Handling invisible success
Bible Reading: Acts 9:19-31
If you invested $100 last month and today, you have a return of $20, that’s a visible progress. However, there are many instances in life when it seems as though we are sowing so much seeds and not reaping any harvest; when our output is not commensurate to our input; when our desired result is not achieved despite our persistent effort. At such times, many of us give up on our deepest desires and dreams. Good or bad?
Every good success has an incubation period. If a hen is incubating its eggs, you may not see its chicks within the first 15 days. But that does not mean it is not progressing. Every success carries the pregnancy of another success just like the hen’s egg is a potential chicken. But if you do not give a good treatment to an unborn success, it may suffer from miscarriage. What do I mean? How do you treat an unborn success? Let’s learn from the examples below.
After apostle Paul got saved, he went about preaching the gospel but there was no record of salvation or miracle in his early days in ministry. In fact, the Jews tried to kill him and most believers refused to associate with him because they did not believe he was a Christian. Was he making progress? Yes. Was this progress visible? I don’t think so. But Paul pressed on. Perhaps if he had given up, we may not have had majority of the New Testament books of the Bible today.
Towards building the world’s first successful airplane, the Wright brothers (Orville and Wilbur) had several attempts with no visible success. In fact, in 1901 they suffered major disappointments to the extent that while on a trip home, Wilbur remarked to Orville thatman would fly, but not in their lifetimes. But he was wrong; man flew before his very eyes. Their persistence made them discover an appropriate equation for airplane lift. Two years later, they were the first to invent aircraft controls that made commercial flight practical1.
In 1980, Bishop T.D Jakes was the pastor of a church of 10 members. In 1990, his congregation was about 100 members, but today, the Church he administers has a congregation of about 30,000 members2. That is, between 1980 and 1990, an average of 10 members was added to his congregation yearly. What if he had felt he wasn’t making progress and backed out of ministry in 1989, will he be affecting millions of lives like he is doing today?
We have great expectations. We have targets. We have a set time that we want to see our desired result. But if they do not materialize like we expected, it is not a time to give up. When progress appears invisible despite your consistent and right efforts, it is a time to keep pressing on. Persistence helps translates a success in your heart into a success on earth. By persistence, even the snail with its natural slow pace entered Noah’s ark (Charles Spurgeon).
References:
1 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Brothers : Accessed 1/8/07
2 – http://www.topblacks.com/religion/t-d-jakes.htm : Accessed 1/8/07
– tope aladenusi
And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. Mat 18:2-5
Sometime ago I asked children in my Sunday school class the question, “how many of you tell lies?” In response I got several hands up. These ones didn’t care who was watching them or what the person felt, they were just being honest.
In the Bible passage above Jesus is teaching us a great lesson we need to live by. You need to be converted and live like children again to enter the Kingdom of God.
What is the kingdom of God about? It’s about a domain where God’s rules reign and as a result His Peace, Joy, Love, and Righteousness abound such place. If we are going make our marriage a prototype of God’s kingdom then we need to be converted.
In children’s world except for now that adults are beginning to negatively influence this pure ones, there is innocence, truthfulness, no malice, self expression, trust.
Have you lost your pure thoughts about your marriage?
What are you keeping from your spouse?
What is that hurt, you keep in your heart?
What are those words you have left unsaid to one another?
Who are you looking out to impress at the expense of your marriage?
Humble yourself like the little child and let God lift you up.
It is well with your relationship in Jesus Name.
Shalom
omolola ezeifeoma
And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond ON THE SABBATH DAY? Luke13:16
Religion and men’s traditions can rob you of your healing if you let them.Religion does nothing other than provide you with excuses why you should not be healed. With religion, something is always wrong. It’s either you’rethe wrong person or it’s the wrong day or you’re seeking your healing the wrong way.
The prostitute that wiped Jesus feet with her hair was the wrong person.The woman healed from her infirmity of eighteen years was healed on the wrong day. Blind Bartimeus who screamed at the top of his voice to get the attention of Jesus who was shielded away from him by the crowd was seeking his healing the wrong way. Nothing is right with religion, everything is wrong with it. If you listen to the voice of religion, you will not be healed!
There are thousands of believers today all over the world who are dying on their sick beds from one infirmity or the other because they accepted one or more of the many ‘religious excuses’ handed over to them why they should not expect to be healed.
