Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Maximizing Your Singlehood
Maximizing Your Singlehood
ISBN - 978-052-997-7
0 9 7 8 0 5 2 9 9 7 7
COURAGE ODE
© COURAGE ODE, 2000
LOVE PILLS
All Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the
Bible, except otherwise stated.
Second Edition
All I have done in this piece is to help you by the Grace of God see how you can
make the best use of this phase, and at the same time, lay a proper foundation
upon which your future can be built upon.
From these scriptures, it is clear that God starts all of His operations
using His wisdom and desires that we, His children will take after
this. In order to maximize your today, which is a foundation for your
tomorrow, the wisdom of God must be employed. God founded the
earth through wisdom, so if anyone too would build a house it has to
be by wisdom.
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The house in prov 24:3 could be you or whatever God has committed
into your hands. But before talking about what God has committed
into your hands, let's talk about you. For you to enjoy stability, you
must learn to walk and operate in the wisdom of God.
This is the wisdom for living.
A SURE FOUNDATION
A determination to maximize today is a sure foundation for taking o ff
into a glorious tomorrow. Choosing to maximize today is embracing
wisdom and this choice will not make you stop where others are
stopping; such that when you get into your tomorrow, you will not be
regretting the past.
Two things happen when people get into their future, they are either
glad or full of regrets about their past.
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Your tomorrow is ahead of you; no matter how anxious you are about
it, you cannot come into it until it is time. If you have an appointment
for five o'clock in the evening and the time is eight o'clock in the
morning no matter how important the appointment is, you still have
to wait till five o'clock.
You cannot adjust your wristwatch to five o'clock, the best you could
do is prepare for the appointment.
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The reason we never really come into a glorious tomorrow is because
we fail to maximize today. When we talk of your today, we are not
just talking about Wednesday or Friday, but the present phase you are
in-for instance being a single. Men who never find fulfillment are
those who take their today for granted.
The trick of the enemy is to occupy your mind with concerns for
tomorrow thereby depriving you of fulfillment, for as long as you are
not fulfilled, he is glad. A closer look at Matt 6:24-34 will give you
the true perspective with which to view tomorrow.
“Take there fore no thought for tomorrow: for
tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matt 6:34)
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The balance in this scripture is that we live today with the wisdom of
God, so as to overcome the evil thereof. This shows that tomorrow is
really not as important as we have been taken it; your worry and
sleepless nights are not a true concern for tomorrow.
“Which of you by taking thought can add a cubit unto
his stature?” (Matt 6:27).
Having known this therefore, you should be wary of
undue concerns for tomorrow lest Satan should get an
advantage of you. Don't be ignorant of his devices
(2Cor 2:11).
FOUNDATIONS
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the
righteous do?” (Ps 11:3)
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of building; in the same vein also, the quality of the foundation
determines the quality of the building. The quality of the foundation
determines if the building will stand the test of time. Jesus talked
about two men in Matt 7:24-27 who built, one on the sand and the
other upon a rock. But when the storm came, the one built on sand
collapsed while the one upon the rock withstood the forces of the
rain, floods and the wind. It stood the test of time.
The issue therefore, is not the building. We all build, and this is
evident in the fact that we all will come into tomorrow either by hook
or crook. From Gen 8:22, we know that for as long as the earth
remains, seedtime and harvest shall not cease. This implies
therefore, that what you will harvest in your tomorrow is a product of
what you sow today.
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speak with people still on campus, I always tell them not to play
away their time running after frivolities.
DELAY
A delay in your tomorrow coming is a privilege to maximize today.
Ever since God imparted this wisdom into me, I've never regretted
any delay in my life. I could recall when we started church and for
three months nobody came to church, I seized the opportunity to read
more books and grow deeper in God, at the end of which I was more
anointed. Eventually when the people came, there was fire to light up
every one.
Even if it is just three seconds left of your today, you can still make
good use of it because every second counts.
“And the remnant that is escaped of the house of
Judah shall again take root downwards, and bear fruit
upwards” (Isa 37:31)
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How much fruit you are going to bear is simply a function of how
deep your root is. The root can stand for the foundation and the fruit
for the building. The root can also be likened to the seed and the fruit
the harvest.
