A Journey of Surprises

A Journey of Surprises

by Javan Ommani

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

Another wonderful day the Lord has given us again. Most of you know Barbara and Bob Deal, who were coordinators of CFOI for some years. They were wonderful people. During their leadership, I think CFO went into new countries, and many new CFO camps in foreign countries were started. And I like this. They went to India. And you know some of the cultures, they don’t hug. Especially a woman with a man. Even your own wife, you don’t sit with her.

And so we still have a divided line. The women sit on one side and the men sit on the other side. The only way you can tell they belong to one house is to see them going to one house. And so this time there was a brother in CFO in India. His name was Chris Dass. He was a wonderful man of God.

You know, sometimes we dream those whom we play together. We sang together. And we had rhythms together. We prayed together. We prayed together. We cried together. We cried together. We laughed together. And in front of all the group of CFO in India who had came, for some reason, Barbara and Chris found themselves hugging each other in front of the people. And Chris danced and said, “When you see me hugging Barbara, there is nothing.” And Barbara stood and said, “When you see me hugging Chris, there is something.”

For sure, a touch of a friend, a brother, has something. I remember I was in CFO in Canada. I was speaking. And a lady came to me and said, “For the first time I have heard someone hug me and say, I love you.”

Isn’t that wonderful? That we would come together, not knowing whom you are going to meet. But by the time you want to depart, you’ll find your heart has been knit to each other. You don’t want to depart. And I can remember the feelings of the disciples of Jesus when He said, “A little while you shall not see me, and then you will see me.” You can feel their feelings.

In our presence, in our week of decaderness, we have seen the presence of God. We have learned from our meditation leaders. We have learned when we went together for breakfast, the love that was on the table. We have learned when our music leader, she’s a wonderful lady. Wow. When she just leads us into the talk and gives us the way. We who have been leading and talking, we don’t find it hard to start because somebody already has laid the foundation. So it just starts building on. And Barbara would agree with me. It has been so easy for me here. Some place you may find it hard to lay the foundation and then prepare and then start going. No wonder I don’t take 60 minutes, as Matthew would like me to take.

Hey Matthew, you can put together the singing and the talking. It’s just the same thing. It’s a continuation. Then we have come to our sister who led us into Rhythm, wonderful times. We went out clearing our farms and then hoeing. That is the way we do at home. You are just right on, no tractor.

Then the way she said, “Okay, now it’s time,” and I could see my mother when she went out. Praying. In a very wonderful, rhythmic way, the seeds. Then we went for harvesting. And it is time to take our sheaves at home.

Wonderful. Wonderful. Then we came to creative. Those wonderful figures that you could see in front. And you could see the young people last night. That’s wonderful. Lunch. Wow. I’ve never enjoyed any other meal like what I enjoyed here. And I hope and I believe I’ve had no complaint from anyone about food. Thank you very much for those who prepared. And may God bless you so that you can prepare for other people in any other place. For we are all servants of God. Horizontal time was wonderful. Time of dreams.

Shewing what we have had in the day. Then we had a good time of togetherness. There was some here taking me to the superstore. Wow. I look good from the superstore. Thrift store. Then we come together for prayer.

We have been birthed in prayer. And we have birthed those who belong to us. In our families, in our churches, in our friendship, in our place of work. We have birthed them into prayer. They are swimming in the prayers that were just going out from this place.

When you look at them, they will not look the same. Because they are swimming in our prayers. Wonderful times. Now we prepare ourselves for surprises. This journey is a journey of surprises. And you have to prepare for those surprises. Some of them are shocking. Some of them kind of are the answer to the prayer which we prayed. And we have forgotten. We prayed about it. Now we say, “Oh, tell me now. What is happening? What is this?” You don’t remember. You called for it and you have it.

The Lord Jesus speaking to His disciples in the book of John, chapter 15, verse 15 to 17. John 15 to 17. “Henceforth I call you not servants. For the servant knows not what his lord doeth. But I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit. And that your fruit should remain. That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you. These things I command you that ye love one another.”

Jesus says, “I call you no more my servants, but my friends. Because no servant knows what his master does. But I have told you everything. I have shown you everything that Father gave to me. Now you are my friends.”

We are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. With Jesus Christ being our Lord and Savior. May it be true. The story of the father of two sons. The elder and the younger. The younger one went away. And the elder one remained at home.

Something wonderful between the two was that one who went away went knowing that he had a father. The one who remained at home looked at his father as a master. Because he said, “Father, I have been with you all these years. And I have been struggling as much as you know.”

