(0:00)The Hidden Influence of TV
The point I'm trying to make is that television influences you a lot more than you realize. Music influences you a lot more than you realize. We we we act like things are benign. You're in a mood and you listen to music and you feel better. You're happy. You listen to music, you start feeling sad. Yeah. You're at peace. You listen to music, you start feeling agitated. Music has an ability to stir you, to stir your emotions and stir your actions without you even realizing it's the music you've been listening to. And same thing with television. You watch television, you watch something on TV and all of a sudden you're dissatisfied with your life and you're dissatisfied with your situation, right? And you were fine with it. Yeah. Until you saw something on television that at the root is witchcraft. Unfiltered. Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of PF Unfiltered. My name is Esther Griffin. I have my co-host with me Roslin and of course we have the one that we came here to hear and he is You guys are very choppy. You guys are You're overly perky, man. Oh my god. No, today has been a really, really good day. Um, excited for the holiday. Your voice is so happy and I'm just see like you can't be this happy. No. And we're about to talk about a topic that like has been on so many of our minds. And so today is just going to be really fun. I can imagine. You guys, man, I'm concerned. You guys are way too happy, man. Um, but another reason why we're really
(1:24)The Sponsorship Milestone
happy is because we have a new sponsor. Oh, yeah. That's that's good news. Um, and our sponsor today is M U Mama Mary Seasoning. And so she has sent us her allpurpose seasoning, the low um low sodium. And then the one that doesn't have we like this one. No, high sodium. This is the one that we like. So, this is the one that we will be using. Um, we're really excited about it. You can put it in your chicken, jalaf rice, fried rice. What else do we do people cook in their homes? Anything. Anything. Anything. So, some of the ingredients um in this one that is not low sodium is like salt, garlic, um a bit of cornstarch, um palm oil, which is cool. Um what else? It contains shrimp, soy, wheat, and then it says um may contain fish, milk, and shellfish. So, if you do have an allergy, you know, look at the ingredients just so you're not affected. But that's the one that my mom would like. Low sodium. Yeah, I think I like this one, too, cuz you know, healthy journey. This one is healthy, too. Too much of something is a bad thing. So, if we put too much, then it will be a bad thing, but this one is still a good thing. Always, always, always. Um, so we are very happy that u Mama Mary has sponsored us today and we cannot wait um to for you guys to um use the product and and uh so now I'm going to get paid, right? Did I get a check? Because now that we got we got sponsors finally. No, you're not getting a check, sir. Yeah. And then also if you do want to get it, you can get it on Amazon. So use our code PF summer 10 for 10% off. Yay. And we have a code. We have arrived. Mama, we made it. We finally Yeah. Oh, wow. So, they can put our name in something and get a code on Amazon. Wow. I feel I feel famous already. Can I frame it? PF Summer 10% off. Yeah. Um, but yeah, if you want to be a sponsor, we I mean, we would love to have you all. Um, feel free to, you know, send us stuff. You want us to try it. Um, yeah. Okay. Any thoughts? Uh yeah, we'll sponsor anything that's um that's healthy and sweet. It's a black owned business, too.
(3:44)Defining Modern Witchcraft
All right, so to get into our topic today, we are exploring if witchcraft is real or not. If demons and uh higher realms and spiritual beings, spiritual beings are real today. Okay. So to get us started, what is witchcraft as defined by the Bible or maybe in your opinion? Manipulation. Okay. Bible says manipulation is like witchcraft. Okay. Manipulation is like witchcraft. But then what is witchcraft, right? So a form of manipulation. Manipul trying to manipulate people against their will. Using um powers that are not legitimate for us to use. Um, using the forces of darkness, using deception, slight of hand. Um, yeah, that's that's basically witchcraft. Okay. That's I don't know like I kind of when it comes to witchcraft, me personally, you know, I lived I grew up on this side and I just never really exper I heard about it. I've, you know, seen movies about it all, but I just never experienced it myself. So, you you've never been aware of it. doesn't mean you have not experienced it. Because if witchcraft is working as it's supposed to, you don't you're not supposed to know that it's actually been used against you. The whole idea is to influence you, influence aspects of your life without you knowing who is behind it. So is there like different extremes? Like I guess on this side maybe it's more subtle that we don't. When you say you mean the western world? Yeah, the western world. Okay. It's a little bit a little bit more subtle. I don't think so. I think I think it's very alive. It's very real, right? It's very active. It comes in ways that you don't always know, right? Yeah. Um when we think of witchcraft, right, you have to understand that at its fundamental, it is trying to manipulate the course of a person's life for whatever reason, right? Um, does it have to involve a person behind it? Mhm. Usually. Okay. Usually, I can't imagine that, you know, witchcraft will just rise up by itself, right? Usually somebody or something, right, that is trying to use forces, right, that are not readily available to everybody to impact a person's life, right? Yeah. To that degree, you could say the television could become a medium of witchcraft. M okay. In what in what
(6:19)The Prince of the Airwaves
capacity? Please like please elaborate on that. The Bible says that um the Bible talks about the prince of the power of the of the air. Yeah. Right. And he's talking about Satan, right? Mhm. And what Satan does, right? And and we can get into the demons and all of that. Get into the people flying on brooms and all if you want to do that. We were talking about it earlier. She was like, "Are people really like teleporting? Like is this actually a thing?" Like I don't know the I don't know all the techniques of it. Yeah. Right. But I know that I obviously you're a pastor. We hope you don't know the techniques of it to some extent. I don't I actually don't never teleported anywhere. I mean Philip did. There you go. But the point I'm trying to make is that television right influences you a lot more than you realize. Music influences you a lot more than you realize. Yeah. We we we we we act like things are benign. You're in a mood and you listen to music and you feel better. Yeah. Right. You're happy. You listen to music. You start feeling sad. Yeah. You're at peace. You listen to music. You start feeling agitated. Mhm. Right. Music has an ability to stir you to stir your emotions and stir your actions without you even realizing it's the music you and same thing with television, right? You watch television, you watch something on TV and all of a sudden you're dissatisfied with your life. Right. Right. You're dissatisfied with your situation. Right. And you are fine with it. Yeah. Until you saw something on television that at the root is is witchcraft, right? It is trying to change things for nefarious reasons, right? Are you saying that TV is bad? TV can be bad. It can be can be very bad. Okay. TV is whatever somebody puts in it and whatever you agree to watch. Right. So that's a good point. Agree to watch. Yes, you agree to watch. You don't have to watch it. You don't you can It's like all the reality shows, right? We don't realize how television has degraded society, right? So somebody sits down and imagines a level of perversion that you and I can't even imagine. Yeah. M and puts it on TV and makes it look normal, makes it, you know, look cool, right? And makes those who stand in opposition to it look bad. Yeah. Society starts to look at people who stand in opposition to it as bad. When truly it's like you're trying to manipulate us to think that this bad thing is a good thing. Look at adverts. Why do adverts work?
