When God's Time Starts To Seem Not Like The Best - by Oscar Ajoku

WHEN GOD’S TIME
STARTS TO SEEM NOT

LIKE THE BEST
Handling the
Pressures Of The
Waiting Period
OSCAR N. AJOKU
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When God’s Time Starts To Seem Not
Like the Best
WHEN GOD’S TIME STARTS TO SEEM NOT LIKE THE BEST
Copyright © 2019 Oscar N. Ajoku
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of
this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and
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written permission of the copyright owner of this book
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the King James
Version of the Bible. Scripture quotations marked TLB are taken from The Living
Bible. Copyright ©1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Wheaton, IL 60187. All rights reserved. Verses marked AMP are taken from The
Amplified Bible. Copyright ©1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman
Foundation. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Verses marked GNB are taken
from The Good News Bible. The Good News Bible, Old Testament ©American
Bible Society, New York 1976. The God News Bible, New Testament ©American
Bible Society, New York 1966, 1971, 1976. Verses marked NIV are taken from the
New International Version ©1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society.
Dear Reader,
Waiting is a regular part of life; we do it when we try to pay
for our groceries, we do it when trying to use the ATM, we do it
when expecting a baby. We wait all the time. You're probably
waiting for something right now. However, if waiting is always part
of a man's routine, then why do we shriek or worse implode when
we have to wait for something we are expecting from God? Why do
we throw in the towels and burn all our bridges when that little
word becomes the only response we get in prayer? A million people
around the world have probably battled with this subject centuries
before now; a million more are this century, and I believe much
more than a million may yet do so in time to come.
Nevertheless the aim of the author is to help this set of

persons, and to educate all interested more on how to really answer
when these questions come up in the daily scenes of their lives. In
‘When God's Time Starts To Seem Not Like The Best’, I have taken
my time to share both personal experiences and other opinions
based on observation and revelations from my communion with
God on how to handle the pressures of the waiting period. I have
also defined in practical terms what it means to trust God in
distraught situations, and to really live above the clouds of doubt
and fear that makes obscure the scenery of the life we are desiring.
Some of the things you'll discover here are:
. How to rest in faith on God's word
. How to overcome the when, how and why question
. What to do when you're not getting all you're expecting
. How to put up a positive attitude even in an unfavourable

condition
. How to let go and let God

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CONTENTS
Introduction
11
Chapter One
Never Knew It Would Take So Long
21
Chapter Two
When God? How God? Why God?
69
Chapter Three
Can I Trust In God’s Timing?
123
Chapter Four
Is God Still In Control?
171
Chapter Five
Is Waiting Really A Preparation Or Just An Excuse
God Uses When He Can’t Always Do It?
217
Chapter Six
Is This God’s So Called Perfect Plan For Me?
269
Chapter Seven
How Do I Keep A Positive Attitude?
329
Conclusion
401
Frequently Asked Question

409
WHEN GOD’S
TIME STARTS TO
SEEM NOT LIKE
THE BEST
INTRODUCTION
W
hat would you do if you really needed a bail
out to clear all your debts and to redeem
yourself from the sorrows and bankruptcy
your soul suffers; and all you were given was the currency of
hope? Can such a currency pay your bills, save your marriage,
make your kids better than they presently are, buy off all your
uncried tears, translate your dreams to realities, give you a
future that is ten times more real in your non-appeared reality
than in that which your physical eyes can see; or as the case
may be, take you off the streets? By human calculations, hope
might have a lesser value in our markets, but with God, this
hope [in Him] is all you need to stay expectant to receive from
His own personal market of unimaginable realities which
distributes to all men according to their faith by simply trusting
and waiting on Him. Some infinities are greater than some
others; just like some realities are more real than others even
when they appear as such. This is how the platform of
ceaseless trust in God has a higher degree of tangibility before
Him than anything our efforts could procreate.
Next question; what if after you’ve traded with this

currency- believing God to do as He promised, it still appears
as though you never did, what would you do? How would you
11
react? Most times, by our judgments, adulterated by fear and
doubt, we would assess God’s time as sometimes not the best;
perhaps rating it by the pain we may have to bear throughout
the process, or by how different it may be from our well
prepared plans. However, history has proven- from Bible
stories to our modern day experiences- that God’s time never
disappoints nor fails. It might not sync rightly with our
proposed chronological timing, but it always comes out right
and timely, and this book is devoted to not only making you
see with more enlightenment why this is true, but also to show
you how and what you must do to overcome the enemy’s
taunts even as you wait believing. Let it be an eye opening
medium to the long ago proven mysteries of waiting on God.
Paulo Coelho, a great teacher on life’s simplest lessons

and one of the renowned writers I have never met, wrote that
‘’the two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to
wait for the right moment and the courage not to be
disappointed with what we encounter’’. You see, trust doesn’t
mean there’s no iota of fear or doubt, it simply is the decision
to be willing to believe rather than fear. And the problem most
times is never really the problem we face, but our attitude
towards the problem. In the brisk of our experiences in life, we
must learn not to fully be driven by the phases that surface, nor
our worries because the results aren’t coming as fast as we
12
expected; but fully trust in the words already spoken by God,
for they remain forever true.
The delivery of our wants may seem to take forever, but

our needs always arrive at the appropriate time as dictated by
God, because just like He gave Himself to the cross, He gives
Himself to the mandate of providing all our needs in life to
fulfil His divine purpose. It is a covenant He has with His
children- which we are, ‘to supply all their needs according to
His riches in glory in Christ Jesus’. It doesn’t matter how huge
or static the mountains that pose its impossibility are; as with
Zerubbabel, He always has His way of making them bow at the
appropriate time.
Moses, talking to the people of God which today we

are, said ‘the Egyptians you see today, you SHALL see no
more’ (Exodus 14:13); in which the word ‘shall’ may seem
subject to today, tomorrow or whenever, but in God’s time, it is
as perfect as can be. And only our decision to wait in trust will
enable us to see it as it should be when this SHALL shall be.
Each chapter of this book is somewhat of a combination

of major questions and complaints from popular and self-
acquired surveys about waiting on God with answers to meet
our everyday needs. The growing human population cry in
unison with an inaudible voice from deep within our souls for a
13
transformation that would salvage our present situation. While
help from our fellow men might prove too puny at times,
seeing how it seldom completely solves our problems or
answer our intricate questions; in an attempt to reach out for a
higher source of a more effective help, we go beyond in our
search for solace by delving deeper beyond our regulars into a
realm where it’s either from God or nowhere else.
However, while we wait on Him, believing in His time

as the best, the solace we seek by statistics have shown to have
almost always arrived a little late than we expected, making
many a man to shun the idea of God’s timing, relegating it
from being our ‘perfect’, since from our conclusion He has lost
control of the situations we are experiencing, seeing He
supposedly never shows up on time- our time. I once met a
woman who told me that unless God turned her situation
around in six months, she would completely stop worshiping
Him. She lost her husband, and for ten years had suffered
unbearably to raise her kids. She had already started discarding
the idea of a God whom she once believed, and now was
giving Him a deadline. During the course of our outreach that
day, having spoken to her on this same subject, I believe she
had a change of heart. Yet it remains that this is how many
believers live- putting God on the scale of time. Placing Him
who compresses time and space on a deadline. And this is
14
exactly what happened in the period of the Exodus, but God
always, always, has a plan for whatever He wills to do.
‘’God did not lead them through the land of the

Philistines, although it was the most direct route from Egypt to
the Promised Land. The reason was that God felt the people
might become discouraged by having to fight their way
through, even though they had left Egypt armed; He thought
they might return to Egypt. Instead, God led them along a
route through the Red Sea wilderness’’ (Exodus 13:17-18
TLB).
The route which would have taken lesser days was

forfeited in place of one that took beyond triple the time
because God knew the Israelis weren’t ready for what laid
ahead. In the same way, God is not taking so long just to
frustrate you as it seems, instead He is preparing you to be
strong enough and wise enough to handle what He plans on
unveiling through you. He is enduing you with capacity to
effectively take advantage of what He’s bringing your way
next. Jesus’ words in Luke 19:13 to occupy till He comes
stands as a clarion call to stay strong in Him faith-and-work
wise till the very moment the expected promise is fulfilled; and
this specially applies to waiting on God, such that even when
15
things don’t look good, we have to look good in faith and
confidence in Him even as we wait on Him.
As I grew older, with the aspiration to experience a

greater degree of faith and love, I decided to face life with a
new philosophy, which is that life is too short to have enemies,
and too long not to have friends; knowing that all I will ever be
depended on the decisions I made. And so I chose to stick to
God closely than ever before regardless of my trying times
rather than nag; for in a world where we can’t tell how our
beginning and end are forged, we need Someone greater than
everyone to lead the way. And not just needing Him, but also
being able and willing to wait for His proposed timing for the
manifestation of whatever things He has promised to do,
because for sure He knows better than we can ever do.
Furthermore, God’s answers might have come late, yet

it doesn’t mean He’s no longer at the helm directing our life
affairs unto His perfect will. It is somewhat like a child who
gets his teeth shooting out a little late as compared to others, or
one who learns to walk later than usual; it doesn’t mean he’s
never going to chew or walk as others would. In fact, I know a
boy Ben who was six when I began writing this book. When he
was two years old, he couldn’t walk, and as a result his mother
had to carry him everywhere he wanted to go. People said it’s
16
because he was so thin then, but guess what? He is still so thin
now yet he leaps all over the place like a frog with extreme
excitement.
With God, late can only be analogous to great. It might

seem like you are not getting it, but if God says you would, you
will. Joseph’s story is a major hit on this subject. While he was
in jail, his mates would have been studying the great arts and
philosophies of Egypt. While he felt dejected, many enjoyed
the embrace of acceptance. While it felt as though he was
rotting away in chains, his contemporaries must have been
flourishing as they moved up the ranks; with a clear
interpretation that they stood a better chance of creating a great
legacy than he did. But in those supposedly horrible ten years
of Joseph’s, God was building his personal ‘Danyang
Kunshan’ grand bridge to the throne.
The mystery in this miracle doesn’t lie in how long it

took, but in how fast it happened. One touch by God in His
time cancels the complaints of lateness; for with God, late can
only be great, because ‘late’ as a word is non-existent to Him
except it is interpreted as the perfect time for the perfect help.
Thus, don’t focus on the ‘’whys’’ or ‘’when’’, focus on the
‘’then’’ when He brings before you a recovery of the divine
that seemed far from you. Because when God’s time starts to
17
seem not like the best, that is the moment for the stars, which is
the moment when the light of its fulfilment should appear
brightest to you; for it is in the darkest night that the stars have
the greatest reasons to shine. God never shells a lie with His
word. Whatever He says, He does; so if He’s said it, just
simply and patiently wait for it, He will do it.
“The Lord is not too slow to do what He has promised,

as some think……” (2 Peter 3:9 GNB)
“Every good thing the Lord had promised them came

true” (Joshua 21:45 TLB)
So, to come out a winner in every trying situation over

the devil, we need a Jericho pulling down and a miracle
bringing down sort of faith in God, even when it doesn’t seem
favourable, to remain sustained in the right kind of believing to
wait patiently before His Holy presence. We need to learn to
trust God to do the right thing both in and out of our so called
mood to comply; for the very dictates for mortal time and the
supernatural are engraved in His palms.
Now is the time to be completely led by God’s Spirit,

and to fully walk as He leads, until there is no possibility of
disengagement when doubt comes, only a fervent hunger to
have Him remain strongly in you, keeping your eyes on Him
despite the stall in the manifestation of your desired change.
18
Focus more on His willingness to do than on the present non-
manifestation of the deed; for in appearance, it may seem late,
yet He would do it in grand style at the right time. For when
God’s time starts to seem not like the best, that’s the best time
to start trusting in Him more.
“But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly,

steadily, surely the time approaches when the vision will be
fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will
surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a
single day!” (Habakkuk 2:3 TLB)
Whatever makes you doubt love (of God towards us) is

of the devil. God is our advocate and redeemer (1 John 2:1),
and He will keep working till He gives us the victory we need.
You’d notice that we receive inspiration every day to
accomplish our daily tasks, but what’s more important is the
life we live not the stories we tell. Let today be the time we
truly decide to become more like God regardless of how the
time we set for the expectations we seek seem bewildering in
the regime of a never-ending cycle. Choose to wait. Choose to
believe. Choose to live as God says you will even when the
conditions aren’t appealing, and watch your miracles come
alive as the universe conspires to bring it your way at God’s
word.
19
I hope that for every time you turn a page of this book
you find hope renewed to help you on this journey of pure
belief and uncompromised confidence even as you wait
patiently for the making of a reality centred on the very words
God spoke to you.
See you at the end!
20
CHAPTER [1]
NEVER
KNEW IT WOULD TAKE SO
LONG
“Years later the king of Egypt died, but the
Israelites were still groaning under their slavery and cried out
for help. Their cry went up to God, who heard their groaning
and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob.” (Exodus 2:23-24 GNB)
SCENE:
“The news of Joseph’s reign at that time was so elating that Israel
had his whole family move to the land of Egypt, because he had
this surety that peace and rest had finally come to stay. This
experience was so great that to cap it all up, before his death
Joseph spoke of a time when God would eventually give them a
place way better than Goshen as their own permanent residence.
While it lasted, it was an awesome sight to behold for them as it
was recorded that their posterity was very fertile, as they increased
by a somewhat quantum explosive progression until they were very
great even in a strange land. Yet they awaited their return as
spoken by their beloved brother Joseph (Genesis 50:24).
All of a sudden, everything grew from sweet to sour. Instead of
more favours prior to their return, they received torment. The good
they knew turned into a gout on their very well being in the splice
21
Never Knew It would Take So long
of a second from the reality they had once enjoyed. A fruit too
bitter to be chewed. At this point, they knew God’s word to their
ancestor-Abraham-was manifested, and that it would take four
centuries to rid themselves of this problem engrossing their
happiness in a tale of torment and pain. From having plump
cheeks in their days of sweet by and by, they turned pale and dried
in flesh as they lived their life covered in gore as a result of the
stripes inflicted by the wrath of the raging oppressors.
But surprisingly, 400 years passed yet nothing happened. No sign,
not even an attempt of any of those promises gearing up to reach
their fulfilment. Two, four, eight, sixteen years passed on going on
thirty, and they began to think God had forgotten His promise to
them. I can hear the words they might have never spoken out in
wails that spell out “How long Lord!” It wasn’t just a live-past trial,
it was one that forged an informidable force against the realization
of the words they had thought were true exactly as God spoke
them to their father Abraham. One fit enough to draw an extra
tear every time it came to their remembrance.’’
O nly the groaning of the Israelis in the foregoing

portrays the subject matter at hand. I only wished I
could have described the situation they found themselves better
as it was than how I have done, even if no one but themselves
22
can truly tell where and how heavy the bricks laid on them
were.
Despite the promise of God concerning their assured

liberty as first spoken to Abraham in Genesis 15:13-14, “Your
descendants will be oppressed as slaves in a foreign land for
400 years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and
at the end they will come away with great wealth” (TLB) - and
then in the same format of a hope of freedom, it was reiterated
in the words of Joseph in Genesis 50:24, “….but God will
surely come and get you, and bring you out of the land He
promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”
(TLB), Israel still had to wait an extra thirty years for any sign
of a deliverance……somewhat enough reason to cry ‘Never
knew it would take this long!’
Just like the Israelites, as humans in a world

surmounted with frequent temptations and trials, we are bound
to face what would appear as a delay in the reception of our
desired token of delivered requests. We are prone to cry those
voiceless wails that beg the question, is God still alive? We are
in a position to be connived by the things we see into thinking
that God is lost in His own space and time that we can only but
query how long it’s taking to receive a supposed desire.
23
In times like this, which is when we experience a bit of

a delay in getting what we prayed for than expected, our basic
instincts coerce us into believing we would have been better off
if we had it our way instead of revering God in total
dependence to His. That pro-choleric part of us that boasts that
in contrast to Jesus’ words, without God we could have done
better, start stemming up as it approaches to becloud away
every thought of an ever trust worthy God again. Yet as Jesus
taught, being egoistic at this point wouldn’t help a bit,
especially when it’s towards God, rather this moment should
beckon on us the wisdom to grip unto God the more tightly;
because not only was Christ correct when He instructed us of
our helplessness devoid of God, but that the minute we decide
to let go and let God, the battle for recovery shifts from being
ours to being God’s.
In a similar scenario as were the Exodus, the Judean

region of Israel under the rule of Jehoshaphat was also
experiencing the scintillating fears of losing all the faith they
had in God seeing the kings of Moab, Ammon and Edom
rampaging toward their less secured walls. Though unlike the
former, they didn’t have the stripes of torture yet on their
backs, but the panicking featured in the hearts of each citizen
painted the picture of their soon-to-be fate.
24
But notice how the entire population chose to approach

the matter that would frighten a present world power in our
time. “The people of Judah came together to seek help from the
LORD” (2 Chronicles 20:4 NIV). What’s more astonishing is
that they didn’t need any ruler to tell them where their help
comes from. They knew like David did that it couldn’t have
come from the hills of the territory of other kings, or from their
very own defence systems; but first from God who watches
over them all.
After this solemn action of theirs, word came from the

LORD encouraging them to dismiss any fears they had prior to
this time and every panic attack they had accepted as normal
for the moment. He said, “Do not be discouraged or afraid
because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but
God’s” (v. 15 NIV). The moment they let go and let God, they
created a new mechanism where all things even this
circumstance would be forced to work for their good.
In the same vein, the vast army of worries, fear and

delay may make you seem powerless, and sometimes even
question God’s ‘supposed’ supremacy, but if like this Judean
state you would just turn your wheel of a choice of help back to
God, thereby letting go to let Him have His way, you would
instantly be setting up a final bout with your challenges, but
25
this time around with God in the ring taking your place. The
instant you realize that regardless of how long it takes, God’s
still very much in charge of the whole situation, the faster you
set your victory song rolling. For though humanly, it would
appear as a normal response to fret when things look more
shaky than usual or expected, but scripturally it is not an
advised response; because in such situations, God gives us a
better alternative of holding on to Jesus to do as He has
promised- which is to deliver at the right time. In the heart of
the Father, this should be the true ‘normal’ to the saint. I, on
the other hand, would gladly pick this latter option, because it
is never abstract but ever true that when we trust in God in
times like this, we would surely be upheld as promised (2
Chronicles 20:20).
The brief overview of God’s faithfulness amidst the

worries and discontentment shown by the actions of the natural
man as reviewed in almost every portion of the Bible
deliberately reveals that even when the timing is beginning to
seem ill-favourable to us, God always shows up on time. Just
like how people conveying a man with a damaged organ
scream with extreme exaggeration of urgently needing a
transplant, yet the doctor still goes in, places him on life
support for some time until he gets the right match. The
urgency expressed in the tone of their voices and complaints
26
might make a bystander think he is going to die if it isn’t done

that very minute, but the perfect skill and experience of the
doctor proves that even when we assume it’s late, the proper
time is always the best time if life must be well restored.
God is that doctor. He knows the proper time to get

your life fully restored. We just have to learn to listen less to
our expert minds inspired by the fear that if it isn’t now, we are
as good as dead, and more to His words supported by His ever
perfect skill to deliver even when we assume He is an hour late
than He is supposed to be. Such that when the thoughts come,
we’d have learnt how to not focus on how long it’s taking to
come out right, but on how experienced and skilled our God is
to bring us out of every pandemonium and life threatening
situation.
I learnt an important lesson as I grew under the tutelage

of the Spirit of God, which is that no amount of literal work
done by me can make me great unless God backs it up.
Regardless of the efforts I make to achieve a little bit of fame,
it will collapse in time, except God is right behind and in the
fore front of it. As a result, when my human cravings tend to
create a benign mass of emotions to make me worry about how
long my desires are taking to actually become mine, I direct
myself by His ever strengthening grace to choose God’s timing
27
as the most appropriate for me. This decision might not

synchronize well with what I might want to do naturally, but I
have learnt that everything is good and perfect in God’s time.
And so I don’t have to worry about how I can help God help
me; even when every atom of my natural being wants to, I
simply would just choose to yield myself to Him, believing
Him at His exact word, because I have also learnt through time
that when God’s willed time arrives, He is able to bring well
courteous fellows all the way from a pearly palace to seek a
sheep-boy in a faraway wilderness. Thus, learn to trust in Him;
simply put which means to live in tender convictions of His
word, to fearlessly rest in Him, to understand the reasons for
His actions, to savour His taste of how things should be done,
and to eventually triumph in the victory He prepares as fit for
you.
LEARNING TO TRUST
It is true that God sees His own ideals as perfect and
irreplaceable by human principles and want-to-dos, but at the
same time God is not a dictator, meaning He won’t force us to
trust Him. Instead, as with the Israelites of Bible days and as is
His nature, He would rather create avenues to make us learn to
28
trust Him, and presumably when we do learn to trust, He brings

a degree of endearment upon us that causes us to see the curses
of 430 years as nothing compared to the glory to be revealed in
His time afterwards.
Hewitt, speaking with the confidence of an expatriate of

heaven on earth, says “My Saviour hears me when I pray,
Upon His word I calmly rest; In His own time, in His own way
I know He’ll give me what is best”. Unless we learn to absorb
every external circumstances in the context of God’s word as
these words depict, we would have a hard time finding it easy
to trust God to act exactly as He has promised, especially when
there is a delay in its delivery.
Let your faith keep you expecting God’s best for

you……. For truly God’s time is still the best despite the
remarks the bewailing situations surrounding us spell out. Time
spent waiting on God is never wasted. David knew this, and as
a word of advice to every other interested individual, he wrote
“Don’t be impatient. Wait for the Lord, and he will come and
save! Be brave, stout hearted and courageous. Yes, wait and
He will help you” (Psalm 27:14 TLB).
The King James interpretation emphasizes on the word

“…..be of good courage and He will strengthen thine heart”. If
we’d just only choose to completely give ourselves away to
29
Him in absolute belief, He will strengthen us to bear the times

while we wait. Remember, He will not test us, nor try us, above
our capabilities; but even in trying times He always finds a way
to provide a remedial solace for us (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Esther gave herself to God’s pick of the perfect time

that even when Mordecai hurried her to speak to the king,
seeing the prophecy of their final return to Jerusalem was about
to be switched to an apocalypse of doom as Haman had plotted
it to be, she still decided to wait three days more to hear from
God on how this should be done, and when it could be done.
Even after this facet of events, when she had the king and the
Jews’ tormentor at her banquet, she still didn’t put forward her
request as the Jewish population would have wanted. She
waited for the next day, somewhat like waiting for the perfect
timing rather than her impulse’s. She didn’t let emotions get
the best of her, nor societal demands misdirect her actions;
rather she chose ‘perfect’ which we have seen severally in this
context as God’s own time. And just as the Psalmist advised,
she waited on the Lord, and in response she received
everything her situation demanded for rest for her people.
One of the principal promises of walking with God is

that if you have got the faith, God’s got the power. It is like a
father and his child walking through a street filled with so
30
much dainties that our jaws won’t stop falling until we taste
and tell. In such a situation, the father might have a bank vault
right there in his pocket, but unless the child shows interest for
a commodity boldly that his or her dad can-and should- provide
it, most times he might never even raise an eyebrow to fulfil
such request. Not because he can’t, or doesn’t want to, it just
happens. Some of you have kids, so you should know this. You
don’t just go to the mall daily, and get every fancy item for
your child, because someday the kid might just shock you with
a “dad, I never needed this” remark. Or perhaps they may use
the Adam’s line on you, “The stuff You gave me made me do
it”. Instead, we are easily moved to get the things we know
they need as children, and those their countenance and words
reveal to us.
Also, a child will never ask you for a thing except he

has a conviction within that somehow, some way, you can
provide it irrespective of your financial capacity. His
conviction about your own ability is all that matters to him; and
in response, the courage to have even dared to ask imposes on
you the mandate of providence. In the same way, God has the
capacity to do all-as in, all-things; however, until we start
treating God as He is, and showing Him that we believe He
can, we might short-circuit the flow of His power through our
lives. Even when it’s taking time believing God to be able to
31
save elicits upon Him a sting of compulsion to go beyond to

save you from the distress you are experiencing. David showed
this same character when he said, ‘’I have been young, and
now I’m old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken….”
(Psalm 37:25); and unsurprisingly, regardless of how long the
trials he faced seemed, God always stood solidly as his
deliverer. He can do the same for you. In fact, He chooses to do
the same for you; but first you got to let Him by yielding
yourself to fully trusting Him to do everything perfectly as He
planned it in His time, because if you can express such faith
towards God’s ability and willingness to deliver, He can
release as much power as is needed to give you that expected
deliverance. Remember, you’re already a walking dynamo in
Christ; trusting God only gives room to unleash what’s already
within.
Many a time, this waiting period is actually a signal that

it’s time to also learn something new. As I said this is a book
based on experiences and observation. In fact, I think I already
mentioned it in one of my other unpublished books that many
of my writings are inspired when I needed answers myself.
Such that the same issues I wanted clarified were those God
was willing to answer if only I’d put it in a book for others to
learn too; and this book is one of those. So, just the same way
you think you’re getting some fresh answers to your many
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complaints, I am too, in a dual fashion of learning and telling

simultaneously under the same guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Furthermore, learning to trust in God and wait for Him

is like learning to trust that your guide is right even when he’s
taking so long to do something as easy as crossing the road.
Yes, in fact crossing the road exemplifies this perfectly. I
remember when I was much younger, and would want to cross
to the other side of the ever busy road with my brother Mitch;
and for every time he would stall, saying ‘Be patient until it’s
free and safe to pass’. Left to me, I would just have wished to
jump through because to me getting hit was even more exciting
than miserably standing for minutes as I would say.
This false gusto to just damn the consequences and rush

through elevated as I saw others doing it, yet I couldn’t because
of those words ‘’Be patient until it’s free and safe to pass’’,
and, yes, his tight grip on me. Today, I don’t need to jump
through the road even if my engines compel me to want to, I
just remain there calmly until it’s free and safe to pass; and this
I do because I have learnt it is the safest and best option if you
want to keep seeing many tomorrows. And that’s exactly how
it is with waiting on God. It is like seeing a taxi driver taking a
completely different route to a place you think you know like
the back of your hand. You could either assume he’s
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kidnapping you, or cheating you to get the meter run higher,

and as such scream at the top of your voice till the moon melts
at the reverbs of your tone; or you can trust he’s doing the right
thing. Anyway, this we hardly ever know until we hear a
terrible jam occurred in our perfect pathway.
Our natural character doesn’t accept the patience game,

and so it just wants to jump through life and rush it all, but if
we’d just learn to trust those words ‘Be patient’, we’ll realize
that the wait is simply for our own safety and freedom from the
spirit that sighs ‘Why not now?’’ when God says ‘Be patient’’.
At the end, you would come out with more virtues than
you started with. Why? Because you simply trusted His word
that you can be patient even when jilted by circumstances to
believe otherwise. Many have played jumpers and rushed
through life, and ended up more miserable than when they
kicked off, and that’s why we must learn to choose His option
to be patient until it’s safe by His specifications to pass.
Something similar occurred in the days of Elisha, when

he led the blind Syrians back to Samaria, and on seeing them
the king of Israel wanted to slay all of them at once which felt
like the right thing to do, hoping that perhaps it would stop
Syria’s oppression over them. But to their greatest surprise,
God speaking through His prophet warned that they shouldn’t
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be smitten, but allowed to go home with bounty and a full belly

(see 2 Kings 6:22). This sounded absurd, but reluctantly the
king complied. God was somewhat telling them also to be
patient until it is free and safe to pass. ‘Don’t slay them, it’s not
time yet; just let them go and in my time they shall be smitten
forever’. Those are cheap words to obey, yet man’s constant
exuberance of ego and impatience impales him from heeding to
its simplicity.
And that’s exactly what He’s saying to you and I. ‘Wait

on Me; when it’s time, nothing will hold you back’. And look
at how it turned out for them…..”the Syrians came no more
into the land of Israel” (v. 23). Your decision to simply wait
for God’s own time to get your gusto into action can
completely eliminate your trials for good. And guess what?
Even if it stringently remains, God Himself will readily get rid
of them all while you are sound asleep or when you are ready
to go in for the spoil (see 2 Kings 7:5-10).
However, many of us are still so strong-willed on our

choice of impatience that we give God ultimatums, forgetting
that God doesn’t work under the constraints of time and
conditions, seeing there is nothing more perfect than His own
standard. Just like the story of the woman I spoke of meeting
during one of our outreaches back then. Often times, we think
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we can fix God, push Him into a boxed corner so that He can
bend to our own carnal proposals, but God is as perfect as can
be and so if there is anyone who needs fixing to be right so as
to get it right, that would be us. We can’t teach God how to be
the Infinite Creator and Centre of all things. We can’t teach
Him to un-wait against how He’s planned it, instead we have to
choose to learn to wait on Him for how He plans it to be.
Let Apostle Paul’s words to the Church in Thessalonica

inspire you to believe, as it shows God’s desire and ability to
help you while you wait. “May the Lord bring you into an ever
deeper understanding of love of God and of the patience that
comes from Christ” (2Thessalonians 3:5 TLB).
On the mainstream, if you believe God created you with

the intention of keeping you in a place where the good things
He has in mind for you are conserved, then you should know
He knows you- and what is perfect for you- more than you
know yourself; He knows the path your life should follow; and
most importantly He knows the best way to get there.
So, it is only but a good advice when we are told to

trust God and wait for Him. From the days of the early
prophets down to the times of Jesus on earth, one statement
remain ever overflowing from the vocal chords to the ears of
those who sought hope in their hapless situations. This was to
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“trust in the LORD”. Literally, this simple instruction means to

acceptably choose to see things as God does, such that if He
says ‘Not yet!’ not yet is good enough. It means believing God
to do everything he says He’s going to do when and how He
says He would do it.
Jesus always retorted with the words “according to thy

faith, let it be unto you” whenever a given challenge was
presented to Him. This is exactly how He responded to the
Centurion in the gospel of Matthew, but this time in a totally
different format, saying “….as thou hast believed, so it be done
unto thee” (Matthew 8:13). Any prayer that proceeds from the
heart of faith always carries results; and in the same way, any
action engaged on the basis of genuine faith also has a similar
fate. If the results sought doesn’t come at the instant, then God
is the one keeping you waiting, and by the way for a good
purpose. From my own experience, this I know He does either
to give you an overload (a superfluous kind of miracle) with
virtues acquired as an additional as a reward for your
perseverance; one that catches the essence of the phrase that
‘the glory of the latter shall be greater’, or almost always to
give you this intended blessings in its most appropriate
intensity at the most appropriate time.
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Paul encourages the expectant, saying that “if we must

keep trusting God for something that hasn’t happened yet, it
teaches us to wait patiently and confidently” (Romans 8:25
TLB). He is rest assuredly going to do all He’s promised He
would, we simply have to learn to use this waiting period as a
medium to improve on our confidence to receive as He’s
already supplied and dispatched the desired. We’ve got to force
the universe into a conspiracy to unveil all God has deposited
in it for our reception, and this we do when we prove to it that
despite the poker face of loss, despair and delay it tosses at us,
we are confident that at the set time by God’s calculation, no
constellation or elemental presence in the universe can annul it.
And that we believe that amidst the slow progress, God’s
making progress in and with us.
And just in case you are mincing words in ever splicing

murmurings right now, complaining about how you are not
buying this ‘God’s going to do it’ ideology, because you think
you would have done better if you had just gone ahead without
God ; guess what? You probably would have gotten what you
are looking for. But here’s the dilemma: The result of having a
promise too early even against God’s timing gives you an
Ishmael, which is a gift that though is precious in its own way,
but gives you more reasons to think and worry than when you
didn’t have it. Such results carry a back log of awaiting
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troubles, simply because you chose to play Lot and go with the
flow rather than being led by the Spirit. Only the promise adds
no sorrow; so be patient with God and wait for your Isaac.
Let me also ask you this; what do you think would have
happened if Abraham had refused to offer Isaac? Do you think
God would have stopped walking with him, or speaking to
him? No. But he would have stopped the actual plan of God for
his life with his own hands; not the devil. God wouldn’t have
revealed everything through him; because you see, your level
in God’s heart grows in equivalent with His level in yours.
When we have known God to an extent that even in

difficult times we still choose to trust Him even before the
resolve appears because we believe all He says He is, we set up
ourselves to become living legends in God. God doesn’t
promise that the wait is going to be easy, but He does promise
to fully deliver; and if we let him, to deliver with an entirely
better personality to clothe us with- one that bears the express
manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit, and is never hesitant in
exhibiting them.
Ever wondered why, and what Paul meant, when he

wrote that “some having a form of godliness deny the power
thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5). A good number of individuals accept
that there is a God and that He is good. They don’t hesitate to
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say these words every Sunday from the pew, but they fail to
show their reverence for Him in believing wholeheartedly that
God chooses and is willing to be good to them even in bad
situations. We’d rather believe that God desires to punish us
seeing how long we have been waiting for the next lifting than
believe that God loves us unconditionally even in the midst of
the long stall. You see, worship is not a response of the lips to
what you see happening around; it is a state of heart towards
whom God is. But know this, it is only a wait to you based on
human perception, because before God it is Him simply and
perfectly putting together the most appropriate bouquet of
blessings for the child He loves so dearly.
I have also noticed that if we’d just focus on how things

would be according to the word of God, we would never have a
single thought of worry or weariness, and that the pain of this
suffering in the wait comes when we concentrate more on how
we presume things to have been at a particular time by our
natural way of thinking. If we can only see our conditions as
God sees it, we’d have the tendency to feel as God feels, which
is at peace.
Let the serene words of God supply all the grace needed
to bear the period between the spoken words and the realization
of the promises in those words. For instance, I wrote the first
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book God inspired me to make when I was 17 and many more

followed each year, but for every time I sought God to ask for
the permission to have them published, He at that time always
gave a response of ‘not yet’. With the two volumes of the
Fruitful Diary before me during those years, I would
sometimes feel as if something was wrong with me or perhaps
God was just so cruel to have made me write in what I thought
was in vain. But little did I know then that the vision is for an
appointed time, it might not seem forthcoming, but in God’s
time it is going to have its purpose fulfilled just the way the
Master wants it to. Till this very minute, I now choose to wait
despite the game of words used by many of my familiars to
lure me into going way ahead of God; and this is how I do
because by His grace I’ve begun to see as He sees concerning
my life, and have chosen to believe that it’s not about how long
it takes but how well it’s taken- and that the end my friend
justifies the means that supposedly took so long
Paul prayed for so many things- solace, strength,

settlement, but in his letter to Christian church in Rome, he
emphasized on having them according to will of God not of
self “And one of the things I keep on praying for is the
opportunity, God willing….”(Romans 1 :10 TLB). How much
of God’s will we esteem reveals how much of God we love.
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And if we love God, we would have no problem trusting him

even if it includes waiting on him.
Living in a world where people around us get new

things every day, we tend to ponder so much about the things
we do not have instead of those we have. God desires we learn
to appreciate him for the ones we have rather than giving him
the ’’look here, I’m angry’’ grin while waiting for those we
don’t have yet.
Don’t go around keeping tabs on the inconsistency of

God as we’d suppose, seeing how the promises haven’t arrived,
rather focus on the words- “I will do” as He’s already said to
you. In the days of Isaiah, even before the manifestation of
grace and eternal life in the Person of Christ, he prophesied of
the attitude every true child of God should wear upon him or
herself. Such that even when the conditions staring at us aren’t
friendly, we can easily confess these simple words and profess
it in our daily living.
“On that day you will say, ‘Praise the Lord! He was
angry with me, but now He comforts me. See, God has come to
save me! I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord is my
strength and my song; He is my salvation” (Isaiah 12:1-2 TLB)
Through Jesus, God shifted us from the path of the

damned to the lane of the redeemed. He took us away from the
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wrath of God into His ever refreshing comfort. So, never see
any of this as retribution for your past wrongs, or some sort of
penance for something you are about to do. See it as God
preparing you for something great so that as the disciples you’d
come out fit and capable enough to bear the responsibilities
that comes with the already supplied gift.
Scripture teaches us that they that know their God and

stand by His word will be strong and do exploits (Daniel
11:32). In contrast, they that fidget and panic despite His
words, thereby failing to trust in His timing shall be weak and
be exploited. God wants what is best for us, and if we’d just
believe as God believes, we’d live as He lives- in abundance,
in His way and at His time. All He says is “come along”
(Matthew 14:29).
Walking on water, Jesus taught us how we can live as

much as God desires us to. Expressing as much confidence as
He wants us to; such that if we want to see our lives as God
sees it, all we have to do is come along. If we want to find
hope in Christ by the words He’s spoken, come along. In doing
this, we release all the grace we need to be sustained. For when
trust jumps into the unknown, grace always has a huge
embrace to give it a safe landing. So yes, we’d have all
required to stay sustained. Why? Because we readily gave all
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of ourselves to Him in absolute trust, thereby reflecting not

only our love for God, but the love of God in us to do as He
wills.
Just like the case of the Israelis we studied in the

exemplary scene of this chapter, things might not appear
pleasurable at the moment, but if God has promised us His
good pleasures ahead of time, then take Him by His word.
Choose to boldly place your faith on God. What is faith, if not
simply to base all of your realities on the capacity of the person
you have believed rather than the circumstantial images that
appear at eye level. To hold on His words until they manifest.
That’s the faith I’m asking you to express. Don’t play the game
of happenstance. Put God in the shoes of a doctor who is relied
upon to perform a life threatening surgery on you. The same
way you don’t have a choice but to trust his capacity to come
out successfully, give God the same credit. He has more
assurance than any doctor could. So, place your life in His
hands, and if He’s said it, just wait on Him, and He will surely
never fail to fulfil His words- for such faith, my friend, is
simply believing that we have a good God, whom even in the
most difficult times will protect and provide for those who trust
in Him.
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I always like to think of those blind, maimed and weak

fellows who out of their faith in Jesus got healed. It wasn’t the
fault of many of them that what happened to them happened,
but at Jesus’ word all they couldn’t do for so long came straight
up to them. At the moment, they couldn’t have muttered the
words ‘Never knew it would take so long’, because it could
have never even come, rather they would have said ‘Thank
God it has come today’. Pick up the attitude of gratitude ahead
instead of that of complaints; for while complaining aggravates
grief, worry and fear of loss, gratitude exhilarates, making you
capable of seeing the unseen others can’t see.
“What a spectacle it was! Those who hadn’t been able

to say a word before were talking excitedly, and those with
missing arms and legs had new ones; the crippled were
walking and jumping around, and those who had been blind
were gazing about them” (Matthew 15:31 TLB).
Everything simply works out rightly in God’s

time……. Just hold on in faith.
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Our time versus gOd’s time

We often times act like the law that demands, in that we
demand that God gives us a particular miracle at a particular
time before we take Him by His word; before we believe He is
really, really God. We say that since we have believed so
much, prayed so much, fasted so much, whined so much, made
the pitiful face so much, that God is definitely the problem and
needs fixing, not us; thereby failing to realize that God has
already chosen to supply all our needs ardently according to
His riches in glory, but in His time.
It’s not generally our fault since unfortunately it’s what

many are taught even in church nowadays. We keep pulling
God uphill, downhill……nagging “why are you taking so
long?” as though He was some spouse that had failed to show
up to dinner. Anyway, don’t ever give in to that urge to pull
Him up and down in your heart- and you know what that
means, to start questioning if He really can do what He
promised and to worry so endlessly that you’d readily take the
next available alternative to get away.
God has principles; and simply trusting in this will of

His would take away all the heart ache and pressures of why
your miracles aren’t here yet even after you have believed.
Never let this period become a burden to you. If God has
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foresaid that good lies in your tomorrows, just release yourself

to believe Him. You know, such period is like walking through
the street with people throwing apples at you- it is going to hurt
especially when it hits a sensitive spot; but if you’d just ignore
all of that, it is all going to stop as soon as you get through your
house door.
And how do you ignore this? By focusing on God’s

own sight of this. See things from His perspective. Don’t let
the delay blind you from the potentials that await your destiny
in God. Adsorb the pain; don’t let it come in too deep, rather
keep God at the deepest part of you. Keep His words where the
pain wants to get to, and just focus on all, absolutely all, of
what He says; for what God can see, and men learn to see, that
is reality.
Waiting surely isn’t easy especially when it defies all

the fine maths we have prepared in picking our best set time,
but it always turns out rewarding in incalculable folds.
According to Rick Warren, “When God wants to make a giant
oak He takes a hundred years, but when He wants to make a
mushroom, He does it overnight………Great souls are grown
through struggles and storms and seasons of suffering”.
So, rejoice! If God’s making you wait, it can only mean

He’s about to serve you with an overload sort of food course.
47
Something different from what ordinary people get on a normal

day. I heard about the Chinese Bamboo which takes a whole lot
of years before it even sprouts out the earth because it’s
preparing a root system that is able to handle the extreme
height it’s planning on getting to. So, cheer up! To God,
waiting can only be a good sign.
Other than that, adaptation mechanisms are better

developed in the harshest of conditions. Like that of the cactus
plant. Don’t be scared. What you are passing through only has
a role in your development, it will surely pass after
that……..God willing.
Furthermore, you might not like what I’m about to say.

In fact, you might even want to smack me seeing the
grievousness of the situation. But please don’t hold any
grievances against me, nevertheless I still believe that it is a
true statement to say that you can never fully, sincerely, learn
to know the Person of God until you come to a point between a
rock and a hard place; in the same way you can never truly
learn to trust God’s timing until your own timing fails you.
Yes, I said it. A man who always gets what he wants when and
how he wants it doesn’t know what it means to trust for what
he can’t get. Believe me, I want everyone to get all they need at
the moment they do; but also believe me when I say that the
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pillars of trust are built in the midst of uncertainties and

adversities. That is, until there is a chance that it may never be,
trust has no value yet.
Let’s study the life of Mordecai since he also had to

wait much longer than we are. Mordecai’s information about
the plot to assassinate Xerxes had saved the king from the
conspiracy that could have culminated in his demise, yet
nothing was done to reward him. I suppose this would have
warranted to ask God why his good wasn’t rewarded just the
same way we ask why our believing isn’t rewarded with a
quick answer. However, just like with us, God didn’t change
his mind, and Mordecai just had to live with the fact that he
had no choice but to trustfully wait for God’s time since his
had failed him. But when God would act, the miracle needed to
save him and his people from total anarchy and complete
annihilation jumped out and overruled the unchangeable decree
of the Medo-Persian government. God came through for him at
the right time, and He would do the same for you.
The future from today is way too big and too long. The
time in it is so enough for God to take one second from that
huge chronological time to give us a great miracle that would
change our lives all of a sudden. Try not to cry that the wait is
too long, rather rejoice that your second of sudden turnaround
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draws near. Remember, His grace is sufficient for you; and His
strength to be joyous in the Lord is made perfect in your
weakness to wear away in tears.
There might also be times when you would feel

susceptible to go suicidal or even curse God, as Job’s
aggrieved wife did, seeing that you are getting ameliorating
opposites of everything you desire like Joseph, and still having
to wait endless years, sort of, for what doesn’t seem
forthcoming. But if like I have been saying for a while now,
you’d just trust God to be Him who has mastered your destiny
to bring it to fulfilment, you would easily appreciate waiting on
Him as He alone has the infinite power to fulfil every single
promise your life carries.
Solomon advised, “There’s no need arguing with God

about your destiny” (Ecclesiastes 6:10 TLB). Just candidly
trust Him. The butlers that ministered at the wedding of Cana
did just that. John recorded that Jesus had told them to fill the
empty jars to the brim with water (John 2:7-8); and in the
previous verse, the Living Bible noted that there were six jars
that held about twenty to thirty gallons each. So, you’d notice
that these servants had to fetch 180 gallons of water; perhaps
from a nearby or faraway source, before Jesus would even
attend to them. To me, that’s a long wait for a wedding that
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badly needed wine; yet they didn’t fret nor doubt His power to
do as they believed Him to do in order to make all things work
out fine.
It didn’t just end there, they went further in their belief

to serve this water to the chieftains and guests in place of real
wine, and it turned out better than planned. No man puts a leg
off a cliff at God’s command and still end up damaged on
ground level. That’s what this audacious servants did. Thus,
don’t write off God because things aren’t the way you assumed
it would be; it wasn’t for these men too, yet they waited and
co-partnered in the experience of a miracle that the entire world
reads about today as a reference to God’s omnipotence.
Our ‘there’ is gOd’s ‘here’

If you have ever had a thought that you should be there where
others are even when God wants you here, then this is for you.
It is true that most times we humans orchestrate our own
problems and blame God for the returns; but if you have given
all that is required to earn the benefit, and have done your
human best to get there, and still God keeps you waiting, then
believe God at this moment here is the best place to be, not
there.
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As far as you’ve evaluated your life to set it right with

God as auditors with the books when they can’t figure out
what’s behind the mess around them so as to bring them to
unison in an attempt to return to the ways of progression, then
it’s not your human fault; it’s simply God’s plan.
In such experiences of setbacks, it is easy for us to

doubt if indeed God has any such thing as a good plan for us.
Such retrenchments and retrogression as we presume have a
way of making us lose our once strengthened faith. As also
does the denials and delays we get instead of the favours we
seek. Despite the pain, I believe it’s a preparatory period
permitted by God for our awaited manifestation, since His
plans remains ever of peace and goodwill to those who revere
Him in words and deeds. In such circumstances, I simply
implore others to relax just as God tells me to even if it isn’t
really as easy as it sounds; but if we can just do it, thanking
God in advance for the things He assures you are coming your
way as Abraham did as told in Romans 4:20, then we can get
nothing lesser than a victory.
God’s perfect aim towards life has always been to give

personal guidance to every one of His own. Sometimes, our
natural temperaments might label this guidance as slow or
ineffective, yet it is still the best thing that can ever happen to
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us, because it leads us straight to our true destinies, not any get-
by kind of life.
God always has a good plan for us, we just have to see
it through even in our most difficult times; and as such the best
way to be prepared for the future is to be at the center of His
will in the present regardless of how long its manifestation may
appear to take.
For years as a teenager, I tried to secure scholarships to

study abroad, and then I thought praying about it and believing
for it would solve everything. I completely left God out of the
equation. I, without further thoughts, didn’t bother to think of
what God wanted for me. I was just eaten up by the zeal to
have what I termed the best education a proposed scientist
could ever have. I was at the top of my class in high school,
and so wanting something like that could never be wrong.
As the wait got longer, and I actually started my B.S

program here, I had this peace assuring me that right there I
was at the exact place God wanted me to be. I may not have
liked the idea; in fact I couldn’t even imagine trying to
compare the level of educational expertise I would have gotten
from an Ivy league to where I was, yet I realized that though I
wanted to be there, God wanted me here at the moment.
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The peace of God is a very important signal to know if

it’s a defect or the definite plan of God per time. So, if you feel
stuck where you are, but despite the railings you’re
experiencing there God still says it’s where you should be- that
is, expressed by the peace of the Spirit within you to stay at the
moment, then believe God, it’s not a waste of time, just a wait
through time that must culminate in the appearance of the
promised benefit. James wrote “If you want to know what God
wants you to do, ask him, and he will gladly tell you, for he is
always ready to give a bountiful supply of wisdom to all who
ask him; he will not resent it” (James 1:5). You may not
always hear an audible voice to know, but He’d surely give you
His peace in affirmation to what He’s saying yes to.
However, whether we believe it or not, some

situations…..some very not-too-good situations remain stuck
with people for a while, not because God can’t help them, or
doesn’t want to save them, but because at the moment they are
God’s way of testing them to see how much of Himself they
are willing to hold on to in reaction when things aren’t fair (see
James 1:2-4).
It could be depressing sometimes, believe me, but

presumably when we do well, we always come out better and
bolder in God. Paul had a thorn in the flesh he didn’t want to
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be close to. He wanted to be somewhere faraway from this

pining circumstance. A problem that brought disparity between
the thoughts that God can do all things and the fear of what if
He really couldn’t. He grew weary just like we do having such
around us, and so one day he prayed “Lord, take it away”; but
that didn’t break the ice, and neither did his tears nor
mumblings. Instead God said to him, “My grace is sufficient
for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9). And believe Him, you need this,
for just as it would turn out for you, it turned out great for Paul.
This experience made him of character to fully fit into the
future God had designed for him.
You might hate the fact that you have to deal with it- in
fact you will, but God knows you need it if you are ever going
to get to the next level of power, faith and benefits He
proposed for you. You just have to trust Him. This is one
subject in Christianity today that is being avoided. However, I
want you to know that God never makes mistakes. The
believer’s life is not subject to chance; so therefore, God never
brings your way that which you don’t have capacity to handle,
and definitely what has no bearing in the shaping of the
glorious future He’s prepared for you. This doesn’t mean the
devil can’t influence some situations; it simply means that for
the man who lives by God’s word, nothing is a product of
chance. Like I said, trust Him.
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With this, it is possible that maybe, just maybe, God

could be doing the same thing as He did with Paul to test your
resolve, your resilience and your reliance on Him. That
pestering landlord could just be a test to see if you would trust
God enough to remain godly yet in all confrontations with him,
even though you’re so fed up with his actions.
It is also possible that that annoying job could be a test

to confirm if you would give your best even in the worst
situations. Maybe those unfairly distributed grades you keep
seeing on your sheets is just a test to see if you can absorb the
pressure of disappointment and still forge ahead with a better
than before kind of attitude.
It might not be fun today, but at the end God always

have a way of rewarding us better than we thought we ever lost
in that period. Don’t feel too bad because of the present you
see; get your smile back, it’s just a phase bound to pass. And
remember that after tests are scored and found impressive, all
that’s next is a promotion. Don’t miss out on that my friend;
learn to live above the sight of the storm before you. And how
do you do this? Trust His word more than you do the view.
You are not where you want to be, but remember you
are also not where you used to be. That, my dear, is the
simplest definition of progress. So, trust Him enough to believe
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that He’s making progress on you which you will see

manifested in His own time.
Someone once said that the beginning is not always the

best; and in agreement with Proverbs 4:18, I can say that it’s
true. Our paths as children of God are bound to be brighter as it
comes. So, if God’s telling you to wait in any endeavour, don’t
be scared. Today might not look bright enough, but definitely it
is bound by scripture to be so. Remember, God’s word is not
bound by surrounding factors as age, race, sex and so on: if He
has said it, He would do it (1 Thessalonians 5:24, 2 Peter 2:9).
Just like the disabled individuals Jesus healed in

Matthew’s gospel (15:31). Many of them as noted were born
blind, such that they had never seen the light of day and thus
didn’t even dream of seeing it regardless of how long they
would have to wait. Many didn’t have arms and legs, and never
thought of walking; but when Jesus touched them, the Living
Bible illustrates that new arms and legs came all of a sudden.
Not prosthetics, real limbs. Eyes were created specially within
the sockets of the blind such that they saw.
They didn’t know how to walk since they never had,

but when Jesus healed them after a long pitiful years of waiting
for such a miracle, they leaped higher than those that could
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walk from birth; and the dumb spoke so sanguine with the
words people once thought they had no need to learn.
It wasn’t their fault they were born handicapped the

same way it might not be your doing that you have to wait a
while; but like Jesus always said, it is all to glorify Him whom
God sent. So again, cheer up! God is plotting on using you as a
lantern to radiate His greater glory. The wait on this side of life
may seem far too long, but the glory to be revealed is well
worth the wait.
SEEMS LIKE A DELAY, BUT

NEVER A DENIAL
“So take heart, men! For I trust in God that it will be
just as I was told” (Acts 27:25 GNB)
This simple admonition Paul gave to the frightened men on the

Alexandrian ship bound for Italy relates to us too, that though
what we are experiencing might seem to take forever, but it’s
never going to remain this way forever. What we are going
through is inconsequential; God has got the solution to
whatever it is you are passing through. Simply trust Him or,
rather if you like, ask Him.
The fact that your last engagement was called off

doesn’t make you a bad person, neither does it make your
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partner a bad person; it just shows that you have something

more suitable ahead. Nobody may want to hear this when they
have mired handkerchiefs all around their bedroom floors, but
looking back after they’ve been settled, you hear them say
words like “Thank God I met you”. A reality that would never
had happened if they were to play God.
It doesn’t make God any happier than He already is to

see you wait and feeling depressed; we just have to trust Him
to lead our ways aright. In fact, if God were to give us
everything we’ve ever wanted or craved for at the exact time
we lusted or yearned for it, we’d be the ones begging Him to
take it all away. You see, our plans may seem perfect, but His
is perfect. He is appropriate in His timing, and if it seems like
He’s saying ‘wait’, then it’s in our best interest to. Though the
reason can’t be seen now, but it is definitely for our own good.
For instance, for over 14,000 days, Moses might have

felt dejected, delayed, abandoned; waiting in futility even as he
tended to the flock of sheep. His grief might have increased
every time he asked “Isn’t what I did the right thing?” and still
had to settle with feeding sheep. Something many of us
experience on a daily basis. I have an example of my own the
same way I know you have one yourself. You may want to go
pro as a singer, but God keeps telling you to remain as a
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worship leader in your local church at the moment. Such words

may even make you uncomfortable since you know you’re
only trying to push the Kingdom. But get this, don’t feel
underrated. When it’s time to go big, God Himself will take
you there. Nevertheless, listen to Him and wait for when He
says is right.
A delay is not a denial; a wait is not a halt. Instead I’d

rather call it a process to prepare us in own God’s way for the
promise to be fulfilled in its time.
God doesn’t intend to hold back His promises from us.

Everything he does, He does with purpose and good intent
towards us; and to take the glory away from self to Himself.
Joseph’s days of 13 years a slave wasn’t God’s plan of handing
him to the enemy for torture, but to build a highway for him to
the palace…..at least on a mode where it wouldn’t be a case of
“I did it”, but one of “God did it”.
In listening prayer, M.R Swope narrated an experience

that depicts how every wait on God is a wait for gold, because
His intentions are always to protect us from attribute the devil
possesses, such as conceit, pride and desperation.
“On the way home, I prayed and asked God how much longer I
had to wait to see my children change and how much more He
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was going to require Don and me to endure before that time.

