But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: for I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.
Acts 9:15–16 (KJV)

"What will be, will be!"

That is how many people see life. They feel they are mere pawns in the hands of supernatural beings, and that whatever happens to them, or whatever they become, is as "God" destined them to be. This is what we call fate, and it looks so much like God…

However, this is not how God builds His vessels. The vessels of God, though chosen from the foundation of the world, have a process through which they are manifested in the earthly realm.

1. Shaped by Their Experiences: From the moment a child is born, divine providence is already at work in that child's life. The home into which he was born, the environment where he grew up, and the level of education he was able to acquire—all those things, which may not have been the choice of such a child, are nevertheless shaping that child into a particular kind of vessel. Not everything that happened to us is from God; some things come because of the evil in the world around us. However, no matter what those experiences may be, the divine hand of God shapes and crafts His vessel through them.

2. Shaped by Divine Encounters: The second instrument that God uses to shape His vessels is the encounters they have with the supernatural. Foremost among these encounters is the moment when a man becomes "born again." This experience begins the man's journey of following through with his divinely ordained purpose on earth. It is safe to say that no one, regardless of his experiences, can fully accomplish God's purpose for his life on earth apart from divine encounters. Hence, a man is only as effective a vessel for God as his encounters with God.

3. Shaped by Their Revelations: When Paul recounted this experience to Agrippa, he reiterated the words God had spoken to him personally. This is what he said: "But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;" (Acts 26:16 KJV). One of the instruments by which Paul was shaped for divine purpose was the things that God revealed to him. One of the greatest things about the Apostle Paul was his divine revelations. So abundant were these revelations that Paul was given a messenger from hell to torment his body in order to keep him from pride. Yet, out of the abundance of the things in which Jesus appeared to him came the abundance of his influence in his generation. All that Paul was able to write and accomplish, he was simply a witness, recounting all that Jesus has shown him.

4. Shaped by Their Peculiar Assignments: Everyone sent on an assignment from God must ask himself, "Who is my audience?" Who are the people to whom God has sent me? This is not to say that you will not preach to every human being on earth; after all, the call of Jesus is to all nations. However, you will have your greatest success among those to whom the Lord is sending you. Saul thought that he would be going primarily to his fellow Israelites, but God sent him to the Gentiles, and there he had his greatest ministerial successes.

5. Shaped by Their Sufferings: Finally, the man God uses will have to pass through many challenges, persecutions, misunderstandings, and sufferings. This is not peculiar to Saul but to all who are chosen to bear God's name on this earth. "I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." Those who will represent God faithfully on this earth must be ready to suffer for His sake. There is no other way if we are going to bear His name and His story to the ends of the earth.

Finally, for all that the Lord must do, there is a part which you must play. Just like salvation, which is by grace (meaning that you did not merit it or work to deserve it, and never can bring yourself to the point of deserving it outside of God's magnificent providence), it is received through faith (meaning you have to stretch forth your hands to receive it). No matter how much God has in store for you from the foundation of the world, no matter how much He is reaching out to you, it will all amount to nothing if you are disobedient.

In narrating his story to King Agrippa, Paul concluded by saying, "So, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision."

This is where it matters most. God is faithful to keep His part and will always keep His part, but will man be able to keep his part—the part of willing and consistent obedience to the divine process?

Paul obeyed until the very end. He faced challenges, he faced difficulties, he messed up at times, he drifted at times, and so had to make course corrections, but his compass stayed pointed true north to the heavenly vision. He never deviated from it in his heart, and a man will always end up where his heart is.

As it was with Paul, so it is with you. God is making His vessels, and you are one of them. I only hope you are letting Him do His work.

Selah.

People grow.

We all know that. But nothing prepares you for watching someone you could hold in the palm of your hands become a different person almost every week.

This is my experience as I clock 8 months of having become a father.

On the 2nd of November, 2025, my wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She was tiny—so tiny that every time I carried her, I worried I might hold her too tightly.

But over the past eight months, I have watched this little girl change in remarkable ways—some I expected, many I didn’t.

Growing up, I often saw fatherhood modelled in a particular way. In many African homes, the father is expected to provide while the mother shoulders most of the responsibility of raising a young child.

But I refused to fit the stereotype.

I chose to be in my daughter’s life from the beginning of it all, and it has been an amazing journey so far.

Though she isn’t speaking ‘words’ yet (of course she speaks and makes melodious sounds), she clearly knows her daddy, down to my voice.

Yes. Sometimes when I call my wife to speak with her, she will hear the voice and begin to scream for attention.

I used to joke with my wife that my daughter learnt attention-seeking from her.

One day my wife finished making a call with me and ended the call without letting me greet baby Zibah. The kind of protest my baby raised that morning, she had to call me back and put the phone on speaker, just to hear me hail her... The way only I do.

I laughed, but deep down it moved me. It dawned on me that even before she could pronounce “Daddy”, she had already learnt to expect me.

One thing I’ve begun to notice is that babies seem to thrive on routine. At least, that’s been true with my daughter.

One of the easiest ways they will really connect with you is when you develop a routine around their lives. Once you raise your voice and call them the way you do, with time, they will know who owns that voice.

Every day I keep learning as a first-time father, trying to understand more and more about the intricacies of these fine specimens that God has placed before us to nurture.

This is why I started this publication. Not because I’ve mastered fatherhood, but because I’m still learning it. I don’t want to tell you how you must raise your children. I simply want to document what I’m learning, the mistakes I’m making, the lessons I’m discovering, and the joy of watching a little girl grow while her father grows alongside her.

Whether you are African, or Asian, or European, or American, you will find that apart from a few little differences, we are essentially human beings subject to the same experiences.

If you’re raising a child, hoping to become a parent, or simply curious about what fatherhood teaches a man, I’d be honoured to have you along for the journey.

Subscribe to my new Substack magazine – The Chronicles of a Father.

As my daughter grows, so will I.

I hope you’ll grow with us.

Have you ever sat down to ponder, as I often do, what serving God truly meant for the early church?

​Today, we routinely think in terms of realms, dimensions, ministerial accomplishments, and the like. Now, these things are beautiful in themselves, but pursuing them as a benchmark of divine approval is completely foreign to the bedrock of a Christian's logic of God.

​Consider the scriptural introduction of a historical giant:

“And there was a certain disciple in Damascus...”

​That is all he was. He was not a notable figure, he was not an apostolic father, and he was not a member of the priesthood. Luke strips away all ecclesiastical titles and leaves us with his raw identity: a certain disciple.

​We live in an age where some individuals confidently claim the title of "prophet," believing they possess a specialized closeness to God that ordinary Christians—and even other ministers—do not share. But look closely at the curriculum vitae of Ananias. He was simply a certain disciple, yet do you know who came directly to him in a vision?

​The Lord Himself.

​Remarkably, Ananias was neither astonished nor dumbfounded by the visitation. He responded instantly, as if he already knew the protocols of the conversation, as if this was tracking along a well-worn path of daily fellowship.

​This is the crowning beauty of a discipleship-driven church. A church patterned after the authentic apostolic strain is consumed with raising believers who can directly connect with, interact with, and respond independently to the Lord. It was never the culture of the early church to breed disciples who were pathologically dependent on church elders for their hearing.

​It is striking to note that an event as fragile, volatile, and historically monumental as the conversion of Saul of Tarsus was anchored on a street called Straight—and the man God trusted to navigate this pivot was simply a certain disciple.

​No, I am not trying to be unnecessarily critical. But perhaps you don't fully catch the weight of the point yet.

​Real ministry is simply doing what the Lord asked you to do, and absolutely nothing more.

​How many stadiums were you able to fill? How many massive concerts did you host? How many thousands of followers are tracking your YouTube channel? That is strictly between you, your God, and your assignment.

​But the metric that matters most in eternity is your exact compliance with what the Lord asked you to do—to execute it perfectly, and to do no more than that. That was the boundary of Ananias.

