Support mission

24.6 C
Nigeria
Sunday, December 14, 2025
Search
Subscribe
Home Blog Page 2

Understanding Prayer as an intercourse with God

By
Ogba Victor
-
0

In a marital union, it is essential for a husband and wife to engage in regular intimacy and intercourse to cultivate love and strengthen their bond. This connection not only deepens their relationship but also provides the opportunity to create children who share their DNA and often resemble them.

It is impossible for parents to have children with their own DNA without intercourse. However, they can still have children without intercourse through adoption or other means, such as having children out of wedlock. Additionally, without regular intimacy, the bond of marriage can weaken and may lead to cracks in the relationship or even a failed union.

Paul uses the church as a metaphor for the bride of Christ in Ephesians 5:25-27. If the church is indeed Christ’s bride, it needs to regularly engage in a relationship with its husband, who is Christ. This strong, regular bonding will foster deep feelings of love and passion in the hearts of both the church and her Lord. And we understand that the church is not simply a building, but rather the men and women who worship God in truth and spirit.

Another beneficial result of regular intercourse with Christ is the ability to produce men like Christ—those who carry His DNA and likeness and embody His passion, personalities and power.

The church and her ministers must be careful not to abandon their prayer connection and intercourse with Christ. Otherwise, we risk filling our churches with those who do not belong to God—like children of another father—who carry a different identity and resemblance. As we have already seen in many of our churches today, these individuals cannot truly be called God’s sons and daughters. We must take this matter seriously and recommit to our spiritual foundation.

What does this mean for a minister? Christian ministry is God’s tool and gift for producing Christlike believers who possess the DNA of God within them. Therefore, whether we are pastors, evangelists, teachers, prophets, apostles, or music ministers, we must cultivate a strong prayer bond with Christ. This connection is essential for our ministerial fruits to be Godlike and Christlike.

5 Problems with Roman Catholic Confession of sin to their priests

By
Ogba Victor
-
0

Growing up in Rome and watching people pray their way up the “holy” steps, watching them wait to confess their sins to men and many things like this, has caused me to grieve for people who are in the Roman Catholic Church. Any religion that is built on the backs of the poor and that propagates works-based righteousness should bring tears and concern to those who have experienced true grace. It is important that we as believers understand the truth of why Catholic confession is not Biblical, not to win an argument but in order to rescue souls. So here are five problems with Roman Catholic confession.

1- Priests can’t see the heart

The stories of Saul and David are fascinating, particularly when we examine their confessions after being confronted with their sins. At first glance, many people might see their confessions as quite similar. Saul said, “Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me, that I may worship the Lord,” while David simply stated, “I have sinned against the Lord.” One might argue that Saul’s confession is better worded, but ultimately, both had received a clear message from God, who knows their hearts and understands which one is truly repentant. 

Priests cannot see into the hearts of men, and they are not reliable judges of genuine repentance. Even if they were able to discern if someone were lying by looking into their eyes, they do not have that capability in the context of Catholic confession. Humans are not good judges of what occurs in someone’s heart, nor are they effective at gauging the severity of sin, as we tend to minimize sin while exaggerating human goodness.

2 – Only God can forgive sin

The Pharisees hated that Jesus forgave sins (Matt 9:3). They understood that only the creator of the universe had the authority to do so. When Jesus healed a paralysed man and declared that his sins were forgiven, the Pharisees were furious and ready to condemn him.

It’s astonishing to consider that the Pope might believe he has the power to absolve someone of their sins, assign them tasks, and then send them on their way, free from guilt. In reality, the only one with the authority to forgive sins is God himself (1 John 1:9). Thankfully, He does not leave it up to us to judge whether someone deserves forgiveness or not.

3 – It encourages easy-believism

After speaking with many Catholics, I find it fascinating to see how many rely on three things for their salvation: baptism, the Mass, and ultimately, confession. The belief that one can simply confess their sins and perform a few Hail Marys, while genuinely feeling remorse, fosters a mentality that downplays the severity of sin, suggesting it can be overcome through personal efforts.

It’s important to recognise that it doesn’t take just a few Hail Marys to atone for serious sins, such as abortion; even a thousand wouldn’t suffice. True redemption comes through the shed blood of Christ and a heart that genuinely repents of sin, seeking His forgiveness. This requires an acknowledgment of sin’s gravity, understanding that it deserves eternal punishment in Hell.

4 – It propagates sin

The Roman Catholic Church may not appreciate this, but the practice of easy confession can lead people to become indifferent to their sins. Instead of communicating directly with God, individuals find themselves speaking to a human being who listens to confessions all day. Often, the priest doesn’t know the individual’s face, and the penance given is usually straightforward, making it seem easy to attain forgiveness.

I’ve heard many Catholics say things like, “I’ll just go confess to the priest next week,” as they discuss their sins. When you minimise sin to the point where it no longer feels like a serious matter—believing you can simply pay for it in purgatory and compensate through good actions—you are perpetuating a harmful mindset. If, in the moment of temptation, the thought is, “I can do this and just confess to the priest later to be okay,” we risk creating a system that encourages further sinfulness.

5 – It damns people to hell

Ultimately, Roman Catholic confession can lead people to downplay the seriousness of sin and put their faith in a system instead of a Saviour. It prevents individuals from communicating with the only one who can truly forgive them and instead makes them speak with someone who cannot offer genuine salvation. My heart breaks for those who find themselves trapped in this deception.

I have often shed tears while walking in “churches,” witnessing people lined up to confess their sins, only to be offered easy, worldly solutions to issues that are spiritually serious and could lead to eternal consequences. They are seldom informed about the reality of hell, but rather are offered a false sense of security through the grace of Jesus Christ. It is essential that, as believers, we understand the difference between the true gospel and a false one so that we can guide people toward a genuine relationship with their Creator, rather than a works-based religion.

The Quickening of the Spirit – How God makes Praying Generals

By
Ogba Victor
-
0

It is God who begins the journey of all praying generals. A praying general is a Christian whose prayer altar burns high on behalf of his generation. For we know that no army general is employed by the State to fight his own battle. Kingdom generals make use of their God given office to serve God’s plan for their generation.

How God brings us into the secret place is through the process of quickening. Quickening means to bring to life what was dormant or dead; it signifies causing something to begin to happen. For instance, consider a child’s toy car that must be quickened by first compressing the spring. After doing so, you can set it down and watch it roll on its own. Sometimes, it may just need a little push. Similarly, older generators often require a person to start the rotor until it can operate independently.

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63)

So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. Psalm 80:18

The passage in John 6:63 emphasizes that only the Spirit of God can give life to people. A person may be spiritually dead in areas like prayer, but it is only the Spirit that can bring him to life. Additionally, Psalm 80:18 highlights our need for quickening in order to call upon the name of the Lord.

According to human nature, it is rare to find individuals who pray purely out of love for prayer itself. Instead, God provides reasons for people to pray, often in the form of harsh situations, difficult times, troubles, illnesses, and various needs. These challenges typically persist until the person being drawn to prayer comes to understand its significance and practice it effectively.

  1. The Quickening of Anna the prophetess (Luke 2:36-38)

The Bible tells us about Anna, a widow who was married for only seven years. After her husband’s passing, she dedicated the rest of her life to praying and seeking God’s presence in the temple. How did God cultivate this willingness in her? First, He allowed her to experience loss—the loss of her beloved husband. If her husband had been alive, she might not have devoted such time to God. It was God’s guiding hand that initiated her journey as a church worker and a prayer warrior.

  1. The Quickening of Hannah

It was God’s choice to block Hannah’s womb, not because Elkanah loved his co-wife more, but as part of God’s unfolding plan. God was trying to bring forth a woman who would be dedicated to nurturing a reformative servant. What God sought was Hannah’s attention, drawing her into prayer. He achieved this by giving her a reason to seek Him with all her heart. Hannah was transformed by this divine prompting from God.

