Isaiah Ogedegbe messages

The following are messages written by Isaiah Ogedegbe:

THE VALLEY EXPERIENCE

What is a valley? According to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, it is "an area of low land between hills or mountains."

What is the valley experience? The valley experience is a crucial moment when a believer is faced with challenging situations. It is described as the "night" in Psalms 30:5 which says, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." It is easier to praise God and believe Him when a man is on the mountain, than when he is in the valley. In Acts 16:25, Paul and Silas could still praise God and believe Him in their valley experience. "And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

When Job had his valley experience, he "fell down upon the ground, and worshipped" (Job 1:20).

The valley experience is a crucial moment when a believer is faced with seeming impossibilities. For example, when a man is in the midst of the valley, he is between mountain and mountain. His view is obstructed by the mountain at his right and by the mountain at his left. At such a crucial moment when we have no one to turn to, we must look up to our God for help. Psalms 60:11 says, "Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man." When we are faced with seeming impossibilities, we must turn to the Lord for help; "for with God nothing shall be impossible" (Luke 1:37).

When David had his own valley experience, he turned to no one but God. In Psalms 61:2, he said, "From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I."

It is important to note here that it is God who allows us to go through our own valley experiences and here are four reasons why God allows us to go through them:

1. Our faith is tested by God through the valley experience. In Ezekiel 37:3, God asked Prophet Ezekiel this question: "Son of man, can these bones live?" Why did God ask him this question? God asked him this question to test his faith.

As I told us earlier, the faith of Job, Paul and Silas was also tested by God through their valley experiences. God uses the valley experience to test our faith.

The valley experience is characterized with dryness, but the dryness gives way to wetness as we believe God's promise to us in Isaiah 41:18 which says, "I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water."

The valley experience is also characterized with deadness, but the deadness gives way to life as we believe God's promise to us in Ezekiel 37:12 which says, "Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel." "Because I live, ye shall live also" (John 14:19).

2. The power of the tongue is utilized through the valley experience. In Ezekiel 37:4, the Bible says, "Again he saith unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD." As children of God, we have been instructed to utilize the power of the tongue in the midst of our valleys. The valley experience is not a moment to keep silence because a closed mouth is a closed destiny.

If a man who is in the midst of the valley keeps silence, he may not come out of the valley. In Psalms 23:4, David utilized the power of the tongue in the midst of the valley, when he said, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." If not, he would have ended in the valley.

Your mouth is a vehicle that can take you out of the valley experience. The Bible tells us in Job 22:29, "When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up." It is only those who say that there is lifting up, when they are cast down in the valley, that will experience divine lifting.

Those who are cast down in the valley and who say that there is no lifting up, they may remain in the valley forever. There is lifting up for us in Jesus' name.

3. The eyes are focused on God through the valley experience. As I told us earlier, when a man is in the midst of the valley, he is between mountain and mountain. His view is obstructed by the mountain at his right and by the mountain at his left. That is a moment to focus our eyes on God, looking up to Him for help. No wonder King David said in Psalms 121:1-2, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth." "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;" (Hebrews 12:2).

4. The Lord is glorified through the valley experience. Ezekiel 37:13 says, "And ye shall know that I am the LORD" and Ezekiel 37:14 says, "Then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD." God desires to be glorified, that is, to be known as the Lord in our lives, and He fulfills that desire by taking us from the valley, and placing us on the mountain for all the people to see and glorify His holy name. Isaiah 40:4-5 tell us, "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it."

I want to conclude my message by telling us four things we can do in order to come out of the valley experience. They are:

1. Have faith in God. The Bible tells us in Mark 11:22-24, "And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Believe God can take you out of the valley experience.

2. Utilize the power of your tongue until you come to the state of perfection. In Genesis 1:3, God could have said, "Let there be everything," but instead He said, "Let there be light" and there was light. God went on and on until the whole world was in the state of perfection. Genesis 1:31 says, "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."

