As This Fresh Oil Drops, May It Make All the Difference
There he lay, motionless, lifeless, in the raised bed, his body draped in an immaculate white in the almost completely vacant executive room of a private hospital. Silence enveloped the room; thick enough for a knife to cut. The vital sign monitors or other medical machines that beeped were all gone. The room was well-lit like a Christmas tree, clean and neat as you would expect of a hospital of that calibre, but it could not prevent the gloom we felt so deeply as we entered.
The phone call that announced his death woke my wife and me up that early morning. We hurriedly drove to the hospital and arrived there at 2.00 am to commiserate with his devoted wife who laboured relentlessly in prayers and care. A priceless daughter of God. We grieved together.
He was pronounced dead at about 1.25 am but not before frantic efforts by a team of medical specialists to resuscitate him. He was our dearly beloved brother and friend for more than 35 years.
As I moved around his lifeless body, while my wife sat to console his wife, I mused about praying for him to rise up but quickly left the idea. What purpose would that serve? I thought. He was ill for months. And men prayed for his recovery. Women prayed. Children prayed. Family and friends prayed. God is not deaf. He answers prayers. Lazarus was dead for four days before Jesus raised him from the dead, a pointer to divine limitlessness. Also, God must be operating a spare parts factory in heaven because all of Lazarus’ vital organs must have suffered some degree of decay.
In addition to prayers, he and his family spent buckets of good money on the best available Medicare.
I felt it was his time to go after enduring untold pains. After all, he knew and served the Lord and kept his faith aflame till his last breath. Who would want to come back after seeing the portals of heaven and its indescribable glory? Come back to once again experience power outages occasioned by incessant collapse or breakdown of the national grid? Who would want to return to enduring long queues to buy petrol for over 1000 naira? Or who would want to come back to the exchange rate that is making the value of the naira seem like confetti thrown at weddings?
Some days later, I felt bad for not praying for him to come back to life. I did not act based on my resolve some years ago when I was invited to the morgue of a big public hospital late at night to pray for another dear brother who was brought in dead to the hospital. We prayed and prayed for the Lord to raise him while the mortuary attendants waited patiently like vultures for us to exercise our faith before taking in the body. He did not rise.
Following that event, I reflected on the mandate given by Jesus to his twelve apostles “And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:7-8). Raise the dead? That is not for spiritual sophomores. I decided that I would take the opportunity whenever I was called to pray to raise the dead. Whether the dead will rise or not should not be my utmost concern but I will always be true to the instruction of the Master.
Fast forward to Monday, November 11, 2024. Our General Overseer, Rev. (Dr.) Sam Aboyeji, during his weekly prayer broadcast, Possessing Your Week, quoted Acts 2:22 “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:”
As I reflected on that passage, I concluded that miracles, wonders and signs are essential hallmarks of divine approval. Our national convention this year is themed “God of Wonders.”
Those who will be ordained at this year’s convention are fitly branded “Ministers of the God of Wonders,” and I am highly privileged to be one of them.
My heart cry is that as this fresh oil drops, it will separate us as ministers of the miraculous with a distinction and a difference between the commendation of men and the approval of the divine.