It was the seventh week that Chidi had stayed in Pastor Justice’s house. As usual, Chidi fasted from Wednesday to Friday and on Friday’s service, he led the worship session and then went outside to have a brief meal. As he ate, he felt a presence. He closed his eyes, and then saw someone try to kill Adebayo by covering his face with a cloth. He saw that the person was one of his classmates, Kenneth. He opened his eyes and began to pray for Adebayo. After some time, he re-entered the fellowship hall.
Due to the revival that had been going on, lots of students had come to fellowship to experience what they heard about. Many of the students who had been known for several vices had change of heart. Some were preached to individually by the fellowship members. After they gave their lives to Christ, they joined the fellowship for proper follow up. But Kenneth was someone known to be good. He hardly entered trouble in school and seemed so obedient. Yet on his first day in the fellowship, Chidi had a vision of him trying to kill his brother. Was he a wizard and no one knew about it?
Immediately Chidi entered the hall, Kenneth shot him an angry look and that affirmed what he had seen in the vision.
Chidi said under his breath, “Power pass power. He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world.”
Even though Kenneth could not have heard what Chidi had said, Kenneth understood quite clearly, being a member of the occult. Chidi sat down on his seat and as Mr Oladayo taught, Chidi kept praying in the Spirit. Shortly after then, Adebayo began to feel as if he was choking and was struggling to breathe. He felt as if his face was wrapped by a dark cloud and he was being suffocated. Those close to Adebayo thought that the power of God was upon him but Chidi and Kenneth knew exactly what was going on. As soon as Chidi turned and saw Adebayo gasping for air, Chidi raised his hand to ask for permission from Mr Oladayo.
“Please, sir, I need to tell Bayo something very important,” he said.
It was then that Mr Oladayo noticed Adebayo. He too thought that Adebayo was under the power of God and that Chidi had a prophecy to give. Thus, he gave his permission.
“Bayo, Bayo, can you hear me?” Chidi started.
Tears flowed down from Chidi’s eyes.
“You are a child of God, covered by the blood of Jesus. No weapon formed against you can prosper. You have been endowed with power from God. Resist the devil and he will flee. God has said concerning you, touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm. You shall tread upon serpents and scorpions and nothing shall by any means hurt you,” Chidi said.
By that time, Mr Oladayo understood that Adebayo and Chidi were in a spiritual battle and he began to pray and intercede also. Some of the students also joined in.
“Shut up! Shut up!” shouted Kenneth as he approached Adebayo’s seat.
Those around Kenneth ran away from him in fear and stood at a distance and were praying. Many stood at the entrance of the hall out of fear. Chidi and Mr Oladayo approached Kenneth, both of them praying.
“Pastor’s son, hahaha. If not for Chidi, you would have been dead. And you Chidi, how dare you interfere? Are you Bayo? Did I touch you? Bayo is mine and you cannot stop it,” Kenneth taunted.
“I cannot be yours because I belong to God,” Adebayo said.
Kenneth laughed and spoke more angry and wicked words. He staggered as if under an influence. Even though no one saw anything, the hall seemed as if it was filled with smoke and some students ran outside for fresh air.
“Who even gave you the power to speak? How dare you go against the Lord’s anointed? You and your master, the devil, has been defeated a long time ago when Jesus died on the cross. All power has been given unto the One whose we are and whom we serve. You cannot hit your foot against a rock and expect to be unharmed. In the Name of Jesus Christ, I command you to bow!” Chidi said.
Unwillingly, Kenneth found himself on his knees and his face was unto the ground. He had been defeated. Those outside came inside the hall. The place became charged with the Power of God. Fear was replaced with faith. Kenneth, though still unrepentant, confessed to several bad things he had done to the amazement of all that felt that he was a good person.
That night, Chidi could not stop thinking of how a wizard had challenged Adebayo. He began to intercede for Adebayo.
“Lord, even if you won’t call Bayo into ministry, he cannot be left without power and anointing. He has been serving you from a very young age. His father has also paid the price. How many souls have been won through his dad’s ministry? I know that no evil shall befall Bayo. But then, I don’t want him to be just defensive, fighting for his life. I want him to be a terror to the kingdom of darkness. Anoint him, Lord, with much greater power than he has ever known. You said that the children of the righteous are blessed. The kingdom of the devil should know that pastors’ children have a seal of touch not. Use Bayo mightily, God please,” he prayed.
A thought entered Chidi’s head.
“Will you mind that you labour much more than Bayo and yet he sees more results in ministry than you?”
