THE FUTURE REVEALED IN PRAYER…PREQUEL TO AN IMPENDING SHOCKER (SEASON 2 EPISODE 20)

“For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether”- Psalm 139:4

Today is the 24th July, 2015. A peaceful day.

The previous night, as Justina and I had our nighttime devotion, she suggested that whenever we pray, we should pick a certain set of people and pray for them.

I agreed.

Tonight as Justina and I worshipped, she raised a rather odd prayer point “Let’s pray for all those who are hospitalized and in need of healing”

We prayed.

Nothing could have prepared me for the shocker I was about to face in the coming days.

Stay tuned.

“It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear”. Isaiah 65:24

HE KNOWS MY NAME…AN ATMOSPHERE OF WORSHIP (SEASON 2 EPISODE 19)

^“Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth” -Psalm 96:9

Today is the 22^nd July, 2015 and as I drove home from work, I had rap music playing in the car. Now I love music. Music of all sorts. Rap, Blues, Country, Rock, pop, Afro-hip-hop, Fuji…just name it. One this day, I suddenly got a sudden urge to worship my God, Alas! I had no worship music! No CD and no Christian song on my phone.

I saw a young man in traffic hawking CDs and so I purchased a Christian worship CD. The impact was electrifying as my car was filled with heavenly praise. O! What I have been missing all these years.

It was beautiful.

That night as Justina and I worshipped my father and king, I told her that I didn’t want to present any petition before God that night, no. All I wanted to do was to thank him for being who he is. The never changing God, the covenant keeping God and the one who reveals himself to those who fear him…

“The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant” Psalm 25:14

As we prayed, I reminisced on the past week, it has been a week full of revelations and faith nuggets, I was fed spiritually and I was growing in the faith. I could readily recount some of the revelations I got last week:

God’s ways are not cumbersome

Peace is the barometer used to determine God’s voice

The talent God gives us is for evangelism and sustenance.

Friends, I love God, I long to be in his presence and I am enjoying this walk with him…a song broke forth from within the deepest recesses of my spirit…

“I love you Lord, and I lift my voice, to worship you, O! my soul rejoice. Take joy my King, in what you hear, let it be a sweet sweet sound in your ears”

My joy was complete.

On the morning of 23^rd July, 2015 as I drove to work, I listened to my gospel music and as I listened and worshipped, I burst out in prayer and I started prophesying.

It is a beautiful thing when we dwell in an atmosphere of worship.

“But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” -1 Corinthians 2:10

RHEMA IN A STILL SMALL VOICE…THE ESSENCE OF TALENT (SEASON 2 EPISODE 18)

"And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” Ephesians 4:11-13

On Sunday, the 19th July, 2015, Justina’s eldest sister and her husband came to Magodo to visit Justina’s parents. (Justina’s parents live a couple of streets away from us) and they also brought their toddler son “Morire” for a vacation with his grandparents.

While I was having a chat with Justina’s elder sister who is also a lawyer, she mentioned that she was searching for a new job. I promised to contact her if I heard about any worthwhile job openings.

Now Justina’s elder sister has a passion for music. She has a wonderful voice and she is a Christian. She had plans of pursuing a career in Christian music but she ended up studying Law as a result of pressure from her father. While she was an integral part of her local church choir, the sheer pressure of raising a family and the unavailability of resources had prevented her from pursuing a lucrative music career. She had worked on a few incomplete musical demos in the past but that was it. She was yet to earn a dime from singing.

Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God: Leo Buscaglia.

That night, as Justina and I discussed about her sister’s job search, we focused more on her career as a lawyer that we totally neglected her talent in music and the gem God had given her. We felt if she could further her education in Law by acquiring a Masters degree or taking some professional courses, then she would be better positioned for a better job. We believed she should concentrate more on Law while music could be a hobby or something she did free of charge for the purpose of evangelism.

And then I heard the word clearly as though someone had spoken into my ears...

“God gives us talent for evangelism and sustenance”

And the illumination followed: as a Christian, your God given talent is not only to evangelize; while showcasing the beauty of God’s gifts, that talent is also to sustain you. It is meant to put food on your table. When you discover your special place and God illuminates your mind showing you how to birth ideas that command resources from the womb of talent; then you unlock the door to prosperity.

Everything you need to succeed and prosper in the face of changing economics, has been deposited in you. Discover it and re-negotiate your destiny: change your life.

When you arrive at the place of discovery and you find the gift God has given you, then you must discover the means of using that gift for the propagation of the gospel and also for sustenance. If all your talent has done for you is sustenance, then you are a minus to the kingdom of heaven…however, if your talent has not been able to sustain you on earth, then you are a minus to humanity and your poverty is rightly deserved.

I am speaking to myself.

