Episode 18
*Please forgive all grammatical errors *
It was another morning and another new week. The minutes, hours, days and weeks were going by so fast these days.
Kemi has been taken advantage of all the opportunities at her disposal to learn everything she had to. They were already at the third month and Mama was done with her “lectures”. However, she had set aside a day for her to summarize everything for Kemi and add the ones she hasn’t taught her yet.
Mark on the other hand, has no troubles at work this day although Kemi knows it’s just for a while. He has been learning along with Kemi these days as he couldn’t meet up with the lectures as a result of his job; but that didn’t stop him from learning.
It’s a cool Monday afternoon and that was the day Mama had chosen to summarize everything and add some as well.
Kemi had done everything required of her and Mark had gone to work.
“Mama I’m ready” Kemi said as she sat down, ready for a very long lecture that day.
“Today marks the last day of your lectures my child, after which you’d bring your assignments for me to see” Mama said with smiles
“So tell me…….what have you learnt so far?” Mama asked as she waited
patiently for a response
“So many things Mama. Your lectures has opened my eyes to what I didn’t know before. I’ve learnt that we need to understand God if we’re to be what He wants us to be.
I learnt we have to exercise our authority in Christ. We can do that by commanding the morning and His creation. I also learnt that there are prayers and there are prayers. Some answers prayers wouldn’t come to us except if prayed aggressively and we persevere and the Bible passage you gave to me was Dan 10:12-13, stating that if Daniel hadn’t persevered, he wouldn’t have received answers to his prayers.
Another example you gave was that of Elijah when he prayed seven consecutive times for rain. You said assuming he had just prayed five times
and had given up, he wouldn’t have received his answers” Kemi said as she went on and on and on.
“Okay okay okay my child…….I can see you’ve learnt enough. You’ve
practically summarized the whole thing sef.” Mama said as they both laughed
“I remember you asking me a question one day. Asking why you were weak in the spirit.” Mama recalled
“Yes Mama” Kemi responded.
“Good; and what was my response to your question?” Mama asked
“You said such do happen when we’ve opened a door to the enemy. A very good example is anger or quarrelling with our neighbors. That way, the enemy can drain our strength spiritually and then we’d become as weak as people who don’t pray” Kemi explained the best way she could
“And what did I say was the remedy?” Mama asked
“Self Control. And ask for help from the Holy Spirit” Kemi replied like a brilliant student
“Good. So what about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Give me a summary of that too” Mama said, expecting an intelligent response
“The gifts of the Holy Spirit are 9 in number and are grouped into three: Revelational gifts, vocal gifts and power gifts. The Revelational gifts are the Word of Knowledge, word of wisdom and discerning of spirits. The vocal gifts are gifts of prophecy, speaking in tongues and interpretation of
tongues while the power gifts are the gifts of healing, faith and working of miracles. All these can be found in 1Cor. 12:7-10” Kemi answered.
“Very good oko mi. I don’t think there’s any other thing to ask again. You’re a good student” Mama said as Kemi responded with smiles.
“Now let me conclude my lecture with important topics” Mama said as Kemi listened attentively, ready to write
“I’d speak of the things we all know but neglect the power residual in them.” She said
“Now let’s start with ‘The Word Of God’. The word of God is a very powerful weapon of our warfare. Infact, it is the sword of our armour as chistains. The word of God is yea and Amen. It is quick. It is powerful. It doesn’t fail. It doesn’t pass away until it is fulfilled even if the heaven and Earth would pass away. The word of God is like fire. It is fire in the bones. God honours His word above his name. Heb 4:12, Jer 23:29, Psalm 138:2, Isa 55:10-11 to mention but a few, attest to this.” Mama lectured as Kemi jotted down the passages cos she knew Mama was ready to summarize things and there was no time any longer.
Now how can we hopefully use this word when we don’t have or create time to read it. Remember that even our Lord Jesus Christ overcame Satan in the wilderness by confessing the word. If He hadn’t know the scriptures, how would he have overcome? There are some battles of life that can be overcome by just quoting the scriptures but what happens when we do not know the word of God concerning what we are facing???
We are admonished to read the word of God. Our Lord Jesus said we should search the scriptures. John 5:39, Isa 34:16, Josh 1:8, Deut 32:46-47, Deut 4:9 and Deut 8:11 attest to this. If you study the book of Deutronomy very well, you’d notice that it’s a book of the summary of everything the
Isrealites have passed through. You find blessings and curses there. You also find the admonishment to always read the Bible so we won’t forget quite a number of times. So my child, we shouldn’t take all these for granted. Remember that God’s people perish for lack of knowledge. They have the weapons but they don’t know they have it not to talk of how to make use of it.” Mama lectured and paused for a while, ready to go into another topic.
“Another thing I’d want to make mention of is faith” Mama said as Kemi made her jottings.
“You know too well that Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, and by it the elders obtained a good report. Faith is one of the necessary requirements for victory in battles as a Christian. Infact, it’s one of our spiritual armours; it is a shield with which we’d use to quench the fiery dart of the enemy. If you don’t believe, you won’t be established. If you’re afraid or do not have faith, you’ve lost the battle even before it is fought. Jer 1:17, Isa 7:9, Eph 6:16, Heb 11:1,6 to mention but a few, all attest to this.
We’re therefore charged not to be afraid or fear. We’re also charged to be courageous as it is one of the conditions for victory in spiritual warfare. You can find that in Josh 23:6, Deut 21:6 etc.” Mama said as Kemi was busy jotting.
“I’d end all my lectures with this topic ‘The power of a Christian'” Mama said as she requested for a bottle of water before proceeding.
“Now, as a Christian, once you have geniunely given your life to Christ and accepted Him s you’d personal Lord and Savior, you’ve been accorded some powers and it’s left to you to discover and make use of it. I’ll not say much on this but I’d give you scriptural references to look it up yourself. Jer 5:14, Deut 32:30, Matt 18:18, 2 Cor 10:4-5, Deut 28:7,Luke 10:19 and so on. However, all these can be realistic and work for you according to the level of your faith and your Knowledge in God.” Mama said
“I don’t understand Ma” Kemi said
“You need to work on your faith and your Knowledge in Him in order for you to exercise this authority properly. If you know you don’t have enough faith to pick up a charm and throw it away after praying for example, it’s better you don’t. You have to ask God to increase you’d faith and knowledge in Him before taking some steps. S’oro mi ye e o (I hope you understand)” Mama said as she Drew her ears in emphasis.
“Yes Ma.” Kemi responded
“Oda. That’s all for today. You’d submit your assignments tomorrow, everything I’ve given to you.” Mama said as she ended her lectures
“Practice everything you know. Faith without works is dead. And you know practice makes perfect.” Mama said as Kemi thanked her as they went to the parlour
“Ehe it’s been a while I watched film sef.” She said as she sat on the sofa and asked her daughter to get her something to eat.
Kemi is seen reading and revising all she’s learnt at midnight, obviously ready to practice them all. She normally reads at night as that’s what works for her, plus it’s quiet and it’s the only time Mark had the opportunity to join her.
Mark had returned very late for work so he revised with his wife before midnight so he could get more than enough sleep.
Kemi had finished revising and memorized some scriptures for the third time and was now ready to sleep
“Lord, empower me for the battle ahead” she prayed silently as she neatly kept her Jotter and joined her husband in bed.
TBC