-Apostle Brandon Bailey
South Africa
With a valid visa, a covid PCR test and a travelling permit I was not allowed to even board the plane to Ghana (conversation for another day) and had to spend another evening in Lagos,Nigeria.
My convictions has always been “All things work together for the good of them who love the Lord,who are called according to His purpose”. Scrolling through social media in my annoyance with this whole Ghana saga I came across this poster and decided to go to this particular meeting on the spur of the moment,I was not supposed to be around for this.
What was this meeting all about? The Fathers in the nation of Nigeria summoned the next generation to a meeting to discuss “Generational Shift”. The who’s who of the Nigerian church was present for this all important meeting.
Speaker after speaker came up and all of them were profound but it was not the sermons that caught me it was the deep heartfelt dialogue that caught me.
Daddy G.O, Pastor Enoch Adeboye said something so deep and I quote “We are at the end and many of us are going home to be with the Lord soon. Younger generation grab a hold of us there is experience we must share with you before we go”
Those words hit me so deep and I could hear the cry of a general in the faith wanting to make a rich deposit in a generation that will still be on the scene by the grace of God for many years.
The moment that shifted the entire meeting was when Rev Chingtok Ishaku came up and said:
“Our generation is extremely gifted and all of us are doing well in our little corners. We felt we did not need Fathers to achieve some of what we achieved and we did achieve it without Fathers. What we failed to understand is that the fathers built without a template in the words of Bishop Mike Okonkwo and we by default are the beneficiaries of blueprints we did not labor for. We repent today because we realise that even though we have some measure of success because we are gifted we dont have a unity amongst us to answer national questions. On behalf of my generation we repent and we ask our Father, Bishops Francis Wale Oke on behalf of all fathers to please pray for us and to forgive us”
That moment had an entire auditorium on their knees,laying prostrate before God in tears and genuine prayers of repentance.
Bishop Wale Oke came up and he said “We repent because we did not give you a chance to learn,to grow. We rushed you,we lacked the patience we needed with you.” And then released a blessing over this generation.
This moment was so powerful and it shifted the entire meeting. We were in tears because that was a move of God right there.
Finally Bishop Wale Oke gave context and perspective and explained how The Fathers and the Next Generation will work together to ensure that the fire of revival never die in Nigeria. He called up the Leaders of the Next Generation and explained their role,explained the plan and explained the transition that I believe is now in motion.
As a South African sitting there as a student and observer I processed everything and realised why Nigeria has a fire that will not go out anytime soon.
It was beautiful,it was powerful, it was deeply emotional and God was glorified in everything.
My heart was and still is in Ghana but God in return gave me a lesson on building generationally not as a local church but as the church in the nation. A lesson I will not forget anytime soon.
If the Nigerian church has any secrets for their ongoing “revival” they shared it with the world today.
Malachi 4:6
“And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
#ApostleBrandonBailey
#NigerianRevival
#ChurchGist
