The Book of Thieves: Reclaiming What the Enemy Has Stolen Through Biblical Restitution

The Book of Thieves: Reclaiming What the Enemy Has Stolen Through Biblical Restitution

Teaching by Prophet Lovy L. Elias · Watch on YouTube · 24 June 2025

The devil cannot take your life, but he will kill your life — unless you identify him, locate him, and demand sevenfold back.

The enemy's primary strategy is not destruction for its own sake — it is the theft of time, purpose, and destiny. Understanding the biblical laws of restitution transforms prayer from passive petition into a legally grounded demand for everything the devil has taken and everything he has stored in his house.


The Book of Thieves: Reclaiming What the Enemy Has Stolen Through Biblical RestitutionWatch on YouTube ↗

Teaching Overview

  1. Satan lost his place
  2. He lost his time

Key Distinctions

LifeLifestyle
What it isThe God-given existence, calling, and anointing placed in your spiritThe external expressions — career, home, relationships, possessions — that surround your existence
Who can touch itOnly God can take your life — the devil has no power over itThe devil can kill your lifestyle when your identity is placed in it
Where identity belongsIn Christ and in the anointing He placed on youIdentity must never be anchored here — stripping of lifestyle is sometimes God's preparation for greater things
Risk when confusedWhen lifestyle is lost, those who have no identity in Christ question their entire existenceWhen identity is in Christ, loss of lifestyle does not kill the person
SinDevil's Role
What it isThe rejection of God's love; disobedienceTemptation and theft of time, purpose, and opportunity
Where it beganIn heaven — before the earth existedSin existed independent of the devil; he fell prey to it
Relationship to each otherSin is not caused by the devil — he exploits itThe devil is not the originator of sin; he is a victim and an exploiter of it
What it producesImmorality, witchcraft, and all visible symptoms of rebellionWasted time, stolen destiny, and a messed-up life
RestitutionRestoration
What it meansLegal repayment — the thief returns what was stolen plus penaltyReturning something to its former state
What God givesSevenfold return — the substance of the thief's entire houseOnly what was lost
Biblical basisProverbs 6:30–31; Exodus 22General principle of God's grace
Posture requiredActive — you must identify and confront the thiefPassive — waiting on God to restore
Why it mattersYou have a destiny to fulfill; plaster is insufficient payment for stolen purposeRestoration does not account for time and purpose lost
Spiritual WeaponsCarnal Battles
What they targetThe works of the devil; demonic strongholdsPeople — flesh and blood
Where they are effectiveIn the realm ordained for the believer to fightIneffective against spirits — wrestling with flesh yields no spiritual victory
Biblical support2 Corinthians 10:4 — weapons are mighty through GodEphesians 6:12 — we do not wrestle against flesh and blood
Risk of choosing wrong arenaThe devil gains advantage when your battle becomes carnalTime is wasted; the real enemy remains undealt with
Identity in ChristIdentity in Things
What it is anchored inThe anointing and calling God placed on your spiritCareer, money, home, spouse, children, possessions
What happens when things are strippedThe anointing remains — it is embedded in your spirit and cannot be takenExistence is questioned; despair, confusion, and a sense of abandonment set in
God's purpose in strippingTo reveal what is of true value and to prepare for greater thingsNot recognized — loss is read as curse or abandonment
StabilityUnshakeable — the anointing is personal and permanentFragile — dependent on external circumstances
Prayer as VentingPrayer as Solutions
What it isExpressing pain, frustration, and complaint before GodComing to God specifically for answers and intervention
What it producesEmotional release without spiritual advancementPractical, spiritual outcomes — the devil is identified and dealt with
What God intendsGod feels your pain but does not design prayer as a complaint roomGod has every solution you need — prayer is the access point
Danger of ventingAttention is diverted to man and feelings rather than to the real enemyN/A — solution-oriented prayer keeps focus on the source of the problem

The Nature of the Devil's Theft

  • The devil does not steal because he can use what he takes — he steals to waste your time.
  • If the devil can waste your time, he has robbed you of your destiny and messed up your life.
  • The devil's targets — your health, your career, your home — are not valuable to him; they are instruments of distraction and delay.

"The main objective of the enemy is to waste your time. Because if he can waste your time, then he has robbed you of your destiny and he has messed up your life."


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Sin, Satan, and the Origin of Disobedience

  • Sin is not caused by the devil — sin existed before the earth, and the devil himself fell prey to it.
  • Sin is always spoken of in Scripture in the singular — not sins — because it is one thing: the rejection of God's love and the disobedience of His will.
  • Immorality, witchcraft, and every visible symptom of rebellion are not sin itself — they are what sin produces.

"Sin is the rejection of God's love. Sin is simply disobedience."


