When you were younger, you had an experience that today, only you can attempt to explain. No one knew what had exactly happened to you. You wouldn’t dare to explain it then because you had no clear idea of what it was; but later you heard people talk about encounters with God and you thought it was related to what you had earlier experienced. This is why you could later attempt verbalizing your secret encounters back then as a young innocent child. You can recall how that experience totally turned you into ‘something else’. Even your Sunday School teacher couldn’t relate it accurately to your curious parents. You had just one prayer for weeks and for months. Your sincere prayer was for God to take you over and use you for His glory. You attached no conditions to it, and in fact, you had none. Gradually it was becoming clear by the day that a unique child was among the children; and that child was you! Your parents gave you every support you needed, and most parents wanted their kids to relate closely with you. You were a budding icon and everyone knew it, except you. You were only conscious of one thing: a passionate desire for God. You wanted ‘more of God’ desperately by the day. It wasn’t later than two years when you began to get invitations to speak to fellow young people in neighboring churches. You didn’t know any profession altar/pulpit mannerism or how to prepare sermon scripts. You only knew to verbally communicate your passion to God in the audience of men. While some thought you were a ‘spoken-words’ artiste, they knew they were wrong only when the atmosphere of Heaven arrived. You were almost always wondering why people cried and some would come to the altar kneeling for reasons you didn’t know. You would eventually walk off the pulpit soaked in tears and sweat, wishing you could rush as fast as you could to a closet to continue your communion with your Lord. You loved God such that even strangers knew it. People told you that you had a ministry, and your response was that if loving the Lord was the ministry, it was okay for you. Many experiences you had were higher than your naive mind could comprehend back then, and you never bothered anyone with tales of your ‘secret affair’ with your Lord. You were not born that way; however, it’s just that one encounter with God when an evangelist came to your church had set you on a course you never planned to engage. You were a product of an encounter!

Fast forward >> >> >>

Today you are married, or about to; today you have a job or seeking one; today you are into ministry trying to grow your audience or still doing things in Christian circle; however, one thing is unique with ‘today’: you now have tales! Tales of how wonderful it used to be! How soothing it is for you to bask under the sunshine of your memory and give tales of your early days’ ‘escapades’. Such things like recognition, fame, attention and even money that didn’t matter to you yesterday are now the matters of your life today. You are chasing hard after a career. O, you are working out your energy aiming at building a 21st century business empire. Perhaps your husband is now the ‘owner’ of your life, and worship is shared between him and your children. Or maybe you are expecting a newborn, so all attention is focused on the arrival of the home’s latest prince or princess. You are a class teacher for new believers in church, and you know how to ‘intimidate’ them with the relics of your spiritual history. As far as you are aware, you are so far a success. But what you fail to understand is that you are drying up on the vine. You are not the fruit of the seed you were. You have gradually become normal and ordinary, yet in the church! When once in a while you smell the scent of His garment, the smell you once knew in the secret place, and you secretly cry ‘Alas, I used to live here’. But after that, you stand up and keep moving in the direction of the path of your current societal status. Though you are still in the Kingdom, but you know it, that you’re not fit for any Kingdom battles. I have a question for you: how long shall your glory be in the past? And just so you would know, what was in your hand is not in the hands of many today. This generation needs it. If you would find your way back, you’d save many today and tomorrow, but not those you’ve lost already, who now are no longer alive. Wake Up! You once had an encounter, but you can still have an encounter today! May no one scream your name in hell for not shining the light upon them; the light you are.