POWER OVER THE SERPENT
POWER
OVER
THE
SERPENT
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”- Genesis 3:15POWER OVER THE SERPENT
Written By
Babatope Babalobi
Under the inspiration of
The Holy Spirit
“ I beheld Satan as lighting fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you” - (KJV) Luke 10: 18-19POWER OVER THE SERPENT
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First published in 2005
The Bread of Life Development Foundation (Rc 14,090)
(Registered as an Incorporated Trustee under Nigerian laws)
Box 14055, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria
@Copyright. All Rights reserved.
The Grace of God is on any person or institution that reproduces this book in part or whole, with or without the written or verbal permission of the Author, or Publisher, for non-commercial purposes, to spread the Gospel of Lord Jesus Christ. The Curse of God is on any one or any institution, which reproduces this book in part, or whole, for commercial purposes, without the written or verbal permission of the Author, Publisher, or the instruction of the Holy Spirit.
All quotations from the Holy Bible, New International Version, unless otherwise indicated
Printed by:
Ace Associates Limited, Lagos, Nigeria
+234-8052436980
CONTENTS
Foreword………………………………………………………………………..5
Preface: My Testimony…………………………………………… 6
Chapter One: In the Beginning…………………………………..……27
Chapter Two: The Ancient Serpent……………………………………31
Chapter Three: Agents of the Serpent……………………………….….41
Chapter Four: The Enemies within……………………………………44
Chapter Five: Christ, Head of All Powers…………………………...51
Chapter Six: Overcome the Serpent…………………………..…….53
Strategies and Tactics of overcoming the Serpent
a. The Word
b. Persistent Prayers
c. Fasting and Prayer
d. Withdrawing to Gethsemane
e. Night Vigils
f. Lifted Hands
g. Praying in the Spirit
h. The Power in Praise
i. Have faith in God
Chapter Seven: Possess the Sword……………………………………….……….73
Chapter Eight: Deliverance Prayers…………………………………….……….82
PREFACE
My Testimony
Igrew up in a Christian family. My Biological father, Samuel Ogunsure Falobi (1927-2003) of blessed memory, was a Missionary who was actively involved in the establishment of several branches of The Apostolic Church in various parts of Nigeria, during his lifetime. Mum, Janet Oluwafunmilayo up till now is a Deaconess in my native towns’ District Headquarters of that same Church. I was therefore fortunate to have a Christian upbringing. I remember Daddy always insisted all the Children attend the Sunday service, while Mummy also ensured we participated actively in all other week days Church programmes.
I was a Church-goer but not born again. I was almost getting born again around the ages of 7-9, when I suddenly developed a passion for Christian Literatures, which I ordered from Christian ministries. It was a zeal that was soon choked by thorns, as in those days becoming an S.U. (a pseudonym for being a born again) was a social stigma. I left home temporarily in 1984 at the age of 17 and spent the next four years pursuing a University degree. During my undergraduate years, my tender and feeble roots in Christianity practically died off as I enjoyed my new ‘freedom’. Not that I was into any of the popular vices, as a matter of fact I was a moralist but could count the number of times I attended a Christian gathering, whether a Church or fellowship. If I was merely a Churchgoer during my kid/teenage years, I was now a nominal Christian. But the grace of God was on me, and things went well. I even achieved national prominence during my undergraduate days on account of my involvement in Student Unionism. On graduation, I did the compulsory National Youth Service Corps in a leading Oil Company- a dream posting by all reckoning.
However, that was the end of the successes of my early years. In retrospect, I never knew that at this point of my life, Satan wanted me to come and make a covenant with him if I wanted to ‘succeed’ in every thing I lay my hands on thereon. God, my creator was also beckoning me to become more committed to Him, so that He could see me through life, with His love and power. Hitherto, God’s Grace had seen me through my adolescent years, but I needed to walk in the grace of God for His grace to be sustained.
I never knew that Christians are not justified by their morality, but by the grace of God and atoning sacrifice of His blameless son, Jesus Christ. No man can afford to be both for, and against Jesus Christ. No man can be in the middle of the road. Our heavenly father’s wish is that every man is in good health and prosperous in life. “ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” Jer 29:10-11 KJV. But Satan is in this world to hinder this heavenly plan:
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POWER OVER THE SERPENT
T
he thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly
-John 10:10
KJV
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POWER OVER THE SERPENT
Satan’s main target is born again Christians, on whom he unleashes various kinds of demons in order to thwart their destiny. Satan’s next target are middle roaders like I was, this category of people would be susceptible to various attacks until they either run to God or covenant with Satan. For the avoidance of doubt, any one who is not a born again Christian, is consciously or unconsciously in covenant with Satan. The moment you confess the Lordship and Messiaship of Jesus Christ, this covenant becomes broken. Those who have made a covenant with Satan quite early, enjoy the heavenly blessing God has originally prepared for them. It is important to note that Satan does not have any blessing at his disposal he gives to people. What he does is to temporarily refrain from attacking those who have covenanted with him, thereby leaving them to enjoy God’s blessing. This category of people would be succeeding in almost every thing they do, and people would wonder why these wicked people and unbelievers are prospering, while they, the righteous are facing vicissitudes and crises. The Bible warns Christians not to envy the prosperity of the wicked, because destruction lies ahead of them.
