The Power of Agreeing

Relationship Friday: The Power of Agreeing for Oneness

When God said it isn't good for Adam to be alone, He wasn't trying to accomplish the desire of another person but of Himself.

Even Adam himself didn't know what was good or what was not good. But according to design, he was made a social being. He would not be able to survive without others around him. That was the original design.
Of course, it was possible for God to make him procreate by himself, if God had so chosen but the design was not to be. Man wouldn't be able to wait till any such process of procreation would have happened. Something had to be done that same day...to satisfy that original design.

This is one reason why we know that the woman was not an afterthought after all. Adam was already designed not to be alone. He was not to be like our sun, which is just by itself or our moon which is just one, he was to be in a community and to be part of a society beyond being able to merely procreate.

So God had to split him into two in order to have a companion. He did it along sexual line and added procreation into it. And that is telling of God's mind. Man won't be able to make anything tangible happen being alone. He wont be able to naturally procreate by himself, he would need others to fulfil his destiny.

If he would need others then he must learn the ropes of being together with others. Inability to accommodate others is key to life's fulfillment. Adam would have to be able to accommodate Eve. And that would mean being able to look beyond the anatomical differences between him and her, to be able to see the point of agreement in the same flesh and bone they were. This is now the flesh of my flesh and the bone of my bone...

It was after that, they could look at the reason for their differences. The differences were not to create separation but as points of compatibility for oneness. The differences show why we are to complement one another to birth a common future.

The differences are to bring us together and not to separate us. To create points of completion for us and not to bring competition between us.

The way to this completion needed for procreation of glorious things we were blessed with will be agreeing. Lack of agreement undermines the potential of our being able to complete one another to give birth to our increase and future. How we love to foolishly compete!

When it comes to physical and biological reproduction, we have the differences in sex organs to complete each other for procreation. Each is equipped with potentials needed to supply what the union would need to have the common output.

But it isn't only in the area of biology that we were so separated to be rejoined. Every strength each has is to complete something in the other to bring something new to birth for their common increase and future. If there is a common vision, which should be.

Just as we are bones of same bones and flesh of same flesh, so also should husband and wife have vision of same vision, desires of same desires and aspirations of same aspirations for their increase and the future of both of them together.

And as we have different sex organs which must supply different things to make procreation and the future possible, so also we aren't the same in many other areas where the production of the future and of increase is potent.

We shouldn't be afraid of our differences. Compatibility isn't sameness. It can't be. We are only compatible when we have points of connection with one another for fruitfulness, multiplication and replenishment of our world towards having dominion. And to connect, one will have to be plug and the other socket. The bones and the flesh may be same.

And this is why we need agreement. Agreeing leads to oneness of desires and of vision. The differences need agreeing for the connections to happen for fruitfulness. Without agreeing we can't reproduce. Agreement is the power that holds our common future and increase.

Agreement requires submission. Putting down all that one has in order to connect to and with all that the other has and has submitted also. When we can't submit to one another, we can not come to agreement. The essence of submitting isn't for one to lord it over another. It is for such to receive what the other has to submit also.

In biology, the one with the womb submits to the other to submit the half seed to combine with the other half waiting within. It is a game of mutual submission as they submit, one to the other in turn.

Same way in every other area. One with the womb submits to the other to submit what he or she has, so as to combine the seeds and to carry the increase till parturition or birth for both to rejoice together in their fruit.

How is your agreement with your spouse? You may have been good in the biological fruitfulness, how are you doing in the fruitfulness of other areas of destiny? What about your submission? What are you bringing to the table for the future you both desire? Your future depends on this...to enjoy the blessing of being fruitful, multiplying, replenishing, subduing and having dominion!

Think about this and make it work for yourself.

God bless you and your relationship greatly.

Read and share!

Have a great weekend!

Upbeat

Monday Motivation: Upbeat

Being upbeat isn't what you always want to be. There are times for sober reflections and deep thinking. You shouldn't always be here and there, talking all the time, you'll need time to be still and have some quiet.

