ADAM & STEVE

Steve entered the Hotel suite gingerly… not quite sure about what he could or could not touch… the

opulence was beyond compare. All his life, he had only read about such grandeur in books… the ones he even saw on TV didn’t feel as magnificent. He shut the door behind him and wandered into the presidential suite…

 “Steve is that you?” Adam’s voice echoed from the bathroom 

 “Good afternoon sir” Steve’s stuttered in fear and intimidation 

“I’ll be with you shortly… or do you care for a bubble bath?” Adam asked 

 The last two words struck alarm bells in Steve’s spirit. The last time he checked lifestyle lingua, bubble baths were for ladies. Or did it mean something entirely different in this palatial ambience? Curiosity pulled his guts and he walked past too many gold and glass items before arriving at the Jacuzzi… 

His lifestyle intellect was still prime… Adam was soaking in the Jacuzzi alone, sipping from a glass of champagne… Holy God… Steve thought… he had outdone himself this time around. 

 Steve had really thought he was favoured when the producer (Adam) called him aside after his auditions and told Steve he looked right for lead role. Adam had given him his room Key Card and room number… “Meet me by three pm for further arrangements”… Steve never knew “further” would be this far 

“Come on… Hop in” Adam urged 

“Where?” Steve puzzled 

“Quit acting like a novice… let’s have fun before we seal the deal” Adam purred like a cat seeking attention

“Oh… if it’s this kind of fun sir… I am a novice” Steve retorted sarcastically 

“What do you think I gave you my key card for?” Adam quizzed and rose from the Jacuzzi… covered in suds but nude enough for too much to be seen… the awe of the opulence around Steve lifted as a righteous anger washed over him… 

Steve didn’t care how things were done in Lagos, but he sure knew how spiritual matters where settled. Adam’s condition wasn’t a psychological mishap, this was a demonic oppression… and Steve had spent years working spiritual dynamics in the hamlets surrounding Awka before God asked him to move to Lagos and start a media ministry… 

Filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit Steve barked thunderously “You master in every form of lewdness, licentiousness and lustful and perverted emotions, will you not cease leading young men astray…? Now behold the hand of the Lord is upon you and you have been struck with leprosy until you denounce the rule of that demon over your life” 

Straightaway Adam’s skin paled and sores broke out on his skin… Adam shrieked in horror as he stumbled out of the Jacuzzi and ran towards Steve. 

“Please help me… I didn’t mean it” 

Before he got to Steve… Steve barked again “Stay in the name of Jesus” and Adam met an invisible brick wall… he fell backwards and thrashed… 

“Denounce that evil spirit and receive your healing now” Steve barked again… 

“I denounce homosexuality… please help me” Adam shrieked as a thousand heats pierced his skin 

“please I’m dying… help me… I denounce it” “You demon of homo-sexuality… you perverted philia… by the authority in the name of Jesus, come out now!” Steve barked at the demon that was raging in Adam Adam twisted a thousand times before finally lying still… 

*** 

Homosexuality is not a natural disposition and it’s not a psychological defect; it is a demonic possession… Tell the ones (both male and female) you know to seek Jesus and He will heal them.

MIRROR MIRROR OF THE WORD

There Mike stood… staring at the dusty Bible he had just pulled out from the abandoned book shelf… He

had no idea who owned the Bible but had an inkling of how it had gotten into the bookshelf…

He grew up to know a studious preacher dad and an assiduous mum who spent 12 hours at work & 3 hours in the kitchen every week day – and her weekends where spent in community services. He never had anyone show him the ropes about anything from age 14. 

“Everything you need to learn about life is in the Bible” his dad would drum into his ears… the same words that drove him away from church… from the bible and from everything that was attached to Jesus. It was a rebellion against the factors that took away his parents’ love. 

 He got a call that his parents had an accident earlier that day while driving to a village in Osun State for missions. He didn’t feel pity or sadness when he heard the news; the only emotion that crossed his mind was an inexplicable calm. On his 19th birthday he had finally gathered the balls to walk away from home and not look back… and his relationship with his parents had grown worse from that day. 

