ON MY WAY TO MINNA

Some years back, I was traveling to Minna from Lagos. My destination was a rural village in Niger state but Minna was a major transit route for me to link up with other missionaries before proceeding to the mission field. When we arrived at Jebba, the driver parked the vehicle in a restaurant. We alighted from the vehicle to eat. I paid for my meal( water inclusive) and I finished all that was in my plate. However, I needed additional satchet water. I requested of the waitress to give me an additional satchet water which she did and left. As I took the water from her, a voice told me that if I don't pay for the satchet water, I'll return to Jebba to restitute the debt of five naira for the satchet water. Ha! Upon hearing that, I looked around for the lady that served me the additional satchet water. When I found her, I gave her the money for the additional satchet water but to my surprise, she declined. I asked to know the reason for her refusal, she said the initial payment I made for the food also covered the extra satchet water she served me. I became angry at the demon that spoke to me. I felt like punching the person behind that voice if he had a physical form. I also felt stupid for quickly coming under temporary guilt because of five naira satchet water. Initially, I thought that I was asking for something I needed to pay for not knowing my initial payment covered for it. Obviously, the voice I heard wasn't God's, it was a religious demon. It took me years before I understand this thing I'm teaching. I fell victim several times.

I'm always careful around people who claim to always "hear" and what they hear may sound "spiritual" but when properly discerned, most of those things aren't from God though they may sound like what God would say but it is not. Not all voices that speak piously to you is the voice of God even if they sound like what God would say. I want to liberate someone with this simple but profound truth. If there's one thing Charismatics need to be careful about in this end time, I think one of it is indiscriminately saying "thus saith the Lord" or "the Lord said". Satan, knowing that most believers want to "hear" and are desirous of having an intimate relationship with God to the point of speaking and hearing from Him, he has also released religious demons that say what may sound like what God would say so that God's people can be subservient and ultimately led astray. The extreme of this is when some start hearing voices to the point of going insane. There are numerous persons in mental homes who speak in "tongues" (obviously not of God) and do alot of 'spiritual gymnastics' that church folks do. Psychiatric doctors can bear witness to this. I once ministered to a lady who lost total control of her mind to religious demons. She was acting "churchy", carrying her bible, preaching and doing all sorts but a demon was controlling her. People who crave the esoteric in an unhealthy manner often fall victims of this.

Dearest, your goal as a believer shouldn't be to "hear" but to "know." Let me explain further. Knowing God through His word is a higher experience and level than "hearing" a voice speak to you. There's a level of knowledge about God that you'll possess and thus hear accurately because there will be an alignment between the written word( accurately interpreted) and what the Spirit says. As Kenneth E. Hagin of blessed memory says, 'the Spirit and the word will always agree.' Paul's prayer was not "That I may hear Him" rather it was "That I may know Him." When you know Him as you should, you will hear Him as you should. Oftentimes, those that are very lazy in private bible study want to build their intimacy with God on what they hear or see in a vision. They've forgotten that several voices speak from the realm of the spirit. The chiefest of them all that seeks to control believers that aren't grounded in the word are religious demons. Do not get me wrong, I haven't said God doesn't speak, He does but getting to discern His voice accurately requires some patience. Don't always be in a rush to act impulsively on every seemingly "spiritual" instruction you hear. Test that spirit with the word, prayer, patience, counsel and with time. God is never in a hurry with some of the things we think we are under compulsion to do. He himself desire we come to know when He is speaking and when He is not. Receive deliverance from religious demons speaking to your mind in Jesus name.