WRESTLING WITH SHADOWS

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Our message this week is very important, especially to those who were born and brought up in this environment. Life is something many people fail to understand because there are so many questions those men cannot answer. For example, Cain and Abel were two men born of the same parents. They had similar backgrounds, similar abilities and were headed in the same direction but Abel was successful while Cain was overshadowed by failure and frustration. The world is exactly like that.

A lot of black people are wrestling with shadows. What does this mean? Some people have done all there is to do for them to be successful, yet they remain failures. Some even have higher degrees and have done everything that qualifies one for resounding success yet success remain elusive; their children are disobedient, their marriages are unstable and sicknesses are becoming a routine affair. A person just discovers that in one particular area or in many areas of his life, he is struggling with something he cannot understand or identify. He just goes from one problem to another. He is always at the edge of good health but never really achieving good health. Sometimes the way may look clear once in a while but as some people try to go to the clear way, they stumble and fall. This is what we call wrestling with shadows. Many people cannot get a grip of what is happening. They are struggling with something they cannot understand or identify.

We are in a world of powerful forces that harass men. These powerful forces do not operate according to natural laws. There is a lamentation on this in the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 9: 11 says, “I returned, and I saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” This lamentation proves that there are forces operating on the lives of men that men cannot understand. The forces that determine the course of our lives are both visible and invisible. The powers that confuse the lives of men most can do so through what we call the mouth gate. A lot of people are in such bondage. 1 Corinthians 10:16 talks about the kind of communion we have in the church now. It says, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” During communion service, when the cup and the bread have been blessed, the cup then has the power to transmit the blessings of the New Covenant to those who drink it. Therefore, by simple spiritual interpretation, it shows that a physical object like a cup used during the Last Supper can transmit spiritual power. Likewise in Numbers chapter 5, we read about what happens when a woman is suspected of being unfaithful to her marriage vows in those days. Numbers 5: 18 says, “And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering. And the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that caused the curse.” (They would have water inside a cup and issue a curse on the water). Verses 19 - 22 say, “And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse. But if thou hast gone aside unto another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband. Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell. And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot. And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.” In this case, the cup of water is the vehicle through which the destroying power is transmitted. So, if the woman had been truly unfaithful, that water would transmit the curse and the belly would swell and explode. So, destroying powers can be transferred by physical objects. Therefore, if you have been served meals from the devil’s table, you may live your life wrestling with shadows unless you are purged. Once you get something from the table of the devil you would be wrestling with shadows and won’t know what you are fighting against unless you are purged. The reason is that what you are fighting against is inside your body and you are thinking that it is one old woman or one relative somewhere. The thing has already been deposited inside, and you are going around with it.

In our environment, wicked people succeed in making some people to be wrestling with shadows through the mouth gate. Sometime ago, I went to somebody’s office and the person said, “You are welcome. We have some meat that we just used for a festival.” I said, “What do I do with it?” He said, “It is for consumption.” I said, “I don’t eat food from the table of the devil.” He said, “What? Table of the devil?” I said, “Jesus has been made a once and for all sacrifice. Anybody that is killing anything after Jesus died is sacrificing to the devil and those who eat it are eating from the table of the devil.” The scripture is very clear on this. It can be very frustrating when somebody is fighting an external force when the problem is internal. It can also be very frustrating when somebody has a physical object in his possession, which is the vehicle of his problem and he does not know. Sometime ago, we prayed for a sister and the demon spirit that spoke from her said, “Well, ask her to bring the cloth we gave to her.” The sister brought the cloth, which was destroyed before she could regain her freedom. It means that as long as she had that cloth in her possession, she could sing all the praise worship in this planet, and read all the psalms, but there would be no freedom.

Sometime ago, we held a revival service in a church and when an altar call was made to those who wanted to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I saw a dear old woman who came crying and saying that she could not understand why it was difficult for her to receive the baptism even after many revivalists had visited her church. So, I said, “Madam, you will be filled with the power today.” She said, “Thank you my son I will try.” I told her to pray and she prayed until she was sweating. Her clothes were soaked. I was impressed with her prayers yet nothing happened. I could get impressed but I am not the giver of the Holy Spirit. At a stage, I left her alone and sat somewhere else to pray. I asked the Lord what was wrong with her and the Lord said I should look at her hand. I looked at her hand and saw a particular ring on her fourth finger. On the ring was the symbol of a half moon. The Lord said that with that ring on her finger, His Spirit would not enter into her life. Then I said, “Mama, open your eyes. Who gave you this ring?” She told me that she inherited it from her great grandmother. I took the ring from her and made her to understand that the half moon was the sign of witchcraft. She gladly gave it to me and did not have to pray for one minute before she received the power of the Holy Ghost. She did not know that her enemy was on her fourth finger for 25 years. She slept with it, woke up with it, bathed with it, went everywhere and did everything with it. So, she was busy wrestling with shadows instead of the real thing, which was on her fourth finger.

