“Pastor, my husband is a prophet of God, he sees into the spirit. But of recent, he has gone into drinking and taking hard drugs. What can I do to help him?”

A few years ago, a woman called me and said she wanted to divorce her husband. The tone of her voice was quite teary, and that made me believe that she wasn’t joking, at all. I asked her what had happened, and what she told me made me realize how important it is to uphold servants of God in prayer.

Her husband was the General Overseer of a big church and she was something Africans call “Mummy GO”, which literally meant “Wife of the General Overseer”. All kinds of healings and deliverances took place in their church, and her husband was well respected.

But things changed when financial inflow began to drop. Funding the church building became a problem. Meeting the basic financial needs of the church became almost impossible. He probably got overwhelmed by the situation and didn’t realize when he began to derail.

In the heat of the tragedy, two wealthy women – whom I believe must have been agents of the devil, joined his church. They volunteered to finance the running of the church, and because he was desperate for a change, he agreed without scrutinizing their motives. That’s where his challenges began from. They lured him into all kinds of sinful acts, including sexual immorality, drinking, smoking, and so on. As at the time she called me, the ministry had completely shut down.

I’d tell you the advice I gave to her, but let me take a moment to address young ministers of the gospel. You see, the gospel that we preach isn’t only for attacking the enemy, it’s also for defending ourselves from the enemy. One of the greatest mistakes we make is that we think the enemy will give up on a fight just because we carry an anointing to heal and deliver people from their bondages. Even with Jesus, Satan only left Him for a season.

So for every fight you win, for every person you set free, Satan prepares an attack against you. And it is wisdom to equip yourself with the word of defense. Most of those pastors whose ministries were short-lived didn’t have a strong defense system, that’s why it was easy for the devil to crush them.

Go and ask our fathers what has kept them in ministry, you’d be shocked that most of them have a daily prayer chain going on for both their life and ministry. Bishop David Oyedepo would often tell us that before he began ministry, that they were in the prayer house for many years. It’s been decades since the ministry began, the prayer house has not stopped running. You can’t run ministry in the flesh, neither can you succeed in it by an attacker’s mindset alone. He who attacks must be well equipped to defend.

Prophet Isaiah Wealth is one of the men of God I admire so much, he’d often tell you that he has armor bearers, people who constantly pray for him. According to him, his wife was his first armor bearer. Pastors who operate like this will always overcome challenges.

Back to that woman. I told her not to divorce her husband yet, and that she should take the next 7 days to pray for her husband. He tried to build the church in the energy of the flesh, that’s why the gates of hell prevailed against him. It’s only God that can build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail. If her husband knew this, he would have engaged his faith for supernatural supplies. That’s right! The enemy may have shot the natural doors that brought in finances to the church, but God can open supernatural doors. You’d never hear Bishop David Oyedepo call Winners Chapel “My Church”. That mindset alone is enough defense against any attack on the church.

She did as I instructed, and 7 days after, she called and testified that her husband had been delivered, and that he was back to doing God’s work. Hallelujah!

So that’s it! Pray for your husband and his ministry. Build a wall of fire round about him. Nobody drinks and takes hard drugs for fun, something depressing must have drawn him into it. And whatever it is really has a hold on him. If you can, erect a power house for him and his ministry, a group of people who’s responsibility is to pray for both your husband and the ministry. It won’t be long before you also testify!

I hope this has brought enlightenment to someone.

Remain ever blessed, in Jesus precious name!

#EmekaAnslem