An armed robber walked into a house and pointed a gun at the owner.
“Lie down there!” he ordered.
The owner of the house, all 6’6 foot of pure, toned muscle, lay flat on the ground, terrified. The armed robber, at gunpoint, ordered the homeowner to load up his truck with items from his house. The man did.
As the thief turned to walk out of the house, the gun fell from his hand. In a quick flash, he snatched it from the floor, and pointed it at the house owner who’d leapt at the gun.
“Don’t move!” the robber snapped.
Then he pressed the trigger. But nothing happened. The pistol wasn’t loaded—there were no bullets inside. As this knowledge dawned on the homeowner, he got up, pounced on the pleading thief and gave him the beating of his life.
The realisation that the gun was empty, took away the thief’s appearance of power. It also revealed the homeowner’s knowledge of his own power.
* * *
A long time ago, while going through a difficult patch, a friend asked me to fast and pray. According to her, I was under an attack from the devil.
“He wants to ruin your destiny,” she said.
I smiled and told her point-blank that I wasn’t going to miss a single meal for such a reason.
“Eketi, that’s my problem with you. You have this arrogant faith. Don’t you know that the devil is powerful? Every time someone talks to you, you’ll say, ‘Me and Satan don’t have any business with each other.’ See, the devil is powerful o!” she said, quite exasperated.
I laughed when she said ‘arrogant faith’. Was my faith really arrogant? Or was it simply me knowing what my Papa Yahweh said and choosing to believe His words?
Yes, I do believe that Satan has no powers where I’m concerned. Why do I believe that? Because I know my power in Christ. And Satan is a really tricky fellow with a big bag of impressive tricks.
Remember when he told Jesus, “See all these kingdoms? All this power, I’ll give to you. For it was given to me and I can give it to whomsoever I want. All you have to do is worship me.” Luke 4:6-7.
He had the power then, given to him when Adam and Eve decided that nkwobi was better than the Afang they’d been eating.
But later, Christ said to us, “𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 in heaven and on earth has been given unto me.”
I’m very sure that Jesus didn’t take the power and then remain some for Satan.
“Look, I have given you the authority over 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 of the enemy, to trample on them and nothing will hurt you.” Luke 10:19.
If you have authority over someone’s entirety, does the person have any power?
Remember the parable of the wheat and weeds? The enemy waited for the owner of the field to go and sleep, then he sowed weeds in the garden. If the enemy was that strong, he’d have sowed it in front of the owner. That’s how the Devil is; sneaky, backhand, undercover. He’ll never face you head-on.
There’s an African proverb that. “A roaring lion will go to bed hungry.” That’s because the roars notify the prey that it’s coming and they take precaution to either run or stand guard. That’s how Satan is: like a roaring lion, plenty noise, no content.
Which takes me back to the story at the beginning of this post. 𝘿𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙥𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧?
Knowing who you are in Christ, will you whimper, plead or bargain with the devil, or will you stand in the authority that you have and tell him, “Go dey my back, you no reach.”
Are you the believer who says, ‘My destiny is in God’s hands’, but spend fruitless hours trying to reclaim said destiny from the Devil, because someone told you it’s been stolen or is being blocked?
If there was an armed person threatening you and you realised that their gun was empty, would you cower in fear or face them?
𝗗𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿?