Silencing the Storms of Life
Although there are storms in life and there are problems and situations that try men’s souls.
Jesus, the master of all circumstances, has the power to wing calmness into your tempestuous storms. During His smithy ministry He brought calmness into a great storm.
Mark 4:35-41: And the same day, when the even was , time, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other ado. “And when they had sent away the multitude, they hink him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. “And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now Nil “And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, i must thou not that we perish? “And he arose, and rebuked Om wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the *Ind ceased, and there was a great calm. 4°And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no Filth? °And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and Urn sea obey him?
The manner in which Jesus calmed the storm is very instructive. Through His example He has shown us how we also silence satanic storms in all departments of our lives.
You should not allow storms to silence you. You must rise storms to silence them.
up like a soldier and issue aggressive commands to life’s The passage above shows us that no matter the storms that the devil has programmed against our lives we have the ability to silence them.
LIFES EXPERIENCES
Life is a mystery. We cannot really comprehend it. Storms of life are generally enigmatic. There are powers that govern, influence and affect things that happen in the universe. Lack of understanding of the existence and the activities of these powers has prolonged the problems in the lives of several men and women. It makes a difference between success and failure.
Lifes experiences are generally a mix of bitter sweet: things sweet experiences.
often get very bitter while there are a few occasions of Again, life is filled with motions and counter motions. “One mans meat”, they, say is another man’s poison”. That is the battle of life. Human experiences differ. A man may be going through the sunny side of life while his neighbor may be passing through deep darkness.
For example, The needs of the two neighbours can make them to come up with prayer requests that contradict each other.
The man who builds caskets and doctors that own hospitals have different requests from those whose family members are sick. Those who make caskets pray for more customers if their prayer requests were to be answered, some people would have to die.
Most of us would pray, “I shall not die but live”. Such a prayer point runs contrary to the desire of a casket maker. The lawyer has his own request: he wants more people to got into trouble so that he will have more cases to handle. Again, everyone prays that no trouble will befall him. However, the prison warder wants to keep his job so he prays daily for more people to be jailed, while those who are supposed to be jailed would wake up to pray, “Lord, lead us not into trouble”. That is the mystery of life.
There is a personality that has turned the whole world into a battle arena. This personality has converted the whole world into a filed of trials, temptation, and tribulation’s. He has converted princes to runners after horses and those who should rule drawers of water and hewers of wood.
Things often go wrong in life and storms that are difficult to manage come up when least expected. Peace is the most sought after things in life. The moment peace is withdrawn, all other things become secondary. A lot of people go to different places in search of peace. The devil knows that man is searching desperately for peace and security. That is why the devil works night and day to steal peoples peace. Peace is stolen when storms come.
STORMS OF LIFE DO NOT DISCRIMINATE
Do you know that the storms of life have no respect for princes, princesses, millionaires, respected men and women in the academic world, great personalities in of politics, experienced persons and those that appear to have performed unusual feats in life. They are experienced by the rich and the poor, the illiterate and the literate, the powerful and the weak, the achievers and those referred to as nonentities, the rural and the urban dwellers. They do not discriminate. The only thing is that they come upon People in different ways and at different times. Men and women find it difficult to understand some.
A man shared a testimony recently in one of our services. He suffered a mysterious problem for ten years without any solution. He consulted the best doctors around and spent a fortune, all to no avail. What was his problem? He had a strange swelling in his groin, near his private part. However, the Lord met him after one of our services.
That glorious night, I gave our members prayer assignment. I told them, When you get home, say this ii e prayer point for ten minutes: “Any evil deposit in my body, get out now, in the name of Jesus”. He carried out the assignment.
To his amazement, by the time he woke up the next day, he discovered that the boil had burst. On close examination he discovered that what came out in form of pus were things like grains of alligator pepper He could not believe his eyes. He wondered how alligator pepper found its way into his body. That was his own storm.
I have come across several cases in my years of pastoral counseling. When I reflect on the kinds of cases, brought to me, I know that there are many storms in life.
