Christians Living Under Oppressive Spirits

Many Christians today understand they are made of the body, spirit and soul. Many however do not understand how these components of human existence interact with each other within, let alone understand how these components interact with the outside world. Unfortunately, I have seen more Christians under the oppressive bondage of negative spirits no different from people in the secular world. Why has the Word not able to influence Christians to break away from the bondage of the enemy? The answer is simple. Many Christians live as carnal Christians placing themselves at a realm where they are vulnerable. They do not realize this because they are unaware of the spirit that is driving them, or the realm they operate from. Walking in the Spirit is not just about reading your Bible everyday, or dancing in the church on Sundays. Walking in the Spirit of God is a process where a Christian learns to surrender his or her daily operational desires under the control of the Holy Spirit. Carnal Christians are driven by human desires for personal gains that cater primarily to human flesh as driven by human spirit and cognitive understanding. Ask yourself this question early in the morning everyday. What is the spirit driving you? Whatever drives us is the key to the source of our daily motivation. Are you driven by the desires for personal fulfillment, or you are driven by the desires of the Holy Spirit to please God? For most people who are not in the ministry, the first part of life’s journey is education, and the pursuit of personal fulfillment. Later in life, it becomes obvious that the pursuit of personal fulfillment alone is never enough to grant us eternal joy and inner peace. There is a hunger due to a void within for God.

When Jesus was rejected to lodge in a city, his disciples asked whether they should call for an air strike from Heaven like Elijah did to destroy those people. Jesus rebuked them saying, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them" (St. Luke 9:55-56).

Jesus was telling his disciples that the motivational energy of the Spirit driving them should be the divine desire to save human souls and lead them to eternal salvation.

Ask yourself the question. What is the spirit driving you everyday? Is it the spirit of anger, hate, pride, greed, or that of the Spirit of Christ? Can the invisible enemy be camping around you without your awareness and doing havocs? Are you aware of the invisible world that is directly affecting your daily activities? This article will open your spiritual eyes to see the enemy in the invisible realm and you will learn to fight effectively in the spirit realm with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Who is Driving You? The Holy Spirit or Human Spirit?

In contrast to being driven by the Holy Spirit, those who are carnal Christians allow their desires and operational ideations to be driven by the energy of the human spirit. At times people will confuse the voice of the human spirit with that of the Spirit of God. Carnal Christians come to church on Sunday to get high only on emotional excitements of the music, preaching, and some of the entertainments during service. They are like spectators in the sanctuary waiting for the latest attractions. After the service is over they become empty. Some of them may actually go into depression. The critical reason is that carnal Christians are not driven by the energy of the Spirit of God, but by that of human spirit. Being driven by human desires places many carnal Christians in danger of being vulnerable to the attacks of the devil. If any Christian is driven by the energy of the Holy Spirit, worship service is the time to connect and plug into the realm of the Holy Spirit. The attack will come, but you are already empowered and enshrouded by the Holy Spirit. Extinguishing the poisonous arrows of the enemy with the Word of God comes easy. It is like a tennis ball bouncing off the rock. After service is over, the Holy Spirit will fired people up so high in the Spirit realm, the joy of being in the presence of God will last for days, not hours. I experience this all the time.

For many years when I am on a project instructed by the Holy Spirit, I tend to feel the joy, love and peace along the way. If I do not feel any of these, I will question the motives behind my project. Could I be doing this for selfish reasons? Many times, we will engage in a project no matter how successful, but only meant to either make us richer, or to boost our egos as preachers or as celebrities. Until we learn to empty ourselves before God, we cannot effectively be filled with the divine riches of Heaven.

Once the project is completed, I will always feel spiritual joy in my heart for days. I believe this is part of God’s reward if you faithfully serve his purpose as instructed. Throughout the entire project depending on how big the project, I may be fasting and constantly praying to God for directions. As long as I tuned to the realm of the Holy Spirit, the Lord will direct my footsteps. "The footsteps of the righteous are ordered by the Lord" (Psalm 37:23). The righteous people are those who allow the Holy Spirit to direct them – their hearts are in spiritual alignment with that of the Spirit of God.

Dangers of Being Driven by Human Emotions

Many people are spontaneously driven by instincts. Animals are also driven by instincts. How are we different? Christians should allow the Holy Spirit, not instinct to drive them. If you allow human emotions to drive you like athletes do, once the project is over, and the emotional high of adrenaline is withdrawn, you may catapult into sadness, or sometimes into depression. This is why some athletes tend to commit suicide during non-performance period, similar to other performance artists on the stage. Performance artists and athletes get high on cheers from spectators. When the lights are turned off, music stopped, and the audience disappears, in the quietness of the hotel room, the performer on the stage goes into depression. That’s the vulnerable time the demons go into attack. Know your enemy, and know your vulnerable moment. Hunger is a very dangerous instinct easily manipulated by the devil. Because you want to make a lot of money, do you have to sell your soul to the devil like some performance artists do today? Remember, the devil will eventually destroy the vessel he contains.

