Stephanie Ike Okafor - Is it Temptation or a Demonic Oppression

Hi everyone. I am Stephanie Akel Kawfor and we have been on the Modernization of Witchcraft series for six weeks and today is week seven. I can't believe there's literally two weeks left in the series. But next week, just to prepare you, were going to conclude with really a session on self deliverance. Right. You know, every part of the series I believe has brought something up for you or. You know, revealed something to you. And I want to just equip you with tools and resources when it comes to self deliverance that you know that even writing your home right with the Holy Spirit, that you can experience deliverance for yourself, but also equipping you with tools on how you can stay, you know, stay mindful of your temple, to be guarded, to understand spiritual warfare. So there are going to be some books I'm going to wreck men that you can study in your own time. You know, all of this is about development, being equipped in the things of God and in the ways of God, right, coming into truth and the knowledge of God. And so before we get into that next week, today we're going to be talking about the difference between temptation and demonic oppression, right, because it is very critical to recognize that not everything is a demonic spirit. Okay, that is very important. Not everything is the sign of demonic oppression or demonic influence because if we see everything that way, then we also lose personal accountability and we lose our responsibility to you know, what are we entertaining and all of that. And so yeah, we're gonna go on a journey on this topic. So now when we think about temptation, right, I'm going to share a few scriptures with you and we're going to. Talk about it. So starting with James one from thirteen to fifteen. So it says this, when tempted, no one should say God is tempting me, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Right then, now check this, So temptation comes when there is something you desire, right, It's not a desire that's of God, because the Lord is saying, look, I don't tempt anyone. Right. The Lord can test you, but he doesn't tempt you because temptation has the agenda for you to you know, fall into something that is against you, right, while testing is to reveal what's in you. Okay, So when the Lord is testing you, it's like when you think about, you know, in school, when you're taking an exam and you are you are tested, right. The test reveals your knowledge, your knowledge of the subjects, your knowledge of the topic. That's why in order for you to go from one you know class to the next, or you know, one grade to the next, you have to pass certain exams and tests and all of that because it reveals that you are equipped for what comes next. So the Lord tests us, right, he knows everything, but sometimes we don't know what he knows. And so their test to show us where we stand in alignment to God. But temptation comes to draw you away from the path that God is calling you to. Now, God does not design or set us up for failure, right, because even when God tests us, it is to build us. Right. So wherever you are in your journey, when you recognize where you are, then he can build you from a place of truth, from a place of humility. Right. And so the Bible says, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Now, where does your own evil desire come from? Right? These are the ways of the flesh. Right, the ways of the flesh is there's lust, you know, selfishness, envy, jealousy. I'm gonna drop a scripture that literally lists out you know the ways of the flesh. The Bible talks about how you know what the spirit desires is contrary to what the flesh desires. Right, that they are a war against each other. And so if your life is submitted to the ways of the flesh, there's. Gonna be temptation. And also you have a body. Right, so there is temptation that is natural to man, there's natural to a woman. But if you constantly put yourself in an environment that feeds that temptation, then it can entice you and it becomes a desire. Right. There are things that are natural to look at and be like, oh, okay, that's cool. But if you're constantly your environment is feeding that, then it goes from oh that's cool to now you have a desire for the thing that is against your destiny. Right, So it says, but each person is tempted when they are dragged away. There's a path that God has you on, but you have your own lustful desires by distraction, the things you're watching, culture, the friends you have, and the X, Y and Z. And now it's creating an evil desire in you, right, and it's enticing you. It seems attractive to you. But here is something so interesting. Then the scripture says, then after desire has conceived, right, you can have a desire. But now when you come into agreement with that desire, there is conception, and it gives birth to sin, right, and sin when it is full grown, so they're different. The Lord is literally showing all the stages, all the stages, and when sin is full grown, gives birth to death. Now where does death come from? Now this, when you see, you know, something full grown gives birth to this. This now shows where the enemy also comes in. Right, because as we know, the agenda of saying is to steal, kill and destroy. But there are stages to this. It first starts with temptation. When you're tempted, before I go into this, the Bible also says in one Corinthians ten thirteen, it says, no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. Right, you have a body. Right, there are natural things that might be common. That there's temptation, there is desire for it, and God is faithful. Look at the mercy of God. