Evangelist Aminat Alli

Women of the Redeemed Christian Church of God Canaanland Area, Aboru Lagos where she was at her best doing what she was assigned to do, sharing the word of God, bringing souls to Christ and telling her stories. According to her, she was not a woman to be cajoled by the theatrics of any preacher. She had the best things life, she live a highly fulfilled life, that saw her to the climax of her career as the personal Assistant to the then Vice-Chancellor of the University of lbadan, successfully married to a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planning, a socialite of the highest order. Her faith, by one of the pillars of her faith by taking a pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Mecca and Medina. In 1998, she was in Mecca where the unusual happened, for about five years she could not relate it to reality "How do you imagine that a person on a pilgrimage to Mecca to come back to become a Christian?" she spoke about her experience with PTL News. Even though she had packaged. :this into a book the excerpts may be revealing in her own words.
Story by Julius Adegunna

I was born and brought up in the fear of Allah in a religious Muslim family, practising Islam with serious devotion. My father employed a Malim to teach his children the Qur'an through our early and adolescent years. I memorized the Qur'an in Arabic and was about to learn its translation when I gained admission into secondary school and had to move into a boarding house.

Owing to my previous knowledge of the Qur'an, I became the Imam; firstly in the girls' hostel when I was in secondary school and later in the higher institution I attended. I participated actively in Moulid Nabir and other Muslim programmes. I was very zealous and dedicated to Muslim faith, but I was at the same time a filthy sinner. Until the amazing and transforming grace of our Lord Jesus Christ saved me, I was bleaching and dressing to lust. Also, I was arrogant and was given to drunkenness and revelry .

In 1978, I had the passion to fulfill one of the rites in Islam. That took me on pilgrimage to Mecca. At one of the programmes in Kaaba Mosque, I had an unusual experience when tears flowed uncontrollably down my cheeks. At a point I became embarrassed and confused because all efforts to stop the tears proved abortive, so I left for my hostel.

Alone in the room, I prayed in the Islamic knowledge that Allah should stop the tears, but it did not stop. After much struggle and chanting of prayer in Arabic without success, a strange thing happened. A bright light struck and a mild voice instructed me to pray in the In the name of Jesus.“ To pray in the name of Jesus in the Holy Land of Mecca? That was unthinkable, so I quickly rebuked the voice feeling that it had come from Satan."

About one hour later, the tears had not stopped. The voice came again, and just then, I remembered the knowledge of the Bible that I had acquired in Christian Religious Studies in both my primary and secondary schools. I realized that there was nothing bad after all in the NAME OF JESUS, so I decided to mention the name, since I wanted the tears to stop anyway. "In the name of Jesus," I said it again. Before I said it the third time, I went into unconsciousness and slept off.

I had found grace with God. In my unconsciousness, I noticed that my flesh had changed and I wore a white garment. I was then lifted up to heaven where I saw God in Trinity on a mighty throne and no one could go near the throne. God asked me to make a request and I asked Him to heal my husband or any of my children that might be sick at home because I had come to regard the tears as ill omen. Jesus Christ on the right hand of God made a sign to the One standing before a big book to write my name in the book of life. There and then. I was commissioned by God the Father to go and preach the gospel.

On my way back, two angels escorted me, one on my right hand the other on my left. They showed me several beautiful and wonderful places but I remember vividly another place also where a multitude of damned souls were gnashing their teeth with extreme rage and pain while some tormenting friends were pouring liquid, fire and brimstone on the sufferers with hellish fury. It was a dreadful and unquenchable fire indeed.

I asked who they were and the angels told me that those were liars' unbelievers, ungodly Christians, adulterers, adulteresses and fornicators. As it is written, none of these groups, the angels said shall enter the kingdom of God, no matter their services to God. If they do not repent and forsake their sins, all their services are like filthy rags before God because "without holiness, no man shall see the Lord" (Hebrews] 2:14).

When I became conscious again, I became so afraid and confused. Also, I noticed that the zeal and desire to continue the religious rites I went to perform in Mecca had completely vanished. But I continued to cope and pretend to be a faithful pilgrim. Even though I felt hollow, I kept up the pretence of being a devout Muslim after, the pilgrimage.

On getting back to Nigeria, I disregarded the commission I had received in Mecca to go and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because of this, I witnessed God as a consuming fire for almost five years. Life became miserable all round me. There was no peace for me at all and I started to visit herbalists, occultists, Alfas and other mediums in search of solution. But instead of going, my problems were increasing and the mediums were taking more and more money until I became a pauper and started borrowing, even to consult more mediums.

I continued until May 1983, when I took a step of faith in going to church. I had gone to a party because a family friend was celebrating the tenth anniversary of his mother's burial. Members of his mother's white-garment church presented music galore. Standing at the opposite side was a Juju Band, and that was where I stayed. At around 2am, I noticed that I could no longer resist the melody of the songs from the gospel band. I experienced an inexplicable pull towards the spiritual songs, so I moved away from the Juju Band and went to the Gospel side where I remained until daybreak. As the spiritual singers was about to go, I requested to have dialogue with the Pastor who later described their church to me. I started to fellowship with them and it turned out to be the beginning of my Christian journey.

After attending this church for about one year, I noticed that I still lacked fulfillment in my spiritual life and there was a vacuum in me because I did not have the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus as it is in the Bible. I started praying to God to let me know the truth since the Bible states that it will make me free. God finally answered my prayer in January 1984 when someone, again a family friend, invited my husband to his church. My husband wanted me to join him there.

After two weeks. I went and, on that first visit, I met with Christ face-to-face. The good news of the truth being preached at Jesus Generation Ministries, Eleyele, lbadan became real to me. The heart piercing, undiluted, heaven-bound and inspired message from the throne of grace opened my eyes to the truth on that day.

The focus of the message was love not the world, neither things that are in the world. The text was taken from I John 2: I 5-17. In fact, that day was fantastic in my life; I became totally broken. I experienced the reality of my filthiness; I became ashamed of my sins and life itself became meaningless to me, having known that day that I had been chasing ordinary shadows instead of the substance, that is, our Lord Jesus. The message was hard to chew but it was through it that the amazing and transforming grace of God brought me to salvation. To the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. He is our God who rules in heaven and earth; He is the great and loving God, the “I am that I am”, who keeps covenants and keep His commandments. I cannot help feeling so glorious about the experience. It was a real salvation experience. I became born-again on 4th March, 1984.