Shemaiah

“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare once asked. “That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” One of my favourite ways through which God speaks is by reference to Hebrew names. They are laden with meaning, and for me, they usually reveal His heart or intent on a matter. The name Samuel for example, means “God heard” (Sh’ma Elohim).

In the book of 1st Samuel, Hannah, having yearned so deeply for a son, prayed and wept bitterly. In her prayer,she asked God for a son and in return vowed she would give him back to God for His service. Eli, thinking she was drunk, blessed Hannah once she explained herself and sent her home. Hannah conceived and bore a son and named him Samuel, literally “Heard by God” since she had asked the Lord for him.

God does hear us. I remember the first prayer I ever said as a young girl. Funny little prayer that was in retrospect. My sister and I were aged about 3 and 5 if I recall correctly. We were at that age where children develop weird habits like taking their favourite ‘blankies’ everywhere they go or sniffing and squishing their nose oddly. My younger sister, woe be unto her, had taken to sucking her thumb incessantly. I say woe be unto her because unbeknowst to us, my dad had been monitoring the situation for a while and had become increasingly concerned as time went by. He feared she would never be able to break free from this annoying habit. Every so often, he would give her hand a tiny smack whenever he caught her, however clearly this did not have the desired effect. The behaviour continued.

One fateful afternoon, D-day arrived unannounced upon us. It is fair to say it fell atop our unsuspecting little heads. My dad walked into the house from a long day’s work and found my sister sitting in her favorite comfy couch sucking away greedily at her thumb. I don’t know what came over him that day, really. In Swahili we would say “pepo zilimpanda” as in some spirits ‘climbed ontop of him’. All of a sudden out of nowhere, I saw my dad make a beeline for the kitchen. This in itself was a shocking event as my father’s shadow rarely ever darkened the kitchen doorway. The height of his culinary skills was presenting us with a delightful treat of boiled eggs and ketchup when my mum was otherwise indisposed. Yes, it was delightful because dad had made it. Anyway recognising that whatever brought about this strange turn of events could not be a good sign, my little sister skedaddled from the living room as fast as her tiny legs could carry her and hid away in some dark nook. Lo and behold she found herself hauled up from her hiding place, floating in the air and before she knew what was happening, alas! Her thumb had been sprinkled with a generous layer of extra hot chilli sauce and bound firmly in place with cling film. Operation no escape! Mouth agog, I watched these catastrophic events unfold from a safe distance, feeling fear grip my very insides. Of course my sister was by this point wailing loudly enough for all of Kenya to hear, but my dad was determined that this strict act would teach her to stop sucking her thumb forever. African parenting, aye ? #We Stan. Eventually my sister calmed down and curled up in a desolate heap in one corner. She looked incredibly pitiful, held hostage by her imprisoned chilli-flavoured -cling-film-bound thumb. As I stole glances at her weighing the calamity that had befallen her, half terrified that my dad would link me to the same destiny if I so much as sneezed in that direction, I resolved in my heart that such a fate should never be my portion. I tiptoed gently into one of the bedrooms, got down on my little 5 year old knees, clapsed my hands together and prayed to God. “Dear God,” I said, “please help me to never never never ever again suck my thumb, so that what happened to my sister will not happen to me. In Jesus’ s name I pray. Amen.” Ladies and … well ladies, do you know that was it? With that tiny request, God answered my prayer and I never again found myself tempted to suck my thumb. I can only imagine how He must have chuckled at the request, but still He honoured it! It’s funny how vivid that memory is in my mind. Question for you - can you recall one of your childhood prayer points? What was it? Did God answer it? He always hears us, we just don’t know it!

