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 CHASTENED
Richard Prince

All rights reserved Worldwide.

CHASTENED : Copyright © 2018, by Richard Prince.

WARNINGNo part of this book, either in its entirety or fragmentalized, may be reproduced in any
form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, for commercial sale or seminars or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic,
mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission obtained from
the Author.
Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture quotations in this publication are from the King James
Version of the Holy Bible.

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 “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there
whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have
become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had
human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more
readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days
chastened us as seemed best to them,
but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present,
but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the
peaceable fruit of righteousness to
those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:5-11

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 CONTENTS

1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
2. INTRODUCTION
3. DISCERNING THE DIFFERENCES
4. HAPPINESS THROUGH THE HURT
5. CONSTRUCTED TO LAST
6. PREPAREDNESS
7. FAITH UNDER FIRE
8. UNRUFFLED
9. GRAY AREAS
10. PROPHETIC TEMPTATIONS
11. BRUISED
12. THE MESSAGE AND THE MEANING
13. IN THE PROCESS OF TIME
14. WHEN GOD GETS MATHEMATICAL
15. THE NECESSITY FOR A KNOW-HOW
16. DON'T MAKE YOUR SHIELD TOO HEAVY
17. IN DUE TIME
18. MORE THAN ADJECTIVES
19. THE LOSS IS THE GAIN
20. WE'RE THE UGLY DUCKLING RUNTS IN THE LITTER
21. AN UNFRIENDLY GOD
22. PLANTED NOT BURIED

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Amazing sir, Some time ago, putting off the light switch in my room was difficult cos I had to climb a stool or something else to

increase my heart...few years later, I stretched out my hand to touch that same switch and I noticed that I didn't have to stand on

my toes neither did I have to use a stool nor even jump... And I was like 'wow! When did I grow too much that I could do this?'

That's the power of growth. I was on a particular level that required me to use an external help to be able to touch that switch,

but time came, that I began to do that same thing with ease...why? Cos I have grown pass that former level. Now, I am on to

breaking greater obstacles. To me? Life is all about being better than yesterday and u do that by growing. Grow in strength, and

wisdom. Thank you Richard Prince for this. -Nuel Maha

A must-read! I'm not only educated but highly inspired too. Thanks alot. I was really inspired by your writing. Wow! What a

wonderful peice. You just spoke to my weary soul in no small measure, that's why I tried to reach you through this platform. I'm

particularly marvelled at your sensitivity Rev. Richard, -Jennifer Agbaeze

Wow..... All too Inspirational I'm just speechless! This is deep, very deep. I'm greatly impacted and most of all, strengthed.

Thanks for this priceless piece. God bless you. Thanks a lot sir and more grace to you. -Jay Cee

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Too many can be said about as the inspiration for this book but in the order of inspiration, I'd love
to acknowledge some people who made this book a reality: first I'd love to give God His due
respect because He's the one who made me who I am, and secondly I'd want to shout out to my
mother who's currently in heaven for teaching me virtually every thing I know about people and
handling obstacles. Then I'll love to give a big thumbs up to life itself for never proving my
mother wrong. I'll also love to appreciate Steven Furtick and Paul Adefarasin for their major
impact in how I see things differently. And not forgetting Bishop TD Jakes for pointing my
attention to the militancy of christianity around the Gray areas where most people don't talk about.
In fact, one of the chapters is from a message of his: flying on eagles wings which has gotten me
more than a few following for re-preaching it. So I simply just wrote it down here again under the
topic "Faith under fire". And last but not the least, I want to dedicate this book to all the
disappointments I've encountered that made me how strong I am today. Truly all things work
together for the good of they that love God.

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 INTRODUCTION
This is not your average Christian book. It doesn't talk about loving your neighbor at the
expense of yourself. It talks about valuing yourself. I used to be a mental health Christian. I
really felt that every other person was right and to be loved even if it meant being miserable
while doing it. Then I realized that I don't need to die for anyone when Christ has already
done the deed. Before all it took to get me feel bad about justice was a single word, “Grace”. I
mean I really was led to believe that the sinners had more Grace than the saved so whatever
they did, there was no need for justice because they were the ones Jesus left the 99% for:
Until I got to understand through reading the Bible that there was a thing called justice.
Many Christians and even pastors suffer in their local church, because of that one congregant
or group of congregants who seemed to always know how to twist the Word of God making
them the innocent ones while the people they hurt end up receiving the idea that they are
indeed the erring ones.

How can such a good thing as Grace become so evil through manipulating people? It is due to
a lack of understanding. Simply because God loves the sinner does not mean that you are to
be burdened by them. In fact, if someone is toxic to you, the scriptures says you should avoid
them. Forgiveness should not put you at the position of stupidity, no matter what any
religious beliefs tell you. Jesus went to the cross for every one yet not everybody is ending up
in heaven. Even Christ didn't have a good relationship with every single person even though
he was dying for all. That is forgiveness. Not a religious teaching but the lifestyle of Jesus.
That a sinner has the probability of being forgiven by God tomorrow doesn't mean that God
is not aware of how that sinner maltreated you. In fact, whatever that person may be
tomorrow before Got is not your concern, whatever deal God has with them is none of your
business, so you shouldn't hang on to a probability and ruin your peace of mind.

That God loves you and forgave you does not mean that every other person gets a free pass at
being a jerk to you. You've got to teach people how to treat you. God is a different person
from us, so if someone comes slapping you on your cheek, that person didn't slap God
directly so God only feels the hurt not the pain. Do you think you'll end up in hell in avoiding
that person even if God forgives them in the future? God Himself doesn't relate with them as
real as you do. God doesn't go to church or come to the office and interact with these people
like you do, so if God wants to be best buddies with them simply because His son died for
them, that's between Him and them not you and them (assuming how they manipulate
scriptures turn out to be true, as impossible as that is), you don't necessarily need to be
friends with people who call themselves friends of God simply because you too are a friend
of God. Especially when their fruit does not correspond with the Holy Spirit.

We're all different individuals with different mandates, so rather than harbouring bitterness

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 and resentment yet jump back to them because it's the "Christian thing", to do, the word of
God permits us to avoid negative and toxic people. So don't see yourself as the victim of an
unjust system. The God who asks you to give place for wrath that vengeance is His and that
He'll recompense every misdeed, and who'll never forget your labor of love will not let you
get the bad deal.

Do you know that if you're not careful, some people can make your salvation about them? As
in, whether you end up in heaven or hell depends on how much you're willing to forgive,
tolerate and be stupid for them? You'll never believe the phrases some of the negative people
I've encountered all through the years have used to justify themselves: some have been “you
weren't there when God had mercy on me towards salvation”; some were “No one is perfect
so stop expecting perfection from me”; while some are “only God can judge me”; some have
been “you're there feeling all rightous because you've not really examined yourself”, the list
is endless. And because you harbor the notion that there perhaps may be a bit of truth in
their phrases and you don't want to upset God, you find yourself being a slave to their
tongues. These are the same people hurting you.

Until I got to spend time in the word, I never really understood that there were some active
church members that God doesn't think so fondly of. You remember the scripture that says
depart from me you workers of iniquity? Yeah, neither diligence nor outstanding dedication
trumps out love and plain old compassion. As a matter of fact, there are some people the
scriptures say, and they too fall under that category, that are reserved for destruction,
because they refuse to change. Who told you that hurting people doesn't have consequences
simply because you think you're born again and you can quote a few scriptures?

It is important to know that the criteria for loving others is by how "much you" love yourself,
not by how "more than" you love yourself. Jesus didn't advise us to seek after toxic people
and crucify ourselves for them, first He said we should pray for them and show kindness to
them. Not live by their whims.

Chastened is not a book to justify your whining and crying, but a book dedicated to making
you stronger. It is about seeing the every day chisels God uses in bringing out the best out of
you, because you'll never be the person you dream of without shedding a few feathers. Life
it's is not all specific. When God gives you a destiny, then next available bus doesn't usually
get you there.

Ever killed a snake before? Then you'll find that to kill a rat doesn't take much courage. Why?
Because you've exceeded that fear. Nobody prepares to kill a snake. No plans are needed but
whoever does did it accidentally because they understand that it is either them or the snake.
Sometimes it takes a little brush with death to bring out the daredevils in us. Everything
about living is about planning but when life occurs accident happen. And those accidents are
what converts us into refined materials. A little bit of tragedy produces a pile of maturity. Too
much comfort zone shoves you into a conform zone. But extraordinary people are those who
have greatness shoved at them disguised as misfortunes. A man's depth isn't measured by

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the size of his chest. But by the size of his heart.”

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 DISCERNING THE DIFFERENCES
Too many people mistake coincidence with a sign. But the test of either is at the outcome of both.
That a call came while you were thinking about the caller may just be another coincidence you
mistake for a sign. It doesn't necessarily mean that God is leading you to that direction. You've got
to let the leader lead you to His direction and stop making assumptions on what that direction is.

Eve saw that the fruit was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
immediately the woman concluded that the tree was good for food --COINCIDENCE, NOT A
SIGN!!
Absalom saw his father on the run from him, he concluded it was his right to be king
--COINCIDENCE, NOT A SIGN!! --David was afraid of killing his own son! And his son
mistook it for weakness. LOT'S WIFE HEARD SOMETHING BEHIND HER AND
CONCLUDED IT TO BE A SIGN!!!

Sometimes God allows it to play out naturally so you would see that the best He has for you isn't
among the available present before you. Sometimes, your best is in the future and not in the
NOW!

That the gentleman of your dreams asked you to ride with him isn't necessarily a sign that your
morning devotion on marriage is manifesting. It could just be coincidence.

Too many sweet people bank on a coincidence, and even plan out their lives on the foundation of
such momentary smoothness, only to discover that they were totally wrong. Do you fail to realize
that the end of a sign leads you to purpose but the end of coincidence leads you to emptiness? That
king in 2Ki 13:17-20 shot three arrows and mistook the silence of Elisha for a sign and it got him
emptiness after. Why is it that people are so eager to jump the wagon? This is perhaps one of the
reasons why God exclaimed “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...”.

That it looked good, feels good and has a scriptural overtone to it is no validation for it being of
"good". You'll never be good enough for the person who doesn't love you. But to the person who
does, even your biggest flaws will be accepted as uniqueness. Quit spending time with people who
tolerate you, mistaking their coincidental niceness to be signs of acceptance. People never change
from the first words they initially tell you. If it didn't work out the first time, it'll never work out
the hundredth time. Don't let your need to be loved open you up to the level of maximum
exploiting. If that office wasn't yours, not even countless bribing would make it yours afterwards,
no matter the smile they give you for it! From that smile You obtain slavehood, and there ain't no
"hood" servanthood surpasses other than slavehood.

You will always keep struggling with what isn't God's will for your life! The more effort you put

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 into it, the least result YOU'LL GET!!! The harder you try to make sense to it, the easier it
confuses you.

Every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord, but when you find confusion in what you
wishfully presume to be a providence of the God who isn't an Author of confusion, then it's high
time you wake up and smell the roses. No matter how creatively determined and frustrated you get
at it, filling a basket with water is a waste of time.

Sometimes, it isn't the devil toying with people, but the chasm within them connecting them to
messed up people. Nowadays, messed up people are so easy to find, because they're the hardest to
spot. That they looked calm and collected doesn't change the whirlpool swirling within them and if
you get too close, you'll end up sucked in. Too many people have the tendency to indeliberately
surround themselves with the wrong kind of people due to their dispositional proclivities! We
know them as PEOPLE PLEASERS or CROWD CHASERS! Listen! That your life is going bad
gives you no immunity on the effect that the wrong kind of people will wreck on you when you
make 'em your joyride.

When you hang around with the wrong kind of people --Come on now, how many of you never
met those wrong kind of people who look like the right kind of people? How many of you haven't
yet experienced that rollercoaster of heartbreak, one week after the other! Day after Day, year in
year out! --from a friend, to a brother, then to a lover --Just cos you mistook a coincidental
handshake for a sign of friendship; You concluded that coincidental smile or twinkle of eyes, for
signs of approval, enduring their malicious attitude, thinking they playin' hard-to-get with you, but
blind to the fact that that they genuinely find it hard-to-stand you?

Then I realized that while I spent time with the wrong kind of people, I was leaving a void in the
lives of the right kind of people! How many of you have come to that place where you come to
terms with the fact that your calamity is of your causing? How many of you can truly be honest
with yourself and admit that your predicament was your fault? Because while others are offering
little to obtain big, you're spending big at the income of little! What do I mean? Had you loved the
lovable and prayed for the unlovable, rather than pray for the lovable and loved the unlovable, you
wouldn't had wasted time and effort getting scared trying to fix what has already been broken.
Broken people are broken for a reason and not for leisure. So when GOD WHISPERS STOP!!!
You trust Him! And STOP! Your job is not to build people up with hope! Your job is “give and it
shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down shaken together”, Leave the Holy Spirit to
fixing people. BE CONTENT TO LOVING PEOPLE !! If that soul isn't ready to repent,
marrying them won't affect their lifestyle!!

A sign is 'an indication of the possibility and progressing towards a predetermined goal. It is a
subliminal notification for the desired phenomenon'. But coincidence is 'a similitude appearance of
an expectation rather than the true appearance of the expectation'. A coincidence is the counterfeit
to a sign.

Learn to listen to GOD, and respect what you hear, even when it doesn't sound scriptural at first.

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He knows the Bible better than you do. He wrote it. You're yet to grasp the whole of it.

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 HAPPINESS THROUGH THE HURT
To truly get happy is to be ready to go through the hurt. The pleasure is in the pain, because the
pain is a process advancing you towards permanent peace.

A lot of people wanna be happy but they don't realize that happiness comes as a prize for the
mastery of hurt. You can only maneuver towards a happy life when you can manipulate the hurt
you're going through, to get to that happy life. So long as you are afraid of being hurt, you can not
launch out in pursuit of happiness.

You've got to get out there and feel the pain. You've got to be ready to forgive even when it doesn't
feel right. Because you find that the more you hold on to the fear of being hurt again, the pain of
your before now inspiring the hurt of your now continually remains fresh. The worse thing you
can hear when going through pain is to be told you could have been wiser. And that is funny
because when you look at them standing from their exalted pinnacle of self infallibility, you look
up to see a person completely chastise you over an issue you had no control over.

Some of them people be like “ how you gon foolishly put your money in a new bank? good
riddance that bank shot down”. Or “how you gon foolishly put your wallet in your breast pocket?
Good riddance your money is lost!”. Or “how you gon foolishly cook with a gas cylinder? Good
riddance your house burnt down”.
How did they ever expect that you would know that the bank would was going to know shut
down? How were you ever going to know giving that person a lift equates providing information
for those that just robbed you? How was you, ever gonna find out, that your bestie's after your job,
and still you knowingly welcome 'em into your office? Do they think you that stupid? You just
didn't know! Rather than condole you, they somehow navigate a discuss to condemn you for the
very thing they ought to emphasize with you over.

