YOU’RE NOT A TRUE MENTOR IF YOU DON’T HAVE STORIES. IT’S NOT ONLY PRINCIPLES, THE SECRET OF GREAT MEN IS HIDDEN IN THEIR STORIES.
A MAJOR PART OF FAILURE IS IGNORANCE OR INSUFFICIENT KNOWLEDGE.
TAKE AWAY SHAME FROM YOUR LIFE BY INVESTING IN KNOWLEDGE. IT IS PAINFUL TO LOOK GREAT AND YET BE EMPTY.
THERE IS NOBODY WHO WILL TASTE OF GENUINE KINGDOM HONOUR AS FAR AS DESTINY AND THE KINGDOM IS CONCERNED, UNTIL AND UNLESS YOU ARE TESTED AND YOU ARE PROVEN.
THERE IS NO GLORIOUS DESTINY FOR ANY MAN OR WOMAN THAT WILL COMPROMISE ON THE POWER OF DISCIPLINE AND FOCUS
LEARN TO LAUGH AND REJOICE EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS.
DO NOT WASTE YOUR PAIN; THERE IS A CROWN THAT YOUR PAIN TODAY WILL PUT ON YOUR HEAD.
- Apostle Joshua Selman at Koinonia on ‘KEYS TO DESTINY FULFILLMENT’
(PART B).
3). Go for knowledge.
Destiny is knowledge-driven (Ecclesiastes 10:15). It is painful to see your destiny and yet, not know the requisite level of knowledge. Every result and every pathway you need to take, there is a requisite level of knowledge and wisdom that it takes for you to actualize it. It is in this area of accessing knowledge that men are separated from boys because, knowledge is not a gift; you buy the truth. It will cost you. We live in a world where we are obsessed with gift; ‘give it to me, make it happen. Write all the points for my destiny and come and spoon-feed me with it.’ Unfortunately, it does not work like that.
You must go for knowledge (Proverbs 24:3-4). The major activity during the preparatory phase of your destiny will be this; getting wisdom and knowledge (Proverbs 18:1). You need to go for knowledge; buy books before shoes, get knowledge before you start getting the adorning of clothes. Church Gist. It is painful to look great and yet, be empty. Unfortunately, we live in a world today that does not mind; people can be as empty as a keg and yet, you decorate it and it looks so full. I rather carry a physical fashion that makes you underestimate me and then be full and rich within, than to look so successful and visionary and then, when you come in, you find out that it is an empty gourd.
You need to invest in knowledge. You don’t invest in knowledge in a hurry, sit down, “What does it take oh God? You have given me a global ministry as a man of God, a global prophetic ministry: Yes Lord, I have received it. But a global ministry comes with a global burden, I need wisdom; spirituality, organization, finances. I need to understand this, I obtain grace.” Church Gist. Where others are snoring and sleeping away their destiny, you are awake; “Lord, I obtain grace.” Your eyes are sleeping, it looks like two people are sitting on your eyes, you shake it away and say, “No way, I am going far. I obtain grace!”
- May the spirit of laziness be far away from us in the name of Jesus!
- May the destiny destroying spirit of laziness be far from us!
There are many people who will tell you they want to be preachers; they don’t even read up to one hour per week. I am telling you sincerely, even if there are no demons, you will still fail because demons only account for about 30 per cent or so of real failure. A major part of failure is ignorance or insufficient knowledge. I have taught you here, if you score 35 per cent, you didn’t get zero and yet, you have failed. If the cut-off mark is 50 and you get 48, you didn’t get zero but you will still stand at the same place with those who got zero. Take away shame from your life by investing in knowledge. It is not good to look dull and be dull. Knowledge is an equalizer, you may not come from a privileged family, I agree. You may not have a personal that is very inviting, but let knowledge equalizer you. It is a bailout system. Take away shame from your life and stop all the petty jealousy and sit down, go for knowledge.
- In the name of Jesus, sit down and buy books. Don’t go online, just browsing profitless things that will not help you.
