TRANSLATED!

Don’t dare read this book if you don’t want to be saved!

SUNNY ERONMOSE ISUEKEBHOR

Copyright © 2013 by Sunny Eronmose Isuekebhor

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1490462546

ISBN-13: 978-1490462547

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to all those who will be translated by the reading of it all over the world

Unless otherwise stated, all scriptures are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

i

1

Chapter 1 The Story of My Translation

1

2

Chapter 2 What is Translation

Pg 9

3

Chapter 3 Who can be Translated

Pg 30

4

Chapter 4 The Kingdom of His Dear Son

Pg 44

5

Chapter 5 How Translated was Written

Pg 53

6

Chapter 6 Translation Testimonies of God’s Generals

Pg 63

A SURE WORD OF PROPHESY

This book will be a tool in the Hand of the Holy Spirit to bring salvation to many celebrities all over the world.

This book will bring salvation by grace to the poorest peoples in the remotest parts of the earth and to the wealthy in their palaces in the developed and developing parts of the world.

This book will bring atheists to salvation in Christ Jesus like no other book has ever done.

This book will help the lost in churches all over the world, to come to the knowledge of the truth and be born again.

This book shall be distributed to many new converts all over the world.

This book shall be a source of refreshing to born again believers all over the world.

This book shall be a strong instrument in the Hand of the Spirit of Truth to bring salvation across country lines, over racial divides, over economic chasms and across political classes all over the world.

Signs, wonders and miracles will occur in the lives of those who hold this book, purchase it for themselves or for others, take it into their homes, read it or share it with others – let the healing begin!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My acknowledgements go to my best friend, my Associate, my Legal Adviser, my lady, my wife and the mother of our three boys for all her love and support since the very first day I met her in 1995; who as my Editor, read through and edited the entire manuscript. To me she’s the world’s best wife and to my boys, the world’s greatest Mum.

CHAPTER 1 THE STORY OF MY TRANSLATION

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. Colossians 1:13

Don’t dare read this book if you don’t want to be saved, because you will! But now, it’s too late to decide not to read it for you’ve already begun; so please, read on. Welcome on board, I am Sunny, and this is the story of my translation. Sister Justina Isuekebhor, my oldest sister, was one of a kind, she still remains the best hymn/classical soloist I have ever heard – back in the day and even now, we are used to seeing and hearing an excellent choir; comprising of sopranos, altos, tenors and bass singers, mouthing a classical song; but that woman would sing classical songs all by herself and you would enjoy it as though some terrific choir was in its elements - more often than not, she left  the congregation clapping and clapping and clapping. Such resounding ovations, takes on even more special significance when you realize that in those days, exuberance was magnificently measured in Orthodox churches – it was thought to be a Pentecostal thing, and an unorthodox behavior. She sung her classical with gusto and interjecting smiles, stealing glances at various sections of the congregation, looking upwards wherever the lines specifically referred to the Lord Jesus, and raising and lowering the music notes in her hands as her voice quivered all over the place. Sister, as she was fondly called by us, her younger siblings, lived in Benin City in those days, an English Language Teacher at the Command Day Secondary School in Benin and Choir Leader at the New Benin Baptist Church in the same city; she often visited us in Warri, an hour’s drive from Benin, during school holidays.

Whenever she visited, everyone in our home, was driven (by what I’d call polite compulsion) to carry out rigorous, constantly expanding and unusual house cleanups as though some dignitary was visiting in a matter of hours; she was exponentially clean, that woman – an engagingly humorous lady, she was the one who gave me my favorite nick name, “Enetanle”, which in Esan language, means, “the tall people” – the Esan people have their origins in Edo State of Nigeria. Sister was the first member of my family to be translated. As a teenager, I attended several churches on different Sundays: on one Sunday, I joined my mother to the St Andrew’s Anglican Cathedral along Okere Road in Warri; there were two important places along Okere Road – the Nigerian Postal Agency and the Nigerian Prisons, and the St. Andrew’s Cathedral is somewhere in between those two landmarks; and as I write, I suddenly recall, that the apostle Paul wrote his letters to the Churches of Christ from prison and posted them by the postal services of his day. Well, on a Sunday, I would attend the St. Andrews Cathedral, on another Sunday, I joined some neighbors to the Apostolic Church, at other times, I would be in a Baptist Church; and sometimes, I just stayed home and played football with the other kids who did not have the Sunday church routine that I had.

However, one Sunday morning, Sister was around, and when she returned from the Baptist Church where she worshipped and where she had been baptized before her job took her out of town, she asked if I attended church service that morning, I responded in the affirmative, my knees were having fellowship because of the seriousness in her voice; she looked at me quizzically, and asked, ‘which church did you attend?’ I replied, ‘a White Garment Church’. Her eyes rolled in anger and disappointment, and there and then, she gave an order, her voice raised to the roof, her face stern with fire, ‘If I discover, ever again that you went to a white garment church, you would be very sorry for yourself; from now on, you must attend Emmanuel Baptist Church’.  And that was it.

The Reverend S.A. Akakporo, was a very unusual man of God, a stern minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ who did not mince words when he preached against sin, he was bald headed, of  average height and often interjected his preaching with soul-moving songs; the most regular of those songs, went with these words: ‘When I remember my Savior; I shout hallelujah’ (then the congregation would repeat same words).Again, he would sing: ‘When I remember He died for me, I sing hallelujah’. And the pastor had a unique dance that he employed as he sang that favorite song of his. That favorite song spoke volumes, for this man of God was a Pastor and an Evangelist, and one of his favored scriptures was, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20. Soon enough, I had begun to attend church here very regularly but my translation was still ahead. I promptly joined the Enquirer’s Class – the Enquirers Class was a special class for enquirers. It was designed for those who were curious about the Christian faith; orchestrated to answer the basic questions of a new believer in Christ or to pull in the hearts of aspiring believers.

The class threw its doors perpetually open to all who would venture to enter through its gates, for it existed to be an instrument to help people gain access into the “Straight gate” ,as Jesus said, Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:13-14. The class was so important that the Church Pastor taught it himself. Every Sunday, by 5 pm, the enquirers gathered to feed their curiosity. The culmination of the Enquirer’s Class activities, was the water baptism of successful candidates. On baptism days, the pastor stretched his hand over the head of the candidate for baptism and declared: “Upon your confession of faith in Christ as Master and Lord of your life; I baptize you my son/daughter in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. Then he immersed the new believer in the water for a brief moment, and raised him/her out, saying, “Buried with Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, you also should walk in newness of life”. The Church choir formed a circle around the baptismal waters and sang songs about the power of the blood of Jesus at every pause of the minister. As the candidate for baptism waded through the waters to meet the pastor somewhere around the middle of the water; they would sing a song like:

1 What can wash away my sins?

2 Nothing but the blood of Jesus

3 What can make me whole again?

4 Nothing but the blood of Jesus

5 Oh precious is the flow

6 That makes me white as snow

7 No other fount I know

8 Nothing but the blood of Jesus

Then when the newly baptized believer in Christ made his or her way out of the water, they sang:

1 Oh happy day that fixed my choice

2 On Thee my Savior and my God

3 Well may this glowing heart rejoice

4 And tell its raptures all abroad and pray

5 Happy day, Oh happy day

6 When Jesus washed my sins away

7 He taught me how to watch and peay

8 And live rejoicing every day

9 Happy day, O happy day

10 When Jesus washed my sins away

Singing of hymns is scriptural – Jesus sang a hymn with his disciples before his crucifixion, and the Holy Spirit specifies three kinds of songs that believers should enjoy in Colossians 3:16: psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. I had been attending the Enquirer’s class for a while now and became qualified to take part in the baptism qualification examination, which was conducted by the pastor a few times every year. One of the most fundamental qualification, was a very regular attendance to the Enquirer’s classes, also the Reverend S.A Akapkporo paid special attention to the attitude of members of the Enquirer’s class towards other church activities, like: the mid-week prayer meetings and the Sunday evening services which held after Enquirers classes on Sundays. The Reverend was a very stern minister of the gospel and to say that the body of Christ misses such sternness today would be stating the obvious. If someone passed the baptism examination, and one week before the baptism, the pastor gets wind of a blatant un-Christ-like behavior, even if that information or discovery came one day before the baptism Sunday, he did not hesitate to throw the name out of the list of those slated for baptism.

Sometimes, on the Saturday before the baptism Sunday, the Reverend would find out that some man or woman had been secretly living with a lover without marriage (African traditional marriage rites and/or Church wedding) and he would simply announce that they would not be baptized; or perhaps, someone who had passed the examination would be caught drunk with alcohol, days before baptism and they would be made to repeat the Enquirer’s class – anyone who demonstrated character failure before the scheduled baptism day, repeated the Enquirer’s class. I recall an incident of a man who had passed the examination and was in church on Saturday for the preparation – everyone who passed the baptismal examination had to be in church on the Saturday before the baptism to clean the church premises, as an act of stewardship; this man came wearing the vest of perhaps the most popular beer (alcoholic beverage) company of the day, whether he wore it deliberately or unconsciously I know not, God knoweth; and when the Reverend S.A. Akakporo noticed the shirt, his name suddenly disappeared from the list of those to be baptized and he had to repeat the course. As for me, I failed my first baptismal examination, the Reverend thought I was not born again, and he was right, and although I had tears in my eyes and was a teenager in those days, he would not be moved. It was during my time in the baptismal class that I first discovered, and I’ve seen it many times over the years that it is extremely difficult for people who are not born again to answer yes to the question, ‘Are you born again?’ Even people who are expert liars are inexplicably unable to lie about their kingdom status; the question of born again, either makes them angry, sad or it simply leaves them feeling guilty – some would say, ‘what do you mean by that question, are you trying to tell me that I am not a Christian?’ Others may simply refuse to answer the question and angrily accuse the one who asked, that they were trying to condemn others because they felt they were the only true Christians; some who seem to be pulled by God’s mercy, may say, ‘I’d like to be born again’. Others respond by saying, ‘I have been a Christian since I was born – I was born into a Christian home’. There are those who angrily reply, ‘ what is so special about being born again anyway?’ Others may say, ‘are you trying to say that only born again people are good people?’ Some say, ‘I’ve been attending church since I was a child’.

However when the born again question is put to those who are born again, it usually brings smiles of satisfaction to their faces and they may just say a simple, Yes. Some would say yes, I am born again; and many would even go further and answer the unasked follow-up question before you ask it; they would say, I am born again, I got born again on such and such a day. The Bible says, No man can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Ghost; 1 Corinthians 12:3. However, for the Enquirer’s class students, none dared answer anything beyond yes or no. Anyhow, I passed at my second attempt of the Enquirer’s examination and was scheduled to be baptized on 19 July 1987; I went to church on the day, excited, and had my white shirt and short, ready for the baptism; however during the service, the Reverend in his idiosyncratic manner, preached a very passionate salvation message, the kind you rarely hear in churches today – little wonder, that there are so many people who attend church regularly, who are not born again. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables; 2 Timothy 4: 2 – 4. The message was general to the congregation, but there was a part of it tailored for the baptism candidates: the pastor simply said, ‘even if you have successfully passed the examination, and will be baptized today after this service according to the church constitution, it does not mean that you are born again, baptism does not save, it is only a demonstration that you have become born again, and if you who will be baptized today is unsaved, you will just be taking a bath in the water; yes, you would be like someone who went to have a swim in a stream or pool, you would just be taking a bath’. Suddenly, something began to happen in my heart. I was so moved about the difference between taking a bath and getting truly baptized. No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day; John 6:44. Later, I realized it was the Father drawing me. This aspect of the message struck me, dividing my joints from my marrows;  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; Hebrews 4:12. The Holy Spirit used that illustration to work wonders in my heart; my translation was at hand, it was only minutes away – I decided that I didn't want to have a bath in the baptismal waters, I wanted a baptism as symbolic as the baptism that Jesus had!

I wanted to be buried with Him by baptism that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father; I also would walk in newness of life. When the altar-call was made, I went to the front of the church and confessed Jesus as my Lord. This also, is another thing that is missing in many churches today: there are pastors who can preach for a whole year without making a single altar-call for people to come to Jesus. Those are dangerous churches to belong to, for such pastors are either backslidden and thus have forgotten that they were washed from their sins (And from Jesus Christ, who is the Faithful Witness, and the First Begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood; Revelation 1:5) or they were never called to be pastors, so they do not realize that it is their most fundamental duty to call people to Christ; or they have become so conscious of worldly gains that they would rather pray for people to receive physical things than pray for them to receive spiritual (Their mouths must be stopped, for they are mentally distressing and subverting whole families by teaching what they ought not to teach, for the purpose of getting base advantage and disreputable gain; Titus 1:11, Amplified Bible); or they are false prophets, whom Jesus warned about (Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves; Mathew 7:15; also, For false christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect; Mark 13:22). After the service, the pastor took the names of those of us who had been saved on that day, and summarized to us the kingdom expectations of Christ our King from His new citizens. Later that day, I was baptized just a few minutes after my translation; and I have never stopped following Jesus since that time; I have made mistakes but I have never lived in mistakes. Now that is the story of my translation; yours is at hand!

CHAPTER 2 WHAT IS TRANSLATION

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Romans 10:9

After my translation, I began to have an insatiable desire to read Christian books. I wrote letters (in those days, there was no internet, at least, not in my country) to Christian Organizations and Ministries in the USA, telling them that I had given my life to Christ and needed faith-building books. I got some positive responses. One such response, which became the most significant for my Christian growth, was when I sent a letter to the great man of God, Kenneth E Hagin, asking him to explain the difference between the spirit, soul and body; and I was so elated to receive a personal letter, hand-signed, by that great apostle of God - he explained the answer to my question and promised to send me three of his booklets, titled; Volume 1,2 & 3 of the Spirit, Soul and Body Series by Kenneth E Hagin.

He eventually sent me the three volumes. You may wonder why I asked that question – well, I did because, back in the day, there was a division about the answer, some said that the soul and spirit were one and the same, and those who held that position were in the majority; others like myself, felt that there had to be a difference because the Bible mentions them distinctly, like where the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write, And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; 1 Thessalonians 5:23. Anyhow, during that period of voracious reading, I received a booklet, titled: Salvation, Plain and Simple; by Dr. Curtis Hutson, and I am led by the Spirit to tell a story from that book in this second chapter of Translated. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons God; Romans 8:14 declares. On a certain day, in some remote corner of the world, an aged man, in the closing days of his life, went on a trip across some interesting river; this man had been a well educated man in his young days and had so much knowledge about quite a number of relevant issues. On this boat trip, the old man had a companion - a young boy; the old man and the boy had become good friends. The boy liked the company of this man for he learnt many things from him and he seemed to have an answer to all his questions, and he usually helped the little boy with his school work. The old man on his part, enjoyed the opportunity to talk knowledge to someone who listened with rapt attention; so the two formed an inevitable bond.

Now on this day, as they sailed along the river, they chatted and enjoyed their time together, and as they went, they saw some beautiful rocks on the banks of the river and the little boy screamed, look old man, how beautiful are those rocks; and the old man said, son, do you know anything about geology? The little boy said, no sir, I don’t, and the old man said, you have lost 25% of your life. They continued their sail, and came to a part of the river where there was much fish swimming all around, and the old man said, boy, do you  know anything about biology? The little boy said, Sir, I wish that I do, but no, I do not, and the old man said, well, that means you have lost 25% of your life. As they got close to the end of their trip, the clouds had begun to get dark and the stars wove their hands at them, the little boy said, old man, just look at the stars in the skies; majestic and countless, and consistent; yes my boy, yes they truly are majestic and much more, said the old man; those stars are part of our milky way galaxy, son, do you know anything about astronomy?  The little boy with desire, said, no Sir, I do not, and the old man said, boy, then you have lost another 25% of your life. Suddenly, there arose a wave in the distance and before long, it was threatening to capsize their boat, and the little boy just before diving into the waters to swim away to safety, said, old man, can you swim? The old man replied, his voice trembling with fear like it never did before in the presence of his little friend, no my boy, I cannot swim!  And the boy replied, that means you have lost your life! He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God; John 3:18. For, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life; John 5:24.

