Eric Agyeman: Episode Description
On this episode of The Inspiration Project, Brendan Corr talks to Eric Agyeman about his life growing up and being bullied in primary school, how he dealt with the bullying, facing the challenges of identity, how growing up in a Christian home helped Eric navigate the bullying, deciding to join a gang in order to fit in, turning his life around for Christ and working with the youth in schools across Australia.
Episode Summary
- What it was like for Eric to be teased and racially bullied in primary school
- Why Eric joined a gang
- How Eric dealt with the racial bullying
- Growing up in a Christian home
- How Eric accepted Christ as his Saviour
- Facing the significant challenges of identity
- Why Eric works with young people today
- The power of Prayer & how it’s changed Eric’s life
Eric Agyeman: Episode Transcript
Sponsor Announcement
This podcast is sponsored by Australian Christian College, a network of schools committed to student well-being, character development, and academic improvement.
Introduction
Welcome to The Inspiration Project, where well-known Christians share their stories to inspire young people in their faith and life. Here’s your host, Brendan Corr.
Brendan Corr
Well, hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of The Inspiration Project podcast. The podcast is where we get to hear from successful people who have navigated a life of success and thriving based on their faith. Today, we’re talking to Eric Agyeman. Eric is a youth mentor and motivational speaker who has quite an interesting background starting out as the only African student in his school. He had quite a diverse range of experiences that weren’t always following the exemplary model path of a young child at school. He’s ended up though, coming out the other end of some very challenging circumstances. He’s been the author of three bestselling books and is committed to sharing what he has learned through his passion about helping young people find their future. Some of those experiences have allowed him to become a wide-ranging speaker to young people all over the country. Eric, it’s very much my pleasure to have this opportunity to speak with you. Let me just get a little unpack, what’s on your calendar for the next little while? What’s coming up in terms of your commitments?
Eric Agyeman
Yeah. Well, first of all, Brendan, thank you so much for having me on this podcast. It’s such an honour. In terms of my schedule well, I am heading to Brisbane tomorrow and looking forward to being with the Australian Christian College in Caboolture next week. So, that’s exciting.
Brendan Corr
Yeah, that is. Now, you’re based in Melbourne, I understand?
Eric Agyeman
Yeah, based in Melbourne and predominantly do most of our work here in Melbourne. And then every now and then, a few times a year, I get the opportunity to travel as well and do things interstate.
Brendan Corr
Well, I know the students at Australian Christian College, we would call it Moreton, that’s the name of the school in Caboolture. They’re going to have a great blessing. You’ll have to stop over some time here in Sydney. I’m speaking to you from ACC, Australian Christian College Marsden Park in Sydney, and we’ll have to get you a ticket to come and have a chat with our students.
Eric Agyeman
That’ll be awesome. I think I’ve actually spoken to a lady called Sarah in the last couple of weeks.
Brendan Corr
Yes. I think you’re right.
Eric Agyeman
She’s working something out.
Brendan Corr
So, things are afoot. It’s very promising. But listen, we’re not going to hold it against you that you come from Melbourne up here in Sydney and Queensland. We are very suspicious of the storm and the dominance that they’ve had in our NRL, and we’re getting to know AFL Footy in terms of its appeal up this way. Is Melbourne hometown for you? Born and bred?
Eric Agyeman
So, born in Ghana, raised in New Zealand, and then came to Melbourne in ‘97, then went back to Ghana in 2000 for what was meant to be a three-week holiday that became seven years. So, I ended up coming back to Melbourne in 2007. So, I’ve been here ever since. Does feel like home, even though we were the most locked-down city in the world, but we won’t go into that because that’s a trigger point for me.
Brendan Corr
Yeah, understandably. We all felt for you guys down that way. Hard to imagine. So, you say that Melbourne sort of feels like home for you. I think what are the things that speak to you about home? What is it that makes that place? You’ve been in New Zealand, you’ve been in Ghana. What does home mean for you?
Eric Agyeman
Yeah. I guess home as in unplanted at a local church that I’ve been at for 10 years now, a church called Enjoy Church. So, that’s definitely family toward home. My beautiful wife, and her family, live about 10 minutes away. So, it’s close enough so we can get babysitting, but also not too close to have them at home**. **Yes. So, my wife feels her tank is filled when she has the presence of her family near and close. And so that’s important to us. So yeah, I think those are probably the two main reasons. And I mean, I guess it’s just a beautiful Sidney.