Then it happened!
As clearly as I ever heard anyone speak to me, the Holy Spirit

said “Mary Ruth, if you had your way, your children would
both have doctorates and would be climbing the ladder of
success the world’s way. Then you would look at them so
proudly, and tell everyone, ‘See what I did all by myself’. But
when I get them straightened out and you see how I use them
for kingdom purposes, you will be able to say, ‘don’t give me
any of the credit; everything you see them accomplishing is
because of what the Lord did for them. I didn’t have anything
to do with it- nothing at all.”
Waiting on God also humbles us to see our pre-planned

best as nothing compared to the best God eventually reveals to
and in us. The same best He is surely going to bring to us. Take
your cue from the prophesied words concerning Jesus, “You
will not leave my soul in hell or let the body of your holy Son
[who now lives in us] decay. You will give me back my life,
and give me wonderful joy in your presence” (Acts 2:27-28
TLB, Emphasis added). No matter how long it takes, God’s not
planning on leaving you in that hell-like situation, He is going
to restore unto you your joy of salvation. This, my friend, is
another conscientious reason why we must never become stale
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in our faith towards God, because with God it’s always worth
the wait.
However, most individuals seeing this unconditional

love of God for man ask if it’s possible for God to give up on a
man. Well, as much as He loves us, He would if and only if
such a man entirely gave up on Him; that is even heading
towards apostasy. In scripture, we see this repeatedly, firstly in
Genesis 6:5-6 and also in Romans 1:28, such that under both
covenants, God gives little or no allegiance to those who give
Him no allegiance….not even one of simple trust. Nonetheless,
it doesn’t mean He completely discards them; He always finds
a way in love to win such back.
Hence, fasten your faith to the word of God already in

your heart, which is the greatest security ever given in times of
need, a quickening assurance independent of feelings, and the
only absolute there is in this world.
“I will shepherd the poor of My people, they shall graze in my

pasture! The needy shall lie down in peace” (Isaiah 14:30
TLB)
“Of course not! Though everyone else in the world is a liar,

God is not. Do you remember what the book of psalms says
about this? That God’s words will always prove true and right
no matter who questions them” (Romans 3:4 TLB).
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God’s plan for us might seem to have outrun us, or to

be sluggishly behind us, but it won’t be denied as far as we are
aligned with his will. He proves this in the words of the
apocalyptic messenger….”that there should be no more delay,
but that when the seventh angel blew his trumpet, then God’s
veiled plan…..would be fulfilled” (Revelations 10:6-7 TLB).
Don’t assume the place of the defeated. Don’t play the

role of the dissatisfied, rather take the role of the physically
soon to be satisfied but truly the already satisfied by God’s
judgment. When Habakkuk had a somewhat similar encounter
with the griping feelings of defeat due to the delay in the
manifestation of his vision, God said to him, “But these things I
plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time
approaches when the vision will be fullfilled. If it seems slow,
do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just
be patient! They will not be overdue a single day.” (Habakkuk
2:3 TLB); it might seem like a make-believe, yet it’s exactly
what He’s saying to you too.
Other than that, the antidote to the ailing effect of fear

when conditions that depict our being denied of God’s
promises surface is to face it from God’s point of view. In a
situation where we are torn between trusting God and
disbelieving Him due to our injurious predicaments, joy
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becomes a choice we must imbibe every moment to improve

our chances of trusting Him more; and this we get when we
focus on all Christ already supplied on Calvary, and the truth
that though it may seem delayed, yet it can never be denied.
You must understand that while the law revealed the

glory of God, grace assures us that we can reflect the very
same glory. So, celebrate; He made it sure for us and has also
made the fulfilment of the promise given sure as well. “He was
completely sure that God was well able to do anything He
promised…..It was for us, too, assuring us that God will accept
us in the same way He accepted Abraham-when we believe the
promises of God who brought back Jesus our Lord from the
dead” (Romans 4:21-24 TLB).
Furthermore, always remember that whatever you ask

of Him in the name of Jesus according to His will, He will do
(John 14:14). It might take so long, but He sure will do it.
OUR SENSE OF LATENESS IS

GOD'S WAY TO GREATNESS
God has the enablement to always make great out of late. With
Him, it's never late, only waiting to be great. He never fails to
plan, and never plans to fail; for whatever He does, He has a
great purpose solidly behind it.
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It is not a matter of fact, but one of faith; and before

God faith supersedes facts, for while facts relate to you why it
is possible or impossible for God to do a thing, faith simply
says all is possible. So, let it sink into your heart that God
always has a good plan for us; we just have to get a good
attitude towards Him while we wait for these plans to manifest.
For instance, when a man and his wife are pregnant;

and on delivery day, the doctors keep him in the waiting room
for hours, it doesn't mean he is not going to get their baby boy
or girl. It might seem long, but he's definitely getting that
awaited cutie, and his wife as well. Similarly, everything God
does is beautiful in its time. And time to God is merely a
processor to bring out the very best in us and for us.
In fact, the most beautiful pictures take time to develop,

but at the end, its beauty surpasses the stress of waiting. Do
you get it? This means that when God tells us to wait on Him,
He's developing something beautiful in our lives. Be patient
with Him, for the longer the metal stays in the fire, the easier it
is to shape.
When a man has been trained to remain unmoved by

trials and temptations, such a man is bound for the impeccable
in limitless units. God trains us to wait so as to grow the
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strength of eagles in confidence towards Him, such that waiting

on God stops being a weary exercise, but a pleasure to relish in.
Don't think your simple doubt-filled words of 'Alright I

believe you God' with an irritable expression that says
otherwise are enough. We might say we believe God, we trust
Him; but notice how Jesus asked about whom the world said
He was and He emphasized on who His disciples thought He
was. To Him, the words we let ourselves and others hear is not
just enough, the hidden meditations of our hearts is far more
important because it reflects our true intents and opinions. Our
willingness to trust in God's word to do as said should resonate
from the hidden man to the openly expressed in us, until the
very intent of the flesh to subvert our faith is defeated.
Tim LaHaye, in his book "Why You Act The Way

You Do", made a frank statement about how God's perfect will
for us is absolutely perfect. He wrote,
"When you give your life to God, do not attach any strings or
conditions to it. He is such a God of love that you can safely
give yourself without reservation, knowing that his plan and
use of your life is far better than yours. And remember, the
attitude of yieldedness is absolutely necessary for the filling of
God's Spirit. Your will is the will of the flesh, and the Bible
says that "the flesh profiteth nothing."
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So, don't be scared to give God the chance to wait on

Him with great expectations of the reality He has foreseen for
you. Let His Spirit give you liberty from every thoughts of
fear, anxiety and doubt as you rest in His own thoughts; for
truly checking through history to confirm God's punctuality to
a promise, you'd realize that though many men called Him late,
yet eventually He turned out great.
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SUMMARY
The natural man after the fall is not only selfish, as
well as the opposite of every fruit of the Spirit
(Romans 3:10-18), he is also prone to quickly scream
about how he never knew it would take so long; yet as
Spirit filled believers, we are implored to patiently
wait, believing Him to do as He's promised.
However, just in case the pressure of giving in to
disbelief is weighing you down, ask God in prayer
about the situation and let His solemn response of
peace give you the strength to overcome this ordeal.
Remember, prayer involves three organs- the mouth,
the heart and the ear. So be rest assured that when
you speak to Him in prayer about these issues, He
hears and also speaks back for us to hear and rest in
those words of His that carry the sweetest harmony
that depicts that though delayed, it shall not be
denied. Though long, it shall never be cut short on the
way. Though unseen, it shall never remain out of
sight, because when it seems like it's taking too long,
always remember that God's already ahead of time
with every benefit your good living depends on.
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CHAPTER [2]
WHEN GOD?
HOW GOD? WHY GOD?
“They had no children because Elizabeth could not
have any, and she and Zechariah were both very old. But the
angel said to him, ‘Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard
your prayer, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son. You
are to name him John.” (Luke 1:7, 13 GNB)
SCENE:
“Zechariah and his wife were almost accepting the fact that their
genealogy would end with them. They were already getting used to
the picture of them never having children, and so gave themselves
completely over to religious work- both being from priestly
backgrounds. They loved God no doubt but that didn’t stop them
from feeling depressed at times; in fact so depressed that even
when an angel told her husband about their soon to be born child,
he exclaimed its impossibility. Like I said earlier, they were already
getting acquainted to a life without hope of any baby cries from
their own cot, and out of nowhere news of hope sprung up
through the lips of an angel.
Their self-configured nature to live void of hope now had to be
amended. Was God really serious with what he declared? I’m sure
that would have crossed their minds. However, that mattered so
little as compared to the question of how it was going to occur. But
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unfortunately for Zechariah, he wasn’t waiting for an answer since

he had already concluded it was not feasible. Here was the miracle
he had been waiting for. In fact, the only one scripture recorded as
unrealized for him and his wife Elizabeth. Yet when placed within
his grip, he wouldn’t receive because he couldn’t understand the
‘when?’ the ‘how?’ and the ‘why?’ ”
U
nlike Zechariah, his wife’s niece Mary had a
different approach to the same situation, though
even more bent and impossible to accept since she
didn’t even have a man who had previously played the role of
husband to her. She said to exactly the same angel who had
delivered exactly the same message. ‘I am the Lord’s servant,
and I am willing to do whatever He wants. May everything you
said come true’ (v. 39). Unlike Zechariah who filled the whole
area with pessimism, she was willing to replace it all with faith
in the God she believed could do all things.
Despite this, I cannot completely blame Zechariah who

responded as a man would, seeing the circumstantial
indifferences. The thoughts of how it could happen, when and
why God took so long could have made him exchange all of
this miracle with a life of getting by. The pain grievous, the
shame painstaking, the thought of actualization sort of a dream;
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however the angel responded aggressively, because even when

our questions seem too tantamount to bear an answer, God
doesn’t want us waiting yelling about how it is impossible to
be made possible, but to wait believing He can do all He’s said.
Zechariah picked the first option filled with questions instead
of the latter filled with hope- which is, faith in His word.
This simple illustration of Zechariah’s response during

his trying days despite receiving words of hope from God
relates to us as we also do the same as he did. In our daily
lives, we tend to be conscious of the many reasons why God
may fail, instead of the reason why He wouldn’t, which is that
He’s said it and all His promises are yes and amen; and so as a
result, we make our waiting period a misery we often can’t live
with.
We all definitely will someday encounter a challenge as

theirs’- though different as our faces are, and in the midst of
this, God expects us to produce a response way different from
Zechariah’s; but somewhat similar to Mary’s. Zechariah, being
a priest of the law, must have believed everything in life
demands protocol, and as such kept seeing the demands; but
you being now a priest under the new covenant, justified by
Christ must see the supply, and believe God to do all He’s
promised to regardless of how incomprehensible the thought of
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its actualization may seem at the moment. Like Jesus said,

“Humanly speaking, no one. But with God, every thought is
possible” (Matthew 19:26 TLB).
To those who believe, the sky is their limit; but to those

who believe and do as they believed, the sky is just their
starting point. It is one thing to believe God, to believe He
exists and that His words are ever true, and another to believe
they are true for you as well and thus act on a daily basis as
you have believed. As a priest, one is supposed to have seen
God’s omnipotent nature not to even speak of believing it; and
so even if we’d go by the seeing is believing philosophy,
Zechariah was in a position to have believed God as many of
us are having known His antecedence. Though he obliged
reluctantly to do as the angel instructed, at the end every word
of God came true. This proves that if we’d only spend more
time choosing to trust as we do doubting Him, we would see
that everything we counted as un-doable would appear right
before our faces; not simply because we chose to believe, but
because we believed exactly as He said it.
Some persons are so difficult that God Himself can’t

even get along with them even if He wanted to due to their
rigid sense of reasoning. They are so turgid in their conceptions
that when God says yes, they have more than enough reasons
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why it should be No. And ironically, a lot of us are in that

category. Paul advised that whomsoever decides to come to
God must first believe He is (Hebrews 11:6), which is to say
that such a person must believe that God knows what is right
from wrong, and will always do what is right as it regards us.
However, while we wait, God desires to reveal

mysteries on how we can walk better with Him and live best in
Him; but most times we do not tap into such a franchise as we
tend to become too casual with God as not to perceive it, and
too impatient to receive it. We tend to focus more on the
criteria that disqualifies us, such as age, race, health status, IQ,
financial capacity and fluency etc. instead of that which
qualifies us- His graciousness to fulfil his promised word. We
fill our soul, mind and heart with questions of why it can’t be
or perhaps might not be, instead of allowing His Spirit lead us
into all He’s made available for us. In fact, I have come to
understand that in this trying period, we want to believe that
God won’t do it so that we can justify our “told you so”
mentalities, and have it the easy way that all things truly aren’t
possible as God makes them seem.
Like the story of Zechariah, our problem isn’t that we

don’t believe God has answered us, but how He is going to
deliver that answer with all the not–so-good signs right before
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us; and that’s why we would rather disbelieve Him than choose
to wait believing him to break through the barriers these not-
so-good signs create to hamper our faith of receiving the
answered request.
Waiting, just as Murray taught, is the only way to the

experience of full salvation; but due to our defective
knowledge and practice of waiting on God, we are kept back in
a cyst of apparent limitations from receiving the fullness of all
Christ redeemed us to. Through waiting on him, God prepares
us until we are fit enough to carry His promise like He showed
us in the book of Acts regarding the ten days wait of the
apostles after the ascension to receive His promised Spirit. And
many times than never, it reveals to Him how much we love
Him, how much we’d go through just to obey and believe Him,
how much we hunger for the fulfilment of His word, and how
much we’d defy urgency to simply trust in Him.
The Psalmist related the extreme he would go in a wait

on God as he compares it to a voyage, and admonished us to do
the same. He said “Don’t be impatient for the Lord to act!
Keep travelling steadily along His pathway and in due season
He will honour you with every blessing……. (Psalm 37: 34
TLB). In due season, against all adds, He will stand at the end
of our waiting period with the answer we seek.
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Satan lurks every corner in an attempt to manipulate

our thought and belief patterns into disbelieving God, because
he surely knows that when a man’s heart is won, you have him,
and when his thoughts are captured, you control him. As
children of God, we ought to be careful so as not to let him win
on us as he did in Eden with a simple lie that appeals to our
sense of judgement. Though disbelieving appears to be much
more easier than believing since all we have to do is to claim to
be ignorant of the proposed truth, but however believing (in
God)-and obeying Him- is what reaps the reward of complete
deliverance.
That inner voice within our minds torments us as it

questions if truly we are sure God’s really the one behind the
wait. I’ve had my own experiences. Sometimes, it is like how
much I perceive it could have been with Eve, such that it
coerces us to take actions that break the wait, thinking it is a
step to help God help us, only to find ourselves more miserable
than when we assumed to have been during the wait. Playing
ignorant or that we can help God all because we’d rather
comply with the deceitful words clinging to our souls cannot
make us any better than God keeps us. He has a plan, and
though we might not naturally term it pleasant, but it always
works out for our own good as best as He originally intended it
to.
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FOrgetting can’t dO what

faith can
Another reason I believe why many of us find it hard to wait on
God is because instead of believing God as able to subdue the
situation in due time, we simply forget it, only to return to our
pain every time we linger unto it in memory. By experience, I
have noticed that we would never truly make it out of trying
situations with God still having first place in our lives unless
we truly believe Him to meet our needs as He assured us
already in prayers rather than simply knocking yourself off of
the trauma temporarily.
Many individuals might appear to have gotten the better

of their despairs, but test them with a week at least, and see
whether or not they don’t return to their tears. When you ask
them, they respond with a tone that makes you think they have
chosen to believe God with the ‘If I perish, I perish’ mindset;
but instead you realize that they simply chose to forget their
pain for a while.
It is not like that isn’t a good idea once in a while, but

its effect is not a complete remedy. It simply works like an
analgesic to relieve your pain for a particular period of time in
the circadian cycle, and then the pain returns, causing the same
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grief unless attended to again. But let’s say you’d choose faith
in God’s word instead, you’d be working with an eternal
remedy. You see, faith never denies fact; it simply overrides it.
That is, it causes you to live beyond the scope of such given
facts. Also unlike forgetting, faith in God’s ability doesn’t just
work on our emotions, it works on our motions (actions). That
is, it doesn’t just work on how we feel, it works more on how
we live. Its effect reflects in the way we react in our everyday
lives; in that even when we recall the situation at hand, and the
pain supposedly attempts to sneak back in, this faith suppresses
it: because while we can only forget for a while, at least until
our brain impulses gain a signal back on that part of our
memory, God’s word remains the same, unchanging, unfailing,
victorious and ever-saving. And that’s how I’m so sure that
banking on God’s ability would save us from the deficits
imposed on us by the questions of When, How, and Why,
forced on us through the fears and worries of the thought “what
if it doesn’t occur?”
One of my biggest flaws is that I was a complainer,

even if I believed I would be better by the help of the Holy
Spirit, displaying His fruit rather than this malignant trait. As
you know, complainers always think there is something wrong
with everyone and everything but never themselves; and this
makes it easier for such a person to doubt God’s word, because
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he would be tempted to find a reason for the stall especially

when the wait is taking longer than expected. Anyway, if you
are also a complainer or easily prone to impatience or disbelief
before God during a somewhat long wait, I implore you to
understand that though it might take so long, perhaps even for
twenty years like the grieving Israelis in the days of Deborah,
but those who love God enough to trust Him completely as
they wait on Him are bound to shine as the sun (Judges 5:31).
They that trust God completely stay unshaken as Mount

Zion. They don’t fidget in fear to start asking “when Lord?” or
“why Lord?” Somehow they just know He is going to show up
when it still counts by His assessment. Such individuals have
an accident that damages their feet, yet because they believed
God when He told them ‘these feet shall walk again’; they
refused to fret, they just believe Him.
You’d notice I used the word ‘refuse’, and that’s

because it’s a choice. We choose to trust God or not to.
Everyday this choice is placed before us; and like Joshua we
can either choose to believe Him in respectful service, or we
can choose to bombard Him with whys, which is only a sign of
our incomplete belief in Him- nothing different than
disbelieving Him despite His words.
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Talking about the word ‘why’, it is a question that must

be stopped. Even human managers get fed up when we
bombard them with unsolicited ‘whys’ after they have given a
command or an instruction. We just have to learn to avoid the
why question even when everything seems tightened, because
the question poses more emphasis on what we didn’t do or
what we did do, when instead God wants us more concerned
with what He’s done already. He wants us focused on the
‘done’ than just the ‘do’, such that by believing Christ’s “done”
in God, we can live in good hope of receiving all He has made
available if we only believe.
Make faith your proof

Naturally as humans, we might adjudicate to have the right to
question why we have to pass through what we presume as
unfair; but really there’s nothing to wave all your right if it is
simply the right thing you need right now. You might not
understand why you have to stand by the hospital bed for so
long a time, but just maybe it is simply to get you on your
knees on that bedside so as to create a new dependency for you
in God which you would really need in the challenges of life
lined up ahead of you.
You might not understand why you have to trust God

day in day out for so long before you can get the solace you
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seek, maybe it is just because you need to learn to take the

responsibility of meeting your needs as well as others from off
you to God where it rightfully belongs.
God teaches us in ways, even waiting on Him, to

establish an unsurmountable sense of belief in Him that keeps
us steadied in Him in hard times and yet capable to receive of
Him at His appointed time. In life, there is the chronological
time and the appointed; and God would never do in just any
chronological time what He pre-planned to do at an appointed
time. We simply have to trust Him to deliver at His appointed
time whenever that may be.
In fact, the blessings we desire to receive- those that

give us a picture of heaven, comes upon us when we rest by
faith in Christ and in all He’s told us He would do, regardless
of how long it is being delayed. The living Bible interpretation
of Romans 1:17 gives us a literal proof of how we receive the
good life by unwavering faith in God to do as promised.
‘’This good news tell us that God make us ready for

Heaven – make us right in God’s sight – when we put our faith
and trust in Christ to save us. This is accomplished from start
to finish by faith. As the scripture says it, ’The man who finds
life will find it through trusting God’’.
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I suppose if you’re passing through the many pressures

of life, you know how it feels to have your assured hopes
squandered. How it feels to have your supposed impenetrable
defence tread to pieces, and your source of fortification
besieged. Well, the citizen of Judah had the same feeling. At a
point in their lives when everything was going alright, and the
peoples were getting to respect God’s laws and His principles,
trusting Him at His said word for their every need, news came
that plans were made to put the entire nation under tribute.
The cities they thought as safe-holds were caged in,

those they branded as refuges were in stuttering panic, as it
became clear that the enemy was clearly planning on defying
God to totally annihilate whatever freedom they had once
enjoyed in God’s glistening presence.
Well, I guess this seems familiar to us. At a point when

we thought by human analysis that everything had cooled
down, and peace of mind has been restored, trouble surfaced
again, at least that’s what we call trying times. The kind of
trouble that begs the question if God still exists, even when
seconds ago, we revered Him in full awareness. The sort that
questions His care for us, even when former experiences
already showed He does.
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Judah was dilapidated. But guess what King Hezekiah

did? He was conscious of one truth, and he made sure the
whole population become conscious of it as well; saying “Be
strong, be brave, and do not be afraid of the King of Assyria or
his mighty army, for there is SOMEONE with us who is far
greater than he is! He has a great army, but they are all mere
men, while we have the Lord our God to fight our battles for
us” (2 Chronicles 32:7-8 TLB).
Those words of less dependence on self and more on

God reminds me of Paul’s words of grace, when he wrote “And
having CHOSEN us, He CALLED us to come to Him; and
when we came, He DECLARED us ‘not guilty’, FILLED us
with Christ’s goodness, GAVE us right standing with Himself,
and PROMISED us His glory” (Romans 8:30 TLB). Every
action in uppercase was performed out of freewill by God. We
didn’t deserve it or earn it, He did because He is kind and
gracious; why then should we worry out ourselves into
frustration when we can instead believe in God’s graciousness
to take actions as He did when we didn’t ask now that we have
asked?
Though in the dispensation of the law, Hezekiah

predisposed himself to hold tightly to God’s grace; and as a
result though the panicking had made Jerusalem to forget
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God’s name, Hezekiah emphasizing on their adopted spiritual

ignorance due to fear boldly stated that Someone (who perhaps
they’d decided to forget in the Person of God) is enough for
them, to help and deliver them. And guess what? They were
greatly encouraged.
Today, let God’s presence and the knowledge of His

ability to help encourage you in whatever ordeal you might be
experiencing. You may have left Him out of your calculation
prior to now, but add Him to it, and rest in His peace. He might
wait till the enemy start climbing your walls, but He’s not
going to watch him take over your domain.
Jesus said, “I am leaving you with a gift- peace of mind

and heart” (John 14:27), but this peace comes only when we
choose to trust Him at all cost and in every heist. This is the
peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7), which
many including us might not see until we step out in absolute
trust in Him to be anxious for nothing, but simply joyous
because we have chosen to rely on His already said word. That
is, being rest assured that He’s mighty to save, and would.
We are no longer thinking of the route He is going to

take to rout all these source of worries away, or when He’s
planning on doing it, we are just simply going to believe in His
goodness to do good to us all through His power and His Holy
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Spirit which made Jesus a timely solution to people’s sorrows

on earth; and which is exactly what Judah also decided by a
consensus to do.
And how did it end for them? “Now there was peace at
last….” (2 Chronicles 32:22). If He did it then, He can do it
again (Hebrew 13:8). But foremost, we’ve got to trust Him
enough to stay encouraged as we wait on Him in all situations.
A whole lot of countries today, and their citizens are in

peril, not only because the government of these nations can’t
completely actualize all the promises made, but also because
the people have given up on ever receiving anything good
again. And so to find the peace they couldn’t get from their
government, many go suicidal, some migrate, and others just
live in the despair of having to nurture their children with the
ideology that they can never get all they ever need in life.
But in God’s government, it is different. Not only can

He fulfil all His promises, we can find all the peace we need in
life in Him. You see, what everybody truly desires is peace and
rest. The essence of every acquisition available to man is
defeated when peace and rest are exempted. And yes, it is
exactly what you can find in God. So, even if our governments
fail our dreams for a good everyday life, God never fails to
give us all we’d ever need to enjoy everyday life. However,
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one problem still persists, and that is the part where we fail to
stay expectant to ever receive all that has been promised.
Believing beyond questions

God will never do what He knows man is capable of doing. He
won’t do the blessing part and the believing part together. We
have to do the believing. That’s our role to play in this mystic
circle of answered requests; and I believe that’s the primary
reason why Jesus loves little children so much. They believe
without any pressure of doubt, and instantaneously take up the
act of what they’ve believed; and this can be seen in the fact
that though they had just heard Jesus was the Son of David
(The Messiah), yet they yelled it with so much enthusiasm that
Jerusalem stood still the day Jesus triumphantly rode through
her (Matthew 21:15).
It is so fundamental that Jesus taught that except we

turn to God from our sins and become as little children, we
will never get into the Kingdom of God (Matthew 18:3). You’d
notice children are not just too humble to learn but they are
also more humble to believe. I remember as a kid I held tightly
to the fact that aliens with big ships existed everywhere, and
that Power Rangers were real, or that Santa Claus truly lived
across the North Pole, at least not until the ego of being
knowledgeable made me scrape all that as lies and non-entities,
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so bad that even now we want every child around to think as

we do.
Children take God at His word. They hold on to the

pinky swear even when things are looking shambolic. They
don’t act as agnostics or atheists until we make them. They
have a natural flair for faith-to believe without doubt, until we
give them reasons to doubt. And that’s why religious practises-
all sort-stick to children faster than adults. Children accept
without questioning and distrust; and God made them that way-
pure, free of everything man’s fall caused until life experiences
start to bring out the worst of the fallen man in them.
And so with this, little children must receive the

Kingdom of heaven, which figuratively could represent the
fulfilment of God’s perfect will for us. Little children are ever
expectant. As far as you promised them a gift, they never
forget or give up on it; instead they come to you daily with a
renewed sense of hope as if they were so sure they were going
to receive it that very day.
I remember a little girl who used to bug me all because

she wanted a snack. Truth is, I was going to get her one, even if
that moment I didn’t have any cash on me; and also due to the
load of work I had to do in church I’d end up forgetting.
Almost a week passed and I hadn’t gotten her that snack since I
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blanked out on that request, but what surprised me was that the
next day I saw her in church, she wore this huge smile, even as
she kept saying “Remember, you promised you would get me a
snack TODAY”. And with that, I had no choice but to get her
what she requested even if it seemed against my budget for the
day.
Now you’d notice that she said today what I said a

week ago. Children live in the present, such that they take their
past and future expectations into today. And when it comes to
receiving, then and there is synonymous to now. They never
stop believing they would receive what had been promised to
them, and that is exactly how we ought to relate with God.
Just like children, it is not our business to know how or

when He would do it or why He will, all we have to do is
approach every day believing expectantly to receive it at His
perfect time. From my story, my perfect time was that week,
minus the fact that I forgot; yet that week seemed like today to
the lass. Let’s surge ahead with the faith towards God everyday
as though we knew His appointed time was today.
Life is sometimes like a foreign language which many

misinterpret. It’s like saying “Pronto” and you think I’m saying
goodbye instead of hello. Elisha was seeing a host of ravaging
foes, yet he could see a deliverance instead of destruction. The
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present disappointments or delay doesn’t entirely connote that

all is over, unless you let it; it could just mean that all has
begun. They say the more you look, the less you see. The more
you concentrate on the plethora of evidences to say “Why me?”
and “Why not?” you let the dogmatism of why it can’t be or
shouldn’t penetrate into your being. The more you look at it the
world’s way, the lesser you see it God’s way.
Apostle Paul said ‘test all things and hold on to the

good’ (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Does what you are passing
through interprets all God has said concerning you? If No, then
discard that interpretation. Though it isn’t easy, but we must
not let worry and fear be the instruments of interpretation in
any circumstance we face. Not emotional excesses, but faith;
for faith is made perfect and works in love, which on the other
hand has no torment and casts out every fear, only to release
that which is God’s own opinion regarding any given
circumstance.
“For because of our faith, He has brought us into this

place of highest privilege where we now stand, and we
confidently and joyfully look forward to actually becoming all
that God has had in mind for us to be” (Romans 5:2 TLB).
Only absolute faith in all Jesus said and accomplished

subdues the frightening questions of when, how and why.
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“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and

trials for we know that they are good for us- they help us learn
to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us
and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally
our hope and faith are strong and steady. Then, when that
happens, we are able to hold our heads high no matter what
happens and know that all is well, for we know how dearly God
loves us, and we feel this warm love everywhere within us
because God has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with
his love. When we were utterly helpless with no way of escape,
Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners who
had no use for Him. Even if we were good, we really wouldn’t
expect anyone to die for us, though, of course, that might be
barely possible. But God showed us His great love for us by
sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And
since by His blood He did all this for us as sinners, how much
more will He do for us now that He has declared us not guilty?
Now He will save us from all of God’s wrath to come. And
since, when we were His enemies, we were brought back to
God by the death of His Son, what blessings He must have for
us now that we are His friends, and He is living within us!”
(Romans 5:3-10 TLB).
Whatever Christ’s blood was paid for can never be

owed again, including your liberty. So, simply choose to
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believe, and eventually you would walk out of that mess proud
that you made that decision to choose God above your fears.
Paul was so confident that he even said the whole power of hell
itself can’t keep it away; neither can our fears or worries (that
is, the things we presume too mighty in our minds to hinder it);
for whatever Christ died for is settled forever (Romans 8:38).
In the eighth chapter of the book of Genesis, God

showed the constancy of day and night, and various seasons as
long as the earth remained. For instance, He mentioned there
would be seedtime and harvest (v. 22). Between seedtime and
harvest, from an agricultural point of view, there exists time- a
designed bridge to bring the proposed to the fulfilled; a waiting
period to see the seeds germinate into crops. And so it is with
our normal daily lives as well. The period between the
promised time and the appointed time is the waiting period, in
which God germinates His seed in us from a promise, even as
we grow stronger with a tougher root system in His word and
Spirit which are soil sources for heavenly glory, into a reality.
This is the exact period when He nurtures us to be capable of
handling the assignment at hand and the blessing at heart.
For example, let us study the life of John the Baptist as

he waited for the Christ. Scripture records the words of John as
“I didn’t know he was the one”. John said again, “but at the
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time God sent me to baptize He told me, ’When you see the
Holy Spirit descending and resting upon someone- he is the
one you are looking for. He is the one who baptizes with the
Holy Spirit” (John 1:33 TLB).
Only God knows when He said those words to John,

perhaps the moment he started baptizing as he mentioned in his
statement which could have been eleven or so years earlier.
God didn’t even think of giving him a quick witness that it was
his relative Jesus. He didn’t even say eleven years from now.
He said, ‘keep doing all I have told you to; when you see this,
then it’s time’. I wonder how John would have felt those long
years. Well, I do know how I did when God said to me, ‘keep
writing, just keep writing all I teach you; I will tell you when
it’s time to publish them’, even after seven years of picking up
the pen. Or when He said, ‘keep posting devotional notes daily
on the social network; yet don’t try to turn it into a book for
personal gains. I have my purpose for it’.
With words like that, sometimes you would be moved

to doubt if it was really God. You’d ask yourself why you have
to pass through all of that when you could easily make what
seems like an honest way of gain for yourself. However, if we
must become all He says we shall be, we have to learn to trust
Him as John did, even if it means ‘baptizing’ hundreds of
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people every day for more than ten years just for a single man
promised to be revealed. This doesn’t mean selling your work
is bad; no, not at all; it just shows how much obedience and
trust are far more superior to your assumed right actions in the
sight of God. Thus, instead of trying to hurry God with the
when God questions, or the how God ones, let us simply trust
Him to do as promised.
A lot of us are prone to the rush kind of life. We tend to

always want to get and do things in a hurry, but God never
rushes. He takes us on a step by step journey until we
wholeheartedly lift the sceptre of our dependence from self to
Him. “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will
do this……… Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for
Him…. (Psalm 37:5-7 NIV).
God wants to take us somewhere we have never been

before- a new spiritual level, a new physical level, and a new
fulfilling state (financially, emotionally, socially, maritally
etc.); with His leading, all we have to do in the advent of the
griping questions of when, how, why is to simply trust Him as
easy as ABC: Accept His plans, Believe His plans, Convict
ourselves to stick to His plans.
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By adhering to this, we give God all the time He needs

from us; and when we give God the time He desires of us, we
tend to achieve 3 possibilities, which are:
1. There is a very high tendency to draw closer to God

during the waiting period.
2. God will remove our source of discontentment
according to His will.
3. If He doesn’t immediately, He opens a greater door of
opportunities for peace from that ordeal.
I remember till now the innumerable amount of times the Holy

Spirit would sternly rebuke my actions every time I complained
about everything around me whenever my environmental factors
forced me into doubting God’s promise for a moment only to
blame anything I could think of for the cause of the suffering those
living in my city were passing through. When instead I was just
looking for a reason to hinge the delay I was facing on, which
seemed much easier to do to me than to remain a prisoner of hope
in God. But thank God that now I know better that waiting on God
even when it took eternity is more profitable and effective than
coming with a zillion excuses and complaints of our anomalous
state; because unlike our murmurs and complaints, waiting on God
has a reward in His time.
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And so I have come to a conclusion that our peace in waiting

on God is established the moment we realize that complaining is a
sin even if it’s a natural tendency with great affinity to our human
trait; for whatever is not done of faith is sin (Romans 14:23); rather
God wants us to live on faith. And what is faith if not simply
taking Him at His word.
“We are saved by trusting. And trusting means looking

forward to getting something we don’t yet have- for a man who
already has something doesn’t need to hope and trust that he will
get it. But if we must keep trusting God for something that hasn’t
happened yet, it teaches us to wait patiently and confidently”
(Romans 8:24-25 TLB)
During trials, I found the habits of my predominant human

melancholy disposition getting the better of me, and at the same
time making a mess of me, in that despite the fact that I believe to
trust God at His word, I still found myself depressed and doubting
His promises when the wait begins to wear me down; asking the
most popular question of “Why me, Why now Lord?” This was my
memoir as a struggling Christian. Nevertheless Christ in His
graciousness has taught me that the fulfilment of His promise is
not hinged on feelings but on faith in His word; and so the strength
needed to be sustained in this somewhat bereaving waiting period
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should be sourced of not from human feelings, rather by faith in

His word.
Mark Wheeler made a statement about how waiting

doesn’t mean never.
“The waiting room, a land where time seemingly stands
still. It is a place where life is put on hold. In my doctor’s
office, it feels like hours have passed, and yet when I look at my
watch, it’s been only 20 minutes. When we are in the waiting
room, it seem as if progress has come to a screeching halt”.
This excerpt from his book “Hurry Up and Wait”
reveals that though in the view of this world, God’s set time
might feel like forever, but in waiting we’ll find out it’s not.
Sometimes, duration, mode and reason might not
appear certain, but we must choose to believe that God is
certain. “For my words will certainly come true at the proper
time” (Luke 1:20 TLB).
As humans, we have this basic instinct adopted from
the fall, this quickening urge to distrust God with ease
whenever we experience a delay. As a carnal being that is more
responsive to external stimuli than God’s Spirit, it would seem
naturally normal since it’s inherent with the flesh; but the
spiritual man knows it is abnormal because God is always
going to do all He’s said, so why worry? Like Tim LaHaye
mused, “God has never failed anyone before, so why will He
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make an exemption of me, I’m not that important!” Stay calm;

God is glorified every time His word proves true and faithful,
and He must be glorified.
It wouldn’t be too theological to say that God gives just
as much attention to what happens in us as to what happens
around us. He yearns to inculcate within you the character of
trust even in the storm.
As the sea raged more and more, Jesus slept unbothered
more and more. The disciples thought He had forgotten them,
but when He awoke, the raging ceased. Jesus knew that storm
they had seen wasn’t the real problem, but the storm of distrust
within their hearts that kept them in fear even when God was
right there in the boat with them. If God has given you His
word, what it means is that He is right there in the boat with
you even when discomfort overwhelms your heart from
noticing Him.
Many a time, in addition to the fact that we have to
wait, seeing this desires of ours occurring with ease in the lives
of other people instead of ours makes us embittered the more,
just like the earliest labourers in Matthew chapter 20, or as Job
who never complained until his friends showed up. We might
call it a natural phenomenon for natural beings, but it is
definitely one that would absolutely take all the joy we got if
we let it stay there. Also, through Christ we are spiritual
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beings; and so should concentrate more on what God has told

us not what we perceive others have that we don’t.
“Following after the Holy Spirit leads to life and peace,
but following after the old nature leads to death, because the
old sinful nature within us is against God…” (Romans 8:6-7
TLB).
Remember that whatever denies or doubt God’s power
to save or His love towards us is definitely not of God; and any
such ideas can only lead to our fall from the consciousness of
grace. So take Him at His word, trusting as He leads until life
and peace are yours again and forever.
Often times, the majority say that the expressions we
find on people’s faces every day is as a result of what they
physically encountered, but I have come to doubt that; that
instead it is mostly a result of how their intuitive compartment
interprets their daily experiences. The battle in the mind has
proven to be more injurious on many occasions than that of
spears and guns. In fact, man’s problems might be blamed on
these physical wars, but it is actually more of a result of the one
that occurs inside of him. And except we let God fix us through
patience and faith in Him, we will let it kill us as it does the
natural man. This is like an urgent call to fix your heart on the
pictures God’s word paints, and not those our natural senses
read from our surroundings; and here is where Romans 12:2
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plays its most precise role- which is to transform us from the

questioning pattern of the world to the untampered trusting of
God’s will as is pleasant to Him and very soon as we would see
is pleasant to us too.
Letting assurance be of
faith
Most people see a change of their circumstances as a medium
of attaining their ultimate “pacifying” place. On the contrary,
our sense of fulfilment is developed by having an express
manifestation of gratitude wherever God keeps us at specific
moments. Our condition today may not be a utopia, but it’s
definitely the breeding ground for the victor God wants to
make out of us. Remember, every destination is a product of a
journey; and so while the destination may house you, the
journey made you.
As such, staying thankfully at peace even in the face of

conflicting and uncertain times is made possible only when we
incarcerate ourselves on a row of unwavering faith in God’s
ability and tendency to aid the helpless in their toughest
moments. And this-not just the shift we are anticipating-is what
keeps us God-ward to feel as He expects us to feel at all times
instead of what self demands of us.
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The three most frequently asked questions in situations

like this are subjected here to further scrutiny, as we approach
to focus on them next.
- HOW IS IT GOING TO HAPPEN?

Man is a conscious being. So it is viewed as somewhat of a
normal phenomenon when we find ourselves always wanting to
assure ourselves of the certainty of the road map pre-planned
for our lives. But someone once said that instead of going
through every nook and cranny to ascertain where you should
be going, just trust God to lead as He has the plan for your life.
Based on different locations, the dailies are usually
delivered to our doorposts, or we just have to go to a local
vendor to get one. In the case of the former, when we wait for
the newspaper to get to our doorpost every morning, we hardly
care about how the news for that very day was compiled and
mass produced in such a short time, rather we just simply enjoy
having the benefits of updated news. Similarly, let our wait on
God be filled with the same sense of unfailing expectations.
During my freshman year in the university, I remember
walking through the dorm with my friend, and as we did I’m so
sure I heard this very soothing voice in my spirit yet having
this tone of reassurance that I was going to be the best in my
third year. At that period I couldn’t understand it, and looking
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at my difficulties I wouldn’t even dare believe it was God; all I

did was what a normal teen would do- tell his friend.
To Earnest, it seemed like a joke, but a joke that was
possible. I didn’t have the financial strength to get the
academic materials I needed, and with all my clearance issues
and course registration problem, it didn’t seem to me as the
kind of word to keep in my consciousness, still I did.
Two years passed, and every time I got to see my
course advisor it felt like he gave me this look of disdain, or he
sounded not too friendly, and so with these disadvantages, I
didn’t see how this voice I heard could even play out to be
right, yet I kept it in my heart that just may be it could be God;
still my fears remained in the “how” of the whole scenario
seeing what I termed a ‘disoriented situation with little charm
to make it work’.
However, note in all of this, despite my schedule being
filled with a repertoire of events including book writing, I
never relegated the place of diligence in the aspect of school
work. In essence, I was a reader.
But during that third year, the impression grew stronger
with more inaudible inner words from a familiar voice as that
one I heard two years back. I did everything I could as a
student should, still surrounded by the challenges of not having
access to various materials as I needed due to certain reasons
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and many other mishaps I can’t put in detail in this book, but
eventually after exams were done and results out, my name
came out as the most successful in the department for that year.
Though my course advisor told me plainly that he
didn’t want to place my name on that board, but since the other
names that deserved it too had little discrepancies and the
departmental board gave him no option he had to publish it.
Right there and then, I and Earnest could recall that so called
“unimportant” voice that spoke two years back.
Furthermore, God always encouraged me by telling me
the reasons for all the challenges He permitted in my life, and
why He waited till that moment, yet I always get awe-struck in
that God broke protocol to make it happen. Now due to that,
amidst my fears-my worst fears, I know that I don’t really need
to know how He’s going to do it, I just have to believe Him as
He’s said it.
Abraham was also eaten with this urge to see how God
intends to do what He says that he sat watching to see how the
offering would be received of Him until he fell asleep. This
shows us that we dizzy ourselves out when we try to put God
on the spot of wanting to see the way He brings things to pass;
but that if we’d just trust Him, and simply enjoy what He’s
brought, rather than worry about how He would do it or did it
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already, we’d have a life devoid of worries, but filled with His
peace (see 1 Timothy 1:4).
Just like with me, let the signs God has given you
before that set time of the other awe-striking miracles you’re
expecting guide you into a life cycle of absolute trust in God’s
ability and tendency to help all who rely on Him.
To be frank, from experience I have observed that God,
often times, does not show up on first bus; He comes on the
next- one built through absolute trust and dependence on Him,
Abraham knew this, and that’s why he wouldn’t take the option
of the five kings’ gifts as an avenue to get richer, but would
wait for God’s own way to get rich as declared by
Melchizedek- a clear figure of Christ (Genesis 14:22-24).
Waiting on God is just a proof of how much we trust
God to deliver His own way, but our eagerness to help God
help ourselves gives the enemy more than a chance to cheat us
on God’s blessings. Thus, leave the when and how to God, and
focus on the express manifestation of God’s promises without a
zero percent sense of insecurity.
In the same context, David never knew the whole Israel
would come to him to uncontestably make him king (2 Samuel
5:1-3). He might have thought he would have to fight his way
to the throne seeing what he had faced all his life and with Saul
as well. So David must have thought Saul’s sons to put up a
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stronger defiance. Though he was anointed as God’s chosen

one, but never was told when or how it would happen. Samuel
didn’t specifically tell him that, just that he would be next
which could also have been a hundred years from then
presuming Saul lived that long. Nonetheless, he didn’t rush
God to have gone out of his way to kill Saul, rather he trusted
God enough to wait for His time and to do it His way.
- WHEN IS IT GOING TO HAPPEN?
The moment we became Christians, we adjusted to primarily
respond to things according to the teachings, ideologies and
doctrinal values of the assembly we got converted in at least
not until God shapes us to be more Spirit-based than religion-
based. However, if we belong to a denomination that sees the
waiting period as a way of God punishing people, since
everyone must feel His wrath once in their life time according
to their theology, like the men of Malta who said concerning
Paul’s ordeal “Though he escaped the sea, justice will not
permit him to live” (Acts 28:4 TLB), we will find ourselves
being more bitter and depressed when we get stalled; such that
instead of seeing it as a preparatory session, we’ll find
ourselves seeing it as a judgment of God on us for our past
shortcomings.
You must always remain conscious of the fact that
Christ set us free from God’s judgment of our past sins when
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He declared us not guilty through His shed blood on the rugged

cross. So, instead of recollecting pain and guilt as you wait on
God, find life in His joy, especially in what Jesus accomplished
for you.
The Psalmist wrote numerously on waiting for God
joyfully, as on this one occasion, when he said “I stand silently
before the Lord, waiting for Him to rescue me. For salvation
comes from Him alone. But I stand silently before the Lord,
waiting for Him to rescue me. For salvation comes from Him
alone” (Psalm 62:1, 5 TLB). This could pass for a victory song
with so much enthusiasm in its every melody; and it shows that
God expects us to be liberated by faith to see things His own
way, instead of being encapsulated by the fear of what if it
doesn’t, such that it stops being a question of “When will it
happen?” to “Thank you Lord it has happened!”
With this, I believe that very soon, all of us will come
to an understanding that in life we do not really need ‘answers’
to life’s problems as much as we need God Himself. He is the
Christian’s assurance that all is well. In fact, the entire
universe’s assurance, as it all still waits for the unveiling of His
grand plan involving everyone who is His son or daughter.
Therefore, whatever we have envisaged to do outside
the perfect will of God, causing irreverence to Him, might
seem to blossom overnight but outrightly it is bound to fail.
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Isaiah taught this in his message to Damascus- the Syrian

capital-when he said,
“Why? Because you have turned from the God who can
save you- the Rock who can hide you; therefore even though
you plant a wonderful, rare crop of greatest value, and though
it grows so well that it will blossom on the very morning that
you plant it, yet you will never harvest it- your only harvest will
be a pile of grief and incurable pain” (Isaiah 17:10-11 TLB).
But if we bank instead on God’s faithfulness to act
promptly in His time, regardless of how long it takes, He will
answer
“But though they roar like breakers rolling upon a
beach, God will silence them. They will flee, scattered like
chaff by the wind, like whirling dust before a storm. In the
evening Israel waits in terror, but by dawn her enemies are
dead…” (vs 13-14 TLB).
Prior to my college days, my brother and I had a
“Phase 3” trend we kept close to our hearts which represented
the period when God would show up and change our lives for
the best; and so when anyone asked us then, “what are you up
to?” we’d say “Our Phase 3 is coming”. But believe me, it sure
did take a whole lot of time before we saw it as we wanted to-
that is if we discard the great miracles we often call little
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because they were not our priority expectation, even when

unexpectedly they built what it is we have today.
What I am saying is that, it is going to take a long time
or a shorter time perhaps, but be rest assured that in God’s
time, it will show up. Simply put all your trust in God enough
to show it in your attitude. Isaiah confirmed this when he
prophesied, “The smallest family shall multiply into a clan; the
tiny group shall be a mighty nation. I, the Lord, will bring it all
to pass when it is time” (Isaiah 60:22 TLB), teaching us that it
is way better to be slow and sure in God than to be fast and
fallible by fleshly instincts to hurry. Also, note that God never
promised to do it in your time, but He’d sure promised to do it
when it is time.
- WHY NOW? WHY ME, LORD?
Waiting on God often is not only difficult, sometimes it seems
almost impossible. This is because as human beings our
insecurities and worries stem from our half-baked
understanding of who God is. However, one truth that should
indulge you in this act with a wholesome spree of
encouragement is His independent control over every portion
of creation, events and situations at every period in history.
His untainted record throughout time should spur you
into believing His every word with pure enthusiasm, because as
reflected in history, He never fails. Like the Psalmist stated His
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benefits are daily loaded for us (Psalm 68:19). It’s just like how
air never leaves any vacuum unoccupied, God never leaves His
children without a blessing each moment; and guess what?
These benefits are for all (Romans 10:12). So, never think that
God’s making you wait because you are black or white or
Asian. Never castigate yourself into a path of self-pity because
you can’t seem to understand why it has to be you who’s got to
wait this long, and not the other colleagues in your bunch.
God has a unique plan for each of us; and that’s why
our iris are different, just as our finger prints and facial
curvatures are. Same way, your destiny is uniquely different
from others; so using another man’s measurements to sew your
coat will only get you a deficit. Your present might be nothing
compared to what others have today, but ask yourself about
how your tomorrow would be if this is really a scheme in
God’s grand plan.
You’d notice that the same David who spoke of God’s
daily benefits and grace towards us still had a moment of
weakness as you do now perhaps due to the long duration of
time you’ve had to wait for your desired solace. He complained
“Why do you delay? Why hold back your power?” (Psalm
74:11 TLB). Yet this same fellow had a song to sing, when he
said “Let each generation tell its children what glorious things
he does. The Lord is fair in everything he does, and full of
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kindness” (Psalm 145:4, 17 TLB). Regardless of how long it

takes, God is always good enough to be on time.
We need to learn that God is enough. Through faith in
Him, many have found it possible to rise above their
limitations, and this is because while we may not know why
things happen the way they do, God does know why everything
happens the way they do and chooses to work good out of them
for those who love and trust Him (Romans 8:28).
I have never regretted ever walking with Jesus. Every
instructions He gave and I may have initially reluctantly
followed, I would trade for nothing else; because they made
this me that I have learnt to love so much: This me who lives in
the perfect will of God. We may feel pressured to doubt Him
when we begin to compare ourselves with others. We may
even feel like we are losing, when in fact we are winning.
That’s what is meant when He said godliness with contentment
is great gain. The more we align ourselves to what God wants
us to do per time, even when it appears lesser in state to what
others might be doing, the more closer we are to the life God
has in store for us; which is always beyond all we can think or
imagine. So you see, we are not always that odd when we act
in faith; we only are if we accept it when people say it because
we don’t fit in. There’s nothing odd in believing God
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undoubtedly and acting accordingly for everything He’s said

even when everyone else don’t agree with it.
In Job 1:16, we see that even Satan can come attacking,
mimicking under the name of God, as he caused the fire that
fell from heaven, yet pinned the blame on God through the
words of the talebearers of Job’s woes. Satan might just be
doing the same thing with you so as to make you disbelieve
God totally or even curse Him, and since whatever is not done
of faith is sin, thereby exposing yourself to his continual
torments. But notice how Job overcame this harsh situation:
despite the doubt-filled words of men and his own personal
complaints of grief, he still chose to hold God to His words to
do as He has promised to do (v. 22); and so must you if you
wish to overcome the taunts of the enemy.
People tend to call Jesus a mystery as His ways are
different from ours. But to me, Jesus has gone beyond being a
mystery, He is a Reality. By the Holy Spirit what felt
impossible to be known of Him is now right within our very
spirits. And that my friend is why you can be 101% sure that
He is able enough to keep His part of the bargain, because He
is more real and sincere than we are to ourselves, and way
more real than the fears we feel. To the depressed, He says
‘come unto Me’. To the dejected, He says the same. He
admonishes that instead of petrifying ourselves in the asylum
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of self-pity and incarcerating fears, we should rest in His

integrity……. For if He’s promised a deliverance, a recovery, a
bounce back, He is capable of and surely will do it.
I recall the day I received the news that I was accepted
into the State University where I lived. However, as ironic as it
would sound, on hearing that news, I heard that ‘peace filled
inner voice’ telling me to reject it. I was just done with my
quiet time, and as much as I was convinced that it was God
speaking, I still wanted that admission seeing how long I may
have to wait for another. Since I could not understand why God
would want to take what I desired most at that moment, I said
to Him “You know if it’s the program I desire, I am going to
accept; so please if this is you, let it be something I wouldn’t
accept”.
Prior to that prayer, I had been told it was my choice
program. In fact, it was a confirmed deal, but when I went to
recheck after my word with God, surprisingly it had changed to
Plant Sciences, and I’d rather be a biochemist than just a
botanist despite it being a great career. So, I rejected
it…painfully. My dad couldn’t understand why I did that since
I yearned so badly for it, yet he wouldn’t oppose my decision
after that; though I never told anyone what I had heard.
Losing that opportunity didn’t seem funny to me as I
saw others basking in the euphoria of college life; but as God
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would have it, halfway into the semester, the tuition fees
shockingly skyrocketed into an obnoxious amount that I knew
my family couldn’t afford to pay for at that moment. Then and
there, the comments changed from “Why me, Lord?” “What a
bad decision, Oscar” to “Thank God, you didn’t accept it”. Not
only was God saving me from the outrageous increment that
made many pull out of school, but also gave me an easier
admittance into my alma mater as of today.
Though it seemed like a cursed situation for me- the
direct command to reject what I thought I needed followed by
the call to simply remain at peace in Him amidst the pain, yet
today I can attest that truly God’s time is best; and if only we
know the result of all He’s doing now, we wouldn’t wail “Why
Lord?” but in joy we would yell “Ride on Lord!”.
Has god changed?

