(This man is real unique,i real admire his humility and true love-Author)
“God chooses grace rather than
works”(Ephesians 2:8-9)
This means that if the weak come to
Him, He would help their weakness just as He would help the strong. God knows
we are weak – that is why He chooses grace. If God had chosen works rather than
grace, man would have the autonomy to choose whom to help with his works and
how to do His works.
The battle would be for the
strongest leaving no room for people like me (T.B. Joshua). The race would be
for the swiftest leaving no room for people like me (T.B. Joshua).”
Isaiah 6:8 – “Then I heard the voice
of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said,
“Here am I. Send me!”
T.B. Joshua is just one of those who
have submitted to the will of God. He acknowledges that if God had chosen works
rather than grace, no one would merit His mercy.
In a sermon titled, “By His Grace”,
he explained:“Wisdom in the practical sense of ability and skill cannot
guarantee success in life. It is the goodness of our cause that interests God
more than physical and mental disposition. This explains why the weak people
like me who are without great strength, a smooth tongue, fast legs or high
learning should ever remain grateful to God”.
Right from the outset of his
incredible journey, the hand of God has been clearly evident in the life of
Prophet T.B. Joshua. He was born on June 12th, 1963 in the small village of
Arigidi in Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria. The pregnancy period of his mother was
by no means ordinary, as the baby remained in her womb for 15 months before he
was born. Significantly, almost a hundred years prior to his birth, it had been
prophesied that a young man would emerge from the poor Oosin quarters and that
God would use him mightily. Another remarkable event occurred when he was three
days old, as a large boulder crashed through the roof of his house, missing the
baby by mere inches. This incident led to his mother naming him, ‘Temitope’,
meaning, ‘What You (God) have done for me is worthy of thanks’.
During his elementary education at
St. Stephen’s Anglican primary school, Arigidi, he was the leader of the
Student Christian fellowship. He was the smallest in the class but led the
prayer during the school devotions and was known as ‘small pastor’. He was
unable to complete his secondary education due to poverty.
Reflecting on his early life, he
said: “I found myself in a family background that irritated me. My natural
circumstance of birth was poverty. I come from a very humble background.
Poverty loomed large in the family. The little education I had was through
self-effort. I know many people with a similar circumstance of birth who did
otherwise. They allowed their circumstance to influence their will. Their
dreams crashed on the rocks of disappointment, failure and setback …In those
early years of my life, we knew we would be blamed for what we gave our
attention to.”
In an article written by T.B. Joshua
himself, titled, ‘Everything Big Starts Little’,
he explains more…
Very early in life, he knew how much
he needed God, so he did not allow the situation around him to affect his
relationship with God. As described in his own words, T.B. Joshua recounts how
he discovered the direction of God’s calling for his life:
Life
After Life
“I was in a trance for three
consecutive days, then I saw a hand that pointed a Bible to my heart and the
Bible entered my heart and my former heart seemed to immerse with the Bible
immediately. Then the awareness came and I saw the apostles and prophets of old
with someone whose head I could not see because He was tall to the heaven and
suspended, which I believe was our Lord Jesus Christ sitting in their midst. I
also saw myself in their midst. After a while, I saw a hand of the same tall
man, I could not behold His face, which was glittering with an unimaginable light,
tall to the high heavens and suspended in the air. But other apostles I could
see their faces, particularly Apostles Peter and Paul, Prophets Moses, Elijah
and others. Their names were boldly written on their chests.
I heard a voice saying, “I am your
God; I am giving you a divine commission to go and carry out the work of the
Heavenly Father”. At the same time, the same hand of the tall man gave me a
small cross and a big Bible, bigger than the one that entered my heart with a
promise that as I keep pressing in His time and name, I would be given a bigger
cross but if I fail the opposite would occur. I also heard a voice of the same
tall man, I could not see His head, saying, I am the Lord your God who was and
who is – Jesus Christ, giving orders to all the apostles and prophets. The same
voice said to me, “I would show you the wonderful ways I would reveal myself
through you, in teaching, preaching, miracles, signs and wonders for the
salvation of souls”.
Since then, I have been receiving in
my vision, every year according to my faithfulness to God, a bigger cross that
means to me more responsibilities.
The Bible that entered my heart
symbolized Spirit and life (The Holy Spirit). God’s Word is Spirit and life. He
does nothing without His Word. The book of Romans 8:16 says,
God’s Spirit joins Himself to our spirit to declare that we are children of
God. The Father gave the Spirit to make us like His Son.
Father, thank You for Your Spirit,
fill us with Your love and power, change us into Christ’s own image, day by day
and hour by hour.
God Himself performs the divine
anointing on all who have the wonderful privilege of becoming His children (2
Corinthians 1:21-23 and Luke 24:48-49).
Obedient to the divine call, T.B.
Joshua, started a ministry with a mere eight members, prophetically naming it,
‘The Synagogue, Church of All Nations’ of which he is the General Overseer.
Today, by the grace of God, as a man of faith, he is both a representative of
God and of people. The ministry started very small, but has now grown far
beyond the shores of Nigeria.
Evidently, T.B. Joshua has come a
long way, full of troubles and hurdles, but all the way long, there has been an
unseen hand of God intervening in his affairs. In every situation, he has
remained focused on what God has to say.
For those whose lives are centred in
Christ Jesus, the best is always yet to come…
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