Zoe Obuobisa, 16yrs

Saved San Francisco

USA


When I was in 6th grade, I was part of a volunteer club at school. At the end of the year, we had our annual end of the year party where we went to a restaurant and just hung out and received awards for what we had done throughout the year. It was my first year so I didn't get that many awards but one thing that everybody got was a goody bag with a mix tape in it. This mix tape did not have any music that a Christian should be interested in but at a young age I was ignorant to those things. I had the conviction that I could just become more spiritual as I grew up.

The friends that I had during that time were "Christian" but the wishy-washy type. We would hang out and be playing the music in the background. One day I was at home and I was playing the music very softly so my parents wouldn't hear it and I decided that I wanted to learn the words to all the songs so I went online and printed the lyrics so I could sing along. Little did I know, that was one of the silliest decisions I could ever make for myself at that time. I began to think that it was ok for me to just listen to any type of music, written by anyone, for everyone. It was then that I was introduced to listening to messages by Rev. Oko.

I had not listened to many of his messages for a long time when I realized that one thing he ALWAYS spoke about in camps was what we listen to. I learned that there are certain spirits in songs that affect the way I act and that I should be very careful in choosing what to listen to, even with Christian music. Some artists just say they're Christian because they know that they can be successful in that genre but the truth is they're just out for our money. They write songs and just say Jesus once in the middle or at the end of the song to make it sound spiritual.

My father really helped me during this time, even though he does not know. He always played REAL spiritual music. He would always have Andrae Crouch, Richard Smallwood, and Darlene Zschech playing around the house. But my favorites were the old Hillsong albums. From songs such as Eagles Wings and Let the Peae of God Reign, I could really tell that these were the kinda of spiritual songs I should be listening to. Not songs by Avril Lavigne and Ciara. They would NOT be of benefit to me.

I thank God from delivering me from this before it became a serious problem. I would encourage everyone to really think about the music you listen to. Is it helping you spiritually? Are you getting closer to God through these songs? I believe that if you really ask yourself these questions, you will come a step closer to God every day.

Let the Church say AMEN!!