“Careless words have the capacity to quickly run a life off course.” The tongue, as plain and hidden as it may seem, is not just responsible for taste. It is the most powerful organ in the entire human body. It carries the power of life and death. Whatever word that is being said to any man, object, atmosphere or system has the already made capacity to either kill or give life. Words are so powerful in this realm because the entirety of our universe was created with words from The Creator who decided to create man in His own express image. This gives us that same capacity and potential to be creators through the words we speak. When we speak to ourselves,family, society, environment or even nation, we call forth life or death and hence, there is a necessary need for us to bridle our tongues. “with great power comes great responsibility”. We are accountable for the words we speak no matter the circumstance we find ourselves, we have to be life givers with the words we speak to ourselves, our family, the government (leaders), our nation and even the environment. It is written in the Holy Bible, “… that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment [Matt 12:36]” Let every word we speak, even in joke, hurt, and distress, give life and ensure that people, society and nation we all so desire are being made.
The foundation of the African society is well entrenched in idolatry and wickedness. Understandably therefore, wickedness is natural to man, especially one who knows not God. He will go to any length to do as he pleases. That is why many fear “our village people”. The unsavory consequence of this is that we become scared to step out to do that which God has placed in our hands and hearts to do. For those that step out, they try to walk so cautiously that they hardly make any remarkable headway in a long time. Some of these fears are unfounded, and for others, there are actually people who rise up against them to trouble them on all sides. Others attempt to inflict us with their own unbelief in God, by making us believe when they say to us that “there is no help for us in God.” In spite of our perception of these village people or wicked friends or the actuality of their existence in our individual spheres, the Lord Almighty, whom we serve and whose we are, has revealed to us this unassailable truth: HE IS A SHIELD FOR US; HE IS OUR GLORY; IT IS HE WHO LIFTS OUR HEAD. God is the shield who bore our griefs. When He took them all on the cross, we were in Him, under cover. Regardless of what anyone might do to us, we take cover under the truth of the death of Jesus Christ for our sakes, and the victory He won for us. Now we truly can sing, God is for us, nothing and no one can stand against us; as our Shield, He bore it all for us. The arrows that would have been shot against us He endured, the curse and rejection that would have been our lot was His’ to bear. In majesty and glory He bore them for us, making a public show of them, triumphing over them in it. We are Christ’s and our lives are hid with Christ in God. Now, we can wield God’s Word as a shield too. When we enforce His words in prayer, making declarations and decrees concerning God’s word, we wield His word, and it becomes our Shield. As for God, His way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler(shield) to all those that trust in him. Understanding that Jesus is our Shield and He is with us, we can cry to Him and he will hear us, He will answer us, and He will sustain us. Fear is rooted out also. Should anyone come against us, we remain bold knowing that our Shield has made them toothless bulldogs. In conclusion, our Shield is Glorious for many reasons. First, He took all the ills that would have come to us and covered us under the shadow of His wings. Next, He put Himself inside of us so that each of us can wield this shield in our own individual peculiar situations. Lastly, though not least of all, this shield is Light. The glory that He exudes by Himself and through us paralyzes darkness and leaves them dumbfounded. By giving us Himself, he has given to us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, and all of these are in the face of Christ Jesus, our eternal shield. Hallelujah! We step out with honor! Hallelujah! We step out with glory! We step out without fear! We have peace on every side! We can rest assured that our enterprises will succeed, because we are under cover, and the one who covers us can never be defeated. We are allies with the Commander of the Universe. Glory to God!
“The world hates imperfection whereas it’s very name is spelt I M P E R F E C T.”—-Joshua Peters. A friend wanted to delete one of his YouTube videos because of a mistake in it. I told him not to. That he should rather leave it or add the new one. But not to delete the initial. He would have just lost gained traffic, likes, and comments that the video has brought, in an attempt to erase a mistake. I remember those times when we tried erasing mistakes on our books using rubber band — the damage it did on our books. You don’t have the appropriate means of erasing a mistake ( that is, tipex, representing a blotting out/atonement); simply STRIKE it (so you can still learn from it) like in the banks and other official places (it’s YOUR past). Please, don’t shade. Shading spells damage.
