Sprung

He always thought he knew how 
God spoke to him 
It was usually in a quiet place or if 
he was in a busy and noisy place, 
God would speak to him from a place 
of quiet within him 
He just would get a very clear thought, 
clear and definite and he would be 
convinced above all else that God was 
speaking to him 
Once he was praying in the morning 
around 3 AM 
HE was living with his elder sister who 
was a journalist at that time 
His elder sister emerged from the 
bedroom at about 5AM fully dressed 
She met him on his knees praying as 
silently as he could so as not to disturb her 
He was a fresh graduate at the time 
He was observing his NYSC and had 
a community Development task later 
that day 
When his sister observed that he was 
praying, she tiptoed to the dining table 
She dropped a note and some money 
for him 
Then she proceeded to the door 
Just as she was walking past him, he 
held out his left hand and held her leg 
She stopped 
He quickly grabbed on to the leg and 
continued speaking in tongues with
tears streaming down his face
He didn't know why he did so 
He didn't hear anything, it was a 
spontaneous thing 
Very strange and unusual 
His sister was equally miffed 
She said "What is this? 
Why are you holding on to me? 
I will miss my cabman, i have called 
him and arranged for him to pick me 
at the junction 
I have a very important assignment 
to cover and I cannot afford to be late 
he heard her clearly but it felt as if he 
was in a place far away from her and 
her words were barely making meaning 
to him He held on to the leg 
His sister's countenance changed and 
her words became stern and harsh 
"Leave my leg, what sort of rubbish is this? 
Won't i work? If i lose my job will you give 
me another one? I cannot afford to miss 
this assignment, please let me go, 
What is wrong with you? 
Are you high or something, I said, 
Let go of my leg!" 
He held on His sister tried hard to free
 herself 
Eventually, she got tired and sat down 
He held on to her legs Seconds turned 
to hours 
He simply couldn't let go 
His sister started to cry bitterly 
He held on to her until 7 AM 
He was aware of everything that had 
happened 
He just couldn't explain it 
When he released the leg, his sister 
bolted out of the house 
She didn't even wait for an explanation 
She was really pressed for time 
He knew he was in big trouble that day 
His sister will most likely call their 
mother and report him to her 
His mother was a very tough woman 
A practical, hard-working, no-nonsense 
person 
When he made the mistake of informing 
her that God speaks to him, his mother 
said "You want to end up like your father! 
Poor and dying unfulfilled in the name of 
doing God's bidding. 
I cannot count his outreaches and 
evangelism programmes that I sponsored
 with my sweat before he died! 
He would always come up with a 
God says "scheme" and i will fall for it 
hoping it would finally give him a 
breakthrough in life 
He died wretched 
He was of no use to me or his children 
I carried the burden of this marriage 
from the moment I married him when 
\I was twenty-two until he died when 
I was fifty-two I gained nothing apart 
from my two children from him
This was a fine sports journalist 
A man who was representing the media 
company he worked with, in the UK, at 
sporting events all over the world from 
the age of twenty 
A man who promised me the world and 
its wonders 
The moment he started that God spoke 
to me thing and decided to leave his job 
We were led from one calamity to the 
other 
From a good job and a good apartment 
in the UK, we returned home following 
this  God's voice 
We got home and he refused to work 
He kept praying and shaking and 
following the voice he claimed to be hearing 
I was pastor's wife, hmm
In retrospect, i was very religious and 
foolish at the time and followed him gullibly 
We moved into his parent's house after 
returning home 
We stayed there for three years 
His parents kept indulging him 
They said he was a man of God with a 
special calling I said AMEN and watched
After three years of suffering, my mother 
called me and said "Is this what you 
will sit with? 
Is this what you will trust in? 
Is this how you will leave your life like one 
of those women hypnotized by a cultist to 
follow blindly even as such is led to the
 slaughter? 
My mother was my saviour 
Her words rang in my ears for days 
I dusted my certificate and got a job 
After a year I got an apartment and he 
moved with me 
His God did not tell him to stay with 
his parent
I fed and clothed him I thought of 
leaving him for so many years 
What sort of man follows God
at the expense of another 
Why should i carry all the burden of 
raising the family because his God had 
decided to strip him of his dignity as 
the head of the family 
You guys grew up never asking him 
for a thing 
You always came to me for everything 
you needed 
Do you think that is how it ought to be? 
Is that how a father ought to be? 
Was that not being worse than an infidel? 
I had dreams that I had to shelve so 
that i can raise you guys with the best
 I could provide 
Your father's God didn't come through 
for him 
All your father was known for was 
carrying a fat bible and wearing a drab 
coat everywhere He joined a church 
here and started doing some ministry work 
Do you know how much they paid him 
monthly? 
The amount was so ridiculous, it couldn't 
buy a can of baby food 
That was what the voice your father 