(8:56)Adverts and Subliminal Control
Why do people spend so much money on advertising? They're trying to convince us. Yeah. It's subliminal. Yeah. Right. It's under the radar, under your consciousness, right? It's you do things, you buy things, right? Not because you know them or you like them, but you saw an ad that recommended that thing to you and then you go on with your life. Yeah. But that ad has dropped a seed in your mind that eventually when you go to the mall, you see that label and like, oh, it's good because you saw a good ad. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So, I don't need to worry about the witches writing on their brooms. The one coming out of my television is a lot more dangerous to me. Listen, see, like, well, you're about to probably just go into it, but what about the ones that are really physically cuz this one sound like more a mental thing? There's like a No, because there's intent there's intentionality around making movies. So, I agree I agree with that point as well. Like, you know, you hear a lot of um directors and producers, especially when they're making movies that are that involve a lot of uh demonic activity or spiritual activity, exorcism and things like that. And they say they have consulted with the people that are actually doing it doing it to get the correct perspective and behavior and actions right for them to now display this thing on the TV. And so when you hear things like like, okay, this is very intentional. Mhm. Um they are aware that it's very dark. Um I dare to say demonic and they still don't have a um a care to not expose it to the world, right? They don't really they just want to do what they want to do for the sake of capitalism and money or
(10:38)Movies and Demonic Intent
whatever. Well, there's there's the money component of it, right? Because people are are drawn to mystery. Yeah. They're drawn to what they don't know. So sometimes they will take nothing and make it look like something. Right. Right. Sometimes they actually do mess around with real dangerous stuff, right? And they present it to us like it's fun, it's cool, it's exciting, right? And what that does is that it numbs us to the danger of it, right? It it it it makes it acceptable to us. Yeah. Right. So, one of the things that people laugh at Christians about is that when the Harry Potter books came out a few years ago, the Harry Potter books, right? Um, a lot of kids read them. The movies came out. A lot of kids watched the movies and Christmas. I was one of those people that watched the movies. I It wasn't that compelling to me. No. Yeah. Right. But the church came up, some of the church came up in arms against it, right? But what the church never really articulated, and I think that was an error, was that we've got a problem with you making certain things look acceptable and normal, making it look fun. Making it look fun. Encouraging us to not a be to to to to put our guards down, right? This is just kids playing, right? But really, this is some real stuff. Yeah. Right. And and I know that
(12:07)Witchcraft is Global, Not Just 'African'
in in people tend to think of witchcraft as an African thing or a black people thing or a a a Haitian thing or you know or or whatever. They don't think of it as an Indian thing and there are a lot of people in India that do witchcraft. It's everywhere. Yeah. It's American, it's white, is black is Asian, it's Indian, it's across continents, right? People learn how to manipulate, how to access dark things and do things. Yeah. Make them look And they tell you that, well, I'm a white witch. I only do good things with my own. I only he my own. Mad. See, there's a there's a legitimate way to access knowledge, right? And there's an illegitimate way to access knowledge. When you take an exam in in in school, right? and you um you're answering the questions, right? But you're answering the questions based off of something that is not recommended reading, right? So you go to Chad Jippity and Chadity writes out, you put in the prompts, you put in the prompts, but it writes out your your dissertation for you, right? Why is that a problem?
