HAVING RESULTS WITH THE NAME OF JESUS IS NOT A GUARANTEE

By Gavin Aleogho

A beloved brother asked me this question: “If the scriptures in Acts 1:8 says that we would received power after that the Holy Ghost comes upon us…, how come we have some individuals in Mark 9:38-40 and even the Apostles in Luke 10:17 who cast out demons in the name of Jesus. And this was before the death of Jesus Christ”?

I helped him to understand that even before or after the Holy Spirit was given to the Church, there was a provision available by which anyone could invoke the power of God in any situation through calling on the name of Jesus Christ.

As it is written: “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord (Jesus) shall be saved” Acts 2:21.

While the coming of the Holy Spirit is to enable believers in Christ Jesus to effectively do the work of witnessing as seen in Acts 1:8, the name of Jesus is available to all for salvation.

This implies that anybody can experience the saving power of God not just for salvation but for any situation, simply by calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is why we have testimonies of unbelievers like Muslims, atheist and traditionalist who were saved from danger simply by calling on the name of Jesus. Nevertheless, the fact that the name “Jesus” saved or helped them does not imply that they have a good standing with God.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:22-23 that: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord (Jesus), Lord (Jesus), have we not prophesied in thy name (Jesus)? and in thy name (Jesus) have cast out devils? and in thy name (Jesus) done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

What are the lessons here?

1. The name of Jesus will work for anybody who believes in it.
2. The fact that the name of Jesus is working for you doesn’t mean that Jesus knows you.
3. You can be having result with the name of Jesus yet still be living in sin.
4. You can have results with the name of Jesus and still go to hell fire.
5. The fact that “ministers” of the gospel are doing great miracles in the name of Jesus does not mean they are known of God.
6. It is better to be without iniquity than to seek for only temporal results with the name of Jesus.

Take advantage of this great name of Jesus Christ, but most importantly, have a personal relationship with Him; only then can you experience the full packages of God and also be guaranteed of eternal life.

HOW TO PRAY FOR HUMAN ENEMIES

By Gavin Aleogho

Since my article titled “45 biblical reasons why you should not pray against human enemies”, I have gotten a lot of questions from people, the most recurring being “what does it mean to pray for your enemies” and “how do we pray against human enemies”?

Let me start by saying that our ways are not God’s way. God’s ways of reasoning as revealed through His Son Jesus Christ cannot be compared or subjected to our mere human reasoning. God is far wiser than all humans put together.

"I don't think the way you think. The way you work isn't the way I work." God's Decree. "For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think. Isaiah 55:8-9 MSG

You must understand and accept the fact that everything in life is for a purpose - whether we acknowledge and know the purpose or not. In like manner, all human being, whether they are good, bad, or evil are left here on heart for a purpose by God Almighty. As humans, our reasoning is finite, we cannot comprehend this fact, but it is the truth.

Concerning King Pharaoh who tormented the Children of Israel while they were in bondage in the land of Egypt, the Lord said: “And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.” Exodus 9:16. So, this scripture points to the fact that Pharaoh was given life andraised to become a wicked king that tormented the Children of God, all because God permitted it for His purpose to be fulfilled. (Ref: Romans 9:17)

The wicked, i.e.the people who have sold themselves out to doing evil and are enemies to you and to God Almighty, is also created by God for a particular purpose. They are left to be on the scene of life by God Himself. Here is the scriptural reference to this point: “The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.” Proverbs 16:4.

I like the way the Amplified version and the The Message version of the Bible puts this:

“The Lord has made everything [to accommodate itself and contribute] to its own end and His own purpose — even the wicked [are fitted for their role] for the day of calamity and evil.” Proverbs 16:4 AMP.

“God made everything with a place and purpose; even the wicked are included — but for judgment.” Proverbs 16:4 MSG. This scripture also points to the fact that the ultimate end of the wicked who did not repent would be damnation.

In the same vein, the Lord has a purpose concerning the righteous. The scripture reads: “Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” Isaiah 43:7.

When you put all these together, you will realize that all things are for a purpose. God cannot change His plan because of you. Left to us, we will want every terrorist to die overnight -Right? We will want all rapist, guys or atheist to vanish from planet earth. We will want everyone that is using satanic power against us to die- Right? However, that is not what God wants, because if he had wanted that, then the earth would have only been occupied presently only by the

righteous and saintly people. But that is not the case presently.

So, back to our question, how do we pray for our enemies since we have read why we should not pray against them? Whatever prayer you want to pray for your enemies, you must ensure that you have the right motive. Because if your motive is wrong, your prayers will not yield any result.

