Category: PURPOSE

Low Information Diet: The Breakfast of Champions

I read a lot of books because I write a lot…

Or maybe I write a lot because I read a lot.

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions”. Since books are compendiums of experiences, it is safe to assume that reading books can stretch the mind into new frontiers.

Last year was a great year of reading for me…I think I read about 50 – 60 books.

Pretty impressive, right?

However, I am starting to find out that I had been going about reading books the wrong way. I realized that I was focusing on ‘just-in-case’ information, rather than ‘just-in-time’ information. ‘Just-in-case’ information leads to action paralysis which is often due to mental clutter fluttering through the mind. You’re merely accumulating information just for its sake. You really don’t need that!

What you need is ‘Just-in-time’ information which would give you a competitive advantage over anything that life may throw at you.

 

David and Saul

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When reading the story of David and Goliath, many people fail to realize that the war between the Israelites and the Philistines was that prolonged because of ‘Just-in-case’ information.

Take a look at the following verses from 1 Samuel 17:1-7, 16.

“Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them. And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him…

…And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days.“

How were the Israelites able to measure Goliath’s height with stunning accuracy? Six cubits…and a span. It doesn’t get more accurate than that!

How were they able to know that his helmet was made of brass, and his coat made of mail…without even touching him?

How were they able to know that Goliath’s spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron, or that his coat weighed five thousand shekels of brass…all the way from the mountain where they were standing?

All these unnecessary information kept the Israelites captive to one man. For 40 days!!!

If they had put down their compasses, set squares, French curves and protractors, and simply got down to attacking the Philistine army, they might have had a shot at winning the battle.

If you can take this, you would be on the right path of simplifying your life greatly: Not every information is important!

I know this post started with mere accumulation of information from books, but it’s much more than that!

There are several of you reading this right now, who have been held captive to information overload from gossip blogs and news sites. For others, it is their Facebook feeds and emails. Still, others more (including yours’ sincerely), it is your favorite football team. You know your team’s latest scores, their transfer targets and the jersey numbers of everyone on the team – including the B team!

Regardless of the type of information, our minds are just being bombarded time and time again with ‘just-in-case’ information that we do not need.

I mean, who gives a rip about whether Kim Kardashian was really tanned or not?

How is knowing ‘the number of times Jon was stabbed when he was murdered at Castle Black’ going to benefit you?

Who cares whether EFCC has the best Twitter handler ever?

Not every information is important!

Goliath was trending and David didn’t even know!

This simple fact of David choosing to be ignorant about Goliath’s attributes and well-informed about the attributes of God positioned him for victory. What Saul and the Israelites saw as too big to defeat, David saw as too big to miss!

 

The Tetris Effect

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If you’re old enough, I am sure you should be familiar with Tetris. You know, that game where you had to arrange falling blocks into empty pockets of space at the lower part of your game screen. If you were not able to do this fast enough and the blocks got to the high enough to stop more blocks from falling, it was game over.

Well, some scientists decided to have some more fun with this game.

So, they got a bunch of Tetris lovers and made them play the game for extended periods of time – up to hours a day for weeks!

Here’s the interesting thing that happened next.

The gamers started seeing everything around them like, wait for it…falling blocks!!!

It was terrible. I can almost imagine one of the participants just sitting there chilling and busy figuring out the kind of block that would fit into the space between two cars following each other!

However, you shouldn’t be surprised with the findings. The Bible had been right all this while and it’s always nice to see science finally catching up with the Word.

Whatever you focus on continually would manifest in your life!

This is why Proverbs 4:23 says, ‘Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.’

A lot of people are not are not diligent with what they allow to go into their hearts. This can happen in two major ways:

  1. A lot of people are focused on all the wrong things. We are all aware that if you focus on the negatives, you would lead a stifled life. I’m not going to dwell too much on this.
  2. A lot of people are focused on too many right things at the same time! I’m more concerned about this second way because it is much more prevalent in our day and time.

Back in the days, I used to think it was cool to be focused on so many things at the same time. In fact, I used to pride myself on my ability to multitask because I had multiple talents. However, if you go through the path of trying your hands on everything you come across, you would find yourself living under the illusion of being an expert when in the real sense, you are not. It would also force you to be spread out too thin – since you are simply trying your hands on everything and not spectacular in anything. Man was not made to be spread out thin. Rather, he was created to have depth!