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. Now, what does this mean If temptation does not come from God, then what is God's role in temptation? Right? That he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear? Because the Spirit of God has massed by nature. The Spirit of God, if given you know authority in your life. It has mastery over your flesh. If you give yourself over to the ways of God and you commune with this Holy Spirit, if you are committed to pursuit in the things of God, you will step into what we call grace. And grace is a divine empowerment. So there is no type of temptation that you would ever encounter that there is not grace for you to overcome if you are connected to its source. Right, So it says, but he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are. Tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. So why are we talking about here right before we go into temptat I mean demonic oppression as opposed to temptation. Temptation starts with what you desire, right, It's something that attracts, it pulls out of your heart. What is in it? So like, for example, you know, I've shared the stories of like when I was in college, and especially was my freshman year in college, you know, years leading up to that, and kunt Of got a nine and I just had just like he's my dad, you know, I just till today, I just have like this. You know, I just love Jesus, right, I would do anything for the Lord. But at a young age, I think he was first my father before he became my savior. And so as a father, you know, you do stuff there you want to get away with and things like that. And when I was in college and I'm around my environment, you know, was showing me the temptation that is coming to mankind. Right, They're like, look, we could go high front, we could do this, we could drink, we could party, we could do X, Y and Z. I started to desire it. So now It started off with oh, I like this. Now they're showing me something that is in my heart. Oh, I want to do that. I like this, I want to go out with them to I want to do X, Y and Z. And then I came into agreement with that desire. And then that's why back in James one. Then after the desire has conceived, right, it had conception because I agreed with it. It gave birth to sin. I started living a life that was not anything close to who I know myself to be. But then here's the thing, when now you can't stop right the thing. So here's one of the key difference is when it comes to temptation and demonic oppression. When there is temptation, you have control. You can choose yes or no. Your free will is very active. I'm deciding to do this thing because I want to do it right. There is so however it's been presented to me, appears to be something good and I want to do it. I am coming into conscious agree to do this thing, regardless of the fact that there is a way of escape, because I could say no, there is a grace of God that I could tap into. No one has put in you know, no one is forcing me to go out, no one is forcing me to drink. I wanted to do those things because I was tempted by it, and I came into agreement with that desire and it, you know, had conception, right. But then the more you do this, so the Bible says, and it gives birth to sin. So my ways were not pleasing to God. Right, sin is missing the mark. In simple terms, sin is missing the mark that your life is called to hit. Right, So my ways were not pleasing to the Lord. My ways were not anything in alignment to the call of God in my life. So I was living in sin. But then it says, when it is full grown, So now I am in consistency with sin. I am feeding it. For something to be full grown, that means I've catered to it, I've nurtured it, I've taken care of it, you know, I've protected this thing. When it is full grown, it gives birth to death. Now the idea of death is where we start seeing the manifestation of demonic oppression. Now, demonic oppression can come in several ways, but I want to start with this context here. One of the ways, and we've discussed this in the previous teaching is that when you do something consistently in the beginning, you have control, but the more you feed into it, all of a sudden, your will to that thing dies is no longer. And what I mean by that you no longer have free will in how you can you know, start or stop. Right now, you've opened the door for a spirit that is connected. So if I'm constantly giving myself to you know, partying or drinking or whatever, you can open a door now to the spirit of addiction. Right if I'm constantly giving myself to watching things that ought not to be watching, I can easily open a door to the spirit of lust. So at first it started off with I desire to do this thing, but then it ends with even when I don't desire it now, actually I want to stop it, but I don't feel like I have the power to because now you see, just like we talked about demonic, you know, demon possessed, a language we see in