No matter what you know, if you do not know Jesus, the most mentioned name on earth, if you have never met Jesus, the most quoted man the world ever knew (yes, when journalists and television reporters refer to the return of someone as the return of the prodigal, they are quoting the parable of Jesus in Luke 15; when people all over the world tell real life stories and say the subject of the story would have died but for a good Samaritan that suddenly appeared to help, they are quoting a parable of Jesus. When people in the Americas, Africa, Australia, Europe, or Asia, say to people, do unto others as you want them to do unto you, they are quoting the Words of Jesus); if this Jesus is not in your heart, yes Jesus, whose followers have been the most persecuted group of people in the world since He left the earth (A Reuters 2013 Report confirms the unparalleled persecution of followers of Jesus); but yet faith in Him is the fastest growing phenomenon on the earth, then, you have lost your life. If you don’t know this Jesus, whose book, the Bible, has been violently burnt more than any other book in the history of man, but yet, that same book is the most purchased, the most circulated, the most owned and the most read book in the world, then, you have lost your life.(Sodahead (2009) confirms that the Bible is the most violently burned book in history). If you do not know Jesus of Nazareth, the same Jesus who spoke about everything the world is discussing today before the world even began to think them, then you have lost your life – yes, this Jesus was the first to warn about global warming; and He was the first to indicate that the most important agenda of the United Nations, would be discussions about peace in the world; Luke 21. If all the books that have been written about men of different origins and claims, since the history of the world were added together, they will be less than 10% of the books that have been written about this one man, Christ Jesus. If you don’t know this Jesus about whom, Kenneth E Hagin wrote 227 books according to Paper Back Swap (2013); about whom Dr. Myles Munroe has written about 124 books, Good reads (2013); about whom Mike Murdock has written over 160 books, Good reads (2013); and on whose behalf Reinhard Bonnke has published some 194 million books in 135 Languages according CfaN, then you have lost your life!

This Jesus, is the Messiah of the world – many had claimed to be the messiah before Jesus came and there are those who have claimed to be the messiah after Jesus, but all of them have disappeared with history, but the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, keeps growing, if you don’t know this Jesus, then you have lost your life. Yes, this Jesus who chose just 12 disciples and started His church with 120 citizens but yet has billions of followers today, is the Messiah – if you don’t know Him, then you have lost your life, but there is good news; Jesus said a life lost can be found! And finding your life, begins with words. Words are very crucial to life: Babies cannot be born unless they cry out, that crying out is the vital sign of life that the Doctors and Midwives wait for; ask any mother and they will tell you that the crying of babies represents the speaking of babies for they have different cries or words for distinct purposes; the mother is able to tell, if the cry connotes discomfort, anger, hunger or fear. In 2005, my first Son, Jeremy was born, God gave us the gift of my second boy, Clarence, in 2006; and Kenaniah arrived in 2010. All our three boys cried that cry of life!  Glory to God!  God spoke to begin life on earth, Adam spoke to begin life with eve, Moses spoke for the nation of Israel to be born, Peter spoke, ‘Thou art the Christ’, for the church to be born, confession is made unto salvation, the bible says.  Presidents-elect cannot become Presidents, unless they speak words at the swearing-in ceremony before a judge, students admissions cannot be confirmed, until they sign an academic declaration; and no one can be born into the kingdom of God as a citizen, unless they confess with their mouth, The Lord Jesus, and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead. Now, that is good news! Here is a very intriguing, one night meeting between the Master and one Nicodemus that helps bring this all important matter into perspective. Jesus had been preaching the gospel of the kingdom, doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil on this day, but now it was night and the Master was probably resting, meditating or praying.

Also, he seemed to be alone, as the disciples were not mentioned in this encounter. While Jesus was alone, there was a knock on the door; it was a man, a Pharisee. He was a man – an adult, able to make decisions for his own life. He came on his own volition or free-will, and he belonged to a religious group – he was a Pharisee. This beautifully rich encounter, can be found in John 3. The Pharisees were a religious group in the days when Jesus walked the earth; they believed in God and believed in doing what was right according to the Old Testament but they did not believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah; and now the Bible says, There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; so this visitor  was a Pharisee, his name was Nicodemus, which means: victory of the people, Behind the Name (n.d); and he was a ruler of the Jews. Benny Hinn says that there are no meaningless details in the Word of God, so the information about this man who came to see Jesus is crucial – Pharisee (Pharisees believed in one God, they fasted and prayed, they paid tithes, they read the Old Testament regularly, they believed they were superior, they believed in resurrection, they believed that a Messiah was to come, but they did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah; because, they thought His physical background was too ordinary; a carpenter’s son, the son of an unknown young woman, Mary, born in a manger? He cannot be, they reasoned; and Jesus called them hypocrites). Observe the order of arrangement in the passage: a man, a Pharisee, a man of the Pharisees, Nicodemus, a Ruler, a Ruler of the Jews. Going further, the Bible tells us that, The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. He came to see Jesus – he had been contemplating this move for a while. Here is Nicodemus, he is sitting among his fellow Pharisees and they are wondering about this man Jesus; many had lots of negative things to say about Him, but Nicodemus was curious, he had always felt that there was something different about the man Jesus.

The bottom line about the Pharisees’ argument was that Jesus was of God but he could not be the Messiah – many of the Pharisees thought God was with Him as He was with the prophets of the Old Testament, and that was it. He was just a prophet and that was their conclusion. Nicodemus decided that the first thing to do, would be to decide on a time when he should see Jesus, he concluded that the night time was better: the crowds would not be there, the disciples may have gone to their own homes, Jesus would likely be alone and no Pharisee would see him going to see Jesus, their enemy. He rehearsed his speech to himself over and over again; he wanted to be sure to say the right thing. Finally, on this special night Nicodemus made his move, he got to the door, took a deep breath and eventually summoned up courage to knock on the door; to his amazement, Jesus let him in; now in the presence of the Master, the moment of truth had come, Jesus besides letting Nicodemus in, said nothing to him, Jesus wanted Nicodemus to speak first – and that is crucial. However, something was unique in the words of Nicodemus, he did not speak for himself, he spoke on behalf of himself and others. He called Jesus Rabbi, which means Master and now he

says, we; we? , who are we? We the Pharisees. Follow the order of events: he came by night, he spoke first, he called Him Rabbi, after that, he spoke on behalf of others, he confessed what other Pharisees knew but were afraid or ashamed to declare – We know, Thou art a teacher come from God, then he explained to Jesus why they thought that He was a teacher who came from God, Nicodemus said, for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, except God be with him. Furthermore, Nicodemus explained what the Pharisees believed, they believed that there are certain miracles that if a man did, then it was sure evidence that God was with him - for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with Him. There is a difference between no man can do miracles and; no man can do these miracles that thou doest. Now, that is very crucial because, there are false prophets in the world today who perform miracles, just as there were in those days. How did the Pharisees learn the difference? They did because, they knew the miracles of Moses and Elijah – true miracles are always about salvation and change, not miracles for the sake of miracles.

However, Jesus shocked Nicodemus, as He always does. He did not respond to the words of Nicodemus, He didn’t talk about Rabbi, or miracles or God being with Him – Jesus went to the heart of the matter, He knew that Nicodemus needed salvation and that that was what brought him by night, and brought him alone; Jesus knew that although Nicodemus was using the word we, he was actually the one in need, and only said we because he was not sure from where to begin, now Jesus speaks profound words, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.  Jesus responded to the heart of Nicodemus, rather than to his words. Strange words, strange authority, new words – the words born and again had been used before, but never before was the word again added to born, as used by the Master of words; Jesus introduced the words born again and never used those two words together again throughout His time on earth. He left those words for us to use over and over again! Hallelujah! This was personal evangelism at its peak, Nicodemus said, we, Jesus answered and said unto him; Jesus said, this is true, this is very true, this is more true than anything true you ever heard before, Verily, verily (truly, truly) I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus said, there is a kingdom, it is the Kingdom of God, men need to see it, you, Nicodemus, needs to see it; but to see that Kingdom, you must be born, but because one has been born before as a man or woman, you will need to be born again. Now Nicodemus is simply confused; like students in a new class. He never heard the words born again before, and now strong words rang loud bells in his ear, born again, the kingdom, cannot see, I say unto you; in his confusion, Nicodemus asked his first question of the night: Nicodemus asked 3 questions altogether, and after Jesus’ answer to his 3rd question, he did not speak another word on the night – these were the questions of Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? How can these things be? Now, we continue with the story, recall that Nicodemus at this time was confused by the Master’s words, so he asked a question,

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? In the natural, you may be tempted to sympathize with Nicodemus, How can a man be born when he is old? seems like a ‘valid’ question. The word, born, is used when people refer to new born babes, but now Jesus knows that I am a man, an adult, already born - Nicodemus reasoned within himself, so why is He asking me to be born, when I was already born many years ago? Surely He does not expect me, a fully grown man, to enter into my mother’s womb and be born. Nicodemus was careful to remove the word, ‘again’ from the word, ‘born’, he asks, How can a man be born when he is old? And without waiting for Jesus to answer that question, he quickly followed it with another question; can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus did not make any reference to mother, or womb or being old, or entering into a mother’s womb; instead, Jesus used even stranger words. He retains the word, except, He reuses born, but leaves out again, and introduces, water and Spirit; and retaining the word ‘cannot’, He replaces ‘see’ with ‘enter’ and ends these sound words with the kingdom of God as He did with his first words to Nicodemus. You see, in Jesus Words, the Spirit replaced the word again. The Spirit of God is a supreme expert at doing things that baffles human understanding, as He did when He caused Mary, a virgin, to be pregnant without having any contact with a man – virgins don’t give birth. Now, not for the first time, the Spirit, says Jesus, will cause already born man or woman to be born again. The scriptures continues, Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Jesus said, this birth, this born again phenomenon, happens by water and the Spirit – so what is water? First, there is the washing of regeneration; Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Titus 3:5. Secondly, there is washing of water by the Word; That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; Ephesians 5: 26. Thirdly, there is cleanness by the Word; Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you; John 15:3 .

Further, there is water out of the Rock; He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers; Psalm 78:16; and the Rock was Christ; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ; 1 Corinthians 10:4. Now that is some Holy Ghost inspired scriptural interjections; we return to the subject scripture. Jesus knew that Nicodemus would definitely ask another question, so He gave the answer without waiting for the question, He said, Nicodemus when a man’s mother gives birth to him, that is flesh giving birth to flesh, but being ‘born again’ happens when the Spirit gives birth to your spirit; That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh and the Spirit gives birth to spirit. Now Nicodemus moves from confusion to astonishment; and Jesus knew that he was amazed, so the Lord said unto him, Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. Jesus said, do not marvel, do not be amazed because I said that you must be born again; then the Lord Jesus said something altogether even stranger and absolutely new – He talks about wind, and the blowing of wind, the sound of the wind that men hear, and how man is unable to tell the source of winds or the destination of winds, The Lord said; The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Jesus said, those who are born of the Spirit or born again are like the wind. Then Nicodemus asked his last question; Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Now, Jesus is amazed, and wonders how Nicodemus became a Master of Israel without knowing these things and how he had remained a Master in Israel being ignorant of these things. Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Believe me, there are many masters in today’s church who do not know these things, and the question of Jesus never changes, it is forever chiseled in stone and in the rocks; to those ignorant church leaders, officers, deacons, elders, ministers, ushers, workers, and yea, preachers; the Lord keeps asking the same question: Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?’

Here, the word church needs to be put in context, there are people who are members of churches in this world, but are not citizens of the church that is not of the world – they belong to a physical church but are not citizens of the body of Christ; in one sentence, they are not born again; thus, they cannot see or enter into the kingdom of God. But wait a minute, if Jesus expected Nicodemus to know about these things being a master of Israel, then Old Testament prophets prophesied about being born again without using those exact words. And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh; Ezekiel 11:19. Now, Jesus continued to talk to Nicodemus, but Nicodemus does not ask any more questions; neither did he make any further statements. Jesus continued: 11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that We have seen; and ye receive not Our witness. We? Now Jesus uses a collective pronoun – He had only used personal pronouns up until now in His talk with Nicodemus: I say unto thee, We speak. Now, any time Jesus uses ‘We’ in a context like this, He refers to the Godhead, We, is Father, Son and Spirit. Then He closes with ‘Our witness’; and I John 5: 6, says, the Spirit bears witness, verse 7 explains that there are three that bear witness in heaven and verse 9 contrasts the witness of God with that of men. Continuing with John 3, Jesus said, If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? Amazing! Up until this point, Nico did not believe! Every minister must learn the process of telling earthly things and then telling heavenly things. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. Jesus then reveals a startling revelation, while He was on the earth and talking to the disciples daily and now talking to Nicodemus; He is at the same time in heaven: He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. The Master continued.

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.  He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. That was the end of the meeting between the Master and Nicodemus; Nicodemus, left that night translated, saved, redeemed; as the scriptures demonstrate: John 7:50 tells us that; Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them, Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth); and John 19:39; And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.

A QUICK COMMENTARY

Who are you?

a)       Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

b)      Are you a ruler of the Jews? Are you a ruler of God’s people who is not born again?

c)       Are you almost a Christian? King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds. Acts 26:27-29

d)      Or is that you are not far from the kingdom of God? And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but He: And to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, He said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question. And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the son of David? Mark 12:32-35

e)       Are you neither cold nor hot? I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. Revelation 3:15

f)        Or do you have a name that you live but are dead? I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Revelation 3:1

g)       Are you a fool? The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God; Psalm 14:1 This passage is often misquoted to read, the fool says, there is no God, But the Bible puts it differently, the Holy Spirit in this scripture, says the fool is not bold enough to speak it out, so he says it in his heart; so if the one who says or thinks it in his heart is a fool, then the one who dares says it from his mouth, after saying it in his heart, must be a compound fool!

h)      Or is it that you are too rich, too famous, too brilliant, too influential to be saved and translated? Easier for a camel – are you too rich for Jesus?  And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God; Mark 19:24. Why is it easier for a camel than for you? Simple, you worship your riches, fame, influence, intelligence and whatever else you worship. Wake up, overtake the camel and enter into the Kingdom of God!

Merriam Webster Dictionary defines translated as:

a: to bear, remove, or change from one place, state, form, or appearance to another : transfer, transform

b: to convey to heaven or to a non-temporal condition without death.   Now that is what I call an apt definition.

No matter who you are, you need to hear the redemption story. The Holy Ghost said, “Redemption story – tell it like it had never been told before; tell the whole story. Begin from Adam, bring in Abraham, touch on Moses, walk through the prophets, throw in the genealogy, weave about Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, celebrate it with Acts, sing through the Epistles and culminate in Revelation”.

REDEMPTION STORY

It began with the first man and the first woman in the garden that was called Eden. God, the Almighty created a garden, causing it to be watered by special rivers designed to ensure a constant freshness in the garden of God; the animals moved magnificently across the entire  landscape, displaying the splendor of the Creator, the birds of the air sang His praise, the waves of the waters worshipped, crying deep calleth unto deep at the noise of Thy water sprouts, Thy waves and Thy billows, overwhelming all of creation – as for the trees, they wove their hands in joyful adoration. God, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit enjoyed the beauty of His creation, for the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit is one God. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one God, is forever chiseled in stone, signifying that there will come those who confounded by the mystery of godliness, will doubt the reality of the Triune God, but without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh (the Son), justified in the Spirit (The Holy Ghost), seen of Angels (The Father). It is devoid of controversy! God is Father, God is Son, God is Spirit.