This is why I say multitasking is the highway to mediocrity because the only thing you become good at doing is doing multiple things poorly!

 

There Is A Better Way

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I have said it before – God is The God of Principles.

Sadly, we live in a generation that gets the order of God wrong every single time:

We first try to accumulate the information we think we need and then we try to ask God to approve our agenda. When we find out that the agenda does not work out, we dump it somewhere in the recesses of our brain – alongside the information we gathered with it.

Wasting precious time and mental resources.

And then, we look for the next shiny information source to consume.

The cycle always repeats itself again!

Listen up: God is deliberate.

I do not think He created us to be Jacks of all trades, and masters of none.

Just the same way each cell in our bodies has a specific purpose which contributes to the general well-being of the body, I believe every individual has something specific to contribute to God’s wonderful ongoing story of creation.

The only way to find that specific purpose that God wants you to do with your life is to ask Him to reveal this to you. Only then would it make sense to start accumulating as much information as possible on your highly specific assignment.

We were not created to be spread out thin like shrubs. Rather, God designed us to be trees with depth in Him.

Find your purpose in Him first!

Then you can start building depth in God through the Word and cultivating expertise through accumulating “just-in-time” information within that narrow niche.

God bless.

 

Understanding Understanding

When compared with what has already been said about Wisdom and Knowledge in Christendom today, it’s a bit surprising to find out not so much has been said about understanding, in spite of the fact that the Word says so much about it.

In the Parable of The Sower, Jesus says that the Word will not profit you in the absence of Understanding.

‘When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart…’ (Matthew 13:21).

Understanding is deeper than what you think it is and we’d be trusting our Teacher to put us in the right path to understanding Understanding.

One of the most direct definitions of Understanding is found in Proverbs 9:10. It says, ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding’

We’re more concerned with the second portion of that verse: ‘…the knowledge of the holy is understanding’

Now, I’m aware that some translations render that verse as ‘…the knowledge of the Holy One…’, but I believe that such translations are a bit limiting. We’d appreciate why shortly.

Understanding means possessing the knowledge of the holy, therefore, we need to know what ‘holy’ means before possess its knowledge.

So, what then is the meaning of ‘holy’?

Being holy simply means being set apart for God, by God.

However, nothing can be holy without God because God is the only one with the attribute of being holy and He’s the only One capable of inputing the attribute of being holy.

This inputing happens via the presence of God.

Throughout the scriptures, it is apparent that the Presence of God is what makes a place, a thing or a person…and even a particular time, holy.

For instance, the place where the burning bush burnt in Exodus 3:5 was not said to be holy AFTER Moses’ encounter with God. Neither was the place where Joshua met with the captain of the Lord’s hosts in Joshua 5:15 referred anymore as holy after the encounter. All these places became holy as a result of God’s manifested presence!

Great! But what does this have to do with understanding?

A lot, actually.

Since God is too big to lie (Titus 1:2), whatever He says is Truth. And whatever He declares as holy by His Presence becomes just that!

So, when you have understanding, you suddenly become highly perceptive to whatever, wherever, whoever God has marked and vetted with His Presence per time!

You become highly sensitive to realities of the Ultimate Truth from God’s point of view per time!

What do you think made the men of Issachar stand out from among their peers?

‘And the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do…’ (1 Chronicles 12:32)

They were sensitive to what God was doing in Israel per time. They had picked up on their receivers that in the NOW agenda of God, David was the one who has been vetted by God to be Israel’s king. As a result, they broke camp with Saul and joined David.

When Understanding is established in your heart, you cannot be stranded!

When Understanding possesses you, you cannot be at a loss, neither can you be confused!

Rather, you’d find yourself in step with God and always one step ahead of what the devil, circumstances or the world throws at you.

Today, we live in a world where there’s a dearth of men and women of understanding and the Father is earnestly seeking and searching for men and women who would avail their hearts to stay sensitive to the realities from His point of view.

Would you be part of them?

Security In The Audience Of One

When it comes to forming opinions about ourselves, a lot of us are very sensitive to what others say about us.