​Of course, he remained alive and did many other things in Damascus, but the eternal ledger remembers him primarily for one structural assignment: it was through his hands that the great Apostle Paul was born again, baptized in water, filled with the Holy Spirit, and restored to sight.

​What a man! What a disciple!

​And it all hinged on a simple, immediate posture: “Behold, I am here, Lord.”

​When the Lord searched for a vessel who could be trusted with a terrifying, inconvenient task, He found it in Ananias. And this brother was entirely willing to do his job, fulfill his part of the script, and completely get out of the way. This is the very definition of a disciple.

​He was scared, but he obeyed. He had legitimate questions about Saul's violent track record, but he obeyed. He lacked a public platform, but he obeyed. The terrifying question of whether Saul would receive him or arrest him must have echoed in his mind, yet he walked out his front door regardless.

​It was to this hidden man that God disclosed the global weight of Paul’s future ministry, even before Paul himself understood it. It was to this exact man that Christ was pointing when He left Saul sitting in the dark, whispering, "...and it shall be told thee what thou must do."

​How many modern Christians are willing to answer the Ananias Summons?

​It is a call to remain hidden while making yourself completely available to God. It is a call to serve diligently in the shadow of someone else's emerging platform. It is a call to be entirely unknown, even as the person you quietly led to Christ and discipled becomes a global household name.

And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.

And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.

Acts 9:17-18 KJV

And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.

— Acts 9:6b–9 (KJV)

This is the first order of business: we must never set out to do things for God when we have not truly surrendered to Him. The primary principle for any fruitful, lasting ministry to the body of Christ will always be the Glad Surrender…..

This was exactly how we concluded our discussion last week. In this episode, I seek to explore deeply the raw, practical implications of a surrendered life. There are three profound realities arising from the immediate aftermath of Saul’s conversion:

1. The Discipline of Incomplete Instructions

I remember sitting down with a young man many years ago who proudly informed me that he had meticulously planned out his life for the next fifty years. At the time, I revered him as a highly focused, disciplined, and serious individual. But as I matured in spiritual understanding, I could only laugh at such bold claims.

Now, understand me clearly: as a business man, I fully understand the necessity of corporate strategies and business planning. It is wise to build business projections. But as a son of God, I have learned that while you can map out human trajectories, you cannot map out divine sovereignty.

God will not negotiate His day-to-day Lordship over your path.

He can show you His plan in the next fifty years—meaning He can give you a prophetic glimpse of your ultimate destination—but He rarely gives you at a go the step-by-step itinerary of how to get there. That is not how the Kingdom operates.

One of the things God uniquely enjoys is issuing incomplete instructions. He will command you to arise and depart unto “a land that I will show thee,” but He will not take the courtesy of naming the territory or outlining what you should do once you arrive. It is only as you obey the last explicit instruction that the light shifts to reveal the next step.

When the surrendered Saul asked what he was to do, the Lord did not hand him a forty-year ministerial roadmap. He simply told him to go into the city, and he would be told what to do. Saul entered Damascus entirely in the dark, ignorant of his next contact or his next move. This is precisely why an unsurrendered man cannot effectively follow God; for His way is in the whirlwind, and He delights to lead His people one single step at a time.

2. The Gift of Blindness

Do you know what the greatest threat to walking with God is? It is sight. It would be remarkably easy to follow God if we lived in a blind world, completely shut off from all that is happening around you.

However, as you sit quietly in your hidden corner, “waiting on the Lord,” you inevitably watch the world move past. You see your peers, your colleagues, and your neighbors making rapid progress, gaining ground, and achieving monumental milestones. This sight agitates the flesh. This singular issue is why countless believers find it impossible to sustain a walk with God. They genuinely want to wait, to exercise patience, and to let God perfect His work in His time—but the moment they look at what others have achieved, they become upset, anxious, and begin to manufacture their own way out.

This is why the very first gift God granted Saul after his surrender was blindness.

The King James Version captures this paradox in a striking way. It does not merely state that Saul became blind; rather, it notes: “And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man…”

Did you catch the profound shift in that phrasing? His eyes were wide open, yet he saw no man.

This is the divine order of spiritual reconstruction: when a man truly catches a glimpse of the King in His glory on the dusty ground of surrender, his capacity to be intimidated or distracted by the achievements of mere flesh is permanently destroyed. The light of Christ blinds you to the shadows of human competition.

Was it not King David who declared, “I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved” (Psalm 16:8). This is the secret posture of men who finish their course successfully. They must ask for, receive, and guard the gift of blindness—becoming completely blind to what their colleagues are doing, blind to the competitive distractions of the culture, blind to shortcuts to fame, and blind to the dainty offers of life designed to lure them off the narrow road.

Saul received this gift on a stark, physical level. It lasted for only three days, but by the time his physical sight was restored, his soul had mastered a lifelong capacity for holy blindness.

3. The Gift of Human Dependency

Finally, Saul received one last structural discipline from God: the necessity of other men. The proud intellectual became completely dependent, requiring his companions to hold his hand and guide his steps into the city.

This is God’s absolute method for humbling His chosen vessels on their trajectory to leadership. The Lord never allows anyone to step into true spiritual authority or carry divine weight without first passing through the molding hands of others. Saul—an independent, fiercely capable, and agile operator who historically needed no one—now had to rely entirely on the guidance and sight of others just to navigate a basic street.

God systematically breaks our independence because He frequently encodes His specific directions within the voices of our brothers, ensuring we remain fundamentally humble. This is what He did with Moses through Jethro in Exodus 18:17–24, where Jethro tells Moses “the thing that thou doest is not good” and lays out a structure for shared leadership. The reality of what transpired is echoed in verse 24 says “So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said” — the lawgiver himself submitting to another man’s correction. The same is what God did with Elisha through Elijah (1 Kings 19:19 – 21; 2 Kings 3: 11), with Joshua through Moses (Num. 11:28; Deut. 34:9), and what He still does even today.

In our next episode, we will consider Ananias—the man God utilized to restore Saul’s sight and commission him into the sacred brotherhood of the faith. Until then, it is vital to examine our own lives: Have we truly passed under the discipline of these three gifts?

If you have never known the weight of an incomplete instruction, the insulation of a holy blindness, or the crushing of your independence, you must question if you have actually experienced the Glad Surrender. For no man is permitted to move from the dust of the Damascus road to the throne of apostolic impact unless he travels through this exact darkness.

May the Lord help us. Amen.

Never had Saul of Tarsus been like this before. Born a Roman citizen of wealthy stock, a Hebrew of Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin, and bearing the proud name of the first king of Israel, Saul had it all together. Taught under the most noble teacher of his day, Gamaliel, he was moving with supreme zeal, charisma, purpose, and passion. He was fully ready to stop, crush, and completely resist Jesus of Nazareth and His bands of followers.

And now, here he is—lying on the ground, helpless, confused, and stripped of his certainty. He did not know what else to do. All his hard-earned letters of authority were literally littered in the dust, his companions stood paralyzed in shock, and his vaunted strength was entirely gone. As for his eyes, he could not understand the terrifying darkness that had suddenly overtaken them.

Yet, while his body was broken, something profound was shifting in his heart. Saul had spent years hating and disliking Jesus of Nazareth and everything He represented. Now, brought low in the dirt, face to face with the living Christ, two undeniable realities dawned on him:

1. He alone is Lord.

2. Jesus loves him—Saul, the persecutor.

The sheer magnitude of this realization hit him so deeply that he did not rage, argue, or despair. Instead, he naturally assumed a position—a heart posture I call THE GLAD SURRENDER.

“Lord, what do you want me to do?”

Saul was a man used to having his life meticulously planned out. He knew exactly where he was going, who he was meeting, and what he would execute after arriving in Damascus. He had it all figured out... until he met the Lord.

Now, sitting blind in the dust, the elite strategist had only one question left in his heart: “What do you want me to do?”