I call it a negative-comforting!! Job had some of those breeds.

You find people who oughta comfort you at the time you going through stuff be the very ones
blaming you for it. Sometime ago I paid tuitions for an online academy I was running a four year
course on. I met the institute's computer personnel and he gave me everything I was to pay for
through that semester. I paid everything to the last dime he calculated down. He then asked one of
the IT guys to register me for that term. Days later I got to find out an error. An error which cost
me 15thousand grand. I hurried to him --because this was a money issue in a hard economy. So I
hurried to him and laid my complaints. The same man who did all and everything, started talking
stupid. How many of you have ever been in that position where somebody was talking stupid
sense to you? I mean, you wanna punch 'em but you're mesmerized by the stupid they talking so
you just interested to hear how it ends? The man was TALKING STUPID!!! You gave me
everything to pay and even generated the code to pay into the online school account and now you

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 registered a course twice, and somehow it's my fault? He said it's because I wasn't observant
enough and started quoting Bible for me! The man was quoting Bible to me for his own mistakes.
This was 15 thousand we're talking about. And the man wasn't saying sorry, he was comforting me
in his own messed up way, saying he'll never make such a mistake of never being observant
where his own money was involved, so it was a lesson to me. Now at that moment, being posted
on Facebook with the caption "Man of God knocks this man's lights out" and having a thousand
negative comments, didn't sound so bad now did it?

After a few hours Job had with his friends, the man was forced to express himself. The man said,
“Alright! I've heard enough! what miserable comforters you all are?” (Job 16:2)

Sometimes you can't really get happy with some people around, even when you gone through hell
and back, because their presence trigger that memory. And with that memory comes that pain, and
it's a whole new agony over again.

Don't contaminate your future with a past issue that isn't relevant any longer. You got through it.
You are no longer in it, you can't afford to relive an irrelevant memory again. Give it up to God!
Quit harboring it. Stop running back to the folks you need to keep away from cos you're lonely.
Yes they are still there, but rather than see those faces and be burdened by how they hurt you and
left you to rot, instead see those faces as testimonies. You cannot afford to walk through life upset
at how happy those who offended you have become because overtime, your offenders tend to
increase in number and you can't carry all that weight. Or do you not reckon it likely that God has
a purpose for them smiling around you now? Or have you forgotten that He promised to prepare a
table for you in the...?
Don't you see that it is necessary that they have to be PRESENT in order to have a PRESENCE to
experience your table PREPARED?

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 CONSTRUCTED TO LAST
Don't let the excitement for the Promises get you to lose patience with the Process. It's all about
the process. Because God is not just a motivational speaker, He is also a character builder --A lot
of people get so hyped up by the motivation of it, super psyched and all smiles because they've got
a Word, forgetting that there has to be a character befitting those promises.

David developed A CHARACTER!!!

Too many people go after the Goliath when they're not even done counting the sheep. It's all about
the process! God will always get you to man the area before your purpose becomes the present.

Joseph didn't get into Egypt on a boat cruise hi-fiving the captain two minutes before pharaoh
dreamt. The 19th verse, of the 105th chapter, of the book Psalms testifies that, Until the time that
his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.

Joseph DEVELOPED A CHARACTER!!!

The boy was in chains and dragged about! The deliverer of this great nation entered his destiny all
tied up. Some of you are all tied up, BUT THAT DOESN'T NEGATE THE COMMENCEMENT
OF YOUR DESTINY! Some of you are feeling pretty tied up at the moment, and it doesn't seem
like God got the right person in the pit --o yes God knew it was you down there! Suddenly, you
that was the most intelligent, helping and assisting people all the time, putting smiles on their
faces, is in the pit and you wonder why, because it doesn't seem like God got the right person in
that pit --o yes GOD KNEW IT WAS YOU down there!

You will get dragged, ridiculed, and laughed at until God summersaults the story, because, as it is
written, “...princes walking on foot and beggars riding on horses” (Ecc 10:7), somehow God
wanna put you at the position of a beggar, to baffle the intellectuals, and the naysayers and the
predictors, because God uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise besides the
foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men.

We suddenly find the deliverer, the saviour of this great empire dragged about like a dog. IT
DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. Nevertheless, IT WAS A SUCCESS STORY. That same boy tossed
about with the other slaves would be a father figure to the present pharaoh (Gen 45:8). At that
time, not even a goat would believe his mission was to save the same people holding him captive.
He may not have looked like much, but he was a container of much. Currently, you don't look
much, your opinions are not respected, people laugh at you when you talk about dreams, you're at
the bottom of any significance. And because of that, you don't get treated worthwhile. Because of
that you always get kicked aside and pushed out of promotion. Because of that, you're always
taken for granted ---But though you meant evil for me, God turned it for good!

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 You needed their evil to ship you into your promise. Suddenly they see that their evil was
necessary for you to be above and not below, to lend out and not borrow. Jesus would never have
been the Lord of lords if he never met Judas ---But though you meant evil for me, God turned it
for good!
Listen, you needed their evil to reshape you into gaining access.

How about Moses? The very man that made a decree to kill him, the very man who feared he
would one day challenge him and plunder his empire, was the very man God used to protect him
from his own decree. How about that? Of course pharaoh knew Moses was Hebrew. Your
opposers need to persecute you, because while they persecute you, unknown to them, they
publicize you. And as they publicize you, people take notice of you, and as they take notice of
you, they observe your CHARACTER, and as they see it glitter, they partner with you. It got to
the time that every self volunteered soldier in David's camp could crush any of Saul's men! Get
this: they weren't even forced into recruitment, they VOLUNTEERED ---But though you meant
evil for me, God turned it for good!
Who told you that with God evil is evil? No with God evil works for your good. Good works for
best. Disappointments are redirections to appointments. Failures are second chances. Mockery are
good publicity. Heart aches are interviews for promotion. WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE
POSSIBLE!!!

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 PREPAREDNESS
Promotions don't come without qualifications. You need to be prepared for what GOD is about to
storm into your life. It is not enough to pray for a blessing, you've got to be trained in the field of
that blessing. When Pharaoh promoted Joseph in Genesis 41, the young lad wasn't cowering at the
magnitude of the promotion, because he knew he already was an expert in it.

Promotions come when you actually become TOO QUALIFIED to remain in a particular spot.

Your delayed promotion may be concomitant to your ineptness!

I believe in prayer. I am an apostle of prayer! But listen up Sugar, prayer don't give you prowess
--it doesn't give you expertise at a field of endeavor! That is why you hear people emphasize and
keep hammering on the mantra "act like you've got it!"

You've gotta act like you've got it because it is your acting that familiarizes you with the idea or
concept of it --and with the idea or concept of it comes the experience IN IT, and with the
experience comes the candidacy!

It took a split second for Esau to lose his blessing because he wasn't prepared for it, the Bible says
in Genesis 27:30 that,

"After Isaac finished blessing Jacob, Jacob WAS JUST LEAVING THE ROOM where his father
was, when his older brother, Esau, returned from hunting [T4T]."
(--NET puts it like this: "Isaac had JUST FINISHED blessing Jacob, and Jacob HAD
SCARCELY LEFT his father’s presence, when his brother Esau RETURNED FROM THE
HUNT.)

Don't you see it? A split second! A split second made all the difference between salvation
originating from the Jews rather than the Edomites. Esau was busy being Daddy's favorite but it
wasn't the favorite that got the blessings now was it? Being super buddies with GOD doesn't
guarantee you greatness but being prepared while being pals with GOD does!

A split second was all it took for Jacob to prey on the fact that Esau lacked the very knowledge he
was an expert on --i need you to get this: it wasn't manliness that took possession of the covenant!
It wasn't even what was required that took possession of it. It wasn't a matter of who could hunt
better or who could cook better, it even wasn't about who could hear and listen to a simple
instruction better --it was about who was faster!!

The Bible said in Genesis 41: 46 that Joseph was 30 years old when he began to serve Pharaoh,
king of Egypt, by traveling throughout the land of Egypt, independent from Pharaoh’s
oversight... It wasn't his ability to interpret dreams that established him there --it was his

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 administrative qualities! The gifting of a man maketh a way for him --thats where it ends: a door
opener. Your utility is in your preparation. Joseph's gift of dream interpretation means nothing
without qualification. His slavery was preparation. His jail years was preparation. His palace years
were exhibition.

So it's not about how many visions you see or have or how many prophetic utterances you can
give that'll get you a managerial position in at a major firm or company, but your ability in being
prepared for it before it comes!

In fact the 15th chapter of the 9th verse of the wisdom book of Ecclesiastes pointed out, "Now
there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man
remembered that same poor man."

You will find that the conclusive words of The Preacher, to the said man, deviated from addressing
him as "wise" anylonger. It started with a poor wise man but ended with just "poor man" who was
no longer remembered. The lack of preparation puts a question mark on your intelligence quotient!
Holy God!!

Some of you are familiar with the sayings, "in spiritual matters, overtaking is allowed". Isn't that
enough to tell you that the competition out there is fierce? Some on the other hand are more
conversant with scripture, "... the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent alone are
able to take it by force " (Mat 11:12). Isn't that enough proof that it's a blood bath out there?

Get prayerful. Get faith-full. Get prepared!

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 FAITH UNDER FIRE
We all have a purpose, but sometimes our purpose is just to surrender: our strength is just to
comply. Your faith sometimes gon be set on fire, and when you look up to find who don that deed,
you look up to see God with the lighter! At that time, your FRIEND becomes your ENEMY

Whenever the eaglet reaches a certain stage, the Eagle pushes it off the nest! God will push you. It
looks cruel, it looks callous, but God will push you. Like the eaglet when you get pushed out of
your nest, you are suddenly plunged into a hostile region. An environment of discomfort and of
uncertainty. God will always push you to your "scary place !". The place your worst nightmares
becomes real -where it leaves your imagination and becomes your reality!

Your familiar place is a death zone. It is a freezer. At first the veggies were fresh until after a few
days --it becomes frozen!

How many of you have ever encountered some pretty frozen up people? How many of you are so
comfortable that you're no longer fresh anymore but frozen? Because God will push you into a
fiery spot.

Everything worth talking about, everything that is of motivational value in your life originates
from your struggles at the place of your spastic fear. God IS SETTING YOU UP TO BREAK A
LAW. There is a higher law God wants to push you into discovering. The law putting you down,
is the same law pulling an eagle up. Your ability in using the very thing that is bringing you down,
into taking advantage of it to launch you up..

Whenever God is getting ready to do something MAJOR in a life, He initiates a disruption --A
Disruption is IMPORTANT because it causes a progression!

You cant have progression without disruption. The Eagle takes its baby up a height and drops it
--the eaglet knows nothing about flying, in fact its wings have never tried it before, the feathers
are still floppy --that is a disruption! Yet the Mother drops it. The eaglet doesn't fly, No! it freaks
out -- BUT in the process of the freaking out, and flapping, and falling, its wings becomes
developed! Joseph knew nothing about administration until he got into Egypt! Daniel didn't get
launched into the prophetic until he was a prisoner in Babylon! There is something about gold that
only flames makes it valuable. Immerse it into water, spray perfume over it --and it corrodes! the
eaglet remains ill-formed and immature while remaining in the nest.

There is something about comfort that corrodes! Back when I was a kindergarten teacher, each
child knew their zones! When mummy comes they're spoilt because mummy is the comfort zone!
But shut that gate behind their momma, and they understand now that they're in their survival
zone. They don't learn in their comfort zone, because they're comfortable. But they develop in
their scary zone because they're trying to survive. It's a survival not to get spanked --so they

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behave! it's a survival not to eat last --so they play nice! it's a survival not to stand by the corner
--so they cooperate!

Your wings don't work in your nest. They work in the air! There is something in you that God is
hatching through your circumstances. You gotta cry sometimes, you gotta hurt sometimes,
...except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit...every branch that beareth fruit, GOD purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit!

You are never more alive than when you are in a scary place. You are never more self conscious
than when you are in a scary place. You are never more desperate for survival than you are, when
you are in your scary place. Every God given agenda has only been initiated when God sets the
fire on your pants! Moses saw it differently when he survived being murdered by God; The
apostles saw it differently when they were hounded by Saul; The Hebrew boys saw it differently
when they were next to the fire!
How many of you realize that the perception of the challenge changes when the affliction is of a
higher density? After three days, Jonah didn't consider preaching to the Ninivians that big of a deal
any longer compared to the scary place he had spent 72 hours in.

There is always something just behind your scary place you soon realize, had you never been
there, you wouldn't have understood the God constructed potential in you. You will never find
your purpose in life and the strength of God in you if you try to find what makes me a survivor!
You will ONLY find your purpose in life and the strength of God in you, when you've been in your
own scary place and realize what makes you a survivor!

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 UNRUFFLED
Never let people mess up what you got. Guard it. Hoard it even. Cos while you making yourself
an anchor, you don't realize how much you're sinking, and in the end, you're nothing more than a
moral lesson. It is better to be a moral example than to be a moral lesson. Some people are all kind
of negative and toxic. You need to get to the place where you fully understand that your now
doesn't affect your later. That they laughed while you talked doesn't change the fact that people
will come to you for employment tomorrow. For the fact that an opportunity keeps slipping by,
doesn't change the subject of God's intention about you.

There are those who so messed up that they mess up other people's anointing. Don't let no body
mess up your anointing. I know the Bible preaches love and forgiveness and tolerance. And that's
all good and dandy, but it also preaches about wisdom and letting go every thing that ties you
down. You need to quit acting so religious like somebody's opinion, or how they manipulate
scriptures, against you has anything to do with the genuiity of your salvation. What has it been:
thirty or forty years since the Lord snatched you away from the shackles of sin and sorrow, now
all of a sudden you pleasing to God is determined by how somebody feels? It's now determined by
how unchristian you've become simply because someone got offended that you you got hurt when
they slapped you on the cheek and you turned the other? How is it that the Lord God who is Just
and recompensing suddenly now goes against you for being the one wounded and applauds the
trespasser?

That is manipulation, and demonic. And you don't have to listen to it for one second. If a person
keeps hurting you and you can't take it anymore. Loose him and let him GO!!!

I don't care how many scriptures they defend themselves by and accuse you with. Loose him and
LET HIM GO!!!

Sometimes you got to disassociate with certain people because they are pawns strategically placed
in your path by the devil to hinder you from the promised land. You don't need a crowd to enter
there. As a matter of fact, not a single soul other than Joshua and Caleb got in the land that came
out the land. So you don't need to pull everybody along. Jesus had a crowd but he was always seen
with the twelve, and even among the twelve are the three!

Your salvation is not tied to a manipulator's interpretation of scripture! Don't you dare fall for it!