News flash: Every single person would form an opinion about you, whether you do something or remain nothing!

Personally, I experienced first-hand the truth of that statement. You see, in a bid to become a ‘people person’, I was becoming a ‘people pleaser’.

For a while, I thought it worked. Everyone seemed to like me – males, females, seniors and juniors…

…that was until The Woman entered the picture.

Really, there’s was nothing I could do to please this woman!

It seemed as if she took pleasure in embarassing and humiliating me with every chance she got.

Back then, I didn’t understand, neither did I appreciate the lesson she was inadvertently teaching me.

Eight years later, it’s crystal clear.

You’d lose sight of yourself if you try to conform into other people’s opinion of you.

At that young age, I had been unconsciously trying to be the nice guy that did not want to offend anybody.

I didn’t want to disappoint the ‘expectations’ that other people had of me.

So, I put unnecessary pressure on myself to ‘perform’ and meet up with the opinions of others.

I most likely would have continued to tread down that path today, were it not for the intervention of THAT woman!

The lesson was driven home while I was meditating on some verses I came across many years back.

‘Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God; He riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He poureth water into a bason and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded’ (John 13:3-5).

Wow!

Jesus could perform the menial task of washing His disciples’ feet because He knew Who He was.

He was secure in the fact that all things had been given to Him.

Jesus didn’t feel pressured to meet up with the standards that were expected of a highly respected Rabbi.

As long as Jesus knew He was doing what the Father was doing per time (John 5:19), He didn’t give a rip about the opinions of anybody else – be it the Pharisees, the multitude, the Gentiles or even His disciples.

Look, we all know that doctors wear ward coats. But I tell you the truth, a ward coat without the doctor is just another piece of cloth. It’s the doctor in himself that gives value to the ward coat!

Similarly, when you make up your mind to see yourself the way God sees you, no one’s opinions matter anymore.

You’d secure yourself in God’s Love for you.

You’d develop an outlook on life that remains the same, regardless of people’s criticisms or approvals.

You won’t live your life trying to conform to other people’s expectations and opinions of you.

Rather, you’d get into the Word and walk in the reality of how God sees you right now.

Granted, you might make mistakes and errors of judgement along the line.

You might get it wrong at times and make a big mess of things.

People would not see eye-to-eye with you on so many issues.

So what? Big deal!

I assure you, as long as you secure yourself in God’s Love for you, you’d have what it takes to learn from the experiences and move on.

Jesus was secure because He only had an audience of One – His Father.

You’d also find security too, when you come to the realization that, ultimately, only One Person’s opinion matters, and that’s God’s!

The Power of Broken Windows

In the field of criminology, researchers discovered that communities that had buildings with broken windows also had higher petty crime rates.

This led to a very interesting question:

Are the petty crime rates in the community causing more windows to be broken, or the broken windows in the community are attracting more criminals?

It’s pretty much like the ‘Chicken-Egg Paradox’. What comes first: the Chicken or the Egg?

Regardless of what the cause is, broken windows in a comnunity is always associated with lawlessness and crime. As a result, broken windows in the community attract more petty criminals that would break more windows which would attract even more criminals that would break even more windows…this can go on and on, but hopefully, you got my point!

Interestingly, in spite of the resources and efforts spent on improving the intervention and number of law enforcement agents, the antics of petty criminals in the community continued to be on the rise.

For some odd reasons, however, the researchers noticed that as soon as the broken windows were fixed in a community, criminals stopped associating the area with lawlessness – and as a result, crime rates dropped drastically! The fixed windows exuded the presence of law and order, and as a result, the criminals stopped perceiving the comnunity as a crime hotspot.

These findings make up the backbone of what’s now called the ‘Broken Window’ theory.

What’s more? The Bible had been telling us the same thing for a while now.

A classic example is the case of King Saul in 1 Samuel 10:10,

‘And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them’

A similar story can be found in 1 Samuel 19:18-24, where not only Saul, but 3 groups of messengers started prophesying by virtue of being where the company of prophets were.

Great! So, how does this relate to me?

It’s simple. There is power in association!

Your associations would go a long way in determining the quality of your experience.

If you decide to associate yourself with 5 prayerful people, soon, you’d be the sixth.

