We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kevin Etta a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kevin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you have a hero? What have you learned from them?

AD 6, in what would be, in modern times, eastern Turkey, in a city called Tarsus, there was a male child born to Jewish parents with Roman citizenship. The child, named Saul, grew up speaking Greek, the household language of all educated Roman citizens across the empire. At a later age, Saul was sent to the epicenter of Jewish religious devotion and nationalism, Jerusalem, to attend Bible School. There he studied under the famed Jewish rabbi Gamaliel and learned to write in both Greek and Hebrew, becoming thoroughly versed in Jewish law and scriptures. In all likelihood, Saul was studying in Jerusalem at the precise time of Jesus’s public life and ministry up until Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion by the Romans. It is also extremely likely that Saul at one time or another during this period heard and saw Jesus preaching. And after Jesus’ death, Saul, now a Pharisee, became a fiery agent of the Jewish ecclesiastical ‘directorate’ sent on missions to effect the arrest of worshippers of Christ, many of whom were ultimately imprisoned and put to death. It was on one of these journeys that Saul encountered the resurrected Jesus and was dramatically converted. Saul would later become known as Paul (a Latinized version of the Hebrew name Saul, more amenable to Greco-Roman audiences). He would become, arguably, the greatest of our LORD’s apostles.

This is my hero.

Apostle Paul is my hero, because having been revealed (by the circumstances of his dramatic conversion on the Damascus road) to have been pursuing a vain and errant campaign (against Christ and the worshipers of Christ), he turned his life around and pushed himself to the limits in the service of Christ and Christians everywhere, oftentimes against incredible odds.

Between AD 40 and AD 50, Paul founded several churches in Asia Minor (whole or part of the modern day countries of Italy, Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Egypt, Libya, Israel and Lebanon), many of which were Greek colonies or heavily influenced by Ancient Greek culture.

Throughout his missionary journeys he would meet with stiff resistance to his preaching, but he persisted in faith, despite enduring untold sufferings and hardships. In his own words (2 Corinthians 11:22-33), Paul recounts the terrible trials he had to endure for the sake of the Gospel: countless “labors”, countless “imprisonments”, “countless beatings, and often to the point of death”, five times whipped with 39 lashes, three times beaten with rods, once stoned, three times shipwrecked, frequently on perilous journeys: imperiled in rivers, in peril from robbers, in peril from family and countrymen, in peril from strangers, in peril from false Christians –and he goes on and on…

But in and through all these things, Paul somehow remains uncompromised in message, in faith and in the habit of pursuing Christ and the Christianization of the ancient world, unapologetically and unrelentingly.

He does not try to conform, adapt or adjust his messaging to be more profitable to himself or more amenable to entrenched interests within Christendom or in society around him. He does not try to beg, plead or otherwise solicit support and sympathy from those who do not believe the Gospel. Rather he rebuked them –to his own disadvantage and inconvenience.

Paul frequently calls out the false ministers and apostles of Christ (read 2 Corinthians 11:1-21) who use the Gospel as a slot machine and pimp people for money in the name of Christ. Paul would do no such thing. Rather, he would spend himself, his life and his own resources to propagate the Gospel free of shame and stain to the name of Christ –unlike many other ministers around him and what is also rampant in our days where the Gospel and its ministers and proponents are preponderantly using Christian ministry and church activity as a slot machine and pimping the people for themselves, all in the name of Christ.

So, Paul has been a great influence and factor in my own life and ministry.

Many years ago, when I was just a boy but having received visitations from the LORD and His Angels that affirmed my Calling into Christian ministry, I had a dream… in my dream, the Apostle Paul appeared and spoke to me about my ministry. Among many things, he told me that, like he and other saints, I would have to endure a lot of things in the course of ministry. He said that, like them, I would only apprehend and materialize the promises of God “through great patience of faith”. Those were his exact words. I will never forget that encounter or those words he spoke to me.

There was something else about Paul’s visit that struck me: it appeared that he was speaking with a stutter or a stammer –or perhaps it was the manner of his accent or dialect, I don’t know… but there was a lilting, halting way to his speech and his enunciation of the words… for example, he would say, “great patience of faith” and it sounded like, “great a-patience of faith” –like that… and that lilt, halt or stutter was evident throughout the cadences of his speech…

During the course of his life and ministry, Paul wrote thirteen epistles or letters (his ‘books’, if you will… enunciating Christian doctrine and practice). Paul’s irrepressible faith led to him being placed under arrest for about five years during the period of his ministry: about two and one half years of this period was spent in a literal prison cell with the rest spent either under house arrest or being escorted by a Roman soldier from Jerusalem to Rome where he was ultimately put to death.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was called to Christian ministry at a very young age, and later ordained when I was Eighteen years old.

For many years I was an itinerant evangelist and teacher in the Nigerian southeast and later in the U.S. within the Dallas metroplex. From 1998 onward, I helped establish and strengthen local African-immigrant churches in the Gospel and the deeper aspects of the Christian life. During this period, I authored several books that teach the deeper Christian life and how to achieve intimate communion and fellowship with God.

In December 2013, I established a public outreach missions center in Garland, Texas, called Spoken Word Faith Ministries dedicated to developing Christian teaching to edify and equip Believers and training ministers to go out and spread the Gospel in the power of the Holy Ghost. Our local church assembly here in Garland became the epicenter and fulcrum of this campaign and since then we have lit many torches that have passed through us and out to perform the work of the Gospel.