When you are wrestling with shadows, you would be kept away from receiving the blessings of God. God would be offering the blessings but you would not be able to get them. Sometimes you may not even realize that there is a blessing to receive. Somebody who is under witchcraft attack in our environment would be manipulated, intimidated and dominated. What do I mean by manipulation? The following illustration gives us the answer. Sometime ago, a man married a very beautiful wife, who was light in complexion. But he noticed that in the afternoons, the woman would take a knife and begin to scratch her body and salt would be coming out of her body. He got worried and decided to visit a white garment prophet. Before he got to the white garment prophet, the woman had visited the white garment prophet to inform him that her husband was coming and that he should charge him very high fees. They were members of the same evil society but the man did not know. That is manipulation. How can you have a bed in your house and somebody would tell you to be sleeping on the mat, or they remove your all the protein food from your diet, that is domination and intimidation. The wife of a man asked him for soup money and he had only N20. He gave her the N20 and she took it, tore it up and said, “What do you want me to do with N20?” And the man slapped her. The woman said, “Okay, you have just slapped yourself.” Right from that day, the man started feeling as if somebody was whipping him. Even when he was in the office, it was the same thing. He would be dancing in the streets and people thought he was mad. He was in that condition until he got to a prayer meeting where the Lord sent fire on the invisible evil whip. The man was wrestling with what we call shadows. In normal wrestling matches, what we have is a physical challenge. But when your challenger is a shadow, you have an impossible task in your hands.

HOW DO PEOPLE GET TO WRESTLE WITH SHADOWS?

1. Idol worship: Worship and acknowledgement of false gods would lead somebody to wrestle with shadows. Involvement with dark societies and occult powers would cause a person to wrestle with shadows. If somebody’s father was a secret cult member, he would be wrestling with shadows.

2. Disobedience: Disobedience to God’s clear command would lead to wrestling with shadows. The Bible says that at the time of ignorance, God winked at it. But if you understand it and you are disobedient to it, you are inviting shadows.

3. Disrespect for parents and the elderly: This makes people to wrestle with shadows.

4. Sexual perversion: All forms of sexual perversion, as far as the Bible is concerned, make people to wrestle with shadows.

5. Stealing: All kinds of stealing and also being stingy with God make people to wrestle with shadows.

6. Curses: Anyone operating under a curse would be wrestling with shadows.

7. Remote control forces: There are some forces called remote control forces. Somebody who lives in London could be remote controlling the life of another person in Nigeria like somebody operating a television set. Our environment is so filled with wickedness that many people are already programmed to spend the better part of their lives wrestling with shadows. This message gives you have an opportunity to strike back and recover your blessings.

SIX AREAS BY WHICH DARK POWERS MAKE PEOPLE IN THIS ENVIRONMENT TO WRESTLE WITH SHADOWS

1. Attack by demon idols: The first area by which they make people in this environment to wrestle with shadows is what I call attack by demon idols. They send a demon idol to a person to attack him or her. They cut off part of people’s clothes, steal their shoes or underwear’s or collect things from people’s body such as their hair, nail, etc and give them to the demon idol to enable it to identify who to fight. If you lose things like that, and wave it off as one of those things, you will be surprised to find that it is not one of those things, but an attack. These demon idols which are usually short, come with big clubs in their hands. They are generally used to kill or render people useless. I know a person who was attacked with a demon idol. The thing came into his bedroom and hit him on the right hand with its club. The hand got paralyzed immediately. If not for the fact that he knew the name of Jesus, he would have been maimed in that hand for life. A person who is spiritually blind would not be able to see a demon idol. So, if it is sent to attack such a person, he or she will not know what hit him or her. If you allow them to go free, you are giving them opportunity to stage a comeback. So, you must deal with them.

WAY OUT

1. Withdraw your stolen materials or the parts cut off from your body from them.

2. Issue an invitation to the demon idol to come by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and command it to go back to the sender.

3. Command the evil materials that have been injected into your system to be neutralized by the blood of Jesus. That is how to handle them.

If you are living in a flat where a demon idol has walked through before, whether it succeeded or not in its assignment in that place, something has already been deposited there, so, you need to clean up the place.

2. Strange touch: A strange touch is when you feel that somebody touched you but you did not see the person or even if you saw the person, certain things began to go wrong as from that moment. That is what is called a strange touch. When somebody with a spiritual poison in his hand shakes your hand or touches any part of your body, you would feel serious heat internally or a funny sensation. That is a strange touch. Life would become meaningless as from that moment.

Way out

1. Shake off the strange touch, in Jesus’ name.
2. Ask for the fire of the Holy Spirit to saturate every organ of your body.
3. Return the strange touch to the sender.

Beloved, if you notice that someone is just looking for an opportunity to touch you, you better beware. Women who do not mind men touching parts of their bodies carelessly are playing with fire. They can receive a strange touch through that way. A believer ought to angrily give such men a stern warning, plead the blood of Jesus and shake off the evil touch. It may be the touch of wastage, which can result into all kinds of female problems like late marriage, bareness, etc.

