2024- Episode 24 - Thrive! With Nisile

REFLECTIONS AND LESSONS FROM OBADIAH

Episode Transcript

(00:12):
Molibuangi e Caro, Edising, Moribocad On, Johnny maulbo On Bote Gia
valleko Akuaba, Myceni. Welcome tothe African Blues Podcast. This is Nisilla,
but I also go by the nameLesca and this is the African Blues

(00:35):
Podcast, by the way, andI'm just so glad to be back and
be doing this after I think overtwo years or close to two years now.
So as usual, let's just saya word of prayer as we begin.
Heaven A Father, we just wantto say thank you for this day,
thank you for this time, thisnew season, this new opportunity.

(00:55):
We give you the prayse we workby your name in the night, name
of Jesus. I pray your otherGod, that you may speak through me.
May not speak anything of my ownknowledge and understanding, but I appreciate
your holy spirits to fill my mouthwith his words and the mighty name of
Jesus. And I pray for everybodywho will listen when you bless them,
when you protect them. And Ipray for the people that they love and

(01:15):
care for that you all meet themat the front of me. If there
be any allow also want to prayfor people that may be sick, for
that you may and put your feelinghand in the mighty name of Jesus,
and that you may res talk tothem their health, their good health.
In the mighty name of Jesus.We thank you to give me the phrase

(01:36):
in Jesus might team a pray.Amen. So, yeah, like I
said, the podcast is back.It's been a minute. I've been a
doubting and schooling and everything everything.But you know, if it's something that
God has put in your heart toalways do and there's always that nuraging you,
just you have to do even ifit's uncomfortable. So for today,

(01:59):
as we begin, it's going tobe a little bit different and probably short,
but I will just be sharing alittle bit of some reflections from the
time that I've been away, andthe reflections I've decided to categorize them into
three parts spiritually, personally, andintellectually. They're not going to jump into
the book of a diet just topick out a few things from the day

(02:21):
that have been that I've been reflectingon and learned that I'd like to share
with us. So some reflections spirituallythat have been carrying me through if I
should say, and I'm still learning. Some I'm relearning and some God is
still you know, pulling my earshere and there. Number one is that

(02:44):
I have a lot of relationship withGod and it's not a dictatorship. You
know. I think sometimes a timewhen I really went through a season where
I feel like, God, Ireally don't know what you're doing, how
you're doing, what you're doing,And I thought, oh, you see
what has been done and what youknow? Just that kind of thing where
you get to ask God a lotof questions. But then I've just come

(03:05):
to realize that regardless of what happensaround me, like, I have a
love relationship with God, and thereforeI should be bored enough to always talk
to him about anything and everything thatmay be bothering me, you know.
So with that said, yeah,that I have a love relationship with God
and it's not a dictatorship. It'snot like an inlaw type of relationship.
Because you know, sometimes if you'relike me who has watched not a lot

(03:29):
a lot of Nigerian movies, whenyou think of in law relationship, you
think of the icon Patience so zocorand well, that woman is just she's
portrayed as the wicked mother in law. And yeah, it's it's quite obvious.
It's quite obvious. And at somepoint that's what I felt like my
relationship with God was turning into.And they just took a lot of you

(03:52):
know, taking time to surrender myselfand start my relationship with God. I
knew. And the other thing Ilearned is that the Word of God is
true, and it is true,and all things, whether good or but,
they work out for my good.He's very intentional about that. He
doesn't let anything just you know,happened to me happened for me. He's
always You're there to make sure thatat the end of the day, not

(04:15):
only will I be okay, butHis name shall be glorified. The word
of God corrects in love, andthat God speaks. It's just up to
me to be intentional about listening.Amen. Another thing moving on to personally
that was spiritually personally is that listenessdoes not pay, no matter what kind
of excuse that may come up withfor why I'm being lazy, it never
and can never pay at all.So one day you look back and you

(04:41):
be like, I wish, Iwish, But anyway, we can all
just be wishing that if wishes we'rehorses, you know, we can finish
up that court. And procrastination ishorrible. That's the other thing I've gotten
to relearn and understand. Procrastination issuper horrible. I didn't want to say
procrastination is the thief of time becauseI feel like you say, a thief
of time, it's not carrying asmuch weight to the extent that this revelation

