Christ’s Ambassador

So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law Gal 5:1

 In the science permeated thoughts of modern man as well as those of the religious bigots – the Pharisees - of the time of Jesus, man has always derived formulae to get the attention of God. Well-to-do believers tend to often credit their peace and wealth to sound spiritual doctrines deductible from their supposed devil-proof formulae. And if you are going through a hard time in your life, you are bound to receive counsels bordering on the use of the right formulae to command God’s attention. Genuinely concerned folks are going to approach you with packages and methods, some of which they may claim to have tried and seemed to work out for them, or which seemed to be working for some people in their church. They might give you books and tapes from which you may glean your own sets of hypothesis out of the wealth of experiences of the authors. They have your interest at heart, and they want to help call a truce between an estranged and angry God and you. Surely, you have not gotten the correct formulae and you are tuned to a different channel while God transmits from another. So you must listen to them.

One of the first major assumptions is that your prayer life is on the wrong frequency and that is why the devil has turned you to a punching bag and God is none-the-least concerned. So you might get prayer formulae like: Fast and pray every Friday and read psalm 83” or “Wake up and pray with psalm 35 between the hours of 1:00am and 2:00am, then recite certain prayer points like “All witches and wicked people eating up my blessings, die in Jesus name”. Some might tell you to go for a dry fasting for three days or seven days, depending on how serious they think your case is. Or pray and fast for forty days and believe God for forty miracles, and so on.

If your problem has to do with finance, you may get formulae like: “Give alms more regularly, no matter how inconvenient it is for you. God will record it as credit for you” In fact, the more inconvenient it is for you, the more impressed God is, after all Jesus said Give and You shall be given. Remember the poor widow who gave all she had as offering in Luke 21:2, bro? Go out there and do likewise. Again, you might be advised to “Sow a seed of faith to the church” - any amount reasonable, in the light of ‘He who sows bountifully shall reap bountifully’, or ‘Make a pledge to God, as Hannah did in 1Sam 1:11, tell him what you will do for him if he could just cats a glance down at you. You might even be asked to bless a man of God with substance for Christ said that whosoever will give gift to a prophet shall receive the reward of a prophet. So God might have noticed that you have not been blessing men of God therefore he withdrew his own blessings from you. Well sister, burrow a leave from the Shunamite woman and it shall be well with you. It is not strange any longer to hear Preachers instructing their congregation to give all of January’s salary to the church as first fruits of the year to attract the abundant favor of God for that year. Yes it is also one of the formulae.

There are other formulae like the purchase and use of anointing oil, anointed handkerchiefs, holy water, rings and necklaces with cross of Christ which have been blessed by the Pastor. As you use these items, it is expected that God would not dare afford to look away from you, and who born devil to take a sneak glance at you? Some counselors may again ask you, “…but brother, do you speak in tongues? and if you answer nay….”Eh yaaa! That’s the problem bro. You need to speak in tongues. You need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. If you cannot pray in tongues it means you are not baptized in the Holy Spirit and the devil and his demons can log you off God’s domain when they hear what you are saying to God. (Despite Paul’s explanations in 1Cor 12:7-11, 13, 30; 1Cor 14:22.) Prayers in tongues are the only thing devil cannot decode, so he will be ignorant of your next move. If you don’t mind, follow me to my church and my Pastor will teach you how to speak in tongues devil cannot understand. By the way, sister, you must leave that your church, the spirit is not moving there and that’s why you people don’t speak in tongues. The list of these formulae is inexhaustible, for the mind of man churns them out on daily basis.

What am I saying here? Are any of these practices bad? Nonetheless. They are good scriptural exercises and discipline. They are good works and I am not condemning them. The question is “Is any of them or all of them combined together sufficient to command the attention of God? No. God’s blessings and favors are not earned and no one with his good works is righteous enough to stand in the presence of God. I have reeived many of these counsels before, and even believed them. I practiced them, but none of them worked out my salvation. None of them could make me stand in the presence of God without guilt. It is Grace that brings man to Christ and it is Grace that sustains him in Christ. Paul told the Galatians that such mechanical practice would cut them off from Christ. God is not about to make himself a debtor to man because of some ‘good’ works that man can think up, or certain rituals that man can devise. When we try to use any of these or other practices, no matter how spiritual it sound, to impress God so as to attract his favor, then we are involved in what Jesus described as vain worship Mark7:7. It emanates from doctrines of men, mechanically done and not from blameless heart.  

There is nothing man has received outside the Grace of God brought by Jesus Christ. Gal 2:8 The more we understand the grace, the more we would respond to the love of God with awe and love. If we have a relationship of love with God, praying or doing good works would not have to be derived by a law or hypothesis. Worship is a spontaneous reaction of a creature to the holiness, love, justice and wisdom of his creator. If man be in complete understanding of grace, even when he is going through the valley of shadow of death, there can be no doubt in his mind that God is with him even in that valley.(Ps 23) God loves man and will ever love man, not because of what man can do or has done, but because He is love and his steadfast love endures, unconditionally, forever.  At certain times in the life of man, he may experience sufferings as God moulds and remoulds him to a useful texture and shape. At such times, an unwary believer may be deceived to fall out of the freedom of grace into a mechanical routine of vain worship.

But let’s examine these points critically, General Overseers, Pastors, Board of Trustees would go to great lengths to find worship leaders who would do it just the ‘right’ way as they might deem fit. Church board call for regular updates of church dogmas, as they deem fit. I wonder, would there still have been these many denominations if the apostles’ doctrines were properly preserved and adhered to in all churches? What then is a right formula for worship? And what does a straight-jacket approach to God say about our faith?

“I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven” Mt 18:3

Very early in my life, at age 8 God began to help me trim down all attachments so that I may learn to look on to Jesus, the author and finisher of my salvation. He started with family attachments. My father decided to send me to live with one of his friends, a school teacher, so that through him, I may exert myself to have good education. His friend, then a bachelor, taught in a primary school at Inisa, a town up to 2 hours drive from my native Gbongan, Osun State of Nigeria. I wasn’t the only child of my father raised in this way, earlier on my older brother Soji had been attached to another family friend and uncle. Then we have sister Bimpe, Deniyi and I in my set and Fiola after us.

My trauma started barely an hour after we arrived Inisa. I dozed off on a chair because of tiredness after the journey and within seconds, I was back at home-my sweet home- playing ball with Deniyi. We were happy. My father was playing his talking drum as he usually did in the sunset, and mother was cooking the ewedu soup that would escort amala down the bowel. Other people went about their normal household chores. I scored a goal and was celebrating when mama’s voice rang out “Children, come and take your food” And suddenly I was shaken back to reality. Gone was the familiar home environment, the melodious talking drum faded to the back of my mind. The joyful shriek of “gooaal!” faded and more annoying, the sweet aroma of ewedu soup disappeared. All were replaced with the eerie quietness of the room at Inisa that was going to be my home for the next two years or so. Uncle Segun, my guardian, patted me again, “Delani, take your food”. The tides of emotion hit me and my face dissolved into tears. I began to experience home-sickness for the first time in my life. I sobbed quietly as I pushed the food around the plate. I was even afraid of this “strange elder” who was to be my guardian. I grew to like him for his kindness later but it wasn’t so at the beginning for I had never been close to him before then.