3. Encounter with the spirit of death: Wicked people can send the spirit of death to a person. This evil spirit is generally a dark tall shadow. It walks into the room and wants to touch the person. Or the person could be seeing another personality inside him or he could be seeing coffins, or he could be seeing himself being buried, or he could see people planning his funeral. Another evidence of the spirit of death pursing somebody is when you have masquerades running after you in the dream. A lot of people have this encounter.

Way out

1. Bind the spirit of death and hell.

2. Return spiritual obituary to the senders.

3. Keep declaring Psalm 118: 17 which says, “I shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord.” If you have experienced this kind of thing before and you did not cancel it, you maybe walking about the street three-quarter dead by now.

4. Strange call: Some people have heard their names called out in the middle of a sleep, these are strange calls. Sometimes, a person could hear a familiar voice call out his name three times. If the person answers, he or she becomes a shadow fighter as from that day. A lot of people have answered such strange calls. Many times they call us like that but God just does not allow us to hear it. He sends them back before we even have time to hear because He says, “Touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm.”

Way out

1. Ask for forgiveness for not being a proper sheep of Jesus, because He says, “My sheep know my voice and a stranger they will not follow.” If then as a child of God, you heard a strange voice and you answered, it means that something is wrong with your spiritual life. So, the first thing is to ask for forgiveness for answering the call that is not from Jesus.

2. Rewind the call.

3. Return the call back to the sender. If you had answered, withdraw your answer by this simple prayer: I withdraw the answer, in Jesus’ name.

5. Serpentine spirits attack: Serpentine spirits are very dangerous demons. They represent the dragon we read about in Revelation 12. A person under serpentine attack may be pursued by a snake in the dream. A snake may spit on the person or bite the person. The person may be playing and discussing with a snake in the dream. What are the implications of all these? They would prevent the person from achieving goodness in life. They would scare the person away from good things. If the person has received saliva from the snake, he would have an evil mark on him. But the blood of Jesus can rub it off. If a snake has bitten the person then spiritual poison has been released into his or her body. This would cause sickness and death in the person’s life. The snake venom that has been spiritually introduced into a person’s life can amputate the person’s spiritual life. If somebody plays and discusses with a snake in the dream, it means that he or she has a covenant with the snake and water spirit as well. The person may be unconscious of this.

Way out

1. Rebuke the serpentine spirit, in Jesus’ name.

2. Withdraw your name from their register because they just don’t send the snake to anybody. They have a book from which they consult.

3. Plead the blood of Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit to neutralize the serpentine saliva and every poison injected into your body.

4. Release yourself from every conscious and unconscious serpentine covenant. Now you can command any obstruction to leave your way. If a snake is running after somebody in the dream, the truth is that the snake is trying to chase the person away from the blessing that is about to come to him or her.

6. Demonic signature: A certain young female undergraduate, who used to make a mockery of her lecturers who preached the gospel to her changed her music when she woke up one morning and found a signature on her palm. The signature was written in a strange language she did not understand. She used all kinds of soap to wash it away but it did not go. Eventually, she had to go to the preachers she had mocked for help. These lecturers preached to her and prayed that the evil signature should go off and it disappeared. That was an evil signature. She was lucky to have seen it physically. People who have evil signatures on their bodies do not prosper. Whatever they lay their hands on will not work. Marks of scratches that people see on their bodies when they wake up from sleep are evil signatures. They must be rubbed off.

Way out

1. Clean off the marks and stamps by the blood of Jesus.Invite the Holy Ghost power to burn away the demonic pen used to write them.

2. Release yourself from any evil linkage. Psalm 97: 10 says, “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 149: 5-9 says, “Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two- edged sword in their hands. To execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishment upon the people. To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron. To execute upon them the judgment written: This honour have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord.” These scriptures give us the right to rewind or recall any evil that has been done to anyone in the past and to execute judgment on behalf of God. Colossians 2:14-15 says, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” That is the stand of scripture. 1 John 3:8 says, “…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” You will be amazed at how many people the devil has tormented and is still tormenting with shadows. You must pray aggressively to defeat them because we know that they do not have the final say on your life. It is only God that has the final say but if you don’t bring God into the situation, He will be watching you. If you bring Him in, you can take back what has been taken away from you by violence.

PRAYER POINTS

1. I refuse death and curses, in the name of Jesus.
2. I choose life and blessings, in Jesus’ name.
3. I cancel all satanic claims against me, in the name of Jesus.
4. I shake off every strange touch, in the name of Jesus.
5. I bind the spirit of death and hell, in the name of Jesus.
6. Every strange call upon my life, go back to the sender, in the name of Jesus.
7. You snake spirit, I bruise your head, in the name of Jesus.
8. You demonic handwriting, I rub you off with the blood of Jesus, in Jesus’ name.
9. (Place one hand on your head and the other one on your stomach as you take this prayer point) Holy Ghost fire, begin to burn in my body, in the name of Jesus.
10. I break every curse of blindness, in the name of Jesus.
11. Wonderful God, I thank you, in Jesus’ name.