When one is a new student of the book of God, he or she would think that there are a few scriptures that defines the Trinity, but as one grows in the faith, one suddenly discovers, that the concept of Father, Son and Holy Spirit being one and the same, is at the heart of every book of the Bible – this truth is the crux of the redemption story. Thus, in the middle of this beauty of Eden, the first garden on earth, not made by man, for man was not, neither made by angels, for the angels merely beheld the creation of all things and marveled; God began to speak to Himself, Let US, said He, make man in our own image, after our likeness. So God made man in His image – let Us make man, so God made man in His image – truly, the Lord our God is One! Now Adam and Eve inhabited the garden of God, God brought the animals to Adam to see what he would call them; demonstrating God’s design of His creature - this man Adam, had decision making powers and freewill; and Adam gave names to all. God gave Adam the power of choice, he and his wife were free to decide what to eat and what not to eat, but there would be consequences if they ate of the tree in the middle of the garden. God did not tell them why they should not eat it but He told them that there would be consequences if they disobeyed His command and ate it – ‘the day you eat of it, you shall surely die’! Declared the Creator; Adam and his wife could not resist the temptation to eat what God said not to eat; Eve ate and gave to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then they heard the voice of God calling in the garden for them. But wait, they heard the voice? I thought God said they would die if they ate the fruit; how come they were still alive after the fact? Well, when God said the day you eat of the fruit you shall surely die, He meant it, but God spoke to the real man when He gave that warning, the real man is the one who was created in the image of God, for God is Spirit, so His likeness was a spirit-man. No, the Word of God did not fall to the ground, no, it never can.

Immediately they ate, they died, yes, the spirit of Adam and Eve died, but the house of their spirits, their bodies, stayed alive. God promptly sewed animal skins for them after they had sewed leaves for themselves with which they had tried to cover their nakedness. The leaves could not cover them, God killed an animal, blood became involved, and this is the beginning of the story of redemption. God began to speak of the coming of a seed; the seed of the woman would bring redemption for the off-springs of the woman; what seed? God Himself shall give you a sign, a virgin shall conceive; a sign from God? Yes, a sign from the Highest, the sign is Himself. But Virgins don’t conceive, how can that ever be possible?  Well, with God all things are possible. A virgin shall conceive. The next time God spoke about a seed, He was talking to Abraham, He said, thy seed, thy seed, thy seed; Abraham thought that He meant a physical offspring, but no, He was referring to Himself, God the Son, for the Son is the Seed; for Paul explained in Galatians that God when speaking with Abraham did not say seeds but Seed, singular, because the Seed refers to Christ. Then the prophets began to prophesy: first, Moses said, a prophet like unto me will the Lord raise, Him shall ye honor; Isaiah began to prophesy to Israel, His Name shall be called Emmanuel, said he; He shall be wounded, He shall take stripes, He shall be chastised and rejected and yet the Government shall be upon His shoulder; for He is the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace; and Jeremiah, the prophet fell into a trance, and saw a troubling vision: a voice was heard in Ramah, in one of the cities of Israel, it was a voice of weeping, a voice of lamentation, yes, it was the voice of Rachel, a mother in Israel. Jeremiah had heard of her in the school of the prophets, for there had been prophet schools (company of prophets) for thousands of years, as the Old Covenant plainly displays. In the days of the prophets and their schools however, there were no pictures, or photo cameras, and although the prophet had never seen her before, he did not have to make a guess who it was, for he did not see anyone in his vision, the vision was for his ears, a voice said he, was heard, and the Spirit of God whispered in his heart, it was the voice of Rachel, why was she wailing?

She was wailing for her children, children born in Israel in her future, for a king called Herod had ordered the killing of infant boys in order to kill the one who was born King. Moses had prophesied, a prophet like me will God raise, but first, He called Moses and committed into his hand, a mission of physical redemption that was to become the illustration of the story of true redemption. Go tell Pharaoh, Let my people go, that they may serve Me, but the Pharaoh would not let them go, then as predetermined by the mind of Jehovah, blood was shed; lambs were slain for every Israeli household in the land of Egypt, the bone of the lamb said Moses, must not be broken, for not a bone of Him was broken, said another prophet who lived and prophesied after Moses.

Moses instructed the children of Israel, mark the entrance to your homes with the blood of the lamb that ye shall slay, for the Lord God of heaven shall pass through the land of Egypt this night and the Lord had said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you – surely enough, after that shedding of blood, Pharaoh let His people go. Now some man may wonder, what Kind of God would kill one set of His creation in order to free another set? Those who ask such questions, never read the redemption story, for after delivering the other set from Egypt, He slew almost all of them in the wilderness for they rebelled against Him. And when Jeremiah heard a voice in Ramah, He did not see a movement, for this same God had ordered a special child, a King, His Son, Himself in the flesh, to be taken to Egypt for safety. This is the greatest endorsement of the nation of Egypt by the God of heaven. Anyhow, God began to give those who left Egypt His commandments: Moses, the servant of the Lord, taught them about trespass offering, sin offering, sacrifice offering; and all sacrifices were done by blood – animals were slain; for without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins; and God began to speak to Moses, listen, said He; the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls.

Moses would take blood and sprinkle it upon the altar and upon the people of Israel, for the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ was to be called the blood of sprinkling. All the prophets prophesied until John, said the Lord Jesus.. Elijah said, how long halt ye between two opinions? If God be God serve Him; he got the altar ready and at the time of sacrifice, he offered blood again. Isaiah saw blood and cried, He was wounded for our iniquities; but isn’t that confusing, you wonder; Isaiah lived before Jesus came but yet he spoke about wounding as though it were already accomplished. He was wounded for our transgressions? Well, Revelation speaks about the lamb slain from the foundation of the world and no, Isaiah did not live before Jesus, for Isaiah lived after Abraham, and Jesus the Master said, before Abraham was, I Am. Yes, not before Abraham was, I was; but before   Abraham was, I Am. I Am, who is I Am? The Creator. Joel prophesied: he declared, I see beyond the blood that would be shed, I see a pouring out, it shall come to pass in those days, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; Zechariah declared, as for me, I saw beyond, the shedding of blood and beyond the outpouring of His Spirit, I saw a return to earth, and He said, quoting the Master, Jesus the Righteous: they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced. The gospels indicate a most distinctive genealogy – He is the Son of David, the King; the son of Abraham, the possessor of the promise, called from the Hur of the Chaldees to become the Father of a nation that did not exist before the voice of God came to his ear; and the Lord of the earth chose the line of the error of David (for which He had punished him) as the line from which He would come to earth. David killed Urias, took his wife, and the wife gave birth to Solomon, who took many strange wives and joined them to serve their idols; and Jesus came through that lineage. Amazing! Even Ruth, a foreigner, wife of Boaz, came into the lineage of the Master. The Master’s genealogy connects the whole world and the errors of man that He might save all who come to Him. However on the other hand, He wasn’t in a lineage, for Luke 3:23 says, And Jesus began to be about thirty years of age, being as was supposed, the son of Joseph.

Now, the birth of Jesus was on this wise ,a virgin betrothed to a man, had an open vision, an angel, appeared, saying, thou shall give birth to a child and call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins – promptly, the power of the Highest came upon her, yes, the power of the Highest, the Spirit of Truth, and she conceived, but before she could give birth, a boy was born, his name was called John and he was the one Isaiah had seen in another vision; for Isaiah had described him as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, and he was the preparer of the way for the Master. The angel said; call His name Jesus because He shall save His people from their sins. So Mary began to think of a Savior, but then at His birth, an unusual star appeared to scholars located somewhere in the East of the earth, strange star, they thought to themselves, never before seen and then it happened; they suddenly realized that this star carried the symbols of royalty, their interpretation was one and the same among themselves – a King is born! They saddled their asses, took eloquent gifts, for they were wise men, prudent in business, possessors of magnificent material things; they took out the best of them and up they went; following the star with prudence, and it led them to the King. By-passing Herod whom Jeremiah had known in a vision trying to terminate a new born King and whose hand fanned the flames of Rachel’s cry, for Rachel, said he, wailed for her children as her voice screeched through Ramah. So for the Wise men, it was a King, for Mary, a Savior. The wise men gave Him three gifts which have led some to speculate that there were three wise men, but the Scriptures did not mention their number – their gifts were gold, frankincense and myrrh. But before the gifts, they fell down and worshipped Him, signifying that He was King and God. Gold, symbolic of divinity and royalty; frankincense, this symbolized that this was the Word of God - for Paul the Apostle, caught the revelation that the knowledge of that Word brings about a savor, a fragrance, an aroma, everywhere, in every place; and myrrh symbolized the pain of shedding of blood for the remission of sins.

Suddenly, that John the Baptist, born a few months before Jesus, was preaching a message of repentance and baptizing those who accepted that message; now baptism was a new phenomenon, no one had been baptized in Israel or in any other part of the world before that time; however, there were those who were baptized in the wilderness unto Moses and unto God, according to the Spirit in the book of Corinthians. He stood in the waters of the Jordan river and prepared the way for the Master; he said, there is someone who is coming after me, I am not even worthy to touch His sandals but he shall baptize you with another baptism: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire, and He is the Judge of the whole earth. However there is something truly profound here, John the Baptist had known Jesus for years, but he did not know that He was the one for whom he was doing the work which he did - for him, Jesus was his unusual cousin.

For John confessed: ‘I did not know Him’, but the One who sent me to baptize, said to me, upon whom you see the Spirit descending like a dove, the same is He who baptizes in the Holy Ghost; then when John saw Him, he declared, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the whole world. Wow! How profound; for the children of Israel, the word, lamb, rang a bell; a lamb had to be slain for every family, before their fore-fathers were released from captivity in Egypt, and they read in their law, the Old Testament, that lambs were continually used for sacrifice, and they were still being used as John spoke, but there is about to come a dramatic change – no more lambs but the Lamb, no more for the sins of households in Israel but this Lamb, taketh away the sin of the whole world. Predictably, John the Baptist disciples immediately left him and followed the Master with John’s gold approval and zero complaint. A true lesson!

Now this Jesus was on a mission, heaven’s mission, He promptly chose 12 men, yes, there were 12 tribes in Israel but He did not pick them as representatives from each tribe, instead, he picked them without tracing their tribes. for they represented the new Israel, where there is neither bond nor free, neither male nor female, neither Jew nor Greek – yes, they represented the whole world; for the whole world needed saving. He made Peter the head of the twelve because he made the ultimate confession – ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God’, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. With the twelve, He went about doing good, showing the glad tidings of the Kingdom and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. He preached the message of the Kingdom and told the disciples that the Son of man must suffer, be delivered into the hands of sinners but rise on the third day, and to the Pharisees and religious people He said, no sign shall be given to this generation but the sign of the prophet Jonah; for as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for 3 days and 3 nights, so will the Son of man be in the belly of the earth for the same duration. Greater love has no man than this, said the Master, that a man should lay down His life for His friends. Judas betrayed Him, sold Him for 30 pieces of silver as the prophets had prophesied; the other disciples for fear, fled to safe places and Peter, the bold, the leader, refused to run away, instead, he followed from afar and when his life was threatened, he denied Him thrice and the Lord turned and looked at Peter from a distance; Peter broke down, wailed out of the scene, repented and gathered the others back together into a safe room, while they waited to see what would become of their Lord. In the place where the disciples gathered, there was pin-drop silence, they stole glances at one another, looked downwards towards the floor, looked upwards and pondered the strange things that had happened; none dared to speak, not even Peter, their leader.

They remembered the scenes of the last supper and the preceding events that took their minds by storm. First the Master broke tradition by washing their feet and wiping them with a towel - it was the duty of servants to do so for their masters; then He stunned them by declaring, you call me Master and Lord and that is fitting, for that is what I am, so now if I, your Master, has washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet – anyone who wants to be the greatest among you must be servant of all! Then, He sent two of the disciples, saying, go into the city, over against you, and at a cross-junction, you shall find an Ass, whereon never man sat, without talking to anybody about this Ass that has never felt the weight of any human on its back, ‘Loose him from the stake where it is tied and bring him to Me; and if any man ask you why are you losing him, tell them that the Lord has need of them and they will let you go’. Of course, they went and everything went according to the script He had given them and straightway, He mounted His Ass, and rode into the city of Jerusalem and people formed a guard of honor along the way, cutting palm fronds and decorating the roads with them, the disciples spontaneously dressing the Ass with some of their own clothes before the Lord of all the earth mounted it; they gave Him a welcome fit only for a King; before today, on His last visit to Jerusalem, He had beheld the city and wept over it, saying Jerusalem, Jerusalem. you who kills the prophets which have been sent to you, and O, how often I had wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chickens but ye would not let Me, and now your house is left unto you desolate; and you shall not see Me again until you shall say, blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord! Now, as the people lined the streets, they hailed: Hosanna to the King, blessed is the King who cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest; and the cries of the people annoyed the Pharisees, and they said, tell your disciples to tell the people to be quiet but He replying, said, have you not read it in the holy scriptures, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, Thou hast perfected praise; and moreover, if these should keep quiet, if these should hold their peace, your discomfort would be exponentially increased, for if these hold their peace, the stones, the rocks, will immediately begin to cry out in their stead!

Then He got to the temple and did something even more dramatic and totally disconnected from His temple visit history, He took a whip and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seat of them which sold doves and declared, it is written, My House shall be called the house of prayer but ye have made it a den of thieves. While the disciples were still wondering at the strange turn of events, He again sent them on another strange mission; go into the city, you will see a man bearing a pitcher of water, say no word to him, just follow him and when he reaches his destination, say to the good man of the house, where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? He will show you a large upper room; make it ready for us to eat the Passover. This message had followed a question by the disciples, Lord, where do you want us to prepare for the Passover? During Passover, He spoke strange words. ‘With desire, I have desired, to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; one of you shall betray Me’: they had all queried, Lord is it I? Judas Iscariot asked same question and He said, it is you! And that did not stop Him from going ahead with his plan for he loved wanted the money. And the Lord said. the Son of man goeth as it is written of Him, but woe unto that man by whom He is betrayed, it would have been better for that man if he had not been born. Indicating by those words that all the disciples faced the temptation to betray Him, but others overcame the thought, while Iscariot fell for it. And now they sat in this room, Peter had denied Him, all others had fled for fear of apprehension, and now they sat, wondering what was become of their Lord. He hung on the cross, a cross that he had borne with the pain of stripes on his back, His hands being weary, He fell to the ground thrice while bearing His cross; the soldiers who beat him took pity and constrained a passer-by, one Simon of Cyrene, His name Simon, being a favored name of the Master, for it was He who named Simon, His disciple, Peter, but yet still called Him Simon at times.

He hung on the cross with criminals, He died cursed, for cursed is He that hangeth upon a tree was a vision that prophets had seen many centuries before; His blood dripped all over the place on the way to Calvary, the blood marked the ground, and on the cross, it flowed continually, from His head, His hands, His feet. He had no beauty that we should desire Him, smitten of God for the sins of men, He cried, why has Thou forsaken Me; yet it pleased God to bruise Him. He was crucified for claiming to be ‘the Son of God’, which expression, the Pharisees correctly understood to mean: One who is equal with God – they called it blasphemy and declared that He was thus, worthy of death. They nailed Him to the cross, or better still, He nailed ‘it’ to His cross; it; what is ‘it’? The book of Galatians answers; He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances; why did He blot them out? Those handwriting of ordinances were against us, ‘us’; who is us? Us, the redeemed, they were not only against us, they were contrary to us; so He took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross; thus while the soldiers thought they were nailing Him to the cross, He was actually nailing ‘it’ to His cross. Now, we are redeemed, Job prophesied that the Redeemer was to come, Paul said, in Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins; and Peter said, we were redeemed with the precious blood of the lamb. Three days after, He rose from the dead, Hallelujah! Historians, since the day of Jesus to this present day have never been able to come up with a shred of evidence that the body of Jesus was found somewhere, not even the haters of Jesus then and now have been able to discredit the Bible’s claim that Jesus rose. He left an empty tomb. An Ethiopian government official, from Africa, got redeemed after His resurrection, in Acts; a Roman general, Cornelius, was redeemed, translated; saved. Asia had its peoples translated as shown in Revelation. Parts of Europe were shaken with redemption power and now on your door, the Redeemer stands and knocks, waiting to include you in his kingdom. Truly, this is redemption, the story of redemption, Redemption Story!

