In life, there is always, as it is commonly said, two sides to the coin. Everything God created, He did in two folds; male and female, to and fro, up and down, peace and war, joy and sadness, day and night, stress and rest, bright and dark, good and bad, success and failure, visible and invisible.
All these are manifest in realities. We can go on and keep naming them, the list is endless. The presence of one confirms the reality of the other. The presence of sickness confirms the reality of good health. There can be no success if there was no failure. The presence of war confirms the reality of peace. In the same way the presence of the seen (visible world) confirms the reality of the unseen (invisible world).
I want to categorically state here that the unseen world is more real than the visible (seen) life. The invisible rules the visible. The unseen dictates the seen. The unseen commands the seen. As a matter of fact, life is first established in the unseen before it is manifested in the seen. Whatever is seen in the natural had occurred already in the supernatural.
Having established this fact, it becomes necessary therefore for me to state that “to win in the natural world, you must first win in the spirit”. Whatever you are able to establish in the spirit you can play out in the natural.
When I say “in the spirit”, I mean the unseen realities. The invisible world is more eventful than this our natural world. When anyone knows to transact in the invisible and speak the language of the unseen, the natural world becomes a play ground for him to sport.
“The people that shape this mundane plane actually transact in two worlds, they see the invisible and do the impossible”
To make your life count in the natural you need to see the invisible. Before God created the universe there was nothing existing in the natural but God saw the unseen before it materialized into the natural.
In this edition, I will like us to consider the faith angle as well as some biblical characters. God honor people who are in the very habit of seeing the invisible. He said to Thomas “Blessed are those who do not see and yet they believe”. That is part of seeing the invisible. Those who see the invisible actually live in the real world. They control the visible, tangible, material and natural world.
What could have made a man like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr say “I have a dream?” when it was still absolutely impossible for anyone to imagine the possibility of the Negros being
considered as normal human beings created by God, he declared he saw the children of the black race being judged not by the colour of their skin but by the quality of their character. At the time, it was unimaginable, but today it has been exceeded in fulfillment. You can actually see the invisible. It is the centre of successful living.
“Great minds are those who see what others don’t see”
Great architect are not those who can redesign other peoples work and make it better, but those who go into the unseen and bring about the new “never seen before” designs into the natural. Great singers are not those who with a better voice re-sung other peoples’ songs, but those who get into the real world of the invisible and copy the goings on there and paste in the natural. They hear the songs in the world invisible and they replicate them in the world natural.
Great writers don’t combine other people’s works and bind them together in one volume; they pen down the never heard, never written before in a style exclusively unique to them because they look with the eye that sees the invisible.
What makes a man like Michael Angelo famous about the early 1500? He was a sculptor and a fine artist who would look at what everyone else sees as trash and make a global phenomenon out of it. He didn’t see like everyone else saw but with the eye that can see the invisible he breaks into the unseen realm and replicate the trend and grandeur of the spiritual in the physical.
Great achievers are those who scale through the visible obstacles of the mundane and abide in the infinite world of the unseen. When they return to the natural, they sprout up as a new species of humans never so known.
In the bible the man Abraham had a nephew called Lot. God blessed both men tremendously that the servant of both men began to fight for space. To settle the truce, Abraham asked his nephew Lot to look on all the lands around them and choose any part for himself so he Abraham can go to the land opposite. The bible said “Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere…” Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan. “Gen. 13: 9-10”
That was a man who depended on just his natural eyes to look. He saw the fancy and beauty of the visible natural world and hinged all his life on it.
The bible said “Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain…” verse 12. The idea here is that, Lot depended on the physical vision which in
essence is the finished product but Abram looked beyond the fanciful fields of Jordan or the tough rocky mountains of Jordan and looked into the invisible where creativity actually originates.
It doesn’t matter what the physical may look like; beautiful or ugly, from the unseen world you can re-create what you want from what already is. The invisible governs the visible
Abram chose the non attractive rocky mountains of Canaan which later became the “promised land” while Lot went for the captivating and lustrous plains of Jordan which was soon destroyed by fire from above – the plains was known as Sodom and Gomorrah.
This will lead me to talk about the choices we make in life, e.g marriage. Many ladies will be approached by at least two men, one looking like the green lustrous plains of Jordan (Sodom and Gomorrah) and the other looking like the rocky mountains of Canaan – The Promised Land. The one who sees from the natural will go for the captivating one. Not many will take time to see the invisible to know what the visible actually portrays. This may explain the reason for so many short lived and failed marriages. They were deceived by the fancies of the plains of Jordan. But it is said that “all that glitters is not gold”.
The choices we make in life if not critically scrutinized before taken may end up disastrous.
You must know this fact about God; He doesn’t package His gifts too well. When God wraps His gift for you, the bible says it will have “no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” Isa. 53:2. So, the physical appearance can be really deceptive except we can truly see the invisible. Don’t judge by what you see on the outward, go into the invisible to know the worth of what is before you. God conceals, your Job is to search out (Prov. 25: 2). The truth is in the unseen.
Don’t turn down some offers because it is physically unattractive – see the invisible. The material world predicates upon the invisible.
A man once prayed and demanded to be made a Director General in government because he was due for it. Instead he was made the General Manager of a parastatal . He took it even though he didn’t like the decision. He was eventually made a Director General by which time he had realized the overall worth of being the Director General is nothing compared to the honour, glory and fortune that came from being the General Manager.
It is not where you are or the title bestowed upon you that matters but what you are able to do with the invisible to create the visible.
A young lady once came to me in company of a young applicant who didn’t have a steady job. She pointed at him and said to me, “Can you imagine, that thing there said he wants to marry me”. This is in contrast with the big society boys that flock around her. Well, she married ‘that thing” and are still happily married, blessed with children and both in their different lucrative jobs. How many society weddings do we know that never lasted three months?
The visible is a finished product, in the invisible you decide what you want before it is created.
I equally know a few ladies who turned down the marriage proposals of the men who loved them on the grounds that the men didn’t dress too well, couldn’t combine their colors or didn’t speak good English. Some of those men are happily married today and some of the ladies aren’t.
2Corinthians 4: 18 says the following in the King James Version and in the amplified respectively:
“While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal”
“Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen: for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting”
When Lot was separated from Abram, God told Abram to look with the eye that sees the invisible from his present position, standpoint and status “Northward, Southward, Eastward and westward,” for as far Abram could see God said He would give him. Gen. 13: 14, 15.
Until you are able to see, you can’t handle. Seeing brings possession. What you see in the physical may soon fade away. But what you see in the invisible realm stands forever. Develop your seeing eye; the eye that sees the invisible.
A young man named Esau came back one day from the fields exhausted and famished and met his younger brother stirring a stew of red pottage on the fire. In that condition he begged his younger brother for some of the stew; the brother demanded Esau sells him his birthright first. Esau wondered as it were, at his younger brother, Jacob’s “foolishness”. But the two men see from the two different worlds. “What is birthright to me when I am dying? You can have it if it would do you any good” Esau would say to Jacob. Gen. 25: 29-34.
Esau was a realistic person. A very practical man. He deals in the “real world”. There are so many people today in our world who are very real and practical: ideologists, thoughtful and pragmatic. Yet there are the Jacobs in our time as well who may not be seen as real and practical but are actually the real people who are the thermostats of their age defining the times and seasons of their lives. They live in the Real World- it’s what they make happen that the rest of us see.
Jacob said to Esau “swear to me” and Esau swore. “I have no need of any birthright in the face of this physical hunger not that it’s like I want to die”. Great people know physical realities and feelings are temporal but the unseen are eternal.
