TESTIMONIALS.
Wednesday 12th February
THE WOMAN DIED
An evangelist collected tracts for mission work in the area of Oke Ogun in Oyo state. Among the tracts which he collected was WHY NOT FORGIVE? After several days, I received an anonymous text message which simply said; “Can one forgive in a situation like this?” I responded by asking the person to explain the situation. It was through her chats with me that I discovered she was a deaf and dumb woman who got married to her husband when the two of them were school certificate holders. With time, the husband was trained as a bricklayer while she started teaching in a private school and later gradually trained up herself through distance learning courses to obtain National Certificate in Education (NCE) and later a degree in education. She gained employment into government service and was deployed to a public secondary school. She grew gradually to become the vice principal of a secondary school.
The husband on the other hand was not so successful in his trade, consequently it was the woman that was financially responsible for the education of their children and the house which they built.
Then suddenly in answer to prayers for breakthrough, a classmate of the husband who was a politician was announced as a commissioner and he remembered his friend and influenced how he got some contracts for several buildings which prospered his work. The next thing that happened was that he began to be irregular at home, and later he wanted to marry another wife. The wife was so surprised and felt that he was not being fair to her after so many years of struggling with him. Hence she opposed his plan to marry another wife.
To be able to carry out his plan, the man approached a herbalist to help him to make his wife unable to prevent him from marrying the second wife . The herbalist did it and the woman became ill, and by the time she became well physically, she became deaf and dumb. As a result of the problem, she had to retire prematurely as the vice principal of a secondary school.
While praying for solution through several reliable sources, it was revealed that it was the husband that was responsible for her predicament! When confronted, the man could not deny it. The woman then concluded that if he could do that to her, her life was not safe living with him, she consequently asked him to move out of her house.
All manner of people including men of God has tried to mediate but it was difficult to convince the woman that she should forgive the husband.
That was the situation in which she was when she received our tract, WHY NOT FORGIVE? She then concluded by asking me the question again, “Can I forgive in a situation like this?”
Sincerely, I didn’t initially know how to respond because the matter was a level of wickedness that is beyond ordinary level, making her wife deaf and dumb because she wanted to marry another wife! Later I was able to control my emotions and I made her to know that though the level of wickedness of the husband has made him humanly speaking not to be qualified for forgiveness, the issue of forgiveness is a divine requirement for those who want to make heaven. I kept engaging her for the next several days until one day I received a text message from her saying; ‘Daddy I have forgiven my husband’
I was overjoyed when I received that message and for several weeks after that I kept chatting with her on spiritual growth etc. As for her and her husband, it was as if they just discovered themselves and they started calling themselves with the pet names which they used to call themselves while they were courting, over twenty years earlier. Though the children opposed the move initially, they had to get used to the arch enemies that became lovebirds again.
Then, some months later, I received a message from her that the revelations that she was receiving was like telling her to prepare to come home. When I received the message, I responded that she would not die but live to proclaim the gospel. A few days after later, after midweek service on a Wednesday, I received a message from her but I could not respond as I was driving home. After about thirty minutes later, I received a call as I was driving into our compound and the voice simply said; ‘Mummy just died’. It was the voice of one of her children. It was as if I had never had that someone died. In fact no one’s death ever affected me the way the death of the woman affected me. I asked God, why he got me involved if the husband would eventually kill the wife. However the Holy Spirit responded to me that it was not the husband that killed her but it was the time for her to be recalled home. I was told that without forgiving her husband, she wouldn’t have made heaven.
It was then I realized how vital the matter of forgiveness is for someone who desires to make heaven. If that woman, despite the evil that her husband did to her would not have made heaven if she did not forgive, then forgiveness goes beyond how grievous was the offense of your husband wife, it become a matter of whether or not you want to do the will of God through obedience.
LESSON.
- FOR THE MARRIED- HOWEVER SERIOUS THE OFFENSE IS, FORGIVING YOUR SPOUSE IS MANDATORY.
- FOR SINGLES: YOU SHOULD GO INTO MARRIAGE WITH ADVANCE FORGIVENESS- WHICH MEANS MAKING UP YOUR MIND IN ADVANCE THAT YOU WILL FORGIVE WHATEVER OFFENSE.
Dr. Mike Oluniyi.
