We Have Received His Life

There is a power that can keep a man or woman alive beyond the power and ability of their earthly bodies it has been proven over and over again that when medical help or medical science fails, and a verdict of death has been given by physicians who had accepted fate and given up hope, there is yet another place where those who sue for help can receive divine help that will keep them alive and functioning for several years and even well beyond the normal life span of other people. It is not a scientifically researchable process, and it is not infallible, especially as so many other variables may not align, but it is real.

I was privileged to watch a matriarch give her testimony a few days ago as she turned eighty. During the 80th birthday Thanksgiving celebration in church, she was told to dance forward with her relatives and well-wishers. As soon as the choir began to sing, I felt the atmosphere change and I saw all sorts of bright lights and an electricity in the atmosphere that made me stand still. I was mesmerized; it was as if the number of people in the church multiplied, and the number of ministers singing in the choir multiplied. There was a particular song, one of the minstrels sang earlier in the service; the song started ringing in my ears. I invited the same minister to sing the same song, and a rapturous atmosphere descended everywhere. When the matriarch eventually got to the altar, she was given the microphone to share her story. She said that when she was forty years old, she discovered that she was in constant pain all the time due to a sickness in her abdomen. She said she would go to sleep, groaning in pain, and wake up groaning in pain. Eventually, she was taken to the hospital, and a lot of X-rays and tests were done. The doctors at the time did not have scanning machines, and none of them could diagnose what the problem was. Eventually, the hospital management decided they would do an exploratory surgery on her to determine what the problem was. Her family consented to it, and the surgery was carried out. The surgery took over eleven hours, her husband had gone crazy with worry, and the medical director of the hospital had to flee from the hospital at a point, but somehow she survived the surgery and was wheeled out of the theater into the ICU alive.

At the ICU, they began to tend to her, but she was not getting better. The chief surgeon and his team came to see her and her family and asked her if she had been eating and drinking daily while she was sick. She told them she had. They asked her if she had been using the restroom daily, too, and she told them she had. They didn’t believe her. The chief surgeon said when they opened her up during the surgery, they found her intestines in tatters (which made it impossible for her to have been eating and making use of the toilet as she claimed she had been doing).

The surgeon couldn’t comprehend how she was still alive, and also how she survived the surgery, and that they had to do a lot of cutting and joining in order to make the intestines somehow stay connected as they should be. The chief surgeon said he would advise that they fly her to a hospital in the United Kingdom, where the surgery can be done properly, because they were not prepared for what they found in her tummy, and they didn’t have all the necessary equipment and tools to do justice to the surgery, it was the best they could do under the circumstances, but it was a bit crude, and the surgeon felt they needed specialists to take a look at her and correct some of the errors they must have made during the initial surgery. The surgeon told her and her family that it is expedient that she travel to the United Kingdom for further treatment if she desires to live. She was discharged from the hospital after seventy days.

By the time she was discharged from the hospital, the doctors had resolved that there was nothing more they could do for her in Nigeria.

The family was still trying hard to raise the funds to take her to the United Kingdom for further treatment, so the hospital decided she needed to be released to her family rather than keeping her at the hospital where she was racking up bills. Somehow, she returned to her house alive, but she was still bedridden and barely alive. As soon as she got home, the church members came to visit her, and one of them suggested that they should gather some members to come home to their house and pray for her daily. At this point, they had tried everything they could, and nothing had worked; their last resort was to present her case to God in the place of prayer. The prayers started the next day, she was carried from her room to the sitting room, where she was surrounded by the saints, and fervent prayers were held for her healing. She said she became conscious of the prayers on the second day, even though she still could not move, she became conscious that the church was gathering in her house to pray for her. She said by the third day, she was able to move her upper body from side to side, even though they still had to carry her to the sitting room for prayers. She said by the fourth day, she was able to sit up with pillows propping her up during the prayers. She said by the fifth day, she was able to stand up during the prayers. She said by the sixth day, she was able to clap her hands and talk. She said by the seventh day, she was able to sing out loud and pray. It was such a profound miracle at the time that newspapers came to interview her on the journey of her recovery. She said the church decided to plant a branch in their house based on the miracle of her recovery, and her husband was the first pastor of the church.

Months after she recovered and started functioning perfectly, her husband insisted she should travel to the United Kingdom to see the recommended specialists. She said when she got there, they did every form of test with all the available equipment they couldn’t find anything wrong with her body. She said when she insisted that they should be more thorough because there was no way she would have travelled all the way to the United Kingdom for treatment on the recommendation of her doctor only to get a “nothing is wrong with you”, they gave her some drugs (placebo) and told her to use them because they felt she was a bit depressed. She said she returned to Nigeria and had been in good health since then.

In the last forty years, she has witnessed her children graduate from the University, get established in their chosen professions, get married, and in all, she has carried sixteen grandchildren with her hands. She said some of them are old enough now to have families of their own. Surrounding her yesterday were her sons, daughters-in-law, grandchildren, pastor, relatives, members of her church, and well-wishers.

PS: I celebrate the grace of God upon the life of Mrs. Eunice Adekemi Oladehin, and I celebrate the ministering Spirits at work in her and through her. Her testimony was quite profound, but what I saw with my two eyes and the stirring I felt in my heart during the service was much more than the wonders of her testimony. There is a spirit in the believer, the depth of which most of us have not explored as we should; the life we have is not just a life of flesh and blood; we have received the death defeating and defying LIFE of God in Christ Jesus. When Jesus resurrected, there was no blood even though he had holes in his hands, side, and feet. He was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit, and He was sustained in his mortal body by the same Spirit. Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. https://youtube.com/live/oekQmOWVO2s?si=HWYSGGsG8WTfqTUC You can watch the video of her testimony here, from 1:43:47 to 2:07:17 (If you choose to fast forward to it). The entire service is a blessing for those who desire to watch it. Our annual retreat in North America will be taking place in a few days. As usual, it will be a time of great teaching and demonstration of the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Please save the date.

-GSW-