TWO SIDES OF THE DIVINE

Worship rose to a frenzy. Feverishly, we all raised our voices in quantum symphony as the atmosphere broke loose. Eyes tightly shut in depths of communion. Lips stammering helplessly in pious reverence. Hands, flinging in reckless abandon. It was electrifying. 

Just then, the music sizzled to a climax, one last time before it simmered down in a whoosh! Only the chords played as a few of us trembled within the last few moments of the declining euphoria. The lights caressed every part of this electrifying atmosphere, resting on faces caught up in divine ecstasy. But one remarkable face stood out, as if being caught up in a hallow. It was beautiful, calm and peaceful. Her hands gripped the mic tightly and gently, her voice  saturated the room. “Oh we worship you Abba!” She uttered in a loud whisper, her voice smoldered with deep emotions. Then more adulations rolled from her lips as a spectrum caught the lull poise of her features. Then suddenly her voice broke out, piercing the room and startling the disconnected ones for some brief moments. 

“THUS SAITH THE LORD!!!!”

It was the confidence in her voice, the fire in her eyes. It was the way her index finger sliced the air fiercely, as she pointed deftly in a certain direction. This was another being tonight: my Mother. Mother was always another being whenever she stepped into those shoes—the supernatural. It always got everyone still, with large eyes transfixed on her. 

She spoke with a voice of authority and declared such dangerous words in righteousness. I could tell every demon that unfortunately found itself within that premise, scurried off to hide under one of the toppled chairs. The whole thing was similar to an excerpt from a classic I had read—Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. A particular scene I had stumbled upon, seemed to have described a woman, manifesting in some dimensions of the supernatural:

She was the priestess of Agbala , the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves. In ordinary life, Chielo was a widow with two children—anyone seeing Chielo in ordinary life would hardly believe she was the same person who prophesied when the spirit of Agbala was upon her. (31)

And in another scene, Chielo, one terrifying night was said to have walked towards certain hills which loomed in the midnight. With the spirit of her god, having possessed her, she stepped into a ‘ring of hills' and suddenly her voice ‘was not only doubled in strength but was thrown back on all sides'. 

Evidently, the picture of the priestess; Chielo, manifesting under the influence of her ‘god’ provokes  such eerie scenes in the mind of her audience. It was supernatural but perverse, it was a display of power but was all negative. But right there and then, what I beheld in that glorious presence after the worship had condensed the ambience, and Mother had taken up her mantle, was nothing but heaven kissing earth, in all of its purity. It was manifested through a gentle but powerful being—the person of this prophet of God, standing right in front of us, in the fullness of her office.

One could tell this was sheer power, nothing like the one manifested on the other side of the divide which had been perverted by all sorts of demonic spirits. There was nothing in that powerful ambience that made you terrified. Your hair didn’t stand on end on your skin, neither did your head swell in ominous horror. But your spirit rose and the only trembling came from your lips, as it vibrated with spirit-filled worship. 

Mother was no Chielo. Although she seemed to have transformed when the ‘Spirit of God’ overtook her in her prophetic office. Her voice also appeared to have 'doubled in strength.’ But the demons fled instead of clustering around and life was in the air instead of sickening deadness. 

And so our spirit jumped at her words for they were divinely inspired, and our hands stretched out as if physically receiving that which she was spiritually birthing into our future. For we knew. Yes! We had the understanding that sooner enough, those words would be crystalized in our destinies and we were ready to run with them.  So with ready hearts, we received and digested, that which we were ready to lay hold on, with warring swords of prayers.