Eating Dust 

 A young lady suddenly became an orphan at the age of two. Unfortunately for her, a prophetess her parents consulted several weeks before then prophesied that this two-year-old girl was a witch and both her parents would die on the same day if they didn’t bring the girl to her for deliverance. Her parents refused to believe the prophetess (They were right not to, but they were naive and didn’t do anything about the words the prophetess spoke forth. 

Many believers do not understand how prophecy works, they assume they are docile receivers of any word spoken to them by anyone in the name of prophecy. This is very wrong. God has given no one the power to shift or change the destiny of another in Christ. A prophet can tell an unbeliever he will die, if the prophet is a true prophet, the unbeliever will have no option but to die. A prophet cannot tell a believer he or she will die, however, because that believer is full of the Holy Spirit and if he or she knows what the word of God says and is conscious of the power of the Holy Spirit at work in him or her, all he or she has to do is rebuke the spoken word and affirm new words of power over his or her life.

 The difference between a born-again Christian and a human being who is not born-again is that deep. The born-again Christian is like the wind, he or she can change direction at will by the power of the Holy Spirit. The unbeliever is like a chaff, easily carried by the wind and scattered in any direction at will. A believer, therefore, is a master of his own destiny while an unbeliever is not.
 A juju man or a voodoo person or any spell caster or dream caster can afflict an unbeliever at will, when such encounters a true believer, they become disarmed, and their implements of battle are broken into pieces.
 This lady’s parents were believers but they were nominal Christians who practised Christianity as a religion. When they got the prophecy, they called their friends and family members to share the news, hoping to get some counsel or advice about what to do about their daughter, they got only the “Keep praying and we will be praying for you” response. 

 After their sudden deaths, the two-year-old girl was labeled a witch by her family and friends, and nobody refused to take her into their homes. The story of the girl became so popular that local television stations in Ibadan took an interest in it and reported it on the 10 pm news.
A reverend from the Baptist church saw the news and decided to adopt this young girl. When he approached the family house of the girl at Beyerunka, area of Ibadan in 1986 to adopt the girl, she was gladly handed over to him. The reverend took her home and named her Rehoboth. Rehoboth’s life changed drastically after her adoption, from being the object of derision, taunting and wearing chains on her neck and around her waist like a monkey while leftover food was thrown at her like a dog, she became a princess. The reverend placed her in one of the most renowned nursery and primary schools in Ibadan. She had a car and a driver that took her to school daily. She also had a governess and a carer whose jobs were to nurture her back to health and ensure her development as quickly as possible.
The reverend was in his forties, he had four biological children of his own, all his children were abroad at the time his wife was battling with dementia at the time, and the reverend felt he needed to distract himself from the issues at hand by taking in a young orphan.
 Rehoboth was not the first adopted orphan the man took in he had since the days of his youth, long before he got married taken it upon himself to help as many as he could get a good life by adopting them and training them through school. Three of the previously adopted ones were already in the University by the time he adopted Rehoboth. The fourth one however didn’t turn out as expected, he gained admission into the University, joined a cult, and became one of their most dangerous members.
 One day, the Reverend was in his study preparing his Sunday sermon when the police came to his house searching for Sunday, the youngest of his adopted sons. When they arrested him and searched through his room, they found many cult memorabilia, weapons, pictures, and other evidence that proved without a doubt that right under his nose the young man had gone bad. The young man was arrested by the police and thrown in jail. He was also rusticated by the university authority.
 After the emotional trauma of the case, the reverend stopped adopting strays for fourteen years until he saw the story of Rehoboth on the news, he felt Rehoboth was young and malleable. He adopted Sunday when the young man was already 19 years old even though he regretted doing so, he didn’t like the fact that Sunday’s case made him stop doing something he had always taken delight in doing, which is nurturing young people and preparing them for life. Rehoboth grew fast, she sang in the church choir and was discovered to be very interested in playing musical instruments. By the age of seventeen, Rehoboth had gained admission into the university to study medicine and she was also on the orchestra team of an international musical outfit. She graduated and the reverend set up a hospital for her somewhere in Bodija Estate, Ibadan. Her family members, who labelled her a witch when she was a child decided it was time for them to identify with her. Success has redefined her and they wanted to cash in on the benefits she has to offer. They came to see her at the office, her paternal uncles and aunties. They said the reverend blocked them from having access to her while she was growing up, they said they wrote her letters and came to visit her several times but they were locked out by the reverend. She listened to them and somehow she believed them, she believed them when they told her the reverend was diabolic and must have used her coming into his life to renew his wealth. She believed them when they said the reverend used his wealth and position to forcefully take her away from them when she was yet a child. She began to behave resentfully to the reverend, she started avoiding his calls and pretended to be busy whenever she was supposed to pay him a visit. It was the typical behavior of some adopted children after they meet their biological parents, all the good the adopted parents did will suddenly not matter anymore, Blood suddenly becomes thicker than water. One of her uncles had met Sunday, the cult guy whom the reverend had adopted before her Sunday had told him a lot of lies about the reverend. The family was determined to burn all the bridges between the reverend and Rehoboth.

