Stephanie Ike Okafor -The Truth About African Spirituality

Hey everyone, I am Stephanie E. K okafor and this is part five on the Modernization of Witchcraft series. Now today we're going to be talking about the truth behind African spirituality. Now, just to give you some context on my background, I am a Christian. I was raised in Legos, Nigeria. My father side of the family is a royal family, and royal families are known to have the the Asian customs, you know, the Asian worship practices passed down. And so my father's half brother was actually a high priest in their community, and he was a high priest to one of the deities that is worshiped and is acknowledged within what culture today calls African spirituality. It's so interesting, but I'm going to get into some of the stories much later, but I'm just setting this up this way. So first of all, you recognize that I'm not just speaking today from knowledge, but knowledge and experience. Some of you might be watching this right now and you might be dabbling in African spirituality. You might be curious about African spirituality. This idea of wanting to connect back to your roots, this idea of wanting to you know, connect more as an African especially with the rise of DNA testings and all of that, right, But I just want you to be open minded, Okay, I want you to take this journey with me, because, first of all, as we lay a foundation, but what this is perceived to be versus what it really is. I'm also going to talk to you about why the enemy has such a unique agenda against black people. This is not random, right, this is strategized against black people. So let's first kick off and talk about what is African spirituality? Right, So, in simple terms, it is the adoption of the lifestyle and worship you know that traces its roots back to you know, African customs prior to this idea of colonialism, right, and so it's that's why people always, you know, there's this saying of like I can't worship the god of my slave masters. That's the concept, you know, and that's why we see that it has this growing influence on many. So for example, you know, those who are familiar with this will be familiar with the you know, the worship of Ifha. So if I is an Asian deity that predominantly is worshiped by the Yoba tribe in Nigeria. But right now in I mean Nigeria, West Africa. But if I literally has communities all across the world, especially in the United States amongst black Americans, right. And the thing is that, so when we look at what has taking place even within America, right, you have the grow intension of you know, racial divide, racism, this need for self empowerment, wanting to find your power that goes beyond your oppressors, the idea of your oppressors. Right, there is many people find it hard to reconcile their faith and cultural identity. So as they identify with their roots as an African or they're finding out like where they come from and where their ancestors came from, then it's hard to now reconcile, Well, how could I be a Christian? And you know, but then Christianity this idea, right, this idea that Christianity came because of slavery. And so in the search for liberation, you know, from systems and structures, in search for empowerment that goes beyond just going in the pattern that is believed to be as a result of what you know, colonialism brought about. Well, then you have many people walking away from Christianity to African spirituality. But here's the truth, right, First of all, no matter what a person's why is. When a person says that they're walking away from Christianity to whatever, whether it's African spirituality, whether it's Buddhism, whatever the case might be, they never connected with Christ. You see, many people have a relationship with their church, have a relationship with the idea of the faith of my parents, the faith of my grandparents, and so Christianity is approached like a religious checklist. So I go to church, I read my Bible. You know, everything is based on logic, like all the things I have to do as a Christian. And it doesn't work that way. You cannot bring what is divine, what is supernatural, and try to experience in sid from a natural perspective, from a logical perspective of this is what we do as Christians. Right, It's what we do as Christians come as a result of who we have met as a Christian, and that is the encounter with Jesus. Right. You will know a believer by their conviction, not by their to do list. You will know a believer because they have had an encounter. They have had an experience where they know for themselves that Jesus is real. So when people get into this place of I'm walking away from Christianity, many times they're walking away from their church. They're walking away from what my parents believe, not what they encountered. Right, So I just want to set that up first of all. But then here is the thing about Christianity in Africa. There has been such an imbalance of truth right about the origin of Christianity in Africa. Christianity wasn't introduced through slavery. It actually existed centuries before colonialism, centuries prior to that. Right in twenty sixteen, for example, some scientists had discovered that the earliest known physical evidence of a church was in Sub Saharan Africa. Right, Literally, one of the oldest churches was established in the fourth century AD, and this was in Ethiopia. Now look at the beauty here, because when we're talking about one of the oldest churches in Ethiopia, it gives us an understanding around a lot of supernatural activity that happened that was actually you know, accounted for biblically connected to the Gospel. Getting to an Ethiopian eunuch. Now let me just read this with you so we're gonna read from Acts A twenty six to thirty one, and then we're going to jump to thirty five to forty. So it starts by saying, now, an angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go toward the south of the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place. And he rose and went, and there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. So first of all, you have you know, an angel encounters Philip and he is sent to meet this Ethiopian eunuch. This Ethiopian eunuch is not