“I guess He has forgotten me?”
Does that sound familiar to you? Well, God never forgets
anything!
Have you ever thought of the fact that maybe God
won’t do what He promised even if His word told us He
would? In times as pressing as this, it is easy to slip into such
thought patterns, but the Bible tells us that God does not
change, and it is enough reason for us His people to remain
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confident that things will turn again in our favour (see Malachi
3:6).
However, if you ever have entertained such a thought,
I’ll like to let you know that you are not alone in such a state.
Nevertheless, I’m not encouraging you to stay there; rather
break through it because it will only keep you farther from
your anticipated miracle. I have had my days of miserable
doubts. Even Asaph did. Carefully picture his state of mind as
he wrote the following verses. Psalm 77:5-20 says
“I keep thinking of the good old days of the past, long
since ended. Then my nights were filled with joyous songs. I
search my soul and meditate upon the difference now. Has the
Lord rejected me forever? Will he never again be favourable?
Is his loving kindness gone forever? Has his promise failed?
Has he forgotten to be kind to one so undeserving? Has he
slammed the door in anger on his love? And I said: this is my
fate, that the blessings of God have changed to hate. I recall
the many miracles he did for me so long ago. Those wonderful
deeds are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking
about them. O God, your ways are holy. Where is there any
other as mighty as you? You are the God of miracles and
wonders! You still demonstrate your awesome power. You have
redeemed us who are the sons of Jacob and of Joseph by your
might. When the Red Sea saw you, how it feared! It trembled to
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its depths! The clouds poured down their rain, the thunder
rolled and crackled in the sky. Your lightning flashed. There
was thunder in the whirlwind; the lightning lighted up the
world! The earth trembled and shook. Your road led by a
pathway through the sea-a pathway no one knew was there!
You led your people among that road like a flock of sheep, with
Moses and Aaron as their shepherds” (TLB).
Asaph, a man who had witnessed God’s power first
hand, was beginning to shake in faith as he compared his
supposedly wondrous past when the kingdom was without
opposition to how the struggles so filled the streets he once
caught a glimpse of what heaven looked like. You see, every
time you look back at a better past without turning towards
God, you’d always find a reason to cry and pity yourself. In the
mind of Asaph God had changed. Notice his complaint from
verse 5-10. He had almost given up on the thought that God
would eventually show up. He had so many why and when
questions that he lost touch with the immutability of God’s
person and promises. Nevertheless, as he looked farther back
into how God had always been ever faithful in times of dire
need, he knew that his future had no other fate than what He
had always done.
Similarly, if you’d look back, you will understand that
God won’t fail you; but that He would find you in due time. He
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may not be showing off now in your life, but he will surely
show up. God has not changed. He is the same yesterday as
today, and the same today as forever. What this means is that
God will bless you just as He blessed Israel in the days of
Asaph. Notice his words in the 80th Psalm. He said the Lord
makes us strong (v. 1 TLB); and that He would feed us with the
best till we are satisfied (v. 16). If God didn’t change then in
his days, He won’t change in your day. Simply release yourself
to rely on all you know and have seen of Him.
Life will have its hard times, but just as He promised
He would help you. Don’t try to think of all the horrible
reasons why He may not bless you, rather focus on His
promises to you. The scripture tells us that they are assured and
settled forever. It says He says yes to their fulfilment in your
life, and amen to the making of their reality every time we trust
in Him to keep to it (2 Corinthians 1:20). So, stay calm. He
hasn’t changed a bit. He’s still faithful as ever, and He
promises to show Himself as such to us every time (2
Chronicles 16:9, 2 Thessalonians 3:3).
I don’t know what you might be going through now,
and I don’t know how long you have, but I do know that God
helped me in my trying days, and you’re just as special to Him
as I am. I do know that He delivered Paul and Silas, as well as
Peter on another occasion, from the very depth of confinement;
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and we are just sons to Him as they are. I do know that He

raised our Lord Jesus from the abyss, and we are just as He is
in His sight by redemption. And I do know what He says about
you. He says that He knows His thoughts and plans for you,
and that they are good, filled with hope, and assuring of a great
future (Jeremiah 29:11).
Thus, don’t whine anymore. When the storm comes,
don’t question him with your whys, whens and hows; rather
unleash your storm breaker. And what is that? It is your
willingness to keep faith with God. Psalm 33 says “Behold, the
Lord’s eye is upon those who fear Him [who revere and
worship Him with awe], who wait for Him and hope in His
mercy and loving kindness, to deliver them from death and
keep them alive in famine” (vs 18-19 AMP). David had the
secret to a stress-free bounce back in life; now that you have
got it too, use it efficiently. And that is, instead of questioning
and complaining, simply trust- for the fire only burns when we
don’t trust Him.
“…..the fire of his wrath burned against Israel, because
they didn’t believe in God or trust in him to care for them”
(Psalm 78:21-22 TLB).
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When The heart becomes the

problem
It’s easier to complain about something when you don’t know
the essence. Have you also noticed how we query God about
how our friends got to get married before we did, or bought
cars before we did; but no one ever queries God for why their
friends had to die before they did? If you think God’s timely
decision to keep you alive is right, then trust also that all He’s
doing now in your life is also right. Do what Pa Hagin called
trusting God with your spirit. That is looking beyond what’s
outside to what’s inside- to what the Spirit of God bears
witness of you concerning the situation.
I have also learnt that another reason why this
sometimes take so long is because we still have our intentions
wrong, and God uses this time to fix us to get it right. The
reason you want the blessing might just be to show off your
ego instead of His glory; and this is a work of the flesh that
brings zero returns both to us and God. And with God being a
good businessman, coming too early in such a case is bad
business.
For instance, I remember when I almost bagged my
desired admittance with a potential fee waiver from Bloomfield
College in 2010, and all I had to do was pay a not so exorbitant
amount for result translations and other necessities, at least
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that’s what I was told by the admission counselling officer. On

telling my dad, he agreed we could easily find the money to get
that done, regardless of what it took even selling a land he
owned, but to my surprise from then on everything just
seemed to had been forgotten, and that seemingly giveaway
just passed by.
A lot of years have passed by, and on looking back I
see clearly. I realize that the profound reason why it might have
passed by into Neverland wasn’t because of some devil, but
because at that moment I consciously only intended to use that
medium to find a way to live the Hollywood life, when
possibly that wasn’t what God wanted. You see, Job spoke
about how God interferes in the affairs of men (7:18). This is
because of all the creatures ever formed, only man can hinder
the will of God for his life. The devil can’t stop the
performance of God’s will, but because of the freewill He’s
given us, we can slip away from it. I wasn’t thinking about
studies; and it definitely wasn’t to become a better writer or
even a better Christian. I had a well written script that had
everyone involved except God. In fact only God knows if I
would have even completed a book as this if He had let me get
away with my plan. God was protecting me- my future and His
investment in me. Though I couldn’t perceive it then, but now I
know it’s true, because everything He thinks is for our peace
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(Jeremiah 29:11), and everything He does is for our good; and

nothing can ever be as peaceful or good for you as compared to
His original plan for you.
At that period, I was a “new’’ Christian who yet had a
strong flair for the world’s way of doing everything, and so
God had to fix me if by any chance I was going to become the
entirety of the person He created me to be for His purpose.
Some may argue that if God is this concerned about our
fulfilling His exact plan instead of the flesh’s, then why does it
feel like many a time people can’t feel Him helping them, and
so tend to exist as whatever they can rather than as God’s
ideal? The truth is, God’s way towards His people seem to be
different as we can see with Moses and Samson or with
Zechariah and Mary, where one seemed to be more directed
personally by God than the other, yet He is not unequal in His
dealings. We differ in so many ways, even in how we respond
to admonitions. Some need more pressing, others less. But still
as far as you’re willing to oblige regardless of the group you
belong to, He is ever ready to guide us; but when freewill
stands against His willingness, freewill often surges on
stronger.
Nevertheless, God protects His purpose for our lives by
making us wait instead of rushing into the certainty of failure
hinged on the pathway of flesh-willed decisions. Fix your
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intentions, and God would let you go straight ahead into where
you ought to be. God said of Abraham “I know him that he will
command his children and his household after him, and they
shall keep the way of the LORD…” (Genesis 18:19); can He
say the same of you?
Our intentions are just as good as our actions before
God, and that is why John compared the emotion of hatred to
the act of murder (1 John 3:15), and the emotion of anger is
likened to the act of folly (Ecclesiastes 7:9); and so just in the
way our actions open and block paths, best believe that our
intentions can do the same thing.
Thus, if we can fix our reasons for a miracle from being
that of egotism like Simon the sorcerer who wanted to buy the
Holy Ghost for more fame and affluence to being that of
reflecting God’s glory, then we’d have no reason to entertain
fear while waiting on God, for as far as He can stand on our
word as He did with Abraham, He would give us limitless
access just as much as He gave Abraham even if it seems to
have exceeded our preferred timing.
Furthermore, it is funny but it’s also true that almost
every time I have been inspired to write a book, I have had to
deal with a serious challenge myself; yet in that pain, I find
myself happy and ardent enough to put down everything God
teaches me about dealing with such problems, because I know
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that the challenge is just there for its purpose in my

development, and after that it must fade away.
For example, before writing this book to help people
handle the pressures of the waiting period, I had just
experience a not-too pleasant situation that would keep me
from receiving my degree due to some documentation issues
even when I had plans already laid down on how I was going
to continue in the academia the following year. And in all of
this, as I reiterated in my other book, A man For The Moment
(presently unpublished), all God would reply in prayer were the
words “Trust in all I have told you” and later on bid me to
write this book “When God’s Time Start To Seem Not Like
The Best” so that many presently in my shoes would know that
even amidst the fear and anguish, He is still completely in
control and able to offer all the help they’d ever need to come
out victorious. I had so much experience with God to know I
wouldn’t fail, yet most times I was afraid; and how did I learn
to overcome these fears: by trusting God with my spirit. And
now, here you have me.
With all that has happened ever since, I have learnt to
truly believe and accept that God is faithful to do all He’s said
He would do- first with my heart, and then also with my head.
So why worry when instead I can celebrate in faith anticipating
the arrival of all God says are coming my way? Why worry
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when we can rejoice in His soon to be revealed salvation? Why

worry when we can simply choose to trust and believe God
with all of our hearts instead?
Trusting in God might seem costly- if we relate it to the
grievances our human desires suffer during the wait, yet it is
much cheaper than how much we might lose if we don’t. And
its end results are ever priceless. In fact, our greatest assurance
in getting our expected miracles is our trust in God. David
advised, “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him to
help you do it and He will” (Psalm 37:5 TLB)
“They don’t understand that Christ gives to those who
trust in Him everything they are trying to get by keeping His
laws. He ends all of that.” (Romans 10:4 TLB).
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SUMMARY
The difference between individual Christians in which
during tribulations one is very much at peace and the
other remains restless is due to the fact that while the
first is more God-conscious than problem-conscious,
the other is the reverse. Many of us spend more time
trying to analyze the devil’s tactical skills than what
God is saying as regard to our present challenges that
we make the mistake of missing out on all God plans
for us. John Bunyan once wrote about how he always
felt guilty, depressed and dejected for his
imperfections, (believing that was the cause of his
woes, perhaps) and it didn’t stop until he accepted that
his human best could make him no more righteous
than he was, but that his righteousness was in heaven
with God in Jesus Christ. Until we start asking “What
does God want to achieve with this situation?” rather
than “Why me, Lord?” we might fall out of God’s
reserved benefits for the moment. Hence, the key is:
even in the heat of the wait, choose to stay trusting in
the Lord.
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CHAPTER [3]
CAN I TRUST IN
GOD’S TIMING?
“O Lord, I will honour and praise your name,
for you are my God; you do such wonderful things! You
planned them long ago, and now you have accomplished
them, just as you said” (Isaiah 25:1 TLB)
SCENE:
“The Lord’s message to Isaiah for Israel began with doom; and
prior to the days of Hezekiah, there didn’t seem to be anything
different. It was so visible, even to the blind, that perhaps doom
was actually the lot of Jerusalem. Uzziah’s final days as a leper in a
solitary home, Ahaz’s short reign but constant wars with Syria and
the son of Remaliah, and the present hardships triggered by the
Assyrian siege were enough reason for Hezekiah to doubt if any
form of restoration would ever befall Jerusalem until the promised
Messiah comes.
‘Was Isaiah’s prophecies finally becoming a reality?’ could have
been the most frequent thought pattern on the mind of the young
king. The present situation around the king’s court was beginning
to seem somewhat similar to what he read out of the early scrolls
of the prophecies of Isaiah against Jerusalem and its neighbouring
cities. Fear, panic and anxiety would have usurped their way into
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becoming the entire nation’s number one thought on seeing the

rampaging tirades of shivery and helplessness brought about by the
encampment of Assyria around her borders. Was this Judah’s last
moments as a nation?
However, in the midst of this panicky mood, Isaiah gave the king
God’s word for the life threatening situation that had bedazzled
them all of a sudden, saying “Do not be afraid of what you have
heard” (Isaiah 37:6). Can you imagine that? The city was in an
uproar; pandemonium was the celebrity of the moment, yet as
those timely words proceeded out of the curvature of the prophet’s
lips, they were expected to wear a smile as the glimpse of hope was
seen as a beam of light in the darkened hearts of all Judeans.
This encouraged Hezekiah a lot, having a sense of partnership with
God who sworn to send the heathen king out of his land into the
abysmal realm of his own cruelty. But soon after such good news
had arrived, it seemed like the enemy king had grown stronger, at
least as depicted from his letter that conveyed such strong words of
blasphemy against the God of all hope he looked unto. What
crippling fear could have tormented his soul had he chosen to
focus on the breath of defeat smouldered from that very piece of
paper; seeing the very opposite as it seemed of what God had
promised- a blast against himself from Sennacherib instead of a
blast upon the heathen king.
For a moment, it must have appeared as though Hezekiah forgot
the previous words spoken through the vocal chords of Isaiah, that
he had to go to God this time around with a prayer for
reassurance, just in case the Assyrians’ plot to cause a havoc
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inevitably comes before His purposed time frame to eliminate

Sennacherib clocked. The Lord’s pronouncement for the removal
of the siege was “This year” (v. 30 TLB) which could have been
months from then. It could have seemed like a long time- a whole
lot of time that it would have been impossible to hold them for so
long.
Though He said “this year”, that same night He accomplished it
all. Then only could Hezekiah truly have seen that regardless of
how far a century God’s proposed time might appear, it is very
near to those who are near to Him. It might take the appearance of
being not forthcoming, or that it would take forever, but like the
opening text of this chapter, regardless of how long ago it’s been
said, HE can accomplish it just as He said. So, if you asked me
“can I trust in God’s timing?” I would tell you “Who dares not, for
it is always timely!” ”
O n seeing this miracle in the life of Hezekiah,

the entire neighbouring countries who also had
messages of doom had immensely great respect for him (see 2
Chronicles 32:23). When God’s time has reached its perfect
moment, everything a man never could have imagined he could
get would simply come badging in, because with God’s timing
every promise is received without limits. Hezekiah enjoyed it,
the whole nation of Judah enjoyed it, the previously bewailing
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fellows on the walls of Jerusalem relished in its sumptuous

feeling; so can we.
The primary mark that distinguishes and raises one
Christian above another is not talent, appearance or even
opportunity. It is obedience disguised in the face of faith. It is
our status of belief before God that distinguishes us all (Ezekiel
48:11-12). Many men existed in Bible days, yet the men of
Hebrew 11 were chosen as icons. Why and how? Through
faith. That’s what dictates how God sees us; and it is one factor
that made Him love David more than He did Saul. Does God
love us all the same? Yes. But does He trust us all the same?
No. You’d remember that of all the twelve apostles of Christ
that sailed through the Lake of Gennesaret, only Peter walked
on water which was available for all. And who got the charge
to lead the gospel train? Peter; because the man who trusts is
the man who tops.
Any other disciple could have walked as Peter did that
night, just the same way any of them could have publicly
declared Jesus as the Christ as he also did; but the most
defining difference between Peter and the rest at that point was
his unceasing trust in Christ’s words, thus causing him to walk
against the law of nature. In fact, before Peter walked on water,
he had first walked on the word of Christ. His faith in Jesus’
capabilities made him walk upon the waters; and so in the same
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way, the defining difference between you and I and any other
follower of Christ is the state of our faith in His ability. You
see, it is one thing to believe that Jesus is the healer, and
another to believer that He is your healer.
Jesus, in one of His public sermons, taught that “How
happy are those who have no doubt about Me” (Luke 7:23
GNB). The same statement can be related to waiting on God.
Any individual who makes it his onus to remain trusting in the
Lord despite the amount of time it’s taking has made a contract
for himself that assures him of a happy life soon enough. These
are not my own words, they are Jesus’, and scriptures
completely support it, because as Paul also taught “Faith is the
only way to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6), and in return it is the
major way to receive the life that pleases you.
I have already mentioned in this book how it is much
easier to disbelieve than it is to believe. All it takes to
disbelieve is a simple hiss and complete absent-mindedness
and negligence to what has been published, but believing takes
a conscious decision to accept with pure conviction all that has
been said. So, don’t go ahead thinking that believing or trusting
God is a passive action, it is an act that culminates in obedience
and dependence, and as such needs a conscious and exact
willingness to say yes to all He asks of us.
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On declaring one of the many benefits of consciously

choosing to trust in God, Isaiah wrote one of the most heart
calming words a Christian who entirely trusts in Him can find
solace in. He said,
“He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in
Him; whose thoughts turn often to the Lord” (Isaiah 26:3
TLB).
Apart from the assurance these words leave in our hearts, it
shows that even after God’s words have been given- even after
His opinion concerning any given circumstance has been
delivered to us by His Holy Spirit, only a selected number of
people would truly believe and trust Him eventually. This
labels faith as a choice; and so in the same way, we get to
choose how we respond to God’s reaction in any situation.
When He says ‘Wait on Me’, we get to choose whether
we would or instead flare up with angry complaints and
symptoms of distrusts. We get to choose our actions and
eventual results after the waiting period; for as Isaiah said,
perfect peace to those who chose to trust Him, and in contrast
total mayhem of fear, worry, doubt and disappointing pressures
to those who choose to distrust Him. So, if we were to be in a
gambling floor, trusting Him would be the perfect game to play
on.
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This perfect peace spoken of can be wholly ours if we

simply just believe Him at His word to act in our favour against
that problem that makes us susceptible to being ashamed
among those who should be seeing the light of God’s glory in
us. This is because our constant believing in God, even if our
expected miracles seem stalled, forces God to keep working
until He brings such miracles to our very realities. The more
we believe, the more He works.
John 6:29 teaches us that by believing in Christ’s word
toward us and deeds for us, we do the work of God (i.e. our
part), and also that on believing, God’s work is established (i.e.
His part). Do you remember His words to Ahaz, “If you will
not believe, you shall not be established” (Isaiah 7:9). So, even
in waiting, trusting in God brings efficacy in the universe
response to our requests, for God Himself oversees that it
comes to fulfilment.
It might appear as though it’s bound for lateness, but a
firm faith in God’s ability and willingness to perform it as He
has said it makes great out of the previous late we anticipated
and evaluated from all we could perceive from the features we
saw around. For instance, when God promised Abraham he
would become a great nation, he still lived with his father, so it
didn’t seem like something worthwhile to trust, yet he
believed. He didn’t just believe, he let his faith take him on a
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risk of letting God lead him out of what felt secure into a
yonder land he had never been to before.
Throughout his travels, he moved from tent to tent, and
so that promise of becoming a great nation might have started
to look pale in the eyes of men, but eventually it became
visible when a man with no royal trace conquered five different
kings in one setting with 318 unskilled men. On that same
ground, the rescued kings could perceive him as a prince of
nations, for only one could have achieved such a feat. So, at the
end, God’s word remained unfailing and Abraham’s choice to
trust Him came out unfailing as well.
God, who has a picture perfect plan for our lives, knows
that regardless of how tough the ordeals may pose themselves,
He is always on time (see Habakkuk 2:3). As one songwriter
said His grace is unfailing, his love unchanging….. He is loyal.
Therefore, it would only be wise to encourage you to trust God
enough not to give up because it is taking too long to manifest
according to our chronological timing.
Our human body may grow weary; our mind may tear
off in desperation and frustration, but we can keep our spirit
bound to His word in faith by trusting Him no matter what our
physical eyes see, and afterwards renew our mind and bodies to
respond to all situations according to principles based on His
word. Our carnality is centered on our responsiveness based on
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the flesh, while our spirituality is on our responsiveness based

on what the word of God says. So, we must by all means
believe the word and believe God to be exactly how He wants
us to be- which is to walk in the spirit (see Galatians 5:16-25,
Romans 8:14-16). In time, we will realize that everyone has his
time if we’d only learn.
In the game of soccer, it is evident that the athletes
grow weary as the match gets to closure, as also seen as a race
nears its end, but we know that these are where the rewards are.
No one is rewarded for starting a race- and it has never been,
only for ending it; and eventually winning it. As Apostle Paul
advised, this trial-this wait-is one you’ve got to be determined
enough to win (1 Corinthians 9:24). And this you do by letting
faith lead instead of fear. Like it was with father Abraham, let
your faith in God lead you into believing all God has to say to
receive all God has in store at the appropriate time He says
“Take!”
God, for a very long time since the world began, has
been dynamic in the business of restoring in full all that is by
right- bestowed by grace-for those who belong to HIM. This
feat has remained one of the most constant phenomena in the
cycle of life, even more constant than pi- which is, God’s
unceasingly working and giving, and His children’s
unceasingly waiting and receiving.
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This means that waiting isn’t a proof of God’s ability to

help, but a regular feature necessary in our walk with God to
see it actualized. That’s why it is important to learn to see
things from God’s perspective before finalizing our own
judgment as true. Good riddance that we have chosen never to
see waiting as a torment from God, but as a sign that He is
working, because when we do the former we let the enemy
steal our joy as we give him audience to impose on us the lie
that God can’t do as promised as he achieved with Adam and
Eve; and believe me the simplest proof that we’ve lost the
battle of the mind and soul is our consistent lack of joy.
Based on the words of Isaiah, we must learn to retain
our joys, because God is still as good in doing the required as
He was during creation. He is not being unfair or a tormentor
as the devil may whisper once in a while, rather we must adjust
ourselves to seeing this period when He says “Wait” as one in
which He renews and increases our strength to receive in full
capacity all He has pre-deposited for us ahead of time, never to
lose it again.
“O Jacob, O Israel, how can you say that the Lord
doesn’t see your troubles and isn’t being fair? Don’t you yet
understand? Don’t you know by now that the everlasting God,
the Creator of the farthest parts of the earth, never grows faint
or weary? No one can fathom the depths of His understanding.
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He gives power to the tired and worn out, and strength to the
weak. Even the youths shall be exhausted, and the young men
will give up. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength. They shall mount with wings like eagles; they shall
run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah
40:27-31 TLB)
Thus, it suffices to say that waiting is the highest
evidence of salvation as it ascribes to God as all in all- Perfect
Planner, Perfect Maker, Perfect Giver. It shows the extant
dependence of man on God, and his utmost respect for His
perfect designs and judgments.
We must understand that for everything there is a time
appointed, and until it is yours, it truly isn’t your time. In fact,
what we call fast track nowadays is actually unclarified
impatience and an unscrupulous self-belief. For this very
reason, it would be common sense to note that for us to walk
with God successfully, we must appreciate divine timing. We
must accept His pace and patterns. When it comes to what we
assay to do or what the Spirit desires at a particular moment,
we must be ready to pick His will above ours, His time above
ours- For if the key to a successful life is a successful walk
with God (Joshua 1:8), then the key to a successful walk with
God is a successful alignment of things in appropriation with
His divine will and purpose.
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Gold exploitation takes long hours before the treasure is

retrieved. The consistent digging and the constant failure to
find the ore after several meters in depth could make the
miners think there’s nothing, at least not until they find the
sparky surface of what they are looking for. However, at that
initial moment, do they quit? No. Neither should you.
Our walk with God is somewhat like the way to gold. It
may seem too long a time to get to the Promised, but
eventually it is the surest way to true retention and sustenance
of the same. So, yes! You can trust God to come through for
you perfectly in His time. You can trust Him to deliver as
promised. John backs up this resume of God when he wrote
“…if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. And if
we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we
have the petitions that we desired of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).
If we remain in faith, trusting Him as we wait, God will
rain upon us all the blessings He’s already promised us in
Christ Jesus- in proportions that are beyond and exceeding
what we even asked or thought of. The kind of rain that it
would be to our own disadvantage to have an umbrella. He is
well able to do this and more, you just have to believe His
word for it, for He says those who wait for Him shall never be
ashamed (Isaiah 49:23). And believe me, you can trust God to
take you everywhere the dominion of Christ’s grace has made
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you fit to enter regardless of the limitations that hover around

you.
One of the biggest human inspirations in the literary
world- Paulo Coelho-once said that “The search for happiness
is more important than the need for pain”. We must choose to
see God’s proposed timing as a source of greater joy to come
than a reason to maul ourselves in the abyss of unneeded tears
and pain, as I have earlier emphasized. There’s this one thing
that happens to me every time I have a challenge that keeps me
on a halt in contrast to my pre-planned schedule of activity.
There is always that urge to doubt God, to ask questions that on
hearing them yourself you would doubt if you were even a
Christian (somewhat like the self-justifying complaints of Job);
but even in these moments, I feel the Holy Spirit reminding me
of the words of assurance God Himself already gave me
earlier. It then becomes our choice to trust Him and as a result
ease the burden the pains of worry brings upon us or to remain
heavy laden with the same.
Jesus said “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest”
(Matthew 11:28), and it can be related to this. If we’d bring all
of ourselves to trust Him joyfully instead of distrusting Him
with every glimpse of unanswered requests, we’ll be pacified
to surely rejoice in the Lord always as Paul admonished.
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Personally, I believe that the more we get filled with the

Spirit and the more we learn to walk with Him, the more we
tend to respond to things as God would, such that even when it
doesn’t seem encouraging and society expects us to gripe or
squirm, we can encourage ourselves in Him, and grasp tightly
to the mentality that eventually in God’s time everything will
work for our own good as planned. And in support of this, in
the book “The Pilgrimage”, Coelho teaches that regardless of
how unfulfilled it may seem, that is our present condition, “We
arrive precisely where we need to arrive because the hand of
God always guides those who follow their path with faith”.
Be careful not to assume that the path spoken of is our
carnally inclined paths, but rather it is that inspired in us of
God. He is only mandated to embark on a compulsory
fulfilment of whatever has been petitioned, if and if only it is
aligned to His will; and this my friend is why the promise of
God to Abraham wasn’t fulfilled in Ishmael, but in Isaac,
because why Ishmael was the product of the man’s attempt to
help God and himself outside His perfect design, Isaac was the
product of God’s solution to help him. So, the promise is
fulfilled only on the path we follow in the direction of His will.
Recently, I read a story about Jimmy Carter which
stated that after he had lost the Georgia governorship election
to his opposition, he was instructed by his sister to get
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something else to do to achieve the purpose he had in mind

instead of mauling himself in despair and depression. Soon
after that, he set out as a missionary for ten years both on-field
and out-field; and on the tenth year he ran again for a position,
and this time around he won.
I don’t know a lot about this story, but from what I read
I could depict that without excessively strenuous long
campaigns, his decision to trust God to fulfil His own good
purpose, and to wait on His perfect timing caused God to take
the job of his campaign manager back scene, and with lesser
effort than before he became the number one citizen of
America. Come to think of it, who can run against a man
backed up by Him who has the heart of kings in His palm and
expect to win.
Paul said “Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be
patient in trouble and prayerful always” (Romans 12:12 TLB).
If we could not control the beginning of the miracle, then we
must never think our worrying will control its end. Whatever
we do as He planned must surely happen and so we can bank
on His time to bring out its fulfilment, but for whatever is of
the flesh or scrupulous, there is no assurance that He supports it
in His time; for whatever we know is wrong and yet we do is
considered as sin, and God has no affiliations to sin. So, the
confidence comes if it’s truly according to His will, and that’s
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when I can tell you that you can trust His timing to bring it to
pass.
One thing is also sure; which is that as we approach the
benchmark of trustfully waiting on God, we might find
ourselves surrounded by the aura of whatever would attempt to
make us doubt God’s words- something I’d like to term ‘the
fear that easily beset us’. Just like Paul commented about to the
Jews, there is a sin our human carnal state is prone to easily
commit, in the same way there are some negative traits that
easily creep into our lives in trying times. For some, it may be
the pessimism that nothing good can come out of their
situation; for others, it may be the anxiety, the worry or fears of
what if God failed them already, thereby coercing them into a
thought pattern that is capable of nothing else but doubt
towards God and His word.
However, we must not let the tirades of negativism
around us force us into believing we shouldn’t trust God.
Sometimes, it suggests we only trust Him tomorrow when
things aren’t so heated up, just calm and serene; but remember
that you can’t give what you don’t have: we don’t have
tomorrow, we have today. So next time you ever consider
rescheduling the appropriate time to fully trust God, know that
all we’ve got is just today for now- so trust Him today.
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As we have seen from Job’s ordeal, the devil often

strikes once and leaves the rest of the job to our self-pitiful,
self-deprecating, self- doubting thoughts, as well our self-
indignation and worrisome fears because he knows that truly
no one hinders what God has for us than ourselves (see
Hebrews 3:19). No one can hurt us more than we can
ourselves. I learnt this lesson from a cousin of mine who was
subtle enough to make me do his chores when we were kids by
simply accepting he was what I teased him about if it would
make me do them. I learnt from that occurrence that words
have no value except that which you give it. Words are nothing
to you until you accept them within; feelings are also nothing
until you do as well. At the end, our self-esteem and faith status
responds more to what we think of ourselves than what others
say we are. That cousin of mine-Chris-never really accepted
those mockery words, he just fooled me with an “uh-hun”
response, and went his way still full of his high self-esteem,
while I had to wash the chunk of uniforms we had worn that
day. We can do the same thing to the devil, by refusing his
self-piteous options and remaining fully esteemed as to all God
has said; and as a result not preventing what’s rightfully ours in
Christ Jesus.
God taught me a long time ago, even if I never truly
learned not until sometimes back, that the key to a successful
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and great life is to walk as He leads- that is, doing things based
on His patterns. I have also observed that the majority of the
problems of man surfaces because he wants to be popular on
his own terms; he wants to be rich and great in his own time,
unknowing to him that if we would just yield ourselves to go
God’s ways in humble obeisance, we’ll get exactly all we need
in life- but in His own way, on His own terms, at His own time.
If we’d trust His route, we’d be a lot peace filled than stress
prone in the affairs of life. Like David testified “Because the
LORD is my shepherd, I have everything I need”. (Psalm 23:1
TLB).
Until we give God His place of being our shepherd, our
guide, the One who leads for us to follow, the ups-and-downs
of life will easily blow us off course like a ship without a man
to wield its helm. Like we previously saw, if we must partake
in His perfect peace in our everyday lives, we must maintain
our stand in trusting God and not self even in the most difficult
moments of our earthly existence.
The situations we find ourselves- such as an epileptic
economy, a low personal income, social disapproval or a
frustrating relationship, often causes us to want to find a way to
help ourselves scale through; and this imposed law on
ourselves is exactly what keeps us on a low ebb in trusting
God, and high on self dependence. This is because the human
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ego is more confident on its own dictations than on God’s

prescription. Little wonder why Jesus said “Let not your heart
be troubled” (John 14:1); for it is in trusting God that we avail
ourselves the stress of failure, because God never fails, and
while the law (this imposed self-reliant effort) demands of us,
grace (a benefit of trusting God) supplies for us.
If God is Him who gave because He loved us so much
so as to receive all our stolen rights and privileges, then what
would stop us from trusting Him with our lives. For if He loved
us to death, then we should love Him enough while we yet live
to trust Him because He is deserving of it, and obey His every
plan for our goodwill.
John assures us that whenever we ask God for anything,
in line with His will (and in His time), He will answer (see 1
John 5:14). But in contrast whenever instead of living life as
principled by these words, we choose to complain every day to
God about how we are tired of His waiting routine, and need
activity, we set ourselves for something that isn’t the perfect
will of God.
Remember Paul’s words to renew our minds into the
fashion God desires so as to know what is His good and perfect
will for us (see Romans 12:2). This repercussion of trying to
push God against His ways reminds me of the fictitious story
of a man who kept, night and day, murmuring to God about
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how boring His plan of waiting patiently for his desires is, and
that he needed something more proactive to do, even when
God had clearly told him waiting was His plan for the moment.
The next morning, while still on a hiss parade on his
coffee table, a car accidentally smashed through his house
causing damage to his yard and home that could easily
procreate caustic comments from bystanders. On seeing this, he
complained, “Why did this happen to me, God?” and God
retorted “You wouldn’t let me be with all your babblings, so I
gave you an activity as you wanted- building; perhaps it will
keep you less idle so as to never complain again”. On that
premise, he noted that waiting would have been a much better
option. Just like many of us, he thought activity was
synonymous to progress.
When we try to rush God out of His will, we reprimand
ourselves into costly affairs that it would have been better if we
never had such an experience in the first place. This should
urge you to commit yourself unto learning to trust God’s will
for you, because His timing, His ways, His designs are ever
perfect and bested for our own good; and they are the only true
source of glee out of the midst of a depressing session.
I say it again- consciously set yourself up to believe.
Don’t wait for external motivation- worrying about material
things, before you believe, because if you do, it simply means
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you’re slipping away. The Bible fully supports our response

being that as inspired spiritually not carnally (Romans 8:14);
and in regards to this, the words to be heard by us to motivate
our actions as written in Isaiah 30:21 are those of the Holy
Spirit- our spiritual intrinsic guide.
The intrinsic motivation has to be there if we are to
succeed in the waiting room with God, because I believe that’s
the only thing that can keep us aligned to His predestined
pattern for our lives. If we let the good words of hope of the
Spirit sink deep into the centre of our beliefs, we would realize
that there is a lot of fortunate truth in it, and fortunate results
that comes with trusting it. So, never for once even think of
doubting God again, for if Jesus died as our propitiation of sin,
and our mediator of answered prayers (John 14:14), then we
should be scared to even think that God would fail. Failing
those who trust in Him isn’t what Jesus died for; He died for
our release from the grip of every disappointment and barren
situation.
As a result of that, start praising Him instead of griping.
He has already settled our cases; we may have to wait for its
manifestation like the whole creation still awaits our unveiling,
but it is indeed settled. You know why, because He, by His
shed blood, already sealed our covenant of release (Zechariah
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9:11). So rejoice my friend, you can be sure of receiving

because Jesus already received it on your behalf.
You might evaluate the problem too heart-sickening
that you might assume praise as an impossible feat. You might
not want to thank God for the ordeal, good! But thank Him in
the ordeal. See His words as coming true. Psychologists might
advise you to think more about your better memories to
overcome your depressions and fears, but Scripture gives a
better solution- if anything is pure, true, honest, lovely, goodly
reported, virtue and praiseworthy, think on these things
(Philippians 4:8), and what is more true than the word (John
17:17), what is more pure than His word (Psalm 19:8), what is
more virtuous and praise worthy than the word (2 Peter 1:3). If
we can focus simply on what He’s said, then beyond the result
of the Psychologist’s therapy, we would find peace and
everlasting gratification.
In addition to that, better news come when we turn
entirely to God in full assurance of faith without wavering
(Hebrews 10:22-23).
“Turn again to God, so that I can give you better news”
(Isaiah 21:12 TLB). Also see Job 5:8-27.
There is nothing more fulfilling than living in a realm
of absolute faith in God. The carnally minded might not
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appreciate it, but they who know their God know that that’s
where the greatest good in life comes from.
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit by neglecting His words
of hope as you wait. In case you haven’t heard, let me tell you
that the packaged Bible in your home is not the entire word of
God, (it is a canon that contains the word of God); for if it was,
the Holy Spirit would be useless to us. The Spirit of God
completes our Bible. Jesus is the Word of God, and the Spirit
teaches us more about Jesus than we may have gotten from the
letter. His timely words to us even if you can’t find it plainly
written in scripture is as much of the word as any other written
in scripture; and that’s why neglecting His words, His
instructions and pattern is highly regarded as sin. So trust His
words when He says ‘Trust me’.
Let history teach you of God’s unfailing power. Let
nature reveal it to you. Let the wisdom of the past tutor you,
and the experience of others show you and constantly remind
you that there is little or no hope for those who eliminate God
from their equation (see Job 8:10-11). Let everything you can
search out teach you that trusting God enough to put Him in
your equation is the best security you can ever have.
Any individual on a path that is out of God’s prepared
scheme is only playing a game he either won’t finish or won’t
find fulfilment in. There are numerous proofs to this truth. It
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might seem bitter, but it is better you know. We were created to

depend on Him. There is a limit to the part self can achieve,
and this other portion is that which He achieves in us—and
faith in Him is what triggers that action. Notice the statement
written to the man who refuses to trust in the Lord; “A man
without God is trusting in a spider’s web. Everything he counts
on will collapse” (Job 8:14 TLB).
Do you know what doubt, as well as unbelief, does to a
man? It makes him insecure even regarding the things of God.
Insecurity is self-disapproval; and as such insecure people tend
to disqualify themselves from being fit enough to handle
certain conditions, nor even something as simple as receiving.
This syndrome keeps us fearful of what we think might occur,
and thus pressure-prone as a result. Even Peter once showed
this sign, when even without any sign of condemnation from
Jesus just a head-start for a friendship, was quick to disqualify
himself, saying “I’m too much of a sinner for you to have
around” (Luke 5:8 TLB). This tendency of absolute
fearfulness causes such individuals to never want to try if they
have any thought that they might fail.
With such individuals, a fresh introduction back to God
and the principle of faith through the word of God would
suffice to aid their spiritual recuperation. As well matured
Christians, it’s not your place to make them feel more
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miserable, but like Jesus it’s your place to help appreciate why
they truly need to trust God instead of heeding to their fears.
This we can see in Jesus’ gentle approach towards the once
insecure Peter until he was fully converted to the wholesome
faith of Christ.
Furthermore, a lot of us Christians find it easy to fault
others as being faithless than we do ourselves in harsh
situations. These are the set that Jesus said would freely see the
beam in another’s eye when they had a whole log in theirs. In
fact, if God only had made one eye to look outwardly and the
other to look inwardly, we might look weird, but we wouldn’t
be as quick to judge the external bodies as we would the inside
man.
So remember, don’t judge the weak, rather join hand
together with them and walk continually through the paths of
life where we choose to trust God completely in all things. This
is the strength of the church—the unity of faith in Christ Jesus.
The coming together of all, both strong and weak, old and
young to an ardent persuasion to trust God all the days of our
lives, regardless of the pictures and the scenes life’s turmoil
throws at us. An unwavering decision to trust God in
everything He says is right for us.
“And so it was that the church throughout Judea,
Galilee and Samaria had a time of peace. Through the help of
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the Holy Spirit it was strengthened and grew in number, as it

lived in reverence for the Lord” (Acts 9:31 GNB).
The greatest miracle is being rest assured that God
would do exactly as He’s promised, and that’s a benefit God
has given to all who follow and trust in His Son Jesus. So,
obviously there is nothing wrong to celebrate for just the
promise even without its manifestation yet, because He surely
would do it; and as we’ve seen already, faith is your proof for
the reality you seek. Thank Him for that first, because in His
time, in His way He would accomplish it.
From all my studies and observations, I have never seen
God fail in His promises; don’t look at the duration it is taking,
look at His history of ever fulfilling His promises. All who wait
for Him are termed blessed, because He always leaves a
blessing for their getting. And so, even in millennia to come, I
would still attest by facts and figures, and most essentially by
faith, that you can always trust in God to bring all things
promised to pass perfectly in His own time.
“He will swallow up death forever. The Lord God will
wipe away all tears and take away forever all insults and
mockery against His land and people. The Lord has spoken-
He will surely do it! In that day the people will proclaim, “This
is our God, in whom we trust, for whom we waited. Now at last
He is here”. What a day of rejoicing!” (Isaiah 25:8-9 TLB).
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As an individual, my greatest work towards you would

be to lead you to God, because your faith in me won’t save
you, only your faith in God. The Greeks kept up with the “I am
Paul’s, I am Apollos’” belief for so long that Paul had to
correct them that they are only Christ’s. And to the Philippians,
he wrote ‘He who has started a good work in your life will
perform it until the day of Christ’ (Philippians 1:6); meaning
that God will never stop fulfilling His promises even till Jesus
comes. Alleluia. Thus, don’t try to believe God simply because
I’m telling you to, believe Him because you truly believe He is
true to His word; and that regardless of how long it takes, there
shall be a performance of all He has told us (Luke 1:45). Only
believe!
Faith can do what facts

cannot
Faith hold a more intimate and important place in God’s heart
than any humanly drilled fact we may want to present before
Him. Such facts often time limits God, but faith always says
“go on ahead God”. The sick fellow beside the pool for the
period of about 38 years had only facts to present to Jesus,
about how his condition was so critical that it was definitely
impossible for him to meet up with the rush hour struggles of
those who needed healing when the angel of God touched the
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water. However, thank God His grace was sufficient for him
that even without a scold, as He did to Zechariah, he got his
instant healing (John 5:1-9).
In contrast, when God asked Ezekiel if the

demineralized and dry bones could live as humans again,
Ezekiel wouldn’t bend to the facts of how scientifically
impossible and physically outrageous it was, rather he let faith
lead him into an experience of the unprecedented miracle,
when he said “Lord, Thou knowest” (Ezekiel 37:3). That’s like
saying, ‘God I know you can do anything you want to do, so do
as you please’. He chose faith above facts; and God proved
through his response to Ezekiel that indeed faith can do what
facts cannot.
Another great mystery on the story of Ezekiel we just

looked at is that God didn’t raise the bones Himself, because if
He had, a lot of people would debate that this exaltation of
faith above facts only applies to God. Instead He let a man do
it. Ezekiel spoke the words from God and they received life. If
we can live and speak according to the words he spoke, and we
believed exactly as He said the same way Ezekiel did in verse 7
of that scripture, no matter how long the wait has been that we
can even see the dryness it is causing on our hopes, we shall
find life again, because truly God knows and does all He has
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promised to do. And remember, God’s words remain an ever

working dynamo effected only by faith first (see Hebrews 4:2)-
our faith, and if you want something from God, you’ve got to
believe Him, because God has an insatiable desire to be
trusted; even to be trusted that His time and plan are the best
for us.
Faith is the certainty that what we hope for is coming to

us even though we cannot see it up ahead, while facts are
clarified or in some cases dogmatized information which may
eventually turn out true or not. Faith remains of truth because it
transcends beyond what meets the eyes to all God has spoken
as reality, but facts are products of our physical, optic, mental,
cognitive and auditory functions; and while these may fail us,
faith never does, because faith is confident assurance in God’s
ability and willingness to act, and surely God never fails.
Paul highlights on the victory of faith as seen in the

lives of the ancient fellows who trusted God in depth. He wrote
“who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice,
and gained what was promised….” (Hebrews 11:33 NIV). This
is exactly what John quoted as being our ticket to victorious
living……”this is the victory that overcomes the world, even
our faith” (1 John 5:4).
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All we need ever do to overcome the blights of this

world that trouble others—such as anxiety, fear of failure,
depression, doubt, shame- is simply to look unto Jesus, trusting
Him to do all He’s said. He said there shall be no more tears
(signifying depression and shame), He would do it. He said no
more gnashing of teeth (signifying anxiety, fear and doubt), He
would accomplish it. All we need to do is exactly what He
expects of us, which is all I’ve been saying thus far- wait for
Him in absolute trust and uncorrupted faith (Isaiah 25:8-9).
In fact, I observed that Isaiah focused more on turning

men to absolutely trusting in the LORD. He emphasized on
how everything man can receive begins with an expression of
trust in God’s ability to deliver. In this one case, he said “Trust
in the Lord God always, for in the Lord Jehovah is your
everlasting strength” (Isaiah 26:4 TLB)
The strength to survive that ordeal comes from trusting

God. The strength to overshadow the depression the season
brings radiates from our faith in Him. The strength to control
the outburst of anger and complaints to keep our minds at bay
comes from trusting Him. Our faith in His goodness is the
source of that strength and with this we can be rest assured that
just like in the end of time, even right now, because we trust
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God and belong to Him, we shall live again and rise out of
these dead conditions we find ourselves (see Isaiah 26:19).
The Spirit of God is ready to accomplish that. The

anointing will do it. Just like He was in Jesus, He is ever ready
to go about to do more good in our lives, and through our lives.
We just have to play our part in trusting Him even when there
are no signs to encourage that. People may call you a
stereotype, but very soon you’d in turn be the kind of person
they all want to be. There are some treatments that take off all
your hair and make you feel weaker than you are; for example
chemotherapy, but at the end you will bounce back better and
stronger. In the light of this, see this waiting period as a process
destined to bring better things.
In John’s gospel of the account of Jesus Christ, chapter

9 precisely, Jesus saw a man who had been blind from birth as
He walked along the street of a town he had visited. It should
have seemed like a long time for the young man suffering in a
condition that prevented him from fully enjoying life’s pleasure
and nature’s glories. Yet the Bible noted that when Jesus told
him to go wash off the clay He had applied in the pool of
Siloam, which could have been meters away from where he
was, he didn’t argue or complain bitterly, neither did he
concentrate on the fact that he couldn’t get there being blind;
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rather he went where he was sent and washed and came back
seeing.
What do you think propelled that young man to have

gone as Jesus told him? Faith. He chose faith rather than facts.
You know why? Because the facts told him he had no hope,
only a prospect of doom, impossibilities and failure; but faith
gave him a sense of hope and the sight to behold all he
couldn’t.
As a proof to what I just said, notice the young man’s

statement to those who sought an explanation for his miracle.
He said “A man they call Jesus made mud and smoothed it over
my eyes and told me to go to the pool of Siloam and wash off
the mud. I did, and I can see!” (v. 11 TLB). The words ‘I did’
in response to the instructions of God serves as a sign of
complete obedience and absolute faith. He didn’t care if there
were any vitamins on what Jesus applied, or something that
alleviates pain or completely heals blindness, instead he
banked on his choice to trust this same Jesus he must have
heard also heal others; and indeed it worked out perfectly for
him, for with God, faith can do what facts cannot.
Faith is to a man who depends on God to receive what

oxygen is to normal living; because first and foremost, without
faith we can’t please God (see Hebrews 11:6), and without
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pleasing Him, how can we get Him into releasing inaccessible

portals of blessings (see Psalm 132:13-18)? So when we
approach God, even during the hardest of times, it’s not a
crime to forget our notes and philosophies; but if we forget to
go with faith, we lose it all. You see, salvation is likened to
Jesus chasing after you, and Christianity to you chasing after
Jesus. Chasing after all that pleases Him- His joy, His will and
His word. That’s why we preach the gospel- to please Him,
because other than desiring to save others, it is His desire. And
facts can’t do this; only faith can.
So in essence, we live all the days of our lives walking

to please the Lord as Jesus did even when He-as we are-is
already the pleasure of the Father (see John 8:29). So you see,
Jesus had a secret; and that’s it. And if the limited man-Jesus-
could have limitless results via this, how much more you- a
version of the unlimited Jesus (see 1 John 4:16)?
Faith is bold. It knows what is its’. It’s sure on what

God has willed to it, and that’s why it never doubts. In fact, if
there’s one thing I always pray for, it is the grace to trust God
without limits at all times. I desire to grow in trust. This is
because I know that I might be sure of His goodwill for me, but
without faith in Him, I might even be dead before seeing it.
Faith constitutes taking a chance on the platform of untainted
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belief; and taking a chance on God is hardly a gamble. If you

disbelieve this, read about the three Hebrew fellows in their
most dreaded moment (Daniel 3:14-25).
You see, faith is not in how loud you declare a thing;

(anybody can say anything how they want to), rather it’s more
about the state of the heart when you say what you say.
Furthermore, you must know that another reason why you must
choose faith above fact is that fact has no place for God. “God
can’t be seen, then how is it factual that He would answer?”
But faith permits and gives expression for God in all
circumstances. The fact is that 98% of everyone who grew up
in a slum die in a slum; but is that true? No, that’s statistics.
Faith, on the other hand, is believing God instead of statistics,
and holding on to Him when He tells you that you and your
generation after you are made for signs and wonders. It gives
the needed audacity to destroy the atrocity of mishappenings.
Another advantage that principally places faith above

facts is that while facts may be right sometimes, it still keeps us
outside the doors of His triune divinity, while on the other hand
faith gives us access to God (Romans 5:2). The fact was that
Rahab was a harlot and if there was anyone more qualified to
die in Jericho, it could have been her; but by faith she seized up
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to God, held Him tight as to never let Him go, and now she
proudly sits among the ancestry of Christ.
You might have previously judged yourself that your

past sins are haunting you, and that that’s why God’s taking so
long to answer, even after you have confessed your sins,
received forgiveness, accepted Jesus, and God Himself has
given you His word of assurance. I implore you now to take the
step of Rahab: look unto God to help those who have chosen to
trust in Him with reckless abandon; and see yourself more
relieved than the worried thoughts have made you been.
Faith might not make all things easy- the wait might
still continue, the tendency to feel the pain it might cause may
still remain, but it sure makes all things possible. “Once a leper
came and knelt in front of him and begged to be healed. ‘If you
want to, you can make me well again’, he pled. And Jesus
moved with pity, touched him and said ‘I want to! Be healed!’
Immediately the leprosy was gone- the man was healed!”
(Mark 1:40-42 TLB). Despite the anguish of having lived many
years a leper, he still believed Jesus’ words of approval were
enough to make him whole- and it was. And that’s why I also
believe as well as many other individuals too that the portion of
God’s words that work for us is the portion we believe.
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Remember, it is a dynamo that is put to work by faith. Like that

man’s, that proclaimed, ‘I know you can!’
Trust Him in your situation today, for faith is Now- not

then, not before, or after, but now. Now, faith is…. (Hebrews
11:1). Choose to trust and rest in His words now. Don’t let the
fears of what if it doesn’t work out well cheat you, instead
believe that all things would work out for your good. Replace
your fears with the now kind of faith.
There is nothing more devastating to human existence

than a frightened heart or a fearful mind. It makes men feel
sick, confused and out of control. Anyone with such problems
finds it hard to make wise choices, talk less of enjoying
everyday life as God planned it. Little wonder why Peter
advised that we turn all our anxieties over to God (see 1 Peter
5:7) and replace it with firm faith in Him (v. 9).
These fears and the likes we feel are only products of

man’s fall at Eden; but thank God we are no longer at Eden but
the Kingdom. Jesus restored us, and brought with that great
grace that procreates in many as believe Him to be saved great
faith (Ephesians 2:8).
In Christ, captives of these detrimental sicknesses are

made free. In Him, the bondage of sin is crushed; the fury of
death and hell is quenched; the fierceness of divine wrath and
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vengeance upon us is assuaged. In Him, there is life, liberty

and untiring pursuit for God and every privilege He’s given.
So, why worry my friend? Say that to yourself- Why worry?
When we can instead hurriedly trust Him to give us a trailer
load of all the privileges Christ’s grace has provided.
Furthermore, you must know that the greatest tragedy

in life is not a man’s demise, but an unfulfilled life that results
from fear, anxiety, self-deprecation and the absence of Jesus.
Make trusting God your top priority from now on if you
haven’t prior to today. Remember, don’t rush God. If He has
promised it, then He will fulfil it. This I choose to believe
because I know that throughout time God has kept His record
clean. He has no track record of debts or failures; because He
pays in full all He says He’ll do. Simply trust Him!
“[Only] In returning [to Me] and rest [waiting for Me]

shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be
your strength….” (Isaiah 30:15 Emphasis added).
Waiting is simply trusting in

expression
“I am expecting the Lord to rescue me again, so that
once again I will see his goodness to me here in the land of the
living. Don’t be impatient. Wait for the Lord, and he will come
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and save you! Be brave, stouthearted and courageous. Yes,

wait and he will help you.” (Psalm 27:13-14 TLB)
If I told you to wait for me at the alley, what will keep

you standing there for hours despite the harshness of the area is
the fact that you trust me to keep my word. You would wait no
matter how dark it gets and no matter how long it takes as long
as you are convinced within yourself that I cannot but show up.
In fact, if you do not trust me, the odds are that you won’t even
dare think of waiting for me. And that is what faith and trust is
all about. Knowing that what you believe will happen no
matter how long it takes. This is why I’m telling you that
waiting is simply what we do when we trust. Waiting is simply
the overflowing product of our trust in God.
You see, my friend, waiting doesn’t always mean

you’re scared. It doesn’t always reflect passivity. Often times
than never, it exudes confidence. I remember when I was
growing up with the smaller kids having been bullied by the
bigger, tougher kids in our class. The oppressed would just
stand there whimpering, with a warning out to them that they
should wait until his brother comes and then they would see
what would happen. He could wait the whole day because he
understands that his elder brother’s arrival meant vindication.
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That’s how it is with God as well. Most times, He takes

the place of that elder brother. To be sincere, I have never seen
a deliverance from God without a waiting on Him, it is not like
He can’t do it instantaneously or without any contribution on
our part, rather He uses this medium of time to teach us
responsibility, to help us gain capacity, and to enhance our
audacity to trust unwaveringly in Him. Endurance is not a
product of suffering, it is a product of patience; and patience is
a virtue God instils in all His children. Jesus tells us that
everything God does is to help us reach a place of patience and
endurance until nothing else moves us but His word (James
1:2-4).
So, is God’s timing a trap to cause us to fall off the

path? First of all, God does not rejoice in the straying of a man.
Like the lost sheep, He puts everything on hold just to ensure
our salvation in any given circumstance. He even does the
unimaginable to ensure the strayed are returned to stay in Him
(2 Peter 3:9). Second, never in scripture does God promise to
bless us in our own time, rather He assures to hasten it in its
time of appointment as allocated by Him (Isaiah 60:22). Third,
what God truly desires we get out of our fellowship with Him
is not the blessings- for they are simply addendums just as
thunder goes along with a lightning, but Himself. He wants to
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be first in our lives. He wants us to grow into that place where

nothing else matters and nothing else is desired above Him.
That’s God’s end game with each and every one of us-
to leave us with all of Himself, and every other thing others are
dying for. When He permitted the loss of all Job had, Job
wasn’t still lost because he had Him; and as such showed he
had gotten to this place of trust when he retorted though He
slay me, yet will I trust in Him (Job 13:15). That’s where God
wants us to get to. The truth is you may not get the job when
you want it. You may not get the desired spouse when you
planned it. You may suffer loss and not find the comfort you so
desire for your relief when you need it. You may not have your
proposals get accepted at the appropriate date. You may not get
the answers to your prayers even when you’re just a foot from
the grave. But when all these happens, what matters the most is
if you would still trust God in it.
In the latter days of 2011, God gave me a word that

would change my response to my struggles forever- and as a
result change my life forever. It helped me through my deepest
and thickest troubles. I was passing through a difficult moment
in my life where I had my university future on the verge of
being deterred due to low funding, and all I could do was wait
for a miracle- and how I desperately needed one. At that time I
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was working fulltime in church as a clerk for free, and so I

couldn’t rely on that as a means to fund that privilege. Nothing
I could do would suffice, with every ounce of hope I had
struggling to survive. And with all the signs I saw around-how
things were becoming financially for the family-I was willing
to give up. I was ready to rescind all the hope I had chosen to
uphold. But right there at the edge of my impending
hopelessness and final breakdown, God spoke to me saying let
faith work for you. For days I couldn’t understand the
extremity of those words, and then clearly He spoke again-but
this time with those life altering words-saying let God be
enough for you. That is, think on Him and nothing else, and no
one else, will matter. And indeed it was enough for me as in
time He did show up.
I have had to wait for a lot of things in my life, but at no

time was such a wait ever in vain, because His word always
proves true in the lives of those who trust in Him. This is
important to note because there is really no true trusting
without an unabated waiting- and it is something we all who
love Him must get engaged in at each moment of our lives.
God tells us that when we trust in Him, we would be as firm as
Zion whose destiny is to rule over all other mountains and hills
of the earth (see Psalm 125:1, Isaiah 2:1-3). And how do we
show that we trust Him? He says they that wait upon the LORD
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shall be renewed in strength as the eagle; and they shall walk

and run while others are faint and wearied (see Isaiah 40:31).
So, we prove our trust in God by how well we are willing to
wait for Him.
One of the most difficult things to do is to wait even

when you know you have the natural inclination to do what
God is keeping you from doing presently, and to get what He’s
waiting to bring your way in time. John waited until God said
he could go forth even when he could have easily gained fame
with his radical preaching (Luke 1:80). Paul waited even when
Asia seemed ripe for the taking. The apostles waited even
when the martyrdom of the Lord could have provided enough
sentimental power to have many listen to them. David waited
even though all the signs revealed that God was finally fed up
with King Saul. This they did because God is only committed
to guide where He leads; and we let Him guide us by waiting
for His every instruction and will per time. Remember the
young prophet of Judah.
And please don’t fret. God won’t abandon you in your

wait. No matter how long it takes, and how rough it gets, He
won’t leave you. He promised that He will never leave nor
forsake us; and that’s enough reason to trust him, and enough
reason to stay waiting for Him in spite of the many
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discouraging sights. Humans may run late when picking their

kids from school, and have them wait for an extra hour or so;
but God never shows up late. You may count it as late if you
compare yourself with others, but Peter said that that isn’t
lateness, but rather the greatest means to secure our salvation at
the moment. So, please don’t go around fretting, rather stay
trusting.
Do you want to be free forever? Then trust God. Don’t

run ahead of Him because you are scared you’re behind your
peers. Don’t go faster than Him or slower than Him; instead go
with Him. This way you won’t get lost in the field of life; but
for sure you’d have made known your unthawed confidence in
Him. This is what Abraham did: he waited and was declared
blessed forever. He trusted God enough to wait faithfully for
all He said he would have. His waiting with a good attitude
crowned his faith in God as genuine. Maybe, just maybe, that’s
what God wants of you even in that situation of yours, so as to
have you walk perfectly in the very blessings of Abraham he
bestowed on us in Christ Jesus.
gOd’s time is still the best

Never forget that faith can do what facts cannot. It will help
you in your acceptance of God’s word exactly as He said it.
For instance, John the Baptist came reminding men of their sin
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and their need to repent to be at peace with God, but Jesus

came to take us into God- in absolute immersion to the very
nature of God, so that we may be just as He is, regardless of the
facts about how unqualified we were if only we truly believe.
For when facts call on the qualified, faith qualifies the called.
This privilege didn’t manifest in the B.C era, even

when many individuals waited for it and lived lives that may
have seemed deserving of it; however God knows why He
made Christ come at the time He did. I don’t know, but I do
know that in everything done, God’s time is always the best.
In the same way, if God hasn’t made His saving power

manifest in your situation now, He knows why. The Bible says
He makes everything beautiful in its time. All we just have to
do is keep trusting Him even as Abraham did; because it
simply means He wants to come to us with better rewards soon.
Note these words of Paul; though sometimes it feels like they
lost but afterward it shows they won but in God’s way and
time. “And these men of faith, though they trusted God and
won His approval, none of them received all that God has
promised them; for God wanted them to wait and share the
even better rewards that were prepared for us” (Hebrews
11:39-40 TLB)
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The better rewards of the new covenant that Christ has

brought us into. The better rewards of “better and greater
things than these” He has willed to all who hope in Him. We
just need to accept it and pull ourselves into it by first dropping
all fleshly attachments to sin and then walking unceasingly
with God (see Job 11:13-20). There is no short cut to it. Our
human brilliance won’t do; only our believing in Him can
cause us to receive our entire salvation, and the entire benefits
that go with it (see 1 Corinthians 1:21).
Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:20 that assures us that His

presence will always be with us should make us stronger in our
quest of completely being submissive to His designs and
timing. What that statement connotes is that God is always
going to be with us. He will not leave in good times nor in bad
times. As far as we remain in his righteousness, He isn’t going
anywhere; and that knowledge can spur enough confidence that
if God is in it with you, then there is hope for your future,
because whatever He places His mind upon is blessed.
Don’t give a single minute to the devil by doubting

God. Satan seeks man’s attention like he did with Eve; and
every time we doubt God, we give it to him. Whenever we
leave the path of faith, we are dislodged into the path of fear,
which has torment, in which Satan thrives. So again, don’t give
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him a dime of your minute, because in a minute he’s capable of

making a miniature of everything you’ve got if you let him.
I once read a story about “The man who waited”, for

God, of course, on the Family Life webpage. This article was
written by Mary May Larmoyeux, and though it centered on a
man who waited for God despite the urge for immoral acts, it
served as an inspiration for me, and for all whom doubt and
fear seem to have caved in, as it proves strongly how we can
always count on God’s timing for the fulfilment of all He
promised in ways too perfect for us to fully appreciate.
We must bring ourselves to an understanding that God

is too good to fail those who are His. We definitely belong to
that class; and even though we may have failed God at some
point, maybe in the past or even right now or tomorrow, He has
never failed us, and never will. He is a good God, and remains
good even when we are not good enough. So, if He says this is
the time, then believe Him, it is good enough for you.
I had a revelation in the word today, and it pertains to

why the kind of seeds we bear in our hearts are instrumental to
what we become. Scripture says “As a man thinks in his heart,
so is he”; literally meaning that whatever thought pattern we
harbour whether towards ourselves or others as well is what we
are. So, when we think God is not being fit enough to bless, we
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judge ourselves as not being fit enough to be blessed. When we

think others as unqualified to be favoured, we disqualify
ourselves from being favoured. God’s pattern of the universe is
to give us the products of our belief.
Believe God’s time is good enough for you. Believe in

His time, you will be externally blessed. Believe this waiting is
only for your good. Believe He has good in store for your
present and future. Believe His grace is sufficient for you.
Believe He will do exceedingly beyond all you expect of Him.
Believe Him when He says believe; for those who believe Him,
He gave power to be and to receive everything Jesus
constitutes- liberty, peace, love, blessings, glory, riches, good
health, greatness and the entitlement of being sons of God.
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SUMMARY
God is dedicated to delivering all who trust Him from
the perils of their ordeals. He is willing and faithful to
do exactly as He said, but He demands of us that we
trust Him without fail. Often times, our calendar might
not sync with His, but if we can trust Him to believe His
is way better than ours could have ever been, then we
can be rest assured of the victory we seek. For faith
breeds power, and power brings victory. Jesus
admonished Martha, saying, “Didn’t I tell you that if you
believe, you would see the glory of God” (John 11:40);
well I believe He is saying the same to us. Trust that in
His time and in His way He will do all He has said in due
time and unprecedented ways; and as a result, show
Himself great to you before all eyes.
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CHAPTER [4]
IS GOD STILL IN
CONTROL?
“Then the Jews said, ‘see how he loved him!’
But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of
the blind man have kept this man from dying?’ ” (John 11:36-
37 TLB)
SCENE:
“It must have felt like the heavens finally kissing the
earth when Lazarus and his sisters became acquainted to the then
infamous Christ. It must have been a pleasant affair, having the
privilege to actually sit one on one with God’s chosen one; to hear
Him talk about the great mysteries of heaven to come, to know
that His coming to Bethany was pivoted more on His desire to see
them, and to bear the status of being the friend of the messiah.
Such excitement could cause one to think he would never die, and
perhaps that could have been the daily thoughts of the young man,
seeing he had the Giver of life as his closest confidant. The entire
household had witness Jesus saving Mary from the demons that
once afflicted her. They must have heard of the tales of His deeds
such as the five thousand men being fed with barely a single man
day’s meal, the calming of the furious Tiberias, and the descending
of God’s Spirit as a dove upon Him. Enough reasons to hold on to
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without doubt that in the midst of any adversity this friendship

with Jesus will pull through as worth the while.
One sultry afternoon, news broke that Lazarus had become sick
unto death. Apparently, they were awestruck at what seemed to be
their beloved brother’s demise, yet even if they had no other hope
to save him, they agreed within themselves that Jesus could heal
him. Without delay, correspondence was sent to Jesus, informing
Him of his friend’s need of Him; and that He had to respond
immediately, otherwise His pal Lazarus would be trapped forever
in the embrace of death where breath is extinct.
Hope glistened on their faces, cheers churned within their hearts as
they reminisced about the former deeds of Christ that made the
eventual wholeness of their brother more real than reality itself. A
day passed. Two days….. no sign of this so called friend; and to
worsen the brunt they had to bear, Lazarus had given up the ghost.
Tears rolled even as anguish decorated their sitting room; and the
thought of why Jesus never showed up tormented the faith they
once enjoyed that nothing could harm the little ones who run to
God. Shades of black spoilt the colours of their home; and Martha
had so cried that tears lost its place, transforming her from the
mourner to the comforter of those who still had tears to shed.
Four days after Lazarus’ burial rites, news broke again that Jesus
had been seen entering into Bethany. ‘What happened to Him?’
would have crossed their minds and caressed the lips as an opening
question for Him, but the grief of His friend’s death so captivated
their souls that they’d rather share the experience with Him than
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make one out of Him. Martha ran out with a myriad of lost hope,
and on her knees holding on to her friend, she wept, trying to
assure Him that it wasn’t His fault; and that if He was here,
everything would have been alright. Jesus, in an attempt to assure
her that God never lost control of the situation, said to her so
calmly “he shall live again”.
Being a religious woman, she tried not to put the blame on God,
even if she had started to disbelieve Him, saying “Not in this life
anymore, maybe his next”. But Jesus retorted about how He is the
life- he who has control of both worlds. Giving Him the benefit of
doubt, she left appraised, and ran off to call Mary for another bout
before Jesus with the enemy called pain. With righteous
indignation, Jesus stomped ever so fiercely, seeking the grave of
His lost friend.
Those who had heard Lazarus speak so highly of Jesus pondered
within themselves if He truly loved him as much as he did Him;
and if He did, then why did He let him die without hope? He had
previously raised the dead man in Nain, He had given restoration
to the sick and afflicted. He even delivered his sister from the
torments of hell. Then why couldn’t He save him? He promised
him life without end; has it all ended now? He said He was in
control; does it look like it now? Oh…. Why did Lazarus trust Him
so much? Is He feeling so guilty that He had to show up to
appease His conscience, seeing He can never help those who love
Him dearly.
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They gnashed voiceless words in their hearts against Jesus….words

that could have made even those who still trusted Him to taunt
Him, because from what they could see, it wasn’t worth it; and if
He can’t take care of those He promised care, is He still really in
control? Can He still be relied upon?
I
n the opening text of this chapter, the 36th verse speaks of
their thoughts about the dexterity of Jesus’ love for the
lost; but the 37th speaks of their thought of His
powerlessness for the lost. A rather contrasting comparison-
one we all have the tendency towards when the going gets
tough.
These fellows, filled with indignation against Jesus’

inability to have taken away the grief that had consumed their
family due to Laz’ death, believed they had every reason to
since He couldn’t keep His words concerning those who had
decided to follow God. They thought He must have been a
pseudo friend, at least not until He called out the dead from the
grip of death. Though, after a long while, Lazarus would die,
yet that day Jesus proved to all of mankind that God is always
in control. All He says He would do, He does; and all He’s
promised to keep, He keeps. So when the going gets tough, get
tough faith-wise to get going.
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Many people ask questions about how possible it is for

an entire world to be saved by trusting in one man. They ask
questions about how an ex-murderer could all of a sudden be
termed a saint. They ask about how the dejected and rejected
can overnight become the accepted. They ask about how God
can be in control when they see no signs of goodwill, only
symptoms of depravity. To all of these, God simply answers
“With man, it is impossible, but with God, all things are
possible” (Matthew 19:26).
Same way, seeing your present predicaments, you

might think within yourself about the feasibility of making
something better out of yourself with the conditions you find
around you- and perhaps even faint at your own thoughts. You
might even doubt why God would want to go through the
supposed stress of making you His ideal version of the person
He intends to see. Yet again, in response God still says “With
God all things are possible!”
The experiences we’ve had might have reprimanded

our minds, coercing us into disbelieving God, yet we must stay
strong, trusting God to do as said. Even Jesus during His
earthly pilgrimage saw it possible for a camel to journey right
through the eye of a needle; and if He thinks that, then it means
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He also sees our becoming everything He has proposed that

seem impossible in our lives as a possible reality.
All we have got to do is simply believe. Scriptures

retort to our inner questions on this that with the heart we
believe, and with the mouth we confess unto salvation (see
Rom 10:10). Therefore, choose to believe today that it is
possible to be all God has made you to be, because He is still in
control. The grace is sufficient- all encompassing- for our
getting in the Person of Christ. Choose to believe that
regardless of your past, and what you think might be.
Choose to believe despite your present status, for faith

is a function of Now, as I already noted in the previous chapter.
And don’t just stop at believing, confess it and then profess it
daily in your disposition- the way you walk; the way you talk.
Let your countenance and tendencies reveal your confidence in
God to be in control over every facet of your life. Let your
thought patterns reflect it, that indeed you don’t just only know
who you are in Christ, but that you are also who you know you
are- for with man, these things may fail to be true, but with
God all things are possible; for God is ever in control of that
which concerns us His children. So ask me, “Is God still in
control?” and I’ll tell you He always is!
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However, a lot of people miss out on God’s perfect

plan, because instead of humbly waiting for God’s ideal, they
tread out to find their own way. And just as the scripture
teaches, His ways are different from their own way; but
because of their uncontrolled human cravings, they detest
God’s scheme, and ply their own path as Samson did in his
days as Judge of Israel.
Sometimes, I don’t know whether it was, in fact,

