, he decided to have a strange affair with a young lady in the church. He carried the satanic assignment given to him too far by letting the whole church know that an affair was going on between him and the young lady.

If he bought native wears for himself he would buy the same for the young lady. To make matters worse, both the pastor and the lady would dress the same way to church.

Word soon got to the pastor’s wife. The fact that the pastor’s wife was not quite broken or sanctified aggravated the volatile situation. She decided that she would do anything to teach the two love birds a lesson. She watched carefully and traced both of them to one of the services.

She became infuriated when she discovered that both of them were actually dressed in the same material. She rushed to the pulpit, picked up the bell and with her fists clenched she banged the bell on the forehead of her husband and he collapsed. The woman rushed to the lady, gave her thorough beating and tore her dress. That was how the enemy disgraced the pastor who would have had a wonderful ministry.

The situation forced the pastor to undergo deliverance. It was in that process that he discovered that he came from a very terrible family. One of the common features of his family line was that on a regular basis, family members would disappear and there would be no trace whether the person was dead or alive. The pastor had to go through foundational deliverance when he discovered that his background was terrible.

3. Increase of Internal Warfare.

Whenever you fall to go for deliverance from Internal bondage, you will experience an Increase In the area of internal warfare. One of the toughest battles to win is the battle of internal or Civil warfare. You can fight external battles and win but it is difficult to deal with internal enemies.

When you contend with internal enemies you will find it difficult to emerge victorious in the battles of life. A minister who has myriads of internal foes. to deal with would end up a loser. The shortest route to the land of failure is the highway of increased internal warfare.

EVIL BIRDS ON RAMPAGE

One of the greatest evangelists in the South Western part of Nigeria happened to be Paul Akinbobola. Before he gave his life to Christ he belonged to virtually every known cult in Nigeria. He had swallowed terrible things before he gave his life to Christ.

He surrendered himself for deliverance. However, in the course of deliverance, he had completely forgotten that he had swallowed lots of satanic birds while he served the devil. While he was going through deliverance, the evil birds were busy pecking at his Intestine. Whenever Paul Akinbobola prayed aggressively, the evil birds would get agitated and peck at his intestine. He had to be rushed to the hospital and most of his intestine had to be cut off at the University College Hospital, Ibadan. Rather than just resort to praying, go for total deliverance and internal warfare will cease.

4. It will lead to ministerial failure.

Ministerial failure is inevitable for ministers who neglect deliverance from foundational bondage. Such ministers will try itinerant ministry and fail. If they venture into the prophetic ministry they will fall. If they try the pastoral line the entire flock will scatter. If they are appointed as administrators their tenure will be characterized by scandalous failure. Send such ministers to a town where there is revival, the fire of revival would be doused.

At the end of the day. the word failure would be boldly written at the end of their ministerial career. You cannot start with a demonic foundation and become a successful minister without working seriously on your foundation.

If you have discovered that your ministerial steps are trailed by failure it is an indication of the fact that you have neglected deliverance from foundational bondage.

5. Mockery by the enemy.

It is indeed shameful that many pastors and ministers have allowed unbelievers to mock Christianity. When the ministry loses its glory and dignity, unbelievers will continue to mock the God whom we serve. The absence of foundational deliverance will lead to the mockery of the gospel.

The enemy will ensure that ministers commit blunders that will make the world to mock us.

Nowadays, the world has continued to cast aspersions on the ministry. So much failure has been recorded that people now think that the ministerial calling is reserved for nonentities and never-do-wells. Oftentimes, when a woman goes to tell her parents that she has found a man to marry and he happens to be a pastor, the parents laugh as if getting married to a pastor is the worst thing that can happen to a woman.

Do not allow the enemy to mock you. It is my deepest prayer for you that any power standing by to mock you shall be disgraced in the name of Jesus.

6. Transfer of Yokes.

Whenever deliverance is supposed to be done and it is avoided, there will be an inevitable transfer of yokes. When such a minister tries to pray for or conduct deliverance for people the yokes in their lives will automatically become transferred to his own life. Since there is a lot of problem in the foundation of such a pastor, any attempt to minister to others will bounce back and it will lead to a multiplication of yokes.

Let me give you a practical illustration. The young prophet who prayed for Jeroboam in the Bible invited complicated problems into his life. When

the young prophet spoke and the altar got split into two, the king became paralysed as he attempted to fight against the anointing of God.

The king made an appeal for the restoration of his hand. If that prophet had not prayed, king Jeroboam would have been left with no option than to go through the length and breadth of the land with a paralysed hand. This would have made the whole nation to fear God and shun Idolatry. Mistakenly, the young prophet prayed and the king’s hand got restored but the young prophet ended up paying dearly for it.

DIVINE JUDGEMENT

Several years ago, a particular king met his waterloo because he formed the habit of mocking Christianity. He hated Christianity with a perfect hatred.

At the slightest provocation. he would make jest of the word of God, the Bible and the God whom the Christians serve. He specifically stated that he would wipe out the name of the Lord from his domain.

On a particular day, he was busy deriding Christians and Christianity when an anointed man of God called him to order arid told him to stop the blasphemy or be dealt with instantly. The king continued using Infamous words against the name of the Lord. The. man of God declared “I command your right hand and leg to become paralysed instantly as punishment for blaspheming the name of the Lord.”

The king went into an endless session of derisive laughter since there was no instant evidence of paralysis. The king continued his blasphemous words. A few hours later, when he was about entering his car, he discovered that both his right hand and leg were paralysed. The most powerful fetish priest and occult masters were summoned. The paralysis remained.

Somehow, the king was told that there is a particular pastor in Lagos who could pray and make him regain the use of his right hand and leg. In his desperation he sent for the man of God. Unfortunately, the pastor did not ask the Lord if he should travel to the domain of the king and pray for

him.

The pastor prayed for the king and the paralysed hand and leg were restored on Saturday. But by the following Monday, we were conducting the burial ceremony of the pastor. There was an evil exchange. The king lost his paralysis but the pastor met his death. The life of the pastor would obviously have been spared if he had not prayed for a king who was under divine judgment.

This kind of experience is common with those yet to be free from foundational bondage. The truth is that the enemy cannot come against you and succeed without an open door in your life.

7. Untimely death.

You stand the risk of untimely death If you have seen the need for foundational deliverance but refused to go for it. If you read the newspapers you will discover that pastors and ministers occupy the obituary pages. Pastors are now dying between ages 30 and 40. Untimely death has become a common feature in ministerial circles.

A fellow minister informed me recently that he had just buried one of the pastors under him. When I asked to know. the. age of the pastor who died, I was shocked when my friend told me that the pastor died at age 26.

Untimely death is a product of foundational bondage.

8. Prayer Burial

If you need deliverance from foundational bondage but refuse to go for it, you will experience what I have termed prayer burial. You will be busy praying night and day but will discover that your prayers are not going beyond the ceiling. Whenever you pray for others, God in His mercy will grant you an answer. God may also answer such prayers when His glory is at stake. But when you cry to God in your closet for your personal needs, your prayer will hit the ceiling and bounce back.

The problem of unanswered prayers can be traced to foundational bondage. If you are a minister and there are no testimonies to show for your prayer efforts, you need to go for deliverance.

One of the ways God proves Himself in the life of His servants is through instant answers to prayers. Failure at the altar of prayer, when found as a common feature in the life of a minister of God shows that the pastor in question is yet to experience deliverance from foundational bondage.

9. Family Attack

If you fail to go for foundational deliverance, you will continue to experience family attacks. The enemy will continue to attack your family even when you make desperate efforts to have a happy home.