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2018 is a year I cannot quickly forget in a hurry. .
Spiritually it meant to me, a year of new a beginning, particularly for the church of God. Using what least mattered, e.g. the social media, particularly the Youtube, and the so-called less spiritual people and their circumstances,(broken marital relationship, etc), God shook the very foundation of His church. For once, the untouchables within the Church leadership were visited in a way that shook them to their bone marrows. Their age-long oppressive church doctrines and practices were decisively and successfully questioned such that the church was divided into two parallel camps.
Most importantly the church’s attention was drawn to the fact they had practically abandoned the heart of a true religion - by caring less about the needy in their midst. Instead, critiques of the church were given boldness to point out that the leadership most revered churches were using the people’s resources to build empires for themselves by wrongly invoking Malachi 3:8-10 to extort tithes and offerings from them. It is as if judgment had actually started from the house of God! And some overflowing Pastors started shedding their weight of wealth by selling of some of their cherished properties.
I learnt some lessons from these developments. First, nobody, too high or too low, priest or lay, is above correction. Secondly, I learnt that people want to see the promises of God as far as living in abundance is concerned (John 10:10b) manifesting in the lives of the followership of the church rather than only in the lives of their leadership. Thirdly, I could see that God poured His spirit upon the people directly such that people who were complacent about reading the Bible suddenly realized that they needed to read the Bible themselves so as to stop being fooled by money-laundering Pastors.
Today, people no longer return from their churches feeling guiltier than they left their homes simply because they failed to pay tithes or the other involuntary taxes imposed on them. Once upon a time, I could remember, the National Stadium was filled to the brim under Pastor Ashimolowo of KICC’s crusade where he preached on “The 24-hour Miracle”. We (the vulnerable) were made to believe that in order to receive such a miracle, everyone we needed to sow N1,000 ea.! I did not only subscribe, but I saw with my eyes how huge amount of money was gathered and the bullion packed everything away. However, I didn’t know how many of us got that miracle except KICC, maybe it is because I could not meet fellow subscribers one-on-one to interview them on the outcome of their sowing. One thing I knew was that the promised miracle I wanted to purchase at that crusade did not come. Enough of these nonsense by our Pastors who mortgage the word of God which Jesus did not do throughout his ministry days.
God, out of His unconditional love and mercy for me, has consistently sustained me with miracles not because I bribed Him! Today, Preachers are now careful at preaching such because they know that “everything” they said (unlike before when they would swallow them without questioning) will be tested by their listeners. (1 Thess. 5:21). So an average Christian’s life is no longer as it used to be although there are still men-worshippers amongst us.
In my business, as a farmer, I learnt a lot of lessons too. I had better understanding of farming techniques and timing. I got to understand that for any crop production to succeed, in addition to prayers, much physical, financial, material inputs are ceaselessly required between land preparation to harvesting. Crops are like babies that must be properly nursed from its embryo stage to full maturity. Any slip somewhere along the line will lead to imminent failure. There are times of serious pressures a farmer cannot afford to toy with in his farm, particularly, control of weeds will challenge the farmer continuously from planting to harvesting, irrespective of the methods of controls adopted.
Above all I saw the futility of a farmer’s efforts without adequate financial ability to procure needed inputs to actualize his dream. Secondly, it became clear to me that a farmer who borrows money from a Microfinance Bank that rakes in between 20-40% interest is laboring in vain. There are too many risks involved in farming that it is better done with one’s own money or with borrowed money that does not attract more than a single-digit interest and whose repayment is over not less than 3 years tenure at least. In 2018, I concluded that chasing government CBN-Nisral, anchor-borrowing, so-called farmers organizations for support is an exercise that if it must be pursued at all, must be done passively because they the bureaucracy involved will make it rather unworkable than make it achievable. There’re clearly more government senior officials who prefer to kill farming business rather than support it. This year, 2018, I am therefore redefining my strategies to becoming a successful farmer in order not remain a perpetual slave to money-lenders. Again when I realize that God has graciously given me up to 120 years of active live, I must after 62 years of age be tallying my activities in farming to what I probably can accomplish myself so I don’t cut my days short because of persistent failed expectations from adversaries who pretend to be friends. Are you retiring as a farmer? That’s not a choice for me because it will be the very worse choice. I am a born farmer, I can’t retire from but can practice it successfully without hurting myself. I shall do it to the limit I have control over. That’s what I am saying in essence.
2018 is a year God helped me to achieve a particular goal that had agitated my mind form my early days - how to affect the lives of the young ones world-wide. By His grace, I was able to do this through my best book of the year “The Compulsory Journeys of A Life Time” or better still “The Compulsory Journeys of my Life”. I personally lacked the magnitude of the finance required to go far in its distribution but God sent helpers who helped in propagating the good news by sponsoring and distributing not less than 1000 copies of the book which were all given out free to deserving younger generations. 1000 out of a world population of close to 7 billion people? I am not bothered as I believe that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a step. By God’s grace, come January 2019, millions of parents and children will have access to this material free of charge on Google’s Playstore, courtesy of another IT expert who is working on it right now and is not charging me one kobo! Some of the sponsors of this project prefer to be anonymous so let me generalize it for all because they are not doing it for a show. I shall remain grateful to them for joining me to accomplish this longstanding great goal of mine during this very outgoing year.
In areas of politics, in 2018, my greatest achievement was that I was able to realize that there’s a huge difference between a Pastor holding political office and being politically irrelevant. A Pastor may not hold a political office. Yes, a Pastor that holds a political office ought to be able to practically shape the world for the better but in practice, I have always feared that it is easier for a Pastor to compromise his faith than to fulfill his mission in politics. This has made me to develop a cold feet as far as holding political office is concerned. Anyone who is close to me will know that I am an independent-minded person who behaves as led by the Spirit of God in me and can disagree with anyone who disagrees with that Spirit of God and will give me contrary opinion. Therefore, the only way I think I can be a political office holder is if I am given a political office which only God can lead any earthly authority to do because there are many qualified active politicians who are waiting for such an opportunity. This way, I can deliver my vision and if tempted to compromise my faith, I can honorably step down.
However I strongly believe
that I can still help positively influence the fate of this nation simply with my PVC and by ensuring that I vote for a candidate of my choice as led by the Spirit of God. I know I can still I can shape the destiny of this nation for the better through social activism by being vocal in airing publicly where I belongs in matters of politics, even if need be indicate the political party I prefer I was able to be decisive in this matter this year 2018 and I am thankful to God for the boldness to do so. It is hypocritical to sit on the fence on any matter for the mere matter of carrying everybody along.
Social media, (Youtube, Whatsapp, Telegram, facebook, twitter, etc) enjoyed my presence this year much more than years before. I was very fascinated at the level of impacts they made on the society as a whole and was able to contribute my own quota through those channels.
In my community and family sectors, if rated by ‘silver and gold’, I might not be rated high. That’s the way of a Pensioner cum struggling farmer but in the matters of intangible renderings like love expressed through physical service, to the best of my ability, they won’t write me off. It’s my own widow’s mite and I am happy they accepted it tiny as it might be.
So, I give glory to God for making 2018 and pray to God
that 2019 shall be deliver greater good tidings to us all in Jesus name.
review your 2018 experiences too. Endeavour to share this with as many people as possible. God bless you in Jesus name.
