HAPPY WITH CHURCH TONIGHT

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you shall be My witnesses…” (Ac 1:8)
The prayer meeting this evening was wonderful. For whatever reason, the instrumentalists did not come. We only had a drummer, a young man, who tried to drum a little, but later lied down under the anointing. So, no music tonight… Sister O led us in worship with a simple chorus, singing: “Jesus, I come to You to draw, draw, draw once again…Jesus”… The Holy Spirit used this little song to draw us closer to His Majesty. We prayed on and on. When you see a group of Christians praying with passion and tears, without stopping to clean their faces, you know that the Holy Spirit has come. To hear the sound of congregational prayers is a royal privilege! The hall became hot. I don’t know if the ACs stopped working. But nobody paid attention to such details. Nobody was fanning looking for a better place in the room. Everybody was singing, dancing, clapping hands and sweating. Each one was in love with Jesus. When you find yourself in the presence of the King, nothing really matters. We came to Jesus; few ready and running; some walking; many crawling on the floor. It does not matter how fast you run this marathon. Just finish it!

‘Be sure you know the condition of your flocks…for riches do not endure forever…the lambs will provide you with clothing and the goats with the price of a field’ (PV 27:23, 26)
This is a Word given to shepherds. Pastors and parents are spiritual shepherds. In Hebrew, the word translated ‘condition’ means ‘face, personal favor or intimate presence’. This is God’s command: Make every effort to know ‘the faces’, the hearts, of your children, be they natural or spiritual! Your sons and daughters should not intimidate, manipulate or confuse you. God forbid! Parenting is much more than buying baby clothes or paying school fees! Pastoring is much more than preaching a sermon and collecting offerings! Your love must be sacrificial! Your very spirit must be involved! You should be wiser, spiritually stronger, more mature and more loving than they. Your children, when they are small and even when they are grown, should not be a mystery to you! You teach them, you lead them, you bless them! As parents, you need to intercede for them! I mean pray for them! Daily call their names before the throne of mercy and grace! God will show you His purpose for their lives! Flow with that revelation! Even before they tell you about their struggles, the Holy Spirit will reveal to you their inmost hearts, their pains and their dreams.

“The Christian soldier must avoid two evils—he must not faint or yield in the time of fight, and after a victory he must not become lazy and too secure. When he has overcome, he is so to behave himself as though he were presently again to be assaulted. For Satan’s temptations, like the waves of the sea, do follow one in the neck of the other” (George Downame 1560-1634)

This is what God says: “Dedicate to Me the first-born sons of every family…These belong to Me” (Ex 13:2)
Today is our first born son’s birthday. His name is John Richmond Leigh.

“Dear John, I look back and rejoice at what God has done in our lives. As you know, you were born prematurely. The doctors were not sure you will live. But you did. You were born a fighter and a champion. The grace of God was upon you from the very beginning. When you came to this world, I was not a Christian. I did not know how to pray. But your dad, (he told me later) dedicated you to God even before you cried your first cry. You were placed in the safest place of this universe: the everlasting loving powerful hands of the Living God. Today I am glad that you belong to Jesus! From the time you were born, and until today, more than 40 years have passed. These have been blessed years of discovering God’s purpose for us as a family. I thank God for who He made you to be. I still remember the joy, the fear and the pride I had in my heart when you were born. It was joy because you made me a mother. It was fear because I was not sure if I was able to be a mother to you. It was pride because you were so beautiful, and so real and so beyond my imagination… Your dad and I rejoice with you this day. We bestow the parents’ holy blessings upon you! We bless your dear wife Deneice, and your children, Jetson and Josslyn. Always remember that we love you very much, today and forever!

Happy Birthday! La Multi Ani!”

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives… Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord” (Col 3:18-20)
The Biblical duty of the wife is to submit to her own husband. The Biblical duty of the husband is to love his wife ‘as Christ loves the church’. The biblical duty of the children is to obey their parents ‘in all things’. The difference between submission and obedience is spiritual. The wife’s submission is a godly choice to stay under the spiritual authority and leadership of her husband. This submission is not because she is less intelligent or less worthy of respect. It is because God is a God of order, peace and beauty. For the glory of God and for the good of the family, God commanded that the wife should submit to her husband and that the husband should love her sacrificially. Submission is not easy and it is not natural. Submission is not pretending to respect your husband. It is a deep holy behavior springing up from a spiritual, wise and pure heart. The road to Biblical submission is paved with many tears. Submission is fitting in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is beautiful and pleasing to God. The wife visibly submits to her own husband as a form of worshiping the invisible Lord Jesus Christ.

