Time Lag and The Prophetic

I remember getting her message in my Twitter DM

She asked if I could come to Abuja and have a prayer session with her and her extended family

She was a single mother, who had given birth to four children from four different men

None of them proposed marriage to her

They took care of her while the going was good and she had always wanted to have many children

So she got pregnant and kept the children

The fathers knew they had children with her

She does not disturb them for a dime in terms of supporting the children

She was working with an international NGO

Money was neither hard nor easy to come by

She had enough to meet her needs and that of her children

She was also a believer, a recent convert

She however discovered after joining a church that even though Jesus loved her unconditionally

The church and her fellow saints didn't like women like her

Beautiful, self-determined, successful, Alpha female, a natural leader, one who makes decisions that do not necessarily conform to the norms, mores, rules, conventions, or expectations of others, heady and spontaneous

She noticed that Christian men within the church avoided her and that their wives talked a lot about her behind her back

It was better when she was not in the church

She lived her life free of judgment and condemnation

She had imagined the church would be a haven

She discovered the hard way it was not

She had done everything she could to fit in

Changed her wardrobe, started dressing like the sisters she found to be classy and shiny in church, and so on

It made no difference

And yet it was the senior pastor's sermon that provoked her spirit sorely and prompted her to reach out to me

He taught about evil patterns and symptoms of Demonic affliction

He said if you have a pattern in your family in which nobody got married but most family members are contended to have children outside wedlock or just settle down as baby mamas, second wives or mistresses, it is a symptom of demons at work in the family

He said if the family is experiencing delay in having children which affected almost every member of the family or if there was a common disease or affliction in the family like leprosy, mental illness, goitre and so on, it was a demonic pattern 

After listening to hours of the sermon, she became convinced she needed deliverance and so did members of her family

Her older sisters were all single parents just like she chose to be

Although in her case, marriage was proposed several times by different men but she chose to live free of the hassle by choice

Two of her younger brothers, were cannabis addicts while two of her younger sister had serious mental health issues

Their mother died after giving birth to the seventh child

Their father was from a fetish family somewhere in the middle belt of Nigeria

She approached the prayer department of the church to book a prayer session for her family

She was tacitly ignored

This was why she reached out to me

I told her I would be coming to Abuja a few days from then

We met

She said, "I will tell my family members to come together so that you can pray for all of us"

I said, "Amen"

I met with her and 35 other people in her sitting room the next day

I taught them the gospel of their salvation

Funny enough, they were not strangers to the name of Jesus or certain practices of the church

They however didn't know there was a big difference between being a Christian and being religious

The former is living out the life of Christ

The latter is living out the doctrines of men moulded within their own personal experiences and belief systems

The former keeps the believer free to rule and reign

The latter keeps the believer in bondage, fear of men assumed to be better than one within the church and the fear of hell

After the short teaching session, we prayed

The room was charged and the power of the Holy Spirit began to move

Did I mention that I met this family at about midnight?

Due to my busy schedule that was the only time I was free

As I joined my hands with them one by one the Holy Spirit revealed a secret

A pot, dedicated to an idol, in their family house in the village, this pot was a huge water pot, kept in one room in their family house

The room was opened only once a year or whenever any of them had a baby

The unbilicord of the baby would be prepared, burnt to ashes and then poured in this pot through a ritual

The pot was supposed to keep them all bound together in love and protect them from every form of harm

As soon as I mentioned it, their eldest child, a female said, "The pot is a no go area"

She said many pastors had seen the same thing and that she was sure I must have been informed by someone about the pot before claiming it is a revelation

She said the pot had always finished all those who mentioned it or tried to do anything about it

She warned me to pray my prayer and leave instead of poking my nose where it didn't belong in the name of chasing spiritual clout

I smiled and told her that the room where the pot was, its priestess and the pot were currently on fire

I told her it was burning to ashes and would never be built again

I told her the priestess of the idol had also been decommissioned and unless she gave her life to Christ would never be able to see with her eyes or live a normal life again

She laughed and huffed off to sit down at the dinning section of the sitting room

By this time it was almost 4am

I blessed the family and took my leave

The next morning came, the lady who invited me called to say, "Thank you"

She said, "Brother Gbenga, that thing you said about the pot and the priestess being on fire should have been kept to yourself sir. There was no fire and my older sister is already telling everybody that I invited a fake pastor to pray for the family"

I told her not to worry about my reputation, but to prepare herself mentally for what was to come

I reminded her of the treatment she had gotten in church and how she felt it was unfair

