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By Rev. Evans Adetokunbo Emmanuel
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Galatians 5:14-15 says For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
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In James 3:9-12, we read that therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
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The issue of praying that people we call enemies fall down and die, cursing people that offend us and seeking spiritual vengeance in the place of prayer has become so popular in the body of Christ particularly in Nigeria and we have to sincerely put it in proper perspective.
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I remember sometime in the early 90s, people started using a scripture in the laws of Moses to try to kill witches, suffer not a witch to live, in the usual doublespeak error where we say Christ is the final sacrifice for sin on one hand but wouldn’t mind picking anything that supports our pettiness from the law of Moses on the other hand. The quest not to suffer a witch to live has graduated to all out declaration for every enemy to die in the name of Jesus and over time this have become the central theme of our prayer and the drawer of people to prayer meetings.
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The instructions of Jesus Christ on how to handle our enemies have been generally sidelined here, just as in many other issues to the point that if the four gospels were removed from our Bibles, “Christianity” as practiced by many will still go on as if nothing had happened! We hardly follow Jesus Christ yet we follow the “Bible”!
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The instructions of Christ on this remains sacrosanct and if you are still in Christ you’d better be sure you are following Him! We need to keep reviewing and taking heed to what we have once known lest they slip from us as admonished in Hebrews 2:1 that therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. I too had allowed some things to slip at a time so I’m not writing with an ‘holier than thou’ attitude but admonishing that we should review whatever we think we are sure of in the light of what the scripture actually says.
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Jesus Christ said we should pray for our enemies, He canceled the principle of an eye for an eye, He instructed we do good to those who hate us, He said that way, we shall be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect! Matthew 5:38-48 – Go read it!
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But we have gone on as if He hasn’t said anything like that and what do we risk? We are at the risk of institutionalizing sanctimonious witchcraft in the body of Christ. We need to understand that the realm of the spirit isn’t exclusive to God, His children and His angels. Satan and the dark Kingdom too have their space in there… Their human agents too reach from the physical into that space by faith and prayer. It’s only that their faith is in Satan and their prayer isn’t to cause God’s will to be done on the earth nor for His kingdom to come. Their prayer is to cause Satan to steal, kill and to destroy. They don’t want sinners to repent and be saved but to die and to perish. They don’t want divine destinies fulfilled but evil!
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So when we too forget the spirit we were made of, and we permit fear, unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred, vengeance, envy and other works of the flesh and we step into the realm of the spirit by faith and prayer, we pray contrary to the will of God, we ask that the sinner who God planned to be saved be killed because such has offended us, we ask that the brother or sister who offended us be killed and since God won’t attend to prayers outside His will the kingdom that such prayers are compatible with takes over the requests and if the one being attacked is not standing strong spiritually, such falls victim and the one who “prayed” rejoices but had practiced witchcraft, a work of the flesh.
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Apostle Paul said we can actually consume one another if we don’t walk in love and those who do the works of the flesh shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
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We must be careful of saintly witchcraft. We can’t partake of the table of the Lord and of Satan same time. We should remember we were also forgiven and washed and everyone deserves same salvation in Christ. If Paul as Saul had been killed for his wickedness against the church we would have missed such a great gift of God. God doesn’t need to kill anyone today for His will to be done in another person’s life.
We should be careful of covered up witchcraft and we should be careful also to be under the cover of God against such. May God grant us wisdom!Â
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Galatians 5:14 -22 says For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
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Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all (1 Timothy 4:15).Â
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Rev. Evans Adetokunbo Emmanuel is a prolific writer and ordained minister of the gospel. He is the president of Grace Missions International Ministries based in Lagos, Nigeria, an inter-denominational ministry that focuses on ministering to ministers. The ministry holds a bible class every Wednesday (The Bible Class) where topical issues relating to Christianity today are freely discussed in the light of the bible under the auspices of the Holy Spirit. You can access more of his materials at http://evansademanuel.blogspot.com
