WHAT KEEPS MAN STANDING! Around about this time twelve years ago, I came to Milwaukee to start a journey with no GPS, but the Holy Ghost. A lot I did not know about the new terrain that my wife hated with passion even before we touched the soil. I came, anyways. At a time the journey was bumpy, the travel was stormy, and I almost made a U-turn. But the cautious, gentle reminder always came that I was not the driver of the vehicle that brought me here. Spiritually, Milwaukee is a land that frustrates a vision, yes it is! A land that makes a big man small, yes it is! A land that devours its inhabitants, yes it is! A land where God does not even have a ranking in the calculations of a lot of men, yes it is! A land where the coldness of the weather is an indication of the coldness of the hearts of many, yes it is! A land where callousness is the embroidery of the cassocks of some men and women, yes it is! A land where smiles and laughter may just be from the mouth of men not from the heart, yes it is. A land where “I love you, pastor may mean the exact sinister opposite, yes it is! My friends, Milwaukee is a land where the Amalekites are many, and you may not know who they are! I thought about a lot of things that strove to bring me down. I thought about people with pebbles and pellets of gossip, and lies, and innuendoes that could have brought me down. I thought about stories I heard, stories that were hatched in the incubator of hate and jealousy that could have brought me down. I thought about how quickly I had to grow, how cautious I had to tow, and how liberal I had to sow into the lives of those who stood by me through it all. The people in this category were few, but they engineered the dew that soaked up the seed for the preordained growth that can only come from God. The people grew in the Word, and wisdom, and I grew alongside them. Amidst the frustrations, God’s work flourished. Through it all, the vision stands, and the stand is not ordinary! We become a fulfillment of Psalms 27:6- He hath exalted me upon a rock: and now he hath lifted up my head above my enemies. Yesterday after an explosive service with my baby brother, Leke, who preached in a manner that almost tore off our new church roof, I looked around at the quality of men and women, young and young-at-heart who, truly, may be facing some challenges now, but see God obliterate the challenges through hope written all over their faces. I looked at the young men and women, professionals in their own right who know their onions, these young people who in about 1 to 3 years will become lawyers, doctors, engineers, professional athletes in the US, and I asked in my heart; “God through all of what we’ve been through, you are still doing this much? And the Lord spoke expressly, “the reason you are standing is because you are standing with me. Son, when you keep standing with me, I will keep standing with you, and you will keep standing”. “So, that’s the secret”? I asked God. “Yes that is the secret”, He affirmed.
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 17:15:32 +0000