  1. The Quickening of Apostle Arome Osayi

Apostle Arome was born a strong stammerer. The only way he could communicate effectively was through long prayers to God. This was how he found relief and loosened his tongue. However, this was just the beginning of his journey to praying without ceasing.

When he was around 17 or 18 years old, his two siblings fell victim to witchcraft. One sibling went mad during that time, while the other was brought home from school suffering from an affliction. It became clear to him that he had to either begin praying earnestly or succumb to the dark forces threatening his family. He turned to God and committed himself to prayer, becoming a fervent prayer warrior until both his mind and spirit were trained to pray diligently.

  1. The Quickening of Ogba Victor

My journey to prayer began with my praying mother, but what truly drew me into the prayer chambers of God were the incessant satanic attacks I faced. I was young when I started to see demons and became embroiled in many battles against dark forces. Even the powers of darkness sought desperately to initiate me into their kingdom. I had to choose between praying or submitting to darkness, and I chose the path of prayer. The battles of my childhood gave me the push I needed to fully commit to the channels of prayer offered by God.

Conclusion

It is important for believers to pay close attention to the battles around them and to pray through these challenges, as they may be the guiding thread drawing them into the secret place. These battles could be sicknesses, childlessness, spiritual warfare, etc. It is worth noting that no amount of prayer can compel God to act, nor can cries of anguish cause Him to withdraw His Spirit, which has been sent to lead us into that secret place.

The abuse of grace; where we have failed God

By
Ogba Victor
-
1

“Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone With shouts of “Grace, grace to it! Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “The hands of Zerubbabel Have laid the foundation of this temple; His hands shall also finish it. Then you will know That the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you.”

Zechariah 4:7-9

Zechariah 4:7-9

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Romans 6:1-3

In my other article about grace I summarized grace and everything it is about. The link to the article is below.

Read: Understanding the true meaning of the word – ‘Grace’

In Zechariah 4:7-9 we saw a man whom God gave grace to complete the building of the Second temple. Zerubbabel utilized the grace of God and built the temple. One thing I would point out in this story is that- grace doesn’t take a way human effort. God’s grace for Zerubbabel’s temple did not send Zerubbabel home to sleep or rest while He (God) did the magic alone. No!; but rather, with that grace, Zerubbabel’s hands finished the temple of God according to the prophesy.

What if Zerubbabel had gone home and stopped building the temple, what if he was waiting on grace to build the temple instead of making genuine efforts to accomplish the task? That grace will stop working on him obviously. Perhaps God would have left him and would then choose another builder and pour out grace on his obedient servant.

Surely, grace doesn’t totally remove human the effort but compliments it in a divine magnitude; that man may baffle and praise the God. For he that has been given grace ought to take advantage of the grace of God. He that has the grace of teaching should be in front of students teaching or doing the work. If such a man doesn’t make effort to be in a class, the grace of teaching is then useless unto him. For it is when he starts making efforts towards effective teaching that grace will show him the way it is done. The evangelist with the grace of preaching and evangelism must, study the bible, pray, make research and compile his sermon. He also has to go out to reach the unsaved. That grace will work immediately he sets his mind to do the work for which grace was given to him.

When a man who has been given grace, and he doesn’t do his own part for which the grace was given, it is called the “abuse of grace”.

Another point worth knowing is that grace achieves result or that grace is for achieving result. Example, if God desires to use a man to heal the sick, he pours out the grace of healing on him. That grace is to achieve divine healing when he prays for the sick. Likewise, the grace for prosperity should make a man prosper. As long as the man is willing to work, grace will show him the way to win.

If this is true, then the grace for salvation should make a man saved. In other words, grace for salvation should make a man who has received this grace live saved, sanctified and holy lives unto God.

The sequence is this:

  1. Man is given grace. 
    2. Man works in works with the grace
    3. Grace produces result

The Abuse of grace

The problem of many Christians and churches is mainly at part where they would have to work with the grace or take advantage of it.

There is no doubt that Christ has gifted us grace to obtain forgiveness, should we not ask for forgiveness when we err? Of course not. Remember the Lord’s prayer, “..forgive us our trespasses, as we also forgive…”. Same should be said of all types of grace mentioned in the article: Understanding the true meaning of the word Grace .

On a more serious case, the grace for salvation has appeared to all men. This grace is given to those who have accepted Jesus Christ as lord and king. This grace is for one thing, and that is to enable us live saved and holy lives.

Brethren we are saved by grace. it doesn’t mean that we should not work out our salvation. Paul also agrees to this in Philipians 2:12-13 “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose“

God has given us grace freely. We need to do the works of righteousness with this grace. We ought to get sanctified with this grace. This grace has to enable us live saved and sanctified lives as born again children of God. This grace teaches us to say no to sin says the bible.

Note: Not that the grace says no, but it gives us the empowerment to say no!.

Many err greatly and abuse grace when they say “We are saved by grace, not by our works” No! It is righteousness that is by faith. But salvation is by accepting the saving grace of God. We are saved when we take advantage of this grace and use it to live holy and sanctified lives because that is what the grace was meant to accomplish.

When these erring believers argue they would bring up Romans 7:15 where Paul has said : “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do … own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate“.

They use this passage as license to disobey God’s law and live immoral and wicked lives against God.

 

But for some reason unknown to some of us and for which God shall judge every man, these set of believers does not talk about verse 25 of the same scripture: Romans 7:25, which says: Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

In other words, God has delivered Paul from that nature of sin through Jesus Christ. But these people continue to live undelivered from their sinful nature. They continue to be under the bondage of sin clinging unto grace instead of using that grace to live holy lives. No! Brethren no!. Grace is an empowerment. If we start to make genuine effort to live resurrected lives, that is when grace will teach and show us how to win.

We must learn wisdom from God and not ourselves. The same Paul had testified in Romans 6:1- “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?”

 Paul also said in Titus 2:11-12 : “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world”

Surely Paul acknowledges that grace is doesn’t teach us to remain in sin, while claiming to be saved by grace. Grace doesn’t teach us that we are free to sin and go back for forgives, that there is always forgiveness; no! The spirit teaches us that lie is the fleshy spirit behind the “abuse of grace”.

Ananias and his wife certainly did not received this free grace to wrong God and run back to him to ask for forgives. But God struck him immediately and took grace away from him. It is true that as long as we are in the time of the gentiles, there is hope to obtain mercy and forgiveness and salvation; tut let us not abuse this grace because one day it will expire.

For we must know this: that until we start to utilize or take advantage of this grace to live holy, saved and sanctified lives full of the presence of God, we don’t know what we profess when we say we have grace.

Surely, if a man wants to migrate to Canada from Nigeria, he has to purchase the things he will need in Canada. He also has to sell things he will not be needing anymore. He also has to purchase Visa with his resources and pay for a flight to Canada. Why do many Christians who want to be in heaven- a holy land made for the holy and saved, stay in sin and continue in the works of old? Why do they cling so tight to free grace and ignore the works of those who are saved?

Finally brethren, it is good for us to know where we have falling short. It is good for us to know why we cannot repeat the many miraculous works of the New Testament Church. It is good for us to know why we cannot do the works of Apostle Paul despite the grace we have come to learn through his ministry. It is good to know why many churches are more silent than burial grounds in the spirit. It is good for us to know why it seems as if God has abandoned his people and darkness is stealing men. It is good for us to know why we need revival. It is good for us to know why many church goers will eventually not make heaven. It is not that God is partial or lack commitment for his promises, one of the reasons is that we abuse the grace given to us by God.

Once again I do not write to unbelievers but to the churches. Our God has great zeal for his church and he wants everyone to bend to his words and will. Not everyone will receive it, but those for whom it has been given will receive it.

