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Hard Conversations with God - Shodankeh Johnson · Real Life Theology Podcast

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  Welcome back to the Real Life Theology Podcast. Today's episode features
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  Shodanke Johnson talking about having hard conversations in prayer with God.
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  Shodanke is a leader in Sierra Leone and you will not want to miss this episode.
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  We want to thank the Lord for helping us to go through this day. I want to
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  thank Him for everything that we have received from Him through His
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  sovereigns. We believe that God has a plan for this nation and God has a plan.
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  He has always had a plan for the world but God has a plan for the church in
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  America. I want you to know there are so many people who have lost faith for the
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  church in this nation. But as an African I have more faith than many Americans
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  that God can revisit the church in America and make the church become
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  stronger again. For more than 10 years we have been praying with our intercessors,
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  asking God because I want you to know as we talk about hard conversations that it
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  was missionaries from this nation and other parts of the world that went to
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  Africa. They took the gospel to Africa. They did what they knew at that time to
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  be the best theology, the best way to reach out. And some of us, our great
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  grandfathers received the gospel and they pass it on from generation to
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  generation. I am a Criobite tribe. I come from the descendants of the returned
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  slaves. But yet that gospel became the foundation of our families. I come from a
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  family of eight, four boys and four girls. My father was a Methodist, a very active
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  Methodist. My mother was a Muslim. But by the grace of God and the power of God, my
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  mother got saved. And today my mother is one of the greatest intercessors who has
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  brought more lost women to the faith than any other woman I know. Why? These
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  missionaries with good intention took the gospel to Africa, to Sierra Leone. Some
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  of them died and we have their graves there. Because they had the conviction
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  that there's no other name in heaven and on earth by which any man can be saved
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  except that name of Jesus. And if I'm here today, I want to thank those
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  missionaries. I want to thank your great grandfathers that went as missionaries
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  and laid their lives for us. And so I have an obligation to come back here to you
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  because we realize that many of you are shifting away from that that brought this
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  nation and made it great. You are missionaries to us. We are coming back as
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  missionaries to you. This evening as I share very quickly on hard conversation,
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  I want you to know that there's a verse I just want us to read Hebrews 11 verse 6.
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  It's very clear. And without faith it is impossible to please God. Because anyone
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  who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who
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  honestly seek Him. I want you to know I came to know the Lord because my father
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  was a committed Methodist who believed in the Sabbath. He had his own definition
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  of the Sabbath. On the Sabbath in our home nothing moves. We would do all the hard
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  work on Saturday, clean the house, scrub, cook all the food, do all the ironing.
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  On Sunday, we go to church. And I will tell you we are never late as a family
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  in church. My father could even come to the church before the janitor is in the
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  church. And when we come to church, we always sit at the front pew because nobody
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  competed with us for the front pew. And in the church, my father would say to us
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  when you come to church, just look at the pastor. Your job is to watch the pastor.
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  And so we sit in front. If we attempt to just turn around, he would do this and
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  look at the pastor. Look at the pastor. And so when we go back home, we eat and we
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  go to bed. We sleep till 6 p.m. our local time. Even the dogs understood the Sabbath
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  in our homes because the dogs are not back on the Sabbath day. But that was the
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  discipleship that my father and our father gave to us. He taught us so many
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  things. He discipled us to be strong and to believe in God. And I discipled my
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  mother. My mother never went to school because in those days, they don't put the
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  girls in school. She never went to school. But I discipled my mother. And I want you
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  to know today, my mother knows more memory verses than many Christians I've
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  ever met. But she never went to school. My mother will tell you, turn to John
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  chapter 7 verse 1 to verse 6. As you are turning, she's explaining. And my mother
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  has brought more lost women to the faith than any other person I know. For 365 days
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  in a year, my mother will fast for 200 days. As I speak to you right now, my
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  mother and the intercessors are fasting and praying, and they will not stop until I
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  get back. This is not my story. It is God's story. It is a story of the people,
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  many people that God is using through us, many partners, many leaders that God is
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  using. At the beginning of this year, I lost my son. He was 18 years. We spent the
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  Christmas together. Had good time and good fun. He had all these wonderful plans of
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  what he wanted to do for the church. And he came back to study. After two weeks,
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  they called us and they said, he's dead. Your son is dead. In our own context,
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  when people came and they were crying, in the African setting, when people cry,
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  there is a message in the way they cry. As they were crying, they were questioning
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  God because some of them were too young in the faith. God, why should you do this to
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  a man like this? Why should you do this to a family like this? And I told my wife,
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  I said, no, it's a moment of mourning. But the name of God needs to be glorified
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  even in this moment. And we knelt down and we prayed and said, God, we need the grace.
