By Anthony
KKindly share:
For seven nights, Acts of Restoration and Compassion Church, “The Church Without Borders”, hosted the ‘Mber Months Connection’, a spiritually charged encounter themed “Season of Divine Harvest.”
Led by Rev. Paul Chikwem, Lead Pastor of Acts of Restoration and Compassion Church, the programme brought worshippers together to seek God in prayer, confront spiritual barriers, recover what had been lost and step into the harvest they believed God had ordained.
It was presented not merely as seven nights of church activities, but as a journey, from sowing to waiting, warfare to victory, tears to testimony and labour to harvest.
Among the ministers were Rev. Dan Nwachukwu and Apostle Gideon Okeke. Their ministrations focused on prayer, prophecy, worship and deliverance.
Across the seven nights, worshippers engaged in fervent intercession and spiritual warfare, confronting what they described as stagnation, delay, disappointment, affliction, near-success syndrome, frustration and every perceived power standing between their labour and its expected fruit.
The central message, however, went beyond material prosperity.
APOSTLE GIDEON OKEKE: THE PROPHETIC CLIMAX
The programme was rounded off on Sunday. It brought another dimension to the encounter.
After the choir led the congregation in spirited praise and worship, Rev. Chikwem charged worshippers not to approach church merely as spectators or number-fillers.
He urged them to come prepared for an encounter with God.
Attending a service is one thing; coming with expectation, faith and spiritual readiness for an encounter is another.
His message was simple and direct:
“God will not abandon you if you come prepared for an encounter.”
Rev. Chikwem appreciated everyone whose contribution helped make the ‘Mber Months Connection’ possible, including guest ministers, workers, worshippers and supporters, as well as anonymous donors whose generosity sustained the programme.
He prayed for God’s blessings upon everyone who had given financially, materially, spiritually or through service, including those who participated only once.
Then came the introduction of Apostle Gideon Okeke, the Prophetic Chancellor, who led the congregation into the programme’s final prophetic phase.
Ministering from Exodus 1:6–14, Apostle Okeke delivered a fervent ministration centred on breaking spiritual bondage, barriers and curses.
The atmosphere intensified as prayers were offered for liberation and divine intervention.
Okeke ministered under extravagant prophetic grace, giving precise prophecies and praying for God’s intervention.
Thereafter Rev. Chikwem took over the service once again, bringing the seven-day encounter towards its spiritual climax.
THE SEED BEFORE THE HARVEST
Taking the congregation deeper into the theme, he emphasised that harvest is inseparable from seed.
Drawing from Psalm 126, he noted that sowing may involve tears, pain and sacrifice, but the tears of the sower do not have to become the sower’s permanent story.
Prayer can be a seed. Sacrifice can be a seed. Obedience can be a seed. Perseverance can be a seed.
Sometimes, the very thing that causes pain during sowing becomes the source of joy at harvest.
His message was a call to spiritual responsibility: one cannot expect to reap where nothing has been planted.
Referencing Galatians 6:7–9, he reminded worshippers that what is sown eventually produces a corresponding harvest. The challenge, therefore, is not only to sow but also to wait correctly.
Between sowing and harvest lies a season of waiting, and the manner in which one waits can determine whether they reach the harvest with the seed intact.
Temptation, discouragement, impatience and wrong decisions can threaten what has been patiently cultivated.
“SEEDS DO NOT DIE; THEY ARE PLANTED”
One striking illustration was the distinction between bread and seed.
The same God who provides bread for consumption also provides seed for sowing. Bread is meant to be eaten; seed is meant to be planted.
The lesson was clear: not everything placed in one’s hands is meant for immediate consumption. Some things are entrusted to a person for a future harvest.
He urged worshippers to distinguish between what is meant for today’s need and what is meant for tomorrow’s testimony.
Seeds may disappear from sight, but disappearance is not necessarily death. A seed enters the ground before it emerges as a harvest.
No seed, Chikwem stressed, is too small to produce a harvest when planted in the right soil and under the right conditions.
Prayer itself, the Man of God declared, is a seed. It may appear invisible, but its fruit can eventually become visible.
WHEN THE HARVEST ATTRACTS ATTENTION
The message also explored an uncomfortable reality: while people may not notice the season of sowing, harvest often attracts attention.
People may overlook your sacrifice, prayers and tears. They may not understand the battles behind your persistence. But when the harvest appears, it becomes visible and stirs up jealousy.
The emphasis was, therefore, on refusing to envy another person’s harvest without understanding the seed, sacrifice and waiting that preceded it.
HANNAH: WHEN THE DEVIL COMES TO PROVOKE YOU
Using Hannah’s story as another biblical illustration, the message examined the relationship between prolonged prayer and divine intervention.
Hannah prayed for a child and endured years of disappointment before Samuel was born.
At one point, even Eli, the priest, misunderstood her anguish and accused her of drunkenness.
Yet Hannah did not respond with bitterness. She answered respectfully, and Eli eventually spoke a prophetic word concerning her request.
The warning this evokes is to never allow frustration to destroy one’s character at the threshold of breakthrough.
“Do not allow provocation to make you lose what you have prayed for,” Rev. Paul conselled.
The congregation was urged to remain spiritually discerning during prolonged waiting.
The message also emphasised that prophecy can take different forms. Some declarations may be general, while others may speak directly to a person’s situation. Worshippers were encouraged to respond in faith when a declaration resonated with what they were believing God for.
At the same time came a sober reminder: “Anointing can never make a mistake, but the anointed can.”
The emphasis was on honouring spiritual leadership without placing human beings beyond error.
MORE THAN A PROGRAMME
By the time the final prayers were said, the “Mber Months Connection’ had become more than a programme on a church calendar.
For participants, it was a spiritual journey of sowing, waiting, confronting, believing and expecting.
Its message resonated with people who had laboured without corresponding results, prayed without immediate answers, planted without visible evidence or endured seasons in which their efforts appeared to produce little or nothing.
The programme offered a different perspective: A delayed harvest is not necessarily a denied harvest. The seed may be underground. The answer may be in process. The door may not yet have opened. The story may not yet have reached its final chapter.
But the call is to remain faithful through the waiting.
As the seven-day encounter closed, the dominant declaration remained firmly planted in the hearts of the worshippers:
I will collect my harvest. I will not labour in vain. I will not be denied. I will not lose my seed in the season of waiting. My season of restoration has come. My harvest is secured in God.
Perhaps that was the deepest message of the entire encounter: When heaven says it is time, the season of sowing gives way to the season of reaping.
The Lead Pastor later anointed the worshippers, after praying against altars speaking against the lives of the brethren, their family members and sources of livelihood. He prayed for preservation, breakthrough, restoration and the grace to gather the fruits of their labour.