Majority of the drug accidental over-dose tend to happen post stage performance in an attempt, not to get high, but to regain emotional normalcy. The high is not the problem for most performance artists; the pain of the emotional deep is the most dangerous time for many of them because they might have been at a toxic level already. The next dose will finish them off, and death comes swiftly as an unexpected outcome. They call it accidental drug over dose. Most drugs given to people for euphoria whether legal or illegal have bi-phasic effects. The first phase is the high, lasting for a while. An emotional deep follows, which is lower than the normal threshold. The deep is the dangerous moment they are depressed despite the high level of drugs in the system. Another dose that helps to bring them back to normal threshold may inadvertently lead them to their graves.

Here is the solution. The Holy Spirit gives the best spiritual high without any side effects. "Taste it and know that he is good, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord" (Psalm 34:8). The best drug I ever tasted that felt so good, was given to me in the Spirit realm through the Holy Spirit by Jesus. People poison their bodies taking earthly drugs to get high when Jesus has a better supply through the Holy Spirit. I am not kidding! I want you to believe me!

"In his presence is the fullness of joy. In his right hand are ‘Pleasures’ forevermore" (Psalm 16:11). Check it out folks!

Just try him like Psalms 34 and 16 said. If you allow the human spirit to drive you, he places your flesh under the bondage of earthly cravings. He opens the door for the enemy! Eventually, the devil come inside, he will lead you to personal destruction.

When you surrender to the Holy Spirit, he sets you free. "And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (II Corinthians 3:17). Praise God!

As long as you are under the control of other spirits, they keep you in bondage. Your desires are therefore intimately tied to earthly things. You become a servant to whatever you allow to control you, even your dwelling mansion and the relentless desires for personal fulfillment. Again the question is, what is driving you? Can you be under spiritual oppression without realizing it?

Solution: Surrender to the Holy Spirit

The best way to protect yourself from post performance blues is to allow the Holy Spirit to be the guardian of your soul. You will NEVER suffer from post performance blues if you are walking in the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is a comforter. Sometimes, I feel emotionally low when I’m not doing anything, or playing too much in the flesh. It is a sign for me to get back into the Spirit realm of God. Perhaps, I have allowed myself to drift away from the Holy Spirit. The best way to protect yourself as a Christian from post performance blues is to surrender your soul to the Holy Spirit prior to getting on performance stage, or on the stage of life. Even after the performance is over, and you are away from home, instead of turning on the television to watch some of those ungodly entertainments, or craving for dangerous herbs, or white powder, get your Bible, and play worship songs that have inspired you in the past. Those Christian songs have the intrinsic power just like the Word of God to fire the Spirit in you up again. Remember, "Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world" (I John 4:4). Knock on the door of the Holy Spirit! Wake him up! And break through the strong hold of the enemy! Victory belongs to you!

When I get ready to go on a mission field, vacation, or just ready to travel, I will start praying days before my trip for traveling protection. One thing I have noticed over the years is the change in atmosphere around me prior to my trip. After wondering for years what this could be, the Holy Spirit helped me to understand this. Once I start praying for protection on my trip, my spiritual entourage will respond, arrive, and take positions. This happens in the invisible realm, but perceived in the physical. I have experienced this many times when ready for a trip. Being a spirit sensitive person, I tend to notice a change in the atmosphere around me to be more conducive to the will of God. These angels are different from the ones that surround me on regular days. They create a totally different atmosphere around me changing my desires as I dwell in their presence. If you are a man truly serving God, the Lord has reserved certain group of protective angels to accompany and serve you along your journey.

When the spiritual atmosphere around you changes, be careful what you say. If you start fighting with somebody on your trip, you will destabilize the positive atmosphere around you. You may open yourself to danger. Please stay away from making angry comments. Angels around you have direct access to the throne of God in Heaven. Spend more time in praising God and with praise worship songs. Learn to bask in his glory as you experience his presence. God never sends a person on a journey without protective angels. If you are spirit sensitive, you can feel their positive energies around you once your prayer continues as they take positions. They will generate this cloud of protection and the invisible wall around you. On your trip, people will react to you differently, not because you have physically changed, but because of God’s glory cloud surrounding you. Enjoy their presence because they are not going to stay in that position forever. They tend to bring you joy and direct dangers away from you. These Spirit protectors will remain around you throughout your journey until you come back home. They tend to leave their positions once their assignments are over when you arrive safely home. Other ministering Spirits will then take over once they leave their positions. Give a prayer of thanks to God for his protective angels over you once you get back home. This is crucial!

Caution! If God sends you on a special assignment and you start to mess up, the angels will warn you a couple of times. If you keep messing up and being disobedient against the will of God, the same angels reserve the right to beat up on you. They will chasten you! This is a very important thing you need to understand and keep in mind. Be careful what you are doing in that hotel room. Sometimes, when crises happen to you on the mission field, do not blame God. You may have to look into the mirror.

