The man called Lord and the crew of five by Egboje Oruaro

 

THE MAN CALLED "LORD" AND THE CREW OF FIVE

Once upon a time, in a very small town, a small church was located at the center of the town. It was mainly a youth church, and these youths were devoted to doing God's work. There was no day that passed when these youths of this fellowship never went out for evangelism. In fact, they took that scripture and order from Jesus personally, always making it a point of duty to preach the gospel. Among these youths were five crew members consisting of Naomi, Joshua, Caleb, Joy, and Paul. These five people were extremely zealous for God's work and never joked about it.

Most of the time, they always moved together, seizing every opportunity they had to spread the word, even when they were mocked countless times by their peers about how they took the gospel seriously. These youths kept preaching and showing love to others, just as they had learned to do according to God's word. Soon, people started reconciling themselves to God, and more and more people were converted to Christ. The church grew bigger, and more people and souls were won to Christ. You could imagine the joy in their hearts, seeing the number of converts increase day by day. It gave them more motivation to continue doing the kingdom's business.

Now, these crew members of five had different gifts. Naomi was a very good prayer warrior; there was nothing she did without involving prayers. She could pray for as long as six hours, blasting in tongues. Joshua was a good teacher of the word, having the gift of explaining the Bible in a convincing way that made you believe. He had a deep understanding of the word and knew how to teach it to people in an interesting manner. Caleb was a very good singer; his voice could heal a broken heart. Joy had the combination of the preacher and prayer, and she had a special gift too - boldness. Most of the outreaches they did, Joy was always at the forefront, leading the way. She had a way of getting to you, and she was never scared of any situation, be it what people would say or how she would say it to people. Paul had the gift of seeing; most times, he saw what would happen on most of their mission outreaches. He had a way of seeing things, and he might be sitting in a place or even standing, and before you knew it, he was already lost in the spirit realm, seeing things and having a glimpse of what was to come.

He had managed to save his crew on many of their missions because of his gift. Sometimes, God showed him which part they should take or what action to take. This crew of five put their gifts into good use, ensuring that the gospel spread across the town. No one thought of himself as greater than the others. For Naomi, who could pray, she never looked down on the others who didn't have her type of stamina for prayers. Rather, she tried her best to bring them up in the ways of prayers by teaching them how to communicate in prayers for long. Naomi ensured that her crew knew the value of prayers and always took out time to pray for her crew whenever they were preparing for evangelism. Joshua always ensured that they had an intensive Bible study so that they would all be equipped with the word. He made studying the Bible much easier and fun, and with time, the crew began having a deep understanding of God's word. Caleb taught them the act of true worship; he taught them how to raise their voices in worship and connect to their Father through singing. He made them realize that true worship is not just by having a good voice but by being spiritually inclined and connected. Joy taught them how to be daring, how to be bold. Since she always took the lead most times, she gave them an example of what true leadership entails. She was also a prayer warrior and knew just how to preach the word to win souls to Christ. Yes, she was that gifted in Christ. Finally, Paul showed them that seeing does not come by chance but by being connected, knowing how to connect in the spirit.

This team of kingdom workers found a way to teach each other how to be good in what they were good at, and with time, commitment, and by God's grace, they became good. Seeing one of them was like seeing all of them because they all portrayed the same lifestyle and had the same characteristics.

Things were going smoothly until a very great pastor who called himself "Lord" came and swept the whole town with him with the miracles he performed. He opened a church, and within days, the whole town had started crowding the church, including those who attended the fellowship of the crew. One by one, they left the fellowship because of the stories they heard about this man. It was even said that he raised a dead man and healed a leprous woman.

The whole town was amazed by what this man was doing, and they didn't hide it as they always praised the man everywhere he went. Soon, the man became so popular that even the king heard of his fame and invited him to his palace. When "Lord" arrived at the king's palace, he was warmly welcomed and treated nicely by the king. The king treated him to a very nice meal and took him on a stroll, where he had a conversation with him. The king asked "Lord" if there was any way he could lay his hands on him to prolong his life so that he wouldn't die young but continue living forever. "Lord" told him he could if only he would swear an oath between him and God not to reveal the secret of him living forever to anyone, which the king, desperate for long life, agreed to.

As "Lord" left the palace, the king gave him a lot of gifts and even gave him some of his servants to follow him and work for him. While all these were happening, the crew of five never trusted this man who called himself "Lord." Naomi told her crew that while praying, she sensed an evil energy around him. Joshua said his spirit could easily discern that he was not of God. Joy knew right from when this man started deceiving people through his preaching and had even confronted him once, asking him questions about God, which he smartly ran away from answering, claiming Joy was accusing him of using false powers. Since the whole town was drawn to him, he easily made them hate the crew of five, and soon their fellowship was deserted, leaving only the five of them.

Even when it was just the five of them, they never stopped fellowshipping. Instead, they increased their passion and kept doing evangelism, telling the people not to be deceived by this man called "Lord," that he was not from God. But all they got was backlash and hate from the people, and soon people started avoiding them, saying they were enemies of progress because of how they were so against the man called "Lord." Anywhere they entered, people mocked them and threw things at them. Even their parents sent them out of their houses, saying they were possessed for going against the man called "Lord." Before long, with nowhere to go, they started sleeping in the fellowship hall.

A few months passed, and the town started suffering from a deadly disease. One by one, they started dying. They tried all the best medicine they could think of, but yet there was no cure, and people were dying more and more. The people of the town, as usual, went to meet the man "Lord" for a solution, but because he had none, since he was the cause of the problem, and with him having an advantage of the people believing every word he said, he told the whole town that the cause of the mass death was due to the crew of five, saying that God was punishing the people because they allowed this crew to accuse him of being fake. The people were enraged when they heard this and set out to look for this crew, Paul already having a vision of what was to happen, quickly told his crew members, and together they fled for their lives into the forest.