In Ezekiel 37:8, things got better after Prophet Ezekiel prophesied upon the dry bones, but the condition of the people could not be described as "very good" because there was no life in them. God was teaching Prophet Ezekiel a lesson that he should not stop declaring God's Word concerning the dry bones.

3. Wait upon the Lord in prayer and fasting. No wonder King David said in Psalms 40:1-2, "I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings." "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31).

4. Praise God in the midst of the valley and He will lift you out of it. Do not wait until you are lifted out of the valley before you praise God; praise God in the midst of the valley and He will lift you out of it in Jesus' name. Isaiah 24:15 says, "Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea."

DIVINE INTERVENTION

The English word "intervention" comes from the Latin word "intervenire" which means two things: (1) To come between (2) To interrupt.

Let me start with the first meaning of the Latin word "intervenire": to come between. Divine intervention means God coming between us and the challenges facing us, in order to remove them from our way. When God comes between us and the challenges facing us, those challenges cannot, and will not, survive the presence of God.

In Exodus 14:19-20, the angel of the Lord "came between" the Israelites and the Egyptians, and what was light to the Israelites became darkness to the Egyptians. If God had not come between them, the enemies would have prevailed; but God came between them, and confused the enemies of Israel.

Similarly, as people of God, there are times when we come to the "Red Sea" of our lives (I mean when we are faced with challenging situations). At such a moment, we need God to come between us and the challenges facing us, in order to remove them from our way. We all need divine intervention, a manifestation of God's presence that separates us from every form of evil.

In Isaiah 64:1-4, we read the words of Prophet Isaiah who was desirous of divine intervention. Mind you, his prayer came at a time when Zion was a wilderness and Jerusalem was a desolation, as revealed in verse 10 of the same chapter. Prophet Isaiah knew that unless God intervened, Zion would remain a wilderness and Jerusalem would remain a desolation. Hence, he prayed: "Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence..."

It is important to note that divine intervention is God's reaction to our action of prayer. If there is a person to pray, there is a God to answer. Divine intervention can come if we pray in faith and with passionate intensity like Prophet Isaiah. Our God is looking for a person like Jacob who will wrestle with Him in the place of prayer, saying, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me" (Genesis 32:26).

God is also looking for a person like Jabez who will be dissatisfied with his or her present condition and cry out for a positive change. "And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested" (1 Chronicles 4:10).

Let me now deal with the second meaning of the word "intervenire" in Latin which means to interrupt. Divine intervention means God coming down to interrupt, to stop, to bring to an end, to truncate, or to destroy the works of the devil.

In 1 John 3:8, the English Standard Version of the Bible puts it this way: "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." What are the works of the devil? We find them in John 10:10 which says, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy." In the same verse, Jesus says that He has come to intervene. In other words, He has come to interrupt, to stop, to bring to an end, to truncate, or to destroy satan's nefarious activities such as stealing, killing and destruction. These are His words: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Those three words "I am come," are indicative of divine intervention. Jesus has come to intervene in our lives and situations, to undo what satan has done.

It is also important to note that divine intervention is intended to make things better for us. Whenever God intervenes in the affairs of His people, miracles begin to happen and testimonies abound. Miracles or testimonies are a product of divine intervention; they are the outcome of divine intervention. Whenever God intervenes, weeping turns into joy (Psalms 30:5) and stumbling blocks become stepping stones.

In Isaiah 64:1-4, Prophet Isaiah said that one of the things that would happen after God had rent the heavens and come down, was that the mountains would flow down at His presence. Only a miracle would make a mountain that is very hard and solid to melt and flow down. Prophet Isaiah was trying to say that when God intervenes, the challenges facing us would melt away and flow down at His presence.

Psalms 97:5 says, "The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD of the whole earth" and Psalms 114:5-6 also say, "What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob."

Whenever God intervenes, the "Red Sea" or the "mountains" facing us will flee away or melt away at His presence. All these things can happen, if we pray in faith and with passionate intensity like Prophet Isaiah.

