The next day, Chidi went to meet the choir members during their rehearsals to instruct them on how the next day’s service will be.
“Don’t bother to rehearse any special songs. There won’t be time to sing it. Tomorrow, there will be an extended time for worship, which I’ll lead myself. Music director, please, choose the best singers for backup leaders. It’s annoying when the church tries to connect with God in worship and the choir goes off-key. Most importantly, you need God’s grace. Grace is much greater than any skill you feel you have. You may have the best voice in the entire universe and yet God’s Spirit won’t move in your ministrations. And you might have a not-so-special voice yet command miracles whenever you sing. It depends on your ability to align yourself to the grace of God. Let’s just worship God briefly and pray and I’ll leave you to continue your rehearsals, alright?” Chidi said.
Chidi began to sing worship songs, making intermittent prayers and the choir joined in perfect harmony. It was not long before the choir members began to feel the power of God strongly as they sang, a feeling that some could not boast of having had previously. Some choir members got baptised in the Holy Spirit and some prophesied. Many of them were in tears as they knelt and stretched their hands towards the heavens.
“Father, we ask for a fresh release of your anointing and your oil. May we be set ablaze with the fire of the Holy Spirit, untouchable by the kingdom of darkness. Lord, we ask for the exceptional grace to light up our world so that everyone seeing us will say, ‘of a truth, this one has been with Jesus Christ’. Lord we surrender all to you, use us for Your Glory. We pray that your Presence will be manifested in our midst tomorrow. Let everyone that comes to our service tomorrow leave with definite encounters with you, oh God. These and more we pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen,” Chidi prayed and the choir gave a resounding ‘Amen’.
“One other thing, no one should eat anything tomorrow morning. I want everybody to fast and pray. Spend time praying in the Holy Spirit. Be ready to be used by God. I believe that God is set to do mind-blowing wonders in tomorrow’s service,” Chidi instructed.
The next day, which was Sunday, the church experienced God’s power in another dimension during the worship time. After singing for thirty minutes, the church grew unusually quiet with every single person, including pastors on the ground. Those videoing left the cameras mounted. The power of God was so strong that no one could stand nor sing. For more than ten minutes, one could hear the drop of a pin in the church. Suddenly, some people’s mouths began to move, slowly at first. Others joined in and others and others till every person in the church sang a new song. No one had ever heard the lyrics before nor knew the melody but everyone sang in perfect harmony.
The instrumentalists could suddenly stand up and play the instruments like professionals, a song that they had never heard nor rehearsed. It was a feeling like no other. It felt like everyone in the church had been translated to join the celestial choir. For more than fifteen minutes, everyone sang the song that they did not know. Then, it felt like everyone slowly descended from the heavens back to the earth. The new song was replaced with heartfelt thanksgiving as everyone stood with their hands raised to the heavens, thanking God for a marvellous encounter. And then, Chidi handed over the microphone to Pastor Francis.
“We’ll meet in an eatery in the next ten minutes. Married members, please, check with your spouses. Your children and spouses can join us, if they wish,” Chidi told the choir members after the service.
Ten minutes later, the choir members marched towards the nearest eatery. Chidi had made an earlier reservation. So, he showed them where they were to stay while he went to order the food. Unable to sit and watch their pastor serve them, most of the members stood to help.
“You know that it makes no sense if all of you decide to do the service,” Chidi said.
“Okay then, appoint a few of us to do it. We just won’t let you do it yourself. You are our pastor and we honour you,” said the pharmacist that helped Chidi’s family, ten years ago.
Chidi began to wonder if the pharmacist knew how he held her and her family in high esteem. She had already given birth to three children, 7, 5 and 3 years old and the kids were so sweet and highly intelligent. He decided to honour her word.
“Okay then, ma,” Chidi said.
Chidi went on to appoint five choristers to help him with the service; the pharmacist, Treasure, another lady and two young men.
“Please, I want everyone to be very honest. If you know that you did not do the fast today, raise your hands. Please, choristers’ spouses and children are excluded,” Chidi said when everyone was seated and had prayed together.
A few hands went up.
