Christ’s Ambassador

Late in the year 2003, August precisely I got involved in the processes to fill a job vacancy. By then I had been un-employed for three years and still counting, (meaning I had nothing doing, all job interviews had not yielded any fruit) The new attempt was at the Defense Ministry. The expatriates running a Simulation Centre in one of the agencies have been asked to handover to competent indigenes and leave. To cut the story short, I was one of the people who went through the series of tests and were shortlisted. Eleven positions in all and I was among the hundreds of applicants being considered.

The processing have been going on for months rolling into the first quarter of year 2004. God saw me through all the stages of screening and then came the last oral interview . On the day of the interview, we were screened down to only me for my category, the position was Assistant Director, Database Management. As I sat facing the panel for the last chat, we discussed agreeably over many issues ranging from the knowledge of the job to industry standards and then to the nitty gritties of remuneration. We were all smiles even as the head of the panel, a Brigadier General representing the Commandant of the agency assured me of their readiness to hire me and their anticipated quick response. I left the venue in high spirits and it was all praises and thanksgiving as I recounted the experience to my wife. Our house rent was due and the Estate Agent had been  pestering. We had not paid our electricity bills for months and the power company had cut us off. We needed money to pay other bills and Tayo our son had to start schooling. It seemed God had finally answered our prayers. My Pastor complemented our sentiments by recounting a vision he had which also revealed that I was going to have a very rewarding career and I would be very popular in the agency.

True to his words, I got a letter from the Agency about a month later, congratulating me for being found qualified to hold the position of Assistant Director, Database Management. I was instructed to proceed to the Ministry of Defence for final documentations and inclusion in the payroll. To say the least, I was mad with joy. I went gaga with exhilaration. So I was out of the wood at last. Truly God worked in mysterious ways, making ways where there seemed to be no way. This appointment would just raise poor me and put me at par with some of the fastest among my school mates who had gotten good employments immediately after graduation. God had finally closed the gap for me.

My brother, who was already in close contact with the ministry because of his chosen career, introduced me to a contact man who could show me around the ministry and facilitate a quick processing of my papers. I had started calling some of the guys who would be my superiors in the agency and they were all expecting me, in fact, urging me to come quick.

My first day at the ministry showed that there would be some delay. I was taken to the right office and the officer in charge of recruitment checked through the files and mails but couldn’t find any letter with the same reference as the one I brought. He asked me to come back a week later, adding that their communication processes were slow in the ministry. Their own copy of the file had not come. There was no cause for alarm yet, I went back home to wait. A week later I went back and it was the same story. And this status remained till the middle of year 2004. With my brother’s help, calls were made to the agency hiring me and copies of the same file were sent and this was a rare priviledge because of my brother’s influence. But again, none of the files surfaced at the ministry.

Unknown to us at the time, the file must also pass through the Defence Headquarters for a certain Chief to sight on need- to- know reasons. After a careful tracking of all dispatch books, it was found that the original file (and several subsequent copies of it) went out of circulation after getting to a certain table en route the Chief’s desk. So the real authority never sighted it. After much investigation, the one responsible for the untimely interment of the file owned up to his nefarious scheme. He was overheard boasting to one of his colleagues that unless the process was done all over again, and his own candidate found qualified to fill one of the positions, hundreds of such files would never get to his Chief. I would never have believed if he did not make the mistake of initiating a discussion with my brother. It happened like this. He felt ashamed and probably a little afraid of the consequences of his actions for that was a breach of trust for someone occupying such a position as he did. He wanted to call my brother who found him out but did not have his number. I guess he wanted to intimidate him to stop all activities concerning this issue, or at least to offer some flimsy excuses to justify his own actions. So he went through the files he hid and when he got to my documents and seeing that I used my brother’s mailing address, he also assumed that the phone number there was also his. There he was wrong. The mailing address was my brother’s but the contact phone was Suzan’s, my wife. The only cell phone available to my wife and I was in custody of my wife so that I could always reach her wherever I may be. Our man called that number and when he heard a lady’s voice, offered his apologies and dropped. I was not at home that time, I was still hanging around the Ministry and the Defence Headquarters. When I got home and learnt of that strange call, I copied the number and called from a public phone booth. He picked the call and identified himself. I was scandalized when I heard the big name and r -  - k. He told me point blank that he had wanted to speak to my brother but my brother would explain things better for me and he clicked off.