Samson who couldn’t wait for God’s choice of a wife, or
perhaps he thought God’s jurisdiction didn’t cover that area;
and so in an attempt to go his own way, scripture recorded that
he kept moving ‘down’- down to Timnah, down to Gaza, down
to Sorek. The emphasis on “down” shows how far away from
God’s ideal he drifted.
We, on the other hand, are most times not better off
than Samson. We take matters into our own hands because we
presume the wait is too long and ineffective. We are quick to
hook ourselves to what’s in vogue, because according to our
thoughts, God’s incapability is the start of our abilities- one
similar to the carnal assumptions of the atheist Nitzche when
he termed the death of God the beginning of man’s creativity.
But here’s one little secret many of us fail to realize

even when the devil does, and would use as an alibi against our
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defence when he has the chance, which is that, just like

Samson, we only take matters God has settled in words with us
into our own hands the moment we convince ourselves that
God has little or no control concerning it any longer. This is
what took over Abraham and Sarah in a brink of a moment that
made them believe they needed another woman to procreate
the promised child against God’s initial words to them that
Sarah’s birth canal was the instrument of its fulfilment.
Why not trust Him to whom the silver and gold belongs
(Haggai 2:8)? To whom the best of all things belong. All of
time and space finds its essence in Him. So, just simply trust
Him to be in complete control of your life affairs. Trust Him
enough to walk in His own paths and not those of self. Trust
Him enough to make your latter fortune greater in His time
(Haggai 2:9, 1 Peter 5:5-6).
There is something else you should bear in mind

whenever you feel like crying again because you think you
have no hope since God presumably is not planning on coming
to your rescue. When God doesn’t come early or when you
expect, it is because sometimes He wants to get the attention of
friends, foes and family, so that when He does charge in, the
glory is clearly seen of Him in your life.
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That should encourage you. In fact that should give you

more hope as the waiting period stretches longer. It may not be
easy, but please do find it within yourself to celebrate because
every thought God has of those who belong to Him is for their
welfare. The present prognosis of your condition may not
appear so, but be assured that these thoughts of God are
unchanging and regular in His heart.
For instance, take a look at Lazarus who played the

main role in our opening scene. His present condition at the
time didn’t showcase any sign that God cared for Him, but his
latter end did. The same Lazarus whom people relegated
became a celebrity that the whole Jerusalem came to see him
(see John 12). I believe God for you that eventually you will
see that the appearance that seemed as permanent was a farce,
and that God’s plan as said was beyond a fact and way past
fiction.
I’d like to add that whatever plan God has is not to take
advantage of a man, but to give advantage to a man. Not only
to take merit of a man, but also to give merit to him.
Everything he does is perfect in its own way; we just have to
trust Him as I have reiterated all through this book, because
everything God does is to fulfil His good purpose. He fulfils
them just as He promised He would.
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“Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is the

faithful God who for a thousand generations keep His promises
and constantly loves those who love Him and who obey His
commands” (Deuteronomy 7:9 TLB)
Just like what happened around me even after God

spoke to me concerning the latter end of my academics. Things
didn’t go the way I assumed they would. At least I thought
with such news, everything should out of the blue turn to my
favour until that day of the great promise. But while things
might have turned around, in the physical it didn’t seem so.
The temptations and trials increased as the years passed. Yet it
never meant God’s plan wasn’t perfect for me. My physical
encounters despite His word might not have supported that last
premise strongly, still there was this peace in my heart that
assured me it was, and by all I have seen, I know the more that
it was.
In Judges 20:22-25, the Israelites enquired of God if

they were to attack their brother tribe Benjamin which had
perverted their ways, and God astutely replied “Yes”, assuring
them He would guide them. However, they fell defeated and
discouraged twice on the battlefield. The loss was so grave that
they almost would have begun doubting God. Yet, because
they knew within that God is not a man who should lie, they
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found the strength to boldly approach Him again to ask Him,

and at His command responded without doubt to their afore-
promised victory.
Most times, when God approves a thing, it doesn’t

mean it is going to work out the way we anticipated it would
instantaneously. Often times, it might go the other way- that is,
instead of getting richer, such a person might seem to bend
towards the poorer curve. But if we’d trust God’s yes even
when there are no evidences of progression, nor any
certification that it’s truly a yes thing other than His word,
we’ll get exactly all He said yes to. You see, God is like our
sun; no matter how long the storm bedazzles the face of the
sky, it must shine eventually.
God is still very much in control even when it doesn’t

show; even when proofs aren’t glaring, He’s very much still in
charge. Like the Israelis, if He’s said yes to your marital
restoration or what have you, don’t focus on the previous
losses that darted their way into your life as an instrument of
discouragement, focus on His yes, and see every hindrance fall
before you. It might take you to the third approach of faith, yet
on that third you shall surely rise up in victory.
Solomon wrote “He has made everything beautiful in

its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV). If there’s anyone who had
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the right to say that, it was him. Growing up, he had seen the
wars that confronted his father David, and now that he was
king, he couldn’t find wars anywhere around him. This
exhilarating goodness didn’t happen overnight, but it sure did;
and when it did, it was beautiful indeed in its time.
One of the priceless privileges of humanity is God’s

faithfulness to His word. Seeing that God’s guidance is a
cynosure for a fulfilling life, it is only normal to say that His
willingness and faithfulness to do all needed to perfectly guide
us into His selected best is much more of a blessing to us all.
Has He not said it? Will He not do it? Like I have

already stated, God’s faithfulness depends on His ability to do
all He promises; and since He is ever faithful, it means He’s
ever able and will do it. “For the Lord is faithful to His
promises. Blessed are all those who wait for Him to help them”
(Isaiah 30:18 TLB).
I remember the period prior to my final year when a

few friends of mine and myself who were then undergoing our
internship were set to have a fulfilling last year of school. In
fact, the euphoria was so intense that one Christian friend of
mine took the onus to declare how the more fulfilling it would
be for the entire class if we all stuck to God much better than
previously. Two days later, the previous sessional results were
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out, and that particular friend of mine who had preached about
God’s faithfulness to the entire class had the sad news
delivered to him that he was going to probate (that is, repeat
the previous session’s classes instead of moving up to his
finals).
On receiving that sad news, and seeing how the rest of

us had a bit of a better fortune, the pain that engulfed him was
immeasurable. Some nights, he would talk to me about how
God hated him, and about why it had to be him after doing all
God had required of him. The extremity of his pain could be
felt on the tone of his voice that I couldn’t find a word to give
him the consolation he badly needed.
Eventually, one day during a walk, I spoke to him about

how God had a better plan that we couldn’t see from where we
were, even though on seeing his omen it felt hard for me to
fully believe my own words. Yet I gave him all I could on how
God has good plans for us-even him, because despite not
believing my words, I believed God’s. That was my possible
best, using personal experiences of mine he was well aware of,
but thank God who touched his heart. Not only did he ask for
God’s forgiveness for every behaviour he had displayed during
his hurt that could confuse him for a non-believer, he also
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chose to trust God to achieve His good will; and from all I
heard afterwards, God did.
You know, in situations like that we can quickly term

the victims carnal for failing to trust God, but until I had my
own personal experience, I never really knew how it hurt.
However, God knows it’s going to hurt, but it is never going to
span beyond our breaking point; and instead of pain and
bitterness, He expects us to give all of ourselves to trusting
Him, even in the pain. All He wants is for us to try to trust Him
as being in perfect control to finally bring the stars to their
knees before us regardless of the barricade of retrogression
surrounding us- like Joseph.
Even the twelve apostles felt the same sort of fear and
doubt we feel at times in difficult situations. Yet like already
said, God expects us to wait as perfectly as He needs us to-
which is to wait trusting Him to be as promised. Such that,
even in the heat of barrenness, you’d see yourself as fruitful
simply because He’s said you are; trusting wholeheartedly. It
might not be a simple task, but it is a required one from God
and a possible one for us.
The fact that we are also Disciples of Christ doesn’t

mean we have to act as the twelve did when troubles in form of
a raging sea came. We can never fully find the confidence to
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stand firm and come out victorious in trying times until we are
convinced He’s still very much in control- even in the storm.
In fact, I believe God asks us the same question he

asked the twelve whenever the storm hits us. Jesus said “Why
are you so fearful? Don’t you even yet have confidence in
me?” (Mark 4:40 TLB). The remembrance of this verse
changes my life continually; it connotes that in life we always
have two options in every trying situation- to be afraid when
trouble comes, or to choose to trust God who unconditionally
fulfils His promised word. That is, you can either hijack His
plan in doubt to find your own way or you can keenly heed to
His instruction to wait and trust Him in it.
The story of Naomi and her two daughters-in-law Ruth

and Orpah somewhat illustrates our walk with God. When both
ladies had lost all they had that kept them in God’s company,
apart from their husbands’ mother, and literally were thereby
free, they were left with a decision to make. In times of our
hardest difficulty, what decision do we make concerning our
fellowship with God? Orpah chose to desert Naomi, and you’d
notice how Naomi emphasized on her return to her gods (Ruth
1:15), which figuratively could mean the path of self as it
relates to us in our walk with God.
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Like Orpah, those who leave their spot of intimacy with

God out of fear and doubts of His power have been shown to
end up momentarily irrelevant; but those who like Ruth choose
to remain in that spot, trusting Him enough to die where His
words die-if they do- are bound to cause transgenerational
impact. This is so because by our genuine walk with God, He
doesn’t just let us talk impact, He causes us to make impact.
For instance, other than in Ruth chapter 1, did you ever again
hear of Orpah? No: but as for Ruth, she was enlisted in the
heroes of faith in Hebrew 11. It therefore suffices to say that
those who wait on the Lord, believing Him to do all He says
He will are indeed blessed in His presence.
Sometimes I believe I can do anything. I do, because I

know that if He’s said it, then the universe is under scrutiny to
ensure it comes to pass. Such that if He says I shall be as great
as Abraham was in his day, then I can, since I have a secured
backing in His word that says I can. Jesus said “Ye believe in
God, believe also in me…” and if Jesus is the Word, then it
means it can only be beneficial to completely trust His every
word to us.
Furthermore, the only sure thing in this world is God’s

word. Every other thing may fail, but it doesn’t and never will.
It never returns unfulfilled (Isaiah 55:11); and that’s why His
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word to us is definitely going to happen, and simply why He is

still in control of the situation. When the illness seems to
persist, believe in His word that it will surely vanish. It might
take a decade, but never stop believing. I must have mentioned
this before, but up to my 20s, nothing much really happened
exactly how I planned it, but they all worked out perfectly- as it
became far beneficial to me. So, don’t focus on the duration;
don’t focus on the means; focus on the God who surely does as
promised. Don’t focus on the supposed lateness, focus on His
control. Focus on His capacity to turn that lateness into
greatness.
Daniel emphasized this in his speech to Belshazzar as

he queried him about why he didn’t choose to worship the
“God who gave him the breath of life” and, I like this part,
“control his destiny” (Daniel 5:23 TLB). If God did create
you, then it means He wrote the scenes of your existence. Like
a human manufacturer, only Him knows your manufactured
and expiry date. Only Him knows the length of your warranty.
Like a movie director, only Him knows the plot and the
eventual end of your character. So, He knows us more than we
know ourselves, and as such if He gave you a peek into your
future by His revealed word, then you will only do well to
completely trust in His word, because He knows.
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Another proof of this is that every single word Jesus

told His disciples of their latter end came to pass. Then tell me
why yours must differ. Though we all like to focus on the bad
part of persecution and martyrdom, but even the good came to
pass. He promised them greater works, it happened; they
enjoyed it. He promised them great grace and favour, they
reaped the same in unusual places- and He can do the same for
you. The ill-favoured situations you face doesn’t prove that
you’re bound for nothing good. You know why? Because they
don’t scare God, and if so, then they shouldn’t scare you; for as
He is, so are we in this world. Study the life of the apostles and
you would notice how true that last statement really is.
God has the ability to make the situations that

disfavoured you favour you, as He made the same city that
thought to kill the apostles act favourably towards them. Acts
2:47 states that the whole city was favourable to them (TLB).
When God wants to act, every element must come together to
do as He pleases, and ironically even the devil. So this tells me
that our biggest enemy isn’t the devil, it is self.
For instance, God’s plan to redeem us through Jesus’

blood was accomplished under the nose of every opposing
element, that Paul wrote that if the devil had knew, he wouldn’t
have let Christ get to the cross. Truth is, I also believe that even
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if he had known, he couldn’t have stopped Him. So don’t be

fearful at the opposition; if He’s said a thing, your own part
would be to remain faithful in your walk with Him, because
eventually He will accomplish it, throwing caution to the wind
just to ensure His word proves true. This alone illustrates how
much control God has even in moments when we think He
doesn’t.
“In that day when [Lord] God steps in to destroy your

enemies, He will give you the streams of water flowing down
each mountain and every hill. The moon will be bright as the
sun, and the sunlight brighter than seven days! So it will be
when the Lord begins to heal His people and to cure the
wounds He gave them” (Isaiah 30:25-26 TLB).
However, it’s not an abnormal thing humanly that you

feel pain when you’re passing through a hard time. I have to
repeat this: Don’t assume you’ve sinned because your
predicaments create an unhidden hurt in you. We are bound by
our genes to feel what happens around us. Like Job who
became a bitter man when his troubles seemed unbearable,
being the inevitable weakness of mankind- that is, repression in
times of despair; but God, despite the unintended pain, desires
that we choose to trust Him instead in the situation. Yes, it
happened to everybody, and everybody cried hopelessly,
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everyone embraced their scars, yet God expects something than

bitter cries from us. He wants to see the kind of faith the
Shunamite had, that even in her most bitter day she lived by the
slogan “All is well”, until it eventually did for her (see 2 Kings
4). This may seem impossible for the natural man, but not for
us; we are spiritual men.
Some of us try to doubtfully excuse God of His

promise, saying that since our parents enjoyed, we’re just
unfortunate that the cycle of the ‘mandatory’ suffering had to
fall on our time. God doesn’t expect you to excuse Him of His
words, especially when it is triggered by unbelief. Don’t
console yourself by believing the wait is so long because of
some so-called cycle of suffering. In Christ, you are no longer
under the curse of any law. In fact, you are simply wonders
personified. You see, signs and wonders are the by-products of
our walk with God. Jesus said these signs shall follow them
that believe. So, it’s not something we chase after, it’s
something that goes along with us. It’s part of the whole
redemptive package. It’s your covenant right. Thus, instead of
harbouring such thoughts, channel all you’ve got to trusting
God. He said it is not you, so leave it up to Him.
God would never allow the nature of earthly things

force you into a paradigm shift from grace to grass because of
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some presumed cycle of suffering. He may have planned the

wait, it doesn’t mean He plans to make it eternal. By His word
and in His time He will bring you the solace you seek. It
doesn’t matter if you or any other member of your family have
had comfort for a long while now, it is not a reason for you to
continually suffer. As far as you serve God truthfully, you’ll
receive the rewards of your walk. Heaven’s order of action is to
give to those who have (Mark 4:25) - to those who have for the
Lord, in the Lord, and use for the Lord. He’s in control; and He
isn’t going to let man’s precepts work against His will for the
life of those who love Him.
Throughout scripture, we see the phrase “it came to

pass”. While we may think this just means a passage in time, I
like to believe that it really means that things will occur, yet
they are subject to change. When these challenges and
difficulties occur, we must have faith to understand the rest of
the story, which is that when it ‘comes to pass’, it will pass. In
rough moments, if we can wait and have great faith in God to
eventually reward us, we will be sustained (see Hebrews 10:35-
36). Remember, He has given us all things that pertains to life
and godliness, with all spiritual blessings that exists in the
heavens (see 2 Peter 1:3, Ephesians 1:3).
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During our waiting period, we receive peace the

moment we accept that the very first miracle we need has been
gifted to us by God, which is the grace to have been given the
strength to deal with the trying situation free of fear and
worrisome doubts. We have complete peace when we believe
that though God didn’t send the problem, but he did send the
grace and strength to handle it; and the assurance we’d
overcome it. Personally, I like to believe that in my hardest
trials, regardless of the negative emotions that pile up within,
God will show Himself good to me. And this I believe because
I know He got all of us in His hands, with power to make or
mar us, yet chooses the first option. In simple words, He is
very much still in the pole position to save.
For example, the demon possessed Gadarene of Mark 5

was so strong that no one could control him. His situation was
out of human control. But was it out of God’s control? No. Is
yours too? No; God always has been and always will be very
much in control concerning your life. On His appearance, the
legion that no one could tame mellowed and quickly left the
tormented man. On the other hand, the man never thought he’d
ever be sane and free from the torments, having had his soul
caged by the tentacles of hell, but when Jesus showed up at that
moment, he was (Mark 5:15). When He shows up in yours, you
will too.
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Like A.W Tozer once stated “All God has done for any
of His children, He will do for all of His children”. God is ever
willing to give us all we need in life; but the problem remains
that many expect Him to show off rather than show up. God is
not inclined to the business of giving non-necessities. He
doesn’t bring the circus, He brings balance. He doesn’t need to
show off for men to glorify Him; and that’s why if in His plan
He set a given time, He won’t go against it because of what
people might say. He promises to show up- to bring the
fulfilment of His word in due time, but not to show off- to go
against His divine plan.
Trusting God enough to tie the knots with Him in a

relationship of faith that keeps you at bay that He has the best
in mind for you does not only affect you, but as well it gives
you the impartation needed to affect others. This is because in
doing that our very approach to others in such circumstances
would be us pouring God in substance on them. I’ve come to
understand that our relationship with God affects ours’ with
others. A really healthy relationship with God only leads to
healthy ones with others, because when we let the root of
bitterness and doubt cloud our judgment with God, we let it
also rub off on other bystanders. God expects to see that light
of yours shinning on men, and that can only happen when you
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trust Him enough in all circumstances to believe He is not

going to turn the switch off.
gOd’s wOrd is tOO unFailing

to fail
Furthermore, another reason why we must remain hopeful is
that the extent of God’s omnipotence has not been fully
measured by any man. It has not been given a range because
God is limitless in power. He can’t be sized up, nor capsulated
in the bonds of impossibility. He can do anything. And you
know, when you look at your situation and you look at that
statement, there should be this surge of hope that is transmitted
through your spirit. That, my friend, is the hope that assures us
that we are very much still in His hands and under His care.
That is the hope that makes us not ashamed (see Romans 5:5).
In addition to that, miracles happen in heaven (God’s

realm) on a constant basis- light without the sun, life without
end, angels living without cells. That’s a miracle; and because
you are a direct citizen of heaven through Christ, the miracles
are transcribed into your natural estate. That is, the miracles
scarce in other people’s lives should never seem scarce for you.
Mind, body and soul, it should be extant in yours. But like they
say, “miracles only happen to those who believe even though
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the door is wide open for all to get through”, noting that the
difference between those who enjoy God’s perfect will and
those who get frustrated by it is simply believing.
I remember at a point during my own waiting period I

had a dream where a really thick voiced personality whom my
spirit witnessed as God told me about how He was going to
bless a brother of mine who was to work in government. And
as funny as it may sound, just when it seemed as if I was about
to wake up from that dream in the dream, He focused on me,
and assured me of how I would go beyond but only as a ‘man
of God’- a term many may have overused, yet I presume to
mean a servant of Jesus Christ, a follower of righteousness, a
faithful workman at His service whose path in life is set on
course by God Himself.
From that night till forever, that picture will stand as

my hope that in God I can be sure that regardless of what I see,
God is always in control concerning my life; and even if all the
devils got into a conglomerate against it, it still remains a sure
deal (see Isaiah 54:15-17).
There’s a similar experience as this in Bible times; and

when they thought to doubt, God instructed “Search the book
of the Lord and see all that He will do; not one detail will miss;
not one kite will be there without a mate, for the Lord has said
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it, and his Spirit will make it all come true” (Isaiah 34:16
TLB). The background of this story is that when the entire
nation of Israel were in doubt as to whether Isaiah’s prophecies
against their enemies were really going to manifest, God
inspired Isaiah to reassure them in the last section of that
specific prophecy. The lesson here is that God’s word of
assurance is enough proof to let you know He would do as
He’s declared.
So you see, there is good news after all; there is good

news ahead of you. Everything may not be adding up now- the
conditions you’re in might be unpleasant, the visible prospects
unfavourable, yet He assures you that not a bit of the promise
shall be neglected or forgotten. In a further chapter, He
compares His loyalty to that of a nursing mother, and ranked
His above, saying that though they may forget that young’s
need, but He will never forsake nor forget yours. I believe
there’s someone out there who needs this word of reassurance,
because God doesn’t give a word unless He’s planned a
salvation (see Psalm 107:20). So, I advise you cheer up, God’s
coming to deliver you.
The kingdom is more than just about how well a person

teach, preach, exhort or talk, it is about living in power of
God’s word (see 1 Corinthians 4:20). When Paul made this
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statement, he directed the church leaders on what should matter

most to them, and my intention with this book is to do the
same. If we aren’t living in His power, then we haven’t tasted
of the afore-promised kingdom within us; and as such aren’t
living at all. And one of the evidences of living in His power is
being confident in Him to show up as good as He promised He
would even in the worst hellish situation that can ever
overwhelm a man.
This is important because by that we show that we no

longer live by the emotional responses that govern man on the
earth, but by the God-oriented response that procures things in
heaven. The sort of response that sees plenty in the midst of
lack; the sort that sees progress in a wait; the sort that sees
control in disasters. For though it might appear as one thing as
portrayed by the interpretation of external stimuli, but we are
sure it is the real thing- which is a simple part of God’s grand
plan.
Speaking of the God kind of man, the Psalmist wrote

“He does not fear bad news, nor live in dread of what may
happen. For he is settled in his mind that Jehovah will take
care of him” (Psalm 112:7 TLB). This described attitude
towards life isn’t because basically he is some ‘tough’ guy, but
that regardless of how soft life pressures might have beaten
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him into, he engages in staking his entire hope on God, and

acts based on that decision.
He is the kind of man who fully stands on his liberty in

Christ that all things are his- both life and death, the present
and the future-because he is God’s (see 1 Corinthians 3:21-23).
Can you believe that? Even death is in your power. Now I
understand why Paul could choose when he would die. He said
“I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with
Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you
that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will
remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress
and joy in faith” (Philippians 1:23-25 NIV). Such a lifestyle of
conscious faith can only leave you growing better and better in
the manifestation of God’s heritage to the redeemed.
This kind of man doesn’t count on words, he counts on

God. That is, he doesn’t let himself suffer because the words
told him are supposed to make him suffer, rather he lets
himself enjoy security in God’s faithfulness. As I said at the
beginning, he drops the statistics and run with the knowledge
of the God he has grown to know.
Moreover, do you know how it would have felt to have

had God with you, and yet still lose what you valued most?
Well, while many might have, it was also Jairus’ plight. He had
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God by his side, yet his troubles increased. But notice what
Jesus said “Just trust me” (Mark 5:36 TLB). Jairus had just
received the news that his lass had passed on, even after taking
the first step of seeking Jesus. Other than that, Jairus had just
seen the haemorrhaging lady got healed, and despite receiving
the bad news, he was still left with the options of either trusting
the God who saved a woman from her near-death twelve years
affliction to be in control, or walk away discouraged at the
news.
In the same manner, all the signs and news you hear
around from other people are tests to prove if you will
completely hold on to the truth that He’s in control. His words
and past testimonies are given proofs that show He still is- for
if He could do it then, He can do it now. In His time as
scheduled, even if physically all hope seems lost, He will
bounce on you with new hope.
It is His will for us to have hope and a [good] future

(Jeremiah 29:11); and believe Him, He does and will do it.
Remember, He doesn’t just give a word unless He’s planned a
salvation. Before I began writing this book, just some months
after I had received that saddening news, God said to me
“When you have a problem that is making you cry, open your
ears, if you can’t hear me crying with you, then you don’t have
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a problem”. You should have seen how my smile that had been
upside down took shape instantaneously. I’m telling you the
same thing so that you can have the same.
Furthermore, God has created a supply well of

unlimited benefits for us. We don’t have to focus on the doubts
our mind ponder on because we can’t see it right now, we have
to focus on what He’s said. If we yield to our mind’s
interpretation, then we would be acting not as spiritual men, for
the spiritual walk after the leadings of the Spirit. When we
yield to our minds alone rather than God’s word, we choose to
be carnally driven, and the best that can get us is a separation
from God’s ideal for us; for such a man can receive nothing
from the Lord (see James 1:6). But if we look at all
circumstances His way (spiritually minded), we’d have the
fullness of all He’s planned for us in Christ Jesus.
Well, again, most times it is not as easy as it sounds, yet

the fact that you don’t see yourself completely meeting up to
this standard is not enough reason to maul yourself in more
depression. The fact that you are not the perfect waiter
shouldn’t suggest you quit attempting to wait better in His
presence. I am too, but the knowledge of God’s so great a grace
gives me a glimpse of assuring hope that we can if we believe
in Him that we can.
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Due to this knowledge, I can confidently say that God

is not going to hate us for feeling hurt when difficult
circumstances come; on the contrary He understands it all
(Hebrews 4:15), and all He asks is that we seek His strength.
He knows that our strongest human emotion can’t keep us
stable at this point, just His grace and faith in Him; and that’s
why He calls out “Come unto me”. That turn in dependence
from self to God is what He seeks first in a man who intends to
put all His trust in Him.
His primary priority with every child of His is to lead

them to a point where they can entirely trust Him. A point
where we will never ask “can He?”, but vouch “He can!” The
Spirit of God leads us into all truth (John 16:13). He doesn’t
lie, and never will. So, we can count on His already spoken
word; and I believe knowing what has been assured to happen
should give us the boldness needed to carry out the will of God
with certainty in our hearts.
The Spirit of God in us assures us of an abundance of

God’s benefit in life. It is our guarantee of a certain future.
Note that even in the midst of barrenness, the outpouring of the
Spirit who is now in and upon us causes our flowers to bloom
again. Like Oral Robert mused in his book Attack Your Lack,
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because of God’s words of truth we can be sure that roses shall

bloom again!
“Until the Spirit is poured down on us from heaven.

Then once again enormous crops will come”
(Isaiah 32:15 TLB).
I repeat this ever remaining truth: God’s eternal

intention is to wipe away the memory of past suffering, take
care of the present and make provision for posterity. As a
result, mandatorily we must realize that life is not so much
about what we can make out of it, nor the mundane ideology of
getting the things we wish to possess- though this is good, but
it is not enough, for God has given us all things; but rather it is
about how much it makes out of us. It is more about what we
become through the events of life we encounter than what
becomes of us; and how we use this to impart our surrounding
world. Remember again, what you can make out of yourself is
the only best you can give to others; and if God wants us to be
lights, then even in dark situations, we must never put out our
lights of joy, peace, love and righteousness borne in us by the
Holy Ghost. We must patiently wait for Him as He did for us.
On a certain day I got caught in deep thoughts,

specifically on the 23rd day of April 2016, and just like John
the Baptist to Jesus I needed a reassurance that things were still
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as He told me. That afternoon I asked God what was in my

future? I knew I needed to hear Him speak to clear the
bewildering doubts that beclouded my mind.
As I sat down to eat, I felt a prompting in my spirit to

read my Living Bible that instant; Isaiah specifically. As I
randomly opened to Isaiah, my eyes fell on Chapter 48, but as I
thought to start reading, a distinct voice within said “49”; and
so I turned to study the 49th chapter. On seeing all that is
written there, it breathed freshness and life-giving hope into my
spirit that indeed God is still on track with His intentions for
me.
Verse 14-15 was peculiar to remove all bits of doubt. In

it, He said “Yet they say ‘My Lord deserted us; he has forgotten
us’. Never! Can a mother forget her little child and not have
love for her own son? Yet even if that should be, I will not
forget you”. His words of assurance keeps going on and on,
even to the extent that He insures us on His palms so that He
never forgets or forsakes us. I didn’t need to hear any further ‘I
will do this or that’, that was enough. Like David, knowing the
Lord is willing to be my shepherd that keeps me from lacking
any good thing has assured me that I am set for life. Thus, it
would be my pleasure to say “it’s alright, He is coming to get
you” to everyone sobbing in their pits of pain and delay.
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Without further ado, just in case you still desire more

proofs to convince you God’s still in charge, here are some
basic reasons why you should believe:
- HE IS OMNIPOTENT
God naturally has the power to do all things. He can do entirely
all there is to be done, especially if He's said it. Jesus wasn't
joking when He said nothing is impossible with God, because
relating it with God's all-powerful nature, it would be a lie if
He had said otherwise.
Now, if you were so powerful as to do all things, would

you then be ‘unpowerful’ to do all you've promised a loved
one? You might stall in the act, but it doesn't mean you can't or
won't. That's exactly how it is too with God. He is not planning
to become unpowerful in your situation, because instinctively it
is not in His nature to.
I like how the prophet Jeremiah summed it up when he

asked, "Is there anything too difficult for the Lord" (Jeremiah
32:27). So, therefore if God can do everything and anything,
and there's nothing un-doable by Him, then would it be wise to
think that God's making you wait because He can't? Logically,
all would mean all-.yours inclusive. So, even when the doubts
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rush in, believe in your heart that truly there's nothing

impossible for the Lord - not even your case my friend.
- HE IS ALL-KNOWING
If God, as scripture reveals, has knowledge of all things even
before they are, don't you think He knows all you'd ever have
need of, and in knowing also provide a means for the same?
The creation story teaches us that God made all things He
needed with all things needed. He made the herbs and the sun
for photosynthesis. He made the man and the meal he would
eventually eat. He made woman and a womb to fulfil His
promise in Genesis 1:26. He made all things all His creations
would ever need; and this He did because He foresaw their
very needs.
Similarly, if God has foreseen your need for solace,

based on His track record from creation day, wouldn't He have
also made a means for it? All we're passing through is then
definitely something God knew was coming, and really
prepared an escape route for you (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Understand this: if God knows all things before time,

and is good enough to keep promises, then He knows all about
you, and is really determined to keep every promise He's made
to you. God doesn't just know all things for the sake of it, He
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does to prepare subsequent things ahead. He sees it afar, plans

for beyond, and leads man from what He saw afar towards all
He's planned beyond.
And so once again you can be sure He's got your back,
because if He's known ahead of time, then He has also made a
way ahead of time. All we'd have to do is to see things His
way.
- HE'S GOT YOUR BEST INTEREST AT

HEART
Far more than anything else, God is unshaken by what other
people think He thinks toward His people. He says "I know the
thoughts I think towards you, thoughts of peace and not of evil,
to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11). Everything God
plans and does are done with our best interest at heart. His
every day thought is on how He can show Himself good to His
children. His daily hustle, if I may use that word, is to make
manifest the blessings that He's already made ours.
Now, if God would never cause our hurt, then we can

be sure that even hurts aren't really hurts; they are just
discouragement in disguise to stop us from the comfort coming
our way. A wait on God shouldn't cause us hurt if we know He
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would never do anything to cause us harm, rather it should

keep us anticipating on receiving all He's planned for us.
Logically, love doesn't hurt; and even if it seems to, its

intentions are never to. So, if God loves us, we can be rest
assured that His intentions are not to hurt us. Take the
pressures of doubt and thoughts of a wicked God off your
mind. All God does and ever would do is for our own good. I
believe it and I hope you do too. Paul did (Romans 8:28), and
so does everyone who experienced God's true intentions for
mankind.
- HE IS FAITHFUL
The essence of faith has a purpose today, not primarily because
men tried it and it worked, but because God showed us how
faith works perfectly. He said in the absence of light "Light
be", and light was. We see that before man even knew what
faith was, God was walking on its power; thereby making it
more God-factorized than man-factorized. Then, if nature can
bring all that never was because it was God's desire, don't you
think it is compelled to do the same for you because it is God's
desire in you?
God was the first Person to exhibit faith, and the first as
well to show faithfulness. He loves to be believed, because He
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first believed; and once believed, He bounds Himself to the

accomplishment of the believed. John calls Him faithful and
just - meaning He never goes back on His words.
If God has told you a thing He plans to do, He won't go

back on His word. To whomever would exercise faith on Him,
He makes Himself faithful towards. And here's one truth you
should forever hold on to. If the pit, the slavery, and the prison
could not stop God from being faithful to Joseph regarding all
He revealed to him, what would give us the guts to attempt
disbelieving God to be faithful regarding all He's revealed to
us? Remember that His slogan for action is "If He's said it, then
He would do it!"
- HE'S SEEN THIS SAME PROBLEM OVER

AND OVER AGAIN AND SO HAS THE
PERFECT ANSWER
Like King Solomon wrote "There's nothing new under the
sun". Every problem that exists today has existed at some point
in another form. And if God was involved in the solution
finding at all these different times, then humanly speaking He
must have gained mastery in finding the solution to such
problems.
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Throughout Bible times, God never disappointed

anyone who waited on Him. He has always had the reputation
of showing up on the ideal time. Same way, God has seen this
case before. It's possible a person named Xavier or Caroline
had the same challenge in the 2nd or even 10th century, and God
scaled them through. So, if He can do the same for them, He
can do the same for you.
If we'd just understand that God has the whole world in

His hands, then we would be inclined to believe He's seen it
all, done it all, and will do just the same, if it comes to that, for
all who belong to Him and love Him wholeheartedly.
- BECAUSE YOU HAVE HIS HOLYGHOST

AND POWER WHICH MAKES US AS JESUS
IS
We can be confident in receiving all God has prepared for us,
because we have within us His Spirit that raised Jesus as All in
All, who gives us the advantage. Scripture says that God
anointed Jesus with Holy Ghost and Power, and by that He was
able to go around doing all that was good (Acts 10:38). If the
Holy Spirit makes us able to accomplish all of God's plans
through His power that works mightily in us, then we can say
He also makes us able to receive all of God's plans. Why is this
so? Jesus fulfilled the purpose of salvation, which was God's
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plan, through the Holy Spirit; and afterwards His disciples

received the promises of salvation, which was part of God's
plan, also through the Holy Spirit.
Other than that, God having anointed Jesus didn't leave

Him to bleed on the cross forever, nor to rot in the grave
eternally, He raised Him up to glory; and so by the same Spirit
that did the raising which now lives in us, He can raise us up
from our personal graves. If God was in control with Him, He's
in control with you.
- HE’S GIVEN US EVERYTHING WE NEED

Whenever you feel tempted to doubt God about getting the
things you believe you need, or when others try to usurp God’s
place in your life to presumably show you the way to get the
things you need the way God never would, always remember
the words of Paul, “So don’t be proud of following the wise
men of this world. For God has already given you everything
you need………..He has given you the whole world to use, and
life and even death are your servants. He has given you all of
the present and all of the future. All are yours” (1 Corinthians
3:21-23 TLB).
This alone shows that I never lack, I just haven’t gotten

the license to use. God has placed all we need in this universe-
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that means He’s not planning on throwing it down from the

heavens when we cry, He provided them with a schedule in
time for its manifestation. He says He has given us all things
that regards to life- the ability to live like Him on the earth. Not
some things, everything. That means He’s given you that job,
that partner, that child; everything you’d ever need. Just await
their manifestations in due time. So, know this: as a child of
God you never lack, it’s just not time to use what you seek.
When it’s time, no force can resist its actualization; for God
has already given all you’d ever need.
“Now you have every grace and blessing; every

spiritual gift and power for doing his will are yours during this
time of waiting for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ”
(1 Corinthians 1:7 TLB)
When the sun is down, stay up

“……..Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh
in the morning” (Psalm 30:5)
He has promised to be with us forever even until the
end of time. So not even time can steal what God has reserved
for you, because He is right there with you at all times, all the
time. You are not alone. He has you with Him, and that’s
enough assurance that all things must become as He has said it
would be.
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Furthermore He won’t abandon you. You are like the

sheep that won’t make Him rest until He finds and gets you to
the best place for you to reach your place of solace. It is His
word and I believe it. I want to leave this earth knowing I did
everything God wanted me to do, how he wanted me to do it
against all odds of sentiment and delay; and I know trusting
Him enough to wait on Him for His instructions and guidance,
as well as following them, per time is pivotal to that.
God is very much still in control; know that. Though

there will be days when the light may grow dimmer than ever
before, yet He says He will be there with you. No water, He
says, is too deep to keep Him away from you. No fire, He says,
is too hot to keep Him back. And no night is too dark to let you
slip off His watch. He has you in mind and hand at all times-
both in good and not-so-good times.
So, now that you know that God is committed to

keeping His covenant with you, what are you going to do about
it? When the sun goes down in your present circumstance,
knowing what you know now, will you slip into obscurity with
it? Or will you shine in confidence towards God? Will you
grow depressed because things aren’t going your way? Or will
you be fervent in faith towards Him and optimistic even though
it is not panning out as planned? What we do when the sun sets
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determines where we find ourselves when morning wakes.

How we respond when the sun goes down at night is congruent
to what we will wake up to see the next morning. Hence, let me
ask you this: what position will you take when the sun sets?
Remember where you lie down is usually where you get up as
well. So, I implore you to choose the side of faith, and absolute
trust and confidence, in the Lord.
Thus, will you lie in doubt when the shadows take over
or when the darkness eclipses the brightness you expect to see
evident in your life? Or will you wait out the night till your
change comes? That was Habakkuk’s commitment (3:17-19),
and it should be yours too. There will be times when God’s
presence may seem far and undiscoverable, however it is at this
moment that you should stay up searching for Him by staying
in faith towards Him. It is at this time that you should have
your lamps burning for His inevitable return to you in goodness
and enviable rewards. Just as no day is complete until the sun
goes down, it would be a lie to tell you that you’d never
experience such times. You will; but He will help you scale
through. Remember, behind the night is always the sun waiting
to shine again. So believe me, He is very much in control of the
situation. You just have to be in control of your reactions when
times spin; for even when the sun is down, He remains a light
to keep you growing stronger and stronger.
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And this is how you be in control as He is also:
“There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is

darkened, the mirth of the land is gone. In the city is left
desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction. When thus
it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall
be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes
when the vintage is done….. Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in
the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles
of the sea…… Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun
ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion,
and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously” (Isaiah
24:11-23 Emphasis mine)
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SUMMARY
Never let the circumstances of today force you to
believe God has lost control over your life affairs. If He
wrote the scripts of our lives, then He did not only
prepare the stage, He also placed everything we need
to fulfil all written therein. He hasn’t lost control over
your petitions being granted, in His time He would
show you He never was. So, here’s what you should do-
focus on everything that tells you God can and not
those that beg the question “can God?” Build your faith
with marbles of total dependence on all God can do;
and then when it seems like He’s not showing up,
reflect that faith in your dispositions until He’s forced
to show up on your behalf. Remember the story of the
widow and the Judge (see Luke 18).
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CHAPTER [5]
IS WAITING REALLY A
PREPARATION OR JUST AN
EXCUSE GOD USES WHEN HE
CAN’T ALWAYS DO IT?
“And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the
LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee go
in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children
by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai”
(Genesis 16:2)
SCENE:
“In the premises of an idol infested territory, there lived a

young woman named Sarai. Having grown unto the age when she
could be given out in marriage, she was given to her half-brother
Abram. For years, living in the same premises as her extended
family as well, she could not conceive. In that ordeal, she lost her
brother to the ravaging claws of death, yet there was no offspring
still to help console her in her grief.
Her hair turned grey by the minute. Alas, old age
overshadowed her once youthful finesse. All she could think of
were loving her husband, caring for her father and relatives, and
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Is Waiting Really A Preparation Or Just An Excuse God Uses When He Can’t Always Do It
living the rest of her life in the tents encamped in the plains of
Haran until the day she closes her eyes to wake no more.
In the midst of this pandemic array of sorrowful events, a
strange God spoke to her husband. At least one she only had heard
about in the night tales her grandparents had told the entire house
to continue the tradition of genealogy and etymological knowledge.
Her husband was as sure as he could hear God clearly telling him
to set out into a land unknown, yet described as one of greater
fortunes. A land where he would wholeheartedly serve Him, and
everything they lacked would be given. Just as the euphoria she
caught from her husband’s exhilarating encounter was getting to its
climax, she received the final news flash that would totally blow
her up, “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed”. It
seemed hard to take in, seeing that they could hardly even make a
family of their own, yet as she watched her husband saddle the
train of camels so eagerly at the hours before dawn, it convinced
her to drop all doubts, and set out into this land of mysterious
wonder God had promised to lead them to without fear.
True to His word, they gained more land mass, more
servants, more animals. In fact, they grew just as that God had
spoken. But as amazed as she could have been, noticing the
dominion they had gained in lands outside the territory of Ur, she
wouldn’t still be pacified as she saw a future of greatness
threatened by the possibility of a genealogical end; without which
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there would be no way for her husband’s legacy to continue on the

very grounds she stomped. They had grown so numerous in
mankind and animal-kind that they could no longer travel nor
graze together with the aides of their nephew, and thus the lands
were shared, each went his own way.
As she and her husband’s band set out to tread the path
towards the fields allotted to themselves, God spoke again-but this
time with a promise that was much harder to believe. “Thy seed
shall be as the dust of the earth”. Yet it caused more confusion in
her as she could not fathom how it could be possible. On setting
upon the plain of Mamre, Abraham and his wife got their house
together as they readied themselves to announce their young
steward Eliezer as their heir. But just as they prepared to make the
much anticipated announcement before the whole community that
depended on them- the same people they must have gathered
outside for the special occasion, God spoke yet again. In a vision,
in response to this so-called great idea of theirs, He said “This shall
not be thy heir”, reassuring them that out of Abraham’s own loins
a son shall be born. A fire of excitement raced through her entire
body as she pondered on the fact that if she was Abram’s only wife,
then she had to be the mother of the promised son.
More years passed on, yet not a child nor even any
symptom of implantation. She hadn’t even experienced a
miscarriage talk more of carrying a child. She must have thought
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within herself that even after the promises of giving them a land of
greater glory, but why not this? Does it mean He can’t do this sort
of miracles? Locked up between the hope of an expected child and
the pain of a failed promise, she sought a means to give her faithful
husband his only lack; and from her wildest imagination, she
assumed Hagar could take her place since it was Abram’s loins and
not hers highlighted in the word of God that solemn day. Hagar
was a young Egyptian lady she took in to serve as her maiden. Yet
despite what seemed like a brilliant idea, the problem was
convincing her righteous husband to bend to her plan.
She had grown weary in the slough of the despair of
childlessness. At the sound of the promise, hope glistened in her
eyes, but as it seemed to fail with time, grief kicked out every bit of
hope she once had. At this, she made up her mind to give Abram
the child he deserves if God won’t do it through her. Her love for
her husband surpassed her sense of uncompromised trust in God
that it would be as already said, that instead of seeing him shamed,
she would rather share his body with her maid-in-waiting just to
see he has an heir as promised.
She dried up in confidence that she started to fail to see
this circumstance as a preparation for something great, but as a
restraint- a punishment from God towards herself and her hubby.
She never knew that God would use her as a generational figure to
show His reign over impossibilities. She judged His time and
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intentions by the wrong reactions life poured on her; and that also
could just be exactly all we are doing to His plan for us. In time,
her presumed bright alternative became her torment. Her once
humble maid became proud against her having borne a child for
the master of the house. Her offspring stood as an insurance that
Sarai would have to leave before she’d ever leave. Then she realized
she didn’t give her husband an heir, but a thorn on her own flesh.
Regrets clouded her heart. She would repent, but what if she
already lost Abram. Could her dead womb be the reason for the
death of her final hope? Tormented by the daily postures of Hagar
that portrayed her desire to become a wife too, she would fall on
her knees to the dirt, remorseful towards her unguarded decision
that day to hand over her husband to the bosom of a girl much
younger and attractive than she now was. Now she wished she had
waited.
Her goodwill to secure posterity had brought her greatest
fears to her very own reality. And if perfect love has no torments,
then it means hers wasn’t, and that perfect love is only exercised
when it’s acted upon in line with God’s will- because at the end all
God does carries no torment as reiterated in Romans 8:28 and
Proverbs 10:22. She learnt a great lesson that day, which is, when
God tells you to wait, it isn’t because He can’t always do it, but not
only that He will always do it, but also for a reason you would
never fully appreciate until the end has been fulfilled. Sarah got her
son finally, and it didn’t come from a tube, or from another
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alternative, it came from her own old haggard womb; and this
happened because if God has said it, an old haggard womb receives
a wall that can implant the weakest fertilized egg there is. So, it
isn’t about how God can’t always do it in waiting, it’s about how
He always does……. And now Sarah knows that. ”
J
ust like Sarah, many of us choose to doubt God
because we seek people’s opinionated views than
God’s. We wear their shoes and when it doesn’t fit,
we cry that God’s unfair when it was never actually made for
us in the first place. We place ourselves in the shoes of the
leaders Jesus rebuked for seeking the praises of men instead of
God’s. Sarah sought the approval of men and it drove her into a
regrettable sin. If we are to fulfil every single promise of God
in our lives, we must choose not to pursue the approval of men
firstly, but that of God. Choose to run with God’s own words in
the waiting period. And note that any thought that draws you to
a plan different from all God already said you should do in
such a period is simply one bent on tormenting you. For if love
is to obey God (2 John 6); and perfect love casts out all fears,
then our only hope would be to simply obey His words. Love
never fails- and so doing this won’t fail you. If there’s anything
God seeks, it’s a person who would see himself as righteous
simply because God says he is. One who would see himself as
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an overcomer in the midst of adversity, pain and struggles

simply because He said so. God never does flukes; if He’s told
you a thing, He would dole it out to you.
You’d notice that when the same problem we are

experiencing affects everybody as well, we wouldn’t count it as
a problem; but when it affects only one person, in this case-us,
we would weigh it as a huge problem. It’s a prevalent issue
amongst us all. When it involves all, we call it a normal natural
occurrence, but when it’s just us, we say we have been
betrayed and neglected. Personally I believe problems aren’t
really our problem until we perceive them as such. As a result,
if we can trust God to be in control of the situation-with a bit of
peace saturating our being- when everybody bears the brunt,
we can do the same even when it’s a lone man’s brunt to carry.
Like I said, the problem isn’t the problem; what you do in the
problem is.
You will also realize that before we fail in any test set
before us by God, there are always three voices in contention to
convince us; as such leaving us with two options. While God
says “do not” in a calm and soothing impression- and almost
every time with a reminder from the word to trust Him, the
devil who most times canonize self’s says “do” with a
hysterical cascade of fleshly cravings seething through our
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sensual compartments that keeps our adrenaline release beyond

seismic deductions. In this, we fail when we follow the
vibrations that leads to the exaltation of self’s wants above
God’s will. You must realize that whenever we despitefully
and consciously do God’s don’t dos, we blatantly set out to
dishonour Him; sowing our entirety to the flesh whose best is
destruction against the many blessings that comes with God’s
will (see Galatians 6:8).
With that single success he had at Eden, the devil

believes he still stands a chance in wrecking the lives of those
destined for greater glories. With the ego of masterminding the
first fall of man, he keeps himself bent on making sure many
more men fall short of God’s best for them; and one way he
does that is by conning man into believing God won’t do it-
exactly what he told Eve, “You will surely not die, God lied”.
You may want to know why the devil will still dare try this
even now that we are far above him in the heavens. Well it’s
because the devil is not afraid of what he knows about you,
he’s afraid of what you know about yourself. He wins only
when we walk in ignorance of whom God is and what He can
do.
By taking man’s mind off God’s assurance, he can

easily make a pawn out of him, and devouring all God’s
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prepared for his getting. Knowing the devil’s con skills, it

would be a disaster to hearken to his words when a setback sets
in, because nothing good for you can be found in the final
intention of a con- only a win for him, and a loss for the victim.
One truth that would remain extant throughout time is

that setbacks and delays will always come on the journey of
fulfilment. In such circumstances, patience dug up from the
wells of faith is what we require as a major necessity. I read a
quote by Carl Jung. In it, he noted that “Even a happy life
cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy
would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is
far better to take things as they come with patience and
equanimity”. I don’t believe Mr. Jung was encouraging us to
be sad at given points of our lives to be fulfilled; but that even
when there’s a reason to be sad, we shouldn’t let that
experience spoil the good we have ahead of us. This is true
because there must always be a sad moment, but we choose
whether or not we become sad persons.
I also like to believe that there’s no such thing as a

trouble free life, but there’s such as a trouble-less life; and it is
determined by our reactions towards whatever we encounter in
life. Thus, don’t ever let life’s uncertainties and up-and-downs
make you lose focus of all God already said, thereby driving
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you into a state of unnecessary panic. Rather, what we have to

do is simply return back to the faith that assures it is well, and
get as much knowledge revolved around your next step as you
wait patiently for its arrival
You too are close to success, so don’t blow it. To the

teachers of the law, Jesus said “You are not far from the
kingdom” (Mark 12:34); in the same way, you are so close to
all God has prepared for you, don’t rob yourself of it. Don’t
ruin it, or mess it up with an act of unabated impatience. Jesus
also advised “In patience, possess ye your soul” (Luke 21:19).
So, don’t let the saddening events happening around you
coerce its effect upon you, thereby causing you to lose out on
all that lies ahead in your future. Don’t let the setback steal the
multiple comebacks God has scheduled for you if only you
would simply wait for Him. Scriptures promises that though
the righteous falls seven times, he rises again (see Proverbs
24:16). Don’t stay down at your first fall, trust God enough to
get up and walk in faith, because it’s not in His plan to keep
you down casted. Be patient with Him to come through. Never
be that man who history would list among those who lost their
best because they couldn’t be patient enough to wait for it.
Remember, like they say, a setback is only a setup for a
comeback; so don’t let that setback keep you from coming
back to the glories already declared as yours.
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…….still On trust……
And believe God, waiting on His time and for His way is you
keeping that best. With all my experiences, I can say that it is
not entirely a man’s fault when he is lured by society’s opinion
of what’s vague to want to find a way different from God’s to
get what he thinks he needs. I don’t personally count it as their
fault due to the pressure directed on them, but I know it is their
choice; and our choices are enough to judge us either for good
or bad. Furthermore, God won’t blame society for pressurizing
us since He already informed us it would, He would blame us
for yielding. So we must treat Him right, and prove it daily by
always choosing His opinions in every circumstance we
encounter.
The secret to keeping a relationship healthy is centred

on how you treat the other party. In friendship, I believe to treat
the other party as much as we would want to be treated if we
were the other party. However, my most prioritized managerial
tip is to treat all associates well and good, but treat those you
can’t pay back better. This means more value and appreciation
should be reckoned towards those who sacrifice themselves to
make you great despite having the knowledge that you don’t
have the capacity to return the favour.
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This here should also apply to our relationship with

God. We can’t pay Him back for all the goodness He shows us.
We can’t undo to do all Christ did- and that was priceless. We
can’t recompense His being good to us even when we are not
good enough. I wouldn’t dare use the word associate in this
case, but God is one person we can never truly fully- and even
meagrely- pay back for all His deeds. All He seeks is value.
We must learn to value Him enough to trust Him above

circumstances. Our appreciation towards Him is easily
expressed by doubtlessly believing all He says to us. If every
time you step into a multiple storey building-let’s use the Burj
Khalifa for example, you are not a single bit in doubt that its
frames would hold, and that it won’t collapse; then why
wouldn’t you do the same to the God who made the ground
where it stands? If the Burj tower is earthly and temporal as
long as nuclear activities and natural disasters yet exist, and
God is way past the limitations of nuclear ruins and natural
factors, then why would you lose out on trusting God?
Trust God more to fully appreciate your waiting period,

because only those who trust wait and as a result receive the
promise (see Isaiah 40:31); but those who distrust believe they
are kept waiting and end up having little or none to receive.
Compare it with the context of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians
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9:17. There is no frustration in trust, but calamities lie on the

brink of distrust.
I came across the words of a man who had worked with

Mother Teresa of Calcutta. He stated that upon arriving where
she carried out her mission work, she said “Is there anything I
can do for you?” And he said “Yes, you can pray for me. You
can pray that I have clarity”. And she said, “No, I am not
going to pray that you have clarity, because clarity is the last
thing that is holding you back”. He said “Mother Teresa, what
are you talking about? You have had clarity your whole life”.
She said “No, I’ve never had clarity. I’ve only had trust”.
God won’t always go through our proposed way to

bless us. Like I noted when I mentioned how I never got
anything my way even if as perfectly as God had said it. Yet it
doesn’t mean He can’t do it. In fact, from my observations of
God’s goodness in my life and that of my family and friends,
as you might also agree, I can say that the longer the wait, the
larger the wage. For instance, like I illustrated using the
Chinese Bamboo that spends many years on underground
growth, only to sprout into a gigantic plant afterwards. To the
planter, the wait may seem long and futile, but once it’s
sprouted, he realizes the wait was worth the while.
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Don't be the fellow who has a bit of knowledge about

God but deny His power. When you eat, do you put the piece
of food in your mouth without swallowing? No, of course;
because it adds nothing to your body system until it's digested
and assimilated, and this requires swallowing as long as it's
exogenous. In the same way, what's the essence of knowing
God if you're not willing to go deeper in Him? Deeper in trust,
in fellowship and in service, because that's where the true
blessings are. So, if you're are going to tell yourself you know
Him, you might as well trust Him.
So, know this: God always has a way of bringing things

in His plan for us together. By societal standards, it may not be
a funny or pleasant experience or the best way to us, but it is a
way - in fact the way. The Bible advises that we look unto
Jesus because He is the author and finisher of our faith. The
One who finalizes our fate. That is, He wrote the script of our
lives. He knows us more than we know ourselves, and loves us
more than we could possibly love ourselves, proving it through
His death for the dead, the living, the birthed, and the then
unborn- us. As such, since He enscripted our end, then He
knows how to act it unto fulfilment. We just have to trust Him
that He has a perfect plan to bring us goodwill in the coming
future.
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Mr Johnson Oatman Jnr. wrote the ever redeeming

hymn "Count Your Blessings", and from its wisdom you will
find that even in your hell-on-earth situation, God is still very
much in control. We just got to learn to trust Him to continue
what He's begun instead of always trying to do the parts we
conclude He can't do. He said "So amid the conflict whether
great or small; Do not be discouraged, God is over all, Count
your many blessings, angels will attend, Help and comfort give
you to your journey's end".
As under the old covenant, the Angel of the Lord

guided God's chosen ones from Egypt for 40 years until they
got the promise; even in those moments it felt fading, He kept
true to His words. Today, I'd rather call Him who guides the
sweet Holy Spirit given as a source of comfort from Christ to
us, and just like in old times, He will continually keep us
assured that God hasn't neglected us even in our fading
moments. That is, if we only heed His call to remain in trust;
and believe God, if He could use lepers to save a whole nation,
then He has every means at His disposal to save us. This
knowledge enables us to know what He can do with us- a
miracle. Hallelujah!
Jesus constantly taught about how our lives do not find

its essence in the things we possess, but on how much of God
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we believe and receive. Our status of belief should be

unaffected by what we possess and what we don't, but by only
what God has said. The purpose of life is not in the exorbitance
but in the substance- in the virtue acquired through the
numerous lessons God puts on our way; and that's why I
believe that the essence of life is not the pursuit of wealth,
wisdom or mere happiness alone as I once thought, but the
pursuit of manifesting a bit of the Creator, that is becoming
more and more like Him by the day.
We were made to reflect the exact image of the Creator,

which is the original essence of life as noted in Genesis 1:26-
28....in His likeness, and the very first step is to believe and
trust Him completely. Like Jesus said, that is the principal
work of every man who choose to please God (see John 6:29).
And then we are transformed into His image in varying levels
of glory as we stay fixated on Him by the Spirit of God. If at
the least distraught, we doubt God who is more faithful than
sunset and sunrise, then who else can we possibly believe on?
Isaiah 40:8 tells us that we are as grass, and our

pleasantries are like flowers that fade away and fail with time,
but God by His released word remains forever. The King
James Version used the term endure. That is, even in harsh
condition, it stay unmoved, and in good the same. So, tell me
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who else can be trusted more? Who else deserves our trust?
Patience in God isn't a failed enterprise, it's an investment that
keeps your attention unintruded and undivided from all that is
to come.
One of the many reasons people choose impatience is

the comparison when they see other people getting ahead way
quickly than they are, especially when they are actually peer
mates. I was a victim of that feeling myself, and I know how
much it leads you into disbelieving all God already made you
have peace about. However, never let your life be directed by
what others are doing. Don't seek shortcuts because ultimately
you don't know where they are headed. Be patient with God's
plan for you.
"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am

thy God. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will
uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness".
(Isaiah 41:10)
Life is like an episode. . ..one in which God has

guaranteed good for all who trusts and believe in Him, we just
have to continue believing Him. Many of us think we know the
end of things from the beginning, such that we assume God as
a fake when the trial wears us down; but believe me it's better
to think you don't know than to think you know and don't know
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eventually. If God has spoken; think of it this way- that the end
of a thing surpasses the beginning. Think of it as a preparation.
Count the present struggle as a temporal feat that God in due
time will completely eliminate off your life. Stand on His
words - it's unchanging.
In fact, the importance of standing firm on all He's said

cannot be overemphasized. Paul, in scriptures, wrote that "by
this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I
preached to you" (1 Corinthians 15:2 NIV). Let the gospel in
this text be all God has assured you of, which gives us the
confidence of security; and without wavering hold on to those
words; for even when the storm is at its highest tempest, God is
still over the storm, and surely He will take care of you.
This issue of waiting on God trustfully goes beyond our

religious steps and actions. It also involves our emotional
responses in everyday life; as to whether we would keep
sowing into our spirit, waiting on Him, until our harvest arises;
or whether we would gad about unto the paths of self pleasure,
thereby sowing unto the flesh that forever reminds us of our
fall in Adam. For instance, as teenagers with a plateau of
uncontrolled emotions running through your veins, you might
easily tend to believe that God's principle on sexual purity till
marriage seems archaic due to your view of society's daily
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involvements. However, guess what: you might claim it's not

your thing because you've evolved, but really deep you don't
know whether it's your thing or not because it's just your
emotional upheaval speaking. And again, can anyone really
outgrow God's principles? Scripture says His word (principle)
is settled forever.
You may ask how one can resist such eruptions of

temptation to follow our cravings. Well, the Holy Spirit gives
us the needed strength to do so. Furthermore, for me, I want to
live such that when I die, everyone will see and know that I
didn't just pass through the earth, but that I shook it. And the
Bible assures me that staying intimate with God in all
ramifications can build in me the capacity for such; and if so,
then that's what I would do.
Thus, learn to trust God even in that area too. Learn to

trustfully wait for God's ideal time. Remember your body is
God's; and so you must honour Him with all that's in it- your
heart in believing, your mind in subjecting and all your
external parts in holiness. Walking in the Spirit also covers
what you do with all of you- even your body. Many a youth
have been wasted by soulish fragmentation all because they
couldn't wait for God's ideal. All because they thought their
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time to give their bodies away was much appreciable than

God's divine order.
God is interested in everything that concerns you.

