Heritage

...this is the heritage of the servants of God, and their righteousness is of me, saith the lord" Isaiah 54:17

The banner that hung from the fence read Emmanuel Nwakanma 1875-1994. That is 1 shy of 120 years. I remember thinking to myself “Was Papa really that old?”. My Grand Father was already very old by the time I was born, but all through the time I was growing up I remember he was very active even in his extreme old age. Although it is doubtful that he was really 120 years old, it is generally agreed that he lived well over 100 years. No one can place the exact year that Papa was born, however what is clear is that he was alive before the first colonials came to our village in the Igbo tribe of the lower Niger River, West Africa. That alone speaks to the sheer number of years, and change that this man saw.

My Grand Father’s story is very profound, and he left us a lasting legacy. This legacy is my familial heritage, a heritage that manifests itself in many aspects of my life, and one that I grow more and more cognizant of everyday of my life.

Emmanuel Nwakanma was not always called Emmanuel. In the early years of his life, when he was still a young man he was known as Nwosu. Now in the Igbo language Nwa means child and Osu means Oracle. So the name Nwosu literarily means “Child of the Oracle”. Yes, in the time before the first colonials began to appear in our tribe located deep in the Niger rain forest my Grand Father was one of the servants of the Oracle in keeping with our tradition. He worked in the shrine and even married the daughter of the keeper of the shrine, with whom he had two sons.

I do not know the specifics or circumstances of Papa’s conversion to Christianity, but I do know that perhaps sometime in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s, he accepted Jesus Christ as his lord and personal savior. My Father tells me that when Papa converted to Christianity, he took on the name Emmanuel. Just as Abrams name was changed to Abraham, and Saul’s name was changed to Paul, Nwosu’s name was changed to Emmanuel. To God be the glory.

When my Grand Father converted to Christianity, there were major changes in his life as you can imagine. His wife at the time; the daughter of the keeper of the shrine, refused to convert to Christianity, insisting that she would keep on with the ways of old and so there was a split. The details of this split have also been lost in time, but Papa then married my Fathers mother who bore him 6 children. These Children, including my Father, he had in the older years of his life.

When God changes a persons life so profoundly, he never lets it go to waste. God used Papa to build the Church in my tribe. From stories of him climbing a tree in 1908 to retrieve a Church Bell that was somehow stuck in the tree, to the different positions he held in the Church, he was always a Patriarch of the Anglican Church in our tribe.

He raised his new family in the Church. Although not formally educated, he learned to read and write, and even until he was over 100 years old he read in the Church, rode bicycles, and even farmed.

Papa gave up his old ways and gave his life to God, and God rewarded him with a very long life and blessings above his peers. This is part of my family heritage, but the heritage that has been on my mind lately, is the heritage of the servants of God.




What is this heritage? The heritage of the servant of God is something that this one stands to inherit; a pact that has been made with God. A blessing that they stand to inherit.

Now I want to be clear: This heritage is not for everyone. It is specifically for the righteous servants of God. Not those who are unbelieving, or those who merely go through the motions of Christianity, but this is for those who have committed themselves to serving the lord and sincerely strive to do so.

This is a point that everyone has got to come to in his or her growth in the lord. A crossroads of sorts, a junction on the highway of life, upon which your options are plain: Serve or Observe.

For those who choose to observe, they will always hang in the fringes. They will identify with the Lord but never totally commit to him. But for those that choose to serve, the lord will pour out this heritage upon them. They will reach out and be a blessing unto all whom they serve, and the lord’s blessings will never be far from them.

My friends when I read the book The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, he asked the reader to come up with a summary of how we will live the rest of our lives. After which he also asked that we convert it into a short phrase that can be remembered easily. I would like to share my phrase with you. It is this: I am a servant of the ever-living God, and to be the perfect servant is my hearts greatest desire.

At the time I did not understand all that phrase would entail, and I still do not understand all that it means for me. But I do know that I said it from a sincere desire to serve God, and him through people.

