S4 Ep. 263 Scriptures That Shape A Life Of Courage And Humility

SPEAKER_00: Hi, welcome to the World Cafe Live Show. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good everything. How are you? Yes, I always look for certain spaces that will inspire not just me, but my audience, and try my best to bring that to you. Yep. So how are you? Yeah, I'm in a different city today. Yeah, I'm in a different place today. I'm doing well. I'm fine. And uh quite excited. Yep. So this is the space where we come in to lean on one and others' experience to forge a positive path. What am I going to be doing today? I want to start today's conversation from this point of view. I'm a Christian. Yep. Not ashamed of it. I say it anywhere I go, and all the time. The Bible is one book that it gives me so much. Much, much, much. So each time I go through it, it excites me. I see things, perspective changes, and what have you. But over time, I have come to see certain scriptures that stay with me, as in they are just there each moment. Maybe I'm going through one challenge or the other, you know, I just fall back on it. Three of them always, I'm going to share that with you on this episode. The first one, the first day I heard it as a growing Christian, a child, as in young, it excited me so much. Anytime I go back to it, it is that exclamation, my father, my father, the horsemen and the chariots of Israel. Yeah, you heard it. Elisha, when he saw Elijah taken from him. You know, you see that in 2 Kings chapter 2. You know, the walk of Elijah and Elisha is so, I will call it culture-shaping future-determining one, that his life, that the life of Elijah as a whole nation, Israel as a nation, undeniably could not look away from the, what I say, results. So when it was time for him to leave, and that event happened, I'm not going to go through all the stories as in the different sides of the story, but I'm going to tell you what each time I go there, what hits me, that cry. And if you look at the life of Elijah and the life of Elisha, it's like everything that happened in Elijah's life, in terms of ministry, work, you know, shaping the culture of Israel, determining the governance, the economic policies, and all of that. The same thing, if not, I would say near the same, also happened in the life of Elisha. I will tell you why when we get there. But that cry, my father, my father, he said, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof, and he saw him no more, and he took hold of his own cloth and rent them into pieces. Now, first of all, that cry of father is not necessary biology now, but he's acknowledging who Elijah was to him, a father. You know, fatherhood has to do with protection, provision, you know, creating a path. So he cried that cry, acknowledging the influence of Elijah over him as a father, as a protector, as a giver, he looked up to him and he was gone. Say the horsemen and the chariot of Israel, or the horsemen, let me put it correctly, my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. Now, let me read out something for you. Another, the way another translator, you know, looks at it. He said, My master, my master, who was better to Israel than chariots and horsemen by his prayers. You know, when you look at that from a face value, when you look at that scripture, that cry, that statement, okay, what was he referring to? He literally saw from what scripture says a chariot of fire coming down, whisking his father away from him. Chariot, fire. So, what did you notice there? Chariot is meant for what? War, you know, pointing to an army, then fire, pointing to the fervency and vibrancy of Elijah's prayer. So now listen, let me read out something for you. Now he says, the personal work and influence of a prophet like Elijah was the truest safeguard of Israel. The force of the expression will be seen if it is remembered that chariots and horsemen constituted in that age the chief military arm and were indispensable for the struggle against the Iranian state. Basically, what Elisha was crying there was the whole force of Israel's army put together could not be compared to Elijah. His prayer, his fervency, his work. You know, this presupposes or opens up to me that Elijah was not ordinary. He had a backing. He was working with God, and he had provisions from that realm, the heavenly realm, back in him. And when Elisha saw it, he couldn't help but to esclaim, like acknowledging that indeed my father was not ordinary. My father represented a force higher than the earthly forces. Because you know, in the life of Elijah, there was a time when the king came for him. And when the king came for him, his servant went to ease himself in the morning. And when he came out, he said he saw the mountains, he saw everywhere covered with uh what they call armies put together by the Assyrians or whatever. And Elijah looked at him and said, Lord, open his eyes to see. And when he saw, he was like, Okay. Somebody will say, Why are you bringing why are you talking about this on the on this episode? I'll tell you why. We have an unlimited flow of resources in our belief system as a Christian. So in your business, in that thing you're doing, there's an unlimited flow of resources. And that's the cry of Elisha. And you know one thing, when you look at the life of Elisha, something happened when he was about to die. The king also came to him and saw Elisha. He said the same thing: this cry, my father, my father, the chariots, and you know, in that context, he was looking at the prophet, the strong man lying there, weak. Like, how come that us also go to underscore our mortality, our mortality should teach us humility? Our mortality. And I was asking myself, how would a king repeat those same words? So that's to say, when Elisha said those words, they were recorded. People heard it, people took record of it, and it was going around the city, it was going around the town, you know, and as it were, like content creation, you know, everybody was just seeing it. And when it was time, that story reinforced in their belief system. Another scripture that keeps me, each time I look at it, it humbles me. It's Isaiah chapter 1, verse 18. He says, Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, crimson, they shall be as wool. Now, this is how I see it each time I go through this. Imagine an authority. Now let me read out something here. The authorized version suggests the thought of a discussion between equals. This was a conversation. Imagine your father calling you, come, let us reason together. You know what it means to reason? Yeah. Let's talk. Now the other part of it, yes, has to do with