Your Weekly Inspiration: Don’t be too gullible

Your Weekly Inspiration: Don’t be too gullible: Judges 6:39 And Gideon said to God, Let not Your anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once. I pray You, let me test but this ...

Don’t be too gullible

Judges 6:39 And Gideon said to God, Let not Your anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once. I pray You, let me test but this once with the fleece. Let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. NKJV

In normal ‘faith talk’ we must believe whatever we hear and not doubt. This in most cases is taken to me swallowing hook line and sinker without question what you are told. Well, sometimes that is what takes the fish to the grill or to the frying pan. There are times, and most of the time you have to question what you hear.

For the today’s Christian, Gideon stands to be strongly condemned for demanding proof from God; not once, but twice. How come a man questions God in a face to face encounter about what God wants him to do? The answer is he wants to be sure before he moves.

There is so much deceit in the world and a lot of people playing either holy or expert. Many people have fallen victim because they take whatever they hear at face value and are cheated and duped.  This realisation comes only in the last moment.

That is why we must ask questions before accepting whatever we are being offered. If something is too good to be true, then know that you must believe it only after opening it up. Questions are what open such boxes. The juiciest baits hide the most vicious hooks.

If Gideon could test God in order to be sure, then there is no mistake if you question any human beings idea, offer or proposal. The fish that jumps at the bait end up being a game.

If You Believe, You Can Fly

Isaiah 7:9b  If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all. NIV

Whenever you decide to do something new, you will come against a lot of resistance, from people and situations. Discouragement is one thing that prevents us from taking the first step into innovation or revolution. The people around us, and even we ourselves will come out with so many reasons why our plan or project will fail. Much of the reason we find are realistic and rational. However, those who have succeeded in changing systems and replacing old institutions with new ones did not achieve such feats based simply on rationality.

Faith plays a strong role in ground breaking success. Faith is that strong urge to take a step into uncertainty, disbelieving what is rationally obvious and trusting what is rationally a risk. One of the greatest sayings about faith (I believe) is from Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “Faith is a risk, but one I can’t risk living without.” If you fear risk, you can live at all. The only way we overcome the fear of risk is to stand firm in our faith.

Instead of brooding over the ninety-nine reasons why your project will fail, hold on to the one good reason that tells you it will succeed. Just like a drowning man will hang on to a little piece of wood with the hope of being washed ashore with it, believe that you will certainly make it. 

Had James Woodward believed with the rest of the world that electric bulbs were impossible at his time, our nights will have been darker than it is today. Had Bill Gates believed that computers could be made easy to use by clicking icons instead of learning difficult command languages, you will not be reading this post today.

Stand firm in your faith, take the first step and you will change uncertainty to certainty.

Persistence: The Key to Your Success

Exo 17:11 – 12 And it happened when Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.  But Moses' hands became heavy. And they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. And his hands were steady until the going of the sun.

Success is a battle you cannot you cannot afford to lose. Even in moments when it seems you are losing you must persist. In the text above, the Israelites won the battle due to the persistence of one man – Moses. He chose not to give up even when his was worn out.

Persist in your struggle to succeed so long as you know that you are fighting the right battle. In moments when you realize you can fight alone don’t hesitate to call for support. Moses had help from Aaron and Hur and his hand remained up till the end.

Until you see the result you want, let your hands be up. Never let your hand down.

Provocation Must Bring the Best out of you

1Samuel 1:6 – 7.  And her foe also provoked her grievously, in order to make her tremble, because Jehovah had shut up her womb. And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of Jehovah, so she provoked her. And she wept and did not eat. NKJV

It is easy to lose control and break down when you are provoked as happened in the life of Hannah. That is the reason for all provocations. It is intended to make you focus on the worse side of yourself. Provocation points to your failures and tries to define you by them.

But surely, you are not defined by your failures unless you choose to. You can change provocation to motivation. This is because failure is not final. Failure only shows you how not to succeed. Once that lesson is learnt, you can move on to find the way to achieve your aim.

The provoker is happy when you break down and cry. His aim is achieved. But when you ignore the taunts and focus on achieving your aim, the provoker is defeated. Hannah was provoked for years by her rival until she decided to seek the right solution in the temple. That day was the beginning of the end her barrenness. When you are provoked, take it as a challenge. 

A young man who once worked as a cleaner in a university told a story about how he was insulted by a university student because this young man was a school dropout. This young man took the insult calmly. He enrolled in remedial school and now has university degree. He said that insult motivated him to seek education.

Thank God for those who provoke you. They are those who encourage you the most.

YOU CAN STILL MAKE IT

Take Authority

Luke 10: 19. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

Every one of us has authority. We must make use of our authority in order to bring change in our work environment, our homes, our communities and society. When we refuse to take authority, snakes and scorpions take over and cause havoc and destruction.

Snakes and scorpions are those individuals and situations that creep in without permission, hide and bite. Such bites are deadly. The only way you can prevent them from causing harm is when you take your authority and begin stamping it. Yes you must stamp your authority.

Don’t say you don’t have any authority because you have. Supposing you are the gateman who must open the door for those who want to enter, you must know that you have the authority to open or close that door. No one can enter or come in unless you open that door. Stamp that authority. Wherever you find yourself, you have some legal authority.

You have moral authority. When it comes to what is wrong and what is right, it doesn’t matter whether you are the boss or not. Stand for what is right. Reject what is wrong. Whenever you have the opportunity to choose between right and wrong, stamp your moral authority and choose right.

You have spiritual authority that goes beyond the physical. Whatever happens in the spirit affects the physical. Take and stamp your spiritual authority. Pray about the situation that is beyond your physical or moral control.

The snakes cannot harm you if you take authority. You can make a difference.

Opposition: Another thing you don’t want to meet on the road to success

Gen 26:21  And they dug another well, and they strove for that also. And he called the name of it Opposition. MKJV

In the previous post we talked about disputes as one of the things we must deal with when moving towards success. It is easier handling disputes when compared to opposition. Disputes are like floods you wade through; opposition is like a wall. Once you hit that wall there are only three things you can do: take a U-turn which means giving up, change course to see if you can get past the wall, or break through the wall advance.

Isaac moved from the well known as disputes only to meet with opposition after digging another well. That is what happens in our quest for success. There are some people who will oppose us for various reasons.

Don’t be surprise that people oppose you because you are about to succeed. Your success is someone’s defeat. No matter what, life is a competition. Someone must be first to reach the finish line. Some people will always want to pull others back thinking that will give them the opportunity to succeed.

Others oppose out of envy. Your success exposes someone else’s slothfulness and they will oppose you just to preserve their integrity. 

Now no matter how the opposition is, no matter how thick the wall, you must find a way of moving on. You might decide to change direction, move along the wall until you find a way past it. No matter how long the wall of opposition, it has an end. But changing direction calls for a lot of patience.

You might decide to break through the wall. In this case you need to be strong and resolute. You need strong faith. No wall of opposition can resist the power of faith.

But there is one option you must not choose if you want to succeed: going back. You are destined to succeed. NEVER GIVE UP.