About 15 years ago when I was pregnant with my twins, my routine checks and all other investigations proved that I was very fine and could have normal vaginal birth if one of the babies was not in breach position.

Several weeks on, there was no change. One remained cephalic and the other in breach position. I did not know much about surgeries at the time so that information immediately got me into fear and panic mode and I must say that, through a good part of my gestational period, I lived in fear of what might happen,

One day, and out of the blue, my sister-in-law called and said one of her spiritual mothers came by her home and insisted that she should be brought to my home. I did not know who she was, and my sister-in-law also said she had not spoken to her about me.

She only popped into her home that morning and told her God had a word for her brother’s wife who was pregnant with a set of twins.

She was alarmed and this made me even more afraid and sick. What is this? What is happening? I called my husband who was away at work and he just asked me to calm down and that I will be fine. She spoke to her sister and she also told him the woman, Mama Alice, gave no details to her so they were simply on their way to our home. I think he called back almost every few minutes to check on me because I was worried.

They arrived after about two hours, and after serving them water, we zoomed into prayer. She told me that God had told her that, I was afraid and the reason she was instructed to act fast was that, the fear of not making it through the pregnancy was becoming my reality and that was very true.

I entertained so much fear I could not be positive in anyway and each time I tried to pray, my mind would wonder to everything that could happen and that I was not even able to pray. She confirmed all of these to me. She admonished that, the fear I entertained was all the devil needed to act and it was gradually being established because I just could not see a positive end to my pregnancy.

Oh we prayed. We prayed and she led me to make some renunciations and positive confessions. She told me my utterances had been established in the realms of the spirit and admonished me to keep my mind positive.

She also assured me that, that was going to be the easiest of all my births if only I would believe and hold on to my positive confessions. Did I believe it? Yes I did, but wondered how? She said God had said it. All I needed to do was believe and walk in that confidence.

She handed me a prayer book which had a lot of positive confessions. I was charged to pray and make those declarations day and night... I was about 29 weeks gone. I was amazed but yes, I believed and did as I was instructed. Nothing changed. All my scans thereafter still showed one cephalic and one breached. I was being psyched up for surgery yet, I kept faith and continued to pray and made those declarations day and night.

I woke up one morning, within my 36th week and felt funny after dropping off our older one in school. I called my sister to tell her how I was feeling, she asked me to go to the hospital. I wasn’t having it but she insisted and I reluctantly did.

After checks, they said it was false labour. I had no pain and I was just fine. However, they called my doctor who told them to detain me. For what? I was simply to wait for him. Me I wanted to go to Accra Central to get a few baby items and was upset they were wasting my time. I even tried to negotiate with the nurses to make me go and come back but they insisted they were acting on instructions.

They asked me to wait in one of the wards, I refused. I sat there till my gynaecologist came back. He looked at the reports and asked me to get another scan. I did and he was happy that both babies were in cephalic position and that surgery may not be necessary again when I was due. Just guess my Joy! That was however, short lived. I was not going home. It was my punishment for driving to the hospital. He had instructed me to stop driving after my 34^th week and again after the previous week’s visit, but I was stubborn.

I pleaded and promised not to drive again but he refused and my husband supported him. My sister was in my home so she sent my self-care items and new clothes to me via a cab.  My husband stayed till after 10pm and left. I was still very upset and wore a frown all through his stay because I did not want to stay in the hospital.

The midwife came to me and asked that I try to sleep. I said I was not sleepy, besides the bed was uncomfortable. She returned later while I was dosing off and she encouraged me to lie down but no, I told her I tired but I was uncomfortable. She pulled a chair and sat by me to observe me while I dosed on and off then after a while. She asked to be excused.

She came back with gloves on her hands and asked to examine me. She rushed to the doorway, called out to the nurses and shouted labour… I was confused. How? I had had a child so I knew what labour is. She realised I was perplexed and before I could say anything, she said your babies are coming and you are 8cm gone. Let’s go… She asked if I could walk, I said yes. I was not feeling anything. There were no pangs of labour whatsoever.

We got to the labour ward, lay on the bed and in a few minutes, baby number one was out. She asked if I was feeling anything and no I wasn’t. She wondered ‘but how? You must feel something, there is another baby that must come out. The babies were in different sacs so she broke the water which gushed out and splashed on us in the room. That was when I felt like passing stool, I told her and she asked me to push, it was one simple push and baby number two followed. I am not sure when they called my husband but he was there before baby number two popped out. I believe God saved his life on the road. He came with scattered items because I had not packed for delivery.

It was after we were taken to the ward that I remembered the God Factor and all that Mama Alice told me. My sister in law came with her in the morning and we praised God. That was one of my biggest encounters with the God Factor.

I know you have had your own encounter with God, that moment when you can actually say that, this was simply God because you just could not explain it.

As human as we are, we take so many things for granted and think it is a giving.

It is about time we all come to know that sleeping and waking up is not just by chance. It is an orchestration of the Almighty God. It is not your alarm or some training you have given your body. Dead people do not heed to alarm bells. It is the God Factor.

You drive to and back from work every day and you think it is only because of how skilful you are or how robust your car is? The afore mentioned factors are key but there is a God who shows us mercy every day we set out because the best of cars and the most skilful of drivers lose their lives on the same roads we ply. Don’t ever lose sight of the God Factor.

Yes, it is critical to take your health very seriously and practice good health care and I do not take mine for granted. I am very conscious of my meals, health care, my workout routines and all that, and I encourage everyone to do same. But I strongly know and believe that living in absolute health and wellness is a function of the God Factor. Don’t take it for granted. As you do what you have to do physically, tap deeply into that grace and the God Factor as well.

You need a job, yes your CV is super and you are the most qualified, however, someone whom you least expect gets the job and it is not because they know somebody, there is a function of the God Factor called Favour. Sometimes, it needs to be released in addition to your CV to make it all complete.

I have met and encountered wealthy people, scholars, people in prestigious and influential places who never take the God Factor for granted because they know there is a supreme being at work who orchestrates happenings around us.

Do not brag too much about your successes as though it was all your making, there is always an unseen hand at work.
Do not take your going out and coming in for granted. Do not think that the brilliance of your children is only because they attend the best schools.

Do not take the little joys, the successes, the peace, your safety and the blessings you enjoy daily for granted.

If when you think it is not going too well, remember someone has it worse than you do.

There is a God that shows mercy. There is God that favours, there is God that provides. There simply is a God that rules in the affairs of men.

We may all not be preachers, prophets or prayer warriors, however, recognising that that there is a supreme being above who rules in the affairs of men is the biggest and the most important of all the knowledge you can ever acquire.

Do not be manipulated into thinking that it is all by your might or power. It is just by grace.

Count your blessings and be grateful. Acknowledge the God factor in all you do.

Grace, Peace, Joy, Hope, Strength, Love and blessings be multiplied unto us all. Amenuveve!!!

Edem Knight-Tay is Programmes Director and host of Home Affairs at Joy 99.7 FM.

She is strong-willed, confident, empathetic, results-oriented and a strong advocate for thriving families. She has been married for 19 years with 4 adorable children. 

Edem has been a media practitioner for about 2 decades working in various capacities.

She lives by the Biblical principles “love your neighbour as yourself” and “do unto others what you would like them to do unto you.”