That was the final blow to my anxiety of almost eleven months.  All the hopes of covering the lost gap in my career, all the hopes of a reconstruction of my damaged career path, all the hopes of recovering all lost time, relevance and wealth blew off like a mist. The hope of being able to earn an income again to provide for my family became a mere mirage. How would I pay my house rent now? How would I be able to live again as a normal person? I would I play the role of Father to my son and husband to my wife if I could not feed, clothe and provide shelter for them? How would I take care of my aged mother who suffered to ensure I had education? My father had died at the ripe old age of 75 without me being able to care as much as I would have wanted to care for him. I got depressed as though my un-employment problems had suddenly escalated

Who would dare face this powerful man who was denying me access to a job I was tested and found qualified for? A job for which I had been given a letter of employment.  Should I go to the press? Yes I could, but what would be the result of that? The same man who dealt with me could deal another blow on my brother’s career. He was powerful, influential and w—ed. I have learnt to not look unto man for justice. I decided to lick my wounds quietly and wait on God.

Around December in year 2004 just at the time the promotions were released in Government agencies and parastatals, I read in the papers that this man had been promoted and also appointed to higher responsibilities. I received this news with mixed feelings. On one hand, I was sad that God still promoted this wicked fellow. All promotions come from God and the scriptures say “Fret not when the wicked prospers” . On the other hand, I was happy that he was no longer in that position so I renewed my eagerness  to know what could become of my case. I launched a fresh search of the file with the help of new contacts in the Defence Headquarters. The search yielded no new fruits but we found out that some other man was already doing the job I had high hopes for.

I must confess here that I fell sick when all hope was lost in this manner. I got really depressed such that my wife began to worry about my health and state of mind. I did not know I would be able to pull through but God comforted me. It was three years after that before I could get another offer of job and that’s the job I am at now. Three more years of hard life, terrible pains, years of utter hopelessness, but years that offered the opportunity to lean on God very hard. Looking back, I confess they were gracious years. Tough but toughening. My wounds have healed because of the comfort of the Holy Spirit. I feel no bitterness towards that man again and he himself had since retired from the service. Others are also doing his former job now. I thank God for seeing me through. Nothing lasts forever except the word of God.

Are you facing administrative tyrany in your place of work? Are you suffering from the hands of a wicked and powerful man? Are you tempted to fight for yourself? Wait a moment. The battle is the Lord’s. Take your case to God whose eyes roam to and fro throughout the earth. He will take care of you and your feelings. He will provide for you and give you peace.

Dear berethren whenever trouble comes your way let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong incharacter and ready for anything. James 1:2-4 (NLT)

His was always clad in a simple calf-length gown called ‘buba’ since trousers and shorts were too sophisticated for his brain to cope with. He would not be bothered with footwear as he had enough trouble maintaining balance as he walked (or sauntered?)

Yet Iya Adigun considered him a gift and reward from God (Ps 127:3) If she did not proclaim it on the streets for us to hear, we saw it in her care for her son. In absolute submission to the sovereignty of God, she doted on Adigun from infancy to middle-age. She scrubbed him regularly, helped him dress and worked hard to feed him. You can best imagine the jeers and harsh comments of neighbours, friends and relations, yet she was undaunted in showing Adigun motherly love. How did I know this much? We lived in the same neighbourhood and I had the priviledge of observing things for over ten years

Adigun gathered many sobriquets from children and adults alike – Dman, DeeDee, Diig, but the mother lovingly called him Emmanuel, which I gathered was his baptismal name. Adigun was baptized. At times when her (grown up) son must have strayed away and was late in coming home, the woman would comb the whole neighbourhood, carrying an oil lamp, asking people if they noticed Emmanuel nearby. Adigun was never free of sores and the mother was never tired of dressing them though she knew quite well that the dressing would not remain intact for long.