PRAYER TO GET DIVINE HELP

In Isaiah 41:10, God encourages us: "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

These words reveal God's mind to us, that is, His willingness to help us in time of need, to strengthen and to uphold us with the right hand of His righteousness. God's willingness to help us at all times is also revealed in Psalms 46:1-2, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed; and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;"

Psalms 46:5 says, "God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early." Not only will God help us, but also right early. It is He who has made everything beautiful in His time (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Let me now tell us how to get divine help through prayer. The two ways are as follows:

1. Take God by His Word. The Bible tells us in Isaiah 41:21, "Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob."

In Isaiah 38:3, King Hezekiah produced his cause or brought forth his strong reason by saying, "Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight." If King Hezekiah had not produced his cause or brought forth his strong reason, would God have healed him and also added fifteen years to his life?

When we pray like King Hezekiah by saying, "Remember now, O Lord," or when we pray by saying, "O Lord, You said in Your Word," we are reminding God of His promises to help us in time of need, to strengthen and to uphold us with the right hand of His righteousness. As we remind God of His promises on a daily basis, He sends us help from the sanctuary and strengthens us out of Zion (Psalms 20:2).

2. Believe God for new things. The Bible tells us in Isaiah 43:18-19, "Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert."

Believe God for new things, if you want to get divine help through prayer. Instead of allowing our past mistakes and our failures of yesteryears to preoccupy us, let us believe God for a positive change in our future. Do not look back, but look up! (I mean look unto Jesus).

God is saying that we should forget all our past mistakes and our failures of yesteryears, and allow Him to work on us and through us. God is also saying that we should forget all our tears and pains, and allow Him to be our great Comforter. God is also saying that we should forget the wilderness we are going through, because the promised land is ahead of us.

If we can believe God for new things, He will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. "Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23).

THE REAL POWER OF PRAYER

In 1 Kings 18:41-46, Elijah was a prophet of God who made things happen in the place of prayer. Things do not just happen on their own; there are people who make things happen in the place of prayer, and one of such people was Prophet Elijah. He informed King Ahab that the rain would soon fall, and this was a good news. However, Prophet Elijah knew that unless he backed his words with action, his words might fail to come to pass. While Prophet Elijah gave King Ahab permission to return to the comfort of his home, to eat and drink, the prophet himself forsook pleasure and comfort, and dwelt in the place of prayer, backing his words with action. He went up to the top of a mountain called Carmel, where he knelt down and prayed his words into fulfilment.

It is possible that Elijah heard from God before telling King Ahab that the rain would soon fall. If that is the case, the fact that God had spoken to him expressly did not stop the prophet from contending for the abundance of rain in the place of prayer.

Similarly, as people of God, we might have received many precious promises through God's Word; but that should not stop us from praying them into fulfilment. We must go on our knees like Prophet Elijah and contend for those good things in the place of prayer.

It is important to note that for our prayer to receive answer, our faith and persistence must be intact. Prophet Elijah prayed for the first time and believed God for a sign. So he sent his servant to go and look toward the sea for a confirmation. The servant returned with a discouraging report, saying, "There is nothing."

If you were the one, what would you do? Probably, you would get up and say, "I have tried." Prophet Elijah remained on his knees and continued to pray for the second time, the third time, the fourth time, the fifth time, the sixth time and the seventh time, and then the confirmation came. The servant returned to him the seventh time and said, "Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand." That was it!

How many times have you prayed and it seems as if the answer is delayed? Maybe it is even more than seven times, but I want to tell you that if your faith and persistence are intact, your answer will surely come. To Elijah, he had not tried his best in the place of prayer, unless he had seen the hand of God at work in his life. Pray until something happens (Luke 18:1-8; Isaiah 62:1, 6-7).

Here are four things you should know about the power of the knees:

1. Our knees are our spiritual weapon (Ephesians 6:12). They are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds (2 Corinthians 10:4). A prayerful Christian is a powerful Christian, and vice versa.

