I Made It Through

(Acts 2:17–18 NIV)

"1Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters,

I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were inßuenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of G.o.d says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. 4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are di$erent kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are di$erent kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same G.o.d at work. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous p o w e r s , t o a n o t h e r p r o p h e c y, t o a n o t h e r distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in di$erent kinds of tongues,[ and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and He distributes them to each one, just as He determines." (1 Corinthians 12: 1–11 NIV)

"Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives—especially the ability to prophesy." (1 Corinthians 14:1 NLT)

Things began to move rapidly and with baby in tow, every weekend found my husband and me attending church services all over as more invitations poured in than I could keep up with. A few more months of these whirlwind activities went by until one day during the regular Sunday worship service at my local church. I began to sense a strong impression from the Holy Spirit to give my ftrst gospel concert. After much prayer, we selected one of our local town halls in Wallington, Surrey as the venue. We contacted and sent flyers to many churches and our local newspapers to advertise the concert t.i.tle themed "Music in My Heart" named after one of the very ftrst songs I had written. Another one of G.o.d"s out-of-the-blue blessings was soon to make me realize that G.o.d was unveiling a bigger plan than my mind could fathom.

After reporters from both our regional newspapers, The Guardian and The Herald, heard about the concert, they called and interviewed me. Feature articles about me and the event were printed in their widely circulated newspapers, publ ic iz ing the event beyond any advertising we could have purchased. This elevated the event to a whole new level. We began to receive more phone calls and many new inquiries until the hall was soon ftlled to capacity with standing room only! Surprised by the success of our ftrst event, we would put on more gospel concerts, the largest one being a Memorable Gospel Concert I headlined in November 1993, at the London City Temple with the Rev Bazil Meade and The London Community Gospel Choir. They were one of England"s most successful gospel choirs at that time. Their credits included royal performances for her Majesty the Queen, concerts, videos, and studio recordings with a lengthy list of well-known artists including Puff Daddy, Mariah Carey, Sting, and Paul McCartney. The City Temple concert took place just a few weeks after the birth of our second child, a strong and handsome baby boy.

Many invitations to minister in song at special events and conferences from a wide variety of churches and organizations, including the British Red Cross, followed as I had continued to minister during the pregnancy of and after the birth of our second child. Now we had two babies in tow as we went from venue to venue. Again, I thank the Lord daily for His wisdom and preparation for His destiny in our lives, giving me a wonderful husband and a very supportive family. These fresh encounters with G.o.d continued and would ultimately lead me into what would become a life of full-time ministry; singing, preaching, and prophesying in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now is probably the right time to share with you another unusual happening that quite suddenly begun to occur at the various services I took part in. "You! Lady sitting over there! I see you moving to America." I looked back and around me to see who was being addressed. To my shock, those startling words were being directed at me and were spoken by the host of the gathering I was attending on that day. What in the world is this strange lady talking about? I thought to myself. She might as well be prophesying that I would go to the moon. It had never crossed my mind to desire to live in America, vacation maybe, because I had an uncle who resides in Maryland, but relocate again to a new country? Most deftnitely not!

This interesting new phenomenon would not stop and continued for the next year and a half or so. In almost every meeting I would attend, complete strangers would single me out and say, "I have a word for you from the Lord: you are moving to America." One of my brothers also came to visit with us one day and stated, "I dreamed and saw you spending dollars. "These words sounded so strange to me that I was unable to register them at all, no matter how often I repeatedly heard them spoken. My husband, children, and I were all British residents. Having endured the arduous mountain of applications, fees, and paperwork to settle us all in the United Kingdom, my mind was now totally closed to ever making another major and exhausting move like that ever again.

I somehow shut out and strangely did not at all connect with the words being spoken over my life by such a crowd of witnesses. My exact thoughts were, how odd that people keep saying this. Can you believe how dumb spiritually one can be when we do not want to see or hear the truth of G.o.d"s word staring us right in the face, even when He is so close that you can almost feel His breath? However, the Lord in His mercy knew exactly how He would ftx my ftxed-to-living-in-England mindset. How long it would take for Him to shatter this fortress in my mind and ftnally get through to me was known only to Him. He quite simply lovingly and gently chipped away at the stronghold of permanent UK residency that I had built in my mind and heart.

G.o.d"s prophetic timing for me to make this move was however rapidly approaching and coming to a close. Time was, unbeknown to me, fast running out for me to leap over this great faith chasm and cross over the oceans once again to meet His timetable and schedule for my life. Well, He decided to speed things up big time, seeing that I was both extremely clueless and a dedicated slow coach on this one matter! One night, just before going to bed, as I was rounding up the day with my normal night prayers and devotions, I suddenly clearly heard the quietest solemn voice within me say, "Open Job 33:14 and read it." At that moment, I certainly could not recall ever having read or noticed this part of the scripture in the book of Job before. This sort of occurrence had only happened to me once before early in my Christian walk. I was quite rattled and startled and was also immediately very troubled.