By asking this, Saul was acknowledging that his own wisdom had run dry. He didn’t know what to say, where to turn, or how to move forward. He completely handed over the reins. He needed the guidance of the Lord; he needed the Master to show the way while he simply followed.

This is the Glad Surrender. It is glad because it is the relief of a man who has finally stopped fighting an impossible war against his Creator.

We cannot continue to live life purely according to our own desires. We must realize that there is One who holds absolute Lordship over our existence. It is to Him that we must yield all our preferences, ambitions, and corporate blueprints.

Saul did not debate the theology of his defeat; he surrendered gladly. And even though the Lord immediately handed him an incomplete instruction—a matter we will explore in the next episode—Saul chose to obey that fragment of divine direction rather than cling to his own well-planned, independent pursuit.

This is the foundational matter we must settle in our generation. Many people today are attempting to speak loudly for the Lord, critique the Church, and orchestrate massive movements, but they have never actually sat down in the dust and asked, “Lord, what do you want me to do?”

This is the first order of business. We must never set out to do things for God when we have not truly surrendered to Him. The primary principle for any fruitful, lasting ministry to the body of Christ will always be the Glad Surrender.

And Saul said, Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting. It is dangerous and it will turn out badly for you to keep kicking against the goad [to offer vain and perilous resistance].

Acts 9:5 AMPC

Before I began this series, I had a reason why I called it a twelve weeks series. I had my topics planned out since a year ago when this series first dropped in my spirit.

But this morning as I prepared to do my pre-arranged episode 5, I felt a responsibility to pause and include a prophetic warning to the rising generation of church haters in my country and my generation at large.

If you are part of those who no longer go to any local church because 'church na scam' or 'false prophets are everywhere', or 'everyone is a hypocrite', or you had a church hurt, or you have a personal anger towards notable men of God for not speaking out enough against political leaders, or for owning private jets or running costly private universities, then this article is for you.

And yes, even if you are none of those you still need to read this, so that you do not fall into the trap any season of your life.

Saul never met Jesus in the flesh (to the best of our knowledge), he was not part of the Jews that beat Jesus on the cross or that maligned the Lord when he was physically on earth. All that Saul did was that he was angry towards the disciples of Jesus - the Church, and he persecuted, reviled, maligned and did all sorts of imaginable wickedness against the church.

Yet, when Jesus met him, He (Jesus) asked Saul, 'Why are you persecuting me?"

In the midst of that statement lies and understanding of how Jesus sees his Church; He sees His church as Himself.

Now, it is important I define the Church. Jesus said that where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them. That gathering of a group of believers in the name of Jesus alone, is called the church.

By design, every human being who becomes a disciple of Christ is naturally grafted into a local expression of Christ - the church where he shares fellowship with other believers. This fellowship is not that of tribe, village, class or race, but simply of belief in the Lordship of Christ.

Now, if you go through the new testament, you will see that all kinds of churches existed. There was the carnal Corinthians, the foolish Galatians, the rich but lukewarm Laodiceans, the suffering Smyrna, the dying Sardis and many more. For all the characteristics you could use to classify these churches (in fact some of us may not be willing to be part of the fellowship of some of these churches), but the Lord still called them HIS CHURCH.

Do you begin now to understand this matter?

When Jesus confronted Saul for attacking his church, He was not now saying that the church was perfectly obeying Him and we're not having any issues at all. But, he was displaying His attitude and posture towards His church, no matter the outward appearance.

This encounter left an eternal mark on Saul's life that throughout his missionary years, he never joked with the church of Jesus. Why? Because at this very moment, his heart was opened to the heart of Jesus concerning the Church.

Now, many people, even supposed Christians have lost this heart for the church. They do not hesitate to castigate, malign, condemn and speak evil of the church of Jesus. Some people even go ahead to say that they believe in Jesus and they serve Jesus, but they don't go to church. That's a contradiction in terms. You cannot truly love and honour a man when you hate and disrespect his wife. In the same way, you cannot truly claim to love, believe in or serve Jesus when you are not involved in any local expression of His body - the Church.

No one truly meets Jesus and do not get introduced to his Church. No one! Not in the Bible, not in church history, and no not today.

Now, here comes the warning. Jesus warned Saul, that despite the issues the church may be having, if he (Saul) continues his onslaught against the church, it will turn out badly for him.

Do you get the warning?

Firstly, Saul's attempt to hinder or reduce the impact of God's church will not succeed - 'it's hard for you to kick your foot against pricks'. No matter how hard you talk against, malign and refuse to identity with the Church of Jesus Christ, it will keep growing and increasing in power as long as God is with her. You cannot stop what you did not begin.

Secondly, it will turn out badly for you. This is the one that scares me. You may not know where the source of your problems tomorrow may be coming from, but if you continue to kick against the church of Jesus, it will turn out badly for you. The warning Jesus gave Saul is still valid for a church haters to do.

Now, if you ask, does it mean I should not criticize the church? Does it mean I should not speak against church elders? And all the other does it means in your heart.

Well, Saul shared in the same confusion with you when he was confronted with the heart of Jesus for his Church; and Saul asked, "What would you have me do?"

That, we will consider in our next episode.

But remember the warning. Stop fighting the bride of Christ, and ensure you truly show your love for Christ by being a part of his local expression. - the Church.

Shalom

He set off. When he got to the outskirts of Damascus, he was suddenly dazed by a blinding flash of light. As he fell to the ground, he heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me?” He said, “Who are you, Master?” “I am Jesus, the One you’re hunting down. I want you to get up and enter the city. In the city you’ll be told what to do next.”

Acts 9:3-6 (MSG)

The believers of Jerusalem, Judea, and the surrounding regions had been entirely subjected to the terrifying, persecuting passion of Saul. With every single breath, he threatened murder against the church. And while the core apostles had been spared one way or another, the everyday, ordinary believers suffered untold hardship at the hands of Saul and his merciless minions. This was the brutal, bleeding reality of the church of Jesus at this moment in history.

In such a state of terror, a lot of heavy questions naturally beg answering. Does Jesus truly care? Is He genuinely bothered by what His church is going through on the ground? Has He withdrawn Himself into cosmic isolation, or is He truly committed to the wellbeing of His people?

This is the urgent matter before us today.

When I was a child, it was completely standard to tell Christians that God cared deeply about them and the intimate details of what they were going through. But today, the theological narrative has shifted drastically. It has become fashionable and popular to suggest that God doesn't really care about your day-to-day existence; that He simply finished creating the earth, handed over its mechanical principles, and now expects you to just figure it out and play your part.

To such a theology, God is essentially a celestial clockmaker who wound up the world, established its laws, and then went to sleep—or died. He is not a God who is dynamically alive. Under this cold framework, He doesn't care about the visceral challenges you are facing, the complex problems breaking your family, or the systemic, violent threats aimed squarely at Christians in Northern Nigeria and the Middle Belt.

But when I look into the pages of the Bible, I encounter a radically different truth.

Jesus does not look down from heaven and ask Saul why he is attacking a weak, disposable group of humans. He looks him in the eyes and demands: "Why are you out to get ME?"

To the Lord Jesus, whatever was being done to His church was simultaneously being done to Him. As the Head of the body, He wasn't watching detachedly from a distance; He was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with His church in the absolute epicenter of their persecution and suffering.

What a sobering, breathtaking realization it must have been for those early believers when Saul eventually recounted his story. To hear that Jesus explicitly said, "Why are you persecuting me?" proved to the bleeding church that Jesus intimately knew what they were enduring. Not only did He see it, but He actively suffered with them.

This has been the grand reality of God's church through the ages. As offensive as this truth may be to our modern, market-researched "comfort and pampering" gospel, the reality remains unchanged: Jesus still suffers today.