“How could Christian parents be this mean?” Mike would tell anyone who cared to listen. 

He had arrived his parents abode late in the evening to avoid anyone in the estate seeing him. The ‘50s mini-duplex was deserted. 

As Mike considered the Bible, he observed that the edges were glowing. A phenomenon he hadn’t heard of before. He reached out and opened it carefully, ready to take to his heels if anything popped out of it. As the cover opened a bright light pierced through the semi darkness and Mike had to shield his eyes from the penetrating light. 

He stayed that way for about twenty seconds until he felt his eyes had adjusted to the brightness. He finally opened them and saw a glowing mirror suspended mid-air over the spot where the Bible had lain. He saw what looked like a human form in the mirror… but the image was shrivelled and looked infected with all sorts of skin irritations… it looked dead 

On close observation he realized that image had the same features he had… the mole on his nose was there and the eye-colour was the same. In fright he quickly observed his arm to see if he had any infections on it… his research showed different… so why did he look like a corpse on the mirror in front of him? 

He stepped closer to the mirror and observed faint letterings in the foreground… he mouthed the words “…as we continue to behold as in a mirror the glory of God, we are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in an ever increasing splendour…” 

As he mouthed these words… he saw part of the shrivelled face in the mirror peel off. And the skin under that part looked like a visual effects from a Sci-fi flick – it glowed. In confusion Mike mouthed the words again… yet again another portion of the shrivelled face peeled off revealing more glory on the image… and he could see the shrivelled skin float away into oblivion 

So Mike kept repeating the verse until the entire image was alive with glory… then the mirror collapsed like a folding pamphlet… once again it was the old dusty Bible… but Mike couldn’t stop mouthing the words, because he felt lighter every time he said them and he felt all the hate he felt for his parents fade away into oblivion…

ORIENTATION OF A KING VII

Grunts… perspiration… heaves… snorts… clangs of weapons… the Israeli camp was rank with

consternation. Ever since that 17 year old kid had walked down the hillside of Ella, every Israeli soldier had soaked their undercoat in anticipation of the slavery that awaited the entire nation of Israel. Why had King Saul allowed this runt represent them?

“Today the world will know that there is a God in Israel” The ruddy 17 year old screamed over the substantial tension “… because I will cut off your head and feed it to the birds of the air” 

The 11 ft. tall uncircumcised Philistine was enraged when he heard this. He had threatened Israel for over two weeks and no one had dared to whisper a word until this runt of a creature showed his face. His rage was hinged on Saul’s insolence… sending a kid to his early death… what was the strategy? 

Was there even a strategy? Kunle and Eti Smith were also in the trenches by the hillside, dressed in full armour, arms in dirt and ready to charge at the sign of any hope that victory was sure. Two of them were probably the only ones in the trenches that believed Goliath would fall that day… because they’d heard the story over and over… they knew it even in their dreams. 

Kunle Captained a battalion and Eti was his armour bearer. The boy had learnt to wield a sword at a very early age and could sneak into enemy territory without attracting attention because he was just a kid. 

“How did David know he was going to cut off Goliath’s head dad?” Eti asked his father “he didn’t have any sword on him” 

“He was putting God on the spot” Kunle replied 

Goliath’s rage could not be contained anymore, so he pushed his armour bearer aside and charged forward. The whole valley shook as his huge feet trampled what was left of the grasses. Though Eti knew the story by heart, he couldn’t help but marvel at the boldness with which David ran forward to meet Goliath. 

“Why did David run forward?” he asked his father

“That’s what faith does son” Kunle responded “True faith nudges you to act in accordance with what you believe” 

In an instant David had swung his catapult and Goliath was falling forward… and the rest would have been history but Eti couldn’t help asking 

“Following the law of Physics dad, Goliath should have fallen backwards because the force came from the front” 

“You mistake the stone for the force son” Kunle smiled knowingly “the force that struck Goliath was behind him… when David made that challenge… God was stirred by the faith of that Kid and sent his angels to slay that braggart from behind” 

Kunle turned to his battalion and screamed “What are you waiting for? We’ve been served Philistine skunk for dinner” 

Then he charged forward with Eti in front…