THE HEAD THAT BEARS A CROWN

The story features two prominent kings that succeeded one another: the father and the son, having similar peculiarity about life as a person with great responsibilities, constantly having one or two things to worry about. Leadership is not an easy task at all; it requires strong doggedness, especially when it has to do with life of the people. The book also features the reign of evil and wickedness in a setting. This of course do happens; that there are some questionable character of people within a setting who because of selfish interest halt down a system or constitute a delay or hindrance to the course of life. Such is the priest that features in the days of king Tejumade, he used all diabolical means trying to thwart the future and the purpose of Prince Adeyeri. But what will be; will surely be, no matter what people do. Persistency and perseverance are the driving forces that keep one moving.  Doggedness is a leadership quality that persists on one’s conviction and resolutely decides on that. King Adeyeri insisted that he doesn’t like human sacrifice, and was ready to damn the consequence despite the fact of his ancestral beliefs. These are the facts on grounds that are quite oblivious of him, he was ignorant, nobody told him but he dares it and move for a change. Furthermore, know that ignorance presents the right atmosphere for deception. One familiar cliché of the Holy Writ is, “my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”. Ignorance is the bed rock of all deceptions. An uninformed mind is the fertile land to plant the seeds of deception. Hence, a deceiver is only successful as his victim’s ignorance. All humans are susceptible in the areas where they lack basic knowledge and once a deceiver recognizes this, his opportunity to explore is limitless. We cannot blame either King Tejumade or his son, king Adeyeri. King Tejumade was doubtful of the ancestral deity; because they could not heal his son and Adeyeri was equally doubtful of a deity who asked for human sacrifice. Doubt in this case is most welcome because it brought distrust, disbelief, and qualm. There is no point following a deceptive precept that has no end to blissful eternity and a precept that goes contrary to the conviction of a moral mind.   HOW TO INSULATE YOURSELF AGAINST DECEPTION Educate and renew your mind. To avoid the trap of deception, you need to educate your mind about the different categories of deceivers; their styles of deception and how to safeguard yourself form any. You must daily renew your mind with God’s manual of operation. – His word. Renewing your mind has to do with readjusting, realigning, restructuring and reengineering your thought process. The world is no longer as innocent as the days of the first generation of computer. Our world loses her innocence per second, due to the barrage of information we are bombarded with through print, electronic, internet and social media. Wake up to the reality of the fact that updates and upgrades are a necessity to survive the wiles and debauchery of our days. As a matter of policy, ask lots of questions. The great philosophers, wealthy individuals and successful people in different fields of endeavor ask questions a great deal. The size of your question determines the size of the answer. If you don’t get your question right, you are probably going to get a wrong answer. Before you allow doubts about anything, ask questions; lots of them. Wise men don’t easily give in to fast easy-slip-on methods to anything. Doubting their convictions and absolutes is almost sacrilegious to them. To convince them otherwise, you have to work on your statistics, researches, records, surveys, references and evidences contrary to what they believe. The chances of getting caught in the web of deception are far lower for a man who asks many questions than the one who takes everything at face value, An Israeli philosopher-king by the name of Solomon, King of Israel once said: ‘The gullible believe anything they’re told; the prudent sift and weigh every word”. Cultivate lots of self-control People with weak will, who act on impulse, easily persuaded, lead me-on personalities and responders, are some of the most susceptible to deception. To shut the door of deception, you need to be able to mull over matter before taking decisions. Never allow yourself to be goaded into revealing your bottom line until you have prayed; ruminated, asked question and sought counsel. Take enough time to ponder and ruminate over what you have heard, and how you should respond.   Built a set of godly values Rooted in divine manual Every product manufactured by man has an accompany manual which gives direction for its use. Our world is no different. It also has an operating manual which is the word of God. We must learn to build our lives on a set of God-centered principles. One of the principles that can help you withstand the wiles of a deceiver is to develop your own definition for your core values in life. For instance, success means different things to different people. Thus, it is dangerous to use someone else’s definition to gauge how successful we are. It will lead to deception and depression.   Submit to superior argument after a thorough investigation The book of proverbs states “whoever abandons the right path will be severely disciplined; whoever hates correction will die”. ‘It is only a fool who does not know, and does not know that he does not know, and does not want to know that he does not know’. King Adeyeri later succumbed to the superior authority of the living God; he was lost in a religious dogma that insisted on shedding innocent blood and, the burdens of undue seasonal sacrifice that is not suffice for lasting atonement. Sacrifice to a goddess for a solution or help, healing and whatever is an ephemeral. It is only help from God that is everlasting. King Adeyeri was longer a novice; he was convinced of the supremacy of God having seeing God’s signs and wonders.   