How do you make miraculous decisions?
One good question to ask in order to answer the question above is – how do we make up our minds? If we are able to ascertain the inputs in our decision making process, as well as the processing of the inputs that bring about an output called decision, then we can take charge of the input and processing phases of the process of making up our minds. With that, just like the computer, the output of this process can be predictable.
The computer was modelled after man. It has the input unit (e.g. keyboard, scanner, etc.), the processing unit (memory, processor, etc.) and the output unit (monitor screen, printer, etc.). Thus, if you type “Jesus” in MS-Word (a word processor), you will see “Jesus” on your screen. The output can be further processed by applying different formats and fonts. You cannot type “devil” on your keyboard and “Jesus” will appear on the screen even though you were shouting Jesus at the top of your voice as you were typing. Unfortunately that is the way I see many Christians behave today, including pastors. The inputs to the lives of many are largely controlled by the devil, but we want to shout the name of Jesus in prayers and vigils, and we want Jesus-like results to show in our lives. It doesn’t work that way.
When you want to make up your mind on any matter, your mind considers its frame of reference from its reference catalogue and takes a position. This “reference catalogue” can be summarised as all that we have been exposed to over time via our input units (eyes, ears, skin, etc.). The inputs to our decision making includes the knowledge our souls have been exposed to (books, movies, conversations, messages, bible, etc.); our background and experiences in life; the people we have associated with (friends, family, mentors); our environment (community, church) and feelings; as well as The Holy Spirit of God. The things you exposed yourself to yesterday are currently influencing your decisions today and the things you expose yourself to today will influence your decisions tomorrow. Therefore, in order to make miraculous decisions, we must ensure we take control of the birth place of decision making – the soul, and put appropriate measures in place to ensure that we feed it with the right inputs. Proverbs 4:23 (MSG) says, keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts.
Knowledge greatly affects your decision making. Research shows that the soul can store up to fifteen trillion facts; therefore everything you have gone through in life is siting somewhere in your soul’s reference catalogue. You reference them consciously or unconsciously during decision making. When I was young and unmarried, I saw that many marriages were failing and because I did not want to get into something that would fail, I made a decision not to get married in life. I wanted to be like Apostle Paul in the bible. By the time I got into the university, I told my friends that I was never going to get married. My past experiences influenced that decision. Eventually, I got married before most of my friends because that decision was changed; it was influenced by something higher than my past experiences. It was influenced by the Word of God.
Sometimes the facts you reference during decision making (e.g. your background like my example above) are beyond your control, but you can get into a “resetting and editing mode” when you get born again. You can put those facts under subjection to the Word of God. You can take them one by one and evaluate them with the message and revelation of Christ. This must be done consciously so that when next your soul makes reference to that fact, there is another link (further reference) to the Word because you have updated your catalogue or “database” (soul) during your time of meditation.
I like what Romans 12: 2 says – And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
We must consciously renew and keep our minds/souls guarded from useless information. Check the movies and books/articles you expose yourself to. Your life is not a garbage can so you should not be a dumping site for anything anyone conjectures up anywhere in the world. You have to be very selective with your inputs if you must be effective with your outputs. Don’t join those who say they while away time by lousy “gisting”.
If we must make miraculous decisions, we must take control of what goes into our souls and let the Word of God be the major influence of the decisions we make in life. If we don’t consciously get the Word to reset, edit and refresh our souls, then we are unconsciously allowing the devil to do so with the negative exposures we have had.
– Tope S. Aladenusi
Positioning yourself to always make miraculous decisions
In the last post of this series, we described miraculous decisions as the act of making up one’s mind by the power and purpose of God. This will in turn bring about some positive and powerful events in your life; it will make you live within the boundaries of God’s plan for your life. We also emphasised that when we gave our lives to Christ, we took a decision and a miracle occurred – we instantly received the life of God in our spirits. It is important we continue to live our lives in the same manner. We got born again by a miracle, we ought to constantly live in miracles the same way a fish that is born in water will need to remain in water to survive and thrive.
Today, we will discuss one sure way to take control of your conscious and unconscious decisions (and most decisions are unconscious anyway e.g. the decision to look downwards, touch your nose, drive your car in a particular way, etc.). We need to ensure that we make the right long term decisions or set the right long term goals for our lives. This is because this helps regulate other smaller short term / medium term decisions, whether consciously or unconsciously made.
A student in the university who is determined to graduate with a first class honours grade knows that his/her friends can make or mar the academic goal. The time spent doing things that are less important can hinder his/her progress just as the time spent studying helps make progress towards the desired goal. Hence, the decision to achieve academic excellence will help him/her regulate the conscious and unconscious decision-making pattern while on campus.
What are your long term goals in life? Some leaders have decided to impact their generation in a uniquely indelible way before they die, while mentoring others that will outperform them. Some others have set in their hearts that no one in their ministry or organisation will ever beat “their records”. Once we make our long term decisions, whether good or bad, we get into an auto-cruise mode such that our unconscious decisions and other smaller conscious decisions start regulating themselves to achieve that big long term decision. This is why we must know our purpose in life, because long term decisions help us know what our lives are about and clearly states what we want to achieve in life.
Jesus Christ said if your eye is single, then your whole body will be full of light (Mat 6:22). The Bible records in Hebrews 12:2 that Jesus endured the cross because of the joy set before him of having many sons for God. That long term decision regulated his life, and here is what He has to say about something that should be our life goal:
John 7:17 (AMP) – If any man desires to do His will (God’s pleasure), he will know (have the needed illumination to recognize, and can tell for himself) whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking from Myself and of My own accord and on My own authority.
