Impacted

Impacted

His action was borne of sheer desperation
The doctors had told him there was nothing they could do
His mother was 56 and afflicted with a strange illness
His mother would be dead within two months
He was not that rich, but he didn't want his mother to die
His mother had not really enjoyed the fruits of her labour
He planned to build her a house
Satisfy her soul with good things
He wouldn't dare give up like that
There has to be something
There must be a way out
He ran to his church
The priest gave him Holy Water and prayed with him
He ran back to the hospital
He applied the Holy water
He prayed!
He was not a stranger to God and his ways
He was practically raised by a reverend Father
His father died when he was nine and his mother ran to the church for help
The church considered the widow with seven children
The church took them in and catered for them
That was how he didn't end up on the street
His mother's heart desire was for him to become a priest
His mother wanted to give back to God 
She wanted desperately to say thank you for the Church's intervention
The church trained all her children
The church provided her with accommodation and clothes
The church didn't do this so that sh can be used to preach on Sunday
She saw the love of God made manifest in the church
She told her son  what she desired
Her son was placed in a seminary at the age of 14
She would be the mother of the next pope or something close to that
Maybe a Cardinal or a Bishop!
Her son had a heart for the ministry
Her son had a passion for the church
She was told by many of the teachers that her son had a bright future
Her son was the best in his class
He was a genius with a heart for God
He got to the main seminary at the age of 18
She was looking forward to his ordainment at the age of 23
Then he fell in love
She didn't know how
All he told her was that a fellow seminarian's younger sister came 
to visit her brother in the seminary
The Seminarian's younger sister was accompanied by a friend
Her son saw the friend and the desire to be a priest died instantly
She cried and begged him to reconsider
She reminded him of the lofty height priests occupy in their community
Every chess board in the world has four Bishops
Nothing can be done without the input of the church
Unless her son was planning to be a King, a rook or a knight 
His life would be irrelevant in the long run
Nothing else mattered to her but for her son's life to be meaningful
But her son's head had been turned by Jezebel
She had to accept his decision especially because the Jezebel was already pregnant
Her son graduated from the seminary and became a Guidance Counsellor in a Catholic school
She just couldn't bring herself to reconcile with her son's new reality
She reminded him of his promise to build her houses
His promise to make her name great
How could a guidance counsellor do all that
How much was he earning?
She worried, cried and somehow fell into depression
Her son's wife delivered her first child
But nothing could cheer her up
Her other children blamed their brother's wife for derailing him
They held him responsible for their mother's ill health
He was determined to prove to her that he would succeed
He wanted her to live to see it
But the more he cried and begged
The worse she became
He turned to God in prayer
"Please spare my mother, heal her!
please dont let my mother die a bitter woman
please don't let my mother die without blessing me
Please dont let my mother die without seeing all the things I promised her
Please dont let my mother die without enjoying the fruits of her labour
He prayed and fasted and pleaded
His mother only grew worse!
The doctors told him his mother had only a few hours and at most days to live
He had watched on the television for several weeks
The advertisement of a crusade being held by a Man of God
A Pentecostal pastor whose ministry is reputed to be full of signs and wonders
He had been trained in the Seminary to see such pastors as charlatans 
They make jest and mockery of such ministry and their adherents 
He had come to that bridge...
He discharged his mother from the hospital
He would rather she died while he was trying to get her help
Than wait for certain death without making a move
He paid for an ambulance and carried his mother to the crusade ground
He had never been a protestant
He had never associated with pentecostals 
But desperate times...
The crusade started
There was a mammoth crowd
A popular pentecostal worship minister sang
Another popular pentecostal pastor prayed
The Man of God took the microphone 
He said "JESUS! JESUS!! JESUS!!!
It was as if a strange wind blew 
He felt goose pimples all over his body
The driver of the ambulance suddenly opened the door and vomited on the road side
He felt a strange electric current pierce his body
They were not in the main crowd
They were at the car park close to the main crowd
Many people in the crowd were falling under the anointing
He had always made mockery of "Falling under the anointing"
or "being slain in the spirit"
He felt it was extremely ridiculous
They were told by some of their lecturers in the seminary that it was demonic
What on earth would carry a whole human being or many human beings
And fling them through the air like cardboard papers
It had to be a prop or acting of some sort
God is a still small voice
Like the voice of a cooing baby
or the whispers of a gentle breeze
God does not display power wantonly like this!
His mother coughed and sat up!
He screamed!
The whole episode lasted for like ten minutes
The Man of God asked people who were healed to come forward and testify
He carried his mother out of the ambulance
He mother stepped down from the stretcher
Her mother walked
It was as if nothing was ever wrong with her mother
They walked to the podium
Tears streaming down his face
There were so many others waiting to testify
He could barely hear them
When it was his turn to testify
He shared what has happened
The crowd cheered, the pastors on the podium cheered
The man of God laid hands on both Him and His Mother
The anointing lifted them gingerly
They fell!
He usually asked ridiculous questions whenever he watched such a scene on the television
"Why didn't the cameramen fall if the anointing was real
Why was it that those who fell under the anointing were mostly women?
It must be a form of Hypnotism"
All he saw as he was falling was a bright light
When he got back to his feet, he was speaking in tongues
Not the other sensible languages he was taught the disciples spoke on the day of pentecost
The gibberish he always mocked and jeered
He was speaking that same gibberish and his body was trembling
He and his mother went home rejoicing 
But nothing was ever the same
He left his church!
It wasn't as if God was not in his church
He had tasted the supernatural and he was no longer satisfied with "Sermons"
He joined a pentecostal church
He gave his life to Christ!
He did baptism by immersion
He became a Sunday School Teacher
He started his own business and prospered
He built his mother the house he promised
He bought her a fancy car
In 2006, ten years after joining the pentecostal church
He became a Pastor of one of the branches of the church
The anointing he had once ridiculed was evident in his ministry
He is still declaring the generation of Jesus to the world
Hallelujah!

PS: This event happened in Lagos Nigeria (1985)
The Crusade was the Archbishop Benson Idahosa crusade held in Lagos
The things of the spirit can never be understood by the flesh
Any Christian who assumes Christianity is a religion of logic has missed the point
Nothing! Absolutely nothing is logical about Christianity
If you are a believer and you dont have the Holy Spirit
You need Him badly
Without Him, you are not really a believer
It is the Holy Spirit that works in you to do the will of God
Without Him, you are just playing religion
Go ahead and ask the Holy Spirit to fill you now!

Photo :Archbishop Benson Idahosa impacting Reinhard Bonnke in Lagos 1985 Crusade