There are things you must do today to ensure the tomorrow you
desire. There is a suffering you must suffer today so that you would
not suffer tomorrow. Not suffering tomorrow goes beyond a good
certificate or job; it is knowing God, so principalities and powers
don't mess you up.
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EXPLORING EVERY AREA
In order to maximize today, you have to thoroughly explore every
area of today. There are several things you can do now that after now,
they become practically impossible. There was a time, when I could
read three to four books per day; I have not backslidden, but that is
not possible now.
God always sees ahead of you and knows what He will bring you
into, so He gives you the opportunity to be fully equipped. But many
a time we are found wanting because we lack the wisdom of God.
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The best time to make friends is when you are single. It is a phase to
settle down and make genuine friends because everything works on
the platform of relationships.
“...Woe to him that is alone when he falleth.” (Eccl. 4:10)
God had already said that it is not good for the man to be alone. If you
don't value relationships, you cannot escape woes in life. One of the
things that will determine the success of your marriage is the
relationships you have established. Marriage is not an escape route
from boredom.
There has been a trend in the church in which the sisters accord
special attention to brothers whom they feel could be potential
husbands while the brothers are only nice to sisters who possess their
desired characteristics e.g. pointed nose. Go ahead and make friends,
establish relationships with men and women. People interested in
relationships go out of their way to establish such relationships and
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they don't have difficulty in having a right partner. There is no joy, no
fulfillment than in marrying a friend. Friendship is not automatic, it
is developed.
Your relationship should go beyond what you can get from them.
Don't just go through the relationship; let the relationship go through
you. Don't just pass through today, let today pass through you. This is
important as it will make you relevant tomorrow; not only to your
kids, but in your generation. There should be a full package of
testimonies and experiences from which men can learn. Experience
is not the best teacher, but there are certain experiences you are
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destined to have.
APPRECIATING TODAY
Appreciating brings honour. If you do not appreciate the phase you
are in, you cannot enjoy it; and if you don't enjoy that phase, you
can't come into the next. Appreciation is acknowledging and
whatsoever you don't acknowledge, you can't maximize. So to
maximize your today, appreciate it.
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people are claiming to be old and the old ones are seeking for “look-
young therapies”. The beauty of a phase is in appreciating and
enjoying it.
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BENEFITS
What is yours cannot elude you. There are certain things that follow
us when we learn to set our priorities right, they are simply
automatic. In getting a life partner, if you know and understand your
role in a relationship through studying, being equipped and having a
perfect walk with God; automatically, a perfect match will emerge of
its own accord.
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So maximize your today. Explore every area, invest in the right
things; especially in the Kingdom business and you will be glad you
did.
PREPARING
FOR TOMORROW
T
oday is the tomorrow we talked about yesterday. Therefore,
in preparing for tomorrow, a lot has to be done in
maximizing today. Today refers to your present phase in life
while tomorrow has to do with your future.
For you as a child of God, your tomorrow is bright and full of better
things than today. God, who picked you from the miry clay, is a God
of increase and progress. This is clear from His Word:
“the glory of the latter house shall be greater than of
the former..” (Hag 2:9),
“..The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth
more and more unto the perfect day.” (Prov 4:8).
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Joseph himself was determined and prepared to make the dreams
come to pass.
Everyone may try to stop you, but insofar as you receive and agree
with what God says concerning you, the opposition and distractions
become a catalyst (an agent or instrument) to effect the will of God.
There is no reason for having sleepless nights over what tomorrow
holds. If no devil could stop you from coming to God, then no devil
can stop you from coming into a glorious tomorrow.
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YOUR PART
The work you have to do in preparing for your tomorrow is not so
that you can succeed; as a believer, you are already a success. This
understanding places you above the ordinary man. During my final
year in school, I told some of my friends that the reason I was doing
all I was doing was not so that I could make it (as the common pattern
is), but a manifestation of what I know is a glorious tomorrow. Work
is an avenue to express the success that you are.
The interesting thing God says about your tomorrow is “I know the
thoughts I have towards you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace,
and not of evil, to give you an expected end”. (Jer 29:11). God has
said this and there is no doubting its fulfillment because in Jer 1:12
“..I will hasten my word to perform it”. God is actively at work to
bring to pass what He has spoken.
