FORGIVE AND BE FORGIVEN

ENCOURAGING WORDS

Speaking on the same topic as he did the previous Sunday, Prophet T. B. Joshua proceeded to explain forgiveness. Granted by God, forgiveness means that God looks at you as if you have never sinned. God’s forgiveness, he continued, does not sweep your sins under the carpet. Instead, His forgiveness completely washes your sins away. In close reference to Matthew 5:44, he asserted that forgiveness paves the way for harmonious relationships even with your enemies.

He then asked a probing question, ‘How can you forgive someone who has hurt you deeply?’

Citing Matthew 6:14-15, the prophet reminded the congregation that, ‘If you forgive someone who has sinned against you, your Heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your father in Heaven will not forgive you.’ He stated that being unwilling to forgive shows that you have not understood or benefitted from God’s forgiveness.

If you have been forgiven (Ephesians 4:31), you should that the forgiveness will create in you a forgiving heart towards others. Quoting Matthew once more, he cautioned that if you love your enemy and pray for your persecutors, this releases you from the destructive emotions of anger, bitterness, revenge and others.

Jesus forgave even those who mocked and killed Him. We should be more concerned about our offenders and their relationship with God and less about nursing grudges and self pity or ill will.

The person most hurt by unforgiveness, he asserted, is you. An unforgiving attitude does not only destroy your relationship but also poisons your soul. In close reference to 1 Peter 3:9, he advised the congregation not to repay evil with evil. When people hurt you, pay them back with a blessing.

When people say hurtful things about us, God wants us to respond by blessing them. If you fail to receive forgiveness, you will find yourself in a torture chamber.

A soul with the spirit of unforgiveness will find themselves in a torture chamber.

He concluded by encouraging all those listening to first forgive themselves and then forgive those who have sinned against them.

DELIVERED FROM EATING CEMENT AND CHARCOAL

It was time for testimonies and the first testimony came from Portia from Ghana who was delivered the previous week from the addiction to eating cement and charcoal. The spectacular thing about her deliverance was that, she was delivered by receiving prayer from one of the evangelists through the Emmanuel TV prayer line. The previous Sunday, during the Live service, Portia had called the evangelist and narrated her addiction and the effects of it on her life to the prayer warrior. After asking her a few questions, he proceeded to pray for her. After the evangelist had prayed that whatever demonic bondage she might be in would be broken, Portia fell down as the spirit which had caused her to be eating cement and charcoal was commanded out in Jesus’ name.  Getting up a moment later, Portia described the sensation she experienced during the deliverance and how light she had become. Portia and her mother then shared their testimony and spoke how she had been sleeping and eating normally for the last week. They thanked God for the deliverance from the addiction that had kept her in bondage for so long and vowed to make God’s Word the standard for their lives.

RELEASED FROM CRAVING FOR CHALK AND ANT HILL SAND

Mrs Helen Tijikua, a teacher, from Namibia stunned her listeners with the story of her addiction to eating chalk and ant hill sand. The habit, which started with chalk, developed as she used saliva to soften chalk before using it to write. After two years of eating chalk, she also had a dream where she ate ant hill sand. The next day after the dream, she proceeded to locate ant hill sand and began to eat it. It did not take long before it became addicted to eating it and it became compulsory for her to eat it before having a meal. She narrated how at times she would travel far from her house to the bush and would even climb over people’s fences in order to locate the ant hill sand. She would eat it 2 to 3 times a day. She described how the chalk and ant hill sand tasted like something very sweet to her and that she would prefer eating it to eating chocolate.

Though her friends and family thought it strange and told her so, she thought it was normal and did not consider it to be a problem until she watched Emmanuel TV and saw how people were being delivered from similar addictions regularly.

It was the deliverance of the victim of a similar case she watched on Emmanuel TV that spurred her to visit The SCOAN for her own deliverance. Rising up after the deliverance, Helen was once offered some chalk and ant hil sand to eat but after attempting to, she immediately, spat them out wondering how they could have ever tempted her before.

WOMAN DELIVERED FROM EATING ICE CUBES

Another woman, Jennifer Sokola from Zambia, narrated a similar affliction. Her case was addiction to eating ice cubes. She took ice cubes as food and always had some in her car as she drove out. Her deep freezer served as a store for ice cubes and she would resort to taking hot tea and covering herself with blankets after consuming them to excess. She confessed taking some to the bathroom as she went for a shower. Most times, she would develop stomach problems but she would not stop the habit. She had been in this situation for five and a half years, according to her.  After her confession, the prophet prayed for her in the name of Jesus Christ and then declared her free. She spat out the ice cubes given to her after the deliverance, saying that she no longer felt the desire to eat them.