What is the difference between submission and obedience? For the wife, submission means the freedom to act in between the general boundaries, guidelines and principles given by her husband. A child’s obedience to his parents does not have this freedom. He must obey his parents’ commands without adding or removing from them.

OUR TESTIMONY
We are happily married for 44 years. We have made many mistakes and we have learned from them. The Bible is our ‘marriage manual’. As a wife, it is my duty to know the general principles of life by which my husband ‘operates’. These principles are not legalistic, cold or rigid. As my husband matures spiritually, these ideas change. It is my duty to study him and analyze his way of life. I prayerfully listen when he talks. I want to know ‘from where he comes from and where he is going’. I want to know why he says this or that. If I hear something I consider ‘wrong’, I pray for wisdom, to understand ‘his point of view’. What I may see as wrong may be something he considers as good. The truth is that family and social background influence our choices. For example, if my husband tells me how he expects me to behave in a particular situation, if I agree with him, then it is easy. But if I see things differently, it is hard for me to submit to what I see is wrong. As a young wife I used to correct him immediately saying: ‘Sorry, I do not agree with you. What about my way?’ Then we argue to and fro for some time, provoking and becoming angry with one another. It will take a long time to forgive and forget the hurt cause by such arguments. But as time went by, I learned to be more patient with him and with myself. I learned to humble myself and to see things from his perspective too. I now know that I do not have to be right all the time. These days, if he says something I disagree with, I keep calm and quiet. I meditate on his proposal trying to find the good in it. Then I go and pray. I ask God to show me why does my husband sees this matter so differently than me. God helps me to submit and to love him even when it is hard. Marriage is work. Lazy people should not marry. Prayer is more important than food or sex. The reason why I take all this trouble to understand my husband is not because I want to submit and please him only for today. I want to understand him as a person, for things to be easier between us in the future. For me, each pain must go to God in prayer and become a seed of love and wisdom, for a deeper knowing of my husband. Submission is my harvest of wisdom and love. To God be the glory!

Let me be more practical to explain submission … For example: my husband tells me that for this week we have twenty thousand naira to spend on food. He does not tell me the type of food to cook. He gives me the freedom to use that money the way I think it is best. He gives me the liberty to buy what I want knowing the food we both like to eat. I do not have to write my menu on the wall every day. I do not have to tell him that the pepper is now 50 Naira and not 20. I use my discretion to spend the money as I think is best for the two of us. What is important is that we eat good food every day and we are happy with each other. If there is any ‘change’ left for me, I can spend it on what I like. I do not have to tell him that I used 50 naira to buy powder for myself. I am not his daughter. I am not his cook or house servant. I am his wife!!!! For me, submission is this freedom to be myself within my husband’s principles of a happy home. But the child’s obedience is not so. If I give my daughter 20 naira to buy biscuits she is to tell me how much she has spent and she should give me back all the change. That is how we trained our children. Once they became adults it was easy for them to function as husbands, wives and parents.

As most of you know, we come from very different backgrounds. We see things differently. We have different strategies of solving problems. That is ok. We are not twins. We do not have to foolishly imitate one another. Each one of us must be who God called us to be. But as a wife I need to know both my husband’s weaknesses and his strengths; his pains and his joys. I need to understand what type of wife he wants me to be. I need to pay the price and change to become his ‘dream wife’. I need to yield to his idea of ‘a perfect marriage’. This is not easy… I may not become all that he dreams of in this life time, but I can try… He should see that I am trying… For it is my responsibility to contribute to our mutual happiness. It is my honor to help him fulfill his destiny as a man of God, as a husband and father. As a wife, I need to know his mind and my boundaries of submission. I need to accept them and submit to them. Then I am free. Sorry, we both are free and happy… Glory to God!

HAPPY WITH CHURCH TONIGHT

The Saturday evening prayer meeting was very good. We prayed for the Holy Spirit to come, to pour fresh oil on us, and in us. He did just that. In the name of Jesus we destroyed the bondage of depression, backsliding and empty religion. A door of spiritual breakthrough was open to us by the Holy Spirit. The ones who had faith to enter, they did so. We received the Joy of the Lord which is our never failing strength. Full of thanksgiving, adults and children, we sang: “This God is too good-oo…”

“Moreover He called for a famine in the land;

He destroyed all the provision of bread.