Most people, if they will take half the time they are using, roaming around social media in a profitless way and invest it in constructive knowledge, I assure you by God, they will not remain at that level. Some of you know what is happening in everybody’s life except your own destiny. That should not be. Say;
“I receive grace to go for knowledge.”
When you know where you are going, you now find out those who are going that direction and you begin to study their mindsets. The first kind of knowledge you need is the awareness of your current state, that itself is a miracle. Do you know that if you are aware that you are in need, that knowledge of your inadequacy is already a miracle? Not knowing that you have a problem is a serious problem itself. Follow them who through faith and patience, what do they study? Church Gist. God has called you to be a Kingdom financier, you can be jumping till rapture happens and you miss out your assignment and even miss rapture if you are not careful. Talk is cheap, please sit down. Go back home and sit down. Carry your Bible and look for one book and read. Till today, I study like I don’t know anything, because truly without flattering, with respect to where God is taking me, there are many things I do not know and so, I sit down and I study (2 Timothy 2:15).
Please let me tell you this; if you are a man of God, I submit to you with all due respect, be ready for empty pews if you are not rich in knowledge. The world we live in today is the world of serious people, a man will not carry his wife and children and their destinies and come and be part of your vision and sit down every week to listen to nonsense. No, people love you but they love their destinies. Nobody is ready to waste his time like that, to travel from one nation to come and let me also challenge everyone, please in the name of Jesus, go for knowledge. Find out what you don’t know about and find out how to learn from it. Don’t make the same mistake two times.
There are many of us who do not know the real cost of being great. We have downplayed the cost of greatness and we have reduced it just because of things like favour. Wave laziness goodbye and force it to wave you back. Church Gist. There are many young people in our nation who are not going anywhere, they believe that destiny will just open up because of bold face. It takes more than that; it takes capacity.
In pursuit of destiny, if God by any means makes the job easier for you by granting you access to the minds of those who know what they are saying, please don’t trivialize it, listen. Don’t sit down with a champion and be tampering the equation. You are not there yet; you don’t have the results. For some people, it is not the absence of helpers or knowledge, it is sheer pride. You find people who have no result, they are broke, poor, oppressed, they have no anointing and influence, yet they want to teach you on everything pertaining influence, anointing, prosperity. Let’s respect results. When I sit in the presence of people who have what I do not have, I don’t argue, even if I don’t entirely agree, I have to honour the presence of the result that is before me and listen.
4). Spend (invest) time praying for your life and your destiny. It is good to intercede, it is good to pray for people, but they are times you have to honestly zoom the attention on you and your destiny and invest time, generate energy, praying for your life and praying for your destiny. If you don’t take responsibility over your destiny and pray till you tear off the gate, especially for those of you, if you come from a background where you know that you are the first to do what you are about to do, you are the one who breaks the iron gate, you better pray. Church Gist. Grandfather tried it and died, grandmother tried it and die, siblings tried it and die; now you are the one, that iron gate has never been broken. You must pray. The one who is grandfather or grandmother, at least were able to open part of the gate, it’s just for him to finish opening it. That one’s life is easier. For you, there is a chain on it and there is a spirit holding the chain. Pray:
“Lord, I will not fail in life.” Days become weeks; weeks become months; what are you doing? I am praying. “You are just lazing around?” Don’t call prayer lazing around, there is vision and purpose connected to it.
Mathew 4:1-2.
I don’t know any great man, I may be wrong; I am learning too, but I don’t know any great man especially in the Kingdom and in ministry who cannot point seasons of his life, where he fasted the kind of fast that even the devil will look with shock and say, “This person, you have energy ooo” and it is easier to fast when you have not made it yet, because the distractions are less. How much do you have that temptation will come? You focus and fast. Whether you fasted or not, you are not going to eat very well after all, so you use the opportunity to pray.