I was walking with a friend some years back, and we overheard someone saying “you know how old I am?” And immediate my friend made a statement which I reconstructed “that’s a man whose identity is in his ID CARD – his age”. Many times we grade people and even ourselves by ephemeral things: where we work, how much we earn, how old we are, our wealth or gatherings, who we are connected to, certificates, degrees, institutions attended, scholarships, etc. Those things are but ID CARDs to tell us where you are at a particular time. But they are not who you are. They tell your current position but not your actual destination (Remove your mind from the idea that I’m speaking religious terms – this is life🤦♂️). You have somewhere greater a destination, greater an identity that these things. Things like God’s beloved, one who pleases God, one who brings laughter to the poor, etc. Funny though that your destination is determined by you not chances. If you don’t take your actual God-ordained destination for your identity, you will never arrive there. You might as well just remain in the euphoria of your ID CARD until it dawns on you that you’ve gone irrelevant because your ID CARD went out of relevance. Appreciate your ID CARD, but embrace and be more confident in your IDENTITY in God who gave it to you.
So that great morning I stepped out of the hostel happy and rushing to meet up with something, and the great schedule for that day. It was in 2017 in FUTMINNA. Na so security man stop me to ask for my ID card o. I pleaded with him that I left it in the hostel and what followed was “how will you leave your IDENTITY in the hostel?” I’m not so confrontational oh but that morning the Holy Ghost don brood over me as I prayed and read the bible. Na so I quickly answer baba oh “MY ID CARD IS NOT MY IDENTITY SIR” He sent me back to get my ID card oh, but I ensured I made that point clear with smiles on my face from my heart. We are not defined by the externals. What is in us is what defines us. And that which is in us is God. Not our grades, certificates, government, schools, houses we live in, background… just God alone. Arise oh Africa… Africa is YOU!
I have often been amazed at the perspective of little children about their parent. When you hear them talk about how their parent could do just anything, it gives one an idea of how they perceive possibility. Even if their parent were superheroes, they are only super, not limitless. One of my encounters with such perception was a conversation between two young boys, The one said to the other, “my father can carry this car like this…” demonstrating a lifting above the head, and to my amazement, the other responded in the same similitude but now pointing to an even bigger car. Apart from the firmness of their assertions and the indelible trust they have in their fathers’ ability, I was more perplexed by the possibility that they totally believe all that they were professing and that alone made me want to interrupt their discussion. Just when I was about to interrupt their conversation a thought struck me, why did the other child not exclaim “aahn aahn you sabi lie oh” in response to the first child’s claims but pointed out an even bigger possibility or impossibility to you reading right now.? What then is the difference between you and these children? Quick answer, Perception. It has nothing to do with age, or gender, or even skin color. Perception, a pivotal concept in defining true or false, right or wrong, possible or impossible and the list goes on and on. Perception simply refers to the way one sees and relates to things (physically and spiritually). For the believer, perception governs your interaction with both the physical and spiritual world so you can not afford not to see correctly. Often times we struggle with the realities of the kingdom because of wrong perception. The calling of the believer is a call of Faith. And faith is like the eye you must see with it. One scripture that always comes to heart whenever the matters of faith are in focus is “But without Faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that heis , and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Until you can see clearly the potency and trust in the infallibility of God, you can not get anything by Faith. If we must pull through in the matters of faith we must see I Am in the same light as those children see their Fathers, without a perception of impossibility, contrary to the voice of reason or daunting realities.We are not being naive when we dare to trust God. What is naive is seeing life from just a material perspective. When we speak by faith, we are not denying reality but simply calling forth a new reality in the face of this present reality anchoring on the potency and infallibility of I Am. Like little children we trust wholly, and we are oblivious of impossibility when we dare to see by Faith.
