My European Wilderness: Three Years of Closed Heavens
About 20 years ago, I lived in a European city where everything seemed to work against me. No matter how hard I tried, nothing moved. The heavens felt like brass, and every effort produced frustration instead of progress. I laboured, studied, applied, worked, and prayed, yet nothing shifted. I was pursuing an engineering career, believing that was the path to success. But every door remained shut. Every opportunity evaporated. Every attempt to rise was swallowed by stagnation. It felt like I was living under a spiritual embargo.
After three years of unfruitfulness, I threw myself into intense prayer, seeking clarity from the Lord. I cried out for direction. I begged God for understanding. I asked Him why nothing was working. In that place of prayer, God gave me three life‑changing instructions.
Instruction 1: “You Are Not Aligned With My Purpose.”
Although I was pursuing engineering, the Lord reminded me that He had called me into the teaching ministry, to instruct, to build, to illuminate His Word. I was chasing a path He never designed for me. No wonder doors refused to open, despite my qualifications. Purpose was missing, and where purpose is absent, gates remain shut.
Instruction 2: “Leave This City. This Land Is Too Small For You.”
I had been labouring tirelessly in a place that was never part of my prophetic geography. Some locations cannot sustain your destiny. Some territories are too small for the assignment God has placed on your life. After three years of struggle, I obeyed. I relocated, not only geographically, but vocationally.
Instruction 3: “Step Into Academics, Research, and Teaching.”
I stepped into the world of academics, research, and teaching, aligning myself with the calling God had spoken over me. And instantly, everything changed. Doors that had been shut for years opened effortlessly. Opportunities multiplied. Finances flowed. Favour increased. The atmosphere shifted.
This is what happens when a believer becomes aligned with God’s purpose, God’s timing, and God’s ordained location. Stubborn gates open. Iron doors break. Destiny begins to breathe again.
My South Africa Furnace: A Season of Pain Before Rest
Years earlier, I left Nigeria for South Africa with dreams, prophecies, and expectations. Like Abraham leaving Ur, I stepped out believing that God had prepared a place for me. I believed I was following divine direction. I believed I was stepping into destiny. But instead of comfort, I entered a furnace.
South Africa became a land of immigration battles, economic hardship, xenophobic hostility, betrayals, and unending cycles of loss. I faced rejection after rejection. I struggled for survival. I saw days when I didn’t know where help would come from. I saw nights when fear and uncertainty became my closest companions.
There were seasons when I felt forgotten, like Joseph in prison, like David running from Saul, like Elijah under the juniper tree. I prayed, fasted, sowed seeds, served God faithfully, yet the heavens seemed silent. Every door I knocked on remained shut. Every application I submitted returned with rejection. Every attempt to rise was met with resistance.
The worst blow came when my UK visa was rejected, not once, but repeatedly, and for two full years, the rejection stood like a mountain mocking my faith. It felt like the enemy had built a wall around my destiny. It felt like my life was stuck in a cycle of stagnation.
My Prophetic Turnaround: The Word That Shifted My Destiny
In the midst of my South African pain, God sent a trusted servant of God, a man not celebrated, not famous, not decorated, yet carrying a word from heaven. He looked at me and said:
“Apostle Ayo, your season of rest has come. Within one month, God will overturn what has been resisting you for years.”
I didn’t fully understand it, but I believed it. Something shifted in my spirit. I felt the wind of rest blowing. I felt the yoke breaking. I felt the burden lifting. And exactly as God said: My rejected UK visa was reversed after two years. I received a BA scholarship. Doors opened effortlessly. My life transformed completely. I entered my season of rest.
This was what sent me to Europe and by the help of God, I avoided every enemy of rest, sin, worry, bitterness, fear, demonic traps, and wrong relationships. God preserved my rest and established me in a new season. This is why I teach rest with conviction: I have lived it. I have tasted it. I have entered it. And I know it is real.
Understanding Rest: The Certainty of Results
Rest is not the absence of work, it is the certainty of results. Rest is when your seeds begin to speak. Rest is when your harvests begin to answer. Rest is when your efforts begin to produce outcomes without struggle.
Jesus said: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” — Matthew 11:28
Rest is a covenant promise. “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” — Hebrews 4:9
Rest is divine: “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” — Exodus 33:14
Rest is a gift: “The LORD gave them rest round about.” — Joshua 21:44
Rest is a realm: “So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave him rest round about.” — 2 Chronicles 20:30
Rest is a Sabbath, physically, spiritually, emotionally, financially, and mentally.