When the day of retribution came, Esau didn’t believe what didn’t seem to count then did really count and infact, defined his entire destiny. Jacob possessed an eternal inheritance that should have been Esau’s. The bible declared that Esau cried with bitter cries seeking reversal, but was too late. Jacob saw the invisible.
The power of the mind can never be over-stretched. It’s in the mind that the issues of destiny are incubated. The mind houses the factory that rolls out all the segments and components that make up a man’s entire existence. What you are and will ever be is first designed and produced in the mind.
People who do not engage their minds in useful and productive plans and designs for their lives ultimately find themselves become what they find themselves to be (an accidental happening). But those who gainfully engage their minds in the architectural designs and plans for their destiny become what they planned and expect themselves to be.
Every builder or engineer first visualizes what he desires to have, then puts it down in a sketch on a paper and then starts acting it out. So it is generally in life. The mind’s eye is for visualization. That’s the eye that sees the invisible. As far as the eye can see the mind will achieve and the life acquire.
An idle mind is the devil’s workshop. An idle mind is fruitless and a waste. The devil trades in it and moulds the person for his tool. The mind is the centre of a man’s fulfillment. Whatever a man turns out to be in life is first hatched in the mind. The mind that is never proactive becomes a warehouse for the devils apparatus and that person ends up a pond at the mercy of the devil. God works and speaks in pictures. That’s how the mind is activated to pursue a goal. Every great man living or dead never became great by accident. They set goals, they had expectations, they worked at them and nothing deprives an active mind of the realization of its goals.
Big dreams can be scary but obtainable. Lack of dreams guarantees failure. Great feats that were achieved were first achieved in the mind. Failure in any area, great or small is a result of defeats in the mind. The mind is the power house. If you can see it you can achieve it.
“All things are possible to him who believes.” Mk. 9: 23.
“…He hath set the world in their heart Eccl. 3: 11”
The power of your imagination is your greatest tool and asset in life. Whatever your mind can imagine, your life can achieve; “for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do… Phil.2: 13”
“…And now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do” Gen. 11: 6
If your mind can see it, your life can hold it.
“Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us”, Eph. 3: 20.
If you end well and finish strong having done all, it is because you saw well and ran well. The invisible that you see is what becomes the visible in your life.
What you think about often you begin to do. What the eye of your mind sees often moulds the thoughts of your head. What you think about often shaping your attitude, your attitude forms your character, your character develops your habit, your habit tell who you are.
Start now to engage your mind in creative and productive imagination and you automatically are incubating pictorially the embryos of who you become tomorrow and, believe me, the world is yet to see an improved, new and a better you that is about to emerge.
Begin now to see the invisible for those are threads that knit together to form the fabric of who you are.
Let’s take a glance into the invisible and let’s glow in the natural. God bless you
Pastor Peter Yakubu
Pastor Peter Yakubu
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
TAKE YOUR MOMENT
TAKE YOUR MOMENT
“See that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise.
Redeeming the time because the days are evil (Ephesians 5: 15-16)
To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose
under the heaven (Eccl 3:1)”
In Christendom today there is a very common cliché you hear among believers – “I am waiting on the Lord”. When you examine that phrase, one is prompted to ask “are we really waiting on God or are we refusing to take or more aptly put, cease our moment. To wait is not to idle away, but to be busy doing the biddings of the Master.
The man who is idle will not even know when the opportunity comes calling or he may not be available at the time of his visitation. The bible said concerning Zachariah, that he was executing the priests’ office before God in the order of his course; as is the custom of the priests’ office, it was his lot to burn incense. An angel of the Lord appeared to him by the alter of incense, and said to him fear not, thy prayer has been heard, and your wife shall bear thee a son (Lk 1: 8-13).
There is a time for every man’s manifestation. Destiny is fulfilled when a man coincides with his moment. In Ecclesiates 9: 11, the bible said ‘ I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding , nor favour to men of skill, but TIME and CHANCE happeneth to them all” . My prayer for you is that you will not miss your moment and that you make the best of every opportunity.
The book of Esther 2: 5, talks about a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai. He has been carried from Jerusalem with the captivity. He had a niece whose name was Esther. It happened that there was vacancy in the palace by reason of the vacuum that was created by queen Vashti. The king called for a banquet of his chamberlains to show off his queen to them because she was a beautiful woman. The queen refused to appear on the order of the king because at this time, the spirit of error has come upon her ‘because it’s somebody’s moment of promotion. The king’s servant that ministered to him had to seek for a fair young virgin for the king. Mordecai maximized the moment and presented Esther who the bible recorded was fair and beautiful. (Esther 2: 7) which are the very attributes that the king’s wife (Vashti) possessed (Esther 1: 11). When the virgins are paraded before the king, Esther was selected. That was how a stranger, without father or mother became the queen because somebody took advantage of the moment. Little wonder, when the lives of the Jews was threatened by Haman – the prime minister, Mordecai who understood time and season said to Esther “and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this”? (Esther 4: 14c).
A certain woman of the sons of the prophet cried unto Elisha and said that the husband’s creditors are coming to take her two sons as bondmen. The man of God asked the woman “what do you have”, and the woman said nothing but a little oil. Thank God - she almost missed that opportunity to redeem her children. God will always bless you from what He has given to you. He asked the woman to go and borrow empty vessels from all her neighbors with an instruction not to borrow a few. In our walk of destiny with God, the first step must be ours while the remaining ninety nine belongs to God. The prophet told the woman to lock herself behind with her children and fill the vessels she has borrowed after which she will sell the oil and use the proceeds to pay their creditors and live on the rest. Had the woman maximized that moment, she may not know lack again in her life. The bible recorded that when she had filled the last vessel, the oil stopped (2Kings 4: 6). If she had borrowed more vessels, that would have meant more oil. We determine the extent God will go with us.
A certain king was told by Prophet Elisha to shoot arrows through the window, and he did. He further asked him to smite the remaining arrows on the ground and the king did it three times. The prophet asked him why he stopped. He made him understand that the number of times he hit the ground determined the number of times he would defeat his enemies. His destiny was in his own hands like most of us and we don’t know it so we can take advantage.
The Shunamite woman in 2Kings 4: 8-9 perceived that Elisha was a man of God, and she constrained him to come to their place to eat bread. She didn’t stop there; she persuaded her husband that they should provide shelter for the man of God. And in return for their love and care, the greatest need of their life was met. How many of us have lost great opportunities because we despised a servant of God. Remember, the anointing you respect is the anointing you attract; and the anointing you sow into, is the anointing you can claim from. The way and manner you respond to the things of God will prolong or shorten your season. The man by the pool of Betheisda for 38 long years couldn’t cease the opportunity that come up seasonally, so he had to stay there for that long without getting his healing. It got so bad that even when Jesus asked him if he wanted to be made whole, he still did not know his moment has come, he started telling stories.
Beloved, to take your moment, you have to bear in mind the following:
• It’s your job to cease the moment.
• When you recognize your season, you don’t need the crowd.
• God will test you. God needs your participation in what he wants to do.
• Don’t hold on tight to what you have. Empty yourself.
• Withdraw and seek God’s face if you’ve lost touch with destiny
• Know that God speaks when you are alone.
• When you sense it’s your season, start making sacrifices.
In conclusion, be spiritually sensitive, hold on to the word of God, and take advantage of the opportunity when it presents itself.
Shalom
Pastor Peter Yakubu
“See that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise.
Redeeming the time because the days are evil (Ephesians 5: 15-16)
To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose
under the heaven (Eccl 3:1)”
In Christendom today there is a very common cliché you hear among believers – “I am waiting on the Lord”. When you examine that phrase, one is prompted to ask “are we really waiting on God or are we refusing to take or more aptly put, cease our moment. To wait is not to idle away, but to be busy doing the biddings of the Master.
