IT was the start of the ’80s and the nation was turning in a different direction.
With their independence, a new republic and a civil war behind, Nigerians were turning from man to God.
A new wave began like storms erupting in sea, from the southern parts of the country.
It had stormed beneath seabed, as it were, for a time. And had rumbled from coast to coast.
Well, there’d been some drought since the mid-70’s. Not in the ordinary sense of it; but there’d been dire thirst for wonder, for something beyond ordinary...
Like a miracle.
The 1970’s saw the most brutal war the nation had ever gone through.
The Nigeria-Biafra War. An un-civil conflict.
It was painful and sad, but it happened and passed. For Nigerians thought to see hope. People thought to live.
So, from the mid-70’s the folks of that time dreamed. They turned their expectant gazes from structures that had failed.
From organized systems of men leading folks into ditches.
Yes, they turned from people to God. And thirsted for truth.
So, from Benin City around some delta side, to Ilesha in Oshun, and on to Lagos metropolis, a new wave of God’s Spirit caught up with Nigeria...
It was like that wind on the day called Pentecost in 1st Century.
Now the missionaries of the 1900’s had sown seeds, but the plantings across this country had grown accustomed.
Well, quite too accustomed to the status quo, it seemed.
Religion had quickly become orthodox, followed in a methodical style.
Prayers were made morning and evening, but they were read so low they sparked no flame.
Choruses and hymns, too, felt like sleeping aids.
Yes, that was the tone of the Church in Banji’s days. So, he’d heard so little to learn the truth.
The whole Gospel was then strange.
But then again, the winds blew and by the 80’s there was this storm.
For a new chapter in the Acts of the Apostles was opened in Heaven.
And from Lagos metro-city, all the way to Benin, then back to Ilesha and across the country, Nigeria was shaken.
Small circles of Christian people became the trend. They were just the laity from different church backgrounds gleaning from scripture.
Like the global Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship. And the Scripture Union across Nigeria.
Then suddenly, there were signs and visions among them... dreams and prophecies for future.
And distinct acts of God’s apostles—repeated.
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Now there rose from that wave, a few names who God’s Spirit called aside for outside.
They sailed outside the four walls of church, preaching Jesus in places and palaces.
They plunged in strange waters, backed up with signs and miracles for folks to believe.
Like a man called Idahosa in Benin City. And Enoch Adeboye in Lagos.
So, they plunged outside in those years around the 80’s, to bring inside Church those new peoples...
Those places, and palaces.
But then again, there were others who God’s Spirit seemed to have set aside in church, too.
Like a Western missionary then by the name Elton—S.G. Elton.
That man appeared to be set apart as a prophet for the nation in those days.
For while he stayed put at his mission base in Ilesha, that new wind blew his words into far-off future.
For he spoke through God’s Spirit about several things, about Nigeria, about the Church and more.
Soon that wind brought the future close, as it crossed the day’s revivalist Benson Idahosa and him.
Yet Ben’s fire burned and passed. But there was this younger flame, a firebrand who God’s Spirit tends Himself.
Enoch Adeboye, they called the name. Then he’d met Elton and formed a bond.
Now this was 1981, and Morrow still heard nothing ’bout these.
Those waves of revival next door.
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