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Advancing in Adversity
Advancing in Adversity
Advancing in Adversity
BY
WOYOPWA SHEM
Have you ever been in tragic situation? Are you Perplexed and lost in thought? Thus,
doubting the existence of God? Is your mind flooded with questions that seem blasphemous
to the clergy? Are you at the verge of giving up or are you in a dungeon of poverty,
We all have stories, tragic stories that are always accompanied with oceans of tears, bags of
pains and volumes sorrows. We all have in one way or the other been whipped by the rod of
our hardship. We have become strangers in our own land, slaves in our homes, errand boys in
our offices, thugs in politics, greenhorns in business and messengers in governance. We are
Our adversaries butchered like cows, the blood of our innocent brothers and sisters flow
through every nook and cranny of this nation like the tsunami, yet greed, selfishness and
materialism have beclouded our judgment of the reality. It has become obvious that our
Christ and Christian are not identical hence we are always equated with unbelievers.
We live in an age where doctrines are gradually replacing the scripture; a generation where
prayers have become the business of the clergy and anointing has become an expensive
commodity in the market place of spirituality. We are religious yet unrighteous; hence we
worship doctrines and protocols instead of God; we live and enjoy sin from Mondays to
Saturdays while on Sundays we all dust up our bibles and claim to be “more catholic than the
pope”. It is obvious that we have despised the ways of the Lord yet expect a touch of His
power.
It is apt and pathetic to say that we are the architect of our quandary. Our ways are as dark as
charcoal, our hearts are as polluted as “Yola Bypass” and our hands as filthy as ‘Sodom and
Gomorrah’. We are a state of perplexity and difficulty; hence our hearts travel to the West,
our feelings to the East, our conscience to the South and our minds to North.
Habitually, we visit the beautiful Sacred Room, sometimes, we read the little Holy Book,
Close my eyes and say our wishes yet ours adversities remain unalterable because our ways
are as dubious as ‘Nigerian politicians’. Outwardly, we are more catholic than the pope but
inwardly we are more hazardous than Satan. From a distance, we are replicas of a perfect
In the midst our jigerry-pokery attitude and predicament appears a tick, dark, pregnant cloud
of revival in the atmosphere, ready to shower us with rain. Rain that would restore our lost
glory, initiate and ignite the power that exist in the days of the apostles. I am talking about the
power that healed the lame man at the beautiful gate; that same power that raised Lazarus
The wind that will accompany that rain sings, saying, be strong and courageous, the creator
will not suffer thy foot to be moved, behold He that keeps Israel shall never sleep nor
slumber, he knows, he sees and he feels what you feel. Don’t think that the Lord is too weak
to save us or too deaf to hear our call for help but our sins made Him not to hear us.
Notwithstanding, He says that if His people who are called by His name will humble
themselves and pray and seek His face and turn from their wicked ways, the He will hear
from heaven and will forgive their sins and Heal their land. Hence, it shall come to pass that
everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For on mount Zion there will be
deliverance.