the Bible literally just means when a demon has mastery over you, when a demon has influence over you in that area. So if it has influence over me, then I don't have control in how I respond or react anymore. And this is when now I need deliverance. I need this stronghold to be broken off of me. And that's why when you see someone being delivered, you know, you see there maybe coughing, there's something that their body is involved in, there's an action that you know, coughing, yawning, spitting, Their body starts shaking because what had a hold on them is being released and it's being you know, removed from them, right and so dermonic oppression. That's why, for example, even in the Bible, when you see people that there's some of people that when Jesus literally casted out their demons, you know, for example, in Mark chapter nine, there was the young boy whose father brought him to the disciples and they couldn't cast out the demon that he brings them to Jesus, you know, and the man tells Jesus. Jesus is like, you know, what, how long has this been going? And all that stuff. And in verse twenty two too, the man says, you know, it has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. Right then he pleased, he says, but if you can't do anything, take pity on us and help us. Now, no human being in their right senses who doesn't want to die will throw themselves into fire, right to be to be killed, or water to be drowned, or to be to be killed by drowning. So the demon demonic influence can manifest when you no longer have the influence to stop yourself from something. And one of the ways is because what started as a temptation was conceived sin was birth. And then you constantly give into that thing, and you attracted the spirit behind it, and you open up a door and that's spirit comes in, and now it has mastery over you. So once you had the very thing, you first had a grace to quit. Now, even when you realize that this thing no longer serves me, you don't know how to shake it off. You don't know how to break it with Temptation is different. Temptation is where we have to take responsibility. I have exposed my eyes my environment. I have not set boundaries in my life to guard me. Right in the scripture, I believe it was Job, And if I'm wrong, I would definitely put it in the description. But I believe it was Job who said I have made a covenant with my eyes to not look lustfully upon a woman. Look at how powerful that is. That is responsibility. This is why the apostle Paul will say things like I die daily because he recognized every single is the opportunity for temptation to come my way. But if I am not conscious that my life belongs to Jesus and not I, so I die daily, I am not going to allow the temptation of my flesh to take over me. My will can be engaged in this. And when we activate our free will in partnership with the grace of God, that no matter how tempting this is, I have to. See it for what it is. Because when you are enticed by an evil desire, it is attractive to you. Then, even though that desire is evil, there is something about it that has kept you in denial and deception that there's no consequences to this, you know? And why do we think that? Sometimes? Because maybe we have mastered the art of lying, We have mastered the art of covering up, We have mastered the art of deception. That just because we can hide it from those around us means that maybe it doesn't have any consequences with God. But what is it conceiving in you? Right, this is the whole thing behind affairs. Right, you have people of the faith Christians finding themselves in you know, in a scandal, in an affair, why are you having an affair? Because they master the art to hide that they can lie their way out of it. So for as long as nobody knows, they think it's fine. But that is the lack of covenant, the lack of boundaries to keep yourself from being enticed by the wrong thing. That you have to see it properly to know how to walk away from it. Right when I was you know that there was a time where I was just doing some weird stuff, you know, thinking I was living my best life, and I would like call out to God, Lord, I need you to help me, I need you to deliver me from this. But it was all lip service because I loved it and I didn't realize. I just knew that, you know, based on what I had learned. You know, other people says. That, hey, when you need to turn your ways, you just need to cry out to Jesus. But do you want to turn your ways? It starts with that. Right when we're talking about temptation, you have to know that this thing that is enticing me is wrong for me, This is evil. That's how the Bible is cleary. It doesn't just say that, but each person is tempted. This isn't James one verse fourteen. It's not saying each person is tempted when they're dragged away by their own desire. It says each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil. Have to see it for what it is. This is an evil desire. And you set boundaries in your life, you build, you have covenance with God where you know you see for example, you know, as a pastor for many years in the beginning, I was a single pastor in a church full of beautiful people. Were they moments of temptation? Absolutely? This is we have a lot of beautiful people. And I was a single pastor, okay, And I had to because I