(05:03):
has come to me, like it'sjust horrible. It's wickedness, you know.
And so yeah, I've been reallytrying my best to discipline myself in
many areas of my life, andI'm just bring the God to continue to
help me and carry me through that, and you may also pray with me.
The other thing that I've learned isthat who I'm a loving and a
lovable person. You know, sometimesyou just have to remind yourself because you

(05:27):
won't always get people to do thatfor you. And the moving on too
intellectually. One thing. No,the three things that I've learned, I
just play to grades and in twothree parts. The first thing is that
I'm smarter than I think. Youknow, God has given me the spirit
of excellence, and I can doanything that I put my mind to do.
The last, the third thing,but not the least, is that

(05:48):
my time spent to school is notwasted time. But it's an investment in
my business. Whatever that I'm doingis an investment. I may not see
the the profits, that may notsee the what I wish to see in
the moment, but I know forsure that it's an investment and it's not
a wasted time. Because sometimes youmight feel discouraged. I remember having a

(06:11):
discussion with one of my uncle hadmy babies, and this was just talking
about her. Sometimes in medical wetake a lot of time, and especially
if you're a foreigner, when youget home, there's so much like I
don't know what you call it,logistics that has to do before it has
to be done, before it getsthat practicing, you know. But it's
just an encouragement that you know atbut other time is spent, whether it's

(06:31):
going business, it's not wasted time. It's investor time. And at the
right time, you shall you shall, you shall receive the fruit, you
shall partake of the fruit, thefruit thereof, and just look at it
like in the look look at itfrom a point not such a not looking
at it for in the benefit ofwhat you're going to get now. But

(06:54):
you know, like people come in, your siblings, your family, your
generations that are coming ahead, likeyou're doing that for So those are things
that really encouraged me. As arereflecting and I am praying at the God's
grace, I'm able to stick tothem and through them and run with them
as I continued to journey on aman. So now getting into the world

(07:17):
of God, as I mentioned earlier, were going to be looking at the
Book of Obadia. So I justfound myself reading the story and I got
confused because after I read, Iwas like God, and then what you
know? So I decided to gothrough some Babo commentaries on it, and
I was like, ahh, nowthis makes sense. So yeah, basically

(07:38):
Obediah is a minor prophet, asmaybe many of us may know from the
Bible. His chapter his books,so he only has one chapter with twenty
one verses, and so he's aminor prophet whose name means worship of Yahweh
or the servant of Yeah, dependingon where you're going to read your information
your commentary is from. So hewas sent to the people of Edom by

(08:01):
God because God had found those peopleguilty of pride before him. And I
think we all know what God's stanceis on pride. In some one for
seven the six, the Bible saysGod sustains the humble and casts down the
wicked. Now in this place itdoesn't use pride, but it says wicked.
But you look at this, ifyou look at scriptures, they talk
about wickedness. This scripture, Imean about pride. Sorry, this scripture

(08:24):
will pop up. And so forme, what I concluded on was that
wickedness is synonymous to pride, orpride is anonymous to wickedness, because I
mean, how it's going to describeit. So James four, verse six
to seven beef and the Passion translationalso says that God resists the proud,
but it's gracious to the humble.And perhaps sixty verse eighteen, which I
believe many of us may know,says pride goes before distraction and the hotest

(08:46):
spirit before stumbling. And so thepeople of Edom thought of themselves to be
greater than they actually were. Theystarted mocking people, they were stealing and
even bringing harm towards ghost to people. Now, if you read the Diah
from verse twelve to somewhere around fifteen. I will try and just quickly peruse

(09:07):
through it. The Bible says,you should not blot over your brother in
the day of his misfortune, orrejoice over the people of Juday, and
they do of the distraction of bothso much. In the day of their
trouble. You should not march throughthe gates of my people in the day
of the disaster, or blot overthem in their calamity. In the day
of their disaster, or seize theirwealth. And the day of their disaster,
you should not wait at the crosturersto cut down their fugitives, no

(09:28):
hand over their survivors. And theday of their trouble. The day of
the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done it to be
done to you. You did toreturn upon your head a man. That
is what the world of God hereis saying. So Adam was glotting over
the people of Judah, what washappening to them, and they were so
happy. And I think one thingthat I was learning from here that I
want to share with that's is thatGod will always bring vindication and redemption to

(09:50):
his people. We should never rejoiceover someone's downfall or misfortune or a seasons
that may seem not so godly.You know, sometimes people around us may
go through student season and you startdoubting the Christianity. You start judging them
because you feel like, if theyreally claim to be serving the God that
they're serving, they shouldn't be goingthrough these things. But you know,