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me’. Erma Bombeck

“and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge and all manner of workmanship” Exodus 35:31

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GOOD BYE GRANDMA… COULD I HAVE DONE IT BETTER? (SEASON 2 EPISODE 17)

“Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you”. Exodus 20:12

On the 21st July, 2015 in the early hours of the morning, Daddy called Justina. He had tried reaching me but I have a habit of switching off my phones before going to bed at night and at this time, I had not turned them on. When he finally spoke to me, he gave me the news…

My maternal Grandmother had passed on. She was over 90years old. Probably even close to 100 years old.

I wasn’t sad. She was quite old, and the eternal rest was well deserved. However, I had this feeling of melancholy; maybe regret.

When my mother went to be with the lord in 2009, I was unhappy because I felt she didn’t live long enough to enjoy the fruits of her labour. My siblings and I had barely started working at that time so we were not able to bless my mother as we would have loved to. During the burial ceremony for my mother, we met with her parents. At that point, I had promised myself that I would do all within my power to ensure that I seized every opportunity to bless my grandparents in their last days. Somehow, I got trapped in the daily struggle of living that I forgot about these little things that should matter. The only time I sent cash to my grandparents were on those occasions when my father requested that my siblings and I do so. I kept believing that I would have an opportunity to bless my grandparents before they departed earth…the opportunity to so bless my grandmother never came.

I wished I had known her more; maybe even spent more time with her and I wished I had the means to make her last days a little nicer. God knows best.

I still have my maternal grandfather alive…I still have another opportunity to redeem myself. Honouring your parents comes with a blessing and I am not going to short-change myself.  

“It’s best to give people roses when they can still smell it”

Every breath God gives you and every day he adds to your years is another opportunity to bless people. You never know when the end shall come. There is no worse pain than the regret of a life not fully lived, love not abundantly given and joy not freely shared. I have learnt my lessons. I shall cherish all my loved ones every second and every day the lord gives me.

When I was done writing this particular post, grief filled my heart. And I wept, O! I wept hard.

O! Lord I look up to you for your blessings.

“But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever”. 1 Timothy 5:8

Are your grandparents still alive? What efforts have you made in taking care of them? What are your thoughts on caring for grandparents? Do share.

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INTERCESSORS FOR THE SAINTS...YOU ARE NOT ALONE (SEASON 2 EPISODE 16)

“Therefore I positioned men behind the lower parts of the wall, at the openings; and I set the people according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked, and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.” Nehemiah 4:13

Today is the 19th July, 2015 another wonderful day in church.

Now you remember that in episode 14 of season 2, Justina and I had agreed to share with men and women of faith whom we trust so they could stand with us even as we petition heaven.

Justina had a leading to share with Mr Tom.

Now Mr Tom is a member of the Latter Rain Assembly and he was Justina’s teacher in the Latter Rain Assembly Maturity class program. She believed he was someone she could talk to and so after the church service; she approached him.

Now Justina’s courage gave way when she met Mr Tom and instead of sharing the issue with him, she decides to ask him another question concerning her choice of department in the church. When she was done discussing with him, he did something a little strange: he asks Justina if that was all she wanted to discuss with him. This gave Justina the much needed courage to open up.

She requested that Mr Tom join us in prayers as we looked up to God for our children. Mr Tom opened his notepad and showed Justina something he had scribbled weeks back. In the notepad, Mr Tom had written the following:

“12052015. I kept seeing Justina Obi (A Student in my ATS Class) in my dream. When I woke up, I started praying for her and asking the Lord why I was seeing her repeatedly. Lord, what is it about her? Then Heb 11:11 dropped in my spirit where it said that Sarah received strength to conceive seed because she judged God faithful who had promised. So I thought that she might be seeking for the fruit of the womb…”

Justina was speechless.

While we were yet asking, intercessors had been positioned to stand in the gap on our behalf.  Take note of the date? He had this dream on the 12th of May, 2015: This was a few days after I got my 1st test results showing that I had low sperm count. (See Episode 5 of Season 1). Now we are aware that Mr Tom is standing in the place of intercession on our behalf; how many more men and women of faith were out there standing in the gap for us that we not even aware of? It made us feel special and loved by God and his people.

That night, as Justina and I worshipped, I blessed the name of the lord for hope, for love, for faith and for a sound mind. Now I knew we were not alone. We had the heavenly hosts and the Saints all around us…fighting and interceding on our behalf.

“By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised”. Hebrews 11:11

TEACH THE CHILDREN…LESSONS FOR POSTERITY (SEASON 2 EPISODE 15)

“And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them”. Genesis 11:5-6

On 20th July, 2015, my siblings along with Justina and I gathered at my sister’s home in Amuwo-Odofin area of Lagos State to pray.

This was the second time we had such a prayer meeting; the first was in my house. I arrange these meetings because I recognise the need for corporate prayers and the covenant power of agreement. There is nothing we cannot achieve when we do things in unity.

Before we went into a time of intercession, I shared a short exhortation with them.

Using the lives of the Kings of Israel, I taught them the importance of transmitting godly values to our children and also ensuring that we imbibe the godly values our parents held.