May the God of Grace grant grace to you my reader and to his Church; Amen!!..

 

No one loves the LGBTQ+ More than a faithful Christian

By
Ogba Victor
-
0

To the foolish idealist, it may be frustrating to accept the truth. To those who do not live by truth, it may seem inappropriate to work with facts. And to the world, it may seem difficult to accept that no one truly loves the LGBTQ more than a Christian, even though we preach against their deeds.

I have observed that some individuals criticise faithful Christian teachers and preachers, claiming they fail to embody the love they preach simply because they firmly oppose the LGBTQ+ community and its practices. Many challenge us with the phrase “JUST LOVE.”

I want to clarify that we are not hypocrites; we genuinely practice what we preach. The issue is that the people we address in the LGBTQ community hold idealistic views about love.

What is the word love?

Love is a deep affection and feeling for a person that compels our heart to show kindness, respect, and desire for them. Because of this love, we genuinely wish for the best for the individual we care about and would do anything to protect them from harm. This remains true as long as the love persists.

So that true love is in action and not in words. Sincere love is practical and not idealistic. If I watch someone I claim to love enter into a ditch, I do not know what love is. A mother who truly loves and seeks the well-being of her toddler would never watch him play with a risk of getting harmed. That the child will cry when scolded or reprimanded will not stop a loving mother from deterring the child from error.

The LGBTQ definition of love emphasizes acceptance and respect for individual choices. However, I believe this perspective doesn’t fully capture what love truly is. If I allow my brother to fall into a ditch out of respect for his choices, can that really be considered love? If he insists on proceeding and falls into the ditch, becoming blind in the process, and I foresee even greater disaster but do not warn him—failing to try to open his eyes and prevent further harm—can that be called love?

If I see my sister standing by the road with a heavy load from the seeds she sowed and do not move to save her from destruction, is this love?

The Bible teaches us how to love sinners in John 3:16. It says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

God, having loved us, was not willing to accept our sinful journey into destruction, sent Christ to open our eyes, bring us forgiveness and save us from the ultimate destruction in hell. Herein is true love shown by God, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

We were deeply immersed in unrighteousness and completely embraced our own ways. However, God took action to save us from a path that leads to eternal death. His love was not judgmental, but it also did not allow us to remain in error or bound for hell. This is known as redemptive love—a type of love that refuses to let the soul of man stay trapped in Satan’s pit or walk into eternal flames. This is God’s model of love.

Now, this wholesome love is what Christ, through his Spirit, has implanted into us faithful Christians who keep his commands. As long as that love is in us, we cannot but labour for our brothers and sisters whom Satan has blinded and demons have held hostage, to see if by grace they also can have liberty as we also have received from God. The love of God in us compels us to preach the gospel.

For we are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. And when we preach this gospel, they say we are hateful. But the fact is that no one truly loves the LGBTQ community like we do. For we seek their redemption and salvation.

Depth of Love

There is also what we call ‘depths of love’ or ‘heights of love’. This is about how much love we have for someone. The more we love, the more we are willing to make sacrifices for the betterment of those we love.

Jesus serves as our role model in the reality of love. His love for humanity reached great heights, to the point where his own life meant little to him compared to the importance of offering us forgiveness and redemption. What he embodied and accomplished, he has also instilled in our hearts and spirits, inspiring us to be and to do the same.

Sometimes the world does not understand why we are able to take the risk of being called hateful names, hated, persecuted, and shamed for the sake of the gospel. People do not know why we abandon pleasure and other things for evangelism and mission. It is love in our hearts; love propelled by the Spirit of Christ in us. It teaches us to love men even as Christ loved us, and to labour for their redemption even at great expense and personal costs.

This is why I say that no one loves the LGBTQ+ community more sincerely than Christians. Not the government, not the supportive society that hesitates to tell them they need a saviour, not their peers, nor their supportive mothers and fathers, and not their friends.

Saved out of Lesbianism, beauty from ashes – Testimony

By
Ogba Victor
-
0
Out of Lesbianism

I was born prematurely in May of 1975 and spent two months isolated in an incubator, out of the warmth of my mother’s womb — but also out of her warm embrace.

In those days, preemies were not touched or held. Perhaps as a result of the isolation of my first eight weeks of life, throughout my childhood, I had an overwhelming fear of abandonment and rejection, worrying that at any moment my parents would leave me.

Though I don’t remember those first two months, they set the tone for the rest of my life; I viewed my entire life through this filter. I have distinct childhood memories of songs and stories that scared me. I’d zero in on themes of abandonment, and I carried those feelings of fear with me into adulthood. For as long as I can remember, I’ve struggled with a lack of self-worth. I’ve had a hard time believing I could accomplish anything or be someone others could like.

During my youth, my family faithfully attended church, serving on various committees and singing in choirs. I’ve always believed in God, but in those early years it had little affect on my daily life. I did cry out to God in times of trouble, wondering why He didn’t rescue me from the difficult life I was living.

By high school, I lacked many necessary life skills. My parents divorced when I was 15; my father was granted custody of my older sister and me. I had no understanding of how to properly deal with my emotions, which were growing increasingly disoriented. So I became self-destructive. I self-injured by cutting myself with sharp objects, and banged my head and fists against walls and floors. I had started having eating problems at age 14, and by the end of high school I had a full-blown eating disorder.

A search for acceptance

I began experimenting sexually with girls at a young age. This continued until, as a high school freshman, I found myself physically attracted to my best friend. Before our relationship became physical, it was already emotionally unhealthy. When we began to act out our attraction physically, I became totally dependent on her for my self-worth.

About a week into our relationship, I secretly looked up “homosexuality” in a health book. The book said that if you had attractions for someone of the same gender, then you were gay. I remember thinking, “There it is, in black and white. I am a homosexual.”

The summer after my high school graduation, I was in a coffee shop having a conversation about a novel I was reading. A character in the novel would quote Bible verses as a justification for abusing his wife. A man passing by our table heard the word “Bible” and asked if I was interested in going to church with him. I had attended many different types of churches throughout my life, so I accepted his invitation.

I began meeting regularly with this man’s girlfriend, who was quick to tell me that homosexuality was a sin that would condemn me to hell. She would pray with me every day. And every night I would cry myself to sleep praying, “God, change me! Why did you make me gay if that means I have to go to hell?” In my heart I wondered, Is it true that God wants me to be forever separated from Him?

The church I was attending did not share the hope for change that the gospel offers. Their stance was change first … then God will accept you. I eventually got away from this woman and this church. I had asked God to change me, and He didn’t. And so I embraced my lesbian identity.

Hiding in plain sight

After three and a half years together, my first girlfriend and I broke up. I then met an older married woman, dropped out of college and moved across the country to live with her and her husband. For some reason, her husband said it didn’t bother him to discover his wife was bisexual. He also claimed it didn’t bother him to have me move in because by doing so I was satisfying some need that he couldn’t meet. She and I had a mock wedding ceremony and from then on, she introduced me as her “wife.”

I lived with this couple for close to two and a half years. During this time, I became even more involved with the gay community. I spoke out for gay rights, frequented gay bars and embraced my identity as a lesbian. I even became engaged to a gay man. We decided we would marry to be companions as soon as I finished college, but I would continue to be in a relationship with my “wife.” It made perfect sense to me at the time because I knew my “wife” would never leave her husband, but I certainly didn’t want to be alone. My “wife” and I eventually decided it would be best for me to continue my schooling, so I moved to Boston to attend a prestigious music school, the same school from which my “wife” had graduated.

Though I was in an environment where my sexuality was affirmed, my life was far from happy. My relationship with my “wife” continued to crumble until she ended our relationship about 10 months after I moved. My eating disorder spiraled out of control. I descended into fear and loneliness.

