Bridle Your Desires and Emotions

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Desires and emotions sometimes run amok and when they do, they carry with them consequences which are sometimes severe. That is why every child of God should ask help of the Holy Spirit in bridling their desires and emotions.

Shechem and his family were destroyed because Shechem could not wait to make Dinah his wife before defiling her.  Dinah’s angry brothers wiped him and his family out of the land of the living. Please read Genesis Chapter 34.

Simeon and Levi, the enraged brothers of Dinah killed an entire family and clan. They could not control their anger. Please read Genesis Chapter 34 verse 25. Much later, their father Jacob placed a curse on them.

Amnon was foolish and listened to foolish counsel. He raped his half-sister, Tamar and was consequently killed by Tamar’s brother, Absalom. Please read 2^nd Samuel Chapter 13 for details and caution in receiving and taking advice.

Samson was the most powerful person of his time. He did not have to carry weapons when about to engage hundreds of men in a fight as anything he touched automatically became a weapon with which he killed hundreds of men. Unfortunately, this powerful man lost all that power to a woman because he could not control his unbridled desire for Delilah. Consequently, he lost the great unction of God upon his life and died young. Please read Judges Chapter 16.

Ahab was condemned for coveting after Naboth’s vineyard and assenting to the negative methods Jezebel deployed in stealing the vineyard from Naboth. Please read 1^st Kings Chapter 21. Covetousness for instance is sin, sin against God because it shows lack of appreciation for your God given gifts, person and blessings; lack of contentment and satisfaction for the blessings of God upon your life; uncontrolled greed for what does not belong to you; you want to own what belongs to someone else and like Ahab, you would do anything to get what does not belong to you. You sulk and you are unhappy over what belongs to someone else which you greedily lust after all day.

Break the Ceiling

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Break the ceiling over your head, your life no matter what it is. Ceilings should be broken when they become a stumbling block to progress. A ceiling over a person’s life may not necessarily be the physical ceiling placed in houses to shield the direct heat of the sun on the roof from the house.

A ceiling may be a person’s attitude, character or behavior. Issachar was initially content to serve as a slave because he saw a pleasant land. The pleasantness of the land made him lose interest in moving to his own land, his own place of divine purpose where he was divinely ordained to serve as a leader in Israel; providing divine direction to the people to carry out divine purpose following divine timing. But Issachar preferred the pleasant land. Unfortunately, Issachar’s preference put a ceiling on him and his descendants and they became a band of slaves in the pleasant land.

However, slavery must have opened his eyes to the huge divine potential and responsibility of leadership placed on him from the foundation of the world. Fortunately, he woke up to from the slumber of death to divine purpose, broke the ceiling of slavery and moved on the leadership position destined for him from the foundation of the world. He became a leader, had an in depth understanding of the times and urged Israel to do what the nation ought to do at a specific time. Please read Genesis Chapter 49 verses 14 to 15 and 1^st Chronicles Chapter 12 verse 32.

Unfortunately, Esau did not understand his inability to deal with unbridled emotions. His absolute lack of self-control was the self-imposed ceiling he put on himself that made him lose the leadership role he should have played. He sold his birthright because he was hungry. In essence, he sold his birthright for a non-asset, a bowl of porridge that would digest in a few hours and be excreted out of the body as waste and a fresh wave of hunger would start.

The Dynamics of Success

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Success is not an arrival point where you have no spots or wrinkles. Rather, it is forging ahead to daily implementing and achieving divine purposes in spite of the spots and wrinkles which may or may not leave. But what is important and significant is that you keep forging ahead, putting on your best foot forward at all times.

Success is not entertainment, it is putting on your best foot forward at all times. That explains why success is not shallow. Success has great depths and for anything planted on success ground to germinate, blossom and fruit; it has to go into great depth. It should not be like the seeds which fell by the way side.

Success is not static. It is not a destination which you arrive at and fold your hands to watch the ocean go by; listen to idle gossip; drink and drug yourself to stupor; shop until you drop; wear the best of designer clothing and accessories and everyone compliments you on your posh look; thrill and entertain a crowd and everyone is falling at your feet.

Take a Leap of Faith

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

You are no longer a toddler in Christ. Neither are you a teenager or young adult. You are a mature adult loaded with the word of God that always accomplishes purpose. Please read Isiah Chapter 55 verses 7 to 13, Numbers Chapter 23 verse 19, 1^st Samuel Chapter 15 verse 29. You are also filled with the Holy Spirit Who daily instructs you on how to use this great divine arsenal at your disposal. Please read Isaiah Chapter 28 verses and 48 verse. Therefore, do away with the baby steps and begin to leap, I mean great leaps of faith which you urgently require to take you to God’s heights for you.

Beloved, you have dwelt too long at the bottom rung of the ladder daily giving lame excuses which do not hold water anymore. The baby steps no longer befit your new status in Christ Jesus. Additionally, they are impeding your progress as they always slow you down. The last thing you need now is any slow paced movement as it cannot move you forward. It will only keep you in a non-progressive circular dance.