He sent a man before them—

Joseph—who was sold as a slave

They hurt his feet with fetters,

He was laid in irons.

Until the time that his word came to pass,

The word of the Lord tested him.

The king sent and released him,

The ruler of the people let him go free.

He made him lord of his house,

And ruler of all his possessions,

To bind his princes at his pleasure,

And teach his elders wisdom” (Ps 105:16-22)

We are in a prophetic season called ‘Shalom’. In Hebrew, it means peace, health, wealth, friends and favor. We are expecting great things from God. We now study the life of Joseph. We identify with his anointing. Joseph comes from a difficult background, a dysfunctional family. There is jealousy, kidnapping, hatred, plan to murder, division and inability to love among the family members. There is tension in the life of Joseph. It is created by the loving acceptance of the father and the hating rejection of his brothers. But no matter what, God is in change. God uses sinful people, imperfect men to accomplish His will. The word ‘brothers’ appear 21 times in Genesis 37. The name of God does not appear at all. The atmosphere is one of a difficult, divided, worldly and religious family that does not care about God. In this ‘dry ground’ God ‘planted’ His seed called Joseph. The brothers hate Joseph because of his father’s special love represented by the coat of many colors, because of his words, his dreams and God’s favor on him, revealing that he will be their leader. The brothers take Joseph’s dreams seriously. They plan to kill him so that the dreams will become useless and God’s plan aborted. By rejecting Joseph, they reject his dreams, they reject God’s Word. Only his father kept this matter in mind, thinking that God may be speaking to the family. But God does not leave Himself without a witness. The dreams of Joseph seem childish, simple, secular and superficially ambitious. But they were of God! This is the most important thing to remember! God’s Word and God’s plan can never be destroyed by men or devils! The dreams were prophetic words given by God to the family! At last, the dreams, the words, proved to be true. In God’s time, they came to pass! After testing Joseph, God’s Word proved him to be a man of God who spoke the truth!

Joseph had two powerful names. Each name was prophetic and significant.  His Hebrew name was Joseph (meaning Increase or Multiplication) (Gen 30:24). His Egyptian name was Zaphenath Paneah (meaning the Revealer of secrets, the Interpreter of dreams or the Wise One who understands the deep things of God) (Gen 41:45). Joseph represents our Lord Jesus Christ who has the power to multiply anything. He fed thousands by multiplying two loaves of bread and five little fishes (Mt 14:15-21). Our Lord knows the things that are in the hearts of men (Jn 2:24, 25). By faith, we applied these two prophetic names to ourselves. From this day on, we shall trust God to bestow on us the prophetic mantle of Joseph. God shall multiply our little resources, natural and spiritual. We shall not fear small money, small opportunities, small health or small resources. Because God shall bless us with divine increase! From this day on, we shall trust God to give us an overflow of divine wisdom to understand the deep things of God, to discern prophetically the Spirit realm and to make decisions based on revelation and not on common sense anymore. May the mantle of Joseph, Zaphenath Paneah be placed on our shoulders! In Jesus name, amen!  Glory to God!

“For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2Tim 1:7)

Today I was privileged to counsel and pray for two Christian sisters. These are born again committed serious women of God, married and with children.  In the natural they both looked good. But there were problems… Both of them had medical complains and were taken treatment in different hospitals. Both of them had spent a lot of money on medical procedures and medications. Both of them were attacked by the demon of fear but were ignorant of it. The word I gave to one was the same for the other. Both of them received their deliverance and healing instantly. Praise the Lord! Because every truth is established by two or three witnesses, I decided to write this letter, to encourage others who may need help too.

Behind some sicknesses may be spiritual issues. The doctors are trained to treat only physical diseases. They are not qualified or able to treat spiritual afflictions (except the doctors who are born again and Spirit filled, which is rare). The devil attacks both spiritually and physically. He is not choosy. He only wants to torment his victims, to ‘kill, steal and destroy’. He is God’s enemy and your enemy too. As a doctor I consulted many patients who had different health challenges, physical, mental or emotional. Each time I discerned that their ‘background’ problem was spiritual more than physical I had to confront the issue with them. The people who believed were helped. But those who rejected the word could not be helped because God needs your faith to work with you.