(13:22)The Problem with 'Ancestry' Trends
It's not your own work. There you go. So it's the same thing with witchcraft. M you're accessing powers that do not belong to you that you're not supposed to be accessing to try and do things right that you're not supposed to be doing. There's a right way to do things and there's a wrong way to do things, right? I'm talking about the people who say, "Oh, witchcraft is just, you know, is benign. It's just, you know, a different way of life. It is herbs. It is well, they say anc they say um and an ancestry. We're worshiping our ancestors. Your ancestors are dead. Ancestors are dead." Can I speak to the point about popularization of like making things that are evil or like practicing witchcraft as a norm like in terms of music? So we have people like I got to call the names Beyonce that says she worships Orisha. All right. I am Yorba. Uh my parents come from the Yorba land in Nigeria. And growing up, we learned, my grandmother actually taught me about Shangu and Babalaw and how people would do witchcraft um against her and then she would have to pray and call like her Christian family around to come and pray for her. Um because she exposed herself to certain things and so they taught us about you know the god of thunder and all of Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sho. Yeah. What's the other There's another one I'm missing. There quite a few of them. Yeah. There's a lot of them, right? And so you have American artists, actors,
(14:46)Pop Culture and Spiritual Games
you know, someone like Michael B. Jordan when he says, you know, I'm a babalawo. Even when you hear it, you it's as as a Nigerian, I'm like, this is not like something that you play with because our parents, this is from our culture. And so they've already told us that this is a serious thing. And as a believer, you don't play these type of games. Well, you have to understand that we we we can look at things from from a perspective that does not give us an accurate insight into it. Right? So, a lot of the Africans in diaspora, African-Ameans um don't fully appreciate or understand what they are talking about in the sense that they know the facts of it. Right? You can read a book and it will tell you all these things. Yeah. Right. About the orishas and the the oracles and the you know uh um the god of water. I mean the the lady of water and all of those people you can you can shun you know you can read all of those things right and come away with oh this is just what our ancestors believed. Mhm. And in trying to reconnect with the ancestors, you want to reconnect with that, right? So, Michael B. Jordan says he's a babalawu, right? And and I I know he has a certain amount of knowledge of what a babalawu is, or but I know he does not know all of it. Mhm. Right. I know that he because if he did, he would know that that is not just African traditional practices. It's a it's a religion. It's a it's it's it's dark arts. It's it's a lot of there's a lot of negativity and it has to do with white people. Yeah. Doesn't do white people, right? It has to do with simply accessing the kingdom of darkness. Yeah. Right. And the fact that our ancestors you know did it right does not mean we should do it does not make it right. The fact that you know Beyonce comes and says she's she's worshiping what was she woriing orisha Anorisha is it that's the same even that is a problem because anorisha is like a deity is not one deity right it's like saying I worship a god right she worships she that the one that she worships has a crown it's on top she oil is it is it oil the water the water the water right the water thing honestly can't to you. I think Beyonce wanted to do a record. No, I I think I this is me. My wife thinks otherwise and people think I think Beyonce wanted to do a record. I think she may have come across some Nigerians and while they were, you know, smoking some weed, they were talking some smack and she's like, "Oh, this is cool." And then she comes out and start saying, "I worship." You know why? Because she always says that her prayer, "Queen, mother something." And then she'll end the prayer. Which prayer? When we see clips, which prayer? Which prayer? Prayer where? She's praying before her her sets and she starts saying things like that. Yeah. Because she knows the abundance. People are speaking. She doesn't have a reason. She knows that they're recording. She knows they're recording. She's probably paying the person who's doing the recording and she's also releasing the recording. So, she's going to create some authenticity around what she's doing. But I can I promise you if Beyonce really woripped those deities, right, that she says she is, you will see it. Now, we not seeing it. They're not seeing anything. Trust me. Yeah. You see these things, these things are more than just words. Yeah. Right. These things require more than just words. And by the way, let's sacrifice. Yes. Who's to say that they're not doing that? They're not. What about Diddy? Who? Di let's not let's not let's not today. We'll do Diddy some. We'll talk about Diddy someday. But I have very strong opinions about that and I know it's going to cause problems. So, let me just don't don't don't provoke me cuz I I will say things that I I know I will be cancelled. I know I'll be cancelled. I have a question. Wait, real quick. I just say all this to say that there are people in the Western world that are participating in these things and they don't realize that it's causing harm and it's also promoting witchcraft in one in one sense or the other. Yeah. because then you cause other people to then go to those things and they start to actually invoke different spirits and all the things that we we've been taugh by I don't think anybody who actually has this is and this could be me being ignorant right I don't think anybody who actually has access right to those things yeah and can actually do those things is being influenced by what Beyonce is doing that's what I think I think a bunch of people are being influenced to say certain things and posture certain ways Right? Because of what Beyonce is doing or what Beyonce is saying, right? And this is what the Bible says. We know that idols are of themselves nothing, right? Say that again. Idols are nothing. Yeah. Idols of themselves. Yes. So, so let me give an example. There is no other god. It's not like there are many gods and Jehovah is the biggest god. No, there are no other gods. There's only one God, right? There there are no little G gods. You say people are going to be mad. No, there's there's none. There's only one God, right? He's not like he's not competing with Zeus or Shongu for godness, right? The these are the figments of human imagination. However, demonic spirits hijack these imaginations, hijack these things, right, that don't exist. Yeah. And use them as access to people. Right. So there is no orisha. A man woke up and looked at the sky, looked at some leaves, said, "You know what? I'm going to call this thing shongu because thunder is so dreadful, right?" Decides to call thunder shun. And a demon says, "Oh, okay. That sounds like fun." M. So every time you say Shongu, the demon does something. Yeah. But there is no Shungu. There is no um goddess of anything. There's one God. And he's God alone. So when we say, "Oh, big G God and small G God." There's no small G God. There's only one God. You say, so when we talk about, you know, idols, idols are the figment of human imagination, right? We wake up and we make a statue and we