The September healing service basked in the atmosphere of the 45th Anniversary of the Ministry. The Jubilee voices led us in a session of praise and worship as we entered into God’s presence. While the hymn for the Sunday, reminded us of the power of God to bring light in the midst of darkness, healing in the midst of sickness and power to move the face of the waters. Still reliving the impact of the Ministry for these 45 years, we heard the salvation testimony of Elder Salome Bernard from Town Zone. Here’s a brief highlight of her testimony;

“I came into Port Harcourt to visit my sister who preached to me and I joined her to attend The Catholic Church. Even though I attended the Catholic Church, I had little or no idea what the Christian faith was all about. Later, I was fortunate to meet a Sister from this Ministry, Sis. Mary Godknows who preached to me also and followed me up in my Christian faith. She told me of the Ministry of Greater Evangelism World Crusade and invited me to church, when they brought the gospel to town, where I resided with my husband and children. I obliged the invite and joined the believers there. When my husband found out I was attending the church there, he permitted me to only go there and hear the word but not be a member of the church. This was difficult for me because I had already started enjoying worshipping with them. As time went on, he stopped me from attending at all and then the persecution began. Prior this time, he had gotten me a job with the Ministry of health, and to stop me from attending church, he told me to request for transfer, which I did. I was transferred to Eleme, where Late Elder Sarah Dawin (the Mother of the Ministry at the time) resided. When I got to Eleme, she welcomed my children and I into her home and took care of us, since I had little or no funds to cater for us, because my husband received my salary on my behalf and sent to me whatever he deemed fit. Elder Sarah Davin took me as her daughter and nurtured me in the way of the Lord till 1980, when I totally surrendered my life to the Lord.

I later went back to Port Harcourt at the request of my husband when he found out, I had become committed in the church again. He beat me several times and stopped me from attending church. Finally, he drove me out of our home and away from my children, because they too had started attending the church. He soon stopped them as well. I discovered later that he belonged to a cult. The first month after he chased me from our home, he lost his job. After much pleading, he allowed me back into the house. He later fell sick and I ceased the opportunity to bring him to church, which he accepted. He joined me to one of the healing services at Elechi Beach and God’s servant, Apostle G.D Numbere took his hands and prayed for him. To God’s glory, he gave his life to Christ and some months later, he went to be with the Lord.”

The Jubilee Voices sang a song titled “Breaking of Day”, assuring us that though the night may last for a while, the day and its good tidings will surely come to pass.

God’s word was brought to us by the International Director. The title of the sermon was “The Force of Prayer” (Luke 18:1-8). Introducing the topic, he stated that the force of prayer is a very powerful force and God’s mind is that every child of His should pray always and not faint. Faint here means to give up or to lose heart or to turn coward. He stated that when we do not pray, circumstances will intimidate us, fear will overshadow us and we cannot be victorious.

Explaining some words from the text, he mentioned that “men” refers to humanity and so the business of prayer is everyone’s responsibility. He also pointed out that “man” is a masculine word meaning that prayer is not a child’s business but a manly one. Prayer is a warfare and to win the battle raging around us, we must rise in our spirit. He used three examples from scripture to drive home the Force of Prayer. These three examples are highlighted below;

1.      The Widow and the unjust Judge (Luke 18:1-8)

The International Director explained that the widow had two (2) adversaries. One was the situation which was tougher than she could handle warranting the need for a judge. The Judge then became the second adversary to her. Jesus used this to teach us perseverance in prayer. We must be determined in our spirit to press on to get a result. Instead of her situation to weigh her down, she used the force of perseverance to weigh down her problem/adversaries and she got the judgement in her favour. Other lessons learnt from this example;

• If you key into the force of prayer, the force of prayer will weigh your problems down.
• When you pray, the situation will be in your favour.
• Don’t allow your situation to stop you from praying.
• We are duty bound to pray – “men ought always to pray”.

 2.      Peter’s Imprisonment (Acts 12:1-11)

Most times when the enemy attacks an individual in the church, his target is the church. Peter was put in a security tight prison but when the disciples realised that they had a stronger power- the force of prayer which can pull down strongholds, they put it into use. The force of prayer can pull down both physical and spiritual strongholds. In Peter’s situation, the power of the prison was working as well as the power of the soldiers but the power of the prayer of the disciples superseded all others. Lessons from this example are; 

• God answers prayers.
• Heaven sent an angel and the chains and gates were released.
• When the power of God comes upon you, no power can stand against you.
• Help will come your way as you look up to heaven.
• There are things in your life waiting for you to travail and when you travail, you will bring forth - Isaiah 66:8

3.      The man who came at midnight to ask bread of his friend (Luke 11:5-13)

For this man, even though the doors were shut and the gates locked, he persevered in asking his neighbour for bread for the friend who had come from a very far distance. The man cared for his friend, he did not go to ask for bread for himself. The other man also cared for his children and did not want them disturbed by that time of the night, as a result decided to tell his neighbour off but the man who came to ask for bread knew the power of importunity in prayer and as a result, he got more than he requested for. Solving a friend’s problem provided enough for him. Lessons from this example include;

• The force of prayer can be effective when we are not selfish (Job 42:10).
• Do you have a friend that can carry your burden?
• The force of prayer is enforced when we have a lively relationship with God.
• We must learn to pray for members of our church.
• Prayer is not only for food, sicknesses etc. we should persevere in prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, because when we have the Holy Ghost, we become a vessel to provide spiritual bread/food for others.

Finally, to be qualified to receive God’s attention, the following criteria must be met:

1. You must be alive. Being alive here means being spiritually alive. When we are spiritually alive, God will pay attention to us. To be spiritually alive we must stay away from sin, as sin kills our spiritual life (Proverbs 15:8; Luke 11).
2. You must have a lively relationship with God. You cannot go boldly into God’s presence if you do not have such relationship (Luke 18:7).
3. Be a part of God’s chosen ones. The guarantee to answered prayer is to be part of God’s chosen ones.
4. Use the weapons of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). On its own our weapons are not powerful. When we are connected to God, our prayers are powerful.