“Lord, I don’t want to be David and Jonathan, with Bayo. I don’t want him to go down just so that I will prosper. I am so engraced to even be under your servant, daddy Justice. But he, You ordained to be born into this family. He cannot be a disgrace to this family. I will not mind being stripped off all graces and power for ministry if only Bayo will be anointed beyond what he has known. I know that You will not take Your power from me because of the assignment You have for me. I pray that Bayo’s anointing exceeds mine,” Chidi prayed.
Chidi went to Bayo’s room and woke him up from sleep.
“Bayo, please, can you join me and pray?” Chidi requested.
Adebayo sat up on his bed. He turned to ask Chidi what the prayer point was but he was immediately filled with the Spirit of intercession. Chidi prayed in tongues for some time in Adebayo’s room before going to his own room to sleep. Adebayo could not sleep again. He prayed until it was time for morning devotion. Still, he did not feel a release. He prayed everywhere in tongues and his understanding. And from that day, Adebayo did not fail to do midnight prayers every night. His anointing was evident and his faith surprised even Chidi.
The next Monday, the story about Kenneth quickly spread. Everyone avoided him. His seatmate left the seat for him. Different people had their versions of what had happened.
During break time, Chidi went to meet Kenneth.
“What do you want? Is Friday’s disgrace not enough for you?” Kenneth asked.
“Oh, that is what you see it as, a disgrace. Well, I just want to know why you wanted to kill my brother. That is all,” Chidi said.
“I don’t have time for that. Can you, please, leave?” Kenneth said.
“I need an answer,” Chidi said.
As Kenneth looked at Chidi, he saw fire in Chidi’s eyes, figuratively. He was very scared of Chidi and decided that he could not but answer.
“Power! Do you know what it means to be able to kill a pastor’s son? The grief might even weaken the pastor, making him an easy prey also. That would mean that I will have more power and riches and fame and anything whatsoever that I might ever wish for,” Kenneth boasted.
“Well, the devil is deceiving you by making you feel that he can give you anything when he is taking what you have and making you do his dirty job. Can I ask you one question? What happens when you get the power, riches and fame?” Chidi asked. “People will fear you. No one will want to associate with you for fear of being used as a sacrifice. We can see a little from what is happening now. What exactly do you want? Do you want to be a monster hated by all, but rich, famous and powerful? Or do you want to be the one God has ordained you to be, trusting Him that he has a great future for you? All it takes is for you to surrender to Jesus. Are you ready to take that step?”
“It is funny. I expected you to come here to say condemning words against me as others are doing, but you are here preaching to me,” Kenneth said.
“God does not take joy in the death for a sinner. Jesus came so that all that will believe in him will be saved. So are you ready?” Chidi asked and Kenneth nodded.
Chidi led him through the sinner’s prayer. Kenneth gave his life to Christ!
“Welcome to the family of God,” Chidi said to Kenneth.
Immediately, the entire class erupted in an uproar. Students clapped and shouted. The noise they made attracted teachers and other students to their class. Everyone wanted to know what was happening.
“Kenneth gave his life to Christ. Chidi led Kenneth to Christ,” different people were saying.
Everyone was happy and congratulated Kenneth.
“Bayo, Chidi and all of your fellowship leaders should make sure you follow him up very well,” one teacher said.
Many teachers also gave their pieces of advice. The uproar soon died down. Teachers and students returned to their classes in preparation for the classes after break time.
Then, Chidi said to a smiling Kenneth, “You are smiling. You love the attention you are getting. It is nothing compared to the celebration in heaven right now because you decided to say yes to Jesus.”
‘Welcome to the family of God’ was a statement Chidi had made over and over again to those he had led to Christ. Since the beginning of the school’s revival, different students from his class and other classes had come to him and told him that they wanted what he had. None of their salvation encounters was celebrated as Kenneth’s own was. Thus, Chidi was very surprised at the response of his classmates.
That evening, after the family dinner, Chidi was in Adebayo’s room so that they could study together before the evening devotion.
“You know that you are a real blessing to our family,” Adebayo said.
Chidi smiled.
“Why do you say that?” he asked.
“I’m just saying. It feels good to have a brother like you,” Adebayo said. “That room is open, you can go in.”
Adebayo was pointing at an adjoining room. Chidi remembered the first time that he noticed the room. It was the first week of his stay in the house. He wanted to explore the room but Adebayo would not let him. Chidi had to lock up his curiosity in order not to infringe on Adebayo’s privacy. He wondered what had made Adebayo change his mind.
Chidi opened the door. The room looked like a workshop. It had a work table, different appliances and equipment. There were several toolboxes, a desktop, television, wires and so on. Yet, the room was highly organised. The sight was spectacular.
“Wow, this is where you get all your ideas for the youth centre,” Chidi exclaimed. “I thought that this room was a secret something anyway.”