We occupied a room and palour in a large tenement house. I found everything strange most especially the accents of the people. They found mine strange and funny too and annoyingly, they often came to converse with me just to hear my accents and laugh Within 2 days, I had chosen a place in the house-an unusual one for that- where I could cry in solitary and think of home. I chose the toilet because I could stay there for as long as I wanted without disturbance. After about two weeks, school started and I was registered in primary three. But a shock awaited me there also, it was an Islamic mission school, run by the Ansar-U-Deen. That was why the school was called AUD Primary School. Everything was strange. The morning and closing devotions and even the prayers before the mid-day meal were chanted in Arabic language. I had to learn this fast because the Malim who taught Arabic was a tough man. One girl called Eniola, and I were the only pupils in the whole school who were Christians. Eniola also was a ward of one of the teachers. All these heightened the intensity of my home-sickness. I missed St Paul’s Primary School where I did the first two years. I missed the children section of St Paul’s church.

I learnt to save up 4pence by skipping mid-day meals two times in a fortnight so that I could get stamp for my letters. So I was able to write a letter home every two weeks and since I was afraid to write to my father and told him I wanted to come back home, I sent my letters to a cousin who lived in our house., and those were the good days of the snail-mail in Nigeria. Through him I was able to keep abreast of all that was happening at home. I was informed the time my father bought a Honda90 motorcycle and stopped ridding the good old Raleigh bicycle. I knew the time Kemi was born. I cried when I was told Yemi crawled to where baba had parked the Honda after a ride and the little child touched the exhaust pipe. I guessed he saw his image in the shining surface and was attracted. I knew when Jola was born also and many other tid-bits of information as could be exchanged by two children. After two years my guardian was posted to another school at Ikire in Osun State, now a Christian mission school, where we spent another two years. At the end of every school session, I was taken back home for the holidays and returned promptly a week before school re-opened. This was the trend for those four years  before I had to go to secondary school.

It was during this time I started writing to request for tracts from missions like the Voice of  Prophecy and Every Home Crusade who had centres in Nigeria. I did not know how I ever got the inspiration to write but I remember seeing the invitation at the back of a tract I found. I only wrote to them as a hobby to keep busy. But through their supplies God nurtured me with his word. I got Yoruba translations of the gospels but my favourite was the book of Mark. While I awaited replies of my letters from home, I love to read the gospel of Mark.

It is not really easy for me now to capture in detail all I experienced that time, but here are a few things I gained from that experience: A larger percentage of the resilience I have now against life’s hard knocks were developed that time. Just as God kept watch and proved himself mighty on behalf of Joseph, so God worked in my life. I was being prepared to be able to live anywhere and under any condition and that has helped me greatly in my adult life. While I am not saying now that I have seen the worst of hardship, I have learnt to rely on the grace of God which is never lacking no matter what may betide me. As a child, albeit unaware of it, I experienced the work of the Holy Spirit in healing my soul’s trauma and guiding me to all truths human couldn’t teach me then. (John 14:16,17) He actually lived in me, healed my pains, consoled me, taught me and he gave me the understanding of what I read there even as I lived in an Islamic dominant society. God cares very much for children and I can testify to that.

As Christians today living in this strange land (the world) do you long for home? Are you missing your heavenly home so much as to go to a solitary place to cry? Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted (Mt 5:4) Amidst the hurly-burly of daily life, do you have a special place where you go to meet the Lord – even if it’s the toilet in your office? Do you stay attentive to hear the Lord’s invitation as he whispers “Come to a solitary place and rest awhile”? How often do you communicate with your heavenly home? (1Thess 5:17) Do you consciously save up energy and time so as to be with Lord in the wee hours of the night? Aren’t we always too busy to keep abreast of what the Lord is doing in the world and in the lives of others around us?

When I think back and reflect on the life of this 8-year old me, I give glory to God and I pray for an extra measure of grace to regain that first love Rev2:4. Many of us have forgotten how misty our life here on earth is and we have forged undue attachment to wealth, power, influence, position, career, family and other comforts. We need to start longing for our heavenly home, for this is the last hour. Lk 18:29,30, Lk 21:34) It is high time we started singing the Lord’s song and stop joining in the lullabies of this strange land, lest our right hands loose their skills on the harp and our tongues stick to the roof of our mouths.Ps 137:4-6. Heaven is home. Do you feel home-sick? What is the intensity of your home-sickness?

Mama Abutu, (as my mother-in-law is fondly called by admirers) gave birth to all her children out of total submission to her husband and deep respect for the laws binding marriage partners for life, for better and for worse. But she has never being a recipient of love in marriage. She is the only one who can say her testimony accurately but you can imagine what she must have passed through if I told you that: I’ve been married to my wife for seven years but I have met my father-in-law once, and that was as he handed over my wife to the Pastor who wedded us. He was in the house a year before then to attend my wife’s younger sister’s wedding, then ours one year later. Before these times and since then, he’s been at large. For reasons best known to God, and maybe himself, he just walked away from his matrimonial home and never looked back except on invitations.

Mama has gone through much difficulties in her marriage. But despite all that, she remains sweet. Rather than going down under the load she was forced to carry singly at a tender age, she cast it on the Lord’s able shoulders. Suzan, mama’s first daughter and my wife, tells me that there was no kind of menial jobs mama did not delve into so as to earn some decent money to feed her seven children. Because of these, the children also learnt to work hard at very tender ages. Suzan and her siblings sold oranges, bean cakes, peanuts, garden eggs and so on to help support the family, even when they were in the primary schools. The good news is that as at today, all the seven children are professionals in their chosen fields with degrees and diplomas. Four are married while the rest are already betrothed. They were not just given school education, mama trained them in the ways of the Lord and they have never departed from it.

The secret of mama’s survival and success is nothing but prayer. I learnt mama could pray all night - I mean speak to the Lord every minute of the night - and on her knees. She asked for strength to carry the load and God supplied more than she could ever immagine or have asked for. All through the crisis period, and even now, she has no other power but prayer. What has now grown to a Ministry taking care of widows, orphans and prisoners actually started as a prayer group of four adult women who had family problems and mama’s children. 

While struggling to make her children turn out good despite all odds, mama herself did not neglect self-development programmes. Her parents did not send her to school but today, through sheer determination, mama has become a walking Bible commentary, for the gracious hands of her God is upon her. She preaches sermons smoothly pulling out scriptural quotations with ease as though she read them off an invisible screen. This is because mama has determined to study and obey the laws of the Lord and teach those laws and regulations to others around her. Ezra 7:9-10. She is a women fellowship leader in her church and member in many committees.