“I have seen a wicked and ruthless man flourishing like a green tree in its native soil, but he soon passed away and was no more; though I looked for him, he could not be found. Consider the blameless, observe the upright; there is a future for the man of peace. But all sinners will be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off” -Psalm 37:35-38I
started experiencing curious, unfortunate occurrences towards the end of my National Youth Service year. I thought I was just unlucky; never knew it was the Ancient Serpent that had started bruising me. I applied to be retained in the Oil Company where I served, and was short-listed for the employment interview. Curiously, the invitation letter for the interview never got to me up till now, almost twenty years later, in spite of the fact that the letter were sent by Courier! Coincidentally, I walked into the Oil Company on a casual visit on the day slated for the interview, and was interviewed with others. I learnt I came tops in the interview scoring about 78% and another letter inviting for the final interview was dispatched to me by courier. I received that letter about two weeks after the second interview was held!
· That was how I lost the dream job of working in leading Oil Company. On investigation, I learnt that somebody delayed the postage of my interview letter because he had a candidate. I attributed the occurrences to ill luck. But now I know better, it was the Serpent that was at work. The devil had his candidate. I was neither God’s candidate nor the devil’s. Miracles do not happen by chance.
That was the beginning. Afterwards, I tried becoming self-employed. Had great vision and was imbued with great ideas. I laid my hands on various businesses and ventures. They all ended in failures, bankruptcy and redundancies. I worked hard with all my youthful energies, but had nothing to show for it materially. I struggled with all my strength, but had no fruits to show for my efforts. Along the line I had the peculiar fortune of securing political appointments was a Special Assistant to a Local Government Chairman (akin to a Mayor) in 1993, to another three years later, Press Secretary to a Nigeria’s Federal Minister in 1996, a Consultant to the defunct Petroleum Special Trust Fund, (a Federal parastatal that was allocated a percentage of Nigeria’s Oil money to implement de4velopment projects) with in 1998, and Chief Press Secretary to the Senate President (the Head of Nigeria’s National Parliament and Politically the No 3 person in the country) in 2001. Moreover, along the line I had worked as a Personal aide to several highly placed Nigerians including a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and the Head of a West African Governmental organization. But the spirit of failure at the end of breakthroughs always set in. Not that I was ever sacked, as a matter of fact my various bosses still hold me in high esteem on account of my diligence. In most of these appointments, I was deliberately denied the enjoyment of the privileges of the positions, and in fact my remunerations were either not paid at all or/and short paid.
As mentioned earlier during this period, I was just a nominal Christian but with high moral virtues. But my morality was really an impediment to prospering in a worldly way, yet I needed the Grace and the Anointing, not morality to prosper in a Godly way. I was ignorantly caught in the middle of the road. I was neither serving God nor Satan wholeheartedly. Soon poverty set in, epileptic employment was a trademark of my career, debt became a friend, stagnancy and failure became the hallmark of my business life, and diseases particularly malaria became a bi- weekly occurrence. During this period, I spent five years staying in a small room apartment in a typical Lagos bungalow. Even to pay the One hundred per month (less than a dollar a month) house rent became a difficulty.
I managed to put a second hand car on the road, few months afterwards the car crashed on the expressway in a mysterious circumstance I can not explain up till now. I was not speeding, but the Car hit the road divider along one of the popular expressways in Lagos Nigeria, the fuel tank burst in the process, and was lucky not to be consumed in an inferno that would had engulfed the car. Few months later I sold the car as a scrap losing over two-thirds it’s worth in the process. I tried pursuing a Masters degree, passed all the course work in the first year, but on two consecutive years I could not print it out the thesis from the Workstation I used in typing it. The document could not just be opened from both the hard disk and the diskette where a copy was saved. By the time I eventually retyped the thesis in the third year on a different Computer, and printed it out I was told my Masters programme had lapsed.
Interestingly my friends who were in the ‘world’ were ‘succeeding’ in all fronts. They were even helping one another, and supporting themselves up. They could not help me as much as they should because I was not following them around- partying, womanizing, smoking, and drinking. I was lonely and frustrated. I spent long hours thinking about how I could make it and succeed. Thrice the thought of committing suicide flashed my mind, but dismissed the ideas deciding to give life one more trial. Maybe, my next move may just click. I never knew I was in captivity, caged by forces more powerful than me.
M
y Vicissitudes climaxed in 1995.Satan passed his boundary in my life by afflicting me with severe headache and malaria. The affliction lingered for about six months, every two weeks I must be down with Malaria and I soon developed resistance to common malaria drugs and was placed on quinine. The headache was intermittent during the day. Whenever it occurred I felt severe pain. I was living with migraine daily.
Satan never knew God was watching over me in spite of my halfhearted Christianity. Sometimes in 1995, God remembered me and sent a Deeper Life brother on evangelism mission to me. I did not give my life to Christ, but requested the brother to pray with me over the headache. He prayed for healing, and to my amazement the six-month headache ceased about 30 minutes afterwards.
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It was a miracle I personally experienced and I did not need somebody else’s validation that there is power in the name of Jesus Christ. All throughout my Christian life, I
had never experienced such power of God. I was touched by my healing and decided to make a personally discovery of God, and His Son Jesus Christ.
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The first step I took thereafter was to purchase a copy of the Holy Bible and decided to read it through. I wanted to know more about God. I did not want to base my conversion to born again Christian on somebody else’s witness. I wanted to be convinced that Jehovah is the Almighty. I finished reading through the Bible for the first time on my 29th birthday, December 6,1995. The Bible makes an interesting reading, no wonder it is the highest selling book on the earth. No body can go through this Holy Book with an open mind without getting fully attached to God. And I believe every Christian should desire to read the Bible at least once during their his/her lifetime, how do you serve God if you have not fully read His plan and purpose for mankind? The Bible won me over to Christ. Over the years I have fallen in love with it and have read it through six times now. It is my greatest companion, and has various versions of it on my Personal computer, in audio format as ‘ Bible in cassette’, and in printed format.