Article: Faith and Life Transformation - Jonah Okah

I was born into a Christian family with profound God fearing upbringing,  with my humble father whom  I  greatly admire   and ever indebted to him for planting Jesus Christ in my life as a person and in the family generally.
As a little kid I witnessed my Dad conducting crusade, preaching the word of God in Buguma, Abonema, Abua, Oloibiri, Amurukenu, Epie communities and Nembe. . It was a wonderful experience to behold and a huge privilege to be brought up under such evangelical influence.

My Dad was supported by my Mum in spreading the gospel.  It was a family of faith, whereby as a little kid in primary school, I recall my parents subjecting me to three days fast and prayer, known as  'dry fast'  without food and water. I was confined to the house where I was bound to pray and commune with God in every one hour. It was a Herculean experience but quite fascinating one with lasting impressions on my spirituality.  With deep faith in our hearts, we believe that  'by His Stripes, we were healed'. That was the cannon of our faith in God and nothing has changed.

Interestingly, my faith in Jesus Christ blossomed much more when I stumbled on and read a book,  MY STORY by Oral Robert the preacher and healer through Jesus Christ. The book was quite revealing with life transforming narratives about ORAL ROBERT and  his power of healing through faith, a faith that my Dad inculcated in me as a child of God. I was just in my primary school when I read that book. My ultimate faith in God was gravely influenced and taken to another level. I began my own evangelism at a tender age within the bracket of ten.

I asked myself a question ; what's going to be my contribution to the propagation of the gospel of faith in  Jesus Christ?  To the surprise of my parents, I placed an order for Bible Tracts  and Pamphlets from USA,  Canada and UK and  they came in cartons which I freely gave to churches as part of my support for the spread of the gospel. 

My Dad was full of smiles and proud of me as an academically brilliant and God fearing son, believing that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

In spite of the spirit of radicalism running through my veins, the fear of God was competitively very deep in my world view with the burning passion to become a Lawyer and Journalist.  God, Law and journalism are armoury in the fight against injustice.  A man with God is a man with majority. That's why the question of fear cannot arise in whatever I say against an institution that is not on the Lord's side.