Does it not sound familiar? I have been giving my titles. I have been giving my offerings. I have given to charity. I have given to my church. I have given my time. I gave my car. And the pastor drove it away. All that.

I think I am a good servant. And I deserve two. Even more. Because this one was lost. The answer of the father is so wonderful. He says, “Son, everything that I have is yours.” That was the moment the elder brother knew. Everything that belonged to his father belonged to him.

All that Jesus has belongs to His children. To us. He emptied Himself into His. No wonder we are called the children of God. He emptied His powers into us. He emptied His righteousness into us. It was not we deserved. It was not we deserved. But by the grace of God the Father, through His Son Jesus Christ. Yes. It is ours. We accepted it. And we take it.

“For all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known to you.” Jesus has made the Father’s heart known to us. He’s a loving Father. He’s a wonderful Father. He’s a caring Father. He’s a providing Father. He’s a healing Father. He’s a baptizing Father. He’s a saving Father. All this He has told us.

He says, “You did not choose me, but I have chosen you and ordained you.” Think where you came from. From your own family. From your own community. Was it because you are good? Was it because you went to the high school? Was it because you went to the best church? Or was it you went, you had the best parents in this world?

Oh yes, your parents might have been Christians. But someone said, God has no grandchildren. He only has sons and daughters. He chose Himself. He just came in and chose you. Why? I don’t know. I’m not good in my community. I’m not good in my society. I didn’t have that which may call me good. But He came down Himself, but He came down Himself, and chose me out of many who were seated there.

Because He loved me so much. And I found Him in myself doing what I could not do myself. Cleansing me, washing me, baptizing me, saving me, making me the righteousness of God. Making me His own servant. No wonder I’m so away from my home.

Looking in the eyes of strangers to me. And yet those who belong to my family, my heavenly family, my real brothers and sisters, who care for me even much more than the sister, blood sister at home, whom I have shared much more than what I have shared with my own blood sister, my own blood brother.

You are wonderful. Because of God in you, you are wonderful. People, it’s time to get what we have received and give to others. Because He says, “I have ordained you.” You don’t need someone to say, “I ordain you.” You have already been ordained

to go in His footsteps and do what He has taught you to do. Perform in His place. It’s you and me on this earth to take His name, to take His salvation, to take His word. Commanded them, He said, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leprous. Freely you have received. Freely give.”

Those are the surprises, surprises that He’s going to do in your way. And someone said, “Expect a miracle every day.” God is wonderful. Another time I was flying out of Dallas, Texas, going to Seattle, Washington State, to speak in CFO. I think the CFO, British Columbia.

And they had given me the name of the lady who was going to be my host before we go to the camp. And I was to fly out by United Airlines from out of Dallas. But for some reason United Airlines did not leave, and therefore they changed me to Delta Airlines. So the time was changed. I flew out of Dallas. I ended into Seattle.

The lady who was to host me and meet me at the airport had waited and left without information. Here I am, it is my first time in this area, I know nobody, I have no way. I went for paging, but nobody responded.

And for some reason I sat in a corner, and I looked like an orphan. And in that situation, I was. I looked like out of place. I looked like nobody knows me and I know nobody. And that was true in the flesh, but not in the spirit. And a lady whom I had never met, I had never seen, and I think I will never see, maybe in eternity I will go looking for this lady, wonderful lady of God. That was an angel to me. She passed by me seated with my luggage.

I don’t know how she looked in my eyes. I don’t know what told her I had to tell me what she told me. She said, “Smile. Jesus loves you.” And she passed by. Oh my, isn’t that what I needed? And I thought, “Oh, smile, Jesus loves you,” and she left. She didn’t even say hi, no, she just passed by. And I will never see her until I get into eternity. I will say, “Which angel was this?” The angel looked like a woman.

And I changed my mind, and there was a smile on my face, and in my mind entered, “In your CFO directory there is the address and the telephone number for the chairman of the camp where you are going. Get on the telephone and call him.” So I did call, and he said, “Okay, the lady who is to meet you, her telephone number is this one.” I called the lady. She said, “I will be there in five minutes.”

That was a surprise to me. It wasn’t, I was a stranger, it wasn’t, there was nobody to meet me, all things was just in my mind. But God used this lady to change my mind, to change my mind, or my own mind, to the mind of Christ. And He was not too far from me. Sure and behold, in five minutes the lady was there. She was just kind of within around the airport. And I had my host take me at her house.

Those are surprises that comes in your way when you are walking with God, when He has ordained you, when you come to a situation that you think you can handle with your own mind. He will bring you the mind of Christ that will change the situation in His own way. And we had a wonderful camp down there.