Iya Adigun performed a wonderful service to God in those days. She knew that God is the ultimate circumstancer of our lives. What she found her hands doing, she kept at it as Solomon admonished though she never could read. She was faithful in the highcalling of her daily work of being a mother, even to Adigun. There she was, nursing a child from whom she never expected Thank You Mama. A child who could never show her honour but appeared as a reproach all the time. A child who would never take care of her in her old age even if he outlived her. Here was a fully grown man who could never have defended  her if she was being molested. She never expected to nurse a grand-child from Emmanuel but through her submission to God, Jesus, God with us,(Isaiah 7:14) saw her through the fiery ordeals.

I cannot claim to know how Adigun was a perfect gift of God for his parents but God knows. I do not always know the meaning and reason for my trials but God knows and that’s what matters most. But I know God is love. I know, for the Bible says it in Romans 8:28 that, God makes all things to work for the good of all who loves him, whom he has called for his great purpose.

Iya Adigun, as we called her, never climbed a pulpit to preach a sermon. She neither could read a bible nor tract, She didn’t speak in tounges and neither did she serve in any capacity in the local church. She sold firewood and leaves to earn a living. Yet, she exhibited an outstanding faith in God. She never showed any bitterness of heart to anybody because of her plight. She carried on through such tribulation with endurance and patience. She finished her course. She wept her eyes out on the day her Emmanuel was knocked down by a hit and run driver on the Ife-Ibadan expressway. Her son lived for about forty years and she nursed him for all of those forty years. Now she is long dead but her faith lives on for us to talk about.  I strongly believe that she is now in eternal peace together with Emmanuel – the Lord, Emmanuel Adigun and all other Saints gone.

So if you are suffering according to the will of God, keep on doing what is right, and trust yourself to the God who made you, for he will never fail you. 1Peter 4:10

Many people had the opportunity to be good to Christ through Emmanuel Adigun but they squandered such grace. Many times, my late father would dress Adigun in new clothes so he could look descent but some callous human beings around would strip him again and the next day, we would see him in rags. He himself came to report one day that the loaf of bread given to him had been taken away. This was when my father arranged for Adigun to be taking his meals right in our house. He charged his young wives who did the cooking of his food to include Adigun’s ration in their menu. And any day any of them served Adigun with indignity, we would all hear the story of Lazarus and the rich man over and over again.

In heaven, and that very soon,  Jesus would speak to the hit and run driver who ended Adigun’s life “You killed me” and the man would be shocked. I have never met you in person Lord, I didn’t kill you. Jesus would also accuse those who were wicked to Adigun “You could not feed me and you also took away the food given to me by others” They also would say “Lord, when did we do that?” When you did it to Adigun, you did it to me would be the Lord’s answer.

We have ample chance of redeeming the time as the patience of the Lord means salvation. The poor and the less priviledged are always around us. We have orphanages, old people’s homes, sick bays, lepers colonies, refugee camps all around. The casualty wards in hospitals are bulging with people who need our helps in cash and kind, material and spiritual. Right under your nose, where you work, in your neighbourhood, in your church, there is a person you can help. Why do you stay idle?

What fuelled Iya Adigun’s love for her son even in this wicked world where the sanctity of life is no longer respected?

He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. 1Cor 1:4-5

I pray to God to use the following testimony to give encouragement to those who may need it. Some of the occurrences recounted in this piece may not have happened in countries with developed economies but they did happen and are still happening in Nigeria and most countries in Africa.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

