About My Marriage.

Chapter 5.

"Do you know that you can he your own prophet? Now before you can be a servant to someone, it is expected of you to know the person very very well. And since Jesus said we're His friends, it

lays more emphasis on knowing Him. Now for today oko mi, I'd lecture you on 'knowing your God'

, or let me say 'understanding your God'" Mama said as Kemi and Mark were taking notes.

"Let's start with this scripture, Dan 11:32b" Mama said as she paused for one of them to read the

passage

"But the people that do Know their God shall be strong and do exploits" Mark read to their hearing

"Good. So that means it's only when you know your God that you can be strong. The devil is very

powerful but God is all powerful. Now we know the devil is very smart and clever, if he knows you

don't know your God...you don't know the God you serve, he'd scare and mesmerize you with his

limited powers" Mama explained

"So that means it's because I didn't know I had the power to send the arrows back to the sender

that I suffered from that strange sickness?" Mark asked

"Exactly. Even the Bible said my people are destroyed for lack of Knowledge. You can find that in

Hosea 4:6a and Isaiah 5:13a. Let's leave that aside and focus on what we want to learn today"

Mama said as she readjusted herself.

"Now can any of you tell me the Characters your maker has?" Mama said after drinking a bottle of

water

"He's merciful" Mark replied sharply

"He's all powerful" Kemi responded

"He's omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient" Mark said as Mama smiled

"Very good my children. Now let's learn God a little bit deeper" Mama said as the couple listened

attentively, ready to write.

"God is a revealer of secrets. He reveals deep and secret things. Open your Bible to Daniel 2:22,

28" Mama said as she wait for Kemi to read to their hearing, then continued

"God being a revealer of secrets, wants to reveal them to his children. Deut 29:29 and Jer 33:3

confirms that" Mama said as they were jotting

"That explains how Kemi knew I had received a gift?" Mark asked

"Exactly my child. Another Good example is found in 2Kings 6:8-10" Mama said as Mark read the passage to their hearing.

"God reveals the deep and secret things. However, for us to have access into those secrets, we

have to become serious with him. You Know also that the gifts of the Holy Spirit is to accomplish

this purpose. So you have to work on the gifts you have and make sure you get to the highest

Maxima of your gift." Mama said and then paused.

"Another thing you need to Know about God is that He's a consuming fire. You can find that in

Deut 4:24 and Heb 12:29." She said as Mark and Kemi read aloud.

"I'll say one more then we'd call it a day." Mama said as it was afternoon already

"Now the last one I'm going to mention for today is that God doesn't joke with his servants. Ps

105:15, Zech 2:5,8b, Isa 54:15,17; 59:19b all attest to that." Mama said as they made her jottings

and explained further

"That's all for today my children" she said.

"Assignment Ma" Kemi said as Mark stared at her

"Mark it seems you don't like assignments" Mama said with laughter as Mark smiled

"Well you're not done with the first one. You only did chapter 1-10 of Psalms so it remains 140

more chapters. However your new assignment is this: study Psalm 109 and tell me what it's all

about" Mama said as they dispersed

Meanwhile, Kemi came back to her

"Mama, I'm not strong in my spirit despite all prayers. Even when Esther confronts me, I don't

have any strength to challenge her back" Kemi complained

"Oko mi, we'd discuss that later. As at now, I'm famished" mama said

"Okay Ma" Kemi responded as she went to make something.How many do the assignments....maybe I should drop the next episode tomorrow

And again, should I fast forward the three months or I should keep summarizing all Mama Kemi is teaching her?

It's been a week since Mama Kemi has been teaching the couple all they need to know about

spiritual warfare and they've been responding excellently.

This is now the second week and Kemi is the main student as Mark has resumed fully, but still

studies with his wife at night and they revise together.

Mama Kemi had scheduled her lectures for good 8 weeks and the remaining one month has been

planned to be used for practicals, studying of prayer books and solving all assignments as Mama

had solely wanted to focus on teaching her daughter without interruptions.

This is what Kemi has been learning for the remaining 8 weeks

"Mama I'm ready." Kemi said as she sat down, ready to learn. She had done everything expected

of her to do for that day.

"Okay.....have you done your assignments?" Mama asked

"Yes Mama but I'm not done with the Book of Psalms yet Ma." Kemi said as she opened her

jottings, showing them to her mother.

"Okay. Drop that for now. We'll treat them all when we're done with lectures so you'll have enough

time to do it well" Mama said as she gave her back her note and readjusted herself, ready to commence her lectures

"Now let's start with 'Violence in prayers'" Mama said as Kemi wrote down the topic

"You know that the greatest weapons given to man is prayer. In the realm of prayer, there are

prayers and there are prayers. There are prayers that can be done in bed and they'd he answered

and there are prayers that require violence and perseverance for them to be answered. Matt 11:12

and Mark 10:47 attest to this. Blind Bartimeaus had to cry his prayers. It was definitely a cry that

made Jesus hear his voice amidst the crowd.

