Joining the Army Part 3: Enemy Tactics

Greeting Conquerors!

Welcome to this post. In part 2 of Joining the Army, we discussed the Love Affair.

Jesus the Lord said “The enemy came to kill, steal and destroy but I am come that they may have life and have it more abundantly” (John10.10). I used to hear this throughout school but had no idea how ruthless and cunning the enemy was until I almost hit the grave myself by my own knife. Yes I wished to die. I had tried everything and nothing was working. It all didn’t make sense, it was better to die and end my miseries. I am so truly thankful to my redeemer who lives. Today I am alive because of his mercies that are new every morning. He loved me when I was yet in sin, died for me on the cross and saved me from destruction. I love Jesus! Looking back, I can see clearly the enemy’s tactics and just how he had mapped his agenda to take me out and continues to do to those that will fall for it.

Attraction: The living Dead

I have always marvelled at the irony of people living from their graves and those that are supposed to be living wasting their lives as the living dead~ yes dead! I was one of them, sold out to that belief system with every bone in me so I know what I am talking about, believe me. At 22 i was already married under customary law. Just after we got married an old friend of my husband came into the picture. This was a lady friend who was well polished and a true definition of success at the time. Running a well established corporate on the entire floor of one of the city’s best buildings, 7 pool cars, a massive database of top-notch clientelle -I just thought my shoulders where rubbing with the best. I was immediately brought on board after being forced to leave my humble employment as a civil servant to join this successful business woman as an account manager. I soon learnt the sweet ropes of clicking good deals and getting big commissions. I wanted more. I wanted to learn her secret to success and of-course like everybody there is always a belief system tied to one’s prosperity. This marked phase 1 of the enemy’s tactics to take me out. I was attracted to a religion that was going to be my downfall. I had found in this woman a model and a mentor.

Deception:

This began phase 2 of the enemy’s tactics. My mentors religion was Traditional African Religion (ATR). Although i had grown up attending sunday school and church, as a Shona person, I was practically born and bred in that religion too so it was nothing new. The roots were there and the tree was about to be revived. My entire being identified with it so it did not take much to convince me to join that train. As she taught me, so I dived in with an inquiring mind, seeking to understand how it all worked. I just fell in love with ATR. In it was wrapped the essence of being black, being African and being Shona. It smelt good, like a sweet scent. Something in me just totally got connected to the teachings. Having been a History teacher and once subscribing to the doctrine of those brothers we called missionaries who took our land and conned us into believing our riches were stocked up in heaven, I soon rose up with vengeance against anything biblical! That was the enemies tool that led to colonization afterall! Soon we started attending meetings at night where one of the guys that led the team manifested ancient spirits of his ancestors and we would address him as Lord. Conquerors, this was my deception. I was deceived from this point onwards.

Every week we met, our lives were spoken into by the dead. We were promised joy and happiness but I never understood why almost every song that we sang at these gatherings was sorrowful. The songs depicted servanthood, poverty, covenants to nothingness, and praises for the dead. Everytime we were reminded of how we were called to soldier on like orphans and minister to the nation as sons of the soil. Week after week we attended these meetings as if to be fueled but infact I watched families break, miseries and discouragements creep in, husbands cheating on their wives, poverty increasing but no-one opening their eyes to these evils. Contrary to the lyrics, the music was actually very soothing, comforting, sentimental and almost everyone would manifest and get into trances at some point. Everyone was addressed with high respect, using ‘mutupo’ the totem as the language of honour and if you were power-hungry this was definitely the place to be. It was for Kings and Queens in their different tribes, regions and domains.

Consequently we lost all our weekends to special meetings that can be equated to all- night prayer meetings and retreats/workshops on the christian scene today. These were held in the forests belonging to titled spirits and/chiefs and we visited other generals in the religion from other rural areas to fellowship at their functions called Biras in Shona. These were key all-night parties characterised by traditional beer, mbira music, traditional dance and song culminating in a series of trances by delegates and manifestations of spirits with various messages to their ever so expectant followers. The manifestations were particularly comforting and consoling because this is where our lives would be spoken into and we would be encouraged and given hope. Sometimes we didn’t have to wait for weekends, we would just take off on roadtrips to mountains to pray there, worshipping those mountains and the spirits they were connected to normally family ancestral spirits. I reminisce the one time coming down a mountain in Mutoko (Zimbabwe) on a very steep gradient with a baby on my back. I had to do it on my buttocks. I was so scared, the view at the bottom made me dizzy. I could have gone to meet my maker that day had he not purposed to see me testifying of his love today.

Anyway, I unfortunately watched things crumble down for many in the group. Marriages broke, relationships soured while businesses crumbled and still people believed the gods were in charge. We continued serving these gods ever so faithfully and they continued puffing us up with nothing but titles that were only good for the ego. If you were a host of an ancestral spirit (spirit medium) you were given a respectful title and that was enough to keep you believing for a better life. After about 2 years, I was tired of going round in circles. I looked around me and I realised that the gods had failed to deliver their promises of prosperity to me. All they did was make me feel important but I had lost everything. I had gotten so irritated that I left my husband and he thought it was a joke. This is the deception of the enemy Conqueror! He will never take the blame, if anything he will point at others and you will fall for it.

Isolation:

The problem is i was so sold out to the religion that i didn’t see anything wrong with it. I blamed my husband for everything and when I had enough I just eliminated him from the picture. Slow down, I didn’t kill him, I simply quit that fruitless marriage. I decided to go back to my old profession and take care of our baby girl on my own while I left him to continue the mbira parties and the drinking with that whole bunch of brainwashed generals and followers of midzimu (the gods). Inorder to initiate the final phase of his plan and finally take me out, the enemy decided to isolate me. By leaving my husband, i literally stripped of my head. I had no covering anymore. I became a lone ranger. A very angry and bitter one for that. I could not sustain a single relationship because I was ‘too good’ for the world. Remember I had spent a few years being taught the art of pride. All that praise in ancestral worship is enough to give one the thickest coat of pride and self praise.

Well ask Old Lucifer, he knows how fast you can fall from heaven when you exalt yourself…like lightning! If the enemy gets you isolated, he has successfully cornered you and you will have to be a die-hard to survive this. I survived by grace. It was the hardest part. In isolation you can succumb to all feelings of dejection, rejection, depression, poverty and unfortunately these create the negative emotions of bitterness, unforgiveness, rebellion, pride and anger all of which are enough to shut the heavens and squeeze life out of you- literally choking you to death spiritually. If your spirit man is dead, you only need mercy from heaven to survive otherwise you die! The enemy will have accomplished his mission. The question is, if the heavens are shut, what good is life, you are as good as dead- the Living Dead!

Conquerors I encourage you to join the winning side, tried and tested. God is forever faithful. His love endures forever. If you would like to give your life to Christ, please feel free to inbox us on riseupconquerorr@gmail.com and will be sure to assist you.

Till then,

Ester H.

riseUPconqueror!!!!!!


falling is not the problem, failing to riseup is!!!!

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