continually entertain affect your believe
The Power of influence - and whatever affect you believe affect
Relationship
Written By Felix Udorah
The place of influence can't be ignored
especially when it comes to being
fruitful as designed by God. Many
energy level have been boosted as a
result of these while some have been
depleted. Many have been pushed even
beyond their assumed elastic limit
(maximum point an object be stretched
otherwise it breaks) while some have
been pulled to a worst state than they
were before they came in contact with
the object of influence. Influence can be
the boost we need and can also be the
barrier we never wished to encounter.
Influence in simple terms mean
whatever that has the power to affect,
control or manipulate someone in
regards to their thoughts, conduct and
decision. Influence can either be
positive or negative depending on your
engagement.
Have you been in a position
before where you wonder how a small
child get to learn the word he/she uses
when offended such as 'you are mad' or
' I will slap you' or even to the point of
them stretching the palm of their hand
towards you connoting ‘waka’? These is
the power of influence. It has the ability
to utter one's Mindset/ thought pattern,
conduct and decision. Whatever you
you conduct and communication. What
out for this, it is essential. No wonder
the scriptures says 'evil communication
corrupt good manners'
Relationship is key for growth
and success in whatever you are doing.
Man was designed by God to relate not
just with Him, environment but also
with our fellow mate. No man can
function independently or alone
without having the input of others in
him, he needs the companion of others
to share his thoughts, ideas, plans and
desires. One who will be a reliever of his
burden and multiplier of his substance?
(Emphasis is relationship with our
fellow man whether male or female).
For God knew this perspective
by making a Statement such as "it is not
good that man should be alone" simply
because the fulfilment of the Destiny of
man requires the help and Contribution
of another. These made God provide a
help which is right (suitable) for him
(NLT). In taking note of the word 'right'
helps us to understand that the help of
association God provided for him was
not just suitable for his needs but also
for his destiny. This was the template of
association that God gave. The power of
influence in association is so crucial
that whosoever we must relate with
must be with this understanding of
such person being suitable with God's
plan for your life. Many have settled for
the wrong association who will either
pull you away/ talk you out of destiny or
hinder you, thus draining your Passion
and for exploit in destiny. Negative
attitude, poor Mindset and
unproductive life even to the point of
death become the outcome of wrong
association. This is influence. The
scriptures reveals that
Proverbs 13:20(msg) Become wise by
walking with the wise; hang out with
fools and watch your life fall to pieces.
Proverbs 13:20(NLT) Walk with the
wise and become wise; associate with
fools and get in trouble.
In order to live a fruitful life,
sensitivity is key so as to discern who to
associate with or not. The person you
associate with should be able to advice
you correctly and correct you in love
when you are making mistake. Be
mindful of anyone who sees you making
mistake and can't talk.
Nothing defines destiny like
mentality. "For as a man thinks in his
heart so is he" it is failure mentality that
makes a failure. It is also a lack
mentality that makes a pauper and vice
versa. Our imagination is what set the
pace for our destination. It is possibility
mentality that makes a giant because it
is only those who dare that ever deliver.
Our thoughts will either make us or Mar
us. Until we change the way we think we
can't change the way we live. We are
told to be transformed by the renewing
of our mind. Until our mind is renewed
our life can't be transformed. You can't
take anything out of life beyond your
thoughts. It is your thoughts that
determine your take. THE ABOVE
ARE THE WORD OF DAVID
OYEDEPO FOR OUR
MEDITATION
Your goals must be filled with
conviction. Conviction is the unshaken
confidence that the goal is worthwhile.
It's the fuel that pushes us to achieve.
Written by Felix Udorah
DEFINING THE WORD SUCCESS
S- Select your goal
I heard a fellow say one time that
success is the “progressive realization
of s predetermined, worthwhile goal"
we have to know where we are going.
The goal is predetermined. Success is
not an accident; it's not luck or Fate. It
is predetermined. Success is
worthwhile. Nothing I'd successful that
does not contribute in a positive way to
help people. Success is continual. It's
not an event but a journey, an ongoing
process. It's not an accolades that we
receive for a race won it job done.
Success is the result of steady forward
movement. I wonder how much we
don't achieve because we don't put
down and establish definite goals in
writing. I run into people all the time
who don't set definite goals because
there are many factors in life that they
can't control. There are physical limit to
what we can do. I can only throw a ball
so high and so far- Beyond that
maximum I have no control. But within
the limit of my ability I have total
freedom. Determinism and free will are
both a part of life, but it is far better to
make the most of what we can do than
to bemoan what we cannot do. Your
goals must include others. No goal is
worthwhile that is only for yourself. Set
a goal big enough to include and help
others people.
