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.
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.
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.
I
remember that 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.
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"!
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all (1 Timothy 4:15).
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