2. Our knees are bowed to express to God how helpless and defenceless we are; kneeling is a sign of our humble submission to God's help and defence over our lives. By kneeling down to pray, Prophet Daniel was indirectly telling God that he was helpless and defenceless, and he humbly submitted himself to God's help and defence over his life (Daniel 6:10-11).

I remember the words of the second stanza of that hymn, Jesus Lover of My Soul, which read:

Other refuge have I none, Hangs my helpless soul on Thee: Leave, oh, leave me not alone, Still support and comfort me: All my trust on Thee is stayed, All my help from Thee I bring; Cover my defenceless head With the shadow of Thy wing.

3. Just as a ladder, our knees elevate us from the natural realm to the supernatural realm. While we are still in the natural realm, we can see nothing like Elijah's servant. As we begin to dwell in the place of prayer and continue therein, we are elevated to the supernatural realm, where we can see the hand of God at work in our lives and situations. That is where we can see only positivities and possibilities.

4. Our knees make our words and our works to count. If Prophet Elijah had not backed his words with the action of prayer, his words would not have counted. It is not enough for us to say that we will succeed in life. We must also do the needful by backing our words with the action of prayer, in order for them to come to pass. As I said earlier, our knees make our works to count, be it singing, preaching, etc. If we must function effectively and efficiently in the various areas of our calling, then let us be kneeling Christians (Psalm 91:1).

THE OFFICE OF THE PROPHET

God is the first person to prophesy according to Genesis 1:3, "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." Prophecy is calling into existence the non-existent and declaring that what has never been will be. Like God and as God's representatives on earth, prophets call things into existence and declare that what has never been will be.

Just as God commanded light and it came, that is how God has empowered His prophets to command His light to come into people's lives who have been in darkness. They are God's agents of divine change. They are God's "let" men. They say, "Let this happen" and it happens. They are destroyers and God's agents of alteration. They alter and destroy the works of the devil. They are carriers of divine light and the darkness cannot help but flee before them. They bring prophetic restoration, deliverance from satanic wickedness and demonic possession, break evil yokes and ancestral curses and deal with the power of the foundation. They are aggressive and violent and they take everything by force. They are God's military men on earth to execute judgement and justice, to liberate people from all oppressions of the devil, "to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress" (Psalm 10:18).

Adam was the first among men to prophesy. In Genesis 2:7, the Bible tells us that God formed him from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living being. When God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, some things were impacted to him which include God's prophetic spirit.

Let's go down. From verses twenty-one to twenty-three, there we are told how God caused him to fall into a deep sleep and how God took one of his ribs and made a woman from it. Then God brought her to the man who said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

Adam was in a deep sleep when God was performing His first surgical operation on him. He never saw when God took one of his ribs and made a woman from it. He was unconscious and so he was unaware of what was happening to him, but when God brought the woman he knew that she was taken out of him. That is divine awareness. Nobody ever told him anything, but he divinely knew everything. In the beginning God empowered man with His prophetic spirit to naturally know things around him without being told.

In Genesis 3, the Bible narrates the infamous story of the fall of man. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened physically in verse seven but closed spiritually. From that very moment, man lost God's prophetic spirit which was impacted to him because of sin.

What is sin? Sin is simply an act against God's known will as expressed in His Word. The Bible tells us in 1 John 5:18, "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not."

Prophets are meant to be untouchable if and only when they keep themselves from sin. That is exactly what God told me on July 2, 2013. He said that as His prophet I must live in holiness all the time and never lack the anointing (Ecclesiastes 9:8).

This thing is for all prophets to do. If they keep their garments from being stained with sin which is a reproach to any people, that wicked one will never be able to touch them. They become deadly and dangerous, fearful and terrible to satan and to the enemies. They rebuke the devil and openly disgrace him.