They were there for days, hungry and thirsty, hoping for God to rescue them from this mess, meanwhile, more people were dying, which made the town people more angry while searching for them. They put a reward on anyone who could find this crew. The five crew hid in the forest for 14 days, eating wild fruit and drinking rainwater. All these while, they never gave up and kept praying for God to expose the man called "Lord" and save the people of their town.

On a sunny afternoon, while they were singing and dancing together, the townspeople traced them to where they were and caught them, bringing them to the town-square. They brought the man called "Lord" and showed the crew of five to him, asking him what should be done to them. The man called "Lord" gave the crew of five three days to either submit to him and be one of his members so he could cleanse them of their sins and save the people of the town or be burnt alive.

The crew of five bluntly disagreed, and they were stoned by the townspeople due to their anger, for they thought that this crew was the cause of the deaths in the town. They left them at the town-square, bleeding, hungry, thirsty, and for the mosquitoes to bite them.


The first day passed, and still, they didn’t change their minds, and the people continued stoning them in their anger, while the man called "Lord" fueled their anger for the crew by telling all manners of lies against them, that they had been deceiving the people, claiming to preach Christ. This crew of five bled till they were unconscious, and the people of the town still left them outside to the cold of the night, not even their parents could save them from this predicament they were in.

The second day passed, and still, they never for once bulged or bent to the man called "Lord." At twelve midnight, when they had entered the third day, a loud shout was heard; it was Naomi praying, praying like her life depended on it, she blasted away in tongues in the dead of night, shouting to the heavens. Her prayers woke the townspeople up, and soon they were attracted to the source of the noise. Angry that she was disturbing them, they carried sticks and began hitting her furiously, but that only made her shout out more in prayers. Soon, Joy joined her loudly in prayers, shouting and prophesying about how the people were in darkness. There was no fear in her eyes as she spoke, and even as the townspeople came unto her, hitting her too, to be quiet, she kept on shouting.

Caleb started worshipping, using his last energy to sing and worship God. As he sang, Joshua joined too in prayers, blasting in tongues while also prophesying. In that moment, God opened the eyes of Paul to see the cause of the death. Just at the front of the town-square, he saw three huge trees, which were only visible to him, and soon these trees started taking the form of men - one was the king, the man called "Lord," and his deity. They were looking furiously at him, and while all these were going on, the people kept on hitting the rest four members profusely, willing them to be quiet.

Suddenly, with a loud voice, Paul shouted and began prophesying, speaking loudly about what he saw. This angered the people more because he kept talking about the man called "Lord" and how he was a fake and the cause of the mass death happening in the town. The townspeople all moved to Paul and started hitting him with all their anger and energy because of how he was talking down on the man called "Lord." The other four crew members already got the conviction in their hearts after Paul finished prophesying, and they kept praying loudly.

There was a huge commotion on the town square that night because the crew of five never kept quiet despite being hit by the townspeople. While all these were going on, a great sound, which was louder than anything they had heard before, was heard, and even the villagers could not bear it, so they had to run away, leaving the crew of five there at the town square. The sound lasted throughout the night, and all the people shut their doors for fear of being deafened by that sound.

After all the commotion, morning came; it was the morning of the third day. As the townspeople came to the town square, wanting to know what would be the fate of the crew since they had decided not to join hands with the man called "Lord," they were instead surprised to see the corpse of the king, the man called "Lord," and the body of a big snake, all burnt beyond recognition. Just when they thought they had seen it all, they saw the crew of five standing there, loose from the chains they were bound with, and they were not looking like people who had been beaten for three straight days.

The people were amazed at what had happened, and the realization hit them hard on the face that the man called "Lord" had deceived them all through and was, in fact, the cause of their problem all this while. The news spread round the town about what had happened, and soon the town square was filled to the brim with people, all wanting to see with their own eyes what had happened. While they were still there, Joy started preaching to them about Christ and how Christ had healed them, saved them and also exposed the man called "Lord". Soon, all the attention of the people was on the crew of five, and they listened intensively as Joy preached the word with so much boldness and confidence. The spirit of God took Naomi, and she started praying; it was like a wildfire because the people started praying with her too, all of them speaking in tongues they could understand surprisingly to the townspeople. Paul joined and started prophesying about the things God had shown him.


After praying, Joshua taught them the word from scratch, like how you would teach a baby how to walk, and the people listened attentively. That day, it was like a massive evangelism, as a lot of souls were won that day back to God. What seemed to be a dead-end for the crew of five, God turned it into the most favorable situation to win lost souls to Him, who would be partakers of His grace.

The people of the town turned to God after that incident, and the crew of five continued preaching the gospel and spreading the word to other villages and towns. Nothing could scare them anymore because nothing could be worse than what they had been through in the town. So, they kept using that incident as their testimony and stayed strong together, doing God's work.

Being partakers of God's grace comes with a lot of sacrifice and pain, but if we trust and obey, we will scale through, just like the crew of five did. Doing the work of God has many rewards, just as it has its own pain, but if we truly believe that the One who is in us is greater than anything else in the world, then we have already succeeded in the battle. For you to be a partaker of His grace, Christ must live in you, and you must show the characteristics of Him in you, no matter the time, place, or situation, just like the crew of five did. When Christ lives in you, you will know, as there will definitely be a big difference in your life, and you will be able to discern those who are really in Him from those who are fake.