The man who is idle will not even know when the opportunity comes calling or he may not be available at the time of his visitation. The bible said concerning Zachariah, that he was executing the priests’ office before God in the order of his course; as is the custom of the priests’ office, it was his lot to burn incense. An angel of the Lord appeared to him by the alter of incense, and said to him fear not, thy prayer has been heard, and your wife shall bear thee a son (Lk 1: 8-13).
There is a time for every man’s manifestation. Destiny is fulfilled when a man coincides with his moment. In Ecclesiates 9: 11, the bible said ‘ I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding , nor favour to men of skill, but TIME and CHANCE happeneth to them all” . My prayer for you is that you will not miss your moment and that you make the best of every opportunity.
The book of Esther 2: 5, talks about a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai. He has been carried from Jerusalem with the captivity. He had a niece whose name was Esther. It happened that there was vacancy in the palace by reason of the vacuum that was created by queen Vashti. The king called for a banquet of his chamberlains to show off his queen to them because she was a beautiful woman. The queen refused to appear on the order of the king because at this time, the spirit of error has come upon her ‘because it’s somebody’s moment of promotion. The king’s servant that ministered to him had to seek for a fair young virgin for the king. Mordecai maximized the moment and presented Esther who the bible recorded was fair and beautiful. (Esther 2: 7) which are the very attributes that the king’s wife (Vashti) possessed (Esther 1: 11). When the virgins are paraded before the king, Esther was selected. That was how a stranger, without father or mother became the queen because somebody took advantage of the moment. Little wonder, when the lives of the Jews was threatened by Haman – the prime minister, Mordecai who understood time and season said to Esther “and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this”? (Esther 4: 14c).
A certain woman of the sons of the prophet cried unto Elisha and said that the husband’s creditors are coming to take her two sons as bondmen. The man of God asked the woman “what do you have”, and the woman said nothing but a little oil. Thank God - she almost missed that opportunity to redeem her children. God will always bless you from what He has given to you. He asked the woman to go and borrow empty vessels from all her neighbors with an instruction not to borrow a few. In our walk of destiny with God, the first step must be ours while the remaining ninety nine belongs to God. The prophet told the woman to lock herself behind with her children and fill the vessels she has borrowed after which she will sell the oil and use the proceeds to pay their creditors and live on the rest. Had the woman maximized that moment, she may not know lack again in her life. The bible recorded that when she had filled the last vessel, the oil stopped (2Kings 4: 6). If she had borrowed more vessels, that would have meant more oil. We determine the extent God will go with us.
A certain king was told by Prophet Elisha to shoot arrows through the window, and he did. He further asked him to smite the remaining arrows on the ground and the king did it three times. The prophet asked him why he stopped. He made him understand that the number of times he hit the ground determined the number of times he would defeat his enemies. His destiny was in his own hands like most of us and we don’t know it so we can take advantage.
The Shunamite woman in 2Kings 4: 8-9 perceived that Elisha was a man of God, and she constrained him to come to their place to eat bread. She didn’t stop there; she persuaded her husband that they should provide shelter for the man of God. And in return for their love and care, the greatest need of their life was met. How many of us have lost great opportunities because we despised a servant of God. Remember, the anointing you respect is the anointing you attract; and the anointing you sow into, is the anointing you can claim from. The way and manner you respond to the things of God will prolong or shorten your season. The man by the pool of Betheisda for 38 long years couldn’t cease the opportunity that come up seasonally, so he had to stay there for that long without getting his healing. It got so bad that even when Jesus asked him if he wanted to be made whole, he still did not know his moment has come, he started telling stories.
Beloved, to take your moment, you have to bear in mind the following:
• It’s your job to cease the moment.
• When you recognize your season, you don’t need the crowd.
• God will test you. God needs your participation in what he wants to do.
• Don’t hold on tight to what you have. Empty yourself.
• Withdraw and seek God’s face if you’ve lost touch with destiny
• Know that God speaks when you are alone.
• When you sense it’s your season, start making sacrifices.
In conclusion, be spiritually sensitive, hold on to the word of God, and take advantage of the opportunity when it presents itself.
Shalom
Pastor Peter Yakubu
DON’T LOSE YOUR JOY
DON’T LOSE YOUR JOY
It is a thing of joy that we are all witnessing this season. Jesus said the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices were not worse sinners than those who were alive at the time – Luke 13: 1-3. This is why today we rejoice at the faithfulness of God and for His mercies which has kept us this far.
Talking about joy – besides hope, joy is one thing that has kept us as Christians giving particularly in these last days in the face of global economic meltdown, stress, global warming and political instabilities among the nations. Joy is not just a source of strength, it in strength itself. Joy should not be mistaken for happiness. Anybody can be happy but only those who have the Holy Spirit can possess joy.
Happiness is a cheap commodity that can be found in a stick of cigarette, a bottle of bear, partying, being among friend of like mind, watching a game movie or any television programme, finding something you have been looking for, making a new friend, reconciling with loved one after a while of malicious separation etc. the problem with this is that the happiness derived this way are both temporary as well as externally influenced.
What I mean here is that happiness comes when we are where we want to be, when we get what we want, when we are treated the way we would like to and when good things HAPPEN to us.
Ah ha! HAPPEN to us. This then defines happiness. Happiness is what happens to us. This implies therefore that truly, happiness is based on events and things that happen. What then is the result when we don’t like the things that happen? We become unhappy. This means then that happiness is externally controlled or influenced. And if this is the case, then we become subject to our environment and come at the mercy of what people wants us to feel. It is not so with joy. Joy is internally regulated such that whichever way events or happenings turn, your joy is still in place. Situations and circumstances don’t influence joy. Joy is not a feeling, it is the fruit of the Spirit; and if so, you only have it when you have the Spirit.
You can be unhappy and still keep your joy. Joy is one commodity the devil would fight hard to see you don’t keep. Why? Joy is strength. (Neh. 8: 10). A joyful Christian is a strength person. You can only be a Christian to have joy otherwise, what you’ve got is happiness. No wonder Jesus said, “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” (John 15: 11).
Joy cannot be gotten anywhere else other than in the presence of God. (Ps. 16:11).
Don’t lose your joy. In the face of distress and uncertainties today in our world, you need joy to stay afloat. With global economy taking a depressing dive, you need joy to keep your head up. With gross darkness enveloping the world today, we need joy to navigate and wade through unclear mucky waters to a fulfilling life – (Isaiah 12: 3).
Don’t lose your joy. Stress will not cut short your life. Don’t’ lose your joy; the enemy will not reign over you. Don’t lose your joy, you will not be ashamed. Don’t lose your joy; the devil will not triumph over you. Don’t lose your joy; you will succeed where you have failed before. Don’t lose your joy, it is your strength.
Remember, if you don’t have the Lord, (be born again), you cannot have joy.
Enter into gracious new season. (Amen)
Shalom
Pastor (Mrs.) Abimbola Yakubu
It is a thing of joy that we are all witnessing this season. Jesus said the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices were not worse sinners than those who were alive at the time – Luke 13: 1-3. This is why today we rejoice at the faithfulness of God and for His mercies which has kept us this far.
Talking about joy – besides hope, joy is one thing that has kept us as Christians giving particularly in these last days in the face of global economic meltdown, stress, global warming and political instabilities among the nations. Joy is not just a source of strength, it in strength itself. Joy should not be mistaken for happiness. Anybody can be happy but only those who have the Holy Spirit can possess joy.
Happiness is a cheap commodity that can be found in a stick of cigarette, a bottle of bear, partying, being among friend of like mind, watching a game movie or any television programme, finding something you have been looking for, making a new friend, reconciling with loved one after a while of malicious separation etc. the problem with this is that the happiness derived this way are both temporary as well as externally influenced.
