On Prophecies and Living a Life Riddled with Fear

 Recently, I read a story of a lady whose admission was delayed for about 5 years because of a prophecy made by her mother’s friend.

Quick gist: After she finished her secondary school, her mother’s friend saw a vision that she would die if she schooled outside Lagos. Year in, year out, she kept writing JAMB and trying to get admission into the University of Lagos, which she never got. The sixth time she wrote JAMB, the guy who was doing the registration for her advised her to apply to UNIBEN, and she did. She got the admission and lied to her mother that it was from UNILAG. Well, she graduated from UNIBEN and, no, she didn’t die.

Many of us have seen or heard of scenarios like this before: someone prophesies something, and people pause their lives because they want the prophecy to either come to pass or not. The prophecies don’t necessarily have to be evil. Some are good. When I was little, a big bro of mine refused to go to a Nigerian university because he received a prophecy that he would school abroad. He didn’t see any reason to ‘waste’ his time in a Nigerian university, and for years, he held on to this hope.

Many relationships have been ruined because of prophecies. Some people are avoiding other people and secluding themselves because of the fear of witches. Friendships are becoming ruined because one baba told one party that the other party is seeking their downfall. Some people are quitting their jobs because there are visions of them being entrepreneurs, and some are not running for offices or applying for higher positions because they were told not to. Many people are living a life riddled with fear and have become paranoid because of several negative prophecies they have consumed overtime.

This is not to say that prophecies are bad. No. Just like some people are cowering in fear because of certain prophecies, there are others who have had clarity, whose path have been made clearer and have made better decision based on prophecies. So I’m not here to talk about prophecies in itself, but how we react to these prophecies, the things we hear and feed our minds with.

There is a different way the lady’s mother could have handled the situation: not give in to fear, and pray about it. The mother’s friend might have not been telling lies, she probably truly saw a vision where the lady was dying in a school outside Lagos and decided to tell her friend about it. But the onus was on the hearers of the prophecy to fall on their knees and talk to God about it. Everyone can have a personal relationship with God, if you choose to have one. If you are religious enough to believe and hold on to prophecies given by other people, you can be religious enough to talk to God about it.

There is nothing wrong with listening to and accepting prophecies but the question is, what do you do with what you have heard?

Prophecies are great and all, but it is unwise to throw away what you currently have or are building for a future that is yet to come. It is risky to place the prophecy above every other aspect of your life, or sit around and simply wait for it to come into fruition.

When you get a prophecy about an impending danger, do you take flight to avoid it or do you fall on your knees to pray about it? When you get a prophecy about something good, do you pray for it to come to pass while working towards it and living your life, or do you pause your life, sit around and wait for this ‘good’ to come to you?

The fulfilment of prophecies are sometimes hinged on our reaction to it. If you lazy around waiting for that glory the pastor said he saw in your future to come to pass without you putting in the effort, it may not come to pass. Prophecies about impending danger can also be averted if you pray about it.

Of course, life is not in black and white for a lot of people and things are not always as straightforward as they look, however it is important for us not to let prophecies dictate the direction our lives will take. Listen to the prophecy but take charge of the wheel that steers your life.

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