That April 16, 1972, as I was going with much contempt to Christ Apostolic Church, Enugu, where Dr. Evelyn Wyatt, the British Evangelist, was ministering and cripples and blind people were reputed to be receiving their healing, if I knew that I would be born-again that day, I would not have gone but thank God that I went there. My mission was simple, to gather ingredients I would use in disproving their wild claims in that 20th century. Today, April 15, Saturday, was 45 years I received the invitation from two Medical students and a student in Estate Department. Half-way into our journey, rain fell and we went back to our hostel in University of Nigeria. “Why didn’t the lady stop the rain,” I ridiculed. .
Many people, unfortunately, are still arguing and reasoning as I did. At that time, I forgot that I would have been a dead man. In 1969, I returned from Biafra to my liberated town by the Federal Army. The next day, with letters from our people in Biafra, I left by 5 am to see my eldest sister. That was the safest time to move about because from 8 am, the Nigerian soldiers would be ravaging the whole town. I used to sing Biafran-war songs a lot but that morning, I did not. Had I done that, my story would have been different. At a sharp junction, I jammed seven Nigerian soldiers from 82 Battalion, well armed, going for an attack. My town’s lady had ‘married’ two Nigerian soldiers, a junior officer from that Battalion and a senior officer in 4 Battalion.
I greeted them and there was no response. I was in front and they were following me behind! Hell would have been safer for me! I pretended as if I wanted to urinate and they passed me. Thank God. Imagine what would have become my fate had they accosted me and searched me! That was not long, after Uncle Onuoha was caught, crossing the border with a letter from Chinyere, a relative. He was forced to take them to Chinyere’s house and the two of them were shot.
I thank God that I responded positively to the Word of God I heard that April 16. My girlfriend, who went with me, was not as fortunate, until I later ministered to her. When the Minister told the sick to hold the ailing parts of their body, I held my tummy because of abdominal ulcer and she prayed for us. I left there with overflowing joy. That was a guy holding a sin-sticking lady by hand, when we were going, being held by Jesus back to the campus. Three days later, the ulcer had disappeared. The next day, I destroyed my three packets of condom. Praise God, a new life had started!
Seven days from the day I was born-again, Satan dispatched his female agent, a graduate from the main campus, who had just bought a car, to seduce me. Thank God, she left with shame. Three months later, he sent another daughter of his, who went for me at Enugu, where I was doing vacation job and was told that I travelled home for the weekend. Not giving up, she travelled to my town and was told that I went to see my sisters. She waited till I returned by 9 pm. All her entreaties for me to share my bed with her or for us to sleep in the same room, failed. I slept in another compound. In the morning, I did not bother to know how she felt. In the US in 1980, a White lady tried her own and failed. Even at 75, Satan still sends his evil daughters. Imagine!
It grieves God, when we take His mercies for granted. David was Mr. Nobody, when God made him king of His people in place of the monarch, King Saul. David was the last born in a family of eight-male children. With astonishing miracle, bare hands, he killed Goliath, the Philistine war hero and a giant. David allowed himself to be fooled by the devil. He schemed and slept with Bathsheba, the wife of one of his loyal soldiers. Acquainted that their evil relationship was producing a baby, when many good women today are in dare need of one, it was bad news for him. He deployed all ingenuity to conceal the evil deed by bringing her husband home from the warfront but Uncle refused to go home in spite of the huge meat given to him for his family. “How can I go home to eat and sleep with my wife, when my fellow soldiers and the Ark of God are all at jeopardy?” He argued.
David them schemed for his murder at the warfront and his purpose was achieved. And God was watching. In His mercy, He sent him a lifeline. He sent Rev. Nathan to him, who coined a story that tallied with what the king did but the king could not read in-between the lines, hence he recommended death penalty for the fellow and his restoration of fourfold to the person he had defrauded. “Thou are the man,” the Prophet told him. There and there, King David, the man after God’s heart and my hero, bowed before God, confessing his evil deed. He did not stop there, he wrote Psalm 51 so that posterity would know the evil he committed and avoid it. As a king, he had all the powers to arrest Rev. Nathan for ‘accusing me falsely’ but he rather accepted his sins of adultery and murder. He could have expunged that portion of the Bible but he left it for us to learn and avoid.
Yes, I repented on April 16, 1972. Yes David repented of his sins. Yes, many other people have done the same. We should appreciate God that there is no sin He does not forgive because of His mercy. But what would have been my fate, David’s fate, and other people’s fate, if death had come before we settled it with God? This explains why nobody should delay a second after conviction that he is not born-again. After ministering to the Athenian community by Apostle Paul, some people repented and turned their hearts to God, some promised to hear him again before they would repent but unfortunately, he never went there again. Well, some mocked him to their own peril. “Today, when you hear His voice,” the Bible warns, “harden not your heart…”
Wisdom thus demands that we tap to God’s mercy at an earlier age instead of living deep in sin, like me, before repentance. Apart from the fact that death could come before we benefit from God’s divine grace, we could do certain things that might be irrevocable. Examples may include: marriage to a wrong partner, bearing children when we cannot take care of them, contacting certain sicknesses which may lead to our early death. Let us give Him our heart today.
For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi: 0802 3002-471; [email protected]