Oddly enough, it was during that time that I started learning more about Jesus. Christians seemed to pop into my life to share with and pray for me. They never took it upon themselves to point out my sinfulness or say that I should not be a lesbian. They just pointed me to Jesus. Like everyone else, I was a sinner in need of Jesus in my life. My sexual choices were only one of many indications of this need.

It’s pretty amazing to look back and see how God was cultivating a heart for himself in me, and I was completely unaware of it at the time. I wrote to a friend during this time:

I may finally have the strength to turn to God for help. I’ve been turning away from God because I want to stay sick so I don’t have to deal with the real issues. Well, it’s strange because there have been some very influential Christians in my life. I think their prayers have really touched me somehow. Though I haven’t been able to pray for myself, the fact that I consider it to be an option is a big step from where I’ve been.

Things continued to get worse until I eventually came to the end of my rope. I knew that I needed help with my eating disorder or I was going to die, but I felt I had tried everything and nothing worked. I called a friend who was a recovering alcoholic and bulimic to get advice, and she asked if I had ever tried praying for help to overcome my eating disorder. I thought, That’s the one thing I haven’t tried! — so I started praying.

When love breaks through

One night, a song I was listening to spoke of a friend who was always there with every tear cried, who would give everything for me. Through this friend, I could have a new life and a fresh start. That friend was Jesus — the son of God, who died on the cross to take away my sin and my pain, and to give me worth. He died so that I wouldn’t have to carry the burden of my shame anymore. Though it was hard to believe that such a sacrificial love was possible, I somehow knew that it was the truth and that this love was what I had been searching for.

I remember sobbing uncontrollably because the ache in my heart was so great, this longing to know the friend this man sang about. I cried out to God saying, “I want what he has!” God, in His great mercy, met me on that day in January of 1999.

Though I was not in a relationship at that time, I was immediately convicted that being in a lesbian relationship was not compatible with being a follower of Christ. I asked a Christian woman to show me Scriptures on the topic. What I read in the Bible only strengthened my resolve. It was easy at first; I was so in love with God that I didn’t want anything else.

However, about nine months after becoming a Christian, I met a girl who had been raised in a Christian home but whose family had walked away from God. I couldn’t fathom how anyone could do that, and I desperately wanted to help her. My intentions were pure, but my resolve for purity quickly faded, and we entered into a physical relationship. I knew that our actions were wrong, but I thought it was my “last chance” before I went on to live what could very well be a celibate life.

After three months, she said to me, “Look, you can’t be a Christian and be gay. The Bible says you must be either hot or cold, but not lukewarm.” She was quoting Scripture to me! With that, she ended our relationship.

I threw up my arms saying, “Fine, God! I don’t want to live like this. Please take this away from me.” In many ways, He did. My attraction to women greatly lessened, but the circumstances of my life that led me in the direction of lesbianism had not changed. I was wise enough to know that although I had surrendered my desire to live as a lesbian to God, that didn’t mean the road ahead would be paved with gold.

A long journey of obedience

There were a few things I found to be invaluable as I struggled to sort out the various issues in my life. I didn’t know that groups like Alive in Christ, the ministry I now direct, existed when I was struggling. I opened up to my Christian friends about my struggle and asked for accountability. I went through three years of counseling to deal with the roots of my same-sex attraction, as well as my eating disorder, depression and self-injury. Romans 12:2 (NLT) says, “Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” I truly needed my entire thought life to be transformed. I didn’t just have moments of feeling worthless and unlovable; In the core of my being, I was sure it was true that I was worthless and unlovable.

My counselor helped me to recognize these faulty thought patterns and showed me how to make them line up with what God’s Word has to say about me (2 Corinthians 10:5). She also helped me learn to better relate to Roy, the man I was dating. Due to some abusive situations I encountered with men as an adult, I had a very difficult time letting Roy very deep into my world. As I grew to trust him, though, recognizing that he wouldn’t intentionally hurt me, my natural physical attraction for him was allowed to surface without fear.

And most importantly, I wrestled with God. A lot. In all honesty, I suppose, it was more like I wrestled and He waited patiently for me to realize that He is who He says He is and He will do what He has said He will do.

When all that we’ve relied on for so long is ripped out from under us, it’s a natural reaction to question God — to question His goodness, His faithfulness, His reliability and trustworthiness — because we’ve been relying on our own faulty coping mechanisms and limited understanding for so long. Whether healthy or unhealthy, reliable or unreliable, the chaos becomes predictable, almost like an unhealthy friendship that you wish you could get rid of … but are glad it’s always there.

There were times when I was so angry and bitter at God because He could have made my life — past and present — easier if He wanted to, but He didn’t. He wasn’t working according to my timing, and that wasn’t easy for me.

I’m reminded of something from John 6. Jesus had just given the disciples a particularly difficult command. Rather than trusting in God’s goodness and overall trustworthiness and taking into account their limited understanding, quite a few of the disciples decided it was too tough a command and stopped following Christ. When Jesus turned to the twelve to ask if they would leave too, Peter responded, “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.”

That’s how I feel. In the midst of all the questions and doubts, I already knew that I had tasted and seen that the Lord is indeed good, and that I had no other choice but to take refuge in Him (Psalm 34:8), to take my questions and hurts, rest in the shadow of His wing, and trust that He’s always been faithful. And that this time will be no exception.

Homosexual behavior is one sin that seems especially hard to grapple with because on the surface, it appears that it’s not hurting anyone. I often hear about how unfair it is for God to forbid the expression of “genuine love” between two people. The reality of it is that there are a lot of things that don’t seem fair in God’s economy, at least to us. To me, it wasn’t fair to be labeled gay just because I had same-sex attractions. It wasn’t fair that the only choice I felt I was given was to embrace homosexuality. I don’t know where I would be today if I had believed those who told me that my only choice was to be gay.

Beauty from ashes

Roy and I have been married for more than four years now, and what I am living today feels like a dream! I confess that marriage is not a cure for homosexuality, or even a guarantee of happiness, but simply another part of God’s healing process in my life. That said, I never imagined that I’d have this much joy and feel so loved and fulfilled.

I thank God that I came to a point where in my heart of hearts, I felt I had no choice but to embrace Christ and all that He required of me. But what I got in return for my obedience and hard work is an amazing godly man who loves me, unconditionally, like no woman ever did. What I have today is a solid relationship with a trustworthy God who constantly reminds me of His love and faithfulness, a God who I can now worship for who He is, rather than just for what He’s done in my life.

He’s shown himself to be true in my life. The thing is, though, even if I feel He hasn’t, I remind myself that it has more to do with my limited viewpoint and short-sightedness than it has to do with the reality of who God is. God never changes, but I do, and my love for Him and understanding of all that He is grows each day. And for that, I’m grateful.

Copyright 2007 Brenna Kate Simonds. All rights reserved.

Jesus Christ Saved Me from 27 Years of Homosexuality

By
Ogba Victor
-
0

My name is David, I am 44 years old, and this is the testimony of how Jesus Christ saved me from twenty-seven years of homosexuality. I speak these things in love, not out of hatred. I speak these things out of somebody who has been there, who knows what it is like, who knows what it’s like to live in that (homosexuality), who knows how hopeless it is. Sure you may enjoy your life, you may enjoy aspects of your life, you may enjoy the sexual aspects of it, the alcohol, what have you, but there’s really no permanent joy in it. Eventually it goes away and you have to do more, seek more. 

So, I ask you to look for the real love, the real joy, the real contentment that can only be found in being made right with God through Christ, through Christ’s work on the Cross. So, I speak these things from love, not from hate. I speak these things not in judgment. I am not judging somebody, I am just telling you what the Word of God says. The Word of God is what’s going to judge us. In fact, the Word of God is what says all these things are wrong, I am only telling people what the Word of God says. Like somebody should have told me. 