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  We need you to increase our faith so that God will be able to be a witness for you even
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  in the midst of our pain. That people will see you and they will glorify you. And God
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  gave us the strength. This happened on a Saturday and Sunday. We had a big gathering, a planned
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  gathering. I went to the gathering. The people were shocked when they saw me. But I went
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  there and I encouraged the people that the God we serve is a loving God. He's a kind
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  God. He's a just God. And we have to have faith in Him. And today I want us to understand
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  that if we are going to have this hard conversation, we need a conquering faith. We need a faith
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  that we conquer the circumstances and the pain that we go through. That is why I love
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  the Hebrew chapter 11 that we call the faith chapter. But I have come to realize that faith
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  does not necessarily grow in comfort. And that's a misunderstanding that we have as
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  a church. Faith does not necessarily grow in comfort, in unbelief, or in fear and doubt.
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  Faith grows in a situation where we go through pain, where we go through suffering, but yet
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  we believe that there is a creator. In our situation when we got the information, the
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  first thing the enemy said to us is that you say you serve a living God. Look at what
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  He has done to you. But I turned around and I told the devil that you are a liar and you
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  have been the father of all liars. Three things I want us to understand here just even as
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  we end this session. You know I want you to know that every conquering faith that we have,
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  conquering faith will seek to please God. Conquering faith will seek to please God.
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  The writer of Hebrews says, but without faith it is impossible to please God. Brothers and
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  sisters, I became a pastor at the age of 19. I went to one of the most difficult tribes
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  and areas in my country, dominated 99.9% of Muslims. I just went for a short missionary
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  journey thinking that I would be there for weeks, but I fell in love with the people.
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  And I realized that these people needed God. And I laid my own life as a sacrifice to serve
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  them. So I referred to myself as accidental missionary. I spent six years with the people.
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  But today as I turn around, that many of these people got saved. And today they are serving
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  in the kingdom. I want you to know every conquering faith seeks to please God. Our job as we follow
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  Jesus and as we make disciples is not to please our feelings and how we feel. It's not to
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  please our culture. It's not to please our community. It's to please Him first. It was
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  I was in discomfort when I went to the north. I was in pain when my son died. But I realized
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  that in the midst of this, I need to please Him. And I asked for courage and strength
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  to please Him. That my life would be a testimony to so many other people to know that He did
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  not call us. He never promised us that there will always be a sunshine. He never promised
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  us that it will always be winter time or summer time. But He promised us that He will
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  be with us. Whether it is winter or summer. Whether it is in the pit or not. He will not
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  always take us out of the pit. But one thing is sure, He promised to be with us. And I
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  knew at that moment that He was with us. As so many people came to mourn with us, I encouraged
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  them. I built them up to know that we need to please God. I want to challenge you today,
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  brothers and sisters. This is a hard conversation. But you know what? When you are in pain and
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  suffering, one thing the enemy will bring to you, the enemy will want you to forget
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  about God and just put God aside. But I want to challenge you today. Have that conquering
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  faith. Even in your pain, seek to please Him. Seek to please God. But I've also learned
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  that what conquering faiths normally do is not only to please God, but it's to believe
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  that God exists. That there is a supreme being. It's not only to please Him, but I exist
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  that means He has power. In the midst of the pain, He can still do something. I want us
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  to understand that challenges, we come our way. But our challenges can become a food
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  for our faith. Challenges are food for faith. But we can only know God through our faith.
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  Know that if we know that He exists. Brothers and sisters, there's nobody in this world
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  to tell me that God does not exist. He exists. I wake up in the morning, I know that He exists.
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  In the pain, I knew that God exists. Because I could feel His presence. Even as I was mourning,
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  we were crying, I could still feel His presence telling me, son, I am with you. I'm standing
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  with you. If you don't have faith, it will be difficult for you to know in the midst
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  of pain that there is a God. I want to challenge the church. We have misunderstood the theology.
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  We don't have the theology of suffering any longer in the church. It's always a theology
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  of comfort. I don't know where we got that theology from. Because it's not in the Bible.
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  It can happen to the best people, it can happen to the worst people. But that is why I love
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  King David. And I always want to say this. King David is one of the best people in the
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  Bible. He said, yeah, do I walk through this valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
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  no evil. Brothers, in that pain, I was crying, but I was not afraid of the enemy. I knew
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  that my God exists. I knew He was the covenant keeping God. I still knew Him as the creator
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  of the heavens and the earth. I still knew Him as the impossibility specialist. He's
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  the only one who specializes in impossibilities. He went to the school of impossibility. Went
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  to the university of impossibilities. Studied in the department of impossibilities. And
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  he graduated with degrees in impossibilities. What man cannot do, our God can do.