Illiteracy in the twenty first century is inability to learn new things while unlearning old and unprofitable things. Once your question and investigation are fully satisfied, then it is only rational to concede to such superior argument. But until then, cowing sheepishly to the whims and caprices of propagandist are proponents of secular humanism and vain philosophies are a sure way to the captivity of a soul.   Lessons   Learn to develop an understanding of multiple views of the world while retaining yours. Remember there is more than one way of looking at the world. It is utter naivety to assume that the world will backdate to your stale concept of a sane and decent society. What was morally correct yesterday is adjudged politically incorrect today; therefore, deceivers are not likely to approach you from that perspective.      If you are ignorant of how other people view the world, you become vulnerable to the machinations of crafty men. We need to ‘keep Satan from getting the advantage over us; for we are not ignorant of his whiles and intentions.                                EFFECT OF INGNORANCE One characteristics of an ignorant person is the extent of boldness they display in defense of their ignorance! Unlike the empty barrel that makes the most noise, true knowledge makes us sober and investigating. Those who truly have knowledge understand that the more knowledge they acquire, the more there is to know and the more they want to know. Knowledgeable people are some of most inquisitive people you ever meet. They are studious, engaging, attentive, investigative, and always documenting life experiences and wisdom from others. But the ignorant is boastful, argumentative and unyielding. King Adeyeri did not relapse in ignorance; he opted for that which is of eternal value and everlasting freedom. Ignorance will make you parochial and retarded, thus leaving you empty. The ignorant views the world through a single prism. What he can’t see does not exist. This unfortunately is the reason many people have lost touch with the reality. They have become rusty and totally oblivious of the ever changing world that surrounds them. Many times you hear people in that category saying things like, ‘experience is the best teacher’. The well informed does not insist on experiencing something before learning. Ignorance will limit you. A man is as limited as his knowledge. You cannot glide through the horizon you do not know exits. What you are ignorant of places restrictions on you, therefore your growth is only commensurate to your knowledge. The more you know, the greater your empowerment and exploits, also know this, it is barrier you place on yourself that limit you. Ignorance will keep you in fear. Fear itself is a product of ignorance. The acronym of F.E.A.R. simply means ‘False Evidence Appearing Real’. For a moment ask yourself what am I afraid of and why? You might discover that your fear is completely baseless and unfounded. King Adeyeri and few others were afraid of the fact of human sacrifice all because he was a novice of its reality.   Dealing with Ignorance The only way to deal with ignorance is acknowledgement. i.e. acknowledge your deficiency. Accept that you don’t know everything, and so there is always room for improvement. It is this state of mind that helps us developing listening skills. Here is a thought: ‘you don’t know what you don’t know. So bend to learn new thing’. Another way of dealing with ignorance is by asking, that is a way of asking question. Question helps clarify issues for us, puncture our doubt and fears, provide us with road maps and give us focus. Learn to ask the right question because, if you don’t get the question right, you will not get the answer right. The story features one major way of asking to do the right by oracle. Oracle is an instrument of deception. The priest in the story and many others in our contemporary explore it to deceive, and conclusively it’s not a reliable means. The faith and trust in the supreme God of heaven and earth clears doubt. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that gives to all men liberally and upbraids not and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, not wavering because, he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Let not that man (that doubted) think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his way".                                       THE TRADITIONALIST The Traditionalist mostly featured in the story with their beliefs: ‘As it was, so it is and so shall it ever be’. Traditions are formal, cold and nominal. Real traditionalists are retarded and archaic. They invoke a spirit of antiquity to govern and direct the spirit of this jet and progressive age. To them, tradition is absolute. Tradition is one of the strongest weapons of the enemy to deceive. This class of deceivers is particularly very intriguing; because they appeal to your sense of culture, moral values, ethnicity and patriotism. Most people believe their culture and tradition to be the best and are therefore open to deception in defense of those practices. Such is the Priest and the five chiefs that were stricken dead by the thunder. Usually, in their narrow mindedness, they seek to defend what they consider absolutes even when they are not sure of the origin of their practices. The traditionalist identifies his victims by putting down other culture while extolling his. In a changing world, the traditionalist is able to pick his victims by appealing to his sense of value. His mission is to keep his victims the same way, in the name of protecting him from the invasion of strange and perverted influence. He also employs the instrument of insecurity to captivate his victims. When insecurity set in, we set rules to live by – for fear that people will lower our standard! The result is a cult-like following that hampers people’s ability to question the rationale behind such practices.   