My career path has been badly damaged. The eventual seven year unemployment I shall talk about later came as a necessary landslide caused by thirteen years of unchecked erosion of my career path. I bagged a B.Eng in Civil Engineering in 1987 at 24years and those were the difficult days of military dictatorship in Nigeria when the Federal Government had to introduce the Structural Adjustment Programme with its attendant consequences, embargo on employment being one of the punishments on the masses. My immediate plan was to get a good employment, put in six years of service and saved every dime of it for investments in blue chip companies. Then I planned to resign and start writing and travelling. I would live on my royalties as a writer and I’d take care of my dependants and the needy with dividends from my investments. But something was wrong with the plan. It was my own plan. I sidelined God and God loved me so much that he never allowed my plan to work out that way. After three years of job hunting, a relation offered to give me employment in his Computer business if I would learn to write computer programmes. I accepted with happiness and gratitude and for four years I worked (or slaved?) and learned my first sets of lessons on the streets. The business was growing but the workers were not allowed to grow. I and some other colleagues had to leave and in my own case, with salary arrears of over thirteen months cumulative and many months of unpaid allowances.  This is the end of first 7 years post-graduation experience.

Then some friends and I started a business venture. We soon began to have partnership problems which put the collective dream in serious jeopardy. While we were grappling with this teething problem, Nigeria erupted again in the 1994 June 12 riot. Many people died. We made it but our business never survived it. We packed up two years later with debts and hard feelings. That ended 9 years post-graduation.

I left for the North only to join another sole-proprietorship company (we call it one-man-business) where I served for four years with the same fate as the first. There were no standards and no staff welfare policies. Everything happened at the whims of the CEO. I left poorer than I joined. I again tried my hands on another business venture. Since I had no capital of my own and banks were no-go-areas with their stiff interest rates and impossible collaterals, I teamed up again with people. This association collapsed again because we were not like minded.  All these while, I had no opportunity to get a field experience in my area of specialization and so the certificate lost its immediate relevance. No serious employer would touch it. With the cash crunch and unsettled mind, I was not able to get any certification examinations done to substantiate my computer skills but I acquired the relevant experience.  Again, no serious employer would touch me. The last business failed three months to my wedding in 2001, and then it was 14 years post-graduation and it also marked the starting of another seven year trouble, the one I called a landslide because I had nothing doing at all. Many factors like these, added to my own character flaws, carelessness, fear of uncertainty and inability to plan well killed my career growth. But even at that, when the seventy years of captivity were ended, God still called the dry bones of my career forth, and they rattled as bones joined to bones, ligaments, sinews and flesh were added and breath entered the nostrils. (Ezek 37: 1-14)Today, I am employed again to the glory of God.

TESTIMONY

Although I did not value It much that time, but now I see it as a wonderful blessing to be so close to my family for all of 7 years after my marriage. I had no work to go to. Apart from the short trips to job interview venues, We practically were together all of the time, laughing together, crying together and planning together. I saw everyday of the nine months pregnancy. I was by her side during the over 48 hours protracted labour. Doctors have pronounced the baby dead but God called him forth. I helped nurse Tayo from day 1. I have had to give the baby the morning bath, make the food and also carry him on my back on many occasions when Susan had to go to work in the morning. We could not afford a house help and my son would never sleep on his bed in the early mornings. So I had to carry him on my back if I wanted peace. This quickly cured me of the male-chauvinistic ego I grew up with. I began to see women in a new light and I had no problems honouring them and helping them. Helping my wife with the house chores became a delight rather than a bore. In today’s fast-paced world, parents and spouses have had to develop a timetable to have quality time with the family. Fathers get out of the house before the kids wake up and are not back before the kids sleep. The nannies have become surrogate parents for the children. How poorly we treat these gifts of the Almighty!  Ps 127:3

Looking back to these seven years, I now have the confidence to say of a truth that a man’s life does not depend on the size of his wardrobe, the fatness of his purse and the largeness of his appetite. All these things are needed in very moderate measures and the Lord faithfully supplies them. Godliness with contentment has great gain. We were very poor and could not afford many things. But the Lord provided us food, clothings and shelter.  He blessed us with good health. We learned to plan with God’s means and abilities rather than within our own means. For if we had to do the latter then we would not even eat or pay rent for our means could not even fully cater for those. I had the rare priviledge of seeing the vanity of wealth without the wisdom of God to use it. I observed many rich couples who were still unable to rest and enjoy the fruit of their labours because they were preoccupied troubles of sustaining their status and wealth with more anxious toil. They slept and dine in their palatial homes with troubles and the same way, even more peacefully, we slept and ate in our own humble abode.

