2 Chronicles 7: 14
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
1 Timothy 2: 1, 8
I urge, then, first of all that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone:
for Kings and all those in Authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all Godliness and Holiness. I want men everywhere (in Britain) to lift up holy hands in prayer without anger or disputing.
I arrived in London in the summer of 1991, back to the place of my birth and childhood. My memory bank regularly replays the first glimpse of the green chequered English fields from my window seat in the Nigerian Airways flight from Lagos. I remember wondering how idyllic the toy-sized houses looked, neatly arranged in rows, very different from the compact spaghetti slums of cosmopolitan Ibadan.
Fresh out of the tyrannical pressure of consistent rigorous study in medical school, I was well overdue for a holiday and change of scene. ‘Your sister would really enjoy your brief company in Oyinbo (the White man’s) country’ my mother quipped on the eve of my departure. ‘She has been on her own for six years and sure needs to feel her brother’s hug. Are you sure you are coming back!!’ I turned and looked sternly at my fussing mum as she crouched twiddling her Muslim prayer beads and chanting under her breath. Of course!! I am only going for three months...we’ve been over this already, are you sure you really want me to go!! It’s okay my prince, lets not get into any arguments. There’s just that look in your eyes’
As usual I have to confess, she was right. Fifteen years later I am still on my three months holiday!! Within a few days of arriving, I had what we Pentecostals call ‘an encounter’ with God. Jonathan you are not here by accident, you are here by divine design, you are here as part of my recruitment to this part of the world in preparation for the Coming of my Son Jesus. Therefore drop your agenda and pick up my programme. Get involved with what I am doing in these Isles and Continent. Stop Medicine and pick up Ministry.
It was so vivid and clear. I knew God was speaking to my heart. ‘God, Don’t you think that’s a bit too drastic and radical?! Leave medicine...? I have everything set up in Nigeria for my career. Can’t I serve you as a medical doctor? How do I tell my Dad...wait a minute, how do I tell my Mum!!! Oh God you are going to have to talk to her yourself!!’
All these thoughts and more flooded through my mind as I pondered the depth of God’s Word to my heart. I was literally terrified of how my Islamic family would react to the news. I had barely recovered from the horrible experience of being excommunicated from our home by my Father when I became a Christian five years earlier. For my parents, breeding the only doctor in the family anaesthetised the impact of having a Christian son within the Muslim community. Now even that Joker was about to be lost. Looking back, God has really been faithful. My entire family have become Christians, I met the love of my life; Abbiih, we have two lovely kids Sam and Hanita, I am part of a thriving church called Glory House and deeply involved (in my own way) with Christian Mission in the UK.
THE VISIONS
In the year 2005 I had a repeat Vision of something I first saw in 1991. It was clearer and came with its own insight and application. Before stating what I saw, I would like to present two other scenes I was given by the Lord in 1992 and 1997.
Visions, dreams, trances and prophetic revelations are all very biblical and can be experienced by any Christian as a result of Gifts by the Holy Spirit or as chosen by the Lord. Saint Peter quoted from the book of Joel on the Day of Pentecost when he said:
And it shall be in the last days, ‘’God says, ‘’That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;Even upon My bond slaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of my Spirit and they shall prophesy’’ (Acts 2:17-18).