A particular sister was doing very well until she lost her mother. Immediately her mother died, her father picked up another wife. That was the beginning of the sisters storm. She was sleeping one night when a snake crawled into her room, went near the bed and coiled itself close to the sisters head. Her step-mother was watching every movement made by the snake. Although she knew that the sisters life was in danger, she did not raise any alarm.
Fortunately, for the sister, her father walked in and was surprised that his new wife was quietly watching what was happening. He shouted at her, ‘Woman, what are you trying to do? Do you want my daughter to be beaten by the snake? What kind of woman are you.
However, he decided to handle the matter with maturity. That was how the incident was forgotten. Years later, the step-mother said to the sister: “You will forever bear the name of your father”. The statement implied that the sister would never get married.
The sister did not know anything about spiritual warfare. She simply made a bold statement: “Madam, what you have said can never happen to me, rather it will happen to your own children”.
•Such a statement means nothing in the spiritual realm as the sister had no power to back up her statement. If the sister were a child of God at that time and understood the principles of spiritual warfare, she would have simply said, “I pack _everything that you have said and send it back to sender, in the name of Jesus”.
Many years later, all the daughters of the sisters stepmother got married while the sister remained unmarried in spite of the fact that she was older than all of them. Her problem drove her to the church. She became born again and started praying our prayer points. After going through deliverance and some serious sessions of aggressive prayers, the yoke was broken. Today, she is happily married. Thank God. She received a divine solution to her problem.
A man also went through a different kind of storm. He retired from public service and was given his retirement benefits. Somebody walked up to him from the blues and said: “Master, I learned that you have just retired. What do you intend doing after retirement? I gather that you are paid some gratuity. What do amount of money?” you plan to do with such a huge
The man was so naive that he said, “My brother I am even looking for someone to advise me. You see, I was paid N250,000:00,
I don’t want to spend that kind of money and now I am thinking about how to invest it”.
The strange visitor said, I don’t know why I am talking to you this way. Something tells me that I should help you. We have helped several Nigerians who are rich men and women today. Someone brought a large sum of money which he made during his sojourn abroad. The money was so much that he could not bring it in through the normal way for fear of being cheated by the Customs Department. He approached a bank in England and was told about the practice among foreign multi-millionaires and billionaires.
“He was told that when the amount you want to bring is so huge the bank could help you to deface the currency notes. Then you can bring them into your country in a container. That was what the man did. He brought in millions of dollars into Nigeria in a container. This took place five years ago. The London bank also told the man that the defaced notes could be converted to genuine currency when he got back to his country. Just go to the Central Bank and ask for a particular chemical. We will give you a license of conversion and with that the Central Bank will honour your request”.
“When the man came back to the country with a container load of defaced American dollars he hid the money to avoid attracting the attention of his relatives and neighbors. After spending all the money, he brought in his personal suit case, he had to go to the Central Bank to collect the appropriate chemical. He was told that the chemical would cost him just N250,000:00. The man would have approached any of his friends but he was not ready to disclose any information concerning the huge amount of money he brought in from England. He has been looking a trusted man who can give him a loan and keep avarything confidential. He happened to be my childhood friend and he has mandated me to look for any trusted Nigerian that can give him a loan of N250,000:00”.
‘I am surprised that you have exactly the same amount of money that the man is looking for. Let me confide in you, MN man brought in millions of dollars. He cleared the container in which he brought it as film negatives after bribing government agents at the port. He dug the ground and kept the boxes containing the defaced American dollars. He told me that if I could find any Nigerian who can give him the loan for the procurement of the chemical from Me Central Bank, he would give the person one million dollars in return”.
The man who had just retired could not believe his ears. Instantly, he became happy. He started anticipating how his retirement money would become one million dollars. He started rejoicing and responded: ‘That is a very bright Wan. Are you sure that the man will accept my money? When are you ready?”
The con man said, “I will come and see you tomorrow”.
The con man and his colleague came the next day with a black paper exactly the size of the American dollar. The ‘special chemical’. The content of the bottle was poured came in the company of the man who was supposed to have brought the dollars. The fraudsters had consulted with a very powerful fetish priest who gave them some powerful charms to be used to mesmerize the retired man.
