SPIRITUAL WARFARE IS REAL - "BUT WHILE MEN SLEPT" “24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.” (Matthew 13:24-25) Jesus said the enemy came to sow the wrong seed while men were sleeping. This emphasizes the point that the mysteries that come against you during the day are hatched in the night. The day only wakes to manifest what has been done in the night. Today I want to discuss the importance of being spiritually awake in the mid night hour, so that you may counteract the enemies plan of planting discouragement, depression, failure, oppression etc against you or your family and friends. See many Christians, ministers, and churches; in many cases are asleep in a spiritual sense and sluggish to and in duty, because they are sleep at night. See you can have an external form of religion; in lukewarmness going about the cause of Christ, while committing the sins of omission and commission. The long expectation of the bridegroom's coming and the delay of it can cause good men to be exposed to every sin and snare of the devil, which is leaving them liable to lose the very presence of Christ. Many Pastors are not warring for their congregations and the weaker vessels until they are strong enough to stand alone. Do you know why many Christians are not strong in the Lord? Have you ever wondered why many are not mighty in God as they ought to be? The reasons is because they are spiritually asleep. I am sure you have seen Christians who are weak. I am sure you have seen businesses that are not making it. I am sure you have seen ministries that are decreasing in power and population. No doubt you have seen marriages where love is at its lowest level. Why are these things so? The reasons are there are powers, there are forces, there are principalities, and there are rulers of the darkness of this world that are determined to stand in your way. These forces are determined that you will not be strong in any area of your life and whatever it will take to prevent you, they will undertake it. If you really want to be strong in the Lord, you have to concentrate on frustrating every demonic effort that is out to weaken you. How do you accomplish that? By understanding and working against the enemy's method of operation. The majority of the evil put together by the enemy against a man is done in the night between the hours of 12 and 3 a.m. That is when the enemy's attacks usually come. The witching hour as some call it, is the time believed that demons and witches came out to do their "unholy" practices which their powerful black magic is most effective. There are different explanations as why they use this time, but I have found this out to be the truth. Therefore, if your desire is to frustrate the evil efforts of the enemies against you, if your desire is to be strong in your walk with the Lord and in every other area of your life, you need to be up when your enemies are up. You need to be awake when they are awake; you need to be at work when they are at work. You have to learn the secret of putting your spiritual ammunition into operation when the enemy is firing at you. In other words, if you will understand night time warfare, if you will learn the secret of getting up in the midnight hours for spiritual warfare, you will be as strong as strong can be. I am a living witness to this. I know what it means to be up at 12 midnight and pray until I am tired. Each time I carry out this exercise, I wake up in the morning and feel spiritually taller, bigger and stronger. Why? I was up when the enemies were up. I had my spiritual guns at work when the enemies were shooting their arrows. It was fire for fire and the Lord's fire always prevails. “10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11. Put on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood; but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians6:10-12) Many times the enemy sends surprise attacks against God's people and you hear statements like, "Oh! I did not see it coming!" How can you see it coming when you were sleeping? How can you see it coming when the time it came you were unconscious? The best time to fight physical and spiritual war is at night. The enemy understands that and the earlier we understand that too the better for us.That is the best time to do the most damage to the enemy. There is no short cut to being strong in the Lord. The generation of Christians we are raising today are people who are so powerless, they are people who have no spiritual backbone; the reason is because we are unwilling to pay the price. One of the prices is getting up at 12 midnight, 1.a.m, or 2.a.m, and walking up and down in the room, praying fervently and taking authority over every power of the enemy working against your life. Your flesh will rise up in protest. Just thirty minutes into your prayer, at 12:30 am your flesh will protest urging you to go and sleep. Say to your flesh, "My flesh, you have to be subject to my spirit, those who are fighting me are not sleeping, why should I go to sleep." Then you continue praying and get ready to silence every protest of the flesh. Cry mightily unto God, praying prayers like "Every power working against me right now, I pull you down in Jesus name!" "Lord, any meeting that is being held anywhere at this time in which my name is being mentioned, I command it to be dispersed!" Before you realize it, the time is already 2 o'clock in the morning, because you will find you have plenty of more people to pray for other than just yourself. That is the secret of spiritual strength, that is the secret of marital strength, that is the secret of ministerial strength, in short, that is the secret of all strength. “Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces.” (Jeremiah 6:5) Arise my brother and my sister, you cannot afford to sleep when your enemies are awake. If you do, you may wake up to find your strength depleted in one area or another.Rise up at midnight and cry mightily to the Lord about your daytime affairs, you will wake up and find out that you are stronger in your marriage, business, finances, etc. The other Christian who prays less or prays only during the day will look at you and wonder what the secret of your strength is. He does not know that while he was sleeping, you were