say this statue is the god of iron. Come on. Come on. And and then guess what? A demon then says, "Okay, let me go ahead and act like that." Yes. So So they start to worship spirits that they don't know. But there is nothing that was made that God did not make. He made the angels who fell, right? Yeah. And we now call demonic spirits. Yeah. Principalities and what the Bible calls principalities and powers and right in heavenly realms. But they were all made by God. Yeah. He's the unmoved mover, the uncreated creator. There's only one God. So Amy, well, so saying all this cuz this one thing that made me kind of just want to talk about this cuz I remember our last Bible series and we were talking about dreams and we got hung up on witches and altars being built and all that. And I was just like something that I remember that you kept saying was why are you guys giving power to something when you're basically trying to say that Jesus power is weaker than these things to affect you. It's ridiculous, right? It's it's ridiculous to to think that there is anything that can compete with Christ. It's it's ridiculous. It's like saying light and darkness. No matter how small a candle is, if you bring it into a dark room immediately, it immediately pushes away the darkness, right? The brighter it is, the more it pushes away the darkness. You cannot have light and dark in the same space. So when Christians are are talking about darkness, it exists. It absolutely it exists. Yeah. But there's a perspective with which we need to approach it. Right? The Bible says that Jesus Christ made a triumph. He defeated the principalities and powers. Right? He took captive death and Hades and Hades and Hades. Basically what that means that they have no power over it because the only power they have is the power of fear. So there is a death, the spirit of death. Yeah. There's the spirit of Hades. And if you're not spirit of Hades, Hades was a place that the dead go to. And some people say there's a there's a spirit. Okay. But again, for me, right, I realized I had a conver with somebody yesterday and it was it was very interesting. She said something. She said a lot of what we what different cultures point to as deities or gods. That we always forget that we were all one people. Then the tower of babel happened. Mhm. Right. So we have we had the same experience before Babel. And then when Babel happened, humanity dispersed. Still talk about those experience that we all had when we were one but in different languages and with you know as stories are passed off from generation to generation. There are certain variations but the themes are the same. They all talk about a flood. They all talk about a god. They all talk about this. still talk about the Nephilim and all of those things, right? But the Bible is clear. Yeah. And we know that the Bible is the word of God, right? And this is what the word of God says. Yes. There are demonic spirits. Yeah. That walk around the earth and try and do stupid stuff. Yeah. Right. But at the mention of his name, every knee will bow. Every knee should bow and every tongue confess his lordship. Bible says he has been given a name above every other name. M so if if you call upon that name you shall be saved right? If you are in Christ then what are you worrying about? What what is the how how is the devil able right to mess with you if you really believe that you are more than a conqueror. What about when the devil tries to try you and this is let me just give you this perspective or another example right? I have been in places where I step into a room and I can sense that there's something in the room and immediately I speak to that thing. I command that thing to go and the room is clear. Okay. Right. So I know that there's spiritual activity that's happening. Mhm. Right. Like Yeah. There is there is there is so but you spoke to it and it left. Yeah. Why why did it leave? I when I'm calling on the name of the Lord. Thank you. When I have authority. Thank you. But there's so much fear. There's so much prayers like God no spirit with this. Like they're praying about it to like to not touch them. But it's just like shouldn't you just that means you just have to have faith. Well touch you. So why I didn't initially have that before. I read a passage in the word that gave me the boldness. And I think it was like Luke 10:19 that I've given you. Oh and you shall trample upon serpents and demon. I mean upon serpents. So this is the problem. Something like that problem. Ready? So that's what Sorry. That's what changed my perspective. The challenge we have is we've been we we are Christians are constantly living in fear. We're afraid of everything. We're afraid even of our own shadow, right? We're afraid. Fear motivates a lot of our choices more than faith, right? A lot of our prayer comes from fear, not faith. But it's not like unwarranted when you have when people are kids and have things popping up in your room. Well, well, so so this is the thing, right? This is what the Bible says. Yeah. This is what the Bible says. When things pop up in your room, right? First of all, you shall ask it to leave and it leaves. What are you afraid of? What about when you don't know how to do that? Why? Why don't you know how to do that? I can't speak for everybody else. Because you don't read your Bible though, right? If you read your Bible, right? If you read your Bible, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Yeah. Jesus Christ had the devil come and he said it is written and the devil fled. The Bible says that the um the the word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword. Right? The Bible says the the weapons of our warfare are not cannon but the might. Scripture is full of it says and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. Scripture is full of what to do when the enemy tries you right. But we don't do that. And the reason why we don't do that is because at the core I think at a certain level it's either a we have no confidence in what God says about us. We don't really believe we are who he says we are right and we don't really know the power of our God. The Bible says I have seen a terrible thing. I have seen a servant riding on the horse while the prince is walking. Right? M Bible says my people perish because they lack knowledge. We lack knowledge and the knowledge is in front of us. Genesis to Revelation. It has in it everything that pertains to life. Bible says that the word of God um Paul said to Timothy um that the word of God is inspired. So Timothy says that the word of God is inspired right to make sure that the man of God is thoroughly equipped lacking nothing. Right? We have been equipped to face and confront whatever situation comes our way. Right? We we we we live in see the devil, right, was made by God, right? He is not immune from God's power. [Music] Yeah. The the story of Job is is one of the stories that I think Christians have not fully understood the import of. Right. The problem with Job and and God and and Satan and that whole thing is people keep reading the story and they forget that when God said to um to to to Satan to Lucifer, right, he said, "Have you seen my servant Job?" Mhm. And Satan said, "Job, that guy who only worships you because you give him stuff." Because you give him stuff. Yeah. Right. Think about that. How did Satan know that there's only one Satan? He can only be one place at a time. He was already watching Job. He was already dancing around Job. And God knew he was dancing around Job. And God knew