What I mean here is that happiness comes when we are where we want to be, when we get what we want, when we are treated the way we would like to and when good things HAPPEN to us.
Ah ha! HAPPEN to us. This then defines happiness. Happiness is what happens to us. This implies therefore that truly, happiness is based on events and things that happen. What then is the result when we don’t like the things that happen? We become unhappy. This means then that happiness is externally controlled or influenced. And if this is the case, then we become subject to our environment and come at the mercy of what people wants us to feel. It is not so with joy. Joy is internally regulated such that whichever way events or happenings turn, your joy is still in place. Situations and circumstances don’t influence joy. Joy is not a feeling, it is the fruit of the Spirit; and if so, you only have it when you have the Spirit.
You can be unhappy and still keep your joy. Joy is one commodity the devil would fight hard to see you don’t keep. Why? Joy is strength. (Neh. 8: 10). A joyful Christian is a strength person. You can only be a Christian to have joy otherwise, what you’ve got is happiness. No wonder Jesus said, “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” (John 15: 11).
Joy cannot be gotten anywhere else other than in the presence of God. (Ps. 16:11).
Don’t lose your joy. In the face of distress and uncertainties today in our world, you need joy to stay afloat. With global economy taking a depressing dive, you need joy to keep your head up. With gross darkness enveloping the world today, we need joy to navigate and wade through unclear mucky waters to a fulfilling life – (Isaiah 12: 3).
Don’t lose your joy. Stress will not cut short your life. Don’t’ lose your joy; the enemy will not reign over you. Don’t lose your joy, you will not be ashamed. Don’t lose your joy; the devil will not triumph over you. Don’t lose your joy; you will succeed where you have failed before. Don’t lose your joy, it is your strength.
Remember, if you don’t have the Lord, (be born again), you cannot have joy.
Enter into gracious new season. (Amen)
Shalom
Pastor (Mrs.) Abimbola Yakubu
HOW TO GO FROM WHERE YOU ARE TO WHERE YOU WANT TO BE
HOW TO GO FROM WHERE YOU ARE TO WHERE YOU WANT TO BE
A static life is one that is but dead. Life is designed to live i.e to be alive and that simply implies dynamism. Everything that has life in it moves; even plants are motile – via pollination.
The world became populated as people began to move from place to place. This shows that it is in God’s original plan that people not only move from place to place but to be able to desire where to go and also get there.
In this edition, we are not only going to look at ability to go places but how to take off from a certain point in life and get to or achieve the desired set goal.
WHERE YOU ARE
It is very imperative for us to primarily analyze where you are before proceeding with other issues. Some people just live without a sense of commitment to underscore the essence of their existence. They simply live everyday as it comes never expecting anything in particular nor willing to throw in a thrust to do anything new.
Where you are is your present position in life: (who you are) your current status, location, achievement, net worth and value. Your present estimation of your person and evaluation of your placement sum up to where you are.
When you first got to “where you are”, you may have celebrated the new achievement or feat. It may have been a great stride taken then, but over time the steam condenses and the euphoria wanes away and you now come to terms with that level. It’s no longer an excitement to you. You have settled down. That position has become a part of you. You may at this time forget where you are coming from because, the present seems to linger too long it’s as if you have been that way forever.
There are either of three possibilities any one could encounter at this level of his life:
Deteriorate
Ware and tear are a very constant that will happen to any material that have undergone a long period of use with little or no maintenance. In the same way any person who have been at a spot or location for a period of time without new adventures begins to retrogress. Life was originally designed to be positively dynamic. Man was created to explore his world. Man ought to constantly break new frontiers; move from stage to stage; keep evolving and developing from one level to another.
When man fails in this capacity to be exactly this which he ought to be, he automatically begins to retrogress. Reason is because the world system itself is dynamic. If you don’t move along it leaves you behind which infer that you are moving backward.
Stagnant or Stationary
The man that is stagnant is still better than the retrogressive because he is making some progressive movement (even though not good enough); except that his speed is not commensurate with the dynamism of the world system so, he hangs in there and the world carries him along. The stagnant man is actually moving forward, his speed is only not good enough to outwit the cosmopolitan.
Progressive
The third possibility which really is the lot of man is the progressive. Being progressive far outweigh stagnancy because the progressive being determined puts in more effort and thrust and goes ahead of the cosmos. This possibility don’t just happen without the conscious effort, willingness and push by the person. You must have a goal in mind and be willing to achieve it. It is this option that is the purpose of the creator for man and this will be our focus in this edition.
• Where you want to be
Every normal human being will want to leave wherever he has been for the next higher, better and more promising point.
Tastes and values differ from one person to another. What one person desires may not be appealing to the other. However, everyone desires something good. What Mr. X wants might be what Mr. Y wants to leave behind. Mr. X might be desiring to get to the point Mr. Y is working away from.
Our desires might not be the same but we certainly desire to make advances. The onus is now on you to know where you want to be that is on the progressive line.
No one goes to the train station or the bus park and buys a ticket to anywhere; he will not only be considered unserious, he can’t get on that train or bus. To be able to leave a point for another, it is important you know where you want to be next. You cannot be ambitious for any where; it must be for something or somewhere.
Where do you want to be? This question should be the first tool you should be armed with. Having established this, then you will be ready for the next level which is
How to connect the above Two.
Now, let’s look at how to connect from where you are to where you want to be. As we have just established, it is important for you if you are leaving a certain point to be properly armed with the knowledge of where you want to be. This knowledge solves a great proportion of this puzzle.
I would like to make bold here to say that what you see is what you get. If seeing then brings possession, it becomes imperative that you must keep in sight that place you want to be if you must get there.
God ones told Abraham in scriptures that as far as he could see he would get. This therefore implies that your mind is the major tool employed in the journey of life. You must be able to settle in your mind where you want to be and keep your mind stayed on that picture- then sooner or later you’d have landed.
There is a force in man that is resident in his mind that propels the entire body of the human being to wherever the mind agrees he should be. For example; a man takes off from point A and has prepared and settled in his mind that his destination is point B. when the man takes off from point A – let’s assume he is driving – he may have wandered away in his mind from the thoughts of his journey, but because his mind already is fixed on destination, he has no problem navigating and negotiating bends and turns leading directly to his destination even when he is not thinking about it- the mind knows where to go.
Take for another example: you are being driven in a car or bus and while your thoughts are on many other things outside of your destination; the vehicle veers off the route to your destination. You will immediately come to yourself and be awakened to the fact that something went wrong. Immediately, your mind is quickened.
Why is this so? You may have already wandered off your goal, but the mind being equipped with the information of the next point controls your entire being in the proper direction.
To be where you want to be, you must know where and feed the information of the destination into the minds data base. Once this is done, the mind knows how to process the rest of the journey.
Consequently, to connect from point where you are to point where you want to be, you must have proper knowledge of what you want and feed that into your mind, then move out in faith. The mind doesn’t fail. It will always process what you feed into it. Therefore, it is important to know where to go.
• To know where to go.
God supernaturally has set a mechanism in place in the human mind to guide him to where he ought to be at every giving stage in his life.
You cannot suggest to a young girl of age seven, nine or ten, who is still tumbling to unravel the knots of her basic education, what it is for her to get married. She will simply laugh at you with disdain as though it is a taboo for her to be married. This is because God has set a rhythm in the mind of man to expect one stage at a time. The mind yearns and longs for the stage that is next in line according to the rhythm.