Simply trust in Him, and wait for Him and do all He expects of
you while in the waiting period. To the married, learn to love
your nagging spouse as instructed in Ephesians 5:23-25 even as
you wait believing for God's change in their lives, instead of
cooking up a divorce. To parents, love your children despite
their failing faults as you wait for the promise of God regarding
them. To the young, wait for God's instructed best instead of
jumping into the open arms of the devil's snare in the cloak of
opportunity. And when I say waiting, I don't imply you remain
in passivity, but that you believe to do all God expects you to
do for that moment, even if it's nothing. For it is better to stand
on-shore than to board a sinking ship. Just so you know-
waiting on God's time simply reveals how much of God's
words you count as true and reliable.
Have you ever had this funny experience of getting

things you desired when your mind least wondered in that
direction than when you stay worried on how you can help
yourself get it? If yes, Great! But if No, you may not like my
philosophy, but most times, if we'd just stop chasing our wants
selfishly and persuade ourselves unto God’s own plan and
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timing, we would have them chasing us in response as lions do

when they suddenly stop being the prey and become the
predator of men. We tend to create excess friction on the path
of God's flow every time we try to place ourselves in His
position when we clutch our lives at either receiving a
particular thing or a solemn "good-bye God", thereby hindering
the move of His power to bring the reality of the things we
seek.
It is true that the more we focus on a thing, the more it

becomes ours; but when such focus puts God on hold, it is one
that can bring only more misery than we started with. Lessons
from faith shows us that uninterrupted focus brings result, but
note that as apostle John wrote it must be according to God's
will. For instance, look at what happened to Amnon when his
desire for his half-sister surpassed his common sense and
reverence for God's moral judgment, or what happened to
Ahab when he clutched his entirety unto claiming the field of
Naboth at the expense of God's sacred law. It turned out bad
for them not because they couldn't get what they desired if they
had let go and let God, but because they chose not to let go
than let God.
So, what am I trying to say? If God says you would get

a thing, you would; just try to focus more on the things He
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wants you doing at the moment than trying to help Him with its
fulfilment. Such that if you want a car, act like you don't want a
car, and instead focus all your energies on accomplishing all of
God's simple tasks for you, and He will get you one. That's
what David meant when he said "delight yourself in the Lord
and He will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4).
And Jesus in Matthew 6:33. If you want money, let your
actions seem like you don't - by trusting God to do as said
instead of doing as you've connived to; and focus more on
God's own scheme of things for each day, and eventually you
would get it. This is not only because He says it, but also
because you focused more on the Giver than the promised gift,
proving your intention to have Him above every other
substitute. Remember what Jesus said, even before you desired
it, God knew you had need of it; yet He said "seek first the
Kingdom".
This whole part may sound a bit outrageous in

comparison to the principles of faith we know, and as I also
outlined in the book "A Man For The Moment", but I have
learnt that if we'd just leave our desires for a while to focus on
God- that is, our ideal for His, our timing for His, we'd have
manifold more of everything we left a while ago. Apparently,
it's good we are aware of the fact that often times our strong
desire for a thing hinders the flow of God's power when we
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completely shut Him out of it; and so what this means is that
because our desperation clutches to such a thing, we pinch off
God's hand from the helm of the situation at hand. It's ironic
but it is true that in this life we get the things we worry less
about as confirmed by Jesus in Matthew 6:25-34. This is so
because when we worry so much about a thing, and it seems
not forthcoming, we kill the joy of the Lord needed as a
receptor to obtain it; but when we concentrate more on the
Lord, we obtain more joy to receive. When we choose to trust
Him regardless of how long it takes, we keep joy ablaze.
Thus, learn to focus more on God's daily plan for you

than on how you can help God bring the promise to pass, and
this you do by simply following His lead. The moment you
learn to realize that all good things come from God, you will
find enough peace to rest in God's timing, being assured that
the good Lord who has given us all the goodness of Christ will
surely be good to you as He's promised. Be the individual that
says God's will first before desire, and the universe will
conspire to say you first. This is biblical truth; and it's the only
truth I know.
I have also observed that we only get depressed in the

waiting period when we pay more attention to what society
would say than to what God has already said. Society says
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"You are 40 and unmarried", and you drown yourself in the

tears of self-pity, even after God already said "You are 40 and
getting married". If we let it, these words of society will force
us into believing that indeed waiting is just an excuse for God's
unwillingness to do it, though that's a lie.
In addition to that, when we seek people's word of

approval on what God already assured us of, we set ourselves
up for a cascade of trifling doubts and hampered worthiness
towards God. God doesn't desire to produce fair weather
disciples who stay faithful only when the goods are regular, but
those who will stand with Him in all situations. Those who
would keep His words as number one both in the good and the
bad. And that's why whenever we are tempted to go our own
way or do our own thing, thereby taking the helm that we know
should belong in God's hands, we must quickly key ourselves
to the revelation of God in His sovereign state as still being in
control of every area of our lives. We must seek a sporadic
increase in faith by submerging ourselves in the knowledge of
Him who's called us to break our fall when situations let us
down, thereby assuaging our fears and fortifying His saving
grace to show up on our behalf.
Don't give up on God just yet, He still has more in store

for you including those He already promised you. In fact, being
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saved encompasses more than just a free pass to heaven- which

is simply a benefit of being in Christ amongst others. He has a
whole lot prepared for us here on earth; one of which is
extraordinary grace to be just as He is. Being in Christ, there's
enough grace supplied on you to become God's best. Scripture
tells us there is the grace of God which was shown to all men
(Titus 2:11), and brings them to the knowledge of Him; but
there's another- for those already in Christ. Another for you and
I inclusive; and that's the grace of Jesus Christ, as labelled by
Paul, which takes us out of our poor status into the richness of
His glory. The grace that assures us of His exact position in the
sight of God. Hence, simply trust Him; He already has you
covered.
You might have been doing the best of all God asked
you to, and yet there's no evidence of all you expect from Him.
As hard as this might be, wait for Him. It wasn't that easy for
me; it isn't even now, but if we love God and believe Him to be
true, we'd trust Him enough to wait for Him despite how long it
takes; because we can be sure that when He does show up, it
would surely be a spectacular sight that can't be ignored. You
see, the evidence of love is trust which is culminated in
obedience. Thus, if you love God, trusting shouldn't be difficult
even if it appears not easy at times.
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Like I said already, when the wait gets longer, it only

means the wage is getting larger. You may not believe it, but it
has proven true in my life severally. So, to receive this wage,
when the wait gets tougher, you must get tougher in your trust
in God as well. This proves how hungry we are for God's best,
and God says to the hungry "Blessed you are...for you shall be
filled" (Matthew 5:6). Sometimes I sort of believe that God
keeps us off our expected desires for a while to prove our
priorities- the giver or the gift; and to see if He would still be in
control of our lives in our idle moments, because the truth is if
He can't control us when we are idle, then how can He when
we become too busy or too active with our respective works.
Always remember that we are the lights of the world;

and as light keeps shining in the dark until it finds an opening
to bring a manifestation that can be seen, so must we even in
our most aggrieved moments. Learn from the stars, they shine
the brightest when it's darkest. As lights, darkness has no place
in us or over us unless we make a place for it in our hearts and
minds, and so does disbelief. Fear, doubt and desperation
should have no space to settle within us. Just as the light bulb
serves no purpose without the electric source, and thus must
remain with it, so also must we remain with God our Source if
we must be our very best. Peradventure, the circuit develops a
momentary fault, it doesn't mean the bulb isn't going to be lit
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again, because as soon as the circuit becomes activated, it

resumes its shine. Same way, no matter how long God keeps
you in the waiting room, as far as He's not broken and can
never, you can be assured that soon enough you'll shine again.
And this is exactly why choosing to go against God's best is the
wrecking ball in a man's life that crushes the very best he has in
him.
Though our hearts may seem torn at the moment of this

delay, yet as Casting Crowns suggest, we must still choose to
praise Him in our storms, for indeed every tear we cry is in His
hands as a reminder that we have needs, and trust Him He is
always true to His word. You'd recall I said what God seeks is
value- now if God finds a man to trust Him, He finds a greater
reason to bless. It is said that when grace speaks, circumstances
listen; same way when trust is involved, disappointment is
dissolved.
There's a time in a man's life when the most essential

things in his life stop being the things he sees, the things he
hears, and those he feels, but rather the things he chooses to
see, to hear and to feel. In the deepest abyss of pain, a man who
still chooses to trust God is the man who has the capacity to
bring heaven on earth when the earth has been unattended by
the heavens for a while. Our Jesus still trusted the Father even
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whilst on the cross to do as He had declared, and today heaven

exists within us. There is power in trusting God: so therefore
choose to trust Him right now in that storm you're experiencing
today.
I often feel just as bad as you do when unpleasant

things happen. But I note that if the delay I experience, sort of,
is as a result of my ill-actions, then I could worry or be sorry
only if it leads to a return to God and not my torture; but if it's
all in God's plan, then I have no need to worry. I don't know
more than God does; so if He says this is good for me, then
even when the pain is toughest, I must choose joy because that
is what I need. If He's said it, then I'd rather give myself to the
belief that He would do it, than to the torture that He wouldn't.
I have also learnt by His grace that if we look at all

challenges this way, we wouldn't always have to walk around
with wet eyes all the time. Jesus saw death as a sleep from
which you eventually awake. Even Paul emphasized on the
same- all because they decided to judge all that occurred to
them from God's perspective rather than men's point of view.
They decided to see death as a dress rehearsal from mortality to
immortality and from humanity to divinity; and all their
sufferings as a preliminary of the greater glories in the main
event to come. They lived life with a mindset that portrayed the
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absoluteness of their confidence in God that spells out “If you

say it is Lord, so is it!”
As we can see in Samuel’s case (1 Samuel 3:10-11),

God will not talk more than He has until we let Him; similarly
He won’t act more than He has until we let Him by our actions
of faith. Jesus proved this when He couldn’t do so much in
Nazareth due to their unbelief. Like Scripture reveal in its
wisdom, the best we can receive is the best we can believe for.
Don’t cut short God’s grand plan for you by seeking
alternatives in unbelief. Let Him finish the good work He has
started in your life, because He really wants to.
Many of us don’t care to get involved in actions that

may affect our latter generation just like Hezekiah did when he
let the envoys of Babylon into the treasuries of the temple.
When we go against the tide of God’s will, we set sail for a
recurrence of aweful events God desired to keep us off from.
These malicious events could continue as a cascade into
posterity causing a slippery slope all because we couldn’t wait
for God’s ideal time. Take Gehazi for example, he caused his
entire posterity to possess the leprosy carrier gene in its
dominant variant that they could never escape it.
Don’t run too fast than God’s plan so as not to outrun

His intentions for your life and future. Don’t even assume He’s
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incapable in order to go your way and be your own god all

because the signs aren’t there. Jesus taught that the sign of
Jonah is enough for us all- and one thing that scene in scripture
shows us that spending three days in the belly of hopelessness
doesn’t mean there’s no way for you anymore. Eventually, you
shall rise out of the deep if only you would align your actions
back to His plan as Jonah also did. Our ideals are not always
God’s ideals, nor His ours, yet the fact that His ideal isn’t so
pleasant to us at the moment does not imply it isn’t so perfect
for us. It is!
Don’t assume God can’t fix your ordeals because you

can’t see the flashes of manifestations seen in others in your
life. Avoid it. If God has said a thing He will do it. This should
be the hundredth time I’m saying that, right? And I’ll keep
saying it, because I believe it is true, and it is. Some have
decided to believe only when there are signs, but you’ll be
blessed to believe Him even without any apparent sign. He
revealed Himself to Samuel through His word and Samuel
believed Him, and eventually he had a word of his- a testimony
of his (1 Samuel 3:21-4:1). If it could work for Samuel, it can
for you. If he could have a testimony, you can have one too.
All you need to do is to inextinguishably trust God at all cost.
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Job, in his pain, wrote one of the most exhilarating

words that tells us that we don’t need signs to believe just His
word, because God expects us to have faith at just the sound of
His voice through His word (Romans 10:17). Job said,
“But if I go to the east, He is not there; if I go to the

west, I do not find Him. When He is at work in the north, I do
not see Him; when He turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of
Him. But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me,
I shall come forth as gold. My feet closely followed His steps; I
have kept to His way without turning aside. I have not departed
from the commands of His lips; I have treasured the words of
His mouth more than my daily bread” (Job 23:8-12 NIV).
Do not let signs be your reason to trust God to show up,

let His words do that for you; for He keeps His word, and out
of every grill in His time He brings forth gold. Now you’ll
understand why Habakkuk said though the fig do not
blossom….yet will I rejoice; yet will I joy in the God of my
salvation. He is my strength and gives me hind’s feet to walk
upon high places.
Don’t lose faith in God. Don’t get impatient with Him.

When it seems hard to endure, remember those words and ask
the Holy Spirit to fill you afresh with grace to overcome the
temptations of the hard time. Ask for the strength to hold on
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until He brings a way of escape and elevation, rather than

forging a way yourself to the riches you desire as the Lord’s
disciple did.
Judas betrayed Jesus according to Mark 14:6-10

because he got upset when Jesus sidelined his opinion of
making a merchandise out of the alabaster box of sweet
perfume. I like to believe he lost confidence in Jesus’ style of
leadership and His mode of taking care of them for a moment
because he wanted the gains Jesus told him to wait for, instead
of pursuing it at the expense of life eternal. Perhaps he thought
Jesus couldn’t help their money problems with that kind of
attitude, since he didn’t witness the miracle of the money
minting fish; and as a result became the son of perdition as
prophesied in scripture.
Despite Jesus’ words of the meek inheriting the earth-

that is, those who wait trustfully on God (see Psalm 37:9),
Judas didn’t choose to depend on those words, he wanted to
make himself rich and eventually it turned much worse than he
anticipated all because he couldn’t trust Jesus for all He said as
He said it.
In contrast, never relent in your belief that God can

come through for you. Judas had more regrets, more sorrows,
more pain after his self-pleasing escapade than before then;
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showing us that any exercise outside God’s plan for us is just a

boomerang that eventually takes us back to the pains we
thought we left behind, regardless of how far it covered. What
more can I say?
Waiting on God is a preparation for the actualization of

God’s will for your life. That is why I hold a salient belief that
nothing is the reality of God’s will until God says it’s time.
And so therefore, innovating a fleshly means to get what God
promised doesn’t make it the will of God simply because He
said it. For instance, if God promised you would have a
Mercedes this year, literally it means owning a Mercedes is
God’s will for you. However, if you go out and steal a
Mercedes, yes! You now own one, but it still doesn’t make
your action the perfect will of God for you because you got it
out of the context He had in mind for you. Worst of all you got
it in sin. I hope you understand me.
Similarly, it was always God’s will for man to eat of the

tree of life (see Revelations 22), but in the garden on earth He
prohibited the same to Adam (see Genesis 3); such that having
eaten of the forbidden fruit, God couldn’t trust him anymore
and as such seemed no longer as His will for him. I hope you
really understand what I’m trying to say here. I have seen many
a person try to cook up the reality of all God has promised
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them. Let’s go back to the example in our opening scene. God

promised Abraham a son, so it was His will for Abraham to
have a son; but when Abraham went behind closed curtains to
mechanize the reality of that promise, thereby procreating
Ishmael, though a son was born, yet it wasn’t the promised.
Once again, because at the moment it was outside His plan for
him. You can go ahead and technically create what seems like
the future God promised you, but if it isn’t the one He planned
for you, it’s definitely not His perfect will for you.
When God makes us wait, it doesn’t mean He’s going

back on His word, it just means He’s preparing us for the
accomplishment of His word. Even in the case of Isaac and
Rebekah, assuming Isaac ran off and got Rebekah pregnant
while she was still a young maiden in her father’s house, he
would have gone off God’s will for him, even though it would
have seemed like he helped God hasten things up. Note, God’s
perfect will is that which has His final approval, not ours.
In waiting, God teaches and trains us on how to trust

Him for- relying on Him for, and to always expect of Him-that
which is perfect for us in His sight in the very present moment
we find ourselves. He is always willing to carry us through our
most difficult time, but first we have to stop our flesh driven
and impaling attitude that suggest we quickly do what God
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cannot or won’t do, and start trusting Him for who He is. You
know it’s even eating up every religious sphere now that we
even preach it indirectly when we use those unpopular words
heaven help those who help themselves, which of course can
never be found in scripture. God’s command to you is Trust.
Trust Him to revive your business even as you give your best
daily; trust Him to restore your home; trust Him to rejuvenate
your job and re-establish your losses. Even when after a whole
lot of supplications it still seems somewhat hazy, keep trusting
Him. Keep laying it all on Him through your everyday actions
and responses.
Like I said earlier regarding married fellows- perhaps,

possibly you have been praying to God to change your
spouse’s attitude. To make him or her strong and better instead
of weak-willed and nonchalant as they may be for example. It’s
not our job to condemn them, for God hasn’t yet given us the
ministry of judgment, just that of reconciliation. So don’t push
them to the wall of condemnation. Rather, in your process of
waiting for God’s answer, go ahead and complement your
spouse’s weakness; cover his or her weakness. In God’s
presence, mankind remains His bride, and when this bride in
Adam failed, God covered his nakedness, until He brought
about a holy thing that would right all the wrong found in him-
all of this through a human vessel.
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As you keep waiting for that change in them, cover

their flaws by filling up where they fail. In this God will
strengthen your strengths. Also know that when I say waiting
on God, I mean perfectly by letting go to let him, and not
trying to force the change on them like a dictator. You can’t
play God and be man at the same time. In fact, you can’t
change anyone, only God can. I’m not saying counselling or
therapy is ineffective; all I’m saying is that despite everything
no man truly has the sole power to change another. That power
lies with God, in whose hands the king’s heart is and is turned
to whatsoever direction He desires. So, don’t play God, rather
keep helping them, praying for them, encouraging them, filling
their lapses as Christ did for His disciples until their total
conversion. Eventually, because God never fails, He’d bring
about that change. Why? Because you trusted Him. That’s
what believing in Jesus can do for us (see Acts 16:31).
If I asked why you decided to follow Jesus, you might

say because someone preached to you. But that’s not true. If it
was, you would have received Him the very first day you came
across the gospel, but you didn’t. You are saved because even
though someone prayed for you, and preached to you, God
convinced and convicted you where you stood. So again, your
transformation is not in anyone’s hands, and as much as I may
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want to say otherwise it’s not completely in yours, it’s

primarily in God’s.
And God is always ready to help us until we’re lifted to

the apex He designed for us. Both in harsh and conducive
periods, He never leaves our side as long as we never leave
His. And even when we periodically do, He is still faithful to
His nature of gracefully sustaining us. When it seems like we
can’t find Him, like we read in Job earlier in this chapter, He’s
simply refining us until He brings out the gold in us.
Here’s a story by an anonymous author I once read in a

book written by Willie Jolley, which reassures us that even in
the storm, God is with us and is still over the storm, giving us
no single reason to worry or fear.
“One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was

walking along a beach with God. Across the sky flashed scenes
from his life. For each scene he noticed two sets of footprint in
the san; one belonging to him, the other to the Lord. When the
last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the
footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the
paths of his life, there were only one set of footprints. He also
noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in
his life. This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord
about it. ’Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you that
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you’d never leave me or forsake me. You said you would walk
with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life, there was only one set of
footprints. I don’t understand why when I needed you the most
you would leave me!’ The Lord replied, ‘My precious, precious
child. I love you and I would never leave you. During your time
of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints in
the sand……it was then when I carried you”
Always stay noted that God never backs down on a man

who trust Him enough to make Him his back up and more than
enough to make him his backbone. And believe me, if you
could see the end from now, you would gladly spite the world’s
opinion and trust Him enough to wait on Him; for as faithful as
there can be, those who wait on Him always have an
inheritance in Him. Like Solomon advised, “Trust in the Lord
with all your heart….and He shall direct your path” (Proverbs
3:5), and you can be sure He never leads astray. So, if the word
He’s spoken is the end you see today, then why don’t you go
ahead and trust Him now?
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…..THE LIFT IS SECURED IN THE

LORD
If we live and have our being in God, then it means all we'd
ever need can be found in Him. On this note, we can ward off
every fear that creeps into our lives, being rest assured that
whatever God hasn't given us is something we can survive
without for the moment if we really check deeper rather than
giving in to our peripheral worries. All in all, if everything
good we can ever receive comes from the Lord, then our lifting
up lies yet in His hands.
Hannah's choice of prayer reveals this truth to us. "My

heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high"
(1 Samuel 2:1 NIV). Despite the human taunts that surrounded
her previous state of barrenness, she never for once stopped
believing that God held the key to her revival. She was
confident that if she could just get a word from the Lord,
everything would be alright; and when she heard those
reassuring words of Eli about what God said concerning her,
she never wept or lived in bitterness again. Scripture says "she
ate and was no longer down casted" (1 Samuel 1:18). The
moment, like Hannah, you start to believe that all you need is
in God, and that His words are enough proof for you to know
it's secured, then you'd never give a minute of your life to being
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grievous anymore, neither expend energy looking for a

shoulder to cry on.
God's plan, I believe, was to take Hannah to a level

where her hunger for a miracle would surpass her fears of not
getting one. After the wait, He was gracious towards her and
she had five more children. That's exactly what He also does
with us. If God is so ever faithful, then He can't be good and
not good anymore because generations passed. He remains the
same. Throughout scripture He attempts to show us reasons
why we shouldn't worry or live in fear. In Isaiah 43:1-4, He
says that before He breaks His promises to us, a nation will
first have to be completely destroyed. That's one heck of an
assurance one must believe.
I love how the NIV translates Luke 1:37. It says "For

no word from God will ever fail". God is not a God of excuses.
He doesn't need to excuse Himself out of shame. He doesn't. If
He won't do it, He won’t; but if He's said He would, He will.
We just have to believe Him to fulfil all He's said, for in this is
the greatest degree of blessedness. Don't form your own way
all because you believe God has left you in your wilderness.
Always remember that He makes even a way in the wilderness.
Trust Him!
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..EVEN ABRAHAM COULD HAVE

DOUBTED
Just like you and I, Abraham had every opportunity to doubt
God. What would you say if you were to spend almost 50 years
without a child, and the next day you receive a promise which
would take another silver jubilee to come into manifestation?
Well, if it was me, I feel like I would implode into a state of
depression by human reaction; but Abraham, he didn't fall off
track. Though at one point he went against God's will, yet he
never stopped trusting God, and it showed in his attitude to
everyone around him.
Abraham had a choice to disbelieve God, still he chose

to stay believing. He could have had a crisis of faith, but
instead he stood without staggering at the brink of infeasibility.
Like Paul admonished in his letter to the Corinthian Church
"Stand firm in the faith" (1 Corinthians 16:13). Stand firm on
all God has said. You know, faith is an activity. It must be
reflected in our thought patterns, actions and judgments. We
must show it by how we talk and how we react. Faith doesn't
find another way because it feels God has failed. Faith waits.
I once had a revelation where I came into a laundry

house, and met a manly figure just staring at the see-through
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glass of the machine. I asked him why he didn't just put all of it
at once, and he said "No; one step at a time". At the moment I
woke up, still awe-struck by what it could have meant. There
and then I could hear His calm voice telling me that we mustn't
rush out to do the things we think we want all because it
appears harmless or because He hasn't showed up yet, but to
walk with Him one step at a time as He leads. At that point in
time I had a task I was being persuaded to do by a family next
door. It may have seemed harmless or good, but as long as it's
not what God wanted, it wasn't good enough. So, what do we
do? Like Abraham, we follow. As He opens a door we walk
through, instead of trying to open other doors because His
perfect choice isn't our desired choice.
God doesn't keep a door closed because He despises us,

He keeps it closed because He loves us. He wants to prepare us
to be ready and fit when He does open it. Who lets a toddler
ride a bike no matter how much he yearns for it? No one, at
least not until he's matured enough. Abraham proved he was
ready that even after Isaac was born, he still kept God as the
dearest to his heart, trusting God to raise the child he was
instructed to kill (see Hebrews 11:17-19). His faith in God to
raise up Isaac was greater than his fear that the lad would die.
Listen to me: God answers every request of His children. If it
hasn't manifested, then He knows perfectly it isn't time for it
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yet. When its moment of need arises, it shall spring forth....if

you believe. "He is a very present help in the time of need".
THE CROSS ISN'T WEAKNESs; it’S

STRENGTH
God never responded instantly to Christ's plea while on the
cross, yet it didn't mean He forgot Him. In fact, in Jesus' words,
the Father always heard Him (John 11:42). His plans were still
intact for Him, but the cross was something He had to bear.
Same way, your cross to carry may remain longer than you
expect, but never longer than God knows you can bear nor
longer than God has willed it to be. It is all in His
developmental plan for you- only trust that it will all work out
at the end for your good.
Jesus knew the cross was ahead, yet He also knew He

was going to prepare a place for us in the kingdom through it,
with the joy set before Him. When danger surrounded Him, He
saw only glory. He was confident in what the Father had told
Him- never to leave Him in corruption; and God didn't. God
won't leave you with your cross eventually. It would simply
just be an avenue to your greater glory. Once He's crucified
your reliance on the flesh, He will raise you up to a greater
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degree of glory. Your wait on God is not your weakness, it is a

means to renew your strength and sense of belief in God.
TO HONOUR IS YOUR ASSURANCE

TO BE HONORED
Just like it is with other entities, the best way to receive from
God is to please Him. Herodias understood this principle of
getting through pleasure, and as a result used her daughter's
ability to please men with her appealing dances to manoeuvre
Herod's sense of judgment, and eventually got what she desired
most- though in this case it was the head of John the Baptist.
Same way it is with God. When we walk as He wants

us to, and work as He expects us to, we put Him in a spot to
bless us. He said to Solomon, 'ask whatever you want of me
and I will do it'; and this was because Solomon made a pleasant
offering unto Him.
When we honour God by placing all our trust in Him,

He honours us in return. It doesn't matter the circumstances of
things, honour has a way of making ways out of nowhere. He
said to Eli through Samuel, "Those who honour me, I will
honour, but those who despise me will be disdained" (1 Samuel
2:30 NIV). If God has given you an instruction to follow, even
if it's at your most dreadful moment, it's better you do well to
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follow suit. It is only proper that we submit to Him trustfully,

giving Him the vote of confidence that if He has proclaimed a
thing, regardless of the appearance of things in the present, He
is well able to bring it all to pass (Proverbs 27:18).
Eliphaz, a friend of Job, enlightens us with such

wisdom. He said, " Submit to God and be at peace with Him; in
this way prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from
His mouth and lay up His words in your heart" (Job 22:21-22
NIV). If we would honour God enough to trust Him to show up
at His time, He will honour us by showing up in His time.
….just a step mOre

A Chinese proverb states that ‘One moment of patience may
ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a
whole life’. Most times, I wonder if those individuals who
missed God’s best for them had waited a little bit longer
instead of acting so rashly would have had a different fate than
they had. Like Judas, or those disciples who detested Jesus
according to John 6:66. I once came across a fable about how
patience truly rewards those who walk in it. It goes thus:
“Once a king had announced that anyone who wanted

the post of his personal aide must meet him. Many people
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gathered in the palace. The king led them to a pond and said,
‘Whoever will fill this pond’s water in this pot will be chosen
for the post. But remember there is a hole in the pot’. So some
people left without a single try. While some people tried once
and then said ‘The king has probably chosen someone else,
with such an impossible task. Let’s go’. But one man kept
filling the pot with pond water patiently. He filled the water in
the pot from the pond and came out on the ground. But always
within few moments, the water poured on the ground
completely. He tried that innumerable times. At last the pond
became empty. The man found a diamond ring in the empty
pond and he gave it to the king. At this the king said ‘This ring
is a reward for your patience and hardwork. You are fit for the
job”.
Like the man in the story, you could just be a step away
from the best God has prepared for you. When others leave,
wait on Him. When others doubt, trust in Him. When others
bail out, stay with Him. Don’t destroy your next step because
you want to jump from the top of the stairs to the bottom; the
story, the experience and everything in that next step was
created for your good. Don’t miss any of it- wait for God.
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Furthermore, other than all that has been written,

whenever God asks us to wait even when He knows our
external excitement depends on it, it is basically for the
procreation of three possibilities I already mentioned in an
earlier chapter. These three possibilities include;
1. DRAWING CLOSER TO HIM: I want to

emphasize more on this. If you observe all that
happens around you, you’ll notice that a lot of
people only remember to draw nearer to God when
there’s a difficulty. And since God values our
eternal rest than the temporals you seek, He would
be more inclined to let you wait, if eventually it
would lead to the salvation of your eternal soul. For
example, let’s use Paul as our case study. Paul had
been praying to God to take his thorns away, yet the
only answer God would give would be ‘My grace is
sufficient for you’. Sometimes, we might be forced
by the verbosity of that text to believe God was
enjoying Paul’s pains, but that was the least of all
truths. God didn’t savour in Paul’s difficulties, He
just knew that if Paul was ever going to stop being
the person he once was completely, he needed to
depend and focus on Him- and the only way to do
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that was to draw closer to God to obtain the grace

needed to overcome the taunts of his struggle.
Like Paul, if God is keeping the instant

answers we think we need on hold, it is because He
wants us nearer to Him. Jesus didn’t bother to tell
His disciples to seek miracles from heaven, He told
them to seek the kingdom first. To seek God first.
This He did because He knows that whoever has the
kingdom has its treasures as whoever has the giver
has the gift. If it worked in time past, it can also
work for you. All you’ve got to do is to avoid going
AWOL when the storms come and the rescue you
seek seem far-fetched; rather use the winds of the
storm as an advantage to sail the more closer to the
very abode of God.
2. REMOVAL OF DISCONTENTMENT
ACCORDING TO HIS WILL: Regardless of our
very own standards, God expects us to give thanks
in whatever condition we find ourselves. He expects
us to be content at every stage of our walk with
Him. In fact, other than godliness (i.e. every trait
that makes us like God), contentment is the other
virtue he counts as profitable enough to make us
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more like Christ (1 Timothy 6:6). Jesus was a man

of great contentment here on earth. Though He was
in the form of God, yet He took upon Himself the
flesh of mankind and never complained about the
tantrums the flesh carries with it. He was Lord in
heaven, yet on earth He became the carpenter’s son.
The Son of God who became the son of man- yet
He was okay with all God had in mind for Him.
Even when the weakness of the flesh gripped Him,
He still said ‘let Thy will be done’. And for all of
this God said of Him, ‘This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased’. God prepares us to be like
Christ- and often times it is through His refinery
such as the waiting period, because without doubt,
they are the most elaborate tests to confirm man’s
most treasured priorities. Paul confessed “I have
learnt the secret of being content in any and every
situation” (Philippians 4:12), and that reason
enforced him to seek to draw strength from the Lord
at any point in time- the same strength that
empowers Him within him to do all things. The
moment we start seeking refuge by drawing from
His strength instead of relying on ours is the
moment we realize that in all things waiting when
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God says wait isn’t torture, but an act of confidence

that indeed His grace is what we live by and not our
human deeds.
3. CREATING DOORS OF OPPORTUNITY: At
other times, God makes us wait to receive
something greater than we ever expected. At first
Joseph would have loved to remain as his father’s
favourite, possibly leading to his settling in some
tent close to Jacob’s for the rest of his mortal life;
and when God couldn’t show up to save him from
his brothers in the pit or from Potiphar in the
dungeon he would have felt despised, but little did
he know that God had bigger plans for him. And the
same applies to us.
Sometimes it will feel like He is intentionally
keeping us in our discomfited state, but even if He
is, it is because He is creating something bigger and
better for us in a fashion we might never fully
comprehend but definitely will appreciate
eventually. While we fidget in doubt at moments
like this, God is so sure of His plans for us that He
says, ‘’Behold I will do a new thing; now it shall
spring forth…’’ (Isaiah 43:19). God doesn’t judge
us by the past, He does by the present- and the
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present to Him is what He has in mind for us.

Before God, tomorrow, today, a year from this day
is seen as now, paying the same attention to it as if
it were really right now. Also, when you go to a
place you’ve never been before, you might be asked
to wait a while to confirm if you are really licensed
to be there- that’s in the secular world; similarly
when God is planning to take you to a new level,
one major sign is that He asks you to wait a while.
For when God tells a man to wait, it’s because
there’s a larger scene ahead that he needs all the
instructions he can receive in order to fulfil and
fully relish it. Opportunities are an evidence of
blessedness; and blessed is everyone who waits on
the Lord to receive.
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SUMMARY
Most times when God wants to teach us
wisdom, He doesn’t always teach us with a
blackboard, He teaches us with real life
experiences. So, if you’re passing through a hard
time, it isn’t because God can’t save you, rather
often times it’s because He wants us to see
firsthand that there’s no circumstance He can’t
deliver men from. However, God does not
expect us to see before believing, He desires we
believe to see- and this we do by trusting Him to
do all He’s said despite our long wait. God has
His reasons for every wait. Like you know, for
every test there’s an appointed time for it to
come to an end, and with that end a great
reward. Trust God to the extent that after your
testing period you shall receive the reward
reserved for those who believe in Him.
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CHAPTER [6] IS
THIS GOD SO CALLED
PERFECT PLAN FOR
ME?
“They called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign
Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of
the earth and avenge our blood? Then each of them
was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a
little longer…. ” (Revelations 6:10-11 NIV)
SCENE:
“Let’s assume these fellows had walked as Jesus did on

the earth, experiencing God to the fullest. They’d seen God heal
the ill, give sight to the blind, put an end to incurable diseases-
thereby raising the bar of their belief in God’s ability to do the
impossible. To them, God had the power to overthrow any
decision and to affect fate as He pleased. On a certain day when
they sought for the expression of this power they believe God to
house, they were lost to the thought that God had abandoned
them. In the moments of their greatest grief they called out to the
God whom they hold close to their hearts as being able to do all
things, but instead of running to aid them, He remained where He
sat. They must have felt betrayed, having the thought that just as
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God could rescue Christ from the garden of sorrows, and yet
didn’t, He’s doing the same to them. In angry moans, they vent
out that displeasure regarding their omen that they question Him
saying, “After all I have done, is this your presumed perfect match
of a plan?” Their emotions easily express their dissatisfaction, yet
He seems so lax, unshaken and unperturbed, that all He could say
is a simple wait. Then they start questioning themselves about how
maybe it wasn’t really Him who had instructed them to ply that
road, since the word ‘wait’ wasn’t the most appropriate for
something they sought intensely with unpacified desire. ‘Why
would He ask me to wait when He can easily just do it in a
second?’ becomes the center thought of the aftermath reflections.
‘Is this what I became a Christian for?’, ‘Is this all I’m worth to
Him?’ However, God remains steadied on His command to wait,
yet with a touch of comfort to reaffirm His loyalty, such that even
when they snarl at Him with an accent of distaste, saying ‘Is this
your plan for me?’, He can say ‘Yes, this is my plan for you, but
it’s more bigger than all you can see right now’. This answer of His
coupled with the reignited confidence they’ve received of Him
forces them to say ‘Not mine, but Your will be done’, especially
with the knowledge that He can turn the tables of their omen in a
jiffy”
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S
o, is the suffering God’s perfect plan for us? Is the
pain we experience His bounty of happiness? No; for
while this suffering is necessary as it enables us to
appreciate the benefits of rest and peace, it is not the game
plan. It is a means to the end. It is not God’s perfect plan; as
Peter spoke of, it is a preamble to His perfect plan, which is to
make us as perfect as He created us to be (1 Peter 5:10). Next
time, you feel the urge to ask “Is this your so called plan?”
trust God to refute that statement with an eventual end that
expresses His plan from the beginning as that of peace and not
of evil, bringing to you the future expected of you.
You’d notice from the opening text that before God

asked them to wait, He gave them a ‘white robe’, and which
was exactly that given to Christ at His resurrection as well as
Joshua the High Priest who had been harassed by the devil.
God sees us in the same light He sees Jesus- as heirs. He sees
us as wonderful children He can carry on His shoulders, and
lift so gently with His arms. What it means is that God loves us
just as much or even more as a man loves his child. In His
exact words, He loves us as much as He loves the Son; and we
know He loves Jesus so much. He never and will never do
anything to cause us harm. Its primary appearance may suggest
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such, but He doesn’t. With Christ, for instance, it felt as though

He had forgotten Him, but at the deepest reach of
abandonment, God drew Him out of Sheol. In the moments
beyond what we can bear, He shows up.
God comforts us with the same comfort He comforted

Christ; with the same Spirit who raised Him up from the dead
ever able to quicken our mortal bodies. That means, add
strength to our normal estate and capacity; and ever available
to strengthen us in our deepest groans. In our wilderness of
temptations, He comes as the Spirit of strength. In the presence
of problems, He remains as the Power that facilitates our
healing. On our knees in our personal Gethsemane, He is our
Angel of rejuvenation; and in our deepest hell, He is the Voice
that calls forth its gates to be opened for our release unto true
living. His intentions for each moment is in line with His word
for each moment, and in all cases and at all moments His plans
remain of peace towards us; even in the worst scenario of
situations when things don’t look as His words make them
seem, they remain so. As a result, He has prepared all we need
to sustain us throughout the wait. David said since I was young,
now I am old, I have never seen the righteous forsaken. We just
have to trust His word for it.
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Unfortunately, many use the subject of suffering as an

excuse to reject any thought of God. We ask questions like
‘Why will a God who is good promote suffering?’ and ‘Doesn’t
suffering disprove the Person of God?’ We make the subject
the backbone of our every doubt toward God, when its
existence is the very reason we should believe Him- seeing He
then cursed the earth for Adam’s transgressions; though the
earth may remain in perpetual curse, but you in Christ cannot
(Galatians 3:13) because you are already the new creation the
earth must wait for the fulfilment of Revelations 21 to become.
Just so you know, God doesn’t promote suffering.

Suffering is a part in the puzzle of this present world, set into
motion by man’s intercourse with sin, which cannot be
separated from it, but for those under His guide He promises
solace. Until He returns, wiping away all tears from the eyes of
mankind, suffering will not cease- but as already stated we in
Him have a hope of rest from the world’s view of this
tantrums. They may seem to have scratched us, but they can
never cut us. However, God doesn’t promise a trouble free life
but a trouble-less one as I suppose I’d previously spoken about.
Remember, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the
Lord delivers them from all (Psalm 34:19). Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear nothing
(Psalm 23:4). Not trouble free yet trouble less. Yet all in all,
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God doesn’t condemn us to a life of suffering, rather through

the sufferings overwhelming this world forges out of us men
and women of great impact. God knew the world was in
perpetual suffering, and that’s why He has sent you- the
express image of Christ.
We, as children of God, must learn to appreciate that in

Christ- in whom we are-greatness is our school and patience is
our levy. That is the price we get to pay for our greatness to be
realized. Trustfully waiting for God with a good attitude, which
is what I call patience, is a key to receive from God- a key
deposited in us by the Holy Spirit. Even Jesus admonished His
audience with the words “In patience, possess ye your soul”
(Luke 21:19). The greatest salvation of the soul is obtained by
waiting on Him, even so its greatest benefit. God seeks a
Christian who would trust His unspoken words even in His
silence. Those who would choose to wait on him even when
what they sought to hear was run. And that my friend could be
us if we would trust in those silent moments that utter only the
word “wait”.
God’s silence isn’t always a sign that He’s punishing

us, other times it is just a sign that He has a better plan than the
one we suggested. In the ancient dispensation as recalled in
scripture, it is evident that God abhors sin as He still does now,
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and so finds it despondent to break words with such as

participate in it. But in a situation where God shares words, but
restrict Himself from action for a particular moment, it isn’t a
function of sin then, but one for the fulfilment of purpose. God
not acting doesn’t mean He hates you. His inaction only tells us
He has a proper time and means for achieving things He
desires. Remember how He chose to take Israel through the
Red Sea path rather than through Philistia because He knew
their capacity couldn’t carry the events they would meet there.
We may not agree with that at the moment, yet it

doesn’t change God’s plans. The visible evidences of the
moment may pinch off every bit of faith in us, but never in
God. Scripture says “If we are faithless, He remains faithful,
for He cannot disown Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13 NIV). Since
God is not losing faith in the midst of our discrepancies, we
should remain filled with faith, trusting Him to bring out of us
all He has in mind regardless of our present visible evidence.
The 10th and 11th verses of Isaiah 48 tells us that this

tests we undergo are done for His sake. All the trials of faith
that makes the unbelieving individual bloat are all part of His
way of assessing us. Why? He desires to prove us as true to
evaluate our stand as to whether we can carry the blessings
He’s shipping to our docks. It’s like He’s made a pact with
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Himself to validate all recipients of His true riches, as He did

with Abraham with an evidence of the result of the same in His
words in Genesis 18:17-19. Jesus said if you’re not faithful
with this, how shall the Father commit into thy hands the true
riches (see Luke 16:11). He also does this so that unlike Adam
we won’t run back and blame Him for any faults, retorting that
His blessings set us up for unrighteousness. So, often times, He
refines us first and then He releases us into such realities we
seek. He makes us fit enough to trustfully obey Him and
releases to us afterward what might have taken us away if we
didn’t learn to trust Him- eventually teaching us to love the
giver, and then gives the gifts as expected.
If you’ve heard the grievances of many persons in their

moments of grief, you’d hear them accuse God of not being
sensitive to their needs, like the woman I spoke of at the
beginning of this book. I guess we’ve all done it at some point.
God has never been insensitive to a human need, He’s just
more concerned about what’s really needed by that human at
each point in time. On a scale of preference, He values our
needs than the wants. Even when our wants camouflage as
needs, He’s willing to bend us just to make sure we get the best
there is. At the beginning, it may seem severe and brute to us,
but as time passes we would wish we had suggested it from the
very first day we made our first sentence. As a result of this
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latter end benefit, Paul advises that we ‘stand firm. Let nothing
move you…’ (1 Corinthians 15:58).
You know as individuals who grew up with sermons of

how loving God is, it becomes hard to believe- talk less of
accepting- that a God who claims to love you would keep you
overwhelmed by the troubles surrounding you. Right? With a
mentality such as this, one could be forced to think love hurts,
thereby placing a high bar that reads “No trespassing”. But in
reality love doesn’t hurt, it helps. The scolding you received
from your loving dad wasn’t to keep you inferior all the days of
your life, but to help groom you into a better person who lives
beyond inferior actions. If you have a child, you’d understand;
and if you don’t yet, very soon you will. Most times, the nos
and yeses we receive from those who love us are because they
see what’s best for us that we ordinarily can’t see ourselves. In
fact, the worst moment of love is always to help. And that is
exactly how our trials in God are- to help us.
God loves His own so much that He won’t dare hurt

them unless it was for their own good, which is exactly what
Paul pictured in Romans 8:28. When God pins us to a hard
place with waiting as our only ransom, I believe that it’s only
to help us and not to hurt us as we may have imagined. In fact,
to be sincere, though it is not a theory, I believe that until we
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are proved to a point of no return, we won’t fully appreciate a

comeback. Until we are at a place of mayhems, we won’t
appreciate a miracle. Until we are with our backs to the wall,
we won’t appreciate free space; and until we’ve seen hell, we
won’t appreciate heaven. Perhaps God wants to teach us how
to fully appreciate Him, having now seen that when we thought
it was over, He made it begin afresh again. We may not love
this mode of teaching, but His ways are not as ours. They may
seem sour at first, but eventually they make us soar through a
plexus of our very best. Please don’t believe I’m trying to
defend God, because I’m not fit to, no one is; I’m just telling
you scriptural truths, and it’s the only truth I know.
The Bible states that God spoke to Job out of the storm
(Job 33:1). God will speak to us too in our storms, and He
won’t stop at words, He will bring us out of it, but in His own
time. We are just like Job. Our fretting won’t change a thing.
Our complaints won’t unless God steps in. C’mon, we’ve got
to give God credit for His ability to save, and trust Him that in
His own time, by His design, we will come forth unhurt.
With that said, it’s ironic how we’ve made God a factor
when we say stuff like ‘if God won’t help me then I’ll help
myself’. It is time we realize that He’s indeed the factor that
gives our lives an essence. It’s time we start seeing the picture
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from His view and according to His perspective. It’s time we

begin to understand that He has a perfect plan in place despite
the shenanigans life throws about, and revere Him as such.
When we hand all of ourselves in absolute trust to God,

He hands it back to us, but this time more secured than when
we first had our lives entrusted to self, feelings and fleshly
dispositions. One thing God took time in scripture to explain is
His intention to bring us to a state of rest. To be frank I feel bad
too when bad things happen as some of you may feel now, yet
it suffice me to say, due to my refined knowledge of God, that
there’s no reason to cry endlessly when trials come, because
after that there is always another bound to come. Jesus expects
us to be of good cheer- that is to be joyous even in the midst of
painful situations, and expectant even as we walk through the
aisle of despair and lack, rest assured that God will eventually
show up. In fact, our victory in life is visibly seen not when we
remain happy in joyous moments, but when our happiness
remains constant even in unhappy moments. It’s not a
hypothetical thing, it is something God has seen, done and still
expects to see in the lives of all who represent Christ- for that
is our victory over all circumstance, even our faith to be
cheerful in cheerless events (1 John 5:4).
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The Acts 16:31 covenant assures every believer and

worshipper of Christ of a secured status for not just themselves,
but all covered by the same grace God has given them. It says
that believing in Jesus saves us. The word save is a verbal
expression of the word safe. What this means is that trusting
God with your life through Christ whom is also His word is the
surest and safest thing to do; thereby making the act of heeding
His every word keenly one of maximum benefits, since His
words are a perennial maxim.
In fact, that scripture should encourage you to see that

all things, despite the sights of today, must work for your good
because of His covenant with you. God’s spoken words should
get you all high, since He directs all He’s said unto fulfilment
(see Isaiah 55:11). Generally, when a man gives all of himself
to God, he gives his freewill inclusive…….as Paul wrote when
he pointed Christ as the One who lived his life (see Galatians
2:20). But personally, I have learnt that if a person is a child of
God, despite the whole idea of freewill, God will help him to
make his choices if he lets Him and sometimes even when he
doesn’t. I have seen it happen in my life; and it always turned
out right for me, as I know it will for you. When you compare
its outcome with other people’s lives, it may not measure up;
but when you compare it with the vision God has given you of
yours, it always does.
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This idea of God making our choices is Him directing

our lives by His own schedule and not ours; something similar
to what you may be experiencing. So, simply trust Him to wait
for His. Don’t rush Him with your anxious thoughts. Don’t
curse Him with your impatient approaches. Don’t judge Him
with your complaints; just trustfully wait for Him to do as He
promised He would.
God never fails his own

Not only does God know His own (see 2 Timothy 2:19), He
ranges throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts
are fully committed to Him in their time of need (2 Chronicles
16:9). If God is rest assured He won’t fail us, then why do we
fail in faith to believe He won’t? The gift of sight was not
given for us to judge spiritual things, but the physical things we
see. God expects us to judge His every word by the spurring
feeling built up in our spirit, and not the inklings spelt out by
what we see. Therefore, we must never use human sentiments
to judge God, because His ways reaches beyond the bars our
eyes can behold.
Lauren Daigle, in her song Trust in you, wrote down

these lines:
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“When you don’t move the mountains I’m needing you

to move; When you don’t part the waters I wish I could have
walked through; When you don’t give the answers as I cry out
to you; I will trust….I will trust…..I will trust in you”
And these lines always have a way of giving me a spark

to reconsider if my plans to doubt God are really the best when
I can simply just trust and let Him do what He does best-
Impossibles (Proverbs 27:18).
Only God can take a mess and turn it into a message, a

test into a testimony, a trial into a triumph, and a victim into a
victor. We’d do well to trust Him even at the precipice of this
mess, test, trial, and victimized situation we find ourselves. If
God is committed to us, then we have to keep Him first- by
placing His benevolence above the interpretations of our
casualties. God cares about us; and now I know that He won’t
let us fall unless it’s to help us walk. He won’t let us cry unless
it’s to wash the dirt off the hidden portions of our eyes.
Everything He does is for our good and in our best interest.
Like He said, a mother may abandon her own, but He won’t
and thank goodness that we can count on that.
Regardless of the picture painted by our present

circumstance, we’ll find strength and hope at the end of our
roads if we stay in line with God’s will for us. We risk eternal
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mayhem by leaving His set path for our self-seethed paths. If

like I mentioned, His will is our best, then anything opposite to
that would be less in spite of how appealing it looks. God is so
faithful that the hopeless find their dreams in Him, and the
weak their strength. This is because eventually God always
keeps hope in our future (see Jeremiah 31:17); and
unfortunately if without Him we can do nothing, then it’d be
easier a burden and wiser to go His way, though presently
unpleasant, to obtain all things in Christ, than to lie low forever
with nothing all because we wouldn’t trust Him.
Always be patient to the end. Don’t boycott on Him

because you assume He won’t show up. Don’t surge ahead to
find just any option when God has already told you clearly and
audibly that He would point out the most appropriate one in
due time. Don’t label His timing unreliable nor His intentions
unretractable as it concerns its being accomplished. Scriptures
say He is not slack in His promises as we count such (2 Peter
3:7). If we are patient enough, we’d see how true and perfect
His plan was from the beginning. In silence, we will see
clearly. All the worries and doubts achieve in us is to hinder us
from seeing things in the form God desires we do. The moment
Saul grew impatient and committed a religious felony against
God by offering priestly duties was the exact moment Samuel
showed up. He lost it all by a single minute action of
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impatience all because he couldn’t dare to rely on the words of

the Lord’s oracle (see 1 Samuel 13:10).
We mustn’t rush all out on God. We must instead

follow His schedule. Commit to it. Learn to accept it and
patiently wait for its dividends; for to those patient with Him,
God always pays. Never allow the present misfortune compel
you to an errant act against God. Ignore what seems to be
scattering around you that gives you the urge to think you
should defy God to save yourself, because when a man walk in
line with God’s will, what looks like a scattering becomes a
gathering.
Note the words of Elihu filled with wisdom regarding

situations such as the Job’s ordeal which many a person may
be encountering right now. He said,
“Or someone may be chastened on a bed of pain with

constant distress in their bones…. They draw near to the pit,
and their life to the messenger of death…..God does all these
things to a person-twice, even three times-to turn them back
from the pit, that the light of life may shine on them” (Job
33:19,22,29-30 NIV).
These scripture throws light on the fact that when

things seem unpleasant, often times there is always a pleasantry
found at the end of its purpose. Such that what seemed bad was
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really for our good; for with God all things come into unison
regardless of their features for our good. In fact, the moment
we realize God dictates all that happens to us if we let Him, we
would see all things are possible- even those He told us; and
believe Him they are, for God never disappoints those whose
heart are fixed on Him.
…cast YOur net On gOd’s

WORD
Just as Jeremiah stated in his lamentations about how nothing
can be established unless God has commanded it (see
Lamentations 3:37), putting our desires off the leash doesn’t
certify their occurrences except God desires in them. A lot of
people may not agree with this, but nothing can ever happen as
right as it should without God’s approval on it; and that’s why
the harvest is truly bountiful when the net is cast at His word.
This reminds me of a very significant moment in the

life of Peter in which all Christians should be aware of, being
the inauguration of evangelical missions to save men. Peter had
toiled the seas all night long without a good harvest to
complement his efforts and also to take home. It felt like a
waste of time and energy seeing they had sacrificed their sleep
for eventually nothing. However, the next morning as he and
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his partners washed their nets which had nothing but debris and
prokaryotic entities on it, a man people called the Messiah
showed up with a plea and an instruction, and thereafter their
cleaned nets broke by reason of the massive load of fishes of
all kinds it had apprehended. At the words of this man, all that
couldn’t work out the previous night began to work out all of a
sudden. Their actions had been constant all night long,
throwing their nets multi-directionally, all to no avail, but at
His word, their result changed.
Let’s analyse it one more time. The day before and the
night as well, Peter couldn’t catch a handful of fishes, yet the
next day or to be more precise the next few hours he caught a
truckload at Jesus’ words. Such a great miracle, isn’t it?
However, have it ever occurred to you that God had the power
to have easily directed all the fishes He made populate the
coastal area that morning to the regions around Peter’s boat the
night before. Why did He sort of like leave Peter frustrated all
night only to surprise him at morning light? Anyway that’s
somewhat exactly the same reason why He makes us wait till
His time.
The story of Peter and the bounty of fishes simply

shows us that of course God can do anything, but He does it
best only when He has willed it to be done. Plus, He does
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things in a way that we have extras. Peter had the salvation of

his soul he couldn’t have gotten that night; so God made him
wait only to receive all he expected in a more blissful way plus
what he needed- such that after being stunned by what had
happened, he chose the God who could do these things above
the million worth fishes he had harvested.
So, God’s aim is to give us the best needed to sustain

our victory. It’s like in a soccer game where all the subs are
kept unused throughout the 90 minutes, only to be involved in
the 91st in order to kill off the game. When God keeps us
waiting for so long, it is not because He’s not mindful of us,
because He is; rather it is because He wants what’s best for
both of us. It’s like He saves it only for when He says it is time.
Or until He knows we have truck-like capacity to
accommodate the truck-like release. With Peter, He could have
brought the truckload the night before, yet He made it evident
at His word, and in that instant changed Peter from being the
man he was and could have died being if He hadn’t done it that
way to the man he was created to be. This could be all He has
in mind for you too; for it’s been proven that the best time to
sow and harvest is at His word.
The same lesson can be learnt from Peter’s memoir of

the coin minted in the belly of a fish. Nevertheless, every
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experience God takes us through is to show us He can do all

things with a mandatory prerequisite that we must live on His
word. You’d notice that in both scenarios, the desired occurred
after he had realized that self-effort was never completely
reliant. With that said, I can also say that I have gotten to learn
that everything we encountered in life-every single scene of
our lives-was a lesson; one in which God wanted to teach us
something. We might not have fully appreciated it nor
understood it, yet its essence remains; and our decision to
discover this essence of His is what we call growth and its
content purpose.
That’s why it isn’t the most spiritually hygienic thing to

doubt when unpleasant situations surface. We must learn to
keep our eyes on the essence. Though the walkway (presence)
may be rough, but the essence has around it wrapped all things
purposed for our own good. Before God, essence supersedes
presence; that is, not all you see is what is; all He intends to do
is what is. As much as we may not like the process it comes,
we must choose to grow in it, becoming more and more reliant
on His words than on the pictures we see tape-rolling before us
presently in the physical.
Here are Paul’s words- very inspiring for this subject
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“…..We were under great pressure, far beyond our

ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we
felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened
that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the
dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He
will deliver us again. On Him we have set our hope that He
will continue to deliver us….. For no matter how many
promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so
through Him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God”
(2 Corinthians 1:8-10, 20 NIV).
God always has a plan for whatever He intends to do.