He chose 12 disciples and expected them to take His message to the whole world, Himself made no effort to cover the world, He chose mainly, the uneducated; He made no effort to help them go round the world while He walked the earth with all the power that He had; then suddenly after His resurrection; in a day when there was no internet, no computers, no telephones or television; He said, go into all the world, go ye therefore and teach all nations and be witnesses unto Me unto the ends of the earth! And here you are reading Translated; Amazing. Jesus truly is Lord. And as you read, Revelation says, Jesus is knocking, He stands at the door, the door of your heart, as He knocks, He also raises His voice, He says, I love you, I want to come in, hear My voice and open the door. Now your heart beats faster, you are wondering: should I give my life to Jesus? What if my life doesn’t change dramatically after I do? Will I be able to follow Jesus as His Word demands? What will my friends and acquaintances say, when they discover that I have joined the born again people? Should I do it now or wait until some more ‘appropriate’ time? I have been a really bad person, will Jesus accept me? What if I make mistakes after I come to Jesus? I have been a member of a church for so long, and I am ashamed to admit that I am yet unsaved; what should I do? Jesus however, is saying; leave your questions to Me, I am the Redeemer, I know just what to do, just open the door and let Me in; and you say, Lord, how do I open the door? He replies hastily with a smile, you open the door by opening your mouth; open your mouth with all sincerity, and confess the crux of the redemption story that you have now believed and I will walk right through the door into your heart. So now you cry out, taking any physical posture of your choice, you say; I confess with my mouth, what I believe in my heart,: that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead for me; and suddenly, the heavens flood your soul with peace inexplicable, you are saved, translated, redeemed, born again, It’s that simple. It’s the redemption story. And while you stand, thoroughly amazed by love so overwhelmingly unreserved, and by the gift of God which is eternal life; the Father calls for a celebration of your translation; He says to His angels, bring the best robe and put it on him, take my ring and slide it into her finger; for this My child was dead and is alive again, this My redeemed, was lost, but now is found, so let us celebrate. It’s the greatest story ever told: amazing story, timeless story, historical story, undisputable story, blessed story, proven story, true story, saving story, translating story; redemption story.

CHAPTER 3 WHO CAN BE TRANSLATED

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

ZACCHAEUS

1989 was a unique year for the city of Warri, in Southern Nigeria. It was that year that marked the beginning of a palpable revival in the body of Christ in the city, and that new wave of the Holy Spirit began after the great gospel campaign led by Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke and his Christ for All Nations ministries. I had been translated just a couple of years before then and the crusades held at a venue, some significant distance from my house. I had looked forward to the coming crusades, as advertisements bombarded the television, radio stations and the streets of Warri and its adjoining towns and cities; but somehow, I never made up my mind about attending the crusades. Anyhow, the crusades held, and a few months after then, I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, and began to realize that I enjoyed preaching a lot – consequently, I spent most of my break periods in secondary or high school, preaching to fellow students, either in groups or to individuals. Then there was another kind of preaching that I enjoyed – I enjoyed preaching to myself! Yes, I preached to myself almost daily. I used to walk some 1.5 kilometers to school every day; and as I walked, I would preach to myself as though I was preaching to a large group of people, I talked loud enough to hear myself. More often than not, I was preaching from an audio tape I had listened to, the tape was given to me by a fellow born again student at my school, and I had promptly made a recording of it for myself. The title of the message was, ‘The Danger of Compromise’ by R. W. Schambach. I would adjust my accent to sound exactly as he sounded in the tape, and ensured that I employed the same pitch and pauses as he did. I began to realize that I was called to be a preacher, because in addition; I did a third kind of preaching to myself. I preached to myself opposite the mirror and admired myself as I preached; and every time I got a new shirt, wrist watch or shoe; I would wear it, stand in front of the mirror and preach The Danger of Compromise. Now I certainly knew that I was called to preach; but what kind of preaching? In those days, there was something happening in churches that I did not like – if anyone demonstrated a good preaching ability, he was persuaded by church members to apply to be trained to become a pastor; I didn’t like it because from my limited understanding of the scriptures at the time, I could see that not every good preacher was a pastor, and added to that, I did not at all like the idea of being a pastor, I didn’t fancy preaching to the same set of people Sunday after Sunday.

I liked the adventure of preaching to different sets of people at different locations at different times – numbers did not deter me, the stranger the faces, the happier I got; the greater the numbers, the bolder I became, and the more prior knowledge I had that some of the people may not be born again even though they attended church regularly, the more I rejoiced. For I always found a way to add the message of salvation to every topic I was asked to preach. If I was given 45 minutes to preach on prayer or stewardship for instance, I would spend about 30 minutes on the topic, spend 10 minutes connecting it to the salvation message, and spend the remaining time to make a passionate plea for people to come to Christ, and when I got responses, I greatly rejoiced. While I wondered what kind of preacher I would be and while church members actively explained to me why I needed to be trained to become a pastor, I got another tape - a series of tapes actually, about five audio tapes: they were the recordings of the messages Evangelist Bonnke had preached in his Warri crusade, and once I began listening to those tapes, my question was answered, I wanted to be a preacher like Reinhard Bonnke, an Evangelist. In one of the tapes, my mentor, Bonnke, preached on the theme of restitution using the story of Zacchaeus, he told the story so uniquely that it seems good to the Holy Ghost and to me to repeat it here. Zacchaeus was a tax collector, and he was a very small man, some people are small people but they are big crooks, and Zachaeus was such a man, the Bible says that he was a crook. Zacchaeus worked for the Roman government of Israel as a Tax Collector and he was a very rich man. His wife was a tailor and she made special trousers for him, the trousers she made had two big pockets and every day when he sat at his tax collector’s desk he put money in both pockets.

Whenever someone came to pay their taxes, Zacchaeus would inflate the actual figure by a hundred percent: if the tax payer was supposed to pay $100 according to their income level, he would say, your tax is $200; $100 for the government and the other $100 for himself. Then when the tax payer left, he would put $100 in one of his special pockets and the balance in the other. When it was time to close from work, he would put the money in one pocket into the government’s treasury and take the contents of the other pocket home. This was what he did over and over. Consequently, he was a very rich man; yes he was a rich thief. However, he did not have any peace despite his wealth, oh how he wished that peace could be bought with money so that he could simply pay for it and be at peace at last. At nights, he would lose sleep, troubled in his mind and devoid of peace. One day, Zacchaeus was at his desk and there came a man to pay his tax, the man was supposed to pay $200, Zacchaeus said your money is $400, as the man pulled out his wallet to count the tax money to give to him, the man began to talk, the man said, they say Jesus is coming to this city today,(Zacchaeus was simply uninterested and disgusted, the man was a time waster, Zachaues thought to himself, he should just pay the money and go away),the man continued, they say Jesus is a miracle worker, I heard that Jesus is the Son of God, and they say that Jesus can give peace. When Zacchaeus heard it, when he heard peace, he jumped up, he said did you really say peace? Can Jesus give peace? The man said, yes, Jesus can give peace and as a matter of fact, many people already have this peace that Jesus gives; Zacchaeus exclaimed, how much does He charge? The man said, Jesus doesn’t charge any money, the peace of God is free of charge! Zacchaeus said I cannot let Him pass, I must see this Jesus. Now recall that he was a very short man, he wanted to see Jesus but could not because the crowds pressed upon Him as He walked into the city, and everybody in the crowd was taller than Zacchaeus, As he wondered what to do, suddenly an idea struck him, he knew that there was only one road that led into the city, If I run ahead of the crowds, I can climb unto a tree and wait there until Jesus reaches my tree, then I can ask him for peace. Brilliant Idea! he exclaimed, and he hit the road running, away he ran from his money desk.

Now he was already on a tree and there he waited patiently. After quite some time he began to wonder whether Jesus had stopped somewhere or had made a u-turn and left the city, and he began to feel depressed, suddenly, in the distance, there was the crowd and he could see Jesus in the midst of them, his heart pounded, how would he talk to Jesus, would Jesus have time to talk to a man like him? Thoughts swirled in his head, then Jesus began to get really close to the tree where he had been waiting, and Jesus kept walking, Zacchaeus, freezing with fear could not utter a word, and now Jesus was almost directly under his tree, Zacchaeus feared that his chance to get the peace Jesus gives was flying away before his eyes. Suddenly, Jesus stopped walking and stood still under the tree and the crowds stood with Him, wondering what the Master was up to, then Jesus suddenly spoke and said ‘Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, today, I must abide at thy house’. Zacchaeus could not believe his ears, quickly, he descended from the tree and Jesus motioned for him to lead the way to his house; and he walked with Jesus and his disciples! Wow!  As they went, a sudden strange thought struck Zacchaeus, he thought to himself, wait a minute; Jesus has never met me before, and his disciples have never met me before, but when Jesus stood under my tree, He, did not say, hey! you, behind the leaves, on the tree, come down. Jesus called me by my name; how did He know my name? As he pondered that question in his heart, he suddenly lifted up his head and realized they were almost at his house; all through the walk, Jesus never spoke another word apart from that which He had spoken under the tree , ‘Zachaeus, make haste and come down, today, I must abide in thy house’. He pulled out the key to the entrance of his house, it was a special key, made of gold, for he was very rich, he opened the door and asked Jesus to please come in, the disciples of  course went in with Him while the crowds waited in the vast grounds of Zacchaeus’ estate.

Now all fourteen of them were seated in Zacchaeus’ living room, which smelled of extreme wealth. ‘I read the scripture passage over and over, Reinhard Bonnke explained, because I thought, surely I must have missed it, but no I did not miss anything, Jesus didn’t preach to him, Jesus just sat there opposite him and continually smiled at him’. Suddenly, another thought struck Zacchaeus; first of all, he recalled how he had marveled that Jesus who never met him before, had addressed him by his name; now he began to think to himself. If Jesus knew my name without anybody telling Him, then He must know that everything in this house, including the chair on which he sits was bought by me with stolen money; suddenly Zacchaeus stood up and said, Lord, half of my property I shall distribute to the poor, and whatever I have taken from anybody by fraud, I shall return to him or her fourfold. Now Jesus spoke for the first time since He arrived at the house, ‘Today’, said the Lord, ‘Salvation is come to this house, as much as he is a child of Abraham’. There and then Zacchaeus was translated!

THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA

The scriptures did not mention her name, for the Holy Spirit whose Hand moved the holy men who wrote down the scriptures did not decide that her name was crucial to the message; but she was a woman, a woman of Samaria, and she had had five failed marriages! She recalls the day she met her first husband, it was love at first sight, or so she thought; within a week of meeting him, she knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, and by the end of that month, they were married. Then it happened, he began to use her for boxing practice and the blows were heavier whenever he was under the influence of his favorite alcoholic beverage; little wonder, the scripture lists drunkenness as a work of the flesh and plainly states that there is no space in the kingdom of heaven for those who do such things. After 10 months, she could not take it anymore – she filed for a divorce.

After vowing to steer clear of men for at least 2 years, she met this guy one evening after work, his eyes seemed to follow her everywhere she turned, and she couldn’t hide from the fact that she enjoyed his constant stare. Although she saw something in him that reminded her of her ex-husband, she told herself that she needed someone to love her and that she was tired of being alone anyway; however, she decided that she would not get married in a hurry this time. One evening, months after they met, in front of all her friends and his, on his birthday, he dropped on his knees and proposed, she thought it was poor timing, for she still wanted to know him a little bit more, but she did not want to embarrass him in front of his friends and hers, so she said yes, and before she knew what was happening, they were married the next week. Fifteen months later, she is all alone in her office and rubbing her left fourth finger along the lines where her wedding ring had called home. Her husband had left her 8 months after their wedding for another woman and she had just decided a few minutes ago that she was being foolish still wearing his wedding ring, hoping he’d come back to her. As she gazed into the floor, she heard the voice of her boss, he had been standing there a while now but she was so far away, she didn’t know there was anyone else in the world. Common woman, said her usually stern boss with a smile, are you still losing time over that loser you called a husband? Come, meet your new secretary, she stood there with a questioning look, and her boss queried, is something wrong? No sir, she replied, it’s just that I expected a woman, well sorry to disappoint you my dear. said her boss, but I can’t recall any part of the company policy that specifies that a secretary must be female. He looks younger than me, she thought to herself and she was right, his profile showed that she was three years older. They enjoyed working together. Growing up as a teenager, she had told herself that she could never fall for a guy younger than herself, but now, inexplicably, she was having feelings for this guy.

One morning, as she fantasized about throwing away the age restrictions she had placed on herself, she suddenly realized, someone else was in her office, it was him; sorry madam,. he apologized, but I have been struggling over my feelings for the past one year, he stammered on; I can’t keep quiet anymore, I think I’m in love with you but I have been afraid to tell you because I wanted to be sure the feeling is mutual, and now I think I have my answer. They got married that month as he had proposed to her the same day he made his feelings known, he was her soul mate; they stayed married for four years until she suddenly discovered, going through some of his personal stuff, that he had an unpardonable secret, and that was the end of that marriage. Her fourth husband; he was the weirdest of all, one minute, he was warm and loving, the other, he was cold and distant; she never really understood him, she could not tell what he wanted or what he loathed. He was some twenty years her senior, she thought to herself that she needed someone who’d be more mature and consequently more responsible, but she was wrong, he was worse than all three previous husbands – a heavy drinker, wife beater, a chronic womanizer. He filed for divorce when he met a younger woman. Her fifth husband was like a duplicate of the fourth; the only difference was that he always apologized after beating her up. Now she decided she did not want to get married anymore, she moved back to her home town of Samaria and hooked up with her teenage boyfriend who amazingly, had stayed unmarried when she had been married five times since the last time she saw him. Now he had gone off to work and she had enough water in the house to last for days, but she was bored, just thinking about how meaningless her life was and thought that a walk to the well would be harmless; so she grabbed her water containers and off she went; all the time on the way, she kept wondering, was it the men or me? Who was the problem? she pondered; finally, she concluded, that it was perhaps herself who was the problem – her poor decisions, her sorry choices, her lack of self-discovery; the list is endless. Arriving at the well, she saw Jesus sitting on the well but she did not know who He was, anyhow, she was sure He looked and dressed like a Jew.

Before she could even begin to draw water from the well, Jesus made a request, give me some water to drink, He says; beginning his conversation with her primary, physical, concern – water. The request was a shock to her, and she replied, how can you a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan to give you water? Surely, you must know that the Jews and Samaritans are not great friends. Now you would think that Jesus would address the matter of the absence of dealings between Jews and Samaritans, Jesus didn’t; he already taught a great lesson to her and us by asking for water from her. Instead, He went for another lesson, He says, if you knew, had any knowledge of, or are acquainted with the gift of God, you surely, without a doubt, would have asked Him for water instead, and He in return, would have given you living water. Now, the woman is stunned, she wondered what kind of man He was whom she has just met. First, He sits on the well, then He asked for water from a total stranger, and an enemy of His people, the Jews; He does not get the water he requested for and He seemed uninterested in getting it, instead, He speaks strangely of living water. Now, she is even more curious, she replies, Sir, the well is deep, and I have looked at Your Hand and around You and I do not see a bucket for fetching water here besides my own, so if you do not have the tool for bringing out water from the well, where on earth will you get this living water that You so freely speak of? And she followed that question with another; are you trying to make the unthinkable claim that you are greater than our Father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself? Jesus, confounded her even further, He does not talk about Jacob, neither did He bother to respond to the query about the absence of His well bucket, He stuck to His living water talk – He says, anyone who drinks from this water, from this well, will be thirsty again, but the one who drinks from the water that I give, will never thirst again, but the water that I give him or her shall be a well of water, springing forth into everlasting life.