Solomon declared that the LORD God has spoken with His mouth
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and has brought it to pass with His hand (1 kings 8:15). The hand of
God is associated with His power. The reason God's eye roams to and
fro is because He monitors every word He has spoken to bring them
to pass.
It is not just enough to know God's Word and be excited about it,
further steps have to be taken. The only hindrance to the performance
of God's Word is you. No devil can stop Him. You are the only
adversary of your tomorrow.
Let's take a look at the life of Joseph. He had some dreams and shared
these with his brothers but they connived amongst themselves that
the dreams were not going to see the light of day. They never knew
that their activities at thwarting his dreams were actually working in
favour of the dreams. They all said no to his dreams but Joseph
himself was determined and prepared to make the dreams come to
pass.
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Everyone may try to stop you, but insofar as you receive and agree
with what God says concerning you, the opposition and distractions
become a catalyst (an agent or instrument) to effect the will of God.
There is no reason for having sleepless nights over what tomorrow
holds. If no devil could stop you from coming to God, then no devil
can stop you from coming into a glorious tomorrow.
The way God moves goes way beyond human comprehension. I've
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discovered that until God does a work on your inside, there would
never be a manifestation on the outside. So for as long as you resist
God on the inside of you, there isn't going to be change. Change
always starts on the inside.
PREPARATION
Your tomorrow is certain, but for you to come into it, and not be
messed up by it, you have to be prepared. Anything that takes you by
surprise will mess you up. He who wins a battle is the one who
succeeds in taking the other by surprise and not necessarily because
he is stronger.
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never prepared for greatness. They came into it suddenly and blew
everything up.
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth
not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have
sufficient to finish it” Luke 14:28.
The finish in this scripture shows that no matter how little the money
is, he has already pictured the tower standing; and would therefore
work towards that. All the men who saw their tomorrow in scripture
started preparing immediately and made no noise about it.
Before going into your tomorrow, sit down and count the cost. A
sister planning to marry a younger brother in age should be prepared
to respect him and his friends for who they are. Likewise, anyone
planning to go into business should carry out a thorough feasibility
study so as not to waste his money and anointing.
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How much preparation do I need to make then? Your preparation
cannot be too much as a child of God; God is an exceeding God and
His Kingdom knows no end. God told Elijah to eat for the journey is
far. The foolish virgins were not fully prepared and a little
adjustment robbed them of their destinies.
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IMPORTANT
POINTS TO NOTE
1. You can build your tomorrow before it begins. Until
tomorrow comes, preparation doesn't stop. It is the
trick of the enemy to make you feel you are
prepared.
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THE BEGINNING OF
YOUR TOMORROW
T
he beginning is where the tomorrow is put together. But
many times, what we call the beginning is actually the end;
we see the manifestation at the beginning. Before the
manifestation was the beginning. The beginning of a marriage
relationship for instance, is not the wedding day. The wedding day is
simply a manifestation of what had begun sometime in the past.
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TIMING
“Thou shall arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the
time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.”
(Psalm 102:13).
It is one thing for God to arise and know it's time to favour a man, it's
another thing for the man to acknowledge this. The man has to come
to the place of discovery because it takes the combination of God and
the man to make things happen in his life. God cannot move in
isolation, He needs the co-operation of the man.
There's always a set time for promotion, and moving from your
today to your tomorrow is a promotion. This promotion comes from
God and you must know when it is, so that it does not elude you. No
matter how brilliant a student is, if he does not know the day of
examination, he fails. God is responsible for the times and seasons,
but we have the responsibility to key into it.
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Every man that ever came into his tomorrow always knew when the
beginning was. If you can't trace the beginning then the foundation
for the tomorrow is shaky, which will lead to collapse eventually.
There is always a point that separates your today from your
tomorrow, how then do you identify this point and begin?
Any tomorrow that must stand the test of time must have God as the
foundation; because if God is in the beginning, He will be committed
to the end. He is the Alpha and Omega. A rhema from God is the true
beginning of any phase and any responsible child of God shouldn't
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take o fffor a phase without a rhema from God. Every thing that God
tells you can be summarized in a Word; if not, then you have not
heard from God – you've only heard your self. God sent His Word to
Jacob and it lighted Israel (Isaiah 9:8). The beginning of the nation of
Israel was in Jacob.
