HOLY VIOLENCE || Deliverance by fire By Dr. D.K. Olukoya
You cannot really enjoy your life on earth except you apply some measure of force or violence. Gad gives miracles with ease but the process of receiving it is quite different.
A lily-livered Christian will have his goods and blessings plundered by dark forces. You cannot reach your highest potentials without applying aggression. Some stubborn enemies will not budge until they are beaten black and blue; then they will let loose their victims and release what they have stolen. In these end times, only those who are violent will know what it means to get the best out of life.
Gentleness will not do in this regard. There is nothing like a soft soldier, all soldiers apply force. Therefore, if you want to be a winner in the end-time battle and be a partaker in the end-time revival, you must learn and apply the principles of holy violence.
The devil with whom we are contending is violent to the core. He is by no means gentle; therefore, to come against him with levity is to earn defeat before the battle begins. What do you think will happen if a featherweight amateur boxer should enter the ring to fight with a world heavyweight champion? The featherweight would be finished in the first round.
The responsible thing to do is to meet the enemy’s force with equal aggression. Your own force must be stronger than that of the enemy if you must win. If you have been observant, you would have discovered that the devil seems to have introduced a new dimension of force in recent times. How then do we tame him? We must make holy violence our watchword and lifestyle.
Smith Wigglesworth, a 19th century spiritual giant, once narrated the story of a particular woman and her dog. One day, the woman left her house without knowing that her pet dog was trailing her. Somehow, she looked back and saw the dog wagging its tail. She gently ordered the dog, “Go back home.” Her soft order fell on the dog’s deaf ears.
After trekking a little distance, she looked back again only to discover that the dog was still trailing her. She was surprised. By the time she got to the tube station, she knew that the dog was bent on following her wherever she was going. Then it dawned on her that she needed to apply a great deal of force on her dog. She roared at the dog, “Go back!” Then, immediately, the dog ran back home.
Smith Wigglesworth was at the bus stop at that time. He looked at the woman who happened to be a member of his church and came up with a brilliant statement: “That is exactly how to deal with the devil: yell at him and he will turn back.”
We can draw an important lesson from this illustration. If you speak to the devil in a soft tone, he will not budge, but if there is a measure of force and aggression in your tone, he will obey your order.
Spiritual violence is an indispensable weapon for all winners in this end-time. The kind of violence we refer to here is not physical in nature, it is spiritual. This explains why the Bible says, “. . .not by power, nor by might, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” If you apply physical violence against those whom you perceive to be your enemies, they will simply go underground and do some havoc against you.
Aggression or force is needed only in the realm of the spirit. Therefore, when we talk of holy violence, we are talking about prayers that are characterised by aggression. The kind of prayers which we offer at the MFM are not for juniors in the school of prayer. Yes, we put all our energy into praying because we take prayer as a battle.
In physical warfare the more you pound and bombard the enemy’s territory, the more you defeat him. Some people wonder why we view prayers as a do-or-die affair.
It is because our survival and victory depend on it. We are obeying the uniform teaching of the Scriptures and the consistent declaration of all enlightened saints in the school of prayer.
The topic of this message is a key doctrine in the word of God. Depending on choice, it may also be variously called “Miracle by force.”
In Matthew 11:12, we read; “a And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent taketh it by force.”
If the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence from the days of John the Baptist, it means that certain things had been going on before then.
Perhaps, until then, this type of violence the Bible talks about was not required; but right from the days of John until now, “. . .the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.” According to verse 18, “John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, He has a demon.” He must have taken a look at the spiritual realm, that is, what was happening in the world of the spirit, and condemned the gluttony prevailing in that generation. And he possibly refrained from taking proper food himself, hence the Bibles says, “…from the days of John the Baptist, the kingdom of God suffereth violence.” Which indicates that he was a violent man.