"Behold, I send an angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you in the place which I have prepared. Beware of him and obey his voice; do not provoke him for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him" (Exodus 23:20-21).

Surrendering to the Holy Spirit prevents you from being driven into bondage with other spirits.

Energies of the Spirits

Every system God created has energy of operation whether in the visible or the invisible. From an invisible unicellular organism, to a giant model of computer like a human being, and into the invisible realm, there are energies of operation for each system. No system can run itself without a supply of energy. The system will die. Negative spirits whether human perverted spirits, or demonic spirits have associated energies of operations. The more a person dwells in the domain of negative spirits the more negative energies will build up around the person. Similarly, the more a person dwells in the realm of the Holy Spirit, the more the person is surrounded by positive energy of God.

People who dwell in the realm of negative energy are used to being driven by negative spirits. Negative energy is a very depressive energy stealing away people’s positive motivation and joy. Such people are always very negative. They are either finding problems with other people, or they are always talking about how miserable they are. They appear to be carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. It is the weight of the negative spirit they are in subjection that is weighing them down. Many times we tend to be confused by these people thinking they want sympathy. Searching for sympathy may be a part of the explanation for their behavior. The greater reason is because they enjoy dwelling and being driven by negative energy of negative spirits controlling them. Many of them tend to operate under critical spirits. The negative energy keeps them in bondage. They do not have a clue what is happening to them in the spirit realm. If you approach them and ask why they are not motivated to excel in life, or just do something else, they will look for one thousand reasons to keep the status quo. They have gotten used to operating under the negative energy of negative spirits. Consequently, they feel comfortable for their lack of positive energy. Such people tend to complain about physical illness because the negative energy that surrounds them makes them sick. Sometimes they will agree with you when you reveal the truth to them about their dependency on negative energy. The following day, they will go back to their regular routine because they are in intimate relationship with the devil. How can a person with indwelling of the Holy Spirit have an intimate relationship with demons? It happens all the time! The Holy Spirit is inside while the demons are attached to the outside bus causing all kinds of problems. Outside, those demons can slash your tires, break your windows, and even cause your car engine to malfunction while you are ready to go on a trip to serve the Lord. You must recognize the enemy in the invisible realm causing havocs. Do not get angry. The more you get angry, the more you empower the enemy who wants to draw power from you.

People under oppressive spirits must come to the realization of what they are doing. They must come out from under the wall they are hiding. Otherwise, they remain in bondage. Some of them may remain in bondage until the day they die. Then the shackles of the demonic spirits will break off from them. In many of the cases, this is a self-imposed imprisonment because they choose to surrender to the deceptiveness of demonic spirits instead of surrendering to the Spirit of God.

One of the things I learn about such people surrounded by negative spirits is the presence of a heavy cloud of negative energies around them. When you step into such negative energy pool, it burns your soul. Be careful if you have to spend sometimes with them, even in conversations. You are better off to spend time away from them while praying for them, than sitting around them. The negative energy can influence you, and the negative spirits around them can hop on you, if you are not careful and not spiritually prepared. Blast them off with the Word of God, and Psalm 91 and 121, so they will not remain attached to you. Remember when Jesus cast out demons, or heal a sick person, Jesus would absorb and crush the negative energies within himself. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, "He himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses" (St. Matthew 8:17).

If you are not spiritually prepared, avoid long conversations with people under oppressive spirits on the telephone except when they are in immediate danger. If you are going to be visiting with any of these people, be prepared and clothe yourself with the power of the Holy Spirit and that of Angel Holy Michael. Bind all the negative spirits within the location prior to your arrival and send angels ahead of you to clear the way. Put on the amour of God and the shield of faith to extinguish the fiery darts of the enemy (Ephesians 6:11-16). Make a request in your prayer for the military angels of Heaven to follow and offer you covering and empowerment. If you are prepared, you will be a walking arsenal against the enemy. The demons will see you and tremble moving out of your way. Those demons will not be able to attach to you as long as you are in a cloud of the power of God. I remember one time after fasting for seven days; I was talking to this lady at work who was an atheist. She started trembling and about to start weeping before me. I was only standing before her and looking straight at her eyes. What ever was coming out of my eyes caused her to tremble. She got very scared! If you are not prepared, you will allow the demons to beat-up on you. Do not blame anybody, or your wife. Blame yourself for lack of preparation before going into the enemy’s territories. Be prepared all the time to fight the enemy. Do not be caught off guard!

Basking in God’s Glory

Those who live in the midst of positive energy of the Holy Spirit find it easier to connect to the realm of the Spirit of God on Sunday. Sunday service is not the only time they worship God. They have been meditating in the Word and worshipping God throughout the week. They do not leave their Bibles at the back seat of the car after Sunday service. They have been reading their Bible everyday of the week. They already surrendered themselves to the Holy Spirit to direct their pathways. During service, they not only connect to the realm of God, they also enjoy a communion with God in the Spirit as they learn to bask in his glory. Such people are not looking for entertainment during church service; they are looking for a spiritual worship. When they leave the church, the joy from worshipping stays with them for days, not hours because the Holy Spirit continues to reinforce the positive energy and the atmosphere even after service.

