Always be Expectant

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

How prepared are you for a life transforming encounter with God? God is good and He is willing to do you good but what are your expectations and how prepared are you? The Bible says that the expectation of the righteous shall not be cut short. Please see Proverbs Chapter 24 verse 14. What is your expectation? Hannah was expectant thus she vowed. The woman with the issue of blood was expectant and she was healed. BARTIMAEUS was hopeful and when the opportunity came, he took advantage of it. Immediately, he received his sight. Expectation triggers miracles. Please see Ephesians Chapter 3 verse 20.

Expect great things from God. God desires positive expectations from His children, therefore always anticipate good things in spite of your present circumstances and trials. Please see Jeremiah Chapter 29 verse 11, Proverbs Chapter 11 verse 23, Psalm 62 verses 5 to 6.  As you expect unimaginable miracles that you least expect; as you expect great things from God, the great and only God who reigns over all, great things will happen to you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

Pathways to Global Influence and Impact

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Influence flows from impact while impact flows from adding value to the lives of people. Adding value to the lives of people flows from serving the purpose of God for your life because it is in serving the purpose of God for your life that you enrich the lives of the people you are called to serve. Actually, your life is also enriched as you enrich the lives of other people which explain why to a very large extent, the quality of your life is the positive impact you make on humanity.

The Biblical Joseph for instance could dream, great big dreams. But until he started interpreting dreams, he was a dreamer who was sold into slavery, a servant of Potiphar and much later a prisoner. But it was the ability to interpret dreams that took him out of prison to the palace. If Joseph had refused to speak up, to care about his fellow prisoners and refused to interpret the dreams of the baker and the butler, he would have probably died in prison, unknown and unsung. But because he deployed his gift to enhance the quality of lives of his fellow prisoners, the value of the gift was enhanced and qualified him to stand before Pharaoh so the gift could be deployed for the service of the global community of his day. Joseph ensured food security for more than seven years and became a global brand and household name.

Beloved, it is instructive that continuous deployment of your gift to serve humanity actually enhances the value of your gift. Therefore, take a quality decision today to deploy your gift for the improvement of the quality of lives of other people and be a blessing with high value gifts which qualify you to stand before kings and not mere people.

Break the Siege 2

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

The biblical Hannah and beloved wife of Elkanah, childless for sometime experienced the siege of verbal assault and battery from her co-wife Peninah on almost a daily basis. Hannah also suffered spiritually, mentally and physically on account of the siege. The Bible records that she spent quality time that could have been invested in profitable ventures in tears. Hannah was miserable, she cried probably all day and refused to eat. She therefore could not even enjoy the great love of God for her coupled with the great love of her husband, Elkanah. Why? She was paying attention to the verbal onslaught of Peninah which had become a mental siege. She lost confidence in herself and even in God for a while. But all that changed in one day when Hannah realized that she was the one who actually gave Peninah the power to torment her emotionally. How? Each time she responded to Peninah’s verbal onslaught in tears and misery, Peninah was emboldened and empowered to launch even more fierce verbal onslaught and thus laid a siege on Hannah’s emotions and overall mental processes. This realization by Hannah not only woke Hannah up from her mental stupor but also ended the siege. For the first time in many years, Hannah went to Shiloh with great joy and great expectations in anticipation of the great encounter she had planned to have with God after the family celebrations.

Rather than weep sore, Hannah invested quality time in quality negotiations with God over the joy of motherhood. She would return the son God gave to her to Him. God noted Hannah’s promises and quickly made good His own part of the negotiations initiated by Hannah. Beloved, it is possible for humans to initiate negotiations with God. Hannah also wasted no time in honoring her own part of the negotiations and God Who is never out given gave Hannah additional children; three sons and two daughters besides Samuel. Peninah was silenced forever as not one of her children is listed in the genealogy of Elkanah.

Significantly and quite instructive is the fact that the siege was broken long before the children came. If Hannah had not made a conscious deliberate decision accompanied by the quality action to talk to God rather than cry and break the siege, Peninah would have succeeded in keeping Hannah in tears daily, miserable, away from God and her husband who both loved her and wanted to do her good but were denied access because Hannah was paying attention to Peninah’s verbal onslaught. Beloved, you have the power, divinely given to you by God to break any siege no matter how fierce.