An adolescent child would rather pick a toy car than the keys of a real car. Life is in stages and the mind is programmed to follow the sequence. People who jump the order of this sequence and force themselves to be in advanced stages well ahead of where they ought to be actually have fast forwarded their lives. Little should you wonder why their lives are cut short mysteriously. You can’t jump the gun. It’s a sequence.
The mind triggers off an alarm mechanism that sends signals to you hinting you on what stage you should expect next. This is expressed by the propelling urge you begin to have for the next stage. When a young lady begins to reach the final stage of her school – may be university degree or she begins to approach age twenty five and above, automatically, marriage becomes her subject matter – not car. The mind knows how to set the priorities in order because it is in sequence.
Therefore, as you look in wards and listen to your mind, you would know where you should be next.
The man at a certain stage of his life may desire many things – a house, a car, a wife, that bigger job. However, one is dominant in his mind. That is the next stage. Set your heart at and give it every push. You will get there. You will receive it.
How do you know if you are there?
The pure feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment that lingers for a while.
Some people misplace priority and distort that order of the minds rhythm. They shoot high their desire and expectation beyond the next stage. They do everything to get it or get there. As soon as they have it, they lose the value. It loses its flavor to them.
But consider this. A man begins to yearn for the next position in his office – say Deputy Manager. He works hard for it, Prays hard for it; then eventually he gets it. The yearning is as a result of signals from the mind that this is next. He becomes preoccupied with that desire. Finally, he gets it. He relaxes for a while. The dissatisfaction sets in again. He wants to be full Manager. He becomes enflamed with this desire. Deputy managerial seat is no longer exciting. The future is beckoning on him. The mind says, “that is the next level, go for it”. When he gets there, there is joy and excitement for sometime before the sequence takes its toll again.
A lady desires marriage at all costs. She gets it. Celebrate it for sometime and then the steam condense and she longs for something more that didn’t matter so much before marriage become a reality: may be babies or something else. That inner feeling of I need this, it is my time, time is running out, I want to get there, is a sign of where you ought to be next. The prolong excitement when you get there confirms you are there.
• Finally, how do you go from where you are to where you want to be?
The best way to draw straight line on the sand with your foot from point A to B is to stand at point A, fix your gaze on point B, and without distraction – draw your line. The picture of point B that you maintained permanently on your mind as you gaze on it takes you there undeterred. Nothing stops you because obstacles are the things you see when you take your eyes off your target.
Shalom.
A static life is one that is but dead. Life is designed to live i.e to be alive and that simply implies dynamism. Everything that has life in it moves; even plants are motile – via pollination.
The world became populated as people began to move from place to place. This shows that it is in God’s original plan that people not only move from place to place but to be able to desire where to go and also get there.
In this edition, we are not only going to look at ability to go places but how to take off from a certain point in life and get to or achieve the desired set goal.
WHERE YOU ARE
It is very imperative for us to primarily analyze where you are before proceeding with other issues. Some people just live without a sense of commitment to underscore the essence of their existence. They simply live everyday as it comes never expecting anything in particular nor willing to throw in a thrust to do anything new.
Where you are is your present position in life: (who you are) your current status, location, achievement, net worth and value. Your present estimation of your person and evaluation of your placement sum up to where you are.
When you first got to “where you are”, you may have celebrated the new achievement or feat. It may have been a great stride taken then, but over time the steam condenses and the euphoria wanes away and you now come to terms with that level. It’s no longer an excitement to you. You have settled down. That position has become a part of you. You may at this time forget where you are coming from because, the present seems to linger too long it’s as if you have been that way forever.
There are either of three possibilities any one could encounter at this level of his life:
Deteriorate
Ware and tear are a very constant that will happen to any material that have undergone a long period of use with little or no maintenance. In the same way any person who have been at a spot or location for a period of time without new adventures begins to retrogress. Life was originally designed to be positively dynamic. Man was created to explore his world. Man ought to constantly break new frontiers; move from stage to stage; keep evolving and developing from one level to another.
When man fails in this capacity to be exactly this which he ought to be, he automatically begins to retrogress. Reason is because the world system itself is dynamic. If you don’t move along it leaves you behind which infer that you are moving backward.
Stagnant or Stationary
The man that is stagnant is still better than the retrogressive because he is making some progressive movement (even though not good enough); except that his speed is not commensurate with the dynamism of the world system so, he hangs in there and the world carries him along. The stagnant man is actually moving forward, his speed is only not good enough to outwit the cosmopolitan.
Progressive
The third possibility which really is the lot of man is the progressive. Being progressive far outweigh stagnancy because the progressive being determined puts in more effort and thrust and goes ahead of the cosmos. This possibility don’t just happen without the conscious effort, willingness and push by the person. You must have a goal in mind and be willing to achieve it. It is this option that is the purpose of the creator for man and this will be our focus in this edition.
• Where you want to be
Every normal human being will want to leave wherever he has been for the next higher, better and more promising point.
Tastes and values differ from one person to another. What one person desires may not be appealing to the other. However, everyone desires something good. What Mr. X wants might be what Mr. Y wants to leave behind. Mr. X might be desiring to get to the point Mr. Y is working away from.
Our desires might not be the same but we certainly desire to make advances. The onus is now on you to know where you want to be that is on the progressive line.
No one goes to the train station or the bus park and buys a ticket to anywhere; he will not only be considered unserious, he can’t get on that train or bus. To be able to leave a point for another, it is important you know where you want to be next. You cannot be ambitious for any where; it must be for something or somewhere.
Where do you want to be? This question should be the first tool you should be armed with. Having established this, then you will be ready for the next level which is
How to connect the above Two.
Now, let’s look at how to connect from where you are to where you want to be. As we have just established, it is important for you if you are leaving a certain point to be properly armed with the knowledge of where you want to be. This knowledge solves a great proportion of this puzzle.
I would like to make bold here to say that what you see is what you get. If seeing then brings possession, it becomes imperative that you must keep in sight that place you want to be if you must get there.
God ones told Abraham in scriptures that as far as he could see he would get. This therefore implies that your mind is the major tool employed in the journey of life. You must be able to settle in your mind where you want to be and keep your mind stayed on that picture- then sooner or later you’d have landed.
There is a force in man that is resident in his mind that propels the entire body of the human being to wherever the mind agrees he should be. For example; a man takes off from point A and has prepared and settled in his mind that his destination is point B. when the man takes off from point A – let’s assume he is driving – he may have wandered away in his mind from the thoughts of his journey, but because his mind already is fixed on destination, he has no problem navigating and negotiating bends and turns leading directly to his destination even when he is not thinking about it- the mind knows where to go.
Take for another example: you are being driven in a car or bus and while your thoughts are on many other things outside of your destination; the vehicle veers off the route to your destination. You will immediately come to yourself and be awakened to the fact that something went wrong. Immediately, your mind is quickened.
Why is this so? You may have already wandered off your goal, but the mind being equipped with the information of the next point controls your entire being in the proper direction.
To be where you want to be, you must know where and feed the information of the destination into the minds data base. Once this is done, the mind knows how to process the rest of the journey.
Consequently, to connect from point where you are to point where you want to be, you must have proper knowledge of what you want and feed that into your mind, then move out in faith. The mind doesn’t fail. It will always process what you feed into it. Therefore, it is important to know where to go.
• To know where to go.
God supernaturally has set a mechanism in place in the human mind to guide him to where he ought to be at every giving stage in his life.
You cannot suggest to a young girl of age seven, nine or ten, who is still tumbling to unravel the knots of her basic education, what it is for her to get married. She will simply laugh at you with disdain as though it is a taboo for her to be married. This is because God has set a rhythm in the mind of man to expect one stage at a time. The mind yearns and longs for the stage that is next in line according to the rhythm.
