The Gift, Part 2, Short Story

Shade felt the warm rays of the sun caress her face and her eyes flickered open. She turned her head away from the sun and saw the picture of Kola her fiancé smiling at her. Next to that picture was the picture they took on a boat in Dubai with the Burj Khalifa in the background. She had fond memories of that weekend in Dubai. She tried to smile but was rewarded with a headache.

She sat up in bed and noticed that she was still wearing the clothes from yesterday. One thing she never did was wear her work clothes to bed. She got out of the clothes, rushed into the bathroom and took a shower. Minutes later she emerged from the bathroom, did her beauty routine and put on some new clothes.

She entered the kitchen and made herself a cup of mint tea. The heat of the brew helped to clear her head. The clock on the microwave oven read 9:23am. A frown creased her face as she looked at the time. She never slept this late on a Saturday. She was supposed to be at the gym at 7:00 am, but she had missed today’s session by two hours. She pushed aside the cup of tea as concern rose up in her mind. She remembered going to Uche’s apartment. She couldn’t remember leaving it or what happened afterwards. As hard as she tried she couldn’t remember where she had been last night.

Her phone beeped and rescued her from the agony of trying to figure out where the last eight hours of her life went. It was a text from Kola, her fiancé. He was on his way to her apartment and wanted to know if she was back from the gym. She evaded the question. Yes, she was in, she ended the conversation. He had requested for a key to her apartment but she had refused. They were not yet married and until then he had no right to barge into her apartment whenever he wanted. She needed her own space where she could think her own thoughts, process freely and do as she pleased. She felt some sadness as she looked around her apartment. She would miss this apartment when she moved into Kola’s house in Magodo after they returned from their honeymoon. She had so many fond memories, secrets locked in the walls of this house. After living here for seven years, the environment, the people, sights of Surulere had become a part of her life. She wished she could keep the apartment and return to it when she needed some alone time. But society wouldn’t allow her do that. It would be regarded as an act of rebellion for a young bride to retain her former apartment. Her mother would see it as resistance to marriage or the fear of moving into an uncertain future with her husband. She stood up and touched the leaves of the plant that grew in a pot by the window. She liked the scent of the flowers when they blossomed. There were other flowers pots on the balcony but this one was special. She even gave it a name. Cher. Its flamboyant colours reminded her of the ageless, iconic rock artist.

*******

‘Where were you last night?’ Kola asked her as he drove.
‘I was at Uche’s place then I came back home to sleep,’ Shade avoided his eyes.
Kola gave her a curious look. ‘I called your phone over ten times but it was switched off. When did you start turning off your phone? We had an agreement that our phones should always be on in case of an emergency.’
‘I must have forgotten,’ Shade said without conviction.
Suddenly Kola veered off the road and entered a gas station. He found a spot and parked the car. Shade looked at his face and feared for what was about to happen. This could very well be the end of her intended marriage to him.
Kola held the steering wheel tightly. Shade watched him.
He turned to her. ‘Shade, I am going to ask you one more time. Tell me the truth. I know you weren’t with Uche last night. I called her at 11:25pm. She said you had left her apartment and you said you were going to your mother’s place. I called your mother and she said you were not at her place.’ Kola paused and rubbed his palms together. Shade said nothing.
He continued. ‘I was tempted to call your pastor and let him know what was going on but it crossed my mind that if I brought him into the matter, there were questions I wouldn’t be able to answer. He could also tell us to call off our wedding. I didn’t want that to happen, so I didn’t call him. but if you don’t start talking to me, I will call your pastor and tell him what is going on.’
Tears came to Shade’s eyes as she listened to Kola. She saw the end of her relationship with him. She saw the wedding cancelled. She saw herself shamed out of the church. She saw herself mocked by fake and false friends who would rejoice about her break-up with Kola Owolabi. Her face would be splattered on social media platforms and people would call her mean names.

Money: Fear and Lies.

 

Every dictator knows that the way to wield absolute power over people is to instil enough fear in them and use it to manipulate, control and enslave them.
Someone said that fear is at the core of power.
If you want to have power over people, all you have to do is make them fearful and they will do anything for you.
Unfortunately such techniques are not only used in the secular world but are also employed by some preachers who are wolves in clever disguise, pretending to be shepherds in the Church.