Listen up honey, you're either A FOOL OF CHRISTIANITY or you're FULL OF

CHRISTIANITY. There ain't no two ways about. Jesus was a man respected because he never was
a goodie two-shoes. The man was everything bad the modern pussies will call him. He was never
afraid to tell people where they got it wrong and some how, we're content with letting rubbish
prevail? Am not saying go fight off somebody, am saying teach your bullies to learn to respect

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 you. IT IS TO YOUR SHAME IF YOU GET BULLIED WITH THE HOLY GHOST STILL IN
YOU!!!! How can the same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead be in you and you can't even stand
up for yourself?

You hear 'em whining and crying, pleading, “O Lord! You know am so peaceful, why'd they have
to keep hating on me? Please touch them to stop, dear daddy”. What? Are you for real? Did Jesus
ever make such prayers? NEVER not even for once!!

You go talk to them! Cuz you know you ain't gonna act Christian if it were your siblings. So what
changed?

You can't keep letting people walk all over you and accept that as righteousness. Nope! The
righteous are as BOLD AS LIONS. You've got to learn for yourself never to intertwine the
position of serpent and dove, in you being as wise serpents but as gentle doves.

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 GRAY AREAS
There is always a growth with God, you don't go from 6am-6pm fasting to 6am-12pm calling it
growth. No it's regression. It isn't about Grace or law, but about resistance. Not everything is about
Grace or Law or Faith or Holiness.

Sometimes God isn't interested in your addiction to your personal theologies as much as He's
interested in your relevance. Yes, hell is a far way off your track but the enemy can make your
journey to heaven a quick but unpleasant one. Peter was a devout Christian yet God needed Him
to understand that some scriptures have been updated in order to accommodate the Gentiles. It
wasn't about God tempting him to break his fast early nor trying him to see how faithful he is to
his creed. Sometimes God goes beyond the black and white reaching into the Grey areas. When
God requires anything of you, don't immediately presume you know the reason why He does so.

While I was in high school they taught us a series of ideas leading up to the main bang. Back then
we started with simple farm tools in Agriculture, then we grew to farm machineries, and by the
time we got to tertiary institution, we were doing cloning and inventions. We never really
remained at the initial of the education but always delve deeper. That is growth. Not all education
in Agriculture science was about eating food. As a matter of fact, no agricultural science class
teaches you how to cook food or eat it.

Back then I remembered a phrase used, “the cutlass is the most effective farm tool because it
could do almost anything the other simple farm tools can”. But a person basing their career
progress by that information at that primitive stage is utter stagnation. Yes a cutlass was pretty
awesome in that it can substitute a hoe, shovel, rake, etc. But how would you fancy a person being
given a tractor but says, “Nah, am sticking with the cutlass cos it's "the most effective farm tool
because it could do almost anything the other simple farm tools can" ?”.

That's the level most believers refuse to grow from.

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the
first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong
meat. (Heb 5:12 )

Same also with university courses. Let's say you're studying Law, you find that they don't just give
you law books alone. Sometimes you read psychology and sociology, or English and criminology.
You may even have a crash course in Accounting. Because it's never just about the final
knowledge of your desired study nor the degree even, it's always about the building up.

What sort of a full capacity lawyer can you be when you can't read people or keep records?
You see?

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 Don't limit everything to Grace and Law because you handicap God's potency in you. Now, you
tell me, do you believe that the devil is an individual with strategies? Then if you can't control
yourself where food is, isn't that gluttony? And if you're gluttonous can you just about guess what
the ace card and punchlines scripture Satan will use against you when you grow into a threat?
Then what has Christ finished works got to do with that?

Isn't it funny how a full fledged man can sell his birthright because he skipped lunch before going
hunting? Or how hilarious is it that a man who can bash a thousand soldiers heads without a sword
or a bazooka and tear a lion into two can't even endure a nagging girlfriend? Sometimes God takes
you through a crash course just so you can build a resistance against vulnerability.

Is your flesh regenerated? If it isn't then it still lies under the power of sin, and the wages of sin is
death. It is possible for you to have great faith healing others but be bombarded by flesh eating
infections. Keep your body under subjection. Supervise your flesh and it's promptings and don't
always go for the "safe" button (Grace) because you don't even understand what it even means.
Grace is being able to live above sin, it isn't an excuse to sin.

Can I be honest with you? If God really wants to use you for His glory, you'll not keep sounding
like a broken record. Great men of God are people with wisdom and self control. When they
speak, you hear the insight in their speeches. You think that insight got there by sticking to a single
scripture and making their life and ministry's doctrine by it?

📖 John 14:2:
Reads: In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you."

He said, “In my Father's house are many mansions.."

God has a slot for you to attain whatever greatness you aspire. You have authority to dominate all
in His father's house. IN God's house are dominions of all kinds. The prophets exercised it, and
the apostles wroth wonders with it. You may not really raise any dead person, but when you get
there, dead businesses are resurrected, dead relationships are brought to life, dead academic brains
begins to live again.

He also said "if it were not so, I would have told you..."

God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should change his mind. He has
said it, and every word that goes forth from him must accomplish what he sent it to do.

He said, "I go to prepare a place for you."

Every one of us has their specific domains. Whether it be business or administration. Whatever

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 gifting you are functioning on, there is an area of dominion you are yet to experience. You can't
occupy your mansion and be unemployed or homeless. You can't exercise authority and be
unproductive.

Get into that house and seek for your very own mansion. Caleb said, “Now therefore give me
this mountain, whereof the LORD spoke.” Are you ready to make a demand? It is a demand you
must enforce! It is something you must dare to see its manifestation. Charles Finney shout.

But sometimes Egypt may seem like a terrible loss when you're on your desert road to the Promise
land. Do not worry, IT may GET WORSE BUT IT WILL GET BETTER TILL THE WORSE IS
FORGOTTEN”

Sarah the wife of Abraham was a woman opportune to be united in marriage to a great man of
God. Every time her husband always comes home with a "thus saith the Lord", and it wasn't like
she didn't want a part of it, she did, because when Abram came saying that God asked them to
relocate, she didn't object. When Abram came also saying that God had changed their names, she
didn't object either. So she was 100% involved just as any ministry wife of our days. But
association doesn't really exempt discouragement. Because when Jesus said to her husband that
evening that she would be pregnant the next year, she laughed. Not only was Sarai a ministry
woman, she was also a midwife. She knew all the faith scriptures. She knew all the fertility herbs
to take. Yet till 90yrs old, she never knew the pains of child birth. As a matter of fact, not only had
menopause started but the sex drive had withered out because she said, " shall I now have pleasure
with my husband...?"

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble

(Psalm 46:1)

Maybe you're at that stage now where you've exhausted every faith scripture you know. Maybe
you've gotten to that point where you no longer want to identify as one of those faith apostles
because of shame. But just as God through poetic justice answered Nathaniel when he asked, "can
any thing good come out of Nazareth?" With Jesus! God will come to your aide sooner than you
think. HE has done it for countless people before, that is why HE asked us not to be weary in well
doing because we will reap of it in due season, If we faint not (Gal 6:9). Please note: that the KJV
didn't say "in due time" but in due "season" because time may connote a short frame but season
implies a longtime. So eye hath not seen, neither hath ear heard, nor hath it entered the heart of
man, the things that the LORD hath prepared for those who love HIM.

That miracle you never thought possible may not be within your reach but it is within God's grasp.
That transformation you can no longer comprehend will soon become commonplace. God
intended for you to be responsible but not to carry your burdens all by yourself. Heaven doesn't
help those who help themselves: God helps those who call upon HIM on their day of trouble. And
whoever calls upon the name of the LORD shall be saved.

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27
 PROPHETIC TEMPTATIONS

There is a necessity to being tempted

I was discussing with a friend of mine some years back, and The Spirit of God descended on us in
the very form of a word of wisdom.

In Genesis 1:26 we find that God puts plans into careful consideration before making them
actions. God don't make no mistakes. But we find Eve, in Genesis 3:6, doing something contrary
to the carefully thought out plan.

Eve was not only married to a god, but she was equally a goddess by birth and by marriage. She
could rule the animals even if Adam were to drop dead. She could do it with her eyes closed,
because it was a DNA deposited in her which meant that she wasn't merely just good at it, but she
was built for it. A screwdriver isn't just good at loosing screws alone, a screwdriver is built to
loose screws, so it isn't really a miracle to see a hammer hitting a nail, it was MADE to do so.
Eve couldn't have been as good if she were attempting to act like an ant, as she would have been
at being a goddess. That was what she was built for.

But on the other side we find a jealous ex-deity. We find a bitter god from afar, scornfully
watching how things played out. How many of you know that there are those out there who'll get
a problem with you just cos you're the new shot in the block. Do you know certain guys can
despise you for dating a girl they dumped simply because you both look happy on facebook? A
very talented chorister can torture you for having a good voice simply you're good at tenor while
they're doing soprano. Because nobody likes a competition, even if they are spirit beings.

So we see Satan, the ex-deity and Eve, the current deity. We find Lucifer the ex-morning star,
and Eve, the image of the creator of the stars. You are in a wrestling match. Whether you like it or
not, there are those who'll have everything and still not feel blessed because you've got all the
attention. We find the serpent and the lady, ....enmity between your seed and her seed...you shall
bite his heel, he shall crush your head....it's too bad that God is more observant than the lot of us.
He's got blood red eyes, she's got a novice smile.... I'll give you porridge if only you sell me your
birthright.... He's playing chess with her...she's naively having a slumber party with him...no
wonder Jesus spoke about putting His bread into the dish of who will betray Him and even after
He does that on Judas dish, the apostles still didn't get the message....it's too bad, when God is
more observant than the lot of us.... because while the sons thought they were friends, God knew
two nations we're fighting in Rebecca's womb before they were born.

Satan got her to lose what she had by making what she already had an objective. Like most
Christians, having a mass multitude or large following doesn't make you any more man of God

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 than you were when you said the sinner's prayer

Satan doesn't really get creative. He merely dangles what we already have before us, like Joseph
was destined to rule Egypt and marry an Egyptian lady, instead he dangled Potipher's wife before
him (a shadow of the destiny. She was both Egyptian and nobility, Joseph's exact destiny ) we get
so focused on the future that we don't realize that Satan is using what we have in our present to
tempt us. Everything Satan tempted Jesus with was what Jesus knew He already was, that was
why He shouted "it is written" --No wonder God says all things work together for the good of
those who love him. Whenever there's a temptation, am seeing the forecast of my blessing before
it's due date. Because Joseph needed to be thrown into the pit so he could get to the palace. He
needed to be jailed in order for him to familiarize himself with the bad of Egypt after knowing the
good of Egypt --seven years for Potipher's glorious house and seven years for the gory jail
experience-- in order for him to mix the good and the bad for the seven years of plenty and seven
years of scarce.

It is little wonder that the sequence of events took it's natural toll. There was the Potipher's house
before the jail, just as there was the years of plenty before the years of famine. The moment of
your plenty is prophetic so as the moment of your scarce. You were barren in order to appreciate
raising kids; You were raped so as to value true love; You were poor so as not to squander your
money on hookers; You were lied to, so as to value honesty; you were broken, so as you could be
a mender of people; you were scared so you could coat others pain. EVERYTHING IS
PROPHETIC. your pains were prophetic!!! Handle your prophetic office with a badge of honor.
For the joy that was set before Him, Jesus endured the cross.

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 BRUISED

During the last minutes of the 3rd of June of ‛18, in the dead of the night, I enquired of THE
LORD, saying, "Sir. What are the footpaths of glory?", and He replied, "Simple. Attend to my
Words".
In the Word of God are the light of life..."For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we
see light. (Psa 36:9)"
There is no dimension of promotion that isn't cataloged in His Word. Reach for it and experience
new realities. The nature of all growth is slow: and that slow is also called process. Never dispute
the efficacy of God's Word in achieving its acclaimed end simply because it is undergoing that
natural process called slow, building up something in you. The Lord is not slow as some count
slowness but is patient unto us-word to bring us to that expected end. Have you not read, don't you
know what Proverbs 23:18 says? It undisputedly says, "For surely there is an end; and thine
expectation shall not be cut off." No amount of delay can counter that word on your life.
So don't go getting depressed by the advents of challenges. But to get to that place called
PURPOSE you first must go through the tunnel called PROCESS. Your present is an intimidator:
if you cannot handle your NOW, forget it, you're not yet ready for your future.

Every major change is caused by a drastic move. Your breakthrough don't depend on your wishful
thoughts but on your drastic move. That is why God will keep pushing you towards that
breakthrough, but you don't see the breakthrough instead what you see is stress, God isn't
interested in your interpretation of the breakthrough but in your ability to unlock it with one major
drastic move. At first a lion attacked David, it was a do or die affair. But God needed a drastic
move from him. Then a bear, ten tons bigger than a man came to the boy, that was another
breakthrough camouflaged as a stress. But God needed yet another drastic move. If you keep on
keeping on on that drastic move one day, your Goliath won't be as big as others see it to be. David
said, “if The Lord had delivered me from one drastic move to the other, the same God will deliver
this uncircumcised Philistine into my hand”. My question is, do you have capable hands? Your
drastic moves will cause a capability in you to handle divine executions. Go for that drastic move
and graduate in God's institution of just men made perfect".

Challenges are vital for the fulfilment of any destiny because with challenges comes the mental
struggle for survival. And if there's one thing that develops the brain is that survival instincts. You
know you're not really brainstorming if it isn't a do or die affair.
Your greatest recurring threat is your biggest purpose. That which you fear most is the very thing
you've been foreordained to be a deliverer from. That boy Moses trembled when he heard the
name Pharaoh mentioned, little did he know that it has been predestined to be the other way round
until he witnessed it for himself. If I weren't a preacher today, I still would somehow have ended
up being a preacher today. It's in me. The struggles keep pointing me there. Jonah ran but ended
up at the shores of his calling. Your destiny don't need a street paved with gold to get there, it
needs challenges --the challenges I call, "scripture targets". Every opposition is a target practice

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with your proper utility of scripture ammunitions. The apostles rejoiced after being wiped, because
they knew that scripture were being fulfilled through them. Jehovah God is not just interested in
getting you "there", God wants to build you enough to contain there. Because alot of people think
it's all about getting "there" --they think it's all about wearing the nice suit and driving that
Porsche, meanwhile there are those with that who yet get depressed and sad, and lonely and
suicidal because they thought getting there was all it takes, not knowing that containing that
capacity is as equally vital. God wants you to fulfill that calling embedded in Isaiah 60:1. It is
already there but the difference is carved out in ..v2 of that chapter. Go for that scripture
methodically and create the kind of life that is assured.

