14th Hour Miracles

We love testimonies of eleventh-hour interventions.

Help arrives just in time

Intervention happens at the nick of time.

But do you realise that God is not constrained to the eleventh hour?

Do you realise that He can get glory even beyond the eleventh hour?

And the Bible is full of such.

Shadrach and his friends were not rescued just before they were thrown into the fire. Daniel’s intervention did not arrive just as he was about to be thrown into the den of lions. Joseph was not rescued before misfortunes happened.

This means that eleventh hour interventions, though far more comfortable and safer for us, are many times the exception instead of the rule.

Allow me to get to my testimony.

I had been invited to Nairobi to start a ministry after waiting for God’s clear order for about four years after leaving employment, again on His orders.

Ministry thrived and started bearing fruit.

But the big guys in the structure developed other ideas; they wanted me to be their poster boy. They wanted me to be their PR item. They wanted me to run their errands.

I confronted them, of course respectfully.

The reason you called me is because you were clear that God has called me into ministry. Do you think I should start listening and following you just because you are the ones holding the purse strings? Should I stop listening to Him because you are my superiors?

They tried to push their weight around.

Incidentally I was doing exactly what they had called me to be doing and so they couldn’t say that I was ineffective.

To cut the long story short, I became a problem to those ministry bosses.

Mark you, these were long term friends, people I highly respected.

They therefore kicked me out and even killed the ministry to erase my involvement in it.

Here I was in the city, without friends or means of support.

And of course, very hurt by the open betrayal of people I had spiritually held in high esteem.

But then I prayed and God spoke.

He told me that He was the One who had wanted me in Nairobi and that they were the tool God used.

I had of course wanted to go back home because there I had a house and a piece of land but God again spoke.

He wanted me in Nairobi and He will take care of me.

Of course that settled it. Or did it?

Here I am with a growing family and no friends or supporters staying in Nairobi that was difficult to stay in ten years earlier as a single person with a salary.

But I chose obedience. But I told God that I would not be raising support from the experiences of friends I had seen struggle through that.

So, here I was in Nairobi without any support.

The first thing I did was to move from a house run by estate agents.

Again, because of a retired neighbour who probably died from the harassment caused by them.

Any slight delay and they would come and confiscate all his things then return them when the rent is paid after including may other charges like that confiscation and transport.

I moved from the estate I was and the first place I got was small for my family. And in my spirit, I felt that the move was very temporal.

We therefore continued praying for the right house.

One time, my son, who was seven then, prayed and his prayer was a description of a house.

As I was walking around the neighbourhood looking for vacant houses, I found the exact house my son had been praying about, every detail.

The landlord was an old man who was very agreeable because he even allowed us to move in at the middle of the month yet start paying rent the next month.

I had of course told him that I was a minister and that my rent would not be predictable.

Not long after that, rent did not come. One month. Two months.

I think that alarmed him because I had not been there even three months. I therefore did not have any argument since there was no evidence of the provision I ‘claimed’.

He therefore gave me a deadline (a 15th) to pay rent or he throws me out.

He was not even opposed to my moving out without paying that rent as he seemed intent on having his house back.

A friend I had discipled offered to help.

He would look for a smaller house and pay rent. Then he would take a friend’s handcart that he would pay much later and help us move.

But God had said He would take care of us and so I refused that help.

If God could get any glory by letting us be thrown to the streets, who was I to resist?

And so we waited.

Another thing worth noting is that my cell phone had a weak battery (those days there was nowhere to buy batteries) and so it had to be on power to function.

This means I did not have it during the day.

I arrived home on 14th evening and find a message from a friend.

Please pass by my office. And in case you do not find me, ask for so and so.

That offered hope. But hope that was almost too late because the mzee had told me that come 15th, there would be no talking.

On 15th, I woke up very early.

I thought to rush to see my friend and if it is the miracle I needed, I rush back.

As I was praying, God told me

What are you running away from?

I remembered I had allowed God to get the glory from by being thrown out to the streets and decided to wait for him to do his worst.

But he didn’t come.

At 10.30, I decided to leave and told my wife to tell him that I left after he didn’t come.

I was given an envelope (my friend was not around)

I went to the church (that was nearby) and gave thanks before even opening it.

In it was the full rent plus food money (of course I have not told you that even food was a challenge).

I then went back home.

The mzee had still not come.

I therefore told my wife and son to take the rent and tell him that we had waited but he had not come.

Today is the 14th, is what he said. Mark you he was an educated fellow.

He then went to look at his calendar and was shocked that it was actually the 15th.

So what was I actually running away from since God had actually sorted out the calendar?

There are many testimonies that happened in that house; from reduction of rent, twice, to being fed better than his children even with rent arrears.

And our departure was as dramatic when the season ended.