Ignore Distractions to Succeed

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

A distraction is anything which takes your attention or focus away from what, where God wants you to pay attention to or focus on. Distractions are also tasks which are not divinely assigned to you. These tasks may appear to be very urgent but as long as they are nor divinely assigned to you, they are not priority irrespective of how urgent they appear to be. Ignore them and focus on your divinely assigned tasks.

Ironically, distractions are not always or necessarily annoying circumstances or persons. They are sometimes very mouthwatering offers which are difficult to refuse.  The devil made such offers to Jesus Christ during the temptation but because Jesus was focused on divine purpose, He ignored the devil’s offers. No offer from anyone was greater than His divine purpose and mission on planet earth. Please read Luke Chapter 4 verses 1 to 12 and Matthew Chapter 4 verses 1 to 11.

Sennecherib also made mouthwatering offers of food security to the people of Judah if they would surrender to him and serve his gods. But the people of Judah under the godly leadership of King Hezekiah refused to be distracted from serving Jehovah, the El-Shaddai. They ignored Sennecherib and his threats of destroying Jerusalem. God honored their decision to focus on Him and destroyed both Sennecherib and his seemingly invincible army which was destroyed in one night by a single angel. Please read Isaiah Chapters 36 to 37 for details.

While some distractions come with threats and carrots and supposedly irresistible mouthwatering offers, some are veiled or disguised attempts to infiltrate divine purpose and activities in order to distract the work and bring it to a complete stop. A case in point was when the Jews were rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem. Some people offered to help not because they truly wanted to help but because they wanted to infiltrate the people and the work in order to stop it and destroy it. But because the leadership of the people were sensitive to the Spirit of God, they refused such satanic assistance. Though their refusal culminated in threats and all kinds of ploys to stop the work by the seemingly helpful oppositions; God ensured that the work continued and the Temple was completed. Sanballat and his cohorts also attempted to stop the rebuilding of the broken down walls of Jerusalem; deploying several tricks such as ridicule, lies, infiltrating some of the Jews, intimidation and threats. Fortunately. Nehemiah and his men refused to be distracted from divine purpose. The walls were completely rebuilt to the glory of God.

Take Advantage of Divine Timing

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Divine timing is acting, speaking, singing, teaching, dancing, praying, rebuking, and celebrating when God wants you to and not when you want to. Acting when God wants you to translates to working with God to accomplish His divine purposes according to His divine timing for your life.

When you do not respond to and act within the timing of God, you may work against the timing of God as well as His plans and purposes for your life. God’s timing is always perfect and purposeful. Therefore, make the most of every opportunity given to you in life by taking advantage of and walking in divine timing.

The beauty of divine timing is that God’s times always prevail. When it is God’s time, nothing stops the manifestation. That is why sensitivity to divine timing and arrangements is very important. There are signs that usually accompany prophecies and their manifestations. The Holy Spirit speaks when He wants to speak and not necessarily when you want Him to speak. Therefore, be sensitive to the signs and timing of God. That way, you do not miss out on God’s timing, favor and blessings to you. When it is God’s time nothing can stop you. Even age cannot stop you. Medical condition cannot stop God’s timing. This is because what is impossible with man is usually possible with God. The Immaculate Conception and birth as well as Sarah’s motherhood in old age are some examples of what God does in His time. Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist was also past the age of child bearing. But when it was God’s time for her to become a mother, she conceived naturally and gave birth without any form of assistance.

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.

Break the Siege

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

A siege is a blockade which is usually mounted by the opposition; which could be spiritual, physical, mental, financial, emotional, and marital and is designed to separate you from the resources you require to succeed so that in frustration and despair, you surrender to the opposition.  While sieges have always been a part of history and have always been tactically deployed by the military and rebel groups to wear down the determination of the opposition to succeed, they are still very much in use day, significantly in diverse modes. They are also used in the realm of the spirit to stop the flow of God’s blessings to His people as evidenced in the siege laid by the prince of Persia against Gabriel enroute to deliver God’s blessings to Daniel.

Also, when the morally bankrupt wife of Potiphar daily harassed Joseph sexually, she actually laid a siege on his mental processes, trying his emotions severely; hoping to wear down his resistance to sin so that Joseph would sin against God and Potiphar.  And when eventually she discovered that the siege was a waste of her time as it had no effect on Jacob, she deployed another strategy; lay a physical siege on the young man. If his emotions were cast in stone, was his body also cast in stone and dead to stimuli from a morally bankrupt woman probably schooled in seducing young men?

Fortunately, her strategy failed for Joseph’s body was also divinely immune to sexual immorality. Joseph would rather run out of the house naked than defile his body which was the temple of God. Please read 1^st Corinthians Chapter 6 verses 13 to 20 and Genesis Chapter 36. Though Joseph was punished with an unjust prison sentence for what he did not do, it was just as well and good that he did not capitulate to the satanic siege laid by Potiphar’s wife because that siege would have kept Joseph in perpetual servitude  in Potiphar’s house. One second of sin with Potiphar’s wife would have altered the destiny of Joseph drastically. Rather than become Prime Minister in Egypt, he would have remained the houseboy he was in Potiphar’s house. Why, you may ask?

Joseph would never have had the opportunity of meeting the baker and the butler of Pharaoh; which also meant that he would not have interpreted their dreams; the basis for which Mr. Butler recommended Joseph to Pharaoh.