He never gives a proposal without a proposed plan. Arbitrarily,
it may not be what we want to do- that is the form it might
take, but it is what we should. Once He’s promised a thing, He
does it. Though sometimes it might take up a tough covering,
but it’s there and all we have to do is trust Him at His word.
For instance, if we need something sweet, we could easily
pierce a mango or may have to crack open a coconut- all in all,
there is still something in both that is sweet. So, whether we are
made to easily pierce or to crack open, at the end sweetness
remains our result. Little wonder why Paul admonished the
church to prevent themselves from being weary in doing
what’s good- even trusting God, for at the proper time they
would reap a harvest if they don’t give up (see Galatians 6:9).
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Trust His word as true and His choice as best, because really
they are, and in moments from now even time will confirm it.
When God gave the people of Israel a king according to

their desires in Saul- tall, handsome, pleasant on sight, it didn’t
work out; but when He gave them one after His desire in
David, it began to work out, and farther perfected it all in His
king for us- Christ. This is to say that when we cast our nets at
the voice of zeal, we may catch just a little, but if we want a
real harvest, then we’ve got to work with His. We have got to
cast our nets in life on His word- going when He says go, and
staying when He says stay.
I already said that God could make our choices if we let

Him, but if we don’t He lets us make them, and this my friend
is the reason why in life there is eventually the fulfilled and the
unfulfilled. At our births we are all enlisted in the fulfilling, but
many a person make wrong decisions that eventually cut the
journey short. I have with this same hand written that life is
easy, and at the same time written that life is difficult, but now
I know that life is simply all we want it to be. There’s always a
two-way road- ask Joshua if you can find him and you will
learn it’s true. Whichever we pick results in how life becomes
to us at last.
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The present circumstances are not an excuse to pick

wrong. Losing a game by a 10-point margin before its end
doesn’t make a man a loser unless he decides he is. A single
right move could change the whole game; and that’s why our
analysis today shouldn’t destroy the blessings in store for
tomorrow. Like Dr. Myles Munroe would retort “Our greatest
gift isn’t the gift of sight, but the gift of vision”. Our eyes may
see the present suffering and force a reaction based on it, but
our vision sees it as promised and react accordingly. Vision
relies on all written down through the words of God. Vision
concentrates, casting its hopes and expectations on its utmost
value in all God has already said. That’s why vision thrives
even in recessions because it responds not out of emotions, but
how God Himself would. Without vision- seeing things God’s
way, even believers would perish. So, don’t presume God
abandoned you when bad things happen, just switch to the
vision given you by His words and you would see how un-
abandoned you really are.
….PRIORITIZE ON GOD
Another way to scale through the gimmicks of life’s
temptations paraded during the wait is to prioritize on God. To
prioritize in this context means to let God be the standard of
measure in all we do. And so, even in those harsh moments, we
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refuse to cry because based on our judgment now, it’s

something that would pass away really soon, because it’s no
longer about our ability but God’s abilities.
Paul wrote “Not that we are competent in ourselves to

claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from
God” (2 Corinthians 3:5 NIV). The time seems ripe enough as
the moment when all of mankind must begin to return all
glories back to God by actually leaning on Him. Self-praise
and self-reliance were never God’s plan for man, so if you
engage in it, then it simply means you are participating in an
act that was created by the adulteration of God’s eternal will.
God’s plan for us is to abide in Him; and to do otherwise
would be an aberration. To abide means to dwell in, but most
importantly to have our being [in Him].
Regardless of our status, God expects us to rely on Him

in ways we can never rely on our abilities, but as bitter as it
sounds, many today rely on their own thoughts and patterns
above that of a God they disdain as not to have seen or felt. An
act exasperating in His sight. However, reliance on God
doesn’t just happen overnight or automatically, it is a conscious
act that is initiated when we learn to appreciate whom He is. If
we’d just reflect back and see that each moments of our lives
were made possible by God and not abilities of self, and that
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the outcome is first determined by God before abilities, we

would realize that the safest risk in life is to depend on God.
The Bible says if not for God Israel would have been
consumed, and if He proved reliable then, He still is as He
changes not (Malachi 3:6). The depth of your reflection
determines the height of your appreciation, which is the
threshold of your elevation.
All we are is found in Him. Once you realize that there

will be no more struggles. No more “Let me do it my way”. All
there will be is “Let thy will be done”; and as I said before
when you hand over your all to Him, He hands it back to you,
but more secured than it was when you first had it untouched
by Him. When we prioritize on God, we stop harbouring
thoughts like ‘Is this your plan Lord?’, instead we begin to see
His designs in unprecedented situations, against all odds, as
perfectly as He expects us to.
….gOd’s gOOdness is nOt a

MYTH
A preacher’s sermon is often always filled with the words ‘God
is good’ and as a cliché as many might have labelled that
statement, it is a classic truth, for indeed God being good is not
a myth, it’s the only living reality we have left. Narrowing
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down the scripture only leads to one thing- that God is good.
The same God who saw man fall by his own choice, yet went
the distance to pick him up back to His standard; saw the
Exodus through bondage to the promised land; opened the
‘portal of grace’ to give man, despite his undeserving state,
access to everlasting bliss. All that went wrong to those in
scripture either did for a lesson or as a ladder to those ideal for
them.
Nothing evil comes from God; though He might permit

it, but it never comes from Him and as such He is open to take
it away if we learn what we need to at the moment. Even the
evil spirit that came upon Saul wasn’t of God but a devil that
God permitted to influence Saul. In relation to David, God
wouldn’t raise him only to let him be killed by an evil spirit
that supposedly came from Him. Though He let David undergo
a series of trials by it through the body of Saul, yet it was to
make a true king out of David- in spirit, heart and mind.
Another proof for this is that it was recorded that Satan entered
Judas to betray Jesus. The enemies of God’s will are never
from Him; they may be permitted for a purpose, yet they are
not His.
Furthermore, back to David, His perfect plan was to

make him grow not to torment him. Eventually the torment
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stops and the growth is evident. Similarly, whatever hardship it

seems God’s waiting to heal isn’t to torment us, but to help us
grow, and to adopt the faith that endures through time. As He
assured us in Luke 11:11, God will never give us a snake when
He knows well we need a fish unless the snake has a truckload
of fishes in it. In such a situation like ours, obedience to all
God says, with perseverance to receive, is the surest way to the
blessedness we seek (Luke 11:28).
It is never God’s will to keep the Christian suffering

when all conditions are met, especially when it serves no
purpose in his growth. I use the words “when all conditions are
met” because you can’t be a waster of resources or lazy and
expect God to save you from suffering, since now it’s no
longer on Him but your fault. But if we oblige to all His rules
of right living, He will never forsake us on an isle of endless
suffering. Jesus is the epitome of belovedness, and so if any
person has Him living in him, as I presume you do, he puts
himself up front to be loved by God. The words “I will not
leave nor forsake you” were meant for those who love Him as
He loved them first, and He, as it’s been proven, keeps His
words being a faithful God and all. So, don’t fret, God is still
perfectly in charge and aware of His thoughts of peace towards
you; and He’ll be good to you.
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...WHEN ACTION MEETS

REACTION
Let’s turn the table around a little bit to a point where you are
not the comforted but the comforter. Even in our battering
situations, God still expects us to be sources of comfort to the
weary. When He said “Let your light so shine”, it included
both during our happy moments and our not-so-happy
moments. So, when you are met with the demand to do exactly
what you expect of God to others, how would you respond?
Having been in a similar ordeal ourselves, how do we

respond to those in the same isle of pain and distress as we
once were or, as the case may be, still are?
Different people grieve in different ways. Some find it

easy to adjust to how people want them to feel, while others do
not. As such, it becomes absurd to repeatedly tell these
individuals that we know how they feel, because truth is we
cannot always know how they feel. The Proverbs state that
“Only the person involved can know his own bitterness or joy-
no one else can really share it” (Proverbs 14:10 TLB). Let us
not always try to play the familiarity card with everybody we
come across with an issue worth crying about. Don’t think the
extent of pain the poor kid experiences is nothing because you
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were also once poor. Don’t assume the broken relationship

won’t make her suicidal because you bounced back from the
same a long time ago. Don’t believe all single moms find it
easy because you did; or that the rape victim will easily recover
since you did. Don’t think the boy without funds for an
education will be alright because you turned out alright. Of
course, with God on their side they would turn out alright, as
I’ve been saying all through, yet don’t just assume it and walk
away. Fulfil all God expects you to impart on them despite
even when you are still having a personal brunt to bear; still
obey Him and pour your light of comfort on them by keeping
them focused on God’s promise to them as God also comforts
you. (See 2 Corinthians 1:3).
We don’t always know how people feel, only they can

tell the extremity of the grief. Only their souls bear the real
burden; so next time you come across a grieving fellow, don’t
assume the role of having felt just exactly as they do, rather
acknowledge before them that though you may not know how
they feel, but you’d always be there to help them get through
the process to feel well again. Sometimes, only a hug can pass
this message; sometimes a phone call. But almost every time
the simple truth that no one else can measure up to feel exactly
as the grieving does and the simple act to lead them to the God
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who does- with an open arm to help when needed-does the

work of an elixir in the healing process.
Like I already mentioned, God always has a way of

making me, for instance, comfort someone else in the midst of
my own problems. Through the years, I have come to learn that
when we do that, we unconsciously express the highest degree
of faith, because a man who comforts the troubled in his own
troubles is one who either believes he has no troubles or he has
overcome it already even if it’s still there. The beatitudes of
Christ promises comfort to those who mourn in their troubles;
but think of the greater reward He reserves for those who
comfort despite their personal troubles.
This is God’s desire for all of us- to help keep our

brethren thinking right (mentally), feeling right (emotionally),
associating right (socially), looking right (physically) and
living right (spiritually), all to a moment when everything for
them starts becoming better than it was during their primary
response to the grief. Extend a hand of care not with a façade
of familiarity, but with the fortitude of love to help them even
when you no longer feel exactly as they feel at the present.
Mark my words, God is going to bring an opportunity

to be the helper and comforter even in moments when you need
help and comfort. But know that He’s not doing it to taunt you,
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but first to help you really grow in the faith you profess and to
live His words to you openly- words like “You have no
troubles” in the midst of seen troubles. Secondly, all in all, to
eventually comfort them with the same comfort He comforts
you, even though in an approach that may be different from His
to you. Remember, we are ministers of reconciliation (see 2
Corinthians 5:13-19). We bring men back to the state God
wants them in. It is God’s desire that we tell people of His
eternal plan to save them instead of terming their trial a
destruction attempt as did Eliphaz and Co. to their friend Job.
We were recreated to edify. Moreover, while God’s plan to
hold back a man is temporal, His intention to save him is
permanent, because in the face of genuine repentance
destruction becomes salvation.
….impatience is nOt a virtue

A virtue is described as a good moral quality- at least an
acquired trait that’s supposed to eventually lead a man to his
land of fulfilled promises. And with all my gained experience
from books, stories and real life, I know impatience is not a
suitable example of such. The onus of time is to give all
generations an experience of what is appropriate and what is
not in order for us to improve our well-being; and time over
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and over has shown that impatience is the rifle that kills him
who wields it for his own benefit.
From Bible stories to modern realities, it still stands its

ground as such. For instance, Achan’s death and his entire
family abysmal end resulted from his impatience covered by
the cloak of greed. On the verge of attacking Jericho, God had
warned them all to avoid taking anything from there- a wait
signal, but it seemed like Achan didn’t so much as liked the
plan, and so he kept a bunch for himself, just so that he
wouldn’t lose if it turned out God played them. This is the
story of many of us as well; we defy God not really because we
are convinced we need the shiny object we are in pursuit of,
but simply to keep up with the Joneses.
But guess what, it was Achan’s calamity. Unknowing to

him, God had prepared the next mini sized city of Ain for their
taking- that is to possess everything they had back there in
Jericho such as gold and cattle (See Joshua 8:2). So if he had
just waited as instructed he would have been rich altogether,
but due to his wrongly timed decision, he missed his portion
when the others got theirs (See v. 27).
Hence, even if you get nothing from this, learn this:

Your decision to move ahead of God’s time only gets you the
best Achan had- which is what looks like a win-win situation,
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but is really only a death trap. Never try to go against His plans
for you. Never try to play a fast one on Him, thinking your own
route is way better, because if you try to be fast on God, you
end up slow to the devil, thereby becoming an easy prey for his
false lion-like nature to pounce on. Be patient in all your
endeavours, especially with God. Learn to do things at His
pace, in His way, and for His will to be done; for a man who
rules over his cravings is worth more than a city of fools, and a
patient man always get the Job’s reward (See Job 42:12).
Impatience doesn’t pay. Its primary appearance may

seem to be gaining grounds as beneficial, but eventually the
whole world sees it was just a farce. I really appreciate how the
New International Version of the Bible translates Isaiah 28:16.
It states “So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘See, I lay a
stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure
foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with
panic”. The stone referred to here is Jesus- the Way through
which all men get to the Father’s best for them. The word and
will of God in which if men walk therein they will never know
panic even in an atmosphere of panicky situations. Patiently
walking in His will saves us the stress of panicking from the
results we would get by walking our own way.
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As much as God is interested in your making it in life,

He is more concerned and interested on how you make it. He
says “This is the way, walk therein…”- showing there is an
acceptable way and an unaccepted way. He never expects us to
run downtown and steal a car because we saw a clear vision of
us owning one. Theft may bring possessions, but does God
want you to be a thief? No.
He does it as He plans it. That is the reason why

Ishmael was never accepted as the promised one; for though he
came forth of Abraham’s loins, he came out not in the specifics
of God’s plan but as a product of a family’s doubt and
impatience towards God. The same thing can be learnt from
Joseph, but this time in a positive sense. God had showed
Joseph a vision of the most respected elements-the sun and
moon with the stars bowing down to him as a sign of his
futuristic greatness. However, Joseph was patient enough to
wait for God’s specific. He had the chance to facilitate it
through the legs of his master’s wife, yet he wouldn’t because
that wasn’t right by God’s plan- choosing the cold floors of an
Egyptian cell than the warmth of her ivory beds. Joseph could
patiently wait to receive, and so can we- having His Spirit of
righteousness now in us, which is a criterion for blessedness
(See Psalm 5:12).
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Therefore, never try to force your way because you feel

intimidated. Again, learn to wait for God specifics; that way
waiting becomes the quickest route to getting God’s perfect
plan for your life. Remember, whatever is done outside God’s
jurisdiction always finds a way to fail sooner or later; but
whatever is done in His will flourishes with time- and that’s the
path that shines more and more (Proverbs 4:18).
…avOid the michal’s path

If you’re looking for the greatest love affair that turned to the
greatest disgusted relationship, look up David and Michal. For
no reason should anyone let what happened to these two
happen between you and God. Michal loved David. She loved
him even when he didn’t notice her; but as it’s normal when it
is perceived that love isn’t reciprocated, it turns into hatred out
of the bitterness of rejection.
Michal couldn’t believe her beloved husband would

leave her despite risking her life for him, when he could have
come back for her. She must have thought he would come to
save her from their common enemy- her father, or to have
returned for her when news spread that she was given to
another as any lover should. With all these analyses going on in
her mind, she grew bitter towards David, and out of her
bitterness she dug her own grave of grief.
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Though she had evidences to be angry, yet she handled

it wrongly. In the same way, don’t let your thought of being
deserted by God force you into an eternal cause of grief. Trust
Him to return and save you from your pain. Trust Him to return
with comfort in His arms for those who love Him. David
returned, but it didn’t avail much because she had already lost
her trust in him. Don’t lose yours- so you can get all the
comfort available to gain.
This little piece is gotten from Isaiah, and it should

constantly keep us reassured that unlike Michal we have to
remain believing that He will return.
“The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with
compassion on all her ruins; He will make her deserts like
Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and
gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of
singing” (Isaiah 51:3 NIV).
Though David loved her as much as she loved him, but

the signs were presently then unseen; same way God loves us
even if the present signs dispel that notion, and depicts
otherwise. God has placed us under a covenant of blood that
demands we get delivered from our pits of grief (See Zechariah
9:11) - a covenant of release from the afflictions that surround
us. A covenant expressed duly in His time; and as such it
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would be wise to avoid the Michal’s path, and remain trustfully

hopeful in His presence.
..THE UNCHANGING WILL

One of Jesus’ statements that captures our hearts on His
reliability is “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words
will never pass away” (Matthew 24:35 NIV). Through that
scripture He affirms the reliability of His words. He shows us
that God’s words are His will, and if His words are
unchanging, then so is His will.
I have learnt from experience that regardless of how

much we cry or wail, God will always answer in His own time;
because as much as those tears are touching, He desires the
best for us, and that can only be as good as His will for us- His
timing and plan regarding us.
I like to believe that no matter how despondent our

situations are God always has a good plan ahead. It is not like I
have this huge faith that makes me believe with ease, I just
choose to believe, even when the things happening around me
already gripped me to a state where it’s hard to simply just
believe. Sometimes, I convince myself that there’s no better
option than to trust the God who remains unchangingly good to
His own. And guess who else believes God remains good at all
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times to deliver- the Prophet Isaiah. At one point, He

documented in a scroll these words- speaking to the afflicted,
“…the mountains and hills will burst into song before you”
(Isaiah 55:12 NIV). Figuratively, the term mountain stands for
challenges and so it can be said that God has promised the
problems and challenges we face to become our stairs to songs.
And since His word is His will, and that it remains unchanging
and achieving, it is a safe risk to wholly rest in them.
Furthermore, concerning the trials we encounter, I

would say that if God seems not to respond despite our pains, it
is because we would be better off with that challenge at the
moment, seeing the great product He plans to make of us
through it. Just like the silver and the fire. If men were silver,
we would never think the smith has any good plan or fortune
for us on seeing the fire He’s destined us for, but He does. Yet
after a jewel is formed and valued above many others, we
acknowledge in unnoticed silence that it was worth the while.
In a similar fashion just like that problems are often

times God’s platform for a promotion. In them, He melts us,
and make of us jewels that can carry the whole capacity to
receive all He has in store for us. Or do you just think He was
bluffing when He said “I will not leave you nor forsake you”?
God never bluffs; if He has said it, then even in the worst of
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circumstances, it still stands uncorrected. He is the One who

brings promises from problems, comebacks from setbacks,
merry returns from detours, pasture from ruptures and peace
from the shredded pieces of what we think is left of us.
As confirmed by Mary, there is always a performance

of all He says. The chances that they won’t is a zero on
probability, unless it’s a conditional promise like the ‘All these
will be if you will’ sort of promises. However, if it is
unconditional, it must come to pass. The awesomeness of
God’s will being unchanging is that it can’t be changed. As in
His words concerning Eli’s sons or Paul- obstacle tried to
hinder them, but it came to pass, both the negative and positive
respectively. So, if God has promised a revival from your
recessions, He surely will bring it to pass despite the obstacles
presently on those paths. Remember, by knowledge of Him
many will be justified (Isaiah 53:11); by knowledge of His
eventual will, we will find rest (Isaiah 45:19-25).
…beYOnd WHAT MEETS THE EYE

Not all directions to where you ought to be lead you to where
you think you should be. Sometimes, instead of through marble
and bricks, we might have to walk on miry clay; but as far as at
the end paradise is met, then the dirt we are sentenced to cross
through would suddenly become not so much of a big deal or a
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discomfiture of any sort. Your present test may be your miry

clay, but believe me rejoice because as you tread these paths,
you confirm a meeting with the paradise that lay up ahead.
The strength of our knowledge of purpose is evaluated

in the face of challenges. In fact, the fruit expressed by the
Spirit in us has its greatest effect in the midst of troubles. That
is to say that without troubles, there would be no need for
inward euphoria (what I like to call the God-given joy),
because we’d have every reason to be happy by the externals.
Without any challenge, there would be nothing to be patient
for. Without challenges, self-control would matter little.
Without challenges, it would be much easier to be kind and
loving. However, the Holy Spirit with His fruit gives us the
enablement to react in the same goodly way even in a
disastrous situation. God trains us to a state where we would
instinctively act in His way rather than as imposed by the flesh.
God’s actions and His reasons for them will always be

beyond the usual horizon of human comprehension. Just like in
the development of a film into a fine picture of beautiful
persons. At first, due to the negative, the beauty might appear
as not so when you look at it, but with further work its true
appearance shows, and its spark of finesse and eloquence will
then be seen vividly with an emphatic approval of a job well
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done. Most times, the small pictures (our present events) seen
aren’t the end product God has prepared for us. At some point,
they are meant to discourage us from the bigger picture to test
our resilience; at some other point to toughen us in order to
equip and brace us for the titans that wait up ahead. But in all,
it is not the final piece. They are just threads to embroider the
bigger piece with time. They are those grotesque pieces that
eventually make up the beaut we long desired.
Perhaps Doris DeBoe’s story would enlighten us on

this. Doris Broome DeBoe is a cancer survivor. Over the years
before her death in 2009, she had overcome a number of
illnesses including Parkinson’s and Cancer. In 1983, she was
diagnosed with ovarian cancer, after which she had treatments.
In 1989, it reappeared in her lungs, and then disappeared. In
1994, she underwent breast surgery, again for cancer. Through
it all she was not dismayed. Mrs DeBoe said she has faith that
God is in control of her life, and even though she has cancer,
the cancer does not have her. She decided to enjoy life and to
live every day to the fullest. She believed that healing does not
always involve a “cure” or the removal of the problem. She
said that she has been healed because she has been given the
strength to deal with her situation free of fear or anxiety. She
believes that God doesn’t send the problem but He did send the
grace and strength to handle it: and because of her faith she
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was able to have complete peace. She says in order to have a

miracle, you must expect a miracle.
According to Willie Jolley who tells this story

enthusiastically every time, “Doris DeBoe is a classic example
of the power of faith. She believes that the place where the
doctors end is the place where God begins. She not only
believes in faith, she walks in faith”. To me, she is a good
example of those who trust God- one we can learn from. For
someone who sees even the deadliest blight as a means to an
end in God’s sight, and so refuses to maul over it, she is
someone we can all learn something from. Hypothetically, I
would say that the same energy a man uses to imagine all the
negatives in a situation is exactly the same needed to trust God.
Fear and faith are contrasting traits with equal energies. So
why pick fear over faith when we can pick faith and come out
victorious in God every time?
Why is this important? Life is not judged by today, but

by the days after today. Termites may eat a tree today but you
will never find a sign today. In some months, go back and you
will find its bark falling off. A mountain isn’t climbed in a day
nor a home, or a city, built in one. Don’t let the present signs
deceive you, good work is still going on underground- and God
is in charge of it, if you trust Him to be. So, don’t judge your
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life by the challenges you see today, and don’t judge God’s
plan by the supposed defects you think you find today. In time,
excellence reveals itself; same way in time the most beneficial
plan reveals itself.
Trust God when He says “The Egyptians [challenges]

you see today, you shall see no more”. It might not manifest
from ‘Rameses’ to the shore of the Red Sea, it doesn’t mean
they won’t cease to be. He who wrote the script of humanity
knows what unfolds next because He planned it. It might take
five more scenes from where you are for this to be, but if He
said it, then you better believe it. It is.
“Who is among you that fears the LORD, that obeys the
voice of his servant, that walks in darkness, and hath no light?
Let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God”
(Isaiah 50:10).
“Those who sow [begin] with tears will reap [end] with
songs of joy” (Psalm 126:5 NIV, Emphasis added).
For instance, God’s intention for Christ is to rule as

King, yet according to Isaiah 53, His life on earth started and
ended with hardship and pain. However, that present of His
didn’t debar God’s plan. He eventually rules as God had
intended, and we are witnesses, and so will you if you stay put
on His path.
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Permit me to digress a little bit in order to add an

information I may have missed out before; God works in truly
mysterious ways. I remember a certain period when I had to
return to my alma mater to clarify some issues regarding my
final academic clearance. Right from the moment I chose to
embark on that journey, my personal plan was to go and get it
all done with. However, I knew within me that God was okay
with my travel plans, but what I didn’t know was that His plans
weren’t for my so called issue (which I know now wasn’t so
much of an issue) but to correct a young fellow’s-I would later
meet-disposition of who He is. Right there in the bus as I
studied my Bible, He told me at the point I read Isaiah 50:4 that
the journey was one of ‘words’- that is, to make Him known
appropriately to a man.
I wanted to believe that this was simply an addendum to

my initial purpose, but the outcome of a thing never lies.
Though I got verification of when I would receive what I
sought, but my 2-days trip was mainly engrossed in words-
encouraging people, and correcting people’s notion of God
until they saw Him as rightly as He desired. I needed help
myself, yet His desire was to see me help the needy.
Eventually, now I can say that His set plan paid off. This is
faith- when we walk in God’s own path with the same degree
of confidence of success as though we were on our own
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brilliantly planned path, even when it doesn’t seem lucid

enough. Similarly, this path He’s placed you might seem like a
waste of bus-fare and energy, and years, but trust Him, it’s
exactly what’s written of you to get to where you are destined
to be.
All I’m trying to say is that we might never understand

why God does things the way He does, but at the end it is
always for our own good. The wisest king before Christ came
once said “Then I saw all that God has done. No one can
comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their
efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even
if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it”
(Ecclesiastes 8:17 NIV). No matter how bright we appear to be,
we don’t always see the perfect picture of what’s happening, or
what is going to happen next. But God does!
For example, the first admission offer I received and

rejected afterwards, because I consciously heard God speak to
me not to, might have seemed like a stupid approach. In fact, it
felt awkward to my family to say I wasn’t taking it since I
sought it the whole year, yet I could not deny what I heard. He
even proved me with the signs I asked of Him which was a
really hard one as He still does till date; however, though we
called it a weird decision, but months after the State University
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had that inflated tuition as I already mentioned in previous

chapters, we knew it wasn’t. You see, when you live life by
chance- running with whatever comes, we wallow in
exasperation when we come across situations without options.
Live as God leads, and you’ll always have someone to help you
cross the bridges you naturally can’t.
Looking back today, I can boldly say that my presumed

aggravating wait finally paid off. You see, when God keeps
you waiting, it is because He wants to wait you into His
personal and perfect utopia for you. The signs may not be a
great alibi to that, but eventually God’s ways always prove to
be beyond anything we can ever ask, think or imagine.
behind the veil

The devil does an almost perfect work in painting a different
picture of what God is really doing before the eyes of men. He
is very good at dotting the ‘I’ in every form of impossibility
dressed encounter we may have. He is always quick to tell us
how impossible a thing is when all God actually expects us to
see is possibilities all around.
Most times, what we see happening is usually different

from what is truly happening. It is always more than what
meets the eye. Even God tells us that behind every wilderness
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is a spring of relief (Isaiah 43:19). We may be seeing the

wilderness, but it is simply because it is where our focus is.
Remember, we live not by what we see (sight), but what we
believe God has said (faith). And where your heart or focus is
will be your treasure. So, look deeply into God’s truth and
you’ll find the spring He’s prepared for you flowing in your
direction. Like what Paul wrote, even when things look bleak,
all things will eventually turn out for our benefit. As such,
instead of magnifying the veil that blindfolds you from seeing
the beauty that is yours in Christ, go past it. And simply
trusting God will help you do just that.
We have many questions to ask when things get really

tough and messy. We want to know why God’s plan in the
reality before us appears different from the picture perfect one
we find in scripture. We want to know if this present is all we
get to have in life. There is always the tendency to remain
inquisitive until the answers we seek come. Well, here it is: In
Jesus, you have a destiny that is ever better with each passing
moment (Proverbs 4:18). In Him, the veil is torn so that we can
metamorphose from glory to glory into the very image God has
in mind for us- Christ (2 Corinthians 3:15-18). Therefore,
whatever you’re passing through now isn’t God’s ultimate best
for you. It doesn’t even qualify as good. He said eyes have seen
nor the mind imagined what He has in store for you. He has
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greater levels of glories lined up ahead of you. He is doing a

new thing in your life (Isaiah 43:18), you just have to
continually see it with the eye of faith.
So many things occur in life that if we were left to pick

our response to them with no consequences attached, we’d
rather choose not to exist than experience them. These are
frustrating and demeaning encounters that can also become a
medium to keep us more focused on God than on them- if we
are interested; but most times we even start to believe that
perhaps disappointments and failure were part of God’s plan
for us. Well, while it is true that setbacks can be a means to
keep us surging forward, it is never God’s agenda for it to
become a mainstay in your life. But guess what; Jesus hasn’t
left your ship. He doesn’t jump ship in the storm. He stays with
you to the very end; and here’s what He wants you to know:
First, “The Lord is with you while you are with Him” (2
Chronicles 15:2). Your being in an up, close and personal
relationship with God should encourage you that truly God’s
presence with you is an advantage to your favour. Second, He
said “Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak,
for your work shall be rewarded” (v. 7).
The ordeals may seem to have covered your skies, but

go ahead and stretch your lenses until all you see is the horizon
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of unseen realities of splendour. Beyond that challenge is God

smiling at you with a due reward for your persistent confidence
in Him if only you’d stay. You just have to stay firmly in faith
towards God regardless of how stretched you get in life.
He says that in the first two days He will revive us, and
on the third He will raise us up (Hosea 6:3). That’s exemplary
of what He did in the days of Moses. In the first two days, He
sanctified them to be peculiar people, and on the third day, He
came down as promised (Exodus 19:10-20). See it this way:
what you are calling a delay is actually God building capacity
in you, sanctifying you to become the very image of Christ,
and not long from now, He will show up before your eyes and
change your life.
However, never forget to remember that behind every

dark cloud is a silver lining of such beautiful glories; and
behind every veil you will find God. God is doing something in
your life, and it is simply wisdom to trust Him enough to wait
out every storm until there is a delivery of what He had
planned.
..grOwth is gOd’s end gamE

What is the true reason for feeding your toddlers if not to
ensure they grow? What other reason could there be for letting
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them every time they attempt to walk if not to strengthen their

feet so they could eventually walk. Everything we let our little
ones pass through, even when we know it might be pretty
funny to you, is simply to ensure a better future for them by
helping them grow. The actions we take including grounding
them at home or detention at school is all because we want to
see them grow into all we’ve believed their potentials can make
them become.
In the same way, everything God lets a man experience

is to cause a change in him from what he was to what he should
be- a change termed as growth. With Joseph for instance, He
took the boy of Jacob’s bosom and made the man who ruled
the entire Egyptian kingdom; and David from the sheep-boy to
the man who held the fate of Philistia in his hands. However,
most times, these changes happen through processes that may
not pamper our flesh, like the six month old baby who bruises
his knees down the lawn simply because he must grow into
crawling. Or the other kid who falls on his buttocks so hard
numerous times all in an attempt to enhance growth into the
walking stage. Just as you and I may be experiencing our own
hard bottom drops and bruising, it is yet important if we are to
grow in the Lord to the individuals He saw in us on creation
day.
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Like Paul stated, there is a stage of being a babe in

Christ but His desire is to take us to a state of maturity in Him.
One in which we can say “when I was a child, I thought as a
child, now I’ve put away childish things” as an actual truth;
and these childish things put away are the emotionally inspired
responses to the issues of life, in order to wield those
conformed to God’s entire will (1 Corinthians 13:11). God is
going to work on you, and you are going to see it. In fact, one
of the evidences of God in a man is the change in his natural
predispositions and responses to daily encounters of life. When
God is done with us, the only response that would be left to
express even in the most decisive situation would be faith and
not fear, wisdom and not weariness of mind- making us more
like Jesus who seeing the cross saw glory instead of shame (see
1 Peter 1:2 TLB).
As we’ve seen from the very beginning of this book,

one thing that needs to be in place to live a life that continually
pleases God is trust. A man who lives in anxiety and fear will
end up incapable of truly doing all God wants, how He wants.
As such, what we really need now is grace never to be
distracted by any form of anxious thoughts, and grace also to
never have our path in Him thwarted.
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It is my personal belief that as we spend more years in

the Lord, we should gain more years of Him. Years of wisdom,
patience, self-control, mental and spiritual maturity that people
our age don’t possess. A man who spends time in God even in
the coldest cavern-like situation is still a spectacle to behold
whenever he shows up, because he has something others don’t
have, which is the evidence of growth in God- glory. Glory that
shines surpassingly beyond mere human wisdom and maturity.
God wants us nurtured and filled with glory, and this is just a
means to get us to that end.
So I say it is good that when we grow old, we grow

bigger. It is better that when we grow old, we grow richer. But
it is best that when we grow old, we grow wiser. Wiser to
know that all God ever does is simply for the good of the
righteous- and if you are righteous through faith in Jesus, then
you can be rest assured that it is also simply for your good.
“For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous….”
(Psalm 1:6 NIV).
Most times, our problem is that we always want to

know the way. But that’s not faith. Faith doesn’t always know
the way, it simply believes God for a way. Every change of
story is tied to faith, which in return is dependent on
knowledge. So, what you know determines how you grow.
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It is also possible that God just wants us to learn how to

speak and listen to Him. So when the situations are getting
tighter than normal, pray. God wants to build something
stronger than pain between you two- and that is a pure intimate
union; and you’d be aware that God doesn’t speak or work
with multitudes, He does with an individual, and that’s why till
today He still seeks a man as He did in the days of Ezekiel (see
Ezekiel 22:30); and He wants that to be you.
On the other hand, prayer can be easy if we put our

heart to it, coupled with the consciousness that God hears us. It
is more like talking in a normal human-like conversation, but
requires more concentration and more heart into it with a base
foundation on God’s words. So, if we can talk for an hour, we
can also pray for an hour. All we have to do is to take away the
distractions that takes us away from the consciousness of God
back to the consciousness of men. We see this in the life of
Israel in the wilderness; while Caleb was working based on
what God had told him, the people were working based on
what they saw.
Some of us are so unserious and immature about prayer

that we never find a good and convenient time separated
specifically for it, only those moments when we are
disarranged such as when we brush, use the rest room or are
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half asleep; and God forgive me because I was also very much
guilty of this. If we are to grow well with God’s supernatural
laws, we must learn to grow upwards and not downwards as
with our natural law- and this is first accomplished through the
prayer of intimacy: our hoist to higher planes.
Furthermore, you must understand that our location is

not the defining factor to blessedness, God is. If you have God,
He will get you to the right place. Location (where you are now
or are planning to go to) might change only but a bit, it doesn’t
change everything. The changes outside are not important
unless there’s a change inside. So, don’t try to make your way
out of God’s path for you, let Him work on you, and at the end
everyone wins. You win and He does too; and purpose is lived.
For a man who has God is at the perfect spot for a blessing if
he lets Him continue His good work in his life.
God yearns to build something godly in us. Something

not a bit hesitant against His will, but calming through the
assurance His word brings; so that in the face of troubles, we
give ourselves wholly to walk a step at a time as He leads. In
the face of sudden fears, David panicked and called for the
ephod, asking two questions in one. He seemed hasty to know
God’s answer as he already had it in mind to flee from Keilah
as a result of news that Saul had set his eyes for its gate.
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However, God would only answer one at a time, and the

second He gave a response only after the first had been done (1
Samuel 23:11-12). He wants us living better than in fear, and
the one way to achieve that is to help us grow; which its most
prioritized criterion is trust. We must grow to trust God to fight
for us at all times and to protect us. We must trust Him to show
up in unusual but undeniable ways to keep that trouble from
engulfing us, even as He did for David; and remember the
promise of God’s eternal presence in and with us wasn’t given
to David, but it is given to you. So, rejoice.
…Faith cOnFirms all gOd

AFFIRMS
The mystery behind Galatian 5:16-17 reveals that when the
flesh speaks, faith fades; and when faith speaks, the same fate
awaits the flesh and its consequences. They are forever in
constant war, for while faith agrees with God, the flesh agrees
with the embodiment of self-indulgence. Faith says ‘Yes Lord’
to His plans not out of fear but an assured confidence that it
must work out well. The flesh, on the other hand, asks ‘Is this
your plan Lord?’ Faith is a confirmatory action. It sees all
things as God says they are regardless of how not too true they
presently appear to look.
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God’s words work as seeds do. They thrive in

individual lives in the absence of requisites in rare cases
according as He desires; but one thing He desires is that we
water it with faith and obedience. Unless the word falls into a
heart full of faith, it may never die to yield the benefits
contained in it. So once again, the word of God thrives best in
an atmosphere of faith; for while it is sure in heaven and earth,
faith brings heaven to earth until all it is purposed to
accomplish is fulfilled.
According to the epistle of faith- Hebrew 11, faith is the

foundation of true understanding, and the final test to receive
from God. And faith is hinged on love for God, which is the
fulfilment of the law and will of God. This suggests that when
we trust God at His word, we prove we love Him enough to
bear with the present, thereby bringing the will of God unto
perfect fulfilment.
So, when God speaks a word, the greatest deed a man

can do is believe. As faith ticks a yes to God’s words as worthy
to become reality, doubt gives a negative remark. When God
says wait, and you respond with utmost belief to oblige as
instructed, you confirm with God that His purpose for it is true
and established. Faith is a ‘doing’ action that does without an
actual deed. It is a perfect work that however still requires
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corresponding actions to pour out its entire results. As we saw

earlier of Mrs DeBoe, don’t just believe in faith, walk in faith.
Faith is likened to you saying yes to a suggestion from

a friend to get you an ice-cream when you know he is
extremely broke financially, yet might still have a means to
deliver. That is, you don’t know the how, the when, or the why,
but you simply believe he can and would. It doesn’t judge by
what is presented, but by what’s expected and has been
preserved. You may not have seen it, but your heart knows it is
there. And as such, our healing in every area comes when we
speak all God has spoken concerning our lives regardless of the
present we find ourselves. This is because our healing is not in
the present, it was settled long ago. Note, by His stripes, ye
were healed.
Just as the Church was instituted by Christ and

constituted by His Spirit, so is the life of an individual
Christian- already settled in heaven, and shall be so on the
earth. If our lives are truly written and perfected in God since it
was His before it was ours, then trusting Him for how your life
pans out would be the best option in this situation. Faith in the
words of our Maker brings the divinely assigned institution of
right living and the constituents of His perfect plan into a state
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of maximum possibilities. And so if we must live right with

Him through this ordeal, we must trust Him.
An important reality here is that everything we do in

life carries an energy or force- be it belief, actions or words.
All we have to do is to redirect that energy surge to the purpose
we want worked out for us, and that is where trusting God has
its greatest effect. When we trust Him in faith fully, we pour all
the energy in the universe into seeing all He’s said manifest.
Remember faith made the world and all its energies, applying it
brings all of these energies into use on your behalf.
God’s words came to an almost depleted nation under

the ministry of Isaiah, and still in their precarious situation He
spoke about endowing them with splendour. Whether they
lived by those words in Isaiah 55:5 in their time, I do not know;
but I sure do know that we must because if He’s said it, then it
is definitely true.
Sometimes we just have to believe God to do all only

He can do; and once we’ve done that, we need to step out of
the way to let Him do it. Faith is established in our letting go to
let God in. To leave all the thoughts of fear, worry and
despondency behind that we may live on Him. Faith is what we
need, and even after this moment I will continually strive to
walk better in Him towards an ever ceaseless faith via the
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knowledge of Him. No matter what you are passing through, I

want you to believe God for His word. Like I usually say, even
if you haven’t heard an audible voice, take His written word as
yours. See the promises in scripture as God’s plan for you, and
live as such. Remember again that nothing is truly yours until
you become conscious of it and believe it. Let people see it in
you. Let the aura of faith around you rub on them, giving them
strength to remain strong in their own personal challenges. Let
them see a hope in God through your disposition. Let them see
a man who knows his God, and lives by the exploits of faith.
But first, to be all that stuff, you have to start trusting God’s
words yourself, because the greatest result of faith can never go
beyond anything God has said- for His word itself goes beyond
all we can even comprehend.
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SUMMARY
There would be times when you would have the
cravings to ask God if all your sufferings are all part of
His good plan for you. This urge comes normally since
man was never created to suffer, only something he
adopted by his fall; however the difference must be
seen between those of God and those outside God. A
man in God always has hope and lives as such. He is not
pitiful nor pitiable. So, whenever it feels as though the
wait is unbearable, pray for the strength to endure, the
confidence to believe, the grace to help others even in
your pain, and the power to overcome at last. These
are all God’s plan for us. If He could have taken us
through another path devoid of the trials, He would,
but this is the best way to bring out the best He desires
to see in us. Thus, even when your capacity to trust
seems derailing, dare to trust Him better against the
odds. Stretch your arms to Him in righteous assurance
of His will as best, and He would drag you in, to a place
where eventually you’ll find is best for you.
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CHAPTER [7]
HOW DO I KEEP
A POSITIVE ATTITUDE?
“Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is
your husband all right? Is your child all right? ‘Everybody is all
right’, she said” (2 Kings 4:26 NIV)
SCENE:
“In the grand estates of Shunem, there lived a wealthy woman.

She had only an aged husband but no children. Every morning she
would look out her window to see what the day presented; and as
her normal routine she would watch the young ladies moving
down the street to the market area, the old men sitting outside the
city council, the labourers moving their carts, and the young men
all decked up for the day’s work even as she audit her estate
earnings from the marble tower of her chateaux. But on this certain
day, she couldn’t find the young ladies, the old men, the labourers
nor the young men. This was because her eyes were fixed on a
bearded prophet and his apprentice who had come into the city.
The stare was so intense that she almost got blood-shots. She had
heard of the mighty miracles he had done, but she never quite
believed he’d look so simple; and with each passing day he walked
down that road, she became more curious. Then, eureka! The idea
came to give this travelling prophet a short refreshment before he
continued his journey.
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Doing good felt right to her, and so she decided to do more. She,
with the approval of her husband, decided to give him the free
space on their pent house. With great enthusiasm, she broke the
news to Elisha; and the room was his. After many days in his
acquired room, being elated by such kind gestures shown towards
him and his squire, Elisha called his servant to enquire about the
good lady’s most prioritized need. But to his surprise, she was a
very content woman who had need for so little a thing as compared
to what she readily gave out; yet Elisha’s grin suggested he yearned
for an opportunity to complement her kindness for the very
thought she had of making him comfortable during his travels.
The expression on the face of Elisha spoke more than his words
ever could as he heard that their host couple had never experienced
the joy of parenthood. He was shocked to realize that, despite their
well-to-do state, they still had a ‘grouchy’ situation that stole their
joy; and more shocked that in her state she still strived to make
others happy. However, before him appeared the opportunity he
sought to repay her delightsome gestures. He summoned her
before him, and on that calm evening he gave her the news that
would change her entire family in a year to come.
One year later, she had a son. The event lighted up the faces of her
friends, relatives, and every citizen of the country who wished her
well. It started a warm fire inside of her which kindled the hearts of
everyone who attended the festivity, as it brought before her the
joys of motherhood she never thought she was created to relish;
and it almost made her husband look younger as the child’s birth
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claimed a smile on his face that refuted all his grief and shame. All
in all, they were happy, living in a huge home with an empty
penthouse as the prophet had stopped his usual travels some
months back. Yet she never forgot him, nor the words he spoke to
her hearing that day it all began; and for a memorial she kept his
room the exact way he left it- under lock-and-key.
Many years later, she stayed at home to round up her personal
chores as her husband and son tended to the inspection of the field
and the work done by the reapers even as they readied themselves
for the harvest. But in the midst of the splendour and joy of the
great harvest the season would bring, the lad suffered a cranial
attack. ‘My head, my head’’ were the only words he could mutter
as the pain eventually wrapped up his consciousness. Believing it to
be just the usual minor headaches, his father ordered him to be
taken to his mother to administer his normal medicine. But it was
beyond decoctions could handle. He laid on her bosom almost
lifeless for hours and eventually gave up.
‘Was this tragedy targeted to ruin her sublime status by forcing her
through the tent of despair all the days of her life?’ The witnesses
imagined; and would have offered consolation but for the cracks
her grief had instantly marked on her face. However, she took her
breathless boy up the stairs to the bed of him who presumably
began this ripple of events in her life- the prophet’s bed; and
prohibited anyone from entering, so as to avoid them taking away
this promised son of hers at the request of a grieving father. With
all her best smiles and perfumery, she passed before her husband as
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if nothing had happened, leaving him at the expense of his own

imagination concerning the report he had received. She sought an
ass and a handler to take her up to Carmel to visit the prophet
who hadn’t chosen to visit in a long while. Her husband, in an
attempt to comfort her, sought to make her realize that it was a
hopeless venture from the time of the year as the prophet would
probably be too busy with sacramental duties, and to just accept
their heir has gone. Yet she resisted with the most appropriate
response “That’s all right”, and would rather trust in the impossible
than sit down and memorize folk songs to eulogize the dead. Many
thought it was lunacy, others called it the symptom of a mother’s
grief; yet she would only stand her ground.
With just an ass and a servant, she rode up the stony plateau, all in
search of hope that no one else but her could see. The reality of
pain had jilted them into gloominess and despair, but she wouldn’t
let that take over her. On seeing her afar, Elisha sent the young
man who brought the engagement of a promised son in the first
place to ask if she was alright, finding it hard not to notice that it
was not a regular day when people were permitted to visit the
mountains where the prophets abide. Despite the heat of pain
emitted through her soul, she covered it all up with a countenance
of joy and the words “All is well”. Those words possibly made the
servant believe perhaps she had brought supplies and freewill
offerings for the Lord; when instead she had a platoon of grief
marching with her to the very door of the man of God. Every
single question about her son came with a positive response. She
wouldn’t let herself believe what she doesn’t intend to receive;
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neither was she ready to accept the reality of her husband being an
aggrieved father or her son the dead. She chose to make a new
reality for herself by expressing the remarks she desired in place of
those dawned on her by the harshness of life.
To cut the story short, she kept it positive until she met the
prophet and laid her petition before him. Climbing that mountain
was enough proof to show she meant business. With the threat of
having her on that mountain forever, the prophet heeded her call,
and God intervened by giving her the joy she wouldn’t relinquish.
She saw death but wouldn’t accept it. ”
M
any of us, just like her, have had our joys taken
away as delayed as it may; but if, just like her, we
would maintain a positive reaction to the
presumed unjustified reprisals against us- unjustified, since we
didn’t do any wrong- then just like her we would receive the
restoration we seek. By her life, we can attest to a fact that all a
man needs before God to get the joy he seeks is a good attitude
in great faith. But how did she do it? How did she stay so
positive? I don’t know, but I do know that as a man thinks in
his heart (what he accepts and agrees to), so he is.
There was something strange about that woman from

Shunem, but at the same time it is something worth having. As
I close with this chapter, I expect you to grab all you can from
here. For like they say, the last is always the best- be it the last
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part of a meal, of school or whatever. So, let this last part also
leave a long-lasting impact on you. Back to that woman. She
was the kind of woman who sees her store burnt on a Sunday
morning and still gets to church and dance the hell out of her
life. One enthusiastic even in an atmosphere of grief. She had a
thing within her that all of us have, but one she used better than
most of us- an attitude of hope.
She saw life play a scene of grief for her- “ding dong”,
end of the show, but she took that grief, put it in a dumpster,
went to her spring of expectations, and gulp all the joy she
could consume. It is a strange thing but she pulled it off. In
verse 22-23, she wouldn’t give in to the discouraging yet
salient facts, nor the thoughts that came after that. She brightly
responded it is well. She wore her best smile, got abreast with
what she believed to see happen and retained her politeness.
Somehow I’m forced to believe that she shoved the grief to a
portion of her soul that reads irrelevant, and lighted up the
whole with holy expectations of God’s masterpiece of
awesomeness. In fact, if there is any attitude I recommend to
be put up in a fight against the blows of grief and despair as
you wait for God’s answer and its evidence, it is that of this
Shunamite. One that spells hopeless as hopeful, never as ever,
frail as grace, and impossible as I’m possible.
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In addition to the impacting disposition of this kind

lady, we can learn four traits she readily displayed in 2 Kings
4:8-37:
1. She loved God and wanted to promote the work of

the Kingdom; as such we could have called her a
Christian if in our age and if she had received Jesus
which I believe she would (v. 10).
2. She didn’t desire a gift from God, yet got one (v. 13-
16).
3. She believed God could not abandon her after her
degree of love for Him and His ways, and so was
ever expectant of a miracle by the reason of His
‘book of remembrance’ (v. 21).
4. She had an attitude that all of heaven stopped to
notice (vs 23-26).
Forgive my exaggeration, yet I would repeat it again.

For if Jesus could have been kept halted by the bold pleas of
the blind man and the faith-filled request of the
Syrophoenician, then with an attitude like hers, He probably
would have not only stopped but also grant her all joys.
So, as we can see from the four listed traits she

exhibited, love [passion for God- the sort that consumes you
and comes forth as zeal to please Him], contentment (with
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God’s will for the moment), faith, and the right attitude are all
a person needs to receive the bliss he or she is destined for. All
of these, we can learn from that short text; and if we’d just go
beyond reading it to living it, then I’m confident in God that
the restoration God has prepared for us will surely be ours. If
we can do that, we would come before God always with an
understanding of His will, filled with the Spirit’s joy in the
midst of the pain; and always ready to share good tidings with
tongues that praise God and not complain even when the tides
aren’t in our favour. All the same, if we’d put up a good
attitude, we’ll fight well during our wait and come out
victorious against the pressures of life.
In any given situation, the only thing as important as

the final result is the interface- which is the attitude put up
during the whole process. Just like how in between data and
information there is processing, between what we have now
and what we eventually get lies attitude. Like Dr. Maxwell says
“It is the difference maker”. Attitude determines which song
we finally sing; what comments we make and the remarks we
receive. If this was music class, I’d tell you that attitude is not
in the lyrics you’re given, but how you sing those lyrics. This
may be the same process everyone begins with, but it defines
why you must have a different result.
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Attitude is an exceptional tool that coy our fate in life.