This is how you can pray for your enemies

1.     Pray that God would have mercy on them, for they are only walking in ignorance. Matthew 6:12, Acts 7:59-60.

2.     Pray that they will experience salvation just like Saul who later became Apostle Paul, experienced the saving grace of Jesus Christ on the way to Damascus. Acts 9.

3.     Pray that God will restrain them from the evil they do. Numbers 22.

4.     Take authority in the name of Jesus to frustrate their satanic agenda. Mind you, you are not praying against the person per se, but against his or her evil plans. Matthew 18:18-19.

5.     Your prayers should be targeted at addressing the evil spirit that possesses the person and not the person. Acts 16:16-18.

6.     Pray for their deliverance from the grip of the devil. You must see them as victims. They are only captives of the devil, who the devil is using to do his bidding. So, you must pray for their deliverance from the cage of the devil. Pray for their deliverance from witchcraft, occultism, terrorism etc. Luke 22:31-32. Acts 8:9-13.

7.     Pray for divine Justice. Definitely, the wicked who refuse to change will not go unpunished (Proverbs 11:21). When you pray for divine justice, God in His infinite wisdom who would have seen that they would not repent in the future, might decide to shorten their lifespan so that they would not do greater havoc. He might decide to allow them to continue in their wicked just like Pharaoh, so as to achieve a greater purpose just like in the case when Jesus was being crucified by the solider. Acts 12.

I will strongly recommend you to read my article “45 reasons why you should not pray againsthuman enemies” , at least twice. And also read “Praying against enemies, what about the book of Psalms?”, to get a fuller understand of this subject.

Blessings

Praying against Enemies, what about the book of Psalms?

By Gavin Aleogho

In my article titled, “45 Biblical reasons why you should not pray against human enemies”, I gave 45 biblical reasons why it is scripturally wrong to pray against human enemies. I made it clear there that we are not to perceive anybody as our enemy. From our angle, everyone should be seen as our neighbours, as fellow humans whom Christ died for. I wrote that praying against perceived human enemies to either die or for something evil to happen to them is like telling God that you are more righteous than they. So, they should die so that you can live or they should go down so that you can come up. This is against the love that our Lord Jesus Christ preached.

However, in this article, I want us to look at this topic of praying against enemies from another perspective especially from the point of view of the Psalmist. Because the argument that a lot of people have against my point is that such prayer is in the Bible especially the book of Psalms chapter 5, 10, 17, 35, 58, 59, 70, 79, 83, 109, 129, 137, 140 and many others. Are we to discard that? Is there room for such prayers in Christianity? This and more are what I will be addressing here.

I must start by stating that the book of Psalms is still a part of the whole package of the scripture and no scripture should be looked down on or relegated to the background. Rather, all scriptures should be upheld. What we need, which we sometimes lack is balancing the Old Testament in the light of this dispensation of grace where God’s love is shown to all men and not just to the Israelites.

Concerning the whole Bible, the scripture speaks that: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” 2 Timothy 3:16. That being said, I will also want you to know that there are several personalities who spoke in the scriptures. By this I mean that:

1. Most times God is either speaking directly or indirectly through whatever person/medium; whether Jesus (Hebrews 1:2), the Prophets (Acts 3:21), the Apostles (Acts 1:2), Angels (Hebrews 2:2), or whatever vessel He chooses.
2. Holy men also spoke in the scripture. 1 Corinthians 7:10.
3. Ordinary men also spoke in the scripture. Job 4:1, 8:1, 11:1
4. Wicked men also spoke in the scripture. Exodus 1:8-10.
5. People possessed with demons spoke. Acts 16:16-18.
6. The devil also spoke. Matthew 4:5,6,8,9. Job 1:9-11.
7. Demons also spoke in the Bible (Mark 5:7, 12), and so on.

So, it will be wrong to take every word or dot in the scripture as being said by God Himself. I would not want you to take me to be in heresy. I believe that all the scripture irrespective of who is talking is a whole package given to us by God so that we can be instructed on what is right and wrong. However, we should avoid the error of taking any sentence, phrase or verse from the Bible as an instruction from God that we should act on, rather, some are to be acted upon, some are to teach us what is wrong, while some are to teach us what not to do.

Let’s go back to the imprecatory prayers in the book of Psalms that was written by the Psalmists, chiefly among them is King David. You must understand that at such time, they were still in the Old Testament where the law of Moses was still in effect. So, theyhad not understood the love nature of God for all humans. They held such law as “tooth for a tooth”. They didn’t understand the concept of God’s mercies although they wrote about it.