praying and that is what makes the difference. It is a price many saints are unwilling to pay; yet it is a price we must pay if we are going to be consistently victorious. I have looked through the Scriptures and what I find out is that the most serious battles that were ever fought in the Old Testament were fought in the night. Many times, the preparations for the battles were also done in the night. They sneak in and out in the middle of the night. Why? That is the best time to get the enemy and that is the best time the enemy gets his prey. “20.In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves 21. So Joram went over to Zair, and all the chariots with him: and he rose by night and smote the Edomites which compassed him about, and the captains of the chariots: and the people fled into their tents." (2 Kings 8:20-21) Joram did not go over to Zair in the morning, afternoon or evening. He went in the middle of the night and defeated the enemy. He was able to succeed because they were sleeping. 36. And Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by night, and spoil them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them. And they said, Do whatsoever seem good unto thee. Then said the priest, Let us draw near hither unto God. (1 Samuel 14:36) What type of strategy did they use to go after the Philistines? It was the same principle - in the middle of night. It was not in the morning, afternoon or evening, but it was in the middle of the night. I plead with you child of God. There is war going on around you. You need to get off your comfortable bed, get on your knees and set some nights apart every week to take the first strike and do damage to the enemy's camp. If you don't, damage will be done to your camp. The demonic forces that work against your life during the day are only messengers that get their marching orders during the night. Let me give you a simple illustration of what I mean Somebody is angry with you and he looks at you and says; "you will see" or he says it in another way - "l will show you" and he means to carry out the threat. When he says, "you will see," nothing happens immediately; this is because it is just a threat at that point in time. But what he does to bring his word to pass is to take your case to a witch or witch doctor saying to the witch/witch doctor, "this person offended me and I told him that I will deal ruthlessly with him. I want you to help me put a curse on him and cause a specific evil to befall him." The witch doctor then takes it up from there; he opens a file for you, puts your name on the file and keeps it in the outgoing basket. At 12 o'clock in the night, he gets up, pulls out the files and leaves for their evil meeting. He brings up your case in the meeting and they all work together in agreement to bring to manifestation the evil that your enemy desires. What happens next is this; as they commence their manipulations against you, you will begin to have strange dreams, ie. you may see animals like cows, lions and dogs or even masquerades and mad men chasing you. You may see a big mountain before you, which you are trying to climb but you find it difficult to climb. This signifies a difficulty they want to put into your life. While all that is going on, God will be tipping you off. He will be telling you to rise up and begin to pray. He knows what is going on and He wants you neutralize through nighttime warfare. If you fail to pray, the enemies will not be restricted in the evil plan they want to hatch. If unfortunately they meet with an open door in your life the problem begins from that day on. Have you noticed that God wakes you up sometimes in the night to pray? It may be because your file is the next to be considered by the powers that are out to steal from you. The Holy Spirit wakes you up to pray and when he knows you have won the battle, he will tell you to go back and sleep. Your enemy looks at you the following morning wondering why you are so invincible. The enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. When? In the middle of the night. In other words, each time night comes; warfare starts in the realm of the spirit. Many people know the things they used to have that the enemy has destroyed. Good health, a prosperous business, a blissful marriage, a happy home, academic success and most important your salvation. He comes by night to destroy it. The Lord will restore those things stolen, but first you must learn to fight back in Jesus name! What are you waiting for set your alarms for 12am. Spiritual Warfare Prayer Against Witchcraft: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I come against the prince-ruling spirit and all spirit guides. I come through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the name of Jesus. I paralyze you and silence you, forbidding you from influencing or strengthening them (the witch or witches) in the name of Jesus, right now! We are destroying your very works: the spirits of hate, bitterness and murder, spirits of envy and jealousy, spirits of wizardry, sorcery and all your co-spirits, your works, your powers, your influences are destroyed in the name of Jesus! I paralyze you, all, right now. You will not be able to use this soul any longer against the church (or, a particular person), in the name of Jesus. I come against the spirit of blindness, binding the spirits of bondage and heaviness, fear and hate. I pray, Lord, that you will open their eyes so they can see the glory of Jesus. Open their hearts so that they can hear your voice. Break the yokes in their lives and give them liberty in their souls that they may be free to repent. Show them every evil work and every evil deed they’re guilty of, and lord Jesus, convict their hearts unto repentance. Bring these souls out of darkness; save these souls so that you may have the glory. satan, I silence you in the name of Jesus, binding all your interference. You will not interfere with these souls and they will have their own free will choice so as to make up their own minds if they want to repent. They will do it without your interference. Also, Lord Jesus, I pray that you will release warring angels to wage war against these demonic activities, and will send ministering spirits to minister to their souls. In Jesus Mighty Name!