Brendan Corr
It is a lovely place and a very cultured sort of city. Tell me how old were you when you moved from Ghana? What was the age? Were you aware of a dramatic change in your environment, your setting?
Eric Agyeman
Yeah, absolutely. So, I was five when my dad very courageously moved us over to New Zealand. The journey I would say about that though is if you’ve watched the movie Cool Runnings when they moved to Jamaica to the Olympics and they’re really cold. Yeah, I had that experience, too. Ghana is tropical, with no winter, only summer and rainy seasons. And then, here I find myself in New Zealand. So yeah, South Island, Dunedin. So, that was a bit of a culture shock, weather shock. On my first day of school, I couldn’t actually speak English because I’d never had a proper education in Ghana and so couldn’t speak it, couldn’t understand it, and felt very, I guess low self-esteem started at that age because I felt like I wasn’t like everyone else. I was the only African also at that time from at least my year level. I’m pretty sure it was the whole school. But yeah, my year level at least. And so that sort of set me on a journey of ups and downs in identity, all that sort of stuff.
Brendan Corr
So, five-year-old Eric finds himself in Dunedin, New Zealand, not comfortable in the physical environment, not comfortable in the social environment. How did you navigate your way through that?
Eric Agyeman
Yeah. Well, I think I was very close to my parents. So, I think home life was a very positive one. And I think at that age, as well, there’s a little bit of innocence in you as a child where you just go along with these. And then I also had a really close friend that was until I went to his house and his dog chased me. And having come from Ghana with no pets, that was a big fearful moment. Yeah.
Brendan Corr
Did the friendship survive?
Eric Agyeman
It actually did. We actually reconnected last month after about 15 or so years.
Brendan Corr
Well, I know part of your story is that school wasn’t necessarily an easy place for you to find a sense of identity and connection. From that start must have been at kindergarten, I think at age five, when did things begin to not follow the script, not go to the typical plan of what school was supposed to be like and what sort of things you’re going to be learning?
Eric Agyeman
Yeah. Well, I think on my first day in New Zealand at that school, I did see some boys who were laughing at me, but because obviously, I couldn’t understand English, I didn’t know what they were laughing about. All I could assume is that maybe it was because I’m different because I was the only African. So, that was sort of the beginning. And then I came to Australia, to Melbourne in ‘97. That was probably where it really deepened, where the hurt and the pain, I could really feel it because now I could understand English and I could speak it as well. And so on my first day at school to be called the N-word, to have my colour compared to an animal, my nose, the shape of my nose, all of those things. And on top of that, to have other kids around to hear it and to laugh really was just a painful experience. And so, at the age of 10, you tend to believe a lot of things that you hear. You don’t have that critical thinking aspect of you to dissect every word and every phrase. Is that right? You just sort of go along with it. And that’s what I did. And so, I believe things like I’m inferior because of the colour of my skin. I believe the words that those kids did say to me and how they teased me. So, yeah, that was really the low point. And then I think towards the end of primary school, those thoughts then were expressed through my behaviour. And what I mean by that is I went to high school with no aspiration, no vision. That’s why I ended up in a gang because, mentally, in my subconscious mind, the words of that boy were still echoing. And they were the words, “You would never achieve anything and you’re inferior, you’re not good enough.” So, of those words, when it came to academics, I didn’t want to try because I already had a visual of the future and it wasn’t a positive one because of what I had heard. So that was a little bit of that journey through school.
Brendan Corr
You’re talking about some very traumatic experiences for a young person to be facing, Eric, that really challenged the very notion of your identity. And you are describing how your identity was fundamentally formed because of those things that were being said about you and the environment in which you found yourself. Where did you go to help? Where did you look to find untangling all of those sorts of feelings and thoughts? Did you have anybody that you could talk to?