An adolescent child would rather pick a toy car than the keys of a real car. Life is in stages and the mind is programmed to follow the sequence. People who jump the order of this sequence and force themselves to be in advanced stages well ahead of where they ought to be actually have fast forwarded their lives. Little should you wonder why their lives are cut short mysteriously. You can’t jump the gun. It’s a sequence.
The mind triggers off an alarm mechanism that sends signals to you hinting you on what stage you should expect next. This is expressed by the propelling urge you begin to have for the next stage. When a young lady begins to reach the final stage of her school – may be university degree or she begins to approach age twenty five and above, automatically, marriage becomes her subject matter – not car. The mind knows how to set the priorities in order because it is in sequence.
Therefore, as you look in wards and listen to your mind, you would know where you should be next.
The man at a certain stage of his life may desire many things – a house, a car, a wife, that bigger job. However, one is dominant in his mind. That is the next stage. Set your heart at and give it every push. You will get there. You will receive it.
How do you know if you are there?
The pure feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment that lingers for a while.
Some people misplace priority and distort that order of the minds rhythm. They shoot high their desire and expectation beyond the next stage. They do everything to get it or get there. As soon as they have it, they lose the value. It loses its flavor to them.
But consider this. A man begins to yearn for the next position in his office – say Deputy Manager. He works hard for it, Prays hard for it; then eventually he gets it. The yearning is as a result of signals from the mind that this is next. He becomes preoccupied with that desire. Finally, he gets it. He relaxes for a while. The dissatisfaction sets in again. He wants to be full Manager. He becomes enflamed with this desire. Deputy managerial seat is no longer exciting. The future is beckoning on him. The mind says, “that is the next level, go for it”. When he gets there, there is joy and excitement for sometime before the sequence takes its toll again.
A lady desires marriage at all costs. She gets it. Celebrate it for sometime and then the steam condense and she longs for something more that didn’t matter so much before marriage become a reality: may be babies or something else. That inner feeling of I need this, it is my time, time is running out, I want to get there, is a sign of where you ought to be next. The prolong excitement when you get there confirms you are there.
• Finally, how do you go from where you are to where you want to be?
The best way to draw straight line on the sand with your foot from point A to B is to stand at point A, fix your gaze on point B, and without distraction – draw your line. The picture of point B that you maintained permanently on your mind as you gaze on it takes you there undeterred. Nothing stops you because obstacles are the things you see when you take your eyes off your target.
Shalom.
TOUGH TIMES ARE INEVITABLE
TOUGH TIMES ARE INEVITABLE,
DON’T PANIC
Imagine life without fire. They say “fire is a good servant but a bad master”. In any case, how would life have been like without it? Think of the so many uses of fire; how would we have been able to by- pass its usefulness and still get the same result?
First, I would like us to take time and discuss fire and its usefulness.
· We cook, bake, fry, steam, grill, roast etc with fire. How does fire affect the raw foods it’s applied on?
There are several answers to this but let it suffice us to limit ourselves to just about a few for this episode.
· When heat is applied to the food we would cook to eat, the chains boding the molecules of that food substance are broken down loosening the molecules to be free, thereby making the food substance soft and easy to masticate and digest.
Points: When we as humans go through the heat of life – high and long enough, some stubborn traits we call life-style, habits and attitude are bound to get some attention. Some traits and negative attributes we so doggedly and ruthlessly hold onto believing that’s just the way life should go have a way of breaking away when life hands us some hard tough tissues to chew. This way we do re-think and look at life differently. This loosens us and make us easily adaptable to life
· When heat is applied to the raw flesh we would roast or grill to eat, it has its way of dispelling the blood in it which is the life of the flesh, and making it “Humanly” consumable.
Points: Only the heat of life which I call tough time can convincingly change a man’s perception of life which we may call old habits that are picked up early in life as we begin to grow and those we have been molded into by our environments. I believe strongly that a man’s character traits and emotional traits can change no matter how deeply rooted that is in the man. Fire knows how to do the job which in this case is ‘Tough times’. A lazy man will not be taught to wake up when life’s heat begin to get to boiling point so also a man who so rigidly believes in one style of living as laid down by “tradition”. When he begins to slope down the sleepy paths of life that would ditch him, he wouldn’t need a lecture on how to find an alternative route. That’s what life’s fire would naturally teach you.
· When we steam or boil the food we would eat or water we’d drink, every pathogenic or harmful micro-organism that’s visible to the eyes are killed.
Point: Many people from the developed nations and the western world who have had a good and stressless life handed them by the civilization of their world would break down at the slightest twist in the order of their easy-going, ready-made, remote-controlled fast-tracked life. If the water they drink is not distilled they would purge. If the meal they eat is not pressure-cooked micro-wave maintained, they will have a fever. So they see those of us from the rugged world as abnormal. Yet, those of us who are raised in the ghettos, who drink anything but clean water and eat anything but balanced diet, believe we are healthier than they are. The same food or drink that would land them flat on the hospital beds is the same delicacies that nourishes our muscles and yet, many of them cannot stand the strain that we would easily walk over. We are healthy and live long. What makes the difference? We are born into the heat, lived in the heat, trained in the heat and strengthened in the heat. So, what they call tough time is a walk-over for us.
Do you wonder why the marathon race belongs to the underdeveloped mountainous people? Hard life.
However, every human being is born to taste of the heat of life for that’s the crucible where destiny is pounded and the oven where purposes are baked. Jesus said “For every one shall be salted with fire,” Mark 9: 49
· When iron or steel is brought under sufficient heat, it becomes red-hot, malleable, soft and ready to be molded into any shape its lord desires.
Point: Some of us are too stubborn, heady, puffy and full of ourselves and don’t believe any one should tell us what we don’t want to hear. This has robbed a great number of folks of the blessings of life. Never mind, strong heat knows how to handle stuffs like that.
Tough times are God-made and it is a school of maturity. You can’t trust anyone who hasn’t been through tough times with the real issues of life. He is not yet developed. Tough times are the furnace where true character is developed.
Like the military it is in during a drilling exercise when they have to get words out of someone by tough drills, you break a stubborn hardened man from old ways to assume a new one under intense heat. It could just be God’s way too to get a man’s attention and bend him to fit into God’s will for him.
· The test of the quality of a gem like gold or diamond is by the quality of heat it absorbed.
Point: There are varying degrees of the quality of Gold. Some are tougher and more durable than others. This too is determined by how much heat went into them.
As gold is a mere metal dug from the earth, powdery and mined with dust, and it takes fire to separate the gold from the earthy impurities, so also it requires fire to heat out debris and all sort of unhealthy junks from our nature. Two people of the same background do not necessarily have the same character. The quality of their character can be fetched from the measure of life’s experiences they have had.
The quality of ceramics is determined by how much heat it took to bake the clay. Tough times are inevitable for it is not an accident but life’s way of defining a pure path for our defined purposes and true roles in life.
The bible says “But He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” Job 23: 10.
We were all born into the world the same way and as crude as petroleum, but nature’s way of separating the gasoline from kerosene, spirit from grease is by fire. From the same crude oil that you get mentholated spirit is where you get PVC or plastics. All these are from the same crude oil but we get different product, texture and materials from it. Why is that so? Heat. The quality of heat applied to the crude substance determines what you get out of it.
Certainly, Tough times are inevitable. You shouldn’t panic. The bible says “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth” Lamentation 3:27.
Even God attest to the fact that we all must bear our yoke at one time or another; when you bear it is of great significance. If you bear it in your youth maintaining the right attitude through it all, you will cross to the next phase expected of you. If you keep the wrong attitude, you may not come out of the yoke stage in time.
There is no promotion without an exam. It is the “Tough times’ that tries us at every stage in our lives to grant us passage to the next if we waddle through the trying stage well.