King David and other Psalmists only made their heart desire known to God about their enemies in this Psalms. However, there is no record that show that God answered these prayers against their enemies. Because God cannot be arm-twisted by anybody.

Besides, we (Gentiles) that are not Israelite by birth were once considered to be enemies of the Israeli and their “God” (Romans 5:10, Colossians 1:21) before Jesus Christ came. So, if God had answered the prayers of the Psalmists then, you can predict what would have become of our ancestors. But thanks be to God through His Son Jesus Christ, that we that were once enemies of God and His people (Hebrews) have been engrafted into God’s family (Galatians 3:14, Romans 11).

Note that even when David was to build the tabernacle, God said that his hands were full of blood, so he did not not have the privilege of building for Him. Was the blood not of David’s enemies? Yes. This shows that God is mindful of even the blood of David’s enemies.

So, why is such imprecatory Psalms still in the Bible? Because God permitted it and it is still “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”.

Am I suggesting that the book of Psalms should not be read or prayed? No. Reading is highly commended. But when it comes to praying the imprecatory Psalms, caution should be taken. We need wisdom in praying this Psalms of judgment. Obviously, complexities may abound in doing such, but that should not stop us in taking advantage of it. However, we must ensure the following;

1. That our motive is right when we pray such Psalms.

2. We should not pray it to arm-twist God against His will.

3. We might decide to pray it while we give room for God’s will to be done.

4. Pray it to have divine justice on an issue.

5. Pray it when led by the Spirit of God.

I believe we should be busy doing what God assigned us to do, while God will take care of the rest for us. Moses and the Israelite didn’t pray that God should take care of the Pharaoh that was chasing after them, but in God’s infinite wisdom and will, He drowned the Egyptians in the sea. Likewise, King Herod who wanted to kill Jesus Christ when He was born died even without Jesus’ parents praying for His death.

We should not be overly concerned about what God will do to our enemies, rather, we should be focused on fulfilling our assignment and God will take care of the rest.

45 Biblical Reasons Why You Should Not Pray Against Human Enemies

By Gavin Aleogho

The core value of Christianity is LOVE. Love should be the platform from which everything should be done in the Christian faith; whether it’s preaching, praying, relating, living or whatever; because love is the greatest and God is love (1 John 4:8, 1 Corinthians 13:13, Galatians 5:6).

When you put that into perspective, especially in the aspect of prayer, you will observe that many things are not being done right, especially in the African Pentecostal and Evangelical Churches. The ‘Fathers of faith’ who supposed to know better are playing ignorant to this aspect of the application of love in prayers by bluntly turning the instructions of our Lord Jesus Christ (who should be our primary example) upside down.

‘Ministers of God’ pray and lead their members to pray contrary to the instructions of our Master Jesus. They organize vigils, revivals, teachings and also writing books and articles on subjects that have to do with praying against human enemy. Thousands of flyers and billboards like: “Your enemy must die”, “Night of Blood”, “Night of Vengeance”, “Burial of my destiny Enemies”, “Every witch must die”, “Operation point and kill”, “The enemies in my house must die” and many others are indications of how deep we are getting things wrong.

I must quickly reiterate here again that I believe in warfare prayers targeted not at any human but against the host of the devil (Ephesians 6:12). Definitely, people would declare themselves or become enemies to us whether knowingly or unknowingly. But from our own side, no man should be viewed as our enemy, rather, we should see them as the image of God. Therefore, we should never wish or pray evil against anybody simply because we thought they are bad, while we are good or righteous.

Ironically, Churches, Christians and Ministers of God today are blindly turning against the instructions of Christ our Lord, and throwing into the trash, His instructions to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44-48). 

Here are 45 biblical reasons why such prayers are wrong:

1. Jesus Christ is our Lord, Saviour, Model and our Example NOT any Old Testament figure. Hebrews 12:2. 1 Peter 2:21-25
2. Jesus Christ is the Word of God and the fulfillment of the Old Testament, His instruction supersedes any person before Him and after Him. John 1:1, 14. Matthew 5:17. 
3. Jesus Christ commanded that we pray for our enemies not against them. Matthew 5:43
4. Our Lord Jesus commanded that we bless those that curses us. Matthew 5:44.
5. We are in the New Testament where Christ instructs us to love our enemies. Matthews 5:44.
   