Eric Agyeman
Well, at the start, I had my dad and he was really, really encouraging. But I think as a teenager, you get to a point where you stop telling dad stuff, you stop telling mum and dad stuff, and you try and find it elsewhere, whether it’s the internet or other peers that may not be positive. So, at the start, initially, it was through my parents. But just on that power of words, the Bible says that the heavens and earth were created by the power of God’s word. Even Adam, when God got ready to format him, he said, “Let us create man in our image and our likeness.” Adam was formed from the power of words. You look at Eve and her identity in the garden, which was changed because of the words of a snake. And so, all throughout Scripture, we recognise that words play a powerful part in the formation of the shape of anything, whether it’s heaven and earth, whether it’s Adam. And I think it still plays a powerful part today in the lives of many people, especially young people, when they’re hearing words, it really has the power to influence them. And so, I guess entangled where I was untangled was actually the trip to Ghana, which was meant to be a three-week holiday, but became a seven-year pretty challenging journey. And it was actually going to church where I gave my life to God and I got sent away to a prayer camp. And at this prayer camp, they would pray, it’s three-hour blocks, they would eat one meal a day, 5:30 PM every night. And then in between, all they did was they just memorised Scripture. And so, upon entrance at this place, I probably knew maybe John 3:16, I came out and I’ve got seven exercise books front and back with verses and Scriptures. And so, it was during this time that I began to rewire my mindset. The Bible says, “Don’t be conformed to this war, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind through the word of God.” And that’s how I became untangled. In fact, just really quickly, the Bible they gave me when I entered the prayer camp was a King James Bible. My son today, he’s five, five and a half now, his name is Kingston James, which is inspired by the Bible. Not only that, but we also run a ministry called the Royal Hood, which is a mentoring program to disciple young people. And that Royal Hood name comes from one of the verses that I memorised in 2005, and that was 1 Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation.” So that not only untangled me but gave me purpose in which I’m what I’m living right now in my life.
Brendan Corr
Yeah. What a great story. Was your family a family of faith before you went to Ghana?
Eric Agyeman
They were. Absolutely. Every single Sunday, my parents would, I would call it “drag me to church” because I didn’t have that personal revelation yet, but, yeah, we were Baptist, so they did that.
Brendan Corr
At what age did you head back to Ghana? How old were you? You started school, you’d been off in high school?
Eric Agyeman
Yes. So, I did two years at Ringwood Secondary College here in Melbourne in 2000. And so, I think it was about May 2000, almost halfway through year eight, when my dad said to go back for a holiday with a one-way ticket, but I wasn’t smart enough to know Wa-lah for seven years.
Brendan Corr
So, that one-way ticket, that’s pretty dramatic. Was that sort of your dad doing an intervention? Is it a case of, “I love my boy. I could see he’s in trouble. I got to break this?”
Eric Agyeman
Absolutely. So, he knew what he was doing all along, but 14-year-old me just thought, “Oh, my dad just wants me to go and start my fourth suspension on a holiday in Ghana, would spend money.” I was like, “Yeah, I’ll do that. I’ll go.”
Brendan Corr
I want to wind back, Eric, if you can, because that’s a wonderful story of coming into the light or coming into the truth after, obviously, part of your life where you were living with misconceptions of yourself, misconceptions about the people around you, probably a misconception of God at that point in your life. And as I was reading your story, I was thinking about how the alienation that you must have felt in your young schooling, where you were the only one and you were the one who was teased and picked on and ostracised and made it very clear you didn’t belong in whatever was going on in whatever culture was. And how did you find yourself from that being a loner at school, being on the out? How did you find yourself in those youth gangs of your early teen years?
Eric Agyeman
Yeah. So, I think in every human, there is an element of us that wants to belong. And sometimes that need to belong comes at a cost. For me, that was certainly the case. Part of joining the gang was obviously I wanted to fit in, but also I wanted to avoid being bullied because I carried a lot from primary school. I didn’t want to have to go through that again in high school. And what I’ve realised is being in a group where you don’t fit in and you try to fit in, my goodness, it does more harm than good. And in fact, this morning I was at a school sharing about this as a kid asked a question. And so now, having grown up, I love being by myself. We could call it solitude. I love being by myself. But at a young age when there’s no identity, it’s all about how many people can I surround myself with, so I look popular. It’s all about today’s day and age, social media likes, and all of that sort of stuff. Yet they still live very lonely, even though they’re surrounded by these people because they lack that identity, that God’s identity in their lives in my watch.