The importance of this transmission is important. Living a godly live is a beautiful thing but sometimes, you also need to understand the place of intercession for your children and also the need to learn some lessons from your parents if your parents are of the faith. My lesson was based on the life of King Hezekiah.

How did King David, the predecessor of Hezekiah, handle adversaries?

“Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.  This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.  Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.” 1 Sam 17 45-47.

David knew no chill. He knew that armed with the spirit of God, he could approach any adversary and victory was certain. This was the first battle with a man that the bible records David having. David was in his youth at this time, he wasn't even a king. Bible history puts David at about 15 years old at this time.

What of Hezekiah?

Hezekiah became King when he was 25 years old. He was already a man. The bible records that Hezekiah loved God…

“And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done”. 2 Kings 18:3

 But did he learn how to handle adversity?

“And in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; turn away from me; whatever you impose on me I will pay.” And the king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.  So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house.  At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria” 2 Kings 18 14-16

Where did Hezekiah learn this method of handling adversity? There is most definitely a disconnect and a trans-generational gap between David and Hezekiah. Somehow, the values and character of the progenitor were not carried on by the offspring.

Now Hezekiah didn't have a good role model or father figure to show him how to deal with issues. He didn't learn at the feet of great men such as King David so not long afterwards, he goofed again:

“At that time Berodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah was attentive to them, and showed them all the house of his treasures—the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory—all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?” So Hezekiah said, “They came from a far country, from Babylon.” And he said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.” Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord:  ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the Lord. ‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” – 2 Kings 12-18

Now what was Hezekiah’s response to this prophecy which threatened his offspring?

“So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good!” For he said, “Will there not be peace and truth at least in my days?” 2 Kings 20:19.

WRONG!

How did his Predecessor David react when a prophet informed him of his sins and how did he handle a prophecy against his offspring?

“So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.  However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.” 2 Sam 12 13-14.

 “David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. So the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them” 2 Sam 12:16-17

That how King David reacted when he realized that his seed was going to fall under the prophetic hammer.

Hezekiah goes on to produce King Manasseh. Do you know what the Bible records concerning Manasseh?

“Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord” -2 Kings 21:16

Friends, it is important that we teach our children the way of the Lord, so that they understand how to deal with situations and how to run back to God even when they lose it. Sometimes when a child doesn't remember the way his father handled matters in God, in his ignorance he devises his own means. He shies away from a fight and he fails to prepare a way for his children.

And then along with my siblings and my wife, we called upon the name of the lord.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it”. Proverbs 22:6

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THE QUINTESSENTIAL MR AND MRS ONYEMAUCHE OBI… MY CHAMPIONS OF FAITH (SEASON 2 EPISODE 14)

“Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:18-20

We met with my parents later on the 18th July, 2015. Now we discussed the issue of the G.O first (See the story of the G.O. in Episodes 10-12 of Season 2) and when that was out of the way, we discussed the Doctor’s report (See Episode 13 of Season 2) and another nagging issue: when and how do we tell Justina’s parents about the current situation of things?

Now Justina’s parents are wonderful people. However, being Catholics, they had a different understanding of faith and the miraculous. I really didn’t know how the story of our challenge with infertility would affect them. Would they handle it well?

My parents counselled us and advised that it was important for us to remain steadfast in our faith and continue pushing in prayer.

Daddy performed a spiritual exercise…he told me to lift up all the test results before God in prayer. My younger sister Lemechi joined us in my parents’ bedroom as my parents, Justina and I prayed…

“And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: “O Lord God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord God, You alone.” 2 Kings 19:14-19

In the same manner as King Hezekiah, I lifted before God the medical reports put together by mortal men and I petitioned heaven to come into our situation. And together we all called out to God.

We needed to settle some issues with God. Should I go ahead with the surgery? And how best should we inform Sola’s parents about the situation? These issues we presented before God for direction and wisdom. We asked God for a sign to confirm his decisions concerning these issues.

As a family, we agreed that I would consult with Dr Chioma Onyekwere for a second opinion concerning the surgery. Dr Onyekwere is the head of the Medical Department of the Latter Rain Assembly and a Gynaecologist in the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital.

We also agreed that Justina and I would meet with Mr and Mrs Adeleke and Mr and Mrs Adeniyi. The Adelekes are the hosts of our weekend In-house church fellowship program of the Latter Rain Assembly “Church in-the-House”. They are also the conveners of the Fruitful Club which is a gathering of couples in the Latter Rain Assembly who are looking up to God for the fruit of the womb.

Mr Adeniyi was the Chairman at our wedding and his family had really been a blessing to us. They are also members of the Latter Rain Assembly. We planned to meet the Adelekes and the Adeniyis to request that they join us in prayers.

Apart from these people, Justina and I further agreed to share the situation with other men and women of faith whom we trust so they could join us even as we petition heaven for the miraculous.

God is faithful.

“As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Psalm 55:16

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