Now the woman wants His water, but she was yet to fully understand it, She said, Sir, please give me this living water, so that I do not thirst anymore and so that I save myself the trouble of coming to this well over and over. Jesus was impressed by the progress the woman had made with her thoughts: from being angry that a Jew dared ask water from her, to bringing in Jacob into the discussion, to wondering about His living water, to wanting to taste the living water. So Jesus moved to the next step, now He moved to deal with her issue, He said, I want to meet your husband, go and call your husband; She said, I have no husband, Jesus said, I am impressed with your honesty, truly you have no husband and the man you now live with isn’t your husband either - you have had five husbands!

The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship, ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. The woman said, I am aware that there is a promised Messiah, God through His prophets has promised to send us a Messiah and I also know that when that Messiah comes, He will tell us all things; Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee, am He; and she left her water pots and running into the city, she told everyone who cared to listen, come meet a man who told me my whole life story as though He had lived every minute of my years with me, surely this is the Messiah; and she was translated!

THE THIEF ON THE CROSS

It was no strange sight for criminals to be hanging on a cross, crucified by the Romans who ruled the world at the time. That is why Jesus was born during the time of the Roman Empire, for the prophets had prophesied that the Messiah, will hang on a cross; so all this was done that the scriptures might be fulfilled. Like any other thief, this one had known for some time that he would be crucified, for he had been in prison a while, but that was not the beginning of his knowing. While he was stealing and enjoying the life of a thief, he had known that apprehension was equivalent to death, but he had probably told himself that he would never be caught, but he was. Now, he hung on the cross and like many humans, who during most of their lifetimes deny the reality of life after death, it had begun to dawn on him, that the nearness of death did not feel like the end, his thoughts bothered him, he feared there was life, real life, a life more real than the one he was leaving awaited. He felt handicapped; he did not know what to do about it. Deep on the inside of him, he felt lost, permanently lost, for besides the pain of the nails in his hands and feet, he felt a deep valley in his heart – death was standing at the door and beckoning to him to come over to the beginning of eternity, and he feared greatly that the pain he now felt on the cross would be nothing compared to the pain he would see on the other side. In the middle of his deep thoughts, there was a distraction; his fellow thief was running his mouth at the man in the middle; he had been so carried away with his own misery that he did not notice who was in the middle between him and the other thief. It was Him, Jesus of Nazareth, he had heard about this man preaching and healing the sick while he stole, but he had never paid attention to His message.

Now, he grabbed his opportunity, he promptly rebuked his fellow for his foolishness, for the other had said, if Thou be the Messiah, save thyself and us. The wise thief, thus declared: Lord, remembers me when Thou comest into thy Kingdom, and the Master spoke these everlasting words. Today, thou shalt be with me in Paradise’. The thief was translated, his name promptly written in the book of life. Jesus did not say, why did you defend me, what is your name, why should I remember you, what good have you done that should make Me remember you? He simply said, ‘Today, thou shalt be with me in Paradise’. Translation or salvation is not about what you have done, it is about what He did on the cross; it is not about doing what is right to be saved, it is about accepting what is right to be saved; what is right, is the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Salvation is not about not doing what is wrong, it is about doing what is right after you have been translated because of gratitude for what Christ did on the cross, that right living, a product of gratitude, is called holiness, and the Bible says without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. You ask, is this right living compulsory? I answer, absolutely! It is an obligation. So what is this right living? You query, and I reply; simple obedience to the Word of God. Actually you can’t help it, once you become born again, you discover that you have a deep desire to please God; 2 Corinthians 5:17 . The more time you spend with the Master, the more of His Word you will uncover, and the more Word you learn, the more you will grow in that obedience, but what happens when I do wrong even though I always seek to do right? Becomes your next question, and I say  from the scriptures, These things I write unto you that ye sin not, but if we sin, we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, the Righteous; and if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness

The Holy Spirit helps the believer in this obedience. He makes it easy, He makes it possible, He makes it enjoyable, He makes it beautiful. Back to the thieves on their crosses; that picture is God’s great illustration for redemption. One half of humanity on His left and the other on his right; both deserving to die physically and be permanently lost spiritually; one mocked Him, the other confessed Him; one was translated, the other was lost forever – that never changes! People die every minute, over 100 people die every minute of every day in the world. Those who have rejected and mocked the Messiah, Jesus Christ, die; and those who have accepted and confessed Jesus also die. Death is inevitable; be ready, be translated.

THREE THOUSAND

It was the day of Pentecost, the disciples had been waiting for the promise of the Master; He promised them power with the coming of His Holy Spirit; He had not specified a day when the promise would be fulfilled, He told them to wait till power came. Now, He chose to pour out His Spirit on the day of Pentecost when Jerusalem was filled with people from all over the world. Suddenly a crowd was gathered, as they had heard the disciples, 120 disciples, speaking in tongues and many in the crowd were amazed to hear them speak their own languages which they obviously had not learned, others mocked, saying these men and women are drunk. Peter stood and preached a hot crusade message, the people were pricked in their hearts, they asked for a way out of darkness, Peter said, repent and be converted; and three thousand people were translated that day, How beautiful!

FIVE THOUSAND

Peter and John had healed a man lame from his mother’s womb at the gate that was called beautiful; and grabbing the opportunity as the crowd of people in and around the temple marveled at this notable miracle; Peter preached another crusade message; connecting Abraham and the prophets to the Christ and His crucifixion and resurrection; and many of those who heard the Word of God, having seen the miracle performed in the name of the risen Christ, believed and they were about five thousand translated on that day.

ONE MILLION IN A REINHARD BONNKE CRUSADE

In December 1999,1,110,267 people were translated in Reinhard Bonnke crusades in Port Harcourt, Nigeria; one year later in Lagos, Nigeria, 3,461,171 people were saved during Reinhard Bonnke Gospel Campaign. This information was retrieved from Christ for all Nations’ Harvest of Joy 2012.

YOU!

Yes you, the reader can be translated. For Zacchaeus, it was money problem, he loved money and wanted to grab as much as he could for himself, thus, abusing his office as a government employee, he defrauded people, not being satisfied with his wages; to him, Jesus said, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house; and he made haste and came down and Jesus said, today salvation, translation, has come to this house! But first, Zacchaeus, sought to see Jesus, then he defied the crowds and ran, and climbed and waited, expecting to be spotted by the Master, and he was. Then he repented, Lord, he said, everything I have taken from any man by fraud, I restore to them fourfold, and I’ll give the half of my possessions to the poor, some of whom I have defrauded, and then I will follow you on a clean slate! For the woman of Samaria, it was failed marriages – she said I know that a Messiah has to be there somewhere who can save me, wash me, transform me and give meaning to my meaningless life; Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto you, I am the Messiah; and she said come and see a man who told me everything that I ever did in my life, surely, this is the Messiah, and she was translated, saved, redeemed! The thief on the cross knew that his time was short, he had at the most, hours before death, he grabbed the opportunity to speak when his fellow had spoken with mockery as many in the world today speak ill of the Savior; he said Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom, and Jesus said, today, you will be with Me in paradise. Paradise? Yes! Jesus used that word for the first and only time on His cross (His next use of it is in Revelation 2:7); how fitting! Paradise. Yes paradise; today, not tomorrow; you, not someone else; you will be with Me in paradise.

For the three thousand people on the day of Pentecost, they heard the words, this Jesus who was crucified, whom God raised from the dead, is both Lord and Christ, and their hearts nagged them, godly sorrow, overcame their Godless hearts, their hearts pounded, they yearned for a change, they felt their hearts turning towards repentance and faith in Christ, and they said, men and brethren, what shall we do, and Apostle Peter said, repent ye therefore and be baptized everyone of you. Everyone is welcome. In Acts 4, we read, Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and many of them that heard the word, believed and they were about five thousand. One Million people got saved in a Reinhard Bonnke crusade; now it is your turn to be translated. You can be translated, yes you, who is holding this booklet and reading it – translation was designed for you. God has you in mind.

Pray this prayer, say the words loud and clear; kneel if you can, raise your hands if you will, read it out with all sincerity and belief in the sacrifice on the cross and the resurrection of victory and you will be translated.

THE SINNER’S PRAYER FOR TRANSLATION

Lord Jesus

I come to you today

I realize that I am a Sinner

I need your salvation

Jesus Christ

Son of the Living God

Wash me with your precious blood

Father

I thank you for giving Jesus Christ

To die on the cross for my sins

I confess with my mouth

What I believe in my heart

Jesus Christ is now my Savior

I confess that Jesus Christ rose from the dead

I receive power to become a child of the King

Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God is now my Lord

My name is now being written in the book of life

I am now born again

Thank You for Your love

In Jesus name - Amen

CHAPTER 4 THE KINGDOM OF HIS DEAR SON

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. Colossians 1:13

Many years ago, I read a little pamphlet, but I cannot now recall the title thereof, there is however a story in that pamphlet that has stayed with me for so long. There was a little church in some corner, somewhere in the world, the pastor of the church was always in the church building every day; praying, reading, studying, meditating or doing some other service; and there was an old man, a member of the church, who always came to the church by the same time every day to pray. His prayer was the same every time, he said the same words, and the words were: ‘Lord, it is Jim’ – Jim was the name of the old man. He never stayed for long; he always had a smile  of anticipation while going in, and was always smiling with satisfaction in his face as he left. One day, the old man took ill and could not make it to the church; the pastor having received information that Jim was ill, prepared to go visit Jim in hospital. The Reverend gentle man had missed the company of Jim that day, for although Jim rarely spoke to him when he came for his 12 noon simple prayer, the pastor had become fond of Jim and looked forward to someone else in and around the church building every 12 noon. The pastor got to the bedside of Jim and was impressed to see a handful of his church members forming a C by the bed of Jim; promptly joining them with a smile, the pastor nodded to acknowledge their hospitality. Jim raised his head and saw the look in the faces of his fellow believers; it was obvious they feared that at Jim’s age, death was probably at the door.

As the pastor cleared his throat to say words, Jim politely interrupted him, don’t worry pastor and my beloved brethren: I am fine, I think that I’ll be going home to the Lord soon, the pastor leaned forward in curiosity, and Jim continued, you see, by 12 noon today, before all of you came, the Lord Jesus appeared to me and He spoke one sentence, He said, ‘Jim, it is Jesus’; He held my hand, smiled at me and then He left. By the next day’s visiting time of 2 pm, the pastor went back to the hospital and the Doctor said, Jim is gone: he began smiling in his sleep at exactly 12 noon and before I could move closer to see what it was, he was gone! Lord, it is Jim; Jim, it is Jesus!  The kingdom of His dear Son is built on a foundation of personal relationship, and I am coming back to deal with that matter of no small significance in a moment. First, some fundamentals.

The first time the word kingdom appeared in the scriptures is in Exodus 19:6, And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. The children of Israel could not experience this blessed promise; the kingdom of priests - a kingdom where every citizen is a priest, only became a reality after the death and resurrection of Jesus. As Revelation displays, He made us priests and kings! One day, Jesus was praying, and the disciples observed Him; it was not the first time they had seen Him praying, however, this time, they decided that they could not continue to be observers; they wanted to move from observation to participation. So they waited as the Lord prayed, then something began to happen – they knew that every time the Lord Jesus prayed, He seemed to glow with the radiance of heaven when He was done and of course miracles happened when He came down from His prayer mountain; but today, they observed that as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered; and when He was done, Peter and co had had enough, and they immediately made their request, ‘Lord, teach us to pray’, they demanded. Amazingly, Jesus did not say, why do you want to learn to pray? It is also interesting to observe that Jesus did not teach the disciples to pray that prayer, until they asked Him to teach them. The Lord said unto them, When ye pray, say our Father…and He mentioned the word Kingdom twice in the prayer, first, Thy kingdom come and second, For Thine is the kingdom. The expression, Thine is the Kingdom, appeared in the scriptures for the first time in 1 Chronicles 29:11; Thine, O Lord is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. However, like I said before, the word kingdom surfaces in the scriptures for the first time in Exodus 19:6, And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And it is quite intriguing that the phrase reads; a kingdom of priests – a kingdom where everyone is a priest; Amazing. This promise was never fulfilled because the hearers did not keep their end of the covenant; for the Lord God had said unto them, If you will obey My voice indeed and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me for all the earth is Mine and after that He said And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.

Gloriously, this promise is a reality in the New Testament, for Revelation 1, indicates that Jesus by His death and resurrection has made us priests and Kings unto God. In the Book of John, the Lord Jesus used the phrases the kingdom of God and my Kingdom interchangeably – while talking to Nicodemus, He used the expression the kingdom of God twice, and in John 18: 36, He used the expression My kingdom three times in the same verse, So in all, the word kingdom, occurs five times in John. In contrast, the word kingdom occurs 46 times in Luke; in Mark, the word appears 21 times; and Matthew uses the term kingdom 53 times. The book of Psalms gives us some unique insights about the kingdom: Psalm 22:28; For the kingdom is the Lord's: and He is the Governor among the nations. Psalm 45:6; Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right scepter. Psalm 103:19; The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens; and His kingdom ruleth over all. Psalm 145:11; They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom, and talk of Thy power. Now, we get back to the passage from whence Translated was taken: Colossians 1:13; Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. It seems good to the Holy Ghost and to me to break the verse down into words and phrases. So we begin thus:

Who

Who? The Father, God the Father is the Translator. Colossians 1:12 says. Giving thanks unto the Father Which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Verse 13, our text for this book, is a continuation of verse 12. No man can come to Jesus, except the Father draws him.

Hath

He hath, He has done it; but that is for those who have either been saved, translated, before reading this book, or have now become saved during the reading of this book up to this point. Yes, people reading this book can be saved at any stage. Some will be saved by just reading the first few words in chapter 1; and find themselves being drawn to confess Jesus. You see, salvation is the Handiwork of the Spirit of grace and He can do it anytime, without consultation with anyone! For no man can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. For those who are yet to be translated, you will be before you finish reading this chapter!

Delivered

This is the first thing the Father did. He delivered. He broke the power of sin and satan. Before translation, men and women are bound, in bondage to sin, unable to cut themselves loose, sometimes wanting to come out but unable, sometimes enjoying the life of sin that will definitely destroy them. So Jesus came to create a new order, His sacrifice on the cross ensures that deliverance becomes available to all who come to Him. Now when the Father delivers, He delivers; He delivers by the power of His Word through His Spirit

Us

All who have confessed Jesus as Lord, whether in the English Language or in their own language, in a church service or in a crusade, in hotel rooms or in bedrooms, in offices, or at construction sites, in brothels or on street corners, in government houses or in schools, alone or with others; in the market place or in the middle of a robbery (whether they be robbers or victims),in prison or in a party, in Hollywood or in a sports arena. Confession is made unto salvation. All those who have confessed with their mouths, the Lord Jesus and have believed in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead are saved, translated, redeemed. Now that is us!

From

The Father delivered us from what? The next phrase answers that question

The power of darkness

What is the power of darkness? The book of Corinthians answers: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them.