Mama is a widow whose husband is alive, for she has lived as a widow for almost all her life. Perhaps she developed her passion and love for widows from this bitter experience. Suzan says that some 25 years ago, she used to follow mama as she went round visiting widows in the neighbourhood and sharing little gifts like soaps, salt and grocery items, after which she would pray for them and share her testimony to encourage them. She had done this consistently but with increasing resources and sacrifice since then. Her network of widows has now grown above 400 aside the care of orphans and prison ministry, and still growing. What started as a little walk-around passion to keep her mind constructively occupied has now grown to an NGO with budget over a million naira.

In the mid ’80s, God upgraded mama. She was employed as a ward attendant in a Specialist hospital. This job opportunity gave mama another avenue to serve God. As the duty roaster takes her round, from Paediatrics to Obstetrics to Gynaecology, to Accidents and Emergency ward, mama took all as prayer rounds as she always sought to pray and speak with the patients one-on-one when she had the opportunity to do so. The result is that she became well known in and outside the hospital, that her widows ministry was all the better for it. Even doctors and matrons started seeking her prayer assistance when confronted with tricky cases.

In the midst of all these, mama is also a trader selling textile fabrics. She uses part of her off-duty days to travel to the big markets to make purchases. Her home is the shop where she sells and also evangelizes her customers. Her tight schedules would also not stop her from outdoor evangelism. Her’s is not the street-walking, door-to-door type, but she would go to targeted houses of known backsliders in the church, or those she had attended to in the hospital or old customers who have not shown up for a while.

Mama was counselling a lady in my presence one day. She touched on her first struggle with the flesh when my father-in-law deserted her. She said after she had made up her mind to devote all of her life to serving Christ, the devil raised the issue of sex in her mind, as in “So Hannah, you want to serve Christ all of your life, heh? Without husband? Now what would you do when you feel the need for a man?” Mama is funny. She said she shouted out loud to devil, “Shut up!” Then she quietly went into her room, closed the door and knelt down before God and she prayed something like this “My God, I did not bargain for all these problem but I accept it because you permitted it. I want to serve you without distractions of men, lock your word in my heart and take the key away so that nothing else can come in.” Then she stood up relieved, and that was it as far as man was concerned. The peace of God which surpaseth all human understanding has flooed her mind since that moment. Not that the temptations ceased but Jesus has taken over and he is a specialist at fighting temptations. Recall the “It is written….” episode in the wilderness? Lk 4:1-9 (KJV)

Mama is able to remain a clay in the skilful hands of God, the Potter, because she allowed the grace of God to overlay her heart. When the fire of the Holy Spirit of God warms the heart, there would not be hardening. Mama forgives easily. My wife testifies that mama has never for once told her children any bad thing about their father. Even when the children became grown and could understand what was going on, she still encouraged them to forgive and love their father, and she would never tolerate any disrespectful statement or remark about the man. This actually was why my father-in-law could attend our wedding and play his rightful role in the first instance. I would never had known him. Mama quickly searched for God in the midst of the circumstances she found herself, and having found him, she held on to God, looking forward to what lies ahead and forgetting the past. Phil 3:13

Anybody can be faithful to God when the going is good but it takes real commitment to “Stand by Night in the house of God”. In the seven years that I have known her, mama’s life has taught me good lessons in the ministry of suffering for righteousness, service and courageous discipleship. A few weeks ago, mama was posted to a department of the hospital that was situated way out of town and my wife sort of hinted that it was time she retired. Mama was scandalized. She asked if one retires from God’s service when God has not asked her to go and rest? Mama has not seen that hospital work as labour to earn a living, rather, she sees it as mission field, a portion of the vineyard of God where she is privileged to fulfil the highcalling of her daily life.

Mama’s perspective of her trials is spiritual and that’s why she did not buckle under the load. James wrote that “God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him” James 1:12 Though this crown will ultimately be worn in heaven but you can enjoy the feel of it today in honour and joy of service. Mama is honoured everywhere she goes because rather than carrying her problems, she carry God all about. God promises that “I will honour only those who honour me…” 1Sam 1:30.

As you read this I don’t know what you are going through in your life. All I know is that the same God who helped mama Abutu is there ready to help you. Just hold on to him.

Note:Neither mama nor any of her children solicited for this article to be written. It is my own decision to write to encourage people who may be going through hard times because of loveless marriages. However, neccessary permissions have been sought before publishing.

If you are not an African I would not be surprised if you find this post incredible. But it happens and it is just one of the spin-offs of star gazing, divination, sorcery and all such practices forbidden by God. African Traditionalists believe in finding out what the future of a child holds in stock when it is born. Often times, their findings influence the choice of names and appellations given to the child, how and where to nurture the child, and many other considerations. It is not unusual to see this issue causing cracks among relations especially in large, polygamous families where everyone (wife or children ) struggle to be the favourite of the father of the house. Breeding environment is created for un-healthy rivalry, unwarranted hatred and resentment among kins when the supposed predictions of the oracle are not kept secret. And they hardly are. It is true that “…..all labor and all achievement spring from man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind” Eccl 4:4 .

Now, we believe that just as simple as a thief could rob you of your possessions which they covet, so also people could use evil powers to divert perceived good fortune or blessings away from you to their lives or children’s lives. They try to do all they possibly could to detract you from that perceived destiny. In some instances, they kill swiftly or gradually to fulfil their wicked purposes. Such people are usually close relations who know many intimate things about their victims. Jesus says that “Your enemies will be right in your own household (Mt 9:36). A first glance at the resultant hardship experienced by the victims of this crime may not show much of what is happening, they are going through what normal people go through in a corrupt and growing economy. Unemployment is common. Being by-passed for promotion is also not a new thing. One is qualified for a job but its given to someone else, does it not happen all the time? Teachers carelessly record your grades against another person’s name in an examination, no one mentions it. However, the victims as well as those who can observe things carefully know that there is more to it. Strangely, the victims will not get help. What others do in one year, they will do in five. What others get easily, you must sweat to get it, if ever.

Other strange instances that might happen to a victim of this kind of oppression are: loosing a job just when one is ripe for promotion or some rewards, some accident when you are due to hit it big in business, disappearance of personal items like favourite clothing and shoes in a strange way and later seeing somebody else dressed in those clothes in a dream, and very many unexplainable occurrences. Those who are in position to help you out of problems will just hate you without cause. Some people have diagnosed that the oppressors give their victims a mark or a stamp of ownership though invisible to the naked eye, but clearly visible to the trained eyes. Anywhere one with that mark goes, the evil people there would clearly identify the bearer as one of their victims. So they simply continue the hostility. As a victim you cannot put your finger on it but you know something is wrong. You know you are being oppressed, robbed but you cannot hold somebody. Of course, it is a type of demonic oppression.

Maybe you are already wondering if God would permit this if it was true? Well, try to answer the following questions first. Did God permit Joseph’s brothers to punish him because he foretold the future? Did God permit them to sell him to Egypt? (Gen50:20) Did He permit Satan to pummel Job? Yes, to all. In fact God invited trouble for Job when he asked Satan what he thought of the righteousness of Job. Why did he permit suffering? We must again take a look at the end of the circumstances and that is when we will see clearly the purpose of God. James wrote that “As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy” Jas 5:11(NIV) You must have read about Simon the Sorcerer in the book of Acts of Apostles (Acts 8:9,10), what do you think the ‘Simons’ of today would do if they suspected you might become an influential person around them? Pray for you and say remember me when it is good for you? I don’t think so. They would likely tamper with your life.  