If you are a Christian living under the bondage of oppressive spirits, how do you rescue your soul? The enemy does not have power except the one you have given him. You can take back your power from the enemy. Do not remain a victim; learn to reclaim your dominium from the enemy. The devil is a defeated foe! Here are some suggestions in the next segment.

Deliverance: Spiritual Warfare Inside the Church

Most preachers who walk in the Spirit of God will admit that spiritual warfare inside the church is a necessary evil they have to deal with. The annoying problem in a continuous warfare is the changing of tactics by the enemy. Once you think you got the enemy cornered by the throat, he would resurface in another person in another way. Sometimes preachers get very angry at the devil and throw everything at him, including their inkwells. This is a way of wasting resources. Learn some simple ways to deal with the enemy. Learn to avoid being cornered by the enemy while using somebody closer to you. Always remember, the person being used is not the problem as much as how you choose to react. You can start a fight with you spouse in the middle of a conference and complain how she loved to harass you about not paying enough attention to her. It was not her speaking; it was the devil speaking through her. If you know the tactics of the enemy, instead of getting in a fistfight with your wife while on the road, delay such conversation until you get home. Respond to such comment with silence. Don’t we love to argue with the devil firing up painful emotions? Once you start a fight and allow your negative emotions to react, you have now empowered the devil and opened the door for the enemy. The worst thing a preacher can do on the road is to abandon a project just before he takes the podium because of some bad news from home. The devil could have created the problem. On the other hand, it could be a test from the Lord to see if you can trust him to deliver his message even in the middle of your personal crisis. Instead of jumping on the plane and heading for home, ask yourself, "Who is bigger, you, the devil, or God?" If you answer that question correctly, you will not hesitate to deliver God’s messages to thousands of people waiting to hear the Word of God from you regardless to the problem at home. Jesus said, "If you love your father, or mother more than me, you are not worthy of me" (St. Matthew 10:37). It is a test of your faith in God. Did you pass the test? You can always try again!

It will be unfair for me to discuss oppressive spirits in the church without discussing how to defeat the enemy. At times those demons inside the church are harder to fight than the ones outside because of familiarity. They have been sitting in the pews long enough to learn about your ways, your weaknesses, and where you still need to grow in spiritual arsenals. In this section, I will be discussing how to prepare and wage successful war against the enemy. Learn to break from under the bondage. I’m not going to be discussing Paul’s preparation for a spiritual warfare. I want to believe that any Christian or a preacher reading this article is already aware of such instructions. What Paul discussed were preparations. I believe I’m writing for a warrior that is ready to fight, not the one that is still in training school. As a result, I will be discussing practical applications needed on the battlefields; every Sunday or other days of events in the church to defeat the enemy.

Dismantle Your Relentless Quest for Materialism. One of the most difficult issues to fight in the church today rendering pastors powerless is the quest for notoriety, power and money. Jesus never cared about anything of the world because he knew these things have no eternal values. Walking in the Spirit of God and striving to acquire more wealth is a pathway in the wrong direction. Many people in the church today are blinded by material possessions. You can still retain your power given to you by the Holy Spirit. However, you might have lost your apostolic authority. Relentless quest for money, power, and fame inside the church especially by God’s messengers dis-empowers them to stand against the enemy of God. That was exactly what happened to Achan (Joshua 7:1-26).

One man’s sin over the lust of material possessions brought a curse on the whole nation. The enemy uses relentless quest for money as a tool to make mockery of church leaders the same way he tried to do with Jesus in the wilderness. There is nothing wrong in living a Christ centered and contented life as a Christian. If you need more, the Lord will give you more to serve in his ministry, and will instruct how to use it for his glory. But, there is something very wrong with relentless quest for riches among God’s servants today. This is a poison that is destroying their messages! You cannot have it both ways. If you want to be a businessperson to enrich yourself, stay in the secular world! Sell your priesthood garments and put on a three-piece-suit of those robbers on Wall Street. You have that right. It’s a capitalistic system. However, in the kingdom, it is different! If you want to use your talent to create resources for your ministry, Jesus praises you. I do too! Do not forget that Jesus talked about the deceptiveness of riches leading people’s heart away from God. You cannot serve God and the devil at the same time. Don’t fool yourself!

Just think about it this way. Your lust for materialism, fame and power as a preacher of a mega church is no different from people involved in sexual perversion, drugs, or alcohol. Yes, you can argue it. But I disagree! All of these cravings are designed to satisfy human illicit desires of the flesh as governed by the devil’s contamination of human soul in the Garden of Eden. One perversion is no worse than the other. I’m for sex within the marriage and between a man and a woman the way God created it from the beginning. However, as long as we allow and model our lusts for material things of this world, they keep us in bondage inside the church. It becomes difficult for people to listen to our messages while we preach about the homeless Jesus with no earthly possessions. While we are living under the lust of materialism, we are no different from people living in sexual perversion feeding their fleshly desires. What’s the difference? "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (St. John 3:6). You cannot spiritualize greed! Let’s be for real preachers! Boy, the truth hurts! I’m sorry!

