Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?
Isaiah 49:24

According to the word of God, anyone who catches prey with a trap like I described yesterday can legally lay claim to it. There are lawful captives of the enemy. We have tried to cast demons out of people before, and they would say, “You are trespassing because this fellow belongs to us. They walked into our trap.” For example, I once had a student who was on his way to his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) station when he fell sick. The doctor said he was allergic to rice. When they brought him to me, and as I was about to pray for him, the Lord said that he had to make restitution. It turned out his father stole a neighbour’s bicycle to pay his school fees, and the owner placed a curse on the thief. His father died from an allergic reaction to rice, and now the son was on the same path. If that had not been revealed to me, we would have prayed in futility because the boy was a lawful captive.

I told him to buy a bicycle for the man’s son because the man was late. Incidentally, when he returned after doing so, I was about to eat rice. He ate my rice, finished it, and nothing happened to him. Another boy was brought to me for prayers because he was barking. This boy had been having sex with their dog in the house. I prayed, but the barking did not stop. I advised the parents to keep bringing him for the Holy Ghost service every month and be hopeful that God will have mercy and deliver the lawful captive from his captor. When a fellow walks into the trap of the enemy after being lured by his or her lust, the devil can lawfully lay a claim on the fellow.

In James 1:12-16, Apostle James tells us clearly that God does not tempt anyone, but rather, people are tempted by their own lusts, which result in sin and then death eventually. The bait the devil uses does not usually look like death. The bait has three major qualities to make it effective: it is usually attractive to the prey, it is pleasant to the prey’s taste, and it invokes the prey’s pride.

I will discuss these qualities in detail in the following days because I believe God that after this study, you will never fall into the devil’s trap.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.