A well-renowned minister of God was asked or led to pray for a woman who once served a wealthy royal family in one of those monarchical states. According to the story, he got into this dilapidated house only to find this woman who had been serving one of the women from this royal family lying in bed, very sick. But what surprised him was that, while looking around, he noticed a document framed and hanging on the wall at one side of the room. Looking at the woman’s state and the house where she lived, he couldn’t understand why the document was framed and hanging on the wall. From his little interaction with the woman, he noticed she was illiterate—she couldn’t read—although she could speak properly. He asked the woman if he could look at the framed document at home. She smiled and nodded in approval, then told him that it was a gift she received from the royal family member she served for half a century before she died.
Although the man of God couldn’t believe what he saw and heard simultaneously, he had to do what he was asked to and take the framed document home. Getting home, he took the framed document to some authorities to verify the authenticity of what he thought was worth more than he had in mind. The authorities confirmed the authenticity of the document, to his amazement. This woman, who was living a wretched life, had inherited wealth enough to transform her and her entire generation, and yet she had kept it as a framed picture that gave her goosebumps memory of her wonderful boss. Although the man of God helped her get her inheritance and prayed for her healing, the story got me thinking of the years she had lived from the day she got hold of that letter or document from whoever she got it from.
Let’s dramatise the first day she got the document from a family member, friend, or solicitor. The person hands over the letter or document in a sealed envelope and tells her that the woman she had faithfully served for half of her life had requested that she be given this as an appreciation. Although mourning the death of a wonderful woman who would call on her each time she was alone in her quarters to chat with her, make her laugh, cry with her, etc., she could also remember the numerous help and gifts she had received from her. She remembers the shoes, dresses, jewellery and monetary parcels she got as a surprise gift or an appreciation for an act she was already being paid to do. “What can this woman want to add after all these wonderful years of service? If all she wants to say is a “thank you” in a letter, why don’t I frame it knowing I cannot read it?” she may have said while holding the letter. While quickly going to get a frame to immortalise this beautiful letter she had received from the best boss, she may have met friends or loved ones who could have read the letter to her. Still, she didn’t think they were worthy enough to look, touch or even read a royal letter from an outstanding royal member.
Many would have thought her mad to be smiling while walking briskly to go and buy this frame when her boss was buried not long ago, but she knew she wasn’t obligated by any law to make people understand this joy she was feeling after weeks of mourning this precious soul. She eventually got the best frame in town, got home and carefully placed the letter. Contemplating whether to put the frame in her hall or bedroom, she finally decided on her bedroom so her visitors wouldn’t use those evil prying eyes to look at it and eventually destroy it in the name of “it was a mistake.” She sang one of the songs she had been singing with her each time she tried to make her relax with a body massage and headed to her room. She stops at the entrance and scans the room, thinking of the best spot. She couldn’t see it if she placed it at the head of the bed. If she places it close to the window, she must always turn to admire it, and if anything happens, it can easily be destroyed. Then she got the best spot—the wall at the edge of her bed. At least, each morning and evening, she could wake up seeing it, climb out of bed seeing it, walk to the bathroom and back seeing it, and eventually come back to bed seeing it. She smiled as she hung it and stood a few metres away to admire it.
I don’t know why I am writing this, but I know you know what I will discuss. For some people, you have either been told this story or a story similar to this or even read the actual account from the source, so for some reason, this feels like a worn-out fable. You could be thinking; I should find another story next time and stop “biting” the works of others because you are sick of this or that, but the truth is that you are feeling or thinking these thoughts because you know one way or another, as a Christian you are the perfect replica of that “naive” woman. I know you know what Jesus did for you while he walked this earth, suffered the unfair justice system, hung on that cross naked, his burial, descent into hell, resurrection and ascension to heaven. You know because you have heard it preached, taught and dramatised wherever you go. It is nothing new to you. You can even preach and teach those stories without needing the Bible because you have memorised it since childhood. But my question is one: HOW HAS IT HELPED YOU? Knowledge can eventually be poisonous to its hearer when it cannot be applied to their benefit.
Jesus gave us a document to make us aware of all He has done for us. What are we doing with the document and that knowledge? The man of God saw the document in the woman’s room, sent it to the authorities to verify and then went through the necessary steps to get the woman her inheritance. What are you doing to lay hold of your inheritance and enjoy every single minute bit of it? Can you imagine the number of days, weeks or months that this woman stood anywhere in her house reminiscing about the help she could have had if her boss had been alive each time she was going through some form of hardship? Yet, hanging at the end of the bed each day and night was the answer to all her past, present, and future problems. All this happened to her because she didn’t care to find out the letter’s content and what she could do to receive whatever the letter stated was her portion. Why are you immortalising the great gift of an immortal when He left eternity into time to make time worth our while before we meet Him in eternity? Why?! Why are you admiring the Word of God and not reading and studying it for yourself? Why are you not applying every nugget Wisdom is making available to you each time you spend time reading and studying His Word with prayers and fastings? Why?!
If Jesus did and went through all that only for photo-op so we could hang that photo in our hearts, how “foolish” and meaningless was that shame and eventual victory for the son of God? If all we needed was a good picture of Jesus, He could have taken the best picture in the best places in heaven and “holyghosttooth” it to our hearts without leaving His glorious throne into time to go through all He went through with His creation.
How are you silent with all this power and victory at our beck and call?
How are you going to war against generational issues, and you are thinking you will lose when Jesus had won that battle centuries ago and has been waiting for you to enforce the victory in the family?
How do you not see that you are genuinely in eternal warfare yet facing opponents stripped of all their armour? I mean, you are on a battlefield with all types of the latest armour with an infinite number of nuclear weapons to face a loud enemy whose only weapon is the ugly paint that makes them look horrible and nothing else. Do you understand “nothing else”? The enemy doesn’t even have a “pocket knife” on this battlefield to brag about. Here you stand on this battlefield, and when the enemy opens its dirty, stinking mouth to shout, you are running helter-skelter seeking protection. Ah! Ah! Who bewitched you?
How is a lion running because a cat meow?
Can’t you see that all the warfare you have been born in the body of Christ to face in that family, community, country or continent has been rigged in your favour before you were born or thought of by your parents? Who told you that God can make you win some battles and make you lose some battles? Which demonic voice made that sink into your heart? Why did you also allow that lie to sink into your heart? You are greater than the Israelites who lived under the covenant of the blood of bulls and goats. Of course, losing and winning some battles during their covenant was okay because they had to renew their covenant each year with the blood of a new set of animals. Failure to renew the covenant could mean anything good or bad to them; that can’t be our portion or identity. The day we lose a battle on the grounds of what Christ has already done for us with His precious Holy blood, we have every right to call our faith a scam. The blood of Jesus is the only blood that washed all our sins and doesn’t need to be renewed every year, decade, or century. The potency of the blood of Jesus when it was first shed has and will never reduce today or tomorrow, no matter what we do or say.
Why are you silent?
Why have you allowed the enemy to turn the battlefield into a playground?
Why do you look gloomy and depressed when you have all it takes to take back the grounds lost in the family to the enemy?
Remain in the blessings of God as you remain in Christ.
MD.