THE MESSAGE
AND THE MEANING

God is not so much as interested in how chaste you can be through an experience as He is at how
much you let that experience bring out the lesson He is trying to put across to you. There is no
way you can live through this world without being corrupted but rather than strive for chastity,
understand that good can come out of that corruption. trying to retain your early innocence may be
sticking to naivety. While the devil wants you to be scarred through the corruption God wants you
to be made wise by it. Alot of people fail to take advantage of that corruption and they utilize it
unto destructive ends, because while what you only learnt from betrayal is hate for intimacy, you
should have converted it to discretion. The Unlocked Dynamic Bible (UDB) version of the Word
of God said in John 2:24 "Nevertheless, Jesus knew what people were like, and because he knew
them so well, he did not trust them." Jesus didn't commit himself to the people because he already
knew what they were made of, he didn't go about living isolated, rather he went about selecting
those who deserved good and those who deserved rebuke. But naivety wouldn't let you do that,
because you would be too busy being good to all and taking all close to heart only to be dealt with
that fatal blow. While that would bring enmity in the small minded, it brought discretion and
boldness in Jesus. The message isn't about how you can become like one of them, but about
beating them at their own game. Without learning the art of manipulation, no lawyer, whether
good, can vindicate the innocent with decency. God is not just interested in you being a good
person, He's interested in you being an inspiration. And being an inspiration takes more than being
polite to others even when it harms you. Joseph wasn't being respectful of his boss wife's feelings
when he ran out on her. Peter wasn't being polite when he was exhibiting The Spirit in him by
calling the Jews murderers. It may interest you to know that Jesus wasn't as timid as some folks
fantasize him to be.

Learn from the experience, because God is getting you ready, as smart doves, into the midst of a
wilder pack of wolves. In a world where savages take prime, you can't afford the luxury of
naivety.

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Although it was good that Joseph rejected Potipher's wife, but the true meaning in that message of
his experience is that if he can let go of an advantage, he can utilize an opportunity. How do you
think bribery will affect him, if he can hold it down where sex presented itself on a platter of
promotion? A boy fresh to the phase of puberty where blood was liquid pleasure. Alot of people on
his shoes give out more for less.

How many of you are advantage focused? I guarantee you, your Message will be another's
Meaning. Samson was advantage focused, today he's the embodiment of youthful lust. Is that what
you want for yourself? Maybe you got fired; maybe you got dumped; maybe you lost that loved
one to the cold claws of death because God wants you to experience the MEANING out of the
MESSAGE. To others your story is a message, but to you it is a meaning. If you can't connect with
the MESSAGE you can't be impacted with the MEANING. The pain is a process. Keep at it and
sooner than you think GOD will swoop in. But for God to swoop in, you first need to swim out.
I have come to realize that you don't go far in life with a dependency complex. Because those who
still got meal on their pot don't truly understand the concept of hunger. You're never really prime
when you know someone else bears your numbers. That is why tag-alongs remain underdogs.
Assassinate that dependency complex for you'll never reach your full potential if you're still
dependent on someone. God needed to get Joseph out of the pack! If you don't appreciate the pain,
you'll not benefit from the tutelage, because with the MESSAGE comes the MEANING.

There are times in your life when it seems like it's taking too long. When it seems like the realities
are getting too harsh. Those are the times you've got to hold on to what works. Faith was never
said to be easy. Don't ignore the building up process because there were some errors you worked
with during your times of ease that God wants to correct. Not everything that happens to everyone
happens for a reason, people go through hell everyday, but everything that happens to the Believer
happens for a reason. God never makes miscalculations. The deeper your process, the sturdier the
progress. When God looks at you He is always fathoming a way to make out a testimony out of
you. God's ways are never straightforward because "straightforward" produces less than
complexity. Joseph got in a dreamer, God brought him out --not a prophet --but brought him out
all in all: a complete package. God is bringing out a complete package out of an incomplete you.
So hold on to that faith and don't let go. God loves you and has promised to never leave nor
forsake you. Sometimes these scriptures seem like mere bumper stickers on an old rusty truck. But
hold on, God is at work. He who began a good work in you will surely bring it to completion. You
are undergoing a qualification process. God may call the unqualified to service but GOD never
USES the unqualified for service. Whoever God calls He qualifies. That qualification is the end
process of restructuring. Don't get deceived into thinking any novice can come do exploits. They
will crash after that first attempt. There's a difference between being prepared and being ready.
You can be one but not fully the other. Pharaoh was not the first decision Moses had to take. His
first building up was fighting for that Israelite and running away. Joseph didn't just stumble into
the palace, he had been groomed by Portipher. Do you think GOD plays trial and error with HIS
things?

Too many people respond to pain like its the word of God. The pain isn't but the message behind it

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is: because God's value over your worth isn't estimated on the "amen" times of your lives but right
in those "halleluya" days. Because it takes an amen to respond to a blessing but an halleluya to
indicate an agreement with faith. Job was an halleluya man! Joseph was an halleluya man! and
immediately Hezekiah shouted his halleluya, God screamed to the prophet "this one has now
become too valuable to me" Because any man who can draw out an halleluya --no matter how
broken and disappointed they are in me-- becomes too valuable to me for the mere fact that they
now have submitted their experience to my sovereignty. Son, I don't respond to fear, i THE LORD
respond to faith! and by faith not fear did the ancients obtain a more excellent report! Should you
discern and understand the meaning behind your message and convert that into THE LORD IS
GOOD! Not even the greatest nation on earth will compare to you.

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 IN THE PROCESS OF TIME
How about I tell you that everything you've ever been through has been leading you up to this?
That means that the loss, and the denials and the betrayals and the backstabbing has been leading
you up to that prayer points you prayed but forgotten you ever prayed them before? Because all
what you've been through before are practices preparing you for the performance. How else will
you know human management if you've never had a reason to see the raw side of humans? How
else were you going to be that great visionary leader if you've never had moments where no one
encouraged you so you had to put your hand on the plough and determine to never look back?
Those moments you fell, got broken, had disappointments were game practices readying you up
for the future. Because great men needs little more than ordinary to be extraordinary. Joseph was a
man set up by rehearsals before his final revealing.

Time is a factor with a process! When time gets through with you maturity becomes how people
look at you. Insightful is how people describe you. There are concepts, and parables, and adages,
and idioms, that don't make sense to you now, why? because you've not yet been processed!
There are issues your fighting with now that you have no business fighting yet you're so
passionate about the fight even when not knowing how to fight the fight because you've not yet
been processed.

One thing I've come to observe is that God won't make the scabs go until the wounds are healed.
You see your Heavenly Father waits until you're completely off that topic before he exerts
vengeance. I've had people walk up to me feeling sorry over something that happened five years
ago that I can't even remember how I reacted then when it was fresh. You know you're still
hurting when you still care about how broad those who hurt you still smiling. And for you to be
still hurting only means that your priorities are still petty. Everybody got a time processing them
and while you may be a test for them, they're only phases you need to go through for you to
become whom you're destined to be.

God is using you to show them how intelligent they presume they are only to later at a distant
future realize how they were in fact goofing off, but God, at the same time, explaining to you that
what concepts you presumed concrete were mere fleeting moments foreshadowing the greater
glory ahead. You see with God there's always a strategy and a plan. It's no news that God gets
mathematical with individuals.

When you stop for a moment to see people failing their test, you'll just understand that God is
bringing them to the point where they see that human intellect is just another fancy word for
stupidity. So they need to grow the growth you grew with for them to get to where you are now.
Because believe it or not, you may not have a million dollars, but where you are experientially is a
destiny for most people.

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 So don't cry that he dumped you or that she broke your heart because you'll not be there when the
chips are down and they, like the prodigal son, see the error of their life's poor decisions. Joseph
said, “though you meant evil for me but God changed it to good”. A bad is necessary for the
display of good. Why else do you think that those people you were afraid to lose, and crying over
because you did later lose them, turn out being the ones most sassy to you, making you lose them
after all? It wasn't like they were bad, but that God just dropped down their curtains and let you
see what they've been hiding under people's noses, that's why other people don't believe you when
you tell them John Doe isn't as goody as he pretends. And it just doesn't compute with them
because they're still high on those folks deception.

One thing you need to know is that people can and will say what they want to say, and what they
say will definitely hurt you, and they're going to enjoy saying it because they see that it's a way of
getting back at you for being better than them. But you don't need to give life to what they say, by
fighting it, now that's just fueling bad energy, because they don't have all the omniscience. They
don't know what God know. So don't fight your level just grow. Don't fight the rumors, and the
gossips, and the naysayers, and the negative predictions, and the assessments, just grow! A soldier
is ranked by stars added to his uniform, but those stars are there because of his scars. They didn't
add him stars because his uniform's the neatest, they add him stars because he went to war and
came back victorious. You don't get a purple heart medal without more than a few bruises.

You see, bad energies only interpret what they see, but they don't know the message God is
making out from you. The problem with interpretations is that they can be lost in translation. But
the MESSAGE is an equation.

"For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross."

The cross gets you to the joy. The cross doesn't put an end to the crown but juxtaposes with it.

For the joy of the crown he endured the cross.

He didn't give up on the crown because of the cross, but for the joy of the crown he endured the
cross.

He didn't try to interpret his MESSAGE, he established a MEANING to his MESSAGE.

Jesus didn't try to fight the persecutions. He just grew!

His life's MESSAGE was "God can indeed bring something good out of Nazareth", but further
than that, his life's MEANING was "my limitations don't define me". God can, will, and is about
producing greatness out of your limitations. And it'll marvel you. I've seen it done many many
times before. In fact God needs your limitations to knock their socks off because the Waters didn't
part until the Israelites were face to face between the devil and the deep sea. That your enemies are
trooping on horses trying to overtake you doesn't prevent the pillar of cloud and fire from stopping

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 them, it's just you who isn't seeing the chariots around the mountain.

They may make noises, but the chariots still surrounds the mountain.

That you can't see from God's point of view doesn't mean that God isn't winning at chess of your
life. Patience is an act of will but an imposition of time. Whether you like it or not, you are going
to wait for some things in life. But that you are currently at a certain circumstance doesn't mean
you forget yourself and become like those who made the circumstance their home. You may be in
the mud right now but don't contend with pigs

So words, being flexible, don't need you creating self afflicting image through them because of the
status you're currently which may or may not correspond with their words. Listen dear, that some
words may be accurate doesn't mean it's true. Yes it's accurate to call you childless, but calling you
barren isn't true either. That a word is factual at the moment doesn't mean it's right. Yes it's a fact
that you're unemployed and have eaten deep into your savings now, but it's incorrect to say you're
down-and-out. The word said that "David encouraged himself in the Lord", and also that "until the
word of the Lord came, the word of the Lord tried Joseph". Life doesn't get any easier you just
got more accustomed to the stresses that it no longer bothers you on a personal level.

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 WHEN GOD
GETS
MATHEMATICAL

You don't really know GOD until you've met with HIM at the field of struggle where every other
thing has failed and disappointed you. God is not just for good days nor for sweet days. God is for
strong days and survival days.

If that same GOD brought Jesus through the cross to glory. The very same GOD can bring you
through that challenge or obstacles to glory.

When GOD gets mathematical, expect some board-dusting and figures-crunching. Expect some
elimination process of friends who you thought were friends but didn't know were mockers and
gossipers camouflaged with crocodile smiles; of rejection from people whose promises you never
knew were political when they said they've got your back; of promises of marriage or
opportunities which you never knew were subliminally intended to inhibit you, limit you or put
you into captivity.

All of a sudden the rumors about you start to sound interesting to those you trusted. All of a
sudden the media frenzy is on climax at your gossip. All of a sudden the places you got invited to
sent you packing. All of a sudden the people you gave your all to start billing you for their
services. All of a sudden the Israelites you once beat your chest of in pride turns into your
Egyptian taskmasters who whip you into emotional slavery, into financial slavery, into
psychological slavery and you don't get how it all turned this bad so fast!

It's because GOD is setting an elimination process in you, removing all those people or things you
thought you had but never knew were mere delusions and mirages leading you contrary. With
GOD COMFORT for too long gets CONTRARY! For there already is a time for everything.

A person can think himself wealthy when they are actually not. The book of Revelation 3:17 has
this to say, it says -- Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of
nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.

TRYING TIMES ARE ELIMINATION STRATEGIES!! If they can't find you convenient during
your TRYING TIMES, then you know GOD has them categorized under the elimination section.
Because the germs don't survive the heat of the food cooking! Because the stains come off when
the body gets under the bath! Certain people are to you GERMS and STAINS! And you need to
look at them that way rather than mourning their exit from your life.

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It took you this long to get to your trial moments because all the while back, God has been sitting
down. Now He's up! You're fitting into the equation whether you like it or not! Sometimes GOD
calls sometimes HE arrests!

Don't be too surprised when GOD applies a formula that causes a radical move that you never
expected in answering some things you prayed about. For some of your prayer points to be met,
some best friends, some besties-till-we-die, and favorite feelings, and favorite spots, convenient
hangouts, and favorite crowd, and sweet companionships gotta go! Extra baggage can't enter
destiny. Those weights you never knew were weights easily besetting you. If you can't let go of
them, God eliminates them for you because it got to the extent where you're too important for
God in changing people's lives for HIM to let people change yours.

That's DESTINY!!

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 THE NECESSITY
FOR A
KNOW-HOW

In life not everybody will understand your intention, God is not bothered about convincing every
Tom, Dick and Harry of how genuine your motives are, God is more concerned at making them
see at how better off you are without them in your life. Stop explaining yourself because most
people will choose not to see reasons with you. And it's not about you, it's about them. Some
people got issues and if you let that their issue get to you, it'll be about you and no longer about
them. Someone can hate you for life simply because you got offended that they slapped you even
if you didn't slap back.

So don't go reexamining your life by their faulty perceptions. Be careful, some people are messed
up. A broken person is a broken person no matter how hard you try to change their opinion,
because if they hate a black cat they will in time transfer their hate to you because you share the
same blackness color with the black cat. It never was about you but about how crooked their
perception of reality will always be. God's love ought to outweigh every human opinions in your
life because none of them will allow their children to be offended for your sake --talk more of
crucifying them for your sins.
Your goodness and capacity to be appreciated neither lies behind the dispensing of finance under
the context of generosity nor is in the accumulation and display of some wealth but in the
insightful utility of the appropriate know-how at any particular moment.

Money never rules nobody nor anything, understanding does. Money doesn't make the world go
round: a know-how does.

A how-to or a know-how is not about the quietness of gentility but rugged insight into what
happens and what works behind what works.

Who told you that righteousness is embedded in generosity and eager compliance? You will end
up being the poor wise fool the scriptures talk about because you're bound to be a laughing stock
because there are fewer decent people out there than you'll find a gold fish in an aquarium. It is
absolutely dangerous to be the only "good person" in a room full of vultures.

Eccles 7:16-20 says

16 So do not be excessively righteous or excessively wise; otherwise you might be disappointed.

17 Do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool; otherwise you might die before your time.

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 18 It is best to take hold of one warning without letting go of the other warning; for the one who
fears God will follow both warnings.

