WHY A CHRISTIAN IS SPIRITUALLY OPPRESSED?
Dear friends,
Someone also asked how powerful demos are because she had gone for deliverance for the umpteenth time and yet, she is still being tormented.
She said she was about to give up because it was looking to her that God wasn’t working for her.
She knew God was all-powerful but she didn’t understand why she had been unable to keep her deliverance or why her deliverance was momentary.
I am glad to have you read another epistle of our series, today we are discussing why a Christian can be oppressed by the enemy.
One day, I had an experience in my dream, it wasn’t against my will, I woke up wondering why this would happen to a believer.
I kept brooding on this question for days until one day, I went to the refrigerator to drink chilled water. However, I live in a developing country and many times we do not have a consistent power supply.
The refrigerator wasn’t cold and when I opened it, I noticed a cockroach was inside it and running around.
God answered my question using the scenario I just shared with you. Continue reading as I will share my findings with you.
Spiritual oppression happens when the kingdom of darkness torments a believer.
Many times, Christians who haven’t experienced this may doubt its existence but it does exist and some people are spiritually oppressed.
When you experience things that are against your will, you are probably oppressed.
Many people having unwanted sexual escapades are oppressed by the enemy especially when they cry after the act.
In as much as most addictions emanate from creating a new neural path by starting behavior and driving it down to the unconscious mind by repetition that the brain and body work on ‘auto’ without the conscious effort of the person, however, many unclean desires we have are demonic oppressions.
The Bible in the New Testament acknowledges that people are oppressed in Acts 10:38
“38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” NIV
Jesus Christ while on earth had a specialty in delivering those oppressed by the enemy.
There are a few points to note here, the scripture above highlighted the components of oppression which include.
- The tools for deliverance
- The person who delivers
- The oppressor
- Whose backing do you need?
The tools for deliverance are ‘anointing’ and ‘power’ and the person who carries the anointing is Jesus Christ and by extension us because we are His body.
The oppressor is the devil and we need to have God be with us to be able to set people free.
Spiritual oppression may include but is not limited to the following
- Bad dreams
- Sex in dreams
- Eating in dreams
- Pressing of the body
- Fear
- Witchcraft
- Reoccurrence of patterns
- Sickness
- Demon possession etc
In this study, we will discuss in detail one of the major reasons why this happens and how to correct it.
As I opened the fridge and saw that sight, I was baffled and wondered how a cockroach got into a closed refrigerator and how it was able to survive.
God then told me, that the believer is like the refrigerator. A believer can reduce the temperature and preserve food, the believer was made with factory settings that don’t include the oppression of the enemy.
If the refrigerator operates according to the manufacturer’s manual, there is no way an ant or a cockroach can get in and survive.
However, because it doesn’t t have a favorable environment, unwanted things are making their abode there.
God also reminded me that when the fridge is plucked to a power source, a cockroach cannot survive there.
He told me that the power source is God and the switch is prayers.
When the fridge is at rest, it has potential energy, it has a lot it could do but it can’t because it doesn’t have the power to.
So, we need the power source to function properly. A believer who doesn’t pray is like the fridge at rest.
That’s a potential believer because everything God has deposited in him is still a potential and cockroaches can fly around him.
God doesn’t want us to be a potential believer. When the refrigerator is plucked and working, it has moved from potential energy to kinetic energy and every inbuilt feature can then function.
Every believer must be a kinetic believer to be able to function adequately. There may be legal reasons why the enemy will oppress a believer.
At this point the enemy has a legal foothold in the believer’s life; this foothold may come as a result of the following
- Sin
- Covenant
Romans 8: 5 – 16
- “5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
- 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
- 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
- 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
- 9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
- 10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
- 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
- 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
- 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
- 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
- 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
- 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:” NIV
One of the reasons why we should not we should not live in sin as highlighted above but live in the spirit is because it opens the door to the enemy.
Whoever you obey, you are a servant to it.
You obey sin, you are a servant to Satan.
Sin is the property of the devil and hence you have his property, it is an unwritten invitation to have him in your life.
Remember Jesus said in John 14:30 that the enemy cometh but he has nothing in me. We should not have the property of the enemy with us, it is an accursed thing.
However, if we sin there is no guarantee that we won’t and our work with God is progressive.
When we sin, we come to God.
Hebrews 4: 15 – 16
“15 For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” NIV
We come to God and obtain mercy.
But the trick here is that we think that sin makes God inaccessible to us, so instead of running home to God in times of need, we run away from him thinking that He is angry with us.
This was true in the Old Testament, but no longer true in the New Testament. We have a better covenant now than they did, during that time, there was a veil that separated the holy of holies and it was only the high priest who went in once a year to atone for his sins and the sins of the people.
Luke 23: 44 – 47
“44 And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.
45 And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.
46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
47 Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.”
Because the veil has been torn, sin paid for, God is no longer angry with us and now he says we can come boldly.
Before no one can come before God’s presence except the high priest once a year, but now we can come, with or without sin.
If you have sinned and Satan is on your heels, run to God and obtain mercy and find grace to help you in this time of need.
This is what is called the conscience of sin. The conscience of sin. The conscience of sin makes us feel unworthy to come to God, and we can’t receive from Him in this state.
If you want me to write on the conscience of sin and how to deal with it so you can serve God because we can’t serve God with the conscience of sin
Hebrews 9:14
“14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Most of the guilt you feel is not God but your conscience and God said in 1 John 3:20
“20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.” NIV
If you want me to write on the conscience of sin, kindly sign up for our mailing list, and you can also write a comment on this article.
SHOULD WE CONTINUE IN SIN SO THAT GRACE MAY ABOUND?
This same question was what Apostle Paul asked, given that sin doesn’t get God angry at us, the answer is no.
Once you give Satan a foothold in your life.
Imagine having an armed robber invade your house, you managed to call the police to get them out of your house through the front door but you left the back door open and went to bed, they are likely to sneak back in and this time, they come ferocious than they were the first time.
This is what happens in deliverance, deliverance is not an event but a process.
A demon can be cast out but you have to keep the demon off your domain by not going back to what got them there in the first place.
And remember, they come with 7 more demons, more wicked than the original tormentor.
Matthew 12: 43 – 45
“43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he comes, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so, shall it be also unto this wicked generation.”
Grace is not a license to sin and of course, God’s love language is keeping his commandments
John 14:15
“15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
Finally, there is a reward for those who love God, not those whom God loves. God loves everybody but it is not everyone who loves God.
There are things God has given to us all and everyone He loves but there are things that only accrue to those who love Him.
Romans 8:28
“28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Just like Titus 2: 11 -12 tells us that grace is not an occasion for us to continue to live in sin.
“11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
With the above said, I hope you can connect the dots.
Hence, you can strive to stay away from sin and move from potential Christian to kinetic Christian, flies can fly around in your life.
A hot light bulb doesn’t have flies perch on it. You are too cold or lukewarm for flies to stay away from you.
Some of us do not have any spiritual activity we perform.
We struggle to fast, to pray, to worship and we even want to live in sin and have Satan stay away from us.
Jesus when on earth prayed every day, so should you.
The switch to the power source is prayer, if you are plucked to the power source but the switch is off, it is as good as you are not connected.
You are born again and connected to God but if your switch is not turned on, it is as good as there is no connection.
The connection switch is prayer.
This is why they say prayer is the master key because it connects us to the almighty God.
Find my article on the Spirituality of money here
Hope this helped you, kindly ask your questions in the comments.
I love you.
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