Upon graduating, I had become quite resolute about a.s.sisting my family through the fast- mounting ftnancial distresses all around. With that mindset, I completed all the necessary paperwork, and 1986 found me standing in line at the hot—no air- conditioning at that time—Muritala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos. Joining many others, I was making a permanent exit from Nigeria to begin a completely new life. My destination was the United Kingdom, and unlike my previous vacation visits, I was headed back to London as a teenage college graduate with no parental support and siblings to care for. The only family friends willing and able to offer guidance were located in the east end of London, so the new journey to learn to survive on our own for my siblings and me began in the friendly and industrious area of east London.When leaving Nigeria, an inexplicable peace and unshakable conftdence in G.o.d had enveloped my heart. Though I was being propelled solely and wholly by my family"s need to survive, faith in the knowledge that G.o.d was traveling with me had somehow been embedded deep inside my heart through his Holy Spirit. I somehow became aware of His great love and concern for us as a family and believed He would make my way prosperous. This deep abiding faith had been initiated in me by G.o.d through a verse of scripture I had come to learn: "The earth is the Lord"s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it." (Psalm 24:1; 1 Corinthians 10:26 NIV). I received this verse as a personal prophecy from the Lord. Believing that if the whole earth and the world belonged to Him, including all who live in it, which included my family and me, then we could go anywhere in the world and expect to be under the care of His eternal, mighty, and everlasting arms.
I am unable to recall who taught me the verse or how I came to know it, but the words became strong and clear in my heart, building my faith to receive G.o.d"s help for the upcoming journey during the preparation for my departure. I had heard, believed, and received this word as a personal promise from G.o.d to me. Later on as I encountered many difficulties, tears, and fears, I would remind myself of, pray, and meditate on this one verse over and over again. By G.o.d"s own compa.s.sionate intervention, He had released a key principle of faith to me, that faith is always ftrst initiated by G.o.d"s word coming to us. When we respond by receiving, believing, and ftrmly ftxing our faith in His word, we will starve all our doubts to death.
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Though I was not yet fully trained in G.o.d"s word, still very clueless as to what being a Christian and how to live like one fully meant, I had been guided by G.o.d into a very important principle of living by faith. This was the ftrst of many faith lessons to come on my journey. It is of supreme importance for us to understand that faith is not built upon the strength of our needs, adversities, willpower, experiences, or ideas. The intensity of our desire to receive or acquire G.o.d"s a.s.sistance during any given situation is not enough to produce faith. Our needs alone, great and sometimes dire as they may be, such as the healing of terminal diseases, addictions, ftnancial breakthroughs, a desperation for relationship rescues, will not by themselves produce the victorious faith in G.o.d that we so crave. For faith in G.o.d to be truly birthed, nurtured, and victorious, we must aggressively pursue and expose our minds and hearts to G.o.d"s word (the Bible) on a daily basis. This seeking after G.o.d through His word and prayers will result in an encounter with Him and His word that releases from the vast resources of the scriptures speciftc prophetic responses to our particular circ.u.mstance.
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of G.o.d. (Romans 10:17)
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? (Romans 10:14 KJV)
Faith is birthed and nurtured through this divine process in our hearts by ftrst hearing the word of G.o.d, receiving it, fully trusting in and getting that word established in our hearts, and then conftdently acting upon our belief in that word. For our faith to grow, we must continue to be nurtured by the word of G.o.d, our "sword of the Spirit." The outcome of our conftdent a.s.surance in G.o.d whatever His answer to us is will be what the Bible calls "good success."
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (Joshua 1:8 ESV)
The sharing of these principles of genuine Christian faith is one of my key reasons for writing this memoir and sharing my journey of faith with you. I hope to be able to play a very small part in sparing others the trial and error that a desperate soul may engage in when circ.u.mstances become extremely difficult. I endeavor to spare and help as many as possible to avoid the crushing sense of defeat and disappointment that may ensue when our desperate pleas seem to be unheeded.
If our expectations are not built on the a.s.surance of faith that is found in hearing, receiving, and acting upon all of G.o.d"s promises in His word alone, we will encounter and experience much spiritual and other failure. Though G.o.d"s compa.s.sion is very great and He may sometimes sovereignly intervene in our circ.u.mstances with acts of mercy, this alone will not give us—His believing children—the consistent access to divine a.s.sistance we all need. G.o.d strongly desires to meet our needs, and we so desperately need Him in our most difficult moments, but He acts based on His word, so to experience His divine hand in our lives, we must connect our needs to G.o.d"s word. Increasing our knowledge of the power that lies in G.o.d"s word and strengthening our understanding of where our victory in Christ lies, we can prevent presumptuous actions that can negatively impact our walk with G.o.d. Redemption comes to us all, beginning with acknowledging our sinful condition, placing our trust (faith) in G.o.d"s forgiveness of our sins, and receiving the saving grace He offers through the sacriftcial death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. This must then be followed by diligent discipleship in G.o.d"s word (the Bible). A continuous learning of faith principles from the scrip tures w ill prevent us from mistaking our presumptions for true faith, preventing the losses that ignorance of G.o.d"s word and ways may have brought to many Christians. "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." (Hosea 4:6 NIV)