Learning to Regain Apostolic Authority. One of the major issues I have noticed in preachers who buried their desires in the quest for material things of the world is their loss of apostolic authority. You cannot preach against the sin that you are constantly enjoying in the flesh. Such preachers still have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but they have lost their contact point with God. This is the major part of the deceptiveness of the riches Jesus warned the church about. At times preachers in the ministry tend to confuse divine power given to them by the Holy Spirit with divine authority. These are two different things. The Lord is the one who issues the divine authority because he has empowered ALL his messengers through the Holy Spirit according to Acts 1:8. When Jesus issued an authority for Paul to go and witness for him in Rome like he did in Jerusalem, Jesus knew Paul had indwelling power (Acts 23:11).

"My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me" (St. John 10:27).

The best way to know if you still retain your apostolic authority is to ask yourself whether you can still hear the voice of God. Please, do not confuse the voice of God with the voice of your human spirit inside you, or that of human emotions. God forbid, do not confuse this with the voice of the devil. If the Lord has not spoken to you in a long time, you might have lost your apostolic authority. If you do, you may be unplugged from the Spirit realm of the Lord. This tends to happen to messengers who have been drifting while they make more important earthly things than things of eternal values. Those messengers may have mega churches with increase in attendance every Sunday. Yet, they have lost their apostolic authority. Similarly, God gave man dominium over the earthly things. The devil played a trick using fleshly desires to steal earthly dominium from man. Jesus came on earth, died on the cross, and regained earthly dominium from the devil, and gave it back to man. Jesus said, "I have given you power to trample over scorpion, over serpents, over ALL powers of the devil, nothing shall by any means hurt you" (St. Luke 10:19). In spite of this, today man allows the devil through the deceptiveness of riches to steal earthly dominium from us AGAIN as we become enmeshed with desires for earth riches despite Jesus warnings.

We wonder why we Christians have lost our political clout in 2012 election. When it comes to politics, we Christians love to lie to ourselves with hyper-emotionalism. We think as soon as we place a so-called Christians candidate in office, all our social problems will disappear. What a flaming deception of the devil! Washington is a reflection of what is wrong in the entire society. Washington is NOT the problem! Our representatives represent the opinions of the people they represent. If the gospel messages being preached on Sundays cannot change the hearts of people sitting in the pews, how can a person in political office change the hearts of the people? How many of Jesus disciples are Senators? Yet, they were able to spread the gospel messages like fire by placing them in the hearts of men under intense persecutions.

So the Christian candidate is a political conservative that is able to block efforts to help the poor, give more money to the rich under the pretense of creating more jobs, turn the working class to indenture slaves, flood the street with more guns to kill innocent people, remove healthcare for the less fortunate, reduce the size of government like in the developing countries so no police or firemen will be able to respond to emergencies, and conserve the pockets of thieves on the Wall Street! Cheers guys! If this is truly the picture of your political candidate, that person must be an anti-Christ! If you can sacrifice the gospel messages of Christ on the altar of your political gains, you have relinquished your badge as a Christians. You may be faking being a Christian! Go read the sermon on the mountain by Jesus Christ and compare what he preached to your political positions (St. Matthew chapters #5 to #7). Let your Christian conscience direct you. Today the way we deceive each other, some Christians will vote for Absalom and kick King David out of office because of his affair with Batseba. We are unable to see our own sins in the mirror. To the Lord, after all said and done, King David is still a man after God’s heart.

Can you still hear the voice of God? Stop fooling yourself with emotionalized political rhetoric! Regaining your apostolic authority may not be as difficult. First, temporarily detach yourself from the physical world around you. Set between one to three days apart to spend with the Lord in persistent prayers and meditation on the Word. Second, fast during those three days asking God to come and spend some quality time with you as you strive to ascend in the Spirit of God into the spiritual realm. Third, pray that the Portal Gates of Heaven will open before you granting you access to the throne of Heaven. Very importantly during this time, never ask the Lord for anything. Just learn to bask in his glory cloud and enjoy an intimate moment with him. In most cases he will visit with you and may not say anything. The peaceful atmosphere around you during such prayers does not happen by accident. Once you connect back to the Spirit realm of God, keep your inner spiritual ears open to hear his voice.