More recently as a fully formed functioning adult (although every so often I still find myself in denial of this whole adulting thing! ) God spoke loud and clear in answer to a prayer. In what can only be termed as quite a frustrating spiritual mountain, a male relative whom we shall call Dennis been experiencing myriad challenges in the area of career breakthrough and immigration settlement status. Although highly qualified in his field and at the stage where he should have been flourishing in His career, Dennis kept experiencing one obstacle after another. This went on for close to a year until finally, the Holy Spirit opened our eyes to a pattern. Something was amiss and a yoke needed to be broken. Despite having received that revelation, I still wasn’t sure how to proceed but of course God had me covered. One Saturday morning I woke up early to say my morning prayers. I turned on a corporate Streams of Joy church prayer streamed live on YouTube every weekday morning. As it was the weekend, I began to listen to the replays. I have to confess, my intention that morning was to carry my own heavy load and focus on personal prayer points. However as I persisted in prayer, I quickly realised the Holy Spirit had other ideas. Suddenly as I prayed in the spirit, led by the highly dynamic, highly anointed Pastor Jerry Eze shouting (yes, shouting!) in the background in tongues, I began to see Dennis kneeling. He was kneeling right in front of me, and although I could not physically see them it felt like he was bound in ropes. As I knelt down on my bed, I began to cast out and bind and rebuke all yokes. I cited scripture and made prophetic actions by breaking invisible chains. This went on for hours as the prayers continued to stream in the background. Remember, all this while I was whispering loudly as Pastor Jerry Eze and his amazing team prayed so as not to cause disturbance to my neighbours ! Finally, I felt a release in my spirit; like a burden had lifted. I took out my prayer journal, wrote down the date and wrote down “Dennis has shifted.” I went back to sleep shortly after.

If anyone has ever said God is not real, I would invite them to come close and He will show you. To know our Father is to know peace, to experience breakthrough. Six weeks later, Dennis woke up screaming and causing a great big fracas one morning. He had passed an exam he had failed on multiple occasions (for completely inexplicable reasons as he is highly intelligent and the exam was in his field). The date he had sat that exam is quite significant : It was the same date I had written down by the leading of the Holy Spirit the prophetic declaration of a shift. We were jubilant, celebrating this breakthrough not realising God had only just began. Later that evening, he received an email from the Home Office to state that his biometric residence card (again, held up for months for no good reason!) had been approved and issued. You know our God, the God who parted the Red Sea? The God of double portion? Yes that God, that is whom we serve. Imagine our joy! Our unparalleled happiness! And the blessings continued to flow.

That evening, the 18th of December - I can never forget the date - we said a heartfelt family prayer of deep gratitude, just thanking God for His goodness. Thanking Him that He had heard each and every one of our prayers concerning this matter and answered them. I later went to bed with my Bible laid out infront of me. I had every intention of doing some Quiet Time reading but before I knew it, sleep had carried me away. Suddenly, I felt myself being yanked awake. Yes, I said yanked. There’s a way the Holy Spirit will wake you up that makes it clear it wasn’t your own loud snoring that startled you. I had fallen asleep with the lights on and as my Bible was right where I’d left it, I grabbed it and opened it. As I flicked through the pages, I found myself in 1 Chronicles 24:6. I had skimmed through this scripture a few times before but for some reason that night, the name Shemaiah grabbed my attention. I recall thinking, what a lovely name. I flicked the pages again and landed in 1st Chronicles 26:4. Oh there it was again, that name Shemaiah. Hmm, how lovely. I flipped the pages again and this time the word literally jumped at me. With pinpoint accuracy, the Holy Spirit highlighted the name Shemaiah in Nehemiah 6:10. “Jehovah Nissi! “ I exclaimed in shock. Clearly God was trying to tell me something. I typed the name in Google and my eyes went wide as saucers as I read the text. “Shemaiah , a name which in Hebrew (shema-Ya) means “God Heard.“ Indeed once the Lord has spoken, twice have we heard. That power belongs to God. I felt a deep sense of peace wash over me as our father continued to minister to me through His word.

Daughters of God, today our loving father wants me to tell you He does indeed hear. In every situation, concerning every matter, He hears us. You are not alone; you never were and you never will be. No matter how dire the situation, He is right there beside you. Leading you, comforting you, guiding you every step of the way. If only you will ask, our God, a master at hiding, will reveal Himself to you. Don’t give up hope. Don’t feel abandoned or desolate. You are set aside, not forgotten. Continue to pray. Even when you are weary of waiting for the fulfilment of the promise, pray, persist. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you. Link shields of faith with other women of faith. Whatever you do, don’t give up. Isaiah 61 : 6 and 7 says to take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord. Give the Lord no rest until He completes His work. PUSH! Pray Until Something Happens. And the next time you feel lost or broken in the spirit, just think of the story of footprints in the sand. And for all your requests daughter of Zion, one day you will sing Shemaiah. God heard.