They brought out a small bottle containing a liquid labeled into a small container and black power was poured into it. Within ten seconds a transformation had took place. There was a one hundred dollar bill.
The retired man could not believe his eyes. The note was given to him and he was asked to go and spend it to confirm that it was the genuine. They fixed another meeting for the following day.
The retired man dashed to a foreign exchange market and the one hundred dollar bill was accepted and changed for N8,400:00. He could not sleep that night. He could hardly wait for the dawning of the next day. He wanted to become a millionaire at once. When the fraudsters came the following day, arrangement was quickly concluded and he withdrew from his bank and gave them his entire retirement benefits.
Then the fraudsters came up with another story. We are very sorry, sir. We discover that we need another chemical that will cost just N75,000:00 to enhance the smooth processing of the dollars. The man complained that he had no other money again. The head of the gang told him, “Don’t forget, you will soon become a multi millionaire. If you could give us N250,000:00, how much is N75,000:00? Don’t let satan rob you of your blessings. You are just fortunate. Many Nigerians are looking for this kind of opportunity”.
The man told them to give him a few hours. He went out, made desperate efforts and borrowed 1475,000:00. As soon as he handed over the money to them the fraudsters came up with another story. This time, the man started to suspect foul play. He raised an alarm. A police officer emerged from nowhere.
“Yes, what is the problem?” He asked them. The head of the gang said: “This man is trying to cause some trouble, He In asking us to print American dollars”. Then the police faced the man: Is it true that you want them to print American Dollars? Do you know what you people are trying to do is against the law of the land? By the way, may I know the name of the secondary school you attended”.
1 he man gave the name of a very popular secondary school. The police officer said, “You are a disgrace to that school. Before I count five, .pull your two ears and disappear from this place”. The man became fearful and ran away. He did not know that the so-called police officer was also a member of the gang. That was how the man lost a whooping N325,000.00. That was his own storm. He did not know what to do. He almost felt like committing suicide.
STORMS OF LIFE HAVE NO RESPECT FOR AGE
They often get violent. They have slain many giants, conquered many conquerors, destroyed many warriors, confused many counsellors and rendered many owners of ostate homeless. Satanic storms generally disobey all voices except the voice of Jesus.
A lot of people have come to a point where they have lost overy sense of direction and purpose in life. Many people have been beaten and battered by hostile satanic storms.
I was touched, a few years ago, when I came across a sister that was going through a peculiar storm. She was 42 when she came for counselling and prayer.
Things got so bad that her own four children plus her husband were beating her up. To make matters worse, the four children advised their father to marry another wife. The man went ahead and carried out what the children suggested. Occasionally, six people, including the new wife, would beat up the sister. Before she came to the church, she had attempted many wrong places. Instead of receiving help her problem was compounded and her bondage was made stronger. She was given a prayer point: O Lord, reveal unto me the secret of my problem. She prayed from mid-night until 1:00am. She spent one hour praying only prayer point. —
Do you know that a single prayer point may have to be taken 3,000 times before meaningful result can be achieved?
This is so because the situation had been there for years. Situations that are deeply rooted require serious efforts. Problems differ in magnitude and depth. Somebody can say a prayer point for ten minutes and achieve results while another person may spend ten hours to achieve results.
The sister continued her aggressive prayer until she could no longer see her sitting room but a tall man wearing a white flowing gown. The tall man posed a question to her. “Madam, do you want to know the secret of your problem?”
The sister replied: “Yes, I would like to know the secret behind my problem”.
The tall man, whom she later discovered was an angel of the Lord, said: “Your problem emanated from your parents. Your father and your mother are blood relations. Their marriage is angel disappeared.
The sister discovered the root of her problem at age 42. As soon as the angel disappeared, he saw another strange sight. A big Iroko tree emerged from the very spot where the angel was. The sister saw a woman carrying a small baby besides the Iroko tree. Then the vision cleared.
By 6:00 a.m. the following day, she woke up and ran to her parents in Lagos, Nigeria. She sat down in the living room, and faced her father and her mother and said: I come to see both of you. I want you to tell me the truth. Is it true that both of you are related?” She asked.
The father bowed his head and began to scratch it. He lifted up his eyes and said: “My daughter, who gave you this Information?”
