Crippled Eagles

Their stories were always similar
Winners singing the song of defeat
Citizens of Zion playing Heaven's visa lottery
His people praying to become his people
The empowered praying for empowerment
The disobedient desiring to reap the 
fruit of the obedient
The found asking to be found
The delivered queuing to be delivered
Tongue talkers praying for power
Healers crying for healing
Christians booking for quarterly 
deliverance sessions
Why is the light wallowing in darkness?
It was the most frustrating thing he 
witnessed as an unbeliever
Believers so foolish, you wonder 
how they are still breathing
"Born Again" people who remained the 
same yesterday (While they were unbelievers), 
today  (As believers) and forever 
(As if they were not believers)
Believing in the soon coming King is while 
disregarding the instructions of the King within
His mother was such a believer
Heavily Born Again, a confirmed church rat,
Yet she was so poor!
She had the gift of composition, making music 
that brought salvation and healing to 
the children of men
And yet living a beggarly life
She spoke in tongues, prophesied, saw visions! 
There was a day a bird perched on a tree close 
to their house and sang a great song
His mother understood the bird
She actually interpreted the message of the bird
She actually heard the bird!
He was right there in his mother’s room 
when it happened
His mother suddenly sprang to life and 
started writing furiously on a jotter 
she kept by her bedside
When she was done, she had a message from 
God and related to her through the bed
The following Sunday, his mother got to church 
and told some women who were barren what God said
To each there was a unique message!
Eleven of them!
She told them she had been interceding for 
them and the Holy Spirit gave her a 
message for each of them
They all had their babies that same year!
None of them, regardless of how complicated 
the issue was missed their divine 
visitation!!!
And yet they wallowed in poverty
Sometimes all they had to eat was roasted 
corn and water
His mother’s God never met the needs of the family
But he uses his mother to help other households
It was not right in any way!
As he grew older and felt the whiplash of 
poverty at its full strength, he decided he 
must make money
Anybody with half a brain will see that the 
rich controls the poor
As anointed as her mother was, she 
still goes 
to the rich to grovel for food!
Ordinary food!
Their clothes were tattered!
There was nothing befitting of God in 
their lives
And yet his mother would write out psalms 
on the back of calendars and make them 
recite whole passages in Isaiah!
A people in darkness had seen a great 
light and yet the light was of no profit 
to them!
He stole and sold whatever he could for money
Sometimes it was ironic! He, 
the one who didn’t give a hoot about God was 
the one who brought food (Through ungodly means) 
to the table so that the ones who believed in 
God would not starve to death!
Sometimes his mother and siblings would go 
without food for several days!
They were looking forward to a better country, 
expecting heaven to come! They want to gain 
heaven and leave this godforsaken world behind 
because they have been deemed unfit for this 
world of sin!
Nonsense!
When he got to the university, he worked very hard!
He marketed horticultural products for a friend,
 sold wallpapers, did party decorations, 
sold mobile phones and accessories, cheated where 
he could and stole where he could!
He was running away from poverty through 
book and crook!
He was determined to be financially secure!
Poverty was such a shameful thing!
There were ladies he fancied, ladies he could 
have made a move on and start a relationship 
with but he couldn’t!
He didn’t have what it took!
Other parents laid good foundations 
for their children
His mother would say a good name is better 
than gold and silver!
A good name!
A good name means “A name that will open doors! 
A name that is notable and influential!
Not a poverty name!
What nonsense good name?
A poverty name is not a good name!
He wanted nothing to do with the name!
Ladies do not scream at the mention 
of his name!
He went to ABUJA once while in the university 
on one of his hustles 
He saw popular names that meant something 
performing at a concert
Ladies rushed to the stage
Some ladies took off their blouses right there
Some ladies cried 
Some ladies screamed
The musicians were young like him
They were making ladies go crazy 
Their names are meaningful to the ladies
Their names made sense
His own name makes him cry!
He hated the life he was born into
Several times he would say 
“God, why did you send me to this country! 
Why this family! Why did you throw me into poverty? 
I wish I was not even born!”
The poverty was a heavy burden
He bore it and his family with it!
One day he saw his younger brother, 
reading the Bible and praying
He was enraged!
He was busy finding a way of escape for the 
family through practical means and 
realistic hustles
His brother was behaving like his mother
God dependent on wretchedness 
Couldn’t his brother see?
Their mother was obviously not the yardstick with 
which to measure success in life
The Bible didn’t save their mother
Praying didn’t bring her any blessing
She was poor, bitter, angry, shallow 
and unfulfilled
Their father had died while they were young
Their mother took to living off God and 
the generosity of other people
She inherited nothing and hustled for nothing
She was just content to serve God and 
sing Kumbaya!
He challenged his younger brother!
"You don’t know what you are doing!
You will die of poverty!
Which God are you crying and calling upon!
Will prayer become good
You people are lazy and hiding behind 
God for your foolishness 
God will not rain manna from heaven!
Go and get a job 
Go and find something doing!
His younger brother was shocked by 
the depth of his venom!
His younger brother came to him afterwards 
He said “I have met God for myself, 
I am not serving God because Mummy did! 
I serve God because I know Him now! 
And I know you, that you haven’t met with God 
and that is part of your frustration. 
If you give me a chance, I will let you meet 
with God and decide for yourself if He is 
real or not’
He listened
Partly because he felt guilty for berating 
his brother so sternly!
It felt as if he unloaded his vitriol of the 
young man out of sheer frustration
He really loved his brother
He agreed
He really would love to meet God and 
confirm his realness
He had a lot of questions!
His younger brother led him to Christ!
Nothing dramatic, just the ”Sinner’s prayer”
It was mere words!
But it changed everything!
He just found himself surfing the waves 
of His glory
It was gradual and unforced! 
At first, he combined the reality of his new 
birth with his hustles, bad habits, 
and crooked ways
But things began to turn around
The Holy Spirit said to Him, ”The Jews were 
searching through the Scripture looking for 
eternal life! They stood face to face with 
Jesus and still they were searching!
That is the same problem many of my children have!
They have me and yet they keep looking for me!
I have them all things and yet they wait 
for me to give!
They have the power to make wealth and yet 
they wallow in poverty!
Don't be like them!
If you will walk in the reality of my fullness, 
be a doer of the word!
Experiment!
Practise!
Act according to my instructions 
Throw self away and wear me like a cloth!
If.you do this!
You will be exactly like me!
An Allos Parakletos, not just a comforter but 
one like Christ in the world of men!
A partaker of the divine nature!
He got it!
He walked in it!
It became his reality!
As he grew in it
He saw the light affecting others around him
Poverty ran when illumination came
And yet he did not preach prosperity 
He lived Christ and Christ lived through Him