Learn to walk continuously in the Spirit of God. Let the Holy Spirit drive you not your desires for material things, to make more money, or fame. If you are lucky you may hear his voice that day, or after three days. Otherwise, days later you may hear his voice. The three-day prayer vigil is to help you surrender to the Holy Spirit, accentuate the Holy Spirit within, and diminish the influence of the fleshly desires and human crazy emotions. Watch out for pigging-out on food too. For example avoid excessive eating of raw meet called steak! Deny your flesh for a while. Here is a kind suggestion. I see too many potbelly preachers on television pushing their stomachs across the television screen. Here is a medical suggestion from my medical background. If you love to eat rarely cooked meat, ask your physician to check you for parasites from time to time. Your potbelly may be more than fat, perhaps incubation for parasites. Don’t be angry, just a suggestion!

Learn to Open the Portal Gates of Heaven. During our daily meditation and while preparing for service in the church, it is important that our objective is to open the Portal Gates of Heaven. Use Psalm 24. This may not happen all the time, but it should be one of our major goals in preparation for service. You cannot take people where you are unable to go. If you are unable to open the gates of Heaven before your congregation, find another worship leader with a more disciplined approach towards the Holy Spirit. Most people are not interested in your sermon as you think, except people coming to get high. They can enjoy the music if it entertains their souls. Most worshippers in the house of God are looking for a spiritual connection, and an intimate communion while basking in God’s glory during service.

I’m not saying sermon is not important. It should however not be the main thing. Members can read the Bible themselves at home. When we fail to take people to the presence of God, we camouflage our failure with shouting sermons and bulging eyes to arouse people’s emotions. In this way, members can do Holy dancing, thinking they are connecting with God. After the service is over, they go home and feel empty because they fail to connect with the Spirit of God. At times, some of the church members feel deceived after the service is over. I have received emails in the past raising such a question. Worshippers can question their purpose in church service after they get through dancing in the church, if they are not touched by the Holy Spirit after losing some of their money in collection plates. They have the right to question the purpose of church attendance without God’s spirituality or their hearts being touched by the Holy Spirit.

If you as a pastor learn to walk in the Spirit of God, it will not be difficult for you to experience spiritual ascension in the spiritual realm of God. Once you achieve this, the experience of open portals becomes an everyday occurrence during your daily prayer and meditation. Leading members to the presence of God during Sunday service is therefore not as difficult.

Empower your Congregation with Prayer of Dedication. Every Sunday before anybody comes inside the sanctuary, offer a prayer of dedication to the Lord. Prior to doing this, bind and cast out all negative spirits from the sanctuary of God. Also block those that may want to come inside attached to members. Position cherubim with the swords of fire, lightening, and thunder at every gate, or entrance to the church. They will detach any negative spirits attached to people as they come inside the sanctuary. The primary purpose of consecrating the sanctuary is to create an atmosphere for the reception of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will not come down if demons are busy partying inside the sanctuary of God, or attacking the members. You can forget that! Remember demons come inside the house of God and throw bombs and create disturbances. Empower your members; clear the landmines by chasing away demonic spirits. The atmosphere becomes conducive for the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Learn to Change the Atmosphere for Worship. The Holy Spirit of God is very sensitive to the atmosphere inside the sanctuary. Learn to break the negative spirit cloud inside the church. Many praise worship songs by dedicated worship leaders will help to change the atmosphere of worship. Continuous prayers of dedicated people and meditation on the Word of God help to change the atmosphere of worship for the presence of God. As the prayer rises, the cloud breaks, the blessings come down. This happens when we have a break through in the atmosphere with mostly songs of praise. Once the atmosphere changes, the cloud drops. At that moment, the Portal Gates of Heaven open up. Special angels with specific assignments initiate the opening of the portals of Heaven over the church. Jesus referred to them in the book of Revelations as, "The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lamp-stands which you saw are the seven churches" (Revelation 1:20). They are responsible for worship before God. Once the portals are opened, worshippers now have direct access to the presence of God. Everybody inside the sanctuary can now connect directly to the Spirit of the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s Spirit takes us to the presence of God in a spiritual ascension. When the presence of God manifests inside the church, supernatural events tend to take place in healings, miracles, and anointing of the saints.

Must Defeat the Witches in the Pews. You cannot expect the presence of God to manifests while demons are partying or having sex inside the sanctuary. Many churches with very large audience are prone to such sustaining demonic atmosphere inside the church. Their intention is primarily a controlled disruption. You do not need to be afraid of them. Once you show some fear, they will intensify their attacks inside the church. The first thing to do is to look for their source of power and dismantle it. Witches draw energy from the spirits they ride. Otherwise they may draw energies from other witches. Switch off their power supply. Pull the carpet from under them by binding the negative spirits operating around them. You may have to go on a seven day fast for spiritual empowerment to be enshrouded with the spiritual garments of Angel Holy Michael. Once you bind the spirits, send them out of the sanctuary of God. This has to happen when the people are in the audience at the beginning of service. Open the door of the sanctuary. With a loud voice, cast the negative spirits out! Wait for about five minutes before closing the door of the sanctuary again while the music is playing. If you sense any negative portals opening inside the church, close them with the help of the angels. At the moments the demonic and negative spirits are gone, start a prayer to position ministering Spirits to come into the sanctuary and take positions. Never leave the place empty. The next stage is the prayer and worship for the spiritual manifestations with Psalm 24, 15 and 19. Once the presence of God is established, embrace the atmosphere by flooding the worship service with songs of praise. This is not the time to preach, but the time of divine communion with God in deep adoration and praise worship.

