God's Plan: The Prophecy & The Reality (Episode 1)

Episode 1: The Prophecy & The Reality

Dennis was the third (3rd) child from a family of five (5) with three(3) children in total. His mother was different from the mother of the other children because his father married his mother when his first wife died. He always thought of himself as the odd one of the family but for some reason, his father really favored him. He always bought him gifts and pampered him more than he did with the other children. Therefore, the other children were jealous of Dennis. Dennis’ Father, Joel, had a shop in Makola, Accra which he had left for the other children to run. They sold electricals and electronics on wholesale and had a lot of customers. Although they had a lot of customers, these other children always made sure to raise the prices of the items, adding their own mark up to the goods in order to get their own cut. Dennis always reported this to his father whenever he saw them doing this so his brothers despised him even more.

Their hatred for Dennis grew more and more but this increased when one day in church, a prophet walked up to Dennis to tell him that he was going to be a very wealthy, prominent and well respected man and that he was going to be the bread-winner of his family and be the one to look after his father, mother and brothers. Even his father was shocked at this, and didn’t quite believe it, because Dennis was still very little and had no evident skill but he never forgot about it. His brothers on the other hand became more displeased, plotting and planning each day to make sure that this never came to pass, as if they could stand in the way of God’s plans. They set little traps for Dennis, just to make him look bad in front of their father, even to the point of falsely accusing him of stealing. His father never believed them because he trusted Dennis each time and knew what he was and was not capable of doing.

Dennis on the other hand, because of the prophecy he had received, started drawing closer to God more and more. The first person he spoke to when he woke up was God and the last person he spoke to before he went to bed was God. He committed his days into the hands of God and asked God to lead him every step of the way. He was very diligent with his Bible study and never failed to show up to spend time with God. For some reason, as his brothers saw this, they became more agitated, accusing Dennis of always wasting time before going to the shop, they felt more jealous of him and continued to bully and accuse him falsely. On the other hand, their father, Joel, saw this and was very proud of his son, he encouraged him to continue developing a deeper relationship with God and to never give up on it.

Some years later, Dennis gained admission to the University to study as he was still a student. In contrast with his brothers who were quite unserious with School, Dennis always studied hard, was very serious in school and gave his best in his academics. He refused to fail because he always remembered that he had to take care of his family. Even with all his activities, lectures and assignments in school, he still consistently spent time with God, always making God priority and God never forsook him. He finished University with First Class Honors and came back home after four years in School. He set a goal to finish school with a first class and by God’s grace he came back home with just that. However, in the current Ghanaian Economy, a first class did not mean that one automatically got a job. You would think that he would have offers pouring in, but as you would have guessed, he didn’t really know a lot of prominent people to hold his hand into an institution to get a job. So although he had done his best in school, prayed consistently and finished with his first class, his efforts were not rewarded with a job for a long time.

As if coming home with no job was not enough, his brothers did not let Dennis rest. They taunted him day and night about his predicament. Asking Dennis, if he thought he was better than them because he went to school and so many mean things. He started going back to the shop with them but everything grew worse while in the shop. Dennis was practically their slave in the shop, he was asked to do almost all the menial jobs in the shop and even trolled the little chance they got. Dennis did all these because he respected his older brothers but he was gradually becoming fed-up. He prayed and prayed about this situation but it looked like nothing was going to change and there was no hope in sight. Dennis never stopped looking for a job but it was as if an embargo had been placed on his ability to find a job. At this point, he had applied for over 500 jobs both online and offline but there was no hope in sight. After a series of rejection letters, he started giving up and eventually lost hope in finding a job with his qualification. He started questioning God but God seemed silent. He kept praying but it felt like there was no answer in sight. He reached out to friends and family whom he thought could help but everyone seemed to be occupied or completely busy. Where was his God who had promised that he was going to be prominent. Was that really true or was it just a farce?

Two years later, Mr. Joel’s brother, Kevin,who had been in the US for a while, came to visit. Like most people staying outside the country with children, help was very expensive and very difficult to find in the US so Kevin asked for one of Joel’s children to come live with him in the US. One would think the older brothers would be interested in going outside the country but they were extremely uninterested in this. They believed they were of a certain status and thus did not deserve to go and be a “houseboy” for anyone. They believed they were making enough from the markup in the shop and were not willing to give up on the freedom associated with that or risk being found out. So they really pushed for Dennis to go and be the “US Houseboy” as they call it. Their dad was not very happy about it but finally agreed because he felt it was better for him to go than to stay there without putting his degree to any use. Dennis on the other hand was just happy to have something to do rather than being used and trolled by his brothers. He was just happy to leave. He prayed about it and decided to go, as usual, trusting God to lead him.

Four months later, Dennis arrived in New York and experienced a complete culture shock. He just couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Most things that people did in hiding in his home country were being done in the open and nobody said anything. He would stare over and over again in complete shock and just pinch himself to remember that he was in another man’s land. Now, the other shock was with his Uncle’s wife and children. They were the definition of over spoiled and over pampered and were extremely rude and obnoxious. After spending a few days with them, he was ready to quit and go back home but he knew he had to make this work, because going back to his brothers was not an option. At this point, he had stopped focusing on his qualifications because that only made him sad. All his efforts in school didn't look like it paid off. It looked like he was on a completely different path than what he had planned for himself.

However, like every other thing in his life, Dennis prayed about this as well. He committed everything into God’s hands and even though his faith in the promises of God started shaking, he didn’t stop praying because he had no other option. His prayer was as follows:

“Dear God,

I thank you for today. I thank you that you have brought me thus far

Even though, I may not know or see it, I know you are always working things out for my good

Please take absolute control of everything.

I do not know what is happening in my life or even what I am doing here

But I put my trust in you and I know you will never put me to shame

Please cause everything to work together for my good.

So that all men will see me and give you glory.

In Jesus name, Amen!”

He prayed each day and night, while ensuring to read his Bible and spend consistent time with God. Things seemed to get worse even after praying these prayers for a while but he never wavered because he chose to look unto God.

TO BE CONTINUED

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Please stay tuned for our next episodes as we go through this journey with Dennis as he navigates life, holding on to the promises of God amid all the confusion and disappointment. God richly bless you.