Your goals must be worthwhile. There
is no such thing as successful frivolous
goals. Your goal must be clear. If you
don't know where you are he seed, a
map will be of no use.
 Your goal must be
measurable. You need a way to
see if you are making any
progress towards the goal.
 Your goals must be
expandable. Don't set your
goal in concrete. If your goal is
not expandable, it's expendable.
As we grow, we see the pictures
more clearly, and we need to
continually “up" our goals. It's a
sad day when we have achieved
out goals and have achieved our
goals and have nothing else to do
Having looked at S above in the
word success which means "selecting
your goals" we would be looking at U
below.
U- Unlock your imprisoned
potential
Most people only use about 10%
of their potential; if they use as much as
25%, they are called geniuses. If we can
go from 10% of our potential to 20% we
could double our productivity and still
have 80% of our potential untapped.
How do you unlock your potential?
Here's just a few ways to start.
1) Look up. The first thing is to look up
and find a model. Somebody who is
doing better job than you are. Are there
any people that you know who are
reaching more of their potential now
than ever before because they know
you? What we need is someone a little
bigger and better than we are, and we
need to spend time with them. If you
had ever spent time with someone who
you know is less better than you, you
would notice that you will become lazy
and your mid wouldn't be in the game.
To unlock your potential spend time
with people who will stretch you. Find
somebody who thinks faster, runs
faster, and aim higher. Those are people
who will lift you up.
2) Give up. We must give up at any
moment all that we are in order to
receive what we can become. Many
people don't understand this. They
want to hang on to what they are and at
the same time be all they can be. You
have to let go. For example Abraham
gave up his home to see a better
country, Moses gave up the riches of
Egypt. David gave up his security.
Apostle Paul gave up his past and made
a radical turnaround. Jesus himself
gave up his right. You too have to give
up something good if you want
something better. You'll never find
someone that achieves great success in
life without a give up story. Nothing
comes Free
3) Fire up. I'm talking about what
Philip Brook meant when he said, " sad
is that day for any man when he
becomes absolutely satisfied with the
life that he is living, the thought he is
thinking and the deeds he is doing;
until there ceases to be forever beating
at the door of his soul a desire to do
something larger which he seeks and
knows he was meant to do.
4) Show up. Nothing will help you
reach your potential like facing the
challenge of your life. Some people
never become all they can be because
when they see a challenge coming they
fail to show up for the match. They close
their door and hide in the corner while
the challenge is met by someone else.
Don't be intimidated by challenges:
meet them head-on.
5) Go up. If we look up to a person who
is reaching his or her potential. If we
give up anything that hinders us from
being our best, if we fire up our desire
until we are no longer satisfied, and if
we show up to our challenge and not
become fearful, then we will go up. We
will go up to the top of our potential-
but only after we look up, give up, fire
up, band show up.
Having looked at S and U above
in the word success which means
"selecting your goals" we would be
looking at C and S below.
C- Commit yourself to God's plan
Ted Engstrom said, "Success
means a person is reaching the
maximum potential available to him at
any given moment."
If success is what Ted Engstrom says it
is - tapping into the available potential
that we have and making the best use of
it- shouldn't Christian be more
successful than noon Christian? The
power God gives to spirit filled believers
ought to make a world of difference
between them and non-believers.
"Greater is he who is in you than he who
is in the world" (I John 4:4). "I can do
all things through Him who strengthens
me" (Phil 4:13). We have all these
things through the power of God's spirit
that should enable us to live on a higher
plane.
How do I find God's plan for my life?
How do I commit myself to God's plan?
There are seven questions to ask
yourself.
 Am I consecrated to him? Rom
22:1-2 tells us that we have to be
consecrated before we can know
the plan of God.
 Am I spending time with Him? I
find God's plan when I spend
time getting to know God. The
more intimate I become with
God, the more intimate I become
with God, the more
knowledgeable I become about
His plan for my life.
 What are my gifts? Most of the
time plan of God fits right in with
the gifts God has given us.
 What are my Christian friends
saying? What do they say
strength and weaknesses?
 What are my opportunities?
What lies before me that God
may be giving to me as an open
door to walk through?
 Am I in ministry now? It's
amazing how people who want
to Know God's plan for their
lives are doing nothing now. If
you really want to know what
God's plan is for your life, do
something. God works through a
busy person. Commit yourself to
God's plan
C- Chart your course
This has to do with planning. It's
better to your ahead and prepare than
look back and regret. A passenger was
talking to the captain of the queen Mary
during an ocean cruise, and he asked
the captain, "How long would it take
you before you could stop this vessel?"
