I recently felt like Elijah in the bible when I was threatened by an impending loss of about 2.4 million naira. If you don’t know the story, let me give you an abridged version: Elijah fled to the wilderness to whimper at threat of Queen Jezebel; this was a paradoxical situation because Elijah has already proven the distinct power of God by killing 450 prophets of Baal, despising the King and causing draught in the land.
How can a man who appeared so invincible be scared of a threat by a queen? He was so scared that he prayed for death from God instead of death from the queen. This is a mysterious situation and so many explanations can be proposed for this reaction but one thing I am sure of is the way humans are blind by the power they possess. Impending situations or threats keeps us so uncomfortable that we fail to see the power we possess.
Power is the ability to consciously and deliberately create the world around you; you become the victim of your environment or situation when your power is weak and cultivate a life of your own choosing when your power is strong. It is albeit important to know where this power comes from. I derive my power from God Almighty and I am not ashamed of His gospel because inherent in the gospel is the power to salvage all humans that come in contact with it.
I remember vividly speaking to a group of students from various universities in Nigeria and I was introduced to speak. I had sent my profile to the organizers earlier and the first sentence in my profile was; “I am the son of God through Jesus Christ”. The organizers of the program removed that part from the introduction and focused on my achievements. Immediately, I got to the stage, I took time to correct their notions:
I am nothing without Christ. All the achievements you heard from the MC is nothing compared to my relationship to Jesus Christ. I am simply a moon that reflects the rays of the sun on earth; I possess no inherent power. All that I have was given to me graciously by the Almighty God who looked at me through the lens of Jesus Christ. All Knowledge I have acquired from humans that are effective always pass the testing of the word of Jesus Christ.
There are countless of events that have proven the power of God in my life so it is useless to be ashamed of it. You only get ashamed of something that does not produce result. Recently, I was invited for a consultancy gig by some Norwegians and was asked to send my profile of 100 words; my first sentence as usual was; “I am the son of God through Jesus Christ”. This was a corporate business gig but I chose to tell them my root. I chose to tell them that the reason they felt I was so fascinating was because of the Holy Spirit.
They were not even bothered about that. If they were bothered about it, it will not matter to me because the word of God is the righteousness of God which is potent to salvage any given task or situation. Denying your power makes you vulnerable to outside influence. Your mind denies the power and registers a different presupposed dominant power. This is the way it works!
Another way you can deny this power subconsciously like Elijah did when he was threatened by Queen Jezebel is to overstretch your physical being. You must learn to balance your physical being or be burnt out. The activities Elijah did prior to the threat were too stretching for one man; he spoke to a huge crowd, did all the manual labor himself by proving the power of his God, and killed all the 450 prophets. He was too exhausted to rationalize things so he allowed a dominant power to overshadow his God.
I could feel Elijah on that level because I knew how afraid I was when I was faced with the threat of losing 2.4 million naira. I forgot that the power inherent in the money could not be compared to the power in me. The funny part of it is that it is a threat not a reality and just like threat of Elijah’s life, it may never happen. Then I wonder why we focus too much on situation instead of reviving the power within us.
This brings me to the concept of Baal and the whole existence of an impotent god. Why do people worship Baal so much and what they hope to achieve by worshipping Baal? Baal is a god that is associated with soil fertility and domestic animals which represent economic leanings of any nation. Baal is not just one god but a collection of gods which provides economic benefit to you.
In contemporary times, your job can be Baal; your business can be Baal; your farm can be Baal: Any group of system that produces economic benefit is regarded as Baal. You can understand why there is a huge traffic gravitating towards Baal especially during King Ahab’s rule when there was drought and deep hunger in the land. Queen Jezebel controlled the system and wielded her brand as such.
When Elijah felt cocky about not bowing to Baal; God corrected him by telling him that there are 7000 people who have not bowed to Baal apart from himself. Baal wields its influence in our world and most people have no choice but to worship Baal in order to succeed or what I call in order to be happy. Baal just like the matrix is in control of our existence and there are few people that are inert to its effect.
The replacement of Baal with Almighty God is a common phenomenal; I got to run to work, I do not have time to pray; no time to go to church; God will definitely not understand this part of my life; I need that 2007 Lexus badly so I cannot afford to tithe this month; everything is so hard, I really need to help myself with this deal even if it affects my fellow neighbor, etc.
Baal has eaten so badly into the world that the 90% of exchange markets all over the world are crashing; there are so many churches in the nook and cranny in Nigeria but the country is corrupt; Most African leaders’ refusal to leave office; ladies who have sexual relations with their bosses to keep their jobs and the list goes on. My call today is to align ourselves to our purpose because for every single time we deny our purpose for money, we worship Baal. This is why we need to cultivate the power within us to produce results instead of constantly depending on outside influence. For all outside influence will not help you when you need it.
TO BE CONTINUED!
