I Made It Through 13 Chapter Eleven: 1995, A Pivotal Year

Early in 1995 with the support and encouragement from many Christian brothers and sisters, I began work on and completed my ftrst gospel alb.u.m t.i.tled "Devotion." This alb.u.m t.i.tle was my heart's response to G.o.d's call upon my life, a promise to devote the rest of my life to honoring and serving Him. As the alb.u.m drew close to completion, I had begun to contact many of the pastors and church leaders, who had become friends and supporters, to share news of the new project. One afternoon, I received a phone call back from one of the pastors, the late Doctor Tayo Adeyemi. He was then senior pastor of one of the new and upcoming churches in London at the time, New Wine Church. This church, under his leaders.h.i.+p, would later grow to become by deftnition one of London's "mega churches." He invited me to minister in song at his church on the coming Sunday, but that was just a few days away!

He stated that they were hosting a very special guest speaker from Lagos Nigeria, a Pastor Tunde Bakare. I expressed my regret that I would have to decline the invitation, informing him that my husband would be giving the sermon on that Sunday at our local church, and I had to be there to watch over our two young children, and support him while he preached. G.o.d's precious Holy Spirit moved mightily upon Pastor Tayo during that telephone conversation, he insisted that I should come, saying they would arrange my child care for that Sunday, and that it was an opportunity he believed I was not to miss. He stated that this special servant of G.o.d who I'd never heard of, from Lagos, Nigeria, would be an important person for me to meet.

Now with the beneftt of hindsight, I would be blessed to recognize Pastor Tayo's prophetic insight back then. In 2011, many years after the event I am about to recount, this man of G.o.d Pastor Tunde Bakare was selected to be the Vice Presidential running mate for the current Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. Back to my phone conversation with Pastor Tayo: he emphasized that he believed it was a divine and rare opportunity regarding G.o.d's a.s.signment and destiny for me to meet and connect with this highly sought after prophetic leader. Though I had never heard of this great man, I became persuaded due to my deep respect for Pastor Tayo and accepted his very kind invitation.

This phone call was to become the beginning of yet another series of wholly divine connections in my life. On the said Sunday, my husband and I decided to take one child each to our G.o.d-given a.s.signments for that Sunday. I went with our youngest child, the baby boy, headed for New Wine Church; while my husband went on to preach at our local church, taking our young daughter with him. I arrived promptly at the church before the service was to begin and was warmly welcomed by the church ushers. They took our young son to the children's nursery, and I went into the main hall to join the morning wors.h.i.+p service.

Their program began by welcoming the congregation, followed with opening prayers, after which the praise and wors.h.i.+p team led the congregation in songs. It was soon time for my gospel solo after which the special guest would preach. Before the service began, I had given a member of their sound department the accompanying backing music for my song on an audio ca.s.sette, this was back in the day before Cds.

I got up to sing, waiting for my accompanying music track to begin to play. On this one occasion, and the only time that I can recall during my many visits to the New Wine Church, the sound and music systems suddenly all stopped working. With a packed house and a well-known special guest speaker at his seat waiting, the highly organized New Wine ministers took swift action to correct the mishap. I quietly prayed and waited at the altar in front. A few minutes later, the issue was resolved, my music begin to play, and I completed my song albeit a bit fl.u.s.tered. After the service, I was introduced to and greeted the special guest Pastor Tunde Bakare. I chatted briefly with him and apologized for not being able to give my best rendition of the song due to the interruption. He greeted me warmly, and I scheduled an appointment to meet with him a few days later at the London residence where he was staying with his family before his return home to Lagos.

I did not fully realize it at the time, but I was later to ftnd out what a rare and very special privilege this was. There was usually a long waiting list of people trying to obtain a few minutes audience with him, so being granted one so effortlessly had to be G.o.d. At our meeting, I shared with him what the Lord had been doing in my life and the new alb.u.m I was in the process of completing and releasing. The words he spoke next would be another of G.o.d's precious faith lessons to me. To paraphrase, he said, during the incidence of the sound recording failing at the church, he had carefully observed my spontaneous reaction and att.i.tude to the interruption. Giving all the credit to G.o.d, he shared that there was no shortage of great artists for his ministry in Nigeria. However, he stated that many artists, even Christian ones, can be rude, impatient, and temperamental when things do not run smoothly. The thing that impacted him most about me on the day was not just my singing, but my peaceful, calm reaction to the disruption. Only G.o.d could have arranged such an unusual way for Christ's character to be on display! G.o.d knew that for this great man, who already had access to some of the greatest talents available to trust and a.s.sist me, he would need more than a singing performance.

Talent, training, and knowledge are essential, necessary, and very important, but this are not all we need to access G.o.d's purpose and destinies for our lives. It was the fruit of Christ in the heart, not only in my performance, that would prove crucial. Sometimes we think valuable opportunities belong only to the talented people in life, those with the greatest skills. However, G.o.d talks about motive and character more than talent. When it comes to G.o.d's way of promoting a person, character is what He evaluates, and it is what deftnes us. G.o.d wants us to walk in His footsteps and follow his example of good character. If we are truly living a life of faith, we must also strive to build good Christian character. The word of G.o.d instructs us with these words:
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"For this very reason, make every e$ort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with G.o.dliness, and G.o.dliness with brotherly a$ection, and brotherly a$ection with love." (2 Peter 1:5–7 ESV)

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self- control; against such things there is no law." (Galatians 5:22–23 NIV)

"And we know that G.o.d causes everything to work together for the good of those who love G.o.d and are called according to his purpose for them." (Romans 8:28 NLT)

A precious servant of Christ has also said "deepen your ministry ftrst (i.e., your character), then G.o.d will widen (enlarge) it." In other words, if we seek G.o.d's character and righteousness within us ftrst, then all other blessings will be added to us. "But seek ftrst His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:33 NIV). In the ftnal a.n.a.lysis, when everything is said and done, for G.o.d to open great doors, and greatly work through us, character will prove to be more important than our gifts. Based solely on my unrehea.r.s.ed response to what many others might have considered as the enemy trying to block success, and he may very well have been trying to do just that, it only a.s.sisted me to receive yet another miracle from the Lord!

"'No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me', declares the LORD." (Isaiah 54:17 NIV)

"Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds." (Isaiah 3:10 NIV)

No one but you can stop the fulfillment of G.o.d's promises over your life. The generous and highly influential Pastor Bakare hosted the successful launch of my ftrst alb.u.m "Devotion" in a weeklong celebration during their fourth annual leaders.h.i.+p conference that took place from June 1–4, 1995 at his church, The Latter Rain a.s.sembly, in Lagos, Nigeria. The alb.u.m sold out!

He then introduced me to the famous Nigerian recording artist-turned-evangelist and now pastor, Ebenezer Obey. His family coordinated and hosted me at their church and on their television and radio shows, promoting the Lord's work through their ministry. Their bookstore Decross repackaged and made my alb.u.m "Devotion" available for sale and distribution in Nigeria. Wow! One G.o.d encounter changes your life forever!

I had been transformed by G.o.d from a career in ftnancial services into becoming a gospel singer, song writer, and preacher. As an added update, on October 4, 2015, I was again privileged to celebrate over two decades of G.o.d's amazing grace in a reunion with the Latter Rain a.s.sembly family in Lagos as Pastor Tunde Bakare dedicated my latest work t.i.tled "Amazing Grace" at the church.