It goes beyond the things we know to how we use them. The
things we know are our facts, and they are really useless unless
used for our benefits. You see, all you know will take you
nowhere if you don’t implement it. However, attitude helps us
with that. Attitude- our disposition towards this knowledge-
finalizes whether it works in our favour or not. Dr. Karl
Meninger gives a remarkable comment on attitude; he said
“Attitudes are much more important than facts”. Certain facts
may never be changed, but our attitude can overcome it.
You see, just like faith, attitude is consequential; every

expression of it can never go without an effect (see Hebrews
10:35). So if there’s any chance of us coming out better and
stronger from this test, it lies on our attitude towards it. Even
God is concerned about our natural impulses towards the
everyday challenges we encounter. The simple truth is that
unless we remain on a positive note-attitude wise, we might
find it hard to walk God’s way when the sudden appearance of
grief comes. Yeah! You’ve been in this situation for so long,
and you find it unpleasant, but except you start seeing the
overall verdict from an angle different from what every other
person think, you might not make it out how God expects you
to.
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When He said “Let not your hearts be troubled”, He

was saying that He desires to see us without a troubled heart
throughout the process. As much as that is a hard thing to do,
it’s what He wants from us. I never found it easy, and now I
still find it hard, yet that doesn’t make it impossible. If God
expects us to retain the candour of positivity according to all
He’s said, then it is doable. All we have to do is to begin by
completing the task given in those words of Christ- acceptance
of things from what man call possible to all God says is
possible.
So, the question now is ‘How do you perceive the

events that happen to you?’ Do you see it from God’s
perspective- positive and for our good any way it must, or
men’s perspective- finished? The story is told of a symbolic
footrace that took place between Russia and the US during the
cold war. The very best athlete from each country competed to
see who was more superior. The American runner won. But the
next day, the Soviet Press had the headline “Russia came in
2nd, U.S comes in next to last”. This depicts how our
perspective makes all the difference.
Our attitude is our natural impression and expression

toward a particular thing. In life, we can choose to call things
as God calls them or to call them how society’s rule of the day
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demands we do. We can either choose to see a messed up

marriage and call it a work in progress as God would, or a
divorce as society would. We can see our ordeals and see
promises on delivery as God sees, or a reason to get depressed
as society does; but altogether whatever decision we make
depends on the attitude we put up. We could either surrender
all of ourselves to God, responding to life events as He wants
us to, and come out victorious in His time, or simply remain
frustrated in fighting losing battles. This is because unless we
let Him, we can’t set Him on our paths to set us free, but once
we do, He does. And guess what, whoever He sets free is free
indeed. That can be all our lot.
If the scriptures affirm that, regardless of whatever

situation we find ourselves in or the omen that lies ahead, we
shall rise again according to what’s written in Proverbs 24:16,
then we ought to start living as those rising up and not as
though we were falling even if presently it seems we are. One
thing I have learnt about God is that once He has spoken a
word, He expects its recipients to start responding based on
that word. He demands we start living the word even without
an evidence to serve as a confidence booster. He sees His word
as enough to boost our confidence. So, in essence, when we cry
unto Him in prayer concerning the ill state of our conditions,
and He gives a word, He expects us not to wait for evidences
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physically before we wipe away the tears, but to wipe them as

soon as the word is given. He wants faith, and from it a hopeful
attitude.
Since faith is leaning completely on the substance of

the word, what it then means to have faith in God in times of
peril is to cease the self-pity, the anxiety, the negativism as
soon as He assures you that He’s taken over. And since His
words are trustworthy, then your actions at that moment won’t
even be a gamble.
However, a lot of us have a habit of trying to make God

go against His will, and that’s where our flaws begin. In fact,
the people in scripture who attempted that ended up wrongly,
showing that trying to manoeuvre our will into His will is
unhealthy for us. Like I have already stated in an earlier
chapter, one of the attitude we must endeavour to express
before God is that of the meek- because the meek let God lead,
and by that God leads them into a greater inheritance. Just so
you know, one battle you must constantly strive to lose is the
battle against His will. God detests the prideful who try to
control Him by analyzing how better his plans are as compared
to His. God doesn’t choose to be led, He wants to lead: and
what He seeks is a man He can. A man who appreciates the
timing He proposes. Of course, you might want to run your
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country at 35, but if God tells you to wait a while, it would be

to your own advantage. Once you realize that at the end He
determines your end, you won’t try to cut corners or keep
struggling with Him, which results to absolutely nothing; you
would just let Him lead, doing exactly all He has panned out
according to His own schedule.
In other words, all the promises of God for the glory of

His people are forever sure, but He says “In its time, I will do
this swiftly” (Isaiah 60:22 NIV). Therefore, if God won’t do it
on our time but His, how do we keep ourselves sane enough
and in line with His will until the fulfilment of His words?
How do we overcome the crisis? How do we come out
unsinged by the heat poured upon us by the daily trials we
face? How do we make something better out of our wait? It all
comes to this one thing: Keeping a good attitude.
I have always believed patience to be the virtue of

trustfully waiting on God with a good attitude. And if the
scriptures are for us to possess our souls from the tools of
darkness- be it agony or the like- through patience, then it is a
clear indication of the truth that if we must recover ourselves
from these deranging and agonizing moments, we need the
kind of attitude that trust in God and wait on Him. Personally, I
have been bent to believe that we don’t need big moments to be
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happy, we just need small ones, and then we let the small
moments make up the big one. Altogether, what I’m trying to
say is that with the right attitude towards God and life, we can
be as happy as He desires us to be in any circumstance. With a
good attitude, we can even when our requests doesn’t seem
answered. With it, we can even though the troublesome mate
seems unchanging. With a good attitude we can be happy even
when our needs appear unheeded. If we’d just respond to life
setbacks with the right attitude, it wouldn’t even feel as if we
missed a hurdle, rather we would trustfully wait on God until
He sees to it that He does not ruin His reputation by
disappointing us as with the Judge and the widow in Luke 18.
There is a line I love so much in Martin Luther King’s

“I have a dream” speech; and I believe it can help our
understanding regarding this subject. He said “…Even though
we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a
dream”. In other words, he was saying that the ‘present tense’
of his life shouldn’t ruin the ‘future tense’, and surely can’t
ruin his hopes. Here was a man who knew how to keep the
attitude on the positive end. In the midst of his most defiant
fears, he still kept his dream. Can you keep God’s promises
alive despite whatever it is you see today? If you haven’t
decided on that prior to now, you should. Really trusting God
is hoping to see the substance of all you seek from Him even
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when they are very much unseen. And believe me, nothing
certifies our faith in God like waiting for His time with a good
attitude. The Bible says that Abraham staggered not in faith
through unbelief; meaning he didn’t let the appearance he saw
overturn his outward disposition. He didn’t let his reality of not
having a child stop him from attending his neighbour’s kid
birthday. He didn’t lock up himself in isolation because he
hadn’t received what everybody else was having. Even in the
face of our fears, we must keep the hope of seeing all God has
promised alive, and this can only be done by putting up the
right attitude- which is something we acquire on following the
footsteps of Jesus.
After the reception of the promise of God, the next step

to take is to follow Him. Unless we follow Him, there’s no way
we can keep a positive attitude, because except you believe in
Him, you can never live according to His words. That is, unless
you follow Him faithfully, you can never even dare to be of
good cheer in the midst of tribulations. This is for the reason
that in just the exact way a house’s response to a whirlwind
depends on its foundation, so also whether we fall in faith or
remain strong depends on the confidence we hold in the
promise we stand upon. Such that if your faith in His word is as
firm as needed, you can easily be responsive to react as He
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says you should. So apparently, the key to staying positive

relies primarily on our stand of faith in His word.
I hope we are getting somewhere with this. My desire is

to show you the basic guide to positivity- which is the extent of
our confidence in God, before then highlighting extensively on
some tips to reflect this positivity in trying times. Like I was
just saying, outstanding faith in His word is essential if we
must get it right at this period. The kind of faith that still stands
even when shut out by all visible signs of no potential rewards.
The kind that waits for His own time.
One thing about God’s time we can be sure of is that it

comes to pass. It is not a non-existent moment in our human
age. It is in this lifetime as long as He has said it is, and as a
result He will bring into fulfilment all He has promised in this
lifetime as far as He’s promised it. So don’t worry. Paul wrote
that “He made known to us the mystery of His will according to
His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into
effect when the times reach their fulfilment- to bring unity to all
things in heaven and on earth under Christ” (Ephesians 1:9-10
NIV).
This translation helps us understand that God has a

time-table, and as a just God He must follow it, because by that
He brings balance to His creation. If He has already assured
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you of comfort, then He will see to it that it’s done. We, on the
other hand, must be at a junction where our will meets His,
agreeing with Him by letting Him do how He chooses to do it,
and believing Him in it. Speaking of believing, the same epistle
to the Ephesian church reveals that “when we believe, we are
marked with a seal- a guarantee, a surety in the Person of the
Holy Ghost who ensures that we receive the inheritance given
to us by God” (Ephesians 1:13-14 NIV).
Results are intentional not accidental; so if we want

positive results, we must be willing to put up the prerequisite
character needed for it. The waiting period is a crucial moment
in the reception of answers. It is not a moment to fight God’s
will- and this we do when we strive against His plans, thereby
fighting against God. Many have been deluded by the devil
into thinking they can win against God, but believe me we
never do. If God’s plans are perfect as can be, then it means
any other alternative we may have to that end is not, and so
must be let go. Furthermore, when we fight against God, we
lose to the enemy- and that cunning devil knows that.
However, if we must win against the enemy of all we rightly
desire, then we find that it becomes imperative we fight with
God not against Him- which means no struggling or resistance
to His will and timing, just ample obedience as we walk with
Him.
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Notice Paul’s words again “…Stand firm. Let nothing

move you. Always giving yourselves fully to the work of the
Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in
vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58 NIV). Once again, we see the
attitude suggested we apply in our walk with God. One of
submission- choosing to trust in His ways. Choosing to believe
the present lack is only to prepare you for the future
abundance. However, you should know that submission is only
achievable once the faith to believe the unseen and unperceived
good is there. God is a God of covenants; and since covenants
are strengthened by death- of fleshly will and self-reliance,
then it wouldn’t be a fuss to say that to keep assured our
retrieval of the covenant benefits freely given to us in these
harsh moments, we must hold on to an attitude that trusts.
Thus, being in a situation where we have to wait on

God isn’t a sign that the Spirit is far from us, rather it is a sign
that he is with us as a guarantee. Even Galatians 5:5 tells us
that our very ability to wait in the first place is because of the
Spirit in us through faith; and in as much as it seems
unpleasant, waiting helps in our expression of the God given
faith.
We cannot receive anything from scripture without

faith. Even Paul stated that it is all locked up only to be
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released by those who believe (see Galatians 3:22). As a result,

if God said a thing, the key to unlocking the treasures
embedded in it is absolute faith in Him. That is, you hear a
promise from God or perhaps see it in scripture, and you
simply just lose yourself [from your doubtful reasoning] in
believing it in order to receive it. When He says “Wait”, lose
yourself in believing Him to receive all he has in store for you.
The right responses to every circumstance is gotten

through the strength we derive from Jesus. Paul says “I can be
content in good times as well as bad times…..and all these I
can do through Christ” (Philippians 4:11-13). When the events
that roll before us seem to affect our dispositions toward
things, draw strength from Jesus. Strength to be joyous in sad
situations, and to be kind in conditions deluged with grief. Let
Him be the determinant of your behaviour in this trial, not your
ordeals; and through Him keep up as He desires you to.
“I advise you to obey only the Holy Spirit’s instructions.

He will tell you where to go and what to do, and then you
won’t always be doing the wrong things your evil nature wants
you to” (Galatians 5:16 TLB).
The evidence that we live as God expects us to is to

walk (expressively live) in the Spirit (in accordance to His
will). God won’t judge us by our gifts, He would by our fruit.
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The gifts reveal how much the Spirit gives Himself to us; the
fruit reveals how much we give ourselves to Him. Don’t be
blinded by the things you think you do, and term yourself a
super-Christian; evaluate how you react to God’s will for you.
Do you trust Him, or do you just preach trust to others? The
Bible didn’t call us Christians preachers, it referred to us as
priests, because examples of right living must first be seen in
us. This was a lesson I had to learn- a lesson on reflecting the
reactions we assume real Christians should exhibit rather than
just talking it.
Despite God’s words, there is always this urge to pave

our way at times when our convictions succumb to our sense of
reasoning, but even this way of ours won’t do much- for there
is a way that seems right but its end isn’t. And this is why He
demands we submit our minds to Him. God can’t work with
the double-minded; and that is why He instructed Abraham to
get rid of the slave woman and her son. He doesn’t want a
scenario where He is assuring us of His promises and we are
placing our alternative before Him as the promise. He wants to
be the one who runs your life, not alternatives. Apparently, this
means that we must get rid of that mentality of taking His place
when He doesn’t show up on time by our counting as Abraham
did with Hagar; for eventually its results are never part and
parcel of God’s divine will for us.
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If we seek the best God has to offer, then we have to

wait for the best He wills to offer regardless of how long it
seems stalled. However, the scriptures affirm that God never
stalls. What seems like a stall is a preparation in disguise.
Learn to trust Him in these preparations. Trust Him to trust it;
and eventually as it didn’t fail in the latter years of Abraham by
bringing the promise, He won’t fail you.
….humble tO the wOrd

“My hand has made both earth and skies, and they are mine.
Yet I will look with pity on the man who has a humble and
contrite heart, who trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:2 TLB)
God has a thing for the humble. When I say humble, I

do not mean the external displays of piety we showcase in
cordial greetings. Humility is an inward trait- which means it
begins from within. When a humble person bows, he is only
bowing because his entire cells are already bowed. But most
importantly, humility begins with God. We love to cheer the
statement “Charity begins at home”, so does humility. If a
person is not willing to make him or herself lowly before a God
we can’t see with no assurance of a reward for that act other
than His words, how can he then make himself lowly before
men without expecting a reward in return?
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God guarantees an inheritance for the meek. He does.

And when we talk about meekness or humility, it means giving
ourselves the liberty of a choice only in God. That is, the
surrendering of rights so that God’s choice becomes ours as
well. Such that when He tells us to be polite to a nagging boss,
we do so- that is the evidence people see and term us humble.
That’s it- a simple evidence of complete surrender.
Regarding the waiting period, unless we surrender

ourselves to take God at His word, we will have a hard time
coming out of that trial as greatly as God expects us to. First of
all, before we can get a victory, we must first surrender. There
must be a conscious reliance on God if we must provoke Him
into action. Even in our secular wars, when the sword fails, you
wield the bow; and you’d note that you can’t hold a sword and
wield the bow at the same time. You must first put away your
sword to effectively use the bow. In the same way, if you want
God acting on your behalf, you have to stop attempting to act
for yourself.
Choosing humility to His word is simply choosing to

trust His words as your only reality. And when a man chokes
himself in God, God doesn’t leave him choked off. God gives
him the liberty of sons- which is the privilege to see His will
expressed right before his face. As a bonus, in this expression
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is a package of undeniable lifting; because if there’s one thing

constant in God’s actions, it is that He shows grace to the
Meek.
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift

you up” (James 4:10 NIV).
Sometimes, I like to believe miracles were made for the

humble. In fact, the more we live on God’s words, accepting it
as our only truth, the more we believe that indeed miracles are
possible. When you see how God takes us through His words
from dry lands to evergreen pastures by simply commanding it
so, you are just coaxed to believe He can do the exact same
thing for you anytime. Also, His antecedence as clearly seen in
the testimonies of others who implemented the same boosts
this assurance of His never-failing capacity. Anyway, that’s
only when you revere those words as true. So, when you see a
person who claims there is no such thing as a miracle, it’s
because such a person doesn’t really have God. A person who
really has God and finds rest in His words is one swimming in
an ocean of unforeseeable miracles. What am I trying to say?
Only the existence of a connection between humanity and
divinity should tell you that there must surely be some sort of
thing called a miracle.
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Humility is clearly expressed from our beliefs. For

instance, if I hold it to heart that respecting someone from a
different race is wrong, I would never submit myself to such a
person. So, to be humble before God is to first choose to
respect Him as God, then submit to Him by believing His every
word as true. Now, to those who do this, the Bible pronounces
a lifting for them according to what is written in James 4:10 as
we had just seen. Thus, to facilitate a lifting in this waiting
period- a lifting from those not-so-good conditions, a lifting
from requests to answers, a lifting from being the degraded to
the decorated, resist fleshy motives and yield yourself unto
God by humbly revering His words above your intellectual
reasons for why it can’t be; submitting all of yourself to Him
without any remains.
Even if the pressure is heightening, don’t give in,

submit to all He’s said already. Just in case you don’t know,
you can’t change your situation, only God can. You may think
you can, but you can try and see it from the cubicle of a lost
battle that it was never your battle to fight, but God’s; and not
God’s place to trust, but yours. And just in case you don’t
know too, usurping God’s place in your battle is a sin. God
defends His own, and you insult Him when you act in the
opposite of that belief. Humble yourself: that’s all you’re asked
of.
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Let us use David and Saul as our eligible references.

Unlike David who would not quicken his kingship but kept to
God’s own pattern of how it should happen, Saul was a
trucebreaker. He was a man who would say “I will do this as
you want Lord”, but goes in the opposite direction, and look at
how he ended up. If you must attain what I like to call the
David’s height where God can be confident in you, you must
change your attitude and stop being prideful against His set
plans. You must wear upon yourself a new attitude that doesn’t
argue with God, but simply agrees with Him. An attitude that
judges from the eyes of God; and believe Him, unless you trust
His words, you can never be faithful in doing as He has
spoken. David trusted His words, and even God affirmed it (see
Acts 13:22), and so must you. This is imperative because, if
like David, we desire to end our days of being in numerous
wildernesses, we must first start learning to trust Him and live
on His every word.
…perspective matters a lOt

How we see the events occurring affects a lot of things as it
pertains to us. A half-filled cup can either be described as half-
full or half-empty depending on how we look at it. In the same
way, we see life exactly how we look at it. We see
circumstances from the angle we wish to, and however we tag
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it is how it remains ascribed to us forever. Jesus, on seeing the

blind man who desired healing after having touched him, asked
him what he saw. Thank God, at least he said he could see men
even though if as trees. He had the chance to say he couldn’t
see since imperfect sight is the same thing as half-blind or half-
sight; yet he wouldn’t choose the blind option. If we want
something, we have to start seeing everything in favour of that
which we desire. For example, if you have a child who has
been influenced by some hoodlums, don’t see him as a
corrupted fellow even if his actions suggest so; keep praying
and confessing into him the kind of person God says he is.
When people ask you about him, don’t whine about his
inadequacies, rather publish that God is making a winner out of
him, even as you keep helping him to.
It took me some time to really fully understand why

people kept saying they were strong even when you could
clearly see the flu eating them up. I even had to write about it
once, but now I know that it’s just crazy faith. Then I was
trying to differentiate between an information and a
declaration, but now I would just choose to keep seeing all my
circumstances how it is favourable for me. In a race, there is
truly only one winner, the other six individuals other than the
last choose what to call themselves- whether close to being
winners or losers.
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So, the feelings you feel are not constant. The attitude
you put up is the true determinant of how you feel in any given
circumstance. Attitude determines everything. It changes
everything; and that is why as a man thinks in his heart (his
accepted beliefs and innate response), so is he. This means you
can choose to see the gang banged child as a child of destiny
and not a complete waste, because at the end it is nobody’s
business, just yours and God’s. You can choose to see yourself
as whole even though the phlegm won’t stop pouring out. It is
simply nobody’s business.
Many people look at the sky, but while some call it

blue, some say it’s sky-blue. Some say it is tainted blue and a
whole lot of other names that end with blue as its suffix that
I’ve never heard in my lifetime. The bottom-line is that people
choose to see whatever they want to, and no one really can be
mocked for it unless they are wrong. The mob could see a
death sentence, Stephen saw God. What you see in that
situation of yours is the game changer. For example, here is
how Paul overcame his own crisis. In his infirmities and
reproach he saw a reason to be pleased about, in his weakness
he saw strength (2 Corinthians 12:10). If you will stand any
chance of overcoming yours, you must begin to see the good in
that bad condition, and let nature see it through your attitude
towards life.
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One other thing to get you going: When God speaks to

us, most times despite how perilous our present seems, He uses
the line “You are” instead of “You will”, like you are a chosen
people. However, even though He uses “you will”, it’s simply
to tell us that according to His judgment, it starts now- we can
either wait for evidences or we can run with His word and
begin living as He’s spoken already. Life begins in the mind,
and so the changes we seek must start from our mind. Our
spirit has already been renewed; all that needs renewal to see
all things as the declared is primarily the mind. Therefore,
renew your mind with all God has said, and let that perspective
work out the miracle you seek dearly.
THE ACT OF THANKSGIVING

“In everything give thanks; this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). The New
International Version says in all circumstances. In every
situation, there is always still a reason to give God thanks. A
story is told of a man who sought to sue his country for being
in such a poor state that he could only afford a meal each day.
On getting to the court house, he met a whole lot of other
fellows. Some looking sickly; some could barely even stand;
while others were nothing different from them. The judge
summoned the first complainant, and this individual went on
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about how he didn’t have a place to rest. How his home was
destroyed during the war. About how his whole family was lost
in the war. At this point the man still thought he had a
reasonable case at hand. But then complainant number two
stepped forward, and spoke about how he had a sack of rice
stored at home. However, not only was his family also lost in
the war, he has a dissipating illness that drains his appetite, but
that even if he was to force himself to eat he had a nearly
collapsed oesophagus that made peristalsis a difficult task. “He
had the food but he couldn’t eat it, I don’t but I still have
something to eat and can eat”. As this thought crossed through
his mind, the young man took his case file and walked back
home.
The things you still possess even in your difficult times

are yet sought after by many. Your present testimonies are
someone’s request. You may not be where you want to be, but
you’re definitely not where you use to be. If you haven’t made
it a habit to thank God in your little, then how would you thank
Him in your abundance? The rich fool Jesus spoke about is a
classic example. So, if you haven’t started, ask the Lord to
teach you how to worship in your little. Ask Him for the grace
to always give ceaseless praise to Him in all circumstances.
That’s what the Holy Spirit wants to do in us- help us live
beyond situations and only in the perfect will of God, which
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includes a life of ceaseless thanksgiving. And when He does,

which from what I know He will, let it culminate to the point
where you can literally see the heavens kissing the earth at
your voice.
Just in case it gets hard as you try, reflect on all the past
deeds He accomplished for you and the future ones He’s
assured you. If a man can think well, he would thank God well;
for it is only in looking back we can see all God really was
planning all along. So, if you desire an attitude that loves
winning and always does, covet the attitude of thanksgiving.
Furthermore, giving thanks is symptomatic with those

who believe to have received. When a good deed is done for
you- in real life- you say thank you, right? In the same way,
when a promise is given, you still say thank you. You thank the
benefactor for just a promise because you confidently assume it
is done. Right? When God gives a promise, He also expects
that we give the same reaction as though it were a done deal. If
you must overcome your present crisis, take God’s promise as
your testimony. Make it present tense not futuristic anymore,
and react to your situation from that angle. Dance before Him
as you would do if you had a concrete and visible evidence of
testimony. Thank Him as though it were already there.
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Paul admonished the Ephesians to avoid the folly of

resisting or not understanding God’s will for us. And after he
spoke about how they must remain filled with the Holy Spirit,
making and singing songs in their hearts to God, he said
“Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the
name of Jesus” (Ephesians 5:20 NIV). Notice how a man of
great revelations instructed that with all the power at our
disposal in the name of Jesus by virtue of His Spirit dwelling in
us, our most prioritized deed should be the act of thankfulness.
He boldly suggests that the first step in overcoming whatever
crisis overwhelming your present days is by pouring out your
heart to God in untainted praise and thanksgiving. The first
step to beat down the darkness that surround you is by
swimming in the light of thanksgiving.
To another Church elsewhere, he wrote, regardless of

the pressure put on you by the ordeal, “Do not be anxious
about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians
4:6 NIV). The catalyst to answered prayers is the giving of
thanks. In the same way, the catalyst to be revived from the
heated conditions of life is also thanksgiving. The Bible says
“With thanksgiving”. If you desire a change, always come with
thanksgiving in all your petitions to the Lord.
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Ironically, as it may seem, right in front of Lazarus’

tomb, Jesus gave thanks. Before death and the passage to
hades, Jesus rejoiced. He wept before, but He didn’t stay
weeping, He thanked God. Weeping is the symbol for defeat;
and thanksgiving victory. You may have wept all night, but
when your morning of transformation finds you, it had better
meet you rejoicing to have its full effect. So, if it is a victory
you seek, start thanking Him for the storm, not because He
kept you there, but because He is simply using it to take you to
a new level so that people may see and believe that indeed the
last can still be first, and the condemned the celebrated (see
John 11:41-42).
Paul, a prisoner on board a ship headed for Rome, was

present with other men who knew nothing about God when the
Euroclydon hit them. He suffered all they suffered, and
experienced what they termed a loss. However, while they
shivered, Paul sang. At the end, not only did they all- including
his captors, surrender to his every word; when they got to
Malta, a prisoner received a royal treat, and this continued even
to the point where a prisoner lived two years in a house he
rented as a free man in the city of his captivity. Thanksgiving
may not change what others are seeing, but it definitely
changes what you see and experience in return.
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God has a track record that holds no failure, so we have

no reason to doubt Him. It is written that from ancient times- as
far back as that can be, no one has heard, perceived or seen a
god like our God who always act on the behalf of those who
wait for Him (see Isaiah 64:4). He has a positive record with
coming to the aid of His own; and so if we choose to be
consciously confident of-and attached to-that, rather than
whine and weep, we’d thank Him instead. We’d praise Him in
advance- on the job, afterwards and off the job.
The word “Thanks” was created as a remark for a deed

done positively on your behalf. So when we say “Thank you”,
we are actually affirming that we’ve received a good deed. And
when we thank Him ahead of time, we secure the change we
seek as a done deal. David made a vow saying he will give
thanks to the Lord because of His righteousness (see Psalm
7:17). Even when Goliath stood before him, or Saul in his face,
or the throne wrested away from him, he would yet thank God,
because thanking God is figuratively sitting still and letting
Him fight for you while you cheer. We will thank Him because
of His ability and willingness to always do right and do us
good. Giving God all the praise He deserves creates an access
portal to all God asserts as ours; and just to mention, it gives us
the peace in our spirit we need to come out strong.
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Until our praises surpass our pains, we can never truly

trust all things to be as God says. Unless so, we can also never
thrive where we strive. Thus, I advise you to become an addict
of worship even in the storm. Don’t just say it, do it; like I
won’t just stop at telling you to, I will myself. Being a good
teacher doesn’t literally make one a good student. Many
individuals nowadays know how to make others oblige to the
principles they teach but they never try to do it themselves, just
like the Pharisees Jesus condemned who enforced the law but
never lived by it themselves. I use to be one of such until God
showed me a better way than simply saying or hearing- which
is, living. You see, the blessing is never in saying or hearing,
but doing (see Luke 11:28, James 1:25). Here lies the
difference between a speaker and a teacher. A speaker speaks
what he knows, a teacher nurtures you on all he has learnt and
supposedly does.
God taught me this lesson a certain year when I had to

encourage a person with an academic problem which I already
mentioned in an earlier chapter. Though he got back on track
trusting God, but a year later when I had a delay sort of
problem myself even my words a year ago were not enough to
console me. In that moment, God kept that conversation with
that fellow fresh in my spirit, reminding me to do exactly as I
had taught him- staying cheerful and thankful in dire situations.
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You see, you can’t give what you don’t really have, because a
day may come for you to present again what you once gave out
and you’d crash. You can’t teach what you don’t do; it would
merely be a lecture without any substance that assures you-talk
more of others- of its possibilities.
You may be a church head who leads others in

thanksgiving, encouraging them to drop their pains as they
worship, now it is just your turn to do the same- to engage in
faithful thanksgiving. It’s your turn to thank Him even when
you have your tank loaded with uneasy trials around you. It is
your turn to praise Him in your stormy moments. To practise
praising Him in the dark tunnel all because you’re sure light
beacons at the other side. Thanksgiving in the midst of a
difficulty is simply telling that slyly devil you are paying him
no mind, but focusing all of yourself on God. And you know
what happens when you pay him no mind- he departs for a
season because once he is shut out, he’s shut off (see Matthew
4:10-11).
Thanksgiving clears the mind from the evil presumed to

be and fills it with the good God has prepared to be (see Phil
1:10). In thanksgiving, His will becomes clearer to us, which is
that we remain joyful and praising in all situations. In
thanksgiving, His words become more real and acceptable than
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any sight we see, thereby filling our hearts with peace

unsearchable.
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as

members of one body you were called to peace. And be
thankful” (Colossians 3:15 NIV).
…dwell in Optimism
What keeps the fisherman off shore for hours despite
previous bad catches is the prospect of a good one, and the
understanding that no matter how skilful he is he can’t catch
anything by sitting at home gloomy. He believes that regardless
of how much the bad ones seem to be, there will always be a
good one; and so must we. The fact that the present time
doesn’t favour us doesn’t mean that won’t change in an hour. A
minute changes a game. The silverlining to this possibility is
created only when we choose to look out for that one minute;
and in our daily life that is what we call being optimistic.
Optimism is a term synonymous to being expectant, it means
expecting something against all odds; and as we know, only the
expectant gets. Why? Because they are always geared up 24/7
to grab whatever good that comes their way.
Our future is inscribed at the center of our expectations.

We only receive what we are expecting. So for a man who
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lives in high expectation, he understands that every time the

earth rotates about its axis, it brings with each new day new
substances; and this helps him never to spend his night thinking
tomorrow would be the same, because he simply understands
that everything new comes with each passing day.
When God speaks a word, only the expectant get the

full benefits of it because it is all they have been waiting for,
and so give all of themselves to receive it. In fact, the
difference between the two halves of the ten maidens was their
level of optimism. While the first half saw the coming of their
Lord as 100% certain, thereby carrying extra fuel to keep them
in case he takes a longer time to show up, the other half were
negative about the whole issue, and as such were negligent
concerning the promised coming.
Scripture instructs us to “hold unswervingly to the hope

we profess, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23
NIV). The word unswervingly means not to even think or
imagine going the other way- which is the path of doubt and
disbelief, but to stand strong-without staggering-on His word.
God is constantly faithful, and is surely going to show up. It
doesn’t matter what people say. Anyone can say what they
want to say; that’s the second reason they have a mouth (The
first being to say what must be said- the right thing). However,
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if we are going to stand a chance of meeting Him when He

comes, then we’ve got to stay hopeful. We have got to stay
optimistic, expecting all things to be as God has said it. The
Bible reveals God as faithful to strengthen and keep us from all
hellish odds (see 2 Thessalonians 3:3), and I believe and have
experienced it as such. You have to believe that.
“Rest in the Lord; wait patiently for him to act. Don’t

be envious of evil men who prosper. Stop your anger! Turn off
your wrath. Don’t fret and worry- it only leads to harm. For
the wicked shall be destroyed, but those who trust the Lord
shall be given every blessing” (Psalm 37:7-9 TLB).
Once you have successfully made that belief a part of

your make up, then you’d better start expecting. And know
this, a man expecting from God doesn’t take the advice of the
devil to leave the highway of God’s plan for the pedestrian lane
of supposedly quicker routes to all he seeks. He waits, rest
assured he is on the receiving end. Let these words make you
understand that you have got to start looking at Jesus, hearing
His own verdicts and not those relayed by your situation. You
have got to start seeing a message in a mess, a triumph in a
trial, a victory in victimization, and life in lifeless situations.
You have to learn how to look at a blind spot and call it

a tool for the glory of God. Like Jesus, when you see your
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personal Calvary, you have learnt to see the coming of greater

glory, honour, strength, wealth and power. You have to see
through the darkness to where the light is hidden. If you are
reading this book in a printed or published format, then it
means it has worked for me.
God is faithful. It is in His nature. We, on other hand,

have to possess great faith to remain on the expecting side at all
times. Let there never be a day for you when we take a face
drop and leave doubtfully and empty. Let every day be the day
for you when God takes your pain; and if it doesn’t still come
that day, let the next day be that day. Always optimize the
benefits of having a faithful God. He knows what He sees in
you. He sees what no one else can; and so if He has said
“There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not
be cut off” (Proverbs 23:18 NIV), then you better believe Him
and engage towards it with daily expectations of the same.
Expectations of liberty from a broken marriage, a futile
parenthood, a harsh career, a depressed life. Not the kind of
liberty or escape that sees you running away, but that which
sees you turning it all into the best possible version one can
desire.
Only God can do that. What you can do is trust Him too
expectantly.
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….shaKe it OFF
One of the principles of a successful walk with God is the
ability to shake it off. Jesus said “In this world you would have
tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”
(John 16:33). The act of being in good cheers is the process of
shaking off any worrisome thought, every sorrow, every
discouragement, every disappointment, everything that defies
the exact word of God to His people. For instance, Paul had
just suffered the worst shipwreck of his time- being that it was
the only one recorded of the three he suffered according to 2
Corinthians 11:25, and in the suddenness of his eventual fate,
God spoke to him through an angel that none of them was
going to be given over to death (Acts 27:23-26).
Such a comfort! I can almost imagine Paul basking in

the euphoria of this great comforting words, only for it to be
subverted by the serpent. But immediately it struck, Paul didn’t
even bother to consider its opinions, or what omen it spelt, he
shook it off (Acts 28:5). There would be times when we would
have this great awareness of God’s goodness to us, then
suddenly the serpent’s venom of “why you shouldn’t believe”
appears on the interface where faith meets works in our thought
patterns. In such situations, the only way to shove it aside and
tread forward with God is by shaking it off.
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Shake off the thought that God doesn’t care, the thought
that spells out all hope as lost. Shake off the discouragements,
and every imagination that presents God as unable to save you
from your ordeal (2 Corinthians 10:5). The main aim of the
serpent’s venom is to keep us tending to our wound until the
existence of an injury begins to become accepted by us. Don’t
focus on the wound, focus on the healing. Focus on all God has
told you, not anything the enemy has to say afterwards. Don’t
wait for it to get its venom out, shake it off.
Jesus’ command to be of good cheer tells us that it’s

finished. All we’d ever need or pray for has been provided.
Don’t mind the cloudy sky, the stars you seek are there
waiting. We, on our part, have to resist the devil and his
manipulations, and focus more on God and His provision as
He’s told us. You have the power to end the devil’s reign over
your life, and also to save yourself the stress of holding the
victim’s card and being all negative; all you have to do is shake
off that serpent every time it bites- thus paving a way to the
embedded treasures in His words for you.
….Keep pOsitive
God can do everything. Most times, we just have to believe it
to let it be. If we must win in faith, we must stay believing
throughout the process; and staying believing means that
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regardless of the features that appear, we have to remain

positive towards God at every single moment. That is, in the
fire-positive, in the cold- positive, as we would when the two
aren’t there. Positive every day- and this can only be achieved
when we see God as in absolute control of your life.
In the same way eternal bliss is gotten not by the works

we do no matter how good they are, but principally by His
grace that calls us in, escape from these hard times won’t come
primarily from us, but God’s goodness. Our part is to stay on
the expecting side having done all He requires of us. The side
that sees it continually as God said it- The positive side.
Even in the harshest of conditions, God plies us with all

the grace to stay positive. That is why personally I always
desire individuals to constantly have a good sense of humor.
Don’t allow the present breakdown steal your future
breakthroughs. Keep your expectancy level high because the
problems that may seem big to you really but in due time it
would be justified and rectified as you begin to see the fruition
of the purpose behind it. Yet altogether, stay positive in all
capacities.
The widow in Luke 18 was a woman with a positive

mindset. She didn’t let the setbacks keep her from coming
back. She kept going to the judge despite her previous shuns
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because she had it in mind that she was bound to get what she
sought. You may ask how I know this or if it’s just a mere
assumption. Scripture promises that if we faint not, we shall
surely receive; and that’s the principle she applied. Her
expectations of something positive made her keep returning.
Even though God’s timing doesn’t favour you, don’t faint in
your expectations. Remain positive if you want to stand a
chance of receiving and maintaining the deposits and
dispositions of the blessed.
Don’t focus on what you do not have, focus on what

you are willing to have. Don’t focus on what you don’t know,
focus on what you are willing to know. Just like a broken clock
is always right twice a day, you can still find the greatness out
of that despondent slough of life you presently find yourself. If
you can only believe- choosing to become great (by retaining
your positive imaginations and dreams) and living to actualize
that greatness (by reflecting this positivity in every action taken
towards the fulfilment of that vision).
However, you may ask ‘How can we receive the

strength to stay believing when things seem hazy?” Stay in
God’s presence. Increase your level of fellowship and intimacy
with Him. You see, we get bolder to face the challenges of life
each time we share fellowship with God. Psalm 84:7 says that
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everyone that appears before God go from strength to strength.

Nothing kills motivation more than the absence of
manifestations. And in God’s presence, we have a plethora of
great manifestations awaiting us (John 14:23-26). Also stay
affixed to His word. His word takes us to the mountain-top,
and over there the sky is always bright.
At His word, Hannah trusted God, and she showed it in

her attitude as her face was no longer down cast (1 Samuel
1:18). She showed it before her husband such that instead of
seeing tears all day long, he saw laughter 24/7. She showed it
before Peninnah, in that she stopped being the bitter co-wife to
a loving and caring woman. She showed it off- the positivity,
because while Samuel was still an unfertilized egg, she saw
him coming forth. How? She drew strength from God’s
presence and counted Him faithful. If we are to remain positive
in all situations, we must count Him faithful who has promised
to do all we expect from Him.
As I grew up, a popular line from a favourite cartoon

stuck with me. This was at the end of the 90s; and though it
didn’t make too much sense to me as at then, it began to years
later. It is “With great power comes great responsibility”. The
same thing depicted in that line applies to your faith as well. It
demands responsibility to be evident. Faith doesn’t end in the
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“I believe” statements, we must act on that belief- in our

actions, in our thought patterns and all other expressions. From
your grin to your no-expression look, it must reveal that indeed
we believe. It must show outwardly that inwardly we believe;
and there is nothing more believing than being positive. So, let
your natural dispositions become the positive type from
henceforth.
Our inner conversation is the conversation that we

either think on or verbalize to ourselves subconsciously, and
that our body system responds to. It is our own voice telling us
how much we can win or can lose. We must learn to control
our inner conversations and direct them unto positivity. Larry
Winget says “No matter what you do in life, you will do it much
better with a positive mental attitude than a negative mental
attitude”; and that includes waiting on God too.
Attitude is the critical factor that determines what we

create out of our lives. Like Karl Meninger noted, it is more
important than facts. It is how you take a situation not how it
takes you. It might have taken you unawares, but attitude
determines how you respond. It is our choice of behaviour to
situation, not the pull of situation’s choice on us. For instance,
let us consider David’s response to the Ziklag incident. After
the assault, here’s what the Bible recorded as to have occurred.
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“David was greatly distressed because the men were

talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of
his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD
his God” (1 Samuel 30:6 NIV).
First of all, when it happened he felt bad as you

probably did when yours occurred, yet he didn’t stay that way
forever. Though the words and actions of others wanted to
keep him soiled, but he chose instead to find strength in God.
What does it mean when it said he found strength in God? It
means that despite his present lot, he counted God faithful to
help him, and so switched from his negative mood to a
positive. This David did because he understood that time on its
own changes nothing if not triggered by our reactions in it.
The King James Version says he encouraged himself in

the Lord. He looked at the bright side. From the little hole in
the dark room he focused his sight on that little bit of light he
caught. And note, it wasn’t a waste of time, nor an activity to
while away time, it was profitable. See verse 18-19.
“David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken,

including his two wives. Nothing was missing: young or old,
boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David
brought everything back” (NIV).
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Being positive and trusting God never comes with a

loss. It is result-oriented and result-producing.
There is an attitude that wins and another that loses. In

the parable of the talents Jesus gave, I believe the man who
received one thought about how one could do nothing in
comparison to the vision he had in mind. He was negative in
his approach and responded negatively by burying his chance.
He was depressed with his condition that he remained cheerless
and unenthusiastic even after the master returned. He focused
on all he didn’t have, rather than that which he had with him at
the time. In contrast, the man with five saw potentials in it, and
made double out of it.
If you can see positively in whatever God leaves you-

even if it’s just a word, I see Isaiah 61:7 coming true in your
life. Your approach of engagement to His words must be
positive; and on doing that the response you’d receive will be
positive too. God promised Israel the riches of the Gentiles-
just a word. Did He leave up to it? Yes, because we know that
when Nehemiah returned back to Jerusalem after the captivity,
Xerxes gave him unlimited access to the treasures of the land
to support the project at hand. Being positive in all
circumstances never loses on the platform of expectations. It is
earnest, demanding and promising. Jacob said to the angel, “I
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will not let you go unless you bless me” (Genesis 32:26). He
was a supplanter- a con artist, yet instead of expecting a curse
from God as he got from others, he expected a blessing. And
God blessed him as He had promised, proving that God meets
us at the peak of our expectations. What are you expecting to
come out of your situation? That is what you are going to get.
So, be positive.
Even Paul says “I will press on towards the goal to win

the prize….” (Philippians 3:14 NIV). Before there can be a
pressing, there must first be a conviction that a prize exists-
that a greater hope is ahead; and that conviction is called being
positive. However, to keep positive means to remain consistent
in it. David said “With my mouth I will make your faithfulness
known throughout all generations” (Psalm 89:1). See God on
His way; and see your life in its day of compensation every
single day, and it shall be as you have seen.
Lastly, in Isaiah 65:18, God left a lot of words with

Israel which began with “I will” as He also did with Abraham
in Genesis 12:2-3. He expected them to live with that belief of
Him working it through already. In the same way, God is
expecting us to look forward to all He’s promised, letting it
show in your everyday action and reactions, with the
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confidence that He is a God who never fails on a promise. In

other words, He is saying ‘be positive in your expectations’.
….banK On his wOrd

“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that
you may become blameless and pure, children of God without
fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine
among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word
of life…” (Philippians 2:14-16 NIV).
Let me first say here that every word God speaks is life
containing and life giving. And to everyone that engages them,
there is an assertion of the same life in such a person; turning
his daily natural engagements into a platform for supernatural
exploits.
Hence, we are responsible and judged successfully by

God to the extent we implement His kits to success. I believe
God will always give us opportunity to please Him, but we
have the onus to earn the privileges, as seen in John 15:2.
There we see how some believers could yet be unfruitful in
their walk with God; of which one of the fruit He desires to see
is faith- faith to stay believing regardless of how long we wait.
The same faith Jesus wondered if He would find when He
returns to us.
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God expects His words to be our life support- that is,

the only thing we rely on when we get such attacks. God
invests in us in exchange rates that can only be bought with the
currency of faith. That is why I will be right to say that if we
must receive all God has prepared for us, we must be faithful-
rest assured that we shall receive on the foundation of the word
He already spoke unto us. The Bible records that “In the time
of trouble King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the Lord”
(2 Chronicles 28:22 NIV). Unfaithful here means that he lost
his trust in God and sought other alternatives. It means he
fainted from faith and fell into the abyss where God’s word had
little or no relevance to him. And to him He said if you will not
believe, you will not be established (Isaiah 7:9). So, this is not
the time to lose faith, it is the time to let God prove Himself.
God’s words are promissory notes that assures you of

payment. It is the only reliable collateral you can bank on; and
so if you desire the best profits you can get out of life, you
have got to wait on Him. For everything God promises, Satan
always has a counterfeit to offer, in order to lure us away from
the exact package we’ve been promised. This counterfeit is a
quick and easy way, but it isn’t the way. And because it’s easy,
we hurriedly pick it without thinking twice, thereby leaving
only to return in years to come with a regretful countenance,
and the remark “If only I had known, I would have waited”.
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When God gives His word and asks you to wait for His
answer, which is whenever He decides you’re due, it would be
folly to connive into getting a separate means of obtaining that
benefit faster. This is because except you are supposedly
‘lucky’, you might just be an easy prey for these counterfeits
the devil has laid on your path. And eventually when you do
become its prey, you start living a counterfeit life- a life below
par of all God has in store for you.
Nowadays, we have a lot of individuals going

counterfeit. For some it’s so bad that they can’t even define
who they are anymore that they start saying things like ‘I think
I am’ instead of an assured ‘I know I am’. But you and I, we’ve
got to be different. Don’t accept the counterfeit of God’s ideal
for you; don’t take what seems like the promised blessing, wait
for His ideal. Don’t settle for just any future because you are
desperate to leave where you are now, bank on His words and
wait for the best.
Don’t go counterfeit; because the best that can be

reproduced and reinvented from a counterfeit is a counterfeit.
So, if you desire to make trans-generational impacts that are
genuine in state and effect, wait for God’s ideal for you.
Letting your pain push you to a corner keeps you doing the
wrong things and making the wrong decisions. The tendency
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for a man who has allowed his financial crisis to crush him
emotionally to steal his company funds is relatively high. So
when you allow the situation create a cascade of emotional
tantrums, you can be sure it will affect your everyday
activity—including waiting on-and receiving from-God. Notice
the kind of mentality David had that helped him overcome this
problem. He said “I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side” (Psalm 3:6 NIV).
Living on the words of God is an action with evidence.

If you don’t do it, you don’t do it, because it will show. Just
like we can’t call a poor man humble until he remains the same
even in wealth or rich man generous until he is the same
without the wealth, a man cannot be termed completely faithful
to God until he lives only on the words of God both in good
times and not-so-good times. No other options, just the word. If
God has said a thing, let His words be your muse and your all-
in-all. Relish in it, hope in it, bank on it and act upon it.
God demands worship from us, and trusting Him is one

form He expects it. There is a big difference between worship
and human appreciation. For instance, when a man does
something of the simplest sort of good in this world of tussles,
rumbles and indefinite hustles, we feel a warm sense of
gratitude towards them, such that our thankfulness is drawn
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towards him or her to whom we are most grateful because of

the tangible proof of what he or she had done. That is human
appreciation. But true worship doesn’t always need tangibility.
This is when we thank God and follow Him for the

things our spirits conceive as true even when there are no
concrete evidences of their reality because of who He is. This
sort of worship cannot be retained in the hearts of those who
have it within for so long without giving it; if not our heart
plunges in the same way hot liquid shrinks a plastic vessel,
because the human heart wasn’t created to receive worship to
itself or withhold it, but to give it to the Creator.
Worship is an action that shows dependence. If we bank

on His word, then worship must be evident in our lives despite
the absence of a visible change or a desired reality.
Furthermore, whoever has a reason to worship has a reason to
live. Let worship be portrayed on your spirit, and let it proceed
in your everyday actions towards God. In Acts 2 and 4, the
apostles worshipped God and when men of different
nationalities noticed them, it drew them in.
Today, let your expected miracles and testimonies

notice you worshipping God with absolute trust, and as a result
be drawn into your life. Isaiah says with joy shall we draw
water from the well of salvation (12:3). Not a sagging face; but
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one lit up by the sparkles of worship. Hezekiah was on the

glimpse of death, but because in his pain he still chose to
worship God, proving he hadn’t lost his trust amid death, God
gave him a reason to live- 15 more years. Let your heart and
spirit be lifted up in worship, not because you are forced by
some religious duty, but because all you conceive and believe
to achieve in your spirit compels you to. Do so because the
God whom scripture says caused women to receive their dead
back to life is your God, and is fully capable to turning your
situation around whether He has already or not. When we do
this, God gives us a reason to live- giving life for death, health
for ailment, a job for unemployment, a good home for a
distorted one. If we can live off His said word (i.e. His already
spoken word), He causes it all to work according to all He has
said and we have believed. So here’s my advice to you again:
bank on His word.
….remain jOYFul thrOughOut

THE PROCESS
A person has not fully grown yet until he or she learns to
overcome a crisis and live beyond the outcome of events. This
is because if he or she doesn’t, they would eventually always
end up falling below God’s standard for the believer at all
times when the ceaseless challenges of life strike again. To this
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effect, James shows us the way to this standard, and

encourages the believer to adhere to it.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,

whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that
the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let
perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and
complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4 NIV).
It is almost a normal phenomenon as a human that

regardless of how close we are to a friend, acquaintance or
brother after we’ve seen them share about their coming or
already received testimonies which we were actually supposed
to have too, we tend to fall back to a depressed state as the
thought rewinds in our mind. For instance, when a friend is
planning her wedding scheduled for the next day, and you
know that was supposed to be your own wedding date if not for
the mishap that occurred perhaps, you might really love her
and be happy for her, but in your quiet moment-seeing your
own mishappening-you fall back into the pains of your
unheeded importunities.
However, what does God says for situations like this?

He says “Rejoice with them that rejoice” (Romans 12:15). He
says “Rejoice in the Lord, I say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4).
Altogether He says stay joyous, and never let your
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circumstance ruin your mood or determine your countenance.

He’s telling you to never let your circumstance define your
stance in life. Instead let your joy be found in Him. The term
rejoice here means remaining joyful throughout the time. That
is, reigniting your ‘flame’ of joy so it never goes out. Not a
temporal smile or a feigned laugh, but real joy sparked up from
within.
You know, joy is beyond the scope of happenings (or

events). It is past what we call happiness. Happiness is hinged
on what happens to a man, but joy is based on what has
happened in him. Furthermore, happiness has an opposite in
sadness; joy has no opposite. It is of God, and so is moved by
nothing else but God.
Joy is an expression of certainty and secured

expectations. With it you send a message out that you are not
finished yet. That’s the kind of message God wants to see-
hopeful expectations. When situations aren’t smiling, we have
got to keep on smiling. Even when things aren’t looking good,
you’ve got to look good for Jesus before that cunning devil.
And how do we do this? Joy. Joy gives us charisma in non-
glistening conditions. Thus, we have to release the joy already
in our spirits by the Spirit of God within us, because it is the
indication that God is not done with us, and that’s why He’s
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still with us. At the sight of this, the enemy squirms in defeat.
Plus, remember that in His presence, there is fullness of joy; so
as long as you know God’s still there, you have more than
enough reason to rejoice. Paul was so Spirit-filled that he often
got consciously lost in the joy of the Spirit even in his worst
circumstance, thereby forgetting the presumed mishaps of the
physical that even in jail he had joy abundant. That is one
experience we need to plug ourselves into if we are going to
come out very much alive from the pressures of the
problematic life (see Deuteronomy 28:47-48).
How do we achieve this? When we spend a lot of time

with God, there would be in no room for the enemy to take us
back to the path of condemnation and self-pity. So, I believe
the answer would be spending a whole lot of time with Jesus-
thinking His thoughts, speaking His words and feeling how He
feels concerning any given circumstances.
The longer we remain in Him, the longer the impression

remains with us that we are never condemned, but are His
workmanship for a greater glory. And as this understanding
rubs on us, we begin to live in its reality. In contrast, when we
don’t spend time with Him, then indirectly we give more time
to the enemy, and a comfortable seat beside us in the shuttle of
life, because if a man won’t live in a house, the spider will.
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With this enemy, we are reminded of all the things we don’t

have, but God reminds us of all the things we will have as He
has already provided us with them for the set time.
Furthermore, I believe the drunkenness in the Spirit

Paul spoke of in Ephesians 5:18 refers to being so full of God
and spending so much time with Him that we live in high
spirits that responds not how the world desires, but how God
moves us to; and also sees everything and responds
accordingly as God would Himself. See verse 19-20.
Remember, if we walk by the Spirit we will not fulfil the lust
of the flesh. There would be no worries, no fears, no
impossibilities, no giving in to our weaknesses; only the
possibility of God’s own fruit vividly expressed in and through
us. A lucid manifestation of God’s natural dispositions, of
which joy is one of the very numerous.
How do I know this? Even when evil was plotted

against the Lord and His anointed, He wasn’t worried, instead
He who dwells in heaven laughed (see Psalm 2:1-4). Can you
believe that? Laughing in the face of a challenge. What could
have caused that if not joy non-dependent on circumstantial
occurrences?
So, stay on course, and remain joyful. By joy we draw

God’s presence towards us- for the aura of His presence is
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highly experienced in an atmosphere of joy; and in His

presence, a wait is transformed into a fair of good things to
come. Draw the strength you need to rise up from the dust via
your joy in the Lord (see Nehemiah 8:8-10). Joy is a symbol of
strength- even spiritual strength. It is the evidence that we have
conquered every ordeal. So, start your quest today by a glimpse
of joy radiating inside out from deep within your souls as you
look unto God.
Paul commenting on his present state wrote to the

Church that he was surrounded by sorrows yet rejoicing always
(see 2 Corinthians 6:10). Once you begin to think as God
thinks, you will begin to live as God lives, and more you will
be as God says you shall be. If you believe Him, you will have
so great a cargo of wealth that you’d make others rich with all
things God has abundantly secured for you at your disposal. It
all starts from here- your response to all God has to say
concerning your situation.
Here are some scriptures that I believe would be helpful

in letting you know the degree to which God expects you to be
joyful:
Isaiah 35:10, Habakkuk 3:17-19, Joel 2:23, Jeremiah

31:12-13, Psalm 89:15-16
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Don’t let the devil steal your joy. Don’t let your delay
in getting your desires rob you of your joy found in Jesus.
Jesus is greater than your delay. Don’t let a delayed marriage
cancel your joy in singleness. If your joy comes from the Lord,
then your ordeal shouldn’t stand a chance against it; for even
when every other thing vanishes from you, God remains—so
let your joy remain too.
I only pray God helps us to fully comprehend His

words to us. It is deep, and if we’d go down its depth, I believe
we would never feel bad again. Paul says “I pray that the eyes
of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know
the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious
inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great
power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1:18-19 NIV). If we
only knew Christ’s heart regarding us, we wouldn’t maul
ourselves in unnecessary despairs nor accuse God with
unjustifiable contempt. He has a good plan for us. We just have
to trust Him to see it. Pray for an enlightenment to see as He
expects us to; for when God’s time start to seem not like the
best, that is the best time to trust Him more.
Lastly, Joy secures a double package in place for our

shame, as already noted. The purpose of the Spirit in you is to
give you beauty for ashes, and joy for your mourning, and we
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have to let Him do it by living in sync with Him until we are

brought into conformity with the very image of the Son. It is
the evident that His work is a done deal; so be joyful in all
things. The same Isaiah 61, in verse 10, gives us a cue to
rejoice because of His righteousness and wholesomeness upon
us. This is expedient because righteousness gives us the very
privilege of Christ as well as access to all things (see Matthew
6:33), and that is a genuine reason to be happy.
…endure delightFullY
“And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the
promise” (Hebrews 6:15).
Abraham received promises from God, yet at the early

moment of his life they weren’t evident. However, Abraham
did not grumble nor get mad that all God could give him were
words; he judged God faithful to be true to His words. So,
instead of complaining bitterly, he endured with wholesome
expectations. The scripture above said “patiently”; so that’s
like saying he decided to give God all the time He needed
without doubting His abilities for once. Though he failed with
the whole Hagar saga, yet he still never judged God unfaithful.
To endure delightfully means to wait on God without

any self-pity. It doesn’t include going about and asking people
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why it had to be you. It doesn’t include your calling for pitiful

comments about how God abandoned you. It is you affirming
to the fearful that God hasn’t abandoned you. It is you
dropping the ‘why me?’ question for the ‘at your will’
confession with a heart free from bitterness. And if we are
going to scale through from any unpleasant occasion, we have
to learn not to mind the shenanigans going on, and focus on the
appointment God’s given you regardless of how long it takes.
But this can only be possible when we trust God
immeasurably.
The only assurance that we would not be sifted in the

open field of life is if only our faith fails not. An ever standing
faith is a sustaining one (see Luke 22:32). For instance, let us
take children as our example. Have you ever gone to pick up a
child, perhaps yours, and found out that you were a bit late but
instead of finding the kid crying having waited for an hour,
seeing his peers get picked by their parents, you find him
unexplainably happy as he plays about on the playground down
the school corner. If you haven’t, I have in the years I use to
pick up my then little cousin from school.
This child has every reason to cry. His friend are

practically at home with a hot meal, while he is just there,
stood up by his parent that promised to show up on time. He is
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seeing his mates move on while he stands there waiting.

However, he chose to be delighted in his fun-fare than sitting
all depressed and despaired. Like that kid, even when God
supposedly shows up late, we have the choice to engage in
happiness or sadness. We have the choice to endure in the
delight of His potential coming or to cry because it’s an hour
late. You’d also notice that the child was enthusiastically
optimistic during his wait because subconsciously he had the
confidence that his parent would show up despite the duration
it took. In the same way, if we can be confident in His words to
show up, we wouldn’t always have a pity party, rather we
would wait as if we weren’t even waiting for anything.
There is a story about the elephant and the dog, and I

know it would be a major help in situations like this. Once
upon a time, an elephant and a dog became pregnant at the
same time. Three months down the line the dog gave birth to
six puppies. Six months later, the dog was pregnant again, and
on the 9th month it gave birth to another dozen puppies. The
pattern continued. On the 18th month, the dog braggingly
approached the elephant in mockery.
Dog: “Are you sure you are pregnant? We became pregnant on

the same date; I have given birth three times to a dozen
puppies and they are now grown to become big dogs, yet you
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are still pregnant. What’s going on? Or did you only want to
be treated in kindness under the pretence of being pregnant?”
Elephant: “(Laughs). There is something I want you to

understand. What I am carrying is not a puppy but an elephant.
I only give birth to one in two years. When my baby hits the
ground, the earth feels it. When my baby crosses the road,
human beings stop and watch in admiration. What I carry
draws attention. It is not common to find an elephant by the
side of the road knocked down by a car or as pets in any kind
of a person’s house. What I’m carrying is mighty and great”
We all need the elephant’s attitude towards the pressure

of being as others are. Acclimatization isn’t a bad thing, as
long as it doesn’t lead you into being any lesser than you
should originally be. Every person might have received a
promise on the same day, it doesn’t mean it gets fulfilled on the
same day. The bigger the package, the longer the wait.
Mushrooms take a day to grow, the Mahogany takes years. So,
what do you want? A mushroom or a mahogany. If a
mahogany, then be prepared to endure the scorching sun, the
cold rain, the unpleasant wind, the insects perking off you and
the small shrubs grow ten times faster than you appear to; but
with a delightful spirit of the good things that shall soon
blossom. Let it show that regardless of how long your personal
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twenty-four months might be, like the elephant in the fictitious

story you can be sure that it’s your own possible best.
As prisoners of hope in God, we must endure until

reward point. We must stay on course till the day we are
approved due for the delivery of our expectations, with
melodies ever playing in our hearts. However, if we back out
before the set time, we would throw it all away carelessly; and
in the order of Judas and the multitude who left in John 6:66,
three years would be made futile. But out of curiosity who do
you think determines when we are due? God or us? God does.
God determines when it is the set time, and He will tell you
when it is so that if you don’t see a change by then, you can
rush into the court of heaven with your case as Israel did in
Egypt and Daniel did in Persia.
Remember, do not be weary for at the proper time you

will reap your harvest, if only you don’t give up (Galatians
6:9). Like a farmer, you must keep watering your seed and
working your field even when there is no offshoot to suggest
your seed yet lives. With a delightful endurance, you can go
beyond just seeing the benefits, you reap them. You don’t just
stop at seeing the promised kingdom from a distance, you enter
and receive it. Only learn to find assurance in God when He
says He will not forget the needy, neither will the hope of the
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afflicted perish (Psalm 9:18). Learn to trust Him, for only then
would your enduring of these things seem worth the while.
….praY ceaselesslY
If there’s any battle you can’t win with your hands fixed to a
weapon, or with your feet firm to the ground, know that it is a
battle that can only be won on your knees. We draw the
strength we need to pass our test from prayer. Jesus prayed and
angels strengthened Him. He prayed and His countenance was
altered and His appearance glistered. We also can do the same
and reap the same sort of experience in such given situations.
In our waiting period, one thing we don’t want to miss

is having God constantly reassuring us that He still has us on
the forefront of His agenda, and one platform to enjoy such
assurance is the platform of prayer. When we pray, God listens
and responds. The evidence may take a while, but through that
prayer, the reassuring response we receive and the feeling of
confidence He instils in us afterward, we know it is there.
Everything God does has a purpose, and by prayer we

can know its purpose. Our God is a God of purpose. Even
when it is not looking good, He has a purpose for it yet that
somehow turns out to be for our good. If Jesus hadn’t made the
statement in Luke 22:36, Peter wouldn’t have taken a sword,
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more or less, to cut Malchus’ ear off at Gethsemane.

Everything that happened that night was in line with the
fulfilment of prophecy. Everything happening in your life now
may also be for a certain fulfilment of purpose. Draw the
strength you need to survive its confusing state through prayer.
When your faith faints, pray. When the pain rises, pray
too (see James 5:13). Find an unfailing faith from your prayers
and His word, and hold on to it, for in due season, every prayer
hearkened to always brings an answer with a myriad of
testimonies with the evidence of the actualized purpose made
known and clear for all to see, with you as a beneficiary of a
plan invented for your peace.
Once again, how do we receive the strength and grace

to overcome to the end? In addition to the others we’ve already
seen, Jesus gave the answer in a sentence two millennia ago-
Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation (Luke
22:46). To resist the temptation of falling over, falling aside or
falling off from God’s preordained path for you, be fervent in
Spirit, instant in prayer, serving the Lord by letting go and
letting Him take you through the patterns He delights in.
I have never heard of anyone whom worrying changed

his condition one bit. Jesus had to give his disciples a complete
sermon on the futility of worrying; and just as it can’t increase
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a man’s stature, it can’t effect any positive change in his life.