Brendan Corr
Yeah. That is so true, isn’t it, Eric? I know exactly what you’re saying is that the fear of being made alone by the actions of others is not something that you seek, in fact, you seek the opposite, you seek connection and relationship and you have loneliness forced on you by the actions of others. The tendency then to say, “Well, I will belong for a whole bunch of reasons so that I feel safe because I’m part of something that is strong and tough and nobody’s going to come and pick on me when I’m part of this group. And I feel like I’ve got people that I connect with, and there’s a safety in that, there’s a sense of almost false security.” Is that how you felt being in the brotherhood or whatever was the name of the situation?
Eric Agyeman
Yeah, absolutely. That’s exactly it. Yeah.
Brendan Corr
So your dad sees this, realises that you’ve lost interest in school, more suspensions, I think, in two years, and realises something needs to change, sends you to Ghana. What was the purpose? You said a three-week holiday. He must have had a notion that what did you do for school? Back to school in Ghana?
Eric Agyeman
Yeah. I went back to school after, I think, three weeks. Yeah. I started school, boarding school. That was a shock because back then, they sort of disciplined you with a cane, physically. Yeah. So, you have your hand like that or you get on your back. Yeah. So, I went from here too and obviously, I felt like I was targeted a little bit as well. So, yeah, that was pretty horrible. But I ended up finishing high school in Ghana in 2005, so my VC equivalent.
Brendan Corr
The prayer thing that you went on, that camp that changed your whole perspective of yourself and of life. At what stage did that happen in your Ghana experience? Was that early on? Sort of towards the end of school?
Eric Agyeman
That was towards the end of school, halfway through school. So, I got saved. So I attempted suicide in 2002, and then it was six weeks after that, I was saved. And so it would’ve been roughly about six to 12 weeks after that that I’d go to this church where they would send me away to this prayer camp, where all of that took place.
Brendan Corr
Without wanting to pry too much, the six weeks before you’re going on this prayer camp, you’re at the bottom, you’re at the lowest point you could possibly get to. So, going to Ghana wasn’t a solution in itself. It wasn’t the miraculous transition to something, it was still tough and it was still dark and the load was still heavy up to that point. Did you have other people to talk with in Ghana during those years, or was it still a sense of, “I’m doing this alone?”
Eric Agyeman
Yeah. It definitely felt like that because, as I mentioned, I didn’t go to school in Ghana and so I couldn’t speak English on my first day. But now that I’ve come back to Ghana, I can speak English fluently, but on my mother’s side, only one of them went to school, which is my older brother. All my other half-siblings didn’t go to school, including my mom. So now, trying to communicate, it felt like it wasn’t connecting. And then at the boarding school, obviously, having come from abroad, they call it, I felt out of place again. So, there was definitely an extension of that same thing that was happening here in a different way over there as well.
Brendan Corr
And now, you’re so far away from your family, from your mom, from your dad, and no hope.
Eric Agyeman
Yeah. Well, I felt hopeless. And that’s where one of the words that that kid had said to me, and nine out of seven came back to my mind, “You’re never going to achieve anything.” Part of the thought process in my head was, “Well, why be here if I’m not going to do anything, achieve anything, be anything,” which is a life from the pit of hell.
Brendan Corr
Amen.That’s very confronting to hear that, and to try and imagine what it must have been like for you, Eric, in that context to be so far from home. Anybody who really knew you, anybody who really saw you and your situation became so desperate. I ask you again, this is with all measure of respect in that space. The notion of things that happened around you, things that happened to you, and the response that you have, is there a measure of balance about what you own as decisions that you made, things that you chose to believe versus the circumstances you found yourself in? Have you wrestled with some of that tension?
Eric Agyeman
I think the way I’ve sort of interpreted things is, I mean, number one, I had a lot of anger toward my dad. I felt like he lied to me. I felt he betrayed me and put me in that situation. Then later, I realised Romans 8:28 says, “All things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose.” And though it was my dad who sent me to Ghana, really that was God’s plan. And when you look at things from that perspective, you don’t put a blame on a certain human being, but rather you actually give thanks to God for allowing you to go through the value of the shadow of death, so you can come out and give him praise and know that he exists, know that he’s 110% real. And so for me but that’s how I live my life. It’s very hard to offend me simply because the Lord’s prayer, says, “Forgive us as we have forgiven,” past tense, “forgiven those who have hurt us.” And so, I live my life by a simple mantra of that the wound may not be my fault, but the healing is my responsibility.