But being excitedly upbeat is invaluable. You don't trade that for being moody and dull. Being weighed down can be counterproductive. Being cast down can lead to losing interest in lots of things and being slow to executing necessary things we should do.

Being sluggish will keep you always steps backwards. Others get there before you and you come late to meetings and to schedules. There are a lot to lose not being upbeat.

We are cast down mainly by hopelessness, frustration and disappointments. Loss of loved and dependable people in our lives can cause our souls to stoop. Failures and negative events can bring sorrow and sluggishness but nothing beats hopelessness.

Hopelessness makes you lose the zest for life and living. Life and hope could be synonyms. When there is hope, there is life and where you find real living, it is because there is hope. Hope is zeal, it puts fire in your bones, you press, and beat through restraints to go for the goal... Hope keeps you going, knowing the possibilities that exists for you ahead!

Positive expectation cures us of regrets and projects us into the future. We are driven by the possibilities of what lies ahead. But when the feeling of being at the dead end of life overcomes us, hands can drop and drudgery may set in.

We also gain excitement and being upbeat by the sense of being needed. When you have to be there for others, you count yourself relevant. When other people show reliance on you, it makes you want to be there for a longer time.

Rejection often makes you feel needless and useless. The feeling of uselessness may cause a person to even want to end it all. When you feel unappreciated, the zeal to wake up, stand up, dress up and show up won't be readily there...

If you aren't appreciated for the things you do, the excitement of doing the same again is lost. Boredom quells our being upbeat, it comes by doing same things over and over. Monotony can bring tiredness, though the consistency we gain from it builds expertise in us but we often get tired of doing the same thing over and over.

We keep our excitement knowing that what we do would be appreciated some day even if not now. A parent that's doing everything to keep the kids in school and well, may not feel appreciated, since no one might even ever say thank you... But the result of that seen in the development of the children for society is worth the effort...it shouldn't be traded.

The Pastor that spends and is spent for the sheep may not be appreciated voluntarily but nonetheless, the care affects lives and would keep a lot of people away from the path of hell and destruction.

We must understand like King Solomon said, that there is no labour without profit... Even if the payment does not come every month end.

There is something about being productive and adding something to life that should keep us excited. Isn't it amazing that when the writers of the New Testament letters were writing them that their intentions wasn't to make them into a book that will be packaged together with the almighty books of law and the prophets?

They wrote from prison, they wrote from pain and from comfort, they wrote to friends and to God's people without the ease of modern technology... They wrote not knowing that you and I and generations ahead would read and be inspired...they didn't plan that what they were writing will someday become a bestseller. They just wrote to strengthen the faith of their friends and see what it has become today...

It means, many of the things we do today, even reluctantly, may be kept for the safety and well-being of many generations coming and if we stop doing them, we can't become all that God has created us to be...

So, don't be tired. Strengthen the feeble knees and lift up your hands that are hanging down...wake up from slumber and go become all that God has planned for you to be. You're pregnant of great things, you need strength to deliver and the excitement of the Lord is your strength...

It's a new week... Be upbeat, don't be tired... Make something happen this week in spite of all the things that would keep you down...

It's a great week!

Marital Investment

Relationship Friday: Marital Investment

It is a fundamental law of nature that when the conditions are right, what you sow, you will reap. Actions and reactions are always equal and opposite. Whatever we give, we receive. We are constantly sowing by reason of our words, actions, inactions, reactions and attitudes. We can't even control if we sow or not, what we do or don't do, what we say or don't say eventually brings a harvest. It is fundamental and spiritual to life.
We can only control what we sow and what we don't sow. We can be conscious about what goes out of us. We can be deliberate about what we permit to fester in our minds and what we permit to escape our thoughts into our vocal system and into our activities. In so doing, we automatically create a response that brings us a commensurate harvest.
The law is drawn from the nature of God as a judge, who judges all things without respect of persons. It controls economies, it controls life. What you invest within a supportive environment must definitely bring you a harvest.