just any regular eunuch. He had the trust of the queen. He was in charge of all her treasure. You know that saying about you know where your where your heart is, that is where you're In fact, I don't even know the saying right now, let me customize it. It has to do something about where your treasure is, that is where your heart is. Actually that's the same, right, So this woman and trusted all her treasure to this Ethiopian unitch. That tells you that she had trust in this man. So, this Ethiopian Unich, he not only represented his family or I mean what he was a eunuch, so that goes out or actually, but he not only represented himself, he actually represented the influence connected to him. This man had the ability to influence. It's safe to assume that he had the ability to influence the queen to share with the queen what he has known as a conviction for himself. Right, So let's continue. So who was in charge of all her treasure? He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the spirit said, to check this out. First of all, the Angel of the Lord encounters Philip, he gives him certain instruction, right, and now after he follows that instruction, the Holy Spirit comes and backs it up. I mean, look at the reinforcement, look at the supernatural investment in getting Philip to talk to this Ethiopian eunuch. Right, And so it says the Spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, do you understand what you are reading, and he said, how can I unless someone guides me. And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning so now I'm jumping too Verse thirty five. Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with the scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. This was the whole point the Angel of the Lord the Holy Spirit had They had, you know, reinforcement together to say, hey, Philip, you need to get to this Ethiopian eunuch because you need to share with him the gospel of Jesus. So Philip shares about the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, see here is water. Right. So Philip was not was sharing the details. Matter of fact, I'm gonna come back to this, but let me just jump really quickly to Matthew twenty eight. From verse nineteen to twenty, the scripture says, therefore, and this is Jesus giving us what we know as the Great Commission. Right. He says, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. That is literally what Philip is doing in this moment. Philip is teaching him about the Lord. Philip had communicated to him about baptism. That is why when the eunuchs saw the war, he says to him, see here is water, what prevents me from being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water. They both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And then check out what happens here? Something so fascinating, right, And the eunuchs saw him no more. Actually before that, and when they came out of the water, the spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and he went out his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through, he preached the gospel. He continued to do that. But look at all the supernatural investment. I mean literally, after Philip baptizes this man, there is some type of spiritual technology that takes Philip from where he was to another region. I mean to personally, for me. This is on the same level as when you're reading about Jesus walking on water or Jesus walking through walls. It's unheard of. How are you able to defy logic in this way? Philip? You were just here. Now you're gone in his in like his natural body. This is not like an angel, This is not a spirit. This is Philip the man. Philip the man baptizes the eunuch, the unit comes out of the water, and immediately the angel, I mean the spirit of the Lord transports Philip from one region to another. So Philip literally found himself. It's like he's like, what just happened? Where did I go? Right? And he continued in his assignment. But what I keep saying this is for you to pay attention to the supernatural investment in getting Philip to share the message of the Gospel with this Ethio Eunich. And so then when we look at history, we realized that one of the oldest churches, centuries before any type of slavery was taking place in Africa, centuries before that, one of the oldest churches is located in Ethiopia. Could it be that there was such a connection with what that Ethiopian Union came to know about Jesus, that he was able to sow seeds of his faith that brought the message of the Gospel to Ethiopia. Right. And so as we think about this and we hear this whole conversation about I can serve the God of my ancestors and all of that, the reality is, even without you know, colonialism, slavery and all of this, Africans would have brought the Gospel to Africans if we had enough time, we would have shared the Gospel with one another. But I literally I remember a few years ago, I had this conversation with Kirk Franklin and we were talking about this very topic. Right, We're talking about this, you know, this flawed idea that Christianity is a white man's religion. And I actually want to share with you just a few minutes from our conversation because just because of the value it adds and the perspective that Kirk brings. And so I want you to check this out and we'll be right back. In the northern sub Sahara parts of Africa, there were men and women that were following the faith that now we call Christianity. Yeah, and even in the ancient city of Alexandria, which is the most educated part of the metay of the ancient world at that time, having the most expensive library at the time. The disciple Mark started his first church in Alexandria. And so you look at all of the influence that Africa had on Europe. It came because they were practicing what is now considered Christian beliefs in the faith of Jesus Christ. And you know from Augustine from a Clement, and then even when you move even into Europe, you have non Christian men and women that were influenced by Christianity. You have Josephus, you have Planted the Younger who were Jews. These were Jews that even saw the influence of Christianity even at that time. And so you have unbelieving men that right in their autobiographies