FIREBRAND- A SHORT FICTION

 FIREBRAND- A SHORT FICTION

My name is Kiki Jones, I am an accountant, a singer and a young Christian woman. To me, life has been quite fair as I am already established at 24. I have a good job, a posh car, a luxury apartment in one of the high brow areas, and a glowing account balance.

I had a religious upbringing as my parents, Mr and Mrs Jones were senior Pastors in our church.

As a pastor’s daughter, I was faced with the challenge of living up to the level of perfection expected from everyone around me. 

My church taught us how to conduct ourselves in everything we did, so there were some things that I could not do, naturally. I knew the dos and don’ts of the church, I could easily cook up a salvation story to tell whoever cared to ask, I was highly moral, but not saved.

As a child who was expected to be perfect, I had a form of godliness, however, I had no personal relationship with God.

I was outwardly perfect, I obeyed the laws of the church, I appeared extremely holy, my clothes were decent, but I was struggling inwardly with lust. I could not stop thinking about boys lustfully even at a tender age, I do not know when I started, but I grew up to see myself struggling with an addiction to masturbation. I was introduced to pornography by our house help at the age of 14. I had all of these struggles, yet everyone saw me as a perfect child.

Even though I was the senior pastor’s daughter, I was soaked in the sin and guilt of a secret addiction.

My story is about the encounter that changed my entire life.

It all happened on a fateful Tuesday evening. I had just returned from work and was tired from the day’s activities when Suzy, my best friend came to my house. 

As soon as she drove in, she told me “Kiki, get your scarf, we are going for fellowship”.

At first, I thought my exhaustion had made me forget what day it was as I asked her “Suzy, is today not Tuesday? What fellowship do we have today?”  She smiled and explained that it was an interdenominational fellowship she had been attending outside our church for the past three weeks and she felt guilty for not taking me along with her from the very first day. According to her, I had missed a lot. She asked me if I hadn’t noticed the changes in her life and I answered affirmatively (truly, my friend had changed).

I was exhausted, however, Suzy was not ready to take no for an answer. She persuaded me till I had no choice but to give in. I accepted to go with her on the condition that we would use her car and she gladly agreed.

All the way to the fellowship venue, Suzy kept on playing spiritual chants in the car. I usually heard these songs but I had never paid attention to them as I believed that they were deceitful incantations from false prophets. That evening, however, something felt entirely different about the atmosphere in the car. I could not place it, but it was just different.

On getting to the venue, I saw several people already praying before the commencement of the program. They seemed to be lost in the moment. I looked at the altar and saw some persons kneeling and sobbing silently on the altar. This posture looked funny to me as I sarcastically asked Suzy if this was what we would be doing all evening.

Suzy smiled and said, “Kiki, you and sarcasm ehn, God will touch you o, come, let me introduce you to the convener”. I followed her as she introduced the convener as bro Josh.

“Sister Kiki, we are honoured to have you here with us, God will give you a special gift this evening”, bro Josh said with a warm smile. I returned his smile and said “Amen” even though I did not understand what special gift he was talking about.

After a while, the program started. We were asked to make a circle and hold hands while the worship leader led us in a session of soul-lifting worship. The convener, Bro Josh kept on saying things like “connect”, “align” and I found myself chuckling at intervals as I did not understand what those words meant.

The convener led us in serious prayers about commitment to God and I stole occasional glances at the people around me to see if they were praying.

I noticed that everyone in the room was praying with so much passion, and many were praying in tongues.

I could not figure out what was happening but amidst the noise and unusual heat in the room, I could find some sort of strange calmness in the atmosphere.

After what seemed like an endless while, the convener ended the prayer and asked us to share the grace when I heard a voice in my head.

The voice said “Kiki, why did you come here today? Do you want to remain a spectator while people are doing mighty things for God?”

These words really hit me as I fell to my knees. My entire life played in front of me. For the first time in my life, I saw my helplessness, I saw how far I was from God and I was tired of my fake life.

I began to cry as I asked God for his mercy, I was pleading for forgiveness, I wanted more than the head-knowledge of God, I wanted a relationship with God, I wanted to be on fire for him just like my friend, Suzy.

I became so serious and I told God I would not leave if he did not fix my life. All of a sudden, I could fill His presence, it was unmistakable! I could not control my tongue any longer as I began to utter words in a language that sounded very strange.

I kept on praying, speaking in tongues and surprisingly, as I prayed, I heard the meaning of what I was uttering in my spirit. I had just been baptized in tongues and given the gift of interpretation. A new wave of joy filled my heart and it just felt so different.

I don’t know how long I lay flat on the ground in that room that day, but it must have been pretty long because Suzy and the bro Josh came to pray with me as they helped me up to the car.

I was an entirely different person. All through the drive, I could not stop praying in tongues, the atmosphere of God’s presence was so peaceful that I could not picture life without Him.

Suzy dropped me at home but I could not even wait to tell her goodbye. I rushed into my house to continue my sweet fellowship with my newfound love, the Holy Spirit. That night was awesomely remarkable.

It has been six months and I have never missed a meeting since that very Sunday evening. Oh, let me add that I have never had any urge to go back to my former addictions and lifestyle, I now enjoy studying God’s word, prayer is sweet and I cannot spend an entire day without talking to somebody about Jesus.

This new life is blissful and I don’t want to trade it for anything else!

The end!