CHEATED : EPISODE 21 – 40
Episode 36
As Mr. Mbakwe had abandoned the Nwankwos to face his only son, the family grew stronger in Christ.
Mbakwe knew his son was being remote-controlled lately, but was helpless over the situation as the source of such act was from a power higher than him – the source of his very own powers.
Thus, he left him to fate while strategizing ways to help him in being independent again.
David has been praying and asking God to send a divine helper their way, to bring them out of their current situation. Though he hasn’t seen any sign of answered prayers yet, the words of encouragement and advices from his mom were enough reasons to keep praying.
“Most times, we miss our breakthroughs due to lack of perseverance in prayers. You need to not just pray, but PUSH- Pray until something happens.
Also, if you really need something from God, you have to place a time you come before Him daily to pray about it; so heaven would recognize the time you’ve set apart for such prayers and as you pray consistently, the results will come.” His mother would always say whenever she sensed he was getting discouraged, judging from his speech.
“There’s no way I can help Frank effectively, except by a virtual exchange of glory.” Mbakwe concluded in his shrine as he searched for a perfect replacement for his son’s glory via his crystal ball, since that of his son has been sacrificed, and hence is of no use any longer.
“I need to look for a brighter glory and ex change it with my son’s. Then, things would automatically go well with him.”
Rose came home in tears. Ann was not around, giving her the freedom to express her emotions in tears without excessive probing.
“Lord, I’m sorry.” She blurted out in tears, as her lips whimpered.
“I’m so sorry sweet Holy Spirit. I’m sorry for frustrating you till you were forced tpo leave me all to myself. I realize my mistakes now – truly man shouldn’t be trusted, as he’s very much likely to fail. Please Lord, come back to me. No, I come back to you. Please accept me again.” She prayed in sincere tears as her mind kept flashing back to how she received warnings via impressions in her heart concerning the relationshop she was about embarking on with Emmanuel then, but she was already blind to see the signs and deaf to listen as hger emotions had successfully clouded her reasoning.
“Lord please, I’m sorry. Please Lord, please. I realize my mistakes now , please come back. I don’t even know how to start life afresh. I need you Lord, please.” She prayed wholeheartedly.
“Get re-connected.” She heard a tiny voice in her room say, while wailing in prayers.
“Yes Lord, I want to be re-connected to your family, to your kingdom.” She said, before she could even reason it wasn’t her mind that spoke.
“You’ve been disconnected alredy, for a long time. Get re-connected.” The voice said in finality and spoke no more. Sit was at this point that she opened her eyes while sniffing. She knew it wasn’t the Holy Spirit speaking because she heard the voice in her room, not her heart.
“Re-connected” I don’t know how to do that. Does it mean……” She was still in her thoughts when a call came in from an unknown number.
On checking the caller ID, it was Lilian, her old friend.
“Lilian? When last did I even hear from her? God, is this an answer to my cry? Because this is someone I lost her contacts three years ago.” Rose was still in thoughts when Lilian called the second time. Rose picked.
“Hello”
“Hi babe, good evening.”
“Good evening.”
“I believe I’m speaking with Rose, right?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, it’s Lilian. Do you still remember me?”
“Yes of course. Yes.”
“Ehe, and you’re acting cold like you’re speaking with a stranger.”
“*Smiles* I’m sorry, I wanted to be sure it was the Lilian I know, and you voice has just answered the question.”
“Ehnehn. Anyway, how are you na? How have you been?”
“*Smiles* I’m fine and you? It’s been a while.”
“Yes ooooo. I’m so sorry I’ve not called to check up on you for yearrrs now.”
“*Smiles* Same here.”
“I hope you’re still bubbling in Christ sha.”
“*Silence* Well, we thank God.”
“What is ‘we thank God?’ Tell me the new heights you’ve been able to attain in Him jare. You sabi say na that kin gist I dey love.”
“Honestly Lilian, there’s nothing much to say.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Since we parted, things haven’t nbeen the same.”
“Wait, hold on. Explain further, please. What do you mean?”
“*Moved to tears* Lilian I’m not the person I was anymore. A lot has happened and…”
“wait, are you crying? Lord, things must really have happened. You know what? I have a feeling this isn’t something to be discussed over the phone, alright? Can we see……like can we meet?”
“see? Are you in town? I thought you travelled out.”
“Yes, I did. I came back a month ago with my parenbts, so I’m currently living with my uncle.”
“Ohh…I didn’t know.”
“Yeah so where can we meet?”
“The State’s Garden.”
“Beautiful! I should be able to find my way there.”
“Okay, but when are we seeing? What time?”
“Tomorrow of course. It’s almost weekend so we’d both be less busy, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool. So I’d see you tomorrow evening okay? Take care of yourself for me, okay? Take care of yourself for me, okay? Whatever it is you’re going through, I’m sure it’d be sorted out with the Spirit’s help when we see. Is that okay?”
“*Nods* Yes”
“Can I hang up now? Will you be fine?”
“Yeah.”
“Promise me.”
“*Giggles* I’ll be fine, Lilian.”
“Nope, I’m not taking that. You have to promise me, because I hardly know you to be the trying type and you’re practically in tears.”
“Lol….You’ve known me too much babe.”
“What can I say? Five years isn’t five days, you know.”
“ True. Okay fine, I promise.”
“Great! I Can hang up now. I’d see you tomorrow, okay? Byeeeeeeeee”
“Yeah bye”
*Call Ends*
“Hmm…babe, you’ve really been through a lot emotionally.” Lilian commented as soon as Rose was done narrating her story.
“Unbelievable. No wonder you were in tears.”She said further as Rose kept quiet.