Rehoboth at twenty-six, was unable to see through all the lies. Rehoboth met with Sunday, they talked for hours about the reverend. Sunday told Rehoboth a lot of lies about the reverend; he said the man initiated him into cultism and used him to silence all his enemies and then abandoned him in jail for over twenty years. Sunday and her family members took her to several fake prophets who affirmed what they told her. She was told to severe ties with the reverend, leave everything he had given her behind and run as far away from him as possible. The lies were inconsistent with the character of the man who raised her. How come people are quick to believe the worst of those who had only been good to them? Rehoboth bought the lies completely.
She blocked the reverend and disappeared from sight for three years. Someone comes to you with a story about someone you know and you just gullibly buy into the story even though the person had never exhibited any of the lies you are being fed towards you in any way… Classic foolishness! Rehoboth reappeared three years later, she had settled down with Sunday, the ex-cultist somewhere in Ilorin. They had a baby together. Sunday had collected all her savings and travelled abroad with another woman. When she didn’t have any money to offer them anymore, her family members also deserted her with nothing but the clothes on her back and her daughter, she remembered there was a  Baptist Church in Ibadan where members could join hands with her to plead with the reverend to forgive and help her out of her dilemma. Suddenly all the prophets she was meeting at that time kept telling her to return to the reverend she offended and apologize. So she surfaced in church one Sunday morning, the reverend was the one preaching, Rehoboth sat at the back pew.
 After service, a few of the older members and Rehoboth went to the Reverend’s office. She had reached out to them and asked them to plead with him on her behalf. The reverend wept like a baby that day Rehoboth’s baby looked exactly the way she did when he adopted her unkept, scrawny, and malnourished. Rehoboth herself looked like someone who just escaped from the local mental institution. All the deacons and elders in the church went on their knees to plead on Rehoboth’s behalf, the reverend accepted her. The church provided clothes, food, and other items for Rehoboth. The reverend’s other children who regard her as the family’s last child sent money to Rehoboth, got an apartment, settled back into Ibadan, and also got a job. Rehoboth changed her name back to the  Reverend’s name, faced her career and began to shine again. Three years later, Sunday came back to plead for forgiveness and ask for the whereabouts of his son. He didn’t come alone, Rehoboth’s family members also returned with him. She threw them out with a vengeance.

This was the difference between the judgment of God against the serpent and his pronouncements toward Adam and Eve. To the serpent for allowing itself to be the instrument of deception and misinformation. Also for being the chief architect of the fall of man, God said it is accursed above all animals and shall eat dust all the days of its life! Rehoboth discovered this truth through experience. She found redemption and forgiveness for being deceived but she could not offer the same to her ex-husband and biological relatives. They are serpents and must be treated as such. 
PS: I have people in my life who can never do wrong. I don’t care what anybody says about them. You cannot tell me any tales about my mother, my brother, my wife, or my children. You cannot tell me stories about certain ministers of the gospel too no matter what you say, I will not hear you I know them personally, I regard them as I know them, and nobody can change my perspective of them with video evidence or eyewitness accounts. I will always judge them based on my personal experience with them. Others are free to do the same If, however, the person acts towards me in a new manner that requires that I reassess my opinion or evaluation, I will do so accordingly but It will never be on the testimony of another or the experience of another. This is how the mind of the just should function. 
-GSW-