knew what my weakness could be because as a single woman, you know, who had a desire for marriage, right, I knew that way. If I don't have boundaries in my life, I don't want to find myself. They multiple people are talking to one and in it talking to another. And these are the people that are supposed to be coming to this house and their safety and not feeling like I'm coming to listen to my ex girlfriend. Right. I didn't want that. The call of God to me meant more than that. And so. What I came to God with I said, Lord, I'm gonna make a covenant with you. I will not date anyone in this church right because I don't want to open the door for an evil desire to be birth. I don't want to open the door for this type of temptation. I don't want to just date people because they're good looking. I don't want to get distracted by this. And so I'm gonna come into a covenant with you that I will not do it. No matter who comes my way, I will not do it. And I believe you that in your time you would bring my husband a different way. And then I met my husband a different way, right, met him at a baby shower. And so God came through for me. But I also had to set boundaries in my life. You have to be honest about where you are weak so that the grace of God can supply you. It can supply your needs, right. The grace of God can empower you to overcome that weakness. You might be familiar with the story of the apostle Paul, who cried out to God about this thorn in his flesh, you know, and three times he prays, God, take this away from me, and God said, no, my grace is sufficient for you. I have empowered you to deal with this. If I just take it from you, then there is no there is no responsibility to your walk with God. Where is the consecration, where is the sacrifice? The same Paul says, I die daily? Right, So when it comes to temptation, this is where honesty is so important. What is your weakness? What are you drawn to? What is drawing you away from destiny that you can say no to? But because you love it is why you keep saying yes. You like how it feels. And sometimes you love the things that break you because of your broken ness, because if you are still in a space of brokenness, then being broken by something doesn't feel foreign. It actually feels like comfort. That is why many times when a person is you know, when something that has been hidden for a long time comes to the light, right, something that they have been involved in, some type of sin, whatever they've been involved in. When it comes to the light, many times you know after they might have apologize and all of that, they start telling you about the areas in life that broke them. Right, Because if you are still functioning from pain, then experiencing pain is more comforting than foreign. If you are functioning from a place of being broken, then experiencing something that keeps you there is actually more comforting than foreign to you. So we have to be willing to do the work in our lives right. From just a practical perspective, If. There's an area that is not healed, if there are voids in your life, do the work right. If you need to go to therapy, get a therapist. If you need someone to work through those emotions with you, get that, you know. If you need a counselor if you need to speak to someone, do that. Right. If you need to study the. Word to recognize that this is not just wrong because I heard it from my pastor, but actually the Word of God is showing me. God has convicted me that this is wrong. But if you love that which is evil and you come into agreement with it, that is your free will acting out for you because you love it. Right. When I just like I was telling you what there were things that I was crying out to God for and I'm like, God, take this away, take this away, And nothing happened because I loved it. When I came to the place that I realized, God, you mean more to me than this thing. You mean more to me than what I think I desire to do. Actually, now I'm seeing clearly this then is actually against me. This then is not working for my good. This thing is evil. And when the love of God captivated me more than that thing, it broke and I had I recognized the power that I had over it, right, And so those things no longer tempt me because my affection is not there. My affection is found in Christ. But does that mean I might not get I don't know what's in my heart? My husband and I. That's literally a prayer we ask the Lord on a very consistent basis, God, search our hearts and anything that is not of you, reveal it and help us Lord God to overcome it, praying that God keep you know, give us the purity of heart, because. I don't know what's in my heart. I don't know. You see environments reveal what's in your heart. Environments reveal if there's pride, if there's control. If there's lust, it reveals what's in that thing, right, because you're only tempted by what you desire. No one is forcing the desire on you. It's what you desire, but you have to. See for what it is. If it's something evil, recognize it to be evil. And if you are finding comfort in the thing that is breaking you, then you need to reach out for help. That's not how demonic oppression works. You don't find comfort in demons. Nah, you don't find comfort in that. You don't find comfort when you're being oppressed. Right now, there's