Brendan Corr
And that’s beautiful. Absolutely.
Eric Agyeman
I won’t wait around for people to come and apologise or explain themselves. No, I forgive them, release them, and I just praise God. And I take the lesson, not the loss, but the lesson from that experience and I march forward. And so that whole experience, I’ve got a book right here next to me called Let There Be Darkness. I wrote that book out of that experience. And everything that I’m doing to help young people today has really come out of that space. And so I’m so grateful to my dad. I love my dad, I love what he did and how he played a part in God’s plan for my life.
Brendan Corr
I want to come back and explore what it is that you’re doing, and how you’re spending your life now helping other people. But the change that you are describing, Eric, is just such an incredibly dramatic 180 from somebody who felt betrayed, alone, and hopeless for the perspective that you are describing that is now. And again, I don’t know whether you can put this into words or something, but it feels there must have been something more that happened than just you changed your mind and then you just picked yourself up by the bootstraps and got on with things. What happened to change that Eric who was lost and broken to this Eric that could look back with such clarity and such confidence? Can you explain that?
Eric Agyeman
Oh, it’s hard to explain because it’s God. It’s just supernatural. It’s the power of prayer. It’s the power of devotion to Scripture, and actually living out the Scriptures that we read. I mean, look, we read about forgiveness, but to practice forgiveness, that’s where the power lies. And so, that’s sort of been the thing for me. For example, just recently, I think in December, I read a Scripture, Proverbs 30:11. It says that there is a generation that dishonours their fathers and makes fun of their mothers. And I did a bit of research and then I found out in Exodus, it said that sons who disobeyed their fathers and disrespect them, shall be put to death. And I was like, “Ooh, that’s harsh.” I did a little bit more digging and then I can pivot to today’s day and age, and some of the youth that I work with and just that relationship between teens and their parents sometimes can be so dishonouring. Their teens can be so it’s like, I’ve read it, great. I can just get on with my day and go about, but no, no, no, no, we’re not going to be doing that. We’re going to bring this into the messages that the programs that we’ve run, we’re going to put in what are some practical ways that our teenagers can honour their parents? What does that look like through their words, through their actions? And that practical element of applying Scripture, that’s where the supernatural happens. And for me, that’s been the only way I can explain is that I read the word, it comes alive, and I try my best. I’m not perfect, but I try my best to apply it because I know that’s where transformation happens.
Brendan Corr
I can see that transformation, Eric. There is the evidence, overflowing the Scripture talks of how living water will flow up out of your innermost being without trying to be presumptuous. I sense that. I sense that there has been a spring created in you of this new life, this new supernatural life that washed over everything in your life, washed over everything in your mind, and is flowing out to the people that you want to speak to. So let me ask you this. You find yourself having this incredible experience over in Ghana. You’re at this prayer camp, a supernatural transformation for you as to who you are and how you see the world, how you understand everything. Did you, at that stage, imagine that you were going to be a motivational speaker and an author and march around the country inspiring and helping other young kids?
Eric Agyeman
No, but I was prophesied upon in Ghana by someone that I didn’t know. And they called me up and they told me some stuff I had done previously. And then they said, but in the years to come, God’s going to use you. And I mean, this was pretty much my first exposure to this sort of stuff. And I remember he said that I’d have a dream within two weeks, I’d walk into a room with people crying. I’d have the Bible in my hand, and I’ll open to the pages of Isaiah, I believe he’s 60 or 61. It says, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he’s anointed me to preach. He has sent me to open the eyes of the blind to declare and open of those who are behind prison doors.” He said, “When you read that, you’ll close it. And after you’ve closed it, the people that were crying will start rejoicing.” And he says to me, in that dream, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you. And when you wake up, that’s the day that God will begin to use you in ministry. And in the years to come, God will take you to different places around the world and you’ll bring light and hope wherever you go.” I’ll never forget that day. Ten days after that, Thursday after morning church service, I had the exact same dream, walked into the room with a Bible in my hand, preached out of that spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news the poor, to declare and open the prison doors to those that are captive and to open the eyes of those that are blind. I closed it and people were rejoicing. And that morning I woke up. So, I knew that it was around preaching God’s word, the word of life, but nothing else, the books or anything, or even motivational speaking in schools because I didn’t finish school here. I had no idea. It was a chaplain friend who invited me in 2010 to come to speak at a chapel that I realised, “Oh, this is something people do.” And so, for the last 10 years, once a month, I speak at our church, one of our church locations, and then also, obviously, in schools. And now through God’s grace and faith, we’ve written some books and written some programs. And just step by step, just walking out what we feel God is leading us to.
