Julius

His mother hated him he couldn't 
really say why He was the first child, 
a splitting image of his father, the 
one that wouldn't conform to the 
manipulative schemes of his mother 
His mother hated his father too 
His father and mother lived in the 
same house in different apartments
Their marriage was arranged 
It produced six children 
His mother was a woman who believed 
in consulting spiritualists and mediums 
As soon as he was born, the spiritual 
verdict on his destiny was that he 
wouldn't amount to much in life 
Just like his father 
His mother lost interest in him 
after that 
She had made spiritual inquiries 
about his father too and she had 
been told his father was an average 
destiny who could be helped spiritually 
to attain greatness 
She told his father about the verdict 
His father said no 
That was the beginning of the hatred 
His mother didn't understand how a 
man could shun supernatural help and 
remain average when he had the 
opportunity to do some little augmentation 
of destiny to get better in life 
His father was a simple man 
His father believed people make their 
own destinies and refused to give in to
his mother's pleas His mother took it 
as a sign that his father wanted to 
remain a perpetual leech on her 
His mother was rich 
She was a businesswoman 
She inherited her late father's rubber 
plantation and other businesses 
She was very materialistic and saw her 
husband's average life a sign that 
he lacked ambition 
When he was twelve years old his 
mother built her own house next to 
her father's house and moved into it 
The house was a statement of 
independence and wealth in their 
community 
His mother moved in immediately while 
his father stayed in his own
humble but decent apartment 
In all his parents have four children 
His mother took to the last three 
They were the ones with a golden 
future as foretold by his mother's 
weavers of fate 
As they grew, his mother's spiritualists 
and mediums proved to be very accurate 
The last child and only girl got married 
at the age of 16 to an Italian crude oil 
specialist who came to do some work 
in their community 
His father had no say in the matter 
His sister and his mother were like two 
peas in a pod 
The day he made the mistake of correcting 
his sister for dressing in a provocative manner 
He was mercilessly torn to shreds by his 
mother 
His mother said "The fact that you came 
first doesn't make you the eldest child in 
this house, nobody gave you a rod of 
correction over your siblings. 
If we judge by glory, she is stronger 
and far weightier than you 
If we judge by how meaningful your 
lives will be, the breasts she exposed 
will bring her more fortune in a year 
than your education can ever do in 
ten lifetimes 
If we judge by status, her short skirt 
will catch more fishes than your tattered 
nets. 
You were born to be led dont ever 
presume to correct any of your siblings 
again" 
Those words, coming from his mother 
in public felt like a Mike Tyson uppercut! 
He was in a daze for several hours after 
his mother's outburst 
He lost all appetite for food 
He knew his mother's ways 
He knew she was speaking
as one who has checked the facts 
and seen the future 
When his father returned from the 
office, a neighbour who was also one 
of their church members who was 
present during his mother's outburst 
told his father what had happened 
The neighbour felt he needed some 
attention so that he wouldn't injure 
himself 
He was nineteen years old at the time 
and was writing JAMB for the third 
time 
His younger sister was barely out of 
secondary school 
True to his mother's words, his sister 
married into money two years later 
The house her sister's husband built 
for their mother was the talk of town 
The Italian guy had been divorced 
three times before he married his sister 
His father was against the marriage but 
what could the poor man do in the face of 
His mother's manipulations and schemes 
His immediate younger brother wrote 
JAMB only once and gained admission 
On the day of his younger brother's 
matriculation, his mother looked at him 
and said "When the candle threatens to 
rise in the morning, the sun will look at 
it and laugh! 
The sun has no rival in glory and it does 
not struggle to rise whenever it desired! 
Your brother is a sun, see how soon his 
rise was 
Unlike you, constantly pretending to 
take off only to crashland! 
I cannot call you my son, like your father, 
you chose the glory that had gone into 
oblivion! 
You shouldn't have been born if all you 
planned to come to the world to do was
suffer!" 
That year, he swallowed his pride and 
applied to the college of Education 
He was in the second year when his
youngest brother gained admission 
to a University in America 
His sister's husband sponsored the whole 
thing 
It hit him like a sledgehammer 
He had been left behind
The day his youngest brother traveled 
Just as they were returning home from 
the airport 
His mother called him her room 
His mother said "Your father couldn't raise 
you right! 
Were you not the one I called his own? 
You will end up living a far below average 
life if you don't do as I will tell you your 
glory has no weight and your light was 
dim from the beginning 
Nothing good will come to you unless 
it is forced 
I can help you to force it 
I gave your father the same offer 
years ago, you will not hurt anyone 
or do any evil ritual but I can take 
you to those who can see beyond 
through the smoke and polish your glory 
until it beams! 
