Articles
Part 3 of 4 Parts
The Following Message Has Been Transcribed For
Clarity, Continuity Of Thought, And Punctuation By
The LEM Transcribing & Editing Team.
This is my first trip to Nigeria, and the first time around, I guess the Lord decided to give me a Nigerian welcome from various people. I was led from a ministry in the United States to Lagos and now to Benin City. Praise the Lord. I try very hard to discern the will of God for the people that I minister to. You do not want to hear what I want you to hear. You want to hear what the Lord has to say to you today. As hard as I try, he has not spoken to me. What that means is he has something special for you, and he has not even told me about it yet. I will start by speaking about the mind of the Spirit. We have a mind that we were born with. Paul calls it the carnal mind. We can preach out of our carnal mind, or we can build on our response to the Spirit, and hear the word of the Lord for this hour. It is a gift to be able to yield our members unto the Spirit. That may sound like raising our hands to the Spirit in praise. There is truth in that. Sometimes the Lord sends you some place because somebody is waiting there to receive your ministry. There are spiritual members that we have.
Paul is speaking about the mind that we were born with. It is quite powerful because we have been using it all of these years. It is just like the muscles in your arms, if you exercise, if you lift weights, they will get stronger. Well this carnal mind has been having its way all of these years before the Lord called you, and he thinks that he is the boss over you. When you come to the Lord, and you say I now have a new boss, I now have a new head, I now have a new husband, he says what in the world are you talking about? As much as he can, he will arise in your mind, and try to continue to be the head of your life. We must learn how to yield our members to the Spirit. It is something that we learn by experience. When the Lord comes upon us, in that hour, to start bringing us into a measure of maturity, we will find ourselves incapable of accomplishing things that were very easy for us at one time. Things that went quickly, all of a sudden, nothing is going right.
This is the clue to cry out to God and say, Father, nevertheless let it be your will and not mine. I perceive a hindrance in the Spirit. What would you have me to do? I had some problem, some trouble, arriving here. I am not sure whether it was the Lord saying you are not to go to Benin, or I have something else for you to do, or whether it was Satan saying I do not want you to go to Benin today. I just prayed my way through, a day at a time, telling the Lord that it is my heart's desire to obey him, and to minister wherever he would have me to minister. After I prayed, I started to walk. I made a phone call and I got my information about the airlines. I found out the time schedules, but I could not get in touch with Rev. Omar. I could not get through on the phone. He could not get through to me. My hostess' car was wrecked on the way to the airport when the driver tried to get the plane schedule for us. All kinds of derision was raging amongst the brethren, and amongst the household help.
I sat there and I said, Lord, have your way. This battle must be of the Lord, but I am not even sure. You have not spoken to me. You have sent me to Nigeria, the other side of the world for five weeks, without a program. When I arrived in Nigeria I had no idea what I would be preaching. I had met Rev. Omar in the United States and I was the only one who knew him. I had sent him some of my teaching messages. That is how he knew of me. The Lord sent him to the United States and he telephoned me back in March. I had written him a letter, and said, Rev. Omar, I hope to be in Benin. God has not told me where I am going yet. When I arrive in Benin, I will give you a call to say hello. But the Lord had other plans, you see. He spoke to his servant, and this is the third time we have been here ministering. There were trials. Our luggage was misplaced. Our luggage did not come on the same plane that we arrived on, but that has been straightened out, and we are here ministering to the glory of God.
The plan of God is undefeatable. He is undefeatable, and our every need is met in Him. The problem that we have sometimes is that our carnal mind, that mind that we are all born with, that mind tells us that we need things that we do not need, or our carnal mind separates from the mind of God. When our mind is one, when our thinking is lined up with the mind of God, the Scripture says there is nothing that we should ask for that we would not have. Now I do not know about Benin City, but in the United States we have a lot of people going around in Cadillacs and diamond rings, and then some people lose their faith when God does not give it to them. God never promised us a Cadillac or a diamond ring. God says, when your thinking lines up with my thinking, there is nothing you can ask me for that I will not give to you because what you are asking for is what I wanted to give you before you asked me for it.
