Forced Down!

Ps. 147:¹⁰ (NKJV) “He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.”

Sometimes, God puts us in really uncomfortable positions. Years ago, when I finished from the university and preparing to go for my service year, God gave me today’s scripture reference. I had never seen it before until that time. This was during the period when the terminology “using leg” was very popular. To “use leg” means to use connections to influence things in your favour. I was thrilled to find that it was in the Bible. However, when God speaks, you take time to find out what He is actually saying and how it applies to you now. It was clear to me that it was concerning my youth service, God did not want me to influence my posting.

I agreed to do what God wanted; in my heart I said, “I am confident, O God of heaven, that You will put me in Lagos.” Lagos was the best fit for the course I studied. My family had “leg” and when I was offered the option of influencing my posting, I turned it down because God had spoken to me. When the list was released, I bounced there confidently only to see I had been posed to Adamawa [a state in Northern Nigeria]. I almost fainted. “What! Where is that?” I went back to God, “Lord, You know that this thing does not work like this.” At that time, there were no computers up north and to spend a whole year there would mean being out of touch with the world. But God said, “I do not delight in the legs of men.” It was a difficult place, God was putting me down.

Still, I went back to my family to check if the offer was still on the table because I was now ready to accept it. So, calls were made, and I was to go and pick up a letter in Abuja. The Holy Spirit kept saying, “What are you doing?” At that point no one really wants to hear God’s voice. In fact, you most likely would be saying to God, “Let me fix this and then I will come back to You.” So, I went to Abuja to pick up the letter, that journey itself is a story for another day. I took the letter back to the director in Adamawa to get redeployed to Lagos. Just as it was getting to my turn to see the director, a lady walked up to me and said, “You want to get redeployed?” “Why won’t people just mind their business?” I thought. She continued, “… and you call yourself a Christian?” and left.

How did she know I was a Christian? That was the end, I got up, tore the letter and I went to serve. But in retrospect, the work God did in my life in that year, what He fed me that year has not expired till date. It is unbelievable, the journey He took me in the spirit in that year, I could never have attained it in Lagos. I was literarily in the wilderness.

Prayer: Father, please do not let me wander away from my green pastures, compel me to lie down and feast in the green pastures You have prepared for me, in Jesus Name. Amen!