Mark 1:35
You must pray, there are forces that will try to fight you from starting, if they cannot succeed, they will be waiting for you at the gate of honour, so that they will bring you shame. Don’t you think because you started, the devil will fold his hand. If you think because you are great and everything is working, everything is fine: think again! There is a skill that maintains greatness. Church Gist. One of it is the consistent fortification of yourself with prayer. People are praying for you, but you must pray for yourself because when satan sees that you are high up there, he will begin to scheme things to make sure, because he knows that in your coming down is the coming down of many. So, instead of attacking two million people, he will attack you. Please obtain grace to pray (2 Thessalonians 3:1-2).
Prayer is powerful, you can get into that control room and begin to make things. Invest time praying, don’t pray out of fear. Pray not just as a principle of survival, but your prayer will give room for you to keep making progress.
5). Embrace a life of competence and excellence (Proverbs 22:29). You want to rise beyond the average in life and destiny, for the sake of the Kingdom? You must be diligent; a diligent preacher will be a great preacher.
Competence is mastery; you must become a master at something otherwise, shame and reproach will always be within the corridor of your destiny. Church Gist. Make up your mind that, you are not given the assignment of being and knowing everything, but as far as the things that pertain to the area of your call and destiny is concerned, please hold it with mastery and take away shame from your life.
Genesis 41:14, 29-33, 37-46
When Joseph began to do exploit at a national level, he was 30 years old. That means, there is no excuse and for those of you who are saying, “Ah, 30 years, that is old.” What of Joash, who was king at age 7 and Josiah was king at age 8. They were all kings, as small as they were. A child is not just a child in age, a child is a child in knowledge. You must embrace a life of competence and excellence.
6). Be disciplined and focused. There is no glorious destiny for any man or woman that will compromise on the power of discipline and focus (Isaiah 60:7, 2 Timothy 2:4, Hebrews 12:1). You don’t have to cut away from evil things alone, there are many good things that are not profitable for your destiny. There are many good things you will have to say no to, for the sake of where you are going.
7). You must develop endurance.
Endurance is the ability to stand and survive pain and pressure while maintaining focus. Church Gist. This one key here, if you have 6/7 and this is the key you failed, you will still abort destiny (James 1:2-4).
There are two reasons I have seen why people generally, in spite of the fact that they work in keeping with these other keys, why they are unable to really maximum destiny and become all that God has ordained them to be:
1). Excuses. They will always give excuses and you see, to one who is determined to find a reason not to rise, you will always find one.
2). Violating the law of process. I want to end my teaching tonight by teaching us something about the law of process. Please open up your heart and your spirit.
PRAYER:
Lord, open my eyes yet again for the sake of my destiny and for the sake of all those who are looking up to me.
THE LAW OF PROCESS
Mark 4:26-32
Many great people have aborted great destinies because they do not understand this mystery of the Kingdom called process. I had the privilege of learning this deep law of destiny very early in life, the law of process. Church Gist. You must be tested and proven in order to be honoured by God (Deuteronomy 8:11-16). There is nobody who will taste of genuine Kingdom honour as far as destiny and the Kingdom is concerned, until and unless you are tested and you are proven.
God tests people, God proves people. Even men prove people before they lift them. There is no responsible man, leader or father who will not test and prove people to ascertain their capacity and their capabilities before lifting them and even their tendencies (Psalm 66:12). Church Gist. Process is very powerful, there will always be seasons in a man’s life where God will be proving you to prune every tendency that will destroy and abort your glorious future and let me tell you the truth: that is about the hardest phase in the life of a believer because at those points, that is where you experience what we call the silence of God. You will live in the silence of God once and again and if you don’t understand that you are being proven, you will waste that season and you will find out that the destiny that was prophesied over you will never even come to pass.
2). It takes time for true success and your destiny to manifest. No matter how you hurry destiny, it takes time for true success and your destiny to manifest (Hebrews 6:15). What does process do in your life?