(10:11):
in the Bible, there's a storyof that guy who was blind and then
people are asking Jesus who's seen?Is it him or his parents? And
God? Jesus said, no,neither of them. But whatever is happening
to him is for God's glory.They may also remember what happened to job
and all that. So it's justreally I believe it's really important that we're
not judging people based on the thingsthat they're going through, especially people children

(10:33):
of God, people that were notfor sure the children of God. The
Bible in Probhaps twenty four, verseseventeen to eighteen from the Amplified versions reads,
do not rejoice and blood when yourenemy falls, and do not let
your heart be glad in self righteousnesswhen he stumbles, or the Lord will
see your glotting and be displeased andturn his anger away from your enemy.
Now, I don't know what thedefinition of an enemy is to you,

(10:54):
but that's just the word of Godand we'll just keep it at that.
So just to continue on like obediretthem, like what I learned from a
better story. The prophecy that hewas going to give the people of edom
Is focuses mainly on the destructive powerof pride and reminds us of the consequences
of people of us living in aself serving manner and only following through our

(11:16):
own feelings, desires, and withoutyou know, considering the impact that it
might have on those people around us. You know, sometimes we tend to
make decisions that we think we shouldonly benefit us, even if we few
even if at the end of theday we know that they will they will
harm the people around us, likeour parents who not feel good as siblings,
maybe our church, whatever that itmay be that those decisions are not

(11:39):
going to be good for them,but we still go ahead and do those
things. That's what we feel likewe should gratify what we're feeling, you
know, at the expense of others. Sometimes it can be treating people around
us, our family because they're toofamiliar with our siblings, our cousins,
our aunties, uncles, whatever thatit may be, want to be treating
them anyhow, or sometimes strangers becauseyou feel like, oh, well,
this person, it doesn't matter whatI do to them, say to them,

(12:03):
because I will never see them again. But at the end of the
day, we know for sure thatanybody who is created in God's image,
like is God's child. So ifyou're going to go against against God's child,
you're literally going against God simply so, Like what I learned just in
summary from this from this story,from the prophecy that Obadiah went to give

(12:26):
to the people of Edam concerning theissue of them being prideful and then glotting
over Judah, was that, youknow, despite a lot of people wanting
to claim that pride has always beenthere from the garden of Eden, you
know, we need to be peoplethat are intentional about handling ourselves before God
and that God's authority. Sorry,and we should subject our maybe if you

(12:48):
should call them appetite, you know, for his purpose to allow God to
you know, just work through us, wake in us for his purpose.
And we know that only him canhelp us over come and we can live
a life of humility. You know, the people of Eden decided to blot
over the people of Juda who wereGod's speaper, and God came through,
you know, he came through justlike he spoke, and he surely did.

(13:09):
So I think it's something that weshould just really be careful even as
we are living sorry our lives daily. You know that some of us we
know for sure that we're good atcertain things, and knowing you and knowing
that we tend to step on otherpeople's doores, we just might never know.
And yet God has placed certain peoplearound us were either learning from us
or we're supposed to learn from them, But because we've allowed pride to take

(13:31):
or to take over us, theyeither miss out on learning or we miss
out on learning from them. Andat the end of the day, honestly,
it's it's it's our fault. Wecannot really blame God for anything.
And we start asking questions, westart murmuring, we start mumbling, you
know, but we just we we'reignorant to the fact that we are prideful.

(13:54):
So I think as we're starting continuingstarting the podcast, continue the podcast,
and even just continue through the weekand the next month that's yet to
begin. I just pray that forpeople that are intentional about checking ourselves and
if there's any form of prayer thatgot himself, remove that and that he
may he may humble us sometimes,you know, you feel like when you're

(14:15):
too humble. I've heard people talkabout way. I feel like, if
I'm humble, maybe I fabrutary myselfto be in so much humility people step
on me. It's okay. Godis one who rewards it's not the people
that are going to reward you.So yeah, basically, this is all
that I had to share with us. I hope it's an encouragement to somebody
live in humility. Always be humble, you know, never let pride to

(14:35):
take over your heart, and neverglot over somebody else's misfortune. Don't laugh
at people, don't reduce other people'sdownfall because you don't know what God is
taking them through. So thank youso much for listening. I hope you've
been blessed. Until next time.This is the African Blues Podcast. God
bless you.