As a breastplate, righteousness shields and protects the hearts of prophets from being wounded by the flaming arrows of the evil one. Holiness puts them in charge and with it they gain control over the powers that be. To be able to cast out demons and devils, they must be holy like God who says, "Be ye holy; for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16).

Prophets operate like God Himself when they are holy like Him. They command and are obeyed because of their divine nature - God's holiness in them. They are the touch-them-not treasures of the living God. God keeps them as the apple of His eye and no wizards and witches try to touch them, because God is ready to kill for their sakes as it says in 1 Chronicles 16:21-22 and also in Psalm 105:14-15, "He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." So if you are a sinning prophet, you are subject to the powers of darkness and cannot rule over them; "for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage" (2 Peter 2:19).

In Genesis 4, the Bible tells us how sin continued to prevail in the hearts of men as Cain killed Abel his brother. In the last verse of this chapter lies the dawn of a new hope for mankind: "Then began men to call upon the name of the LORD."

One of such men was Enoch who walked with God. Then he was no more, because God took him away. I personally believe that Enoch was a prophet of God in his generation, because it would take more than a man to walk with God and to be taken away by Him. Enoch was holy to the extent that he would walk with God and the two of them would be discussing. Then one day in the course of their discussion, God said, "Enoch, you are going home no more but with Me to heaven to continue this discussion." And that was how he went alive to heaven and never came back to earth again.

After Enoch, Prophet Noah arrived. He lived in a wicked generation but was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Like Enoch, he also walked with God. In his generation, the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. The people of his time were always fighting and killing themselves. They were committing all manner of crimes and corrupting their ways. So God said to Noah that He would annihilate mankind with a great flood, but he should build an ark to be saved from it.

What God said in His heart in Genesis 6:7 He revealed to Noah in verse thirteen, because he was a righteous man. It takes righteousness for God to reveal His mind to us.

A prophet is a man to whom the mind of the Lord is daily being revealed. If God wants to do anything, He tells His prophets first before going into action. Only the righteous ones hear what God is saying. God is still saying something. If you think that He is not, it is because you are not listening to Him.

A prophet is a man to whom the mind of the Lord is daily being revealed. If God wants to do anything, He tells His prophets first before going into action. Only the righteous ones hear what God is saying. God is still saying something. If you think that He is not, it is because you are not listening to Him.

Noah heard from God and was told to do something that might make the people of his time to think that he was mad: to build a very big ark when there was no sign of a flood. What says the Scripture? "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith" (Hebrews 11:7).

Never joke with the words of a prophet no matter how foolish they sound in your hearing, because the words of a prophet are the words of God. To mock a prophet is to mock God. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked" (Galatians 6:7)

Noah must have been mocked at in the course of building the ark, but it did not stop him from finishing the work. Those who were laughing at him for obeying God were the ones to be laughed at when the flood came. This is what happens to anybody who doubts the prophecy of a prophet of God.

If today somebody comes to you and says that he is seeing disaster or death or something you do not like around you and you do not have the knowledge of what I am saying, you may want to give the person a slap and walk away from him. Doing that to him cannot change anything. In fact, you will surely die if you do.

You permit the fulfilment of a negative prophecy if you do two things: one, if you doubt the prophet who says it; and two, if you hear it and believe it but refuse to pray. Take a prophet's words as the words of God. Take them seriously and pray, and it shall be averted.

A prophet is a man who cannot compromise with sin. Noah made a difference in his wicked generation and today we are to do the same in ours.

We live in a world where sin is seen as a normal thing, where the principles of the Kingdom are daily being trampled upon in the name of "it does not matter." Civilization has made many of us fashion-crazy to the extent that we go to church half-naked as if we are going to a clubhouse. You see young girls and married women wearing trousers in church. This is madness!

I am not condemning any pastor or any church. It is not my duty to judge anybody. What I am saying is that it takes a prophet to stand against these things in our generation which we consider as normal but abnormal in God's sight.