I want to give you about five reasons and then, we will end it and then pray for tonight:
a). Process will test your loyalty and commitment to fulfilling your destiny (Luke 9:62).
b). Process builds patience (James 1:2-3). There are many people who it takes the discipline of process to bring them to a point where they can become patient in life. We live in a generation of impatience, fast everything; we want it immediately, sharp-sharp and while it is true that God is a God of speed, there is a difference between speed and rush. God gives people speed after He has made them and build them, but God does not rush people (Isaiah 43:1-2). Church Gist. There are things water cannot remove, there are things even the strength of the river cannot remove, it will take fire and when you are walking through that fire, not even your tears will accelerate the pace; you will walk slowly. It will burn pride and every kind of thing; you will get to a point where when you get out of that fire, you will be as light as a feather, ready to fly.
Let me speak to someone here, you may be in a season where you are fulfilling the law of process, don’t abort destiny. Obtain the grace to stay, there’s something that fire is doing and when it is done, there is nobody who is a normal human being, who will carry raw meat and eat. It will pass through fire. Nobody goes through fire and comes out the way you have entered. For some of you, the fire will change your shape, your colour spiritually, your appetite. My encouragement is, let the fire do its work. It may be painful, let the fire do its work. There is something good at the end.
c). Process helps you to honour and appreciate successful people. When you don’t pass through fire and you don’t have process, you may not be able to appreciate the sacrifices and results of others. God allows us to pass through these seasons of process, so that you will not downplay result when you see it.
We live in a world where it is very easy to talk when you are not the one in the football field playing. You sit down outside in the stadium of life and you are watching people playing and the person misses the ball and the person is tired and breathing hard and you are watching and saying, this guy would have just dribbled now and you do not know that your own match is waiting. Church Gist. Sooner or later, God puts you and in ten minutes, you are tired and He says no, it is ninety minutes, keep going. It is easy to comment when you are the one standing outside and you are not the one actively involved. So, a process helps us to appreciate what successful people went through.
As I grow in ministry and as I grow in leadership, I am cultivating a renewed regard and respect. I have always known this, but I am knowing it, even pragmatically. It is easy to see our parents and those who have gone ahead of us and to mark their scripts and write all kinds of things are say, “This my father, I don’t know where he was when all his colleagues were making it?” Now, you become a father and you are surprised you have BP because of a school fee of fifty thousand and yet, your father trained eight of you. Do not commit to people who do not go through the law of process; they will not have an appreciation and a regard for others, especially for the great (2 Corinthians 11:27).
When you see great people, because of the way the palace will decorate you and perfume you, you will not smell like the prison again but make no mistake, it was from the prison you got there. Most people who criticize and most people who are involved in talking about people, it is because they do not have track record of greatness. Church Gist. When you go through the law of process, you will appreciate great people with profound respect. Until you are there, wearing the shoes of others. Just keep quiet.
d). To create memories and experiences in our lives that will help us sustain the success that is before us. Why do we go through processes? Why do you have to subscribe to the law of process? Because there is something that you go through in those seasons of pain that will help you to be able to manage greatness. Can I tell? Ask anybody who has tasted of genuine greatness, there is a skill it takes. Many years ago, I had a dream and in that dream, a man of God in this Nation, he was standing on stage and I was invited to come and preach. I considered myself from that dream that, ha, how could I be given this great platform and then, when I came in the dream, I found out that, you were not standing on the ground like this, it is like you have to climb the pulpit and stand and it was so slippery. Church Gist. When I stood there, I had to hold it and say, I am just trying to gain my footing and yet, the man was standing there very easily. I woke up from that dream and I said, “Wow! There is a skill to standing here, it is more than just facing the pulpit. There are those who didn’t stand well; they didn’t even stand up to two years. If you see people standing here, all you see is not all there is.