But giant leaps of faith based on the truth of the word of God that you are a royal priesthood, a peculiar person divinely wired to be a lender to the nations will push you up the mark.

Significant leaps, spiritually, physically, mentally, financially designed to take you to God’s destined heights for you are what you really need now. Prevailing circumstances may look like you are glued to a spot and therefore have no business moving; not to talk of leaping; yet beloved, God says it is time to leap from point A to Canaan if that is where God wants you now. God Who is your great Provider and Sustainer says He will make available all the resources you require to make the leap. Just follow Him at His pace and not yours.

, Keep Your Heavens Open

 Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Open heavens guarantees access to the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places. Treasures are always hidden. Please see Matthew Chapter 13 verse 44. It takes the wisdom of God, divine favor, grace of God, knowledge and understanding to unearth hidden treasures. How can any treasures be hidden in the sand? Well, yes and God alone Who created the sand and the treasures hidden in the sand can open your eyes of understanding to the exact spot and location as well as quality of treasures hidden in the sand? How can the sea hold any abundance when it is water and flotilla? Beloved, God Who created the seas, oceans and rivers also deposited huge resources that are great treasures in them. Consider for a moment that pearls and corals come from seas and oceans. Please read Deuteronomy Chapter 33 verse 19

Open heavens simply means or translates into guaranteed access. Beloved, you have guaranteed access to the resources of God at all times but the challenge is whether you know this divine truth and if you do; whether you know how to access the unlimited resources God made available to you through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross.

God has given to you everything that pertains to life and godliness through Jesus Christ. To access these resources is simple and easy through your divinely guaranteed access in Jesus Christ – through salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. Your faith in Jesus Christ guarantees you full access into all the spiritual, mental, physical and financial riches Jesus Christ got for you and me at Calvary with His precious blood.

You Can Stop Wandering

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Wandering is to do something repeatedly without any defined purpose. It is going round in circles – no progress from point A to B. Wandering can be as a result of sin as in the case of Cain in Genesis Chapter 4. Cain became a wanderer because he violated the commands of God by killing his brother. Consequently was driven from the Presence of God or he lost the Presence of God on account of his sin. Secondly, because he shed the blood of his brother on the earth, the earth refused to yield its best for him.

Cain was cursed by God to wander because he killed his younger brother, Abel; as in the case of the Israelites in the wilderness when they refused to move forward to the Promised Land because of the negative report of the ten spies (Numbers Chapter 14) ignorance and lack of direction as in the case of the people described in (Psalm 107 verses 4 to 9);  and the people of Israel who kept circling the mountains of Seir for a long time until God gave them directions to go north so they would stop wandering and make progress to the Promised Land. Ignorance and lack of direction can keep a person, family, a community, an institution and a nation wandering for years without making progress. Please read Isaiah Chapter 28 verses 23 to 28.

Break the Spell

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Cut off the unusual foliage which is preventing sunlight from getting to you so that people can see the beautiful gifts in you. The unusual foliage which is unusually heavy screens you and your divine gifts from the divine audience God blessed you with. Therefore, your divine audience does not see you, do not know anything about you, cannot access you because of the unusual thick and heavy foliage screening you and your divine gifts from your God given audience, patronage and income. The solution is to cut off the foliage from its root source so that it does not grow back again.

The foliage may not necessarily be trees with big evergreen leaves or anything physical such as manually erected buildings and ceilings. Rather, they are satanic arrangements designed to seclude you and obscure you from any form of visibility whether local, national or global so that no one gets to hear about you or know about you. In the case of Joseph, he was sold into slavery by his brothers.

Slavery was meant to terminate his dream and vision of global leadership but unfortunately for his brothers, God was with Joseph and prospered him even as a slave. In a short time, his boss Potiphar noticed that God was with Joseph and made everything Joseph did to prosper. Potiphar promoted Joseph to lead the affairs of his household. And just when Joseph thought that he was well on his way in the ladder of global leadership, the enemy struck again, albeit through Potiphar’s wife. She wanted Joseph to partner with her in sin but Joseph refused to do so despite her daily sexual harassment of Joseph. Eventually, Joseph’s refusal to partner with her in sin culminated in an unjust prison sentence when she lied that Joseph attempted to rape her when the reverse was the case. Herein is the crux of the matter. How does anyone get to be heard of; known of and celebrated while in prison? Impossible but because there are no impossibilities with God, Joseph’s case was different. God was always with him wherever he went and significantly the people who matter and who would ensure that Joseph continued his climb to the global leadership pinnacle always noticed that God was with Joseph. So the man in charge of the prison noticed that God was with Joseph and  put Joseph in charge – an opportunity and platform to interact with all the prisoners; also a platform and opportunity to showcase his divine gifts though he was screened off from the global, national and local market places.

Joseph wisely utilized this platform and opportunity to give himself national visibility though he was physically screened out from the national marketplace. How, you may ask? He invested his divine gifts in the baker and butler of Pharaoh who were serving time in prison. Significantly, Joseph’s investment paid off; though not immediately. It took two full years for the butler to remember Joseph’s divine abilities and when he did, he immediately recommended Joseph to Pharaoh.