salvation, redemption, but this is where I'm coming with that thought. He said, though your though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. So do you do you know how to turn black to white? Do you know the technology you need to turn a sour situation to a sweet one? I don't think you do. So come, let us reason. It's like divinity was calling humanity. Come, can we talk? Let's reason. And the truth is, when you reason, when you reason with true reason, you will be humbled. Something happened recently, Charlie Kirk. The assassination of Charlie Kirk, you know, and the whole of the US, the world, a good number of us. So there's this guy, I think his name is Vance. Something Vance. Let me remember his name. He was, he comes on uh on CNN. He's a CNN anchor. Oh, when I get his name, I'll let you know. I know I watched the video and it caught me like really Van Jones. That's his name. Van Jones. I was calling him Vans. Van Jones, that's his name. He, I mean, he wasn't a fan of Charlie Kirk. They always, they always had this banter, you know, back and forth. Now, Charlie Kirk reached out to him and said, sent him a DM and said to him that can we talk? I want us to sit down and discuss and debate. You know, Charlie Kirk likes debating and said, can we disagree agreeably? And Van Jones on CNN broke down in my, you know, he was emotional. He said, when his team told him of this, that Charlie, that was a day, two days or so before he was assassinated, tried to reach him. And he said, Really? He said, Yes, you know, on X, he sent a direct message to you. And he said, I may not be his fan, but that is the work of a good man. So that is called reasoning. He said, Come, let us reason together. Each time I think of this, it's like, wow. So you know, sometimes you want to have a problem, you want to get something done, you need to reason. That's why you have brains. A lot of us have, would I say, uh given away our sense of reasoning? We have uh, what's our word now? Shipped it away. We have given it to another. No, this is God calling you, you know, like, can you sit down? Can we reason this together? There's a limit to your what you can see, but there's no limit to what God can see and what God can do. But he wants to reason. He wants to, and that's to say, like God bringing you to that intellectual level, bringing you to that intellectual level, and you are discussing with divinity, you are talking with him, you are exchanging ideas with him as an equal. It's humbling, I must say. No, it's humbling. God is not running away. Somebody said something to me once. No, okay, I heard it actually. I was reading and I, you know, heard it like God is not afraid of your questions. Never. But you know what? You don't question God. There are two different things. Yeah, there are two different things. Just like when Job was asking questions and say, God answered him. Come, sit down. I will question you like a man. Who are you to darken my counsel? Who the third one, this one is in Psalms, Psalms 138, verse 2. It this one humbles me. I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth, for thou hast magnified thy word above your name. You know, sometimes when we talk about responsibility, when we talk about governance, when we talk about accountability, some people feel they are above being accountable. They are above the law, they do things like and get away with it and all of that. But hello, listen, listen, listen. He said, You have exalted your word above your name. Now, do you know how humbling that is? That God has subjected himself to an authority. That's how I see it. God has subjected himself to an authority. So if it is not in his word, and by his word, forget it, he won't do it. He will not. So God holds himself accountable. Such a humbling thing. He holds himself accountable, guys. Who are you not to be accountable? Who are you not to hold or subject yourself? Because that's a problem a lot of us face. You know, you don't have an accountability partner. You feel you know everything, you feel you're bigger than everybody. And I'm here to tell you on this episode, even God holds himself accountable. So there are so many scriptures anyway, but these three always, each time I get to them, when I'm angry about something and situations are like pressing, it's not changing, and all that, I go and reason with him. You know, when you're angry, it's not the best time to make decisions. And when you're too happy, when you're angry is not the best time to Decisions and when you're so happy, it's not the time to even open your mouth. I have learned this with this. When situations come, I go and reason with God. I'm not negotiating with God, I'm reasoning with God. There are two different things. I'm not trying to tell him I can do it like this. No, I'm asking how best can I do this? I mean, I'm out of all the options. I've reasoned it. I've reasoned it just like those of us who watch uh The Avengers, you know, when what was his name? Dr. String was telling uh Iron Man, there's no other way. I have done all the computations and calculations. There's no other way. So, humanly speaking, you've done everything, you know, and you tell you sit with God. Somebody said, Yes, you sit with him, he's your father. I've done everything I know. What am I missing? And that's where you're going to see him come in and smile at you and show you what you never saw. And you were like, ah, let me talk like a typical Nigerian. You say, you know, and he shows. So guys, I felt to do this on the show today with you. This is how I live my life. On the strength of the scriptures. Yeah. You can also do the same. You can. And I tell you, you will not regret it. All right, then. I've learned a secret. Learn to know when to stop. I've learned it. I know when it's not flowing anymore, I stop. Even if I want to force, no, no, I stop. I know it's not flowing anymore. So I'm going to end it here. But again, yeah, before I go, yeah, we're available on all the social media platforms that are available in this climate. And we're used to on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. We're even on Spotify. And we have a YouTube channel. Have you subscribed? Go ahead and subscribe. Yeah. Hit that notification button so that you'll be the first to know when episodes like this drop. Juicy. And please, please, please go ahead and share. Share this with a friend. Share this with a brother. Share this with a family. Because the more we share, the more it increases, it multiplies and fuels the earth. All right, then I must run now. Till I come your way again. You know how I say it. My name is Amakri. Amakri is away. Bye for now.