What can then? Prayer can. In fact, worrying makes you see
everything God hasn’t done, but prayer helps you see what
God has and will do. Worrying adds nothing, but does take
away something. It takes away your joy, peace, and rips your
hope apart bit by bit. So rather than worry, pray. James 5:13
says that if anyone is afflicted or troubled, he should pray. The
truth is that in this turbulent world, there would always be a
reason to worry, but who and what you focus on determines
how you respond in such times. For instance, while the
disciples saw a storm and shrieked, Jesus saw God and slept
peacefully. Remember, they that do know their God shall be
strong and do exploits.
You see, knowledge is acknowledged at the edge of

trust. Psalm 125:1 says that those that trust in the Lord are
steady as Mount Zion, unmoved by any circumstance (TLB).
When you trust God, you live and walk in His audacity. You’ll
walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no
evil; on the contrary evil will fear you. However, God doesn’t
answer to prayers primarily, before that He answers to
obedience. (See The Living Bible translation of Matthew 6:33,
Job 36:11, Isaiah 1:19. The Levites in Ezekiel 48:10-12 were
ministers, so they presumably prayed daily; yet God was quick
to reward only Zadok’s sons who obeyed Him and lived holy
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before Him). And obedience is strongly facilitated by faith in

love expressed via trust in God.
In case you need more information on how your prayer

altar can be your place of changing situations, and how to usher
your blessings in through prayer, I wrote a book before this
titled “The Blessedness of Prayer”. I believe that with it, you
can connect back to God and engage rightly in this battle at a
position that ensures victory.
Despite being the vessel God used to author that book, I

have tried it myself when the pains gush in and out, and I can
attest that prayer really works. Prayer is where we must fight;
for with hands we must lose, with feelings we might fail, but in
prayer we always win with God. So, in your secret place, your
closet, your kitchen, your room, your work desk, wherever you
find yourself when those thoughts of disappointments surface,
take it to the Lord in prayer. In prayer we don’t just have
victory, in prayer we also find the reason for the battle.
If people are telling you it is because you are a sinner,

don’t argue with them like Job did in his time- that only brings
more reasons to be bitter; like I said already people say
whatever they want to- it’s the second reason they have a
mouth. So, what do you do instead? Take it to the Lord in
prayer. The hymn writer confirms it in words- “Moment
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praying to the dear Saviour, burden is so heavy to bear; Then

your burdens of care will be lifted” (Rev. A. Barratt).
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SUMMARY
When trials approach our doors, there are certain
attitudes God expects us to put up against them to gain
a victory. He doesn’t expect us to pile hand towels to
wipe away tears, He expects melodies and songs from
our heart. It is not an easy feat as an emotional
creature, but that’s where faith comes in. Faith helps
us react in ways not controlled by feelings; and that’s
what He desires- an attitude of faith not one
predominated by circumstantially induced feelings.
Altogether, God wants us to be humble to His words,
or as W.H. Ballamy puts it, to meekly wait and murmur
not. He wants us joyful in this period, optimistic,
thankful, positive, resilient in faith, and firm through
His word. And importantly, He wants us praying,
because when His appointed time starts to dwindle
away from our accepted time, one place to be is on our
knees, with our hearts lifted high in expectant faith
towards God.
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400
CONCLUSION
T
he number one enemy of Eve responsible for her
fall-as well as Adam’s- wasn’t the serpent, it was
herself. Why? Because she had a choice. God had
given her and her husband the promise of dominion, but
because she couldn’t trust His words, she assumed she had to
do something to earn it thereby falling prey to the devil, rather
than giving herself wholeheartedly to simply trust and believe
God to possess the promise and live by that belief. She saw the
demand of deeds when she was called to walk in the supply of
faith.
The promises loaded in the Person of Christ is only

imputed on those who believe (see Galatians 3:22, John 11:40).
Perhaps for a long time coming, it’s been seeming as though
God has withheld His blessings and favours from you; yet it is
possible the problem isn’t from God, nor your natural abilities,
but your inability to simply believe Him for all He’s already
supplied your way. Though I’ve had my days of unhelping
complaints, and still do sometimes, yet I have never seen
anyone whom complaining changed positively. Furthermore, I
find it hard to believe that God would just harden His mind
against His own- very hard to accept. If in our imperfection we
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Conclusion
don’t forget our own, how much more God? Even in our
trouble stricken moments it is impossible for God to desist
aiding us despite being His; well unless there is an inhibitory
trait in our hearts such as unbelief (doubt, fear and distrust),
only then can He be hindered. For as a man accepts in his
heart, so is he.
Everybody needs to feel worthy at some point; and

though our thoughts doesn’t stop God from being super-
worthy, however His glory is seen through us by the on-lookers
when we trustfully rely on Him. Let it be clear to you that God
never just abandon his own for no reason whatsoever. In fact,
He says that His eyes are always on them, to show Himself
strong for their sakes.
Now if God could give us Jesus, then He can give us

His all. Jesus was His best reserved gift for man; and so if He
could yet give us Him, then He definitely can provide for us
anything we need- even that request that keeps the tears rolling
down our chins. Having this knowledge that God is faithful and
ever willing to provide for us, it would only be right for us to
completely trust Him. And the one way to show that is to be
fully committed to Him.
The wave of problems are at the dock of our world,

ready to cause a major hit, and only those who have their
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Conclusion
houses built on a rock would keep steady in this unsteadied

period. This rock that holds us strong, keeping us hopeful in
trying circumstances is God; and He wants us to trust Him in
that. In our careers, marriages and homes, let us learn to
commit all of our ways to Him so as to give Him the access He
desires to direct our lives to the purpose He longed before
predestined. When things aren’t so good, stay committed- stay,
loving Him and trusting Him. Stay, choosing to believe He
would do all He has promised to do. Stay, keeping your joy
intact from the devil that killed others’.
You know, the simplest way to know how you should

react in any particular moment, especially the unpleasant ones,
is on your knees- praying. This is because only God can truly
tell how it’s all going to end from the beginning; not those who
mourn for you, nor those who gave supposedly great
advice…… only God. And since only He knows all these, we’d
be safer by staying committed to Him. God wants to fight for
us and face any given challenge with us; all we have got to do
is let Him.
“Do you want more and more of God’s kindness and

peace? Then learn to know him better and better. For as you
know him better, he will give you, through his great power,
everything you need for living a truly good life: he even shares
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Conclusion
his own glory and his own goodness with us!”

(2 Peter 1:2-3 TLB).
“…But the people who know their God shall be strong

and do great things” (Daniel 11:32 TLB).
“Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to

know him, and he will respond to us as surely as the coming of
dawn or the rain of early spring” (Hosea 6:3 TLB).
What do you say? Would you let Him go first place in

your life by choosing commitment to Him, or are you going to
fight this war on your own? Two goes better than one any day;
and having Him by our sides gives us the added advantage we
need and the arduous benefits we seek. With God, we are
always at the advantage. And all of these begin by simply
trusting God. Will you trust Him today? For blessed are those
who do (Psalm 2:12).
If yes, then you’ve got to place your life under new

management in Christ Jesus. If you have tried every method
you can, put every effort you have, and it still doesn’t seem to
change its look, then it’s time to do so. And this you do by
receiving Him into your life as Lord, making your heart and
soul right with Him; and renewing your spirit to live like Him.
If you are ready to take a step to this most awesome
experience, it would be a privilege to lead you back into His
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Conclusion
arms. Please if you haven’t received Jesus before now repeat

these words with your whole heart, believing, while others
keep speaking to the Lord about the decision you’ve made
already;
“Lord Jesus, I know I have been far from you before

today. Refusing to trust you or believe in you, talk less of
relying on you. And now I have seen how much of a mess I’ve
become because of that decision. However, that changes today.
I stand before you and ask you to be Lord over my life. I accept
you as my Lord and saviour. I believe you died because of me
and rose again to justify and redeem me. Today, I claim your
provided redemption, placing all of my life and home under a
new management in you. Henceforth, the devil has no hold
over me. He can’t steal my joy, my faith or my hope. I
overcome him in Your name. I receive the grace to endure my
tests and to come forth a better person as you desire. I am born
again, a new creature. I am divine property and no longer a
slave of destruction. My life is yours, and I am yours. Take
over my life and home with absolute control as only you can,
and make of me all you want me to be. I pray this in Jesus’
name. Amen”
Congratulations to you my friend; expect to see

changes in your life in line with what Jesus promised. “He that
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Conclusion
believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also; even

greater works”.
Note this: It takes a tree weeks to bring forth fruit after

budding despite having all the nutrients absorbed by its root
system. However, in one night, God caused a rod to not only
bud, but also to bring forth fruit. Not just any sort of fruit- the
ripened type (Numbers 17:8). In other words, what a perfectly
fitted tree might take 1-3 months to achieve, God used less than
a day to do so with a rod that had no connection to its supposed
source of sustenance. Now, if God could do it then, He can do
it now. That opportunity you’re looking at as your sustenance
that seems far-fetched isn’t, God is. And now you have Him.
He can change your story overnight. Trust Him.
“So if you are suffering according to God’s will, keep

on doing what is right and trust yourself to the God who made
you, for he will never fail you” (1 Peter 4:19 TLB).
The devil will always fight, but he’s bound to lose

every time unless we let him win. And unbelief helps him do
that. The thought of failure should never hold a man back;
rather the thought of trial and the potential of success should
spur him on. Progress is what fuels the zeal for trial. So don’t
assume it won’t work, rather put your faith on trial by trusting
God. Remember, we are not serving a dead God. Job didn’t say
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Conclusion
I think, he said I know my redeemer lives (see Job 19:25).

Because He lives, you will also.
Lastly, I want to believe this book has been helpful to

you. Furthermore, I will be leaving some answers to other
questions I’ve been asked and you may also have after this
page. Do well to study it; and I believe God that the person I
see in you today would be ten times better the next time we
meet again. However, before I go, always remember that you
only live your best life the day you understand that it’s God’s
will for you to have the best, and verily decide to get that best
out of you. The best is just right in front of you, don’t let
anything snatch it away; for when God’s time start to seem not
like the best, that is the best time to key yourself into the plan
and purposes of God. Don’t let the pressure melt you down,
rather rise and let it be the kilning process that releases the
winner in you.
I will see you at the top, my friend!
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Conclusion
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FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS
#1 HOW DO I RESPOND WHEN MY

FEARS SUGGEST THERE IS NO HOPE
FOR ME IN OVERCOMING MY
BIGGEST CHALLENGE?
To answer this question, I would like to take a hint
from one of my DAILY VITAMIN notes titled
Responding Right.
"The account of the instructions of God to Jeremiah

gives us a clue to what God expects of us in life. In His
words to the Prophet at the time of his call, the Lord
said to him, 'Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify
you before them' (Jeremiah 1:17 NIV). These words
reveal to us how much God hates it when we second-
rate Him, thereby rating our fears higher than our trust
in Him. In other words, He is saying 'If you won't trust
Me, then why don't I just give you what you trust is
coming your way'. If despite all God has said
concerning how He cares about us, and will save us, we
will neglect Him by exalting our fears more, we
literally tell Him He doesn't have the power we need
right now- and that mindset, my friend, disgusts Him.
Frequently Asked Questions
God seeks a people that would look straight into the

eyes of the dreadful problem and yet still choose to trust
His words above the tension it conveys. He seeks those
who would humble themselves before Him, trembling
at His word only and not to circumstances (See Isaiah
66:2). He seeks true believers that stand by His word-
and His words alone.
Secondly, having emotions and feelings are the most

beautiful things in the world. In fact, it's the difference
between the living and dead. However, in the business
of trusting God, emotions are the last things you want
to rely on. Emotions bend to the events that play out,
such that if something bad happens, it won't care about
what God said, but naturally responds as the situation
commands. But faith is different. Faith sees past the
events into what God has to say about that condition.
And that's exactly the virtue God's expecting from us.
Don't get it wrong. God sees how you feel, He also felt
it but He never gave in and so we shouldn't too
(Hebrews 4:15). Thus, when it's your time to bear the
brunt, don't get terrified, because ironically when we
do, God is restricted from helping us- by our own
selves. Why? Fear keeps God out, while faith draws
Him in. So, be strong, and stay believing. Be hopeful
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and stay expectant. See it as God wants you to, and

respond accordingly; and eventually by His grace, the
words God speaks to you won't be a myth anymore, nor
a mere wish, but a living reality as would be seen in
you”.
#2 ISN'T IT NATURAL FOR ME TO HAVE

FEARS WITHIN ME WHEN TROUBLE
COMES?
Humanly speaking, we'd call it a normal phenomenon.
But notice that it isn't a normal thing because it is a
prescribed feeling every man must have for its benefits;
No! But because almost the whole population of the
human race entertain fears at all points in time. And so
since it is so in vogue, we termed it normal, yet it isn't
the kind of response God intended man picks up as his
emergency expression.
Almost at every time, God advised men not to be afraid

nor dismayed, but courageous regardless of whatever
happens to them (see Joshua 1:9). In fact, it is estimated
to be written 365 times in scripture. This is so because
God didn't give us the spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7), so
if we have it, we got it from somewhere else. Here's
another truth: No spirit can just enter into a man unless
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he lets it consciously or otherwise. Even God will not

force His way through into a man. The power of
freewill compels Him to seek the man's willingness.
Jesus once spoke about how He and the Father stand at
the door of our heart knocking to seek entrance
(Revelations 3:20); showing that at the end we decide
what comes in and what doesn't.
So, even in troublesome moments, we have the power

to resist the spirit of fear from entering into our hearts.
Even Satan couldn't force himself or his ideas on Eve,
he only used deceptive tricks to make her let him in. So,
we choose what we want. It may be natural to the world
to live in hopeless fears, but remember we are not of the
world; meaning we're not under any obligation to live
like them. So, if you want out, you can get it- all it takes
is a choice and the faith to sustain it.
Therefore, this is my candid advice to you. When fear

seems to brood over your heart, remind yourself you
weren't created with it. The flesh may will it on you, but
you have a choice as to whether to live by the Spirit of
creation or by the flesh of corruption. Plus, always
remember His words "Be strong and of a good courage,
be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD
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thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest" (Joshua

1:9); and you have not "the Spirit of fear, but of power,
of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7). In
addition to that, actions of frustration and desperation
exuded through fear never makes anything right.
Hence, choose to trust God and desist from fear; and
remember we are only judged because everything we
get was our choice to make not another's. So choose
power, choose love to see through God’s own eyes,
choose sound mind!
#3 WHAT MUST I DO FOR GOD TO SEE

FAITH IN ME?
You don't do anything. You just believe and give
corresponding actions of faith. But you must understand
that faith isn't a passive act; and that's why there is a
thin line between believing and not disbelieving. Not
disbelieving is an easy task, but it is empty loaded as it
pertains to God, but believing is a conscious effort to
trust God, and so carry results in effect. For example, if
your pastor preached on Sunday that God is good, and
you didn't try to find a reason in your heart to dispute
his claims, you didn't disbelieve; but did you believe?
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Not disbelieving is likened to reading a medical book

and just choosing not to argue as to whether the liver is
the largest internal organ because you don't really care,
but believing is choosing to agree because even though
you may not really understand you know it is by an
inner conviction you're willing to follow. The first is a
head thing, the latter is a heart thing. God doesn't just
need us to not disbelieve, He wants us to truly believe.
The former is merely believing. That's like just hoping
it works, but the latter is knowing it will.
When God says a word regarding a thing, He sees faith

in you when He sees that your choice not to argue isn't
because you don't have a solid argument, but because
you willingly chose to let yourself be under His word
with reckless abandon (see John 4:50). Many of us say
"Jesus take the wheel" but we still want to dictate how
and where He drives to. So, with faith you don't do
anything like that, you simply just release yourself to be
under the influence and direction of His word for the
substance you seek.
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#4 WHY DO WE HAVE TO WAIT SO

LONG?
This was exactly David's plea in the first two verses of
the 13th Psalm. Well, if we were to use a stove to boil a
cup of water, we don't determine how long it takes- the
flame does. The intensity of the fire determines how
fast or how slow it boils. We all carry a sort of fire
within us- that is the jewel God desires to develop in us
determine how long it takes. If God desires to build a
skyscraper in us, He might take a whole year, but if it's
just a shack, it may take Him just a day. So like I said
almost throughout this book, the longer it seems your
wait is- that is if you remain right with God throughout
the process, the larger the deed He desires to do. So a
longer wait could mean a skyscraper deed. Examine
Joseph and Abraham lives. Examine Jacob's. God
doesn't just make us wait because He wants to torture
us, He does to accommodate all He's planned for us in
us. The thirty years wait before Jesus began His
ministry produced an effect in three years that many
couldn't achieve in thirty, nor Methuselah in his almost
millennium lifetime. So, trust God. It is taking much
time as we presume because the miracle it brings is
dense. It is a major hit so it takes a while to make. It is a
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planet sized egg not a mere chicken egg- taking a while

to hatch. I like to believe that; I suggest you do the
same.
#5 HOW DO I KNOW IF THIS WAIT IS BY

GOD’S WILL OR MY FAULT?
2 Corinthians 13:5 instructs us to examine ourselves as
to whether we are still in the path set for us by God.
After you’ve accomplished that- that is, evaluating if
there is any sin that could act as a reproach to you; pray
to seek what God has to say about it. In the days of old,
when things like this happened, they consulted with the
Urim and Thummim. The Urim and Thummim are
instruments to find out the will of God. Today, our
Urim and Thummim is the Holy Spirit who dwells in
us; for we have access to God by one Spirit (Ephesians
2:18). So, seek the Lord’s face in prayer and let Him
reveal to you all you need to know. Remember, only the
Spirit of God knows the deep things of God (1
Corinthians 2:10-11), so if you intend to know the
reason for your wait, approach the depth of God’s
knowledge by engaging the Holy spirit in your prayer
time.
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#6 WHAT BASIS DO I HAVE TO KEEP A

HOPEFUL COUNTENANCE IN MY
CRITICAL MOMENTS?
Two scriptures are primarily helpful for this situation,
because in both of them God places Himself on the line
just to assure us that He would come to our aid- and
that my friend is enough to remain cheerful.
Firstly, Numbers 14:28 “Say to them, as truly as I live

says the LORD, as you have spoken in My ears so will I
do it to you”. This scripture affirms that God hears our
every plea with an eagerness to help us overcome the
present crisis according as we have spoken. So, rest in
God; as long as you are speaking it, you are getting it,
but in His time and by His will.
Secondly, Psalm 11:3 asks the question “If the

foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
While many people say there’s no answer to that, and
others such as myself would say ‘pray’ according to
James 5:13, the scripture leaves us with an answer. God
does not leave a question unanswered- there’s always
one in His word. In verse 4, it says “The LORD is…..”
When the foundation [your source of strength and
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encouragement; your undeniable truth; your inherent

stamina and endurance] fails, the Lord is your answer.
Furthermore, in John 1:12, God didn’t say He gave us

power to be called the sons of God. Anybody can
answer that title, it doesn’t mean they are. Even angels
bear it (see Job 2). He says He gave us power to
BECOME. God expects us to be embodiments of
Christ- to live like Jesus, to act like Jesus, to believe
like Jesus; and since Jesus never wore hopeless faces,
He expects us never to as well. He was a man of
sorrows, yet He was always cheerful, and so must we
be.
So, God’s ability to make Himself the solution we need

freely is enough reason to keep a happy expression
even in our saddest situations; for a man who has God
has no reason to stay cold. Once you dwell in God, He
revels in you- breathing in your direction. That is, He
either clears away the hurdles ahead of you, or pushes
you so as to breakthrough. Altogether, He is still your
ever faithful help in time of direst need. It takes only a
minute to kill a dream if you let it- so don’t let it.
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#7 HOW IMPORTANT IS IT THAT WE

PRAY AND FAST IN THE LORD DURING
OUR WAITING PERIOD?
First of all, prayer and fasting is the platform for
spiritual resurgence. It is on his altar that doors are
flung open (Isaiah 58:6-10). In the Old Testament, we
read that Moses remained with God on the mount
without any meal for the belly for 40 days, and on the
last day the law was delivered. In the New Testament,
we see the same with Jesus who remained with God in
the same state of respite in the wilderness for 40 days
too, and on the last, grace was revealed to the world,
and the devil was sent packing for a season as a result
of the impartation He had received, and afterwards He
went in the power of the Spirit bringing deliverance to
all men of all kind (see Luke 4:14). And of us He says
that when the bridegroom is gone, then shall they fast in
those days. Prayer is a covenant that never fails to
obtain (see Jeremiah 33:3, Matthew 7:7, John 14:14). If
there is a man to pray, there’s a God to answer. ‘If my
people would seek my face, humble themselves and
PRAY, I will hear from heaven, forgive and heal them’
(2 Chronicles 7:14). So, the platform we need to
connect with if we must clear away any reproach in our
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lives as we wait for God’s grand miracle is sincere

prayer with total submission to God, as it concerns all
He requires of us. Thus, to burst out into the
supernatural as soon as our wait is over, then yes prayer
and a sincere fast to seek God’s face is in all
ramifications paramount.
#8 DOES GOD REALLY CLOSE DOORS?

Yes, God does. The same God who commands doors to
be flung open also keeps them shut at times- to protect
us from the uncertainties that lie ahead on that path at
that point in time. For instance, in the battle of Israel
against the Philistines, the same God who inaugurated
the victory of Baal-Perazim (which means a Break out
against the enemies) when He told David to go, also
instructed David not to take the same straight path even
when the enemy were sore weak from the previous
defeat (see 2 Samuel 5:19-23). He had another pattern
in mind for them to gain their desired victory. Nobody
knows why God asked them not to go straight as
before. Nobody does, but He does have a good reason
for it. Paul said “All things work together for our
good”. He didn’t specify if these things were good
things or not-so-good things. But regardless of its state,
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if God’s behind it, it is simply to protect us from the

things ahead we aren’t yet prepared for.
When we’ve grown and are ready by His standards,

such doors will open up themselves. When the closed
prison gates met a readied Peter, it opened on its own
accord. When the Jordan met a readied Elisha, it parted.
When Jericho met a readied Israel, it came down; as
Midian also to a readied Gideon. So, once we have been
readied by God, the same door He closed will open, that
is if He still counts it worth our while, because He
might have something bigger and better in mind for us
(Psalm 71:20-21).
Now, every opinion that is not in line with God’s will is

useless. Divine instructions have no need for
improvements. If God has a plan perfect for you, your
brainstormed plan can’t better it. In John 6:6, Jesus
already had in mind what He wanted to do, and He still
does till date. So instead of trying to get your better
ideas on how to overhaul this closed door, seek His
approved plan. It’s like in engineering, no other plan is
put to work regardless of how many they are, except
that which has been approved. His is- so seek it and
walk by it.
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Hence, this is the real faith- to trust God without

bounds even when you know He’s the one who closed
the doors you sought to walk through; with a basis on
the truth that the steps and stops of the righteous are
ordered by God Himself- for it is God who gives the
will power and doing power to accomplish everything
He has planned for us (Philippians 2:13).
#9 HOW CAN I BE SURE THAT RISKING

EVERYTHING IN GOD WILL
EVENTUALLY PAY DESPITE THE
PRESENT SIGNS?
Other than the truth that serving God pays as is in
utmost correspondence throughout scripture (see Mark
10:29-30, John 4:36), whatever God backs can never
fall. A mother who backs her child as is seen in the
many African countries may drop him to his fall. Like
the scripture says of Mephiboseth who was five when
his father died, and as his maid arose to flee with him,
she dropped him and he became lame at his feet. Or as
the scriptures say “Can a mother forget her sucking
child- she may, but God will not” (Isaiah 49:15). So
whatever He backs up never falls. However, before a
child can be backed, his arms must be stretched. If you
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want God backing you up- backing up your business,

ministry, marriage, home and life generally, you have
to first show the interest by stretching out- losing
yourself away from personal aims to what He has for
you. You have to stretch those arms of yours towards
Him. You must understand that whoever God has
chosen to bless, He is ready to bless. As long as He has
placed a bond on Himself to back you up, regardless of
how sloppy your posture may seem right now, or how
bent your circumstances are, you aren’t going to fall.
“As many as come to me I will in no wise cast away”
(John 6:37). You won’t just land anywhere at the end of
this if you release yourself to Him, you will land where
He wants you to be- a place of peace and a hopeful
future. Notice how it happened with the apostles as
soon as they received Him into their boat, immediately
they got to their destined landing (John 6:21). In Psalm
15, He says that whoever does the things listed there-
which are directly to honour God- will never be shaken.
Seriously, serving God pays.
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#10 WHAT IS THE MOST REQUIRED

ACTION TO ENGAGE IN AS I WAIT FOR
GOD’S DUE TIME?
Simple. Serve Him. In his sermon to the Israelites
across Capernaum in John 6, Jesus centered on His
desire to see man not craving for means to acquire meat
for the belly nor money for the bank- even if these are
expedient, but rather that we seek Him who gives
enduring blessings that surpasses time. In verse 27, He
admonishes us not to strive for that which perishes but
that which endures unto the life He desires for us to
attain. And verse 29, He concluded it when He affirmed
that at any moment in time, what God seeks and
approves as His desired expectation from us is that we
believe in Jesus. Let the stall be a period to serve God
faithfully. Scripture advises that we seek FIRST the
kingdom and by doing that we get every other thing
(Luke 12:31, Matthew 6:33). In those periods when it
seems as though God has forgotten you, and in those it
seems like He is all on you, seek Him first. There is no
man who puts God first whom God doesn’t put first.
Instead of praying “Why me Lord? Why not Lord?”
pray for the advancement of His will on the earth.
Prayers that focus on His desire to see all men saved.
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Pray heavenly investment prayers- putting the needs of

the Kingdom first. On doing this, the scripture there is
one that scatters and yet increases will be evident in
your life.
Just like Stormie Omartian wrote in The Power of a

Praying wife, “Before your prayers are answered, there
will be blessings from God that will come to you simply
because you are praying”. Praying is beneficial;
serving God in prayers benefits more. Also notice what
Anna did as she waited for the coming of the Messiah-
she served God in prayers, in fasting…faithfully….she
served God (Luke 2:37). Hence, in moments when you
are asked to wait, don’t try to premeditate your way and
plans into existence, just seek His will first and do it,
and He will give you all you need that others cannot
downplay. Thus, for an undeniable breakthrough, make
God your number one.
#11 HOW POWERFUL IS THE ACT OF

EXPECTATION IN NON-FULFILLING
TIMES?
God can’t lead you to a place where He can’t take care
of you; so it is right to always expect God to take care
of you in whatever conditions you find yourself. There
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is nothing more fulfilling than expectation. When you

pray, believe you have received all you prayed for and
you shall have them (Mark 11:24). The power of
expectation surpasses that of simply hoping. This is
because expectation is rooted in faith, and faith in God
rooted in the word goes around to produce more
expectations. However, there is more than enough
reason to live in maximum expectation. 1 Thessalonians
5:24 is one. Faithful is He that called you, He will also
do it.
Traditions, like I’ve always said, is a devil. It tells you

that you can’t expect of God today because of whatever
today may be, try tomorrow; but I know that when the
scripture instructed us to ‘look unto Jesus’, it didn’t set
a time limit. Everyday look unto Him. As much as your
faith can carry, keep looking. Keep expecting. Keep
believing; and eventually you will start receiving. Jesus
warned that we never judge by status quo, but righteous
judgment- that is according to how God says it should
be not mere traditions of men (see John 7:24). You are
a redeemed child of God, nothing should keep you in
captivity from receiving from Him. The Pharisees
didn’t think a prophet could arise from Galilee, but
Jesus did. In the same way, it is not about what has
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been normal to your bloodline, it’s about what you’re

willing to do about it; and your unwavering expectancy
of a change of story even in this not so sublime
situation connotes how ready you are. Believe the
scriptures, all God needs is a man who will believe and
the promise is fulfilled. Whether it was for the children
and not the dogs, if you will believe with all
expectations you will have the children’s bread right
before their eyes.
Furthermore, in Cana we see a couple of ‘crazy’

stewards with crazy faith. This I say because it takes
crazy faith for a man to serve plain water under the
name of wine to a noble man all because he was told so
by God. The Bible didn’t say they saw the wine before
the served it, but we can tell that they were expecting
wine as they served it. As a result of their rare kind of
faith-based expectation, water became wine at the
precipice of the lips of all who tasted of it- sweet wine
for that matter. If we want a miracle as theirs, we have
to start expecting to see God’s promises being fulfilled
not seeing to expect them.
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#12 HOW DOES THE SEED (WORDS) SOWN

AFFECT THE FRUITS WE BEAR IN
THESE TESTING PERIOD WITH GOD?
Even Jesus said “Take heed therefore how you hear”
(Luke 8:18). The words we hear and those we choose to
accept go a long way in our lives. Words are likened to
the seed. Some are bound to bring forth only thorns and
a choked result. Some are bound to make you hit the
rocks. Some are like birds over your heads with
temporal effects. While some bear fruits. Almost 99%
of the words we hear on earth bear fruits- be it negative
or positive. They are seeds; and they determine how we
as trees grow. However, it’s the words we hear that
affect us. For instance, if you didn’t hear a man insults,
you’d have no reason to be bitter or resentful.
The words we hear regularly form our eventual

makeup. It determines our final outcome, because as it
sinks into our souls, it redirects our original orientation
unto the basis it stands for; and that’s why it’s
important for us to give ourselves wholly at all times to
the word of God. In it is the only ‘truth’- Christ-we
need to know, and need to grow into the persons God
has called us to (Colossians 2:19). Now the day I
experienced the power of words was in a rather silly
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form. It was a day my brother kept ringing his voice

into my ears that I hadn’t showered even though I did
some hours back, but he forgot. This pressure words of
his came so frequently that eventually I actually woke
up from a nap with the thought I hadn’t showered, and
went to, only to recollect as the water rolled down my
body that I already did.
His words submerged my situations, causing me to be

everything it depicted I should. So, in situations when
you need strength the most, listening to pity parties
won’t help. Their words would only show you why you
can’t gain strength, and keep you down- sorry to say.
Go to the word and draw strength. Let the word of God
assure you of everything He’s promised you. Let it
groom your courage to wait and your audacity to
receive. Let it reveal to you that your choice to trust
isn’t in vain, but in every way gain. Remember, you are
not just a new creature, you are a new creation because
God has changed many things in you and for you, so
don’t go around spoiling it by receiving the wrong
seeds (Colossians 2:6-8). Invest the right seeds in your
life and receive the right fruits God has propagated for
you (Mark 4:24).
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#13 HOW CAN I SECURE GOD’S PROMISES

AS A REALITY?
There are certain truths we need to embrace to enjoy
our walk with God while we remain on the earth.
Regarding the subject, there are probably a lot of
opinions- right opinions from other’s point of view. In
fact, tomorrow when asked I might give a totally
different answer, but today I would like to take my cue
in answering this question from the DAILY VITAMIN
posted on the 24th of June 2016.
“Receiving God’s best has never been a difficult task,

rather it’s the module we choose to engage in and build
on that either hampers it or quicken its happening. So,
here are three things we can do to secure our delivery:
1) Praise God first for the promise before the evidence:

To get anything from God, we must believe that He
is, which means we must trust that He doesn’t lie
nor fakes. And as such making His very promise
just as real as its evidence of realization. For
instance, when God promised Solomon all the good
things of life in 1 Kings 3, verse 15, he didn’t wait
for the evidence, he went ahead and offered
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sacrifices of thanksgiving with celebrations. He

counted God faithful when all he had was a
promise, and due to his response to it that promise
became a reality. Thus, after a promise comes
thanksgiving. Know that.
2) Take His word as a living manual: The scripture is
God-breathed, and designed for man’s use in his
pursuit to find God. So to get God- His Person and
His packages, you do as it says. David wrote “In thy
light shall we see light” (Psalm 36:9). God’s word
is light, and only in living in accordance to it would
we find any of the benefits embedded in the stratum
of godliness in the word for mankind. So, know that
the word is not just a manual, it’s your life coach.
3) Believe all is at God’s disposal to give: If you’re
going to get anything from God; you have to stop
entertaining any doubts about God’s abilities. You
have to start trusting Him. He has the power to bless
at will (see Jeremiah 27:5), and He promises that
those who trust in Him will never be left desolate
(Psalm 34:22). So, have it in your mind that the fact
that it hasn’t happened doesn’t mean He can’t do it,
it just means He will do it. Count Him worthy.
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With these, I’m sure that if we can comply

faithfully, pleasing God in it as we do, nothing
would be impossible for us to attain. It’s God’s
desire to give us more than enough, but to get more
than enough, we have to trust Him- in obedience to
His word and in faith towards His ability-more than
enough.”
#14 WHAT IS GOD WAITING FOR?

Everything in life has a set time of occurrence
(Ecclesiastes 3:1); and God’s own agenda also has one
(Ecclesiastes 3:11). God doesn’t keep us waiting to
frustrate us, but rather to bring all things as He ordained
it to be. That is exactly the same reason why despite the
graveness of man’s sins these past years, God hasn’t
still destroyed the world as written He would.
Remember, God is not slack in His promises (2 Peter
3:9). No! He is patient in His actions towards all that
may be as He desired it to be long ago. God feels the
pain we experience in our every ordeal, yet He has to
stick to the plan because He has a greater escape
prepared for us beyond the one we think we can come
up with. “Eyes have not seen it nor ears heard it” (1
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Corinthians 2:9). Know this: even when it begins to

seem as though God’s time isn’t good enough, He still
has a good plan in store for us, and plans to do all it
takes to ensure we receive it in its right time (Isaiah
60:22). All we have to do is trust Him at every phase in
these circumstances we find ourselves, fulfilling the
scriptures in us as Abraham did (Psalm 28:7).
#15 WHAT IF WAITING ON GOD KEEPS ME

RUNNING OUT OF TIME?
I want you to boldly tell yourself without an atom of
doubt in your heart that it is just a matter of time.
Everything God has promised takes just a matter of
time to reach fulfilment. They are like sign posts- they
aren’t going anywhere, but until you get in its direction
and location in time you may never get to see it. But the
good news is that it is already there.
As long as you follow His handout to attain them, they

are a sure thing. Therefore, don’t fret; don’t worry.
Time, as an object, is a linear item. It is never too long,
and it’s never too short. It cannot be eclipsed by a life,
and it cannot eclipse a life. It is simply a book in which
God writes each man’s story. In fact, regardless of its
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span given to each one of us, it is God’s tool for making

and maiming men. Short or long, it is readily enough
for God to accomplish all He wants to. So again, don’t
feel saddened that you cannot see the promise being
fulfilled yet. If I had made the promise to you, then
maybe you could feel disheartened by now; but if God
has, don’t – don’t, because His word is not bound (2
Timothy 2:9). It is not limited by time, matter, space
nor circumstances, conditions and convictions. Has He
said it? He will do it (Numbers 23:19); and ensure it
comes to completion (Philippians 1:6).
Thus, here’s my advice to you: Just wait for Him

trustfully and faithfully. Don’t compromise.
Compromises complicate promises out of fulfilment;
rather stay fixated on His word, stay trustful, it is only a
matter of time. In fact right now, tell yourself that if
you have been faithful, you have no reason to be fretful.
You don’t need to kill yourself with irrelevant worries,
God will reward your faith in Him. So my dear, with
God we never run out of time. Like I said already, time
is linear not capsulated. There is always enough of it to
use for Him who owns and runs it. We, on the other
hand, capsulate it in our heads, but not God. We tell
ourselves that biologically there is only a 0.01% chance
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of having babies after 50, but God waited an additional

40 years with Sarah to prove that, with Him, time isn’t
capsulated; and He’s still doing it till date. Time, on the
contrary, contains all He says we shall obtain,
regardless of how far or short it measures by our
intellect. Hence, learn to lean on His words to you, and
wait for it to be fulfilled. If it doesn’t come today, keep
waiting it will come. Wait for that big break, wait for
that marriage, wait for that promotion, wait for that
favour, even as you keep doing all required of you to
get it; and believe God in time it will come on time.
“My heart trusted in Him, and He helped me” (Psalm
28:7). So, be still, He will do it in time!
Lastly, honour God by taking His words to heart and

obeying them. Respect will take a man to places
strength cannot; and respect to God- by holding His
every word in obedience- will do much more. So,
believe Him undauntedly while you wait.
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#16 THERE IS A POPULAR SAYING THAT IT

IS MADNESS TO DO THE SAME THING
AND EXPECT DIFFERENT RESULTS.
AND REMEMBER HEBREWS 10:37 SAYS
HE THAT WILL COME WILL
COME….AND WILL NOT TARRY. SO,
MY QUESTION IS HOW DO YOU
DIFFERENTIATE WHEN TO MOVE AND
WHEN TO TARRY?
Have you ever had a good idea that seemed so divinely
inspired, but when you speak to God concerning its
immediate implementation, you get no response, or
worse no peace of mind? Well, good ideas are not
always God ideas. And while your good idea may
sometimes be God’s ideal for you, His time may not be
your time for its implementation. Even Jesus said “My
time has not come”. So, there is a big difference
between your time and His time. Know this my friend,
God never uses silence to say yes, when He says yes,
He either gives a promise to validate the claim, or He
just says yes. Remember, “Let your nay be nay, and
your yes be yes”. The instructor of that rule should be
able to adhere to the same. So, when God doesn’t speak
in the affirmative, it’s your cue to keep waiting until He
does. It may seem costly but its rewards are priceless.
For instance, God’s intention for Abraham was for him
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to have children. In fact He went further by telling him

so. But when Abraham received the idea of using Hagar
instead of Sarah whom he had the promise with, God
didn’t say anything. He had a child of course, yet it
wasn’t enough reason to compel God to approve
Ishmael as the promised one. So, my friend, this is how
I test my plans: I take them to God in prayer, and if I
don’t receive a word in the affirmative by a distinct
voice, or by His word, or by an unusual peace in my
spirit in confirmation to my question, or in your case
His unique way of corresponding with you, I drop it.
Waiting isn’t the sweetest thing to do; but more worse
is living life disobeying God, it isn’t just worth it, plus
its fruits are way sour than you get when waiting.
Furthermore, regardless of how long the wait seems,
rest in the truth that He who created the world in 6 days
can compensate your singular life in far less than that.
So until He shows you the green light by His Spirit who
would bear witness with your spirit, keep waiting
faithfully on Him; it shows your real love for Him and
His ways. The world may go with the “Go with your
guts” crusade, but we must go with the “Go with your
God”. Hope I at least answered your question?
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#17- HOW CAN I KNOW GOD’S PERFECT

WILL FOR ME PER TIME?
When you go to God with a made up mind, don’t
expect to receive anything. That was the case of
Balaam. His lips uttered one thing, while his heart
harboured another. He confessed he wasn’t going to do
anything against God’s will, but his heart was set on his
fleshly desires. If not, why would he go back for any
extra words when God had given him a final word?
God’s initial response of No was His perfect will for
Balaam, seeing he was headed for destruction, but
because his heart was set for doom, and would never
have stopped pestering God no matter the number of
nos he received because he had set his heart on a yes to
fulfil his lusts and greed, God gave him over to his
reprobate mind. This is because his actions and
intentions speak better than his confessions (Also see 1
John 2:4). God’s latter affirmation to his request was
His permissive will, and that’s why it came with sudden
judgment. Only the perfect will of God carries the
perfect promise.
Also look at Moses, God told him to speak to the rock

so as to release an abundance of flow of water at
Meribah, yet because he had grown so familiar with
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God and angry at the situation, and wanted to do it his

way, he struck the rock twice. Did he get results? Yes.
But was it consequence free? No. it was to his
detriment. You see, Jesus was that rock; and no matter
what you don’t strike Jesus, you yield to-and call on-
Him. Unknowing to Moses, he chose the first, and that
never goes without a consequence (see Romans 9:33,
Isaiah 28:16). As much as I may want to say Moses
could never have known that, for even God called him
faithful in all (Hebrews 3:2), a simple wholesome stint
of obedience would have sufficed and solve everything.
In the same way, a lot of us have tried to box God into a
corner where all we are left with is his permissive will.
You may ask how. Whenever you go to God with a
100% assurance of what you want to do, you’re
practically telling Him that His opinion is not needed,
only His approval. And no reasonable person would
play signatory to a doom-bound endeavour. Not even
God.
Now let’s consider David: After his household and city

had been captured, he might as well have suffered from
various forms of trauma. In fact, the plateau of his
emotional outburst could have been so obscene to send
him into the path of obscurity, yet rather than run with
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the wave of feelings, he sought God’s opinion. ”Should

I pursue? Will I overtake and recover all?” Who
naturally would ask that question? Before you even
think of God, your feet are already in pursuit. But
David calmed his nerves and environment; placed a
valve on his adrenaline pumps and remained serene and
decided to find out God’s own will first, rather than
implementing his. It may look stupid to many, but to a
man who knows that the best self can give you will
only best you out of the perfect God has reserved for
you, he knows that’s wisdom. Now what happened
next? God confirmed his desire with His own opinion
“Pursue for you shall surely recover all”. That alone
gave him the audacity to know that come what may, he
will rip a whole nation apart to get what he sought
because it was God’s perfect plan for him. That’s why
he would later advice “Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this: He will make your
righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your
cause like the noon day sun” (Psalm 37:5-6 NIV). And
his son from all he learnt via the results he saw would
say “Commit your work to the Lord, then it will
succeed” (Proverbs 16:3 TLB). That is getting the right
thing the right way. And how do we get to this point?
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Keep renewing your mind so as to know what is the

good, acceptable and then perfect will of God for you
(Romans 12:2). That is, place your will aside regularly
and find out God’s own, and in time you will begin to
know what God calls good, then what He accepts, and
then what He says is His perfect will for you
concerning that given situation. Nothing can out best
His perfect will, because it is the only perfect way for
us all. So as David said “Be still before the Lord and
wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:7 NIV), and as
written in Job “Then you will delight yourself in the
LORD, and look up to God. You will pray to him, and
he will hear you, and you will fulfil all your promises to
him. [Then] whatever you wish will happen! And the
light of heaven will shine upon you’re the road ahead of
you” (Job 22:26-28 TLB Emphasis added). That means,
in His perfect will, heaven leads the way you follow,
not otherwise. He shows the path, not you. So again, be
still and choose His very perfect will for you; for if the
world events are under His control (Daniel 2:21), then
indeed He must know best- and does!
Everything Jesus has and did, He has and did for the
entire world, but we can only access it when we believe
in Him. He has great plans in line for us; and we will
441
only do well to trust Him enough to choose His will

over ours every time.
#18 HOW CAN I BE SURE OF THE WORK

GOD WANTS ME TO DO?
Ask Him (James 1:5). That is the basic way. However,
there is another. There is another way I have come to
understand what God wants us to do, whether in a
lifetime or per time. Firstly, I want you to know that
God never gives a man what he can’t handle. He gives
everyone according to his several abilities (1
Corinthians 12:11). Instead He sends us where He has
made us fit for. In other words, our capacity determines
our allocation. And when I say capacity, I do not mean
our limited human know-how, but all of that coupled
with His power that works in us. With all He helps us
learn in time, He gives us a peek to where He wants us
to go. Hence, our operation is tied to our commission.
All He’s committed to you is all He can ask of you. For
instance, a student knows that all the teacher taught him
is what to expect on the D-day. That is exactly how we
know our future in God. Look at how He tells us so
using David (Psalm 78:70-72).
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The direction of His training in your life is the direction

of His calling for your life. God cannot train you in-
let’s say- carpentry and tomorrow ask you to come fix
His meal. If He’s training you in carpentry, it is because
He wants you to fix or make His furniture. This is so
because God never invests anything in us He doesn’t
have in mind to use. In fact, every trial He helps you
scale through is to give you the capacity to help others
with all you learnt in it (see 2 Corinthians 1:3). You
see, my reality of being a teacher of the word and a
counsellor is not a surprise to me. If it wasn’t, I would
have been surprised. Everything God ever taught and
endued me with showed the authenticity of where I was
heading. The investment of wisdom and the exposition
of the mysteries of His word in me told me so. So, like I
said, ask Him; but also look at the direction God’s been
taking you in training thus far, that’s where He’s taking
you. He trained Moses 40 years to tend to sheep in the
wilderness, and afterwards sent him 40 years to tend to
men in the wilderness.
The virtues for capacity come with the experience; the

experience comes with the training, and the training is
essential to master the assignment. So, our assignment
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is simply under the shadow of our present enlistment

and assessment.
#19 WHAT IS THE ESSENCE OF THIS TRIAL

I FACE?
A man readily buries his seed in the earth because he’s
sure of a harvest. In essence, no man will permit a thing
unless it is to his advantage. You won’t let a lion into
your home unless you’re confident it will only play and
not bite. So also, whatever God permits must be for a
good cause.
You see, God’s desire is not just to transform you, but

to make you a transformer. Furthermore, challenges are
bound to happen because champions are borne out of
challenges. That is, they exist because champions must
emerge. And there wouldn’t be a champion without a
challenge. So, what is God’s end game in the situation?
To bring you forth as an undisputed champion. The
Bible says of Jesus that “Although he was a son, he
learned obedience from what he suffered and once
made perfect, he became the source of eternal
salvation…” (Hebrews 5:8-9 NIV). You see, unlike the
first Adam He was a giver of life. All Adam did was
have; he could never recreate. Why? Adam had no trial
444
at Eden. He didn’t know what it meant to trust God,

neither did he know the cost and worth of it. And
because he couldn’t appreciate its value, he couldn’t
appropriate its essence. However, on the other hand,
Jesus was sentenced to everything a man faces on earth;
and in it He exhibited what trust and love for God really
means, and by it grew perfect on earth before men and
in heaven towards God to impart upon all other entities
the very nature of God. If Jesus was made perfect via
trials, and now sits glorified, then it means your
perfection and glorification is all God desires through
this given situation; fit enough to show others the way
to sweatless confidence in God and noiseless
breakthroughs through God.
#20 I CAN’T WAIT FOR THIS TO END; WHY

HASN’T IT?
What God has in store for His people is far greater and
far more exceeding than we think we know. He says “I
know the thoughts I think towards you. They are
thoughts of peace and not of evil”. Lamentations 3:33
says “For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief
to the children of men” (NIV). It may not be easy, but
we just have to hold on to God and accommodate His
plan. The more we continue to follow-believe, trust and
445
acknowledge- Him in all situations, the more we get to

know Him, and have Him come upon us with dews of
life-changing encounters.
Now, why hasn’t the trial ended? God knows best. But I
do know that no one brings a dough out of the oven
until it is fully formed into the pastry we desire. If we
do, the dough becomes half-baked, flaccid and not good
for use, since useless would be a harsh word. It is
possible that your refinement process isn’t complete
yet. God promises that no matter how long it tarries, it
will surely be done. We just have to endure because
there is always a recompense of reward that follows it.
We just have to avoid growing weary and getting
grumpy, for in due time we will be rewarded if we faint
not. So, I know you are tired. I know you feel like you
have been betrayed-or worse abandoned, but like I said
all through this book, you haven’t. In its time, just like
as soon as morning comes the darkness must go,
everything will be wrapped up and the realities reserved
for you of God will be unveiled for your obtainment.
Let me also say this: It’s not a crime to be angry at your

condition as long as it leads you to engaging the right
tools to facilitate your change of story. Check through
446
the works of the flesh and you will never find anger as
one of them. However, it can be transformed into wrath
or bitterness which are if not properly managed. So, is
anger a sin? No. God is angry with the wicked every
day (Psalm 7:11). So, if anger is a sin, does it mean
God sins? Of course not. Anger is not a sin, how we
manage it is what really determines what it becomes.
From Paul’s statement in Ephesians 4:26, we can tell
that they are two separate entities. Anger can only lead
to a sin when it leads you to a wrong action and
decision, like what happened with Moses. Otherwise, it
is simply the natural human way of showing disdain
and disapproval. So, if you’re angry at the state of your
miserly situation, it’s normal; but don’t let it cause a
derailing change in your attitude towards God and men.
Just remember that as long as that trial has a beginning,
it must have an end; and God is ever willing to lead you
there. So, trust Him!
I want to share some three of my DAILY

VITAMIN notes from 2017 to help you further know
that God has you in mind all the time, every time. And
even when it seems like the wait is getting too long,
447
always know-as these would suggest-that God has a pay

reserved for you that is very much worth the wait. I
hope it encourages you, and influences you to keep
waiting on God joyfully until the promise manifests.
HE’S NOT DONE WITH ME YET

If there is one truth we must learn to embrace, it is that
where we now isn’t where we are meant to be forever.
There is a revelation God has towards us- which is for
each and every one of us to be conformed into his very
best from glory to glory. So, in His sight, where we are
per time isn’t our end, nor close to it, but our
beginning. Things are meant to come to pass, so that
better ones can come to stay. So be encouraged,
because whatever state you are now- good or ugly,
impoverished or fortunate-isn’t destined to be your pit-
stop, it is just the lane to the greater phases God has in
store for you. Having just left Laban’s house, Jacob
said to Esau “I have enough”, yet God still maintained
His promises to give him the lands of the six foreign
nations where his father abode. Just like Jacob, God is
not done with you yet. Make that your mentality and
448
regardless of what you pass through, you’d still have

the zest to muster enough courage to respond that
things would get better. Remember, His plans for us are
for our peace and not evil, to give us the future we
anticipate. Therefore, hold on to that word, regardless
of how long, because indeed it will surely manifest in
your everyday life. Thus, put a smile on your face
because God is not done with you yet. He’s still taking
you to places you haven’t been before; experiences you
haven’t seen before. There might even be new
challenges, but trust Him, in His grand plan, you will
scale through them all. Habakkuk said “I will rejoice
though the fields produce no food, for God is my
strength and will make me walk upon high places” (see
Habakkuk 3:17-19). I want you to heartily say the
same: regardless of what present appearance there is,
in time you shall realize that things are getting better,
for God is not done with you, my friend. He has glory
and glory in mind for you. Hence, get excited and stay
excited; till we see on the glory side.
449
YOU WERE MADE TO OVERCOME

No matter what you are passing through, you have been
given the capacity to overcome it. The scripture states
that "No temptation has overtaken you except what is
common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not
let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when
you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that
you can endure it" (1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV). So
regardless of whatever breakdown you may have
experienced, you can break out of it. It is in you to
breakthrough them all; all you have to do is start with
agreeing with what God says about you, become
consciously aligned with it, and in time your inner
person would have mustered enough strength and
courage to endure the present and also push your
whole being into a more desirable future
simultaneously. He instructs us who have Him as our
Lord to trust Him in such situations, for not only is He
our help and shield for times like this, but He will also
remember to bless us in it (see Psalm 115:11-12).
Always have it in mind that God's primary target is to
ensure we live victorious lives while we yet live on the
earth; and for Someone who has such intention, it is
only right to say that He has already provided the
450
means to assist you overcome that challenge. So, are

you an addict of whatever sort willing to be free of
such? No matter how hard it seems, God has given you
strength in the inner man to do so. Simply become lively
to His words 'If the Son sets you free, you are free
indeed', and like a dream of the night, you'd wake up to
find yourself winning a battle you once couldn't even
approach. Your own case may be different, but God is
the same. No matter what your situation may be, God
says you are bigger than it, and can overcome it; and
here's your alibi to that claim- "He that is in you is
greater than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4). You
can overcome that ordeal my friend; I know you can-
once again, only agree with God's word, live
consciously in those words, and in time you'd be living
a victorious life before God and men.
THOUGH IT TARRIES, IT WILL COME

One of the hardest things to do is to wait patiently for
something you believe you need urgently. But despite
how disliking it is, God calls us to wait for the
fulfilment of His promises. You know Hannah, right?
451
The popular Prophet Samuel's-in the Bible-mother. Yes,

her. Of Hannah, it is said that year after year, her futile
search for a child continued. And something else that
continued was the provocation her mates caused her,
thereby making bitter weeping her constant habit (see 1
Samuel 1:7). But of this same Hannah, it is said that
God remembered her (v. 19), and in due time her
weeping turned into a melodious song of testimonies,
and that song never ceased as she kept on having more
and more each passing year. The moral here is that in
life things are going to be late in coming sometimes;
oftentimes it may even span toward the year after year
mode, but if you can wait for God, then you have set up
yourself to get paid. For instance, in restaurants
nowadays, the bills are paid when the meal is finished,
and as long as the waiter keeps his wait he is bound to
get his anticipated cheque. The same thing applies with
God. Sometimes He wants to test our resilience in
expectation before releasing the plethora of blessings
He has reserved for us. So hear this: No matter what
you seem to be passing through, concerning your
expectation He says it is for a set time, wait for it. It
may tarry, wait for it, it will surely come to pass (Hab
2:3). Refuse to be a milquetoast when it comes to
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waiting on God, rather choose to joyfully and

expectantly wait until His word proves true. Abraham
waited patiently until he obtained the promise
(Hebrews 6:15). You too can. In fact, choose to; for
though it may tarry, it will surely come to pass.
For everything there is-every purpose, every

event, there is a time and a season. The day has its
time, the night does as well. You may be in your night
today- filled with weepings and all that, but wait for it
your sun is about to rise. The sun that heralds joy into
your life is about to rise, just keep watching and
waiting for it. It is so close in coming. As long as you
have been sowing righteousness even in that tearful
time, prepare to reap mercy and joyful moments. Just
like many of us are right now, Job passed through
rigorous times. And just like him, God hasn't forgotten
you. Well, you can learn something from Job. He said
"If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my
appointed time will I wait till my change comes." (Job
14:14). Did Job's fortune change for good? Of course it
did. Thus, don't give up on all God already promised
you; keep waiting like Job did to receive the restoration
of Job. Bank on these two things: that it is impossible
for God to lie and for Him to change. So, don't give up
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on the promise. Refute the idea or thought that all is

lost. No! All is just starting. David had the same story.
He said he would have fainted if he hadn't believed to
have seen the goodness of the Lord. And as a word of
advice to us, he said, Wait on the LORD (Psalm 27:13-
14). Hence, your time is coming; No devil can stop it,
as long as you stick to God's plan for you. Listen, your
change of story is not at the mercy of time, it is at the
mercy of your decision to wait for God. Remember,
though that expectation of yours may tarry, yet wait for
it, it will come. This is your year of great manifestation,
wait for it with pure devotions to God, it will come.
"There failed not any of the good things God had
spoken to the house of Israel; all came to pass" (Joshua
21:45).
P.S: Remember, life is a fair game, and perspective

is the key to winning. So when God’s time starts
to seem not like the best, choose to stay strong
in trust until the reality of His spoken words
manifests.
May we all find all we are looking for!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
He writes.... Oscar N. Ajoku has been publishing daily

inspirational notes (DAILY VITAMIN) on social media since
2013. He is a writer, reader and thinker, with a B.S degree in
Biochemistry, whose major aspiration is to impact so great a
people and societies, such that he can look back at his final
moments and be fulfilled by the life he lived and the legacy he
created. As he says "Influence is the home of all impressions”;
that is, people only see what they perceive you to be. And his
desire is to walk through history as the man who truly
exemplified the life God has called us all to live, touching
millions thereby. He currently lives in Lagos, Nigeria.
To subscribe to his daily inspirational notes, please visit
http://oscarajoku.blogspot.com

When God's Time Starts To Seem Not Like The Best - by Oscar Ajoku

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When God's Time Starts To Seem Not Like The Best - by Oscar Ajoku

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WHEN GOD’S TIME

STARTS TO SEEM NOT

Copyright © 2019 Oscar N. Ajoku

Nevertheless the aim of the author is to help this set of

Some of the things you'll discover here are:

. How to rest in faith on God's word

. How to overcome the when, how and why question

. What to do when you're not getting all you're expecting

. How to put up a positive attitude even in an unfavourable

. How to let go and let God

Frequently Asked Question

SEEM NOT LIKE

Next question; what if after you’ve traded with this

Paulo Coelho, a great teacher on life’s simplest lessons

The delivery of our wants may seem to take forever, but

Moses, talking to the people of God which today we

Each chapter of this book is somewhat of a combination

However, while we wait on Him, believing in His time

‘’God did not lead them through the land of the

The route which would have taken lesser days was

As I grew older, with the aspiration to experience a

Furthermore, God’s answers might have come late, yet

With God, late can only be analogous to great. It might

The mystery in this miracle doesn’t lie in how long it

“The Lord is not too slow to do what He has promised,

“Every good thing the Lord had promised them came

So, to come out a winner in every trying situation over

Now is the time to be completely led by God’s Spirit,

“But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly,

Whatever makes you doubt love (of God towards us) is

See you at the end!

O nly the groaning of the Israelis in the foregoing

Despite the promise of God concerning their assured

Just like the Israelites, as humans in a world

In times like this, which is when we experience a bit of

In a similar scenario as were the Exodus, the Judean

But notice how the entire population chose to approach

After this solemn action of theirs, word came from the

In the same vein, the vast army of worries, fear and

The brief overview of God’s faithfulness amidst the

might make a bystander think he is going to die if it isn’t done

God is that doctor. He knows the proper time to get

I learnt an important lesson as I grew under the tutelage

as the most appropriate for me. This decision might not

trust Him, and presumably when we do learn to trust, He brings

Hewitt, speaking with the confidence of an expatriate of

Let your faith keep you expecting God’s best for

The King James interpretation emphasizes on the word

Him in absolute belief, He will strengthen us to bear the times

Esther gave herself to God’s pick of the perfect time

One of the principal promises of walking with God is

Also, a child will never ask you for a thing except he

save elicits upon Him a sting of compulsion to go beyond to

Many a time, this waiting period is actually a signal that

complaints, I am too, in a dual fashion of learning and telling

Furthermore, learning to trust in God and wait for Him

This false gusto to just damn the consequences and rush

kidnapping you, or cheating you to get the meter run higher,

Our natural character doesn’t accept the patience game,

Something similar occurred in the days of Elisha, when

be smitten, but allowed to go home with bounty and a full belly

And that’s exactly what He’s saying to you and I. ‘Wait

However, many of us are still so strong-willed on our