 

 

TORMENTED BY THE BIBLE?

As Prophet T.B. Joshua prayed for those attending the Monday service at The SCOAN, a woman cried out for help, saying that the devil was using the Bible to torment her. Wondering how the Bible could be an instrument of torment, the prophet asked the woman to enlighten the congregation. She told the congregation how the Bible had become the leading instrument in her decision taking. She could not do anything without opening the Bible for consultation. She always kept it in her bag from where she consulted it secretly by reading portions to determine which seller she would buy any food item from in the market. Even at home, she would seek the consent of the Bible before visiting the toilet or to do anything. She was distressed by this affliction which posed danger to her life as she would consult it even on the busy roads, unmindful of the flow of traffic. She explained that a colleague of hers introduced her to the habit of ‘throwing the Bible’ when he told her how it helped to involve God in decision making. Visibly worried about how the habit, which she described as a torment, had veered her from normal life and ushered her into public ridicule, Mrs Agilo, an immigration officer, was desperate for deliverance and did not hide it. Her husband, Mr Linus Agilo joined forces with his wife to appeal to the prophet for her deliverance, saying that she jumbled up their furniture as if in a mental disorder. She revealed that for ten years she had been controlled by this strange habit, adding that she was also afflicted by a spiritual husband. After listening to their plight, the prophet had prayed for them during the Monday service and they were delivered, in Jesus’ name. Both husband and wife testified that since the deliverance a week before, her behaviour had changed. They were happy and joyful and expressed their desire to draw even closer to God.

ANOINTING WATER SAVED TRAVELLERS FROM DEATH

Samson Okeze of Delta, Nigeria joined by his wife, Helen told his listeners that he used his Anointing Water regularly and that as he travelled from Ughelli to Warri in his transporter car, he met a trailer vehicle depositing load at a construction site. He cautiously waited for the trailer to offload before he would proceed. He however noticed that the load container of the trailer was falling off. He could not avoid it and it fell directly on top of his own car, warping it out of shape. He and the passengers in his vehicle were rushed to the hospital, where it was confirmed that none of them had an injury, thanks to God’s intervention through the Anointing Water. He called his wife to go to the scene of the accident for a photographic record of his car. As he gave his testimony, he showed the various photographs of the car badly damaged in the accident but it was by the grace of God, that there was no death in the accident and he thanked God heartily for His mercy.

 

ANOINTING WATER RAISED MAN FROM DEATH

Childluck Egumame, an owner of a block moulding industry, stunned his listeners with the   testimony of the year. In his words, one of his workers, Emmanuel Jega from Kaduna, Nigeria complained of a stomach ache in the morning and he went to buy some tablets for him. Before he came back to the work site, Emmanuel Jega had slumped and died. All attempts to revive him failed. Childluck never knew what to do as people would mindlessly accuse him of using Emmanuel for a money ritual. He however, remembered that he had the Anointing Water at home and he rushed for it. Praying with the Anointing Water and spraying it on Emmanuel who had been dead for three hours, he and others observed him shaking in revival and before long, Emmanuel had come to life like the Biblical Lazarus. Malam Yakubu Suleman, a live-witness who actually reminded him of the Anointing Water, confirmed the testimony as given by Childluck. In his turn, Emmanuel Jega told his listeners that he never knew what happened to him until he was told of his own death when he asked people what had happened. All three thanked God for his mercy to them through the medium of the Anointing Water.

 

MASS DELIVERANCE THROUGH MASS PRAYER

In the mass prayer which ended the service, Prophet T. B. Joshua, leading both the congregation and Emmanuel TV viewers worldwide prayed for every member of the congregation to be disengaged from the spirit of unbelief.

He led them in some powerful prayer points:

• Whatever you are still facing as a challenge – begin to free yourself from that bondage.
• Every constant experience that you are having, be loosed, in the name of Jesus Christ.
• Every demonic influence, begin to loose yourself!

He also fervently prayed for the congregation and Emmanuel TV viewers to enter the New Year fulfilled in their aspirations. At the end of the mass prayer, which saw many who possessed evil spirits exposed and delivered, the prophet assured the congregation that they had all been disentangled from the spirit of unbelief. They departed to their homes, thanking God from the bottom of their hearts for the grace to attend such a service.