Obedience brings opportunity Week 4, 2016

There are many scriptures which clearly teach that God leads people through simple obedience to parental authority. When God was to bring David before Israel as the giant slayer how did He go about it? Jesse told his son David, "Take for your brothers this half-bushel of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread and quickly take them to your brothers in the camp..." David got up early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, took the supplies, and went as Jesse had directed him. He arrived at the encampment as the army was going out to the battle line, shouting the battle cry1Sam 17:17, 20(ISV). It was in this errand in obedience to his father that coincidentally he arrives just as Goliath is making his daily boast and taunting Israel’s armies (actually it was no coincidence but God ordained programming). All the while he had been going to Saul but was not revealed to Israel as warrior or deliverer. David would go back and forth from Saul to tend his father's sheep in Bethlehem1Sam 17:15(ISV). It’s not David this started with.

Did you notice this was exactly how obedience to his father’s authority brought opportunity to Saul? This was how God brought him to Samuel in the first place. The donkeys belonging to Kish, Saul's father, were lost, and Kish told his son Saul, "Take one of the young men with you, get up, and go look for the donkeys."1Sam 9:3(ISV).  Saul’s father had servants he could send. Saul also was most likely married by now, yet he obeys and does not “sublet” the instruction to another son or the servants. God was at work. Again this was in no way a coincidence because one day before Saul's arrival, the LORD had revealed to Samuel:  "About this time tomorrow I'll send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you are to anoint him as Commander-in-Chief over my people Israel1Sam 9:15-16(ISV).  That God used the same method again to bring the next king to prominence surely means He will use it again and again.  

Let not the point miss you. Saul and David were men of destiny. Each chosen by God for national assignment; and it pleased God to use simple obedience to a father’s directive to bring them to opportunity for greatness. "Honor your father and mother" (this is the first commandment with a promise), "that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land." Eph 6:2, 3  (ESV)

Does this principle apply only to covenant sons? Consider Anah a seed of Sier: Anah discovered the hot springs in the wilderness while grazing his father Zibeon's donkeys Gen 36:24 (ISV).  This is not a chance thing, and that it happened with a man not descended from Abraham, a man outside of the covenant means to me all men can key into it. It is a truth as far as I am concerned; as much as Prov 22:29(KJV)  Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.

Encounter with the seer

One certain time, about early 2000, when I served as a house-help (maid) in a chief’s palace I encountered a seer. The chief married at least three wives and I was living with one of the wives in the same big compound, even though each wife lived in their different chambered houses there. A time came when one of the wives invited “a (young) man of God” who came and conducted night vigil with the members of the family. The night vigil was meant to be a family deliverance. But before the man came, I got to know about it from mama, the wife who invited him. Perceiving in my spirit that the “man of God” is not a genuine one, I told her, “I am not sure the man of God is real, it is better for us to seek God by ourselves and we would find Him.” When you call out to me and come and pray to me, I'll hear you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart Jer 29:12-13(ISV). Knowing that I am a Christian and have sometimes called them for family prayers, she rebuked me, may be because I am just a maid.

        When the ‘man of God’ actually came, we gathered for prayers that night. He began conducting, talked about somebody who died recently in the house, that his spirit is not at rest because of his kind of death, a young boy. They told him, “It is true, he died recently.” He also said, “There were animals that were buried alive at the compound sometime ago”, they echoed “Yes!” He said that those things should be excavated and they should show him the place. They did so also. Moreover, when he came back from the place they showed him, he began to pray. A time came when he began to touch everybody with olive oil on the foreheads. I noticed an unusual thing, that whenever he approached a young lady, he would say one thing or the other such as, “Something is hindering your flower, you’re under an attack, it needs to be broken, therefore, you need to come and see me in my ministry for prayers.”He also told me so when he approached me. On my own I did not want to see him for any reason because the spirit of God within me was telling me, “He is not real.” My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. They will never follow a stranger, but will run away from him because they do not recognize the voice of strangers Jn 10:27, 5(ISV). Then I was a young Christian. One day, after the night vigil, I was mandated with one of the young lady living with us to go and see the man of God. Lo, as a servant girl I had no option than to obey. 

 When I reached there were other females waiting and we entered one by one to see him privately. He said I wouldn’t marry and have children but die before my 3oth birthday if I didn’t have special prayers. He noted however I was very uneasy with him and allowed me to leave without any harassment. I stood firm in faith and never went back to him nor had such deliverance done on me. I am over 30 years of age and married with a son, expecting our second baby. I believe God Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son Col 1:13(KJV)                                Chika is a teacher in Enugu                                       

Preserved in the face of death Week 1, 2016

We were in our first year in the new position in Gana Ropp, in the school run by missionaries. My husband and I were among the staff as carers and mentors. He was also in the teaching cadre and we lived within the premises. In August 2015, about the end of the second week, violence erupted around us. Fulani herdsmen opened fire around us that day. Clashes between them and the indigenous Birom people had turned bloody. Suddenly a man ran towards our wall to escape the melee. When he scaled the wall the block on top fell off. Bullets were fired in our direction and there was real fear the herdsmen would enter the school compound and cause mayhem.

Urgent calls were made to the international and national leadership to intervene. We had lost a missionary before in the Boko Haram insurgency; no one planned to die and the ministry certainly did not want casualties. As it is written, "For your sake we are being put to death all day long. We are thought of as sheep headed for slaughter." In all these things we are triumphantly victorious due to the one who loved us Rom 8:36-37(ISV).

There was real fear the armed men would enter in that night. The order to evacuate was urgent. I had just started cooking rice and was in the kitchen when the order to evacuate came. I carried nothing out; not even my husband could move across the wall to get our belongings. We took our daughter and moved. The staff fled. Thank God the students were on recess. How would we have coped? The women were evacuated into the bus to safety and the men were to pass the night at the mission base. As we left my husband inquired the direction we were headed for our bus was moving in the direction of the gunshots. “I have been instructed to evacuate” was the reply he got. Well we drove on to escape; and then before us were the armed men with their guns! Suddenly the young man driving seemed unable to continue. He turned the wheel from one direction to another and then the vehicle stopped. We had run away to escape the gunmen and now had run into them and our vehicle had stopped, apparently spoiled. Clearly we were sitting ducks! Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me Ps 23:4(KJV). 

Our driver could not continue. Fear had gripped him. A call was made through to the national director “We are dying...” Incredibly no one shot at us or came over to harm us. We realised then that a mighty soldier is not delivered by his great strength. It is vain to trust in a horse for deliverance, even with its great strength, it cannot deliver. Indeed, the LORD watches those who fear him; those who trust in his gracious love to deliver them from death Ps 33:16-19(ISV). It was 2 days after that my husband was able to briefly return to our compound and pour away the food we had left in a hurry. In our shelter I now sent for slippers, and some had to send for undergarments. Such was our haste. It was two weeks before we returned to base. Our things in the fridge had all spoilt, but God has preserved us. 

  Regina and her husband are missionaries stationed in Plateau State