Satan's Lost Place and Lost Time

  • Because the devil fell prey to sin, he was the first to be disobedient, and the consequences were twofold: he lost his place and he lost his time.
  • The Bible states there was no more place found for him in heaven — his position was permanently forfeited.
  • Satan was the anointed cherub that covers — a guardian of God's presence, not a worship leader — and because he fell, he lost his moment to shine in that assignment.

"If somebody tells you Satan was the worship leader, it's a lie, it's not true."


The Anointing: Its Nature, Visibility, and Personal Ownership

  • When God anoints a person, that anointing cannot be hidden — it is as impossible to conceal as a pregnancy in its later months.
  • The anointing is personal — it rests on the individual, not on their house, family, spouse, or possessions — and it belongs to one person alone.
  • No betrayal, abandonment, or opposition can remove the anointing from the one on whom God placed it.

"When you are anointed by God, you cannot be hidden."

"That anointing is personal, it is in the future, and it's for one person."


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Why the Devil Targets the Anointed

  • The devil does not greatly concern himself with religious churchgoers — he targets those who are genuinely anointed, because the anointed have the ability to turn millions to Christ.
  • The devil knows he cannot take the life of an anointed person, but he attempts to kill that person's lifestyle — attacking career, identity, and purpose.
  • When the devil targets what a person loves most — a career, a relationship, a possession — and strips it away, he exploits the misplaced identity that was rooted in that thing.

"The devil knows that an anointed person is a dangerous person."


The Anointing as Manure: Growth Through Trial

  • Job's trials did not rob him of what mattered — he did not lose time, and he did not lose purpose — and at the end, he multiplied far beyond what he possessed before.
  • The anointing functions like manure: it produces growth, but the process smells — rejection, insult, and affliction are not signs of abandonment but signs that the oil is doing its work.
  • The believer's difference from the world is not exemption from trial but guaranteed emergence on the other side — stronger, increased, and better.

"The anointing is like manure. Everything grows."

"The difference between us and the world is we always come out on top better."


Fighting in the Right Arena

  • When a believer's battle becomes carnal — rooted in conflicts with people rather than the demonic source — the battle is being fought in the wrong arena and the enemy gains advantage.
  • Spiritual weapons are not designed to destroy people; they are designed to destroy the works of the devil — and they only function correctly when the battle remains in the spiritual realm.
  • Like an eagle contending with a serpent, the victory is far easier when the fight is taken into the eagle's native territory — the high places — rather than remaining on the ground.

"When our battle becomes carnal, when our conflicts become rooted in carnality, we start losing the battle because we are no longer fighting in the realm that is ordained for us to fight."


God's Vindication and the Danger of Venting Publicly

  • Joseph, unjustly imprisoned for a crime he never committed, never exposed Potiphar's wife and never sought public vindication — and God still elevated him to the throne.
  • God's vindication does not come by putting others down — it comes by God continually lifting you, and that elevation is the evidence that God is with you.
  • Using a platform to vent grievances about others is the devil wasting your time — those watching do not feed you, and the real battle is never won on social media.

"God's vindication comes when God keeps lifting you."


Identifying the Devil's Location

  • The nature of demons is restlessness — so wherever there is no rest in your life, that is where demonic activity has made its habitation.
  • The devil follows patterns: if he stole marriage, finances, or health from you, he stole the same things from others in your family before you — and his location has already been uncovered through the family record.
  • When the enemy is found and cast out, what was broken returns naturally — because the legal requirement is that the thief must restore what he took.

"When your soul does not have rest. Because the nature of demons is to be restless. So if you want to know a demon is around your life somewhere, look at the place where there is no rest."


Biblical Law of Restitution: Proverbs 6 and Exodus 22

  • Proverbs 6:30–31 establishes that when a thief is found, he must restore sevenfold and give all the substance of his house — not just what was stolen.
  • Exodus 22 specifies the law further: stealing an ox — what is used to build and produce — requires five-ox restitution, because the devil stole what was supposed to produce for you and must now restore the productive capacity with increase.
  • God is not offering restoration — He is offering restitution: not plaster for your trouble, but more than plaster, because you have a destiny to fulfill.

"If he be found, he shall restore sevenfold. He shall give all the substance of his house."

"God is giving you restitution. He's not giving you pepper for your trouble. He's giving you more than pepper for every trouble because you have a destiny to fulfill."


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How to Deal with the Devil: No Negotiation, No Retaliation

  • There is no healing without deliverance — if the demon is not removed, what is produced will also be taken.
  • When the devil is caught and dealt with, there is no retaliating spirit — the legal ground removes any basis for the enemy to return.
  • Believers have been given authority to tread on serpents and scorpions — God never said He would find the thief for you; He said you find him, because once you do, the thief and all his household know they have been identified.

"When you catch the devil and you deal with him, there will be no retaliating spirit."

"There is no healing ministry without deliverance."