another side of that with demonic oppression, is just that when it takes over how you think, how you feel, and things like that. So that's when people just think, this is who I am, this is my lifestyle. But deep down you feel tormented. The enemy cannot hide from his nature. Right, no matter how much you're like, this is just me and this is who I am and this is what I do, there is a torment you can't shake off because he can't hide from himself, no matter how much he tries to mascuate himself to seem like he's good and all these things, you can't shake off who he is eventually he reveals himself and there is something that is tormenting you, right, And so one of the ways that we know it's not a demonic oppression is that personally, this is something you love and you have the power to stop. But the only reason you haven't. Stopped it is because you love it. But when you start recognizing that, oh wait, I don't need to be messing with this, it shifts and you tap into the victory that you have in Christ. But the monica oppression, oh no, you can't change that thing, not in your own strength, because it has taken mastery. That is why there are spirits that affect even people's identity. No matter how much you want to you know, oh man, okay, God, you created me as a woman, or you know, you created me as a man, And no matter how much you want to identify as what you were created to be, you cannot shake off being something else. These are activities of spirits and how why do we see it happening? And even in small children. We'll get we'll get into more of that next week, but I just want to set the tone, you know, in differentiating what is temptation and what is demonic oppression, just like I shared that man who was telling Jesus about, you know, to deliver his son from these demonic spirits. He said, they will throw him into the fire or water to kill him. The child did not want to be thrown into fire or water. He can't. He can't even control it even if he tries, because it has influence over that area. When it when it's demonic influence, oppression or mastery, even when you don't want to do it, you cannot fight it. It's like something takes over and controls that area of your life. And this is when now you need deliverance. There is a freedom that needs to take place. But I want you to be honest with yourself. If you're dealing with temptation, that you don't need deliverance for that. You need discipline. You need discipline. The disciples of Jesus are people of discipline. You cannot lack discipline and be a true disciple. No, that's the whole point of covenance, right, that's the point of sacrifice. You don't sacrifice because it's easy. You don't make a covenant with God because it's easy. No, you do it because. You recognize that God's boundaries are my freedom. So don't try to take off responsibility from you and make it about a demon when you just you might just need discipline, right, You might need to create some boundaries. You might need to change your environment. You can't say you want to get free from lust. But you love the magazines that you're reading. You need to trash that you keep it in your house. You're watching movies that you know entice you. You're making the choices to say, ah, you know, maybe let me just watch this, let me just watch this one more time, like you know it's okay, but. You're making the choice. I'm not. You're not. If you're honest with yourself, you can stop it. And how do you know you can stop it? Because if something important comes up, you know how to navigate through it. Right, You're like, Okay, ah, I'm gonna do this tomorrow, let me go handle this. Then oh my mom called me up, my dad called me. Let me go handle this. You know, oh, know how to pause when you need to? Now, when someone is oppressed, Oh, it doesn't matter the phone call. They cannot change that thing in their own strength. They can't do it. They need the power of God to intervene and set them free because somewhere along the line, an agreement was made, and an agreement was made, whether it's on your behalf or you did it, some door was open that caused an area of your life to be under the control and influence of a demonic spirit. And like I said, we'll touch more on that, but I want you to take this time today, this week, before we get into next week, and really, you know, evaluate the struggles in your life. Is it a temptation or is it a demonic oppression? Right? Am I liking discipline? Or I just don't have the ability to stop? Right? Do I need to be like Paul and embrace the fact that I need to die daily to self? Right? I need to I can't just entertain every random thought that comes into my head. You know. Do I have a history of being a manipulator? Do I have a history of being a deceiver? Do I have a history of being a liar? And so because I know how to manipulate my way through people, I think I'm fine. I could hide. I could hide in this thing for as long as I want to. No, this is this is just this is this. Is a lack of integrity do I like integrity. You gotta ask yourself these things, right, because if that that's what you're lacking, you can fix that easily. You can repent. That's the whole essence of repentance. Turn from your wicked ways, turn from that evil thing, just turn even in deliverance. The reason why repentance is also important