Be very careful. Some members of the church are going to be angry with you for dismantling their power source. Do not respond to their anger. Just remember, you are dismantling negative source of energy and replacing it with the positive power of the Holy Spirit. As a rule, do not call the people who are performing witchcraft out. Some churches in developing countries used to do this. I’m totally against it because people become over exuberant and ended up targeting the wrong person. The church is not a place for witch-hunt. Once you dismantle the energy source of witches or anybody involved in witchcraft, they become powerless. When witches are powerless they are naked in the spirit realm. They become very uncomfortable. Immediately cover them by bombarding their souls with the Word of God, worship songs and very intense prayers. You will successfully exchange their garment of evil with garment of praise from the Lord Jesus Christ. Many people are operating under the power of negative spirits and are unaware because they have been in bondage for so long it becomes their second nature.

Positions Deacons in Strategic Positions in the Sanctuary. Every time I see deacons, or pastors all sitting in the same place together like spectators at a stadium, I tend to laugh. War is going on, bullets are flying and church leaders are sitting down in the church while the senior pastor is preaching like people watching movies in the theatre! How can you just sit down in the church during spiritual warfare as if nothing is happening? No wonder the demons start having party at the expense of the church members. Position deacons, and preachers in strategic locations of the sanctuary like walls of fire to strike at demons and chase them out of the house of God. Do not take any prisoner; chase them out the door. Then, block the re-entry of any of those bad boys from coming back inside again. Do not fight the enemy in the physical. Fight in the spirit realm like St. Paul commanded us to do. Please, I will repeat, do not target anybody! Once you rip off the garment of witches from their backs, offer them a spiritual covering. The moment you yank off their demonic garments they become naked, disoriented, and dangerous. Immediately, cover their naked souls with the blood of the Lamb, garment of praise, the Word of God, and the prayer of dedication. If they do not like it, let them leave! Most of them will stay as they repent from their evil ways.

Engage in Soul Purification after Service. Most importantly, soul purification is very important for the pastor after service. Never leave the church and go straight home without prayer of soul purification done in the privacy of your office. If you are indwelling with the Holy Spirit, you have nothing to worry about. Spirit attachments can easily be detached by breaking them off of you. Do not go to restaurant without prayer of purification. If you do, you may get close to choking, because the enemy may grab you by the throat. If by a mistake you went home without this special prayer for yourself, enter your prayer closet and engage in the prayer of soul purification. You do not want any of the negative spirits you cast out of people to follow you home. If you have prepared your home as the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, the demons will find great difficulties in entering your house. If they do, blast them off with Psalm 91 and prayers of purification. You do not want them to hang around your home and start to torment your children. Your children who are not well grounded are more susceptible to the attacks of the enemy. I’m sure most preachers know this by experience. This is the reason why many of the children of preachers sometimes act like they are crazy, embarrassing the heck out of their parents. If they are well grounded in the Word and the Spirit of God, no demons in hell can torment them.

Remember God did not want King David to build his house because he was a warrior who had shed so much blood. The death spirits still hanged around David. Can you imagine the voices of the blood of people David killed in the war crying out to God? Why should God allow David’s bloody hand to taint his sacred house of worship? If God the Father refused to allow David to build a sanctuary for him, why should we allow demons to build a stronghold closer to us? There used to be a ritual in African countries that a warrior had to go through some rituals before entering the city because of the bloodshed during the war. A warrior dripping in human blood is never allowed to come into the city without purification. Anywhere there is so much blood shed, the spirits of death hang around the location. This tends to ignite more negative spirits, more violence and more bloodshed.

One of the ways to stick your fingers in the eyes of demons is to start playing church songs and dancing inside your home after prayer. Nothing can chase the demons out of your house faster than church praise songs, especially the ones praising Jesus. Songs praising God will do the same things. Remember, demons do not have problems with God. Satan talked to God about Job. One time, demons were calling God to intervene so Jesus did not torment them. And he cried out with a loud voice and said, "What have I to do with you Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore you by God that you do not torment me" (St. Mark 5:7). Here is a situation where the demon was calling God to intervene so Jesus would not torment him.

However, demons have problems with Jesus. If you notice Jesus cast out demons from people inside the temple. When demons hear the name of Jesus, they tremble. Jesus stands in opposition to all the works of the devil. The enemy fighting us in the spirit realm is not anti-God, but anti-Jesus because Jesus has been given all the powers needed to destroy the works of the devil. They better be afraid of him because Jesus has the keys to both Hades and Death. By theology, you can always argue correctly that any person that opposes Jesus, also opposes God as well. But for practical applications the devil is not worried about God, but about somebody who is eventually going to destroy him and his angels casting them in the lake of fire. That’s why Satan hates Jesus, besides other things, and anybody in his service.

