A day at the Pool of Redemption Assembly, Zone B, Nyanya, an Abuja suburb, presents you with two stark choices: total belief or total skepticism. At Saturday morning inter-denominational prayers, the head, Pastor Chi (Pastor (Mrs) Chinyere Ifeanyi, from Afikpo, Ebonyi state), would exhort the congregation: “Open up to God, obtain your deliverance today or it might be too late. Close your eyes, close your eyes, connect to God, free yourself and let the Holy Spirit do His work, pray yourself out of your problem, this might just be your day, this prayer point may just be especially for you. If you like, just keep looking at me, you will be cheating yourself,” the encouragement would flow on and on as she would raise one prayer point after another for the benefit of the individuals, the society and the country. Was the “if you like keep looking at me” admonition directed at me? I had opened my eyes not knowing she was just steps away; the microphone in her hands sent her words to the loudspeakers without pinpointing her position.
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The high point approaches when people would begin to “manifest”. Apparently taken over by forces greater than them; some would jerk uncontrollably, shriek, talk in guttural or other worldly voices, while others would talk in untroubled conversational ways. Many would roll on the floor. As manifestation means appearance, exhibition or demonstration, those actually manifesting are the spiritual entities that have taken control of the victims’ lives.
The peak is the deliverance . Perhaps, to prove that the display is real, Pastor Chi would ask the entity manifesting in the victim to state its, his or her name… for it could be a demon or human. She would obtain as much information as possible (dates, town, relationships, situations, etc and she would often ask that anyone who could confirm or refute the information supplied during the deliverance be called and the phone placed in the speaker mode for all present to hear) to relay to the victims when they return to their senses. Some people are oppressed by several entities. On rare occasions, she would just walk up to a person who didn’t manifest and deliver a message; “I saw the spirit of death hovering over you”, and a deliverance session would begin – to set the person free. Or I see you getting an appointment…pray against delay. Sometimes, this unusual interview becomes protracted as the spiritual entities would refuse to confess, especially to disclose their names and they have to be forced by “Holy Ghost fire” or the “name of Jesus”.