Look closely at the unfolding tragedy facing the church in Northern Nigeria and the Middle Belt. It is heartbreakingly easy to look at the news, see the destruction, and feel completely helpless—and yes, that feeling of grief is entirely justified. But the Lord has not abandoned His church in Nigeria. He is right there in the trenches, and He suffers with us. In every single corner of the globe where the church is being oppressed, the Lord is enduring the affliction alongside them. He sees our raw pain, He accurately identifies our greatest enemies and persecutors, and He shares our agony.

Yet, this forces us to confront a terrifying paradox, a part of His character that I confess I have not fully understood: Why doesn't He always do something to stop it?

It is not every time that He violently strikes down the Sauls of this world from their horses to halt their bloody journeys. It is not every time that He miraculously delivers His servants from the blazing furnace or the lions' den. Sometimes, He stands directly with the church inside the fire and lets them burn. His presence does not always deliver them from the flames; instead, it provides the supernatural, atomic grace required to go through the fire without breaking, without compromising, and without giving up.

And there is one more indictment we must face.

Sometimes, our cold, lackadaisical attitude toward the suffering church is clear evidence that we have completely lost touch with the pulse of the Lord Jesus. If we were truly connected to the Head, our nerves would fire when His do. We would feel His intense pain and His heavy burden for His suffering bride. It would become impossible for us to remain indifferent. We would instantly arise to urgent, desperate intercession and launch into whatever structural interventions He leads us to carry out.

Even today, Jesus Christ continues to suffer with His church and with every individual believer. Let no one deceive themselves into thinking at any point that the Lord has deserted them or closed His eyes to their tears. For in the toughest of seasons, in the hottest of the fires, and in the absolute deepest depths of human darkness, the Lord still stands immovably with His church—and He suffers with them.

The galloping of horses echoed through the quiet Middle Eastern heat as Saul and his companions neared the gates of Damascus. They arrived armed with letters of recommendation from the high priests and a fierce mandate: hunt down the followers of The Way and drag them bound back to Jerusalem for public execution.

It was high noon. The sun was at its absolute peak, blindingly bright. Saul and his men believed the light around them was more than enough to see clearly. They never could have anticipated an intensity of light that would make the midday sun look like total darkness.

Saul was moving with raw purpose, charisma, and velocity, driven by a consuming passion to reduce this new Christian sect to rubble. Behind him, his companions rode with pride, eager to be part of the final solution to end Christianity for good.

They pushed forward, pressing, moving, and gaining ground on Damascus... when all of a sudden, it happened.

How do I describe it? I would love to use words like “wham!” or “whoosh!” or “wail!” I would love to introduce a massive noise. But that is the terrifying reality of light: it does not make noise. Its power is seen not in its sound, but in its impact.

It just shone! Not from the earth, not from an individual, not from a passing chariot, but A LIGHT FROM HEAVEN!

It landed squarely on the ringleader. It struck Saul with a supernatural velocity that sent him sprawling off his high horse and flat onto the dirt.

I know a little science, and I always remind people: thunder does not kill. Thunder is nothing more than an after-effect—an empty sound wave with zero capacity for harm. But do you know what kills? It is that silent, blinding spark of light that precedes the blast. That is what electrocutes, magnetizes, and alters atomic structures. It makes no noise; it simply transforms reality.

And so it was for Saul. When he recounted the encounter years later, he said it was brighter than the sun at noonday. That was the light that shattered his platform.

We will discuss what the voice inside the light told him next week, but today, I want us to look exclusively at the light itself.

As utterly convinced as Saul was of his righteous, religious cause, he had no idea he was a man reveling in total darkness. His soul was darkened. His sophisticated intellect was darkened. His intense passion was darkened—and he was completely oblivious to it. He didn't even know he was missing anything, until the light from heaven showed up.

When I look at our world today—at the frantic pursuits of the sons of men, our arrogant intellectual arguments, our self-righteous moral posturing—I realize we are praying for the wrong things. We don't need more arguments. We need that light from heaven.

It takes divine light to expose the sophisticated ignorance of our own thinking. It takes light to realize just how profoundly wrong you have been while thinking you were entirely right. Each time I see people modernizing the church, castigating the gospel, or intellectualizing away the deity of Christ, I don't get angry. I simply know they haven't met the light yet.

The entire trajectory of Paul’s apostolic ministry began with that single illumination. He never told his story anywhere without mentioning the light. Never! Because it took that light to show him the true depth of his own darkness.

And make no mistake: no one meets this Light standing up. For this Light is not merely a cosmic phenomenon or a collection of celestial, prismatic bubbles. The Light is a Person. The Light is Christ Himself.

As John 1:4–5 declares: "In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

And I pray, not just for those who have not truly met Jesus, but also for you who is already a believer in Christ. I pray that in whatever area of your life where you are still walking in darkness, the Light from Heaven will shine on your heart and show you the way to go.

For there is no substance to darkness, it is just the absence of Light.

I am an African, of the Igbo tribe. Because of that, I understand perfectly what it means to have a birthright.

In my culture, we cherish and regard our birthrights very highly. We do not consider any sacrifice too great to secure and retain them. It is not abnormal to see brothers fight—sometimes even to the point of death—to secure their inheritance.

Now, a man might occasionally sell a piece of his inheritance (like land or property) to pursue something he considers more critical: relocating abroad, fighting a terminal illness, or training a child through school. But I have never seen a man sell his birthright just because of a plate of rice—even if it had chicken in it.

This is why Esau was an enigma to me for a very long time.

I kept wondering how a man could sell his birthright simply because he was hungry. How could Esau’s inheritance be so trivial to him that he would trade it for a single bowl of red stew?

You don’t have to be deeply spiritual to avoid that kind of mistake. You don’t even have to be a man of faith. You just have to be a person with common sense. As a full-blooded African man, I would never have done it. The ancient Jews were the same way, as is almost every culture on earth. Remember Naboth? He refused to sell his vineyard to the king because it was his paternal inheritance. Protecting your birthright is standard human behavior.

So, for years, Esau amazed me. It didn’t seem like a spiritual failure; it seemed like a cognitive one. He wasn’t tricked. Jacob didn’t visit a witch doctor to charm him. Esau gave it up with his eyes wide open.

I pondered this mystery for years, until recently, when the truth finally clicked.

Esau sold his birthright for one simple, shocking reason: To him, there was no birthright.

Let me explain.

Consider the reality of Esau’s family tree. God took his grandfather, Abraham, out of a civilized country and sent him to “a land that I will show you.” Abraham arrived in Canaan and lived there his entire life as a stranger. His only permanent, legal property was a small plot of land he purchased with his own money just to bury his wife.

We often miss the sheer peculiarity of Abraham’s situation. He had wealth, yes, but he had no country. No real estate. Hebrews 11:9 reminds us that he lived in tents. He didn’t live in tents because he couldn’t afford bricks; he lived in tents because the land wasn’t his yet.

All the physical inheritance Abraham passed down to Isaac was a burial plot and an invisible, eternal promise.

That is why Isaac was also a man of faith. He stayed tied down in Canaan, not by sprawling estates but by a covenant. He, too, was looking for a city with permanent foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

This was Esau’s ultimate challenge.

He looked at his father and grandfather and didn’t see the point of tying his life down to a burial plot and an unseen promise. He was a different breed from his ancestors. Though a direct descendant of Abraham, Esau belonged to a generation that could not find value in the invisible. He couldn’t understand fracturing his life for something he couldn’t see, touch, or cash in on immediately.

He looked at his family history and likely thought his fathers were fools. They had staked their entire lives on an unseen God. Esau decided he would be wiser. To him, a bird in the hand was worth twenty in the bush. He chose to pursue the tangible.

And that is exactly why he could trade his birthright to satisfy a momentary appetite. If the birthright isn’t real to you, you’ll trade it for anything that is real in the moment.