Spiritual Covering is Essential

Finally, one of the major aspects of protection inside the kingdom established by God through Jesus is spiritual covering. People make a big mistake when they look as spiritual covering as imposing power of authority over the members. This is a wrong application. God in the Garden of Eden first demonstrated spiritual covering when both Adam and Eve destroyed their invisible spiritual garments. God replaced these with physical garments for protection. In another example, "And when I passed by you, and saw you struggling in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I made you to thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare. When I passed by you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread my wings over you and cover your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became mine," says the Lord God (Ezekiel 16: 6-8).

In this scripture passage, God was speaking to the nation of Israel, although he was using the physical descriptions we use in earthly to describe things of the invisible spirit realm in a metaphor. The critical point being, spiritual covering is about protection, not about lordship. Jesus talked about this that working in his kingdom is not about lordship as compared to the secular world. He explained that the person who is the greatest must be willing to serve. I have read articles written about people describing spiritual covering as earthly apostolic authority. This is an error. Spiritual covering has nothing to do with earthly authority. The person responsible for spiritual covering is God. When we pray to God for somebody for protection, we are not the person actually protecting the person; God is the one that does the covering. When God placed Moses in the cleft of a rock, he covered Moses face so Moses would not see God’s face. After he passed by, he would remove his hand so Moses could see his back. Even after Moses saw the back part of God his face glowed like that of the face of the sun. God left an imprint of his glory on Moses.

"So it shall be, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand while I pass by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen" (Exodus 33:22-23).

"He that dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty" (Psalm 91:1).

"God is a refuge and strength, a very present help in the time of trouble" (Psalm 46:1).

Martin Luther said in his hymn, "Mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark that never fails."

The concept of covering comes from God and his Word not from people. Although people have defined spiritual covering as an apostolic authority, anything spiritual in not earthly, but of the invisible world of God. You cannot define anything spiritual by an earthy authority. Man does not have that power. Such power belongs to God. The major reason why I differentiated power of hierarchy within the church is to prevent abuse which sadly is very common in some of our churches today. Some of the leaders who are supposed to be preaching the Word and representing Christ are busy abusing people under the power of apostolic authority.

Everybody needs spiritual covering. The first person that needs spiritual covering is the pastor of the church. When Pope John Paul II came to St. Louis years ago, a group of nuns were his spiritual covering praying for him while he was in St. Louis for a good weather. God heard their prayers! Anybody serving the Lord needs a group of dedicated and loyal people to pray for him or her for protection. Everybody in the church should have covering from selected members of the church. The people who stand in the gap for us during crisis situations, are the ones who offer us spiritual covering through constant prayers. Spiritual covering is not about surrendering to a church authority as much as people standing in the gaps for you and constantly praying for you. Some people have used spiritual covering in the church as a tool for oppression. I remember in Oct. 28, 2011, when I went to Washington DC leading a group of preachers to pray for President Obama, the entire Congress, and the Judges, the "Prayer Intercessors of America" dedicated about five to ten people to be our covering, praying for us as we headed for Washington DC.

Consequently as a preacher, never believe you have to wage a constant war by yourself. Seek the help of other people outside your church, perhaps some inside the church that you trust to secretly keep you in their daily prayers. Those people will provide you with spiritual coverings while you are in the midst of a battle. Watch out for people like Balaam inside your church. They have power, but are only interested in what they can get out of you. Sometimes they will stage an attack against you from within. Do not be afraid of them, and neither should you look at them in the face. God has given you victory! While Jesus was on earth, God the Father was his spiritual covering, watching over him. That was why Jesus was sleeping in the boat, because his father was watching. Jesus was the Spirit covering for his disciples. Throughout the Book of Acts, Jesus was present monitoring the actions of the disciples and directing them along the way. Paul was the Spirit covering for Timothy. Elijah was the spiritual covering for Elisha. A husband is the spiritual covering for his wife and the wife does the same for her husband in return. Both parents are the spiritual coverings for their children. No person is an island, except Jesus. He is a mighty tree that makes a forest. Nobody else has that title, except Jesus. This title was given to Jesus from the African churches. Jesus was said to be the only person who can cause the whole forest to rumble – a giant fish in a mighty ocean – an Almighty rock of refuge - the One and the Only!

There is no reason for a Christian to live under oppressive spirits. After reading this article, I believe you have been empowered to blast off the demons attachments that have been oppressing you all these years. You know how to detach them, and break them off from outside your human spirit location. Never allow the devil to build a strong hold around you, or next to you. Your constant prayers everyday will prevent the demons from attaching to you. Jesus has purified your soul with his own blood. Never allow the deceptiveness of the enemy to harass you. You are more powerful than the enemy because Jesus has empowered you to stand in opposition to the enemy. Praise God!

By Yinka Vidal, author, Closer Walk With Jesus.