7th July, 2023
By Rev. Fr. Oluoma Chinenye John
I watched the video of a lady who tearfully narrated how her boyfriend used her destiny ( through her underwear and pictures) for money rituals. He even bought car for her. She stated that they have dated for less than 2 years.
The implication of what she said is that she has a destiny of wealth, the boyfriend has used it and is now cashing out. I’m not here to shade her or say she’s lying, I just want to logically, biblically and culturally probe her claims and the issues of money ritual and stolen destinies in general. I want us to critically examine those issues.
Logically, how comes she has a destiny that yields money but she never had or made money until her boyfriend used her or it(her destiny) for ritual? Same goes for those who said their destinies were stolen through spiritual means. What exactly were your destinies yielding before someone else stole them and they started yielding wealth and prosperity? Why wasn’t your ‘destiny’ or ‘star’ yielding financial prosperity before it was stolen?
As I write, there are people fasting, binding and praying against destiny thieves in various miracle centers and churches. Some have been on it for years if not decades, they are still not wealthy if not broke.
It seems to me that our Christianity is more of sloganeering. We enthusiastically profess slogans like WHAT GOD CANNOT DO DOES NOT EXIST, but our attitude actually says WHAT THE DEVIL CANNOT DO DOES NOT EXIST. If poverty is from the devil and statistics show there are more poor people than rich people, then the devil is pretty doing a better job than God. This would be unfortunate. Unless of course folks are ignorantly attributing to the devil what he’s not doing.
Biblically, ‘stolen destinies’ and ‘money ritual’ are completely absent. I haven’t seen anywhere in the bible( I would be grateful and humble to learn) where someone’s destiny is said to be stolen by another through diabolical means. The closest would be Esau who sold his birth right, which doesn’t equate with destiny.
Biblically, destiny is not a materialistic entity. Eph 1:4 mentions holiness as our destiny before the world was made. In our time people equate destiny with things like profession, career and material position or affluence.
I also haven’t seen anywhere anyone was used for money ritual in the bible. People robbed, killed, cheated and betrayed others for money in the bible, but not one mention of money ritual. What is recorded in the bible are bits of human sacrifices for atonement or some other cause that has nothing to do with money.
Culturally, human sacrifice was rife in our pre- christian societies. Our traditional societies believed in spiritual powers and their effects on human beings. I don’t think I ever heard of money rituals happening. I am leaving this to you, ask your aged parents and grandparents whether there was anything like money ritual that included killing another human being.
While I regard the idea of “stolen destinies” as one of those outlandish spiritual phantoms of our time, popularized by some modern ministers looking for anything to catch the fancy of their followers and keep them busy with patronage of their mercantile ministry, I regard Money ritual as one of the devil’s idea to entice people into evil crimes that mortgage their souls. Money ritual is a bait the devil uses to lure people into all sorts of evil. Some make money, but it’s not the ritual that gives them the money, it’s something else.
My humble submission is that destinies cannot be stolen. Those who disagreed with me only cited circumstantial evidences in the bible and nothing substantial. Some used the story of Jacob and Esau, which i think is a wrong illustrations.
Birthright is not destiny, it’s right to certain inheritance which are mostly material. Esau sold his birth right( a shameful thing to do) but not his destiny. He still became the founding father of a nation, the Edomites descended from him, read Gen 36. In Gen 33 Esau rejected Jacob’s gifts because he too had more than enough.
Some quoted scriptures of where God promised to restore the years eaten by locusts. I still don’t know how that equates with destiny.
Some people confuse destiny with profession, careers and vocation. There are two major definitions of destiny: 1. “Events that will necessarily happen to a particular person”. Jesus necessarily had to die for our sins. Death was his destiny, salvation was his mission, carpentry was his occupation. Was Peter destined to deny Jesus? Was Judas destined to betray Jesus? Why did Peter repent and Judas committed suicide? Was one destined to repent and remain a disciple and the other destined to commit suicide and lose the position?
Destiny is what happens to someone necessarily or unavoidably, but not the totality of one’s life. Destiny is not the engineer or doctor or business man or governor or wealthy man or woman you could have become but couldn’t make it for any number of reasons. One person can become 4 of those things in lifetime. We have people who are lawyers, musicians, successful business men all at once, while we have people who didn’t become any of that. Choice, opportunities and preparations are parts of the variables that affect those things.
2. The second meaning of destiny is “the hidden power believed to control future events”. Yes, there are spiritual powers at play in this world. The devil is the chief on the side of evil. He can do and undo. The story of Job is a demonstration. Demonic manipulations are real. Yet, only God has the absolute control of yesterday, today and tomorrow. The devil can know what will happen tomorrow, he can even decide and plan what will happen tomorrow, but only God CAN change it.
God doesn’t need the devil’s permission to alter tomorrow, the devil needs God’s permission to change certain things as we see in job’s case again. Las las, only God is the sole power in control of everything. Col 3:3 says “our life is hidden in Christ Jesus, and Christ in God.” Having established that destiny is not a commodity that can be stolen, even if it were, how could the thief access what’s hidden in Christ? Acts 17:28 says: “In him we live and move and have our being”. How is the thief going to break into what is inside God?
When people end up failing to achieve a particular status in life they say their destiny is stolen, or when people suffer some set backs or misfortunes and call them stolen destinies, I don’t agree.
Once more I want to boldly state that the devil cares nothing of what you become ( pastor, priest, business man, wealthy woman, poor person, married, single, jobless, working etc), his care is to access your soul as anything you are and get you to do his bidding.
We have people in ministry, politics, corporate world, sports, entertainment and every walk of life that the devil uses. He’s the thief that comes to steal, kill and destroy your soul, relationship with God and eternity. He’s not interested in what you become in life. In any case I have argued that destinies aren’t commodities that can be stolen.
In a discussion like this the goal is to broaden our knowledge and perspectives. So make your contributions and support your conclusions with verifiable evidences or facts, at least with rational basis.
Rev. Fr. Oluoma Chinenye John is a priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, Nigeria. He is an anointed Preacher, Teacher, Counselor and Musician.