I SAY NO

 The Habits that you developed over the years or period of time that keep coming back after you have made several progresses in your life have cage you for too long. You may be struggling with anger, pornography, masturbation, lies, unfaithfulness and so many other things. I want you to know that there is hope for you and me. Instead of quitting and allowing these habits have an upper hand on you, you can say no.

 

The most important component you need to say no to any addiction is called GRACE. Grace is the ability received supernaturally to make progress over those areas of our lives that have caged us behind the prison bars of all sorts of limitations, habits, or challenges. Through the grace we overcome and become victors in real life battle.

The scripture says,

For God has revealed his grace for the salvation of all people. That grace instructs us to give up ungodly living and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this world   (Titus 2:11-12 GNT)

 

            From the scripture above, God is saying to you and me that the Grace brings salvation, then instructions on how to give us bad habits, attitudes or lifestyle we have developed, then the Grace will give us self-control to live upright in this age. The spirit of the age is one that is against God’s way of living for us and we need the Grace to live right and do right.

 

            I say no to habits, attitudes, and lifestyle that is detrimental to my growth and development in this world. By His Grace I am an over comer, you are an over comer and we are over comers in Christ Jesus.

4 BASIC WAYS TO ACHIEVING TRUE FREEDOM

Do you know that the freedom you have today is a result of other people’s sacrifices? Someone out there fought so hard and went through loads of uneasiness to lead you to the state you are now. Freedom is one of the major things that everyone seeks to have, achieve or attain in life. Freedom comes with lots of privileges and gives you the leverage to soar in all ramifications. No wonder the world has been in a quest for freedom in areas like speech, sexuality, religion, and all sorts of movements among many others to see that people truly have, or feel that sense of freedom that they so desire.

You may be in dare need of spiritual, financial, educational, emotional, or social freedom but do not know how to go about it or attain to this freedom. Whatever kind of freedom you desire you can get there if only you can hold on for a while.

What really is freedom?  Freedom is tied to being unstoppable in achieving self worth, identity, belief system, importance and living it out practically without prejudice. As important as it is, it is also a universally accepted ways of life that liberate people from bondage that demean the right of people to live as they should to their full potential. Freedom is emancipation, a power or right to speak or act or live out your life.

When we talk of freedom in our contemporary world today, people like Rev. Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, are not new to us. It is accepted that they paid prices for their people to achieve freedom.  These prices include death, starvation, intimidation, imprisonment, separation from family and loved ones so that the future will not reflect that dark side of the past. The truth is, are you really free?

Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32).  

Today, I present to you the 4 basic ways to achieving true freedom. They have been tested and proven right to be keys to setting you free from whatever is holding you back. Keep on reading and enjoy.

1.      HOLDING ON TO A CAUSE

2.      WORDS

3.      KNOWLEDGE

4.      TRUTH

Simply put, freedom can only be achieved when you have something to hold on to, using words as weapons to pursue your cause, and having the knowledge of your preferred destination which comes from the truth that the right thing should be done to liberate humankind.

HOLDING ON TO A CAUSE

            You cannot be free if you live carelessly. For freedom to come your way, you need to be purposeful. You need to hold on to something bigger than your present reality and have faith that this thing you are holding on to is possible. Create a picture of where you are going to and you will get there if you keep working on it. For the Jews who believe in Jesus, He said to them to hold on to his teachings, that way, they will become his disciples.

WORDS

Words are instructions, teachings, commands or information that you use to psych yourself with. You need the right words to put your mind into the new cause you are embarking on. You may ask yourself if you really want to be free or if it is just a cliché. Words are the weapons you need to fight your freedom through to the end. You need to use the right information to get the right result.

KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge is facts. Your life experience is important but more importantly, you need the right knowledge to get to a new horizon in life. You will need to feed on, meditate on, know as much facts or truth as possible because that will direct your cause to freedom. I bet you, you will not be where you are today if you know as you should out the area you want to be free from.

TRUTH

Truth is honesty, accountability, resilience, and belief. Truth will set you free says Jesus. The truth you need to know about yourself, the areas you want freedom, the reasons behind your motivation cannot be over emphasized. You need the truth in you and in what you do. You need to deal with people and assess yourself truthfully to attain to freedom. Don’t follow the easy way by being untruthful. Truth is truth and it cannot be relative no matter what you try to do to it.

 

SUMMARY

The summary is this; Truth is the foundation of every freedom. Knowledge is the expression and experience of truth. Words are spoken from what you have knowledge of while the cause you are holding on to come from your words. You cannot jump one phase and expect things to go on well.

THE TRANSFORMED 1

To be Transformed means many things to different people. To some it means a complete change in form, shape, attitude or direction. To others it means an overhaul of a system or a paradigm shift. Whatever your definition of transformed, it is important to look at the root meaning of the word so that we may dig deeper to the not too familiar understanding of transformation. The Greek word metamorphoo (metamorphosis) means to transform, to change, or transfigure. 

