The Gift, Part 6. Short Story.

 

Uche Okpara drifted in and out of consciousness. Her mind went back to her former life, the life she lived before the Lord saved her. Was this punishment for her past sins, she wondered. It made her laugh when her team members called her a general of intercession. If only they knew to what depths of depravity she had descended before the Lord saved her they wouldn’t call her a general. She was more like a corporal or a recruit in the army of God. She never discussed her past because she wanted to forget it. But it seemed like it kept coming back to her. Everywhere she turned she saw a reminder of what she used to be, she saw the life the Lord saved her from. And she was eternally grateful to God for His mercies.

Uche worked at a fashion house as a designer during the day but at night she transformed herself into a woman of the night called Trinity. She got the name from watching the movie ‘Matrix’ and she liked it. Her favourite spot to pick up customers was at the bar beach in Lagos island. Selling her body was not the only thing she did. Uche organised criminals to raid the houses of her clients. When she was not selling sex or robbing her rich clients, Trinity sold drugs.

She had no remorse. Everything she did was a business transaction. A powerful politician asked her over to his home to render her services. When she was done, the man refused to pay her and told her to leave his house. The next day she dressed in the most revealing clothes she could find and waited for him at the lobby of his office. The staff walked past her casting curious glances at her. She ignored them all. When her client of the previous night arrived, he saw her and his face fell. He entered his office and asked his secretary to usher her into his office. As soon as the door was shut behind his secretary he jumped out of his swivel chair. ‘Trinity, have you gone crazy? What are you doing here dressed like this? This is my office. I have very important friends who come here to do business with me.’
‘I will come here every day until you pay me for my services. And if you don’t, I will visit your golf club. I am sure your friends would like to know who I am and what I do,’ she said.
The man wiped a drop of sweat from his forehead. ‘Are you threatening me?’ he asked.
‘What does it sound like?’ Trinity asked.
He pointed a finger at her. ‘Listen you worthless piece of…’
She slapped down his finger. ‘Shut up and pay me my money or I will go to the front of your office and start shouting,’ Trinity said.
The man rushed to a desk, brought out a wad of dollar notes and threw them at her. ‘Please, don’t come back here again,’ he pleaded.
Trinity counted the notes. ‘Thank you for the tip,’ she turned and walked out of his office.

She was a lost soul. Wickedness held her in its claws. The night she encountered Christ, a man walked up to her and gave her a tract. She wanted to throw it away but something made her stuff it in her bag. That night as her client slept beside her, she reached to take a pack of cigarettes from her bag and her fingers touched the tract. She brought it out and read it. As soon as she got to the end of the four page tract, the man lying beside her woke up, got out of bed and went out of the room.
He returned with two men and they wanted to rape her. One line in the tract came to her mind, ‘Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ As she struggled with the men she had a conversation with God.
‘Lord, if you deliver me from these men, I will serve you for the rest of my life. I will stop selling my body for money and I will like a holy life.’ She had no idea what she meant by those words but she wanted God to help her in that situation.
Suddenly a phone rang. The man left Uche alone and answered the call. Uche crawled to one side of the bed and awaited her fate.
‘The boss wants to see us now,’ the man with the phone said.
‘Right now? It is 3am,’ another man said.
‘Yes. He said we should come to his house right now.’
One man took her clothes and threw them at her. ‘Get dressed and get out of my house.’ He regarded her with anger as she struggled into her clothes. ‘You must serve a powerful God because He just saved you tonight,’ he said with disgust.
The man didn’t know how right he was. God delivered Uche from their hands. As soon as she got back to her apartment she prayed and asked God to save her soul.

Seven years later she woke up from a trance like state to see deacon Soleye reaching for her with trembling hands like a child about to steal a piece of chicken from his mommy’s pot of soup. She shook her head to clear it but it seemed like she was drugged.
‘Please, don’t do this…please,’ she begged.
Soleye stepped back to savour his moment of victory over her. ‘Where is your God now? Where is he?’ he regarded her with disdain.
In her delirium, Uche wondered the same thing. Why did God allow her to fall into this trap? She should have known better than handle occult objects carelessly. She underestimated Soleye and his ability to hurt her. She should have called for assistance from her team members in the prayer group but her pride brought her to this horrible place. She prayed in her mind and asked the Lord for strength.
Soleye’s hands touched her body.
She screamed.

