“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new” (2Cor 5:17)
This evening I remember the time when I became born again. I came from a Communist Country and we were thought that God does not exist. I took it for granted that it was so. I did not know any human being who believe otherwise. This lie was planted in my soul and grew to become a tree of doubt and unbelief. Who can uproot such a giant tree?

This testimony is given for the glory of God, to shame the devil and to encourage the brethren!

There is a girl in our church. She is 12 years old. I know her and her parents since she was born. Translated in English, her name translated means ‘The Gift of God’. She has a very gentle and sensitive spirit and loves God very much, a true worshipper. Spiritually and mentally, she is more mature than her age. She is an inspiration to many. She is very faithful to all church activities. She is a very good student and an obedient child.

This is the story: About six months ago she started fainting for no good reason. Once she was found in the church’s toilet during the service. The parents will find her down, unconscious.  At the beginning, these episodes were about once a week. Later, they became daily. Because of this strange sickness she could not go to school. The doctor examined her and said that she does not have feeling in her left arm. He thought it was a mass in the brain and suggested many tests. I can say that the parents love God and had faith that God will grant a miracle. But it was not easy to witness this strange sickness in their daughter.

During one of our services, the parents literarily carried their daughter to the sanctuary. The mother told me that in the afternoon she fainted during her sleep. They tried to wake her up to go to church and she did not respond. But they came anyway. Gift looked pale and very weak. Suddenly I got very angry with the devil in my spirit. I cannot manufacture this anger ‘at will’. It is the work of the Holy Spirit and very necessary in warfare prayer. It is an anger that increases faith in God and His miracles.

I lead the brethren in prayer for deliverance and healing. Gift came to the altar and weeping she prayed for herself too. As young as she is, she is a member of the Saturday class choir and she wanted to be healed to go back and sing. She promised God that if He heals her, she will serve Him more and give Him all the glory. The anointing was there to heal the sick. O, blessed anointing…wonderful power released in time of need…no manipulations, no gimmick…just the presence of the Holy Spirit moving in our midst…O, sweet comfort and victory…

Then I told Gift that by faith she should go back to the choir. There was no liberty for me to preach, so I decided that all of us should praise God for the miracle of God. We did so with songs in English and Nigerian languages…we did so with dancing round and round the sanctuary…we praised God with instruments, with clapping of hands and shouts of “Jesus, Jesus…” I forgot about Gift. Praising God was now more important than any other thing. But just before closing, I saw that Gift looked so much better, singing in the choir, praising God like she used to do in the past. Her face was no longer pale. She looked alive, that is the best way to describe the change on her countenance. Joy flooded my soul!

This story happened exactly four weeks ago. All the brethren who attended that prayer meeting can testify to it. She was healed that evening. She never had a fainting attack since then. Four days later, the father went with her to do ‘brain x-ray and scan’ because they already had booked for that. The doctor saw no abnormality. She was sent home without a diagnosis. Glory to God!

All the glory goes to God! Let your faith rise! Believe in the God of miracles! What do you lose if you believe? For nothing is impossible with God!

“One day Jesus was teaching… And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick” (Lk 5:17)

The meeting was very good. The Holy Spirit was moving in our midst making it easy to pray, praise, preach and prophesy. There is nothing better than the anointing of the Holy Spirit. There was also the desire to pray for the sick. We did so. I have attended prayer meetings and church services without the liberty of the Holy Spirit. Men did their best to serve God with prayer, singing and talking. But at the end of the service, there was something like a bitter taste in the mouth, a feeling of sadness and regret, a missing of the mark, a sense of failure in the midst of plenty, a wish that things could be better…That is why we so appreciate the Holy Spirit. He is the difference in our life and ministry. In His presence we feel free and strong, happy and wise. Faith rises and miracles follow. We are so grateful Lord…

Then the message followed:

“Then the Lord said to Jacob: “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you… Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother…” (Gen 31; 35)

Twenty years have passed since Jacob had an encounter with God at Bethel. He worked for Laban, his uncle: 14 years labor to get married to his two wives and 6 more years to gather his wealth. The time in his uncle house was not an easy one, for Laban was a cheat and a rough man. But Jacob has discovered that the God of Bethel has been with him all this time, quietly directing his life. Against all odds, at the end of twenty years he was a married man with children and also a wealthy man. This is the moment when God speaks to him: “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you…”

The voice of God announces a change of direction. As it was with the children of God in Egypt, God sends His Word of freedom thru Moses. The same happened in Babylon, when God thru the prophet Jeremiah announced that at the end of 70 years of exile, they shall go back home. It is the same with Jacob. God has spoken and God shall lead the long way home.

What are the signs that God changes direction in your life? There are two main ways God does it. The first is the pressure of circumstances and the second is by His Word. Jacob discovers that Laban does not treat well like in the past. His uncle’s sons are suddenly getting jealous because of his wealth. Jacob’s wives have a new desire to go away, leaving behind their wicked father. All these circumstances put pressure on Jacob’s mind to remember home. In Haran God blessed Jacob with marriage and children and great wealth. But there was no spiritual fruit. Now is time to go to Bethel, to become a man of God, a worshipper of God, to fulfill destiny proclaimed.

If things seem rough and you lose favor with men, then fast and pray, for God may be ready to change the direction of your life. I am not saying a physical change but a spiritual change. God wants to re-direct your life to a place where you become spiritually fruitful, where you do more ministry than business, more worship than office meetings. This is more than what the world calls promotion. This is destiny fulfilled!

This is a great encouragement to all believers, especially to the backsliders. God may be silent for years, but God is not dead. Suddenly, His voice will sound upon the waters of your troubles and announces the change of direction, a new life to begin. This is a spiritual U-turn that will bring you back to the place of pure vision and power.

Then we sang: “Yes, Lord…From the bottom of my heart and from the depth of my soul, I say Yes, completely yes, my soul says yes!”

 
This is a family I know personally. Edafe (not his real name) was born in 1988 in Yola, Nigeria. He was born with a heart condition called Transposition of the Great Arteries. He had his first open heart surgery in Nigeria at just 6 months old, which was a palliative surgery. His family then moved to the United States to continue his treatment. He had a heart transplant over there. He felt much better after that. He finished his high school and got entrance in the university and started strong. He was in his second year (2014) when the transplanted heart started to fail. He became very weak. He had to stop going to school. He has been in the hospital for some months now, waiting for a second heart transplant. He is born again and has faith that God will do a miracle. It is the same thing with his parents who pray day and night for God to intervene.