So to continue from where I left off, I noted that the sensations I was experiencing became more and more frequent over time. Little did I know what would be in store for me as I resumed at the University of Benin.

Upon my resumption, I realized that I could not continue with the medication I was given as they were more or less heavy doses. If you remember I noted in one of my previous posts that I was having constant relapses. This was because the medication wasn’t dealing with the actual problem but was rather suppressing it and as a result every now and then the problem would resurface. I got to understand this much later when I saw a neurologist but not before going through the heightened sensations and suffering I passed through whilst in school.

Due to the heavy doses of sedatives, upon my resumption at the university, all I wanted to do was to sleep and this made going for lectures a bit difficult for me. Initially when I resumed, I would wobble as I walked from my hostel to my faculty which wasn’t too far from where I lived, reason being that I was still very much drowsy and I was experiencing the lack of coordination from taking the medication. Yes there was another medication to battle this side effect but it took sometime to kick in and most times it wasn’t until I had reached my faculty that I would start feeling better.

Anyhow to solve this problem, I decided to set aside my medications because I was not only struggling to wake up in the morning, I was also struggling to wake up at night to study. So I developed the habit of taking it every other day. Little did I know that by doing this the sensations that were being suppressed by the medication would heighten. To say the least, I was totally puzzled by the situation. The entire right side of my body alone fluttered with flies in it. These so called flies kept stinging my head from time to time. Sometimes the sensations were so much, sometimes it was less.
Writing my exams at school was also very difficult because I would be tapping my leg gently on the floor and sometimes rubbing my thighs and bending my head in backward strokes all in a bid to ease my discomfort.
At the close of the session on getting home, sometimes I would have a relapse but never once did it happen to me in school, always at home after the session had ended. I look back now and I see the mercies of God at work in my life.

Another thing that helped me through school was taking advantage of the ASUU strikes. On several occasions, I would tell my folks that I wasn’t coming home early that I wanted to stay behind in school to at least cover my syllabus. You see, ASUU during my time at the University went on strike virtually each year of my four years on campus. On each occasion, after we had just resumed and received our course outline and bought our text books, we would hear that they had started another strike. Knowing myself and the manner in which I do my stuff, I chose to stop crash-reading during my earlier years at the university, I wanted to understand my courses. As a result of this I always took advantage of the strikes and stayed behind to read my books so when the strikes were over and it was time for exams rather than panic, I was calm and ready.

My walk with the Lord also became closer than ever, he was always there for me. This brings me back to my earlier point about hearing the voice of the lord as a child. Owing to the fact that I could already decipher when he was talking, do you know that at the university whenever it was time for my examinations, as usual I would ask the Holy Spirit of God to show me where the questions would be set from, and true to his word, he would ensure that I master answering four questions and when I get to the hall, all four of those questions would be glaring at me. Jesus says that “the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in his name shall teach us all things, and bring all things to our remembrance, whatsoever he has said unto us”. John 14V26.

I also continued for as much as could, to get vacation jobs when I went home on holidays. Little did I know that these jobs were building my stamina and preparing me for future years ahead.

However the sensations I was experiencing was giving me so much discomfort in addition to the crises that was still coming frequently from time to time. On several occasions whilst at the university, if I was present at a christian gathering and there happened to be a renowned speaker, I would be telling God in my heart to please draw the speaker to me so that he/she could just lay their hands on my head and set me free. My logic was that how come other people did not have sensations in their body and I also kept remembering the time before the illness when I was fine and I wasn’t experiencing it.

Anyhow, you could just imagine how excited I was when I graduated with a 2nd class upper despite all the trials I had borne. I was overjoyed as I spilled the news to members of my family. On getting home, my sister took me to see her pastor who handed me over to one of his assistant pastors to pray for me about my situation. You will never believe the shocking truth that was revealed about the situation I had experienced for the last nine years.

If you remember I had noted how the issue had all began that as I was sleeping in my sister’s hostel, I felt myself being pressed as I slept and rod-like feelings being pressed into my skull. As it turned out, just like I had adduced that the situation was not normal, the pastor confirmed that my brain had been tied with candles all around. Spiritual wickedness in high places! Every time these unknown captors burnt these so called evil candles, flies would flutter and sting my head and right side of my body. That night I slept in that hostel was the night I had been taken captive.

You see “Jesus came to set the captives free” Luke 4V18 and my situation had been one of captivity. That night after the pastor prayed for me, as I slept, I felt my voice being released back into my body and I was singing a new song as I slept. Please don’t view this the wrong way because of the way our society views such issues (neither see it as a figment of imagination), but one thing you need to know is that spiritual captivity is real and sometimes the root cause of many illnesses / problems. The fact that people do not talk about it does not mean that it is not there. I choose to talk about mine because it is an avenue for me to share the testimony of what God did for me and to let others like yourself know that there is nothing too big for God to handle. If he did it for me, he can do it for you also.

So please be encouraged in your trials irrespective of the circumstance because there is light for you at the end of the tunnel if only you hold on. What is that mountain before you that God cannot move? He has done it countless of times and he’ll do it again.
I’ll leave you with this verse until next week “whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him”. Ecclesiastes 3V14.