WOMEN AND MONEY

"For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her" (Proverbs 7:26).

The Creator made women to be men's helpers, but some as devil's helpers help the devil to destroy men's destinies. A woman is supposed to be to a man what a fireplace is to a family during winter, that in companionship she might give him warmth from the cold of his loneliness. She that was intended to be a helper suitable for him was his undoing. Instead of helping the man, Eve helped the devil to destroy Adam (Genesis 3:6), Delilah to destroy Samson (Judges 16:19), Jezebel to destroy Ahab (1 Kings 21:15), and over the years women keep repeating history.

God is still searching for a man in our generation who can say like Joseph, "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" Mrs. Potiphar will not be able to destroy your destiny unless you allow her access to that rod between your legs. There is no grave for you anywhere; your grave is that bed on which you commit adultery or fornication with her. Some think a man is dead when that man shows no visible sign of being alive. No! Death is being in existence with dead dreams. Some also think a man's grave is a six-feet deep pit in the earth. No! It is that few inches hole in a woman's body. Many men dig their graves with their sexual organs long before the shovel is put to use.

You who still live a promiscuous life should know that you have started digging your grave. It is just a matter of years before you go down with HIV/AIDS unless you repent and abstain. A man who wants to fulfil his destiny will fear a woman more than the devil. If you want to fulfil your destiny, first be sure to stay alive. A dead man cannot fulfil his destiny; it takes those who zip up today to go up tomorrow.

"Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings" (Proverbs 31:3).

A woman's inward strength is her outward weakness. With her weakness she is able to slay many strong men and to destroy kings. It is not easy to get rid of a man unless you go through his wife who stays with him all the time and knows his secrets. She sees his nakedness in bed and not one shameful spot is hidden from her. The man confides in her and like Samson he tells her everything about himself, forgetting that the devil was once an angel and she is still a woman liable to change. A woman loves to hear the truth but hates the man after he has told her. So any wise man will be careful not to tell a woman all that he knows about himself or something important.

A man is unique for his strength and a woman for her weakness. Genesis 3:23 says that the man was the one endowed with strength to till the ground and not the woman. God made the man to be stronger than the woman both physically and emotionally. For example, if I ask a man and a woman of the same age to fell a tree, the woman will be the first person to get tired and quit the task. Peter calls her the weaker vessel because of her soft and tender nature. A woman easily gets hurt and it is easy for her tears to flow. A man, on the other hand, is strong because he is controlled by his head and not by his heart. He bases all his actions on reasoning and not on feeling. God also made the man to be wiser than the woman both in planning and in acting. A man thinks deeply before he acts. A woman, on the other hand, acts rashly before she thinks. I believe that is why God placed the man as head over the woman because he possesses all the wisdom it takes to run the home effectively and efficiently.

A man who gives his strength to a woman is like a king who dashes his subject his crown. If you fail to exercise your authority as a man over a woman, you have given her your manly strength. If you give a woman all the money you should have saved, you have given her your financial strength. A man who wastes all his resources on a woman plays the fool in the end of the game. Love is a game and the person who always loses is the one who plays it fairly and gives money freely; a man must use both his head and his heart to love a woman. If you give a woman all the time you should have used to work, you have also given her your financial strength because time is money. A woman is a king's destroyer and not a king's maker. She who promises to make a man great in life may soon mar him if he is not careful with her. She is not in his way to lead him on but to derail him. A woman does not bring about a man's greatness in life but shares in his glory.

"Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread" (Proverbs 20:13).

Those who love success in life will hate sleep. A man who loves to sleep will never know the joy of being rich. Life will not offer success to those who love sleep but to those who love hard work. You must be hard-working for life not to pass you by. Imagine a man who sleeps at night and throughout the day. While others are going to their various places of work, he is on his bed sleeping. While others are making money to better their lives, he dreams of becoming rich but wakes up to the harsh reality of his penury. By the end of the month while others are smiling home with their salary, he is also smiling but only in his dreams. If you are jobless, find something to do. Do not waste your time on sleep. Opportunity does not come by sleeping but by searching. Start looking for something to do with your time that will fetch you money.