If you associate with 5 millionaires, with time, you’d be the sixth.

It also follows that if you associate with 5 idiots, soon, you’d be the [fill in the gap].

If you don’t like where you’re standing now, check yourself out, you might just be associating yourself with the wrong crowd.

Think BIG!

pdm 5

Many people cannot think big.

Fact.

Today, it’s not uncommon to hear youths making remarks like, ‘I really hope I can get a decent job when I graduate’ or ‘I hope I will be able to make enough money to pay my bills and stuff.’

Rarely would you hear a young person say, ‘By God’s grace, I see myself making millions before I’m 25’

I get nauseous when I hear things like that, because getting a decent job, or making enough money to pay your bills isn’t even the biggest thing you can do with your life!

Sadly, many people are going to live mediocre lives, far below God’s best, because they’ve set the bar very low for themselves.

Psalms 78:41 says, ‘Yea, they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel.’

When I was in secondary school, I used to write the following words across the front cover of all my notebooks:

‘Sky is the beginning, God is the Limit’

Clearly, in the light of Psalm 78:41, that was a very toxic thought that could have potentially limited what I could receive from God.

If I had persisted in that way of thinking and had managed to see some level of ‘success’, I would still have fallen short of the richness and vastness His plans for my life.

Listen to this: God never was, never is, and never will be your limitation.

In fact, it works the other way around.

If there’s any variable in the equation…you are the cause!

I don’t mean to condemn you. I’m just pointing you to the answer.

You really need to renew your mind (Romans 12:2)!

Many of us think that renewing our minds merely means changing your way of thinking so as to lead a righteous life.

Renewing your mind is far more than that. It also means changing your perspective of God, so you’d see Him for who He really is.

God is BIG.

His thoughts are BIG.

He thinks about YOU.

And His thoughts about YOU are BIG!

Why would you want to limit what God can do in your life because of your small-picture thinking?

You’ve not been thinking big, and that’s why you’re dissatisfied with where you are.

You’re made for more than your current experience, and that’s why you’re looking for a change in your current situation.

Why not change your thinking and start to discover the plans that the LORD GOD has for you.

Start seeing yourself for who you are in the sight of God: His Righteousness.

Start seeing God for who He really is: The Almighty Potentate.

Start seeing your situation for what it really is: Temporal.

Think BIG and watch your life turn around for the best…just as He has planned it to be!

 

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You Only Live Twice

We live in a day and age where personal leadership and responsibility is at an all-time low…and it’s not going to be better anytime soon.

Debauchery and turpitude seem to be the order of the day. Indeed, the times that Paul spoke of in 2 Timothy 3:2 – 7 are happening right before our eyes. In High Definition (HD)!

“For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents…trucebreakers…incontinent…despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady…lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God….”

Curiously, though, we have decided to take Paul’s end-time warnings to the next level!

We’ve branded it!

We’ve made it our own!

In fact, we’ve made it look so fashionable and trendy!

More like,

Let’s s eat and drink and make merry, after all…#YouOnlyLiveOnce

But do we actually live once?

This is the point where some of you might bracing yourselves for a bashing about heaven and hell! 🙂

Hmmn…you’re right! That’s one way of looking at it!

But, nah, I won’t be going that way. We have much of that condemnation talk already.

This is the deal:

People have not yet gotten it into their craniums that there are two aspects to life.

The physical realm, which constitutes of all that we can interact with with our 5 senses and logically explain…

And the spiritual realm is the causal realm (2 Corinthians 4:18), which can only be sensed by our spirits.

You see, every individual is essentially made up of 3 parts: spirit, soul and body. However, ever since the Fall, every child given birth to had a dead spirit that was separated from Life-Giving Essence of God. So, such a child could only interact with his environment with his five senses (body) and his will, emotions, intellect and conscience (soul). However, when such person accepts Christ as his Lord and Savior, the very Life-Giving Essence of God quickens the spirit of such man – making it alive and responsive to God!

Unfortunately, spending years on a #YouOnlyLiveOnce psychology, takes its toll on our life philosophy…and it’s only when one has renewed his mind on the Word of God (Romans 12:2) that such mental shackles are shattered.

