The Written Word

Reflections

Selected messages in written form, with links to the original sermon.

26 April 2022

I Remain Super-Blessed

He recorded this note six months before he died, though of course none of us knew that then. His text is Romans 8:6 — to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. He preaches it with the same clarity and warmth he brought to everything: don't let the carnal side of your situation have the last word. The economy is disturbing. The news is disturbing. But we are spiritually minded, and to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Based on: I Remain Super-Blessed | Shorts

19 August 2021

Go Forth and Prosper

This is the shortest note in the collection. No scripture exposition, no story, no convention announcement. Just his voice, and a blessing.

Based on: Go Forth and Prosper | Shorts

7 July 2020

Faint Yet Pursuing

July 2020. The world had been in lockdown for months. He opens this note by recounting a conversation he'd just had with a church member who said that COVID-19 had messed up the year. He didn't argue with the grief in that. He just gently disagreed with its conclusion.

Based on: Faint Yet Pursuing | Shorts

1 April 2020

Our Eyes Are Upon You

This is the note he recorded on the 1st of April 2020, in the first weeks of the global lockdown. He begins not with a sermon but a prayer — Jehoshaphat's prayer from 2 Chronicles 20:12: O God, our eyes are upon you. We don't know what to do, neither do we have any might. He prays it as a pastor praying for the world: for the sick, for the frightened, for the governments, for those in fear. Heal us, O God. Heal our world of coronavirus. Our eyes are upon you.

Based on: Our Eyes Are Upon You | Shorts

31 December 2019

Hitherto Hath the Lord Helped Us

He woke before 5:30am to record this one. 31st of December 2019. He opens by singing — to God be the glory, great things He has done — and then spends a few minutes just giving thanks. Not summarising the year. Not drawing lessons. Just thanking God for carrying them through it.

Based on: Hitherto Hath the Lord Helped Us | Shorts

28 September 2019

Whose Report Will You Believe?

He recorded this one from Virginia, in the United States, during a six-week outreach trip. He opens with a song — whose report will you believe? We will believe the report of the Lord. His report says I am healed. His report says I am blessed. Then he asks the question directly: what report are you carrying? Because many people, he says, are walking around under the weight of a report that was never theirs. A medical diagnosis. A sentence pronounced by someone who called themselves an expert. A verdict from circumstances that looked permanent.

Based on: Whose Report Will You Believe? | Shorts

20 September 2019

He Said the Spirit Led Me to Pick You

He was stranded on the Lagos–Ibadan expressway. The bus had broken down. He was carrying a heavy bag. About thirty people were competing for whatever cars came through, and the ones with nothing to carry were winning. He stood and prayed quietly. A car came, and the passengers pointed him out — the driver had been calling for him specifically. He ran to the car, not knowing the man. When he asked why he had been chosen, the driver said simply: the spirit led me to pick you. It pointed you at me. Pick that man.

Based on: He Said the Spirit Led Me to Pick You | Shorts

5 August 2019

I Kept Saying: I Am Healed

This is his founding testimony. He doesn't tell it often — at least not in these notes — which makes this recording something close to rare. He describes 1983. He was young, desperately sick, discharged from hospital with no diagnosis and no remedy. He switched on a radio to distract himself from thoughts of death, and the preacher on the other end happened to be praying for exactly that — you sickness that they said does not have any name, come out. He fell. He passed out. When he woke up, the pain was gone. He was still skeletal, still emaciated, but there was an inner strength. And I kept saying: I am healed. I am healed. I am healed. It was the beginning of everything — his faith, his ministry, thirty years of preaching. He shared it here so that his listeners would know: it is your turn for a miracle.

Based on: I Kept Saying: I Am Healed | Shorts

31 December 2018

We Passed Through the Fire and Were Not Burned

This is his 31st of December 2018 voice note — the first of his year-end Ebenezer recordings that survives in this collection. He opens with thanks. Pure, sustained, specific thanks — for life, for household, for journeys taken and returned from, for needs met and prayers answered. We passed through the water. We were not swallowed. We passed through the fire. We were not burned. He says this every year, in almost every year-end note, because he means it every year and it is always true.

Based on: We Passed Through the Fire and Were Not Burned | Shorts

19 November 2018

See the Unseen

This is one of his most complete short teachings. He takes 1 Corinthians 2:9 — eye hath not seen, nor ear heard — and turns it into a direct pastoral instruction: stop looking at what is visible, and start looking at what God has promised. The concrete circumstances are not denied. The pain is real, he says. But the things which are seen are temporary, and the things which are not seen are eternal. He anchors the teaching in Joseph, who saw his glory long before anyone else did, and in Job, who said I will wait all the days of my appointed time until my change comes. He believed both of those things. He preached them because he had lived them.

Based on: See the Unseen | Shorts