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For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and rulers of darkness in high places
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Someone’s plans were interrupted by an emergency provincial meeting that was too important to not be attended. In fact the consequences of being absent were as grave as being confined to hades. This meeting was to be attended by the ‘who-is-who’ of the state, that is, the Lords and Masters of the entire system. Although the information came impromptu, Leviath knew he had to be present for this meeting and he needed a host.
His fiery eyes scanned the assembly of his minions - hundreds of them. And when he clenched his fists and opened his mouth to speak, his voice sounded like the squeak of a rat. “Lust, Lies, Doubt, Anger, advance!” he shouted, and four ugly creatures scurried to the front and bowed as they came before him.
“You have an assignment. You must make that fool doubt his faith, make him doubt it and make him angry,” he snarled, focusing his gaze on the four little beasts trembling before him. “And let him lust after sin, until it consumes him again. Got it?”
The trembling creatures bobbed their hornless heads vigorously and waited for the dreaded threat which always came after their masters orders.
“If you fail this time,” he said sharply, “I’ll personally cast you into the abyss for all eternity. Have I made myself clear?”
Now all the minions trembled at his statement. The horror of being cast into the bottomless pit forever, into a place of eternal torment, was enough to make them put in all their best at their assignments. And talking about the assignments; it was a huge risk on its own, especially when they had to deal with a knowledgeable praying spirit-filled believer. All the minions relished carrying out the assignment of possessing and tormenting man, but there in their realm of existence, you only got accolades and promotions when you carried out your task successfully on a believer. These were the main targets.
Leviath gestured with a flick of his claws and the minions before him went tumbling backwards into the crowd of panicked colleagues.
“Wickedness, Hate, Malice, advance!” he shouted again.
This time three very wicked looking creatures crawled forward and stayed bowed before their angry lord whose fury was always constant.
“Find his enemy and possess them and drive them to commit more evil against him until he is tempted sour. We must act on his ignorance and weakness to disarm him,” he said and as he spoke every one listened and shuddered. “The battle line is drawn. This soul must be won.”
Then Wickedness mustered enough courage to voice out his thought. “But your evil lordship,” he said amidst stutters, “this man is very knowledgeable of the scriptures. He is not that ignorant.”
He had barely finished speaking when the claws of his master’s foot dug into his neck. And he groaned in pain.
“Idiot! Don’t you know there’s a huge difference between knowing the scriptures and living them?” Leviath said, twisting his claws to inflict more pain on the little demon. “How dare you advice me?”
Wickedness groaned under the pain.
Leviath removed his foot and kicked the creature into the crowd of horrified minions. He was done with them. He dismissed them and flew off, into the dark.
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Stacey dialed Emeka’s number. “Hello Emeka,” she said after he picked the call.
“Hey babe,”
“Where are you right now?”
“In church for rehearsals. Anything?”
“Yeah I need to have a very important meeting with you. I’ll join you there in a few minutes.” She ended the call as she was leaving the gate of the company where her father worked.
Being in church was a good excuse and she had to find herself there as soon as possible before Chika’s call came through so that by the time she’s saying, ‘I’m in church and can’t make it’, she wouldn’t really be lying.
It took another thirty minutes before she arrived at her church and walked into the parish. The choristers were deep into the rehearsal and no one noticed when she slipped into a chair by the entrance and watched them make melody with their harmonized voices. These were really one of the things she enjoyed about her church: the fact that they put in all their best in service and made you so proud to invite a friend to worship on a Sunday or any other day as a matter of fact.
They were now rehearsing a worship medley, when Chika’s call came. Of course, it distracted the gathering and caused some members to turn around to her direction. She quickly left the church hall to answer the call.
“Hello Chika,” she answered after Chika greeted her from the other end.
“Are you getting set? Where do I pick you?” Chika asked.
Stacey expressly gave her well-rehearsed reply. “I’m so sorry. I’m in church right now for an important meeting that just came up and I’m not so sure I can make it.”
Sounding disappointed, Chika replied, “Hmmn. Ok then. Your loss.”
Stacey was about to apologize again when she noticed the call had ended. Now that was one off her chest, she thought, and smiled as she headed back into the church hall.
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“How are you my daughter?”
“I’m not fine mami. I’m not fine.”
“What is it my dear? Talk to me,” the elderly woman dressed in a white robe and a red belt around her waist, asked her daughter who had travelled all the way from Port Harcourt to see her. She had just finished a prophetic prayer session and was yet to remove her garment.