That sounds a little confusing, does it not? His commandment to us is, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you as you walk. As you walk; you must move. You must take action. You must do something. If you need a job, and you do not have a job, you must make every effort to obtain a job, however you do it here in the city, and you start walking. The Lord will meet you in the way. This seems to be a meeting for testimonies tonight, because I feel to give you a testimony about obtaining a job. As the Lord started to prepare me for the ministry, my preparation occurred over a period of two years. The Lord had told me many years ago that he had called me into a faith walk. That means he will provide all my needs, not by natural sources, but supernaturally. This is a ministry that is supernatural. I did not know it at the time, but when you are dependent upon the Lord to supply all of your needs, he will humble your ability to provide your own needs.
This we see in the Scripture typified in the account of Jacob wrestling with the angel. Did you ever wonder what that was all about? He walked away from that encounter crippled. The Scripture says he was limping. When I studied that Scripture in great depth, going into the original language, we found out that what happened to that man was that something in his personality was broken. An inability occurred in him. He could now survive with that indwelling intimate relationship with the Lord that is typified by his wrestling with the angel. The angel was saying to him, who will be birthed in your life? Will it be me or will it be the mind that you were born with? Jacob said to the angel, bless me. I will not let go of the Lord until you bless me. The angel had to touch him and cripple him, because even though Jacob was crying out for the blessing of the Lord, his own will power, his own mind, was interfering with what God wanted to do with his life.
When the Lord called me to a faith walk, the first thing he started to do was take away all my material resources. He took away my safety nets. He started to cripple my ability to be employed. Problems started arising that I had never had in my life. I found myself going through a series of jobs, which was very distressing to me, because I would have liked to have had one consistent job. As the Lord's call continued on my behalf, I found myself not even having a steady job, but working for a temporary employment agency. We call it shape up jobs in the United States. You arrive every morning, and you present yourself for work, and if there is work, you go, and if there is no work, you do not work that day. You have spent all your energy, and all that time presenting yourself to no avail, and there is no money in your hand. Even if you do work, it is stressful compared to not knowing if you are acceptable at the job, where the place is, and who the people are.
I knew it was the hand of the Lord on me, and he was breaking my ability to provide for myself, and crushing my confidence in my own trade and field. He was just crushing my belief in myself to provide for myself. One day I appeared for my shape up, and I was told there was no work anywhere in Manhattan that day. I had no money in the bank. The Lord had taken it all. I had used up a substantial amount of money that I needed every month to pay my bills without losing my home and my possessions. The first thing I did was cry. Lord, how could you do this to me? What have I done that you should bring me to such a place? But you see, I did not understand that you cannot live by the faith of the Son of God, by supernatural provision, until you are in a place where you have nothing. If you have money in the bank, if you have a job, how would you ever believe that God provides that money supernaturally? You will not believe it.
I said to myself, I do not think I want to go for that shape up the next morning. I had already bought a monthly ticket to get to Manhattan each morning. That is how it is done in New York. It was already paid for. It was just a question of arising, and traveling two and a half hours, to present myself to be told there is no work anywhere. I was told if you want to come in, we will not turn you away, but we promise you nothing. My alarm clock went off at 5:30 in the morning. I said, Lord, I do not want to get up and go into work. If I am going to die, let me die. If I am going to be destroyed, let me be destroyed. But deep in my heart the call of God spoke unto me, and He said, I require of you to do this. Arise and present yourself for work. You have stated that you have faith in me. Start to walk and do not listen to what men have to say to you, but believe in God. I repented to God and arose out of bed.