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The Money For Miracles Scam.

The Money For Miracles Scam.

Luke 7:11-15
And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people. Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow:and much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and touched the bier:and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.

One of the most moving stories in the Gospels is about the son of the widow from a city called Nain. Jesus saw the funeral procession and noticed that the woman was a widow probably by her attire. The bible says that he had compassion on her and comforted her, telling her not to weep. This was not an empty religious palliative. He told her not to weep because he was going to do something to turn her situation around, terminate her pain and bring her joy.
Now here’s what is worthy of note.
Before Jesus raised the young man back to life he did not ask for a special offering, a miracle seed, a prophetic seed, a prophet’s offering, a breakthrough seed, a resurrection seed. None of that. He was moved by compassion, rebuked the spirit of death and brought the young man back to life. He delivered the man to his mother, alive, strong, without any exchange of money for a miracle.
The bible didn’t even mention if the woman had any faith for the miracle that Jesus performed, yet he brought that young man back to life.

Some preachers would have us believe that nothing happens in the kingdom through a minister of the gospel unless money is placed in his hands as a seed. They want us to believe that it takes money to release the power of God upon a person to bring about deliverance, freedom, healing and transformation. Such ministers insist that until money is given to them or their ministry God cannot and will not move. They put money before the move of the Spirit of God insisting that if money is not given the Holy Spirit will not move.

This is a lie from the very pit of satan’s headquarters in hell.

The Gift, Part 3. Short Story.

‘You have to let Kola know what is going on. You shouldn’t keep this to yourself. If he finds out on his own it may destroy your relationship.’
Shade regarded her friend for a moment. ‘You want me to tell my fiancé that I spent the night in the home of a cultist but nothing happened? Kola will never believe me. This is the end of my marriage plans,’ Shade sobbed.
Uche placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘I know this is hard for you but the best thing for you to do would be to come clean, be totally honest with him.’
Shade looked at her friend. ‘Honesty cannot work in this matter. If I tell Kola that I was in that man’s house, I cannot predict his reaction. He may drive down to his house and confront him.’
‘That wouldn’t be a bad idea,’ Uche said. ‘That short man should get his butt kicked for what he attempted last night. I can see him running away from Kola, totally scared out of his evil mind,’ Uche said.
Both women burst out laughing.
Shade wiped the tears from her eyes as she laughed. ‘Uche, you have such a dark sense of humour. I can imagine Kola using him as a punching bag.’
‘At least I made you laugh,’ Uche said.
‘I love Kola very much. I don’t want anything to come between us. He has not called me since he dropped me off at my place. I am afraid that this situation is irredeemable.’

Uche’s phone rang. She looked at the caller. It was pastor Cornelius Akanbi.
She covered the mouthpiece and whispered ‘pastor’ to Shade.
‘How are you doing?’ the pastor began.
‘I am fine sir. Thank God.’
‘All the group leaders in the church have been invited to a love feast at Deacon Soleye’s place tomorrow after the church service,’ her pastor said.
Uche had always suspected that her pastor was spiritually immature. Now he had succeeded in eliminating all remaining doubt from her mind. Inviting all the heads of department of the church to a luncheon at Soleye’s home was the height of spiritual irresponsibility. How could a man who called himself a pastor be so blind that he couldn’t see that the man organising the luncheon was the enemy of Christ? It bothered her deeply that a pastor who was supposed to watch over the sheep was sending them all to the slaughter in the house of their mortal enemy.
‘Uche, are you there?’ the pastor asked.

