Christ’s Ambassador

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?