I have been a victim of this type of oppression. It is real. Many people in my country are suffering today because of such battle, and this is why we have so many deliverance ministers. We fight more battles against household wickedness than against the direct opposition to the gospel. Their ‘armourers’ are not necessarily the people you might easily identify as cultists and the ‘witch doctors’. They are trickish. The best place to hide a tree is in the forest, a pebble in the beach. They blend. You might find their armourers owning churches and  wearing anke-length garments but behind the scenes, they are all in the class of Simon the Sorcerer. Until recently, I was confused as to what to do when faced with these instances. Many times in the past I had patronized these same garment wearing folks seeking for help only to get my problems compounded. Here is what happened when I got the light: A genuine friend called to tell me that I needed to pray. She’s been following my life history and she is also gifted in dreams. She was of the opinion that I needed to pray to break the hold of a certain clique on my life so that I could have the so much elusive career success and then wealth. It was observed that anytime I suffered a misfortune, things appeared strangely better for this clique. If I managed to rise a bit, they would be threatened, somehow. They have been fleecing me spiritually. Funny and sounding out of this world, but truly there are trends that we think are not coincidental. So we needed to pray and I agreed. 

As I lay on my bed that night, I started asking myself what the battle was really about? What was the bone of contention? Career success. Prominence. Wealth. Yes we all could have these in our own ways and still relate with love. But what the evil minded want is yours. They can only enjoy what they have in the presence of those who don’t have. They want to be recognised as ‘the only’. They want to be the first and the best if they cannot be the only. So they must block the growth of others. The more stunted their victims’ growth the higher their own growth and that is the formula given to them by their master, the devil. You are like two plants growing together, one (and that is you) have the roots and the other is parasitic, feeding from you but not benefitting you in any way. They make charms and enter several cults to achieve this feat and they ensure the cycle is not broken. And theirs are the most sympathetic voices in your ears, always bemoaning your fate in mocked symathy, thinking that when they pretend like this no one would suspect them. I forced myself to stop thinking and got ready to pray. I started leafing through my Bible in search of a scriptural verse to use as anchor. I flipped the pages at random, reading one or two verses here and a whole passage there until the Lord took me to Luke 14:26-27 which reads thus: “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.  And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple”(NLT).

Jesus truly said that nothing should be too much for you to give up if you want to be his disciple. He wants the entire life - relationship, career, intimate desires, life itself- as an offering to Him. (Rom12:1) In other words, have no undue attachment to the things of this world, so much that these things would detract your focus from heaven. Earlier he had warned his disciples not to resist an evil person. If someone would sue you for your coat give him your shirt also. Then why should I burn spiritual energy and time for this kind of prayer? Who told me in the first instance that what I am being denied would have made my life better? Why should I struggle over who has career success, prominence and wealth - things that are not sufficient in themselves to make me right with God? Did Jesus not tell me what I should make my priority? Devil truly has plenty of tricks in his arsenal to distract us from the real life. But Jesus went ahead to say that even these things shall be added unto me if I ordered my priorities rightly. First, Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, then ‘all these things’. So if some lazy crooks have perfected the tricks of diverting away from me, with malicious intent though, things that would otherwise have endangered my spiritual growth, then Praise God. They are helping me to practice the ability to do without those things if the case warrants, and also to acquire the skills to make good use of them if available. And like Paul, I can then say I have learnt how to get along happily, whether I have much or little….”  (Phil 4:11-14) I think this is the lesson. I haven’t acquired it but I am straining forward, forgetting the bitterness of being betrayed by household enemies. This is also the mentality of working not only for the denarii but for the joy of serving the Master (Mt 20:1-12)

With this as anchor, I prayed. Not like I was going to pray before but something like this: God, I thank you for fulfilling your promise of always guiding me to the truth. You know all things, you know as these people have ploughed on my back right from my youth, I thank you for not giving my life into their hands. Now Lord, I quit struggling to have what I might have erroneously thought was sufficient for me. Career success, Prominence. Wealth. I no longer want to sweat over that. I surrender all to you. Give me a changed heart. Give me passion for what you are passionate about. Help me to not labour for mammon but to enjoy my labour in your vineyard just for you Lord. Thank you for my oppressors. They have helped me. They have trained me to give back to you what belongs to you. Forgive them and open their eyes. Amen.

Father was an herbalist, son and grandson of herbalists. An excellent and successful one he was. I could say this by the spread and class of his clientele and the recognition given him among his professional colleagues. With his education, he was able to relate well with the crème-la-crème including University dons in African Traditional Religion and in Pharmacy, who at onetime or the other had collaborated with him on some University projects. This piece however would concentrate on my own experience as I grew up in the environment of a herbalist’s house. I do not speak for other children of my father and neither do I claim to know what other children sired by a herbalist must go through. For the purpose of this write up, a herbalist in Africa is a person who treats diseases and sicknesses with a combination of leaves, roots and barks of plants and other necessary materials.

As a kid, I saw Baba mi (as we fondly called him) as God. I mean, everything he did was done in the right way and he could never be wrong. A male chauvinist to the core, the respect and fear he commanded in the house and in the neighborhood was instructive to us children. As a man who conversed with the unseen, we always were in awe of him. I must say that I had too much confidence in his ways and knowledge; we knew no hospital treatment in my house until when he started growing old and had to slow down. Almost all my father’s 34 children were born in the house and western medicine was strange to us. He nurtured us on herbs and God really blessed him with a profound the knowledge of herbs. His wealth and herbal prowess overwhelmed me so much that I grew up with a myopic view of life’s challenges and battles. I felt protected and sufficient always. But this caused a lot of disappointment for me as I grew up and faced fiercer challenges of life for which he had no answers.

I focused too much on the spiritual angle to everything. I grew up knowing about good and bad omens and how to attract the good ones while repelling the bad. Often times, I fought omens when I should have been fighting my character flaws. To me every dream had a meaning and purpose, and I really could dream. If I dozed for a few minutes inside a bus, it was the dream that would make me realize that I had dozed off. And upon waking up, all my energy would be focused on knowing the meaning of the dream. I could go to any length to know the meaning so as to be guided by it. Many times I have taken wrong steps because of my overly dependence on dreams and wrong interpretations. This attitude is at the root of inordinate search for signs and wonders, a Satan’s trap which the scriptures warned us about.(Deut 18:10, 1Sam 15:23). I am not saying here that dreams could not be good guides but I have found out that too much dependence on dreams can cause spiritual laxity and irresponsibility for the believer.