First, I was startled because I just clearly heard an instruction that was deftnitely from a third party and, second because my ftrst quick thought about the book of Job was about the man who went through the most severe of biblical accounts of life"s trials, and I had no idea what that verse would say. With trembling hands, I reached for my Bible and found the following scripture; it read: "For G.o.d speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it" (Job 33:14 NLT).

I called out loudly to my husband Jide, telling him what had just happened. He was just as astounded but proceeded in his usual manner to calmly pray and encourage me with the scriptures. Now check out how completely dull of hearing I had become on this matter: I did not at all connect the dots but instead began to search my heart for what it could possibly be that I was not hearing G.o.d about! I was completely blind to and ignoring the elephant in the room! Talk about being slow and on the verge of complete disobedience to G.o.d"s clear command. We can certainly be deaf to G.o.d when we choose not to see, hear, or receive the word of the Lord that is so close to us!

Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand! (Matthew 11:15 NLT)

Whoever has ears, let them hear. (Matthew 13:9 NIV)

The principle of faith to be learned here is how uncooperative we can become to G.o.d"s leading, even when accompanied by supernatural encounters repeatedly conftrming His word. Many times we don"t see what we do not want to see, and see only what we do want to see. We may fall into deception and miss G.o.d"s best if we repeatedly continue to hear and believe only what we have decided on. This can be especially extremely dangerous when the Lord desires to give us new information, correct our understanding of doctrine and truth, or release our destinies to us. "If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land" (Isaiah 1:19 NIV).

Instead of my stubborn ineptness, my response should have been that of the Psalmist: "G.o.d has spoken plainly, and I have heard it many times: Power, O G.o.d, belongs to you" (Psalm 62:11 NLT). My response should have been like Mary the mother of Jesus when the angel appeared to her regarding the supernatural conception and birth of Jesus. This young woman was so willing to receive the words given to her by the angel about her appointment with G.o.d"s destiny for her life that her immediate response was and is the key to our faith being released.

"Mary responded, "I am the Lord"s servant. May everything you have said about me come true. And then the angel left her" " (Luke 1:38 NLT).

Slowly and ftnally, it began to dawn on me and penetrate my closed psyche that G.o.d may really want me to move to America, no kidding! This was however a very alarming and depressing thought for two main reasons. First was my inaccurate concept of American life being already shaped by their popular entertainment sector"s depiction of the culture as immoral and violent. The second reason, as I had already touched on, was that I loved my life living in quaint old England where all the remainder of our family and friends were. I did not at all desire to leave.

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Having two young children, America did not seem to me to be the ideal environment to raise them in the knowledge, love, and reverence for G.o.d. It seems that I knew more about what was best for them than the G.o.d who endowed me with them. What an irony! While many American Christians prayed that G.o.d would not send them to Africa, I had been praying and hoping that G.o.d was surely not serious about moving us to America. Though many dreamed of moving to our great nation, I had not yet plugged in to the very special blessing G.o.d was giving me—the privilege to receive from Him the joy and liberty of being His kingdom citizen in America.

Our children who I almost prevented, not unlike disobedient Israel, from entering the "Promised Land", would both grow up in California, wonderfully "saved and safe" in G.o.d"s awesome hands and loving care. The ones I was reluctant to entrust to the Lord"s prophetic word now serve the Lord with all their hearts. More about this a little later; my faith lesson here is that the only safe place for us and our families to be is in the very center of G.o.d"s will for our lives. Wow! He had all this in His heart for us, and we knew it not. What an awesome G.o.d and task. All that would be continually required from now on; hearing, knowing, and promptly obeying G.o.d"s voice. There was yet another faith learning curve, not to be like the foolish Galatians in the scriptures, trying to engineer, manipulate, or manufacture the continuation and completion of a move begun by G.o.d in the "flesh."

Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the ßesh? (Galatians 3:3 NIV)

Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6 NIV)

He will sustain you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:8 Berean Study Bible)

The scriptures and G.o.d"s prophetic word would from this point on now be ftrst and last in how we would plan to live the rest of our lives. The biblical mandate to spread the Gospel to many nations through all possible means became real to us in a fresh new way. This mandate in our understanding did not seem to apply to America, as we thought the nation already had a great Christian presence on the world stage. With America"s seeming proliferation of gospel preachers, this mission to America at the time was a great puzzle to our minds. We were later appalled to ftnd out that the nation was indeed undergoing the most intense cultural and moral decline with true believers undergoing great spiritual warfare, and that many had become apostate believers. There was a lot that had to be swiftly accomplished before it was too late to recover minds and hearts to and for Christ. Rescuing millions of souls from ending up in the dreadful place called h.e.l.l eternally did not exclude Americans, so we committed ourselves to G.o.d, partnering with Him in accomplishing His great kingdom work globally and locally.

For we are G.o.d"s fellow workers. You are G.o.d"s field, G.o.d"s building. (1 Corinthians 3:9 ESV)

15 And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be d.a.m.ned. (Mark 16:15–16 KJV) Now that the Lord had ftnally got through to me, I had no idea when to begin this move to the United States or what part of this great and vast nation we were to move to. We quite simply continued to pray and seek the Lord for His counsel, guidance, provision, and favor to accomplish it all.