HOLY TROUBLEMAKERS

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

2Samuel 22:35-43:“He teachethmyhandstowarso that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation, and thy gentleness hath made me great. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, so that my feet did not slip. I have pursued mine enemies and destroyed them, and turned not again until I had consumed them. And I have consumed them, and wounded them that they could not arise, yea they are fallen under my feet. For thou hast girded me with strength to battle, them that rose up against me hast thou subdued under me. Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies. That I might destroy them that hate me. They looked, but there was none to save. Even unto the Lord, but he answered them not. Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the earth. I did stamp them as the mire of the street, and did spread them abroad.”

We need more troublemakers in the church today. God is looking for holy troublemakers, that is, men and women who are filled with the Holy Ghost and would stir up trouble for the enemy. Why? Because Satan is waging war against God’s people. God has called us to be soldiers. He has not called us to be parasites, benchwarmers or politicians. He has called us to be aggressive soldiers. So, He is looking for holy troublemakers, spiritually aggressive people. This year, we must get spiritually aggressive. The Bible says that our weapons of warfare are not carnal, not political, but spiritual. We alone can make the difference. The power to determine whether things go on positively or negatively rests on the church.

It is true that some people have programmed certain things into the sun, moon and the stars and thereby limiting others. It is only the church of God that can pull down these altars that are mounted above. We need to be spiritually aggressive in order to be able to do that. We need an army of troublemakers now who will stir up and challenge all the established dead churches, satanic strongholds, wicked institutions, witchcraft covens, and all the evil arrangements in the heavenlies.

There are some people who can take a person’s name and programme it into the moon and the stars because they don’t want the person to rise. And the person would never make progress and will be ruined if nothing is done urgently. So, it is not the kind of thing you smile at. It is something to be spiritually aggressive about. The Lord is looking for holy troublemakers who will challenge this kind of thing.

Sometime ago, a group of evangelists went out to preach in a place where there were a lot of satanic strongholds. They went to the first man and said, “We have come to talk to you about Jesus.” He said, “Jesus? I am coming.” By the time he came back, the first person dropped his Bible and slept off, and before you know it, all the ten of them fell down and slept off. He then woke them up and said, “Don’t come here again,” and drove them away. They quickly picked up their Bibles and ran away, totally embarrassed. Now, those were people who were supposed to be Holy Ghost filled.

We see the testimony of the apostles in Acts. 15:26 which says, “Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” They considered their lives to be nothing. They committed their lives to God and God was with them. God worked with them. Anywhere they went, signs and wonders followed them. People knew that they came there. If we are ever going to move our environment for God, we must follow their examples. In Acts 16:20, we see another testimony of those who started what we are doing now. It says, “And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city.” Also, Acts. 17: 6 says, “And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.”

So the kingdom of Christ has come to turn things around. Paul and Silas were two of the greatest troublemakers we see in the Bible. They were going through a city and one girl was crying after them saying, “These men are the servants of the most high God, who have come to preach the way of salvation.” The girl was saying the right thing but with the wrong spirit. Paul, the holy troublemaker, allowed the girl to cry for three days and after that he turned against the spirit inside her and rebuked it, saying, “Get out of her, you foul spirit,” and the serpentine spirit left her. When Paul cast out the demon in her and there was an uproar in the whole city. The people who were making money with her, caused trouble. Eventually, the apostles were beaten, dragged on the floor and put into the innermost part of the jail and chained. What these men did was to turn the city upside down. When they got to the prison, they started singing and commotion happened the following day. They caused an earthquake and the prison doors got broken and their chains fell off. But with all these they did not run out of the prison. When the guards wanted to kill themselves, they told them not to do so, that they would not escape. To add to this, they demanded an apology and that they be escorted out of the prison. Eventually, the authorities apologized to them and asked them to go.

God is looking for such people now. That is, men and women who understand what the Bible means by, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the words of their testimonies. And they loved not their lives unto death,” meaning that they have donated their lives to Jesus. The Bible says that whosoever wants to save his life shall lose it.

Sometime ago, a pastor friend of mine was invited to a street which was full of herbalists. Each of their signboards was larger than that of the church. People trooped to them day and night. This annoyed the spirit of the pastor, unlike some Christians who would see this kind of thing but it would not annoy their spirit. So, everyday, at 2 a.m. the pastor went to these buildings, pointed at them one after the other and prayed like this: “You powers of darkness that are helping herbalists to operate here, evaporate from here and condense into hell fire, in Jesus’ name.” After he did this for a month, the herbalists called a meeting to decide what to do. They could not face the pastor and they waited for the day his General Overseer came. They went to the General Overseer and said, “Sir, that your dog you put here, restrain him or bring the former pastor back.” The former pastor was not disturbing them. When the General Overseer heard that, he could not believe his ears. He was amazed at the way these people with the powers of darkness spoke openly.

