When vessels are scarce week 47, 2015

Are you a seed of God? Are you a seed of Christ? If truly you are, then you have the royal blood and evil counsel of men or devils cannot prevail over you! Look at the people that gathered together to stop the gospel: rulers, elders, scribes, Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, the host of others. And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers and elders and scribes, And Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest were gathered together at Jerusalem. Acts 4:5-6(KJV).

 You see the calibre of people that gathered; pastors, church elders, false teachers, false brethren, bishops. All in falsehood could not stop Peter and John. Equally they cannot even stop the counsel of God over you, and ministry that the Lord has committed into your hand. “My counsel shall stand” declared the Lord in Is46:10; His counsel shall stand no matter who is involved in your case, His counsel shall prevail.

When there is a scarcity of vessels, even in the Lord’s sanctuary, He raises and uses any available instrument to carry out His counsel and good pleasure. He can even go outside the church to find an instrument to do all His good pleasure and carry out His counsel. My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it Is 46:10-11(KJV). From the above statement, it’s clear that God is serious about what he is saying and means every bit of it.

“Calling a ravenous bird from the east.” Recall the days of Elijah during the famine. And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, get thee hence and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shall drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. 1Kgs17:2-4(KJV). God is saying that instead of His counsel to fail, He would rather use a ravenous bird to execute His counsel. When He looked around and found no one: nobody around, no vessel, He used birds. Humanly speaking, birds cannot carry food that will be sufficient for a man, but that was how God decided to carry out His counsel.

“The man that executeth my counsel from a far country.” Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah 2Chr 36:23 (KJV). Here’s an uncircumcised heathen king, king and God called him His shepherd and that he will rebuild Jerusalem and the Lord’s temple will be restored by him. When I say of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd,' he will certainly do as I say. He will command, 'Rebuild Jerusalem'; he will say, 'Restore the Temple.'" Is 44:28(NLT).  Instead of His counsel not to stand, He will do an unusual thing.

Odinaka Otuche 

God,s counsel stands - Moses

I declare from the beginning things to follow, and from ancient times things that have not yet been done; saying, 'My purpose will stand, and he will accomplish everything that I please.' Is 46:10(ISV) 

Beginning from vs. 8 down to vs. 11 of chapter 46 of the book of Isaiah, you will notice reoccurring statements such as “remember” “I am the Lord.” Whenever God is about to do something unusual, He normally begins by reintroducing Himself because man easily forgets the past

-         remember, I am the same Lord who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah

-         remember Egypt, king pharaoh and all the armies of Egypt,

-         remember the kings of the Jebusites, Ammonites etc

-         remember Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Haman.

Our focus is the statement in verse 10 “My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure”. It’s unfortunate that naturally, man can easily forget the move or work of God. Now there arose a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph and he said to his people, “behold, the people of the children of Israel are mightier than we. Come on, let’s deal wisely with them” Ex 1:8-10(KJV). That was the counsel of pharaoh king of Egypt against the people of God but that was contrary to God’s counsel over his people. His counsel is “touch not my prophet and do my servant no harm”(KJV), “Do not touch these people I have chosen and do not hurt my prophets” (NLT). Pharaoh King of Egypt being ignorant of this divine warning paid dearly for it, including the loss of his soldiers. 

I’ve come to realize that those who fell short of this divine warning, never found it funny in their lifetime. Most of them paid with their lives. Let me solemnly state here that every believer ought to know this divine grace! No counsel over a child of God, who is purchased by the precious blood of Jesus, redeemed of God, can stand. Whether in the secret or in the open, whatever God said concerning any of his children must surely come into fulfillment.  

When King Pharaoh was taking this counsel, I could see God laughing at him from His throne in heaven “why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? the kings of the earth set themselves against the lord and the rulers  take counsel together against the lord and against his anointed saying, let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their lords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The lord shall have them in derision” Ps 2:1-4 (KJV).  So God after laughing at him decided that the very man he will use to destroy Pharaoh’s kingdom and the entire land of Egypt will be raised in the king’s palace and he will provide all education and training for the boy’s upbringing. In fact, he will also undertake his school runs. And Moses was learned in all wisdom of Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds. Acts 2:22 (KJV).                                                                                                                                                        Odinaka Otuche