In our local assembly, we provide a sanctuary for those seeking a place of regular fellowship and communion with God where they can learn to grow their giftings and spiritual competencies in Christ. We have also served as a place of deliverance, shelter and healing for those fleeing spiritual oppression and affliction.

We have constituents that are both local and dispersed and we coordinate meetings, events and a worship environment that caters to the needs of all and encourages all our adherents and respondents in the way of the LORD and in the word of the LORD for guidance and direction in all spheres of life.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

One of the things I’ve learned from presiding over people of different backgrounds and experiences, with diverse character, cultural and sub-cultural affiliations is not to be surprised by peoples honest and default behavior or experiences, and not to give the impression that this honest and default behavior or experience –however strange –makes them bizarre, undesirable or unworthy of kindness or consideration. It is so natural to want to only associate with people who are like us, whose experiences gel with ours and who agree with our perception and rationalization of things. We see this is in our places of work, where employees will typically huddle informally with folks who share the same or similar opinions and pastimes with them to the exclusion of others… this can affect morale when others feel unappreciated because they are different or they espouse different views or likes, etcetera.

But just like in an organic family, God puts people together who are vastly different: different attitudes, different abilities, different opinions a lot of times and different likes. This is what the church is made up of, and if we start segregating and making factions based on those we ‘like’ versus those we ‘dislike’ through no fault of their own –or because some appear to have lesser problems for us to wrestle with than others –then that will lead to low morale within the church and create divisions… and a lot of times this is what you see in Christian churches –great divisions –due to factions orchestrated directly and indirectly by leaders in the church. By pastors and their families.

So, this is one of the things that I have learned is critical to church management, leadership and guidance and to ensure morale is not degraded by the laissez-faire attitude or indifference of church leaders and members.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Our church uses a rented suite of offices in a strip mall/business center. When we initially moved in several years ago we did extensive renovations to convert what was essentially a warehouse space into a hall/sanctuary with a suite of offices around it.

Couple years ago, I had a vision very early morning where the LORD told me that because of my prayers and the work of deliverance I was doing to free people and help them overcome their challenges I was going to be attacked by a malevolent spirit –as a consequence and blowback for the work I was doing in praying for people.

The vision shocked me. I kept wondering why the LORD would tell me I was going to come under attack but remain silent on what He was going to do to help me defeat it.

I pondered over that vision for some time. This was on a Monday. On Wednesday morning while at work I get a call from the landlord saying that he has received a call from a neighbor tenant at the church offices saying that there appeared to be flooding in the church: water was running out the front door to the outside. So, I hopped into my car and left for the church to investigate.

When I got there it was a mess: water had flooded the church due to a burst pipe in one of the toilets. The landlord arrived almost at the same time I did and we went in and were able, eventually, to shut off the water supply to the damaged pipe.

I was in a daze. The church was in a state of extensive damage and disrepair with water having been sucked into the walls and seeped through and damaged the offices of adjoining tenants on either side of our own church offices: the flooding appeared to have been happening for a couple days –likely since Monday when I had the warning in the vision about a spiritual attack.

For three weeks our services were suspended while we contracted the services of commercial flood drying and cleanup services. They came and literally ripped up the drywall that had been affected by the flooding and used their huge water evac equipment to drain out the water. When that was done they installed giant-sized commercial drying fans throughout the offices to dry out the place (our equipment and property was thrown out or packed into one of the offices and out of the way… it was a horrendous mess).

At the time, we didn’t have insurance for our church offices. And so, the horrendously large cleaning and drying bill that was presented to us after 3 weeks was almost as heavy a blow as the incident itself. In the thousands of dollars. Coupled with the fact, we had to repair the walls and carpeting of both ours and the adjoining offices on either side of us. This was a great test of our faith and our resilience.

I was greatly distressed. I asked God a lot of questions. The LORD came back in another vision and told me that it was necessary for me to suffer so that His will for me could be perfected and to ensure that people continue to receive His healing grace through me. After that vision, my mind was redirected to the experience of Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, where the LORD allowed Satan to attack Paul to keep him humble because of the abundant revelation that was being given to him, and to enable the Grace of God to continue to flow through Paul seamlessly.

Somehow, we paid the contractors (without taxing or levying anybody), renovated the church and repaired our adjoining neighbors’ offices –and resumed services like before. In and through that difficult trial, the LORD strengthened us and reaffirmed His presence and authority in our church.

One notable thing that happened when the flooding occurred bears mentioning: the flooding was so extensive throughout the length and breadth of the church –except at the altar area (where we preach and pray for people’s deliverance): at the altar, the water’s path had made a lemon-shaped oval cleavage so that the water continued to run all the way out to the backside of the church (and outside) but avoided the altar completely; i.e. the altar area where we and others stand to pray and be prayed for was completely dry. Nobody that saw it could explain it: not the landlord, not the contractors. But we understood.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thevisionandprophecy.org/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ke.praise
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa0SCkp5AsEhrgFCuxk7B4Q?sub_confirmation=1
• Other: Spoken Word Faith Ministries 2214 S Jupiter Suite 250 Garland Texas, 75041 Author Page: amazon.com/author/kettaj Email: [email protected] Phone: 469-551-3698