I love this verse. It elucidates that taking that “big” decision to always do God’s purpose gives the necessary illumination we need to recognize consciously or unconsciously the right things to do, which includes knowing whether Jesus is of God or not. This is one deep secret to making miraculous decisions. In fact our greatest miracle took place when we aligned with God’s will by accepting the salvation of Jesus Christ. The next big step is to decide to live entirely for God and His purpose.
The truth is that many born again persons, including leaders in the church do not have this long term goal. If their hearts are searched deeply, their long term goals are things like – I will make it in this life (by which they mean, I will also be influential and popular in this life); or I will never suffer again and ensure my generations never experience poverty, etc. As nice as these may sound, they are too small to replace our life goals because a decision to live for the purpose of God overtakes such goals, allowing us to experience the love and prosperity of God.
Being born again, this is the next most pivotal decision to take. Will you genuinely take it today if you have not– to live for God’s purpose and pleasure all the days of your life? With this, you are uniquely positioned to always make miraculous decisions.
Tope Aladenusi
Great leaders are great decision makers. Look around you today and reflect on the life of any great leader you know; they are usually labelled great because of some profound things they do which are consequences of some decisions they had made at some point in their lives.
Pastor Enoch Adeboye is regarded by many as one of the most influential leaders in our day. His level of influence as a pastor and church leader has been the subject of debate in many quarters. But the interesting thing is that he used to be a full time lecturer before making the decision to go into full time pastoral and evangelistic work. I’d like you to imagine Pastor Adeboye today still as a full time lecturer in the university? There is no doubt that his identity and destiny today is greatly determined by the decision he made yesterday.
As leaders, each second is an opportunity to steer our lives in the right direction by making decisions we are conscious or unconscious about (Research shows that our minds can handle 15,000 decisions in one second, so most of our decisions are unconscious and we need to learn how to take charge of them). We cannot afford the risk of going too far too fast only for us to realise that we have been on the wrong road. Imagine if Apostle Paul remained a Pharisee? Or if Samson did not make the decision to rollick or frolic with Delilah? Imagine if we avoided make all the wrong decisions we make today in our ministries, families, careers and marriages?
Leaders are often required to make challenging decisions that affect not just their destinies, but those that they lead. I personally believe that as believers, we should train ourselves to constantly make miraculous decisions that will bring about positive events in our lives and of those who follow us.
So this series is not just about making decisions, but about making miraculous decisions. Why miraculous decisions?
Colossians 2:6 (AMP) says “As ye have therefore received Christ [even] Jesus the Lord, [so] walk (regulate your lives and conduct yourselves) in union with and conformity to Him.
When we gave our lives to Christ, we took a decision and a miracle occurred – we instantly received the life of God in our spirits. It is important we continue to live our lives in the same manner of miracles as we did when we got born again – by a miracle. The same way a fish that is born in water will need to remain in water to survive and thrive, we ought to constantly live in miracles. Also, just as a baby in the womb needs food, water and oxygen to survive, and the same is needed for a child to be sustained towards healthy living, believers must thrive in the same thing that brought about our emergence as Christians. Interestingly, any time our will aligns with the will of God, a miracle occurs even though it may not be spectacular. We cannot claim that we live, move and have our being in Christ, and our decisions and actions are not constantly punctuated by miracles. That is a paradox!
Decisions drive actions; just as you had to make a decision before reading this article. Decisions determine destiny; you are where you are today as a result of the decisions you made in the past and where you will be tomorrow will also be a result of the decisions you make today. As leaders, knowing that our decisions have consequences on other people’s destinies should ensure that we make miraculous decisions like we have been wired to do.
What is a miraculous decisions? It is the act of making up one’s mind by the power and purpose of God. This will in turn bring about some positive and powerful events in your life; it will make you live in the boundaries of God’s plan for your life. Making miraculous decisions will make you live a fulfilled life and position you as an excellent leader after God’s heart.
We will discuss how to make miraculous decisions in the subsequent editions of this write-up.
Tope S. Aladenusi
It’s Time to Experience God in the miraculous
By the mouth of Elijah, God declared a draught in Israel, yet Elijah was not to be excluded from experiencing the effect of the draught; nevertheless, there was provision for him to see with his eyes the dryness and experience God as Jehovah Jireh.
The first miracle – God tells him to go to the brook, a raven will feed you with bread, flesh and water. An outside person may say he is eating little but considering the situation, he had enough to meet his need.
Sometimes when things are tough all we have is just enough to meet our need. The fact that we have just enough to meet our need does not mean we are not living in the miraculous.
Sometimes we need to step back again and look at our situation from another perspective in order to see His hand. Many times our eyes are too clouded with the problems so much that we fail to see God in our situations.
Let’s take another look at Elijah’s experience, when it was a time for a new experience the brook dried up and God told him to go to a widow, another unlikely source of provision. There he knew abundance much more than he did earlier. God even created an avenue to prove Himself as the almighty.
Sometimes when things get tough, God is setting you up for the miraculous. Imagine you got pregnant the first night or first few months of your marriage, your experience could never be called miraculous. Now think about Hannah! Can you see the difference? Or imagine you never had any financial constraints and your family is growing material wise in leaps and bounds; now imagine you moved into an empty house after marriage and the next day or months that follows, the house is filled to overflowing. Can you imagine what Job and his wife went through when they lost all in one day?
And then God turned around all their losses for good, can you imagine the joy that followed?
Malachi 3:3 says: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” Like the silver smith God is holding you in the fire, not taking His eyes off you for one minute, waiting until He can see his image in your life and relationship.
Whatever they’re going through, they’ll be a better person in the end.
Hold on, surely morning will come after the Night.
– omolola ezeifeoma