And

And is a conjunction, it joins what has been said to what is about to be said. If God delivered us and left us there, it will amount to nothing, the power of darkness would climb back in and over us, so He did something glorious

Hath

This glorious thing, He hath done is the subject of this body of knowledge and is next.

Translated us

He transferred us, re-positioned us; He has given us a place, He has given us our place, He elevated us, He established us, He relocated us.

Into

Destination. He gave us a destination which brings us into the title of this chapter

The Kingdom of His dear Son

Jesus said, the kingdom of God, the Father says, the Kingdom of my dear Son. Jesus used the word interchangeably, sometimes He says the Kingdom of God, at other times, He says, My Kingdom. This teaching of Trinity is so important that the Lord is having me write another book on it, that is in addition to all the other books He has inspired others to write on the subject of the Holy Trinity; but for now, just know that God is Father, God is Son and God is Holy Spirit. I can safely, scripturally, declare; that you can never understand the full meaning of Christianity or enjoy the full benefits of it, if you do not relate to God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Let me also add that the Pharisees understood what many struggle to grasp today. Do a research for yourself, study the story of Jesus’ betrayal, trial and crucifixion; in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; and you will discover that the reason the Pharisees sought for the crucifixion of Jesus, was because, He claimed that He was the Son of God, an expression that every Pharisee understood to mean One who is equal with God. So, the Son of God does not equate to the son of a man. Those two statements are worlds apart. Now, what is the kingdom of His dear Son? Jesus is a King, heaven is the country; we, the translated, are His citizens, for our citizenship is in heaven. .Here on Earth, we represent the King - we are His Ambassadors; 2 Corinthians 5.20 When we complete our posting as Ambassadors, we return to our country, heaven. We do not die, we fall asleep and pass on to the other side. But now, we are here and the Word of our King is law, it is not open for debate, neither is it subject to private interpretation 2 Peter 1:20; and that explains why you see that believers, kingdom citizens, all over the world have the same convictions about the teachings of the Master, apart from the false prophets of course. So now, you are a new creature, old things have passed away and all things have become new. Now there are at least five things that I recommend that you do continually as a new citizen in the kingdom of God, of His dear Son.

Listen to the King

You must listen to the King daily. Read His Word, the Bible, every day; at least twice a day – first thing in the morning and last thing before you go to bed. I recommend that you begin with the book of John, the third book of the New Testament. John focuses on what the King said about Himself; whilst Matthew, Mark and Luke, concentrate on what the King did. After John, I recommend the Book of James, which is the most practical Epistle. After James, take on Matthew, Mark and Luke; then read Proverbs.  You must also listen to your King in the fellowship of other believers: attend church at least twice a week, unless it is absolutely inevitable. If you are sick in your body and that may present a problem with attendance, I pray that the power of the King of kings, come upon you now and make you whole. The King has something to say about everything: your work, your home, your decisions, your associations, your academics, your strengths, your weaknesses, your leisure, your citizenship in his kingdom –everything!

Talk to your King

Listening is one thing, talking is another; when you read your Bible, God talks to you, and when you pray, you talk to God. Pray to Him about

everything: small things, big things, difficult things, easy things, fine things, rough things, secret things, open things, your family, your work, business, your academics, your career, your desire to know Him more. Never stop praying, pray without ceasing. I recommend that prayer follow listening.

Talk for your King

When you read your Bible, the King talks to you; when you pray, you talk to the King, and when you tell others about your King and His Kingdom, you talk for your King. Everyone you talk to might not respond positively, but never stop talking for your King. Talk for Him and about Him on social media, on the phone, in the office, in public places, in secret corners. Talk everywhere. Be His witness.

Be filled with the Holy Spirit of your King

Then you need to be filled with the Spirit. Get on your knees now and ask Jesus to fill you with His Spirit; be sincere, sing a gospel song or hymn that lifts your spirit, anticipate a rising of waters in your belly; those waters will flow out of your mouth, and you will find yourself speaking in a new language. That is one way to be baptized in the Spirit, but there is another: someone who is much stronger than you in the pursuit of the King, a minister or spiritual model, can lay their hands on you as in Acts 19, and you will be filled with the Spirit and you will speak in new tongues. Now, this filling of the Spirit, takes talking to the King to the advanced level; the Spirit will initiate you into His communion as you expect and desire it, and you will be able to talk to Him about anything, just as the disciples talked to Jesus about everything when He was here on earth. Then you will begin to understand why we say, ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with us forever’. Start by talking to the Holy Spirit about something relatively small and ordinary, keep talking, even if He doesn’t seem to talk back; then suddenly, He will reply your statement or question, and communion will be born and will never end, all of your days.

Beware of the deceivers, the enemies of your King

There are many churches, which should you join and which should you leave now that you have been saved? Watch out for these words:

Born again                            Discipleship                            Sin                                           Righteousness

Faithfulness                            Correction                            Rebuke                            Commandment

Everlasting life                            Life after death              Flesh                            Sanctification

Holiness                                          Witnesses                                          Repent                            Hypocrisy

Iniquity              Defiling                                          Beware                            Judgment

Sacrifice                                          The last days                            End times              Disobedience

Heaven                                          Hell                                                        Crucified                            Obedience

Stewardship              Eternity                                          Justification              Fornication

Uncleanness              Obedience                            Adultery                            Redemption

Kingdom                Second coming                            Pluck it out              Cut it off

I don’t care how good a pastor/preacher looks, how nice they talk, how many PhD’s they’ve got ;or how large their followership is; If they never use these words or words like these, if they do not constantly call people to give their lives to Christ, if they never call backsliders to return to the Lord, if they never preach against sin, if they never talk about the second coming of the Lord Jesus, if they do not correct people, if they do not rebuke wrong doing, if they never teach on holiness; then you must walk away from there and join another church. It doesn’t matter how many times they refer to the name of Jesus when they preach or pray; if they never use those words, they are preaching another gospel.

It doesn’t matter how many times they read the Bible, if they never use those words when they explain the Bible; they are preaching another gospel - escape for your life. Someone may say, why should I care if my pastor uses these words? The answer is simple; these words are the preferred words of Jesus. Just embark on a journey through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and you will see Him using those words or the synonyms of those words over and over again. So how can a preacher claim to be a follower of Jesus, and to be preaching for Jesus but yet make special effort to avoid using the favorite words of the Master?

The scriptures recommend a test of spirits that is a summary of what we have highlighted above, this is it; Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. 1 John 4:2-3. Now, here is a very straightforward, Spirit inspired explanation of these two verses:                                                                                                         Every preacher/pastor/prophet/evangelist/apostle, that agrees and believes and therefore confesses and declares constantly with their mouths that Jesus Christ is the only Savior, and the only way to God, and that He is equal with the Father and the Spirit; and confesses that this Jesus is actually God who came to earth in the flesh as man, is of God. Conversely, any spirit that confesses that Jesus is a good man, a prophet, who actually died on the cross but confesses that it is not possible that He is God because it is unrealistic to expect that God would come down as a man, is not of God. This second spirit, is the spirit of the antichrist (the spirit that opposes the Spirit of Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the God of all the earth); this spirit is not of God! Watch out!

CHAPTER 5 HOW TRANSLATED WAS WRITTEN

And the Lord answered me, and said, write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. Habakuk 2:2

In 1993, I was the Youth-week Pastor in the church where I had been translated: you see, there was this practice in my church in those days – once every year, the church leadership would hand over its core roles and responsibilities to the Youths of the church (Youths were defined as young men and women between the ages of 17 and 40 years old).Before, I became the Youth-week Pastor, my Father in the Lord, only allowed older men in the Youth Fellowship to be brought up as Youth-week Pastors (men who were already married) – it was the custom to allow the youths pick a pastor for the year by a majority vote: I never got the chance to ask him why, although I had my guess but I was sure he had good reason, – for he was a very genuine man of God, he still stands as the best pastor I have ever had. Anyhow, the pastor was becoming old and nearing retirement, so he brought in a younger pastor as his Associate to whom he eventually handed over the leadership of the church after the Youth-week of 1992.

At this time I was already baptized in the Spirit: the Bible speaks about two chief baptisms – baptism in water and baptism of the Holy Spirit. Water baptism, as you may already know, is done in a body of water; and the Lord Jesus Christ authorized the leaders of the church to administer this baptism. After His resurrection, addressing His Disciples, He said in Matthew 28: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Jesus Himself set an example for us by allowing Himself to be baptized by John the Baptist (the first man commissioned by God to baptize people).

The Bible says, And they were baptized of him (John, the Baptist), in the Jordan, confessing their sins; Matthew 3:6. The second baptism, is called the baptism in the Holy Spirit; Jesus could not be baptized in the Holy Spirit because it is Him who baptizes us in the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah! However, the Spirit did come on Him without measure. John the Baptist, who was the first to refer to the term, “baptism with the Holy Spirit”, declared:: I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. So in 1990, I was baptized in the Holy Ghost. I was edging close to the end of my secondary or high school education in Hussey College, Warri, Nigeria; and there were two Christian groups in the school at the time. A few months ago, I was a member of none; now I was a member of both. I had been born again for some years before then, but I did not join either of the groups because their “mode” of prayer turned me off. In my church, when we prayed, it was a solemn occasion – someone led in the prayer, and everyone focused on the God of heaven in their hearts and echoed a resounding Amen at the end of prayer. By the way, Amen means: so shall it be, let it be done, I agree, and I believe; but Amen is also one of the Names of our Lord Jesus Christ: Revelation 3:14 calls Him, The Amen! The foundation for the kind of prayer we prayed in our church is found in Habakuk 2:20, But the Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him.

So when I walked past the meeting place of the SU(Student Union) and SCM (Student Christian Movement),I would say to myself, “My God is not a deaf God, you don’t have to shout before He hears you”. So I joined neither. However, my mother began to encourage me to join the groups, she had discovered that some very God-fearing boys in her church were all members of the groups at my school, some were members of the executive committees – I was extremely reluctant at first but one day, I said, ‘let me see what is going on there besides the noise making that they call prayer’. From the first day I stepped in, I knew God was the one calling me in there. There were four dynamic boys at the helm of this combined fellowship: Mowoe, the President of Scripture Union, had a special grace to teach on prayer, when he raised his hand as he preached, you would sense God’s presence. Jarikre, was an expert in teaching about deliverance from the power and wiles of the devil; Henry, taught about the Holy Spirit as though he was the head of a Bible School on the Holy Spirit and Charles Adoghor, whom God led me to specifically after I joined, was like a general overseer; he taught and preached about all subjects with grace, seasoned with salt. In 1990, Charles laid his hands upon me as was the pattern to receive the Holy Ghost in Acts of the Apostles, and I was filled with the Holy Spirit. I came to realize that there was another kind of prayer in the Bible – a noisy prayer; in Acts 4:23 - 24: After they were permitted to go, [the apostles] returned to their own [company] and told all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. And when they heard it, lifted their voices together with one united mind to God” (Amplified Bible).

Now, my new pastor had approved my name as the youth-week Pastor for 1993, the youngest since the church was founded. As I prayed, I sought God’s guidance for the topics of the Sunday messages (there were usually two services – morning and evening services).His mercy brought exactly two. On Sunday morning I was to speak on the Mixt Multitude, and in the evening, the topic was Prayer Power. The morning service was terrific, and I did what I enjoy doing most whenever I preached, I led people to give their lives to Christ so that they could experience translation. In the evening, there was ‘holy chaos’ to borrow the words of my mentor for ministry, Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke. I prayed for God’s mercy – miracles occurred and demons were cast out – the service was glorious; and the attendance to the evening service was the highest the church had recorded prior to that day. Many significant members of the church began to put pressure on me to enroll in the Bible School of my denomination so that I could become a pastor; for it was thought that if this young man could preach this good, then God must want him to be a pastor. However, I knew that although I enjoyed preaching, I did not like to become a pastor. I went to God in prayer and He told me with so much clarity, ‘I have called you to be an Evangelist’. Thus, I went to the University to study mechanical engineering, for God had told me that I was going to be a working evangelist – a professional and a preacher. He said ‘Your Bible model is Paul, the Apostle: he was a Tent Maker and an Apostle; you will be a Tent Maker (your professional career) and an Evangelist’.

Just before I rounded off my studies at the University, the Holy Spirit gave me the theme for my gospel crusades. From then on, I began to dream of holding crusades to win the lost for Christ. Let me tell you how we came about that end of a conversation. I was in my fifth and final year in the University of Benin, and I had been the vice president and president of my campus fellowship from my second to fourth year. Now I had the opportunity to preach my last message as a student in the University; and I gave it what I considered more than adequate preparation. I was a really good preacher in those days and the members of my fellowship came to fellowship with bags of expectations any Sunday when I was scheduled to preach. This day was no different, but something was different, the attendance was low: you see, we were in the middle of second semester examinations and some students feared the fail, if they spent as much as three hours away from their books in a Sunday fellowship; and I liked the crowds in those days, I still do. If I knew I was preaching to a small group, it wouldn’t have been a bother to me, but seeing 70% of the anticipated attendance made me discouraged. Then coupled with my over-preparation, I ended up preaching what I would say was the worst message I preached as

a student. O, I felt pain. I wanted it to be my best message at the University, now it was the worst. As I sat back in my chair, utterly discouraged, the Holy Spirit spoke to my spirit, ‘Don’t worry about it, you will preach this message over and over and over’. I said, ‘Sir, what do You mean?’ He replied, ‘You will call the name of your crusades, the title of this message!’ You see, I had picked the title of that ‘uneventful’ message in the place of prayer, not knowing that I had picked the theme for all of my crusades! How terrific. About three years before I began writing translated, He told me, ‘you will write a book that you will distribute to new converts after they have given their lives to Christ in crusades’; but He did not give me a title for the book, so I decided that when I was ready to write, I would pick a title. This instruction about writing the book came while I was watching a Billy Graham crusade classic, as Evangelist Billy Graham made the call for people to come to Christ, the choir behind him sang, ‘Just as I am without one plea’ ;suddenly I remembered a book that had been distributed to new converts in a Reinhard Bonnke crusade that I attended in Benin city, Nigeria in 1999, the book was  titled, ‘Now that you have been saved’.

I attended the crusade with a beloved brother; we were in our penultimate year at the University and were getting our Industrial Attachment at an oil and gas company in Warri, Nigeria, when news broke that Evangelist Bonnke was visiting Benin, an hour’s drive from Warri; we decided that we would not miss the 7-day crusade for engineering experience. Although we were already translated at the time; I wanted to attend to learn about how my mentor ran his crusades and my engineering course-mate, brother in Christ and friend, wanted to attend because of sheer hunger for spiritual growth. On 10 February 2013, I was in Church at the city of Port Harcourt in Nigeria, the praise team was leading the congregation in songs and I felt led to sit down – now it is very unusual for me to sit down during praise and worship: I like singing, it is my second favorite part of a service behind hearing the Word .Anyhow, I sat down and I heard Him say, “Write down the titles of the books I have told you to write”. I said, ‘Lord, all those titles are in my laptop and you know that, why do I have to write them in my diary?’ He didn’t reply; after a few seconds, he repeated His instruction.

So I began to write them down, but after the fourth title, I could not remember any more titles, and there were at least four titles left; I wondered, because I am usually very good at recalling things; I tried really hard, but I could remember no more titles, so I prayed, “Holy Spirit, Jesus said You would bring all things to my remembrance, please help me remember”. As I prayed, suddenly, I saw something, I saw a scripture that I had read many times but had not read for quite a while, this scripture flashed through something like an imaginary screen in front of the church, just behind the pulpit, and this was the scripture passage: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. As I gazed at the scripture on that invisible screen, something began to happen, the other words began to fade or disappear, and only one word was left; but as the other words were disappearing, this one word was becoming bigger, then that word in the scripture passage seemed to replace the other words and perhaps occupied the whole of the imaginary screen - the word was TRANSLATED.