Linda pouted her lips. “Mami, it’s my boyfriend. He jilted me for another lady.”
Linda’s mum smiled and came up to her daughter, putting a hand around her shoulder to comfort her. “Is that why you came? To cry to me about how another lady beat you?” her mother turned Linda’s face to face hers. “You should have taken my advice some months ago when I said you should secure your relationship. This wouldn’t have happened.”
“Ah, Mami!” Linda said shrugging off her mother’s hands from her shoulder and giving her a look of disapproval. “I wanted him to love me of his own free will. Look at Esosa now, she ‘secured’ her marriage and now Jamil is nothing but vegetables - a mindless puppet.”
The smile on her mother’s face faded and was replaced with a frown. She went to take a seat at another end of the room, shaking her head as she left. After she sat, she spoke, “When your foolishness has worn off, you can state why you came and what you want from me.”
Linda had already considered a lot before coming to her mother. She knew she would remind her of how she turned down her offer; yes she expected this reaction from her mother. Right now she still wasn’t interested in securing the relationship, she was rather interested first in dealing with his lady colleague whom she felt was her killjoy. She was still pondering on what to tell her mother when her mother interrupted her thoughts.
“Esosa is having a wonderful marriage. Jamil provides for her, he doesn’t go after other women, he does whatever she wants, and you stand here talking about vegetables. Who, between the two of you, is back here crying now?”
“Mami, if Jamil is that good to Esosa, why does she also cheat on him with other men? Why isn’t she satisfied with all that she manipulates him to do? Love is not love if you have to force or jinx people to love you.”
“Shut up your mouth! What can you know about love? A wise woman secures her home. And if Esosa sleeps with other men, how is that your business?” this time her mother was standing while talking. She felt insulted by her daughter’s remark.
“Mami, I’m not interested. Jason is not my problem here: my problem is this lady and I want to ward her off my man, that’s all,” she said, looking away from her mother, and then continued, “That is why I came.
“Sooner or later, after mopping the ground tirelessly, you’ll have the common sense to put off the tap itself. I will help you, but first, you need to undergo a thorough spiritual bath tonight because if you had not ignored your yearly baths, this ill luck wouldn’t have befallen you.”
Linda sighed. Her mother was her only hope and she was sure she’ll help her solve her problem permanently. She nodded in agreement and drifted back into thinking while her mother entered her changing room.
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“So what’s up?” asked Emeka. The rehearsal was over and everyone was leaving.
“It’s so sad I won’t be here tomorrow to see you all do your thing. A friend invited me to her church. I was thinking today would be ideal to discuss the Youth Bible Study Group we talked about so that when you see Pastor Jide tomorrow, you’ll have something more to tell him,” Stacey replied.
“Ok. I’m a bit tired and hungry. Why don’t we go to the restaurant next door and then we'll talk over a meal?”
“Sure. As long as you’re sponsoring the treat, I’m all in,” she said and laughed with him.
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Jason felt a surge of excitement as he went through the same old materials his friend, Jack, had given him. There was something different this time, like a hope made alive. He had a lot running through his mind. Could all these things Pastor Andrew shared in these audio messages be applicable to him now? Was his eternal future really secure in Christ? The thoughts just came pouring in as he looked through the books before him, seated in his little apartment.
The time was about 11pm and he wasn’t feeling sleepy even though he couldn’t wait to sleep and wake up to confirm his miracle. Jason put back the books on his make-shift shelf and stretched out on the bed, face facing the ceiling with his palms supporting his head. It had been quite an eventful week with a lot happening so fast. Then he remembered Linda and the scene that happened few days ago. He smiled. It was quite unfortunate she thought she had a rival that didn’t even exist, but for him that was fine because it had gotten her off his back for good he hoped. Then his thoughts shifted to Stacey. Funny, he had never thought in that direction about her. She was pretty, smart, and from his observation at work, she happened to be an interesting person to relate with too, but nothing about her stirred any emotion in him. He wondered why and where Linda got the impression she had about him concerning this lady. For all he knew she might be using this as an act to cover up her own misdeeds. He didn’t care anymore.
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“Linda, wake up,” her mother said, tapping her firmly.
Linda clutched her pillow even tighter, not wanting to be disturbed from her sleep.
Her mother made an attempt to wake her up again, this time by pulling off the wrapper she covered herself with. “It is time for us to leave. So you still sleep like this eh?”
“Ah, Mami…” moaned Linda as she turned and tried to take back the wrapper to cover herself again, but of course her mother knew what she could do next so she had taken the wrapper far from her reach.