The truth is that God would manifest His power only to those who stand up against the forces of hell, and not to those who are still busy struggling with simple things. God would manifest His power only to those who stand against the forces of darkness and not to those who are still fighting their wives and husbands at home instead of fighting the devil. The devil may rage, the powers that be may threaten, but God has all the power, and will stand by you when you take a stand. The secret of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego was that they took a stand against the devil. The Almighty was happy with them and He came to their aid. But when you compromise, and you are neither here nor there, God, too, cannot stand by you. All the singing and praying that do not touch people’s lives must stop. The counsellors must counsel with fire. The prayer teams must take their proper positions, not the type of praying teams that would be meeting and witches are busy with their own discussions there. All the evangelism without fire must stop. The city and the country must know that Jesus is Lord.

We need more sisters who will be aggressive for Jesus; we need more brothers who will know the Bible more than they know the names of perfumes. We need more actions. We need to spit more fire.

A certain pastor came to me complaining that his church was not growing. He complained that so and so were disturbing him. I simply told him that his problem was because he had no fire in his life. I encouraged him to seek the fire of God and watch what would happen. He went back to his station, did as I told him and things began to happen. In that city which was under the stronghold of the children of the bondwoman, was a popular mad woman. Everybody knew her because she had a small dustbin in every corner of the town. One day, while the pastor and his men were clearing the ground they found her, they laid hands on her and prayed for her. Suddenly, she said, “Why am I wearing this? What am I doing here? Where are my children?” Then it was clear that she had been healed. That miracle alone brought a lot of people to the church. Before then, the pastor was busy apportioning blame. But when the fire came, he became a holy troublemaker. We must get hold of the horns of the altar and refused to let them go. What do I mean by that? It means that we should pursue the enemy by aggressive prayer and by appropriating the blood of Jesus. The Bible teaches that we must pursue our enemies and overcome them. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we can be victorious over the enemies. The enemies should be running away from us not we running away from them. For example, if you have a person who is possessed in your place of work, he should be the one avoiding you and not you avoiding him. David pursued his enemies until they were destroyed and consumed. He did not rest until his enemies were destroyed. A lot of us have become comfortable cohabiting with the enemy. But if you are wearing your full spiritual armour, the enemy should be running away from you.

Sometime ago, a madman was brought to one of our meetings. He was very violent. So, the prayer warriors prayed that the Lord should put him to sleep and he slept off. His people carried him home still sleeping. He slept for two days before he woke up. The woman with whom he was sharing a shop in the market came to the house and asked of him and was told that he was in. She did not believe it until she was led to his room where she met him sitting up, hail and hearty. She said, “What did you do to him to make him normal?” They said, “Prayers in the name of Jesus.” She went home, slept and when she woke up, she ran mad. There had been a reverse. That is what we call ‘back to sender.’

So, our prayers must be backed up with fire, and likewise our Bible reading and all our other actions. Our prayers must be backed up with our actions. Elijah was a powerful man of prayer. There is no Bible student who will dispute that. But after he had prayed, he backed up his prayers with actions. He challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest. Elijah was not the only prophet around that time. There were others who were hid in the caves and were fed with bread and water. They were silent, unknown and afraid. But Elijah, the troublemaker, came out, and even the king called him a troublemaker. He told the king that he and his father’s house were the troublers of Israel.

Elijah killed 450 prophets of Baal. I pray that you will kill your prophet of Baal today, in Jesus’ name. Elijah was not a gentleman to the devil. He openly mocked the prophets of Baal. He knew that Baal had powers but just as he had locked up heaven and put the keys in his pocket, he locked up the powers of Baal. He knew that they were not going to come there. So he mocked and ridiculed them. Gentlemen don’t do things like that.

The Bible says that the righteous shall be as bold as the lion. Jesus Himself was a troublemaker. He drove people away from the temple and called the religious leaders of His time serpents, the blind, white sepulchers and brood of vipers. He even said to some people, “You are of your father, the devil.” Those were not the words of a gentleman.

Unfortunately, many churches today are filled with silent, delicate and fragile gentlemen and women, spiritual diplomats who do not want any trouble. They would say, “I like the way I am doing my own things quietly, I don’t want to be too fanatical. If I go beyond this, my family members will call a meeting and ask me to take it easy with this my new religion.” That is why the kingdom of the Lord is called an upside down kingdom. The values of the world are not ours. What the world cherishes is dung to us. We do not run after the same things as the world because we know that our citizenship is not here. We are going to a better country, a city without foundation. So, there are certain things that we do not bother ourselves about.

Some people would say, “Stop preaching to me. Don’t pray for me anymore. Don’t force your religion on me” They would scream and scream, but such things do not bother holy troublemakers. They still continue. I read a story about a man called Charles Finney. One day, as he was taking a stroll, he found a man leaning on a pole, smoking hemp. He went to the man and said, “Jesus loves you. Why are you smoking this?” The man got angry and told him that what he was doing with his life was none of his business. Mr. Finney smiled and said, “With due respect, sir, what you are doing concerns me. As an evangelist, it is my business.” The fellow asked him to get away. He went away. But three nights later, somebody came banging on his door. When he opened the door, he found the same man he had preached the gospel to crying. The man said, “Since the night you spoke to me I have had no peace. I want to give my life to Jesus.” That was how the man got born again.

THE MINISTRY OF PHILIP

This is a year that every serious Christian should receive Philip’s kind of ministry. What is Phillip’s kind of ministry? Act 8: 5-8 s; “Then Phillip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them and the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them, and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. And there was great joy in that city.” Philip was not an ordained pastor. He was just a layman filled with the Holy Ghost. He was not a pulpit man but a layperson who believed in the power of the Holy Ghost. Philip went everywhere expecting miracles to happen. He was the man of the marketplace but he caused things to happen. We need to imbibe his kind of ministry.

For Christians to make an impact on the nation or city where they are, they must become Christ-consumed and Holy Spirit-filled like Philip. We must become evangelists with faith to cast out evil spirits and pray for salvation and healing of others. Don’t stay where you were last year. Some people before they were blessed with cars, came to services early. Now that they have cars they come late and give all kinds of excuses. If they do not say that the carburetor of their car is faulty, they would say that their drivers came late. So, they are blaming God for the breakthrough. Where do we go from here?

A certain minister was sent to a town in the West African coast region. When he got there, he decided to visit the chief priest whom he learnt was the one causing trouble in the place. The chief priest said, “My dear pastor, I will demonstrate something to you now." He picked a piece of maize and placed it on his palm and instantly the maize started to grow on his palm. The pastor watched him and was very scared. The chief then asked him if his God could do that. He did not have an answer, and he quickly looked for an excuse and ran back to Nigeria. Later, another minister was posted there. He also went to the chief priest, who began to demonstrate his demonic power again. He put the maize in his palm and it started to grow as usual. The brother watched, and the priest said, “Can your God do this?” The brother said, “No. My God does not waste time on things like this but I will show you a little bit of what my God can do. He then opened his mouth and said, “You satanic maize, be roasted, in the name of Jesus.” And the chief priest cried out, “My hand, my hand.” After the maize had roasted, the fire began to burn his hand.” The brother had to pray for his hand to heal. That was a troublemaker.

Where do we go from here? Do we want to continue our Christian race with such complaints as ‘something is pressing me down on my bed’, ‘something is pursuing me.’ or ‘I saw a snake.’ ‘I saw water and I wanted to cross and one woman said I should not cross?’ Would we allow the children of the bondwoman and the children of darkness to sit on our wealth and we will be watching them and believe that well, one day, something will happen? No. Nothing will happen until we begin to pray and address what should be addressed. Then things will start changing. The spirit of demonic silence must go. Many of us are too quiet about the things of God.

If you are a boss somewhere, buy tracts, put them on your table and distribute to those who come to see you. Don’t sit in the bus and sleep. If you open your mouth wide and preach, there is no way you will fall asleep. God will only commit Himself to those who will take a stand.

Create time for evangelism. The reason God puts you where you are is for you to reach out to some people. And if you are a failure there, it will be a disaster for the Almighty. You never know what you can do until you try.

Sometime ago, the daughter of a certain sister had a mental problem and she was very wild. She took her to the hospital where she was given a special room because the drugs were not working. She bounced on anybody who tried to enter into the room. One day, the sister listened to a message entitled, “You, the sleeping giant, stir up yourself.” After listening to the message, she went to the hospital and asked to see her daughter. They told her to talk to her from the window. She said no, that she would like to enter the room. She entered and when the daughter saw her, she became wild. But the sister said, “In the name of Jesus, you wild beast, come out of her now.” It was as if she gave a punch to the girl. She fell down and straightaway she said, “Mummy.” She became calm as she was delivered from the evil spirit troubling her.

The sister was shocked that she could do it. God will not commit Himself to those who would just sit down at home, or to men who after Sunday service, would sit down at home and watch television, who are not interested in house fellowship or group activities.

PRAYER POINTS

1. Anything programmed into the moon and the star against me, I dismantle you, in Jesus’ name.
2. Lay your hands on your head and say: Power, prosperity and purity, fall upon me now, in Jesus’ name.
3. Any evil thing programmed into this week against me, I dismantle you, in Jesus’ name.
4. Lord, I need your strength; I want to move out for you, in Jesus’ name.
5. Any sickness programmed into my life, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.
6. Every evil thing programmed into my life, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.
7. I disconnect my life from every spirit of failure, in Jesus’ name.
8. My life, refuse to invite failure, in the name of Jesus.
9. Holy Spirit, overshadow my life, in Jesus’ name.
10. The enemy that does not want to let me go, be buried alive, in the name of Jesus.
11. Every evil bird monitoring my life, I pluck out your eyes, in Jesus’ name.