Though these ‘excuses’ are many and varied ranging from ‘God no longer heals today’ to ‘God heals who he wants, when he wants,’ the answer to these many excuses can be summarized in one sentence. HEALING IS THE RIGHT OF THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF ABRAHAM AND THAT’S WHO WE ARE! (Gal 3:6-7)
You don’t need to be a special person, have a special qualification or use a special method before you can exercise your Right. A Right can be exercisedanytime, any day and any where. Healing is your Right. Exercise that right TODAY!
Dr deji oyebamiji
One of the greatest principles occurring over and over in scriptures is the power of words.
WORDS! WORDS!! WORDS!!!
Words are double edged. Words we speak and words we hear. Both are very important. Let’s start with words we speak.
Somebody once said that he was great because he was standing on the shoulder of great men. Understanding words is learning the power of the greatest.
Let me ask you. How was the world formed? How is the world sustained? How will the world be destroyed?
“By faith we understand that the things which are seen were made from the things which are not seen”
From where do we understand? From creation. “and God SAID let there be…….“and God SAID let there be…….“and God SAID let there be……….and it was so.
The simplicity of creation displays a very potent tool. All things seen were made from the things not seen by the word. Whatever God wanted he spoke forth FIRST. Everything that came to being was first spoken. Everything! God operates by calling “those things that are not as though they were”. Learn that. Call, speak, say what you want as if it is already. The power of life and death lies in the power of the tongue.
Speaking Gods word to your life creates your future. Speaking words in line with Gods word ensures that future. It really does not matter where you are today. If you consistently speak what and where you want to be tomorrow, you will get there. It doesn’t matter if you feel you believe it or not. God honors His words. He honors the words you speak. He honored the words of Joshua to stop the moon and the sun…..he honored the words of the Israelites and they did not see the Promised Land. As they have said to his ears, so he does. Whichever way you speak, it is honored.
Kenneth Copeland summarizes it this way “YOU ARE THE PROPHET OF YOUR LIFE”. Life responds to what you say. What you say creates what you said. All things act in a way to produce that which has been spoken. Jesus acted and lived in a way to fulfill that which was spoken by the prophets. It gladdens my heart each time I read “that it might be fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet….” in scriptures.
Don’t speak anyhow. Be wiser than the people of this age who chant regularly exploiting this powerful tool of life.
You are liable for the words you speak because they determine your tomorrow. Everything that happened in my life till date I spoke forth at some point in life. Positive and negative. So I know where I will be tomorrow because I speak my tomorrow today.
Watch your words. Use them correctly. Speak your tomorrow today. Don’t be careless with words because they will be honored.
When you wake up speak, when you work or walk speak, when you are faced with a situation speak the outcome you want…..always call what you want the way you want it.
With your words you set on fire the course of life.
Don’t forget.
– emmanuel aladenusi
This time shall pass away
Bible Reading: Philippians 3:12-13
Looking around me and seeing the lives of so many people filled with abandoned projects, I became disturbed that if I do not act fast, I could end up like them. So I visited Pastor Gabriel Ajibade (Head of Christ Lifeline eCounseling unit) some years ago to seek his counsel on how to maintain consistency and improvement in every good thing I do. Although he said many things, there was one story he shared with me which I will never forget …
Once upon a time, a man sat down to think about all his life experiences. He realized that sometimes terrible things happen to him and the pain he experienced made him feel as though he cannot continue with life. But after some time, the pain disappears. Other times, after achieving success in a particular area of his life, he feels so happy and wishes he can just remain in that mood forever – celebrating his success. But in a short time, that success seems outdated and he needs to make improvement. So he asked himself – what can I do that will always remind me that pain or success most times gets outdated? After thinking for some time, he inscribed this lettering on the walls of his house … “THIS TIME SHALL PASS AWAY”.
Hmm … May be if the manufacturers of typewriters knew this, they would have known that the time of computers will come and make a nonsense of their business if they don’t update their products. Perhaps the photographer I saw his advert some months ago that read “get your passport in one hour” would have updated his camera and change his advert to “get your passport in one minute”. The changes taking place in the world is so rapid that your present success may be seen as a huge failure whenthis time passes away. In 5 to 10 years from now, will the success you are celebrating today still be very significant?
It is good to give your best to your last performance and ensure it is your best at that moment, but after the successful result, remember the popular saying – ‘the greatest enemy of tomorrow’s success is today’s success’. When you have a feeling that you have arrived and you keep celebrating today’s success, you may not see the opportunities of improvement that tomorrow will present. Peter Drucker once said “no one has ever made a significant impact after they won the Nobel Prize”.
