Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler, and I’m speaking to you today from Enomany Falls, Wisconsin. And I have a very special guest with me here today.

His name is Aquila Deramani. And years ago, Dr. Jim and a couple of young men went over to Ghana, West Africa, and they did some ministry over there, and they had a number of young men helping them with translation and just accompanying them everywhere they went for their evangelistic endeavors. And one of those young men was Aquila.

And God began to really do a work in his life. God was already doing a work in his life prior to them arriving, and his pastor felt like he needed to get some training in the States. And so long story short, he came over here in the dead cold of winter, January, in the late 2000, the single digits there was probably single digits when he got here.

And he really has the heart of Falls Baptist Church and really the generation. And he’s been such a blessing. He is now back in his country ministering to his people there, and God is using his life in unbelievable ways.

And so I know here, as he shares his burden with you, it’ll be a great blessing. And so Aquila, please share with these young people what God has put in your heart. Thank you very much.

Aquila Darimani: I’m grateful to be here and to speak to you. And I trust that this will be a blessing. God has been working in different places.

God has been working in Ghana, in the field of Ghana, in Africa. and I’m glad to be part of the ministry that God is doing. But before that, you know, God had to do a lot of work in my life.

When I got saved, I wanted to totally to depend on God. You know, that is what, because God has saved me. My destiny has changed.

And I love my people. As a young man, I wanted to grow up sharing the word of God with a lot of people. But God has to do a work in my life first.

God has to get rid of the junks that were in my life. You know, if I totally want to depend upon God, there are certain things that the Lord said, you know, brother, I love you, but these things have to go. It’s like Isaiah chapter 6, you know, I needed to see the Lord.

And so God began to do a deep work. Things that I was relying on, some of them were not sin in my life. For instance, I was trusting my father.

He was a good man, provided for me everything that I needed. So I was looking to my father, actually. But the Lord, in 2002, took my father to heaven.

I praise the Lord that, you know, he is in heaven right now. But he was one of my Uzziahs in my life. And I realized that, you know, the Bible says in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.

That was very hard on me. That was very difficult. I said, God, why?

If you love me so much, you know, I just got saved. I want to serve you. The very person that I believe that will help me serve you, you took him away.

And I realize that, you see, the Christian life wasn’t about my father. The Christian life is a person. His name is Jesus Christ.

And if I will be used, then I have to depend. I have to look to him. In Hebrews chapter 12, you know, we have the phrase looking unto Jesus, the altar and finisher of our faith.

Who for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame. You see, most of the time we have the zeal. We want to do what God has called us to do, but we forget that God said, you know what?

There are certain things in our lives that he needs to let it go, that we need to work it out. He began with that verse. He said, we should lay aside, lay aside every weight and every sin, Maybe they might not be harmful.

The comforts, the fame, the talent, the accomplishments are things that will not allow us to totally depend upon God. Because if God wants to work, he wants nothing of us. If God knows that you can work something out and then he adds up to it, he will not.

Somebody ever told me, he said, the end of myself is the beginning of God. God loves us so much that he wants us to come to the end of ourselves so that we will see him work, so that when we are praising him, we said, to God be the glory. And I don’t know about you.

I don’t know what are the weights in your life, maybe a family tie, maybe a relationship, that you might think, well, this is okay, this is fine. But God is saying, look, if you want to cut it in the world, if you want to do what I want you to do, then these things have to go. Maybe it’s a comfort zone.

Maybe it’s something that you are holding on to, upgrades of things. I don’t know what is in your life, but in my life, I do know. Friends needed to go.

People that didn’t buy my idea of what I believe God has called me to do, God said you need to separate yourself from these people. They are good people, but God said I cannot use you when these things are in your life. And then there’s songs.

There will be certain sins in our life, things that we debate about with God, things that God points in our lives and we think, well, it is fine. Maybe somebody is involved in that. But you are not somebody.

You are unique. You are different. God has given you a vision that he hasn’t given to the one that is involved in those kind of things.

And God said, I need to clean you. You know, the sin of bitterness and forgiving spirit that we have because of past failure and other things. The sin of blaming other people for making us who we are.

You know, even cheating, lying. You know, things that maybe we might even excuse in our life. God is saying, if you want to depend on me, these things have to go because he doesn’t work with them.

And it’s a God that will make sure that they are gone. He’s not here to crush us. I tell people, you know, sometimes I think, oh, giving up my life is, oh, what a boring life to live.

God is asking me to look unto him. What a boring life to live. But, my friend, it is not.

He said he has pleasure forever at his side. You know, he knows you so well that you will grow, you will develop. He will never leave you where you are.

You know, he has so many things. When I surrendered to serve the Lord, you know, this life, I’m enjoying it. I’m not enduring it.

I’ve seen people save. I’ve seen lives transformed. Not because of me, but because of the power of God.

And I’ve watched it. Why? Because I surrendered my life.

Some of the things were hard to let it go. But when I let it go, I thank God that what he gave me is, I don’t know, infinity times what I had. It’s like I had a rock and God said, throw it away, I’ll give you gold.

When you give your life to Christ, if God wants to mess your life, do you think he wants you to give him his life before he can do that? No. He’ll just mess it.

But if he tells you, give me your life, he wants to make it a masterpiece. He wants to show the devil and the world that this is what I can do in the life of a man who gives all to him. Looking unto Jesus, he’s the altar.

the finisher of our faith. He knows what you need. It’s not trusting our trust.

It’s not believing in our faith. No, it’s believing in the one that is the Christian life, Jesus Christ. And then he said, consider him.

Consider him. In your prayer life, consider him. In your zeal of doing what God wants you to do, consider him.

You know, when somebody wrong you, consider Jesus Christ. When you are going out soul winning, consider Jesus Christ. your Bible reading, consider him.

It will give you a joy. And I believe you will never regret when you totally surrender and depend upon the one who saved you and loved you. He will help you.

You will grow. He will become the man or the woman that God wants you to become in life. He knows how to figure that one out.

So I trust that this will be a blessing to you that when we look unto Jesus, as Hebrews chapter 12 because that works. We look unto Jesus, he’s alive. Don’t look at your accomplishment, your talent, your family background.

It doesn’t work. They will all fail you. Your strength will fail you.

But when you look unto Jesus, who is the altar and finisher of our faith, getting rid of the weight and the sun that so easily besets you, it works. The Christian life is a person. His name is Jesus Christ.

And I pray that, Lord, you will be reintroduced to him if you haven’t. And if you haven’t surrendered, God will show you. It’s not you working it out.

It’s he working it in you and through you.

Bobby Bosler: Thank you very much. Amen. Thank you so much for that, Aquila.

You know, young people, the call to follow Jesus is many times the call to stop following some other things, to leave some things behind. And I appreciate the emphasis just on total dependence to the Lord. Young people, you need to kick those crutches out from underneath of you and depend on Jesus and Jesus alone.

And again, he got the heartbeat, nailed it on the head. Our burden and desire, and you know this, is total surrender to the will of God and total dependence on his power to accomplish it and to turn the world upside down for Jesus Christ. Thank you so much for listening.