This all happened very fast – it probably lasted for only a few seconds. As I wondered about this open vision, with the imaginary screen still in front of my spirit eyes, the Holy Spirit suddenly pronounced the word, it was like a whisper in my ear, He said, “Translated”, and I replied, ‘what do you mean by translated?’ At this time the vision made no meaning to me, then while I waited for the answer to my question, He said, ‘that is the title of the book that you will distribute regularly to new converts in your change crusades; so write it down as one of the titles of the books that you would write’. I was amazed. I felt so buoyant, I felt so light, I felt so loved, the heavens flooded my soul and I felt so wholesome in my heart. Three days after that experience in the service, the Holy Spirit said, ‘start writing Translated’, I needed to use my laptop, but my battery was bad and needed to be replaced and there was no electric power - It is normal for electricity to be abruptly cut off in my country, as a matter of fact, it is a daily occurrence. I said, ‘Lord, you know that I will need my laptop to write, but there is no electricity’, and the Spirit of the Lord said ‘Write on a paper’; so I picked up an A 3 paper as I could not find the set of A 4 papers I had kept somewhere a few days earlier. I remember searching for the A 4 papers and wondering where they were, I recalled that I had kept the papers just a few days before; so I kept looking, again, He said, ‘I said start writing Translated’, and I said, ‘yes, Lord, but I am looking for an A 4 paper’, then He replied ‘Who said you must write on an A 4; there is an A 3 paper on your table, write with that’. So finally I picked up my pen and I was ready to start, but I had no idea what to write first. He said ‘Start writing now, the first chapter should be titled, The story of My Translation. In this chapter, tell how you were translated’. And I thought to myself, how fitting. You see in 2012, when I did not have a title for this book, the Lord had given me the title of the last chapter – it was to be titled, Salvation testimonies of God’s Generals.

That title came to me when I was researching for my Dissertation or Thesis at the University of Liverpool, England, for my masters degree in Project Management; I had used interviews as a qualitative data gathering tool and I was able to secure an interview with one of the foremost expert in the world of Project Management – An American called Dr. Bob. After the completion of my thesis, and with that extra feeling of satisfaction, knowing that direct words of such an authority in project management is part of my work; thoughts began to flow in my heart; I said to myself, if I could grab an interview with such an enigma in project management for an academic research; how beautiful would it be for a new covert to pick up a wonderful book and be able to read the salvation stories of some of the leading ministers in the body of Christ from all over the world? Instantly, I knew that that would be the content of the last chapter, so I decided that I would research the salvation experiences of God’s generals .As is my custom, I shared my thoughts with my best friend, who was sitting by my side, I said, T - T is a special code name that I call my wife; I also call her Oseme (which in my dialect, means ‘mine’). So, I said, T, listen to the witness I just got from the Lord; and she in her characteristic manner, thought it was noble. Now my own testimony, said the Lord, should fittingly be at the beginning of the book. What a mighty God we serve! Anyhow, I continued writing on my A 3 paper, I had to write very fast because the words were flowing in my heart from the Spirit like the waters of a river. As I wrote, He gave me the titles of the remaining chapters, but unlike the first chapter, where He instantly told me what the chapter should contain, He did not do same for other chapters – He just gave the titles only. So I began wondering what the content of the chapter, Who Can Be Translated, would be, as I pondered about the contents of such a chapter, He said, “Zacchaeus, the Tax Collector, was translated, the woman of Samaria at the well, was translated, and the thief on the cross was translated – tell their stories”.

And after I had noted down those three stories, I began to try to think of a fourth Bible story that could fit in, because I felt that three stories were few, but I could not come up with any, so I thought to myself; I just need to think a little harder and from my knowledge of the scriptures, I will be able to come up with two more stories; but He said to me ‘You did not do any thinking to get the stories you have just written down, I gave them to you, now why do want to add to them by thinking?’ You see like many ministers, I had begun the ministry of the Word in that chapter by revelation but now I was tempted to complete it by doctrine; and I had fallen for the trap. However, mercy brought me back on track. I got the message and stopped the thinking process, then He said, “you cannot write everything about any title in one book”. And I thought to myself, how true! Sometime later, while I had my mind on unrelated issues, the Spirit said to me: ‘Three thousand were translated on the day of Pentecost, and later, another five thousand were translated in Acts of the Apostles; and hundreds of years later, in a Reinhard Bonnke crusade, 1 million people were translated, add those stories to the chapter on Who can be translated’.  Finally, a few days later, He said, the last part of the chapter titled, Who can be translated  should be You (referring to those who would read the book in the future). This episode about me beginning the chapter by inspiration and then trying to complete same by calculation, reminded me of two things. First, it brought the scriptures to my mind, where the Holy Spirit by the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians, He asked them a penetrating and lingering question, ‘O foolish Galatians, having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect in the flesh?. Isn’t it remarkable that the Spirit equates such actions with foolishness? Only God knows how many times that foolishness has overtaken me!

Secondly, it reminds me of a certain Sunday when I was in a service in some remote corner of the world: I cannot remember the name of the minister and I do not want to tell you either, and the name of the church where this happened is as irrelevant. Anyhow, a guest minister was invited to preach to the congregation – he came from another city. The message had started very beautifully rich – I could instantly perceive the presence of the Spirit immediately the preacher began ministering; and as he spoke, the level of the presence of God seemed to increase tremendously about every five minutes, I was having a time of refreshing in God’s presence. Suddenly after about 30 minutes of listening to that message, I observed that the exact opposite was happening, the presence of God seemed to decline continuously as the preacher continued, and I was bothered – in my characteristic manner, I began to pray for that servant of God, I said something like this, ‘Lord, your presence is just falling away, please Lord, restore it, don’t let this continue’; but my prayer brought no answer, so I switched from the intercessory mode to the learning mode. You see, before that time, many years ago; the Lord said to me, ‘when you sit in a service, you must have two ears, with one ear, you listen as my child to learn obedience; and with the other ear, you listen as a minister to learn from the strong points and weaknesses of your fellow ministers’. So I said, ‘Lord, what went wrong?’ He replied, the “I’s”. Then I realized that the preacher was using the word ‘I’ an alarming number of times; almost every two minutes, he said I did, I said, I, I, I... He did not make any effort after the I’s to point the glory to God, he seemed to enjoy the fact that he had done so many miracles and it was as though he wanted the congregation to be impressed by how powerful and how anointed he was. It made me recall a lesson the Lord taught me many years before. I was preparing to preach in a service later that evening, and as I was wont to do, as I had learnt from my mentors; I had been spending some hours in prayer and meditation; I beseeched Him, ‘Lord, Holy Spirit [Many don’t realize that you can refer to the Holy Spirit as Lord, but the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit is there is liberty’ and again, The Lord (the Spirit) direct your hearts into the love of God (the Father) and into the patient waiting for Christ (the Son)] show your glory in the service’, then He said, ‘Be careful not to fill your messages with references to yourself – I was not sent to glorify you’

As I pondered, He spoke again, ‘Be careful not to fill your messages with reference to men either – I was sent to glorify Jesus; present Jesus and I will glorify Him and the service will be glorious, present yourself and I have no one to glorify and the service will be empty of glory!’ Back to that minister we were talking about, another preacher may tell similar stories, using the same words, I did, I said, but may point the glory to God, emphasizing that I did and said, but it was the Lord working in me, and the Spirit may not have been quenched. Quench not the Spirit; 1 Thessalonians 5: 19. After some days, I had some free time and said to myself, I better use this time to continue writing Translated. So I grabbed my laptop and opened the file, as I was wondering where to start; the Holy Spirit spoke in my heart, ‘Never write in that file unless I tell you plainly to do so’, and I said, ‘yes Sir’. From that time, I never continued writing until I was extra sure that He was directing me; this in a nutshell, is how Translated was written. Now you know how; but additionally, you also know why.

On 29 April 2013, I was listening to a song that I love so much – ‘Redeemer’; by Nicole Mullen. While I admired the first words of the song, which are three profound questions:

Who taught the sun where to stand in the morning?

Who told the ocean, you can only come this far?

And who showed the moon where to hide till evening?

The Spirit of the Lord spoke these words in my heart:

‘Redemption story – tell it like it had never been told before; tell the whole story: begin from Adam, bring in Abraham, touch on Moses, walk through the prophets, throw in the genealogy, weave about Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, celebrate it with Acts, sing through the Epistles and culminate in Revelation’. These deep Words were the beginning of the redemption story you read in chapter 2. Thus, translated was written between February 10 and May 5, 2013, my darling wife, my Editor, spent June editing the manuscript. All of July, I prayed to the Lord for grace to publish it and for spiritual power to distribute it globally, and for every non-translated reader to become translated while reading or immediately after reading; and beseeching for the power of the Spirit of grace and supplication to envelop Translated; and for signs, wonders and miracles to follow the reading of it everywhere as the Master, Jesus, draws all men unto Himself by it. Then on July 31, my wife’s birthday, Translated was delivered to my publisher. Hallelujah!

CHAPTER 6 TRANSLATION TESTIMONIES OF GOD’S GENERALS

And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ: But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. And they glorified God in me. Galatians 1:22-24

The generals selected for this chapter were not chosen at random, the order is important to me; for these are those who without knowing it, made extremely profound impacts on my life – chief among them was the Arch Bishop B.A. Idahosa; however, I have tried to arrange the names in the order in which the Holy Spirit led me to become acquainted with the ministries of these wonderful servants of the Almighty – for that seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to me.

REV. R.W.SCHAMBACH

It is amazing how the Spirit used one audio tape by this apostle to alter the course of my entire life. The message was, ‘The danger of Compromise’; with three sub-topics: “The Danger of idol Distraction; The Danger of diabolical Deception and The Danger of Deliberate Disobedience”. This terrific message got me preaching to myself on the road, preaching to myself in the mirror and to myself every time I got a new shirt. Through this message, I discovered that I was called to be a preacher.

This account of the translation of R.W. Schambach is found in the MGM Ministries website: an evangelist was preaching in a crusade on that special day, on one corner of the street was a certain, R.W. Schambach; when the altar call was made Schambach stepped forward and gave his life to Christ. Immediately after his translation, he felt the call of God to preach the gospel, and after serving in the US Navy and returning from world war II, for his life had been preserved in the war by the Mercy of God; he enrolled in Bible School where he met his wife Winnie; and many decades after he became a minister, God used his message to help me discover His call on my life. How awesome!

DR. KENNETH HAGIN

I read a series of books by Kenneth E Hagin in the early days, chief among them being, ‘How to be led by the Spirit of God’, The Spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, was the pivot scripture of that great book. Kenneth E Hagin, wrote a lot of small booklets, but after reading them, your spirit feels like you have read one of the most voluminous books you ever read. I remember sharing with my wife about what I call ‘jumping scriptures’; each chapter of those booklets begins with a scripture passage, mainly from the New Testament; and when you read that scripture, it will seem as though it jumped from the pages unto your spirit and you can’t stop thinking about it; it was awesome. One of Hagin’s favorite quote was ; ‘You can become so Word conscious that whatever happens in your life, your first reaction would be, what does the Word of God have to say about this?’

Kenneth Hagin Ministries gives a very unusual account of the translation testimony of this unusual man of God – it reads like the translation testimony of the Apostle Paul in the Acts of the Apostles: ‘Raised as a Southern Baptist, Kenneth attended church every week. He thought he was saved, but he had never had a salvation experience with the Lord. However, on the 22nd day of April, 1933, in the south bedroom of 405 North College Street in McKinney, Texas, that salvation experience came in an unforgettable way. As Kenneth lay on the bed of sickness, his spirit left his body. He descended through the earth and continued down until he stood before the very gates of hell. Just as he was about to enter, a voice from above sounded in an unknown tongue. Immediately, Kenneth found

himself returning to the earth’s surface. This happened twice more. During his third ascent to the surface, Kenneth finally proclaimed Jesus as Lord. He knew that if he did not do so, he would descend a fourth and final time’.

PASTOR AYO ORITSEJAFOR

Two terrific messages help me confirm that I was certainly born to preach, they were: ‘Possess your Possession’; and ‘The God of the Mountain is the God of the Valley’. And I have had the privilege to listen to this man of God face to face many times because we live in the same city. He surely has a lot of gifts, but the one which I admire most, is his ability to quote verses and chapters without looking at his Bible while telling stories from the Old Testament. He would say something like this: In 2 Chronicles 20, we see an interesting story; in verse 2, the Bible says, Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria; and, behold, they be in Hazazontamar, which is Engedi and in verse 9, Jehoshaphat, the King was praying and he said, Lord you said, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, and we stand before this house, and in thy presence, (for thy Name is in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then Thou wilt hear and help; but when you go back to the beginning of the story after Jeoshaphat was told that the enemies were on their way, in verse 3, the Bible said, And Jehoshaphat feared; but this is what I like, in verse 14, the scriptures tell us that, Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the LORD in the midst of the congregation and he began to prophesy and in verse 20, the King who was afraid in the beginning stood and the bible says, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.

Pastor Ayo has shared his testimony several times in public services. A gangster leader and a drug addict;  he was greatly dreaded in Sapele, Nigeria. A bold Christian young man invited him for a crusade led by the Arch Bishop Benson Idahosa. He went to the crusade ground half drunk but the power of The Translator delivered him from the power of darkness – it was in November 1972.

EVANGELIST REINHARD BONNKE

As I already mentioned, this servant of Christ was in Warri in 1989 for a city-shaking campaign. And through the messages he preached in that crusade, I discovered that I was called to be an Evangelist. In addition, I did my Bible school studies at the Reinhard Bonnke School of Fire and I closely follow the happenings at Christ for all Nations, the ministry of Reinhard Bonnke. Bonnke is my mentor. The Reinhard Bonnke Ministries website gives a brief account of his translation. He was 9 years old, his father was his pastor and Jesus saved him at that early age of 9. How terrific!

PASTOR W.F. KUMUYI

In 1990, one message by this man of God changed my life, it was titled, ‘Stir up thyself’, Every time I listened to it, I experienced revival. After that message, I became introduced to the message of Holiness unto the Lord; for this man of God would never preach a message without reminding his hearers that without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Born in 1941 into a Christian home, Kumuyi was made to read the bible regularly, however in secondary (high) school, he stopped being a church person as his school principal taught them about atheism, then the grace of God intervened through a group of gospel singers and preachers, and he got translated in 1964. Later abandoning his first class degree in Mathematics, and being a professor at the time, he honored God’s call to be a preacher. How graceful!

ARCHBISHOP BENSON ANDREW IDAHOSA

The Archbishop has the greatest impact in my life among all the ministers that the Spirit has used to prepare me for fulfilling my call. The details of this impact are reserved for another book, that I am to write, it was the first book, the Holy Spirit told me to write, but I knew that it would take a while before I would be ready to finish writing that book; for it will be my autobiography. Suffice it to say for now that the Archbishop taught me to read the scriptures in the fourth dimension.

According to Connect Africa (2013),the Archbishop gave his life to Christ when a pastor Okopo preached to him in a football field where he had gone to play football with his friends. Translation occurs anywhere, anytime. Glory!

PASTOR DAVID CHO

First, I read pastor Cho’s book, ‘The Holy Spirit my Senior Partner’, where I learned that the baptism of the Holy Spirit had far greater benefits than speaking in tongues; and I began to consciously walk with the knowledge that the Spirit is a person and wanted practical fellowship with me; then I read another of Pastor Cho’s book, ‘ Fourth Dimension’, which had inexplicable impacts on my life, and best of all, I listened to a pastor Cho audio tape; titled, ‘My prayer life’; which totally revolutionized my prayer life and my understanding of prayer.