the history of Jesus. And then you talk about even of legend. The earliest writings of Jesus Christ were in AD ninety. Christ died in eighty thirty, so in sixty years you still have eyewitness accounts of the human of the man of Jesus Christ doing miracles that was accounted by people that were still alive to see it. And so the reason why that's so important because it leaves room for the lack of legend when you have people that have eyewinness accounts to these actual events. Because remember, the whole Jewish faith was a was a verbal faith. That's true Judaism. Young men cannot even leave their home at the time unless they could uh oracley speak the Torah. They had to memorize the Torah and so so so so so oracle belief in the ancient world was so important, and so they they prided themselves and be able to give you back the history. Of they knew that by. Yes, yes, they knew that about their own thing. And so before the trans Atlanta slave trade, before colonialism, Christianity existed. Now, at the same time, we do have to acknowledged that, yes, there has been a whitewashing of Christianity in the West. It is very true. And we have to acknowledge that there's been abuse of the Bible uh to to oppressed black and brown people. It was used all through slavery. But again that is the depravity and the sin of men. You see, I love that Kirk really acknowledged the whitewashing right and the abuse of the Bible to oppress black and brown people. Right, so he releases and he shares about the facts of Christianity and the's true in Africa, but he also acknowledges that, yes, there has been a whitewashing of the faith, right, there has been an abuse of you know, how people have used the Bible. But this has nothing to do with the heart of Christianity. It has nothing to do with representing the heart of Christ. It's really about the evil intentions of other people and how they were able to profit by twisting the message of the Bible. And it's not you. We've seen this with Satan, right, We've seen how Satan will try to twist the word to cause even the Lord Jesus to fall into temptation. And so we have seen how if the spirit behind darkness would do this, then what about when he empowers people? And I'm going to circle back on this even as we talk about Satan's agenda against black people and even so in seeds of hatred and you know, and bitterness towards Christianity, because it's like, wait, is this do we only learn about the faith because it was forced upon us? Right? But we're going to talk about that in a little bit, but I just want to acknowledge that, yes, there have been people even till today. You will learn about so many people that would use the faith, would use the Bible, would use the message of Christ, and twist it for their own evil agenda. Right, there's literally a scripture and I will share this. I wasn't planning to even bring this up, but I will share all the scriptures that are used in the description. But there's literally a scripture when the Lord is given a parable right about the kingdom, how the you know, the Kingdom of Heaven and how things work, and it talks about that while men slept, that the enemy came and sold tears amongst the wheat, right, and then you know, into the like into a man's land. Right. And so when they're awake and they see it, they're like, oh my gosh, we need to like take it out, and it says, no, no, no, Let both grow together. And when it is time for the harvest, we will, you know, take away the tears and put them, burn them in fire, and then we will harvest the wheat. Now, the interesting thing is that tears look like wheat in its beginning, stages in its infancy stages, they look alike, and so to try to uproot the tears, you might actually end up appruding the wheat. And then when the Lord explains this parable, he talks about how the one who sowed the wheat is the Lord and the one who sowed the tears is the enemy. Right, But while the Bible says while men slept, while men were ignorant of the plant and the agenda of Satan, he sols tears, and the scripture talks about how these are the sons of disobedience. But check this out. He sows what looks like we Satan himself is called to be, you know, to disguise himself, to masquerade himself as an angel of light. Right, this is why we have false prophets. Right when there is the original, the enemy tries to sow the counterfeit to look like the original. And so you're gonna have situations where people who would act like they are Christians and they are trying to use the word of God, but their agenda is demonic. What they want to sew into the life of the people who are receiving it is demonic. But then the beauty about God is that he knows how to cause all things to work together for our good. God knows how to take what the enemy meant for evil and turn it around for good. But I have to say that because you cannot, you have to be open to knowing Jesus for yourself. You cannot limit your experience of Christianity to what you have seen in people who literally have been planted by the enemy to bring confusion, to bring hatred and others alike. Right, but when we talk about people who represent the heart of Christianity, we talk about people like Mary Sleuslor. Right, I might have butchered her last name, but she was a Scottish missionary, and I'm gonna write the name down right, so you know, don't judge me, but Mary, I'm gonna call her Mary. But Mary. Literally during the time, you see, first of all, people talk about African spirituality and all this stuff. If you want to go there and go all the way, don't pick and choops. Because she came into she was in Nigeria. She was with the Efic tribe in Caliba. This was like during the late eighteen hundreds, and this was a time that the culture believed that it was right to kill twins. Literally, they saw twins as evil, and they would when a woman would give birth to twins, they would take the children and put them in what was known as an evil forest, and they would allow the children to starve to death or to be eaten by wild animals. This was the culture of our ancestors. So if we want to talk about culture, go all the way right. It's not because things have become popular, you know, in pop culture in music