The Drought

The drought

He saw himself in a forest

He had a digger

A shovel

A metal bucket and some ropes

He marked out the spot where he believed he would get water guickly

He took off his T-shirt

He rolled up his Jeans

He started digging

The soil was hard

He had a bottle of water close by

After every hour or so, he would pause and take a short rest

There was a heavily leafed tree close by

It cast a very huge shadow

He would sit under the shade of the tree and take some sips of water

After a few minutes, he would return to the site and dig on

He was in a haste to get to water

As he dug with the digger, he would use the shovel to pack out the dislodged soil

He was making headway, albeit slowly

He got to a point where he was using the metal bucket to pack out the dislodged soil

He was all alone, he had no helper

It was hard labour!

When he woke up, he realized he had been dreaming

What could the dream mean?

“What omen?”

He was a parish pastor

He had a congregation of about one hundred

He fasted four days in a week

He prayed fervently

His parish was struggling badly under the weight of debt

The church rent was huge

He had to pay the instrumentalists

He had to pay the church administrator

He had to pay bills

The total income of the church in a year was not enough to pay the rent and the bills

He had a good job

So, did his wife

Together they had shouldered the burden of the parish as well as their domestic responsibilities

It was taking its toll

His wife was fed up

He was weary

Yet “this is the work of God”

They don’t want what had been committed into their hands to fail

So many nights he struggled to pray

The burden of the debt was a stranglehold

He was being swallowed up whole

He had appealed to parish members for assistance

They had the heart to help out

But they didn’t have the means

The percentage of men in his parish was about 20%

Most of them were low income earners and manual workers

The women were mostly petty traders

They understand what was at stake

They were also very willing to help

But there were problems that makes a dwarf of a tall man

Had it been he had a land and building materials

And asked them to carry blocks, sand and gravel

They would do so freely and with joy

What the parish needed was the one thing he didn’t have

Money!

The landlord was a no-nonsense person

He had called and threatened brimstone and fire

“How come your own God is a poor God, Mr. Pastor?

Other ministers of the gospel are building 100,000 capacity churches for God

You are here, struggling and laboring to pay rent

Your congregants remained as poor as studio rats

You have been here for four years, yet, there was no improvement

Every year it is the same old story

If God was the one that sent you, he would have made a provision for you

Look at all the renowned genuine pastors of God all over the world

When they need anything

They will pray and God will stir the heart of someone to help them

How come you cannot pray like that and get result?

How come God didn’t even touch my own heart as your landlord to tell you to forget the rent for this year?

I think you should go and pray again sir

Are you sure God sent you to be a parish pastor?”

What hurt him the most was that the landlord was a senior Pastor

They were both pastors under the same mission!

It really took a dent on his confidence

Perhaps God didn’t call him to be a pastor

The struggle was crippling him

That night as he laid on his bed thinking about the red sea before him

He slept off and saw that vision of himself digging

He pondered over the vision all day

What could it mean?

He remembered something he learnt years before

 From one of his mentors

He turned to Jeremiah 33:3

“Father, I didn’t understand what I saw in my dream yesterday, please Holy Spirit, you are the master communicator, please speak to me clearly that I might walk in the light of your presence and leading in Jesus name. Amen!”

Early the next morning, around 4am, the vision came again

It was as if the dream of the previous night was paused

It just played on

The same scene, the same routine

He would dig, pack, did some more and rest

Like a vicious circle

Suddenly a man appeared from afar

He knew instinctively that the man was the Holy Spirit

As soon as he sighted the man, he started digging more furiously

Like a foreman who sighted the owner of a project

He wanted the Holy Spirit to meet him hard at work on the site

As he dug, he sweated and groaned

He remembered a song and sand it under his breath

“I love Him far better than in days of yore,
I’ll serve Him more truly than ever before;
I’ll do as He bids me, whatever the cost,
I’ll be a true soldier — I’ll die at my post.”

He hummed the song as he dug!

The Holy Spirit arrived!

He jumped out of the pit he had dug already and prostrated in greeting

The Holy Spirit: My son, what are you doing?

He: I am digging sir, I am digging a well in order to get some water

The Holy Spirit: Why struggle when obedience is easier?

He: I don’t understand sir

The Holy Spirit: Son, why are you digging for water when there is a river over there?

The Holy Spirit was pointing to a location over his shoulders

He turned around

He perceived the smell of the river and the roar of many waters

He dropped the digger

It was a rhetorical question!

He carried the bucket

He walked excitedly towards the river

It was not far from him at all!

How he didn’t notice the river until the Holy Spirit came was a wonder

He dived into the river’s crystal-clear water

The Holy Spirit stood at the bank of the river, delighted in his joy

He took his bucket, he wanted to fetch some water

The Holy Spirit said “No son, this river is yours”

WOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!!

He was instantly giddy with joy

He: Father, how do I get the water of this river to the whole world

Holy Spirit: Where ever you take my word to, this river shall spring forth there!

The vision cleared!

When he woke up, he laughed

He understood what the Holy Spirit was saying clearly

He resigned as a parish pastor the next day

His wife said why?

He said “I have been given a bigger river”

He joined another church as a worker

People thought he had lost it

How could you demote yourself when God has promoted you?

He started following the Holy Spirit’s instructions explicitly

The Holy Spirit said “Tell my people what I have told you”

The more he did, the more people he reached

Within months, the river was flowing all over the world

Renewing the faint, reviving the weary, restoring the lost, refreshing the desert

Announcing the glad tiding of great joy

Preaching the gospel

Just like the Holy Spirit said “Struggle ceased in the place of obedience”

PS: Hope you learnt something!