Iffu read Mark 10:46-52 especially verse 48 carefully, you'd realise that many had wanted to shut

him up, to stop him from shouting or praying. Assuming he listened to them, he wouldn't have

been heard and he wouldn't have received his miracle. Also notice that in verse 49, when Jesus

noticed and heard his cry, it was the same people that called him and said 'be of good comfort,

rise, he calleth thee" Mama explained as Kemi turned her Bible to the various verses

"My child, that passage alone shows that you have to persevere in the place of prayers, no matter

what people say or how they talk or make jest of you or discourage you because they'd still be the

same set of people to congratulate you when your prayers are answered." Mama explained as she

paused a little to entertain questions.

When she saw she had no questions, she continued

"You can also find another passage that attests to violence in prayers in the book of Psalms I

asked you to study. I'm talking about Psalm 56:9" Mama said as Kemi read the passage to their

hearing.

"So my lovely daughter, violence is needed in your prayers. We've seen the passages that support

that. There are some prayers you can't just pray in silence. However, that doesn't necessarily

mean you have to disturb your neighbor or even your partner while praying. Being aggressive is in

the spirit as we are to pray in spirit and in truth." Mama advised

"Let us go into the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Let's touch that a little as it is also important"

"Now it isn't our topic for today but I want to keep mentioning it to lay emphasis on how important it

is to Christain life" Mama said as Kemi listened attentively

"What do you understand by the Gifts of the Holy Spirit?" Mama asked

Shared on w******p by Martino.

"They are the gifts that God has blessed us with through his Spirit and He has divided these gifts

among men. They can be found in 1 Cor. 12:7-10" Kemi responded intelligently as Mama smiled

"You're a good student. You still remember what I taught you back then" Mama said, her face beaming with smiles

"I can't forget Mama" Kemisola replied

"That's good. So which of them do you think you have" Mama asked

"Word of Knowledge." Kemi replied almost immediately

"How did you know?" Mama interrogated

"Because the word of Knowledge is the one that makes you to be aware of what has happened in

the past of what is happening presently. It can be through dreams and inner voice." Kemi

explained the best she could as Mama nodded

"That's good. Go on" Mama said, listening attentively.

"The word of Knowledge is closely related to the word of wisdom and they're both the Revelational

gifts, coupled with ability of discerning spirits. The main difference between them is that the word

of Knowledge let's you know of what happened in the past or what is happening presently, while

the word of Wisdom deals with what will happen in the future, say two or three years to come or

evem more" Kemi explained as her mom smiled.

"That's good my child. Now that you know that, you should also know that you should develop on

the gifts you posses" Mama said as Kemi listened attentively

"How Mama" she asked

"By utilizing your gifts well. Making use of it often. It could start from inner voice or a dream, but

you can develop it to become a vision; something you'd see clearly when you're fully awake."

Mama explained

"All you have to do is to make the sacrifice of spending more time with God, reading His word and

ask for grace to grow in Him" Mama said further.

"Okay Mama, I'd work on it" Kemi responded

"Good now let me teach you one more lesson before we call it a day today" Mama said as Kemi

listened attentively

"I'll speak on 'the power God has given unto man'" Mama said

"Gd has accorded some level of power to each human. He made mention of that in Gen 1:28" Mama said as Kemi read aloud.

"In that passage, God gave man dominion over everything moving upon the earth and the fowls of

the air. Ps 8:4-5 and Rom 2:6-8 also confirms it. That is the power and authority he has given to all

men, not to talk we His children. Now, the unfortunate thing here is that we don't exercise this

authority while our enemies do so and mesmerize or attack us with it. Now the authority given to

man is useless if you are not His child. You may still have the power to be fruitful and multiple, but

what of replenishing the earth and subduing it? You need to rise up as a Christian and exercise

the authority Christ has given to you Kemi. God's people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. It's

because they do not know these things that the enemy keeps winning them."Mama lectured

"How do I exercise this authority Mama?" Kemi asked

"By first understanding the various weapons you have at your disposal. I'd teach you one for now"

Mama said

"One of the ways to exercise your authority is by commanding your morning and stating what you

want that day: success, favour, good health etc. I've lectured on that before.