The captain said, “if I shut down all the
engines, it would take me a little over a
mile to get this vessel completely
stopped.” He added, “A Good Captain
thinks at least s mile ahead. "I went
through the proverbs in the living Bible,
and here are verses I pulled out that
have to do with planning. We should
make plans- counting on God to direct
us. (Prov. 16:9). Plans go wrong with
too few counsellors; many counsellors
bring success. (Prov. 15:22). It is
dangerous and sinful to rush into the
unknown. (Prov.19:2). A sensible man
watches for problems and prepares to
meet them. The simpleton never looks,
and suffers the consequences. (Prov.
27:12). Any enterprises is built by wise
planning, becomes strong through
common sense, and profits wonderfully
by keeping abreast of facts. (Prov. 24:3-
4). Plan ahead chart your course, and if
God is going to be your partner, make
your plans large.
E- Expect problems
 Paul Harvey said, "you can
always tell when you are on the road to
success; it's uphill all the way." If you
finds a path that has no problems, you
will find that it leads nowhere.
I’ve talked many times to leaders
about "sap strata." Sap strata are those
levels of living beyond which it is hard
to rise. It happens in churches,
organisations, and in individual lives.
Have you ever felt that you just weren't
making progress, as if you were hitting
your head up against the wall?? We
have to make an extra burst of the effort
to get through those strata that keep us
from being what God wants us to
become. There are two ways to meet our
problem, two way to get through those
sap strata. One way is to change the
problem. This is only a temporary,
partial solution. We can try to make the
problem more manageable, but it will
get out of hand again tomorrow.
The most effective way for us to
overcome our problems is to change the
person. Adversity is not our greatest
enemy. The human spirit is capable of
great resiliency and resourcefulness in
the face of hardship. It's not problems
that messes us up. Someone said,
"cripple (a man) and you have sir
Walter Scott; lock him in prison and
you have john Bunyan; bury him in the
snows of valley forge and you have
George Washington; raise him in
poverty and you have Abraham
Lincoln; strike him down with infantile
paralysis and he becomes Franklin
Delano Roosevelt. Burn him so severely
that doctors say he will never walk
again and you have Glen Cunningham,
who set the world's record in 1934 for
the one-minute mile. Deafen him and
you'll have Ludwig van Beethoven; call
him a show learner, retarded, and write
him off as uneducable and you have
Albert Einstein
S- Surrender everything to Jesus
Christ
Don't ever forget that although
you may succeed beyond your fondest
hopes and your greatest expectations,
you will never succeed beyond the
purpose to which you are will to
surrender. Seek first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness and all of
these other things shall be added to you
(Matt. 6:33).
The secret of the surrendered life is
giving God the first part of every day,
the first day of every week, the first
portion of your income, the first
consideration in every decision, then
we have a power that really Caps of the
formula for success. Surrender is what
brings power. We fight for power and
we lose it; we surrender and we find it.
Jesus Christ has not only shown us the
righteous life- many great and good
men and women did that before His
time- but he has given us the power to
live this righteous life. He did not only
us the beauty of the beauty of God, as
others have done, but he gives us the
means by which we can become part of
that beauty. We can learn the power of
hourly surrender to the living Christ.
Change in our life us not only brought
about by our tense tinkering. It is
brought about by the radiant,
immeasurable energy of the Christ,
which has never left the world since he
first said yes to God. His yes was
complete. He kept nothing back for
himself. As Flora Slosson Wuellner
says, "there is nothing as tragically
ineffectual as trying to live the Christian
Life without the Christian power. Try
turning the other cheek without the
spiritual weapons of Christ's power to
love and see what destructive situation
develops. Try going the second mile
with a neighbour without going all the
way to surrender to Christ and see how
quickly the personal well runs dry.
"Surrender to Jesus Christ Success is a
word that is greatly misunderstood, and
we need to grasp what it means
biblically to be a success- to love God
with all our heart, our mind, our soul,
our strength; to allow him to unlock the
imprisoned potential in our lives; to set
godly goals and not be content to settle
for second best when we realize that
God gave everything he could give so
that we could have the very best of life;
and to realize that one of the greatest
sins we commit again God is not
reaching the potential He has placed in
us.
S- Stand firm on your
commitment
The word of God encourages us
in "1 Corinthians 15:58 so, my dear
brothers and sisters, be strong and
immovable. Always work
enthusiastically for the Lord, for you
know that nothing you do for the Lord
is ever useless." Someone asked James
Corbett, the heavyweight boxing
champion at that time what it took to
because heavyweight champion, and he
said, " fight one more round." When
asked how he had been so successful in
his inventions, Thomas Edison said, "I
start where other men leave off."