“Okay, I did not ask that question to mete out any form of discipline or anything. But please, in the future, let’s understand something. Prophetic instructions are very important and they are meant to be obeyed. Alright? Our prayers and fasting cannot bring down God’s glory the way we’ve seen it. But the only Person who can, the Owner of the glory, God Almighty, has given an instruction, why won’t you obey? Many people have met me saying they want the power of God to be manifested in their lives and ministry and I told them that it is not in my hands to give but in God’s hands, but are they ready to pay the price? God, in his wisdom, gives out talents according to our abilities. The one who refuses to work with his, the little he has is taken away. You want power and anointing and yet you still find it difficult to trade with your talent in obedience and honesty. So I’m asking this question to us all here. Are you ready to pay the price? Because I know in my heart that God is set to do a new thing among the choir members.”
The choir members ate their food, joked together, told stories and shared testimonies.
“You know what? Let’s do this every week,” one of the male choristers said.
“That’s a very good suggestion. You are sponsoring it, right?” Chidi replied.
After everything, the choir sang some worship songs, prayed and went to their respective homes.
Word spread quickly that Chidi was the founder of Prized Youths and of the powerful worship session and the church attendance increased massively every week. Most of the youths and children in the church got close to Chidi and opened up their lives, their challenges, successes, failures and relationships to him so that he would counsel and mentor them. Soon, the pastors felt that Chidi should be the Youth Pastor, taking care of youths and teenagers and organising the Sunday School teachers while Pastor Kelechi became the assistant pastor.
Chidi still helped in organising all the units. He also produced a template that detailed all the units’ activities and responsibilities. He asked that all unit members were mandated to attend an intensive workers’ training where they were taught to render acceptable spiritual service to God. These brought conflicts between older members of units and Chidi, as they did not understand how a young man would join a church in a few months and exercise much authority. Some of them left the church but were soon replaced by the ever-increasing new members.
At first, the pastors became exasperated by Chidi’s dynamism but the results were soon evident. Since the workers and deacons in the church became more dedicated, Pastor Francis could easily plan programmes and activities in the church with confidence that members would show up. Also, Chidi’s in-depth knowledge of the Bible challenged the pastors, especially Pastors Victory and Obinna, to study more. Chidi, following the example of Pastor Kingsley, the youth pastor in his father’s church, and with the permission of Pastor Francis, began to lead the children, teenagers and youths on Saturdays for evangelism and outreaches. The children teachers, though reluctant at first, supported him and helped to organise the children. There were mind-blowing miracles as some children prayed for the sick and they got healed. The monthly youth meetings turned to monthly outreaches, as every last Friday and Saturday, Chidi led the youths to interior villages, most of which still practised traditional religion. When the youths saw the actions of the enemies and God’s power in defeating the enemy, their faith grew tremendously. They were also reminded to ‘work out their salvation with fear and trembling’ so that they ‘don’t give the devil a foothold’.
The pastors’ wives were also encouraged and put in their best in their ministry. Mrs Francis was in charge of all women and together with the other pastors’ wives organised several women’s programmes. She had planned a mentoring programme in which older women mentored young ladies according to the Bible. But the plan kept failing as she did not have support from anyone. However, the revival happening in the church made some of the older women to leave while the ones that remained were ready to work in utmost obedience. This made her mentoring programme to finally work. The young women, following Chidi’s advice, were ready to sit and listen to the older women. Mrs Francis led the women for visitations and outreaches to prisons, hospitals, motherless homes, orphanages, schools, etc. Most of the projects required money, time, energy, skill and planning; sacrifices that the women were more than willing to make.
Since Chidi organised everything, Pastor Francis had more time to take care of other things. Pastor Francis began to have more time for his family especially, his children. Chidi was still not allowed to take Sunday sermons, though he preached to teenagers and youths. He was not allowed to officiate weddings, child and house dedications, family deliverance services, burials etcetera, duties that only Pastor Francis, the associate and the assistant pastors could perform.
During this time, Chidi’s fondness for Treasure continued to increase as the weeks went by. Though Treasure was still a student, she was available for all the youth and women’s programmes. She followed all instructions that Chidi gave without any complaint. Chidi began to trust her, not just with duties, but also with his personal feelings and thoughts.
Many times, she would also help Mrs Francis out in house chores and Mrs Francis saw her as her daughter.