Closely related to the dream issue is the practice of divination. This is central to the operation of the herbalist’s trade. The herbalist must learn the cause of a patient’s troubles by consulting the spirits. The remedies come the same way. The daily schedule of the herbalist is anchored on what the spirits say. Growing up in this environment had its toll on me, as I always tried to learn what was in the future for me. I started consulting the horoscope right from primary school. It was always in the newspapers and magazines. There were horoscope books I read which attempted to predict my whole life including choice of career and marriage. Such knowledge in the heads of malicious people could spell trouble. Were Joseph’s brothers not hostile to him simply because the future was laid out before them? (Gen 37:20)  Again, pride and laziness could stunt the growth rate of one who is given to taking sneak previews of the future before he acts. He is tempted to avoid difficulties which in disguise were designed to prepare him for greatness.

This impetus later drove me to certain ‘Prophets’ who claimed they could see the future in visions. I suffered untold damages and spiritual setbacks from this practice also. Divination was totally condemned by God and he warned the Israelites against it. Lev 19:26 Divination exposes one to demonic interaction, and it is faith eroding. Some ‘church leaders’ today parading themselves as having the gift of vision are just soothsayers in Christian garb. Those who have my type of hangover could easily fall into their hands as prey. 1Thess 5:20-21 

I must quickly say here that the herbalist could do his work – treatment using herbs- without divination or interaction with witches, if only he has faith in God who made the herbs in the first place. Africans believe that diseases or sicknesses could be inflicted by use of demonic powers and could be caused by infection. The herbalist treats the latter one straightaway but had to contend or plead with principalities for the former. These include witches. Baba mi found himself in this quagmire, where he had to waver between twoopinions to perform his daily work.(2Kgs:18:21) On Sunday he was praying to God and praising HIM, adoring HIS Sovereignty and Monday through Saturday he was pleading with a witch or the occult to release some of their captives who happened to be his patients. However, a man of faith who is blessed with the knowledge of herbs need not bother about witches or demon. Principalities cannot remove the potency of herbs created by God. Moreover Christ has defeated them and made a public show of it on the cross at calvary. The herbalist is called to that victory too. We all must know that God is every time involved in our work and he indeed is the boss and the reason we have creative work in the first place. He is ever ready to help to fulfill the call.

Among friends and peers, I was both respected and suspected, even stigmatized. The respect came from those who were very close to my family, who knew us intimately and have come to appreciate the fact that we are also normal human beings who have no undue advantage over others. The stigma was the most painful. A misunderstanding or quarrel among peers, if it involved the son of an herbalist, was no longer seen as a usual or normal thing among peers. Nobody would belief you fought fairly and without the use of talisman. If the other guy had a simple headache or a nightmare after a misunderstanding, one could be suspected of casting a spell or using a charm on him. Depending on how far the other party would go, one may be attacked spiritually for that. I often had to cope with rejection, unwarranted hatred, stigmatisation, and being a subject for crude jokes because of my father’s occupation. If one performed very well in academic or sporting exercise, it was as a result of the potent charm given to him by his father. If one performed poorly or suffered a misfortune in life, it was interpreted as a payback for the sins of the father. I am not saying there are no comebacks. There are. Most of the activities of the herbalist have offsets. Witches, demons, cultic groups have their prices for favours received from them and where and when they deem it necessary, they fight the herbalist back. We have suffered such attacks many times.

Early in life, perhaps earlier than kids of parents in other professions, I knew that the battle we fight is not against flesh and blood. (Eph 6:11) I knew about principalities and powers. I was quite aware of demons, different classes and breeds of them. However, I was deluded as all traditionalists are, that some of them were friendly. In Africa, demons do the bidding of men if such demons be given what they wanted as sacrifices but the same demons could turn back to fight you at other times. Demons can be programmed to expose secrets of your perceived enemies and fight them but these same demons would also report on your activities and fight you if your enemies cultivate them. There is no friendly demon. This over familiarity with demons and their ways had a hangover on me when I became saved. For the first few years, I viewed every bad incidence as having demonic connections and that was worrisome. I spent a lot of time pondering whether I needed a special deliverance prayer or not.

Even in the midst of all these, we went to church. As an usher, father made sure he did not join any cult as a member because he knew salvation was not in any other name except Jesus Christ. He feared what his membership of a cult could cost him. He could not afford to pay some of the expected prices like loss of children or wives. Yet, he had to seek their favours occasionally in his duties. The effect of this was that we were Christians in the lips but not at heart. We  children were not opportuned to have from him the sound Biblical doctrine parents were supposed to give to their children. He tried, though in vain, to separate his professional life from his spiritual life. Subtle idolatry was still going on though it was tagged ‘professional tool’. Libations were still poured to appease ancestors. Sacrifices and rituals were still being made to appease witches and other ‘spirit beings’.  He was good at heart, a quality that drew a lot of people close to him. He commenced a reformation of the herbal practice in his area of coverage but he was a one-man squad fighting a system that was firmly entrenched. Expectedly, he incured the wrath of those who benefited from the rot he was bent on changing. But the truth is that there is no such dichotomy between spiritual and professional life. Man has a wholistic life and every part of it is overseen by the Sovereign God who demands that the whole life be offered as a living sacrifice to him. Here, see the Message translation of Romans 12:1-2  ”So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering…….” The social, domestic and professional lives are also spiritual for God oversees all.

Close to ten years before his final exit, it appeared baba had died because he seemed to have lost his firm grip and control over all affairs. He did not appear as that invincible father-protector any longer. He really slowed down as he began sorting things out with his Creator. He responded to the invitation recorded in 

 Isaiah 1:19 

Come now, let’s settle this,”says the Lord.
   “Though your sins are like scarlet,
      I will make them as white as snow.
   Though they are red like crimson,
      I will make them as white as wool (NLT)

It was quite visible he was under the heat of conviction of the Holy Spirit but most people around did not understand the situation. Family members got confused and scampered all about for the needed protection and guidance as the battles of life became fiercer. It was as though we were facing life for the first time having been shielded by his wings erstwhile. I had met Jesus earlier to join some of my brothers and sisters in the fiath. The first thing Jesus did for me was to give me the heart to understand his word and the strength to fight my battles which had become tougher. I had understood that Jesus did not promise to give believers diplomatic immunity against sufferings and pains, but he promised to be with us at all times. The Holy Spirit made me to know what father was going through. A few others knew too. Occasionally, Baba and I would enter into a debate on certain issues in his professional practice, and we often used the Bible to sort it out. He took all these in with a quietness that surprised me. At times I had to say things that hurt his ego and what he had believed for all his life, yet he took them. I asked people to join me in prayers, like Aaron lifting the hands of Moses. We prayed for father’s salvation.

I was privileged to witness the mysterious influence of the Holy Spirit upon my baba as he coasted home during the last of his 75-year sojourn on earth. Just about three days before he finally closed his eyes in death, the Spirit took one of my sisters home to pray for him. This day, the Lord struck the rock of his heart with the rod of his word and torrents of water gushed out. He prayed with tears and sweat. On 29th day of January 2004, he breathed his last as a few family members watched and prayed. Truly, children are gifts from God and my father had his quiver full of them. (Psalms 127:3-5) The good Lord made it such that our prayers and witnessing led him to Christ’s feet before he left us in this wicked world. In John 10: 27-29, apostle John recorded the following words of assuarance said by Jesus  “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. God watched over this word as it fulfilled its mission in my father’s life. If you are yet unsaved, why not come to Jesus today? Why die like a fool (2Sam3:33), unsaved when there is a Savior?

