On Sunday, Chidi was given a microphone to minister in the main church auditorium. Standing on the altar, he looked at the congregation – men and women with no child of his age. Many of them were successful and well-to-do. He felt unworthy and timid, so, he shut his eyes.
“Lord, you’ve given me all the grace that I need. Help me to surrender to You and be used by You,” Chidi prayed.
He opened his mouth to speak. He did not have any special feeling but he had faith that God was going to work through him.
“I know that as I have stood up here, most of you have expectations. ‘What does the son of Pastor Justice have to offer?’ Well, nothing. I am just so little and weak. At worst, I’d disgrace myself here and say the wrong things and stammer. People will try to encourage me and say, “Don’t worry. It’s your first time. You have the courage to even stand on this altar. Just keep practising and you will be fine,” At best, whatever I do will be seen as ‘good entertainment.’ You will clap, shout and keep talking to all that would listen about the little boy that performed well. But what do you want? I know many are here because they are broken. Many want to hear wisdom from God’s mouth. And many want God’s intervention. I cannot give you any of those. So, why don’t you stop looking up to me and look up to God? I am not here to prove anything to anybody but to be used by God,” Chidi said.
Chidi began to sing worship songs. The congregation joined in, at first just for fun, but once their hearts became aligned with God’s heart, the atmosphere became charged. Chidi began to prophesy, even as he sang. He did not even know that he picked up people’s cases as he spoke. He just spoke with emotions.
“Some people are grace wasters. God put you in a rich corporation to work but no, you say, it was my friend in that corporation that gave you the job. I.M. – Ima Mmadu – knowing someone. And now, you have joined with your friend in his corrupt practices rather than fulfil the purpose for which God had put you there,” he said. “♪Your grace, your grace, I am nothing without it♪. God has given everyone a measure of grace sufficient to live and be like God. All you need is to open up your heart in faith and receive what He has given you… God is waiting for those who will open up to him and surrender everything to Him in humility and gratitude for His grace.”
As Chidi worshipped and prophesied, people were in tears on their feet. They were praising God, asking God for forgiveness, praying and singing. When Chidi’s time elapsed, Pastor Justice took the microphone from him. Chidi went to his chair and knelt, burying his face on the chair as he cried. Pastor Justice said a few things more, made an altar call and prayed and blessed the congregation. Then, he handed over the microphone to one of the pastors to close the service.
Seeing God move, both in his school and in church reinforced Chidi’s faith in God and his desire to do His will. He fasted again from Wednesday to Friday, drinking only water in between and that in the evening. He prayed so dearly that God would come down again at the fellowship.
The news of the previous fellowship meeting spread fast in the school and many students decided to attend the next one. Therefore, on Friday afternoon, after school hours, the fellowship attendees had almost doubled their numbers. Adebayo also asked a junior student to take opening prayer and Chidi to take worship. As Chidi sang, anointing came down much more than the previous week. Then, Adebayo led the fellowship in prayers. As usual, when Chidi was done, he felt exhausted. Like, the previous week, Mr Oladayo looked at Chidi as a bad child when he went to collect money from Adebayo. This time, after the fellowship service, Mr Oladayo decided to warn Adebayo.
“Bayo, show me your friends and I will tell you who you are. You have to choose your friends wisely. Don’t follow bad friends. Do you understand what I am saying? Stop following that boy that comes in very late and always distracts you when God’s word is coming forth. He is a very bad influence,” Mr Oladayo said.
“Him?” asked Adebayo as he pointed at Chidi, “No, I can’t stop following him. He is my brother.”
“Bayo, listen to me! That boy can lead you astray,” Mr Oladayo said.
“He won’t. Sir, you are very mistaken. You don’t know him. Have you wondered the fact that you just began to see him and now this place is always charged with God’s power? He is the one paying the price. He is always doing three days dry fasting just for this fellowship. And for these two Fridays, he has been the one leading worship and bringing students to their knees. He is given out to ministry. And after everything, he gets so weak that he feels like passing out and needs the money to get something to eat,” Adebayo said.
“Why you, doesn’t he have money of his own?” Mr Oladayo asked with remorse.
“I told you that he is my brother. We live together. And my father gives me money for both of us since we are in the same class,” Adebayo replied. “He is given out to ministry and so, my father is training him to be a good minister of God. It is my fault that Chidi keeps distracting the service. From now, since I know now that he would ask for money, I’ll give him the money upfront. That way, he can quickly go and have something to eat immediately after he is done ministering. As such, he should be able to meet up with the prayers and the word session.”
That Sunday, Adebayo asked Pastor Kingsley to allow Chidi lead worship session in their teen church. One of the teenagers led the praise session. Typical for youths, everyone danced and shouted in praise to God. Then, when the teenager was done, she gave the microphone to Chidi. Immediately he began to sing, the place was charged up. A teenager who came to church sick immediately got healed. After service, as different service groups had their meeting, the teen choir members approached Chidi.
“You have to join the choir,” they said.
“Actually, I have always wanted to join but there are times that I run errands for Pastor Justice during rehearsal time. But don’t worry, anytime I’m free, I’ll rehearse with you,” Chidi said.
Meanwhile, Pastor Kingsley met with Pastor Justice to tell him what had happened in church.
“That Chidi boy is extraordinary. I have never seen anointing in such form among the teens before,” Pastor Kingsley said.
“Yes, I know. He ministered in the main auditorium last Sunday and the same thing happened,” Pastor Justice said.
“We should put him in charge of the choir,” Pastor Kingsley suggested.
“I’ve thought about that again and again and had even wanted to discuss that with you. But when Chidi came to live with me, God said that Chidi was not to serve me or the ministry but to get trained as a minister. I mean, giving him a leadership position like that would help to horn his leadership abilities. But what happens when God says that he is leaving, would you be ready to let go? And besides, he is not just being called into music ministry. He has to learn, within the short time he would be with me, the intricacies of ministry. I’d take him to different programmes and outreaches and ministry field trips. So, how is he going to still manage the responsibilities of having a leadership position in church? I think you should give him leadership duties to teach him but not as a position so that he does not get tied down,” Pastor Justice said to Pastor Kingsley.
At school, teachers began to assign Chidi to take worship sessions during assembly time and morning devotions. And even when Chidi would sing for just five minutes, the power of God was always felt. Teachers also assigned him to pray and to preach sometimes. Chidi continued his Wednesday to Friday fasts. In time, he not only interceded for his school’s fellowship but also for the youth centre and all the children in the church. He prayed for his family at home and his new family. He prayed for Pastor Justice’s ministry and outreaches, for the sick and poor and all those that did not know God. His prayer points increased weekly.
Pastor Justice and Pastor Kingsley continued to give Chidi ministerial duties to perform. Sometimes, he was the one to preach, lead other teenagers for evangelism, lead prayer and worship sessions, etc. Pastor Justice continued to give Chidi more spiritual books to read and was always ready to explain to Chidi, things that he found difficult to understand. Chidi became more and more versed in the scriptures until almost all the words that he spoke had a scriptural reference. He also became bolder and could speak to any audience. His relationship with God became deeper. And his academics also flourished since Adebayo was available to tutor him.
