Handicapped?

It was when i was watching the series 
Marco Polo that I saw something I 
could use to describe my condition 
right after graduation.
There was this monk in the series who 
single-handedly fought and defeated 
many warriors when Ghenghis Khan 
and his forces invaded his monastery 
the monk was captured alive
The king had a thing for extraordinary 
talent and his general recognized 
this monk as such
When the monk was taken back to 
the king, the king told him he would 
want the monk to become the 
official martial arts teacher of the 
royal house
The monk was defiant
All he wanted to do was escape and 
go back to the monastery which had 
since been destroyed
When the king realized that the monk 
wont do his bidding, the king instructed 
that the monk's eyes be blinded with 
a dangerous snake's venom
After the deed had been done, the 
King invited the blind monk to his court 
and told him the story of the royal swan
The king said all over the world, it 
was known that swans were always 
white in colour but when he went to 
raid a kingdom in the east, he found
 a black swan. 
The only one of such in the world. 
The King said he ordered the swan to 
be brought it back to his palace but 
the swan refused to stay
At every opportunity, the swan would
 fly away and trackers would have to 
be deployed to capture it and bring
it back to the palace, so he had no 
option but to cut off one of its wings
The King said he would have preferred 
the swan to be intact but since the
swan had refused to be wise, he
had to handicap it so that it can
serve its purpose
The king concluded by saying, "All 
things must serve at my pleasure 
or not at all"
The royal swan couldn't escape again
The king said he built a royal garden 
for it and other exotic birds to the 
delight of his pleasure and made sure 
they got the best care in the world
The king asked the monk if he got 
the message
The monk nodded
The king then named the monk 100
eyes, assuring him that his other
senses would more than make-up for
the lost eyes
The king built a royal dojo for the monk 
and the monk settled down to teach 
members of the royal court martial 
arts willingly
God did the same thing with Jacob in 
the book of Genesis 32
Jacob was the one who had been 
loved from the womb but his carnal 
mindset was a huge disadvantage.
 His name was not in any way helpful
He must supplant because he was a 
supplanter
Yet inside of his loins lies the salvation 
of all men 
The seed of the woman was in his 
bones
God needed Jacob to walk in the 
divine will but Jacob was too willful 
and smart to do so
There are two things cheats have in 
common
Enemies and consequences
Jacob dealt with these two things by 
running
He ran from facing the consequences 
of stealing the blessing from his brother
He ran from the service of Laban
Admittedly, Laban had cheated Jacob 
several times and kept him subservient 
with his policies 
When he got to the point where he 
would have to face his brother the 
second time, he knew he and his family 
were facing a very certain death
He decided to meet with God at Bethel
We all do this, after digging a hole too 
big for us to come out of, a negative 
health report, pain, sickness, a fierce 
marital storm, sickness or loss of a 
child, financial distress, job issues, 
marital delay, and so on
Like Jacob, God becomes our last 
resort after we had exhausted every 
other option
The first time Jacob was at Bethel, 
he saw angels ascending and 
descending upon him in a dream
The second time, an angel of the 
Lord was waiting for him
The angel could help him, Jacob 
knew this but the angel didn't 
want to because Jacob had a track 
record of taking advantage of 
people and the angel knew Jacob 
would go back to his old ways 
once he was able to find a way 
past the confrontation with Esau
It became a wrestling match
Desperate Jacob versus the angel
of God
The human will versus the divine will
The struggle lasted all night
When the angel realized Jacob's will 
was like that of a mule, he touched 
the socket of Jacob's hip and 
wrenched it
When it was morning, the angel gave 
up on Jacob and said "I have to go"
At that point, Jacob held on to the 
angel demanding a blessing
The angel said "Your name will no 
longer be Jacob but Israel because 
you have struggled with men and 
an angel and overcome"
That was the day Jacob hung his 
boot as a supplanter
That was the day Jacob began to 
live according to the plan of God for 
his life
That was what I deducted from my 
ordeal with the certificate scandal
It wasn't village people
It wasn't a failure at the edge of 
success syndrome
It wasn't the devil 
It was God
I had known from childhood what 
the future holds for me in God
My mother never stopped drumming 
it in my ears
"I named you Samuel because of a
 vow i made to God before God gave 
you to me and I will never place any 
demand on you except that you yield 
to the call of God when his voice 
comes to you"
I had no intention of doing anything 
of such, and I made it very clear to 
my mother
I remember telling my mother many
times that if there was a God, He
should come to me and introduce 
himself instead of hiding behind my
mother's skirt
When I joined the fellowship on campus,
 it was because there were some 
advantages to it that I wanted to exploit. 
I just wanted to graduate from the 
university and run as far away from God 
as my legs could carry me
Nobody knew what I had in mind but me
My one and only goal in life was to be 
like a Nobel Laurette that I had admired 
since childhood
I had read all his books and started 
copying many traits of his
In the flesh, it was a good plan but it 