My friend who did try to tell me, he tried to tell me in the nicest way, in a Christian way, that I was living a lifestyle that was contrary to what God wanted, not just in my sexual orientation but in every other aspect. He (my friend) knew I was not really a Christian. So I speak these things in love and I pray for your soul, and I pray that you will receive these things, and that you will cry out to the Lord to save you, and to make you a new creature because He is mighty to save and He will save you. 

As I turned into my teens, we stopped going (to church) quite as much, my parents started having problems, and eventually my parents divorced. And sometime later my mom remarried and after she was remarried we started going back to church again and I remember being kinda glad that I was going back to church, but it was all superficial. I would listen to the hymns and get emotional and about that time my friends started going down front and making professions of faith. 

So one Sunday, I was moved by feelings and by the music and what my friends had done and I went down front and made a decision for Christ. I didn’t really know what I was doing or understand what was really taking place. I just knew something was wrong. All my friends had done it so I felt compelled to do it. I walked down front and I sat down in the front pew and the deacon came over and told me I needed to accept Jesus into my heart and he told me to repeat this prayer. And I repeated the prayer and I remember thinking, “You know, is that all there is to it?” And the next thing I know, he is clapping me on the back and standing me up in front of the congregation and telling me that I am saved. Everybody congratulated me on the way out and we all left and went to lunch, but I left there just as lost as when I had came in. 

About two weeks later I was just as lost as when I was baptized, because I never really understood what I was doing, I never understood the doctrines of grace and mercy. I lived a fake Christian life for a while, I had the Christian mask that I would wear and I would pretend to be religious. I was probably about 16 at this age and even then sinful desires inside of me were growing. I could remember actually being at church and having sinful thoughts about other people there and other young guys my age and I remember just telling myself, “Oh, they’ll go away, it will pass away.” But yet it grew worse and worse as I went along. 

And sure enough it was in that same year when in my late 16, being 16, I actually slept with the first male I ever had the opportunity to sleep with. I remember at first being very ashamed of it and repulsed by what I had done, but yet this sinful nature in me was also satisfied in the pleasure of the sin itself. As time went on I became more comfortable with it and I just remember thinking that it was natural, that it was normal, and that I was just doing something… I felt that guilt because I was doing something I shouldn’t have been doing at that age, but it was really because I was doing something against God, that’s where the guilt came in. 

Before long I got a job and I started rebelling really against my parents pretty much in every way I could. I turned to drugs and alcohol and was exposed to it at work. I wanted to try to do as much as I could as a teenager and live as much as I could and rebel against my parents without really having to rebel and move out of their house. Eventually, my parents did kick me out of the house, we had a big blowout and I ended up leaving. And I tried to clean myself up a little bit after that, because it was hard trying to live on my own, so I tried to clean myself up and I thought, well, I’ll join the Navy, which had always been my dream, to be in the Navy. I wanted to be a sailor. I shipped out to boot camp and as soon as I got away from my parents, that was just like adding fuel to the fire, my sin really took off. I had an income, I had no parental people to answer to, I only had to answer to “Uncle Sam” and I was exposed in California to all kinds of sins. 

It didn’t take long before I actually got in trouble with my sins. My sins, all of them, the drinking, the drugs, the sex, got me into a state where I actually had to go into the hospital. In the hospital they ran several tests on me and one of them was a drug test. And they discovered pretty much all of my history of drug abuse up to that time and also at that time my sexual sins came out and that was forbidden in the Navy, to be a homosexual. Within a few month’s time, my whole dream of being in the Navy as a career was gone. 

So I had nothing left to do but to follow my gay friends at that time. They were Canadians and they were living in the states but they were going back to Canada. So I followed them and I left my parents, I didn’t tell them where I was going, I just left and went. For about two years I lived up there in Canada and I didn’t tell my parents at all where I was at. I didn’t even contact them, for all they knew I was dead somewhere. And I remember times where I would get very depressed and think, “You know, is there nothing more to life than drinking, doing drugs, and this sin?” I was at a party and everyone was inside and they were drinking and doing all sorts of things. I was out on the patio of the balcony, I was just so tired of fighting in life and so tired of all of it and I was so disgusted with myself that I wanted to commit suicide and I told myself “I could just jump off the balcony.” And 22 stories later, 23 stories later, I would be dead and there wouldn’t be anything left. So, I decided I was going to do it and I really was going to do it, I felt in my heart that I was just tired of, tired of it all. 

So I got up to the ledge and I was going to jump, and right before I threw my leg over the ledge I remember, these thoughts just came out of nowhere, and one of the thoughts was, “There’s always hope in God.” And I needed to find God to find that hope. Then the next major thought that really hit me was that I couldn’t do this because it was wrong, it was a sin to take life, even my own life. Then the last thought that I remember thinking was that I couldn’t dishonor my parents this way. I cried a little bit more and I ended up backing away from the ledge and leaving the party and I actually never saw most of those people ever again. I continued to live my life though in drinking and alcohol, I didn’t really clean up myself. I tried to, but it didn’t really work. 

I eventually left Canada and went back home, I got caught working illegally in Canada and I got sent back to Texas. I remember when I got back to Texas, at first everything was good, I was glad to be around my family and everything, but then I started feeling guilty for my lifestyle around them and my drinking and all the things I was doing. I wanted so badly to get away from them again, so my partner at the time was getting transferred, and he’s like, “Let’s go to California.” And I jumped at the chance to run, to get away from them thinking that that would make me feel better, I could live my life how I wanted to. 

So we went off to California. In California things didn’t get any better, I wasn’t a different person, I was just the same person I’d always been. Just with a little bit more money now, I had a decent job. I did all kinds of things I hadn’t done before, I continued to decline in my sin and do more grievous things. I remember thinking, “If I could just try these other things I would be happy.” That that would make me happy, that I would be fulfilled, that I would be at peace. I was never at peace with who I really was, there was always a part of me that deep down inside I knew it wasn’t right, but I still wanted to pursue it, it was who I had become. I continued doing drugs and drinking and finally I got really sick, I let myself get dehydrated really bad and I ended up spending New Year’s Eve in the hospital with the IV drip, getting rehydrated, and I didn’t realize it, but at the time I had pneumonia and I left the hospital, and I left there and I was really sick. Dehydration, getting hydrated helped make me better for a little bit, but eventually the pneumonia caught up with me and it ended me back up in the hospital and I just remember my partner taking me into the hospital and the next thing I know, it was the next day and the doctor was coming in and she was talking to me and she said that I had the worst case of double pneumonia she’d ever seen and I was massively dehydrated and had I not been brought in then I would have died. 

And I just remember, I was grateful to God but I also remember thinking, “well I’m so young and so many things I hadn’t done. So many sins that I haven’t enjoyed.” And so as I lay in the hospital the next few days recovering, I mean I was grateful to God, I did say thank you, but not in the real earnest way and the sincere way. I was grateful that I had another chance to go out and commit sins against God, sins against Christ. 

So as I lay in the hospital, I planned and plotted what I was going to do first, how I was going to fulfill my lustful desires. And sure enough, as soon as I was able, that’s what I did. I went out and lived for lust. I lived for drinking, I lived for drugs. Before long I was back in that depressed state again. 

Well, about this time I started going to a political action thing and there was a friend there who was a Christian and he was asking me if I was a Christian and I said, “oh yeah, I’m a Christian. I’ve been since I was sixteen years old.” And he asked me what my conversion story was and I think my exact words were, “What is that?” And I really had no idea what he’s talking about and he said that’s the story of how God saved you. So I related to him my walking down the aisle at church story. He seemed rather unimpressed and didn’t really seem like he believed it and he kept asking me a few more questions and after he could sense I was a little bit irritated, he backed off but not before telling me he really didn’t think I was a Christian. He knew my lifestyle, he knew I was a homosexual, and he was trying to kindly show me that I couldn’t live in that lifestyle and be a child of God. I didn’t understand that, my eyes were blinded by the devil. I was living in unrighteousness and I was suppressing the truth as it says. 