Not long ago, I watched a video message of Pastor Cho where he shared his salvation testimony. He had been terribly sick and condemned to die; born and raised a Bhuddist, his father was a very devout Bhuddist but Cho was nominal. At 17, he fell ill with tuberculosis, terminal TB, given 3 – 6 months to live and with no money to go to the hospital, he kept praying to Buddha for help, he said he wondered if Bhudda went on vacation. God, if there is a God in the universe, won’t you come instead of Bhudha? He cried and prayed. One week after that prayer, a school girl dropped by his sick bed quite regularly, she was born again; every time she visited, she preached the message of salvation to Cho who never responded to the message. After so many tries, she stopped visiting him but not before leaving a Bible beside his bed. One day, desperate and afraid to die, he grabbed the Bible and read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Then he discovered that the Bible was so different from the Buddhist book which was philosophical, instead, the Bible said he, was very pragmatic. It talked about only one Man, who healed the sick, fed the hungry, raised the dead and promised and gave eternal life to people. ‘Mr Jesus, if you are truly the Son of God, why don’t you heal me? I am young, just 17, You will get tremendous benefit out of me if you will just heal me. I will go anywhere to preach as your servant’, Cho prayed; and instantly, ‘I felt indescribable peace in my heart and I began to shout, something happened, something happened, because I did not know any Christian word, I did not know the word Hallelujah would have been appropriate’; he explained; shouting the Lordship of Jesus and celebrating his healing. Cho was translated. How gracious, healed, translated and called! Now from being born and raised in a city where there was not a single church building besides the many Buddhist temples, this man now pastors the largest church in the world. God is awesome!

DR. MIKE MURDOCH

Before I met Dr. Murdock, I was used to listening to preachers and taking notes; and usually, I would write down about three or four remarkable sentences while listening to a one hour message by a preacher who blesses me; now I was listening to this preacher whom I never heard of before, it was 1994; I picked up my pen to write, but I just could not keep up with him, every statement was remarkable, so I stopped writing and just listened; ‘The proof of desire is pursuit. What you love is a revelation to your gift; what you hate is a clue to the gift that you contain. What you respect you will attract. Whatever you respect will move towards you, whatever you don’t respect will move away from you; I don’t care if it’s a miracle or a dog’! ‘Your power is in your calling; when you move away from the center of your expertise, you move towards your weakness’. He just kept releasing them, he called them wisdom keys and I have never stopped listening to him. Dr. Murdoch gave his life to Christ at a very tender age, he preached his first message under the Reverend and Mrs. J.E. Murdoch, his parents, at the age of 8; and preached in his first crusade at 16. The translation testimony of Dr. Murdoch was the most difficult for me to research; then on the very day that I had decided to stop all inputs into the manuscript; a beloved brother, Pastor Ulisanmi Edukugho, from Warri, Nigeria, read it out to me via the phone from a Mike Murdoch Book.

WATCHMAN NEE

In 1995, I read a book, which I call the best book I have ever read besides the Bible, it was tilted, ‘The Ministry of God’s Word’ by Watchman Nee. What a book! There is too much to talk about that book, but here is the story of Watchman’s translation. Watchman Nee gave his life to Christ in mainland China in 1920 at 17 years old. He began writing gospel literature immediately after his conversion. In 1952, he was arrested and imprisoned for his faith and was in prison until 1972 when he went home to be with the Lord. This information was retrieved from the book by Watchman Nee.

DR. MYLES MUNROE

During my second year at the University of Benin, Nigeria, a brother in our fellowship gave me a video, it was tilted, ‘Discovering your Personal Purpose’. There I met Dr. Myles Munroe; I call him the Apostle of purpose from the Bahamas; and I think he has to be the most intelligent preacher on the planet! His understanding of the scriptures is astonishing. Not long after then, I watched another of his videos, ‘Rediscovering Your Roots’; then I read his book, ‘Maximizing Your Potential’

This is how Dr. Myles shared his translation testimony on CBN. At 13, he ran home from school, crying, because his teacher had called everybody in his class (all black kids), monkeys and retarded; in tears, he narrated his pain to his mother who asked him to read Ephesians 3:20. While he read, full of questions, he heard the voice of God saying believe in me and you will be saved, and there and then he was translated.

PASTOR BENNY HINN

Pastor Cho introduced me to the communion of the Holy Spirit and Pastor Benny taught me the A-levels of that communion. I would not be half the minister I am today If I did not meet this man of God. It began when I read, ‘Good morning Holy Spirit’, after that, I read, ‘The Anointing’, then I read ‘Welcome Holy Spirit’,. Then came the icing on the cake; it was two timeless tapes by Pastor Benny where he deliberately talked about His relationship with the Holy Spirit, rather than preaching or teaching about it. O how my life was transformed!

This is how Benny Hinn shared his salvation testimony in a video on Youtube: ‘I got saved on February 14,1972 at 7:50 am in the morning and the day the Lord came into my heart was the most glorious day of my life, I got saved in high school (when they used to allow prayers in high schools in Canada). It happened in the library in high school. A group of kids came after me, I used to call them Jesus freaks. I was an altar boy in the Greek Orthodox Church; I would walk behind the Priest as he chanted: I was in a catholic school, brought up by Nuns and was from a very religious home; we moved from Israel to Canada because of the war and when I got to Canada, the only English word I knew was ‘Hi’. The nuns made us read the New Testament daily and the Hebrew classes made us read the Old Testament but I was unsaved until that morning in school. So these ‘Jesus freaks’ invited me to a prayer meeting one day, I reluctantly accepted their invitation for the first time; they began praying in tongues and I got saved that morning.

BISHOP DAVID OYEDEPO

I am in 200 level, in pursuit of my engineering degree; I stumble into an audio tape; a message begun without a title; I had already become comfortable with listening to title-less messages from closely following the Archbishop Idahosa who would preach from start to finish without giving a title, but I’d go home with a title or titles that would stir me up for months and years. So I am listening to Bishop Oyedepo, he does not give a title, he just kept preaching and preaching and reading almost every scripture with the word boldness and boldly and all their synonyms, and I was getting bolder and bolder with every 10 minutes that went by; by the time he was finished, I had become exponentially bold (and I thought I was bold before then). Then he said, when you get home and people ask you what the title of today’s message was, say, ‘Once I was a sheep but now I’m a lion!’

Oyedepo David, gave his life to Christ through his teacher in secondary or high school. That teacher, no doubt propelled by the Hand of the Spirit of Grace, took special interest in the boy who was to become a pioneer servant of God. The foundation for his conversion had been laid by Oyedepo’s grandmother who raised Him to have regard for the God of heaven. This information was derived from Wikipedia

PASTOR ENOCH ADEBOYE

I am continually intrigued by the unusual details that the Spirit releases when this servant of God operates in the gift of The Word of Knowledge. The official website of Pastor Adeboye details his translation story: ‘One of his daughters became ill and orthodox medicine proved ineffective. This was in 1973. A cousin had invited him and his wife to a church, The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), to seek divine healing for their daughter. What the Mathematics Teacher and his adorable wife did not know, and could not have imagined, as they stepped out of their house that day was that they had begun to walk into God's ultimate plan for their lives. Adeboye could not understand why this bunch of illiterate preachers felt he had to surrender his life to Jesus Christ in order to overcome his afflictions. “What do these ones know about the philosophy and psychology of religions?” he thought to himself. Finally the Word of God penetrated, and on July 29, 1973, sobbing like a baby, Mr. Adeboye ran to the altar to accept Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.’

JESSE DUPLANTIS

Laughing and learning: I am in my penultimate year in the University, my second cousin, appears with a video, the name of the preacher is strange, I slot it into my video player and within minutes, my eyes are wet with joyful tears; I am laughing and learning about my Master Jesus. Pastor Jesse says God has a sense of humor; I’d have argued with that statement when I was younger in the faith, but now, helped by Pastor Duplantis, I know that God is got a strong sense of humor. This humorous minister, got saved through the preaching of pioneer evangelist, Billy Graham, according to GodTv (2012)

PASTOR IBIYEOMIE DAVID

I am in Port Harcourt, in 2013; finally in my spirit, I see all the green lights I have been waiting for, the second and primary phase of my ministry is about to be born, but before then God wants me to meet one more general; David Ibiyeomie, I call him the icon of supernatural speed; how else do you describe a church, just sixteen years old, holding five services every Sunday, with thousands in attendance in each service and appearing in some 20 international TV stations all over the world, headed by a man who got saved less than 20 years ago? David Ibiyeomie is the son in the Lord of David Oyedepo – he got born again under the latter’s ministry and is a product of the Bishop’s Bible School. He got born again in 1995, began Bible school studies same year and began his ministry in 1997.

JESUS CHRIST, THE GOD OF THE GENERALS

You may be wondering; why should I believe in Jesus and why should I believe, He is coming back again? Here is my candid response:

He said He’ll be born by a virgin – He was.

He said He’ll be born in Bethlehem – He was.

He said the gospel of His kingdom will be preached in all the world – it is the fastest growing phenomenon in the world

He said His followers would be persecuted unto death – they are.

He said a time will come when the whole world will be bothered about global warming and climate change – it is here.

He said the nation of Israel would be scattered from their land because they rejected Him – they were.

He said the nation of Israel will come back together to their land because of His promise to Abraham – It happened in 1948

He said the nations of the world will be negotiating for world peace when His return nears because of wars and rumors of wars – Check UN agendas.

He said earthquakes will become rampant as His return to earth draws closer – they are.

He says He loves you and gave His life for you – It’s the greatest of truths

He said without Him you cannot have eternal life – you should believe Him

He said He is coming back again – you better believe Him!

Have you ever wondered why it is impossible to tell human history without reference to Jesus? Yes, everything that has happened in the history of man or will happen, either happened before Christ, BC; or after the year of our Lord, Christ, AD. So it is either event A occurred before Christ, BC or event Z happened after the year of Christ, AD. The answer is simple: the coming of Jesus to the earth is the time when God split time into two forever!

We live in strange times. Now in Hollywood, they tell actors and actresses, ‘If something amazes you, do not say ‘oh my God’, say ‘oh my gosh’. Why do they do that? The reason is simple: the word, God, reminds people too much of the God of the Bible. Also Hollywood says, ‘if you find yourself in a situation where you need help, don’t say Jesus, say jeez’, Even now, satellite television channels are classifying the use of the words God and Jesus as part of unacceptable words; so when someone says God or Jesus, the parental control function blocks the word as it would block, the ‘f-word’, for instance. However, when the word satan or devil is used, it is never blocked – in almost every movie, you hear the expression, ‘speak of the devil’. Have you also noticed that when a family is playing a ‘Christian’ family in recent Hollywood movies, they are prevented from praying in the name of Jesus? Yes, they get them to pray like atheists; they pray something like this, ‘We thank you …, then they go ahead and say whatever, and at the end of the ‘prayer’, they have a pause, and then everyone says, ‘amen’. They pray in the name of no one and give thanks to no one! However, whenever a family acts as a Muslim family or as Buddhists or any other religion; they are allowed to pray as a real family of that religion would pray in reality. You think these are accidents in Hollywood? Think again.

Furthermore, entertainment channels describe actresses and female musicians as goddesses, ‘Just look at her’, they say, ‘she is an absolute goddess’. Then they ask people, ‘who is your idol?’ Now that used to be, ‘who is your role model?’ Also they ask, ‘Who is your celebrity crush? That means, who would you like to have an illicit, immediate, sexual affair with if you had the opportunity? If you think these are mere coincidences, think again! Then they say, ‘Everyone has their demons’. Big lie!

Now, someone is saying, surely such a wonderful book is not coming to an end without a word on one of the burning issues in the world today; what is your opinion about homosexuality? You ask. I don’t have an opinion! Is my candid answer. Really, I don’t have an opinion. No true minister of the gospel can have an opinion about an issue on which Jesus has a position; you can only have personal opinions on something the Bible is silent about. 1 Corinthians 6 calls homosexuality and gay/lesbian behavior, effeminacy. And it says those who do such things will not enter into the Kingdom of God. Also, Romans 1 describes same sex relationships as the manifestations of those who have been rejected by God for their rebellion.

‘What makes a woman who says she cannot marry a man to want another woman who tries to behave like a man? And what is it that makes a man who says he cannot have anything to do with a woman to want another man who tries so hard to act like a woman?’ Craig Lewis.

When Jesus was asked about marriage, His answer was universal, He said, He Who made them at the beginning made them male and female. Now that cannot be clearer. Jesus truly, is the Master of words, He was asked one question but He actually produced answers to five questions in that one answer: What is Your position about divorce? Where do You stand on the issue of polygamy? What do You have to say about same-sex marriage? What is Your Word about Bigamy? What do you say about Adultery? His answer is same: He Who made them at the beginning made them MALE and FEMALE. Matthew 19:4. ‘If enough people think a wrong thing is right, does that make it right?’ Our Daily Bread asks. If congress, parliament or senate, declare that a wrong thing is right; does that make it right? If enough popular people say that a wrong thing is the right thing, does that make it the right thing?

If a President of a country announces with enthusiasm and oratory that a wrong thing is right, does that make it right? For instance, scientists many years ago declared that the earth was flat; did that make the earth flat? Of course it didn’t; years before scientists came to that ‘flat discovery’, the Bible already declared that God dwells on the circle of the earth; Isaiah 40:22 – signifying the spherical roundness of the earth. I recall Evangelist Bonnke telling a story of one man who told him that, ‘As far as I am concerned, we human beings derive from the gorillas’; and Bonnke said, when he said that, I took a closer look at him, and I think I saw something, something like a gorilla. Now that makes me laugh real hard, what about you? Anyway, I have said it before and I say it again; to prove evolution, its proponents must isolate gorillas in a controlled environment; and broadcast their evolution into humans on live international television as breaking news. Because the notion that everything on earth, from toothpicks to spacecrafts have makers, manufacturers or producers; but humans, animals and plants have no Creator, sounds to me as the dumbest of all scientific assertions.

To be translated, make this confession:

O Father, Creator of heaven and earth

Draw me now to your Son Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ, Son of the living God

Jesus who is lifted from the earth

Draw me unto You

It is what I believe in my heart

That I now confess with my mouth

Jesus Christ is my Lord

Jesus shed His blood, died for me and resurrected to give me eternal life

My name is written in the book of life

I am born again; I have eternal life; I have crossed from death unto life

I am translated by the Power of the Spirit of Glory

I am a new creature; I am saved by His grace

I am justified by faith; hallelujah!

Thank You Father

In Jesus name; Amen

Hallelujah! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth

He reigneth! The Translator, The Savior, The Redeemer, my Redeemer, our Redeemer!

He reigneth; The Omnipotent One, The Lord God of heaven and earth

Hallelujah for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.

Hallelujah! Amen!

My name is Sunny, servant of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords: the Creator, My Redeemer, my Translator; and that is TRANSLATED; written by the riches of His grace. See you in paradise!

And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotentreigneth. Revelation 19:6

Contact the Author

Website: http://sunnyeronmoseisuekebhor.com

Email: info@sunnyeronmoseisuekebhor.com

jeremyclarence@yahoo.com

translated@sunnyeronmoseisuekebhor.com

Telephone: +2348028258852 or +2348063435801

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Table of Contents

Copyright

DEDICATION

PHRASE

A SURE WORD OF PROPHESY

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CHAPTER 1 THE STORY OF MY TRANSLATION

CHAPTER 2 WHAT IS TRANSLATION

CHAPTER 3 WHO CAN BE TRANSLATED

CHAPTER 4 THE KINGDOM OF HIS DEAR SON

CHAPTER 5 HOW TRANSLATED WAS WRITTEN

CHAPTEr 6 TRANSLATION TESTIMONIES OF GOD’S GENERALS

Contact the Author