The Pastor’s Secret 6, Final instalment.(Short Story)

 

He stood before the door to the private hospital room with trepidation. He hesitated and muttered a short prayer. What lay behind this door, he wondered. He wanted Susan to be okay. Two nurses walked past, giving him side glances. They whispered to themselves and looked back twice as they walked down the long hospital corridor.
He stepped into the room and stopped. Susan lay on the bed sleeping. In spite of the bandage tied around her head she looked beautiful. He stood by her bed side observing her breathing. She opened her eyes. When she saw him, she forced a weak smile. ‘Thank you for coming,’ she said.
‘How are you doing?’ He asked.
‘The doctors say that I will live.’
He didn’t want to pressure her but he had to know what happened to her husband. ‘How is Bassey?’
Susan shut her eyes. When she opened them they were angry. ‘Please don’t ask me about him. He is the reason why I am in this hospital.’
Ogedengbe ignored her. ‘Where is he?’
She was silent for a moment. ‘He is dead,’ she started crying. Ogedengbe stood there not knowing what to tell her.

******

The maid brought in drinks and set them on the centre table. As soon as she left the room Susan turned to Ogedengbe and kissed him on his lips. Ogedengbe didn’t know how to respond to her.
‘I have wanted to do this for a long time,’ Susan said, kissing him again.
Ogedengbe’s mind was racing. He was in the house of a man who was buried ten days ago. This was supposed to be a condolence visit but it was getting out of hand. He looked into her eyes and unbriddled passion stared back at him. He wanted her, but not here, not now, not like this.

Manipulation and The Making of a Cult.

A few days ago I was reading a book on humility by a very popular Ghanaian author. It was a good read until I got to a place where the author said that you shouldn’t ‘correct upward.’ He went on to explain that it is wrong for you to question and try to correct your spiritual leaders. He said that God called your leader and if he is going wrong, it is wrong for you to correct him, you should leave it in the hands of God to correct him. This is the same man who wrote a book on loyalty, but loyalty to who exactly?

I heard a prominent Nigerian preacher warn that you should never argue with him because if you do, ‘judgment’ will fall on you and you will die in a mysterious manner. He gave several examples how some members of his congregation rose against him and they were killed ‘mysteriously.’ The fact is that we all shall die some day. A Christian should never be afraid of death because to be absent from the body is to be present with The Lord-2Conrinthians 5:8.
This man also says you cannot ‘argue with proofs,’ that ‘only fools argue with proofs.’ That means you should not question his doctrines and unscriptural practices because he has successfully surrounded himself with money and material things. Money and material things are not proof of being in the centre of God’s Will. John the Baptist had his ministry in the desert, yet the whole nation came to him. He didn’t need to surround himself with material things as ‘proofs’ that he was in the centre of God’s Will.

Gold Digger 5

Gold Digger 5

Tina entered the hotel room, threw her handbag on the bed and ran into the bathroom. She came out minutes later and sat on the bed. She brought out the money Dayo gave her and threw the bundles of Naira notes on the bed.
She got up and stood before the mirror and looked at her reflection. She rubbed her stomach in slow round motions.
Her phone rang. She answered it.
It was her childhood friend Shade.
“Yes, you can come up to my room.”
Moments later Shade joined her in the hotel room. Shade had forced her wide hips into a very tight pair of jeans and wore a large top. Tina wondered how her body could breathe in those jeans.
“What did he do when you told him?” Shade asked before she sat down.
“I couldn’t say anything. The first time his stupid sister was there.”
“You could have pulled him into a room,” Shade said.
“I wanted to have his full attention.”

They Are All Men, Just Like You.

They Are All Men, Just Like You.

A spiritual gift or ability is a call to serve in the Body of Christ. It should be accompanied with a great sense of responsibility and humility. Having a gift does not make you special or different from any other believer. It doesn’t give you special rights or special privileges to act and live the way you like. Your gift does not give you the audacity to enslave the people you were called to serve. It is an error to think that your calling gives you special rights, advantages and privileges over other believers. It doesn’t. Such erroneous thinking is alien and abhorrent to the saints.