            From our elementary science classes, we learned that a process called metamorphosis occurs before a butterfly comes to life. The adult butterfly will first lay the eggs, after the incubation period, the eggs are hatched into a larva called caterpillar. The caterpillar then feeds on leaves as much as possible until it reached a stage and change in form into a pupa where it ruminates and stationed in a place inside a cocoon for a period of time before it finally breaks away from the cocoon and a new, colorful and vibrant butterfly emerges.

            If we are literally going to adapt the metamorphosis cycle to explain what it means to be transformed, it will mean that we pass from one stage to another until we finally emerge as a complete people that we are design by default to be.

            Romans 12:2 says that, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (NKJV). The verse before us says that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. Suffice to say that the mind is the center or the arbiter of the transformed. Therefore, to be transformed means to make the mind new. Making the mind new is then seen in every aspect of our lives from sunup to dusk.

            The question that might be going on within our minds could be how can the mind be made new or renewed? Now, Proverbs 23:7 helps us understand that, as a person thinks so is he or she. It means that a transformed person is a product of what he or she thinks. The chameleon is a typical example of how our thought functions because whatever the chameleon focuses on it changes the color of its appearance to that object of it’s focus. So also is everyone of us because we are all objects of our thoughts whether we directly or indirectly focus our thinking in line with reality.

Another question might be, what do I think about to be transformed? Philippians 4:8 has the answer. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things” (NIV).

To be transformed means that we think about— focus our thought line like the chameleon which focuses on a particular object until it assumes the color of the object’s appearance— whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy. As we think about these things in increasing measure, we are been transformed because our minds are renewed to the objects that we feed our minds on on a daily basis.

THE BATTLE OF THE MIND

I have heard so many people say, “If you put your mind to it you will do it”, while others say, “You cannot underestimate the power of the mind because you are who you think in your mind”. Does it sound familiar with you? Well, if you are like me then it is very familiar. I as a person like doing things my own way and most of the time I do such things because I set my mind on them to achieve my desire.

Every human being was design with a dynamic power and capacity called the mind. The world has gone through series of changes because of the mind. Great inventions like electricity, light, aeroplane, ship, just to mention a few all came through the power of great minds. Suffice to say that the world is where it is today because the human mind has taken it to this very level. Isn’t that great?

As great as the mind may be it still has to be controlled, discipline, and engaged in productive ventures before it can yield great results. These results however can be positive or negative. Through the power of the mind, someone beliefs that Siamese twins can be separated and such a person engaged the mind and achieved the goal while another person engages the mind to kill millions of people.

The difference between these minds is the things they feed on. There are so many things that are contending for the mind and what one allows in will be developed and come out in great proportion. Just like the computer where “garbage in garbage out”, the mind functions the same. If you feed the right stuff you will produce the right stuff and if you feed the wrong stuff you will produce the wrong stuff.

The Flying Mind

There is a law that governs everything on the face of the earth. For example, the law of gravity pulls every object downward to the surface of the earth while the law of aerodynamics allows the same object to negate the law of gravity and go up into the sky. The law of gravity allows metals to sink under water while Archimedes principle negates gravity and allows objects to float on water. For humans, there is a time for sowing and also a time for reaping. It seems then that everything in this life has a principle or a law that governs it.

The mind also has laws or principles that govern how it functions. No wonder it was said that poverty is the thing of the mind than the disposition of a person. When the mind uses the right principles, the whole being of a person is transformed but when the mind uses the wrong principles the whole being of the person is also transformed but negatively.

But when God created human beings and put in them a mind, he empowered the mind to function effectively so that through the mind, man can turn the natural things around them into things that will advance them. Through the mind, we can do more than what people think or assess us. With the mind, we can travel all round the world and be victorious. With the same mind, we can stay put in one place and do nothing about our situation ending up being a burden to people than a solution to people.

Everything depends on the mind. I can tell myself that I will go beyond the sky with my mind and then it becomes possible because we have seen humans gone to the moon and come back. But going beyond the sky is not just a literal sky but the skies that are all around us. The sky that seemed impossible to penetrate into a glorious destiny; the sky of wealth and riches, as well as the sky of living a godly Christian life in the presence of difficult moments. All these are possible through the mind. When the mind believes that these challenges are surmountable then it becomes a reality.

But I have seen myself beyond the sky. I see a new me emerge and every shackles that seemed to imprison me in the past are gone. From my life as a lay man, to that as a business man, and finally as a pastor, I see a new me standing strong to conquer the world. Nothing is going to stop me from achieving my purpose in life except me. Nobody will or can stop me from achieving successes.

Today I resolve not to look to people or see them as the cause of my failure in life. Today I resolve to hold myself accountable to live to fulfill that dream that GRACE will change the world. I believe that both Christians and non Christians will know the LOVE of God through GRACE and this I will continue to do until I win the world.