I started listening to the radio show hosted by Todd Friel. And I remember thinking as I was listening to them talking. He was saying something about people that didn’t agree with the Bible usually had a low opinion of Scripture. So that got me to thinking: well, I really didn’t have a high opinion of Scripture, I cherry picked what I wanted to believe out of it. I wanted to believe I was a child of God but yet I lived a lifestyle that is completely contrary to what He asked. I broke pretty much every sin there was. I had stolen, I had lied, probably told 50 lies every day and it never bothered me. I did drugs, I lusted, I fornicated, I did all these things that were contrary to what a true Christian should do. I started paying more attention to the show and what he was teaching and comparing what I believed to be true to what the Bible said. I started reading the Bible. 

And I discovered that none of my beliefs matched what the Bible said other than Jesus Christ died on the cross. That was the only thing that really matched up to what I believed. I realized I had a God up here I was living for, a God that was ok with my sins. As it says in 1st Corinthians 6 verse 9 and 10: There are multitudes of sins. I’m not trying just to harp on just homosexuality. Every sin will separate us from God. Every sin will doom us to an eternity in hell. That shows us how holy God is. Sometimes it’s hard for us to understand how holy God is. Well, turn it around and look at what the word of God says, but look at it from backwards. An eternity, one soul’s eternity in hell paying forever. Punishment and torment will pay the wrath of God, will pay the fine against a Holy God. That’s how holy God is. He’s infinitely holy. More than we can ever understand. It is only Christ’s righteousness that is going to save us from that damnation, that’s going to save us. 

It was about the same time that my partner at the time who had knew I was professed to be a Christian, he was always fine with it, but it was about this time that I really started reading the Bible and paying more attention to Scripture and comparing myself to what the Bible said. It was about this time that he started really being threatened by this whole thing. He really fought against me studying and reading the Bible. In fact at one point he became verbally abusive and started calling me all these names and talking about Christians and actually talking about Christ. And I remember when he talked about Christ, I remember something inside of me just felt the pain of how wrong it was. I knew that he was blaspheming the Lord who has given us all life. 

And so I’m sitting, writing his words down. As little as I know, the Lord was actually going to use that to really open my eyes to the truth of His Word. So I kept studying His Word and kept listening to the radio show. I realized that I was really living in this life for me, not for God. I had never really been a Christian. At least I didn’t think I was. I thought maybe, maybe I needed to rededicate my life. So I started praying to the Lord to please have mercy and show me the truth and show me, you know, how to live for Him. About this time everything kind of fell apart.

The only positive thing was: the Lord had taken away my desire for drinking. I no longer drank like I once did. He took away my desire for any sorts of drugs. I no longer did any drugs. I didn’t even smoke pot anymore, which was really glorious and I see now that it was God’s grace and God’s mercy in giving me those things and He was making my mind sober where I could be able to process and believe His truths. Once He opened my eyes to His truth, I just started diving deeper into Scripture and I realized that I needed to get away from there. That there was no way I could progress in my faith, my budding faith in Christ if I stayed there in that, in that environment. 

So I moved back to Texas, my sister and my mom. I tried to, I tried to repent to God, I tried to call out for mercy and I realized I wasn’t saved and I begged Him to save me but I just wanted to keep one sin to myself, I wanted to keep homosexuality to myself. In the back of my mind I kept thinking “Well… I’ll find some way to justify it, I’ll find some way to make it ok, I’ll find some way to do it in secret. So the Lord obviously would never save me, and I spent from September 2008 up until December 2008 crying out to God to save me. I prayed that He would save me, and He wouldn’t save me. I have a Scripture here actually that… He wouldn’t save me until I actually repented of all my sins. 

I went to my cousin’s funeral in Amarillo, where I’m from. His wife had died and at her funeral she wanted the gospel preached. The night before I had watched a sermon by Paul Washer called the “Shocking Youth Message” and in it Paul Washer talks about how it wasn’t a matter that we’ve sinned. It’s that all we have ever done is sin. And I realized that was true in my life. All I had ever done was sin. I had never really been converted. I had never done anything good. I may have been nice at times, but I was never, I never did anything but really sin against God. My whole life had been a sin against God. And I remember him saying that Jesus died for my sins and He bore my sins on the cross and I remember how it sank in that my sins were what put Christ on the cross. I was responsible for His death. He bore my sins. David’s sins. 

At this time I really began to get a clear picture of what Christ was. What the cross was and what He did on the cross. Up until this time I never really understood what real repentance was, that it was a turning away from your sin, that it was more than just saying you’re sorry. So up until that time all I’d been doing was saying I’m sorry and trying to find some way to live in my lifestyle. But now I realize that I was without hope. There was no hope for me without Christ, I was doomed to stay in this lifestyle, I was doomed to live out in sin and then go to justice, where I belong to hell. So I cried out to God to save me and I went to my cousin’s funeral and I sat there and her last request was that, one of them was that the gospel be preached. So I sat at her funeral and I listened to the gospel and I heard the glories of the cross and what Christ did. And it just sank in to me: right now, that could be me in the casket and if it were me, right then at that moment I would be going to hell. I would be going where I deserve to go because all I’d ever done was sin. 

So I cried out to the Lord to forgive me, to just give me time to get home and to repent on my face, the way He deserved. Later that night, when everyone had gone and I was in my room alone, I got down on the floor and confessed every sin that I could think of. I confessed my homosexuality, I confessed all my sins against God, all the ones I could think of, everything. And I asked Him to forgive me for them and to help me. I asked for Him to forgive me for the secret sins, the ones I couldn’t even think of at the time, the ones that I knew were sins to Him that I didn’t even know about. I asked Him to please forgive me for how I lived, forgive me for rebelling against Him. Because I had always known there was a God and that there was a Christ but I never understood what it meant to be in Him. What it meant to be redeemed by Him, what it meant to love Him, what it meant to serve Him, what it meant to be forgiven, what it meant to be regenerated. So that night I prayed and I begged Him please to have mercy, to forgive me, to help me. I didn’t know how He was going to help me, I didn’t actually even think it was possible. 

To be honest, I really didn’t believe that He could help me. I never heard of anyone being saved from homosexuality. I had never heard anyone with a hope in being redeemed from it. So I just prayed “Lord, I’m going to jump into this with faith in You. Faith, that somehow You will, You will save me, that You will keep me from sinning, that You will make me able to stand the temptations, to stand what may come.” I went to bed that night not knowing if I was saved or not, but I woke up the next morning and I felt things were different. I didn’t feel the guilt, the pressure of the guilt, the pressure of being under some sort of cloak. The pressure of needing to make a decision, which had all been… the previous three months had all been that, they had been pressure and guilt and conviction. Now I know it to be conviction. So I knew something was different inside of me but still, a part of me didn’t believe that I could be saved from homosexuality. I still went on and I doubted the Lord. But then I found Scripture here that says that “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden.” I said, “I confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” Psalm 32:5. And I remember thinking: finally, I had really repented. I understood what it meant to repent, I hadn’t kept anything hidden from Him. Even though nothing was really hidden from Him, I hadn’t tried to, I put it all out there and that’s why I felt different that day. That’s why I felt different in the coming days, because the conviction, the guilt was gone. He had lifted it because He had saved me. 

And every day from that day forward I felt, I truly felt the desires for those things to fall away and now I stand and wonder, almost two years later. A year and a half later thinking “wow! God is so good!” Here I was. I didn’t believe in Him, leaped out in faith and yet He did what He said He would do. He would take me, take those desires away, He would make me a new creature just like it says in His Word. He’s given me a new heart with new desires and I thank Him and I rejoice for what He has done for me and I marveled at His goodness and His mercy to me, and His longsuffering and patience. 