I was able to appreciate the value of my close relations and friends as they ministered to my needs as much as God gave them grace to. Sure, these people will be reminded one day when Christ would say to them that he was hungry and they gave him food, naked and they gave him clothes. And they would be surprised, they would ask, “Lord, when did we do that”? And Christ would say when you did it for my son Adelani, you did it for me, welcome to the joy of your God. Many people surely deserted us but God kept his own people near us.  During this period, I was taught to receive gifts with humility and appreciation rather than trying to earn what is supposed to be a gift. Now this is the problem of some of us. We ruin the joy of giving for others when we try to do or say something to present us as though we deserve the gift being offered to us. At some other times we might approach a benefactor with the air of “I’d also do you a good turn in the future’ as if the giver is giving us because we have the ability to pay back. It is wrong and we unconsciously do this to God also when we think he is blessing us because we are good and spiritual.  We are saved by grace, not works.

I learnt to not cast my hope on human beings no matter how highly placed they are or how religious they appear.  God is the only one who makes promises and fulfill them. If a human being makes a promise and is able to fulfill it, it is God who made it possible. There are too many variables beyond the sight and comprehension of mortal man, even the best of us all. But God is sovereign. Nothing can stop him from fulfilling his promises. He is omniscient and he is eternal. Man knows only the present moment and he knows it partially. So unseen forces could make him back out from his plans. Many people deserted us at these hours of need, and worse, some others mocked. But as much as we experienced betrayals God’s love was never waning in the people he also sent to stand by us and share his love.

There is a lot of wisdom in moving very close to the lowly brethren. In their humility is genuine fellowship and strong faith. Unemployment was a tool that helped me learn this. The rich love to move in their own circle but they hardly have a good fellowship since the chord that joins them together is the sowcasing of their acquisitions and attainments. However, this chord is so weak that it is easily severed by envy and pride. Eccl 4:4 Now this is not a general rule, I have also come across rich brethren whose faiths are unaffected by mammon. The poor have no such worries but they spend most of the time encouraging one another and praying together. The end result is that they grow stronger in faith and love. It surprised me that it was  the poor who shared more with us than the rich.

Because of the desire to see the end of this problem quickly, I devoted more time to seek the face of God in prayers and study of the word. I was always cocking my ears to catch the slightest whisper from God in prayers, studying, meditation and when simply lying still. I was just very eager to hear God say something about what I was going through. And he did say an earful to me in those days. I began to know the value of solitude. God’s voice is not heard when we are deep in the hustle bustle of life but when we get to a solitary place with listening ear, he speaks.

It is not as if it was all smooth for our marriage because we are believers. Suzan and I went through a lot of temptations. At a time she was advised to pack up and go back to her mother. Somebody even told her that she married a man that has been cursed and never could make it again. Many men approached her with the promise of making her life better if she could back out of her marriage vows. On my part, I had the chance of making money through many short cuts. I was tempted to join money making cults many times. My background as an herbalist’s son gave me all the knowledge I needed. I knew where to get it done but I also knew the dangers. God saw me through the choices.  I was also tempted to get myself a sugar-mummy.  At Abuja where we live, there were these very rich society ladies who were always hunting for young men who would be their secret lovers. Some of them have gotten themselves trapped as the third or fourth wives of rich businessmen who don’t have too much time to attend to their sensual needs. Again, the crime world is always burgeoning. God ‘s love kept me distant from all these as he did not incline my heart to do evil. In the midst of these tough times, Suzan and I had to sit down together one day after a big quarrel and we decided that we were going to stick together and obey all our marriage vows. We agreed to tell each other whatever the devil says. And we say “whatever you hear about me, check it out with me first. Whatever you think I have done, run it by me first. Don’t form opinions until we’ve talked”