From Abraham to John the Baptist the kingdom was given to only one nation, the nation of Israel. But immediately John the Baptist came onto the scene, people began to stream in. John the Baptist was a spiritually violent person who called the people ‘a generation of vipers’. Those people could not have been happy, but that was just the kind of man John the Baptist was. He said, “The axe is laid on the root of every tree” so that if it did not yield any good fruit, it should be cut down and thrown into the fire.
WHAT IS VIOLENCE?
VIOLENCE MEANS EXCEPTIONALLY GREAT CONCENTRATION.
The problem with most of us in prayer is lack of concentration. The reason some people are called prayer warriors is that they are able to focus their attention on an object in prayer over a long time without distraction.
A person must be violent in the spirit to be able to do this. It is for this reason that one of the greatest enemies in prayer is lack of concentration. When men and women pray with concentration they see visions. People with wandering minds can achieve nothing.
IT MEANS GREAT POWER.
IT MEANS FORCEFUL ACTIVITY.
IT MEANS GREAT DAMAGING FORCE.
IT MEANS INTENSE OR SEVERE ACTION.
IT MEANS GREAT FORCE.
IT MEANS HIGHLY EXCITED ACTION.
IT MEANS FURY
IT MEANS FIERCENESS.
IT MEANS RAGE OR RAMPAGE.
IT MEANS MADNESS OR CRAZINESS.
IT MEANS EXPLOSION.
IT MEANS STORMINESS.
A man does not necessarily have to jump up and down to be seen as violent. He may not need to open his mouth. Jesus was the meekest man ever to walk the face of the earth, yet He was the most violent man in history.
The Bible describes Moses as a very weak man, yet he was one of the most violent men in history. With just his rod he took the kingdom of Egypt from the king and temporarily became a king himself, deciding how the Egyptians were to live their lives.
So, from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of God has suffered violence, making it necessary for the violent to take it by force.
A professor once came for prayers in our church. In the department where he worked at the university, he was the only one who had to jump-start his car. For this reason, he came to work very early so he could park his car on a slope and wedge the wheel with a stone.
When he wanted to get away at the close of work, all he had to do was hold the car door open, remove the stone, quickly jump into the car and jump-start it. Other professors had at least two cars each. That mode of starting his car worked
well for the professor for only a while.
As he removed the stone from the wheel one hot afternoon and jumped inside the car his coat was caught in the door. With one leg inside the car and the other outside, the car rolled down the slope, pulling him along until it crashed into a tree. Thankfully, he was not injured. However, after that incident he decided to seek spiritual assistance.
When he came to our church, the minister asked him to stand on a spot and start praying. While he was praying, God opened his spiritual eyes to see a bundle of rags. He prayed for this to be removed off him. But his efforts at praying were, at best, feeble and ineffectual. He was still praying when an angel of God appeared before him, and looked at him with utter disdain.
As he continued praying, he found that rather than being relieved of the bundle of rags, the burden doubled up. When he complained aloud to the angel, the angel replied that if he was serious, he should pray with violence, whereupon he changed his countenance and get violent.
Watching from the distance we observed that the tone of his prayer suddenly became violent and soon after we heard his saying, with relieve, “Thank You, Jesus; thank You, Father.” Then we knew what had happened: the angel of God had nudged him into a violent prayer and his burden had been removed.
This reminds me of Jesus in the boat: When He said, “Let us move over onto the other side,” He was giving a divine direction sanctioned by God. They were not operating outside the will of God, yet that divine will was violently opposed by waves, storms and wind.
Peter and the other men were undoubtedly good fishermen who had been at the sea for several years, so they were versed in handling situations like this. They struggled. But while they waited for Jesus Christ to move in that desperate hour, He himself waited for them to move in prayers and supplication so He could move on their behalf. The waiting game continued on both sides. With time water entered into the boat and the boat started sinking.
As things got worse, a debate ensued as to why a storm should be developed at the sea while the Son of God was inside the boat. “Perhaps,” some reasoned, “the storm was sent by God?” The struggle continued, with men scooping water out
of the boat to save it from sinking. As the efforts became more and more fruitless, someone, suggested that Jesus be contacted for assistance. It was only then that Jesus rose up.
