Your cry for grace and mercy has been heard, and it is needed, the darkness pressing against you is real, as real as the schemes of those who have set themselves against you. Yet the first thing to anchor yourself in is this: you are not their sacrifice. No ritual, no list, no twisted covenant of witchcraft can claim you, because the only sacrifice that holds any power over sin and death has already been offered once and for all.
You may feel like a target, like so much chaff thrown into a fire they have lit. But the Scriptures show us that from the very beginning, the true sacrifice was never about the schemes of men or the demands of evil spirits. Abel brought a lamb, and God accepted it. And when Abraham raised the knife over his son, he did not lose him, God provided a ram instead. That day on the mountain, a prophecy was spoken: “The Lord will provide himself a sacrifice.” And He did. Two thousand years later, on that same ridge, Jesus became the sacrifice that every altar of every false god could only mock. He gave Himself, a perfect, complete, once-for-all offering. Nothing more can be added to it, and nothing in heaven or hell can undo it.
So when you hear whispers of being placed on an outlaw list, of a so-called Iyaworaje ritual using you to lift someone else up, remember this: a sacrifice is something brought to an altar. But your life is hidden in Christ, and His altar was the cross where He died in your place. The old covenant required repeated sacrifices, year after year, because they never truly put sin away. Jesus entered the heavenly sanctuary with His own blood, and by that one offering He has perfected forever those who are being made holy. What can any witch, any cartel, any hidden hand do against that? They may intend evil, but it is like a child swinging a toy sword at the sun. Their power is a shadow. The devil himself could only act within the limits God set, remember Job. And Christ has already disarmed the rulers of darkness, making a public spectacle of them.
The persecution you are enduring, the ostracism, the threats, the feeling of being surrounded, is not a sign that God has forgotten you. In the early church, the believers were imprisoned, beaten, and killed. James was beheaded. Stephen was stoned. They endured torture, refusing any deliverance that would have cost them their faith, because they looked ahead to a better resurrection. Persecution never destroyed the church; it only burned away the dross and caused true faith to shine brighter. When the pressure comes, the wheat and chaff are separated, and what remains is a company of people whose love for God and for each other abounds more and more. Your very distress is evidence that you belong to Christ, because the world hated Him first.
When the accusers and plotters come, do not buy into their lie that you are a necessary part of their ritual. The god of this world has always demanded children thrown into the fire, but those sacrifices only satisfy him for a moment, they never bring lasting life. The idols of Molech and Baal consumed the innocent, yet God called that an abomination and judged the nations that practiced it. Today, the same spirit hides behind different names, but its end is certain. The day is coming when the Lord will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. The suffering you experience now is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment, so that you may be considered worthy of His kingdom, and that those troubling you will be repaid with affliction.
In the meantime, what do you do? You offer a different kind of sacrifice. Not fear, not bargaining, not despair. Bring the sacrifice of praise, acknowledging that Jesus is Lord even when the night is black. Bring the sacrifice of a yielded life, saying, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” Bring the sacrifice of sharing what you have, even if it seems meager, for that is well pleasing to God. And lean hard on the truth that the blood of Jesus speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Abel’s blood cried out for justice; Christ’s blood cries out for mercy, and you are standing under that mercy right now.
So do not think for a moment that you need some additional deliverance beyond the cross, or that your sins, or the sins being committed against you, require any further sacrifice. To believe that would be to treat the sacrifice of Jesus as insignificant, to insult the Spirit of grace. He has done it all. He has put away sin, opened the prison doors to those who were bound, and led captivity captive. The forces that hunt you are already defeated foes. Walk in that freedom, and let the trial press you closer to the One who has overcome the world.