CHARISMATIC SIGNS

MY wife and I got married on October 10, 1998. Five years after our marriage, my wife became pregnant for the first time. Unfortunately, we lost the children – a set of twins – before they were born. From that time we continued to seek God’s face, resisting every temptation to get discouraged or seek other alternatives aside from God. We were constantly engaged in spiritual exercises such as diligent study of God’s Word, fasting and prayers.
While doing these, we so much believed that the same God who remembered Sarah in the Bible would also remember us. To a great extent, we were really inspired by the gracious promises of God concerning fruitfulness in His Word. I remember that one day, while studying God’s Word, I came to the verse of the Scriptures that says, “… for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham” (Matthew. 3:9). As I read the place, I paused and reasoned that if God could raise children from stones, and I know that we are better than stones; then God can much more raise children from us to His own glory. On another occasion, I remember listening to the message of the man of God, Pastor A. C. Ohanebo. He was sharing with us how God delivered the Watchman ministry from the hands of its ferocious persecutors. I quite understood what the testimony implied because that was a real deliverance from a stubborn system that does not easily let its captives to go free. As I heard this testimony, I dashed outside the Rock Chapel (at LOGISS) where we were in a meeting that day, looked up to heaven with tears in my eyes, and argued that if God could deliver the Watchman from such a stubborn institution, then, that same God can as well deliver us from the spirit of barrenness. By this time our marriage had lasted nine years. It is worthy to note at this point that while we were praying for fruitfulness, our brethren really did everything possible to stand by us through prayers and words of encouragement. God equally used my senior pastors to encourage us while the trial lasted. My close relatives were also supportive during this period. Meanwhile, my wife and I had, at some point, also sought medical help from experts in the field, but at the end, we could not get any help from them. That was when we knew that our help could only come from God. So, we solely settled for divine intervention. Most times, I would set myself apart to seek God’s face.
In the year 2008, the Lord remembered us. One day, I went for prayers with the National Prayer Squad at LOGISS. And after a particular session of prayers, we went into our rooms to rest. While I was sleeping, a man appeared to me in a dream presenting himself as a senior gynecologist. He told me that from the tests conducted on my wife, there was no possibility that she could conceive again. Immediately I countered that voice. A strange anger against the man rose in me and I quoted Lamentations 3:37 to him: “Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?” I voiced out a number of reasons why my wife and I must have our children as promised to us by God. While I was praying and making declarations in the dream, my fellow pastor in the same room with me who heard my loud prayers and declarations, woke up from his sleep and joined me in the prayers, agreeing with all that he heard me say. It was when I woke up that he told me what happened while I was sleeping.
When we went for the next prayer session in the morning, our chairman, the Diocesan Pastor of Port Harcourt, Pastor Joseph Chike, announced to us that the man of God, our General Superintendent, would be joining us in that session of prayers. I was particularly happy because that would be my first time of seeing our G.S. in the prayer meeting since I joined the squad. When the man of God came, accompanied by many of our diocesan pastors, Pastor Chike called all the pastors whose marriages were yet to have the blessing of the fruit of the womb to come out so that the man of God could pray for us. As we all came out and Pastor Chike saw the large number of those in that category among our pastors, he broke down and was in tears. He began to ask why these ministers of the gospel were being used to deliver others while their own cases remain unsolved. As I saw him cry, I also broke down in tears, arguing within me that since almost all the senior ministers of the Movement were there that day, that no problem would escape God’s mighty hand. I had the confidence that God was going to do great things in our midst that day. So I seized that opportunity to tell God that if He would grant me my heart’s desire, I would dedicate the child with two cows instead of one cow which I had previously vowed to Him.
When the man of God concluded the prayers, I wiped away the tears in my eyes and started rejoicing with the other pastors. While we were rejoicing in God’s presence, surprisingly, a pastor that was praying outside the tent of meeting rushed in and hugged me. He started congratulating me, saying that God showed him where I was going for child dedication with a cow, even though I never told him about my vow to God. For me that was the confirmation that God has answered our prayers.
When I came back my wife told me that she had booked an appointment with a particular renowned gynecologist. With the conviction I got from the prayer meeting, I just attended at LOGISS, I told her that there would be no need to keep the appointment, except if she was going for a pregnancy test. That same month my wife conceived. In 2009, eleven years after our marriage, God fulfilled His promise to us and gave us our first child – a baby girl whom we named Okeoma. In return, I made sure I gave God the two cows I had vowed.
One year after the birth of our first child, precisely in 2010, I lost my only brother. Then came the pressure of being the only surviving male in my father’s house. I went to God in prayers again, seeking His face and asking Him to favour us again. One day I came to the church to pray. I was alone with God. I knelt down at the pulpit to pray on the issue. First, I heartily appreciated God for His faithfulness by giving us our first child. I reminded God that I had fulfilled the vow that I made to Him. Then I reminded God also His Word that says that ‘He made them male and female’. I told Him that if He gives me a male child, that I would get a land and build a church in my village for the Watchman. Not long after I made that prayer, my wife conceived again. Nine months later, she was delivered of a baby boy amidst a furious battle by the enemy to stop the successful delivery from taking place. But I thank God that we got the ultimate victory at last.
Now the church building I promised God in my village is under construction. Praise God!”
Editor’s Note:
Pastor Uzo-Ndu Michael confirmed to Charismatic Signs recently that his wife has conceived again. To God be the glory who has opened this marvellous door for these His children.