By Bisi Daniels
The problem people who consult jujuman or babalawos encounter is that they are led in a wild goose chase of the cause of their problems. Ordinary fatigue or headache from sleep deficiency could be traced to some old, wrinkled women in the village.
The more complicated the search, the bigger the rituals and sacrifices.
But the God who sees everything vividly is unable to lie about our enemies.
A contrast to the style of jujumen is when Nathan confronted King David with a parable on his double sin of adultery and murder.
David responded with anger and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die!”
Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.
Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.”
During a deliverance service at the ongoing 2021 Annual Convention of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) on Thursday, the General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye provided a detailed guide for the search for our enemies.
He had himself been a victim of babalawos before he gave his life to Jesus to be a fearless overcomer.
In a testimony he had shared before, he was rising so fast his people feared he would be a target of spiritual attacks.
He said, “In relative terms, I developed very fast. I became a lecturer at the University of Lagos; I bought a new car and I built a house – all these were before I was thirty years old. And so my people felt at this point that they should take care of me by protecting me from enemies who must have been watching me.
They took me to one Baba Isale in Oshogbo whom they claimed was very powerful. He saw me as I drove in, in my car. He saw the way I was dressed and I am sure he might have made up his mind to humiliate me.
He said to me, “Oh, I will take care of you, there will be no problem, but come on such and such a day with a goat, a live goat.”
He ordered that the goat must not be carried in my car; instead I must lead it through the streets of Oshogbo. Can you imagine that: a lecturer at the University of Lagos leading a goat through the street? The goat knew I was leading it to its death, so it fought very hard. But, I led it still with all my might to the herbalist.
The herbalist took the goat to his backyard and then gave me three amulets. He said I should tie one to the steering column of my car to ensure that I never collided with anybody.
The second, I should tie in the boot of my car to make sure nobody hit me from behind. The third one was to be tied to the driver’s seat so that in case anything happened I would just disappear.
Anyway, I returned to Lagos thinking that I was super-charged. But in two weeks, I had three accidents! So I removed the amulets and threw them into the lagoon.
Thank God now I am free. I can go anywhere I want because I have a new Commander-in-Chief.”
On Thursday, he started his sermon titled “More than conquerors,” by acknowledging that life is war, starting from the time a child is born, which makes him cry.
And growing up, we fight all manner of enemies – internal and external- who attack us physically and spiritually.
Household enemies may even include our parents, spouses and other people, who are supposed to be close to us.
Additionally there are people who just hate us or see us as their competition.
Pastor Adeboye said in all the battles, we are supposed to be conquerors with the support and grace of God.
He said there are three types of conquerors: Those who are less than conquerors because it is God Himself who is dealing with us, like in the case of Jonah; or when He withdraws His support;
Those who are conquerors when God, like He did for David against Goliath, is fighting for them; and those in a much better position of being more than more than conquerors because God gives them victory over their enemies without their involvement.
Having explained that much, he dropped the Nathan type of bombshell: “in many cases of warfare, we are our own worst enemies; and the greatest victory in this case is victory over ourselves, “he said.
He went ahead to list ways in which the enemy in us manifests:
* Pride: The Scripture says the pride of a man brings him low; and also that God resists the proud, which means that pride brings us in direct confrontation with God. However, the biggest problem is that proud people do not even recognize they are proud. God cherishes humility and wants us to be humble at all times.
* Sexual Lust: Despite God’s insistence that the body is His temple, which must not be defiled, sexual lust appears to be a major weakness of most people.
It destroyed Samson, who was anointed by God to rule over his people; and it continues to ruin people, including some of today’s richest people.
* Food: Some people have turned food to their god. Although God, the creator of the human body, wants us to eat to sustain it, He never recommended enslavement to food.
* Talkativeness: The Scriptures say the wicked is sneered by his lips, and Jesus said we will give account of every loose word we utter. The less we talk, the better for us.
* Self-justification: There is always the tendency for us to justify our sins by saying it is not too bad, but a sin is sin.
*Anger: The Bible is clear about its destructive nature and even declares that anger rests in the bosom of fools. As hardworking as he was and also as close to God, Moses was, he could not make it to the Promised Land because of momentary anger. Refuse to be provoked; refuse to be angry if you want to win the battles of life.
Before making the altar call, Pastor Adeboye advised that to be a conqueror in life’s battles, better still to be more than a conqueror, we have to conquer ourselves.
As part of the convention, over 24,000 ministers were ordained. The ceremony which was presided over by Pastor Enoch Adeboye produced a total 10,806 deacons and deaconesses as well as 4,726 Assistant Pastors made up of male and female ministers. Another 2,231 Pastors will be ordained on Saturday.
They are expected to help the pastorate in its quest to move the Church forward to greater heights of glory.