“we having the same spirit of faith ,according as it is
written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we
also believe, and therefore speak;” (2cor 4:13)
The beginning of your tomorrow is that point where the spirit of faith
takes hold of you on that issue. Faith is a spirit, and it works by
connecting your heart and mouth. You are taking the faith step when
your thoughts (based on the rhema) are in agreement with your
words.
Until you know that the physical realm is subject to the spiritual, you
keep struggling. Everything you see manifested in the physical has
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its root in the spiritual. Therefore, nothing is ordinary; so to see
things as ordinary is Anti-God. To be ordinary is the height of
unrighteousness. If you die ordinary, you will be punished in heaven.
All we need to come into our tomorrow has been made available to us
in the spiritual; all we need to do is to key into it and call it to being.
This we do by faith-confessions. I want you to know that we receive
everything from God in just the same way we got born-again; by
believing and confessing. (see Rom 10:9-10; Mark 9:23). When you
receive the rhema concerning your tomorrow, believe and confess it.
“Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the
arm of the LORD revealed?” Is 53:1.
When you believe the report of the LORD (the rhema) concerning
your tomorrow, His arm is revealed to you; His power is made
available unto you. It takes power for you to get promoted in to your
tomorrow. Everything responds to power and it takes power to get
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anything you want. God is the giver of power (Deut 8:18).
The power of God is needed to make your life line up word for word
according to God's prophetic agenda for you, enabling your gifting
find expression with ease. To come into the power of God, you need
to yield completely to the spirit of faith.
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Meditating upon the Word of God must be a deliberate, conscious
and regular exercise; it must become your lifestyle. Take time out to
learn and perfect it.
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are
just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things
are lovely whatsoever things are of good report; if
there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on
these things” (Phil 4:8).
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The products of our thoughts have a very strong hold on us. As an
unbeliever, we used to worship idols and during the night I was
usually oppressed and experienced insomnia. To get myself to sleep,
I filled my mind with the thoughts of a football superstar who came in
the dying minute to score the winning goal in a very crucial match. I
devised my own means of dealing with the devil; how much more if
we fill ourselves with the Word of God.
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OTHER BOOKS BY COURAGE ODE
FOR SINGLES
¨ 3 Pillars for a glorious tomorrow
¨ Love, Friendship & Engagement
FOR MARRIED
¨ Maximizing the Honour in Marriage
GENERAL
¨ Bonding (with parents, flock or
subordinates and your Pastor)
¨ The work of our Hands
¨ Three Vital Keys to breaking new Frontiers
¨ The Process to personal profiting by the
Word of God
¨ Living Exposition
¨ See a Bright Future
¨ See a Bright Future
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Pastor Courage's dynamic messages are also on
CD's known as “LOVE PILLS”.
You can check up our website
www.lrmint.org
for our catalogue of books and recorded messages
or
You can purchase our materials @ Media
Department
Love Revival Ministries International
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JOIN THIS CHARIOT
This is a call that spells out the direction and
emphasis of the work God has committed to us in
the coming years, and I have a release in my spirit to
use every avenue and platform to make it known.
And so, I am asking you and everyone anywhere in
the world to “JOIN THIS CHARIOT”. There has
been a build up to this call in the last three years.
THE ENCOUNTER
The very strong dealings I have been having on this,
climaxed in an encounter I had while ministering
the word at AUCHI, EDO STATE, Sunday, Nov. 26,
2016. The Lord clearly showed me, using the story
in Genesis 19 that the world is in a global crisis and
the judgement (destruction) of this earth is
inevitable and we don't have much time in our hands
anymore. We are actually at the phase now where
the angels told Lot to gather as many as “you
can gather because we have come to destroy
this place”. (Paraphrase mine) Gen.19:12-13.
That's where we are now; it's no joke or
playtime at all. “JOIN THIS CHARIOT”. We
have to put out all resources, (human, financial,
spiritual together) to gather as many as can be
gathered before the destruction.
ISBN - 978-052-997-7
0 9 7 8 0 5 2 9 9 7 7