Another way of exercising this authority is by subduing the Earth" Mama said as she paused

"Subduing the earth, how?" Kemi asked, confused

"I'll explain. You know well that your enemies can use the earth against you, one of which is

collecting the sand you've stepped on to use against you right?" Mama asked as Kemi nodded in

affirmative

"They're able to do that because it can be commanded. The earth, or let me say, the sand has

ears, it can hear. If you don't believe, open your Bible to Jer 22:29-30" Mama said as Kemi read

the passage

"You see in that passage of the Bible, someone, I'm supposing to be Jeremiah, had caused

someone using the earth that none of his seed will prosper. Remember also that sacrifices are

kept on the ground. You can command the earth to render the powers behind such sacrifices

against you powerless. It is very possible. Let's digress a little, open to Dan 3:27." Mama said as

Kemi opened the passage.

"that means it is very possible for things to be powerless over some people. You can also make

sacrifices offered to earth against you to be powerless by commanding the earth." Mama

explained the best way she could as she could sense it was all very new to Kemi

"Okay so Mama, how do I command the earth?" Kemi asked

"Use the way the Bible did in Jer 22:29" Mama said simply "That's all for today. I'm getting tired already" Mama said as it was obvious she needed some rest

cos she has been talking for hours now

"Okay Mama. You can rest now." Kemi said as she left her room, pondering on the new things she

had learned

Kemi is seen still over her assignment of study of Psalms and revising what she had learnt with

her husband

"Babe" she called

"Yeah?" Mark said

"There's something strange Mama made mention of today. Commanding the earth. How do you

see it?" Kemi asked as she had explained everything in details to him.

"Well, I think it's true. In my office, I hear stories of people collecting the sand one has stepped on

and using it for evil. So she's saying we can counter it and render it null and void, more or less"

Mark explained as he yawned

"I can't really stay with you for long dear. At least I tried to stay for an hour" he said as he checked

the time

"It's okay. The one hour you spent with me is enough, and besides there's work tomorrow so you'd

need some sleep." Kemi responded

"Go to bed dear. Let me continue to work on my Psalms" Kemi said further

"Thanks baby. Goodnight. I love you" He said as he went to bed, which was not far from their little

"study room" in their bedroom

"Okay. Now it's just me. Where did I stop in this Psalms" she thought to herself as continued from

where she had stopped.

It was another morning and another new week. The minutes, hours, days and weeks were going

by so fast these days.

Kemi has been taken advantage of all the opportunities at her disposal to learn everything she had

to. They were already at the third month and Mama was done with her "lectures". However, she

had set aside a day for her to summarize everything for Kemi and add the ones she hasn't taught

her yet.

Mark on the other hand, has no troubles at work this day although Kemi knows it's just for a while.

He has been learning along with Kemi these days as he couldn't meet up with the lectures as a

result of his job; but that didn't stop him from learning.

It's a cool Monday afternoon and that was the day Mama had chosen to summarize everything

and add some as well.

Kemi had done everything required of her and Mark had gone to work.

"Mama I'm ready" Kemi said as she sat down, ready for a very long lecture that day.

"Today marks the last day of your lectures my child, after which you'd bring your assignments for

me to see" Mama said with smiles

"So tell me.......what have you learnt so far?" Mama asked as she waited patiently for a response

"So many things Mama. Your lectures has opened my eyes to what I didn't know before. I've learnt

that we need to understand God if we're to be what He wants us to be.I learnt we have to exercise our authority in Christ. We can do that by commanding the morning

and His creation. I also learnt that there are prayers and there are prayers. Some answers prayers

wouldn't come to us except if prayed aggressively and we persevere and the Bible passage you

gave to me was Dan 10:12-13, stating that if Daniel hadn't persevered, he wouldn't have received

answers to his prayers.

Another example you gave was that of Elijah when he prayed seven consecutive times for rain.

You said assuming he had just prayed five times and had given up, he wouldn't have received his

answers" Kemi said as she went on and on and on.

"Okay okay okay my child.......I can see you've learnt enough. You've practically summarized the

whole thing sef." Mama said as they both laughed

"I remember you asking me a question one day. Asking why you were weak in the spirit." Mama

recalled

"Yes Mama" Kemi responded.

"Good; and what was my response to your question?" Mama asked

"You said such do happen when we've opened a door to the enemy. A very good example is

anger or quarrelling with our neighbors. That way, the enemy can drain our strength spiritually and

then we'd become as weak as people who don't pray" Kemi explained the best way she could

"And what did I say was the remedy?" Mama asked

"Self Control. And ask for help from the Holy Spirit" Kemi replied like a brilliant student

"Good. So what about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Give me a summary of that too" Mama said,

expecting an intelligent response

"The gifts of the Holy Spirit are 9 in number and are grouped into three: Revelational gifts, vocal

gifts and power gifts. The Revelational gifts are the Word of Knowledge, word of wisdom and

discerning of spirits. The vocal gifts are gifts of prophecy, speaking in tongues and interpretation of

tongues while the power gifts are the gifts of healing, faith and working of miracles. All these can

be found in 1Cor. 12:7-10" Kemi answered.