For instance, Ephesians 2:6 tells us that as believers in the finished work of Christ, God has “made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Note that verse didn’t say ‘we will be made to sit’ or ‘He is making us to sit’

Nope. The verse says God ‘has made us sit in heavenly places.’

That’s past tense. A done deal!

But how can we be seated in ‘heavenly places’ if we are still very much alive in the physical realm?

Well, that’s because we live twice! In the spiritual realm, as well as, in the physical realm.

Yet, so many people live as though all there is to life is in the ‘here’ and ‘now’. A few more believe that their forays into the spiritual realm would only kickoff when they physically die.

As a believer, nothing could be further from the truth!

Jesus said, “…he that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John 3:16, 6:47).

Do you think Jesus was merely referring to life in heaven after one’s death?

No, it includes the perks too. He was referring to the manifestation of the realities of heaven. That’s everlasting life!

No sickness, no pain, no lack, no want. That’s everlasting life!

As it is in heaven, that’s how it is on earth! That’s the kind of life that Jesus Himself lived here on earth.

You need to realize that God has given every believer all that is needed for an abundant life on earth (2 Peter 1:3). Unfortunately, many believers are just managing life. That’s not an abundant life to me!

So, how can you live twice?

Simple.

Have faith in God!

In the same way you believe a mirror’s description of your face in the natural, you’ve got to believe that God’s Word about you is the true description of your spirit.

God is Spirit. His Words are the truest description of reality.

So, when God says you’re righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21), or you have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), believe it with every fibre of your being. Because, His Truth is The Truth!

It’s only when you’re able to do this that you’d be more aware of the riches, wealth and abundance bubbling around and within you per time.

It’s only with this understanding that you’d realize that the very words on your lips are a bridge that funnels wealth and blessings from the unseen realm into the tangible world.

Only then would you be able to take your position of authority in heavenly places in Christ, believe and speak your desired reality into manifestation.

Who cares about #YouOnlyLiveOnce, when you can live twice?

Not me.

Whose Job Was It? (Part 2)

As I mentioned in the previous post, Job’s story is included in the Bible, so that we can profit from his experiences and not repeat the same mistakes (1 Corinthians 10:6).

In the last post, I shared how our actions have spiritual implications, which in turn would determine the quality of our experiences in life. This time around, we’d be examining more actions that clearly mark out Job as the architect of his predicaments.

First off, from Job’s story, it is crystal clear that the man was more sin-conscious than he was God-conscious. The Bible records that the first thing Job did each day was to offer burnt offerings in case his children had sinned and cursed God ‘in their hearts’ (Job 1:4 -5).

Job didn’t offer sacrifices of thanksgiving or those of praise.

He didn’t meditate on the awesomeness of God.

Oddest of all, he didn’t even wait for his children to commit the sins first, before he started worrying about offering sacrifices for them!

You have to understand that since Job lived in the patriachal times – long before the advent of the law (Genesis 46:13), he wasn’t obligated to have offered sacrifices solely for sins. After all, Abel, Noah and Abraham, all offered burnt offerings for diverse reasons other than sin. Ironically, Noah got drunk and Abraham lied that Sarah was his sister, yet not once did the Bible record that these men offered sacrifices for sins.

Why?

These men were more God-conscious than they were sin-conscious. Noah found grace in God’s eyes at all times, while the Bible calls Abraham a Friend of God. The sins of these men could have easily given the devil a foothold in their lives, but, listen, nothing can beset a God-conscious man. He is unbeatable!

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating for a riotous lifestyle where we don’t give a rip about God and His Holy Standards. But what I’m really against is becoming so ‘over-religiously’ paranoid about sin that we start treading that fine line between sanity and outright madness.

The truth is that you’d never be able to overcome sin by focusing on sin. The effect of that would always be counterproductive. That’s why Ephesians 5:16 has got to be one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It says,

“…walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh”

It’s simple.

The only way to overcome sin is to shift your focus to walking in the Spirit. In other words, be Spirit-conscious, be Word-conscious, and then, as a result, you’d not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.

While Job’s intentions are good, it’s clear that his decision to be sin-conscious, rather than God-conscious somehow kickstarted spiritual events that led to his unpalatable experiences.

