JESUS CALLED ME BY PASTOR BIODUN LAWAL – CHRIST EMBASSY
My name is Pastor Biodun Lawal. I am the zonal pastor of Christ Embassy Accra, Ghana and I want to thank our man of God, our pastor, our coach and our father for the opportunity to share my salvation testimony with you.
I title it Jesus Called Me. I was born and raised up in a Muslim house, my parents were Muslims.
I was trained as a kid to go to Quranic School and on how to lead prayers in the mosque as well. I grew up as a Muslim learning the things that a young Muslim should do.
As at that time, my parents had a lot of Christian friends and at the age of five my parents allow me to follow their friends children to church (Sunday school) and that was my first encounter with Christianity. All the things that we were taught at the Sunday school didn’t make sense to me then because I only followed the children to go and play.
Then suddenly, my parents stopped me from attending the Sunday school because they had wanted me to focus on their religion which is Islam. They were so passionate about that because they wanted to raise me as a good Muslim.
When they stopped me, I didn’t feel bothered because I knew then that I was not suppose to be in church as a Muslim, but that was my first encounter with Christianity. After that, I didn’t go to any church till I graduated from the university and I was posted to do my national youth service in Nigeria.
We normally have what we called the national youth service where every graduate from the university has to go and do their service and I was posted to the North Eastern part of Nigeria, the city of Maiduguri in Borno state to serve. To me that was very good, I loved it because I thought within myself that now I am going to the north to meet the real Muslims and to learn the real Islam.
Fortunately for me I was posted to lecture in a polytechnic and in that polytechnic we had a corper’s quarter where all the youth corper’s lived and among all of them, I was the only Muslim there, all the others were Christians but I didn’t bother because I had already made friends with a lot of lecturers who were Muslims in the school and I followed them to mosque and stayed in their company but any time I returned back to my quarters my friends that were Christians tried to show me a lot of things about Christianity but I didn’t use to border about it because I was more interested in learning more about Islam. Something happened while I was there doing my national service and that changed my mind set, my conception and my attitude towards Islam.
At that time there was a religious riot that took place in the northern part of Nigeria and I was a witness to it and I saw the way the Muslim fanatics were killing people, murdering people, maiming people, rendering so many people homeless and destroying so many lives, I was shocked to see that kind of behavior, that kind of wickedness coming from this people and I began to ask myself questions, I became ashamed to identify myself with them because I couldn’t imagine a human person killing another human person in the name religion, I became so ashamed of myself and I began to question this religion (islam). There were so many questions in my heart that demanded answers so I was looking for answers.
Apart from looking for answers there was this emptiness in my heart, this deep hunger in my soul to know the truth and to know more about God. I had a lot of Christian friends in the quarter who used to tell me about Christianity but I never listened to them.
So I began to give attention to what other people are saying and this continued and I became more interested in hearing other people’s opinion about God till I went back home. Getting back home, the question was still in my heart, I still remembered the wickedness, the behavior and attitude of these Muslim fanatics, how they killed so many people and I was not happy about it at all.
Remember I went to the north to serve because I thought I will learn about real Islam and be with real Muslims but when I saw what real Islam was about and what real Muslim was all about I had a change of attitude. So when I got back to the house I was no longer comfortable about going back to the mosque even though I used to go to the mosque once in a while, I began to stay indoors, then one day I saw a bible, a Gideon’s Bible, how it entered into my room till today i don’t know and I can’t say how that bible entered into my room, but I saw that bible and I began to read that bible.
Remember, I told you I had so many questions about God so I said to myself let me look into this bible maybe I will find the answers there. I began to read and study the bible and something strange happened to me.
I began to have dreams and see people ascending to heaven. Before then Jesus started appearing to me in my dream, I started seeing Jesus in my dream, started seeing people ascending to heaven and I was on earth looking at them ascend to heaven, many times I tried to grab their legs but they will leave me behind and I saw myself crying in the dream then Jesus spoke to me.
Anytime I woke up from such dreams I go back to my bible and study more. So I stopped going out and stopped playing with my friends, 24 hours I will be indoors studying.
My parents began to wonder what was wrong with me, they will come to my room often and ask me what the problem was, whether I was sick, whether I was ok, I just told them I was ok and that I wanted to be indoors. Then one day as I was studying the bible I decided to go and study the book of Revelation, think about it, so I opened to the book of Revelation just to read and have an idea because I had so many unanswered questions, what will be the signs of the end times, what was on God’s mind, as a young Muslim boy I had so many questions so I went and studied the book of revelation.
In reading the book of Revelation, I saw so many things that surprised me, baffled me and made me more afraid, I saw that Jesus is coming again, I began to see the fire and brim stone and the hale and the punishment that will come to the wicked. As I studied I began to see many people running away from the judgment that is about to come to the world.
I began to ask myself questions that, if this judgment happens how will I escape it. Then I came to one conclusion that if I am going to have a life of true peace “I am using the word peace because Islam prides itself in true peace”, it can only be by Jesus Christ.
Then on 15th December 1992, on a Tuesday night, I knelt down beside my bed, alone in that room with the consciousness of Jesus Christ, I gave my life, my heart and soul to Jesus Christ and I made Jesus Christ the Lord of my life. From that night I never entered the mosque again and I stayed indoors.
My dad came into my room one day and saw me reading the bible, he didn’t say anything, he went back to the sitting room and he sent for me. I had already made up my mind on the day I gave my life to Christ that, anybody that compels me to go back to Islam, I will fight the person??
So I went to the sitting room and my dad said to me “ I have been coming to your room and I have seen you read the bible, you have stopped going to the mosque, I hope you are not a Christian, I looked at him eye bore to eye bore then I said to him, dad I am no longer a Muslim, I am now a Christian and I will never enter the mosque again, he was surprised and shocked not knowing what to do or what to say, he just said ok, if that is what you want that is ok and he never asked me again till today. After I gave my life to Christ, there was now the question of which church to attend because I had never been to church since I was raised up in the mosque.
I had this friend who was a family friend as well, we were born together and raised up together but he had already become a Christian. So the next day after giving my heart to Christ I went to his house but I was told he had gone to church, I went there again I was told he had not returned from the church, I went there again in the evening and he was still not back from church.
His house to my house is about 30 minutes walk, so I went home and came back to his house around 11pm because I was hungry for something, I went to his room but he was sleeping so I tapped him and whispered to him that, I will like to follow him to church on Sunday, then I left like that. Then the first thing in the morning he ran to my house and asked me whether he heard something from me yesterday, was he dreaming, did I say I was following him to church, I said emphatically yes, he was so happy, he was shouting and rejoicing.
On 20th of December 1992, I stepped into Christ Embassy, my friend brought me to Christ Embassy and I have been in Christ Embassy ever since then, I have not stepped into any church, I have not gone to any other church to hear the word of God and that’s why I want to thank my pastor, my father and my life coach, my prophet and my apostle, Pastor, thank you so much for all your investments over all this years in my life, everything I know in the bible you taught me, you raised me up and you imparted me so much with your anointing. Thank you so much Sir.
I love you.