In the church, to the glory of God, many other brethren took courage as they watched me work in the church as though I was ready to die. God gave me the strength to apply his grace in almost every duty in the church. I taught in the bible class, sang with the choir, prayed with the prayer warriors, taught in the mid week service, participated in organizing revivals, worked with the local chapter of the Bible society and the Christian Association of Nigeria, went on evangelism and visitations. Not that I was good in all these services, but I had the grace of being in the midst of brethren who gave me free hand. They did not hinder me. They did not say, “sorry brother, there is no vacancy in this agency”. Whenever I volunteered, they gave me all the support to perform. I felt relieved from my pains and idleness as I got myself very busy with these services and I believed the brethren also realized how much I needed to serve in this way. The more I served in prayers and ministration of the word, the more I saw my nakedness in the light of Jesus. I saw how deep wickedness was embossed in my heart – the heart of man.(Gen6:5) Then I began to realize how much Jesus loves me. I stopped thinking of how much I love Jesus and am committed to him. My works amounted to trash. I began to thank him for how much he loves me and is committed to me

What happened to me was very painful but God used the pains to teach me valuable lessons even as he supported me through and through. He did not allow more than I could handle with the measure of grace he gave me. Not that I can really finish this testimony in a piece like this but I just have to round up this one now by saying that I also have the privilege of seeing dead bones rise again in my life. I witnessed Lazarus called out of the grave when God helped me to get a job. Who are you to lose hope? What is it that you are going through? Do not look at your feeble strength; do not concentrate on your weakness. Abraham did not look at his age and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. Are you listening to what the taunting enemy is telling you? Thank God in yourweakness rather, for in it God’s power is made perfect. How tall is the giant confronting you? How mighty is the mountain on your path? Compare your giant, or mountain with the size of a God whose footstool is the whole earth. Need I say more?

It is my guess that Lazarus was the youngest of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, the three being siblings. Martha, as could be seen from the account of Luke in chapter 11, and John chapter 12:1-3, was the energetic, hospitable and tireless worker who never ceased to joyfully minister to the humanity of Jesus. Mary was the worshipper per excellence. These two in the same house offered a complete ministration to Christ – the humanity and divinity.  Now there was also Lazarus.

Throughout, he remained at the background, content to be a footnote to the story of Martha and Mary. He never made any statement recorded and neither did he demonstrate any leadership traits in the male chauvinistic society of the Jews. Yet he had his own calling, the highest, if you permit me to say. Lazarus, like Isaac thousands of years before him, and like Jesus his family friend and Lord, had an excellent way of surrendering to the perfect will of God, even to death.

I believe Abraham had to explain to Isaac when they got to Mount Moriah. Something like; son, you know I love you so much and if I had my way, I would gladly take your place now, but it is the will of the Almighty God that you, my only son be offered to him as a burnt offering here on this mountain. That is why we have not brought any animal for our sacrifice. But he is able to raise you again to fulfill his promise of blessing the whole world through my descendants. I could imagine Isaac closing his eyes in shock, opening them again hoping it was a dream, and finally letting go of torrents of tears as he saw through his father’s tears that it was no joke. Then, in submission to the perfect will of God, he offered himself for Abraham to bind and lay on the altar they just finished building together. God was impressed with Abraham who had such faith and also imparted it on his son. God was impressed with Isaac too.

There was no such explanation to Lazarus. The omniscient God weighed his heart and knew that Lazarus could answer such a call as Isaac answered. God did not converse with satan as he did in the heavenly realm to prove the integrity of Job in the case of Lazarus. No it did not happen that way. God just knew that Lazarus had what it would take to bring glory to Him in one of the highest calls he could give those who believed in Jesus. So the sickness struck to start off a sequence of pains, anxiety, suffering, sorrow, disappointment, tears, shame, disgrace, and all one may go through in such society and at such a time as they were in. We must recall that the Jewish authorities had already read the riot act to all who would not relent in recognizing Jesus as the Messiah- such would be excommunicated from the synagogue.  Martha, Mary and Lazarus did not stop at recognizing Jesus as Messiah, their doors were always thrown wide opened for him to rest and teach. They were the unashamed of Jesus.