And so what does it mean to serve, and what is this heritage that belongs to the servants of God? Both can be found in the book of Isaiah.
I heard the voice of the Lord saying: “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” Then I said “Here am I, send me”. Isaiah 6:8

My brothers and sisters, God is looking for a generation of people that will say “Here I am lord. Send me”. Being a servant of God means giving up our own earthly desires and giving our lives completely to him. It means setting aside our own agenda, our own hopes and dreams, and taking on those of the lord.
Being a servant of the lord is often misconstrued. Some people think that only preachers are servants of God; or people who work in the Church. But you can serve God anywhere that you find yourself. There just has to be a change inside you that’s all. The things that are important to God (Love of all people, caring for the suffering, spreading the good news of Jesus) all of a sudden become of greatest importance to you. Jesus becomes more and more precious to you. You begin to burn with a passion for Jesus; and away you go.

Sometimes we may feel that we are unworthy, or that we have no talent to offer God. But none of us are worthy to serve. The only strength and gift we have to serve are the one’s that he provides to us. My brothers and sisters the bible says that we do not have because we do not ask. I am here to tell you that there is no shortage of service that we can do for God. The bible has told us that “The harvest is plenty but the workers are few”. God has so many things that he wants to accomplish through us. We need only ask for the opportunity to serve.

My friends, God has called us to serve, and when you are a servant of God you attract all sorts of attention. The moment you give your life to Christ, the devil notices you. The more you strive to do his will, the more difficult he will try to make it for you.

This article titled Heritage my friends is a culmination of everything that I have seen over these past few weeks. I want to tell you that the more of these articles that I write, and the more of the things of God I do the more I feel the Devils dissatisfaction with me. Over the past few weeks I have faced all kinds of hardships and temptations. I did not help matters because I got too comfortable in my place of spiritual growth. But I have seen many hardships, with different issues across various aspects of my life. I have been tempted with so many sins, even in my sleep as I dream of things that I would never do awake; one time I woke up in the middle of the night and prayed before I went back to sleep.

I tell you these things neither to derive empathy nor to scare anyone away from serving God. But my friends I tell you these things because I want you to know, that as servants of God, although we are blasted from side to side by the tides of life, although we face hardships, trials and temptations, we are inheritors of an everlasting heritage. “As it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” Romans 8:36-37.
Now let us look at this Heritage that assures us victory.

Amidst these times the lord led me to Isaiah Chapter 54. Below you will find the text from verse 13 to the end 17.

And all thy children shalt be taught of the lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.

In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror for it shall not come near thee.

Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: Whosoever shall gather against thee shall surely fall for thy sake.

Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth the instrument for his work, and I have created the waster to destroy.

No weapon that is fashioned against thee shall prosper, and any tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the lord.

What a powerful passage. In it we see that the lord will teach and give peace to your children. He will establish you in righteousness and you will have no fear because terror will never come near you. But he also says, “Behold, they shall surely gather together”. Yes, in difficult situations people or powers and principalities will make you the focal point of a spiritual attack. But the lord also says that whosever shall gather against thee shall fall for thy sake. For-thy-sake. This is because you love the lord; because you serve the lord. God says that he creates the smith that makes the instruments and the destroyer to destroy. He is all-powerful. And in his power he tells you that no weapon fashioned against you will prosper. He tells you that any tongue that dares rise against you in judgment you will condemn. This God says is the heritage of his servants, and your righteousness is of him.

All of that is yours for the taking, if you will only serve.

Earlier I talked about how Papa came to claim his heritage as he dropped the name Nwosu, for a more blessed name “Emmanuel”. I am sure that at times it must have been difficult for him, giving up an old life for a new one, but God saw him through and was faithful to his promise.

This glorious heritage in the book of Isaiah is ours for the taking, and God is always faithful to his promises.

I want to conclude with a question: Will you serve? And if you do, will you continue to serve?

God bless you and keep you now and forevermore. Amen.




TESTIMONY

Sometimes we think we are doing things for one reason but we are actually doing them for another. As I wrote this article late at night, I all of a sudden had a sudden need to talk to my Father. I needed to get some facts from him about Papa’s life. I wondered how I could call him so late at night (About 3am in Nigeria), and then I remembered that earlier in the week I bought a calling card to call a friend I really wanted to speak to in Nigeria. Earlier in the week God put the need in my heart to call this friend, but as I realized that night, it was so that when the time was right I would have the means to call my father, and speak to him about much of what you have read. God’s plans are intricately platted through every hour of our lives. His love Is unending. His grace is amazing.