Bob and Barbara Deal were visiting our home. They were speaking at our CFO camp in the village. And so during free time I took them to look at my, our little farm, and see our sugar cane farm, and we are walking through the bushes that is tall, elephant grass that is taller than we. And I had a dog whom I named Simba.

And for somehow they had picked up the name Simba being a lion, which is true. In Swahili, lion is Simba. As we were walking down through the bushes and talking nicely, you know, it’s a time to enjoy, and we are going through stones, deep and high, and so my dog came running in the bushes, and I saw it. I said, “Simba.” I was talking to my dog. Lo and behold, in American ears it was a lion coming against us, and they took off.

Surprising. Here I am, I’m talking to my dog, the two friends of mine are running, they don’t know where they are running to. In fact, they are running away from home, where they may be protection, they are running away from me, who may protect them, and know how I can treat this Simba if it was a lion.

Just look in my eyes. I was laughing. They wouldn’t believe it, that you should go and bring forth fruit, that your fruit should remain. We are to go and bear fruits. They told me there was a woman who was a member of a certain church.

Women, you know, you are wonderful. You are the mama of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we don’t forget when the men ran away from Jesus, the women were found there standing with Him. They were first to witness the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You are wonderful.

But this one was different. And whoever has been a pastor like myself knows that there are some whom you are tempted to go and pray, “Lord, why don’t You remove so and so from my church? I may have a better church without her.”

Because before you speak, Pastor, we want to know, she says, we want to know who and who, you know. And so you pray, you are tempted to pray that. So one day she came and she said, “Pastor, I hear there is a CFO camp, and I want to go and attend, and this is for the whole week.” And of course, you know what the pastor thought: would it be another church that she may join, that church, so that I’ll be free, I will have a breathing space? And she went to the camp. At the end of the camp she came home.

Throughout Sunday service the pastor listened to hear her voice. She was not talking. Pastor thought, maybe she’s not feeling good. She’s heaping everything, storing everything. I don’t know when she’s going to explore it. Second Sunday, nothing. He thought, “No, I must go visit her and ask, what happened?”

And sure, Pastor went and visited the lady. And she said, “Pastor, that was a wonderful place. And I’ve been thinking how I come to you and apologize. Because I met the Lord. And I’m different.” Pastor said, “Where is this? When is the other one coming? I want to join you. We may tell other members to go to this place. Something is happening.”

That’s what CFO is all about. To make you and me better for my own church. For my own service. For my own place where I work. That even before I say anything, those who see me and who know me from the beginning may be hungry to what I have. May feel thirsty for what I have. Because they see I change for good in me. And I think that’s what this week has been doing to you and me.

I believe when I go home, my wife, Rasoa, will look into my eyes and say, “Something happened. What is this? When he left here, he wasn’t as he is now.” And you know, I’m expecting the whole tribe, the Ommani tribe, to be at the airport. And so one takes the arm, and the other one takes this, and the other one takes the leg, and the other one takes, and the other one just holds on the shirt and says, “Hey, Dad, you have come home. Hey, Dad, you have come home.” And who has the whole thing is my wife, Rasoa.

Make me better for my family. It’s my prayer to God. Let me be a father who is supposed to be a father. Let me be a leader to my family that God has wanted me to be, the leader of the family. Let me be nice to those who need to see some nice things come out of me.

Help me, Lord, to help my own family before I go out. Help me, Lord, that I may help my little child through her struggles, that she may find You by watching my own life. That is my prayer. And I believe it is Your prayer too.

Then comes those people whom we work with. Help me, Lord, that I may have the Spirit of God to understand them. That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you. That’s wonderful. May God bless you. Walk with the blessings of God. Lord, we are praying for you. Lord, we love You. Hallelujah.

Glory. Walk in the glory of the Father. Amen. Amen. Another surprise. My friend Paul Blanchard was a pastor for Presbyterian Church in Nebraska. Visited me in Kenya. And he was speaking in our churches and he was speaking, teaching our pastors. And I had a trip to go to Nigeria to speak in a camp. And so he said, “Can I join you?” I said, “Welcome.” So we went in, found a visa for him and bought a ticket. While we left Nairobi, we were told that we will arrive in Lagos late the night. But there will be a hotel room for us to spend night. And then take off the next morning to Calabar. By another local domestic plane. When we arrived in Lagos, and if you have not gone through Lagos, that’s another airport. Of all the airports I’ve gone through, none like Lagos. People push like matatu.

Just boarding the plane, you have the seats, numbers, but you push like in a matatu. She knows what I’m talking about. The people are not that nice. We have different cultures. So the people don’t talk to you like, “Well, can I help you?” It is what you want.