The hidden intent of evil Week 45, 2015

Evil does not make its purpose immediately known - especially to the targets. Why do I say so? The incident between Joseph and Potiphar’s wife:  And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, she called to the men of her household and said to them, "See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house." Gen 39:13-15(ESV)  Isn’t it amazing? Here was a woman so much after Joseph. And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her Gen 39:10(ESV).  Was it an attempt to explain how come his garment was in her hands? She could have hidden or destroyed the garment. That would prevent its use against her if that was her concern. He never cried out and they were alone. He had obviously never complained about this sexual harassment to Potiphar. How come she didn’t leave him alone and look elsewhere? It is because the target was to destroy him from the beginning. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy Jn 10:10 (ESV). Yes, that was the hidden motive which manifests finally: a motive hidden in the disguise of desire for him. And after a time, his master's wife, looking on Joseph with desire, said to him, Be my lover Gen 39:7(BBE).  

Listen: the very mouth that would seduce in secret was the same one that disgraced in public. Satan who entices you into sin secretly will humiliate you also publicly. He just won’t tell you so at the beginning. So beware; and don’t be enticed.  For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death Prov 5:3-5(ESV).

And just before you think hers was just a female fury over thwarted desire, think about Amnon. Yes Amnon. How can we ever forget him in such matters? Was he not the one who said  "I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister." 2Sam 13:4(ESV) and enticed her secretly? But when she brought them near him to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, "Come, lie with me, my sister." 2Sam 13:11(ESV).   If what the evil within wanted was mere pleasure how come it didn’t end there? If we say Potiphar’s wife disgraced Joseph because she didn’t get what she wanted how come Amnon disgraced her after getting what he wanted? He called the young man who served him and said, "Put this woman out of my presence and bolt the door after her." 2Sam 13:17 (ESV)  How quickly she had moved from beloved to “this woman”! So whether it is coming from a male or female there is danger. A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. Prov 29:5 (ESV) .   

When God says no Week 44, 2015

The interview lasted all day and had been grueling. A written paper eliminated many of us and the oral interview was challenging as well. This was a centre for Plastic surgery training which I had been seeking. My friends within the institution had warned it would be tough and I had put in prayers and lots of hard work to get in. Places were very competitive, and applicants were in multiples of the available vacancies. Surely God would answer now and I would be taken! But no: when the intakes were announced that 2012 at Orthopaedic Hospital Enugu I was not among.

Never doubt God’s faithfulness or His ability: His plans for you are beautiful and to bring you to a perfect end. LORD, my heart is not arrogant, nor do I look haughty. I do not aspire to great things, nor concern myself with things beyond my ability.  Instead, I have composed and quieted myself like a weaned child with its mother; I am like a weaned child. Place your hope in the LORD, Israel, both now and forever Ps131:1-3 (ISV). I graduated from medical school Enugu campus in 2009 and was on the merit list, so naturally my House Job was at UNTH. My youth service was at the Ebonyi State teaching hospital Abakaliki. I wanted to specialise in Plastic Surgery so I had my life and plans well laid out. After my internship I sat for the primary fellowship in surgery and passed after my 5^th attempt in October 2011. I had applied to Enugu State University of Technology Teaching Hospital that year with the intention of starting residency after my national youth service but by the time I passed there was no vacancy.

I sought to get a place to begin my training in surgery and attended interviews at the federal hospitals in Abakaliki , Nnewi and Enugu without success. I had worked hard and prayed for each of those interviews. I tried desperately to get into UNTH that 2012 even though there was no official interview at that time; all to no avail. In the interim I worked at the Memfys hospital for neurosurgery from May to October 2012. There God exposed me to the spirit of discipline and excellence. It was a life changing experience. Eventually the big federal centres in Enugu, Umuahia, Owerri and Nnewi took residents and there was a mass exodus from ESUT-TH Park lane. Not only was it a State teaching hospital that paid least, her residency programme in surgery was very new and not well structured. The accreditation was only at part 1 level yet no one had passed part 1 from there. I was offered employment there and I began in October 2012 and met senior colleagues who groomed me. A person plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps Prov 16:9(ISV).

At a time I was tempted to leave but my plans were foiled; I was blind to the opportunity God had presented me with. The residency training began to take greater shape and I got qualified to take the part1 exams. I didn’t succeed in the NPMC part1 in May but sat for the part1 WACS this October ever before those who were taken at Orthopaedic could, and passed! I and another resident are the first senior residents produced there. I was asked by the provost to apply for a job as a lecturer in anatomy, a position offered when part 2 has been crossed. 

 Nonso Jac-Okereke is a senior resident in ESUTTH