© Ayo Omolayo
“Juliet, you are turning into something else oooo! I can’t believe in a few days, you have turned into a spiritual giant!”
“Please oooo! I’m still growing!” I replied giggling.
“Growing ke! You have already turned to an iroko tree!” Ella replied.
“Please don’t exaggerate it. There’s more then casting out Devils in God. Infact, even the bible said in Luke 10:20. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.
So I am not to rejoice that I am casting out Devils. I am to rejoice that my name is written down in heaven.”
Ella tapped my shoulder and smiled.
“God will do amazing things through you. Remain humble!” She whispered.
“What do I want to boast about? Me that has failed God over and over again. I’m nothing but a product of God’s mercy. I cannot boast of anything ooo!”
“It is well!” She replied chuckling.
“Juliet!” Susan called as she entered the room.
“Yes angel!”
She smiled.
“Please tell your daughter to leave oooo! She said she cannot leave untill she speaks with her mother!”
“I don’t understand.”
“She said she wants to speak with her mom!”
“Is that what she said?”
“Yes! She has been calling you her spiritual mother since.”
“Ope! I will beat that girl!” I stood up.
My sisters were already laughing.
“I had already dismissed her about an hour ago. And I also told her to stop calling me her mom.”
“Juliet, it’s time you admit it. You don get pikin ooo!” Ella said laughing.
“Please stop it! I’m too young to be called that!”
“Spiritual stature has nothing to do with age. Just grow spiritually and even age will have nothing to do with the sons and daughters you will have.”
“Please! I want nothing to do with this, I just want to be Juliet Anderson!” I said and left the room. Susan followed me.
“Ope! Why did you do this? This is 7:30pm. Your parents will get angry at you for staying out this late.”
“That’s not an issue. I know the right buttons to press and I’ll be out of parental trouble in no time.” She replied with a warm smile.
“That is not an excuse for getting them worried about you. As a good child, you’re not supposed to stay out this late. I had already told you to go home, why did you stay behind?”
“I needed to discuss with you about what happened today.”
“Can’t it wait till tomorrow?”
“No! It’s about tomorrow. I wanted to ask if it was possible to start the school fellowship tomorrow. We already have 12 new converts in our school. We can start a discipleship class for them. We can teach them the basics of Christianity and how to be a good Christian.
Sorry I’m talking too much. But I need you to pray about it and get back to me tomorrow. I want these souls to be well cared for and taken care of. I don’t want them to struggle as I did. I want them to be sound and real believers.
You know, one of the things that has seriously affected the body of Christ is mentorship. Many people get born again and they are not under anybody’s spiritual watch. No one is following up their spiritual growth. Whether they are reading the word of god or not. Whether they are fasting and praying, nobody knows.
And when new born babies are not well catered for, they will die in few minutes. That’s the reason why we have so many dead churches and dead congregation out there. All the members are hardened sinners. Choristers are proudly fornicators and even have the guts to date right inside the choir team.
I want us to start a revolution that would transform this territory and take away the pains in the heart of our father, Ore mi. This is something that has been disturbing me every time you win a soul.”
I don’t know what to say. This was a lot of responsibility. Follow up, looking after new converts. I knew it was very important to always check up and follow up converts. But at least, can’t God arrange someone else to so that?
“Juliet are you there?” Ope called me back to the sitting room.
“Yes!”
“So what do you have to say about it?”
“Wonderful proposition. I’ll pray about it and get back to you.”
“Okay! Then let me start heading home.” She said and walked towards the door.
“Bye! Sweet mummy Juliet!” She replied and left before I could say jack.
“That girl is a lot of trouble!” Susan said.
I chuckled.
“She made a lot of sense in that proposition she made. I think you should pray about it and allow God guide you on how to go about it. It would really be wonderful not only to have converts, but matured converts. God doesn’t want us to just preach and win souls, he also wants us to nuture them to maturity.
I got back to my room and met my phone ringing. I checked who the caller was and discovered it was a strange number. I didn’t want to pick it, but I felt peace about it, so I did.
“Hello!”
“Hi! Am I speaking with Juliet Anderson. The girl that always preaches in school?”
“Yes! It’s me! What can I do for you?”
“Okay! Actually, it was Robert who gave me your number. I have been having a few questions I needed to ask you. I gave my life to Christ during one of your ministrations in school. I never came out for altar call. I was scared my friends would laugh at me. So I said the sinner’s prayer where I stood.
