Recently, I read the confession of a Nollywood actor who majorly took on roles involving incantations. He was often assaulted by nightmares. He said that he never knew that those statements would have such an impact on him. Words are indeed powerful. What we say and hear does not leave us the same. Words can either bridge a gap or create one between people. Consider how things deteriorated between Saul and David. As women sang of David’s exploit, Saul felt threatened. In addition to this, he also had sycophants who misrepresented David to him. This was what David challenged in our text: “And David said to Saul: “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Indeed David seeks your harm’?” 1 Samuel 24:9. As men twisted his words before the King, they succeeded in widening the gap between these former allies.

It would not be out of place to say that no one has suffered misrepresentation like God. The bane of this generation is that preachers have become so seductive, twisting God’s words at will. They seem to have perfected the art of making nonsense of God’s word to make other sense of it. When the word of God is twisted, it produces distorted knowledge until people can hardly discern the truth from error. Invariably, twisted words will produce crooked personalities which would bring a strain between God and us.