Thank God for Pastor Gabriel’s counsel. Right now, after every latest success, I use my invisible marker to write this lettering on the closest wall: “This Time Shall Pass Away”.
tope aladenusi
Reasons trail most actions in the world, except for few ones in which case the person in question is suspected for insanity, though I feel that an insane person believes there are reasons for his actions despite his mental derailment. When we take a closer look at what our friends, relations, acquaintances etc do and their actions seems to interest us we often decide to act likewise. To emulate someone’s character or lifestyle is not bad but we rarely determine in our heart to weigh and assess properly the pros and cons of their actions. It is not uncommon to see someone act like a friend just did. For example, somebody just decided to reduce the time spent praying due to tight schedules or present challenges, and after being observed by a friend sometime later, such an attitude becomes the status quo for that friend also.
There is a similar instruction in bible that encourages us to give room for external influence but it is with a caution note; Gal 4:18 “But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you”. I understand that bible definition of ‘a good thing’ is quite different from that of so many of us. Notwithstanding, let God be true and all men be liars (Romans 3: 4). Neither relenting on our efforts can be called ‘good’; nor can acting contrary to our initial conviction in God’s scriptural truth be called ‘good’. For instance, telling of lies instead of the truth is slanderously called ‘holy lie’, while stealing as of today is referred to pilfering.
No matter how we beautify and justify our decaying spiritual retrogression, it is still wrong in the sight of God. Faithfulness in God is not supposed to be for a while but till we are done with our assignment here on earth.
Awake from that SLUMBER and SLOTHFULNESS, stand upright and PRAY. Remember 2Co 10:12 “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise”.
– adeyiga awomuti
| But he answered and said, it is not meet to take THE CHILDREN’S BREAD, and to cast it to dogs. Matt 15:26
The world is full of children and dogs. Some of us are children, all the others are dogs. That’s how God sees things. Imagine preparing a wonderful delicacy for dinner. Your children are up stairs playing with their toys to pacify their hunger a little bit. Then just as soon as you get through cooking, you set the table real nice and then go call all the dogs in the neighborhood to come and have a treat. There are at last 3 issues that will arise.
First, your sanity will be seriously put to questions. Second, your children will go hungry for the night. Third, those dogs would never appreciate your gesture because they cannot value it as much as your kids would.
Now you can see why Jesus said it is not meet (proper or fitting) to take the children’s bread and to cast it to dogs.
When Jesus made this statement, he was referring to healing because he made this statement to a syrophoenician woman who had a sick daughter and wanted Jesus to heal her daughter. Jesus called her a dog because she wasn’t a daughter of Abraham and then said that the bread of healing only belonged to the children. This is the point I want to emphasize here. According to Jesus, if you are a child of Abraham (and you are if you are born again – Gal3:6-7), then healing is your daily bread. It belongs to you!
It is the responsibility of every responsible father to provide daily bread for his children and Jesus said if we asked our Father for bread, he won’t give us a stone instead (Matt 7:9-11). Do you believe the scriptures? Then, if you do, rise up and take your bread today. BE HEALED IN JESUS NAME!
Dr deji oyebamiji
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I am so happy that we have the Word of God to hold on to, no matter what we go through in life. I don’t know what you are going through in your marriage or relationship at the moment but one thing I know is that, the issues you face today will pass. Just like the night gives way for the morning everyday, those things that make you fear that your dream marriage will not happen will pass away and give room for your dream.
Being married has made me realise that I really need to have someone to hold on to, someone I can throw all my weight upon when I am weak, someone who can love me in spite of all my past and future short comings, someone who always sees my heart and understands me, someone more than my husband … Jesus.
Just like anyone I have come to realise from experience that my dream marriage (just like yours) will not appear day one after the wedding. But one thing is for sure my marriage will evolve into my dream marriage.
Are you married? Are you going through issues in your marriage? Don’t give up! Hold on to God’s word and remember your dream marriage would evolve. God knows what you are going through and He has been there before. He was in your shoes when man fell in the garden, but unlike you being omniscience, the one who holds the future had Jesus as the ultimate plan for man’s redemption. Today, as a Christian you share His nature, you can be sure your dream marriage will come to pass. Remember in the beginning the earth was covered with water which speaks of instability but then God spoke and things began to take shape. Follow in His Steps.
Are you about to marry and in the midst of your wedding preparation you feel like you’re making a mistake due to pressures?
Don’t make the mistake many ahead of you have made. I have learnt from experience that many spend a lot trying to make the wedding ceremony a success and little attention is paid to life after the ceremony.