And that one just kicks off. Kick you off. Will he listen to me? In that split second you are thinking, will he be willing to help me? In that split second you are thinking, how can I approach him? In that split second you are thinking, did I do something wrong? So when we came in at 11 p.m., we asked for this hotel room. “There is no hotel room for you.”

Maybe it was sold to other people who paid straight money to them. You come in Lagos, you have your number, you have your ticket, you have the flight number, but when you arrive there, your name is not on that flight.

Why? Don’t ask me. You pop up $20, automatically your name appears on the list. Those are some of the experiences that those who travel go through. This time I’m with my brother, dear brother from America, Paul Blanchard. So we have nothing to do. We just take our luggage and start through the door, the main door from the airport. Outside, there is an army. Three days ago, there was a coup in the country. Military. And so every street has military armed. As I pushed the door, they saw the black man. That was no problem. But behind the black man was a white man.

And all guns were cocked. And I said, “No, no, no, no, no. He’s my visitor. He’s my visitor.” And I pushed Paul back. Pushed our luggage back. Closed the door. I asked him, “Paul, what do we do?” He said, “I don’t know. I’m confused.” And from nowhere, words came into my mouth to tell him, “Don’t be confused. You are in a country which is confused. And you should not.” How well those words came because I was as confused as he was.

Lo and behold, in that situation, someone walks down from upstairs, identifies himself, he says, “Hello, I am Emmanuel. I work in this airport. I have an office. If you have a problem, you can slip into my office, stay in until morning, and you will take off.” Wow.

Emmanuel. God with us. And he has shown us his office. And there was a green carpet on the floor like that one. We slept like babies. Until morning. We didn’t see him again. I will never see him again on this earth until we come to eternity. That is a surprise.

In due time. Time that we needed as such a kind of surprise. The next morning, we took off. We hired a taxi into the local domestic airport, and we took off to our destination. So, these surprises keep coming to you and me.

Is evidence that He is there always, whether we feel it or not. Whether we know it or not. He is there always with us. When we are stranded, He is not stranded, but He is there with us to show us the next step to take.

When we have no direction, He has direction to give us where we should go. “These things I command you that you love one another.” We can only do that when we love one another. And the world will tell that we have been with Jesus when we love.

Because the world has no love. And the love of the world is different than what Jesus has given us. Jesus has unconditional love for us. But the world loves you because they are going to get something out of you.

But the love of Jesus is unconditionally. It’s forever and ever love. The love of Jesus is just as you were. As I am. There are some people who are unlovable. Hard in my own thinking, in my own flesh, to love them.

But that’s the time I pray and say, “God, I cannot love this man here. But through You and Your love, anyway, I’m loving him.” And the more I practice, the more it becomes real. The more I practice loving the love of Jesus, those who cannot be loved, and who may also reject my love, it’s only by the love of Jesus that I can break through.

Then I compare this love with the love Jesus loved us so much that He loved a man by the name of Saul of Tarsus, persecuting the church, looking for those who are praying about Christ, who are talking about, speaking about Christ, putting them on chains, bringing them in court.

Now he’s down on his back, blinded, and everyone that was with him is wondering what is happening. And he hears a voice of love. So he says, “Who are you?” He says, “I’m Jesus of Nazareth.” Oh, God, “You found me?”

“Okay, whatever You want to do with me, do.” “No, I’ve just come to love you, love you. Strong is that love. I’ve just come to show you my love. I love you so much in that I have come to impart that love in you that will make you love the unlovable, love your enemies, pray for them, share with them the good news.”

I’ve come down because of you. That’s the love He came down in Kenya in the bush country and found me with. I was unlovable. I was unacceptable. But He came down looking for me. He came down as He went down by the Sea of Galilee looking for these young boys who were fishing, and He found them.

I was no good. I had no beauty in my eyes to be loved with such a love. Lord, help me to love the unlovable because You loved me when I was unlovable. Should it be our prayer this morning as we go back to where we came from that we love one another. We continue in the love of Jesus Christ. And may His love be our love. May we love as He loved because by His love I was found and you are found.

So let’s walk by Him as we go in the Father’s world, in the Father’s world, and bear fruit, and our fruit shall remain till we come to that day in His kingdom. Let’s pray. Father, we thank You for this day.

We love You. Whenever we think of the love that You loved us with, Lord, it’s amazing. And yet we say thank You and praise You. Help us, Lord, to love with Your love. Help us to bear fruit. Help us to touch the untouchable that we may win those whom we can win to You, Lord.

Thank You, Father. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Amen.