Senior Pastor of US-based Jesus Family Chapel, Rev James Solomon, is a deliverance minister with a unique story. His childhood experience made him write the blockbuster book, Deliverance from Demonic Covenants and curses
The book contains a detailed account of his father’s escapades and how he terrorised the community where he lived. Within the family, his father ensured his children had a share of his demonic exploration.
Mother initiated into cults
“I was told that the pregnancy through which I was born was dedicated to many idols and cults for protection. On many occasions, my father would recite a series of chants on my mother’s protruding belly. For the sake of the baby, my mother was initiated into several cults throughout the pregnancy. As a result, I was subjected to demonic initiations and covenants right from my mother’s womb. This was the very faulty foundation I was born, ” Rev Solomon said.
The initiation did not stop there. After his birth, he was taken to several rivers and shrines. He was initiated into many cults. He drank concoctions, while his body was laced with several incisions. Rev Solomon grew up worshiping idols. He had the unholy honour of appeasing Esu (satan) by pouring oil on the shrine at the back of their house every day
He later became an apprentice witch doctor and was given some orientation in demonology. He said, “The fact that I was born into such a powerful family of fetish priests brought me and my family uncommon privileges, and we earned the deep respect of everyone in the community. Men and women of substance came to consult us to seek solutions to their complicated problems.”
Solomon’s father occupied one of the highest offices in the kingdom of darkness. He had the power to kill at will. There was so much invincibility around Solomon in his younger days which made him think the world was all about their family.
Mother dies, journey to Lagos
But the unthinkable happened. His mother died at a rather young age. That was the first time he began to be self-conscious and also had to ask a series of questions about the idols he worshiped.
Solomon soon took off from the village to Lagos against all advice from their fetish priest who had seen danger ahead. When he got to Lagos, he began to have a more cosmopolitan outlook on life.
By then he had completed his secondary education and was hoping to read more. While in Lagos, he obtained a National Diploma in Business Administration through correspondence School.
He later secured jobs in different government agencies including, the Federal Ministry of Works, a host of other organizations, and then the Federal Palace Hotel in Victoria Island.
While working in Lagos, he began to experience a void inside of him that only God could fill. He was not at peace with himself. But the time came when he had to travel back to his hometown.
Joy of salvation
It was that journey that put his destiny on the right track. At the village, he was invited to a church event from where he surrendered to Jesus. He felt an unusual peace and presence of God in his life.
“Immediately I surrendered my life to Christ, the joy was overwhelming. I felt like going to heaven that day,” he said. By the time he gave his life to Christ, Samuel Odunaike who was a one-time General Overseer of the Foursquare Gospel Church was the Youth Pastor of the Church. James Boyejo who was the Foursquare G.O. then was the one who took him through water and holy ghost baptism.
He became grounded in the Bible in the Foursquare Gospel Church. He learned the rudiments of the Christian faith in the church. He told Church Times however that it got to a point that the world turned upside down for him.
“After I gave my life to Christ with solid assurance of salvation I discovered that things went bad for me. I lost my job and it got to a point I was almost begging to feed. I started feeling I was serving a bad God. The harder I prayed, the more battle I faced. I began to realise that something was wrong.
“I did not know the way out. We did not hear anything called warfare in those days. Nobody believed we needed deliverance. We believe once a man is born again, he is a new creation. I did not know I needed deliverance and I was not looking for one.”
Also, read: I had to go for deliverance 14 years after conducting deliverance for people:https://churchtimesnigeria.net/deliverance-ministry-14-years/
Truncated business
He cited a classic case of a business he wanted to delve into. The man who indicated an interest in the project got him a massive building as an office, equipped the office with all that he needed, and asked him to go and recruit people for the business.
But the business never went beyond that. “We ordered all the things that we needed for the business. The man and I were signatories to the account. But then, he did not release money for the business to take off fully. This is a man who had so much money and could do what he promised.