The same is true about marriage. It does not just happen that a marriage comes out perfectly. It must take advantage of the supportive environmental system God has put in place to support its blossoming to bring success.

Not every soil, amount of rain and sunshine supports every plant for a good harvest. It takes studies of the laws and the principles that support a seed, to know what it takes for it to bring forth an harvest.

The seed may be good, with great potential to bring forth desired results but the farmer must understand what specific requirements are required for that seed to bring forth its possible potential.

Marriage as a whole has its requirements for success, and each marriage also has its specific requirements to succeed. These, we have to discover and apply to get the best possible outcome.

You can't be feeding an animal with what it's system doesn't use and expect it to respond in proper growth and development. The same with marriage.

We must apply desire, diligence, determination and discipline in our quest for a good marriage and the subsequent home. We can't afford to throw garbage into our marriages and expect it to return to us with a beautiful edifice. It won't work.

Our thoughts, words, actions, inactions, attitudes and reactions must be tailor-made to bring out the exact desire we have for our homes.

Investment requires knowledge as earlier mentioned, and knowledge comes through both revelation and experience. The good thing about knowledge is that it does not have to be you who got the revelation or the experience before you gain expertise in practicing it. If you can gain access and use it, so long it's the truth, it'll work for you.

Investment, therefore starts and continues with gaining relevant and adequate knowledge. Don't pretend you know it all. Our challenges are mostly those areas where we lack knowledge, which life's tests have revealed for us to fix with knowledge and wisdom.
That's why I am inviting you to the program on marriage and relationship by BAID NIGERIA (Before and After "I Do") coming up at Ikeja on the 10th of November by 2pm at MAN Center, Wemabod Estate, Ikeja, Lagos. Participation is free and there will be opportunities for counselling. See further details on the attached photo...

You need to do this for you relationship, reach out to others too to come add to their learning, share this article with your friends and family. BAID is a place to access proven knowledge from divine revelations and skillful experiences in the word of righteousness, made available for us through grace.

It'll be a worthy investment for you that will yield greatly for you going forward.

Save the date...prepare to be there. It'll heal relationships and fortify marriages!

Good morning and have a lovely weekend

The Power of Consistency

Monday Motivation:The Power of Consistency.

We were admonished in scriptures that we should not be weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Consistency sets you apart in any of life's endeavors. Whatever one chooses to do, one hardly becomes anything substantial without being consistent in practicing it.

There will be reasons to stop doing just one thing day in day out. There may be boredom after a while, there may be that sense of thinking doing something else might give a quicker result and change of life. There may be difficulties and challenges that have to be overcome. There are a thousand and one reasons to be discouraged from continuing on a pathway one has chosen, the truth is, one may eventually form the habit of moving from doing one thing to the other just because some difficulties show up which should be avoided.

There isn't any new thing we desire to do that doesn't have its own discouraging challenges and it's own potential difficulties probably worse than the previous option.

Every endeavor would need consistent supplies of diligence, wisdom, innovation, perseverance, discipline, sacrifice and tenacity. Wherever one moves to, the discouraging factors in one will always surface again. Those factors are consistent everywhere.

There is no business endeavour,  for instance that won't need to be marketed. Consumer behavior is consistent in every industry. You'll always need to persuade people to patronise, you'll always need innovation in marketing.

However, that does not mean everyone of us is cut out for everything. We need to identify where our interests and skills are, choose what area of that we are most skilled, knowledgeable and innovative, the area we are most convincing and where we are most likely to give maximum consumer satisfaction and efficient delivery of the goods and the services expected, the area we are most competitive both in costing and pricing.

When we have made that choice, the next thing is to stay put, weathering the storms, growing up, and laying claim to a place in the system.

There are a lot that will be learned through being consistent and the more one stays, the more the industry identifies with one, and one is identified with the industry.

No matter how good one is, if one leaves the business, career or industry, those who don't have the skill, the wisdom or the innovativeness necessary as much as one is will be the only providers of the service and they will take ownership of the market and become the face of the industry because of consistency.