There are many people today respectfully speaking, not to downplay your pedigree, by the time you see ten million, hundred million, one billion; you will run in a way that God must ask you what He asked Adam, “Where are you? I can’t find you again. It is not only your pastor that cannot find you. Where are you? You wife cannot find you, your children cannot find, even your destiny cannot find you, where are you?” So, if God knows that that is the weight of honour He is bringing, He will subject you through a season that no matter the level of lifting, the memory of what you went through; do you think Joseph will waste his opportunity like that? Church Gist. After many years of being in the prison, no he will maximize destiny. Most people waste greatness because they really did not pay any serious price for it, especially for those who inherited it. There is a difference between someone who just inherited wealth and blessing just like that and somebody who started from minus one, before you got to zero and now started climbing. Mismanagement many times is because we do not have a history and a track record of process.
When pride wants to take over your life, the Holy Spirit can easily pick one story from your life and remind you, “Remember where I brought you from” and quickly, you call yourself to order. Woe betides a great man who does not have a history of experiences, where the Holy Spirit can pull from, to put your life in order. You will not go far.
e). Through the pain and through the process, we will gain experience that will empower us to raise others (2 Corinthians 1:4).
When you go through a process, the day you see somebody going through it, you can draw from your experience and say, “I have been there, man of God, don’t worry” and you are listening and learning and drawing strength from it. You’re not a true mentor if you don’t have stories. What becomes the basis of your teachings? It’s not only principles, the secret of great men is hidden in their stories. So, God is giving you stories today. Sometimes I share the bits of my experiences and I almost relieve them as I am sharing and nodding my head and saying, “How time flies. Who would have known that those seasons were only preparing me for these days and who knows the days now, all the seasons I am in now, only God knows what He is preparing me for?
You must learn to laugh when the law of process is at work in your life; rejoice even when you don’t understand God because you drawing a story. How else will you be able to help young people to prosper, if you yourself have not tasted of poverty and all of that. Now, you can tell them; “I know what it means to be ten years without a job, I know what it means.” Church Gist. What looks like the basis for shame in your life today will become what the nations will come to honour you for. There are times in your life where a call will be made over your destiny, but the requirement to climb that table of greatness is, who has a scar in his hand? Anybody who does not have a scar, they will tell you, “Sorry, you are not allowed.”
You may be going through things today, the scar that God is allowing you to have has monetary value and honour value. Go through it with grace. Do not waste your pain; there is a crown that your pain today will put on your head. My question for you is, “Can God count on you? Are you going to join the many who have disappointed God and disappointed destiny, or are you going to make up your mind? I made a vow and I made a covenant with my destiny, that I will not fail God and I will not fail my generation. But talk is cheap, these are the principles that you must be willing to go through, if you cannot live with these principles, my dear brothers and sisters, let me assure you that destiny will only remain prophecy, an empty talk from the lips of a non-compliant believer.
Many of us are stepping into defining moments in our lives, God has pointed all these areas, there has to be a prayer point you have already generated from this teaching, without me having to prompt you. For some of you, it is the understanding that there is destiny within me. Some of you, it is the understanding that just folding my arms and crossing my legs will not actualize destiny. Some of you, you have learned tonight that destiny can be aborted. Some of you need discovery; development and go for knowledge, invest in prayer, competence and excellence, be disciplined and focused and some of you need to stand. Church Gist. To understand that process is not anything strange; it is not necessarily an attack. No matter how well a mother feeds her baby, the baby will not become an adult by the next day, he will still be called the healthy baby and if an elderly man starves himself to death, he will not be a baby: he will be a malnourished elderly man.
There are some things that only time does. If a woman takes in, even if she is praying in tongues every day, the time allotted for pregnancy is nine months. She will have to wait in hope every day. She can pray for supernatural birth and safety while she is carrying the baby, but that nine months, it must happen. There are some things that will only happen with time and in time. God gives speed, God makes great, but there is a process.
Luke 2:52.
Run away from people with instant results without process. Before you celebrate people and draw their achievements and ruin your space and your destiny, find our whether there is a track record. If you don’t find blood there, tears, faith; if there is no equation in their life’s where they have to trust God and agree with God, you are sitting on a time bomb. Church Gist. Quit the pressure of trying to belong to association and groups. Be patient and grow. If God has given you the leverage of great parents or a good ministry and mentorship, take it as a leverage, but it will not replace this price that you must pay.
