The immediate past General Secretary of The Church of Pentecost, Apostle Dr Alfred Koduah, has asked Ghanaians, especially Christians not to panic because God has not forgotten them in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic and its attendant anxieties and uncertainties.
Apostle Dr Koduah, who is currently the Area Head of Teshie-Nungua Area, was speaking in a live televised service on Pent TV on Sunday, April 5, 2020, on the topic, “Don’t Give Up, For God Has Not Forgotten Of You” taken from Ezekiel 1:1-3; Isaiah 49:14-15.
He noted that as humans, sometimes when things do not go the way they expect them to go, or when they experience delayed responses to their prayers, people turn to assume that God has forgotten them.
“In the same way, in difficult times like this when the Coronavirus pandemic is killing thousands of people every day, people turn to wonder where God is in all these,” he said, adding, “But the Scripture gives us hope that although a mother may forget a baby at her breast, the Lord has promised that He will not forget us in times like this.”
Explaining the texts, Apostle Dr Koduah stated that in the history of the people of Israel, it got to a time that they thought that God had forgotten them and so the Lord through the Prophet Isaiah had to come in to assure them that He was still with them.
He indicated that the Northern Kingdom of ancient Israel sinned against God and as a result, they were taken into captivity by the Assyrians. About 100years later, he said, the Southern Kingdom also engaged in similar sins such as idolatry and lip service worship, and the Lord handed them over to the Babylonians led by King Nebuchadnezzar. Ezekiel who was then 25 years old was part of the captives. The Babylonians destroyed the temple of God in Jerusalem and all the notable things in the city, rendering the city desolate.
He said that during all the difficult times that the Israelites were going through while in exile, Ezekiel, who came from the priesthood family, had a peculiar challenge. He pointed out that Ezekiel knew according to Numbers 4:3 that he could be ordained as a priest at age 30. However, he found himself in the camp of captives in a land of idols with no place to worship God.
According to Apostle Dr Koduah, Ezekiel carried a burden as to whether he was going to be ordained as a priest of the Most High God or not. Eventually, he stated, Ezekiel celebrated his 30th birthday among the exiles. While all hope appeared to have been lost, the God of heaven intervened in his hopeless situation. “I am, therefore, praying and trusting God that in our time of hopelessness, the God of hope will continue to give us hope,” he said.
He added: “So in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic, may the Lord continue to strengthen His people. God will never forsake you. Regardless of the situation that we find ourselves, our God is still in charge.”
He mentioned seven things that happened to Ezekiel on his 30th birthday. First, the heavens were opened to him, and then he saw the visions of God, the word of the Lord also came to him, the hand of the Lord came upon him, he saw the glory of God, the Lord spoke to him and finally the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.
He explained that regardless of the state of hopelessness that Ezekiel found himself in exile, he was not just ordained as a Priest but also as a Prophet by God himself.
“I pray that the heavens will be opened to you for you to see the visions of God in this trying moment. May you receive the explicit word of God so that in the midst of all these hopelessness, you will see the glory of God in your life,” he said.
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