Elujoba A Femi
ELEEKELO (HOW MANY TIMES?)
I was boarded on a bus sometime ago when I witnessed a rather casual
but nonetheless instructive scenario between a guy I was on that bus with
and the conductor of the bus.
This guy was with a friend who was going to a different
for the second
guy to alight the bus, the conductor still demanded for his transport fare
from the him. In mild anger, the guy retorted and asked “eleekelo?” which
means “how many times?” in Yoruba. This guy was simply saying, since
my friend already paid for me, how many times are you going to collect
the fare? Does any merchant ever receive payment for a commodity sold
or service rendered twice?
Well, whether the conductor was dishonestly asking for a second payment
from this guy hoping that he had forgotten about the payment made for
him by his friend or whether the conductor had sincerely forgotten about
the fact that payment was already made for this guy, I do not know. But
in any case, immediately the guy brought it to the attention of the
conductor that a payment was already made for him and that he in fact
was well aware of It, the conductor quickly made a way for him to get
down from the bus and kept his mouth shut disturbing this guy no further.
This is sooo like the devil! Being a dishonest and evil being that he is, he
many times tries to demand “unjust payment” from believers for what
Christ already paid for on our behalf at Calvary. He takes advantage of
many believer’s ignorance of the fact that what they are needlessly
suffering in terms of sickness, poverty, depression, confusion, heart
troubles and what have you, have all been paid for once and for all by
Him. He bore the cost of these earthly sorrows (which are merely
consequences and payment for the sin nature), on His body when He
went to the cross. (Isaiah 53:4-5).
Every single one of these issues, no matter what they are, was carried by
Jesus and He consequently secured for us the opposite of them such as
divine health, prosperity, clarity, comfort, joy, peace and so on.
If the guy in our story had forgotten about the payment made for him by
his friend, or if his friend paid the fare but didn’t tell the guy about it, the
conductor would have succeeded in pulling a fast one on him. He would
have taken the second payment.
Unfortunately, this is what the devil does to many people too many times.
He simply takes an unjust second payment from them and makes them
continually suffer needlessly.
But when a believer, just like the guy in our story, becomes fully aware of
his right in that he does not have to pay anything to the devil anymore
since Christ already paid in full for his sins, he can boldly say to the devil
“eleekelo?”( for how many times?) whenever he dares brings such issues
to us. And just like the conductor behaved himself immediately and
stopped asking the guy for extra payment after the guy invoked his right
verbally, the devil will also flee and remove his hand from our matter
whenever we resist him this way (James 4:7)
That guy’s friend paid the cost of the transportation for his friend so that
his friend would not have to pay anything anymore the same way Christ
paid for our sin and all its consequences such as sickness (1 Peter 2:24),
poverty (2 Corinthians 8:9), depression (Romans 14:17) etc so that
anyone who knows and believes this truth will not have to pay again
forever.
We must violently insist on our right and absolutely refuse to give the
enemy any of our prize. Not even a tittle. The bible says He will flee from
us when we resist him this way. He prowls around like a lion looking for
whom (an ignorant believer) he may devour (i.e. “scam”) but we must
resist him steadfastly in faith! (1 Peter 5:8-9).
Refuse to suffer unjustly for anything. You have everything when you have
Christ. But you must always tenaciously demand for your right in faith,
standing on the finished works of Christ otherwise it won’t matter that
Christ paid for all. The devil will rob anyway.