THE VISION AND THE COMMISSION:

On Tuesday, 3rd March 1970, at about 7:45 a.m., Geoffrey was about to go for his lectures. He knelt down by his bedside, as had become his practice since he became born-again, to commit his going out into God’s Hand. Prayer had now become part of his life for his belief was that, “The greatest privilege I have is that I have God to talk to through the death and resurrection of my Lord Jesus Christ”. Immediately he knelt down, he was caught up in a trance and here is his story:

"The Lord Jesus appeared and stood by my left side. Together we were rocketed like a space ship into the first heaven. At the prompting of the Lord, I looked down. I saw spread before me a vast open plain. The entire plain was filled out with people. They were so many there was no space in between any two people. They were all jam-packed (crammed into one space) and they were all in a stooping, kneeling position, with their faces on the ground like the posture of Muslims in prayer. Without saying a single word, the Lord took me up into the second heaven. The horizon extended; so did the plain. Again another crowd of people much more than the first in the same posture! At this point, frightened by the sight, I broke loose from the Lord and started running away from Him. The Lord did not run after me. He allowed me to run the much I could until I was tired. Then the Lord stretched out His hand from where He stood and as one would a forklift, picked me up and placed me by His side. Together we shot up into the third heaven. Now the higher you go, the farther you see into the horizon. At this point the crowd was simply unimaginable, with all of them still in the same kneeling face down posture.

The Lord spoke to me to look again at this crowd, and pointing at them, said “These are all my creatures that are perishing. It is not my pleasure that as many as these of My creatures should perish”, He said. I then asked Him, “What would you want me to do?” “Go, raise their faces that they may look up to Me and that they might live”, He replied. To another question as to where I should start from, the Lord replied, “Anywhere”. And concluding, The Lord told me, “I have chosen you, but be humble."

One lesson he learned from this was that if the Lord is calling someone and the person is on the run, He would adopt one of two attitudes. He could go get you like He did with Jonah or He could let the person go, like He did with the rich young ruler. In Numbere’s case God went after him, not by running after him but by allowing him to run until he became tired.

As he came out of this vision, he discovered he was still on his knees in his hostel room. He looked at his watch. It was 8:45 a.m. One full hour had lapsed and he had missed his lecture. This vision and commissioning was not a fleeting vision that he could easily forget. It had taken one full hour! He got up from his knees and sat down on his bed pondering over the vision over and over again. The Holy Spirit gave him no rest. It was the vision all over his mind. The vision gripped his heart and soul. He could hardly do anything else as the vision burned in his heart. He was fasting that day but the Lord would not allow him to pray on anything else. In his memoirs of this experience Geoffrey wrote,

"And the Lord showed me and I was afraid for the multitude. But he asked me to start anywhere I went and wake every soul for they were like sheep stacked up in a pen with their heads buried down and I could see no head of any of them up. But I am to go and wake them up and raise their heads to look up to God for it pains the Lord that such great numbers of His creatures should perish. And He has promised to be with me always, and I saw streaks of fire balls go ahead of me. And the Lord would not allow me to pray for the reason for which I was fasting but showed me this gathering over and over again for He has promised to look into my request but His charge is more urgent. And I stared on the work. And He asked me to be humble for He has chosen me."

His heart went out to those souls he saw in the vision. How could he possibly ever forget the crowds of people he saw perishing without Christ?  He kept on seeing those crowds over and over again. He thought of the millions and millions of people who did not know the Lord Jesus Christ. He thought of those who were in the Church like he was and who had not yet known this truth, which he now knew, and his sympathy went to them. Every ambition he had in this life paled and died before this vision. His ambition to get degrees in Geology or Petroleum Engineering, died. In those days in Nigeria, the sure way to get a job and live well was for one to obtain a University degree. Geoffrey’s ambition was to get a good result so he could get a good job and care for his mother and siblings. All his ambitions and desires paled beside this vision. They just died! He completely lost all interest in his academic pursuit.

He knew that his days in the University were over for God had a different course for him. But how was he to leave? He was the hope of his family. God knew what to do. The Lord created circumstances around him so he could not continue with his education and he had to leave the University at the end of the session and get into the Lord’s work.

Culled from "A Man and A Vision" by Nonyem E Numbere. For inquiries, visit our bookshop.