The Holy Book warns us about this specific mindset:

“Watch out for the Esau syndrome: trading away God’s lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short-term appetite. You well know how Esau later regretted that impulsive act and wanted God’s blessing—but by then it was too late, tears or no tears.” — Hebrews 12:16-17 (MSG)

May we never belong to a generation that only finds value in what can be physically measured. While there is nothing wrong with physical prosperity, we must value spiritual treasures far above it.

May our spiritual senses never become so dull that we trade away God’s lifelong gifts—our purpose, our talents, and our divine potential—just to satisfy a temporary hunger.

Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest. He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains.

— Acts 9:1-2

I cherish my uniqueness, and rarely have I ever prayed to have another man's gifts or abilities. But there is one man whose gift I have deeply admired: Clive Staples 'C. S.' Lewis.

While preparing to write this, my thoughts traveled back to his concluding piece on The Screwtape Letters, titled "Screwtape Proposes a Toast." In that speech, the senior demon Screwtape laments to his fellow tempters that the modern hellish harvest is mostly full of small, tepid, lukewarm souls—people who committed petty sins out of habit, conformity, or vanity, rather than any grand, passionate rebellion. He describes them as "shriveled" and "faint."

In contrast, Screwtape explains that great sinners are rare and highly valuable to Hell. A great sinner is someone with immense willpower, fierce intelligence, and an uncompromised, extreme passion directed toward evil. They are the dictators, the grand corrupters, and the ideological zealots. Such great sinners, says Screwtape, are of immense value to the kingdom of darkness.

He goes on, however, to state the problem they present to Hell:

"A great sinner is a great danger to us. At any moment, the Enemy may touch that intense nature, and the whole velocity of the man's soul will be reversed. He will turn into a great saint with the same speed and force with which he was running toward us."

Lewis posits that great saints are carved from the very same raw material as great sinners; and that is my exact contention today.

There is one defining trait that marked Saul out from his contemporaries long before he ever encountered the Lord on the road to Damascus: passion.

The scripture notes that he was uttering threats with every breath; some translations state he was literally breathing murder. Think about that for a moment. Every single day he woke up and drew breath, the immediate next thing on his mind was the havoc he could inflict on the Christians of his day.

Now, while his spiritual state was pitiable, his life details a fundamental law common to all great people (whether weaponized by God or by Satan): PASSION.

A passionate man is not simply trying to belong to a society or a religious group. A passionate man is vocal, intentional, and aggressively committed to a cause. He pursues that cause with absolute intensity, reckless as to whose ox is gored. All that exists in the heart of a passionate man is the violent achievement of his pursuit.

And that is the grand tragedy of the modern world we live in. Many people are simply not passionate about anything. They go out, come in, eat, drink, sleep, marry, and die. Nothing is seriously burning in their hearts; nothing exists that they are truly willing to live for, or even die for.

Once, I wanted to be angry with a young person who seemed entirely indifferent to the Christian faith. She was neither bad nor good—she was simply there, drifting through existence. But as I prayed for her, the Spirit of the Lord checked me, asking, "Why are you angry? Is it because she is not responding to your preaching? But is she even responding to anything at all? Is there something she is passionate about, something she is profusely pursuing?"

At that exact moment, it dawned on me. I was trying to be angry with someone for not responding to my faith, when in reality, she wasn't responding to life itself. She was dead while still breathing.

A passionate man stays awake all through the night. Let me ask you: when was the last time you stayed up until dawn, not because you had a corporate deadline to beat, but simply because a holy passion kept you awake?

The challenge today is that many modern Christians are simply not passionate. They try to play it safe, be sensible, and avoid overdoing things. But nobody ever changed the world by playing it safe. Great feats are achieved by men who look crazy to their peers, while those trying to remain prim and proper rarely manage to cause a single ripple in their generation.

Nobody likes lukewarm people—neither God nor Satan. The havoc that one extremely passionate man can cause yields far more impact than the combined efforts of a thousand average men and women who are merely playing it safe, refusing to aggressively engage their world.

Saul was wrong, but he was dead serious. He was on the wrong highway, but he possessed the raw strength of a stallion. When he finally met Jesus, Christ changed his direction, but He never told him to calm down. Saul was not a man of half-measures; he went all the way, whether as a fierce persecutor or as an uncompromised preacher of Christ. At the end of the day, we are still talking about him thousands of years later because he refused to play it safe. He believed something, and he was willing to fight, contend, and die for it.

I don’t know about you, but I am entirely done being a prim, proper, and "safe" Christian. I prefer to be called overzealous than to be seen as cool. I prefer to be labeled a fanatic than to sit quietly and leave no footprint in my generation.

Did not the wise man state in Proverbs 14:4:

"Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox."

I prefer to have a dirty, chaotic manger with a strong ox bringing massive increase, than to maintain a perfectly clean crib with zero impact.

This is my challenge to you reading this tonight. Stand up, and get to work. Don't wait until you are completely perfect or flawlessly good. Run with your passion and engage your generation. God is raising an army, but He has no business recruiting men who lack fire.

A word is enough for the wise.

He looked through his window and saw a small company of Jews approaching. Judas was a Jew himself, living in the ancient city of Damascus in Syria. Whether he was a follower of the Way or not, we cannot say for certain, but a Jew he surely was.

The group was escorting another man who remained atop his horse, unlike the others who trekked on foot. This man’s head was bowed low, his frame slumped in a way that defied his stature. They reached the door and knocked.

"Saul of Tarsus?" Judas asked, his voice trailing off into a question.

"Yes," the companions replied heavily.

Judas reached out and lifted Saul’s bowed head, only to find that his eyes were empty and lifeless. He stared for a long moment until someone finally blurted out the truth that was beginning to take shape in Judas’s heart:

"He cannot see."

"Why?" Judas asked, stunned. "What happened? Were you attacked by bandits on the road?"

"It would have been better for us if we were," one of the companions muttered. "At least then we would have a reasonable explanation for what occurred."

"We need water to wash our feet and hands," another added, "and something to drink. We need a meal, for we are famished."

"Oh, pardon my manners," Judas said, stepping aside. "Come inside."

He watched as the companions reached up to assist Saul. Because he was blind and broken, he had to be physically lifted down from his horse and guided into the house. Judas could not reconcile the Saul he once knew—the man of power and reputation—with the broken figure being carried by the horse and his friends into his home. What could have happened to him?

For Saul of Tarsus, a different fire was burning. He had wept intermittently throughout the journey to Judas's house. He had met Jesus, and to his shock, Jesus had spared him. Now he knew the truth: Jesus was real. The Christians were correct. But what was he to do with this terrifying new knowledge?

This was why he now sat in the house of Judas, on the street called Straight. "You will be told what you must do," Jesus had promised him. Now, he waited. It was clear to him that he would not taste food or drink until he discovered his purpose.

Here stood a middle-aged man who had spent the better part of his life passionately pursuing a "right" cause—or so he thought. Now, he realized that for all those years, he had been on the wrong side, fighting the wrong Person.

This was his Kairos moment. Whatever happened in this house would determine the trajectory of the rest of his life.

It is a striking thing: Jesus of Nazareth has a "thing" for houses, and so does Yahweh. People often flock to the temple to meet Him, but those who open their homes to the ministry of hospitality often find themselves hosting the Divine unawares. This is why, wherever Jews lived, they opened their doors to strangers... for in doing so, many had entertained angels without knowing it.

And in those three days, destiny stood still. Saul stood at the crossroads, waiting for the divine direction that would set his path to greatness... on the street called Straight.

While I was sitting down to begin writing, one of my long-lost daughters in faith called me. She spoke about the complexities of her current situation and asked me, "Bro. Joshua, what do you advise me to do?"

I told her truthfully: "You need to make a course correction... and you must not be afraid to make it."

So it will be for many of us as we journey with the Apostle Paul. Many need a course correction. Many need to hear His voice all over again.

Over the next 12 weeks—released every Sunday through these articles, as well as our video and audio podcasts—my prayer is that you will find the Lord, His voice, and His direction...