I told her Jesus is expecting her to do much better than that

She didn't get my point at the time but she said okay

A week later, I was back in Lagos, preparing for a trip to the UK

My phone began to ring

The shrine, the pot and the priestess had all caught fire overnight

The shrine and pot and house were burnt down completely

The Priestess, whose identity nobody knew because she only appeared once a year or whenever any of them had a baby to open the shrine and perform the ritual was badly burnt and had to be rushed to the hospital

The priestess was the same sister that I had had an argument with in her house

The Angel of the Lord watched over the prophecy for 33 days, this woman got up from Nassarawa all by herself

There was no new baby and it was not the time of the year when they open this room

She couldn't tell how or why

She went to the shrine, opened it and set it on fire by herself

Then she sat in the burning room to prevent the villagers from lynching her

That was weird...

When she was rushed to the hospital, she began to confess to so many attrocities she had committed using the destinies or essence of the family members and some other things

All of them panicked

I got on the plane to Abuja that same day

We met in her sitting room again

This time there were well over 80 people including children

(Fear is a terrible thing)

I explained to them that they were supposed to be rejoicing

I said, "The angel of the Lord that took your oldest sister from Nassarawa to Benue and made her do everything she did will just be wondering why you were wearing long faces instead of shouting Glory!"

I told them it is important that they do not run to other places with the story unless they are telling it as a victorious tale

Africans have a habit of seeing evil or thinking evil perpetually

The shrine was burnt down, decommissioned totally

The priestess was also decommissioned totally

Why worry about possible repercussions from demons?

Why so fearful of attacks from other idol worshippers and so on

Rejoice!

Again I say Rejoice!!!

My charge worked, by the time i was leaving we had fellowshipped and ministered unto the Lord

Prophesies came forth assurring all and announcing the glory days ahead

As for the priestess, I didnt see her until September this year

She had spent four months in the hospital and survived the fire incidence

She had given her life to Christ

Her sister, (The one that invited me) had taken my counsel to heart and shown her and her children great love and care)

When I saw her, she said, "I didn't know why I did what I did.

It started as a whisper in my heart and then it grew into a noise.

Burn down the shrine, burn down the pot, do it now.m

It was as if the voice got louder every day I delayed

I finally just had to do it so that I could have peace of mind

I didnt remember sitting in the fire or being rescued from it

What  I remember was waking up at the hospital and being prompted to confess to my siblings everything I had done to each and everyone of them

I expected to be treated like a pariah, to be stripped naked and stoned to death in the market square

Instead, I was shown love and care

My children were neither labelled nor hated

Nobody acted as if they were afraid or suspicious of me

I began to feel normal and free around them when I realised all the tension was unnecessary

I was the one that asked for a Bible myself and I begn to read

I was the one that asked my sister to bring me a Pastor to pray for me and fill me with the Holy Spirit

Thank you sir."

I embraced her and prayed with her

She is my sister, my joy and my delight

We are all members of the body, flesh and bones of Jesus

Ephesians 5:30-33

There is no condemnation in me or mine

Love is our nature

PS: Sister Olivia and her older sister Patricia are doing wonders in Abuja and Nassarawa everyday

They are preaching the gospel twice a month in both cities and the testimonies they are recording are mind boggling

Just yesterday, sister Patricia opened the eyes of a two year old baby that was born blind

I was not shocked when I heard the testimony, I was screaming!

Once upon a time she would have been stoned to death under the suffer not a witch to live doctrine

The gospel of Jesus has brought light into her darkness

She has become a burning and a shinning light to the world

Glory be to God.

Now to address the issue of the delay in the fulfilment of the prophecy

It is what we call a time lag

The period of time it takes to manifest what had happened in the Spirit realm in the physical realm

Jesus was foreordained before the foundation of the earth but was made manifest 2000 years ago

1 Peter 1: 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you

The same thing happens sometimes in the place of prophecy

Sometimes, you see a thing, you are sure of it, you say it out loud with confidence and it happens instantly as it did on Mount carmel when Elijah called down fire 1 Kings 18:38

At another time, you see a thing, you are sure of it, you say it out loud and then you have to wait and sometimes even pray like Elijah did on mount Carmel for a while before the rain falls

1 Kings 18:41-45

Be assured of this, that the angel of the Lord is watching over the Word you have spoken by the Spirit to perform it and at the right time, it shall be done as ordained by the Spirit

It has nothing to do with your ego or your reputation

You have an audience of one

-GSW-