I have given my life to Christ. I know I have new life in me. Because immediately I said those words, I felt joy and peace in my heart. I became so joyful and happy. I almost wanted to meet you that day to thank you. But Joy, my friend refused to leave my side. She followed me everywhere that day.
Sorry, where are my manners? I am Rita Stephen. I’m an SS one student. Juliet, I have given my life to Christ, but it’s as if that happiness that came with my surrendering to Jesus only lasted for one day. I have noticed that people usually say that when you give your life to Christ, old things are passed away. Behold all things have become new.
But I don’t know why my case is different. I am a hot tempered person in nature. I remembered the day I gave my life to Christ, someone tried to get me angry. I was able to overcome the temptation that day.
But as I’m talking to you now. My mum just finished calling me a demon. My younger sister got me so mad that I beat her so bad. I slapped her and her mouth is bleeding. This is not the first or second time I’ve done it since I got born again. Immediately my mum called me a demon, I realized something was seriously wrong. I’m supposed to be the image of Jesus, not a demon.
I don’t understand. I accepted Jesus as my Lord and saviour. What happened? Why am I still living in sin as if I am not born again?
I forgot to add this. Before I gave my life to Christ, there’s this guy in SS 3 asking me to be his girlfriend. I had always giving him no as an answer. Can you believe I told him yes last week?
He came to visit me the day before yesterday. And before leaving, he kissed me. I have not been myself since the act. I have always believed that the only person who should give me a kiss on the lips is the man I get married to in the future.
The point is. I have Jesus in my life. But why is it as if nothing is changing about my old way of life? Why is everything still as dirty as it was before and even getting worse? Or is it because I refused to come out when you made the altar call?”
I was like, God this is a serious matter ooo! How do I answer this question?”
“OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND I WILL FILL IT,” Came the gentle response.
I exhaled and spoke.
“Listen to me, whether or not you come out for the altar call, you will still have the same experience. This is the reason why. When you get born again, everything becomes new. The spirit is reborn and becomes an infant.
Do you have a bible there with you?”
“No! But let me get it!” She said and I waited for a few seconds.
“Yes! I have it!”
“Good, open to 1 Peter 2:2.”
She opened to the passage and read.
“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.”
“Good. Now can I ask you a question?”
“Go on!”
“If you do not eat, what happens to you?”
“I become weak!”
“Yes! What else!”
“I may fall sick!”
“Beautiful. What else?”
“I may die!”
“Good. That’s exactly what happens to you as a new born christian. If you do not feed yourself with God’s word on a daily basis, the same way you feed your physical body. You’ll become weak spiritually. You won’t have the strength to overcome the spirit of anger.
Also, if you do not feed your spirit man, you’ll fall sick spiritually and have the disease called sexual immorality. You can also fall sick with bitterness and hatred.
And if you fail to wake up and feed your spirit man. You’ll die spiritually and start kissing boys.”
“Wow! I never knew this?”
“Now, reading the bible is only one part of it. The second one is prayer. Please open to Luke chapter 18 verse 1.”
She opened to the passage and read.
“Luke 18:1. And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.”
“Men ought always to pray and not to do what?”
“Faint!”
“Men ought always to pray and not what?”
“Faint!”
“If you don’t pray, you are going to faint spiritually. What causes fainting?”
“Weakness!”
“Exactly! So you desperately want to stop kissing that boy, but there’s no strength. You desperately want to stop beating your younger sister, but there’s no strength. You struggle to be a light to your family, but there’s no oil in your lamp. No fuel to keep your spiritual fire burning.
So you end up doing the opposite, because the bible says in John 1:12. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
It takes power to serve God. Your human strength will only carry you for a while and then your failure will continue from where your strength ends. For you to serve God, God must fill you with power for you to be able to live for him. But he’s not going to give it to you automatically.
You’ll have to appear before him daily to ask for it. You have to spend time with God everyday so he can fill you with the strength you need to live for him.
The bible says in the book of Hebrews 4:16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
That’s what we call quiet time. You need to arrange yourself. And pick a specific time that is convenient for you. A time when you will meet with God on a daily basis to feed your inner man with the word of God and to pray.
At the beginning you’ll struggle, but if you continue, you’ll discover that your life will truly change and become a light to your family.”
To be continued………
A Christian without an altar cannot over come sin. A christian who doesn’t spend time with God daily to feed his spirit man and pray cannot see a transformed life.
You need to be intentional about your spiritual growth. You cannot sleep anyhow and be careless with your spiritual life. You need to get up and be responsible for your spiritual growth.