ON A STREET CALLED STRAIGHT.

There is no better place to hear “dead men” tales than a mortuary. I remember a season in my life when I assisted an elderly sister to visit her brother’s corpse every fortnight. Such visits are often required to ensure the body isn’t neglected by attendants or simply “dumped.” Almost every time I sat in that waiting section, I heard ‘dead men’ tales—stories of the dead demanding to be moved or spirits refusing to be at rest. To the average Westerner, these stories may seem foreign, but they are no strangers to the African.

The African and his beliefs on death

Even before the coming of the white man, Africans believed in a world beyond this one. Not only did they believe it, but they also believed that they had a role to play in relating, interfacing and interacting with it. They recognized a hierarchy: The Creator God, the lesser deities, the ancestors, and the spirit realm.

Consequently, in African culture, death is a journey into the ancestral world. A person is expected to join the ancestors in safeguarding the living community. However, if a person is not “buried well”—perhaps without the ritual sacrifice of a cow or goat—it is believed they lack the boldness to “go home,” becoming instead a “wandering” spirit. Many families testify to business failures or domestic problems that only vanished once a relative was “properly buried.”

Now, this is just one aspect of the African’s concept of life after death. Some cultures believe that dead relatives who were spiritually powerful on earth end up becoming ‘gods’, e.g. Sango, Kamalu, etc (known as Apotheosis). Some others believe that dead people can actually metamorphose in what way I cannot explain and move to another location, marry, have children, get a job or business, etc, only to vanish when he/she is discovered by another person (Ghost wives of husbands). Also some others believe that dead relatives come back to the family in form of a child (also known as reincarnation). This is the reason behind names like ‘Nnanna’ (my father’s father), ‘Babatunde’ (my father has returned), etc. While we may decide to keep these names to honor a forefather’s memory, we must intellectually separate the name from the theology of a returning soul.

Our concepts are messy and complicated. These complications are further aggravated by the spiritualism prevalent in African, which makes these beliefs to not just be mere beliefs, but crystallized and solidified by real life experiences. It is to be noted that the greatest apologia for the African belief is “real-life” experience. The African may not offer a scholarly explanation, but he has a retinue of stories to back his beliefs. Though as Christians, we must ask: Are these stories verified truths, or are they encounters with “familiar spirits” designed to deceive the living?

What the Bible really teaches

A passage in Hebrews strikes a chord: “It is appointed unto man once to die, after that judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). The expectation in scripture is that death ends a man’s activity on this earth, and brings him into another world (not a world where he is necessarily in control), but a world where he is subject to judgement by forces greater than him. To believe otherwise is to begin to shift from Christian and Biblical foundations.

To the Christian, therefore, it does not matter how you are buried or with what you are buried. The dead have no claim to the things that go on in this earth after they die. The matter before the dead is simply this – judgment, and that judgment is not decided by how or where you are buried, or which day of the week you died, but on what you did with your life while you were on the earth.

Meanwhile, though the spirit world is real and subject to Satan and his fallen angels, the believer is under the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of God; therefore, ancestral threats have no legal or spiritual standing over your success.

The Danger of Syncretism

The challenge of syncretism—the mixing of faith and paganism—is a gruesome one that has made revival tarry in Africa. You cannot be a Christian and believe in reincarnation. You cannot be a Christian and believe that your dead relative influences your business from the grave.

Christianity makes a claim that is either true or false. One can only be sympathetic to the African concept of death to the extent that he believes in the inaccuracy or errancy of the Bible. If the Bible is true, then these specific African beliefs are false. When loved ones die, we honor their memory as our finances allow, and that is the end. They do not have the right to threaten us, be worshipped, or be prayed to.

To believe otherwise is to reject the claims of Christianity.

I will choose a priest who will be faithful to me and do everything I want him to. I will give him descendants, who will always serve in the presence of my chosen king. (1 Samuel 2:35 GNB)

When Eli’s children who were priests in the service of God – Hophni and Phinehas – lived a life of wickedness before God, the Lord sent a prophet to declare unto Eli that He (the Lord) was removing his (Eli’s) descendants from priesthood. The prophet went on to give a sign that the prophecy will be fulfilled – the death of Eli’s two sons in one day. It was on that day that the Lord through the prophet made the declaration of a priest who the Lord will raise, one who will be faithful to God and whose descendants would serve before God’s anointed ones forever.

For my many years of being a Christian (until last year), I had thought that this prophecy of a faithful priest was referring to the young boy – Samuel – who was later to be both priest and prophet. Last year, however, as I read this book and meditated on it again, it dawned on me that the prophecy could not have been concerning Samuel. Granted that Samuel was indeed a faithful priest unto the Lord all the days of his life, but his seed (descendants) were not faithful. Thus the prophecy of everlasting priestly descendants could not have been concerning him.

It is important to know that even the prophecy of ousting Eli’s descendants from priesthood did not happen immediately after the death of Eli and his children. In fact, the seed of Eli continued in priesthood for roughly a hundred years from when the prophecy was given. Samuel grew old and died. Saul reigned for over 40 years, and King David reigned for roughly 30 years, and Eli’s descendants continued to be priests. The prophecy was activated towards the end of David’s reign. Abiathar the priest, who was a seed of Eli and faithful unto God and David, had connived with Adoinjah to make him king instead of Solomon. The events that happened afterwards are as recorded in the first book of the Kings. David intervened and crowned Solomon king before their plots could succeed. The priest that held the coronation ceremony and anointed Solomon king was a certain priest who was priest alongside Abiathar, his name was Zadok.

Zadok was of the priestly line of Eleazar, while Abiathar was of the priestly line of Ithamar, both sons of Aaron. Not much was known about him apart from tracing his genealogy which went all the way through Eleazar’s son, Phinehas, and came down to Zadok. He had also served with David in his days as king and was a faithful priest. However, he did not join Adonijah’s conspiracy. So, when Solomon was established on the throne, he sacked Abiathar and his sons from being priests, thus fulfilling the century-old prophecy, and Zadok became the sole high priest of the temple under Solomon’s reign. This is where the story became interesting.

Zadok was a faithful priest, as the prophecy said, but what about his seed? When I searched the scriptures for his descendants, this is what I found.

Azariah, the priest under the reign of King Hezekiah, was a descendant of Zadok. He was the priest whose accountability played a great role in the rehabilitation of God’s temple under Hezekiah. (2 Chronicles 39 vs. 9-11)

Jerusha, wife of King Uzziah, and mother of King Jotham, whose wifely and motherly wisdom led to the testimony concerning both her husband and her son that they pleased God. (2 Kings 15 vs. 32 – 34)

Ezra, the priest and scribe, who dedicated his life to the teaching of God’s law and got the king’s favour to go and help in restoring the Lord’s temple after the exile. (Ezra 7 vs. 1 – 10)

Hilkiah, the priest who helped to discover the book of the Lord under King Josiah and thus ignited the revival that produced the likes of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego (story for another day) (2 Chronicles 34)

Most beautiful of all was that in Ezekiel’s prophecy of the New Temple, the Lord Himself remarked that the only people who can approach his temple and minister to him in the holiest places are the sons (descendants) of Zadok. His reasons:

The Sovereign LORD said, “Those priests belonging to the tribe of Levi who are descended from Zadok, however, continued to serve me faithfully in the Temple when the rest of the people of Israel turned away from me. So now they are the ones who are to serve me and come into my presence to offer me the fat and the blood of the sacrifices. They alone will enter my Temple, serve at my altar, and conduct the Temple worship. (Ezekiel 44:15-16 GNB)

Now, as I round up this search, a question rises in my heart, which I am still seeking answers to. What did Zadok do that made it possible for his seed, generations after, to still be following the God of Israel faithfully? How was Zadok able to anchor his generation upon the rock—God—such that even when others departed, they remained faithful to the Lord? Even wonderful and great men like Samuel, Moses, Hezekiah, Josiah, and some others could not raise their children (generation) to the pure and holy service of God, but ordinary Brother Zadok was able to do that.