Oh I wish a great wedding ceremony will make a great marriage, believe me if it could, I would have mortgaged my earnings for the next twenty years for my wedding.
This is a mistake many make and I am sure someone is making at the moment.
I have discovered that the extravagant wedding ceremonies have been more of a pain for a lot of couples than a blessing. The guest have gone home talking about the display of wealth and all at the wedding. But the couple is left with debt incurred from trying to have a fairy tale wedding. The debts have even brought more strain to the newly weds relationship. Focus on the things that will improve on life after marriage and trust in God’s word all the way.
Are you in a budding relationship? Learn from the mistakes those ahead of you have made. Work towards being a better person, so you can have a dream marriage. Find out the things that are most important in life, chase them and make them your focus. Your dream marriage depends on who you are and the choices you will make. The choices you will make are determined by your person.
Love God and seek Him with all your heart, then God will settle you.
Read the Lyrics of a Song I love
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It takes a strong determination
Courage forgive
And heart that reconciles
Life full of devotion
Love that won’t give up
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Your dream marriage will only appear after you have given it All
Are you there yet to know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, all I am saying might be strange to you. The first step is an encounter with the Lord Jesus. It starts with realizing you are incomplete without Him and that you need Him.
Pray this prayer “Father I have come to realise I am incomplete without you, I am a sinner who is sorry, like the prodigal please take me back. I believe you gave your son for my sin and I confess He is Lord even in my life from TODAY. Help me from now, order my steps that I might grow in the knowledge and fear of you. Thank you father because I know you have heard me”
Feel free to write me to let me know you views especially if you have prayed this prayer. Your views are always welcome.
God Bless you!
– omolola ezeifeoma
Is the way you rate your success getting you into trouble?
Bible Reading: Philippians 3
How do you rate your performance in your career, ministry, marriage, business or any life endeavour? Let me remind you of what we do. A 100m athlete may tell you that his best timing was 9.8 seconds; most times this timing was achieved some months ago. An employee will remind you of a very challenging assignment he finished well before the deadline. Some pastors will tell you about their most fulfilling moment – how they preached a powerful message many years ago and several people became believers. In short, most people rate themselves based on the best thing they have done in the past.
Good! You have wonderful ratings if we are to scroll through your past. But the last time you did that same thing, how well did you do it? Is your best performance still dated far into the past?
In an Olympic competition, if an athlete came first during the preliminary selection but on the day of the final selection, he was last, he will not even be opportune to contest for a medal. Whether we choose to accept it or not, that’s the way life responds to us. Most times, our last performance has the greatest significance and may even rubbish all the other good performances of the past. Therefore, it is better to rate your last performance as your best performance.
I mean in your marriage, your best show of love is not what you did during honeymoon; it is what you displayed today. Your relevance to your employer is not too much of how well you used to deliver, but how you are handling your current assignment. Mr. Pilot, you may have a good flying record, but your passengers onboard are concerned about reaching their destination safely. Thou minister of God, rejoiceth thou over thy past exploits? As I write this piece, I am not focused on how well my writings have blessed many in the past. This is my last (best) performance and I want you to be motivated to take a step in the right direction after reading this piece.
Once you rate yourself based on your last performance, it helps you to give your best to the present and sends a positive errand to all that is in you, saying … “Do it better this time”.
Oh my God! I believe Apostle Paul got it clear like no one else. He said in Philippians 3:13 (GNB) – “I really do not think that I have already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead”. The present connects the past to the future. Therefore, he is doing his best today. Imagine like Paul that you do not have any memories of the past; that means your best is NOW!
Beloved, forget the best performance of the past, give your best to today’s performance … better than the past, rated as the best.
– tope aladenusi
And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all [men], that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with [you]. 1 Corinthians 9:20-23
Jesus is not coming to walk the face of the earth again. But praise God, He is still here – in you. People need not look for Him anymore for He is evidently displayed in you.
Is he?
The brevity of the question bellies the utmost importance it connotes. Is Christ seen in your everyday life? Is he heard in your private conversations/is he perceived in your presence? Is he felt in your touch? Is he tasted in your attitude? Is Christ the reason for your living? Are you ready to say “not the I but the You in me”? Are folks readily introduced to the overwhelming grace of God? Are you forward to let known the reason of the hope in you?
You may likely be anxious about how your message will be received. But let these words of the apostle Paul be to you an encouragement.
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20:23-24
– gideon gbeja