I arose out of bed, and made my 2 ½ hour trip into Manhattan, but I was discouraged. As I walked into that waiting room of that temporary agency, there was a man sitting there that I had never seen before. I greeted him and said good morning. He said good morning, and he looked at me very strangely. He said what kind of work do you do? I said computer work, and I gave him some more information about my specific area. He said, I know where there is a job for you. This was a man that was shaping up just like me. He had no work, but he knew that there was a job for me. I just looked at him, and I knew I saw the hand of God upon him. I was just amazed. He looked at me, and he must have thought I was strange. He said, let me call for you. He picked up the telephone and dialed another agency, spoke to the woman, and handed me the phone. She said come on over. If you are as qualified as you say you are, we have a six month assignment for you. To me this was deliverance.
I was going from day to day, not knowing if I had work, and when there was no work at all, not only did God provide a job, but He provided one for six months, which ultimately turned into one year. As I walked down the street to this other agency, the Spirit of God was just flowing all over me. I was saying it is a miracle of God when there was no work anywhere in Manhattan in New York City. When I arrived at the agency, I found out that the woman that I was replacing, had risen up in anger at her employer, and had stormed out the door just the day before. To live by faith requires a laying down of our natural way of accomplishing things. Now nobody hopes to do that. No one wants to do that. The Lord had to force me. I would not agree to it. I would not agree to losing all of my possessions. I would not agree to losing all of my job skills. I would not agree to it, but He took them from me one at a time, one at a time. I cried every step of the way.
Finally, I was paying bills. One of my fears had been what if I become ill? I would lose my home, and I would have no place to live. He had not let me make any provision. What I had feared came upon me and I was in the hospital for three months and five days. I was so devastated that I said my God has abandoned me. I was so devastated that I could not read my Bible. I could not listen to tapes. The people in the hospital had no idea I was a Christian. Christian nurses came witnessing to me. They thought I was recently saved. Here I was a minister and a teacher, and I thought for sure I was abandoned, and by the time I got out of the hospital there would be nothing left. I had just seen a TV program where a woman gave her testimony that she was a school teacher. She had a good job, but she became ill, and by the time she got out of the hospital she had lost everything, her savings, her home, and her furniture. Her landlord had taken everything to pay her back rent.
As I lay in the hospital, I said Lord, why do you not kill me now? Make it easy. I did everything that I knew how to do. Listen to what I am saying. I did everything that I knew how to do, and you are not pleased with me. Do me one last favor. Grant me one last request. Let me die in my sleep. Do not drag this thing out. Every night I went to bed I prayed this prayer. Every morning when I woke up, I would say why am I still alive? I was very frustrated. I did not seek mental treatment, but my recovery was miraculous. All kinds of destruction and disaster was prophesied over me. I was told that I needed surgery, and the Lord told me I would have to have it, but the doctor said you would have to repeat this surgery in six months. You will need a blood transfusion. You will be sick for the rest of your life. All this was prophesied over me. They looked at my X-rays, and my insides were so messed up that the doctors were not sure how much they could do for me. When they cut me open, the doctor said we had a little luck. Everything was in its proper place, and I did not need a blood transfusion and I did not need a second surgery six months later. They said they never saw anyone recover as rapidly as I did.
When I had gone home, I had not lost my home. I had not lost my possessions. I said to the Lord, I have been teaching and preaching for three years now, and you have not seen fit to provide an income for me. I am just too sick to work two jobs anymore. I am tired. I had lost a lot of weight. I was much thinner than I am now. I said, Lord, I have to give up the ministry because I just cannot work two jobs. Lord, what would you do to me now? Now there is not even a temporary job for me. What would you have for me to do now? I had come to the very end of my rope. God explained to me for all intents and purposes that there was nothing I could do to help myself. I was surely distraught. I called up my sister, and said I am about to lose my home. Can I stay in a corner of your basement? I will not bother you. I am very weak and ill, and cannot work. She said, of course you could come. But wait. Do not jump to conclusions. Much to my amazement, in the next couple of weeks, the Lord started providing supernaturally for me. Hallelujah!