THE MAGICIAN The Magicians too were paraded in the story; the magician is all out to trick someone, somewhere into something. He is an entertainment who conjures, tricks and performs illusions. He is somebody who uses a supposed supernatural power with exceptional ability and is an extra ordinary skillful person. He employs these qualities in his art of deception. His primary victims are people captivated by bogus promises and supernatural powers. The magician is a cousin to the charismatic in deception. He promises great things including quick steps to wealth, promotion, victories over enemies and even rewards. The tendencies portrayed in this story by the magician is really demonic and occultism. It was meant to deceive and project worship of Satan. Many secret societies and religious sect leaders fall into this category. Many of them also practice witchcraft and the lifestyle of magical activities expressed in mind control, manipulation, deception, perversion and rebellion. These five instruments are explained as follows: a.      Control: This is using your God-given influence to handle the people with such expertise and skillfulness; thus placing a constraint and regulation on your God-given rights and privileges to point out that they lose their sense of judgment and do not lose your given ability to cross check or discern the spirit of deception.   “…but try every spirit whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world”.   b.      Manipulation is the maneuvering and exploiting of people through the use of persuasion, and capitalizing on the people’s weakness and lack of knowledge.   “Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom and with all you’re getting get understanding”.   c.       Deception is the use of tricks and shams or outright pretext. It is the practice of duplicity and cheating people through trickery.   “…we are not ignorant of the devices of the devil”.   d.      Perversion is the distortion, deliberate misinterpretation and misapplication of facts for our personal gains.   “They have corrupted themselves; their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation”.   e.      Rebellion is a revolt against authorities, causing upheaval to the understanding of known truth and teaching others to do same.   “…casting down imaginations, and every high thing        that exalt itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”.                                                                      SUPERNATURAL Every man craves for the supernatural to satisfy their quest. This craving in some way makes him highly susceptible to deception when is untamed and not given godly direction. Man is a product of God’s supernatural power through creation, and not through a big bang! He owes his existence to God’s supernatural sustenance on a daily basis. At creation a portion of God was deposited into man; so the craving for that which is beyond man is perfectly natural. All humans have craving for experiences beyond earthly satisfaction. That in itself is an expression of a deposit of the supernatural in him. However when that desire is left untamed or misdirected. It turns to lust which result in deception. That is why the most deceived set of people today are religious folks! They often swallow everything and everything served them in the name of God! Magical arts, witchcrafts, wizardry, occultism, religious and esoteric practices are result of man’s desire to connect with his roots. Although there are not many scientific explanations, there are researches that prove that man’s existence and our universe is completely supernatural. Man’s quest for self-determination, self-discovery, self- definition and self-actualization pushes him to ask the questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going hereafter? What is my maximum potential? What are the borderline of nature and supernatural? How can I control my environment? How can I have more power and freedom on the planet earth? These and several other are the motivations behind the quest for the supernatural. Supernatural means: not of a natural world; relating to or attributed to phenomena that cannot be explained by natural means relating to deity. The supernatural operations of God have to do with the forces of good that govern and protect our universe. They include the salvation of man’s soul, the replenishing of creation, angelic manifestations, peace, healing and miraculous outpourings. The supernatural operations of evil (devil) include the forces of evil, increase in demonic activities, witchcraft, spiritualism, mysticism, occultism, wars, crimes, perversions and violence. Deception comes when the quest for the supernatural is not well directed or tamed toward the creator. In ancient times, magicians, astrologers and enchanters were usually among the courtiers of every emperor and king. Their services were required when the king had a dream, confused or about to make important decisions including going to war. They were to help determine a course of action, interpret the times, affirm or refute claims and to give guidance, this is one of the reasons for intensive idolatry in those empires. The magicians, astrologers and enchanters are demonically powerful. They controlled the psyche of their principals. People of various institutions, governments and places in all the continents have been consulting and parading these ambassadors of darkness. Conclusively, there have been contention of darkness against the light for supremacy, but the scripture says, ‘the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds. Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”.