When we read through many psalms of the psalmists, there are some that say “to be accompanied with harps or strings”. Psalm 55,61 and 67 but to mention a few are examples of the Psalms I speak about. Even more, as God’s children claimed their victory, crossed the red sea into their freedom from the enemy, they made joyful sounds to the Lord. And as they progressed in their journey to freedom, God instructed them to march round Jericho for seven days and seal up their victory with joyful sounds from their mouths and trumpets. A quick look at the book of revelation which describes the activities in heaven as well as the things to come when Jesus comes again; we would see many references to sounds. Revelation 4:1 tells us what apostle John heard from heaven and it says, “And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying,”come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this”. Even more so we see a brief description of what God’s throne may look and sound in Revelation 4:5, “And from the throne proceeded lightings, thunderings and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God“. This somewhat points us to the fact that there is almost always heavenly sounds around the throne of our God. Revelation 4:8 seals up my premises with the conclusion that sounds go on day and night in heaven- “the four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:”Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!“
This brings me to the subject matter of this blog post this week – “how heavenly sounds have helped my physical and spiritual health“. About two weeks ago a friend of mine asked me about the culture around the background sounds I usually have in my videos. This question prompted me to do a little reflection on my personal culture around music. I am a lover of music, I love great music, and as I have journeyed so far with the Lord I have been able to tune my ears and spirit to only christian sounds. Thank Jesus for His help so far. There was a time in my life when I knew all of the latest sounds in the secular world, my phone and computer was packed up with all kinds of sounds from this world but thank Jesus, He has helped me with sanitizing my playlist. One day I would write about the importance of the kinds of sounds we allow to pass through our ears into our spirit, soul and body but today let us just focus on how heavenly sounds has helped me physically. I do not write this because I am the standard to follow, by no means am I the standard, Jesus Christ is our standard, and His life is to be modeled, not mine. I am sharing this with you today because it has really helped me with my journey with the Lord, the Lord hasn’t convicted or disciplined me for it yet, so I strongly believe that it is fine. I write to you today with the hopes that perhaps this may inspire you or help you or perhaps the Holy spirit breathes on you fresh insights about sounds through reading the blog post in Jesus name. Amen.
So back to my faith walk and physical walk. I am absolutely not a morning person, I get a whole lot done at night but then I have to get out of bed every day as early as possible to speak to my father and get ready for work. Some way, I need to find energy someway. I am not a fan of coffee either and some mornings I just do not want to eat anything but then I must work, so how do I recharge? I found that music helps me a whole lot with my physical and spiritual strength in the morning. I start of my day with great songs as my spirit leads me; it could be slow paced or fast paced but either ways- they always bring glory to God. This always helps to set the tone for my day on most days when I struggle to be awake or get alert in the mornings. And even as I commute, I have heavenly sounds playing in my ears.
Over the years, I have tried to stay consistent with my work outs because genetically I have every tendency to blow out of proportion if I do not take caution. I would be lying if I said that, I always feel like going to the gym. Nonetheless, I must go or get some exercise in some way! Apostle Paul’s lamentation in Romans 7:15 comes to mind as I write -“many times I find myself doing the things I hate. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do“.I literally felt and saw the difference two weeks out of the gym in my body, I had to force myself back to the routine for at least twice a week. On Thursday, I felt absolutely reluctant to go to this gym, but I must lose the few pounds “wey I don gain”. So I plugged my ears with great christian afro beat sounds which helped to power up my energy. I randomly googled the relationship between music and energy generation. There is apparently research to prove that sounds or music help to generate energy. At this point, I want to take a moment to appreciate all the young christian artists who despite all odds have given their time to create great sounds that young people like me who want to dance and also worship God can listen to. And most importantly, I appreciate God for pouring out His spirit on young men and women to express that creative dimension of Himself.
My room is more or less always soaked in sounds of worship to the Lord for as long as I am there. In this kind of atmosphere hosting God’s presence and basking in His love, I have enjoyed beautiful fellowship with Him. I have written beautiful pieces about the Lord, I have created things, I have conceived ideas, birthed, nursed ideas, still conceiving, nursing and would birth things. In this atmosphere, I have cried out to the Lord, I have voiced out my pain, I have rejoiced, I have been comforted, I have fought battles, I have received and claimed victories. For example, during the pandemic, I was by myself in a different city away from my family not exactly close to friends. I literally thrived in God’s presence on the wings of heavenly sounds and the power of the Holy Spirit. I remember going for walks with my ears plugged, listening for God’s word and voice through the storm around me. And God spoke to me through some sounds in that year. Oh! how beautiful it is to know God and worship Him.
And lastly, in recent times I find myself praying with sounds from minister Theophilus, Victoria Orenze, Lawerence Oyor. There is this praying energy that I feel, sense and I know is transmitted through those sounds as they play. I won’t not even lie, I know that I am supposed to pray every day, every time, without ceasing “sef”. But just as it is with going to the gym for me, there are times my body doesn’t want to pray but my spirit wants to and knows that I should pray. So what I do is play these sounds from these ministers or s led by the spirit of God in my background, two to ten minutes into these sounds, my spirit is stirred up to pray. And I find myself praying for longer than I envisaged.
I hope I was able to show you ways heavenly sounds has helped me both spiritually and physically. Perhaps, you struggle to pray as often as you want to, you could try my method. But like I said, my method isn’t the absolute method, above all allow the Holy Spirit help you, direct you and empower you. Whatever, you choose to do, please do not remain on that spot, move forward just as God instructed His children in Exodus 14. If you were not able to pray yesterday, don’t stay feeling guilty. As you read this, “oya” begin to pray or pick up your bible to read if that is what you need to do.
I pray that you continue to grow and increase in the knowledge of God in Jesus name, Amen.