in deliverance because there was something that led to that, whether it was a mindset, something you agreed because a thought came into your mind, something that you agreed with, whether it was due to family, and we'll go into all of that later. But repentance is key, but especially when it's a temptation. You need to take the responsibility and say, Lord, I repent, and I want you to pray. I want you to pray for yourself and ask the Lord you know I love. There are moments where the Lord will leave me to just lead you into a prayer. But there are moments where I just sense the Holy Spirit saying no, call out to your Father right and again to ask to Lord one of the areas in my life that I am being dragged away by my own evil desire. Lord, show me my heart, show me the areas that can be cured by discipline, by seeing things properly, by taking responsibility in my life, by not just allowing pain and brokenness and trauma to control my life. What are the errors that I need to bring before you and say, Jesus, help me, Help give me the grace to overcome this thing right, because maybe I'm broken in this way and I have found comfort in my brokenness. I have found comfort in my pain. Help me to see this properly so that I can let it go right. And when you take time in that prayer, I want you to just bring it before the Lord. Dave, take out a journal, take out a pen, and see what the Lord starts to reveal to you. See what the Holy Spirit literally Paul prayed three times right about take this thrown away, Take this thrown away? And then the Lord said each time, my grace is sufficient for you. So it's normal to not want to take responsibility of those areas. It's normal to not want to do the work in those areas and just say, God, just take it away. No, we gotta be honest. Maybe my environment is not feeding the right thing. Maybe my lifestyle is not feeding the right thing. Maybe the things I give you know, allow in my life is feeding the ways of my flesh more than my spirit? What are habits I need to change? Right? Begin to ask the Holy Spirit what habits in my life are. Not pleasing to you? What are things I need to shift around? Where do I need to seek? What do I need to check to experience change? Right? But then when it comes to the monic oppression and what I love so much about the Lord is man. God is powerful, like God's power is. Sometimes it's mind blowing to me, you know, it's just it just is what it is. You would think that it might need to take like, you know, all like twelve steps or something. And with God, it's like, hey, when it's a spiritual problem, he has a spiritual solution, you know, even in the nature I mean, he's suffering. But just to give you an example, right when it's a demonic oppression and you can come to the Lord and cry out that led him to set you freed? The Bible says, what. The spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, there is freedom right, and sometimes we just have to create an environment that we can humbly call on the spirit of the Lord to set us free. And they might be things he wants to show you. They might be things he wants to teach you because like I said last week, God is so is more invested in your process than just the outcome. There are things God wants to teach you on the way, not just the outcome. There are things He wants to reveal to you on the way, right, And so take the time out this week recognize if it's if it's something, if it's temptation, or if it's a demonic oppression, right, because not everything is caused by a demonic spirit. Not everything is the devil something. It's just our lack of discipline, our lack of integrity, our own distractions, what we have put in our environments to keep us numb. Somethings is on. Us, right, Somethings is literally on us, Like we just have to take responsibility of that. We're not studying the world or not filling up ourselves with that which will call us to hunger for God. Right, we're not, we're not in worship. Like you got to really check, like what habits are? What are my habits feeding? Right? And when you're honest with yourself in this way, you're gonna see You're gonna see the Lord respond to you. God is gonna speak to you, and God will begin to you know, shake things up in your life. But I'm excited, man, I'm excited to be with you next week. I'm excited. I'll be in prayer leading up to this conversation and the you know, as God the Holy Spirit leads into self deliverance in your home. And I'm believing that no matter what you're going through, that the Lord was gonna set you free. I'm reminded about how the apostle Paul, I mean handkerchiefs that were you know, that touched his body were literally used to cast out demonic spirits. Right, it was not the handkerchief or him, the Bible says, and God did on usual miracles through Paul. Who did it? God? And so I'm believing God. I'm believing God to do unusual miracles that would bring deliverance to you right in your home. Right. And so. You know, that's it for now. I'm going to see you next week. You know, if this message touched you, I want you to share with a friend or a loved one. If you're not subscribed to the channel, then I want you to do so. So you don't miss any alerts and we're going to be back next week for the conclusion on the series of the Modernization of Witchcraft. Love you all,