ENVY IS A TRAP (Countdown to 34 – Lesson 4)

I have a culture of joining all meetings that my spiritual Father gets to teach in as long as it would be streamed online. I do it religiously.

He was preaching in a city when the devil fired an arrow into my space with an attempt to poison my heart. What happened? Baba said to the church where he was teaching, “I did not know your pastor but a dear daughter of mine called and told me that I should kindly honour the invitation”.

At that very moment, the thought landed, “You see. He does not even know the pastor yet he is visiting him. Has he ever come to where you are? You are only wasting your time following. Fathers go to places where there is a large crowd and not more semblance of success”.

Ah! What an arrow. I knew it was the devil. I began to declare vocally how much I love my spiritual father. I began to pray strength for greater heights for him. I poured out my heart praying for the host pastor too. I insisted on love. I wanted nothing less.

At that moment, the devil reminded me about how I was seated in the front row the previous month in our Monthly meeting with him and how a Minister in church at the request of Baba asked that we should relocate because there were some guests coming. The devil said to me, “You are not that important”.

I refused to cry or bulge. I prayed. I stood my ground. You don’t battle thoughts with thoughts. You battle thoughts with words.
This went on for about two weeks but I kept insisting on love.

The next monthly meeting we had with him was a heavy one. Baba began to say, “You don’t need me to lift you up”. He added, “Do not let the devil lie to you that because I have not come to you that you are small or irrelevant”. He charged us to stay humble. Reject “Pentecostal pride”. He blessed us and prayed for us.

But something unusual then happened that tells me how powerful the spirit of the right sonship and fatherhood is:

Baba lifted his head after intense prayer and just before he closed the meeting and he asked, “Where is Revd Ola, my son from Eruwa. Is he here?” (Come to think of it that the devil was telling me that I was only wasting my time going to the monthly meeting). I froze where I was seated. I raised my hands.

With a fatherly voice, Baba said, “Son! I owe you and I am coming to you soon”.

Like a flash, I saw what the devil was trying to block. If I had allowed envy and bitterness to take root in my heart, I would have missed out on a deep moment of a heart to heart (son to father) moment.

What is the lesson?

Men get envious of what they desire. Whenever you see envy know it is a trap for what you desire.
Envy is the devil’s plan to keep you small and bitter.

This is my fourth lesson!