Secondly, Job had the problem of speculative imagination, or as Psalms 19:13 puts it, ‘presumptuousness’ (i.e, using your imagination to picture bad things based on wrong or incomplete information). When you observe his practice of offering sin offerings every morning, you’d see speculative imagination at work.

I mean, how could Job have known that his children may have been nursing the idea of cursing God?

Well, it takes an actively misused imagination to do that!

You cannot have constant and continual evil imaginations and then expect good to happen to you. Proverbs 24:14b says, ‘…and thy expectation shall not be cut off’.

Job later says plainly in Job 3:25, ‘For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me’.

It’s my belief that Job’s continual choice to be more sin-conscious, than God-conscious, somehow led him to have an expectation of the worst from God someday. You can see that much when Job tells his wife: “…shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”

What a statement!

Because Job was so sin-conscious, his theology was totally messed up. The devil was able to convince Job that all his sufferings were the handywork of the Loving Father!

Listen, God is a good God. He’s all together wonderful, loving and caring for His children. He would never use sickness, poverty or tragedies to ‘teach His children sense’.

No! No!! No!!!

It’s inconsistent with His very Nature!

However, if you’re sin-conscious, you’d never see this side of God. Instead, you’d continue to see yourself as a miserable sinner that God’s out to get. And once this happens, you’d gullibly accept every ware of tares that the devil brings at your doorstep – all in the name of receiving the punishment for your sins.

Friend, Jesus has paid the price in full for your sins. You don’t have to believe the lies of the devil and continue to ‘serve punishment’ for your sins. Instead, shift your focus away from your sins to Jesus’ grace. Shift your attention to God’s deep love for you. And as you do so, you’d find that you’d can have an expectation of good experiences in your life, resulting in an exponential increase in the quality of your life and all that’s associated with you!

God bless you.

Whose Job Was It? (Part 1)

The Book of Job introduces Job as a perfect and upright man who feared God and eschewed evil. In a generation of men whose imagination constantly churned out evil, Job was God’s Quintessential Man. Yet, for years, I struggled with the notion that the innocent Job had to suffer so much hurt and pain. At that time, it seemed to me that Job was caught up within a ‘power tussle’ between God and the devil. It looked so unfair that Job was treated as the proverbial grass that suffered while two elephants were at war. The picture I had in my mind was that Job was so helpless….

Or was he?

Upon a closer examination of the story from a pair of unbiased, non-religious eyes, we’d find that neither God, nor satan was the primitive cause of Job’s predicament!

As it were, Job was the unwitting designer who took up the thankless job of orchestrating his own misery.

How?

Well, to understand the ‘how’, we have to appreciate the reality that all our actions have spritual significances. All through Job 1 and 2, we can observe the narrative seamlessly switching from Job’s actions and activities in the physical realm; and the spiritual realities of God, angels and the devil. This is because Job was doing some things in the physical realm that was having spiritual implications.

You see, the causal realm is the spiritual realm. That’s the Ultimate reality that gives rise to our individual apparent realities. 2 Corinthians 4:18 tells us that the seen physical realm is temporal, time-bound, while the unseen spiritual realm is eternal.

While it is true that the unseen gives rise to the seen, our actions in the physical realm trigger events in the spiritual realm that would ultimately determine the quality of our next experiences in the physical realm. These experiences, in turn would cause us to take further actions and decisions in the physical realm that have spiritual significances which would in turn determine the quality of our next experiences, and the cycle repeats itself again and again for the rest of our lives.

This is why Romans 6:16a tells us this:

“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey….”

God is Love. And that’s why He has given us our Freewill. He would never, ever force Himself on you. Revelations 3:20 shows man’s Owner and Creator, at the door of man’s heart, saying, almost respectfully, ‘Behold, I…knock…’

If you decide to use the freewill God has given you to choose to yield yourself to Him through your thoughts, decisions and actions, it would cause a series of spiritual events that would ‘allow’ God the right of way to make your next experience in the physical and prosperous one.

Conversely, if you choose to yield your members to the devil, you’d give him the right of way to make your next experiences in the natural to be deleterious!