some of your favorite artists are singing about it, and then you're like, I'm gonna go back to the gods of my ancestors. But we failed to realize that did our ancestors worship things outside of Christianity? Yes, But were they also devil worshipers? Yes, That is the part that we don't want to accept. They were killing twins because it was seen as evil. They were killing children that had a destiny, children that had a purpose and an assignment, because that was the way of the culture. Do you know that also in those times that when a man, sometimes when a man would die, they would bury his widow with him alive. They would bury his widow with him. These were some of the things done in the culture. Right. And so this woman really represents the heart of Christianity because she actually she goes, you know, to the land in caliber she learns the way of the people, she learns the language, she lives with them, and she was in a place that literally the location of her missionary was a place known as a white man's grave. It was known as that. But this woman in the conviction of her faith and knowing that the Lord would be with her, and knowing that, hey, God, I'm after I'm going after this, knowing that You're on my side because I recognize that the people are only are just ignorant of what they are doing, right, And so she gained a lot of great respect. I mean literally, when they would try to discard children, she would adopt them, and she gained great respect. And you know, as a result of the things that she did, gradually they began to shift. People started believing in Christ, people started changing their beliefs about twins, right, and so amazing things started happening. But I'm using her as an example because all of this happened during the time that we only like to talk about the stories that were negative from people who don't even represent the heart of Jesus. But look at this woman who will put her life on the line because of her faith, will put her life on the line for children she never met, but she knew that there was a great ignorance in the land. And if I can share with them the message of Jesus Christ, they will come to know that there is no there is no harm in having twins. Right, And so let's talk about the fullness of what African spirituality is all about. Because when I read about it, when I hear about it, when I hear what culture is saying about it, you have people saying things like create your own magic. You know. The reason I love this is that I get to be liberated from you know, Christian traditions and values and all this stuff. And then they say, I get to create my own magic. I could be whoever I want to be. I'm a queen, I am this, I am that. And the reality is that you're not creating anything. You are only partnering with the spirit behind the kingdom you serve. And so one of the things that we've been establishing in this series is the fact and the truth that you are either your first of all, your life is not random. Your life is either serving the kingdom of light or the kingdom of darkness. Right, that there is no in between. And all of this is part of the enemy's agenda to keep people in deception. And look at what the enemy does. Because that scripture, when I tell you that say and disguises himself as an angel of light, It can be found in Tewod Corinthians eleven fourteen. But what does it mean for the enemy to disguise himself as an angel of life? He appears to bring something to you that you need, and you would look at it and say it's good. It's the same tactic he used with Eve in the garden of Eden, right, the very fruit that they were not supposed to eat, the very fruit that God had commanded Adam that, hey, you guys are not supposed to eat of this, you know, from this tree. But when the enemy came, he presented it to her in a way that she was like, wow, this actually looks good for eating. Right, she saw the very thing that was against them as good. And how does the enemy do this? He looks for your voids, right, he looks for what is the void in your life? So now, as a black woman or a black man, there is a void of empowerment living in the United States, right. There is a void of feeling like you have a voice living in this country, right because of racism, because of social injustice. So the enemy looks for that void, that there is a void of identity. And so when we start, you know, DNA testing and all these things, and it's like, oh wait, I'm I know where I'm from, right apart from you know, however, everyone has their different ways of seeing this. But I'm speaking to the people who now, like who feel like they're lacking a sense of identity, lacking the sense of culture. And the enemy sees that void and he says, look, I have something good to present to you. You know, if you want to truly connect with your African roots, go all the way. So he's like, leave this whole Christianity thing alone, right, because how can you truly connect with your African roots if you don't serve what they served. But you have to understand that nothing about the enemy is for you. His end goal is destruction. But he presents things in a way that feels not even it gives the illusion that it's feeling your void. And so that is why oftentimes when you if you ever hear and maybe you're watching this right now, and you use the same language when you hear someone talking about African spirituality. They connected with feeling empowered, right, they connected with finding their their king in them or they're queening them, because that is the void that the enemy says, Hey, let me feel this, right, let me feel this, just go all the way. And we're not even really going all the way, but he gives you this idea. Serve what they served right. But let me share an example for you. Know, for instance, there are so many experiences that could share with you on this topic, but one that comes to mind. I remember in college one of my good friends who was also my roommate. She was also from Nigeria, from the Yoroba tribe, and her mother was a priestess. She was a high priestess of one of these deities that are very popularly known and worshiped, and so her and her mother had an estranged relationship. The mother lived in Nigeria, she was in the