Oluwafemi Ifesanmi

From Lehi to Timnah And all the way to Gaza Tears followed after His mighty slaughter Surrounded at night Everywhere secured tight Yet gate and posts vanished at midnight Carried away by his might Never was he defeated But his passions he left unguarded And then he met her Whose name was Delilah Before he said "seven" there was hope Then came "a brand-new rope" Finally..."seven locks of hair" And he was left empty as Air. From Victor, he became Victim Yes, they blinded him He who was their "Terrible Punisher" Now became "Top Performer" But Mercy came, unknown to the foe For strands of hair again began to grow Could Gaza yet bring forth Gain? Could the fallen Giant rise again? Prayer time, what will yours be? Will it be - Lord I'm sorry, Or better still - Lord Restore me, Ask now, believe, Receive Yes he received answers to prayers As he leaned upon the pillars As he pushed, God pushed too The Gi...

...Perhaps fifteen years ago Debbie bought two books, each of which are titled, Your Life Story in Your Own Words: A Lasting Heritage for  Your Children. They are designed for parents or grandparents to write in, responding to a series of questions that prompt them to fill in details about their lives. Debbie made some progress on filling in her book, but I forgot about mine. Recently she reminded me about it, so I glanced through it last night. It asks many questions. Here are a few. What were your youthful goals and ambitions? That’s easy. I wanted to be a major league baseball player. Were you able to fulfill them? The short answer to that is no, my goals and ambitions changed. When you were young did you admire a famous person? Yes. Who was it, and what made you admire that person? I will not give the name, but the reason I admired that person was because he hit more home runs than anyone else in major league baseball. When you were young, did you ever go ...

M ost of us probably do not look in the mirror in the morning and say, “Lord, You did an amazing job here.” However, He did do an amazing job. He made you! God’s involvement with you did not begin at your birth, but at the moment when you were conceived. On the basis of God’s very personal involvement, the Psalmist stated in Psalm 139, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (verse 14). The theme of Psalm 139 is praise to God. In it, the Psalmist David expressed a number of reasons to praise the Lord, beginning with the fact that God is omniscient—He is all-knowing. “Thou hast searched me, and known me,” the writer stated. He went on to give specifics: God is aware when we get up and when we lie down. He knows the path we will take before we choose it. God is all-knowing, but we are not, and David acknowledged that. He declared in verse 6, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” In verse 7, David indicated that G...

What does freedom look like to you? The word freedom means different things to different people. Those of us who live in the United States of America celebrate freedom on July 4, looking back to that date in 1776, when the founding fathers of our country declared the thirteen colonies to be independent of the British crown. They deemed their new nation to be self-governing, and felt God had endowed them with that right, viewing independence from British rule as freedom. Freedom was a deeply appreciated blessing to the Chris Botofan family when they arrived here in Portland, Oregon, on July 5, 1979, and stepped into an Apostolic Faith camp meeting which was in progress. To them, freedom looked like liberty from the oppression they had felt in Communist Romania until just a few months earlier when they immigrated to America. They had a view of freedom which those of us who have not lived under that type of regime perhaps cannot fully appreciate. Brother Chris was fulfilling a dream t...

Do you desire a pure heart? Think on these; The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9). God Who knows the heart of man declared that, every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). A sinner’s heart is polluted, corrupt and full of wicked imaginations. Evil comes from the heart as Jesus declared, “for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murder, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies; these are the things which defile a man (Matthew 15:19, 20). But good things come from a pure heart. You then want to ask, how can the heart be purified? The first step to get a pure heart is by confessing one ’s sins, forsaking them and praying until one is sure his sins are forgiven (1 John 1:9; Romans 8: 16). This experience is called salvation, being born again or justification. After a person is saved, he now has the opportunity of approaching the Throne of Grace for the s...

When a person is converted, the changes are evident. What is salvation? It is   justification by faith, being born again or forgiveness of sin. It converts the earth from bad to good. It happens when a person recognises that he is a sinner, confesses his sins to GOD, repents, forsakes them, and believes that the blood of JESUS, shed on the cross of Calvary washes away his sins, GOD forgives him. The Spirit of GOD will let him know. ‘’The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of GOD’’ (Romans 8:16). Conversion produces a noticeable difference in a life. True Salvation makes a change, a real transformation. ‘’Therefore if any man be in CHRIST, he is a new creature: old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new’’ ( 2Corinthians 5:17). What are the old things that pass away at Salvation? The outward sinning ceases; the alcoholic no longer drinks, the drug addict no longer takes drugs; the thief stops stealing and the smoker st...

M y parents raised their children carefully and taught us to love and respect God and His house. The Word of God was planted in our hearts from an early age. My siblings and I were faithfully taken to Sunday school and church. Our parents also made sure we read the Bible and prayed—not by asking us if we had, but by reading and praying with us. Mom and Dad went to God for everything. Their trust in Him was constant and never wavered. Many times when I was sick, they knelt beside my bed and prayed for me. On one occasion, my throat was quite swollen from tonsillitis. They prayed, and God undertook. Through situations like this, it was instilled in my heart to trust the Lord. When I was about ten years old, I knelt and prayed asking the Lord to come in and make a change in my heart, and He saved me. Even though I was a young girl, He made a change that was real; He put peace and joy in my heart. Later, I also received the experiences of sanctifica­tion and the baptism of the Holy Gh...