If the men called upon Jesus earlier the Saviour would have arisen earlier to save them from battling the storm with their own energy. As they applied their intellect to the situation, the Lord did not say, “Okay, I’d help you.” They kept battling unsuccessfully until things got out of hand.
Likewise, Joseph told the children of Israel who were in the land of Egypt, “I know that God will visit you in this place. Anytime you want to live here, do not allow my bones to stay here,” So, when the children of Israel left Egypt, they took with the coffin of Joseph and carried it through the wilderness. That coffin was enough evidence that they must reach the Promised Land, but they left behind the bones of Joseph.
At last Jesus rebuked the wind and spoke to the sea, in two different tongues. Before Jesus spoke, the wind had a field day. We may ask the question: Why should the enemy have a field day? Interestingly, the sea of Galilee has been one of the most quiet seas in the whole world. Since the day Jesus spoke, the sea has remained quiet. May this be your lot also: All the storms in your life shall cease, in the name of Jesus.
It must be clear to us that the spirit of witchcraft can never repent, although the person harbouring it may repent. Demons have always defied the armies of God and are not willing to make peace with God. Although they knew they are bound for hell-fire, they are never ready to go without a fight. It is their intention to take along as many people as they can. This is why they told Jesus Christ, “What have you to do with us, Jesus Son of the most high God? We do not disturb you, but only out to destroy lives. Have you come to punish us before our time? We know whom you are.” Definitely, demons know that their end is at end but before then, they are intent on destroying peoples’ lives.
Evil spirits cannot reconcile with God; they will never agree to surrender and will never be pacified. The only language they understand is violence and total defeat. I shall give you an example.
I had a colleague, anytime he entered his office and sat in his chair slumber would set in. All the pat ideas he had from home and planned to execute in the
office would fizzle away immediately after he drank his favourite coffee. However, one day, he got to the office with anger directed at the chair. He grabbed the chair and started praying for it as if it were a human being. As he prayed, the prayer rocked the chair. As he prayed on vigorously, an object dropped on the floor. When examined, it was an amulet attached with Sellotape. Our friend opened it up and found his name written in it in Arabic letters. Through this amulet, currents of fire were being passed into his body.
Many a time, satanic agents prepare their fetish objects to carry out satanic instructions or missions. So, whenever we come across such fetish objects we must remember that we have a great weapon of spiritual violence to counter it.
When a person is issuing incantations, he is engaging in three things:
He is issuing curses,
He is giving satanic instructions,
He is summoning demons.
As a believer with adequate understanding of spiritual violence whoever confronts you in this way is challenging you to use the very powerful weapons in your hand.
A believer can wreak a lot of havoc on any juju or witchcraft practitioner, or pronouncer of incantations. When a believer starts to say the prayer of the Psalmist, “O Lord, smite the cheek-bones of those enchanting against me,” he will achieve the desired goal. Likewise, when he commands the demons attached to a juju to turn against its owner, this demonstrates the violence we are talking about.
“And from the days of John the Baptist, until now, the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. . .”
The violent expectation of the believer of old for something new to happen in his life is what distinguishes him from present-day believers. Early Pentecostal fathers were never daunted by prolonged dry fasts, nor did they miss church services. They got to church two hours before the service and began reading their Bible and praying. There was no time for unnecessary jokes or chats; it was strictly business. The church was an army barrack where prayers were never
stopped until the jingling of the bell. That was violence. Church was not regarded as a hospital as experienced these days.
Early Pentecostal fathers’ approach to spiritual matters was like that of the man by the pool of Bethesda waiting for the Holy Spirit to stir the pool so that he could step in.
By the pool of Bethesda were the multitude of blind, crippled and deaf people who knew that the angels came down only once in a month to trouble the water. Whoever wanted to jump into the water, therefore, could not afford to sleep off but must be alert to jump inside whenever the angels came.