United States for some time. She was with her father, and then at seventeen she had cancer. We were both young, we were kids. I started college when I was turning sixteen, and we were around that same age. So at seventeen she has cancer and it should have taken her out. And this was not no ordinary. It was not cancer that just happened because of cancer. This came about as a spiritual attack. And I'll give more insight on that. But even when I say that, you know, biblically, we can see, even in Luke thirteen eleven, that there are first of all, not every sickness is because of a spirit. Let me just say that. But there are situations when a person can get sick as a result of a demonic spirit, the manifestation of that demonic spirit, the influence of that demonic spirit, and a person can cause infirmity or sickness. And so Luke thirteen eleven says, and behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. This spirit of infirmity caused her to have a disability. Right, So there are certain situations where a spirit, a demonic spirit, can cause illness in a person's body. And so this friend of mine had cancer, and around that time her father also kind of abandoned her and so she was with me. You know when during the summertime, she will like, I will go back and see my I'll go to my brother's place. She came with us. My brother would graciously give up his room so that she could stay in the room. And so this was a very close and personal relationship. And she would tell me about her mom. She would tell me that, you know all these details. She told me how when she was a child in Nigeria, the mother took her to an if I shrine, right, and in the shrine there was this wooden figure and the wooden figure will talk the wooden figure, like the mother will talk to it. The wooden figure will talk back to her. And she was like, how is a wooden figure speaking something that we they carved with their own hands. We see this in the Bible right when the Lord is like, you shall not serve any other gods before me, nor make you know any images you know from anything that has been seen, whether on heaven or on earth. Right, So we see this. But the wooden figure speaking is because when it is created, it is presented before Satan for one of his you know, demonic spirits to inhabit it. And so a wooden figure. I mean this, trust me, if you you mentioned this to an African, it would not be that much of a shocker. These types of stories were very common, or are still very common, because you open a door for a spirit to inhabit the thing, and so it talks back, it interacts with them and all these weird stuff. So she had shared with me some of the very interesting events between her and her mother, and so, you know, during the course of we're trying to figure out you know, she's trying to figure out treatment and all of that, the mother comes to the unit, it states, and the mother reaches out to her and all you know, got her contact with the dad and all of that, and knew where we were staying, and she was she hit me up and she was like, hey, if my mom comes, do not open the door, you know. And so I'm like, oh, my next thing, I hear like, you know, on the door, and I go through my bedroom to like peak, it's the mom. I run to the bathroom. I said, my gosh, what did we do? We were kids. We like, I had a relationship with the Lord, but I can't understand spiritual warfare like that. And so I got scared so I go to the bathroom and I'm calling her and I'm like, your mom is at the door. Your mom is at the door, and she's like, Stephanie, don't worry, you know. So she comes back. When she came, the mom was gone. The mom comes back, you know. Later in the day. The mom comes back. She brings us food. So she brings us food, you know. We take the food in and all of they talk. The mom leaves and she literally takes the food and throws it in the trash. My brother comes to visit, and he was just coming to check up on me, and so he spent the night at our place. So he was in the living room, slept off on the couch. My brother sleeps like extremely late, like he's a night out right, So he probably went to bed like one in the morning at two in the morning. So my bathroom was like kind of like in the hallway. So at two in the morning, I come out of my room to use the restroom. So I turn on the light and there are maggots everywhere all over because the kitchen bleeds into the living room everywhere. So within an hour that my brother fell asleep and I'm going to use the restroom. There are maggots everywhere, and I was like, yo, what is this? So I rushed to my friend's room and I'm like, yo, you gotta wake up. I don't know what's going on in the kitchen. So I wake my brother wakes up. He's like startled. He jumps on the couch, you know. We're like, where is this coming from? And she starts laughing and she knew exactly what it was. She was like, no, this is my mom. And she was like, I'm happy we threw that food in the trash. This is all my mom. And I said, what kind of like what is going I mean these stories sound like a movie, you know, And so we start like killing the maggots, you know, like those swifter mops and so the flat side and we're like trying to kill the maggots and all these things. And so we call maintenance and we're like, we have a maggot problem. And we are very clean people. So it's not even like it's not even that this was something else. This has nothing like this has ever happened and ever happened after. So we call the maintenance, you know, they bring the past people or whatever, and they were like we don't understand how this came about. And they said, normally, maggot, there is a I can't remember how they described it, but you can see where like the infestation starts from type of thing, right, it's not random, like they start from something. But they couldn't find the source. They couldn't find anything. They're like we they were just like, honestly, we don't know. We're gonna spread, We're gonna do what we have to do. But this is a very unique case that we are looking at. And so we prayed, you know, we had to just commit everything to prayer. So during the whole time, she's keeping like her distance from her mother and her you know, her situation was not