Your father decided he wanted to remain 
a beggar, I hope you will make a better 
choice 
He knew the story 
His father had told him the story several 
times because his mother never ceased 
to refer to it whenever she wanted to 
taunt her father but for the first time he 
felt his father could be wrong 
A decent life might be okay in principle 
but he was surrounded by so much wealth 
and his life wasn't reflecting it 
The three children his mother paid 
attention to had made it in life while 
he remained in one spot 
He told his mother he was ready to do 
whatever she wanted 
His mother beamed with pride 
The next morning his mother took him 
to one of her spiritualists 
His mother told him the spiritualist was 
instrumental to his sibling's success in life 
He believed
After a lot of back and forth 
The spiritualist gave him some things 
The spiritualist told him to bury the things 
in a thick forest in the middle of the night 
within the next seven days 
He didn't tell his father what was going on 
He knew it would break his father's heart 
but he couldn't continue to suffer in 
ignorance 
It had become obvious that his mother 
knew something that worked for his 
younger ones 
The next day, on his way to school, he 
had a ghastly motor accident 
The things the spiritualist gave him were 
in his bag 
The bus he took on his way back to school 
veered off the road and crashed into a river 
He barely survived 
As he was wading out of the river 
A man who survived the crash with him 
turned to him and said "If you do what you 
were told to do, you will die in another 
accident very soon 
You are the sacrifice! 
You are the sacrifice..."
The man's words echoed in his ears over
and over
He was the sacrifice?
He wanted to ask the man what that
meant
He turned around...
The man was gone
When he got to the hostel, he flushed
the things down the toilet
He never went back home from that
day but his life never remained the same
again
He started having crazy nightmares
The scene of the accident kept
coming
The river was blood and dead bodies
floated around him
He prayed and cried
He became scared of sleeping
He reached out to the Brother in Jeans
and T-shirt
He told his story
He didn't care about being rich or
wealthy anymore
He just wanted his peace back
He had learned the hard morsel with 
peace is better than a house full of goodies 
and strife
The brother in Jeans and T-shirt told
him he had to give his life to Christ
Once you are in Christ you get to
live your life on God's terms!
You become like the wind, unpredictable
and a light brighter than the sun
He believed
They prayed
He got filled with the Holy Spirit
The nightmares ceased!
He graduated and moved on to the
University for his PGD
Exactly three years after he cheated
death, his younger brother suddenly
died in a car crash
It was similar to his own
His brother's bus veered off the road
into a river
Nobody survived!
That was when he told his father
about his own experience
He was sure his mother convinced
his younger brother to do what he
failed to do
His father confronted his mother
His father fell ill and died three weeks
later
He couldn't even go home to bury
his father
He stayed far away from home out
of fear
The Italian guy divorced his sister
it seemed he had a pattern of marrying
young nubile teenagers and dumping
them when they get to their twenties
Her sister signed a prenuptial agreement
She left the marriage with pocket 
change
His youngest brother had been indulging
in heroine secretly while pretending
to be a student
The lack of funds exposed the addiction
issue 
He got stranded in the USA
Things started falling apart
He finished his PGD and got a job as
an assistant lecturer
He met a lady, an M.Sc Student on
Campus
They fell in love and got married 
In 2017, his wife was awarded a full
scholarship for a programme she
applied for in Norway
They traveled
While there he got a job with a
phone manufacturing firm
It was a life-transforming job
Within a year, he had bought a house
and could call himself wealthy
His younger sister and brother
had returned home
They were living off his mother
The sister had no education and
was still reeling from her fall from
grace to grace
The younger brother had become
a Rastafarian with locks as strong
and thick as a monkey's tail
His mother reached out to him 
several times
He refused to budge
He discussed the issue with the 
brother in Jeans and T-shirt 
The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt told
him nothing can by any means
hurt him
In 2018 July, he reached out to his
Family
His sister gave her life to Christ and
was enrolled in the University (Part time)
to study Business Administration
He invested in a fish farm in Ikorodu, 
Lagos state which his brother started
managing
(His brother was studying fisheries and 
Marine Biology)

PS: I have seen demonic wealth burning
It is not a pretty sight
I have seen demonic joy fail
it was always epic
Demons have no authority to operate
on the face of the earth
Sometimes through human activities
they get to operate for a short spell
But it can never endure
Always remember this if you are 
tempted to trust the demonic
It will never last and it will always end
in ruins!

GSW's notes: In Jesus, a believer gets
to start all over
No matter how humongous your past
mistakes were
You get a fresh start
Unless you give your life to Christ
and you continue to live as led by the
flesh or religion
If you yield your life to the Holy Spirit
and you get led by him
All things become new!
Hallelujah