Job’s story is included in the Bible, so that we can profit from his experiences and not repeat the same mistakes (1 Corinthians 10:6). I’ve shared one thing that Job didn’t understand, there are still others I’d like to share in the continuation of this truth in the next post.

Remain blessed.

The Art Of Observation: Anyone Can See, Few Observe

For a moment, let’s assume that you had a plot of land which you took the time to clear and uproot the weeds. Now, what would happen if you refused to plant any seeds in your cleared land?

It’s simple.

Your land would would be overgrown with weeds again.

Now, did the fact that you DID NOT plant the weeds prevent your land from being overrun?

No! Actually, despite the fact that you did not consciously plant weeds in your cleared land, your decision NOT TO deliberately plant seeds was also a decision to permit the growth of weeds in your land!

It’s the natural order of things: When you plant seeds, crops grow; when you don’t plant seeds, weeds would grow!

Many people agree to this truth, yet it’s astonishing that so many find it difficult to understand that the same principles hold true in the art of observation.

You see, everyone has the ability to see and observe. However, the sad thing is that not everyone is CHOOSING to observe deliberately!

Principles would always be principles. They aren’t respecters of one’s consciousness. With principles, ignorance isn’t an excuse; with principles, there are no alibis!

Whether you are conscious of the fact or not, the quality of your life at the moment is dependent on what you saw in the past; and the quality of your life in the future would be dependent on what you are seeing NOW…regardless of whether you’re looking deliberately or not!

The difference between the observers and passive seers lies in the deliberate effort applied to the stream of consciousness. The observers refuse to allow the land of their lives to dictate the sort of fruits that would come out of it. Rather, they deliberately and consciously select the kind of seeds that they want to propagate on the lands of their lives.

Observers understand that man is a partner with God in the continuous creative process of instituting order in the world.

In spite of this reality, the truth is that many people are merely seeing, but not consciously observing.

The irony is that what they see is often an accurate description of their APPARENT REALITIES. What many people are seeing all around are chaotic weeds of poverty, unpredictable economic tides, wars and rumors of wars, lack, strife, loose morals, ever-dropping standards, and so on.

There are apparently weeds of chaos everywhere. Note the term ‘apparently’. It implies that the weeds of chaos aren’t the ULTIMATE REAL DEAL! It’s just a perception of reality.

In spite of this, here’s what distinguishes those who have mastery in the art of observation:

‘While the majority choose to see and adapt to the weeds of chaos in their lives; the very few who observe, challenge chaos to create order, because they can choose to see that too!’

Observation is a deliberate and conscious effort that God has designed and ordained everyone to be a master at.

Unfortunately, many are merely seeing, and quality of their lives naturally matches up with the quality of their defective vision.

Friend, why don’t you just take a step out of the traffic, and for once, take a look at what ought to be.

I promise you, you’ve got nothing else to lose, and everything to gain!

He Gives, His Beloved Sleep

For years, I read Psalms 127:2 as,

“It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep”

But the original Hebrew, in which the Old Testament was written, did not have commas and fullstops; and this may have posed a challenge to the English translators.

Now, watch what would happen if you’d place a comma in the second part of that verse…

“…for so He giveth, His beloved sleep”

The Lord is doing the giving, while His beloved ones are doing the sleeping!

Pretty cool, right?

The truth is that until you receive a revelation of the love that God has for you, you’d never be able to sleep and rest in His Love.

You can only rest and sleep when you secure yourself in the fact that your Heavenly Father loves you deeply!

Just take a look at what John the Beloved called himself. Do you know that Jesus didn’t bestow John with special preferential treatments? The truth is that Christ loved all His disciples the same – even Judas Iscariot.

But what distinguished John from the other disciples?

Well, John simply secured himself with the revelation that the Mighty God in human form could actually love him. He meditated on this, and magnified the love that Jesus had for him in His heart.

The truth is that until you receive the revelation that you are God’s beloved, you cannot rest and sleep and allow Him to give His benefits to you.

Instead, you’d always want to do things to earn/merit God’s blessings, favour and all. You’d wake up early and sleep late, all in a bid to merit God’s blessings by your works!

But there’s a better way!

Receive a revelation that YOU are the Lord’s beloved. And then you can rest and sleep, as your Heavenly Father does ALL the giving, while you do the receiving!!!