it was it was not really looking good, right, And there was this conversation she has with the grandmother because again when you know, so she was really young when her mother had introduced her to these things, but she wanted to know parts in it. Right as she got older, she didn't want any parts in it. She really wanted to walk with Christ, but there were so many things that both of us were just ignorant too, right, And she had this conversation with the grandma, and the grandma is apologizing and because I believe there was some connection with the introduction to this type of worship from the grandmother from what the grandmother had learned like all the way back right ancestors. And so the grandma is like, it's either your life or mine because there is a need for blood. This is what we're talking about. This is the hidden part of African spirituality. And you know these are things now, let me say this, In Christ, when you have the knowledge of who you are, the authority of who you are, in the power of the Gospel and the power that Jesus has given us, you can fight these things right and with you can have victory over things from your bloodline and all that stuff. But it comes with revelation. You have to know what you've got, you have to know who you are. You have to know the things you need to denounce from your life. Right, So the grandmother literally says like, hey, it's one of us, but I'm gonna choose to go. And not long after that, the grandma passes away and her recovery takes a whole new turn. And how everything happened was was I mean, I saw this play out in front of me, you know, and I'm just like it was one of those things that I had so many questions about, and I'm like, God, what is going on here? Right? Until years later I was reminded by when as a child, literally one time, like in the middle of the night, the Lord wakes me up, the Holy Spirit wakes me up and tells me to commit my family name before the Lord. And I found out so confused. I didn't understand what that meant. I was like, you want me to commit my family? I said, well, we are well, we're all believers, you know, and and there's so much to this that I cannot unpack fully in this, in this you know time that we have, and now I'll make sure to make time to really go deeper in this. But he was like, I want you to commit your family name because, like I told you, my father's side of the family were involved in worship to other deities, other you know, in other beliefs outside of Christ. That was demonic. And he says, I want you to commit your family name before the Lord, right, And so I literally I wait and I was just like, you know what, I'm committing the e K family. I'm committing I said, my mother, my brothers, you know, everyone connected to us. I'm committing that we are dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ right, that we are children of the most High God, that we have no ties to you known, any inheritance from anything demonic, any door that was opened from those before us, We shut that door. And so I just went into prayer and after that went back to sleep. And so after this, you know experience I had with that friend of mine in college, fast forward many years later, I was and this is like several years later, I had this interesting encounter. I was in my room and this interesting looking creature like it was like a woman that looked like a fish and appeared like and the presence, her presence was so demonic, so demonic, and she just appeared and she's like, come with us. I said, Jesus, right, oh no, And I called her the name of Jesus, and something snatched her away. And I had seen a lot, you know, like I've shared with you guys, a lot of my life has been very you know, supernatural, like in the supernatural. And when I saw this creature like a woman, it was like a woman but also like a fish. You know, when we talk about little Mermaid and all these things. You know, there's another version of Little Mermaid in the spirit realm, but it was so like her presence. Man, it was so demonic, and I just and I called on Jesus and it snatched her. And I remember praying. I was like, God, what was that? And He began to show me that these are the things connected to your father's side of the family. These were some of the things that were connected to what they worshiped. And I knew that in God, I I am covered right that none of those things have access. But a part of my call with God, he allows me to see and experience things, not just for me so that I can teach on them. Right, Because even when you talk about African spirituality, you would hear about, you know, the gods that are worshiped through water, right, you would hear about just all these different elements. You know, you would hear some people talk about how they realize they're the queen of the water. There's nothing beautiful about that. That is what we call a marine spirit. There's nothing that is attractive about that. Right. And so these were some of my experiences in seeing the dark side of what is African spirituality. And it's not a new thing for God to call you out of what your father's practice, what your mother's practice, what your ancestors practiced, if it was demonic. We saw this with Abraham right literally. You know, many of us are familiar with Abraham's story of being called out of his father's house to a land that God will show him. And all these blessings that you know were connected to the obedience of leaving right, even the blessing of him having the thing he desired so much, a son. But look at the scripture, like look at the emphasis the first thing God says to him in Genesis twelve, verse one, it says, now the Lord set to Abram. This is on before he becomes Abraham. Now the Lord set to Abram. Get out of your country, from your family, and if the Lord could make it anymore clear, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. His father's house was not just because to get out of what seemed familiar to him. You have to understand that Abraham's father, Terra, was an idol worshiper. So when we jumped to Joshua twenty four, verse two, it says this and Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the Lord God of Israel. Your fathers, including Terror, the