Rescued From Destruction: Testimony of Pastor Faith Oyedepo

…But while we were busy making good plans, the devil was busy devising evil, as his name is.

Little did I know that before the year would run out, I would be engaged in the greatest battle of my life.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

In the year 2004, my husband and I had so much going for us: three of our children were in college, while our youngest daughter was still in high school.

The children were getting older, so I had more time for the ministry than ever before—more time to carry out my official assignments and minister to people.

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So, we had many plans for the future.

The new ministry jet just arrived and there were many mission outreaches within and outside the country lined up for the year.

These mission outreaches were to take place in the course of the year and then, culminate in the annual gathering of the Winners’ Family Worldwide,

an event popularly known as “Shiloh,” which is held each year in December at Canaan land, Ota–Nigeria, the international headquarters of the ministry.

Also, my husband was going to be 50 in September that year,

and the children and I were looking forward to and planning a big bash to commemorate the occasion.

This we thought necessary,

especially considering how much he has been a blessing and a role model to the family—and this we had been planning for quite a while.

But while we were busy making good plans, the devil was busy devising evil, as his name is.

Little did I know that before the year would run out, I would be engaged in the greatest battle of my life.

Meanwhile, as a family, we had begun taking steps and fulfilling God’s agenda for us for the year.

Precisely, between the last week of June and the first week of July 2004,

my husband and I, in the company of some other ministers in our ministry took off on the first mission outreach for the year within the country,

and, of course, we were aboard the new ministry aircraft.

On this particular trip, we were scheduled to cover about five cities within the nation,

namely Kaduna, Jos, Kano, Abuja and Illorin—all in different states.

The first few nights on this first mission trip were excitingly memorable.

The expectations of the people were so high; you could literally feel God in those meetings.

So much was going on that one would imagine that literally everyone who heard about the programme was in attendance—

there was also no small preparation made among the team of pastors,

as they received us at the airport, drove us to our hotel rooms and took extremely good care of us.

Then came evening times when we entered into each jam-packed church auditorium amidst excited, joyful shouts of praise unto God;

it was electrifying, to say the least.

In each of the stations, numerous souls were saved, diverse healings took place, amazing testimonies were shared,

and people were tremendously blessed.

It could only have been God!

It was awesome!

God indeed visited His people in an undeniable manner. Every lover of good was excited and lifted.

Rescued From Destruction: Testimony of Pastor Faith Oyedepo

THEN A PAIN…

It was in the midst of all these that the devil violently attacked my body!

I know fully well that it was a deadly attack intended for complete destruction,

but Halleluyah! Jesus as usual, and as always, triumphed gloriously.

On one of the nights, I slept and woke up the next morning with a pain in my left shoulder.

I thought it was just an ordinary pain,

but because I had learnt not to take things for granted, I anointed it and tried to ignore it, but it persisted.

So, I decided to mention it to my husband, who immediately prayed for me.

I then called one of the ministers’ wives in one of the stations to massage the shoulder for me with a balm and she did.

Surprisingly, rather than the pain subsiding, or the shoulder getting better, the pain increased and got worse by the day.

Being that we were on a mission trip, I did not want to cause any form of distraction for my husband.

So, I kept bearing the pain.

By the time we got to the last station, on the last night, during the evening service,

the pain became so intense that everything I had on suddenly became so heavy on me;

in fact, I had to remove my wristwatch in the course of the service.

I could hardly sleep that night. But I again prayed about it, kept anointing it and managing it, waiting for the trip to be over.

When the trip was over and we were on our way back home in the aircraft,

so I drew my husband’s attention to it and again, he immediately prayed for me.

Rescued From Destruction: Testimony of Pastor Faith Oyedepo

SPIRITUAL STEPS

By the time we returned, the pain had become so unbearable.

I was so restless in my body that when my husband saw the way I was,

he knew a spiritual battle was on and he immediately began to wage spiritual war against the kingdom of darkness.

He took authority over the enemy and his hosts, lifting up a standard against the works of the devil in my body (Isa. 59:19)

Isaiah 59:19 KJV

[19] So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
https://bible.com/bible/1/isa.59.19.KJV

He prayed heartily, intensely in the spirit and his understanding,

and laid hands on me, declaring prophetically that the plans of the devil were averted over my health.

He then anointed me with oil, decreeing that the battle was over and that victory was ours.

Remember that the word of the Lord in Rom 8:6 says:

“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

I strongly believe that this foundation that was laid at the onset of this terrible attack must have contributed, in no small measure, to the victory that God eventually gave me concerning this situation.

Rescued From Destruction: Testimony of Pastor Faith Oyedepo

MEDICAL ATTENTION

Having taken control in the spirit, my husband and I agreed to call a medical doctor, who immediately administered a pain reliever.

This was on a Saturday night; I was expecting that the pain reliever would help in, at least, relieving the pain,

pending the time when necessary medical examinations would be carried out on the following Monday.

Surprisingly, I began to notice some sudden and rapid changes in my body.

A strange kind of radiating pain began first, from my shoulder.

It immediately began to spread from the shoulder to the neck, then to the back, and from my back to the left side of the body

and, subsequently to other parts of my body. As if that was not enough, my body became numb.

At this point, my husband immediately made arrangements for another set of medical professionals to examine me, refusing to take chances.

By this time, I could no longer contain the pain; it was actually piercing through every part of my body.

And I could neither sit nor stand, so I began to pace up and down the house and then the yard;

violently taking authority over the enemy and declaring my total liberty in Christ.

Also, I began to pray in the spirit, as well as in my understanding.

I suddenly remembered how that over the years, I had been taught about the power of the tongue.

Admittedly, it is not easy to speak positive words in times of crisis, but I have come to understand that it is the only way out.

So, against all odds, I kept boldly declaring God’s word.

And I became very aggressive about it, knowing fully well that it was a matter of life and death.

I remembered what the scripture says in Proverbs 18:21:

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”

So, I began to do what the above scripture says.

Just at the point of the sudden changes in my body, the two different sets of doctors arrived.

Thank God for these doctors! They were extremely helpful all through.

They arrived just at the right time.

When they saw my condition, it was very obvious that action could not be deferred until the following Monday, as initially thought.

They were surprised at my situation, wondering what could have been the case, especially since I left for the journey in an extremely healthy condition,

coupled with the fact that there was no accident or anything of such that could have caused the sudden excruciating pain.

They immediately ordered preliminary tests to be done that same night.

Because of the terrible pains, x-rays of different parts of the body were also done – all that same night.

While the tests were being conducted, I kept violently and boldly declaring my freedom and total liberty in Christ.

However, this inexplainable pain was getting more and more unbearable.

At the end of all the tests, I was given some medications for malaria, typhoid fever as well as some pain relievers;

but the real cause of the excruciating pain was not yet identified.

Meanwhile, the X-rays were sent to a specialist for reading.

It was difficult to actually understand what was happening at this point,

because the doctors had no clue as to the cause of the sudden, excruciating, inexplainable and unbearable pain.

It was, indeed, a deadly attack from the pit of hell.

There was no accident, no falling down—nothing before the trip commenced or in the cause of the trip that could be said to be the root cause of the attack.

However, I knew that even if no one else had an idea about what was going on,