“I hope you haven’t forgotten why you came here. We must be at the riverbank for the cleansing before midnight so you better standup now,” her mother said and left the room where Linda was.
Linda eventually stood up and soon was on her way to the River Niger beach with her mother. The journey in her mother’s car took another twenty minutes with her trying to catch as much sleep as she could, while her mother drove her old Volkswagen car. As soon as they arrived her mother gave her a white wrapper to tie. She was familiar with the routine. She had done this for several years since her mother took over the mantle from the popular Prophet Power. Her mother was an ardent member of his gathering and very close to him, so that after his mysterious disappearance which was explained to his members as his ascension to the realm of the masters, her mother was left with the worthy task of continuing from where he stopped.
As they made their way to the bank of the river with the help of an old decrepit lantern, she had to keep reminding herself that dealing with Jason and that lady was worth all this trouble. It was three years ago since she came here. Her mother carried some items and was also tying a white wrapper, leading the way with the lantern. When they got to the spot where her mother usually preferred, she put down the lantern and brought out some beads which she handed to her daughter, and then she also brought out a white chalk and rubbed it on her daughter’s forehead. Finally, she brought out a queer looking black stone. By this time, Linda had worn the beads around her neck and was waiting for her mother to do the usual incantation before throwing the black stone into the river.
Her mother beckoned on her and they moved further into the river until the water had gotten to their knees. Then her mother started her incantations and after about two minutes of chanting some sacred gibberish, she looked at her wristwatch and threw the stone far into the river at exactly midnight. Then Linda bent as her mother dipped her into the water the first time. Each time she dipped her in, she made some pronouncements then she brought her out and said some incantations.
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Demons are never far away from ritual sites, so it was no surprise that Wickedness, Hate, and Malice had found their way to the scene alongside other spirits, watching the activities on the beach. Linda was their prime host for tonight. They waited for the final dip to possess her and they weren’t the only ones waiting for that moment.
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It was really cold at that time of the night and all Linda wanted was for the bath to be over. This was the sixth time she had been dipped into the water and her mother was calling out incantations upon incantations which she couldn’t really understand. And then she bent her daughter into the water the seventh time. Suddenly the river became disquieted. It was as if the water was stirred by a violent wind because the waves that came from nowhere and threw her off balance was like nothing she had experienced in all her years of conducting spiritual baths at midnight. She lost grip of her daughter and fell into the river. As she tried to stand up, another wave threw her down, swallowing her up. Her mother screamed her name the moment she had her face out of the water but there was no response. The waves continued to hit hard, tossing her off balance until she lost control and all consciousness. After a short while of this unusual turbulence, the water receded and both Linda and her mother had been swept ashore, both of them unconscious, and the black stone was back in the hand of her mother.
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All except one of the spirits were spectators of the whole incident. Wickedness, Hate, and Malice were struck with foreboding at the sight they had just witnessed. It was obvious this lady was marked for a higher evil purpose than they had bargained for her. Reporting to their Master of the failure was going to come with its own unpleasant repercussion and they had little time to find another host, so they left with other disappointed spirits to seek for another alternative.
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Standing right next to the bed where Jason lay fast asleep, dressed in the very same attire Jason would eventually pick to wear to church: a blue jeans, a colored stripped TM shirt, and a jacket with really shiny shoes, was Virtues. He had the same glorious smile on his face and the room was lit by his presence, casting away every fear-breeding evil spirit. He sat down on the bedpost with his eyes fixed on Jason. Indeed there was a lot destined for this soul to achieve, he thought, and he just couldn’t wait for him to gain a deeper understanding of the Word and its power. Right about now, the battle for Jason’s soul was fierce and his prayer meter was terribly low. Something had to be done.
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Still at the river bank, Linda’s mother gained consciousness first, spluttering water as she held her stomach and tried to stand up. She found her white piece of raiment and covered herself before making her way towards her unconscious daughter who hadn’t moved even a finger. Their source of light - the lantern - was nowhere to be found but fortunately the moon was out lighting the area.
“Linda!” her mother screamed as she mustered all her energy and lurched forward, falling just few feet away from where her daughter lay, lifeless. She pulled herself towards her and shook her vigorously, calling her name to wake her up but there was no response. Then she tried to resuscitate her but realized she hadn’t really been taught what to do and had no clue. Linda’s mother managed to lift her daughter up and struggle with her to her car with nothing else but the black stone in her possession. Once inside the car, she headed straight for Baba Ahigbe’s place which was a stone throw away from her home.
