From Bethlehem To Jerusalem

Holy Bible

Last week I narrated the story of my elder cousin, Kwadzo Asinu who worked with a foreign fishing company. He came back to Ghana recently and told me that he had discarded all his fetish objects, and that he is walking with Jesus currently.

Indeed, people like Kwadzo Asinu should be taken seriously in spiritual things, and my dear readers, one ought to revise his or her notes on Christianity if such a person like Kwadzo has rejected powers from his native village.

So there I was sitting down and looking intently into his face as he narrated what happened to him.

'My first trouble started when our ship berthed at Suva which is the capital of Fiji situated on the island of Viti Levu. I went to town to explore some corners.  As usual, I wanted to test my powers,' he said.

He revealed that he saw two men, believed to be members of a local Christian church sitting in the garden of a house, reading the Holy Bible.

'I went into the garden and hailed them and then introduced myself to them as a 'seaman.' They were happy to see me and started to talk to me about God and Jesus.'

Kwadzo revealed that he teased them and described the Bible as a useless piece of literature and that had no power. They only smiled at him trying to teach him about what Christianity had to offer mankind.

'Finally they described me as an ignorant person. I then took offence by their reference to me and decided to teach them a small lesson,' Kwadzo revealed.

He stated that he said some incantations and changed himself into a huge snarling shepherd dog. The two men were taken aback by the spectacle.

'Immediately they started to pray, quoting passages from the Bible and I could feel some fire coming out of their mouths but I was able to counter them. Then, one of them quoted Exodus: 11: 7 which states, But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.

With those words I became very stiff and within seconds I mysteriously found myself in the sea, few yards away from Suva port. How I managed to get out, only God Knows,'  My cousin confirmed.

'I got angry and at the same time very embarrassed as I went back to my ship. I could not fathom why such a thing could happen with the numerous powers that I had assembled around me. I did not understand and in the night I summoned some of the spirits to explain to me what had happened earlier that morning, but they were not able to give me any tangible answer. I got furious and dismissed them.'

Kwadzo noted that the second incident that finally forced him to become a Christian happened in Belize City, the port city of the country called Belize.

'I was relaxing on a rock in one of the Hotel resorts near the sea when I saw two fishermen paddling a small pirogue (canoe) singing songs with the name of Jesus ringing in my ears. I got annoyed and sent some wind spirits to trouble the water to make the canoe to capsize. As the wind rose, all that I heard from one of the men was this: So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun.  When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him. This was a bible quotation from Isaiah: 59:19 and what happened was something I would never forget for the rest of my life,' Kwadzo said looking very serious.

Today, Kwadzo Asinu has a company in Hawai that distributes goods to flood and earthquake victims all over the world.

He also sponsors men and women who are spreading the word of God.  He quoted the following statement from one of the Christian messages:

Whoever knows Christ knows that the Bible is God's message to all people.  It is especially a message and a faithful guide to God's spiritual children.

The people who do not know God cannot understand why we believe that it is the very Word of God.  Even many “religious” people do not understand.  This is because the Holy Spirit of God is not living inside them.

Paul explains some of this in his first letter to the Christian believers in the ancient city of Corinth (the New Testament book of 1 Corinthians).

He writes that the person who is flesh and blood alone (not spiritually alive in Christ) cannot understand or accept the things of God.

They are relying completely on the ideas and understanding of mortal flesh.

This does not mean that true Christians should become arrogant.  We cannot boast in our understanding of the things of God.  Our behavior as a group — and as individuals — shows that we often make silly choices and do foolish things.  We are still growing in God's wisdom by His grace.  Our wisdom comes from the Spirit of God and only as we yield to Him.

We can brag about how good and kind and powerful God is and about our Savior Jesus Christ.  But we are still weak in many ways.  And we are also prone to walk in the flesh, just as unbelievers do.

If we do not devote ourselves to the Lord Jesus, and to spending time in His Presence, we can become so spiritually cold that we will fall back into our old ways of thinking and acting.

God has been kind enough to give us His very Word.  We need that message and the power it imparts to our minds and hearts.  We must partake of what the Lord has provided if we want to remain strong in Him.  His Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth, but the Lord will not force us to partake and grow.  That is a choice we must make each day.

By Amos Amaglo