PRAYERS:
- Cry for grace. Lord, grace to not disappoint You and my generation. May my life not be a lesson and a warning; may it be an inspiration.
Let me tell you one of the major principles I learnt from our Fathers of faith, that has helped my life in a mighty way today; a life of consistent gratitude. For many of you, if you take your eyes away from all this life of complaining and grumbling; as a man of God, God gave me one thousand members, if you live in that realm, you will fail. Some of you, you may not have one million. The two hundred thousand naira you have in your account, the ten million, the hundred million, you have one billion, you are saying, “God, what is in hundred billion, You cannot give me?
Father, that You were able to trust me with one billion, I am grateful. This what many generations may not even get. I am grateful. When we were growing up, we used to sing a song:
🎶Some have food but cannot eat.
Some can eat but have no food.
We have food and we can eat, glory be to You oh Lord.🎶
Good values, now our children just say, “Plus Jesus, minus satan.” Very indiscipline way of saying thank you over a meal. When last did you take away your eyes from what God has not done, to look at the many things He has done? Church Gist. Make up your mind that, this year will not be a year of complaining and grumbling, unhealthy comparison; “Lord, thank You for the wrapper You gave me, but is this person not a human being too, why are You giving her a wrapper of two million and You gave me a wrapper of two hundred?” And God says, you will remain there, because you think I am stupid for trusting you. Everything multiples when you become thankful and thoughtful.
God sees my heart and I will tell you sincerely, I have never wished to say, “Oh God, please, I am not grateful, make me like this…” I don’t do that, “Lord I am grateful, right from the time this ministry was in its infancy. If I come for Koinonia today, sincerely and I see only ten or twenty people, from a leadership standpoint, I will be concerned and responsible and find out why? But intrinsically from my heart, I will stand before the God of Heaven and say, the privilege You gave me to teach somebody. Don’t downplay the fact that somebody will leave his house and come to listen to you. Not everybody thinks you are a big deal.
A man of God called me one time and said he went somewhere and the honorarium they gave him was so insulting. I just kept quiet and I just counselled him and said, “Sir, I respect your philosophies, but I have never preached because of money. When I started ministry, I didn’t even know that a man of God goes to preach and they package an envelope and give him, I never knew that. Church Gist. Sometimes, it is when I am done and I am climbing the bike going, they will tear 2A and they will roll the money, just looking like India hemp and they will squeeze it and give me and I will receive it with joy. It is till I get home, that I even know what it is that they gave me. But right now, we have many people; you go to a ministry where you see that the generator is off and on, you know that they are struggling, I am not here to cause any trouble in the Body of Christ, we must be careful. If you don’t know how to kneel down and say, thank You. “God, You gave me tea, I am tired, where is bread?” You even have the mouth to drink the tea. He says, do everything without complaining or argument.
Look at this God who has been merciful, from January till now June, tell Him Thank You.
Jesus, thank You for Your hand in this ministry. Thank You for the miracles, oh, how can we complain? You have been faithful. Thank You for every life and every family represented here. Thank You for everything that has happened, in and around our lives from January till now, whether we have understood it or not, we say thank You, because indeed You are faithful. Church Gist. Thank You for life, thank You for health, thank You for favour, thank You for salvation, thank You for wisdom, thank You for mercy, thank You for deliverance. Lord, we vow tonight that we will live thankful lives as we trust You to walk us through the various phases of our destinies. We give You praise.
Lord, we declare as a people and as individuals, that we will not abort destiny in the name of Jesus Christ. That which has been earmarked for us as far as destiny is concerned and as far as your Kingdom Come agenda is concerned, Lord, we will live it to its fullest. I pray for everyone here tonight oh God, following from Zaria, here in Abuja and across the nations of the earth, in the name of Jesus, the grace to fulfill your destiny, receive it right now! For some of you who have veered off the path of destiny, the Lord God of Heaven is showing you mercy tonight in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
(Altar Call).
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