Fear is a primary attack. The devil uses fear as an injection of spiritual poison, to weaken your resistance, so that you cannot fight him. Tormented by fears are not able to reject further lies. When the devil attacks the children of God he uses deception. That is the only way he can succeed to influence their mind. Never forget that the devil is a liar!!! That means each attack of fear is also a lie!!! For example, one of the women was telling me that her mother died young, therefore she ‘feels’ that she will die young too. The other woman told me that her senior sister was diagnosed with cancer therefore she will be next in line. It is true that the doctors have a tendency to bully their patience with warnings about their future health. But if you are a child of God you should immediately reject any lying diagnoses. For the doctor is just a human being. He is not your creator and he is not your god. Doctors make mistakes. I am a medical doctor by profession and I worked as a doctor in Nigeria for about 20 years. By the grace of God I was called ‘a good doctor’ but I also made mistakes. I respected the Christians who had faith to reject my negative statements about their future. In fact, the Holy Spirit used these unpleasant confrontations between me and my patients who had faith, to humble me, to bring me to my knees and become saved. Praise the Lord!

Child of God! You need to lift up the shield of faith and boldly quench the fiery darts of lies that come from the devil. Do not be sorry for the devil! Do not be gentle with the Liar! I am not saying that you should quarrel with your doctor. If the doctor is a child of God, that is a double blessing to you. But if the devil uses the doctor’s tongue, and declares death to you, then you just reject that diagnoses! Speak the Word of God over your life: “With long life You shall satisfy me… I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD” (Ps 91:16; Ps 118:17). Stand up and pray! Reject the evil spirit of fear! Do it now! With a loud voice! With anger in your heart! Jesus loves you! Fight for your soul! Be jealous over your testimony! Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you afresh. Let the Spirit of Resurrection and Life invade the space that was occupied by the lying fears. Child of God, you can do it! I rejoice with you! Halleluiah! Glory to God!

“Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Mt 19:26)
Today we had a wonderful Holy Communion service. The presence of God was so real. The Holy Spirit helped us to see the Cross of Christ and to love our Lord even more. When the anointing is so strong, you don’t need much prayers before miracles happen. This evening a brother sent me this note. I use this testimony as a point of contact for others to be encouraged and healed! With God, all things are possible! May your faith increase! Be healed! In Jesus name, amen! To God be all the glory!

I am singing…
“My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign;
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

“Brothers and sisters, pray for us” (1Thess 5:25)

My husband, Pastor Richmond Leigh and I have been married for almost 44 years. We got married as unbelievers and, by the grace of God we are now children of God. Our story is the testimony that grace is real and eternal life is sure. Both of us have tested that the Lord is good. Both of us have seen salvation. We are happily married giving thanks to God!

I am blessed beyond words that my husband married me. We met in the Medical School, Timisoara, Romania. He was a foreign student, trying to learn my language and to adjust to a strange culture. Both of us were very young. I was not the richest, most beautiful or intelligent woman in the campus. Why he chose to marry me is a mystery (to me) until today. But looking back, I can see that Almighty God was behind our timid steps of understanding life and learning to walk in love. We got married against much opposition. The Romanian Government at that time forbade its citizens to marry foreigners. We were persecuted in school. My parents did not understand my choice of a husband. Most of our friends rejected our marriage. But I made up my mind that I marry this man or I will die single. I fell in love with him even before I knew were Nigeria is on the map. He was learning to speak Romanian and I did not speaking English at all. We used sign language at the beginning. I made up my mind to marry him and follow him to his country. We came to Nigeria in March 1980.  We had trials and temptations. It was not always easy. But we survived and we became better, stronger and wiser. Once we surrendered our lives to Christ, everything ‘made sense’. The pain was no longer painful. The tears became worship. The rejection became ministry. Over the years we observed that all men who fought to destroy us, or our marriage, destroyed themselves at last. Glory to God!

I have never once regretted marrying this wonderful man. I know that many people are tired to hear sweet poems of love; they are angry when someone sings of hope, of romance and happiness. They focus their attention on politics, tribal wars and daily frustrations of life. I try to understand your pain and anger. I live in the same planet with you. But for me, in my little world, the light of God is shining, the grace of God is working and the love of God overflows its bounds. I am happy and I must declare it! To God be all the glory!

Let me say this: I can ‘manage’ any problem, but I could not have survived in Nigeria without the love, patience, help and guidance of my dear husband. He has blessed me as his wife, as the mother of our children, as a pastor and co-laborer with him in the Lord’s Vineyard. He covers me with prayers. He predicts my desires and goes ahead to fulfill them even before I am aware of what I need. He is my English teacher, my doctor, my lawyer and even my police. If you look in my heart, next to Jesus Christ, my Savior, you will find my husband.  He gives me the freedom to be what God wants me to be. He encourages me to stand and fulfill destiny! Today is my husband’s birthday. We do not want money, cards, cake, drinks, rice or fried chicken. We only desire your prayers. That is the best gift of all. Thank you! And God bless you in return! In Jesus name, amen!