“Not really. It’s just that I don’t like people entering it. Sis Bisi also has a room like this adjoining her room. She turned hers into a biology lab. There are times she would have different plants and animals. She cleared out most of the specimen off her lab before going to school because there would be no one to take care of them. She loves biology and wants to be a doctor and I love Physics and want to be an engineer. Our love for chemistry unites us,” Adebayo said.
“When Sister Bisi said you people were punished by being banned from the playground, what about this place? This place has everything!” Chidi asked.
“Of course. My parents would lock the room. Although one day that sis was being punished for something, her lab was not locked and she went in and spent hours there,” Adebayo said.
“And she was caught?” Chidi asked.
“No. In our house, unless you don’t know what you did was wrong, you don’t wait to be caught. You’d just confess. So she did that during the next day’s devotion,” Adebayo said.
“Children will only think of reporting themselves when the only punishment they fear is their toys being taken away from them,” Chidi thought.
“Daddy then extended the punishment to two weeks, during which time she was stripped of everything, no phones, no TV, nothing. And then, she was given the duty of keeping the house sparkling every day and washing all the dishes, all without any help. Unfortunately for her, that was a period where we had lots of visitors. The house and compound were usually messed up. Times like that, some of the visitors would usually volunteer in cleaning the place but no one was allowed to because of the punishment. Sometimes, sis would work way into the night and was always usually tired while I had fun because I was not thinking of any chores.
“On the last day of the punishment, during family dinner, I talked about the fun I had and things I learnt in the playground. Then, mummy asked her about her day especially since she was done with the punishment. Sis began to cry uncontrollably such that daddy had to ask mummy to pet her. When she got herself, mummy said, “You know what to do.” And she apologized to daddy for everything and promised never to disobey him again. Seeing my sister that day in tears made me resolve never to disobey daddy before he makes me clean the entire church every day for a month, though I’m exaggerating,” Adebayo said.
As Adebayo spoke, Chidi pondered about his past. His parents could not afford much. So, he had no TV to watch, phone or anything. In fact, during the time that he had dropped out of school, he once got a job to clean a hall that was used for a huge party. The place was very messed up such that Chidi knew that the Pastor Justice’s house could never have been so dirty. And he had to clean the place till it sparkled for a meagre wage. That morning, before going to clean the place, he worked as a labourer at a farm. The next day, he worked at a building site and carried blocks. At that time, Chidi and his parents were doing all they could to get enough money to pay his siblings’ school fees. Chidi did not blame his father when he was so angry each time his younger brother came back with bad results. Chidi could not help but wish that he had been born into Pastor Justice’s family where their idea of punishment was his family’s definition of survival.
That Saturday, Pastor Kingsley sent Adebayo and Chidi on an errand to buy some items from a nearby supermarket. As they walked together, they witnessed an auto accident afar off. For Chidi, that would not be his first time of witnessing an accident so he was ready to just mind his business and quickly run the errand. But Adebayo thought otherwise.
“Come, let us go and see what is happening,” Adebayo said.
Chidi was reluctant but decided to act in obedience. As they reached, people had gathered. Some brought out the victims and gave them first aid treatments to save their lives. One man was declared dead by someone who had identified himself as a doctor. As the doctor gave his verdict, tears rolled down Adebayo’s eyes.
“Let us go and pray for him,” Adebayo said to Chidi.
Chidi did not have faith that a dead man would be brought back to life but he obeyed nonetheless. He began to pray for the man.
Adebayo bent down, laid his hands on the dead body and said in a very loud voice, “In the name of Jesus Christ, I decree, let life come upon this body right now.”
Immediately, the man opened his eyes and began to breathe. There was an immediate uproar. Before anyone would turn to see who prayed for the man, Adebayo had taken Chidi out to go and complete their assignment.
That evening, the accident was shown on the news with the caption, ‘Mystery child prays for the dead to rise’. According to the news, many onlookers gave their lives to Christ that day. It was also expected that many who watched the news would do the same.
Chidi told the family, “I did not have faith at all for that miracle. I saw the miracle as only possible when great men of God like Pastor Justice prayed and not teenagers.”
Chidi began to wonder the kind of faith Adebayo had. However, he remembered the prayer that he made to God concerning Adebayo.
In days to come, Adebayo demonstrated even greater faith. Miracles happened when Adebayo spoke.
In a particular hospital that the teenagers visited during one of the Saturday outreaches, everyone that had contact with Adebayo received instant healing. There was an immediate uproar. Adebayo asked Chidi to take over. Chidi led everyone in different hospital wards in worship and they all felt the power of the Holy Spirit. Chidi preached briefly and many surrendered to Christ that day.
Chidi and Adebayo’s popularity grew in school and church, as two teenagers whom God used mightily.