When some very useful donkeys got missing in Kish’s stable, he definitely must have been disturbed. Donkeys are beasts of burden used in farming and carrying heavy loads. The economic value of donkeys was so much to the Israelites. But when Saul and a faithful servant who went in search of the donkeys now became the ones to be searched for, the inconveniences heightened. Kish must have blamed himself uncountable times why he ever sent his son after the donkeys in the first instance. The loss of a few donkeys was manageable but the loss of a son is incalculable. What was behind this cascade of misfortunes?

You can read the story of the anointing of Saul in 1Samuel 9:1-20. Unpalatable circumstances do happen to us. Anti-people policies of government, mismanagement of national resources, business loss, betrayal of loved ones, bereavement, unemployment, disasters, wickedness of man to man, protracted sickness and famine are just few examples of the myriads of unpleasant occurrences we face in the world of today even as believers. Sometimes we are tempted to say “if God is with us, why has all this happened to us”? Judg 6:13

Yet we can be thankful that he is with us still. “Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. (Ps121:4). What of our pains? Yes. Sometimes he allows pains, just as I regularly surrender my little boy to a health officer for injection to immunize him against polio and measles. “For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal”. (Job 5:18) The writer of the letter to the Romans in (Rom8:28) said that He makes all things to work for good for those who love him, whom he has called according to his great purpose. May we seek to know this purpose (that we may be conformed to the image of JesusChrist) at all times even at unpalatable moments of our lives.

Kish’s son, Saul happened to be without equal in Israel at that time, head and shoulders taller than everyone and he was handsome. (1Sam9:2) He chose a diligent and trusted servant to go with him. Unknown to Saul this servant also knew God could help them. He had an offering in his pocket even when all supplies of food, wine and money provided for the journey had finished. He was not one who would shrink back in difficult times.  Were these coincidences? No. The Sovereign God orchestrated everything. He chose the Kish family to actualise his plans the same way he chose Mary to be the mother of the Lord. He had told Samuel earlier that “About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Anoint him leader over my people Israel; he will deliver my people from the hand of the Philistines. I have looked upon my people, for their cry has reached me.” 1Sam 9:16 (emphasis mine)

So the discomfort and pains experienced by Kish’s family was actually a service to God, a fragrant offering holy and acceptable to God who planned it right from the beginning. (Rom12:1) So also was the trauma Lazarus, Martha and Mary went through for many people who witnessed the raising of Lazarus from death put their faith in Jesus. (Jn 11:1-45) Job, in the midst of his pains said God wounds but he also binds up. We have been privileged to see the purpose of God in the pains of Job, and we have seen how God restored him. It is a priviledge to suffer for the sake of Christ. How ready are you to be the answer to your prayers for the kingdom of God to come?

This was my consolation on Sunday 22^nd July 2008 as I looked at the grave of Adeniyi, my younger brother, who died in the early hours of Saturday  after a brief illness. I had prayed to God to let Niyi live. I sent prayer requests to my brethren and relations. God heard us, but not the way we expected and not according to our understanding. On the night of Niyi’s death, though almost 600km away and not knowing he would die soon, I had a strange feeling. I imagined myself being in his place and wanting to die. I felt a strange peace at the thought of me departing this cruel world. But I drifted to sleep. In my dream, Niyi and I worked frantically cleaning the house. We cleared junks away and packed everything neatly. When the phone rang the next day heralding the news, I was shocked. But as I prayed, the thought filled my heart that I will see Niyi one day when we gather to meet Jesus in the sky.  We may not always know what purpose our pains and suffeings serve in the grand plan of God, but as believers we trust him. God is love.

So why would I want to depart this world? A ready answer would be “So that I may be with the Lord” Good but that was not the only reason. And was that the Lord’s wish? In John 17:15, Jesus prayed to God to not take us away from this wicked world before the full time, but to keep us safe from the evil one. He prayed like that because he needs us here to continue spreading the goodnews of the Kingdom of God despite the difficulties and pains. My confession here is that I really wanted to escape the sorrows and pains of continuing to live in this world and I want to rest. I did not want to mourn my younger brother.  This, I must say, is a selfish desire. We must not shrink back in times of sufferings. It is up to God to say time is up. He wants us here for the sake of others who have not known Him. Apostle John made it very clear in 1Jn 3:16

Our hope is this “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever”. 1Thess 4:13-17

Perhaps you are not yet saved as you read this. Today is the day of salvation. Open your heart to Jesus now. He is knocking. Simply ask him to come into your heart and take over your life. Act now, don’t delay. 

Till we see again Adeniyi Aderemi, when we shall part no more, rest.

Saul, son of Kish was instructed to go on a business trip accompanied by a servant. Some donkeys were missing and that was going to be a great loss to the family business if they were not found. Saul’s mission was to find these beasts of burden and return them to the stable. Read 1 Sam 9:1-27  Out of the many servants on the family payroll, Saul picked a particular one. Why did he make that choice?

One could readily say that the one who got selected by Saul was available. Overtime, he must have proved himself capable and thorough. Saul had to like him anyway for who would want to embark on such a journey that might take several days in the company of a bore? So he must have been good also. By hindsight I can also say that the servant was goal oriented and persevering. He was untiring even though he had no stake in the family business. When Saul suggested they called the search off the man was ready to go the extra mile. He had faith in God’s intervention and his faith influenced Saul. He demonstrated this faith not only in suggesting consultation with Samuel the seer, but he was also ready to bear the cost – and that was all he had left in his pocket. That was sacrifice. He showed love to his employer by putting in more than he could ever be paid for. The servant must have cultivated an attitude of gratitude for being employed by the family of Kish. He was grateful to God for the privilege to work. This is the punch line in Jesus parable of the vineyard – the privilege to work in the vineyard of God and not the salary.(Mathew 20:1-15)

What did this servant get for all his qualities? The Bible did not tell us more about him but we know that “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them”. (Heb 6:10 (NIV)) I would expect that as Saul was promoted by God from “a common man from the least family in the tribe of Benjamin” to the King of Israel to whom “no one equals”, the servant was automatically promoted from being a servant of just a rich man to the servant of a King. More than that, he was God’s instrument to steer Saul to where he was anointed as King. And this was a reward in itself for that time, and then very soon, he would be welcome to the eternal home of peace with “Well done, my good servant! Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ……” (Luke 19:17 NIV)

In a related story, another employee, a young Hebrew girl captured by the Arameans, witnessed that God is a healer and Naaman, the war General of the Arameans got healed. More, Naaman confessed that “there is no God in the entire world except in Israel” (2Kgs 5:15 NLT) If this servant girl was not beyond reproach in her conduct, no one would have taken her words with a pinch of salt.

We do well to emulate these employees in the highcalling of our daily work. The vineyard of God is not restricted to Church or crusade grounds. It covers the places where we earn our daily living, where we recreate, the home, hospital, school, meeting hall and market place. Wherever you may be at any time is God’s vineyard. The total being of a believer should bring glory to God.