In Africa, fathers place their families under satanic ancestral covenants, and these covenants continue to follow their seeds even hundreds of years afterwards. Is it not possible that a man could place his own seed under a covenant with God that will continue to chase those children hundreds of years after?

I am a third-generation Christian (my dad and granddad were ‘born again’ Christians), but I want to find out more—I don’t want to take things for granted. I am not a father yet (but will soon be), so I have no tidbits to give. ANCHOR MAN by Steve Farrar will be a good place to start, and I look forward to further advice from fathers reading this piece.

Birth

Born in Liberia, Africa, of the ‘Kru’ tribe, Samuel Morris was the son of a tribal chief, and so was known as ‘Prince Kaboo’. The Krus lived peaceably with their neighbours; though there were times of droughts and hunger which resulted in little war skirmishes with their neighbouring tribes, especially the Grebos. The Grebos however, ingeniously designed a system whereby they kidnapped people from other tribes as ‘pawns’ in order to compel that tribe to bring tributes of foods, animals and other things to them. Being the son of a chief, Prince Kaboo was a prime target for the Grebos. They captured him once and the village had to pay great number of tributes in order to secure his release.

Kidnapped

In his early teens, however, the Grebos kidnapped Prince Kaboo again! This time around, the village was so impoverished that they were not able to pay enough tributes to satisfy the heart of the Grebos to obtain his release. As a result, Prince Kaboo was tortured severely while they sent word home to the Krus in order to compel a response from them for the release for the release of their prince. After having exhausted all that they had, Prince Kaboo’s father decided to bring his own daughter to replace Kaboo in captivity – an exchange which Kaboo himself vehemently opposed. Using the sufferings he had passed through, he wondered what would happen to his sister if she was taken captive instead of him. So, he refused. When the Grebos saw that the chief had nothing more to give them, instead of releasing Prince Kaboo, they opted to kill him as an example to others.

A Light from Heaven

In classic Grebo killing system, they would tie him to a tree and beat him till he is almost dying, then they will half-bury him in the ground, smear honey on him to attract driver ants that would come and eat his flesh. It was a most painful death not to say the least. By this time, the prince was already weak and exhausted from all the months of gruesome torture and beatings, and was in no state of mind to escape or to run for his life. We do not know whether in any form or manner he uttered a prayer (as he could not have heard about the true and living God). While they were preparing their perfecting their killing plan, something extra-ordinary happened, something that would change Prince Kaboo’s life forever! A Light from Heaven! The Light shone straight down on Prince Kaboo. The enemies and other witnesses around saw the light, but they could not make any sense of it. The moment the light shone on the prince, his chains and bounds were let loose, and he fell down in a daze. While everyone was still amazed at the sight, a voice spoke out the light. “Run, Kaboo! Flee!” Instantly, his wounds were healed, his pains were gone and an unusual strength surged through his body weakened from beatings and torture; and the prince ran! He hid by a hollow wood until his captors gave up searching for him, then he came out to escape. It was a Friday!

The Exodus

Immediately he came out of the woods, he realized that the same light was still there. Though not as bright as before in its intensity, it was still there. The light led him on and on and on away from his village and into the bush and unknown lands. It was a risky adventure as the African jungle was filled with lions, tigers and other deadly animals that could have devoured him, but he knew no better than to follow the light. He ate forest fruits and drank water from the nearby streams as he journeyed. It is not known how long he journeyed in the wilderness, but after a long while, he was standing at a coffee plantation at the outskirts of the far away city of Monrovia. There the light left him, and there he met a young farmer boy who was passing by. Surprise of surprises, it was a fellow Kru boy about his age! They exchanged pleasantries and the boy introduced him to the plantation owner who offered him an opportunity to work with them in exchange for clothing, feeding and accommodation.

Meeting Jesus

All these while, Prince Kaboo wondered what happened to him. He kept thinking about the light that broke his chains and the voice that told him to run. There was something about that light and that voice that Kaboo could not understand. The Kru boy who introduced him to the plantation was actually a Christian. After giving his life to Christ, he changed his name to Nathan Strong. One day Kaboo saw Nathan kneeling on the floor, his face and hands were turned upward. He was talking. Kaboo asked him what he was doing, and he said he was talking to his father in heaven. A few days later was a Sunday, and Nathan took Kaboo to church to hear God’s word. That day, a missionary woman from America by name of Miss Anna Knolls was preaching. That day she told the story of the Apostle Paul and how he met a light from heaven and heard a voice speak from heaven. She then told them that the voice was that of Jesus Christ.

At that point, Kaboo jumped up and shouted: “I have seen that light! It is the same light that brought me here. And I heard that voice. When they were whipping me, and I was about to die, I heard that voice. I saw that Light!” His face glowed with revelation. “Now I know who it was who saved my life. It was Jesus!”

After telling his story, Kaboo was led to the Lord. He became a member of the Methodist Chrich in Monrovia and was baptized by Miss Knolls. He was christened “Samuel Morris”, after the name of the man who sponsored Miss Knolls to get to Africa. Samuel continued to learn under Miss Knolls, and his passion for God grew. He longed for a day when he would return back to his tribesmen to teach them about Jesus, so he longed to know more and more and more. Every Thursday evening was his last meal until Saturday. For the rest of his life, he never ate on a Friday, he always kept a fast to commemorate his deliverance from his captors.

“I will go to New York”

Samuel Morris kept studying his Bible as he developed his English-speaking abilities more and more. He had lots and lots of questions to ask and Miss Knolls did her best to answer, until one day she got tired of his questions. She told him that she had taught him all she knew, and wished that Mr. Stephen Merrit was available to answer all his questions, as it was Mr. Merrit that taught her all that she knew. “Where is Mr. Merrit?”, Kaboo asked. “He is in New York, a big city in America”, Miss Knolls replied. “Then, I will go to New York.” All of Miss Knolls efforts to explain to him that New York is not a place you just walk into like that fell on deaf ears. Samuel Morris was going to talk to his Father, and if He approves, he will go to New York, find Stephen Merrit, and learn all he could about the Holy Spirit.

Journey to New York

In his own words, this is what Samuel Morris had to say about his journey, “I had so many questions. I was hungry to know more about God. I decided to go to America to study and learn. I went to the African coast and found a ship headed to America. The ship’s captain refused to let me on board. I asked God to change his heart, and he did! One of his sailors became very sick. The captain let me take his job, assuming that I knew how to sail, but I didn’t. When he and the sailors drank too much, they treated me very badly. One man even tried to kill me. But I showed them God’s love. Over the months at sea, many of them, including the captain, became Christians. A ship, once so full of hatred and drunkenness, became a vessel of love and unity in Christ.” Actually, God worked lots of miracles through Samuel Morris in that ship. By the time he was leaving the ship, almost all, including the captain had given their lives to Christ.

On getting to New York, Prince Kaboo alighted from the ship. As the God of miracles would have it, the first person he met and asked about Mr. Stephen Merrit actually knew him. He offered to take him to Mr. Merrit for the price of one dollar. Samuel had no money but promised him not to worry that his father will pay. When they arrived, the man asked for his dollar and Samuel replied, “Stephen Merritt pays all my bills now.” Stephen Merritt graciously handed over the dollar bill. Since he had to leave for another appointment, Samuel waited at Mr. Merritt’s mission. That evening, Mr. Merritt returned to find Samuel surrounded by seventeen men, all laying prostrate before the Lord, repenting of their sins. Mr. Merritt was amazed. He welcomed Samuel into his house, and provided food and clothing for him.

