Be More Proactive

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Rise up early – a great while before dawn to prepare. All the amazingly successful biblical characters always rose up a great while before dawn to spend quality time with God, plan and prepare for the day. The quality time spent with God meant greater illumination of their minds. Please see Psalm 119 verses 105 and 130. This also enabled them to receive divine blueprints for the day, days, weeks, months year etc. with such blueprints, they literally ran vigorously with the vision; garnered support as well as other resources required accomplishing the vision. Please see Moses, Joshua, the virtuous woman, Jesus Christ. 

Prepare even for the next second. Preparation is central to maximizing opportunities. When preparation meets opportunity, the rest is history as success comes in leaps and bounds. You make hay when the sun is shining and not when snow is falling. You also strike when the iron is hot and not cold.

Always anticipate people, events and situations so that you can proffer solutions ahead of time. Jesus Christ knew that Peter would be tested by the enemy and Peter would fail yet Jesus prayed for Peter so that Peter would become a different person after the test. Significantly, the same Peter who denied Jesus Christ thrice led the early Church after he was strengthened on account of the prayers Jesus prayed for him. 

Do not shift blames. Accept responsibility and repent and God will restore you. David acknowledged his sin. He did not blame beautiful Bathsheba for seducing him. God forgave him and restored him. 

Do not wait for events and people. Rather, preempt people and events through prophecy – by prophesying the word of God. 

Do Not Fear

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Fear incapacitates, immobilizes, stagnates and brings about loss of vision and direction. Fear is a tool that the enemy enjoys using against believers to truncate the plans and purposes of God in their lives. A number of Biblical examples include:

The use of fear against the army of Israel by Goliath is an interesting case study. Through Goliath’s intimidating stature and boastful words, the devil succeeded in instilling fear in the hearts of the soldiers of Israel. A well equipped and well prepared army of hundreds of thousands able men who left their homes to fight the Philistine army cowered in fright because Goliath, a giant boasted of his might. What a shame especially when a mere youth who had never served in the army brought Goliath down. So it was not necessarily Goliath’s stature that incapacitated and immobilized the army of Israel. It was the fear he spewed out through his intimidating words. Please see 1^st Samuel Chapter 17.

Fear was also the reason Lot took a decision to go live in a cave in the mountains instead of Zoar where he escaped to safety from Sodom and Gomorrah. Living in a cave alone with two grown up daughters led to the incestuous union that produced Moab and Ammon. Fear births wrong decisions.

The Israelites at a time in their history threshed wheat in winepresses because they were afraid of the Midianites whose pastime was to destroy the livelihoods of the Israelites in order to impoverish them. God empowered Gideon with great faith to overcome fear and destroy the Midianites. Please see Judges Chapter 6.

Leapfrog Generational Limitations

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Generational limitations are certain limitations that run in families, institutions, communities and nations. Some of them include poverty, barrenness, idolatry, failure, obscurity, etc; and have become entrenched in families, in fact so deeply entrenched that like palm trees, they are difficult to uproot. Members of such families, institutions, communities and nations take it for granted that they can never rise above such limitations so each succeeding generation does not make any attempt or efforts to uproot the limitations. They lamely accept them and live with them.

Beloved, this is a lie from the pit of hell. You can actually leapfrog every generational limitation because God created you to succeed. The same God Who is the King of kings and Lord of lords Who knows that you can rise above whatever generational limitations exist in that family allowed you to be born into that family for a reason; so that you will break and destroy that limitation by the power and grace of God at work in your life. That way, you will rise above the limitation and change the negative history of that family.

Definitely, you cannot do this in your own strength which explains why God equipped you specially with certain gifts designed to make you a positive change agent in that family. You can rewrite the history of your family through those gifts. The widow of the indebted son of the prophet rewrote her family history with just a jar of oil. Her family was freed from the generational limitation of financial indebtedness that threatened debt bondage. Rahab rewrote her history by being hospitable to the two spies.

God Builds Bridges for His People

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

The crossing of the red sea, the River Jordan as well as the collapse of the impenetrable walls of Jericho are more than sufficient evidence that God builds bridges for His people. They are pointers to the fact that God makes a way where there is no way. 

Pharaoh in his finite mind had concluded that the Israelites were hedged in by the red sea and the wilderness. Therefore with nowhere to turn to for safety and protection (no safety nets to cushion the effects of whatever you may be experiencing presently), he and his army coupled with his choice chariots were in a position to finish off the Israelites once and for all.