2)In my early years of ministry,  l started deliverance 
meetings on every Saturday and in all my sincerity 
l wanted to help those people. 
We had every kind of manifestation you 
could think of and a lot you shouldn’t 
have thought of. I'm talking about physical 
manifestations. We had every kind of operation. 
Some were the spirit of God , some were evil 
spirits and some were just the flesh. 

After about 3 months, the novelty of the 
deliverance service wore off. 
Then l decided to change the name of it and call it 
something else and in all sincerity l was trying to 
help the people. Instead of calling it deliverance 
meetings l started calling it “Get free services “. 
And everybody that came to be delivered now came 
to get free and after about 3 months that also wore off. 

In all sincerity, l was trying to help the people 
and that is why God blessed it not because of it 
but inspite of it . Then l began to have “loosening
 services”. And everybody that came to get delivered
 and came to get free, the same people came to get 
loosened. We had been running this deliverance 
services, get free services and loosening services 
for nine months.

Now, you learn a lot when you live with the people
 and so I will visit them in their homes and their
 farms since half of them were farmers and talk 
with them. I found out something as l talked to 
them and l was so disappointed. That after all 
these deliverance meetings, Get free meetings, 
loosening meetings and all these manifestations 
we had people walking on their heads and those 
walking on the ceiling. If there were more 
delivered or more freed or or more loosened 
than there were nine months before, l couldn’t 
tell it. 

I was honest enough to admit that they weren’t 
better off. The only improvement was that they 
had hollered a little more and jumped a little 
more and that seem not to have helped them much. 
I was desperate about it because l wanted to see 
a change in the lives of the brethren so l went 
to the Lord in prayer and fasting. I said to the 
Lord: “ Lord this is not working and in all 
sincerity, l thought l was right so it ought 
to work and l want to help the dear people but 
l know we have missed it somewhere because this 
is not working and these people are not delivered 
or set free or loosened . What’s the trouble Lord?”.
Then on the third day of my fast the Lord spoke 
to me . He said “ Your problem is that you have 
tried to do for the people what only my word will 
do. Secondly, you have tried to do through prayer 
what only my word will do. Prayer is important 
but prayer will not and cannot take the place 
of my word. I said in my word you shall know the 
truth and the truth shall make you free. 
Start teaching them my word and my word, 
in the final analysis, will make them free. 
You see breathing cannot take the place of eating. 
You have to breathe to be alive. I call prayer the 
breathing and the word the eating . 
But the breathing after awhile will not work 
if you are not eating.

So I started teaching them the word and those same 
people that went through the deliverance services, 
the get free services and the loosening services 
permanently got delivered, permanently freed and 
permanently loosened.

~Kenneth Erwin Hagin
Culled from the tape “Kingdom Authority Series”

Ps: A casual Christian is of no benefit 
to the kingdom of Jesus
Outward poverty is an indication of 
deep poverty of the spirit
No one who is rich in the knowledge of 
Christ can ever be poor!
Jesus was made wisdom unto us
Jesus gave us all things pertaining 
to life and godliness!
You have no excuse to be poor, in bondage 
or afflicted if you are in Christ 
Don't be like the servant who buried 
his talent 
If you walk in obedience you will experience 
Christ and His reality at work in you!
But if you are one o those who had adopted
the African traditional religion mentality
that encourages you to turn your pastor into
a consultant so that you live your life in 
the flesh and your pastor/prophet helps you 
see visions, interpret dreams, fasts for you,
carry sacrifice for you, do deliverance for 
you all the time!
You are in bondage!
The blind need a walking stick or a guide
but he who can see needs no guide!
Walk in the light today! Set yourself free!!!

Shout out to David Sowemimo, my younger brother
 and the one who introduced the gospel to me!
He made me read  the Bible through from Genesis
 to Revelation for the first time
He gave me the first audio tape of Andrew Wommack
 that I ever listened to
He led me to RCCG when I was looking for a 
local parish
He followed me to my first Parish in 
Agiliti (Mile 12, Lagos) as a Parish Pastor
He berates counsels and encourages me in my 
walk with the Lord
A son can never outgrow his Father!
The Jesus he led me to was different from 
the Jesus I have heard a lot of preacher talk 
about and present as Santa Claus
This Jesus, my Jesus, who lives in me and 
orders the course of my life owned me fully!
I needed no intermediary to get to him or 
relate with him
I became an independent entity not needing 
any G.O or Visioneer to connect to Him
This is the Jesus I also preach
Your Jesus!
Personal, intimate, fully owned and 
fully loved!
You don't need any other intermediary!
We follow Christian leaders to grow in Christ 
but not to set them up as demi-gods
I have the fullness of Christ at work in me!
Do you?