26/06/2023
This picture was 2015. Thatâs me on one knee (then president of the Fellowship of Christian Students in my school) passing some information (I believe) to Apostle Joshua Selmanâ€ïž Yes thatâs AJSđ He ministered at a little meeting we organized for our graduation from Secondary School. Interesting yeah?đ
Hereâs a short storyđ
Sometime in 2013 I had the privilege of meeting Apostle in a very unconventional way that definitely had to be Godđ
I wonât go into that story now, but that day started off a mentorship relationship that has had one of the greatest influences on my life.
For about three years Iâll go to Apostleâs house and sit with him in his room, sometimes every week and heâll teach me different things. I had the privilege of observing his work ethic and some of his core values up close.
I learned the power of vision, transformation, diligence, excellence, faith, consistency, leadership, honor, and other principles clearly first from Apostle. He taught them and he exemplified them.
Back then in secondary school, my parents wouldnât let me attend Koinonia because they closed late. I guess God knew that there were things I needed to learn directly from AJS besides just listening to the messages, so He made the connection Himself and Iâm glad He did!
I remember Apostle would always say back then that what he was doing at that time was only a step out of the cave compared to where God was taking him to.
Heâll say, âWhat you see today is the product of my mindset of yesterday; wait till tomorrow to see my mindset of today.â
I never got to take a picture with AJS all these years but the signature of the mentorship I received and Iâm still receiving through his teachings remains indelible for the rest of my life.
Hereâs why Iâm sharing this story:
The law of time and seasons, seed-time and harvest is evident in history.
I got to know AJS to an extent off the stage and one thing I saw about him all the times I went to his house was that he was always busy. Always.
One time he said to me, âYou canât come in here and find me idle- itâs impossible!â
He was always working on something, counseling someone, learning something, listening to a sermon, praying,⊠just sha doing something of value.
Heâll say âIf you ask me what Iâm doing with my life now, my response will be Iâm preparing for a glorious destiny.â
The things God is doing through AJS now are no surprise to me, and Iâm sure theyâre no surprise to others who knew the man behind the pulpit. The vision has always been crystal clear in his heart and in his mouth, and where he is currently isnât even it yet. God is set to do much more through him and all who yield to his call and purpose in the coming years.
Whatâs interesting to me is how the anointing upon his life has not really changed; it has grown, but not changed. The same fiery grace thatâs evident today was evident those years. Even when he was speaking to me alone in his room then, sometimes Iâll pause and realize he was speaking with the same kind of zeal he spoke with when he stood behind the pulpit. Itâll be just the two of us but I could feel the weight of the anointing present.
We saw it and celebrated it, yet back then he wasnât known around the world as he is now, because the season had not yet come.
You can imagine us secondary school students being able to invite him for our little program with less than 100 people present and he came and poured out himself, not because we had anything to give him but just to place a fire in our young hearts.
I watched a video today of Pst Nathaniel Bassey talking about the first time he visited Pst Jerry Eze in Streams of Joy many years ago; he said they were meeting in a school back then. I remember in my secondary school days, we also had Pst Chingtok come and minister to us in our fellowship a number of times. These men are now some of the foremost voices in this generation. Back then they were mostly âunknown.â
All that is happening through these men and others also that God is using today is only a foretaste of the move of the Spirit thatâs coming. Many who will be at the forefront of that coming wave are currently unknown. Like these men were, 10-20 years ago, those ones too are in the wilderness. Theyâre killing their lions and bears, before they stand before Goliath.
If youâve been called and you know it, I pray [we] do not lose focus. I pray we donât get carried away by the lust for fame, wealth, power and pleasure that plagues our generation that we forget that itâs a relay race, and those who have gone ahead of us are also at the same time running towards us with the baton of faith that we also need to pass on to the coming generation.
I hope weâre also working in our wilderness seasons, and not just scrolling through social media and saying âGod whenâ in our minds.
Itâs a relay race. One generation will commend the works of God to the next. I hope my generation is getting prepared for the work and not simply lusting after the glory.
I was recently reminded again of the stories of Kenneth Hagin, Kathryn Kulman, Oral Roberts, William Branham, Billy Graham, Reinhard Bonkhe, Smith Wigglesworth and many more who have joined the great cloud of witnesses.
They didnât run a different race; they ran the same race and handed down the baton to the generations after them.
Remember the Bible story about the temple that was rebuilt and while the young generation was rejoicing at itâs magnificence, the older generation who knew the splendor of the one that was destroyed was weeping.
Thatâs kind of where we are today largely.
I truly honor and celebrate all God is doing through the current crop of ministers that have risen, but compared to the former house, we still have a long way to go.
What we call revival today pales in comparison to what the fathers called revival. If you take time to read and study the previous moves of God, youâll know this for yourself.
Earlier this year, when news began to spread about the Asbury revival, I found it hard to relate with it on the level the media was portraying it, because I had read of the Welsh revival with Evans Roberts and the Asuza street revival with Williams Seymour.
The glory of the latter house shall be greater than the former; thatâs the sure word of prophecy.
The true end-time revival that has been prophesied will be a combination of the former rain AND the latter rain.
If what weâre seeing now isnât yet up to the former rain, then we know that this is not it. Itâs coming, but it isnât here yet. But as surely as Godâs word is true, it will come, and God is silently raising the vessels He will use to usher in that wave.
I didnât plan to type all this but I believe itâs meant for who itâs meant for.
If you have a witness in your spirit of the call, then get to work and if youâre already working, keep working! The harvest is plenty, the laborers are few, and the night is coming.
Blessings!â€ïž
Source: Min Jephthah Idaosa Aigbe
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU SIR