The Return Of The Prodigal: A shocking true life story

By Dr Ope Banwo

The personal testimony of a 21st Century Prodigal. His days in the ‘far country’, his Redemption, Restoration and the Problems he encountered from the older brothers’ in the house.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jun 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9781312488281

Book preview

THE RETURN

OF THE

PRODIGAL

The personal testimony of a 21st Century Prodigal.

His days in the ‘far country’, his Redemption, Restoration and the Problems he encountered from the ‘older brothers’ in the house.

Ope Banwo

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the author and the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the New International Version of the Bible.

THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL

OPE BANWO

Copyrightc@2002

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the Almighty God for His infinite Mercy and Grace in redeeming me from my wilderness and calling me into His Work

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I continue to give thanks and glory to God for the lives of the wonderful people He used in His Divine Plan to bring me to salvation and service in His Kingdom.

I particularly thank Pastor Maurice Watson of Salem Baptist Church: He preached the sermon series that ‘shook’ my world and brought me to the point of conviction of sin and need for salvation.

My undying gratitude also goes to my ‘Emergency Consultative and Prayer Group’, Dr Olubunmi Dada, Sis. Solape Dada, Bro. Femi Awodele and Dr Ola Awodele. I thank God for their obedience in carrying out their part in God’s ’Project Ope Banwo’.

My profound appreciation also goes to my good brothers, Pastor Leke Sanusi and Rev. Ropo Tusin, and their wives, Bola and Olaide respectively, for their encouragement and for standing in the gap for me at critical times.

Of course, my most sincere and undying love and gratitude goes to my jewel of inestimable value, my wife, Olunike. I thank the Lord for the quiet strength that enabled her to endure through all those ‘dark days’ in the ‘far country’ and help me keep everything in perspective during the troubled early days of coming back home.

INTRODUCTION

A Shocking Revelation!

One fateful Wednesday morning, the story hit me with such a powerful force that I was speechless for some moments!

I had read the story of the prodigal son in the Bible many times before but the story never ministered to me the way it did on this Wednesday morning. All of a sudden, it was as if a switch had been turned on in my head and the story took a whole new line of meaning in my life. The Holy Spirit began to show me that this is the story of my life.

The grace extended to the prodigal son in the story is the same type of grace I have received from God and this is the message that the Holy Spirit wants me to testify to: that is, the unlimited grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to the lost, the wayward, the incorrigible and the damned. The Lord stands ready to show His divine favor and grace on all who would dare to return from the wilderness. He dares us to return to Him and see whether He really is just and faithful to forgive us all our iniquities as He promised through His prophets.

It is one of the greatest tragedies of the human race that we keep repeating the sorry stories of sorry people we have read or heard about. Perhaps an even greater tragedy is the readiness with which we are ready to dismiss stories of tragedy and mischief involving others as something very alien to us personally. We often view such stories as nothing more than ‘stories’ that have nothing to do with us.

This is often the way we humans look at stories in the Bible.

We read them, we tell others about them, we preach about them, we write stories about them but somehow we never seem to connect these biblical stories to ourselves. In our hypocritical nature, we have convinced our subconscious, despite our verbal and conscious protestations to the contrary, that stories in the Bible are ancient stories with no relevance to our own situation.

It was therefore a very shocking and rude awakening for me to find that my story had already been written in the Bible even before I was born.

One day, about 5 weeks after I became a born-again Christian in the true sense of the word, I was reading the story of the prodigal son again, when the spirit began to convict me that this was my story. As I read and meditated on the story, I discovered that several parts of the story had very scary parallels to my life.

I put the Bible down and realized for the very first time that indeed I was a prodigal son who had just made it home. I realized that I had spent the better part of my life up to this point running away from my Father after taking what He had to give me. I had literally spent donkey years in the 'wilderness' spending my substance in ‘riotous living’ and only managed to make it back home after realizing what a fool I had been. On my return, God had thrown a very big party for me and elevated me to a place of prominence in His house. The parallels were amazing!

This book is my living testimony to the modern day relevance of the story of the prodigal son as related in the Bible. I hope to show, through my own personal experience, that the story of the prodigal son is as relevant today as it was in the days of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

As a matter of fact, the story of the prodigal son is the story of the human race and our relationship with our father in Heaven.

I hope to take you on a journey of my life as I tried to run my life away from the protection of the Father, my 'liberation' into perdition, my years in the land of 'riot' and my eventual return into the Father's fold. I will also take you through the problems I had with the 'older brother' who stayed at home and my current ongoing struggles with living a new life at home in my Father's house.

It is my fervent hope and prayer that those of us who are still in the wilderness will see themselves in this story and realize that it is time to go back home because the father is patiently waiting.

I also pray that if you are still at home, but are contemplating taking your inheritance and moving to the land of riot in a far country, you will think twice before making such a foolish move.

Finally, I hope the ‘older brothers’ who have stayed at home will also see in my life testimony the great harm and dangers they pose to prodigals everywhere who may be contemplating returning home.

May the Holy Spirit, who is the only one that can complete the conversion process and maintain us in the Faith, minister to you as you read my story in the ‘riotous land’ and my return to the safe hands of our Father.

ONE

Before The Wilderness:

There was a man who had two sons (Luke 15:11)

The beginning of this story is an indication of what many of us take for granted while still abiding in the presence of the Lord and living in peace, unity and Love with our brothers and sisters in fellowship.

Before the prodigal son made his move for independence, there appeared to be harmony and love in the home.

While he stayed under