was not God's plan for me
I was headstrong and my mother was 
very prayerful
It was my will against her prayers
Human will against God's will
When the scandal broke, my mother 
refused to pray for me or with me
I daresay she was happy but she 
didn't say so to my face
I noticed she was not as concerned 
about my predicament as another 
mother would be
She never followed me to the school 
or put a call through to anyone and 
she was the Women Missionary 
Union President of our church at 
the time
A month after my convocation, she 
came to Lagos with a Maxwell's 
leadership Bible
She told me to suspend all 
my plans and read that Bible
She said "This is what the Holy Spirit
 told me to give you. He said if you 
will open it and read, God will give you 
understanding and you will be a 
vessel unto honour in his hands!"
I was too broken to argue
I had done my thing for 28 years 
and found myself empty-handed
What option do i have?
God had handicapped me like 
Jacob
My mother won the longest argument 
we had ever had between us
I stepped into the divine will and I 
found it to be better than my previous 
struggles
Many believers run about praying 
against unknown enemies for years
There will always be one exceptional
example they can quote to support
a stance that is both anti-gospel
and encourages the children of the
day to be misled into thinking they
are being afflicted by the night
Before the enemy can truly have
access to you in the light, you must
have crossed some serious 
boundaries
A born again Christian who is full of
the Holy Spirit is no longer just a
human being
He or she is a Christkind, a partaker
of the divine nature, an associate
of the Godkind, the light of the world!
Sometimes it is an enemy but that is 
truly the exception and such is never
hidden or unknown
Apostle Paul was perhaps the most
fiercely persecuted of the apostles
in the scriptures
He knew who his enemies were
Even believers who had never been
to the village all their lives keep
claiming village people are behind
their maladies
It is ridiculous
Stop giving the devil and evil 
underserved credit
The norm is that we pit our wills 
against God's will and we insist on 
having our way
We become born again but we don't 
walk in divine will
We only ask God to endorse our plans 
at the expense of His own
When things dont work out
We go into fasting and prayers
We consult all sorts of spiritualists and 
prophets
We look for scriptures that had "enemy" 
in it and turn such to our prayer point
We rarely look within
We rarely ask ourselves the tough 
questions
Jonah knew it wasn't the enemy
He knew has set himself on a collision 
course with God through his disobedience
When Apostle Paul was arrested in Philippi
He and Silas worshipped God in the
prison and there was an earthquake
The chains fell off and the miracle led
to the conversion of the prison warden
They were released with apologies by
the authories
When Apostle Paul was arrested in 
Jerusalem, nothing of such happened
He had to depend on his wits and a lot
of gimmicks and information to escape
the wrath of the jews
why?
In Acts 13, while the disciples were
ministering to the Lord, the Holy Spirit
said separate unto me Paul and Barnabas
for the work which i have set before them
Paul was called in Acts 9 by Jesus Christ
as the one to take the message to the
gentiles but somewhere along the line
he decided to leave his post in defiance
and despite heavy warnings from the
Holy Spirit through Agabus and the 
church
He decided he was going to preach to
the Jews
He was arrested on his first day in the
temple and there was no record of
one soul won despite all his sermons
to the head of the Pharisees, the 
governors Felix and Festus and King
Aggrippa.
Two years of his life he languished in
jail until he appealed to Caesar
As soon as he left the shores of 
Jerusalem, his supernatural abilities
returned to him
An angel appeared to him telling him
details about their journey, a snake
bit him and the snake died, they got
to Malta and he healed the father of
their king of dysentery
The undoing of any believer is walking
in self-will as against God's will
This Is the bane of many
They do whatever they desire and 
expect things to work out their way
When things don't work out, they accuse '
the enemy
They forget that sometimes you must 
serve at God's pleasure or not at all!

PS: James 1: 22 But be doers of the 
word, and not hearers only, deceiving 
yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a 
hearer of the word and not a doer, 
he is like a man who looks intently at 
his natural face in a mirror. 
24 For he looks at himself and goes 
away and at once forgets what he 
was like. 
25 But the one who looks into the 
perfect law, the law of liberty, and 
perseveres, being no hearer who 
forgets but a doer who acts, he will 
be blessed in his doing.

That somebody is bearing a Christian
name or even attending church
religiously does not make him a 
believer. 
Village people can attack a Samuel
who is walking in carnality 
preachers must make this distinction
and not generalize this "Village People"
syndrome!
Only the ignorant wearing the garb
of a priest will tell the world that
after we have embraced the finished
works of Christ and started walking
with the Holy Spirit, we can still be
attacked by the enemy
The Holy Spirit cannot be afflicted
in obedience but he can suffer
with us when we walk in disobedience
Isaiah 63:9 In all their affliction he 
was afflicted, and the angel of his 
presence saved them:
They were afflicted because of their
disobedience in the wilderness
He never left them but he will never
aid and abet disobedience!