Martha and Mary must have prayed and prayed. And when they saw the sickness not yielding ground but instead their brother’s life became critically endangered, they took the last resort. They sent a message to Jesus.  Lord, this one requires your personal touch. Please come and heal your friend Lazarus or send the word, if you cannot come immediately.  This was their expectation as they sent the urgent message to Jesus. Well, the alpha and omega, the holy one who chose Lazarus for the assignment declared for the benefit of those who were within earshot” this sickness is not unto death, but an occurrence to glorify the name of God” And he delayed for two days. When he saw that Lazarus had died, he announced to his disciples and started the two day’s journey back to Bethany.

Something I like about the bible records is the truthful way it sets out events. The good aspects of heroes of faith have not been exaggerated and the bad have not been under-reported. Even when the men of God failed, we are told they failed. From this I believed that when Lazarus was at the point of death and Jesus had still not showed up, he accepted the situation calmly and in faith. I could imagine him holding his sisters hands and with the little strength remaining in him, saying “sisters…… I love you both…….when the Lord comes, tell him I love him too” I strongly believe that was his attitude as he gave up the ghost that day. There was neither bitterness nor hopelessness in his heart. Remember what the sister said to Jesus? “Yes, I believe we shall see him on resurrection day” That was Lazarus’s believe too as he died. He hoped to see Jesus on resurrection day. If it were not so, the Bible would have told us. If Lazarus had misgivings about answering this call, God would have had to use someone else. He loves a willing and cheerful giver. It is not only in material giving, but the principle also applies in the giving of time and hearts and even our life. God would not just accept a service we give with grumbles and complaints.

The purpose of God was soon revealed. The pains, anxiety, suffering, sorrow, disappointment, tears, shame, disgrace all turned to unspeakable joy when Lazarus, at the instance of Jesus’ call walked out of the grave life! The whole of Bethany was turned upside down. And God’s glory was that many more people believed in Jesus for Lazarus testimony was undeniable and that made the Jewish leaders more uncomfortable. They planned to do away with Lazarus also. What a way to serve God. Lazarus did not preach. He did not perform a miracle. But he put his faith in God, such a childlike faith.  His sufferings and that of the sisters was used of the Lord to populate the kingdom of God and plunder hell.

This story and such ones in the scriptures underscore the fact that believers are not immune from suffering. In fact, you will suffer for being a believer. When your friends start to show surprise that you no longer participate, in company with them, in the old wicked things, your suffering has started. However, you must not waste the priviledge by switching to self-pity. Be brave and trust God who makes all things to work for good for all who love him, whom he has called according to his great purpose. He knows the intensity of fire you can take.

Are you suffering for the sake of Christ? Why not turn to the expert in the call-to-suffering? Jesus Christ will lead you through it. Even if it should lead to the death of the body, it is written that “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first” I Thess 4:16 Jesus will call you out like Lazarus.

I don’t consider it a coincidence that Jesus used Lazarus’ name sake in his parable of the Rich man and Lazarus. There is something that moves God about the attitude and mindset of Lazarus. I believe many of us are robbing ourselves of the many jewels God intend to decorate our crowns with when we pray our ways out of certain ‘higher calls’. I believe there is a call to salvation. I believe there are calls to service. These are fundamental and most believers have no qualms about answering them. Now there are higher calls such as that answered by the man who was born blind, Isaac and Lazarus. God would not force you into this service and he doesn’t penalize you for not being in the brigade. But his rewards await those who are disposed to signing up.  He weighs the heart. He knows it when you are ready.

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.

“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 annual budget over a million naira.

In the mid ’80s, God upgraded mama. She was employed as a ward attendant in a the Specialist hospital at Makurdi, Benue State of Nigeria. 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, and her widows ministry became all the more popular 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 of Lagos, Kano and Onitsha 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. She nursed the undisguised hope that her God would one day bring her husband to her. 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 de