6. We are not in the Old Testament where the law of “tooth for a tooth” holds. Matthew 5:38-42.
7. Jesus came to seek and save (not to kill and destroy) those (including your enemies) that are lost in witchcraft, occultism, etc. Luke 19:9-11. Luke 5:32.
8. Jesus Christ our example did not pray against those that crucified Him. He prayed God to forgive them. Luke 23:34.
9. Praying against enemies is not outlined in the Lord’s prayer rather, having mercy was spoken about there. Matthew 6:9-13.
10. The law and instruction of Jesus Christ supersedes the law or instructions from any Old Testament figure like Moses, David, Elijah and the rest. Hebrews 1:1-2, Hebrews 3:1-6.
11. Prayer against enemies is an Old Testament practice that has been done away with. 2 Corinthians 3:7.
12. Prayer against enemies is not an acceptable New Testament prayer. Romans 12:19-21, Matthew 5:38-48.
13. The gospel of Christ is the gospel of Love not hatred. 1 John 3:14-15.
14. Vengeance against enemies is God’s prerogative not ours. Romans 12:19-21.
15. Prayer against enemies negate the law of love that we operate by in the New Testament. 1 John 4:20-21
16. Prayer against enemies is the way of unbelievers not the way of Christ followers. Matthews 5:46
17. The early Christians and Apostles did not pray against their enemies.
18. Stephen a New Testament apostle showed us an example even till his death. Acts 7:59-60.
19. Praying against enemies contradicts the love we are expected to show as Christ representatives. 1 John 3:14-15.
20. The downfall of the wicked should never be our joy. Proverbs 24:17.
21. God does not wish that any man should perish because of my prayer. 2 Peter 3:9.
22. We can’t use the same mouth to bless God and curse or pray against any man. James 3:10.
23. Prayer against enemies will create in you a hatred mentality and makes you unnecessarily suspicious of things and people. James 3:14-16.
24. You can’t pray against enemies and still walk in love (God). 1 John 3:14-15.
25. We are people of love, compassion and mercy not people of vengeance. 1 Peter 3:8-15
26. God does not answer such prayer because it is not praying according to the will of God.  It is praying amiss. 1 John 5:14-15.
27. God’s ways are not ours. Jonah wanted God to kill the wicked people of Nineveh but God decided to spare them. Jonah 4:1-2.
28. Praying against enemies is lack of faith in God’s word that “no evil will not come near you.” Proverbs 12:21, Psalms 91:10.
29. There is no difference between you and your enemies if you wish them the same evil they wish you. Luke 6:32.
30. It is believing in the enemies’ ability to hurt that necessitates praying against them. Job 3:25.
31. Prayer against enemies might lead you to hell. Revelation 22:18-19.
32. We should have faith in God’s ability to protect than the enemies’ ability to hurt. 1 Corinthians 15:57. 2 Corinthians 2:14.
33. We should have more faith in what God has made us than what the devil can do. 1 John 4:4. Ephesians 2:6.
34. We are already above the enemies and their powers. Luke 10:19
35. We are already more than a conqueror. Romans 8:37
36. No man can harm me if I’m following what is good. 1 Peter 3:13
37. It is gain to the Kingdom of God when they are saved than when they die and go to hell. Luke 15:7.
38. Showing love to your enemies will make God to keep you save from their evil with a reward. Proverbs 25:21-22.
39. If you believe in “suffer not a witch to live” (Exodus 22:18), then you have to apply every instruction that is in that passage and in the law. 
40. Remember that the law of Moses speaks of killing witches physically not spiritually. Can you physically kill a witch and expect not to face the law of the land or face the eternal judgement of God?
41. Our ambition to prosper does not warrant anybody dying. For God blesses His Children even in the midst of their enemies. Psalms 23:5.
42. The battlefield of life is primarily in our mind, not with anybody. 2 Corinthians 10:5.
43. Our battle is spiritual not against humans that has flesh and blood. 2 Corinthians 10:3-4
44. Our primary focus is to crumble the powers behind the wicked and not the human being that is been used ignorantly. 2 Corinthians 10:3, Ephesians 6:12.
    
45. Anybody can decide to be enemy to us. But we are not permitted to be enemies to anybody, rather, we are instructed to live in peace, love and honour all men irrespective of whether they are enemies to us or not. 1 Peter 2:17, Hebrews 12:14.

Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For "He who would love life And see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil." And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. "And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;”. 1 Peter 3:8-15.

For question or clarity on this topic, please feel free to send me an email (gavin4peace@yahoo.com). I will be pleased to discuss with you. 

Blessings