I have now been preaching and teaching for 2½ years. I have a supernatural walk with God. My arrival in Nigeria was supernatural last year and it was supernatural this year. I will take a few minutes to tell you how that happened. Last year let me tell you how I got to Nigeria. Two years ago a woman came to one of my meetings, and she decided that she did not like the way I was preaching. She tried to correct me. I told her that I could not receive her correction because it did not line up with God's instruction to me. She took one of my messages and mailed it to a ministry in California, the other side of the country. She had hoped that this man would rebuke me, but guess what, he loved my message.
At the same time that this woman mailed him my message, hoping he would rebuke me, somehow he had gotten hold of my name. One thing had nothing to do with the other. He put me on his mailing list. I got this newsletter in the mail, and the Lord must have laid it on my heart obviously, because I asked, Where did this man in California get my name from? I telephoned him, and when he heard my name he got all confused. You see, the Lord can confuse for his own purposes. He thought that he found out about me because of the message. Finally we found out that the Lord prompted me to call him because it was the will of the Lord that we should speak.
Shortly thereafter a minister that he knows in California was putting together a mailing list and I put my name on it. I submitted my name to be included in his mailing list. When it was published, there were the names of two Nigerian men on this list. The Lord said to me, send those two men a couple of your messages. I did that. I sent them out, and they gave them to somebody else, and they then gave them to somebody else. Then one day the Lord said to me, you are going to Nigeria. This is over ten years ago. I said, Lord, I do not know anybody in Nigeria. A couple of Nigerians had written to me, and they had invited me, but can you imagine receiving a letter from somebody that you do not know, who they are, or what they look like? Would you just get up and go if you were invited? If someone was inviting you to the United States that you did not know, would you just get up and go? I said I do not want to go to Nigeria. I do not know anybody in Nigeria. I do not have anybody who would travel with me. I do not know where I would stay. I do not know my way around. The only positive thing is that you all speak English, but I do not know anything about the culture.
The Lord said to me, I want you to stop speaking negatively because I am sending you to Nigeria, and I will make a way. I said okay Lord, I will be quiet. Every time I felt afraid, I just rebuked the fear. I am afraid to travel to the other side of the world by myself. Within six months he brought me to an American woman who was going to marry a Nigerian evangelist. She was planning to take several people with her for a five week trip to Nigeria, during which five weeks she would get married, but everybody had cancelled out on her. She did not want to go alone, even to get married. Who wants to travel alone? The Lord brought us together, and in our meeting he just poured out his Spirit, and this glorious anointing, and I just knew that I was to go with her and would be safe. The man she would be marrying would be making all the arrangements. It so happened that this is how I arrived in Nigeria in November of 1991.
I spent five weeks ministering. When I returned to the United States the Lord said you will go again. I do not know how I will go again, Lord. This woman is married, and she and her husband are living in the United States. I said, if you make a way, I will go. I did not even tell you the best part of it. I had no money to buy the ticket, but the Lord said to me, start to prepare. The day that the plane was leaving I had no money. Every time I got down on my knees to pray, the Lord said, get up off your knees. I told you I am sending you. Go and pack. One o'clock in the morning I was packing. The Lord said, get ready to leave by nine o'clock in the morning. At eight thirty in the morning I had no money. I was lying in my bed deciding which dress to wear on the plane, and my doorbell rang. There was a woman there that I knew. I said what are you doing here? She said do you have the money? I said no, and here she is ringing my doorbell at eight thirty in the morning. I had no idea that there was any possibility that she had the money to purchase that ticket. I would not have believed it. I continued ironing my dress. I said come in and watch the Lord give me the money. She said you mean that you are going to the airport without a ticket? I am going to the airport and I will not give up until I see the plane leave in the sky without me. As I ironed my dress, she put the money down on the ironing board.
Notes # 4, 5, 6 have a Nigerian man speaking that is not understandable.
Transcribed by mjs 05/03/16
05/06/16 1st Edit rh