The first battle I had to fight post salvation was with alcohol consumption. It was a battle that had no direct intrusion of Satan. It was between the two natures in me: Spirit man and Carnal man. Should I continue my erstwhile drinking binge? Definitely no. But the thirst was always there and I saw Christians who also drank and quoted scriptures in support. So where was the demarcation line? What quantity was enough to wash down my food and still keep me straight-headed? When would I cross the line to over-indulgence? These questions kept nagging at my mind even as my appetite refused to give way. After quite a long time of struggling and studying scriptures, I wrote the following in my diary because the word made a great impact on my life. I am only sharing my experience here and I must say that I am not speaking on behalf of my church. If this post helps somebody, it will be fulfilling its purpose and may God receive the glory.

One of the favourite scriptures I used to hear quoted in support of drinking alcohol was 1Tim5:23. But Paul was not giving a license for alcohol consumption here. He was only recommending wine as mere medication, and as in all medications, in moderate dosage relevant at their own time because of their limited medical knowledge.

This is not the only time and place where wine was prescribed or used for medication in Biblical days. The good Samaritan, in the parable told by Jesus to illustrate love and neighbourliness, poured oil and wine on the wounds of the casualty as first aid. Luke 10:34. I think that wine must have been used widely as medication in those days. Now medical science is at an all high and still improves by the day. No one treats wounds with wine now, but we have methylated spirit, which is alcohol deliberately altered to discourage drinking, among other medications used for first aid.

This issue of wine and strong drink must be studied in full context to have a good understanding of the Biblical stand. In this piece, I shall expound on the subject under two clearly distinct dispensations: Era before Pentecost, and Era since Pentecost.

The earliest occurrence of wine in the era before Pentecost was immediately after the deluge when Noah began to cultivate the ground. He planted a vineyard and got drunk from the fruits of the garden. Ham, one of his children made a mockery of Noah’s nakedness and his descendants got cursed. From him came the Canaanites. Gen9:21-25 Lot also got drunk with wine and did not know when his own daughters raped him to produce Moab and Benammi, the ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites, cursed people and dreaded enemies of Israel. Gen 19:30-37

A good study of the Old Testament showed that Israel made free and acceptable use of wine and strong drinks. God did not sanction them for that. Deut 14:25- 26 is a useful reference. Even then, God still gave some no-go area. Priests and Levites were not to take wine or intoxicating liquor when attending to God’s duties else they die. Lev 10:9. This commandment was repeated through Ezekiel even as God told him of the return of the remnants from exile Ezek44:21. He warned: “No Priest shall drink wine when he enters the inner court”.

Attending to God’s duties demands soberness, clear headedness and humility and not the light headedness and false courage that wine produces. The operation of the Holy Spirit in those days was like this: He descended on a vessel HE wanted to use, maybe a King, Prophet, Priest or Judge and when the candidate has finished the assignment, the Holy Spirit chooses another. Because of his divine presence, such people would be forbidden to partake in common or unholy things. The presence of God was only seen and felt in the tent of meeting in the wilderness, and later in the temple at Jerusalem. Such places must not be desecrated with drunkenness and associated practices. There was wine though; we must not forget that there was even a wine offering to God. Lev 23:13

Up till and during the time of Jesus’ ministry, this dispensational allowance still held. Jesus himself rebuked the Jews in Mt 11:18 -19 saying  ”For John didn’t spend his time eating and drinking, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon. The Son of Man,^[a] on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ But wisdom is shown to be right by its results.”  Some have argued that the wine they drank then was not intoxicating but the scriptures did not say so. The apostles were accused of being drunk with wine on Pentecost day. Old Eli thought Hannah was drunk with wine. The Pharisees called Jesus a glutton and drunkard. The wine was intoxicating, and they still had strong drinks. But the poor used wine mostly because it was produced from farm produce. There was also scarcity of portable water and so they had wine to accompany food most times.

It was necessary for Jesus to relate well with sinners to win them over but this is not to say that he over-indulged as they were accusing him of. He is king of perfection, King of Righteousness and it was not possible for him to do wrong. It is instructive to note here that none of us descendants of Adam had his type of discipline. He had greater control of his desires and appetites than we have. He had a perfect body with no sin of his own and neither did he inherit any from his parents. He was one who could say “My food is to do the will of my father and to finish his work” Jn4:32 He had no luxury all his life safe the donkey he burrowed to ride triumphantly into Jerusalem and the grave he slept in.

At Pentecost, things changed. The Jewish system of worship wound up. God came to reside in men and the temple arrangement changed. Man became the temple of the Holy Spirit. 2 Cor 6:16  New laws came to be, which were actually an expansion of the old laws: Do not be filled with wine in which there is debauchery, but be filled with the Holy Spirit Eph 5:8 Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, and this is your spiritual worship Rom 12:1 Pray without ceasing 1Thess 5:20. Pray in the Holy Spirit Jude 20. Be sober and alert. All these commands were given to believers. The word of God stands for ever. His warning through Ezekiel in Eze 44:21and the one through Moses in Lev 11:9 were not invalidated by Pentecost but given expanded meanings today as believers became the temple of God, as well as the Priests. Believers serve 24-7, no break, no leave, no excuse duty.

It is abominable to destroy the temple of God, or yield its use to other concerns different from worshipping God in Spirit and Truth. Alcohol desecrates the temple and weakens it. A body sodden with drink cannot at the same time be filled with Spirit. But what if I drink a little and don’t over-indulge? I used to say this. But another consideration is this: What happens to a brother or sister who is weaker in resolve but look up to me for mentoring? How do I share their burden? Paul says “He’d rather give up eating meat if his eating it may cause a brother to stumble. The wines in the Babylonian King’s kitchen might have been alright for Daniel but he offered to take a diet of vegetables and water because of his firm determination to maintain his identity as servant of God. With his self denial he was able to  help his colleagues to gain courage and strength, and God rewarded them for it. What a shining example!

Drinking alcohol, among other evils, caused for me weakness of the body and anytime I drank  before bedtime, I found it very difficult to wake up at night to observe a quiet time with God. If I managed to keep my eyes open, my mind would never be as sharp as it should be in normal conditions. This made me to appreciate the good sense King Lemuel learnt from his mother. Prov 31:4-6 says “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, to guzzle wine. Rulers should not crave alcohol. For if they drink, they may forget the law and not give justice to the oppressed. Alcohol is for the dying, and wine for those in bitter distress”

These portions of scriptures convicted me and I began to pray for the Spirit of God to take over. I enlisted the help of my wife and I stayed around brethren of the same convictions. After a little while, the battle was over. I started living a free and healthier life. This is how I was able to overcome my appetite for alcoholic beverages.