Poverty is not lack of money but lack of ideas. You are not poor because you do not have money to start something of your own; you are poor because you lack the ideas of how to use the little money you have to make more money for yourself. Aliko Dangote who is one of the richest businessmen in Nigeria today started his business with limited resources. He was able to succeed not because he invested so much money in the business but because he had the ideas of how to use little to get much. If he had loved sleep and refused to be diligent in business, maybe by now he would have settled for financial mediocrity. Financial excellence is not for those who wait for a favourable condition or opportunity to present itself but for those who work while they wait. He who has a dream and goes back to sleep will soon realize that no dream fulfils itself. Do not sleep away your dreams and visions in life. Wake up to reality and start doing something of your own today so as to fulfil them.

Money will not come to you if you sit idle in your house. You must go out to look for it everyday. Every sweet thing in life demands sweat and money is not an exception. The principle of money is simple: do something and get something in return, do nothing and get nothing in return; sleep and become poor, work and become rich. The choice is yours. If you continue to love sleep, your poverty will continue and become abject. If you do not want to live a penurious life, open your eyes and you shall be satisfied with bread. The food you will eat in your lifetime is already there; you must work hard before you eat it. There is always money in the bank but you cannot go there and withdraw other people's money; you must work hard for your own. Sleep is sweet but success is sweeter. Like I said, the choice is yours to make.

Nearly everyone wants to grow his or her money, but few people actually know what they need to do in order to achieve it. Growing your money takes a combination of four i's: (1) Independence (2) Increase your net worth (3) Income should be spent wisely and (4) Invest earlier than later.

(1) Independence: If you want to grow your money, first become independent financially. For example, someone working as a salesboy or a salesgirl has a fixed salary at the end of every month, regardless of his or her commitment to the business of his or her employer. If they should start a business of their own, their income will no longer be static or come at the end of the month. James 4:3 says that people ask but do not receive, because they ask amiss. Any financially dependent person that is praying to God for a higher income is obviously asking amiss, because when God answers his prayer it is his employer that will actually smile to the bank.

Instead of praying to God for a higher income that you may not benefit from, you should start saving your present income until you have a reasonable amount of money. Then you can start up your own business and start praying to God for a higher income. A higher income is only for the financial independent, who dare to step out on their own. When you have started your own business, put in your very best and it will grow with time. As it grows, your money will also grow. The simple truth is that no one can love you like yourself, and no one can pay you like yourself.

(2) Increase your net worth: If you want to grow your money, increase your net worth. Your net worth is the value of everything you own minus the value of everything you owe. If you subtract your total liabilities from your total assets, you will arrive at your net worth. You need to study your net worth regularly. The idea is to increase your assets and reduce your liabilities.

(3) Income should be spent wisely: Nearly everyone gets money, but not everyone gets rich. For example, two employees working in a company get paid the same salary at the end of the month. What makes the difference in their lives in the years to come is how each of them will spend his income. One may spend his income carelessly on liabilities, while the other may invest his own in business and start making profit. Your income is meant to be used to increase your net worth, by increasing your assets and reducing your liabilities.

(4) Invest earlier than later: Time is a very important factor when it comes to growing your money. For example, someone that invested in business five years ago cannot be on the same financial level with another person that starts investing today. The financial disparity is obviously caused by time.

It is not having a well-paid job that matters, but your ability to plan for the future which is uncertain. No one prays to lose his job, yet people lose their jobs everyday. In a situation of retirement, what would you fall back on if you had not saved for the rainy day? Someone can have a well-paid job, but have a zero net worth. To be fired or retired with a zero net worth is to live a life of financial frustration and regret.

If you can handle the money you earn wisely no matter how meagre it is, by investing it, by saving it and by reducing your living expenses, you will definitely grow your money.

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