father of Abraham and the father of nahore dwelt on the other side of the river in old times, and they served other gods. So Abraham, literally the father of faith Abraham, God called him out because God knew you can. There's too much connected to you that you being connected to what has kept your father and his father's in bondage. You have to free yourself from that. He says. Not only don't just think I'm after you in your country, No, it's deeper than that. Get out of your country, from your family, and to make it clear from your father's house because it's corrupted by idol worship. How many of you out there right now you're trying to go back to the thing God is trying to set you free from. You're trying to go back literally into bondage, the thing that kept your ancestors bound. We focus a great deal on the physical bondage, which is terrible that there is no way I will not try to reconcile. You know anything about slavery, But we focus a great deal on physical bondage that we don't even think about spiritual bondage. These are the things that kept your ancestors in spiritual bondage. You know, there's a scripture that talks about you know, fear, not the one that can kill you, know, your your flesh, but the one it's not just your flesh but your soul. You you have to look at this also from that perspective of am I going in the idea of liberation, in the idea of freedom and empowerment? But is that leading me into a different form of bondage? And what is on the other side of your life? Because if Abraham was connected to a father who was dabbling in idol worship, and you're having a hard time with how do I recontell my who are you in God? Because if you're if the difficulty here is I cannot serve the God of my ancestors, or I mean the God of my slave masters. He existed before then. He was in Africa before then, right, Christianity was in Africa way before then. But who is God calling you to be? That is required for you to come out of that way of life and that way of worship? Right? You see, earlier I said that this is not there is such a strategic agenda that the enemy has against black people. And let me first read this scripture Luke twenty three, verse twenty six. It says, as the soldiers led him away, this is Jesus. This is literally, you know, in some of the most pivotal times of the life of Jesus. First of all, you have to understand that everything about Jesus is was and is prophetic, every event connected to his life, every single detail. Right, So when you read about the stories connected to him, it's not just stories for the season. You're talking about the eternal God. So everything about him echoes through eternity. It's not just for now. It literally echoes. And that is why even before he came on earth, because eternity is not just about now and future. It's literally the beginning end. Everything that existed altogether is God like. He is the Alpha Omega, not alpha and Omega. He is Alpha Omega. He just is right. And so even before the coming of Jesus on the earth, you see how there were so many things that represented his coming from Abraham sacrifice and being told to sacrifice Isaac. What that was symbolic to There were so many things that echoed of his coming, and so even when he walked the earth, his lifestyle also echoed a message throughout eternity. Right, So first of all, let's understand that nothing about his life was also random. So Looke twenty three, twenty six. As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon of Syrene, who was on his way from the country, and put the cross on him. This is literally the moments leading up to the crucifixion, and Jesus in his humanity, grows weak and then Simon up from Syrene, is seized and it's told to carry the cross. And this is so mind blowing, it says, And they put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. You know, there's a scripture also when look when it talks about pick up your cross and follow me. I mean, there is so much in this that is so powerful man. But literally and it put his cross on him and made him carried behind Jesus. Now, Simon was from Syrene. Syreene is a city in North Africa. Simon was an African. An African played a pivotal role in assisting Jesus to carry his burden as he was approaching the finish line. This was it could have been that end. They seized a certain man. If the Lord wanted this to be random, he would just allowed it to be. And there was a certain young man who was seized to help Jesus carry his cross. No, there was an African man who was seized to carry the burden as Jesus was rich in the finish line of his assignment on Earth. And what I want to share, I need you to hear my heart because there is so much prophetic revelation in this moment because what Simon did implicated his nation. What Simon did in that moment implicated Africa as a whole. That in the same way that he carried this burden to the finish line of his earthly ministry, you know, or you know, close to the finish line. Rather, there's so much because he actually carried it out of the city. But there's so much in that. But as Simon played a pivotal role in carrying the cross, in helping Jesus carry his cross, there is an assignment, an agenda that the Lord has in his end times plan that Africans play a pivotal role in. You see, there are many nations when you know, when you think about engineering, you know, there are certain countries that come to mind when you think about technology. There are certain countries that come to mind when you think about revival, you think about Africa, because in that moment, Africa inherited this move to usher a type of revival that will shake the earth that is connected to the end Times agenda. Now, obviously revival has come through many races, So this is not about racial divide or anything like that. I'm saying sharing something that is prophetic about the end Times, that there is a role that Africans play. And I'm not just talking about Africans raised in Africa. I'm talking about black people. There is a role that black people play in the end Times agenda to usher in a type of revival that will shake the earthful God. And Satan knows this because Satan is spiritual. He understands spiritual principles. He recognizes