A magnifying glass when focused can create fire but when it isn't concentrated at a point, it is just another object of play irrespective of its potential. It takes time for trees to bear fruit, we would need time to maximize our potentials, we will need patience in what we have found to be our way, we would need long-suffering and perseverance to make a mark in life.

If you are a parent reading this, share it with your teenagers and young adults. Help them to make the right choices and encourage them to prepare for the long haul, if they start in time and remain consistent, they will arrive faster than being impatiently inconsistent, jumping from one endeavour to another and always remaining rookies in every new thing they lay their hands on.

Even many old roller coasters may need to stop rolling, to gather some moss of experience and develop some expertise on one thing, within whatever limited time that is left.

The story of the man who founded a globally recognised chain restaurant at 65 is quite interesting, but when you read it again, you'll discover that he had always been a salesman all his life, trying to sell something until he discovered the exact thing to sell...even at 65, with whatever challenges, he stuck to it and made a mark.

Have you found what it is God sent you here to deliver? Find it and stick to it, don't give up just because it's tough or because of initial failures, don't be tempted by those things that seem to be working better in other people's hands, wait on it in perseverance, and become the champion you were made to be.

On this and on other related matters, you can reach out for counseling, it can make a huge difference in your life.

If this has blessed you, share it for others also to be blessed by it. Thank you so much for reading.

Good morning and have a great week.

Photo Credit: Geralt/Pixabay

Try

Monday Motivation: Try

I always remember the motivation our headmistress back in primary school always gave us. She would say, the reason why the session was divided into three terms was to say, try, try and try again!

To try means to summon enough courage, energy and resolve to attempt something beyond what's within one's immediate proclivities. There are things we don't feel we can do but among the things we should do. Left to us, we would rather not do them but now they have to be done.

A sick person without an appetite would have to try to eat, even if the least thing he or she wants is food, meanwhile, the energy and the nutrients from the food are needed for recovery.

The world we have today with all the advancement and development came about only by those who believe in the possibility of development, who also dared to take steps against all odds towards the vision of the faith in their hearts.

People who believe that there is a better country the Creator had embedded in the present and were ready to take the journey. They had all the odds against them, it didn't look like a worthy cause and it didn't appear as a viable course.

They had to defy their fears and the unbelief of society to reach out to the things others called impossible. I realised we would never know what's possible without trying the impossible. And until we try, we won't ever be able to do.

Imagine those who had the crazy idea of flying and who were foolish enough to try to make a flying machine with enormous risks.

Imagine those who believe we could tap electricity and had to try even paying with their lives.

Imagine someone who could think of bringing the television into Africa, when they were just getting their independence from the colonial masters.

Imagine thinking of a skyscraper in a nation like Nigeria amidst what people would call underdevelopment.

But life would remain stagnant and would never get to its potential until we try to go beyond where we are. Yes, there are things we see as limiting, but it has been proven to be mere illusions and facades, waiting for someone to dare them.

If we don't try, we don't need help. Grace makes things easy but it's for people who dare to do things others won't do. When we discover what God has kept for us, and we try to reach them, God will send the help He had stored up for such purposes to get us there.

What could you accomplish if you try? Maybe you need to start a business, write a proposal, go back to school, register for a course, register a company, make a marriage proposal, get married or have a child... Or may be you need to gain more grounds in your spiritual life and break off from the flesh that holds you down in sin... Don't say, you'd tried before and failed, try again...till you get it done...

Every failure shows us one more way not to do it...reducing the probabilities of failure... You're getting closer by every trial... You lose nothing for trying... Just try and try again, in trying you'll encounter help!

Hebrews 11
15. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
16. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

Good morning, happy new week!

Man of God, Man of Faith

Ministry Wednesday: Man of God, Man of Faith

Jesus Christ said not everyone who calls Him Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of God. He said further that many shall say on that day, how they prophesied and cast out demon and did many mighty works in His name, but He will answer, get thee behind me, I know you not, you workers of iniquity...