Napoleon Hill, in his book think and
grow rich, record that he studied 500 of
the wealthiest men in the world and
concluded that all wealthy men are
persistent. When Winston Churchill
went back to his Alma mater to speak,
the audience anticipated a great speech
from the prime Minister. He stood
before them and said six words: "never,
never, never, give up." That was it; the
speech was over. And that is probably
the speech for which he is most
remember. Stand firm on your
commitment. Don't be a quitter.
 The costly decision of the
Godhead
Written by Felix Udorah
In order to come into
understanding of the Genesis of the
world, it is necessary we look to gain the
right perspective from that which was
from the beginning. The scripture make
us understand that all that was detailed
in the Bible was not as a result of man's
interpretation but by spirit inspiration.
This detailed account from genesis to
revelation was not an assumption
unlike science which is as a result of
various theory put together which was
first assumed through observation then
experimented to prove it validity or not.
The scripture is true, valid and
infallible; coming into its fulfilment at
the appropriate time. No one builds a
house on that which is shaky or
assumed and expect an immovable
structure. From this view, let us then
look at the scripture to see the costly
decision of the Godhead that was made
for our sake.
Ever since creation, humanity has been
the focal point of God. All that God has
done or will ever do is because of man.
Jesus proved this Truth by given us the
value of a soul through the parable of
the lost sheep out of 100. The Shepherd
of such sheep didn't proceed or ignore
that one since it is minimal compared to
many but yet had to leave the 99 for the
sake of one. This parable was an
explanation of heaven's operational
system as regarding its value for
humanity. It is not really because man's
body makeup was better than all
creatures created. The scripture reveals
that the fabric to which the angel was
made was that of precious stones such
as Ruby, topaz, emerald, chrysolite and
others. (Eze. 28:12-13) the angels were
also models of perfection. In order
words, if any creatures was to be sought
after and handpicked for caring which
were perfect in their makeup, emitting
unspeakable radiance of light, it was the
Angels. Yet God had to fix His attention
on man. It was from these revelation
that psalmist cried out saying "what
exactly is man that you are mindful of
him". Amidst all of the creation it was
during that of man that the word "let
us", "our image" and "be like us". This
statement signify a singular decision
that was proposed to a plural principal
person's that were present. The next
verse reveals that the proposal was
collectively agreed by the Godhead. If
there was any issues as regarding
humanity a decision on has to be made
by the Godhead before an action is seen.
The problem of the fall was the first
occurring issues with humanity, but
that didn't in anyway extinguish totally
without any traces the love that the
Godhead has for humanity. There were
other decision that was made after the
fall for the deliverance and fulfilment of
the God's will for the people. Let us
consider one of the decision made
taking into consideration the account of
macaiah below. 1 Kings 22:19-21 Then
Micaiah continued, "Listen to what the
Lord says! I saw the Lord sitting on his
throne with all the armies of heaven
around him, on his right and on his left.
And the Lord said, 'Who can entice
Ahab to go into battle against Ramoth-
gilead so he can be killed?' "There were
many suggestions, and finally a spirit
approached the Lord and said, 'I can do
it!'
From the above scripture, a
decision was to be made in the Court of
God for Him to show forth His
righteousness such that His will be
done in the land. All this decision was
not like the decision that made for the
redemption of man through the second
Adam which is Christ, as the way out of
a life of sin and death. This decision was
not a careless or hasty one but a well-
planned, weighed and calculated
decision by the Godhead to play out as
planned. The costliness of this decision
could only have been motivated by the
deep love in which the father have for
humanity.
How do you feel as parent to
offer yourselves or your only son as a
price to be crucified for others? Would
such decision be a quick or hasty one? I
don't think so or else the price to be
offered does not mean anything to you.
This was the decision that the Godhead
had to make for man's salvation. This
were even spoken before time by the
prophet of old before the coming of the
Messiah. It is in this context that we
should picture and understand the
weight of the LOVE the Father have for
humanity that such costly decision be
made for them. 1 John 3:1-2 what a
marvellous love the Father has
extended to us! Just look at it--we're
called children of God! That's who we
really are. But that's also why the world
doesn't recognize us or take us
seriously, because it has no idea who he
is or what he's up to. But friends, that's
exactly who we are: children of God.
And that's only the beginning. Who
knows how we'll end up! What we know
is that when Christ is openly revealed,
we'll see him--and in seeing him,
become like him. 1 John 4:9-10. This is
how God showed his love for us: God
sent his only Son into the world so we
might live through him. This is the kind
of love we are talking about--not that
we once upon a time loved God, but that
he loved us and sent his Son as a
sacrifice to clear away our sins and the
damage they've done to our
relationship with God.