S.I.M.S Episode 34
( STEPPING INTO MAGGIE’S SHOE)
©️ Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde
I had woken up from a deep revelation, after my prayer time with Ray. He had slept off on my bed for the first time since we got married. The triplets were asleep on their baby mattresses, beside us.
I sat up to analyze the dream I had.
In my dream, I had seen myself searching for Ray all over the house, but couldn’t find him. I walked into the living room and found the triplets watching cartoon with Apostle’s Mother.
In the revelation, Martha, the second of the set spoke and asked me…
“Mummy, are you looking for Daddy?” She asked
“Yes, have you seen him?” I asked
“Yes!” The trio replied giggling
“So where is he?”
“He is in the belly of the fish like Jonah” they said pointing to the Bible Animation they were watching on the screen. It was the cartoon version of Jonah in the belly of the shark…
“What?” I said very afraid “What is he doing in the belly of a shark?”
“He disobeyed God by going to the wrong place to preach, so God allowed a big shark to swallow him!” Mary said
Apostle’s mother who I had only seen twice since we got married as she had returned to their hometown after her retirement spoke after the triplets had spoken…
“I warned him and I told him not to leave the place where God wanted him to be, but out of greed he went elsewhere, see now the marine sharks have swallowed him up” his mother said lamenting….
It was at that point I woke up from my dream.
“Holy Spirit, What is the interpretation of this dream?” I muttered to myself
“Yes sir, Yes sir, I will return” Apostle was saying from his dream weeping….I tapped him so he could wake up from his dream
On opening his eyes, he saw me by his side…
“Happy, you are here?” He was surprised thinking we were in his room
“Yes, I am sorry, you slept off and I didn’t want to disturb you…”
“Happy, I saw Him again after 8 years!” He said
“Who?”
“The Holy Spirit, Happy, the prayer we prayed was highly effective. God has shown me what is wrong and what I must do to make things right, but it is highly difficult for me to do!”
“Does it have anything to do with you returning to somewhere?” I asked
He became startled and gave me a surprising look
“Yes, how did you know that?” He asked
“I just woke up from a revelation after our prayers…”
“Tell me about it!” He pleaded
I narrated the dream to him and midway, he stood up, pacing around and crying….
“It is the same message. In my dream, I saw the Holy Spirit in form of an elderly man of God talking to me… I was complaining of how I was being tormented by the devil, in response to my cries , He told me to return back to my master just like Hagar returned back to Sarah. He told me, I was not meant to be a master, but a close servant to the master. He told me I was in problems because I left where I was planted. He said I was experiencing dryness and thirst because I left my master.” Ray said
“Do you know where this place is? I mean where God wants you to be?”
Apostle broke down in tears and between sobs, he said…
“I know, it is with “Baba Fire”….”
“Baba Fire, Who is Baba Fire?” I asked….
“I met Christ through Baba Fire during my Service year, after university”
“Service year” was a year volunteering program by all Nigerian university graduates where they serve their nation for one year. These graduates are posted to different states across the nation which is mostly far from their state of origin and state of residence. It was this period in Apostle’s life he was referring to… These university graduates are usually referred to as “Youth Corp Members”.
Ray took a side stool and faced me;
“I had been posted to Osun State, Ikeji-Arakeji town to be precise. I came into the town with no spiritual fire whatsoever. I was more of a bookworm in my university days…
S.I.M.S Episode 35
(STEPPING INTO MAGGIE’S SHOE)
©️Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde
“My Landlord in Ikeji-Arakeji was a pastor popularly referred to as “Baba Fire” because he was a Fire brand General overseer of a growing church. He was genuinely called of God. Despite being a Yoruba speaking church, Youth corps members like me, attended “Baba Fire’s” Church, because of his depth in the Word of God and Healing Anointing. He was a man in his late forties.
Baba Fire picked interest in me and would ask me to come for prayers anytime he was at home. He told me he saw a light in me that would draw nations to the light of God. Through his persistence, I became genuinely born again. I also caught the fire. I got baptized in the Holy Ghost. He taught me how to pray for long hours…
In no time, I was on fire for God. Some Yoruba non speaking Corp members walked up to me and pleaded with me to stand in as Baba Fire’s interpreter. They wanted me to be the English interpreter.
I tendered their request to Baba Fire who gladly embraced the idea.
I became Baba Fire’s interpreter, this made his ministry experience a boom, as almost all the Youth Corp members started attending his church. Even the non-indigenes who did not understand Yoruba like the Igbos, the Edos, those from Benue who were all in Ikeji-Arakeji and its environs started worshipping in Baba Fire’s church because of the English interpretation. God used me to expand his ministry.
By the time my one year of service was coming to an end, Baba Fire called me to his Prayer Room on one faithful Saturday morning…
“Raymond, your coming to Ikeji Arakeji was an answer to my years of prayer. God told me He was going to make this ministry go all around the world, but I kept telling him I couldn’t speak English. He told me He was going to send me an Aaron that will help my speech to be heard everywhere including in front of kings and nobles” Baba Fire said in Yoruba Language
“I believe you are that person God told me about, I would like you to be more than my interpreter, I would want you to be my Assistant so that this work of God in my hands can light up the world.” He said
Baba Fire was asking me to give up a good life in Lagos as a potential Civil servant to become a “Village Pastor”.
I didn’t know what to say!
Baba Fire told me He was not in a rush and he wasn’t trying to enforce his will on me, he advised I should go pray about it.
At that time, Baba Fire had trained me in the act of praying and receiving from God, so I went on a personal retreat for some days.
One sunny afternoon after returning from the primary school I was serving as a teacher, I slept off very exhausted.
In what looked like an open vision or trance, I saw the Late Apostle Joseph Babalola who was a revivalist in the 1930’s whose ministry hailed from the same town of Ikeji-Arakeji tapping me from sleep and speaking to me in the Yoruba Language… He had received his call in that town in 1928
“Raymond, you are to assist Gabriel in his assignment, you will be his voice where he may not be heard, rise up and follow him, don’t betray him and don’t stop following him, for this purpose were you created, ask your mother”
It was a very short trance, but very powerful. I had goose pimples all over my body like a high spiritual power was in my room, I broke into tongues and laid down in the room. I didn’t know how long I spent in that position, until I rose up and found out it was dark. From my estimation, I had spent four hours slain in the Holy Ghost.
When I stood up and went out to join my other Youth Corp members, the moment I got to the corridor, they all fell to the floor like an electric wave from my body hit them. Some of them burst into tongues, while others who were not born again started weeping under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Baba Fire met us there and started praying with us. A little crusade started that night, as neighbors joined us.
The next day, I called my mum and explained in details all that happened…
“I am not surprised, that is your destiny, accept it son. You know, when I was looking for a male child after having enough daughters, I told God if He gave me a son, I will give him back to Him, so the trance you saw is correct, you were created for God’s Glory.” My mother had said
That was how I agreed to be Baba Fire’s Assistant….
To be continued
Drop your comment