That should sound scary to ministers of Christ and should help us to consider many things.

It shows that we can actually do all these things without a connection to His heart. It is often said that the avenue to power is holiness but His comments here may prove that wrong. People were walking in power and they are also working iniquity same time according to the Master.

The servant of God then should consider his or her convictions and how that reflect on his or her life and ministry.

There are two basic movers of our tongues to minister. The utterance of the Holy Spirit and the faith of God in our hearts.

Ephesians 6
18. Praying always... 19. And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel.

2 Corinthians 4
13. 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;

The two can work separately. People may speak what they don't believe. And so their lifestyles would not agree with the faith they preach. The preach faith but live in unbelief. They speak and teach faith but rationalise their obedience to God's word. They have the form of godliness but deny the power thereof.

God expects that our convictions will rule us. As a friend puts it recently, the proof of believing is behaving. What we permit or disapprove of are based on what we truly believe. You can't really trust God and be working iniquities. We live our faith naturally!

People are not just to follow our words but also our faith as they see it in our way of life.

Hebrews 13
7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. (ESV)

When we understand that the opposite of faith is works. Doing it by God's grace through the knowledge of God's Word is faith, doing it by our own power and wisdom regardless of God's Word is works.
When we seek to get God's promises by His power and wisdom through His word according to His will, we walk in faith, getting the same things our own ways irrespective of God's word and wisdom is works.

Faith is living absolutely a life dependent on God's word and on His leading by the Holy Spirit. Faith is taking steps not to satisfy the needs of our flesh, our pride, ego or lusts but in response to divine will and Word in order to satisfy God's desires and pleasures. Faith is the conviction we have of the reality of the supernatural as presented to us in God's Word and demonstrated by Jesus Christ while here in the physical.

It explores the extent of supernatural possibilities made available by the omnipotence, omniscience and the omnipresence of God within the bounds of His word.

This faith is such a conviction that would be ready to suffer pain and even death when offered an alternative not approved by God.

Faith looks like a risk for lack of appeal to the human mind and rationality, but it isn't a risk to the believing one because of the reality of the supernatural he or she has come to accept as true and as the norm, which God is ever ready to defend, no matter what. He has called us to walk on water, we see solidity and not liquidity just because He called. It is no more a risk but a reality of what He said, which He has demonstrated! We can step out and walk on His word even if it's all water around!

Faith will be tested, sometimes with deprivation, pains and losses, without which faith isn't proved to be what it is, faith untested is of little value, it is more precious than gold when tested. It is also the test of God's faithfulness. If we don't fail the test of faith, not losing our conviction to the end, God's faithfulness too will not fail.

Alternatives test our faith, and our faith proves God's faithfulness. If we are not ready to suffer for our convictions in God, how should we then expect to see the full manifestation of God's faithfulness, which we have not placed any demand on by our faith?

We are in a world of scoffers, a world where unbelief is taught as faith, a world that is ever learning but not coming to the knowledge of the truth, a world that has a form of godliness but denies the power thereof, a world of self seeking, pleasure seeking world, where we always love to play safe when engaging the things of the supernatural, a world of compromises and negotiations with the things of the Spirit. A world where faith in uncertain riches, in money, in self, and in the arms of flesh has more preachers and teachers than faith in God, in His supernatural and in all He has done.

Yet, in such gross darkness, God is counting on His light bearers to arise with their torches to declare His kingdom and faith in Him in this crooked and perverse generation.

The man of God must be the man of faith, and not to be sifted as wheat, losing the solidity of faith for the chaff of unbelief, doubts and fear in mere religion. We should be planted by the rivers of God's word, to bring forth our fruits of faith as we run the race with patience before the audience of those who have before walked this pathway of faith, with our leaves green and flourishing, prospering in all we do through the faithfulness of God as the branches of God's Vine, to whom we have entrusted our lives, to whom are glory and praise forever more. Amen

Have a wonderful week and a marvelous new month living the life of faith in God's Grace!

Photo Credit: Geralt/Pixabay