I feel compelled to share this Scripture. I have read it before. Obviously, anyone who is a homosexual and listened to preaching or read the Bible has discovered this verse before but there was a part of it I had never noticed before. It’s 1st Corinthians 6, verse 9 through 10. And it says: “do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor idolaters, nor homosexuals nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.” I knew that part but verse 11 I had never known, I had never read before and when I read it, I remember glorying in the truth of it. “And such were some of you, but you were washed and you were sanctified and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God.” And I realized that’s what happened to me. I was finally justified by Christ and I was made a new creation. I was predestined to be a servant of His, to serve God. 

So now I rejoice that He’s given me that new heart, that new desire, the new desire to go out and serve Him and do His will and to live for Him. Sometimes I’m still tempted but I know that there’s nothing wrong, there’s no sin in being tempted. Even Christ was tempted. So I know that I can turn to Christ in my time of temptation. So I take comfort in knowing that. And I also take comfort in 1st Corinthians 10:13, it says: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as common to men. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you’re able, but with the temptation will also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it.” And I found that to be true every time I’ve rested in Christ’s strength to overcome temptation, He has helped me. Every single time and every single instance, no matter what the sin was. But every time I tried to make do with my own strength, in my own strength, I fall. 

I’m not afraid of what the future holds because I know I’ve been made right with God through Jesus Christ, His Son who suffered and bore the wrath, God’s wrath, for me on the cross. I know that Jesus Christ has saved me from the power of sin and He can save you too. And my hope is that anyone watching this video will turn away from that lifestyle, will turn away from their lifestyle of sin, whatever it may be and be made right with Christ, be made right with God. And it’s only through Christ, through repenting of your sins and turning from them and casting all your faith and your hope on Christ. Just as I did at that time when I just leaped out in a leap of faith to Christ and He caught me and I remember thinking how impossible it was but yet He did it. And I stand here today a new creature in Christ knowing that He’s paid it all for me on the cross and I found my hope in Him. If you’re not in Christ, you have no hope, there’s no hope for you. 

So I pray that you would please consider the truths you’ve heard in this video. Please consider turning your life over to Christ. Surrender to Christ. Fall at the cross and surrender all your sins. Don’t suppress the truth in unrighteousness as it says in Romans 1. We all do those things. I did it for many years even though deep down inside I knew it was wrong. Now looking back I realize that it was wrong and that’s the repulsion I felt at the beginning of it. 

So I pray that will be true for you, that you will be forgiven in Christ. Christ paid my, paid for my sins on the cross. My past sins, my present sins and the sins I will commit in the future. Only Christ can do that work on the cross. We can’t do it ourselves. You can be freed from your sin, you can be truly saved, you can be truly set free from the bondage of whatever sin it is that’s dragging you down. Whether homosexuality, drinking, drug abuse, adultery, pornography, whatever it may be, Christ can set you free from all those things. That’s what He did on the cross. Romans 4:25 says that He was delivered to death for our sins and He was raised to life for our justification. That’s how we become justified, through Christ’s work on the cross. When heaven looks down at us, when God the Creator looks down on us, He sees me through Christ, through Christ’s blood. He sees Christ’s righteousness imparted onto me. It’s nothing that I do or that I will do. It’s only Christ that saves me, it’s only Christ that can give me hope, it’s only Christ that can bring true joy and happiness to my life and I don’t mean in a monetary way. I mean in the way that brings true happiness inside with being right with God, being right with Christ, being a servant of Him. It’s only through Christ that I felt that conviction and that guilt pass away. Without Christ there’s no hope. 

If you are without Christ and you’re not saved, you’re facing God’s wrath, be it from whatever sin, homosexuality, drinking, alcohol, whatever it is. If you sin one time, which we all have, You’re guilty of breaking all of God’s laws. So the only hope that you have is in Christ’s redeeming work on the cross. So I ask you to please cry out to Christ, cry out to God. Cry out to Him to open your eyes to the truth that can be found in Him, to His truths in His Word. It’s only through Him. The God of this world, which is Satan, has you blinded to the truth and it’s only through God’s calling to you, through God’s taking the blinders off you, that you will see the truth that is to be found in His Word. The truth that is found in Christ, the truth that is found in the cross. And if you truly are seeking that, cry out to Christ. He is mighty to save and He will save you today. Jesus says that we must be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God. If we’re not born again we’re never going to make it, we’re never going to see Him, we’re never going to be free from the bondage of sin. It’s only through Christ. Only through that regeneration, that being born again, that we can be saved. 

I want to read a quote from John Newton. It says “I am not what I ought to be. I’m not what I want to be. I’m not what I hope to be in another world. But still I am not what I once used to be and by the grace of God I am what I am.” And what I am is an undeserving sinner saved from God’s wrath by Jesus Christ on the cross. And I thank Him every day for suffering with my running, my turning away. And I thank Him every day for calling out to me even when I wasn’t listening. Even when I was running, He still cried out to me and I thank Him for my salvation and I thank Him for Christ and what He did on the cross. And I pray, someday, that those of you listening that are struggling with whatever sin it may be that separates you from God, that you will cry out to the Lord to repent. For repentance and forgiveness. And that you will truly repent and turn to Christ. If you’re not saved, you need to examine your life and see that you need Christ, and that you will never be happy without Him. 

The lies of “born this way” (LGBTQ)

By
Ogba Victor
-
0
The lies of “born this way”

The LGBTQ movement was built on a lie, and New York Times writer Jane Coaston is irate that people are noticing. She professes to be concerned by a “bizarre complaint from some critics. L.G.B.T.Q. people are OK in theory, they seem to argue, but there are simply too many of them.”

Of course, the point is that the sudden exponential increase in self-proclaimed rainbow identities shows that the mantra of “born this way” is a lie. It is now obvious that LGBTQ identities are being spread by social contagion, which means they are not all innate, immutable, and essential aspects of a person’s authentic self.

Though it was not widely publicised, the search for a “gay gene” ended in failure a few years ago. Rather than crude genetic determinism, the development of our sexual desires is complex and often fluid, with environmental and social factors playing crucial roles. The reality of human sexuality is far more complicated than “born this way.”

There is no objective test to determine whether someone is transgender. It is purely a matter of self-identification justified by the bizarre metaphysical claims that a person can be “born into the wrong body” and go through the “wrong puberty.”

This last claim demonstrates what is at stake. It is not just that the cultural and legal victories of the LGBTQ movement were built upon the “born this way” falsehood, but that recognising this lie reveals how sinister the LGBTQ movement’s current goals are. Given that we are not born this way, the flood of pro-LGBT materials in schools and culture looks less like an effort to help children accept their true selves and more like a recruiting effort—grooming, if you will.

Furthermore, if we are not born this way, then the enormous increase in children identifying as transgender is a social contagion. Young women (and at least some girls) are having their breasts amputated, and young men (and at least some boys) are being castrated because of superstitious panic that imagines children can be born into the wrong bodies. This is obvious, yet the LGBTQ movement and its many allies from Hollywood to the Democratic Party have gone all-in on chemically and surgically mutilating children.
It turns out that the LGBTQ movement hurts people in quite a few ways.

Nonetheless, Coaston pretends to be befuddled as to why people are alarmed by the constant increase in LGBTQ identities among the young—an upward climb that shows no signs of stopping, with a multitude of unlikely clustering effects such as entire cliques of adolescent girls all coming out as trans or non-binary. Her response consists of inanities such as, “There is no maximum number of people on earth who can be trans before we face civilizational ruin or planetary collapse,” which is false even on its own terms—a movement that self-sterilizes will lead to civilizational ruin if it grows large enough.