“But…I don’t understand. Whats the root of all these?”
“The root?”
“Yes. Let me take you down memory lane, in case you’ve forgotten. My dear, you were once my prayer partner, spiritual admirer, and my secret mentor. Back then in the university days, you were the envy of most church brothers, because you were literally on fire for God.
Infact, you challenged me yo have a closer and more personal relationship with the Holy Spirit, owing to the fact that you always made exact assumptions about most things academically and gave sound advices to those who requested for your help then. So how? I mean, what caused this backsliding of a renown and promising soldier of Christ? Because I do not understand. Like….this is unbelievable. Infact, if I had heard your story from someone else, I would’ve doubted greatly.” Lilian said with lots of concern in her voice.
“Hmmmm….”
“Babe don’t hmmm me. You haven’t answered my question. What is the root of all these? Like…how did it all start?”
“To be honest, I don’t know.”
“You don’t…Okay, let’s put it this way: When we parted after convocation and all, what was your life like? Did you still have a strong connection with Gods people?”
“Well, I moved in with Ann, and we’ve been living together ever since.”
“Okay good. She’s a Christain right?”
“Of course yes.”
“Does she share the same level of spiritual value with you?”
“Yes.”
“ So you go to fellowship together, hold vigils in your room together and all of that, right?”
“No, she isn’t that spiritual.”
“What do you mean she isn’t that spititual? You just said you’re on the same level when iy comes to spiritual values.”
“If that was what you meant, I answered wrong. Ann is just like any other person out there; she believes God exists, but makes no effort to have an intimate relationship wuth him.”
“Okay. At least she isn’t the onlt frined you’d have. So have you been attending fellowship and hoplding personal vigils like we used to then?”
“No, I’ve been too busy for that.”
“Since when?”
“For some time now. I mean work and all that. Immediately after youth serve, things have just be so uptight that I barely have time for myself and God. I’ve just been too busy.”
“Too busy? Hmmmm…..Sweetheart, the root of the fall is very glaring already.”
“I don’t understand.”
“What don’t you understand? Babe, you’ve been disconnected from your power source a long time ago.
Don’t you know the fire on your prayer altar should never go out? When God was giving Moses instructions on how to make sacrifices upon the altar, He gave a stern warning. He told Moses in Leviticus 6:13 that the fire on the altar must be kept burning at all times, and must never go out.
Babe, we are the temple of God, and we have an altar where we make sacrifices of Prayer, Praise and worship and so on as often as possible.
If the altar in the days of Moses required frequent anointing to sanctify and make it holy, how much more we the temple of the Holy Spirit.
The anointing in this case is the regular study of the Bible because that’s what purifies our heart and keeps it holy, away from worldliness. The ark of God then was made of pure Gold, and God doesn’t expect less from us.
Ex. 31:12-14 gave us a unique insight as to how important the Sabbath is to our God.
The Sabbath day in our days is the hour of our quiet time.
Verse 13 says keeping the Sabbath day helps us remember the God that makes us holy. And we really need to remember God every blessed day and as often as possible in our days.
Vs 14 tells us the consequences of not observing our quiet time. It said anyone who doesn’t observe it must die, and be cut off from the community.
And that’s very true, even in our days!
Anyone who doesn’t have a frequent fellowship with the maker is spiritually dead. How? He can’t hear anything from God.
His Spirit can’t be, and isn’t receptive to the warnings of the Holy Spirit about a particular issue.
Thus, such a person becomes an easy prey for the enemy because he isn’t led, and automatically isn’t the son of God.”
“Hmmm….so that’s what he meant by being disconnected.” Rose thought aloud.
“What did you say.”
“Not long before you called, I was praying and asking God for His mercy. In the process of prayer, I heard a voice saying I should get re-connected first, that I have been disconnected. I was pndering on what exactly the message meant and how to go about it, when your call came in.” Rose said as Lilian nodded at intervals.
“Thank God for that. What He’s telling you is you should go back to observing your queit time, and keep friends that share the same spiritual values with you, to avoid discouragemt. “Bad communication corrupts good manners”, “Iron sharpeneth iron” and “two are better than one” tells us how deep the close friends we keep have an effect on us, either positively or negatively.” Lilian said as Rose nodded in understanding.
“God sent you to me to answer my prayer, really.” Rose said as Lilian smiled.
“We thank God for that.” Lilian responded and was about changing the subject when Rose brought up another case.
“Lilian there’s one more problem.”
“What problem?”
“I don’t know, I feel the starting the Christain journey is going to be difficult for me.”
“Why? How? I mean, you have the Holy Spirit to make things easier. At least I’m sure you have Him with the evidence of speaking in tongues and……..wait. Wait, wait, wait. I hope it’s not what I’m thinking.” Lilian said with a dramatic gasp.
“Did He…..Did He leave?”
“I frustrated Him so much by not heeding to His voice, that He left.”
“Jesus Christ!”
“It’s why interpreting the message sent to me while praying was difficult.”
“Geez…..I never knew it was that bad.” Lilain thought aloud.
“But wait. If He departed, you won’t hear His vouce any longer. So which voice gave you the message?”
“I don’t know; but I’m sure it’s not him, because I heard it in my room and not my heart.”
“Hmm…this is serious. I honestly don’t know what to tell you on that one o. You definitely need to pray. But don’t worry, we’re in this together okay?”
“Smiles….you’ve always been the best. Thank you!” Rose said with a hug.
“Okay, I’ve got to be going now. It’s getting late already.”
“I’m leaving too, so let’s go together.” Rose said as they picked up their bags and left the park.
CHEATED : EPISODE 21 – 40
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