Whenever our early fathers got home, they continued praying. The Bible was a favourite food for them. Apostle Babalola memorised Psalms 1 to 150. No wonder they were able to chase demons into the bush.
There are very many churches these days. But all one can see in most of them are dead men at the pulpit, and dead men as deacons, elders, ushers, choristers and controllers. It is, indeed, a very sad situation. We have our sacrifices on the altar without any fire on it.
Before John the Baptist only the priest could go into the sanctuary but, these days, everyone has access. John the Baptist was the dividing line between the old and the new covenants. John the Baptist introduced the privilege of the New Covenant to the people; and from his days until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.
Jesus spent 30 years in training before he began to minister. John the Baptist spent 30 years, too, in training before he began to minister. Apostle Paul also spent 30 years, in training before he began to minister. Moses spent 40 years in training before he began to minister. These days, people expect to spend just six months in the Bible college and immediately after to begin to perform wonders. This is impossible.
John the Baptist passed through a particular training; so also did Jesus Christ. It is not the number of church services a believer attends or the number of sermons he listens to that determines his spiritual power. A believer’s spiritual power depends on how long he spends with God in his daily life.
John the Baptist had no elder brother to mould his life after. Someone like
Elisha had Elijah to follow. Joshua had Moses to follow. Timothy, too, had a model in Paul. But John the Baptist had no one to follow.
The Yoruba people have a saying: “Pass me not, O Saviour, is not a gentleman’s song.” This is because by the time the gentleman is busy praying on his knees, the Saviour may have already gone.
There is no easy or gentle method of arresting anything bad. There is no way of pacifying evil to cease its terror. Of course, no one writes a petition against a witch on her human rights record, or pleads with her to drink less blood. Miracles begin to happen only after we get spiritually violent. We can readily point at three examples of violent men in the Bible. One of them was Jacob. His life was in a serious mess. If God could deliver Jacob to the extent that He is now called the God of Jacob, then there is nobody on earth that is beyond redemption.
Jacob took his brother’s birthright by deception. His name, means ‘supplanter’ or ‘a twister’. He deceived his father to gain the old man’s blessing. While his brother trailed him all around, he escaped to Laban, another deceptive and equally treacherous man. Laban changed his salary ten times. When Jacob told him he wanted to marry, he said, ”No problem,” but slotted the wrong wife in for Jacob at night. He made Jacob to serve 14yearsin slavery in order to marry two wives.
Jacob eventually discovered he was not going to get any wife. Laban’s place became uncomfortable for him: he could not return home where death waited him at the hand of his hunter brother. Esau, who was still hunting for revenge. Without doubt, Jacob was in a serious mess, running from Esau whom he had cheated and now from Laban whom he had deceived. One night, however, power changed hands. Jacob became violent. How did he become violent?
This is explained in Hosea 12:4: “Yes, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us.”
Jacob became violent in prayer and his name changed.
Another example is the woman of Canaan in Matthew 15:22-28:
And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto
him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. 23But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. 24But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 25Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. 26But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. 27And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. 28Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman. great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
What did that woman do? She got violent.
The same thing happened in the case of the woman with the issue of blood. This woman’s example was that of ‘taketh it by force.’ A lot of people were pressing around Jesus but the woman remained undaunted, strong in her faith that if she could just touch the Saviour’s cloth, she would receive her miracle. At last she was able to touch Jesus’ cloth and was healed of her ailment.
While most of us can use our tongue or pen to say and write terrible things about others, we fail woefully when it comes to constructive spiritual utterances. In Mark 10 we read about blind Bartimaeus who kept crying unto Jesus. When his enemies tried to shout him down, Bartimaeus simply kept shouting until Jesus stopped,.
In all these instances the people demonstrated violent determination. While the children of the rich and the affluent steadily lost the kingdom the desperate took it by force. That woman refused to be stopped and she included herself by fire. The violent taketh it by force.
THE KEYS
What are the keys to taking the kingdom by force?