Key Definitions

Restitution — The legal repayment by a thief of what was stolen, plus a sevenfold penalty drawn from everything in the thief's house; distinct from restoration, which only returns what was lost.

Anointing — The divine empowerment placed by God on a specific person for a specific assignment; it is embedded in the spirit of the individual, cannot be hidden, cannot be transferred away by betrayal or opposition, and cannot be overcome by witchcraft.

Sin — The rejection of God's love; disobedience. It is always spoken of in the singular in Scripture because it is one root reality, not a list of acts — all visible moral failures are symptoms of this singular rebellion.

Yoke — A bondage placed upon a person; when the anointing is present and active, any yoke that comes into contact with it breaks.

Cherubim — The class of angels whose function is to guard the presence of God, not to lead worship. The devil belonged to this class — he was the anointed cherub that covers, not a worship leader.

Restlessness — The signature condition that reveals demonic presence; because the nature of demons is to be without rest, wherever rest is absent in a person's life, that is the location of demonic activity.


Key Takeaways

  • The devil's primary objective is to waste your time — because stolen time equals stolen destiny, and a messed-up timeline is the closest the enemy can come to destroying a life he has no legal power to end.
  • The anointing is personal, permanent, and indestructible — no person, no circumstance, and no demonic force can remove what God embedded in your spirit, and its growth is evidenced precisely through the trials that come against it.
  • Your battle must remain spiritual, not carnal — the moment your focus shifts to people and platforms, you have entered the wrong arena and handed the enemy the advantage he needs.
  • God demands restitution, not restoration — the biblical law of the thief requires sevenfold return plus the full substance of the thief's house, meaning every prayer for recovery must be calibrated to this legal standard, not mere replacement.
  • Prayer is a place of solutions, not venting — God has every solution you need, but prayer must be approached with the intent to identify the enemy and demand restitution, not simply to express pain.

Reflection Questions

  1. In which area of your life is there the most restlessness or instability — and have you been treating that as a circumstantial problem or as the location of an identified spiritual enemy?
  2. Is your identity anchored in Christ and the anointing He placed on you, or have you made your career, relationships, finances, or reputation the definition of who you are? What would be exposed if those things were stripped away today?
  3. Have you been fighting in the carnal arena — contending with people, venting on platforms, or assigning blame to family — while the real thief continues to operate undetected and unconfronted?
  4. When you pray, do you come to God with a solution-seeking posture — naming the enemy, identifying his location, and demanding biblical restitution — or do you spend that time primarily expressing how much you have suffered?
  5. What has the devil stolen from your family line — a pattern of addiction, broken marriages, financial collapse, sickness — that has never been spiritually addressed? What would it look like this week to identify the enemy's location and begin demanding what is owed?

Prayers and Declarations

Lift your voice and speak to where your problem is originating from:

"Father today by the revelation that I have received, every demonic power, every demonic force, every diabolical spirit, every spirit that has been stealing from me, that has been stealing to me, that has been taking from me in the mighty name of Jesus."

"In the mighty name of Jesus, I decree that no longer will the enemy trouble my health. When the enemy trouble, my career. When the enemy trouble, my peace. When the enemy trouble, my home. When the enemy trouble, my family. When the enemy trouble, my blessing. Show me your goodness, show me your kindness, show me your time."

"I am anointed. The anointing on my life will never be hidden in the name of Jesus."

"I am anointed. I am anointed. And the enemy cannot touch me. And the enemy cannot touch me."

"I am anointed. I am anointed. And no one can take it from me. And no one can take it from me."


Scripture References

  • John 10:10 — "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (KJV)
  • Genesis 6
  • Proverbs 6:30–31 — "Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry; But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house." (KJV)
  • Exodus 22:1–7
  • Isaiah 6

Golden Nuggets

"The main objective of the enemy is to waste your time. Because if he can waste your time, then he has robbed you of your destiny and he has messed up your life."

"When you are anointed by God, you cannot be hidden."

"The devil knows that an anointed person is a dangerous person."

"The anointing is like manure. Everything grows."

"The difference between us and the world is we always come out on top better."

"When our battle becomes carnal, when our conflicts become rooted in carnality, we start losing the battle because we are no longer fighting in the realm that is ordained for us to fight."

"God's vindication comes when God keeps lifting you."

"God is giving you restitution. He's not giving you pepper for your trouble. He's giving you more than pepper for every trouble because you have a destiny to fulfill."

"When you catch the devil and you deal with him, there will be no retaliating spirit."

"Prayer was not intended to be a place of venting. It was intended to be a place of solutions."


Resources and Further Reading

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Topics

DeliveranceSpiritual AuthorityVictory

Related Teachings

FaithRest Sunday: Healing Is Easy Because Jesus Already Paid the PriceFaithThe Cross of Victory: What Good Friday Really Means for the BelieverDeliveranceHe Was On His Way To Hell (Saved By Prophecy)

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