Brendan Corr
So, you mentioned the ministry that you’re involved in a little bit earlier. I can’t remember the name of what you just described but unpack for us a little bit about what you’re involved in.
Eric Agyeman
Yeah. So, my wife and I run a not-for-profit organisation called the Royal Hood. Yeah. So for me, the biggest turning point was that verse, “Chosen generation, a royal priesthood,” 1 Peter 2:9. That was the beginning of the transformation of my identity, that I am royalty. And so I say this everywhere I go, “In every boy, there is a king; in every girl, there is a queen. We are royalty.” And so, the whole idea was really to journey with young people in a discipleship format and really in a world that is noisy, in a world that is faced with identity confusion to really reemphasize their worth and value and identity in God. And so that’s where it started. And now it’s become a ministry with four different arms. So, we run a 10-Week Boys to Noble Men Mentorship program, which is really amazing. We run girls, Teen Girls Camp as well that my wife heads up. We run a Pre-Teens Resilience Day during school holidays. And then this year, so excited, we’re launching our very first Father and Son Rites of Passage Camp as well this year, which is, yeah, I’m excited for. So that’s-
Brendan Corr
Yeah, that does sound like you got a lot on and it’s going to keep you busy.
Eric Agyeman
Yes. I’m very busy.
Brendan Corr
So, let me ask you another associated question. One of the themes that have been running through our conversation, Eric, has been the idea of finding a sense of belonging, finding who you are in that sense. And we’ve talked about you coming to New Zealand, not fitting in at school, seeking inclusion in some negative social settings, gangs, etc., feeling alone back in Ghana, and coming into this incredible relationship with Jesus in this very special way. And now, your job is to go around and to visit communities of people you don’t know, you don’t have a lot of understanding. Where do you find belonging in your current sense?
Eric Agyeman
That’s a great question. I walk around with the mindset that I belong to the kingdom of God. I belong to the kingdom of God. And really what I’m trying to do is get more people to join the kingdom of God. So, I have this obviously, going into a room of people you haven’t met, there’s obviously nerves, there’s all of that sort of stuff, a bit of fear, this and that. But I’ll never forget reading one day about Joshua where God says, “Where so ever the soles of your feet shall step on. I, the Lord, will give it to you.” And I realised this land that we’re all on, whether you own your own home or you brought the land yourself, it’s God at the end of the day. So, wherever I go, I just have that perspective that God has assigned me here. I belong there. And that’s another thing about that whole you are chosen generation, right, because I grew up feeling a lot of rejection. I now wholeheartedly walk around knowing I’m chosen by God. What has merely meant that they can reject me and this or that? At the end of the day, it’s God who’s chosen me. It’s the greatest form of choice that I’ll ever receive. And that makes me happy. That makes me joyful. That makes me what David would say, “God-fidence wherever I go.”
Brendan Corr
That’s good. Not confidence. God-fidence. That’s good. I like that. So, what I think I’m hearing, Eric, is this idea of you now have an identity that doesn’t depend on your social connections or your social setting, your identity, who you are, where you gain your sense of meaning and purpose comes from an unbroken connection with God, and you carry that sense of belonging wherever he is, you belong, wherever he takes you, that’s your place at that moment. Is that sort of a paraphrase of-
Eric Agyeman
You put it so well that I’m not even going to add a single word to it. That is spot on.
Brendan Corr
Yeah, it’s a great place to be. Can I ask you this, and that may be a complicated question? Does it mean that all your problems have disappeared?