REPENTANCE. Many of us claim to be born again but consistently display characters that are contrary to that of kingdom dwellers. We dress in kingdom clothes, use kingdom language, portray kingdom symbols and our acts are far from the principles taught by Jesus.
By their acts, many have given the kingdom of God a bad name and continue to drive people away. When John the Baptist came, after 400 years of divine silence during which God did not send any prophet, he was heard screaming, “Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Repentance was his cry.
VIOLENT FAITH. As we read about the woman with the issue of blood, the blind Bartimaeus, the Canaanite woman and Jacob, we realise that violent faith is required.
HOLY CRY. There are several holy cries in the Bible. When the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord heard them. The Lord does not reject any cry from the depth of the heart. Your cry is to cause God to hearken to your supplication.
At Jericho, the children of Israel shouted out loud and the wall came tumbling down. Before they started fighting, Gideon’s army cried out loud and then proceeded to fight. When Elisha, got stuck on the other side of Jordan, he cried out, “Where is the Lord, God of Elijah?” And the God of Elijah showed Himself.
By the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus raised His voice, “Lazarus, come forth.”
Bartimaeus the blind cried and so did the Canaanite woman. Zerubabbel, too, shouted on the mountain.
David said, “In the day that I cry, shall my enemies turn back. This I know for God is with me.” And anytime the Israelites were ready to move forward in the wilderness, as the Ark of the Covenant led the way, thy shouted, “Let God arise and let all His enemies scatter.”
VIOLENT PRAYER. Or what we call bullet prayer. This is a specific type of prayer. It is for this reason that when Jesus met Bartimaeus, He said, “What do you want me to do for you?” The man specifically asked for his sight to be restored and he received it.
DETERMINATION. When you are determined things will start to happen.
DESPERATION. When desperation sets in progress starts.
PRAISES. There is no soul that has ever cried unto God and was disappointed.
All the violent prayers raised at the throne of heaven have always received answers.
There is a particular story I have told several times before and, for the sake of this topic, I shall repeat it here. Three men rode in a vehicle that was involved in terrible accident. One of the occupant.. attended Cambridge University in the U. K., the second one studied at the Harvard University which is one of the best universities in the United States. The third man went to Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone. They were all badly injured and taken to the hospital.
It was the Cambridge man who first started to talk. “Doctor,” he muttered in his Queen’s English, “I am not feeling too well.”
The American man spoke next. “Babe,” he said to the nurse on duty, “treat me quickly.”
The man from Fourah Bay, raised his voice and shouted, “Doctor, . . .” with this type of cry it was apparent who would get attention first.
God is exactly like this. Those who leisurely followed Jesus about received no miracle but Bartimeaus the blind who cried out immediately received his miracle from Jesus the physician.
PRAYER POINTS
- I refuse to be excluded from my breakthrough; I include myself by fire, in the name of Jesus.
- Every wicked power roaming about unchallenged in my life, die by fire, in the name of Jesus.
- Let the field day of my enemy close now, in the name of Jesus.
- I destroy the armour protecting the strongman in my life, in the name of Jesus.
- You familiar spirits in my family, I break your backbone, in the name of Jesus.
- All witchcraft masquerades, I stand in your midst by the blood of Jesus, and set you ablaze, in the name of Jesus.
- All my sacrifices that lay unburnt on the altar of God, receive fire now, in
the name of Jesus.
- Every witchcraft power sitting on my destiny, I overthrow you violently, in the name of Jesus.
- Every problem in my life, I arrest you from the root, in the name of Jesus.
- The eagle of my destiny, fly in the name of Jesus.
- Every curse working against my breakthrough, break, in the name of Jesus.
- O God, arise and lead me to those who will bless me, in the name of Jesus.
- Woe unto every agent of poverty pursing my life, in the name of Jesus.
- Every serpent and scorpion of demotion, die in the name of Jesus.
- (Stretch forward your two hands:) Let the riches of the ungodly be transferred onto me, in the name of Jesus.
- You powers of the night, if you say you’d not leave me alone, then sleep the sleep of death, in the name of Jesus.