"Very good oko mi. I don't think there's any other thing to ask again. You're a good student" Mama

said as Kemi responded with smiles.

"Now let me conclude my lecture with important topics" Mama said as Kemi listened attentively,

ready to write"I'd speak of the things we all know but neglect the power residual in them." She said

"Now let's start with 'The Word Of God'. The word of God is a very powerful weapon of our

warfare. Infact, it is the sword of our armour as chistains. The word of God is yea and Amen. It is

quick. It is powerful. It doesn't fail. It doesn't pass away until it is fulfilled even if the heaven and

Earth would pass away. The word of God is like fire. It is fire in the bones. God honours His word

above his name. Heb 4:12, Jer 23:29, Psalm 138:2, Isa 55:10-11 to mention but a few, attest to

this." Mama lectured as Kemi jotted down the passages cos she knew Mama was ready to

summarize things and there was no time any longer.

" Now how can we hopefully use this word when we don't have or create time to read it.

Remember that even our Lord Jesus Christ overcame Satan in the wilderness by confessing the

word. If He hadn't know the scriptures, how would he have overcome? There are some battles of

life that can be overcome by just quoting the scriptures but what happens when we do not know

the word of God concerning what we are facing???

We are admonished to read the word of God. Our Lord Jesus said we should search the

scriptures. John 5:39, Isa 34:16, Josh 1:8, Deut 32:46-47, Deut 4:9 and Deut 8:11 attest to this. If

you study the book of Deutronomy very well, you'd notice that it's a book of the summary of

everything the Isrealites have passed through. You find blessings and curses there. You also find

the admonishment to always read the Bible so we won't forget quite a number of times. So my

child, we shouldn't take all these for granted. Remember that God's people perish for lack of

knowledge. They have the weapons but they don't know they have it not to talk of how to make

use of it." Mama lectured and paused for a while, ready to go into another topic.

"Another thing I'd want to make mention of is faith" Mama said as Kemi made her jottings.

"You know too well that Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not

seen, and by it the elders obtained a good report. Faith is one of the necessary requirements for

victory in battles as a Christian. Infact, it's one of our spiritual armours; it is a shield with which

we'd use to quench the fiery dart of the enemy. If you don't believe, you won't be established. If

you're afraid or do not have faith, you've lost the battle even before it is fought. Jer 1:17, Isa 7:9,

Eph 6:16, Heb 11:1,6 to mention but a few, all attest to this.

We're therefore charged not to be afraid or fear. We're also charged to be courageous as it is one

of the conditions for victory in spiritual warfare. You can find that in Josh 23:6, Deut 21:6 etc."

Mama said as Kemi was busy jotting.

"I'd end all my lectures with this topic 'The power of a Christian'" Mama said as she requested for a

bottle of water before proceeding.

"Now, as a Christian, once you have geniunely given your life to Christ and accepted Him s you'd

personal Lord and Savior, you've been accorded some powers and it's left to you to discover and

make use of it. I'll not say much on this but I'd give you scriptural references to look it up yourself.

Jer 5:14, Deut 32:30, Matt 18:18, 2 Cor 10:4-5, Deut 28:7,Luke 10:19 and so on.

However, all these can be realistic and work for you according to the level of your faith and your Knowledge in God." Mama said

"I don't understand Ma" Kemi said

"You need to work on your faith and your Knowledge in Him in order for you to exercise this

authority properly. If you know you don't have enough faith to pick up a charm and throw it away

after praying for example, it's better you don't. You have to ask God to increase you'd faith and

knowledge in Him before taking some steps. S'oro mi ye e o (I hope you understand)" Mama said

as she Drew her ears in emphasis.

"Yes Ma." Kemi responded

"Oda. That's all for today. You'd submit your assignments tomorrow, everything I've given to you."

Mama said as she ended her lectures

"Practice everything you know. Faith without works is dead. And you know practice makes

perfect." Mama said as Kemi thanked her as they went to the parlour

"Ehe it's been a while I watched film sef." She said as she sat on the sofa and asked her daughter

to get her something to eat.

Kemi is seen reading and revising all she's learnt at midnight, obviously ready to practice them all.

She normally reads at night as that's what works for her, plus it's quiet and it's the only time Mark

had the opportunity to join her.

Mark had returned very late for work so he revised with his wife before midnight so he could get

more than enough sleep.

Kemi had finished revising and memorized some scriptures for the third time and was now ready

to sleep

"Lord, empower me for the battle ahead" she prayed silently as she neatly kept her Jotter and

joined her husband in bed.