Eric Agyeman
Absolutely not. In fact, I often joke about this with my wife, just preparing yourself mentally for things. So, the Bible says, “God will not give you more than what you can handle.” But if you’re someone that’s caught up to greatness, you’re going to go through a lot of stuff. So, if you’re going through the stuff, just tell yourself, this is just because God has greatness in my life. And when those things come, it’s all about the voices and how you respond to them. When the enemy spoke to Jesus and said, “If you are the son of God, then do this, do that.” It’s all about a situation. All they do is test your character, test your identity. But when your identity is in God and the word, when your situation speaks to you, you speak back at it, “Mate. That’s cool. We”
Brendan Corr
You mentioned earlier, you referenced Romans 8:28 a little while back, “All things work together for good.” And the extension of that, the passage of the verses around it talks about, “For nothing shall separate us from the love of God.” And it goes on a list of some pretty horrible things that can happen to you. Some genuine opposition and some genuine tragedy can come into your life. And it doesn’t invalidate the assumption earlier, right? Even these things will work together for good. When you are sealed, taken, sold out to God.
Eric Agyeman
Absolutely. And I think if we look at the Jesus model, I mean, he was spat on, he was punished, he was called a demon, think about that, a demon. This guy was the son of God. A crown of thorns crushed upon his head. Lashes. I mean, that’s nothing nice. And that’s the journey that he went through for us. And so every time I’m going through, no matter how hard it is, I look at that, I bring that into perspective, that this is what he went through for me, and it just gives me great confidence that I can also walk through what I’m going through. The Bible says that he knows he’s being tested with every test there is and he knows us, he feels for us. And so I can take great comfort in that. Yeah.
Brendan Corr
I know there’s a lot that you, obviously, lead people through when you give a presentation and you talk about how an individual might be able to make sense of the circumstances they’re in. But if there was one bit of advice that you wanted to leave with a young person who was trying to figure out, “Who am I, where do I belong, what is my next step,” what would be the thing you’d want them to remember or to think about at that moment?
Eric Agyeman
I would say that, first of all, they are a child of God, created in the image and the likeness of God. The image and the likeness of God mean there is no negativity, there’s no mistake anywhere about them. And as a result of that, they have a purpose here on Earth. And the first step to finding out that purpose in all of that is Grace in Him. He that we have available to us. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God.” Verse 14 says, “And the Word became flesh and it dwelled amongst us.” This living, breathing thing right here in my hand, the Bible, it’s Jesus. And the more I draw closer to him, the more I become like that image that he created me to be in, in a generation that is about selfies and self and self-image, the more I draw closer to him and his image, the more the comparison, the negativity, and all those things seem so far away, and the more I have contentment and joy.
Brendan Corr
That is beautiful. When you are sharing some of your early stories, Eric, the little childish rhyme, sticks, and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me came to my mind as being such a false assertion that that is not true. Words do have power, they do have an impact. And what I’m thinking, as we come to the end of our conversation, and you reflected earlier about how the words spoken by broken, damaged, selfish peers, eight, nine, 10, 11 years of age, and how those words spoken over you exercise some power, how much better it is for the word, the eternal word to speak over you, speak about who you are, not being defined by your peers or your culture or your school or your gang, who does Christ declare you to be and to let that word form who you are, your identity. You’d agree with that sort of summary?
Eric Agyeman
Oh my goodness, absolutely. Absolutely. Words can hurt. Bible says, “Life and death are in the power of the tongue.” Words can hurt, words can kill, but words can also heal. And it’s the living words of Jesus that heals us.
Brendan Corr
Eric, I’m so glad that God spoke over your life. I’m so glad that in that prayer camp over in Ghana, the word of the eternal word spoken to your heart gave you a new identity and a new commission and set you on a path of a destiny that was reflecting who He’s called you to be. And I’m so glad that you’re continuing to do that, that you’re speaking words of hope and life and inspiration over young people. Thank you for sharing your words with us today, and know that we’ll be praying for your ministry wherever it is. I know those kids at Australian Christian College - Moreton in Caboolture will have a really blessed experience. Thank you for your time today, Eric.
Eric Agyeman
Thank you, Brendan. Really appreciate you and your team, and yeah, really appreciate this opportunity. So, thank you so much.