Taylor University

Since Samuel came to America with an intention to learn, Mr. Stephen Merrit connected him to Thaddeus Reade, the then President of Taylor University in Fort Wayne, Indiana. At that time, the university was at the brink of a financial meltdown and was about to close down. They reluctantly agreed to give Samuel Morris a chance, and that was to be the turning point of the school. In Samuel’s own words, “God used my desire to know him better to start a spiritual revival in the town, after a local newspaper printed a story about an all-night prayer service we had. It also included the story of my capture and conversion to Christianity. The name Samuel Morris became known in almost every home in Fort Wayne. So many donations came in to the “Samuel Faith Fund” that the university began to grow. (The fund helped other needy students, too.)”

Death & After

The Lord continued to use Samuel Morris mightily to revive the Church in America. On account of him, many souls were won to the Lord. His child-like faith, his trust in the Lord, his life of prayer was worthy of note. Even Mr. Stephen Merrit’s life was transformed by this young African boy. He once remarked that though many hands had been laid on him by mighty preachers, but none could compare to the mighty presence of the Holy Spirit that came upon him when the young Samuel held his hands and prayed for him.

The cold weather of America was not really favourable to the boy Samuel as he went down with cold. He asked God to heal him, but Samuel’s work on earth was done. He died just five years after coming to America, at the age of about 20 years. Though that was not the end. His life and passion moved many students of Taylor University to answer the call to African to minister God’s word to the natives of Samuel’s land. Till today, the influence of Samuel Morris had remained with Taylor University such that even in the midst of the decadence in America today, Taylor University remains a missionary-sending university in America; and they can never finish telling the story of that university without talking about Samuel Morris.

Now, what about you? For what will you be remembered? Do not say you are too young. Though Samuel died at the age of 20, but within that short time, he had won many souls to the Lord, and influenced generations for His Father. Though dead, his life still speaks, and his simple child-like faith in his heavenly Father reminds us that such faith is all that is needed to turn our world around.

FOR FURTHER CONSULTATIONS:

3. https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/church-history-for-kids/samuel-morris-missionary-to-america-11634864.html

4.

https://digitalshow

case.oru.edu/hsbooks/10/

5. https://wellsofgrace.com/biography/english/morris.htm

6. https://www.taylor.edu/about/samuel-morris

7. Merritt, Stephen. Samuel Morris: A Spirit-Filled Life.
—. Samuel Morris: A Marvelous Story of Divine Power:
Francis Asbury Society, 1987, 2000.

In Christmas week of 1904, churches in Portland, Oregon united to hold a city-wide gospel crusade, by spring of 1905, 240 major stores and businesses jointly decided to close daily between 11am and 2pm for prayers. Many people came to the Lord that period, including a 16-year old boy, Robert Gilmore “RG” LeTourneau.

In his own words concerning that day, he said,

“No bolts of lightning hit me, … I just prayed to the Lord to save me, and then I was aware of another Presence. No words were spoken. I received no messages… all my bitterness was drained away, and I was filled with such a vast relief that I could not contain it all”

“RG” was born in Richford, Vermont, on 3oth November, 1888. He went to school as usual, but dropped in his 7th grade, due to economic circumstances. At age 14, he got his first job in an iron foundry. Showing a deep interest in Mechanics, he started a course on Mechanics with the International Correspondence School (ICS) at age 21, though he never took any exams or paid fees. Later, he landed a job with Holt Manufacturing as a tractor driver, using tractors to level a large expanse of land.

In 1919, desirous to be more and do more for Christ, “RG” felt that the best thing anyone who wants to really serve God should do was to enter into the full-time ministry- whether as a pastor, evangelist or missionary. Thus, he went to his pastor, Rev. Devol, for advice and prayers concerning dropping everything to become a missionary. After deep prayers, he was surprised to hear his pastor say to him, “RG, God needs businessmen too.” This revelation was going to define and guide him for the rest of his life. It dawned on him that he does not have to go to China, or Africa as a missionary before he can show total commitment to the Lord; he too can serve Jesus as a businessman. He returned home to later tell his wife that he now had a new partner in business- GOD.

In his words,

“When you go into partnership with God, you’ve got a Partner closer and more active than any human partner you can ever get. He participates fully in everything you let Him do, and when you start putting on airs, and thinking you’re doing it with your own head of steam, He can set you down quicker and harder than a thunderbolt. There’s nothing dull about being in partnership with God.”

Even in the midst of an almost business collapse in the year 1927, RG kept up with his yearly missions’ pledge to the Lord. He didn’t allow his business struggles to deter him. For him, God was his partner, and he must do all to please him; including not working on Sunday, even if that would have helped his work and business earnings.

R. G.’s interest in machines moved him to purchase his own Holt tractor and start his own earthmoving company, R. G. LeTourneau Inc., in 1929. Although, there was so much technological advancements at that time, the world of earthmoving equipment was still in the stone ages. In order to meet up with his land leveling contracts (which he always underbid to beat his competitors), “RG” had to invent new machines, instead of purchasing or hiring them at greater costs, or even using pure man-power. He was among the first road construction contractors to introducing machinery to earth moving.

By 1933, he moved fully into manufacturing of these machines. He designed and built earthmoving machines using technology that was decades ahead of his time, and became later recognized as one of the fathers of earthmoving machines. The use of rubber tires in earthmoving machines, the two-wheeled tractor unit, the electric wheel drive, and mobile offshore drilling platforms are all attributed to the technical ingenuity of “RG”. More than 70% of the earthmoving machines used by the Allied forces in World War II came from LeTourneau’s factories.

He was later to start a LeTourneau Technical institute, in Longview, Texas in the year 1945, which was later to become a college in 1961, and a university in 1989. His desire in founding the institute was to provide both mechanical training and traditional college education for aspiring missionaries. The university continues today, and is best known for its Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems degree program, and its business classes offered at campus extensions across Texas.

“RG” was a man who genuinely walked with God as a Christian business man. He and his wife lived to further the cause of God in their world according to the dreams God put in RG’s heart. One day, his wife, Evelyn suggested to him that they give more to God than they keep for themselves. This later grew to their practice of living on 10% of their money and giving 90% to the spread of the Gospel.

In RG’S words,

“It is not how much of my money I give to God, but how much of His money I keep for myself.”

He demonstrated his concern for the Gospel witness by establishing regular chapel services and by employing three full-time Chaplains in his manufacturing plants.

In His word,

“Because I believe God wants business men as well as preachers, I believe a factory can be dedicated to His service as well as a church.”

The monthly publication “NOW” started by him reached 600,000 persons during his lifetime and circled the world with its message.

In 1935, RG gave his first public speech at the opening of a new plant, where he urged his fellow Christians in the room to do more for the Lord in their businesses. This speech opened up more doors for him to come to different churches and Christian organizations, and speak on Christianity and business. In later years, he purchased airplanes (with his business profits), to help in his speaking schedules. He also founded the Center for Faith and Work, which continues to reach out to Christians to be faithful in their places of work and natural endeavours.

The Holy Spirit helped “RG” so much in his endeavours, as an “unschooled” engineer, he was able to conceptualize a lot of earth-moving machines using highly advanced technologies. He had over 300 patents in his name (bulldozers, scrapers of all sorts, dredgers, portable cranes, rollers, dump wagons, bridge spans, logging equipment, mobile sea platforms for oil exploration, the electric wheel and many others). He also owned and operated manufacturing plants in 4 continents of the earth. In 1965, the International Correspondence School (ICS) where he had unofficially learned mechanics, awarded him an honorary degree in Engineering. By then, he was 76 years old. When he got the certificate, he simply joked to his assistant, “So now I’ve got a diploma. Now I’m educated.”

He died at the age of 81, having lived a good life for God. Though he sold his manufacturing line, but his University continues today, and his life remains a living testimony that one can be a viable and fruitful Christian, even as a business man and inventor.

For further reading/information:

LeTourneau, R. G. Mover of Men and Mountains. Chicago, Illinois: Moody Press, 1967

https://thebestschools.org/magazine/rg-letourneau/

https://www.letu.edu/