he was watching Job. So God said, basically what God was saying is, "I see you're checking out my guy." Right? And why was Satan checking Job out? He wanted to get his hands on him. Why? Why? There are millions of people. Yeah. Why was it Job? Why did he single out Job? Because Job was sending out a bad signal to the devil every time. He was saying, "I'm afraid. I'm afraid. I'm afraid that my children will do something." So every time his children have a party, which is weird. Your children have a party. You go and offer a sacrifice. And you're saying, "Father in heaven, I know my children may have offended you. Please ignore them." And the devil gets a message that there's a guy in this place who every time his kids have a party, he's afraid. Yeah. That God is going to deal with him. So they like, "Huh, this relationship is not as solid as it seems. Let me check this guy out." And God sees him. And God also is aware that the relationship is not as it seems. God is aware that Job is more afraid than than full of faith. So God says, "Okay, mess with him small, but just thus far, you can go and know further." Right? For me, two things. Number one, Job leading by faith. Doesn't matter what you do if you are leading by. So sorry Job leading with fear right living with fear and interacting with God with from a place of fear. God is not impressed. He says they that come to the Lord must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Not they that come to the Lord must be afraid of him and that he will punish those whose children misbehave at parties. Right. And even then, Satan had limitations placed on him by God. He could not go beyond the limits that God allowed him to go. Yeah. So, can I be honest with you? The devil is not our problem. God is our problem. Cuz no matter what the devil does, if God says, the Bible says, if I open a door, nobody can close it. And if I close a door, nobody can close it. You know what that means? that all the powers of the earth are subject to me. So the devil cannot do anything. They can't touch you. He can't unless God somehow for whatever reason permits it. Yeah. Now that's the devil. That's the devil. But we live in a fallen world full of fallen people. Mhm. And people do terrible things and we blame the devil. And the devil has nothing to do with it. There's evil in human heart that has nothing to do with Satan. Yeah. Right. They even What do what how do you say like how do you consider people that open up themselves to all all the spiritual Yeah. They open demons and things open themselves up to demons. Absolutely. Wickedness. Yeah. And I think and I think demons will take but but can I be honest with you? The vast majority of people don't need to open up themselves to demons to be to do demonic and evil things. Yeah. There's evil in human heart. We don't need demons. We can do bad all by ourselves. Wait, seriously. He's like my my my my my cousin. I I'll never forget this incident when we were I was I remember I was in it must have been my my last year or second to last year in college. Mhm. And it was New Year's Eve and I was going to a party. Yeah. But my parents always insisted that we crossed over into the new year together. Mhm. So I came home from school and packed the car and we all went to church. Yeah. Planning that when we get back from church I'm going to take off go to my party. Yeah. My cousin then he must have been like 10 11 maybe some very young age. He took my car way and he bashed it. He he we went to church for some reason. He didn't go with us. I don't I don't remember why. And he slammed it into the neighbor's wall neighbor's fence. and and the fence crashed. Brick fence. Yeah, brick fence. Blocks. Those concrete blocks we have in in Nigeria. And when we came home, we saw the car wrecked. I was I didn't know what happened. My father was like, "What happened? What happened?" You know, my cousin said, "The devil made me do it." Hey. Hey, wait. Pause. Is your dad pastor? No. Are your parents still alive? My father is. He wasn't. Yeah, but he wasn't a pastor then. He's not a pastor now. My Oh, sorry. He was a diplomat. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. My cousin said, "My my the devil made me do it." And that was the end of punishment. My father said, "Okay." And in my mind, I'm like, "I'm going to kill this boy." Like, "I'm really going to kill this boy." That's what he said. That's all he said. The devil made me do it. And that was the end of it. And that was the end of my party. I couldn't go. But that's what we do. We do stuff and we say, "The devil made me do it." Now, I know the devil can manipulate people into doing things. Mhm. I know the devil can possess people. And when I say the devil, there's only one devil. So he can only possess one person at a time. Demons, right, can take over people can open themselves up and the demons come and do for them what the Holy Spirit does for us. Mhm. Right. Like the kids, the people that Jesus was casting demons out of, right? So that happens. Yeah. Right. And it's still happening till today. Yeah. And in my in my is in my language you say that not every mad person is naked. How do you say it in Yurba? How do you say low because and I'll tell you why a lot of the people who experience mental breakdowns take their clothes off and run into the street neighborh in in I don't understand that people people in DC do it when they're on PCP. Oh really? Okay. But it's not this is not PC people. But what we call the dipper. Okay. Well, so so that happens a lot. But then there are people who are demonp possessed and don't look demon possessed. Mhm. But there's this thing that some people believe that every terrible thing a human being does must be inspired by Satan. No, we are very capable of doing terrible things. Yeah. Without the devil being involved. He can only be in one place at a time. Right. Yeah. But we can also be inspired by him and we can also be possessed by his agents. How do we come against people that are purposely trying to do witchcraft against against us? Or I I do have that question. I also want to ask about like monitoring spirits and how we deal with some of these things, spiritual things. And I was watching something recently and they were asking about monitoring spirits. And because I'm Nigerian, I know that they're monitoring spirits. I know that people use things to see what people are doing. They use spirits to see into the now in a sense. And so, how do you kind of explain some of these things that not that are not necessarily in the Bible like like in the Bible? And how do we fight against those things? How do you know they're monitoring your spirit? Like how how do you know that when people are watching you? How do you know that there actually watching you? I don't know if they're watching Misha. I'm I'm saying I'm saying no. No, no, no. I I'll tell you, I'm not disputing that they have they they want to watch. No problem. They can't watch. This is the problem. This is the problem, right? A lot of things eh are things we get from movies. But are those movies fake? Are we that smart to imagine things? Yes, we imagine a lot. I'm not Don't get me wrong, I'm not disputing the existence of this thing, but I'm saying that a lot of the times somebody watches in in in Nigeria, Nollywood, I don't know about now. I don't watch movies those movies anymore but in way back then the movies always centered around witchcraft. Mhm. Right. And and they and they came up with all sorts of things that witchcraft could do. Mhm. Which people