heard led him to leave a job which earned 
him hard currency for I know how our 
friends, relatives and colleagues looked 
at us after a few years 
We were mocked and pitied 
Your father's life was a joke and I will 
not raise a son who will put another 
woman through that rubbish 
God gave you hands so that you can work 
He had heard the sermon over 200 times
No matter what God tells him about his
mother, he always kept such to himself
because of such triggers
His mother was a hardliner 
He admitted that his father didn't do 
some things right but after he gave his 
life to Christ at the age of fifteen, he 
had grown so much by the power of the 
Holy Spirit that he couldn't deny the 
reality of the voice of God and the
 impact it had in his family 
He didn't know what came over him 
He dressed up and went for his 
Community development around 9am 
He just had to carry on until the shoe 
drops 
Later that evening, he went to church 
for the mid-week service 
He told the pastor what happened that 
morning 
He wanted to know if the pastor has 
ever had a similar experience 
The pastor kept looking at him as if he 
had lost his mind and later said some
 words which he knew was said just 
to get rid of him 
He was not surprised 
Over the years since he became a believer,
He had come to see that God is not real to 
everybody even among pastors and other 
believers 
They acknowledge the existence of God 
and therefore they serve him 
He had heard them preach sermons so 
devoid of God and full of common sense 
that he often left the church wondering how
they couldn't see that God is more than 
a being out there 
That night, his sister didn't return home 
His mother called him around 8pm 
"Your Sister in Badagry, something happened 
but I cannot explain it over the phone, 
we will go and see her in the morning" 
He started to shiver...
He knew something was way off
that morning
He just couldn't explain it in words
What could have taken his sister to
Badagry and why was his mother
in a panic?
He knelt down to pray
He heard the Holy Spirit say to him
loud and clear "Go and sleep"
The words had barely gotten to
him when he slept off
It was one of those deep sleep that
seemed to go forever
The sleep promised God beloved in
the scriptures
His mother woke him up with her
phone calls the next morning
They set out for Badagry at around
6AM
They got to the town at around 9:30AM
They went straight to a hotel
His sister was waiting
They picked her up
His sister said, I had an important
assignment yesterday morning which
i missed because I got to the office
very late
I was given a new assignment in Badagry
I came with my driver to cover it
When we got here it was a case of
a man whom the police nabbed with
fresh human body in his car
An eye witness had sent pictures and
some part of the story to our office
I followed up the story to the police
station after speaking with the
eye-witness
The alleged criminal was still being
processed when i got there
Lo and behold, the criminal was my
cab driver
As soon as he saw me, he fainted
They revived him and he started to
speak
I have everything he said on tape
He said I was the one he wanted
to kill
he said he had smeared the passenger
seats in the cab with the substance
he was told to use
All i had to do was seat on the substance
and i would be hypnotised
Then he would take me to a place and
slaughter me like a ram
He said all he needed were my two
breasts, private part and heart
He said he planned to sell the other
parts to others who also traded in
such
But I didn't show up
He said he waited for two hours
Eventually he drove on and picked
another woman
The woman was the unfortunate
victim they caught him with!
WOW!
His mother started trembling and
crying
His sister too
The atmosphere in the car was 
charged 
It felt as if he just preached the
gospel to them
So he asked them if they wanted
to accept Jesus Christ as their
Lord and Saviour
His mother and His sister
The former, a very hardened and 
bitter woman who was vehemently
against religion and his sister who
had been fed the full dose of his
mother's anti-God doctrine all her
life both chorused YES!
He led them to Christ in the car and
they both got filled with the Holy
Spirit

PS: This is the testimony of Brother
Shola Makinde and the entire Makinde
family
I met the Makindes at an Event in Festac
They wanted to grow in the knowledge
of Christ
We shared ideas and grew together
His sister is now married to a very
successful lawyer
She owns a school
Mama Makinde is 63 years old today
We wish you a wonderful Birthday
ma.
God bless you

GSW's Stories: I have two things to say: 
1) The Holy Spirit does not lead us
into poverty
I know many believers who are poor
Wrong teaching, wrong doctrine,
limiting the ability of the Holy Spirit 
and being religiously foolish leads
to poverty
Those collecting seed from people
are equally wrong
That is not how the Holy Spirit 
blesses his people
He blesses givers both shepherd and
the sheep
He does not turn shepherds to parasites
When you walk with him as you ought
to, he would teach you to prosper

2). The Holy Spirit sometimes does
not explain everything in details
There are things he will do through
you that you wouldn't be able to 
put into words or explain to anybody
The one thing you will know for sure
was the fact that His touch or voice
made a big difference to you, that
person or that situation
Listen to Him and be led by Him
Rely less on your own understanding!