The daughter became defiant: “Don’t reply my question with – another question”.
When the father discovered that she meant business, he had to open up: “My daughter, I must tell you the truth. I met your mother in England. None of us knew that we came from the same family and from the same village. To stat the fact, we were so closely related that it was an abomination for us to get married. We only discovered that we were relatives after we had wedded. If you had observed, you would have discovered that we have never gone to our village since we came back from England. We know that our mistake would have brought problems into your life. Now that you understand the problem, go and look for solution anywhere”.
As the sister rose to leave her mind flashed back to the revelation she had concerning the Iroko tree and the baby beside it. She then further said to her parents: Now, tell me, what do you know about an Iroko tree.
I he father replied: But who gave you all these revelations? Whenever babies are born in our family, tradition demands that we scrape off its hair and deposit it besides an Iroko tree in the village”.
I he sister could not understand what the father was saying.
:;he said: “But I was born in England. You could not have done that since you were not living in the village at that time”.
The father adjusted himself, cleared his throat and said: it was very simple. We simply posted the hair to the village with a request to our relatives to help us carry out the ritual”.
That was how the sister discovered that a storm came into her life when she was a baby in England.
MAN CAN CREATE STORMS OF LIFE FOR HIMSELF
Do you also know that the storms that you are going through might have been created by you? A lot of people are guilty of raising storms against themselves through their careless actions. Many people are waging war against themselves.
This reminds me of a man of God who wanted to get rid of a storm in his life. He decided to go into three days fasting and prayer. Armed with a very though prayer point: 0 Lord, deal with all my enemies and disgrace and paralyse them with fire, thunder and the wind of the Holy Spirit.
He prayed the prayer point the first day without experiencing anything. When he prayed it the third day, he was surprised to discover that he was the enemy. He was responsible for his problem. He felt a whip at his back. He couldn’t understand what was happening to him. He prayed, “0 Lord, I have prayed that You should deal with my enemy, is there any enemy behind me?”
Then he had a voice: “You are your own enemy”.
That was how he discovered that he was the enemy of himself. Unfortunately, many people have decided to wage war against themselves
STORMS OF LIFE CAN BE SPIRITUALLY ANTAGONISTIC
Do you also know that many educated men and women are naive? They would say: “I don’t expect anybody to attack me since I did not harm anyone’. The only people who do not have enemies are either those who are dead or those who are not making any progress. Jesus had enemies. The only thing was that his enemies made the greatest mistake of their lives when they nailed Him to the cross. The fact that you are gentle, and benevolent does not exempt you from attacks.
STORMS OF LIFE CAN BE INHERITED CURSES
Do you know that storm in the lives of many people can be traced to inherited curses?
A sister was rushed to the church almost dead. She nearly killed herself because she thought that she had got to the end of the road.
What happened to her? The man who proposed to marry her suddenly changed his mind when it was exactly one week to the day of their wedding. The man came and told her: “Do you know that I am no longer interested in getting married to you? Although we have fixed the wedding date and I have made lots of preparation, I want everything cancelled. I cannot many you. In fact, I cannot marry a short woman, Try your luck somewhere else. Thank you”.
That was why the sister decided to commit suicide by swallowing some tablets. Thank God she survived. However, we discovered that she was operating her life under a curse which she inherited from her parents. That was her own storm.
The worst thing that can happen to anyone is to go through a storm without being aware of it.
Something happened when I was teaching in the university, some years ago. There was a Christian sister in the class I was teaching. I noticed that she was behaving in a strange manner. I called her and advised her to look for a place where she could go through deliverance. She argued with me saying that she believed that those who needed to be delivered were witches and wizards. I told her what deliverance is all about. When I discovered that it was difficult to persuade her, I left her.
Months later, she ran to me weeping. She told me that she failed every subject woefully. I asked her, tan I do anything to help since the result is already out?”