King Ahab coveted Naboth’s vineyard, and truly, he was decent enough in his manner of approach and proposal. “Look Naboth“, he might have said, “this vineyard is very close to my palace. It could be converted to a nice royal vegetable garden. If you prove a patriotic citizen as I know you are, I am ready to pay you handsomely for it. Just name your price. Or if you wish, I can give you a better vineyard for it. The choice is yours. But far be it from me to rush you in matters like this. You need to sleep over it. Shall we say three days? In three days, let me know your choice, money or another plot in choice location”

Was Ahab shocked? Yes and more than that, dazed. Naboth did not need three days to give the answer. “The Lord forbid” he answered solemnly, “that I should give you the inheritance passed to me by my ancestors“. Now when a Jew says “The Lord forbids” then the issue is a closed matter. NFA - No further Action. Ahab staggered home and plunged into a hunger strike. You can read this story in 1Kg21:1-14

To the peasant Naboth, even the whole wealth in the land of Israel could not take the place of his ancestral heritage. He priced that vineyard higher than the royal promises and mouth watering offers of Ahab. The sanctity of his ancestors’ gift to him would not be defiled by money and neither would he allow other hands to till that sacred soil. Naboth’s loyalty and faithfulness to hsi lineage is very commendable and so was his courage to express it for he knew fully what it meant to refuse the kings’ offer. No one in Israel at that time was unaware of Jezebel’s devices. Yet at the risk of death, Naboth would not give his jewel to a swine.

In today’s world things have not changed. Other forces still struggle for our loyalty and faithfulness. There are still unnumbered Ahabs around eyeing the vineyard the Lord has given us as heritage, and the carrots they dangle are fattter and more attaractive. Bosses still ask for casual sex in return for opportunity for employment or promotion. Bribes have been given pleasant nicknames to make it less offensive. Contracts are inflated to take care of “extraneous costs of doing business“, and projects that have been duly paid for are been abandonned and no one cares. There arre even less visible evils going on. People falsify entry in the timebook when they have come late. We still spend company time and resources on selfish activities, and we falsify age and qualifications to meet employment and promotion requirements. All these practices put believers in Naboth’s shoes, at the risk of seeling their heritage to Satan.

But the Lord forbids all these when he said “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” Mathew 5:48  Let what the Lord has forbidden remain forbidden not only on Sundays in church, but Mondays through Saturday everywhere we may be and most especially in the highcalling of our daily work. Here are a few of what the Lord forbids as compiled in the Message transaltion of Gal 5: 19-21 by Eugene H Peterson:..” trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. ” Are you tempted with any of these? Ask Jesus to  help you today.

No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Mathew 11:27 

In the year 2005 Suzan and I decided to relocate our family from Gwagwalada to Bassa in the FCT Nigeria. We were under great stress at that period. I have been unemployed for five years and so we had to live on Suzan’s earnings as a contract flight announcer at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport,
Abuja. A relation was involved in an auto crash and sustained head injury. I had to stay with him in the hospital for 7 weeks as he recuperated and regained his memory. Tayo had to stay with neighbours whenever Suzan was on duty.  I lost my dad very recently. I was denied a job for which I was tested and interviewed and found to be qualified for no reason known to me. Armed robbers raided the neighbourhood and I had to watch helplessly as they carted away whatever caught their fancy from our house. All these cascaded on us in a seamless flow. My self-esteem was at the lowest ebb. Not a few times, the wish to take a peaceful exit from this earth was expressed in my prayers. We moved to Bassa a week after the robbery incidence. Our new house was a one-bedroom flat. Our first Sunday service was with a wonderful congregation of believers in the ECWA Goodnews Church. It was an indicator of God’s answer to our prayers for a peaceful place to stay. There was no clergy class but everybody was on duty to serve the Lord. It was wonderful and I felt like a traveler who had traversed the hot desert for days on end now offered a glass of cold water under the shade of a large oak tree. I told Suzan that the Lord had allowed us a space in Bassa and that night we used the story of Isaac and the well at Rehoboth to pray. Gen 26:22

We all had to make new friends and we adults were being very cautious. Tayo’s approach was a different one. Despite the fact that he was only permitted to play with other kids near the house, he was very excited. Each time Tayo saw me peeping at them through the window, he never lost the opportunity to introduce me to his new friends “Henry! See my father” And each time he said this, the expression on his face was always that of glee and satisfaction that he had done something good. That influences his friends too. They would all rush to the window to see that wonderful daddy that Tayo was so proud of. The irony there was that I never felt like a worthy daddy in my mind. One, I had seen those kid’s fathers with their big statures, fashionable dresses and nice cars. I believe they were able to offer their family more than I did mine. I was thin with worries, looking older than my age with my premature grey hairs and clad in unfashionable clothes. Yet all these did not matter to young Tayo. “ Sule, come and see my father!” He would shout again when another kid joined them.While reflecting on on these issues one day, I realized that Tayo was being used by God to teach me a spiritual lesson. This was not the first time though that God had used him to ram some sense into my skull. Tayo could not help showing me to his world. He wanted his friends to know his father. Jobs, cars, dresses and big house did not matter to Tayo. What mattered was that he had wonderful parents who caredfor him. Period. He was imitating Jesus Christ who spent all his life showing HIS Father to the world. (Eph 5:1) Jesus could never rest until he had done or said something that showed the world who God is. This same assignment he left with us his disciples. In Mark 8:38 he warned thus: If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” And in Mt10: 28 he told the twelve, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.”  The other kids didn’t know me, but Tayo made sure they knew all about me and Suzan within the few minutes they played together in a day. That would not stop him from telling them again the next day. He told them every folk tale I had told him and every song his mother ever taught him. Wasn’t this exactly what Jesus did in giving us a picture of His father and his kingdom?  This, we also ought to devote our lives to doing.

While I was busy feeling sorry for my, misfortunes, God used a 3-year old to remind me of the needful. While in that state, I could never see God’s purpose for my life. This is one of Jesus’ prayers: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” Mt 11:25-27 Christ chose to reveal His father to us. We would know the father if we would just have the simple faith of little children. Christ suffered and died to save us so we may know the father and his eternal love. What inhibits you today to join in the great commission? Is it your position, or power? Is your wealth or career hindering you? Is it poverty or low self-worth? Are you among the ‘wise and learned’ whose searching of hearts have blocked their vision of God’s kingdom? Are you buried in activities like Martha? Take your eyes off these hinderances and focus on Jesus who himself passed through worse temptations. He emptied himself and lived for God.Perhaps you think the great commission is meant for the clergy class? No. Christ did not die to give a few people jobs. He gave his life to save the world and we also are obliged to give our lives for the brethren 1Jn 3:16. Anywhere you may be at a given point in time, show God through your speech, your work, your conversation, your manners and your entire life style. Do it with love. This is a job that was passed over the heads of angels and given to mere mortals. Value it. Its simple, even a four-year old boy did it. You can. 

I took my attention away from the frustrations and plunged myself into evangelism, cutting odd jobs whenever I could get one. Neighbours nicknamed me Pastor. My family started a spiritual growth we have never known and a peace we have never imagined we could have. Tayo started schooling. Our relations and the church never failed to provide for us even without asking. It’s been wonderful. Two years later, precisely August 2007, I got an opportunity to work again in a corporate setting. I have never seen work as toil again. Rather, work is an opportunity to serve God with talents, skills, learning and other resources available.