We will conclude today our topic on, ‘Whose report to take’. Please read on
It is amazing how ten lepers, as recorded in the Book of Luke, met the Lord Jesus and pleaded with Him to heal them. He did not pray for them and did not rebuke the devil that caused the leprosy. He sent them to their various Pastors to examine them for confirmation whether or not they were still leprous. He was saying in effect that they had been healed. That was the report from Him. They had not however, seen any changes on their body, since leprosy is a skin disease, which is very visible. That was another report.
Each of them was thus, confronted with the two reports about their health status. If you were in that position, God forbid, which report would be acceptable to you? We are faced from day to day with such problems. In each situation, the report we accept describes the extent of our faith in God. The sickness, praise God, only affected their body but not their spirit, as they all believed the report of Jesus. That was why they left Him with confidence to see their Pastors, though the ugly spots were still visible on their bodies. On their way, they noticed that the leprosy had gone! Great God!
In 2Kings 6:13-16, the king of Syria was told that Prophet Elisha was frustrating his military plans by revealing his strategies to the king of Israel. In anger, he sent his soldiers to arrest him. How would they, when he knew, even the whispers between the king and his wife in their bedroom? In the morning, Elisha’s servant saw a host of soldiers with horses and chariots. He told his master. “Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them,” the Prophet replied. I could imagine the servant counting, ‘1 and 2’, counting only two people, his master and him! For sure, he had seen hundreds of the enemy. Which report would he accept, what was on ground or what his master had told him?
The servant could not understand how two civilians could be more than hundreds of armed soldiers. Elisha prayed that God should open his eyes. It was his spiritual sight that was blind. God did! He saw that “the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round Elisha”. God struck the enemy with blindness. They were defeated. When Nebuchadnezzar went to see the three Jewish men he had ordered his servants to cast into the fiery furnace, God opened his eyes to see ‘four men loose, walking in the midst of fire’! May He also open our eyes to be seeing the chariots of fire around us anywhere we are and of the heavenly Army Generals that guard us!
When I started work in a bank, I was always excited meeting God on my knees every morning. I was also excited about my work, a job I got two months before sitting for my degree examination in June 1974. My Ogas were holding Standard Six Certificate, except our Manager, who was holding the West African School Certificate. If these people could be the Manager, Accountant and Officers, I reasoned, my limit would be above the sky! One day, I was invited by PZ Plc for salary discussion. A few months before I left the university, they had interviewed me for employment.
I told my boss that I would be going to Marina during the break period. “I may return a bit late,” I told him. He asked, “Pastor, what for?” I replied, “Highly personal”. He obliged me. I left, wondering why he called me ‘Pastor’, when I was not one! After my discussion with the Human Resources Manager there, he gave me a letter of employment that detailed my remuneration. “A car will be attached to you but it will be coming to pick you and taking you home. The company will also sponsor your ACCA,” he assured me.
Though the package was good, I did not know how I would leave the bank I loved much. My Manager, at first, rejected my letter of resignation. At the end of the day, I left. I left because of an ordinary letter, which could be a huge joke! I left without any written agreement between the new company and me, to ensure that they would not disappoint me. Leaving the salary I was receiving in UBA Plc for a company that had not paid me before, was risky. I had never met their MD, who signed the letter. Could it not have been signed by a mad man? Not minding all these considerations, I left, believing in it, and that was why I told my friends that I had secured employment in PZ Plc. I even worked for one good month, without receiving one kobo! What I did, many other people do, but when the Almighty God tells us what to do or what He has done for us, we do not believe Him.
In the Petroleum Oil Company I joined later, I fouled the air for starting a Christian Fellowship. We were meeting once a week during the break period. I would, sometimes, declare fasting and prayers for those of us at the leadership, as all our exploration efforts were ending in dry holes. We depended on work-over wells for survival. One day, we hit a gusher! Some members started giving their lives to Jesus and after their new birth, our lady members were no longer available for sinful relationships with men. This did not go well with such men. They thought that the way out was to stop our fellowship by terminating my appointment. God stood behind me. St. Mathew had recorded how God’s angel sat on the tomb of Jesus to see if anyone would make fim! Nobody did!
A top officer was brought from the US to terminate my employment. “The MD said that you work for two hours and read your Bible for six hours,” he told me. That was me, who had been celebrated by the company for hard work and for sending the monthly financial reports to the US office before the due date! The MD, a US citizen, going by his accusation, nothing could save the situation. Retirement, sack… were all in the offing, smelling everywhere! A Ghanaian officer, who came for Management Audit, for no reason, asked me the name of my tribe. I laughed. “No weapon fashioned against you shall prosper and any tongue that rises against you in judgment, you condemn,” said God. Whose report would I take? “Are you saying that I’m a thief?” I asked the US man. “How?” He asked back. “I am paid for eight hours and I work only two hours daily,” I told him, “is it not stealing?”
Unknown to them, that man for the bad job was a born-again too, and a member of Assemblies of God Church. He got the message and knew who was lying. “Don’t disappoint me,” he comforted me before leaving. Till retirement, I did not. The company even engaged me for another six months!
For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi: 0802 3002-471; anyalechiosondu@yahoo.com