“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3 vs 11 (NKJV)
I actually chose this “spectacular” title for this because it had been ringing in my Spirit for a while and in all honesty I am a victim of something truly beyond the reaches of time.
I don’t have a very elaborate salvation story like many that I have heard and read about, I don’t remember much of any specific dates and exact times or anything like that but one thing I do know is I have encountered the person of eternity and it changed me even more than I can understand, up until this very moment.
Many years ago I was very young, I would say between the ages of 5 to 6 years old and a thought found its way into my young heart as if by the first divinely inspired thought I had ever had, I thought about God and what I’d heard about Him in Sunday schools, what our reverend at the grown up church preached about, why my parents always made the family pray to Him every night before bed and just then I had a revelation of who God was. I decided in my young little heart to surrender to Him, I was so excited about it that almost immediately I told my mum.
Following that day the rest of my detailed childhood memories are fuzzy but I do remember specific moments in time where I would re-encounter God in my youth; I made commitments and had a desire to live right by my new status in God, all the time wanting to be a “good Christian” feeling terrible guilt whenever I found I wasn’t complying, meeting up or in sin. I had no idea I was a victim, a victim of that which is beyond mental comprehension. In the eternities I had been preset, programmed and I was running. I remember the first time I spoke in tongues, I didn’t understand because I had only seen it done on church programs on television, I was convinced I was doing something wrong because as I know now, nobody explained and prayed the baptism of the Holy Ghost on me, little did I know I was a victim albeit of a pleasant predicament, of a wonderful realm.
As time passed though, I started straying, defaulting. I was exposed to a new set of people, friends, media and society and as time went by I lost touch with the original source code of my former compliance. My priorities changed, ideologies mixed and compromise grew. All the while knowing I was off beat, the tempo of my relationship with the eternal one slowed down and with each passing expanse of time eternity would send reminders to me in the form pastors, evangelists, brothers, preachers, devotionals, scriptures. At this point all I was doing was religion: regular in church, taught in Sunday school, an executive in school fellowship. I would want to get it right but I couldn’t, tried so hard with my own power to escape from my ditch but the guilt of my sins sank me too deep I didn’t know how to come out, I thought I could never come out but eternity always knew, eternity always had a plan because there was a Lamb of God that had been slain before the very foundations of the earth.
I found the truth about Jesus, after so many years, the second installment of that revelation came in the form of a regular broadcast every morning on a Christian TV station; as the man of God expounded scriptures more excellently, the truth and liberty of God’s word found its way into my heart, I suppose all the while I’d been tuning in on all the wrong things but eternity still had me in mind, a victim of an ancient plot of redemption and a scheme of reunion.
Time went by as I continued in God, learnt more; evolved in faith, belief system and approach; had encounters and on one occasion as He spoke clearly to me and said “I will show you what real Christianity is”, I had no choice but to say yes Lord because when eternity speaks you really
should listen.
image credit: psychologyandi.com