Developing from one stage to the next takes Tough time. It is a sure way to qualify you for the next. Unfortunately, many people spend all their lives in this stage never learning any lesson from it so they can move on up.
A butterfly or a moth doesn’t just emerge from egg to fly. They pass through varying developmental stages. Transiting from one stage say larva, pupa or cocoon to the next is not a flash in the pan. It takes struggle. (Struggle is nature’s way to strengthen). At the final stage of its development, the cocoon does not just crack and let the butterfly out. The insect emerge through hardship, struggle, labour and tough time.
Ones, a man saw a cocoon from which the butterfly had stuck out its head and a wing just emerging into life. Seeing it wrangling and going through tough time, the man picked his pen- knife to let out the insect, only to discover to his amazement that the part that struggled its way out is the only part of the insect that has developed. The other parts still in the cocoon was nothing but mere fluid.
This goes to mean therefore that pity is not the key to helping a man who is going through his Tough time now, but encouraging him to finish strong.
Sometimes, your best friend could be that man who threw you out and left you stranded in the middle of nowhere to dig your way through life all by yourself. And your worst enemy could equally be that man who “loves” and cares for you so much that he won’t let you lift so much as a finger to do something for yourself.
We have more obessed people in developed world than in the underdeveloped. Why? Easy life, more problems for the soul.
Everyone who ever mattered and succeeded genuinely in this world had his fair share of tough times. They are building blocks for fulfillment and attainment of greatness.
Check out the histories of great people in time, our contemporary days and in bible times. They all had their chunk of tough times before they got to the pinnacle of their purposes in life.
Take a few people in the bible and maybe one or two in our days just for examples
- Abraham’s journeys wasn’t a picnic neither was his submission to God an easy task. He had to make tough decisions in his life before he got the name “friend of God’.
- Job was a man we know little or nothing about his early life. We do know that he had it going for him. When it got to the time when God would promote him, he had to be put to the test. It was tough. Coming out of it landed him on the double portion pedestal.
- David having been anointed went through tough times before getting to the throne he was ordained for. From time to time as a king he still needed the “Tough time” exam to not only strengthen him as king but to establish him more and to push him higher.
- Joseph couldn’t have had his brothers come to bow to him had God not stretched him through his trying season of ‘Tough time’. He came out and ruled them all.
The list is long with Jesus capping it. It was said of Jesus that “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross (Tough time), despising the shame, and He’s seating down at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb.12: 2b
Sounds more like Tough time is the pathway to the throne.
Abraham Lincoln, Bill Clinton and countless people in our time rode through the paths of Tough time to the throne.
Tough time is not a vice; it’s a price to pay for the high calling.
Ask the sports men and women who made marks in their fields, they’d tell you it was tough getting there.
Do not panic at the sound of the word TOUGH TIMES, rather rejoice because it is not an end but a stepping stone to the next level. It’s like an examination before the promotion to the next grade.
However, TOUGH TIMES is not a once and all for event, it is the occasional event that heralds the threshold or an opportunity for a lift.
TOUGH TIMES MUST COME if you really matter in life and has an assignment to affect and shape your world. So, DON’T PANIC.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
OUT OF PRISON
OUT OF PRISON
Josh. 6: 1
The above story is a very striking story relevant to the issue we intend to look at in this edition. This story is a case of self imprisonment based on experience or hear say. In chapter 2: 11 of the same Joshua, we would hear a woman of Jericho
I know many young people who in a way have also “imprisoned” themselves in certain areas of their lives judging by their experiences when they were growing up. Some female folks won’t open up to any man because they don’t trust any man. “All men are the same”, they conclude. But how wrong they are. That they were unfortunate to have had a first experience with the wrong man does not mean all men are like that neither does it mean that if the first relationship was wrecked, all others would wreck the same way. It is not enough to justify your actions by one bad experience you had. All these would really count in matters of relationships.
A lady I know whom I would really NOT describe as unfortunate had had three bad relationships that ended in very ugly circumstances. She drew the curtain and concluded that all men are the same. She never trusted any man again. While talking with her, I learned that the mother too had had failed marriages, so it became almost impossible to convince her that there’s always a two side to a coin. For this lady, it was a combination of both experience and ‘hear say’ that sealed up her fate. Cracking her was like blasting a granite hill with a weak dynamite. Well, thank God she was set free eventually.
Some children arrive at a weak conclusion from the experience their parents suffered. A little girl growing up who would watch her mother being battered by her father or step-father may grow up having phobia for men in general and may not want to marry because, as it were, “that’s how all men are”. There is a strong need for those who are caught in this delusive web to have a change of mind.
We are all products of our backgrounds and upbringing. “Except there’s a reorientation, we are bound to believe the path we are on is the only path or our life style is the best. What we were taught, experienced or observed while growing up tend to fuse into our sub-consciousness making us accept them as a way of life. A young man once told me, when I confronted him as to why he should be beating his wife, that he didn’t see anything wrong with it because even his father did the same to his mother. He has come to accept that ill as a normal thing to do. He had seen his father did that many times and had reached an agreement with himself that it was normal to behave that way. Thank God he became sober and changed after he was told it was abnormal to act that way.
Don’t shut your doors to opportunities simply because you have had some bad experiences or faulty starts. Remember always that the beginner is not the runner, but he who runs well and brings it to a successful end. You may have failed seven times, be bold enough to rise again. That your mother had failed marriages does not seal up your destiny that you must fail as well. Don’t judge all by the actions of a few. It is self-imprisonment to believe that nothing good can ever come out of any situation because you have had bad experiences. Your first experiences in relationship may have been unfortunate. That doesn’t put paid to the thinking that they will all go that way. There’s always room for a make-over. You can always start all over again. That your first experience was a rape shouldn’t imply that life would always hand you a crisis situation. If you toss a coin a few times and it landed on same side; don’t conclude that there is just one side to the coin. The fact is there are two sides to a coin. Toss again. It is fear that wouldn’t let you trust and plunge in again after a bad start. But fear has torment; remember? It is fear that would stiffen you and keep you bound to a sport when the world is full of endless opportunities.
I’ve always learned that these two sentences are usually difficult to say: “I’m sorry”, and “I was wrong”. For the same reason also, many may not be able to say “help me”, and “I love you” sincerely and in honesty except a few who have conquered ego. Pride is a monster: a very wild one for that and yet very sleeky and subtle.
Why would I not want to accept I’m wrong if I am except that, I have blown by ego out of proportion? To be wrong in a fight, quarrel or an argument and refuse to accept your fault exposes your weakness rather than put you on a positive side. It takes strength to crack the shell of pride. And, if it is so difficult for a man to accept his fault when he is wrong, who will dare tell him to initiate the move to let peace reign when he is not to blame in a scuffle. I believe very strongly that it’s just one of the several schemes of the devil to waste man’s very precious productive time on baseless and unfruitful, time and energy draining malicious exercise when he turns your attention to yourself making you see reasons why you shouldn’t condescend to apologize, accept your fault when you are wrong or be the first to initiate a peace move.
Think about this; ‘a stitch in time saves nine’ they say. If you resolve any misunderstanding between you and your spouse or any body you have a quarrel with right there and then you save and conserve energy and time to be put into useful and purposeful exercise that will benefit you. Don’t let the devil steal your precious moments. Spend your time gainfully.
Man of honour, after a quarrel with your spouse – be the first to initiate the move to resolve the problem. She is called the weaker vessel. It takes strength to say “I’m sorry”. That’s why you are a man of honour. Have you noticed that every time you have an unresolved quarrel with someone very close to you, a part of you feels sick for as long as the malice last? No wonder the bible says “don’t let the sun go down upon your anger”. Resolve it immediately and free yourself.
