The Elegbe, King of Egbe

Fetish priests in the town of Egbe, Nigeria, recently announced their plan to perform a live sacrifice to their deity in the town center. Further, they dared the church to try to stop them. Local Christians responded with a summons to community prayer. The gathered believers soon filled and overflowed the venue, moving to an open field to worship and pray. A pastor led in prayer, shouting “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7b). The crowd echoed, “Amen!” Midway through the meeting, the Elegbe, traditional ruler of Egbe, came with his chiefs to join the approximately 400 believers already gathered for prayer.

As the prayer meeting was ending, SIM medical doctor Kelvin Chen of Singapore felt the insistent prompting of the Holy Spirit to speak to the crowd. The pastors in charge readily granted permission. Dr. Chen called attention to the beginning of James 4:7, which describes the essential condition for resisting the devil: “Submit yourselves to the Lord.” Kelvin challenged the crowd to search their hearts and submit to God in repentance in order to confront the evil one.

Suddenly the crowd sank to their knees and grew quiet. His Royal Highness, the Elegbe, had knelt. He began weeping loudly, leading the gathered believers in a prayer of repentance. Over the next few days, the churches of Egbe continued to gather for meetings of repentance, revival, and prayer. By God’s grace, the plans of the animists never materialized. Equally miraculous was the transformation the Christians experienced as they gained a truer understanding of their faith through their communal repentance.

Unseen Spiritual Forces

While some superstitious beliefs and practices are merely cultural traditions, others reveal real demonic forces. The Bible repeatedly attests to the existence of a fallen angel, known as Satan or the devil, and his demonic legions who oppose the purposes of Jesus Christ on earth (Ephesians 2:2; 1 John 3:8). The historic Church—including the early Church fathers and creeds—all confess the reality of unseen spiritual forces in conflict with Christ’s kingdom. In recent decades, African theologians have often led the way in a biblical theology of spiritual warfare.

Many churches planted by SIM workers, including the ones in Egbe, exist in contexts saturated with animism, superstition, witchcraft, voodoo, shamanism, occultism, or neo-paganism. But through the power of the blood of Jesus Christ and the testimony of believers, Satan is defeated (Rev. 12:11). Buildings and Bible studies are not enough. SIM church planters know that those in bondage to ignorant superstition or direct demonic oppression need to be rescued from “the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son” (Col. 1:13, NIV).

Pray

Please pray for discernment and spiritual victory for missionaries and local workers as they face spiritual opposition to the kingdom of God.

Story provided by Dr. Kelvin and Debbie Chen, Egbe, Nigeria