Fear is used by these impostors to manipulate whole congregations to obey them and do whatever crazy thing they ask them to do without thinking. Fear is used to enslave people to their organisations.
Fear is the principal tool of extortion used by these power hungry wolves to steal from the ignorant and enrich themselves.

A leader who uses fear to manipulate people to follow him does not deserve to be followed, neither does he deserve a leadership position.

Human beings are plagued by various fears. These include the fear of failure, fear of poverty, fear of ill health, fear of shame, fear of loss and the fear of death. These fears plague everyone in different degrees. What the wolves in the church do is to stir up fears in your soul then turn around to tell you that they have the solution to those fears.

Take the fear of poverty for instance.
Poverty is not a spiritual problem. It is an economic issue. You overcome poverty when you offer value to the market place. It is not a spiritual disease or condition like some preachers say. You don’t need to be spiritual in any form or manner to make money. All you need is to understand and apply some economic laws and the situation of poverty will be reversed.

It was Adolf Hitler who said ‘People will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.’

Many American and African preachers have copied from Hitler’s play book on the manipulation and control of the masses and they employ his evil techniques on their gullible followers. They have come up with a lie so big that even some of the smartest people amongst us are deceived by their narrative. The lie is simple. They say if you give them money you will become rich, you will also retain the riches you already have, avoid financial disasters and generally do well in life. However if you don’t bring your money to them you will suffer and be visited with various calamities and unfathomable evil. They package success stories associated with people who apparently gave them money and became rich overnight. They conclude that if you don’t give them your money you will struggle financially.

I have heard a popular Nigerian preacher tell his congregation that ‘giving makes you rich.’ He goes on to tell his listeners that it is because they don’t give to him and his church that they struggle financially. This is a wicked lie deployed from hell against the Saints. This celebrity preacher has ridden on the back of this lie for decades and is now surrounded by material things which apparently proves that his heretic theories on money are correct. But a lie is a lie no matter how many people believe it to be true. A lie still remains a lie no matter how many private jets, buildings, businesses the proponents of this lie have acquired. Millions of people who don’t subscribe to Christian values are rich by applying basic economic principles to their work and life situation. They never had to ‘give to get rich’.

Like flies breed worms so ignorance breeds fear.
Where great fear exists, great ignorance sustains it. The fear of poverty is fuelled by ignorance. It is fuelled by the ignorance of economic laws which can be applied to break its vicious cycle. It is fuelled by the ignorance of how money works. Preachers capitalise on the ignorance of their gullible listeners and infuse their minds with lies. When you have no idea what the bible says, when you don’t understand the nature of God, you will become a victim of fear. What we don’t know, we mystify and when we mystify something it scares the living day lights out of us. Dubious preachers mystify money. It is a deliberate deceit to make people associate money with mystery and spirituality. I have heard some preachers say that ‘money is spiritual.’ This is also a lie designed to mystify money and make it look like the only way to make money is to follow some ‘spiritual process,’ and that process is always somehow connected to giving money to the preacher. But money is no way spiritual. Money is as natural, as earthly as it gets. Money is simply a reward for the value we bring to the market place. It is not a reward for some spiritual activity we engage in.

People driven by fear and superstition give to a church not because they love the Lord, but because they are ignorant and think it is the surest way to overcome poverty. They give because they want to either get rich or protect what they’ve got. They give not out of love for the cause of Jesus Christ, but because they want to secure material, financial and other temporal blessings in their lives. They give because their pastors threaten that if they don’t, they will be haunted by curses, beset by evil omens, be attacked by devourers and experience bad luck.

But is this true? Is this what Jesus Christ taught? Is this scripturally correct?