There is what is called the Root of Bitterness. It is borne out of unresolved misunderstandings and leads to restlessness, hatred, loss of peace and joy and ultimately to sickness that are often undiagnosable and without cure. As long as the malice last, you are in chains of bondage. You lose concentration and are unhappy and bitter. Why suffer all these when you can damn every ego-centric attitude, damn the devil and his schemes by reminding yourself how important and glorious your destiny is to you and can not be traded for any self-esteem or ego.
Have you also noticed the peace, joy and freshness you feel when you make-up with a close one after a long break of malice. That’s what you lose to the devil or the enemy when you lay hold on your ego and insist on your ‘right’ when you can actually lay it off, throw it behind you right there and move on into a harmonious and productive future with your life.
Think about how the world will be like if no body waits for the other person to initiate the peace move but takes the initiative whether he is right or wrong. Let’s make this world a better place for us to live in and for those around us, if not for what we make out of it but at least for the fact that we are in it. Be the man because you are the man.
START THINKING OF TOMORROW
START THINKING OF TOMORROW
A man’s life is grossly predicated upon the quality of his thoughts. You are as strong as your thinking power. Thoughts are very powerful for it is the brewing house for destinies. Like I would always say; “you are the architect of your destiny”. True, God is in control of everything and has our destinies in his hands. But the reality is that not many people end up well and you wouldn’t blame God for their woes. Gods wish like He said is that we prosper and have good health as our souls prospers. If anyone ends up badly he should not therefore blame it on God. God gave everybody equal chances and a level play ground, but some do better than others.
God Himself is a thinker. No wonder everything He did are perfect and well laid out because they were well thought out. He said “I know the thoughts I think towards you”.
So God thinks. His thoughts for us are thoughts of good and not of evil, to give us a future and a hope. If you want to key into this future and a hope God expects for you – some other versions puts it thus: to give you an expected end- you will have to learn to align your thoughts with His.
His thought for you is to give you an expected end; call it an expected future. What future do you have if you have no expectations? Expectations are borne in your thinking. What you are expecting is what you think about and that is what you get. What then do you get if you are not expecting anything? because, you are not thinking about anything.
Start thinking about tomorrow. Design a tomorrow of your desire now in your mind and watch it birthed spontaneously. You are the architect of your tomorrow if you know how to fuse into Gods thought for you.
One fact still remains, you can only conveniently go forward; which by implication means that you go in the direction that you face. If you keep dwelling on your past, that is what you think about; invariably, that is where you face and that is where you are headed for. Your past is a forgotten reality. It is as good as non-existent. Dwelling in it is as living in a non-existent world. It takes you back and leaves you to be a relic of your true personality. The past holds nothing for anybody. Yesterday is gone with all its pains and gains, glories and agonies. All the failures and defeats of yesterday went with yesterday. All the victories and triumphs of yesterday died with yesterday.
Ruminating upon the ups and downs of yesterday leaves you to build antiquities upon a world that will never be. It obscures you from seeing the reality called today and debars you from entering a world of endless opportunities, whose doors are wide open without bars or barriers, called tomorrow. All the people I know who dwell on their past whether good or bad, are always filled with self-pity, bitterness, discouragement and fear of the future.
Because yesterday is already gone, it is already defeated with its glories and woes. If you hang in there, you become defeated even before you begin or even tried.
Let the failures and defeats of yesterday spur you up to conquer your tomorrow. Learn from the failures and defeats. Resolve to correct the wrongs and come out better. Let the experience of yesterday become a platform to do more, shine brighter and be better experienced. Don’t fool yourself; failure is inevitable, it is only a pathway to success. Even the just falls but he rise again and learn from the fall.
Let the triumphs and glories of yesterday stir up that latent greatness in you, provoking you to stretch yourself some more. Yesterday’s glory is not good enough for today. Set new record. Some years back 10.09 sec was the world record for 100m sprint in athletics. Today, it is no where close to the new record of 9.sec. In summary, yesterday is no longer your own. Discard it. Stop sulking about the disappointments you’ve had and how you’ve been maltreated. Who did what and who didn’t shouldn’t matter to an achiever. The world is moving ahead. Move on along.
Today is the only day you have. What you make of it will determine what tomorrow will bring forth. If you have missed yesterday’s opportunities, if you have made a wreck of yesterday, you have today to erase all of that and begin on a fresh page.
Today is very important. It is upon the foundation you lay today that tomorrow’s building blocks are set. What structure do you hope to build tomorrow? Lay the foundation today. Let your foundation be structured to hold your tomorrow’s dream. Start thinking about tomorrow as you live today.
Do not let the circumstances define you. You can actually define your circumstances. Worrying about today’s situation cannot hand you a desired tomorrow. Remember, worry is like a rocking chair that gives you so much to do and takes you to nowhere. Rather, engage your mind in a more prospective planning by designing now in your thoughts a more fruitful and a better tomorrow. It all begins in the mind: fertilized, conceived and birthed.
Design your tomorrow now and create a picture of your expected future in your mind. The most powerful tool God gave to man is his mind. That’s where life’s details are incubated and hatched before visible manifestations. He is a focused man who has expectations. The man without expectations just gets by and has no choice but to accept whatever life pushes at him.
Just as your body will always go in the direction of your eyes, so your life goes in the direction of your vision. What you see is what you get. There is a supernatural propensity for your life to drive in the direction of your expectations.
Pause for a moment and ask yourself some questions.
- What do you want to make out of life?
- How do you want tomorrow to be like for you?
- If given an opportunity to design you tomorrow, what would you do with the opportunity?
Now, you have the opportunity in your hand and the painting tools in your mind, get busy. Design your tomorrow and don’t lose sight of it. Let that picture remain in your daily thoughts and I guarantee you by God’s word, you will have it. “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Prov. 23:7
You can never over-emphasize the power of imagination. Even God attests to this truth: “And the Lord said,…nothing they have imagined they can do will be impossible for them” Gen. 11:6. First, it is brewed in the mind, and then the rest is a world of possibilities. But then, you must imagine it first. No vision, no drive. No expectation, no pull. There has to be something to live for.
God told Abraham – as far as he could see, that he would get – Gen. 13:14-15. Abraham immediately began to see in his mind a broad picture. And true to it, he got as far as he saw. What do you see? Start now to see. If you are thoughtless, you will be thankless. If you are thoughtful today, you will have a cause to be thankful tomorrow. The best is yet to be born. 2009 can still be the best year you will ever have. You only need to start now to make it so.
Definitely, things will seem to go wrong along the way and events may take a turn contrary to your expectation, but deliberately delight yourself in your expectation. Keep the right attitude. Dictate your mood and not the circumstances around dictating to you. Remember, no one can make you unhappy. It’s a choice you make. Don’t lose your steam because things are not happening the way you expect them to. “Wait for it” the bible says. How soon it comes through to you depends on the attitude you keep
- Remember, ‘He can who thinks he can’
- With your attitude right, do not lose sight of your vision. Keep your goals and target in focus and you can’t miss it.
The only hindrance I see to your achieving your thoughts in 2009 is you. Keep the right spirit even in the face of seemingly opposition and you can’t miss your expectation. Obstacles are the things you see when you take your eyes off your target.
T hink possibility and positivity.
H ave a right spirit towards life
I mbibe into your mind what it should reproduce for you.
N ever give up even in the face of seemingly opposition
K eep the right attitude.
Every good thing must be tested. Your good thoughts must be challenged by the tides and storms of life, tenacity in the face of the storm will see you through with God on your side.
Have a fruitful, successful, prosperous, and fulfilling year 2009 ahead.
Happy New year!!!
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