“But rather, I would go to his office and sit down for the whole day only to return empty-handed. He would pay salaries for staff that were not working. But he would not release money for the project to start.”
The drama with the man went on for a long time until the project was eventually truncated. That was when it began to dawn on Rev Solomon that something was wrong somewhere.
In desperation, he took off from Lagos, went to Jos, and then to Portharcourt looking for an end to the crisis. Eventually, he heard God tell him he had not called him to be a film producer which was the business he was about to start but that he wanted him to be a pastor.
But there was still a challenge. The faulty foundation as he later got to know made it practically difficult for him to keep a job.
He went from place to place to pray and eventually landed at Ede Prayer Mountain where Pastor Samson Akande known as Baba Ibiye of Ede told him God wanted to have his attention.
Experience at Ede Prayer Mountain
He was given a room at the Ede Prayer Mountain where he stayed for close to one year before getting a lease. “I was there from January to November. That was where I cried to God and God showed me Psalm 11v3: If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
It was while waiting on the Lord that God revealed to him how his father snatched his mother from her husband. That made him start asking questions from his siblings who were ahead of him. They confirmed the story. He revealed some other horror committed by his father in the book and the gory circumstances and the pathetic transition of his mother’s first husband.
Rev Solomon believes he suffered later in life even after he had surrendered to Jesus because of his faulty foundation.
He said it took about nine years of consistent searching and praying before he finally got delivered from the oppression of the devil. His one-year stay at the Ede Prayer Mountain was the culmination of all his efforts to get his deliverance.
Open doors
After that experience on the Ede Prayer Mountain, God opened a new door of ministry for him through which he has been able to help a lot of people get out of demonic bondage. His experience over the years informed the book which is a one-stop compendium for deliverance from demonic forces.
The book which was first published in 2006 is more of a resource for those who want to put an end to struggles in their lives. Rev Solomon left the shores of Nigeria for the United States in 2000. But before then, he had started his ministry in 1989.
He said, “God used what happened to me to explain what is happening to people. God took me to the foundational aspect of deliverance. If you don’t treat the foundation, it is like cutting the tree without uprooting the roots.”
No respect for race or gender
Despite being exposed to the Western world, Rev James believes deliverance has no respect for race or gender. “From my experience, the places where deliverance is needed most are many of the developed countries. The difference between us and them is the light of the gospel.
“Their ignorance makes them feel they don’t have a problem. The problem in the advanced world is more than what we have in Africa. Their demons are sophisticated. They are robust. They see some of the things they experience as an advance in knowledge. But they are being put in more bondage. And that is why they could begin to promote strange things like same-sex marriage and bestiality.”
He argued that being saved does not mean one does not need to be delivered from the forces of darkness. “Any Christian who thinks deliverance prayer is not necessary is spiritually blind. Deception is the order of the day that is why deliverance is important. 90 percent of those who go into occult were deceived.”
Abuses in deliverance ministry
Solomon agrees there are many abuses and excesses by those who operate in deliverance ministry. For instance, he does not believe people should pray death for any perceived enemy. He also thinks it is wrong to have a sense of triumph if a perceived enemy dies. “nobody has the right to rejoice over the death of anybody because we can’t give life. It is also wrong to share testimonies of how people died as a result of our prayers. That is not of God.”
Rev Solomon however stresses that, “People should not be afraid of undergoing deliverance. It only means setting free. When I am having a headache I can get relief by taking analgesics. But when it is persistent, I should seek further help from my doctor. Self-deliverance is possible and should be encouraged.
“People can pray on their own and get delivered from what is holding them down. But when the problem persists, they should seek help. Why will I say I don’t want to be free? Deliverance is just about being set free from the oppression of the devil.”
The Book
The book, Deliverance from demonic covenants and curses tells the story of Rev Solomon in full and also gives an empirical perspective of deliverance. Topics like: the foundations, ancestral yokes, the secret of the dark kingdom, believers, and satanic attacks are treated to a great length in the book. Victory over unseen forces and keys to complete deliverance are also explored in the book.