when how he was an angel, He was one of the highest ranking angels before he fail. And so what does he do now he has an agenda against black people. How do we stir them away from the faith? How do we get them to hate Christianity? How do we get them to hate themselves, because a kingdom divided against this self cannot stand. A nation divided against this self cannot stand. So how do we cause tension within? How do we oppress their nations? Africa has some of the most oppressed countries in the world, and it makes no sense the poverty level in Africa compared to the natural resources that are produced. It makes no sense. The natural resources in Africa can feed the world, yet we have some of the poorest countries. The math isn't mathing right, and so the enemy has this agenda to oppress in the natural and in the spiritual realm. Let's oppress them in the natural, so all they do is pursue after next. If we oppress them financially, then then their entire focus is about the next check, another check. Let's not get them to a place where they're committed to God. Let's oppress them in the spiritual realm. Let's get them to go back to all these ancient practices that served his kingdom. Because if Africans get to know who they are and what has been entrusted to them in the end times agenda, you see there are different things and trusted to different nations. There is technology that are entrusted to some because of what the role it would play in the end times, because the word has to get through to all the earth, so technology also plays a part. So there is such a role that Africa plays in the end times agenda. You see, it's no coincidence even right now that we are seeing this wave of afrobeats, this wave of African worship that is literally, I mean going through the streams of the world. Right. I was literally shopping the other day and I was in the mall and I'm hearing a song that I grew up on that said, how how is this playing in the mall in California? And the thing is one of the things I've learned even the about you know, God's kingdom, is that sound precedes manifestation. There is always a sound that sound goes before manifestation, right, and so that's why you often see that whenever there's there's like a new move of God happening, there is sound that is released. Right when you study the world, even when you study the Wall of Jericho, there is sound that is first released before the manifestation of the move of God. When you study revelation, you would always see this connection with you know, the trumpets, you know, you know, going before manifestation happens. And so even when we see in the natural that there is a sound of African worship, African music that is going through the streams, it is a sign of things to come, that there is a manifestation that is about to be birthed. And this this happens both ways, because just like I said, the enemy also plants his people. You will see the rise of many false prophets, and you will see the rise of real prophets of God. You will see the rise of people that were sent by the enemy masquerading as you know, believers. But you will see the rise of these people coming from Africa and you and it's not You're not even going to be looking for them. You would just stumble into them. But this is where discernment has to test the kicking. And that's a whole other conversation. But there is a plan that God has for you, and the enemy's agenda is that you will never discover it. The enemy's agenda is to keep you distracted enough because he does not know where or whom it will come from. You think the enemy knew that Abraham the so of an idol worshiper is the one God will encounter, and then we see his journey and the legacy Abraham has till today. He doesn't know where it would come from, and so he just goes on this wild attack. Let me, let me, let let me see how I can oppress them through systems, because I don't know where this this. I don't know who these people are. I don't know if they're in somewhere in Ghana or they're in Kansas. I don't know if they're somewhere in the UK or they're in you know, Gambia. And so I just want to encourage you. I want us to pray. But one thing I've learned about the Lord is that if you have an open heart to really want to know him, you would encounter him. If you have an open heart to seek him, to pursue him, and to get curious enough of about who you must be, you will find it. You will find him. His word says, if you seek Me with all your heart, you will find me. If you seek God with all your heart, you will find him. I don't want you to be deceived. I don't want you to live a lie. I don't want you in search of feeling your voids. You live a lie because there's nothing that could fill your voids, like it's source nothing. Have you ever been so thirsty? But you try to like use other things, like you know, soda or alcohol. You still need water at the end of the day. Your body is still dehydrated and it needs water. You could get by with soda for a little bit, but you're gonna come back to needing water, right, And so I want us to pray, and I pray that this bless you. I pray that it gave you something to think about. Maybe you're you're not even maybe you're watching this so you can have the conversation with a friend. And I pray that God will give you that boldness to really declare his truth. And I encourage you to study these things for yourself. Right, But let us pray Heavenly Father. I just thank you Lord for those on the other side of this. I thank you Lord that you would encounter them. I thank you Lord Jesus that as they search for you, as they seek you, that they will find you. That Lord, even tonight before they go to bed, or even as they sleep, encounter them in dreams of God reveal to them the truth behind what they think is for them. But yet it is to destroy them, unmask the enemy, cause them to see what is beyond the surface, O God. And I just thank you for the testimonies that will come out of this. I thank you that at the end of the day, Lord God, that you will be glorified through their lives. And we just call forth who you've called them to be. We call forth who you've always known them to be, and we say, have your way in Jesus Mighty, nay Amen.