would watch and start it becomes doctrine. Right. I heard a testimony one time people were going out telling women don't wear extensions in your hair right because you know demons right? Somebody had given a testimony in church one day about how you know she had extensions in her hair and whether she had a vision that the extensions were like snakes or something right and that became a doctrine though were extension right there was another one there's another one but it was a testimony it was that was a spiritual thing that happened to her to her right have you have you noticed that some Christians when they are praying they are punching and okay so let me tell you where that came from one somebody gave a testimony and said oh that one day he was praying in and he just saw himself, you know, doing these things and then he goes home and some member of his family had bruises all over their face and they right so Christians now and when we're praying we're punching right we we we we we take things right that are other people's individual testimonies because they have experienced those things yes and turn them into doctrine and turn them into facts right that it can happen for all people and not necessarily that it can happen for all But it did happen to this one person. So the I had an incident about this monitoring spirit thing that you're talking about and it was it happened just one time. So there was a guy I was counseling married guy but the woman he was married to was the daughter of one of these um babalawu priestesses type thing. She she wasn't officially I don't know the difference. Well, she wasn't officially a prison. Meaning she wasn't indoctrinated. No, no, no. She wasn't officially. I don't know whether she was indoctrinated. But you know that she came from that side? Yes. Because her father died and passed the powers on to his son. Okay. She was in America. So she missed her. Okay. Why she didn't receive it. I don't know. Okay. But I noticed every time I'm talking to So the husband would come and say my wife did this or did that. Mhm. And once the conversation got 10 minutes, she would pull up in her car. Every single time she would show up and she would say things that made me feel like she overheard what we were saying, right? What do you mean overheard what you were saying? She she knew she had access to conversations. Wait, hold on. Pause. I think I She will pull up or leave. She'll pull up. Pull up. Okay, got you. So, he's like, I'm talking to you now, and then your husband just walks into the office, right? Every single time. Every single time. That's kind of weird. And you're only counseling him? Yes. That's kind of weird. Every single time. That's something. Wait, no. Mhm. Fast forward a few years, a couple of years later, and we're having a conversation, and she mentions that her father appears to her in dreams. Mercy. and tell Yes. and tells her stuff, right? And that he he and that she's grateful for it because he tells her things to protect her. So, it wasn't that there was a monitoring spirit. It was that the devil or his agents Mhm. every time me and the and the husband invariably was always complaining about her. Mhm. Then they would tell her, "They're talking about you, go over there." Mhm. Right. The minute I realized what was happening, so that those dreams that she was having was demonic forces coming to tell her father is dead. He's not walking around. Yeah. So I I so so I I was so pissed. I was so upset that how is me a child of God my conversations being heard? Yeah. And so I prayed. I said, "Father Lord, lock their ears. Everything that we say here stays here and any contrary spirit that comes in here leaves. And that was the end of it. It never happened again. It never happened again. And let me tell you, let me tell you more about that same person. Fast forward a couple of years later. I had a dream and in my dream somebody wanted to write a check to church. maybe like they were going to write the check for like 150k. And this was at a time when the church was struggling. When I say struggling, I mean struggling. Couldn't pay bills, couldn't pay salaries, nothing. And so this guy is about to write this check and this person starts talking to the guy, the wife. Oh, okay. Just Okay, just another person. Okay, got you. Yeah. Yeah. And this woman starts talking to the guy in my dream. And the guy cancelled the check for the 150 guy. I wrote a check for like $2. I was hot. So I woke up and I called a 21-day fast and I got a few people who I thought were close to me. Mhm. Did you tell them the dream? Tell who the people? Yeah, I did. Of course I told them. I didn't tell them who it was. And we started praying. About the 20th day, this woman and her husband say they're leaving the church. And I'm like, "Okay." So now, usually small church when someone says they're leaving, particularly if they are prominent people, you go call them. What's going on? What's wrong? You know, uh guys, I'm sorry. Don't be annoyed. You know what I did? As soon as I heard they were leaving, I went the next day I was preaching. Mhm. So I announced in church that oh this family said they are leaving. Let's pray for them as they go. Let God protect them. Let God provide for them. Let God bless them. And that was it. Once I said that, they couldn't come back. They couldn't come back. Mhm. Right. Guess what happened? As soon as she left the offering tripled Jesus I need to say this when you hear these sort of testimonies so it's not it's not about accident the point I'm trying to make is this right there's a point to um William so these things are real h right it's not it's not to it should not induce fear here in us. If demonic forces are operating around you, the Holy Spirit will reveal it to you. And he will tell you exactly what to do, right? If he's not telling you there's demonic forces around you. Yeah. I can't imagine that there are demonic forces around you. I do want to say this, but for so long you guys were struggling. Mhm. And then when she left, Yeah. you know then you guys are not struggling. Yeah. Why didn't the Holy Why didn't the Holy Spirit reveal it earlier? I don't know. And you know what you said last time like if God is allowing something, he wants to teach you something also, right? So I always think about it could be that maybe the Lord is trying to teach you guys how to keep what you have or manage what you have or whatever the case may be you guys were doing in season. Whatever the case was, right? Whatever whatever God was thinking. Yeah. My own job, right, as a Christian, Yeah. is to be led by the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. Right. To be led by the Holy Spirit within me. Yeah. And what the Holy Spirit said to me, this is the problem. Right. Right. Because you know, you can have a problem, right? And you you you know, so so if if if finances in a church go down Mhm. What most pastors will do, right, is if they have the resources, they will show it up with their resources. I'm talking about small churches. That's why when people talk about pastors stealing money, I laugh because more often than not, the pastor is using his own money to keep the church going. Mhm. Right. So, whatever my paycheck was, I put it back in the offering. Mhm. But that patched things up for a while. My wife's paycheck dumped a ton of it in the offering. Right. So, that kind of kept things going for a while. So it wasn't even a prayer point cuz you know you use credit card you know there are ways that you can solve some problems. Yeah. But then you get to a point where you can't solve it anymore. Right. Then you go to God and go say I was waiting to have this conversation with you. There's somebody in your church that's doing something. Fast forward many years later. Yeah. I find out that what I saw in my dream was not just a spiritual thing. It was actually happening in the physical cuz some woman that I know very well, fantastic benefactor Mhm. came and said, "You know what? This woman tried to convince me to stop giving you guys money." Really? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So, the point I'm trying to make is this. Our eyes should be on God always. He is the he he sees things you don't see and when it's going to be a problem to you a significant problem to you if you go to him and say you know what I'm struggling there are patterns you know of similarity from this struggle to this struggle if it is spiritual if it is he will tell you he will tell you in a way that you will know and he will tell you what to do right but this chasing our tails around right looking for the devil in every problem looking for demons. There's carpet. There's fluff on your carpet. You are binding the spirit of the demon of carpet fluff. You bought a wool carpet from some shady website. Yeah. You're going to get fluff on the floor. Which demon is disturbing you? Your house is covered in fluff. Oh, when Nigerians see black hats. Yeah. The superstitions. Don't split the pole. Don't walk on the crack. Right. You're going to break. All of these things. That's definitely American thing. All of all of these things, right? All of these things. Yeah. They they they they they may have some truth to that have been blown out of proportion, right? But a Christian abiding in Christ, yeah, has nothing to be afraid of, right? You don't. How is it that I'm the apple of God's eye and a bored demon? Like, he's just bored. He's idol. So, he can just mess with me. How is it that I'm the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and a a a a a demon that does not even have the gumption to become a principality, right, is going to come and just start troubling me just just for laughs. Yeah. It it doesn't work like that. Yeah. There's a hierarchy in the spiritual realm and there's and and and and that hierarchy is there for a reason. If a demon steps out online, he will hear about it from his superiors and his superiors will hear about it from their superior who will hear about it from God. Who told you it was okay to touch that boy? That's the way it works. Yeah. They they they are in rebellion, right? But their rebellion no rich to try God. Please say, please say that again. I said their rebellion is not advanced enough. They're not advanced enough in their foolishness to mess with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. There is only one God. So all this shun this shun that call them Zeus, Zeus and Pluto and and and whatever it is, right? Idols. That's why when someone says this meat was sacrificed to idols, Paul said idols are deposites. They are nothing. If you eat it, give thanks to God and eat it. Eat it. Right. These things are real. But their ability to touch you is limited. Yeah. And it's not limited by whether you put garlic under your pillow or, you know, or you burn sage or you do crystals. Or you do crystals. In fact, the problem is this. You see this these things is like the words that we speak. The devil cannot read your mind. He can make a very educated guess. Mhm. A very educated guess. He's been doing this for eons. Yeah. Right. He's been observing you, the demons around you. Yeah. So they they they know you. So if you sit down and your shoulders are hunched a certain way, they they can interpret that in the same way that your spouse can interpret it. Mhm. maybe with more knowledge. Yeah. Than your spouse, so they know, let me phrase that. They have an idea of what may be going on in your mind, right? But they can't read it. The Bible says only God knows the heart of a man. The Bible says that if the devil had known, he would not have crucified the king of glory. Yeah. That tells you that there are things he does not know. Oh, there everything is in the Bible. My goodness. Right. But when we are opening our mouth to pray, we reveal everything to him. Yeah. So when you are praying from fear, h the devil knows that you are afraid. Say, "Father, please don't let this this demon of lost come near me. A demon of lust. Okay, that's the one that is bothering you. Mr. Los, please brother him." Wait, then how do you hide your prayers? Like I ask God for help. If you're asking God for help uh in faith as opposed to asking God for help from fear uh faith connects you to God at a level that fear doesn't. Faith is is what keeps us in Christ. When we are in Christ, there's a force field around us, right? There's a li a severe limitation on what the devil can do when you are in Christ. When you step out of Christ into your works, into your own abilities, your flesh, you are you are when you say flesh, when people hear flesh, they think of, you know, um um um sin and immorality and all of that stuff. Your flesh is your strength. M once you step into your strength, your fair game, you put a target on your own back. And I know that I'm I'm simplifying things. I know it's a bit there's a bit more nuance to it and it's a bit more complex, but at the heart of it is this, right? A Christian has nothing to be afraid of from the kingdom of darkness. They can try, right? The Bible says that the devil goes around like like a roaring lion. The Bible says no weapon that is formed against me shall prosper. Yeah. Right. The Bible says that now there is no enchantment against Jacob and there's no divination against Israel, which is what witches and wizards do. Enchantments and divinations. The Bible says that a curse without a cause shall fly around like a sparrow and find nowhere to patch. The Bible also says that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Because it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs from a tree. Every curse has at its root, its foundation, disobedience to God's laws. So for somebody to curse you, uh, and for the curse to catch you, they have to connect it to something you've done. But if you're in Christ, you're getting it. But if you're in Christ, if you're in Christ, so so they're going to throw that curse and they're going to say they're going to say, "Oh, um, um, that that boy or that girl did something to me, right? and somebody their agent takes it to the court of heaven and says um we we've got a petition against this person, right? They did this to our friend, you know, our agent, and this thing they did is in contravention of your laws, right? So, we want to curse them. Mhm. And then the curse will catch you, right? But when they bring that petition to heaven, that accusation Yeah. to heaven against you, Yeah. Then Jesus Christ the judge says number one I paid for it but the person has to be abide they have to be abiding. Yes. Uh so so two things happen. Either your advocate Christ speaks for you and says I paid for it. Yeah. I have been punished for it. for it and I took upon myself the curses you want to throw on this boy. So that curse is null and void. It cannot stand. So it's going to fly around and it will not find anywhere on you to patch. Yeah. However, if you are in your strength when they come with the accusation, there is no advocate there for you. I like when um black people say when you feeling yourself. Yes. There's no advocate for you. The