Coaston has to be evasive because the LGBTQ movement was built on a lie, and it is now breaking the promises it made to secure support from ordinary Americans. The falsehood that rainbow identities are intrinsic and immutable from birth was essential to persuading people that the LGBTQ agenda was harmless. (How will letting your gay neighbors get married hurt you? How will letting Eric become Erin hurt you?)

It turns out that the LGBTQ movement hurts people in quite a few ways, from the efforts to compel participation in same-sex ceremonies and transgender pronoun rituals, to putting men in women’s sports, prisons, and locker rooms. But what has really roused people is that the rainbow lobby is coming for children.

The lie of “born this way” has been used to justify exposing children to sexual material and teaching them about gender ideology at ever-younger ages. Coaston handwaves away these influences, even as she writes about the increase in LGBTQ identification that shows that they are succeeding in recruiting children into rainbow identities.

Public schools are secretly “transitioning” children without parent consent, and some states are even stripping parental rights away from parents who are perceived as insufficiently affirming of the identities their children have been propagandized into. They are doing this even as many European nations are backing away from transitioning children, and as medical malpractice lawsuits have begun rolling in from those who have detransitioned.

Parents don’t want their daughters shot full of testosterone, or to have their sons chemically castrated, and they have realized that the excuses for doing so—that children are born into the wrong bodies and must be medically transitioned before they kill themselves—are lies.

The LGBTQ movement sold itself as being about the rights of consenting adults, but it actually wanted the right to seize our children as its own.

How to overcome the mortar and pestle pounding witchcraft and grand sorcery

By
Ogba Victor
-
0

I would like to state clearly that the only Christian activity that generates overcoming power for victory over all the devices of Satan is prayer. Let no believer in Christ imagine he can overcome Satan or witchcraft without a strong prayer altar.

A Christian convert who is a son to an African witch doctor recounted how his father counselled him that there are only three types of Jesus followers he cannot fight and win. The first is a Christian who prays at night; number two is one who prays intermittently throughout the day; and the third is one who prays for long hours. According to his Voodoo internship, he must avoid these three Christians.

Before you go ahead, there is a post exposing the mortar and pestle witchcraft pounding. Click here to read and gain some background knowledge (View Post).

Now how exactly does one overcome this sorcery of pounding and witchcraft, which is used to steal, kill, and destroy?

  • You need an upgrade.

Like I established in the first post, initially my prayer did not seem to do anything to them. I prayed, but they continued to do their thing. This continued until one night, as I was praying, I heard a voice that said, “I have upgraded you.” Instantly, the pounding activity stopped. Ever since that day, the spirit of God in me assumed a shape that could interfere with the pounding voodoo. All I have to do is channel my prayer against them by sending their sorcery back to them. This always works.

Therefore, one needs to be upgraded in spiritual might and Christian capacity to counteract this witchcraft. And upgrades don’t happen to prayerless believers. If your prayer is not affecting any battle you are facing, do not give up; continue in prayer until God upgrades your capacity.

  • Relentless prayer

One day the Lord gave me wise counsel using an unusual means. And this happened in a time of strong opposition. He said, “No one who continues fighting is ever defeated.” So the more the enemy wields his devices against us, the more we must continue to pray whenever we can.

In those days when they tried to destroy my prayer life, yes, I did quite struggle to pray, but I never stopped praying. In fact, it was in a prayer session that the Holy Spirit told me that I was in a hidden battle.

As long as a Christian has an effective and efficient prayer altar, the works of Satan will have minimal effect on him. And even if they have done any work against us while asleep or without our knowledge, by prayer we can resurrect what was killed, recover all that was stolen, and mend all that the enemy had destroyed.

  • Do not stay within the place where such things are done.

This sorcery is positional; it only works within an immediate surrounding. So that if you suspect or are sure that they are using this demonic weapon against you, leave that area. The device works most when you sleep. So, do not sleep within the horizon of this attack unless you have no choice and you have a strong prayer life.

  • You will get a covering and help if you prevail in prayer.

One of the things I have learnt about spiritual battle is that there is a covering coming. When a true believer who has a strong altar of prayer is relentless in any battle he faces without succumbing to the darkness, a day comes when the Lord increases him above that level of battle. I call this a covering.

Upgrading our capacity gives us the power to resist and overcome, but a covering makes the attack almost null and ineffective on us. It will be like pouring water on a duck. It touches the duck but does nothing to it.

For instance, I do not need to be in an active prayer session for certain levels of voodoo witchcraft to fail against me. There is a covering over me because I have dwelt in the secret place for so long.

The scripture that backs this experience is Psalm 91:4, which says, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high... He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust; his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.“

The experience I had was that God increased me to a level that the sorcery had almost no effect on me.

  • You need a saviour.

No matter how strong or careful one may be, Satan the architect is always stronger, more prudent, and wiser in his approach. As believers, we need God’s help if we must truly win any spiritual battle. The role of the Holy Spirit in spiritual warfare can never be overemphasised. He will keep you alert, he will keep you alive, he will strengthen you, he will drive you, he will upgrade you, he will give you knowledge, and he will give you understanding, revelation, power, and much more.

So that anyone who is not in communion with the Holy Spirit, anyone who is not genuinely born again, cannot win any battle against the kingdom of darkness. As it is written, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” 1 John 5:4

Back to God: Vital lessons from the prodigal son

By
Ogba Victor
-
0
the prodigal son returning

One day a young boy wandered away from his father seeking greener pastures. Not that his father’s land was not green, but that he was seeking an unscrupulous adventure far from his father’s will and way. Thus he traveled far and distant.

In that distant land he settled for the kind of lifestyle that pleased him—a wasteful and vain life. He squandered the resources he had obtained from his father, and he started to suffer hunger and lack. He eventually began to work as one who takes care of pigs, but he was not satisfied with bread, so that the pod of the pigs was good to him. But no man gave him anything. But a day came when he had a moment of thought and realized that he had made a terrible mistake. And then he said to himself,

“I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee…’” (Luke 15:18)

He got up, packed his shattered hopes and dreams, carried his shameful self, and traced his way back to his father whom he had departed from. When his father saw him coming from afar, in great compassion he ran out to receive and welcome him back home.

Today, just like the prodigal son, many believers have lost their way; many have gone astray. Too many have wandered far from God; many have lost that vital contact and relationship they had with Jesus. Once true sons and daughters, many of us have wandered into darkness in pursuit of money, women, men, fame, pleasure, recognition, riches, and position, thereby losing their salvation and the eternal hope. Many servants of God have gone in the pursuit of vain glory and honour; therefore, God has distanced himself from them, and he has stripped them of his glory, anointing, and power.

Herein is what we must learn from the parable of the lost son.

  • Life without Christ is shattered dreams.

Children of the world may find crooked ways, but kingdom sons and daughters may not survive far from their God. Sometimes, hard times and troubles are the signs of our departure from God. The prodigal son was quick to realize that distancing himself from his father had led him into much suffering.

  • Counting the losses

There is no one who departs from God that does not lose out on the great things one shared with God: the glory and honour, the heavenly privileges and gifts, the kingdom authority and power. Just like the parable, losses are there to help us see that we have erred.

  • Not ashamed of returning after a fall.

Fear of what men will say when they come clean before God and the church as sinners, backsliders, and seekers of a new start with God has kept many in the pit of backsliding. They would rather remain lost instead of humbling themselves back to God. The prodigal son had a different mindset.

  • The father’s unending love.

God does not turn away his heart from his prodigal sons and daughters. He yearns and still earnestly desires that they would return to him in good time. Christ’s mercy is not only for sinners but also for those who were once for him but have wandered far away.

  • He returned to where he was hewn from

Jesus told this parable as a message to backslidden believers, that they do not remain in their fall but rather, rise up and turn back to their God whose mercies do not fail.

123...12Page 2 of 12

© 2025 Back2God Evangelistic Outreach. All Rights Reserved.