“One Sabbath day as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, He saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for eighteen years and was unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Dear woman, you are healed of your sickness!” Then He touched her, and instantly she could stand straight. Oh, how she praised God!” (Lk 13:10-13; TLB)

This is a wonderful testimony, how Jesus teaches the Word, heals the sick and rebukes His enemies, all in the same time. Only our Lord can do all these things in the same time! It was the ‘Sabbath day’, the same as our Sunday service. Jesus was teaching the congregation the Word of God. He then sees a woman there who was very sick. She was bent over and could not stand straight. She has been in this condition for 18 years. Her family, the pastors and the members of her ‘church’, had no hope for her. They viewed her sickness as incurable. No one was praying for her or encouraging her to hope that one day she will be ‘normal’ like them, healed and happy. Nobody had faith that this unnamed woman can one day join the choir. Everybody who came to church ignored her or maybe gave her some food. That’s all. But this sad, sick, ugly, lonely and hopeless woman decided to continue to come to church. This is called faith! Her body was bent but her heart was getting straight. She knew that in the presence of the Holy Spirit anything can happen. For as long as she breathes, she will come to church! This was the key to her miracle! She knew that nothing is impossible for God to do. She knew that God does not discriminate. Staying at home or in the hospital was useless. Coming to the presence of God opened the door for the precious miracle. For 18 years this woman has been punished by the devil with a sickness that doctors could not cure. We don’t know why it was so. But we know that in the presence of God there is fullness of joy, the captives are freed and the hungry are filled…

Then suddenly ‘Jesus saw her’! Oh, the blessed look of the Master! May Jesus see you! He interrupted His sermon and called the woman forth. In the full view of the congregation, she came crawling like a worm. She came to Jesus!!! This is faith! If Jesus commands you to do anything, do not excuse yourself. Just obey! Faith has no excuses! Jesus said: “Dear woman, you are healed of your sickness … You are loosed from your infirmity!” Then He touched her and instantly she could stand straight. Immediately she started praising God! She sang and she danced! If she was in Warri, she could have said: “Oghene – Doh…Migwo – Doh…”

This is what I called a holy disturbance in the church! I love that! Jesus loves people more than we love our church protocol. Jesus looks at the heart! Her body was bent and nobody saw that in her heart she made a vow: ‘God, if You heal me, if I can stand straight, I will praise and worship You forever!’ Her praise was released from the crippled tight and suffocating vessel. “Imela e…”

Jesus said: ‘you are loosed from your infirmity’. This word ‘loosed’ means to completely free someone from any bondage or to divorce that one from the devil. Her sickness was ‘an infirmity’, a spiritual bondage that manifested as a crippling condition of the body. Her ‘spiritual husband’ was an evil spirit. He bent her! He tried to possess her! He tried to conquer her body and her soul. For 18 long years the demon tried to force her to kiss his ugly face. But he failed! Dr. Jesus healed her! Judge Jesus separated her from the criminal spirit husband and ‘married’ her Himself. She became a born again, free, healthy, strong, happy member of the Bride of Christ. Hallelujah!

What are the lessons for us? These are simple lessons but very powerful. Come to church! Serve God in the church! Even when you are sick, have faith that by coming to church, you can encounter Jesus Christ and you shall be healed. Child of God, even if your situation seems hopeless, there is always hope with God! Jesus said that when two or three of us gather in His name, He will be there, in our midst, doing wonders. Do not stop praying! Do not stop believing in Jesus! What do you lose if you believe in Him? Nothing, only your doubts! God hears your prayers. God answers your prayers. No matter how long it takes, continue to have faith in God. One day, Jesus will see you, call you and touch you. In the midst of many, Jesus will find you and bless you. Let your faith rise. Finally, bless God if the church you attend is a living church where the pastors preach the Word of God. But if the church you attend is more like a night club, business center, bank, comedy show or entertainment place, run away from there! Go to God’s House! Go to Jesus! Look unto Jesus! He is not dead! He is risen! He is alive forevermore! Jesus is the Lord!

(In the picture, one of the sisters in our church, praising God with dancing)