only thing that will stand for you is silence. Silence. So be the curse will land. Can you be afflicted if you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior and then backslide? What does backslide mean? What does it mean to backslide? Because I know better. I know what you're I should have known not to ask that question. And Mhm. Because it's not by works. You can it's as And that's the thing, right? It's not by works. You can you can you can you can fall from grace. Mhm. And falling from grace is not that you fell into sin. Is that you stepped away from the grace of God. Yeah. And moved into your works. That is really what backsliding is. When we talk about people diluting the gospel, right, we think they dilute the gospel when they say, "Oh, God has forgiven you all your sins." That's not the dilution. The dilution of the gospel is when you bring in Moses. That's what dilutes the gospel. Yeah. It's not grace is not a dilution. Works is the dilution, right? And we need to start to understand these things that our protection is in Christ. The name of the Lord is a strong tower and those who the righteous they run into it and they saved. The righteous who are the righteous they that believe they that believe it says it is um when we have faith our faith is counted as righteousness. So I I I want you guys if there's any takeaway Yeah. Right. Don't be afraid of these imaginations. Right. Don't be afraid of their statues. Don't be afraid of their little trinkets. Don't be afraid of nothing. Yeah. Yeah. The Bible says that a curse without a cause. You can't curse me now cuz what are you cursing me for? Yeah. When Jesus has paid for it, my advocate, you are going to go and accuse me. You know what? Do you know what the Bible says? He said, "I saw Satan, the accuser of the brethren, falling from the sky." That means that his ability to accuse you has been taken from him. He can't accuse you again. Who is he accusing you to? The person who died for you. How? I don't understand. He can't accuse me. Yeah. What I'm like really learning from here and taking away from this is that don't give power to these things. Like just literally just keep focusing on God of having faith. Yeah. there, but they can't touch you. Yeah. Can I be honest with you? You can't even give them power cuz you don't have power to give. You don't have power to give them. What you can do is give them the ability to to torment you with fear. Yeah. Um who was it? Was it Franklin? Um Frank Franklin Roosevelt who said there's the the fear fear is there's how do you put it? We have nothing to fear but fear itself. M at the onset of of the of of World War II fear honestly I'm beginning to realize that the vast majority of us we we we we deal with God from fear not faith we afraid of something right so we run to him because there's no other choice if we had another choice yeah we wouldn't go to him if you had some scriptures I have one that I like to share if you had some scriptures that you can tell people that they can spend time to meditate on to help transform their mind. What will some of those scriptures be? Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Understand that Christ has redeemed us. Check it please. Produce our purpose. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law because it is written. Yeah. And you know why that is an important scripture. If you read Galatians 3 13-4, if you read Deuteronomy 28, you will see a list of blessings. Yeah. Um, how does it say blessed as you go, you shall be the head and not the tail. Mhm. On the reverse of it, that same duty are some curses. Mhm. And those curses are the product of disobedience to the laws. Yeah. The blessings in Deuteronomy 28 are the products of obedience to the law that you shall be the head and not the tail. Those are the products of obedience. Yeah. The curses we don't like to read them in church. They are the products of disobedience. When Christ redeemed us, what he did was that he paid the price for those curses. Yeah. So we're no longer subject to those curses. Yeah. Right. Because he has paid the price for it. Mhm. Every time somebody tries to curse you, they have to link your action to those to that to the 613 laws that God has given. They have to find a way to connect it. And it's not hard because we don't even know what's in the 613 laws. If you know what's in the 613 laws, you will know why people say, "I didn't do anything. Nobody cursed me." No, you did something. You just didn't know that you did something. Yeah. But when you're in Christ, the Bible says that the handwriting of ordinances against you Yeah. has been nailed to the cross. The righteous requirement of the law has been fulfilled. So, what are you talking about? I think one that helps to encourage my soul is um Psalms 91. Because I read it, I think when I read it, I'm just reminded that, you know, like it says um um whoever dwells in the shadow of the Almighty will rest in the sha whoever dwells in the shelter of the Almighty will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say unto the Lord God, he's my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. and the whole that whole I mean obviously Nigerians we all learn that Psalms 91 but it's really a way to build up your faith and um build up your confidence in the word of God but meditate on it I would say yeah meditate on it and remember remember your meditation that it is not your righteousness that makes him that makes those things have efficacy it's not your righteousness and that's where I think a lot of us get lost when you look at yourself and see how unworthy you are I see how flawed you are. Then it's easy for you to believe that the devil can get you because you think about your imperfections. There's a scripture that used to say a lot, he who breaks the hedge, the serpent will bite. So when you think of the hedge, how many times you've broken it, you understand why the serpent is biting you. Yeah. But Jesus Christ bruised the head of the serpent. So he's not biting me. He beat Christ and Christ has destroyed it. I just I'm waiting to see the full manifestation of it. Don't be afraid. Yeah. Wow, this is so good. Thank you to all that watched. Yes. Thank you guys. And please sleep and don't put garlic under your pill, please. And and try and not burn sage. Yeah. Sometimes these things actually invite the demons like Okay. There's one. Mhm. Yeah. Burning sage. Aka fool. Oh, I apologize. There's one ignorant individual here burning Sage. Let's let's let's help them along. Yeah. Don't burn Sage, man. Well, we're also thinking about bringing Pastor AK on a like a future episode or That sounds like that sounds like No. Yeah. Pastor AK is his wife, y'all. Yeah, that sounds like fun. Amazing woman. Amazing. Yeah, she's great. She's she's fantastic. She's just the best. She's awesome. usually. We also have some things coming for the summertime, so keep a lookout on that. Um, like, subscribe, share, uh, comment, uh, let us know what you thought about the episode. Um, and we'll see you all next week. And shout out to Mama Mary's allpurpose seasoning. Mama Mary's all purpose. I think I'm going to use that and make some fish. Yeah. Oh, that sounds really good. I'm going to grow some fish. Yeah. Memorial Day is coming up, right? When is it? Monday. Monday. I'm going to grow fish. Yeah. Don't come to my house. Just just enough for two. Yeah. Please let me take some of that. Mama Mary M. That is looking good. I'll tell you guys how it was. Bye everybody. All right. Bye. Unfiltered. [Music]