19 Wisdom gives a wise person more protection than ten rulers in a city.

20 For there is not one truly righteous person on the earth who continually does good and never
sins.

( NET Bible)

The surest way for being perceived as being a fool is via any form of eagerness at all that will only
amass you a pile of ungrateful backbiters and double-dealers.

if you fail to look out for yourself nobody else will do the job for you. A lady was complaining on
how she has been transparent with people and yet had nothing to his name afterwards only a
cascading of words from those same people about how evil she had been because she refused them
manipulating her anymore.

The world out there is a jungle and the believer has already been forewarned about the wolves in
sheep clothing, and have been equipped with the information to be gentle as doves but wise as
serpents (the wisdom of serpents are categorized as cunning: SEE SATAN)

Nice guys always finish last and thought of as fools no matter the grandeur of their generosities. It
is not evil to do good, but doing good without insight is really a bad thing. Being a good person is
not as important as having wisdom on HOW TO BE GOOD and experience lasting results. Yes the
world is evil but have you bothered to be meticulous on how it is that bad people get loyalty
always while good people always ends up with the ingrates?

It's a two way thing: your either assertive or manipulated. You're either a force to be reckoned with
or you become everybody's foot math. You're either a political business person or a mobile ATM.
It is a black or white siding. You're either this or that. The changers of circumstances are either
business or political mentally. A business person thinks about instant sales. A politician thinks
about networking. So whatever you purchase in life, let discretion be the negotiator.

People function better with consequences. Avoiding penal codes to every deviation is like going
into a new country but unwilling to exchange currencies but expecting to be as rich as you were in
your old country. I repeat people only function better with repercussions. Look around you, the
reason why the Jesus' of our time are being shouted on to be crucified is because the Barabbas of
our day appeal to our human nature. Folks actually think you're screws are loose when you're too
kind but that is not the same when a villain turns hero. He's appreciated in his lifetime but hero's
turn saints are actually canonized in death. It's an irony that even God approves. The reason why
forgiveness has become so insignificant the turning of the century is because it has become so
cheap. When the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable. Come on now, you know the

40
 moments you really appreciated God from deep down within your soul is when God showed you
mercy. That is a forgiveness that makes you realize what you actually deserved but narrowly
exempted you. The first person Jesus attested to having thebgreatest of faith is the woman who
saw that Jesus was insulting her, yet take pity on her, the other nine lepers didn't even come back
to say thank you. People function better with repercussions! Forgiveness shouldn't be cheap nor
promotion out of through demerits.
The reason you enjoy salvation is because Jesus took your place. And Abraham didn't just
stumbled unto the father of faith simply because God liked the way he prayed every evening. He
put him through a series of test and he passed all. To become anything of substantial value to God,
you must get to the place where you understand WISDOM IS PROFITABLE TO DIRECT on a
deep seated experiential level. To that place where others perceive that luminosity and saltiness
from you, enough to emulate into well rounded spiritual adults. Because if you lack the foundation
of discipline and discretion, you never can exceed that level of producing malnourished and spoilt
brats as spiritual mentees.

So ARE YOU A SALT? What are you worth: your mere words or your value? People should be
able to feel your impact and feel your absence, that's how you are determined to be a salt or not.
People should strive to spend time with you and not strive to avoid every possible contact with
you, that determines whether you're a light or not. Ask yourself: am I the kind of person my
friends will appoint a position when they get into political power tomorrow or am I the sort of
person who tells their children about how I shared a seat with the current financial magnate but yet
unemployed?

Because not all class mates are destiny mates. Your father may tell you or show you how many
current political leaders and/or global dignities they shared classrooms with, but what he won't
disclose is the fact that he weren't of any substantial value to these moguls while they were
nobody. Because if he were, he would have been where they are with them now, despite the
impossibilities.

For David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for
Jonathan's sake?
(2Sa 9:1)

Because people may respond to jokes and chitchats, but people magorly REACT to IMPACT. And
impact is value transferred causing transformation. Needless to say that that the right amount of
salt determins the identity of the dish and not the salt in itself. A salt is never salty but too much on
a delicacy makes it so. Everybody is a dish, you determine today how you impact on their lives.

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 DON'T MAKE
YOUR SHIELD TOO HEAVY
In the ancient military service, the shield was a very important piece of a soldier's armour. The
shield by definition is a large piece of defensive armor made from metal, or wood, carried on the
arm by a soldier for protection: it is a primary artifact that defends or protects someone or
something.

This means that a soldier don't need a shield if he isn't bothered about protecting himself. You got
to be bothered about protecting yourself because if you don't somebody somewhere will end up
using you to protect themselves.

Like wise by practicality, the shield is that very concept or ideology anybody uses as a defense
mechanism to minimize hurts. You see everybody that walks through this battlefield called earth is
a soldier. A soldier is primarily, a survivalist. And in one way or the other were all trying to do the
best we can to survive. There's this television show called "a 1000 ways to die" and they show you
how we face death threats every day at the slightest turn or deviation. They show you home
hazards, demographic hazards, and equally, they show you interests hazards. I saw one of a lady
who lived sex so bad that she started inserting dangerous objects into her body and it ended up
killing her --THAT IS AN INTEREST HAZARD! I also saw one about a guy who was read porno
mags while pumping a tire which later passed the minimum level and ended up suffocating him
--THAT IS AN INTEREST HAZARD! Its really an interesting show for sickos like myself. Now I
could go on and on about a not so popular sermon topic called Interest Hazards and on how your
interests can actually maim, kill and mutilate you, or thwart the direction of your destiny and
sanity, but that isn't the angle am going at today and besides you're already getting scriptural
reference of such things in your mind by now.

You see, in this beautiful vapour called life, there really is no vacuum in this world just simply
misplaced people. Hang around a Convenient Store too long and you'll end up working there with
no salary. That means you get to fill in and keep stock for someone who suddenly becomes too
busy to sit in the shop they opened in the first place. This means that you'll end up watching over
their dogs and watering their flowers while they're never around anymore to do these things
themselves. There really are no vacuums in the world only MISPLACED PEOPLE.

In bible times, the shield was mandatory for every soldier before they are assigned for battle.
Along with other tools, the soldier has the liberty of choosing their own shield.

David had a shield and he made all his soldiers chose pieces for themselves.

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 Nobody chooses your shield for you. You chose it for yourself. You know what you exactly want
to protect you with, but you gotta chose what is easily accessible so you can carry it at anytime.
Nobody chooses your friends for you, you get to choose them yourself. Nobody chooses your
interests or hobbies for you, you get to choose them yourself. Nobody chooses your experiences
for you, you get to choose them yourself. So its advised that whatever you choose as a safe-haven
is to be something you can easily utilize to defend yourself and find peace and joy in. And this is
your shield.

The King James version of the book of Ephesians 6:16 says, "Above all, taking the shield of
faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked".

Here it points out two distinct things: one being that you use your experience and knowledge of
faith as a shield, and two, is that your shield is what quenches fiery darts shot at you.

But your shield is constructed. It is forged, formed and fashioned. It is not some ready made
handed over to you!

That interestingly implies --according to Ephesians 6:11 where it advise one to put on the whole
armour of God-- that even the armor you put on have to be built from ground up by your very self.
Everything is self construct. Hence God allows us to pass through the valley of the shadow death
on daily basis. I can't equip myself of another's experience or expertise: if it didn't work for David
with Saul's armor what makes you think it'll work with you? Simply because you watch a preacher
boast on television?

"Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction."
(Isa 48:10)

God's blessing is equally in that afflictions, that is why you pass through some mud and come out
clean, that is why you go through some hells and come out wiser because God's blessings maketh
rich and addeth no sorrow. Out of all the bad experiences I've gone through in life, there are a
handful of few I can say that I haven't been blessed by the understanding and insight I got from it.
I have been made rich by them. Because had I continued to focus on the hurts I would have
continued to suffer, but through God I got growth by continuing to focus on the lessons. Like
Joseph, Job wasn't the same obnoxious man he was, after God took him through the furnace of
afflictions, before he went through it. He got richer by it and there wasn't any sorrow afterwards
because, "...godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of
the world worketh death." (2Co 7:10)

And to that, the LEB puts it this way,

"For grief according to the will of God brings about a repentance leading to salvation, not to
be regretted, but worldly grief brings about death."

So basically God gives you materials to construct your armour with.

43
 But when your shield gets too heavy it becomes a burden rather than a blessing. It becomes a
problem rather than a protection.

Being a Christian isn't a problem but being in a religious bondage is. Being in a position of
leadership isn't a problem, but being lonely and isolated is.

At first it was something intended to give you security and hope and joy but now it's the exact
opposite of what you bargain. You needed a job just so you could take care of your family, now
your family don't even know you anymore because you are now married to the job and that it is
you're now training, rather than your kids anymore. DON'T MAKE YOUR SHIELD TOO
HEAVY!

At first it was nothing more than a quick bible study but now every one of your friends and loved
one seems to be the devil because they're now worried about you, and what religious fanatic it's
turning you into? DON'T MAKE YOUR SHIELD TOO HEAVY!

You got raped as a child and I understand that you're guarded now and that you're traumatized, I
understand that --because that thing can mess a person up and you're doing your best to never be a
victim again, to never be a prey to some psycho again -- I understand that! But what i don't get is
why you still live in the pain? And why you condemn anyone who tries to love you by the actions
of that one crazy guy who simply wanted sex?

Why you still judge everybody by what someone did? Why you gotta make everybody else pay
for what someone who they don't even know and have never met did?

I get that you're hurt and you want some closure that's why you're secluded to yourself and you're
reading Bibles cover to cover. But its driving people farther away from you because you're so
much in auto-defense mode at the slightest contact.

If everybody, to you, are the same irrespective of their race or intentions, then you kinda are the
person who hasn't changed!

Don't make something good cause a bad reaction!

Other people go through the mud too.

There isn't a soul out there who have never been scarred by life but they're making the best they
can with the little they got and you're still stuck on a pain that happened ages ago?

Everybody gets hurt and everybody's trying to brace themselves but DON'T MAKE YOUR
SHIELD TOO HEAVY!

The great thing about us as individuals is not because we went through hell and back --No!

44
 Because everyone else on the planet is a regular traveller on that voyage-- but the great thing
about us are the decisions to rise up stronger after coming out from our individual hell cells.

Your shield was intended to protect you not cage you back in. The EasyEnglish version of Romans
8:28, where it says that "all things worketh together for good" renders it beautifully in this manner,
it points out saying,

"God has good purposes for those people who love him. We know that. He uses everything
that happens to them to bring good results on their behalf. He does this for those people that he has
chosen. He has chosen his people to be what he wants them to be."

And most times what God wants you to be agrees with what you want yourself to be, but where
the disagreement comes up are how you get there. You suggest a private jet. God is working
through a labour ship. Why? Exo 13:18 (T4T)

"Instead, God led them to go around THROUGH THE DESERT...(and) WHEN THE ISRAELI
PEOPLE LEFT EGYPT, THEY WERE CARRYING WEAPONS TO FIGHT..."

God will let you go through the toughest times just so you could get ammunitions from them. God
WANTS you to come out with weapons to fight with, not with sob stories to start a pity party with.

Listen up, when the king of Egypt let the Israeli people go, God did not lead them to go through
the land of the Philistines. That was a shorter road, but God said, “It would be bad if my people
change their minds when they realize that they will have to fight the Philistines to take their land,
and then decide to return to Egypt.” God didn't let them go find easy. Because easy was
catastrophic.

A man can spend years in the unemployment market because he was looking for easy. A teenager
can quit school because it was no longer getting easy. Take a look at our society today. The very
fabric of ethics are being shredded because people want 24hrs easy. But easy can be cataclysmic.
So while we serve a "Good" God we implicatively don't serve a "Nice" God.

A friend of mine once compared God to a coach. How many of you know a coach ain't your
friend?

As a matter of fact, a coach doesn't even have you in heart compared to the match coming up.

A coach will break you up and fill you up with gravel just cos he sees the success of the game at
his advantage. So he'll go hard on you. And God help you if you're the key player of the game then
you know you're gonna get the worse out of them all: that means your body aches in different
places more than other players; that means you get no preferential treatment at all. Heck! You both
are hard enemies till the game is over.

But how many of you remember that good feeling when your team finally won and you scored a

45
 hat trick?
That good feeling when the fans scream your names!

It was pain that brought you that glory. No Pain, No Gain!

That pain was to serve as a propeller into your ministry. The current level of your present
frustration was intended as a utility tool for your tomorrow wisdom.

Your present pain is your tomorrow's power. Your now stress is going to be your later strength.
Your success is in your struggle. How can you change lives if you've never experienced what a
broken life feels like? or how can you really make any quality impact if you haven't got the
slightest clue what shattered hopes feel like?

Have you any idea how many times Thomas Edison failed at the light build? Have you any idea
how many political posts Abraham Lincoln lost to before he won at the Presidency?

Now listen: Edison was asked how he felt trying and losing just to get it right, the man said,
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.".

Come on! That's PERSPECTIVE! Rather than see failure, he saw experience. He didn't fall into
depression and shut the world out! He kept his shield light! Success ain't luck. Success is
misfortune geared into insightful utility.

Many people presume that narrating or reliving their ordeals and painful experiences gives them
closeur whereas it tears them apart leaving them more vulnerable because the pain is always fresh.
It's like wounds. You let it heal even when the scabs cover it. You don't expect it to heal if you
keep tearing it open. It'll leave the wound a sore. I leave you with these words: (whispers: DON'T
MAKE YOUR SHIELD TOO HEAVY!!!

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 IN DUE TIME

You see the problem about experience is that it was intended to make you but you go about life
interpreting them like they were meant to mar you.
Come on now!
You alone know those pains you went through at the time that felt devastating and self and sanity
questioning, but you end up now shouting a deep heartfelt thank you to, in appreciation of them,
because though they shattered you then and they felt excruciating as you we're going through
them, but you now realize in actuality, that the crashing downs, and the caving in, and the
capsizing were a setting for some new expertise. Sometimes life bruises us with harsh realities but
the truth wrapped in those experiential realities are we getting equipped with modern expertise.

Every experience facilitates new expertise. You know how naïve you use to be back in the day, but
you know now, through the pains of those experiences, why the righteous are as bold as lion.
Because the pain has taught you, my dear, that if you don't initiate your move then you get moved.
Hence, the heartbreaks, and the disappointments, and the betrayals, and the constant persecutions.
They all lead to that didacticism of "if you don't initiate your move then you get moved". Why else
do you think they remain recurrent until you get the message? So now, despite gentle, you know
the necessity for discipline. Despite being in love, you know the value for self esteem.

