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Dr Nick Ohizu The Voice of God

Growing up in the village gave me the chance to experience first-hand, the highest level of wickedness practiced in our continent.

The fact that people choose to do evil without remorse or thinking of the consequences is very alarming. This is one of the reasons we have so many unexplainable misfortunes befalling people. During the civil war, my father and his friend engaged the soldiers to deliver relief food to my village citing a prominent level of malnutrition and people were dying of kwashiorkor. After some time, some of his friends out of jealousy went to the barracks, almost 15km from our village to report that my father and his friend were channelling the food to their families only.

The soldiers arrested my father and his friend pending investigations. While they were in prison, they were tortured and threatened unless they confessed. Soldiers came to our house and ransacked it looking for the food and found nothing. These so-called friends had paid other villagers to buttress their claims.

Finally, the white reverend father who pastored our village Catholic church upon hearing the news, went to the barracks and testified for my father’s innocence by showing pictures he had taken with his camera during the distribution process. His testimony prompted their release and the people whose intention was to get control of the distribution were then arrested and were imprisoned for quite a long time.

When my father came back from prison, my mum and my siblings who were matured enough at that time told him to stop helping people, but he refused and said that he won’t allow the wickedness of men to change him.

Later on in life, he shared this story with us backing his decision to continue doing good with this scripture. “Though they join forces, the wicked will not go unpunished; But the posterity of the righteous will be delivered” [Proverbs 11:21 NKJV].

He warned us of the dangers of wickedness and taught us to do good no matter what.

However, despite how many evil people are out there and how many wicked people surround us, we remain the salt of the earth. We are the reason this world is not destroyed because God is preserving it for the sake of the righteous.

My experience and lessons from my father caused me to teach the same to my children. I have watched wickedness being punished and generations suffer for what their parents did. It pays to do good no matter how evil you are treated. If you see where people are planning evil, warn them and run away.

Never participate in any way to do evil to anyone. Do not bear false witness to hurt another person. Don’t involve yourself in a matter to pass judgement unless you’re sure you have the correct version of the story.

Do not maltreat your workers or other people’s children especially orphans and widows. As much as you can, do good and teach your children to do so. Everything you do will go and wait for your children in their future. If you are among the people that find it easy to do evil, please repent and change your ways, if possible, make restitutions.

Do not be deceived that the punishment will not come. “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” [Ecclesiastes 8:11, NKJV]. That you can’t see the punishment now does not mean it’s not coming.

I can boldly testify that most of the remarkable levels of favour that I have enjoyed in my lifetime are rewards of my father’s good deeds. I have decided to sow it forward by choosing to be a blessing to many. So, when next you see sickness you can’t explain, a misfortune that baffles your mind, a suffering that seems undeserved and someone experiencing something you don’t understand, before you conclude that God is wicked, consider their past first. They might be suffering for what they didn’t do, “Our ancestors sinned, but they have died—and we are suffering the punishment they deserved” [Lamentations 5:7 NLT]. In the same way, when you see someone receiving something they didn’t deserve, getting for free something you’ve worked so hard and didn’t get, remember this scripture. “Praise the LORD! How joyful are those who fear the LORD and delight in obeying his commands. Their children will be successful everywhere; an entire generation of godly people will be blessed” [Psalms 112:1-2 NLT]. There’s always a person responsible for such unmerited favours. God chose Solomon to be king because of what his father David did, and God saved and blessed Israel because of the covenant He had with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I pray that you will be the “David, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” of your family. No matter how evil your ancestors were, you can choose to change the narrative for the next generation. Nobody deserves to suffer because of you.

Dr Nick Ohizu is the senior pastor of The Empowerment Ministries and The President of the Empowerment School of Wealth both located in Graniteside Harare. He is a successful entrepreneur with vast experience in leadership, mentorship, business and marriage consultancy with a mandate from God to change lives and bless people.

He can be contacted on 0772304917.