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  And faith begins where possibilities end. Where possibilities end, that's where faith
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  begins. If it is possible, then God is not in it. In that pain, losing my son, my son
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  was taller than me. He was six feet two inches tall. When I imagined that, yet in the midst
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  of that pain, I said, God, I know you exist. I know you exist. And that's what the writer
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  of Hebrews says. We must believe that He exists. But not only that, I also knew that God is
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  a rewarder. In the midst of pain, because a conquering faith seeks to please Him, a
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  conquering faith believes that He exists, but a conquering faith also knows that God
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  is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Those who take their time, their effort
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  to look for Him, to search for Him, to believe in Him, He will reward them. I knew that in
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  the midst of this pain, my Father in heaven will reward us as a family. We lost a son,
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  but God will somehow reward us with His comfort, with His joy, with His peace. He will reward
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  us. So we decided in the midst of that, with the family, we cried out to God for a conquering
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  faith, a faith that will conquer circumstances, a faith that will conquer unbelief, a faith
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  that will conquer all the lies of the enemy, a faith that will conquer the threats from
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  the kingdom of darkness. I know in America, there are no demons here. I know. But I know
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  because so many pastors have told me, you know, this demon thing is only in Africa and
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  Asia. Thank God, you don't have demons here. But let me announce to you, you have demons
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  that are sophisticated than those in Africa. Your demons are only technologically advanced.
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  But I want you to know, we are fighting the same enemy. Wherever you are, that enemy is
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  alive. And the plan of that enemy is to bring you down. And that's why in John chapter 10,
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  verse 10, it says, the thief cometh, not but to steal, to kill, and to destroy. But I have
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  come that you may have life and have it more abundantly. Brothers and sisters, that thief
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  is in America. That thief is all around your communities. That thief is all around you.
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  The problem is that you don't have enough faith and eyes to see the thief. So you explain
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  it away. You put it into philosophy. You rationalize it away. Why the pain, you are
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  going through the pain. I challenge you, he is a rewarder. My prayer for the church in
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  America is that God, you said for the sake of the elect, you will make the days shorter.
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  For the sake of the faithful ones, bring revival again in this nation. For the sake of the
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  faithful ones, God, let the churches in America rise up again. Let the sleeping giants awake.
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  Let them know that we can't do this without the word of God. We can't do this without
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  the power of the Holy Spirit. We can't do this without God moving. We need to step out
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  of the way and allow God to move in the church and let the church of America be the church
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  of God. Brothers and sisters, some of us need to step out of the way and allow God to move.
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  I have faith and I want to end by saying this. Brothers, in the pain I knew that God is a
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  rewarder. That I'm not going to sit down and allow that old man, that devil, to terrify
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  others. I'm going to stand up as a child of God in the midst of my pain. I told people
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  that God is a rewarder. And I want to tell you today, I lost my son but I did not lose
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  my God. We lost our son but we did not lose our faith in Him. We lost our son but we did
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  not lose the belief in His word and the move of His Spirit. I'm here to tell you, it's
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  one thing to talk about death. It's another thing when death visits you. These are two
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  different things. For you to stand it, you need faith. And you need a conquering faith.
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  I challenge you today. I don't know where you are in your journey. I don't know what
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  you are going through. I don't know the pains that you have. But I want to challenge you.
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  You have a great God. Seek to please Him. Declare every day in your life that He exists.
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  God, I know you exist. God, I know you are somewhere. God, I know. And I know God you
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  are a rewarder of faith. He's not only the God of the Old Testament. He's the God of
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  the New Testament. He's the God of the church today. He has not changed. And He will never
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  change. Richard Foster says we are in a jet set age. In his book Celebration of Discipline,
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  he says everything is moving fast. Everything is moving fast, but our God has not changed.
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  I challenge you. In the midst of difficulties, still believe your God. Trust Him. Know that
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  He rewards. He will never fail. The system of this world will fail us, but He will never
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  fail. Where are all our scientists when COVID was ravaging the world? All the best minds,
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  where are all of them when COVID was ravaging the world? Brothers and sisters, the wisdom
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  of man is the foolishness of God. Where man will stop, that is where God will begin. In
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  the midst of a change, of pain, it's a hard conversation. Believe that your God exists.
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  Seek to please Him, and He will surely reward you. I believe that God is going to visit
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  the church in America. I believe it. And my prayer is that let this happen in our own
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  lifetime. Let it happen in our own lifetime, that you will see it, that the next generation
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  will take this world again. I believe it strongly. I also believe that, you know, as Africans,
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  we are going to usher in the second coming of Jesus. It was an African who took the cross
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  to Golgotha. So it is Africa again that we usher in the second coming of Jesus. I believe
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  that, but I believe we can do it together. We can bring in, usher in the second coming
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  of Jesus together. America, Asia, Africa, all around the world, we will usher in the
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  second coming of Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I don't know about you, but I am convinced
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  that I am part of it, and that you are part of it. What you need is the first baby step,
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  faith. Have a conquering faith. If you do, if you do, I believe someday you shall hear
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  Him say, well done, good and faithful servants. Well done. Do you know the fun part of it?
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  I'm waiting for that day when I will sit with Him, and we shall judge the fallen angels.
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  And I will judge that old terrified devil. And I will tell the devil, you wanted me to
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  lose faith when my son died. But I'm here now to judge you because of Him. Not because
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  of my own righteousness, but because of Him. He's a convenient keeping God. If you believe
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  that, I will kindly ask you to stand with me as we end in prayer. Brothers and sisters,
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  what God cannot do does not exist. What your God cannot do does not exist. The only thing
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  you need is faith. Conquering faith.
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