Despite being good natured, you know the necessity for drawing the line. Despite being soft
spoken, you know the value for maintaining your grounds. Now all these are very fine virtues
that's why it is said that the finer things in life aren't free. In due time you get to see that the person
you aspired to be long ago as you conceived the dream takes a little more than wishful thinking
and academics to manifest. Now position yourself like Joseph sitting on the throne after a series of
berayals, and the isrealites as they enter the Promised Land after forty years of drama, to hear God
say, "I know the thoughts I have for you...to bring you to your EXPECTED END".

God doesn't give you tribulations, but through those tribulations He translates you both internal
and externally. I got to a point where ministry and impact where an unlikely reality. But God said
to me, it will happen in your lowest of lows, you will live in houses you didn't build, because
every house was built by some man but God is the maker of all things. Now I know what those
words really meant. I didn't build here. I wasn't ushered in here. I simply saw here happen to me,
coming out through everything I've been through.

It's not a matter of avoiding the pain. Its either the pain or no pleasure. It is like a dollar bill. You
can’t spend half of it when you tear it in two. The value of one half depends upon the other. Its the
whole that makes the purchase. No pain no gain. The pleasure can only come after the pain, you
don't get to chose. For the joy that was set before him Jesus endured the Cross. You can't ever truly
relate with the joy coming from a baby's first cry unless you're the one who screamed in the
theatre. You can't ever appreciate love genuinely until you've been crushed and given up all hope

47
 then finding that same love reciprocated from the most unusual place you except it. You can't
value the pleasure of a dollar until you go through the risk of investing it at the expense of true
hunger. But many people while attempting to avoid the pain end up being utility for the pain.
You're heart got broken and you vow never to let it happen again. So you go through life being an
instrument of bitterness and heartbreaks. Thus while others are learning their lessons and
moulding it into a message with meaning and there on moving on to the pleasure thereafter, you
limit yourself as a channel. Nobody spits at the source or the cistern. But everybody spits at the
river. Why not make profit out of your pain? You want to get spat on continuously for the rest of
your life? Or you want to be a tourist attraction or the cause for a cue?

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 MORE THAN ADJECTIVES

The actual truth is that there is no difference in superiority between my "me" and your "me" so
long as we agree on some level of our "me" managements. Because A friendship of a thousand
years can end in a moment of careless misstep. People are emotional beings and the only thing evil
in selfishness is not in the longing for self but in the victimizing of others while expecting self
exaltation.

And in this very "me" in us are where God establishes the person, the call, and the purpose.

THE PERSON

One of the most amazing thing people get shocked by when I talk is when I tell them that am not a
pastor. They get so shell shocked to hear it because society has been reduced to nothing but
adjectives. You know sometimes in my darkest hours and my least uncultured times I've had
people come out from nowhere and asking, if I were a pastor or not. One time I just walked into a
room and the guy asked me if I were a pastor. And each time I try to hide it underneath some
leather jacket and torn jeans or some shabby hairstyle and beard growth. I keep getting the same
question popped at me. Some even go beyond questioning and flat out identify me as one. Am not
a pastor am a human being because a pastor limits himself with societal expectations. He can't
wear certain clothes, nor relate with people freely, nor be seen amongst certain places and he
confines himself and shut out his humanity through hurt because some how he sees others living
their lives and believe that they expect him not to live his, so what he does is that he stops those
closest to him from living theirs through doctrines and dogmas. Whereas a mere identifying of
what he was designed to be to others, which is the essence in the title, a shepherd and bringer of
hope and life, has been converted to mere adjectives connoting an idea of codes and conducts. My
dear when someone calls you a pastor, they subconsciously identify with how you relate to the
spiritual aspect of their life, not just a person who always have to play the part of being holier than
everybody else even if it makes them uncomfortable being hypocritical. Brother if you like tight
jeans, wear tight jeans and relate with those who appreciate you and you can help than fashion
your life because of the critic of those who are comfortable with what they are and wants you not
to be with who you are.

Am not a pastor am a human being and that to God is the greatest service I can render him towards
the very humanity he created, than just being some fancy adjective. God never created adjectives
but human beings with their individual contribution according to their humanity, flaws and all.

When God was creating you he wasn't creating a pastor. or a politician, or an engineer, or a doctor,
etc, but he was creating a human being. Greater than being a pastor, or a doctor, or an engineer,

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 you are a human being with a message in your life. Do you understand that?

The word doctor may be AN adjective used in describing any professional who has gone to study
medicine at a tertiary education for a number of years, but "the humanity of you" is that you're not
a doctor according to education. But in other words, being called a doctor, for you is simply THE
adjective that comes to mind because people see you naturally want to help people by treating
them in the best possible way you can to the extent that you honed your skill by studying your
craft at a tertiary education over a number of years in order to legally practice your love in helping
by. This is why there can be a thousand students in a room and each with their different
contributions to helping people. Same profession, same study, equal number of years spent in
school, but their individuality is what that actually created the several departments of medicine
we have today. That is God encouraging their individualistic humanities.

You see, in actuality the person is the purpose and the profession is the person. But the modern
difference is that society has put a level of professionalism that blatantly corrodes the person from
the profession, that's why we find professionals rather than humane people. We find people who
are spiteful and ruthless whereas the very core of their duty is to be tenderhearted, kind and
compassionate. Rather than humans we find cold hearted brutes masquerading as nurses, and
people without tolerance and patience standing in the gap as academic professors, and the list goes
on.

Because someone somewhere hadn't allowed themselves heal before they took the reins of
destiny; or misunderstood what God was telling them simply because an opportunity
corresponding with their expectations presented itself before them and they leaped at it thinking it
was God's move.

Friend take time to heal! God is more interested in your humanity than in your purpose driven life.
God is better off with humans who feel the pains of others than your pretty hard cover jotter with
quotes and quips. For we have not an high priest that cannot be moved by our infirmities but
tempted in every way as we were and is now able to succor them that trust in him. That's the
reason why God was made flesh. Not necessarily because flesh has blood but because flesh has
humanity.

Heal, so that you too can be able to succor those who trust in you, don't get scarred by your
temptations and scare others too.

You see without that humanity we ultimately become emotionally unavailable but vengeful
professionals. That's why most politicians have no other ambition other than self gain as a form of
revenge over what was done to them while they were nobody in the past. I believe that being
human is the greatest responsibility to God because if he needed angels and robots he would have
made you either of each. But he didn't make you so, instead he made you a human being, now
look inwards to decide where to function in response to that humanity of yours.

THE CALL

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 It is one thing to hear God talk to us and it is another to understand what he is communicating to
us about. Because oftentimes we find ourselves interpreting God's messages in the light of our
own experiences and sometimes we get a complete wrong idea of what God wanted to pass across.
Have you ever had those instances when you walk and talked with people only to hear them
understand something different from the main point you were trying to put across? You say one
thing to them and what they understand is a different thing altogether. And they're narrating what
they think you mean and you just interrupt them and start all over. In the very same vein we
misunderstand God is says because we think we have an idea of what point he's making. And time
and time again we lose it only to get right back to the first spot we began in the first place.

Sometimes It's about "what" God wants you to be, and this "want" isn't some imposition but a
filtered scrutiny. Not just some destiny but a person fitted for that destiny. It's not about what you
think you can be, because God telling you to get ready for something isn't He expressly telling you
that the time for that something is about to happen. Take for example, I had a time in my life when
I was, like, God what you want me to be? Because am done imitating role models and he just said,
"I called you to change lives not dance to rhythms". After that he did something more phenomenal
that when a situation came for me to actually change lives he asked me to sit that one out.

Why? I was going through some personal issues at the time when I bumped into what
corresponded with my purpose. And I wanted to jump in because it was the right thing I thought
God expected me to do. But God said, "sit this one out". Yes it corresponded with my purpose, but
it wasn't yet time for me cause I needed to get healed. Makes you see the reason why Jesus though
having the power to do miracles, and Mary giving him an opportunity to display, simply said it
wasn't his time, even though he did it perfectly, yet he didn't go into it immediately.

Oftentimes we stumble upon scenarios that looks like they correspond with the word of God for
our lives --this is why it is important never to navigate God's ship with assumptions, so I asked
God, I think am ready for this and the man upstairs told me to take time to heal-- It is not about the
mission set before you but about your ability to understand the movement of God considering a
particular situation. Because you may find yourself face to face with a situation that corresponds
with the word of God concerning your life and God is asking you to sit this one out because there
are other things which combine to construct the concept of what being ready means other than just
being confronted with opportunitied and being scared of missing out on them. You see opportunity
may be circumstantial providence but it takes preparation to engage that opportunity and bring out
the max out from it, not just opportunity itself seized.

You may assume that you are ready, and the next thing you, feel to be the right thing to do, is start
making impromptu sacrifices because you think you're now ready, but God is saying "take things
slow". In other words, take time to go through the process and let it go through you. So when you
are broken and tired don't be sadden because you can't deliver just let yourself heal. There are
dozen other opportunities but fewer dozen memories, so enjoy the moment if it's what health
means to you. That you are some public figure doesn't mean that you can't have a great private
life. You think giving speeches are all it takes? You thinking building edifices are all it takes? You

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 think reading books are all it takes? Try making contact and find out why little foxes spoil the
vine. Personal qualms, unresolved issues and mismanaged confrontations, amongst many others,
are the greatest stumbling block to huge cooperations. Nabal nearly lost his life and business if it
hadn't been for the discretion of Abigail.

THE PURPOSE

You see we're so focus on a purpose driven God demanding for a purpose driven life that we
forget the one who took his disciples away to rest. Really we confuse our interpretation of God
that the thought of him wanting you to do nothing but to sit back and heal look a bit blasphemous
forgetting that he was the same who instituted the Sabbath day for rest.

So when God says "sit this one out and heal" it doesn't mean he considers your inputs to be
irrelevant. It just means that he wants you to get to that place where you want to do it because you
got strength not because you're responding to necessity placed on you. You see, God who sees the
end from the beginning, knows the frame of mind that you're currently on right now and how
delicately sensitive you are, understands that you are only going to make a mess of the project at
hand even though it corresponds with the things he called you to do.

Because if you're not rested, if you're not well equipped, if you're not healed you're only going to
be a deformed person orchestrating a malformed project. Years ago Creflo Dollar gave a message
citing that even a slight nudge on an object going a straight line will tilt it relatively farther from
its intended final point. It takes emotional, psychological and intellectual stability to grip the reins
of destiny. So don't go jumping into it and producing misshapen products, because though
everything you do may be in line with the pattern of God, but it wouldn't be from a right heart.
And it takes a right heart, to get a right attitude, to get right results, not just presumed readiness
alone. A close example is the scriptures where they said Lord we did this in your name and were
replied with when I was hungry, and naked, and homeless, you never did come for me so begone
for me, for though you did good deeds, you didn't do it as you should have done if your priorities
were straight. That's focus, beloved!

Focus here doesn't just mean purposeful, not focused as in being objective, No, but focused as in
stability. because a calm mind can and will accomplish greater than any unsettled mind will. The
calm head can think a thousand thoughts and be objective with every one of them, but with an
unsettled mind even the slightest thing becomes profoundly taken too personal. You observe that
people in this ditch some how let their personal stuff interpret what God was telling them to the
point where they think they understand but really don''t. Discernment as you see is very important
and as a matter of fact is key. Ever had an unstable worker you just had to send home early
because you know their frame of mind would cause more harm than good? They themselves feel
that they can do it, but you know that there's no way anybody who just lost a loved one could
handle customer service pressures on a Monday morning.

God knows that stresses comes along with destiny, and will take alot from you but he doesn't want
you being overly sentimental with the little foxes in it because he knows those little foxes are

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bound to come. A renowned preacher once said that he needed to go through his early aloneness so
that the latter crowd wouldn't intimidate him. And this healing can only be achieved when you
understand that everything in your life is a phase and each phase has a lesson to be learned from it
which ultimately corresponds with your grand theme, that is, your life.

That's why the Bible says I knew you before I formed you and have separated you for this
purpose. Your purpose in life is an adjective not an identity. Your purpose isn't greater than you,
but simply put is a place where you relate to with your humanity. You didn't stumble into your
profession nor stumble into your calling, but you was separated unto it because God had already
known you before you were born. Don't let your "calling", "purpose" or "vision", define your
humanity because it was after you were fore known by God that he appreciately fore ordained
you. He didn't create you TO BECOME he created you FROM BECAUSE. You weren't created
because of a need, you were formed because of a supply. So your humanity isn't about sin but
about your uniqueness and your ability to be compassionate to others with that same uniqueness.
When God created Adam he created human. It was in Adam's humanity that every other thing
were added to him. His job, his home, and wife too. Before all other thing else, is "a person" in
you created by God with a good heart. Destinies, visions, purposes are all strategies set by God for
self actualization, nothing inferior about it at all.

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 THE LOSS IS THE GAIN
( THE ART OF LOSING )

What if you found out that the guy who made you laugh a few minutes ago spent the last hour in
his room crying? What if you went out and found out that the girl who spent the past hours gisting
with you was afraid to go home because loneliness and regret were the only companions draining
the life out of her? What if you go out and find out that that little boy who just made you laugh
was coming from the hospital with Ma about to die of cancer and he just doesn't want to be there
to see the only family he has die and leave him in n the cruel cold hands of fate? What if you
realize later on that the woman whom you're telling all your trivial worries to knows she's got just
three more days to live because the HIV eating her up has grown into full blown AIDS and she
couldn't even bare it but sit back and listen to you because perhaps hearing you will take her mind
off her impending demise?

Everyday we bump into people who are going through extraordinarily messed up lives yet we
bother them with our trivialities and pettiness. I got to know the reality of how fragile life was
when I went for an HIV test. Then you get face to face with the reality of the scripture: what shall
a man not give in exchange for his life? At that time nothing else matters, not even the taste of
food. Or having made it this far only to be told that you got some terminal cancer in you, then you
ask yourself: what does it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul? The night before my
appointment my whole life flashed before my eyes. I was terrified. And the devil had a field day
with my nugget. But I prayed. And the next day, it was raining and it was as if the sky was
mourning me. I was already preparing myself for managing the sickness but truth be told, my
strength wouldn't contain it. And when my blood sample was taken and screened. One from
outside could see a perfectly calm man sitting on the chair I sat except for the tapping of my legs
that betrayed the calm gossiping the storm that raged within me. Then I knew there were alot of
people out there who deserved pity because they were all warriors fighting their own demons. I
prayed. The nurse came out and I saw the result. I ran to her to explain what I saw, and she told
me what my eyes had already seen. Negative. The last thing she saw was my smoke dust shape
fading away in front of her as my actual body was miles away fleeing in rapturous ecstacy.

Sometimes God intervenes with a miracle like my case, but other time faith doesn't come that
easy. How do I mean?

