Disclaimer: This is purely fiction and a story to elaborate on Isaiah 51:16 about God’s word in our mouth
“Oh, Oh, Gbolahan. All this one you are doing won’t solve anything oo. The Bible says we should apply wisdom,” Gbada mouthed, pacing around the veranda of the brother’s hotel.
“I rebuke you, the devil.”
“Hehe, na, who be devil?” Gbada clasped his hands together, staring at the supposedly innocent but ignorant brother of his
“You be devil ooo. So don’t lead me into temptation. Leave me, please” he demonstrated with the hands turning back his attention to the Bible after a while
“Abegi, when you are not the new David, the King in the Bible? Yours pass David’s self,” Gbada lamented.
“Sebi, you don’t have enemies? Me that I have let me face them jejely.”
“Haha, it is well” Gbada stood at akimbo.
Gbolahan picked up his pen from the ground, and then after vigorous nodding, he made lines on crucial parts of the scriptures he was reading.
Today, his enemies were in soup.
Imagine, they were able to attack his mother with blindness?
Haha, his mother? The wife of a pastor? How?
As if that was not enough, his brother suddenly fell sick, which was rare?
God, Gbolahan started speaking to himself, “You said the violent taketh it by force, I am here to be violent. Fight for me.”
He was lost in thought when someone tapped him. He looked up to see who it was
“What is it again?” he asked Gbada, who adjusted his glasses.
“I have an advice for you.”
“Advice?”
“Yes”
“Okay, carry on” he closed his Bible
“You see, ehn, I may be the devil oo, but I am wiser than you.”
“Hey, what does that mean?” he stared back at him, trying to keep his cool
“Listen, na, no, let your blood dey hot. Remember, you are fasting.”
“Ehn, even the devil came to Jesus when he was fasting. So it is nothing new, I will overcome you.”
Gbolahan burst out in laughter, “Kai, na wa oo.”
“Go on with your point; I have to finish this part of Revelations.”
“Ehn ehn, I admire you oo,” Gbolahan joked.
“Really?” his eyes lit up in surprise.
“So, how many enemies do you say you have?”
“Hmmm… them plenty, oo.”
“You fit count them?”
“If I can, I will.”
“You sure say na enemies?”
“Which kind of question be that?”
Gbolahan smiled, enjoying the conversation with his friend.
“You have been fasting for seventeen days straight, but how many enemies you don kill?”
“They don’t die in a day or two; it takes time.”
“Ehn Ehn, who talk that one?”
“Na logic na.”
Gbolahan adjusted his standing posture, unlocked his phone and then searched for the KJV Bible app on it
“You see Gbada, while it is good to fast. One must be wise.”
“I know na, I am applying wisdom.”
“Sorry to say, you aren’t at all.”
“Everyone in this hostel knows you are fasting, in the night you will wake us up with your sharp cry “Oh lord, deliver me from my accusers, now now now” he looked at him, then continued.
“Now, let me tell you a mystery. You see, not everything requires fasting and intense praying. If I am your enemy, I will be making a mockery out of you because, in all you do, I will sense fear and lack of wisdom.”
“You see, don’t give your enemies too much attention hear me; see behave like they don’t exist. Abeg, never waste your energy on something that isn’t worth it.”
“Ehn ehn,” Gbada hummed.
“What should I do then?” he turned to look at Gbolahan.
“Now, you are talking,” Gbolahan smiled, tapping him on the left shoulder.
“Open your Bible to Isaiah 51:16a; read it.”
Gbada flipped through the pages of the red-lettered Bible on his laps in a hurry.
“It says, And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadows of mine hand…”
“Whose word is that referring to?” Gbolahan asked him
“I think it is about God.”
“No think oo; it is God. And the Bible says the word of a king is Power. So, you have Power to decree, and it shall come to pass.”
“All the prayers you have been praying for days now is not of decree; you were begging your enemies. A child of God doesn’t do that. Decree to the mountains to remove with all faith, and it shall be done.”
“Hmmm”
“So Bro, not by fasting alone. No dey waste your energy, decree because of God’s authoritative power dey your mouth as long as you are his child. I hope you will do just that.”
“I must ooo, really, I must.”
“I can join you to decree if you don’t mind?” he offered
“Ewo, why will I mind? Abeg, join me, ooo. The Bible says Two is better than one.”
Gbolahan smiled at him.
Indeed the word of God is clear, according to Isaiah 50:4, that the Lord will give him the tongue of the learned, that he may know what word to say in season to him that is weary and broken-hearted.
Gbolahan looked up at the sky, as he let out a sigh of relief.
