If not the Lord who was on our side....where would you and I have been today?

mmi ekpi idihi Jehovah adade ye ami
ekpe freh mi eyen oooooo

mmi kpi idihi Jehovah adade ye ami ooo
ami kpeh do ke mmong oooooo
mmeh kpeh wooowud
mmeh kpeh yanyam mi
ekpe freh mi enyen oooooo

meh ekpe woowud
mmeh kpeh yanyam
ekpeh freh mi enyen ooooooo

This song is a spiritually motivated song composed in my native dialect which explains the theme of this month which is my month of defense. At the beginning of the month, the pastor declared to the entire congregation that our God would defend us from every harm.

Thus, the above song if translated in English, it explains the words of the Psalmist found in Psalms 124 stanza one and three, David says:

if it ha not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say;

stanza three says

Then the would have quickly swallowed us alive when their anger flared against us.

The song say that if it is not the Lord that had stood by me, people would have long forgotten me, if not Lord that was on our side. where would I have been? If not the Lord that was on my side, where would I have been? They might have killed me, or may have sold me, people would have forgotten me. They would sold or killed me if not the Lord. The song has summarized it all.

Believe me there are a lot of secrete battles that God has fought on our behave which if He opened our eyes to see them, we would have panic and perhaps died in the process since our heart could have fainted from fear and anxiety.

To drive home my point about this post, I would like to share a story that I read somewhere on net about a pastor who had an open air convention. That was a great gathering which he had prepared for and he needed something new to happen in the convention. Thus, he fasted and prayed fervently for it. On the said day, the clouds gathers thick and was gonna rain. So the pastor was kind of scared that the rain would ruin the programme.

So as he mounted the podium, he tried to assure the people when he said.that they should not panic that the rain would not fall. He made this declaration with so much confidence that the people believed him and hang on despite the sky which had started drizzling. The pastor couldn't help but re-assured them that if he be a man of God that the rain would just drizzle and would stop sooner before he finished preaching.

Thus, those people who ran into shades for fear of their bible being soaked from the rain that drizzled, came out to the open air to hear the message as well as encourage the pastor as well as show that they believed him.

However, at about 10 minutes after he had made this declaration, the clouds began to row and was followed with heavy thunder storms which accompanied a heavy down pour. The people all ran away from the scene. Leaving the pastor standing on the pulpit all alone. The pastor was so frustrated when he looked and saw the people walk out of him including his juniour pastors and elders of the church committee. He couldn't believe his ears when the people he called elders said to his face that the doubted if he was a real man of God. Others said that this rain was sent by God to openly disgrace him and show to the world that he's not been called by God.

This made the pastor so angry and frustrated that he said something nasty. He said that since God has chosen to disgrace him openly like that, he too would abandon God openly. Thus he denounced his faith right there.
The pastor in a mater of two week turned a drunk and was drinking from one bar to another around and outside the village. People mocked and made more fun of him. Hence, traveled to another village.

So while drinking in one of the bar, he overheard people who were also drinking in the bar. He took interest in the discussion by two men who were older than him with two young men of about his age in their mist. While listening, he overhead them arguing about his identity. Hence, while the other young men said that he wasn't the person they wanted to shot on that faithful day, the older men said that they knew the man (pastor) more than the young folks.

As such that they had tried all that they could spiritually to bring down the pastor who was going round teaching the people about Christ and telling them to denounce evil and come to the light of the gospel.
Hence, since they could not get him spiritually, they employed the services of the two men whose task was to shoot the pastor in public as he was ministering so that it would be a public embarrassment.

The two young men who forcefully agreed to what the old men said admitted that they did their best to shoot the pastor from afar with a help of a sniper but that when they were just about releasing the trigger of the gun, that's when the heavy cloud gathered around the pastor and it began to rain. Thus making people to run from the scene. Thus, they couldn't have a clear vision of the target being the pastor.

The old men tried to reassure them not to bother about killing the pastor again as the aim of distracting the pastor and causing him to blaspheme has been achieved. So they were very happy when they saw that the pastor had taken to drinking himself to stupor.

Pretentiously, the pastor fell on the table as though he was very drunk till the old men and two young men left the bar. The young man couldn't withhold his emotions. He cried his heart out when he realized that God had actually answered the prayer he prayed and fasted for before the programme. The spirit of God convicted him that he was actually being ungrateful to God for sparing his life which would have been taken by the young snipers.

Hence, God used the rain and the heavy clouds to protect and defend the pastor against being attacked by the men of the underworld, but the pastor failed to realize this. He thought that God had disgraced him by not withholding the rain according to his prayer which he prayed in front of his congregation.

The truth is that God had manifested His glory in the programme and that was the answer to the prayer he prayed for the programme so as to see the glory of God. But it was rather sad that he failed to realize or see the glory of God when it came.

NOW REFLECT ON THIS

Do you know that there are many battles that God has fought for us which we are unaware of?

Do you know that God's plans and style of defending us is not our own way?

Do you know that for the fact that you are alive and actually reading this post means that God actually loves and case for you so much that he gave his life to defend your life from being condemn?