What if your faith is not in getting healed or having your troubles melt away but actually in your
handling the situation with grace? You know what the Bible says? It says put on the armour of
God...and having done all, to stand".
Having done all, to stand. Stand firm! You see the problem isn't that we're irreligious but simply
for the fact that Satan knows our weaknesses

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What if after pouring your heart out in prayer and the situation doesn't change and rather than hear
a still small voice whisper "be ye healed", rather what you heard was, "my grace is sufficient for
thee?" What if after breaking your heart in petitions and all you get is strength is made perfect in
your weakness?
When reality hits you, it floods like a tidal wave. Then loneliness becomes an issue you
familiarize with. And it's not like you don't have faith, you can have great faith and still experience
great depressions and at that exact moment you see that your faith was in the provision and not in
the waiting.

What do you do when all your testimonies slumps into prayer points again? What do you do when
everything you've ever been grateful for is about to be taken from you? What do you do when
your prayers seem only to make matters worse for you? What do you do when it seem like God
stopped being good to you? What do you do when you lay hands on ten people and God blessed
all but forgot about you? You see it is quite easy to run to God after people fail you: but whom do
you run to when God fails you? You see God never fails but sometimes the delay can be
dangerous. What do you do when your faith seems like a mockery from God himself? That is your
final point. When life hits you, it sweeps you off your intellectual balance ,making you question
what right or wrong is, and kicks you with a low blow, making you question who's to trust and
who you thought you knew.

God let's you see those moments when it's point to point. When you're next to the wall at the very
end of yourself. At that moment everything you knew about faith become utility for survival and
you observe that even after many tries that you don't really have as much faith as you thought you
had. The best men wavered: Job didn't curse, but he doubted; Abraham didn't curse, but he
doubted; Jesus didn't curse, but even the son of God doubted. Your doubt is not the sin. It is the
final point. The point where you're ready.

To me, one of the most practical scripture is that final point where the man said, "Lord I believe,
help my unbelief ". There are certain things God reveals only when you pass through the fire. You
don't really know the stuff you're made of until you see your color of ash as you burn. At those
burning times of my life I got to see my true worth coming out through the smoke.

The thing about fire is that it is a purifier. Whatever you see now is nothing other than impurities.
You may think you have faith until the chips are down and what you thought was faithful was
nothing other than confidence in material things or promises.

But, O my soul, don't be discouraged. Don't be upset. Expect God to act! For I know that I shall
again have plenty of reason to praise him for all that he will do. He is my help! He is my God!"
Psalm 42:11: (TLB)

In other words be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Whatever you do, don't
succumb to bitterness or having a victim mentality. That is quitting your strength in the Lord's
power and might, and developing a victim mentality. That victim mentality can rob you off a lot of
things. Too many people understand, respond or react to things from the position of hurt rather

55
 than from the position of saving. From the position of scammed rather than from the position of
investments.

People are investments when you quit being myopic. And in every business there is gain, either
monetarily or experientially, either way labelling all people the same based on assumptions is bad
marketing.

You make investments in order to make returns profit but when you put your feelings out there as
a defensive mechanisms, you miss out on the message.

Too many people fail to see other person's point of view other than theirs because they've been
hurt doing so in the past, because assumptions persuade them into feeling that another hurt is
about to come rather than trading interest through it.

What if Joseph had let his hurt and betrayal get him from interpreting dreams, who would God had
used to remind the Pharaoh? it's really bad to live in past hurts.

You become toxic or bitter. Toxic people are those who let past hurt dictates their present lives.
And bitter people develope victim mentalities. What if the Canaanite woman had gotten bitter
when Jesus called her a dog? She would have reasons but she wouldn't have left the slum. Guess
what? Even Jesus had his own struggles. Even the Egyptian butler had his own struggles. We're all
people with our individual struggles but smart folks convert struggles into business.

Aspire to commercialize the other person's strength to your own advantage rather than focus on
their weaknesses and live in the ditch. This book in your hands didn't get here by divine dictation
but a conversion of everyday hurts into a divine purpose.

Those reading this now are the same who taught me through backstabbing and betrayals. I
commercialized my hurts and made friends out of enemies. Several years ago while coming back
from a vigil, an enemy escorted me through a dark alley home out of his own thoughtfulness,
why? I commercialized his weakness for my strength. Today, he doesn't even know he's the one
am referring to. Elisha did the same with his prisoners at the mountain of fiery angels. made them
blind and led them to a feast. There's no one more grateful than a person shown mercy. Those
enemies ends up with friends with a sense of belonging than mere friends with the sense of
entitlement.

People only understand from their point of view. Agree with them on theirs and they will agree
with you on yours. There and then age long rivalry cease. There's nothing unnerving as a strategic
forgiveness. Even after their defense died, Joseph's brothers felt guilty. Confrontations don't
produce remorse, unforeseen forgiveness does. There was a time half my cabinet comprised of my
enemies, back when I was a youth leader. I have witnesses who will attest that my tenure was the
most exciting and structured. The person you're fighting also has a past where someone hurt them
too. In fact we all are a series of past hurts.

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 📖 Genesis 42:8 says that

Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they didn't recognize him (NLT)

It had been over 20 long years since the brothers saw Joseph’s face last. And the last time he saw
them, he was a gawky immature teenager.

The people who hurt you may think that they know everything about you because they can see
you, they thought they can predict you through what can be seen, but what they don't know is that
there is so much more about you than what can be seen, therefore we walk not by sight but by
faith. Paul says "know we no man after the flesh".

Joseph was 17 years old when he was sold as a slave. But when his brothers met him in Egypt, he
was a full grown adult.

Those who mess you up did so because they could account of your status but the got it wrong
baby because they never accounted for your growth. They thought you were going to die where
they left you, but they didn't account for the fact that God needed them to push you forward. The
soil is a dangerous place for a seed, baby, because that's where it dies. But except a grain of corn
falls to the earth and dies IT ABIDETH ALONE!

Sure they are the kings of today, but as all kings are limited to their jurisdiction, so do these people
limited by today, but nobody knows tomorrow. I say NOBODY KNOWS TOMORROW!!

You see, if you're on the right side, tomorrow you're either going to get a financial helper or a
business partnership. But God help you if you lose out on either because you were too busy being
intoxicated by your present thrones.

Joseph's demeanor and mannerisms were particularly regal and refined due to his status. His
appearance was now, not just of any Egyptian but that of an Egyptian lord.

You just aren't the same as they predicted. How do you reconcile a blundering buffoon to being
this Lord of all Egyptian? It doesn't compute!
The very day they cast their eyes on him they were seeing a 37 years old Egyptian Nobleman
(calculating from the age he was coronated, being 30 years, to be Prime Minister of Egypt, and
after the 7 years of plentiful ended and the 1st year of famine began). Of course facial appearance
could drastically change in such a long span. Why? Barely 7 years apart and most of my
neighbors couldn't recognize my very self.

Don't be surprised to find that those who hurt you no longer remember what they did, nor take in
cognizance the gravity of how their actions affect you. To them it's either "Oh! grow up", or "I
don't know what you're talking about", or " why is it always one issue or the other with you? " or
some other abusive escape phrase.

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 Only a few number of people out there are clean of the diverse forms of manipulative lies
techniques and deceitfully persuasive arguments common place now. But you shouldn't get
caught debating with the expertise. Always stick to what's factual and quit from there. Never
wrestle with pigs. You get filthy with mud and the pig is having fun. Pigs don't play with dirt to
get dirty. They play with dirt because neatness makes them uncomfortable. Don't get entangled on
the battle for right or wrong, the peace of mind is always beats second guessing yourself any day.

Some people are just going to have an opinion about you not minding whether you've met or not
before. It's funny how some people can make their wrongs all your fault over an issue so common
place. But they don't keep track of their deed because it didn't affect them as it did you. That's why
you have to be careful who you hurt because you don't know how Josephine that story will turn
out, Don't be too quick to defend yourself because you know you won't like what you did to others
if the same thing was done you --and still expect them to deal with it and come out cool, when you
know you can't yourself but won't accept because you don't like the pressure of guilt on you.

Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they didn't recognize him.

Genesis 42:8 (NLT)

Simply explained: They weren’t expecting him. The very last thing that the brothers would
expect was to meet him sitting on a throne even Jacob their father never sat. (You see if Jacob had
sat there then they could account for the fact that he may get an inheritance and thus share the will
amongst themselves even if the father apportioned it. After all they took the coat of many colors.
They took your job, they took your marriage, they took your happiness and left ruining your image
with the blood of a goat showing it to others to stop them from trusting you). I mean he was sold
a slave to the Ishmaelites heading towards Arabia, but this was a ruler in Egypt with garbs, jewels
and accessories, communicating to them in Egyptian through an interpreter translating in Hebrew.

As believers we get too spoilt with the concept of victory that we neglect that our adversary is a
master at defeat. Being conquered doesn't bother Satan anymore. To him, one loss is next to
another, until you get tired of being victorious. But as believers we expect total victory because we
get too tired of focusing on the battle.

You may be told a harsh word or thrown a judgemental stone, accept it as loss and move on. Quit
being angry at the words said, only God can approve to what the truth is. Three scriptures should
keep you standing. The heart of men is desperately wicked; Don't be deceived whatsoever a
person does they real; and The Lord know those who are his.

Do good not because people deserve it but because you honor God with it. Don't be too focused on
the hurt that you neglect how far God has led you.

Sometimes we forget that disappointments can be blessings. And other times we fail to understand
the reality of what prayer points we make. When GOD starts exposing unfriendly friends to you,
rather than focus on the hurt, and betrayals, and the pains of the backstab, remember that this was
what it required in answering those prayer points you made. They wouldn't have gone if your

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prayers weren't so effective.

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WE'RE THE UGLY DUCKLING RUNTS
IN THE LITTER
Sometimes growth isn't at that moment you feel like you're getting stronger, any more like it feels
like you're getting bigger when you're lifting weights and doing exercises. You will find in your
walk with God that certain things aren't going to be as Sunday school as you learned them to be.
Things like handling rejection. But hold up a bit! I haven't seen anybody who rejected any other
person turning out better than the other person.

Right now you're the ugly duckling. Having no form of comeliness. You are so messed up, beat
down, crazy looking freak of nature amongst the fine sets of elegant chicks. Heck! God put you
there because you were that ugly. You mess up the prettiness of that picture. That's how improper
you are. God doesn't really want to fix you. Nobody wants you to come ruin what they got going
on.

Nobody who had ever rejected you turned out better than you in the end. Right now you're the
ugly duckling. Having no form of comeliness. You are so messed up, beat down, crazy looking
freak of nature amongst the fine sets of elegant chicks. You mess up the prettiness of that picture.
That's how improper you are. Nobody wants you to come ruin what they got going on. But out of
that ugly comes out a beautiful swan. Out of that freak comes out the eagle. Out of that mess
comes out a mesmerization. You weren't always ugly, you just weren't appreciated. It wasn't as if
you had the problem, you just weren't supposed to roll in the mud with the others that's all. What
made you different makes you stand out. What made you subdued puts you in total control. Listen,
Daniel was a slave, yet he was a president. You see the thing about rejection is that subdues and
frankly, God wants you to be subdued. Rejection breaks you forcing you to question the concepts
you esteemed sacred. And that is exactly what God is going for. And you know, without questions
there are little discoveries or none at all. You don't know how a thing is made if you don't question
the way it works. You don't really have power if you don't have a problem, and purpose is in the
midst of problems. You may go through life thinking that all you ever encountered was
disappointments, not realizing until some later phase, that what you were encountering was
expertise. Nobody can handle stress as the fella graduated from hard Knox school of
disappointment. That's what made Joseph the man he ever was. You develop a wealth of
knowledge and an arsenal of ammunition. That very thing that you think brought you down is the
very competitive advantage you have over the other easy street fella in the market place jungle
called life.

Sometimes when you're growing the most you feel it the least. In fact when you start growing in
faith you actually find out that you're doubting God the more. And it doesn't feel like you're
getting stronger in faith because you find yourself questioning the things you formerly assume.
Sometimes you find that faith manifests in great anger at God rather than great love for God. You
find that you start getting depressed, not because of your problems or how massive they are but

60
because you know that God being greater refuses to do anything yet and you start hollering at him.
It takes great faith to get mad at God.

But out of that ugly comes out a beautiful swan. Out of that freak comes out the eagle. Out of that
mess comes out a mesmerization. That's why God never had any intention of fixing you in the first
place. You weren't always ugly, you just weren't appreciated. It wasn't as if you had the problem,
you just weren't supposed to roll in the mud with the others that's all. What made you different
makes you stand out. What made you subdued puts you in total control. Listen, Daniel was a
slave, yet he was a president.

You see the thing about rejection is that subdues and frankly, God wants you to be subdued.

Rejection breaks you forcing you to question the concepts you esteemed sacred. And that is
exactly what God is going for. And you know, without questions there are little discoveries or
none at all. You don't know how a thing is made if you don't question the way it works. You don't
really have power if you don't have a problem, and purpose is in the midst of problems. You may
go through life thinking that all you ever encountered was disappointments, not realizing until
some later phase, that what you were encountering was expertise.

Nobody can handle stress as the fella graduated from the hard Knox school of disappointment.
That's what made Joseph the man he ever was. You develop a wealth of knowledge and an arsenal
of ammunition. That very thing that you think brought you down is the very competitive
advantage you have over the other easy street fella in the market place jungle called life.

Having sat down with various icons of different fields, political authorities, celebrities, sports
frontiers, captains of industries, business executives, inspiring dignities , etc, --I mean people that
make you gasp for air as you stand awestruck at an encountering with them --Yet this one thing I
can specifically tell you, underneath all that glamour we're all the same. you will get to that point
where much doesn't impress you that greatly again because you've seen both the high and low
waves and tides of life's turbulent seas, that you neither get aroused nor feel left out by the glitz
and glam. I myself got to that point where disappointments nor rejection impeded my sense of
being, nor was I condoning any self preserved but afflicting slight, not because I had
metamorphosed into some intimidating faith individual but because it had become so common
place that I had grown used to it. It was either I got changed by it or it got changed by me. Guess
which I chose? Rejection isn't the worse thing to happen to you but an indication of where you
must quit wasting time on. It grows on you, the differential knowing between where you are
wanted and where you are needed. That's the problem with relationships these days. You hardly
find a person without some revenge motive as they profess, listen, or accept an I love you
declaration.

Let me throw in some joke in here to lighten the mood a bit: Three guys were fishing in a lake one
day, when an angel appeared in the boat.
When the three astonished men had settled down enough to speak, the first guy asked the angel
humbly, 'I've suffered from back pain ever since I took shrapnel in the Vietnam War... Could you

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 help me?'
'Of course,' the angel said, and when he touched the man's back, the man felt relief for the first
time in years.
The second guy wore very thick glasses and had a hard time reading and driving. He asked if the
angel could do anything about his poor eyesight.
The angel smiled, removed the man's glasses and tossed them into the lake. When they hit the
water, the man's eyes cleared and he could see everything distinctly.
When the angel turned to the third guy, the guy put his hands out defensively – 'Don't touch me!'
he cried, 'I'm on a disability pension.'