Jesus did not teach this. this is not scripturally correct. It is a well conceived lie designed to steal from the ignorant, the superstitious and the gullible. It is manipulation at its most insidious form.
It is quite shameful because the leaders who preach such lies should know better.
Giving in the New Testament is done willingly by the giver, without coercion of any kind. Giving is primarily an act of worship, not a means to secure temporal blessings. There are people who don’t subscribe to Christian values, yet they are very rich. Having money is not a function of your spirituality or your giving. It is a function of bringing value to the market place. The fallacy of the ‘give to get’ narrative is clearly seen by the fact that people who don’t subscribe to Christian beliefs are the richest on the planet. If the ‘give to get’ lie were true, Christians should be the wealthiest on the planet. But we are not. The kingdom of Christ is not in meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The Church of Christ should not be motivated by fear, but by love. Jesus said: ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments.’ John 14:15. The keeping of his commandment should be done out of love for him, not because we are afraid of something bad happening to us if we don’t comply. Love for The Lord is a more powerful motivating force than fear.
Love is the reason why we serve The Lord Jesus Christ, not fear. John says : ‘We love him because he first loved us.’ 1John 4:19.
Love is the reason why we obey him and do the things that please him.
Love is the reason why we lay down our lives for the cause of Christ and for the brethren.
It is the love of Christ that compels us, motivates us, moves us to action. Not fear.
It is the love of Christ that stirs us up to give our money, time and energy in service.
Without love being at the core of what we do, we would have wasted our lives at end of our journey. 1Corinthians 13. We shouldn’t desecrate the offerings of God turning our love gifts into bargaining tools or gambling chips by which we expect to win a jackpot. We should honour The Lord with our offerings from a heart of gratitude, knowing that there is nothing we can give to deserve God’s mercy, favour and goodness in our lives. It is when our free will offerings are given in love that they are acceptable, pleasing, received and rewarded by The Lord.

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear:because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

If you are compelled by fear to give to a church or charity, you are in bondage. Each time you give under the influence of fear you will become more enslaved by it. Fear brings great torment to your soul. This is not how God operates. He never uses coercion, manipulation, intimidation or fear as motivation for us to do His will. If you are scared that if you don’t give ‘bad things will happen to you,’ you should resist the urge to give until that feeling of fear goes away. Never give under the influence of fear.

If you serve or give your time, energy and resources to a Christian organisation, let it be out of a heart motivated by love to serve and obey The Lord Jesus Christ. Let it never be because of fear.

1Timothy 4:8 says, God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, of love and of a sound mind.

The Lord doesn’t reward offerings given in fear or motivated by covetousness. The Lord only rewards our free will offerings given in love.

Blessings.

The Deception At Jezebel’s Table

 

1 Kings 18:19
Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s table.

In the days of Elijah the Tishbite, there were three categories of prophets in the land of Israel.
The prophets of Baal.
The prophets who ate at Jezebel’s table
Elijah and the prophets of The Lord.

The prophets of Baal openly served their sex and fertility god called Ashtoreth. Their worship of this evil deity wasn’t hidden. It was known to all that these particular prophets were absolutely dedicated to the worship of Ashtoreth. These were evil men who didn’t even pretend to follow Jehovah in any way.

Then there were the four hundred prophets who ate at Jezebel’s table. Jezebel was the daughter of a king who worshipped Ashtoreth. She married Ahab king of Israel and brought her Ashtoreth/baal worship along with her. Jezebel was a wicked woman who loved to be in control of both the political and spiritual aspects of the kingdom. These prophets allied and aligned themselves with this wicked woman because of what she offered them. She offered them royal dainties from her table. She offered them a royal lifestyle powered from her throne of wickedness. These prophets ate whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, however they wanted. There was unlimited provision at Jezebel’s table. There was no restraint whatsoever at Jezebel’s table. Eating at Jezebel’s table represents the unrestricted satisfaction of the desires of the flesh.

Those who ate at Jezebel’s table had certain characteristics.

The Deception Of Covetousness

The deception of covetousness.

A few months ago I met a dear brother after a long time. After the pleasantries, I asked him how he was doing. He began to tell me about how much money he was making when I interrupted him. I asked him to tell me about the condition of his soul. That was when he confessed that his spiritual life was in shambles. He had lost his way and needed help to get back on track with The Lord. If I hadn’t stopped him, he would have carefully concealed his dilapidated spiritual condition behind a facade of financial success. His life was more than possessions and money. His real life was suffering while he was busy accumulating material things. His problem was covetousness.

A woman buys shoes, clothes and jewellery at a frantic pace. She hardly wears what she buys but she feels pressured to buy more. She compromises her values, sells her body and soul and is ready to do absolutely anything to get more money and material things in her life. She is driven by covetousness.

A man keeps acquiring cars, houses and women. He is never satisfied with what he has and sits up at night thinking about how to acquire more. He is ready to do absolutely anything to acquire more of what he already has in abundance. He is driven by covetousness.