She said: “Doctor, do you know that I did not open up to you the other time you told me that I needed deliverance? Do you know that I am not actually free from demonic bondage? I came into the university campus as a demonic agent. I was assigned to the University of Lagos because it is very close to the lagoon.’ However, when I entered the campus, the message of the gospel became interesting to me. I liked the choruses, the companionship of well-behaved students and the Christian programmes. That was how I gave my life to Christ without knowing that I was going to face serious attacks from the demonic society which I belonged to. When I started going to Christian meetings, I faced attacks in the dream. I was told, Why did you decide to join those Christian people? Don’t you know that you have broken your covenant with the demonic kingdom? They told me to renounce my membership of the Christian association or face a stiff punishment. that if I did do so. they were going to bury my glory”.
I hat was what led her to a very bad academic result. She went through that kind of storm because she took certain things for granted. She gave her life to Christ without going through deliverance. Nothing worked for her until she went through deliverance and the link between her and the demonic kingdom was severed. She was able to graduate from the university after going through deliverance.
SOLUTION
Is there a satanic storm in your life? Are you tired of going through mysterious storms?
To silence satanic storms you must take the following steps:
You must be born again. You must give your life to Christ.
Know the origin of the storm. If you do not know the origin of what you are going through, you will not be able to fight Intelligently.
Get thoroughly acquainted with the Lord of the storm. Cultivate a meaningful relationship with Jesus, the master of all storms.
Learn spiritual warfare. Satanic storms originate from the spiritual realm. Battles that emanate from the spiritual realms must be fought with spiritual weapons.
Today, I challenge you to use the weapon of prayer to destroy all satanic storms in your life. This kind of prayer must be prayed with every spiritual strength in you.
i Do you know that for your prayer to get to God it must pass through the headquarters of the demonic kingdom which is located above? When your prayer gets to the throne of God and the answer is sent down from there it must also pass through the satanic headquarters, before it gets to you. Therefore, you must cry aggressively to paralyse the powers that male their abode in satanic headquarters, in the second heaven.
Do you know that Daniel prayed for 21 days but some Powers rose up in the second heaven to hinder his prayer.
He bombarded the place until there was a breakthrough.
Nothing can withstand the power of well-targeted,
aggressive prayers done in violent faith. That is why the
devil focuses his attack on the prayer lives of people.
Let me share a testimony with you to encourage you to pray aggressively. A sister came to one of our meetings with a heavy burden in her heart and a violent storm in her life. She was 37 years old but she had never seen her menstrual period since she was born. She tried all medications, attended several churches and consulted more than a hundred fetish priests but nothing worked. She found it very difficult to discuss her problem with anybody. She was so confused that she prayed a storm-silencing prayer point.
God gave her a revelation. She saw an angel standing by a very old woman and a massive load on the ground. The angel was commanding the woman: Tarry your load”. The old woman was reluctant, initially. However, the angel stood his ground: “You must carry this load. It belongs to you”.
The woman said, “How can I carry the load? You know that I am dead”.
The angel insisted: “You must carry the load”.
Then the woman bent down reluctantly, took the heavy load and moved away. The sister asked the angel: How did she
succeed in putting a load in my life? When she died before I was born?”
The angel told her: “Your grand-mother placed the load on your life, when you were three-months old”.
The vision cleared and immediately, blood began to flow. That was how she had her menstrual period for the first time in her life at the age of 37.
Do you know that a single prayer point can silence long standing satanic storms in your life? Please, pray the following prayer points with spiritual aggression.
PRAYER POINTS
1. I fire back, every arrow of the enemy, in the name of Jesus.
2. Every owner of evil load, carry your load now, in the name of Jesus.
3. I refuse to serve my enemy in the name of Jesus.
4. Every serpent and scorpion, delegated against me I trample upon you, in the name of Jesus.
15. Every incantation uttered against me, become impotent, in the name ofJesus.
6. I command, every evil pronouncement targeted against my life to backfire, in the name of Jesus.
7. I paralyse, every strong man working against my progress, in the name of Jesus.
8. Every household wickedness, loose your hold in the name of Jesus.
9. I pursue and overtake my enemies and I recover my property, In the name of Jesus.
10. Every spirit of infirmity, go back to your sender, in the name of Jesus.
11. Every satanic traffic warden, diverting good things away from me, be paralysed, in the name of Jesus.