We're all broken people trying to get vengeance on the very thing that's supposed to vindicate us
because at some point we had been rejected, disappointed, betrayed, hoodwinked, backstabbed,
and now we avenge, passing a conceived crime upon an innocent, and the other person being
battered, does the same, causing a chain reaction of vindictiveness, to the extent that the very
thing we crave becomes the exact thing we cannot allow.

Truth is, until people move past their bitterness, they'll always experience bitterness. Try not to get
bitter dear, the pain isn't worth your loyalty.

Your miracle was never on what you lost but in what you have left. If it was going to have an
impact on you, You never would lost it. Yes God may seem like the best picture guy but what we
fail to take cognizance of is that he was the biggest loser. He lost before, he's losing now, and he'll
lose again, in Genesis he lost his project through Adam and the flood, he lost hais son to a
clutches of death, and despite all he has put up, he'll still lose lots of souls on the last day, but
that doesn't in anyway deter him. Because he takes what went wrong and made it anew. God was
never one to be scared of starting all over again.

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 AN UNFRIENDLY GOD

Now I would like you to pay attention to the things you're about to read. Now who told you that
all those who live godly in Christ will suffer persecution applies to the Bible-Thumpers alone?
Who told you that not being weary in well doing are secluded to those who are religiously
charitable? You see the problem we got ourselves into? Who told you that persecution is only
when you go about preaching the Bible on your street or doing good deeds worthy of scout merit
badges at your local congregation?

Come on now, you sure know better than that by trying to avoid folks getting whiff that you are
religious so as to avoid persecution, we are the epistles of Christ and I don't mean that in the least
religious sense possible. I may not know what denomination you attend, but if the Lord know
those who are his, you better others know as well, just by observation.

You may not know the Bible --you may have read a few verses years back and left it to dust-- but
so long as you got good in you. You will suffer persecution. Nobody goes through more hurt in
life than a folk with a good heart! You may not know it! But so long as you got the 9 fruit of the
Spirit, you will be hurt for all 9 of them.

You got betrayed for love. You got damaged for the pursuit of peace. You got bruised for your
kindness. You got used for your patience. You got scorned by your forgiveness. You got harassed
repeatedly over just because you're the gentle one in the bunch.

Doing good is not the problem, but getting paid back in the same coin as the good which you did,
that's the problem. You see, because without motivation, there's little much to inspire others. Now
you're tossing and turning on the sheets of life deliberating on where and when to do good, or
petty or mature, because you chose, at a point, to be mature but the other folks got petty, and you
turned round, chosing to be petty but the other folks are acting mature, and you find yourself being
questioned on how you acted or told on how you should act, making you feel like whatever
feelings you got were inadequate. Like for real, People whould dictate how you ought to feel, even
though they wouldn't tolerate the same anguish they're demanding you to tolerate. So it isn't a
matter of when to be petty anymore, but how to be petty yet looking mature. Have you ever
pleaded to after getting a job to be the person that is honest, sincere, and good, that they were
looking for, even going as far as complaining to you about the last employee who was a total
scam; only for to be the fall guy for trying to be all they begged you to be, and gradually you come
to terms with the fact that the last employee was scam because they made him, out of anger,
become a scam because he was losing, just as you are currently losing now?

God will set flames on your comfort zone just to make sure you move on to the other side. He said
to the Israelites, it's time to get up and off this mountain. He said to the apostles, it's time to

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 remember that going out into the world. And for that he quit the supply of manna --fire! And for
that he sent an extremist called Saul --fire!

Yet you still wonder why things that work for you before suddenly doesn't work out anymore?
FIRE! Why folks who come running to your aide can't even make out time to attend to you again?
FIRE! Why the formerly consistent paying job has been unforgivinly owing you for months now?
FIRE! Why friends you used to count on start turning their backs at you? FIRE! Why the tiniest
privileges common place to others starts eluding you? FIRE!

Getting you ready for that moment in your life where you actually take form of what future God
had in store for you. I asked God once, what sort of ministry he wanted me functioning on and
the man whispered from the majestic clouds into my subconscious, saying, “it will happen to
you”. Mysterious opaque words that mar the observatory ability to peer into them and absorb
clarity. But ever since then, I am yet to see a moment when I cannot preach with anything that
happens to me whether calm or calamity. THIS MINISTRY HAPPENED TO ME!!!

God is able to do just what he says he will do. But 85% of the time, when God is about to be able
in your life, he gets downright unfriendly to you. Heck! Before God lifts you up he first allows
your enemies to do their worse. What did you think? That that mega visions of yours was gonna
come unaccounted for? Until you're ready to stand alone, you cannot command a crowd. That's
why I will never be the sort of preacher you are conversant with. Heck! Judge me all you want,
simply go find yourself another prissy mentor, coz this religious stuff didn't happen to me --My
very own ministry did. As will yours through your own trials, he said to Paul.

That's why I laughed when somebody once said to me, one on one at point blanc range, that my
messages were heavily anointed. Who knew crap and crazy could be converted to an Anointing?
God's goodness alone doesn't make one flowing with that spiritual metaphoric oil called
anointing? But when God gets "evil", you just gotta be bold for change, coz there's an anointing
amidst God's neglect

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 PLANTED NOT BURIED
( THAT STRENGTH TO PUSH )

We all know God is love but it'll be a little bit better if sometimes God loves us just as we want to
be loved. Sometimes God's love can literally be the most cruel thing that ever happened to you. I
mean the one thing you keep on keeping on about happens to be the sole thing God keeps taking
from you. You see I got to understand more about certain quotes about God when I removed
myself from the equation.

You have got to remove yourself from the equation altogether to understand certain things. Years
ago He gave me a word which I titled "I like white God loves black". That message totally
revolutionized my mindset about certain things, things like AM FROM EARTH GOD'S FROM
HEAVEN. God is a person with what he likes, and am a person with things I like, I don't have to
get him to like the things I like, and he doesn't have to force me to like everything he likes.

God is from a different background, and world even, from me, just as I am from a different planet
and culture from him. As a matter of fact, Jehovah doesn't necessarily need to see things my way
in order to come to my rescue, neither do I necessarily need to see things his way to predict that
rescue, all I needed to know was that there is a rescuing afoot. God and I don't even need to agree
on certain things, and it's okay if we have friction once in a while, why? Because am an
individual, and he's an individual too. And as individuals in any kinda relationship, we definitely
will have disagreement on certain issues.

All across the world different people have different definitions about certain concepts which they
fashion they're lives by, so also do we need to understand what God understands by the concepts
of love, and goodness, most especially when Jesus was a victim of the first, and a refuter of the
second.

Remove what you understand by good, and you'll hit the mark, because even when God is good,
he mostly isn't necessarily nice.

I've had quite a few instances where God was downright unfriendly and mean, yet through it all --
not from the eyes of faith or anything, I could see the goodness of God in it. I mean I've been in
relationships I desperately wanted to work, friendships I've hoped against hope on, jobs I've
fasted, prayed and sowed seeds on, still had them blown to my face. Despite the heartache, despite
the betrayals, in spite of the penury and starvation, there was a certain poeticity afterwards that
just gave the gratification there and then that God was good --not that I saw pleasantness, nor any
form of compensation.

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Now the reason why certain people keep encountering the same things is because of the way they
choose to experience those things they encounter. Keep defending the causes, and you'll keep
encountering the same effects. Take a deep breath and think back, maybe the reason you keep
getting stepped on was because you always made yourself a doormat.

Am not talking here about low self-esteem, am talking about your outlook on the consequences of
your actions. Should you keep going about it like people keep hurting you, you blind yourself to
the possibilities of you actually offending others, and them picking offense. Certain people go
about interpreting their consequences as victimization. I know of individuals who could have had
the best in life if they had only looked inwards and just advice themselves. Rather, they would
create a reaction which will in turn ricochet with greater propensity, and they would leave off
saying that they foresaw it along, hence proving themselves right, not seeing the self fulfilling
prophecy destroying them gradually.

I thank God I wasn't born without that forbidden fruit, knowing right and wrong culminating into a
conscience.

Many ladies and men even, go about with the non debatable ideologies that relationships are
scams, so they never made efforts to create a sustainable one due to their philandering ways, and
should the other partner call it quits out of frustration and anger, they scream aha again! --another
gold star to their ideologies, forgetting that they're the ones who caused it in the first place.

Pushing isn't about the screams of pain alone, it is about birthing or bringing forth through effort.
For anything to be successfully pushed, there's gotta be effort. For a lady to birth a baby she must
summon that strength to push. She must go through the pain and screams. It is a deliberate effort.
Pushing is a deliberate effort it's not some Big Bang, IT'S A DELIBERATE EFFORT!! Nothing
good ever happens just like that. It must go through a process. And process require patience. As a
matter of fact, patience is the oil to the engines of process. Success doesn't just happen, it's a
deliberate effort. Prayers don't just manifests itself through faith IT'S A DELIBERATE EFFORT!
If your faith doesn't get you off on deliberate efforts, you didn't have enough faith in the first
place.

Certain times, it isn't about how well you're good at quotes, but how eager you are at pushing
those quotes. Certain quotes require strength, and you have to have enough depth to match the
depth of those quotes because deep calleth unto deep.

(This reminds me of a lady I was talking with on telephone years ago, and I was saying something
along these lines, someone from her end asked what the person was talking about on the phone,
and she said to them, "I don't know, something about iron and sharpening iron or something", it's
quite unfortunate that the lady is long dead now. Certainly, the thing that keeps us floating is the
amount of depth we engage daily. I'll close that chapter.)

You see the isn't much difference between planting and burying.

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Both go through the same dirt and darkness. And except a grain of corn dies, it abides alone. When
God plants you, it doesn't seem like he's doing you much good as certain people preach good to
be, with the breathtaking testimonies of instant supernatural occurrence, what you just see are dirt,
darkness and delay. Need I include the heat? I mean don't get me STARTED ON THE
INDIGNITY of being covered with god-knows what contained in the dirt, and the grave
reminding darkness, plus the excruciating delay, and then there's the heat.

I have fellen from Grace so many times, I made the grass a park. From being the center of
attraction to being the object of retraction. From being the high and mighty to being the lowly and
humbled, from being bread giver to being the bread begger. From being a being seen as a natural
born leader, as an elite in the field of excellence, to being the butt of every comic's joke --all these
are just me making it PG. But one thing about God, is that though he may see you down, but he'll
never let you out --I'VE FELT THAT HEAT!! I'VE FELT THAT INDIGNITY!!!

Have you ever had to beg mercy from the ones you dealt mercifully to? Have you ever had to ask
favors from the very things you were charitable with, to the very person you were charitable with
it to, only to be mocked? Am talking about giving away somethings when you had plenty only to
borrow that something and have the person who begged you and you generously gave it to them
turn round acting like you need be lectured properly on the worth of what you gave away?

The Indignity of the dirt may stain your identity in the process. Am talking about manure mixed,
spittle dried, Filth ridden, God-knows what other things included dirt. Dirt that'll make God's
motivational scriptures look abstract. Dirt that'll make your confessions attract more laughter.

Job sat back one sunny day and wailed, "isn't it better God kills me? Isn't it better I was never
born? Cursed be the day I was conceived", those weren't the words of a motivated man --No! They
weren't the words of a happy man. Those were the words of of an ex billionaire who was so poor
that he couldn't even afford a hospital bill --my dear I've gone to outreachs and found prisoners
and beggers richer than my very self. I've been so sick and poor that I couldn't pay for
paracetamol, talk more of fixing my damaged belt buckle. This Reverend who once boasted of
personally financing periodic church festivals by the all sufficiency of God walked about with a
rope tied as belt, and a prayer for healing on his lips, all the while never doubting that all
sufficiency. Heck, at the time of one of my greatest distress, I wrote that book SECOND ADAM.

I could have succumbed to reality, but I understood that I was a plant needing sunlight, all I
needed was to break up my fallow ground, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of my faith.
Dearly beloved, except you die, you abide alone. No scripture gives life if you don't hard. That's
God's definition of faith. It is a persistence in the presence of mockery. God mocks you with
scriptures, unless you're violent enough to take it by force.

It's not always about faith and resilience, but about knowing what works and applying that. Any
strong perseverer will let you know like Edison that its not just about the attempts, and
consistency, but that faith is a technicality.So when you're planted, you're actually buried alive.
But the difference is that you're about to be introduced to the rest of who you were born to be --not

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a corpse but a blossoming plant. That's why you got to retain that stamina and resilience.

Do you really understand that scripture, wherever the sole of your feet steps on, it is yours for an
inheritance? God can be sweet but he is the meanest boss there is. Wherever you are, you are
planted there, that's why they cheat you, exploit you, over labour you, break you down. Why?
Except a grain of corn dies in the ground, it abides alone. What did you expect? A promotion at
your first week because you're so heavily anointed and function under the new covenant? No! You
are planted there for a purpose. That means for a while you'll have the similarities of a buried
corpse even though you're actually a planted seed. It took Jesus 30yrs to make a mark for 3yrs and
leave an impression for all eternity. Because he was planted, funny how his own received him not
--isn't that how you feel now adays?

I have been planted and thought buried all my life. But had it not been for that strength to push
above the dirt, darkness, delay and heat, I never would have surfaced off the earth. And overtime,
the deliverance I got groomed on wasn't about some demons being cast out, but knowing that I
had no one else to blame for whatever happened to me but myself, I grew into understanding that
The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his
attitude. Many people would rather die than take responsibility for their actions, forgetting that
actions have consequences no matter how genuine your excuse may be. Not all excuses are
illegitimate, but every excuse, no matter how legit, is a "nearly" and nearly never kills a bird. But
by taking responsibility for your actions, you subconsciously begin to eliminate those impurities to
your brand creating new and fresh quality to it. Admitting what is negative in your life allows you
see clearly what you can control and change. Before you can change anything, you first need to
figure out what the problem is --that is, what exactly needs to be changed, and it usually is what
you blame everything and everyone else but yourself. It's not always about faith and resilience, but
about knowing what works and applying that. Any strong perseverer will let you know like Edison
that its not just about the attempts, and consistency, but that faith is a technicality.

Does this negate that God is good? Not at all, it just means that you need to understand that God's
goodness isn't necessarily your definition of what the word is. Funny how the fruit of the Spirit
includes goodness and kindness but never niceness. Now here's a word to keep you pushing: God
is good, all the time; and all the time? God is good. Most things you prayed for, you may forgot,
but God will remind you through seeming disappointments until you get to your expected end.

Until the time came to fulfill his dreams, the LORD tested Joseph’s character.
Psalms 105:19 (NLT)

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