The enabling (2)

Your talents are your connectors to people, and they determine the kind of people who will be attracted to you. Be intentional when forging relationships. Avoid energy vampires whose presence drains you of energy because of the drama and negative energy they exude. Their toxic conversations can make you kiss your dream goodbye. Do all you can to court the company of people relevant to your aspirations. Your Eves could be your mentors, your pastor,  a supportive spouse, investors, contemporaries who share your vision, or even subordinates who become fiercely loyal to your aspirations. Helpers are raised in all these dimensions. Every teacher who ever helped your journey to where you are now is an Eve who served as a help needed for you at those points.

Every vision requires RESOURCES. A vision that is not backed by provision is dead on arrival. God created the entire resource architecture that Adam would ever require even before Adam was made! Adam met abundance on the earth when he came. Whatever you need to flourish here on earth was here before you. Your frustration comes from a wrong focus. ‘Provision’ is from two words ‘pro’ which means ‘for’ and ‘vision’. Provisions are designed for vision. Until you have a compelling vision, don’t ask for provisions. Helpers of destiny that come into your life are not sent to pander to your greed or give only to your needs. They come to support your vision, your tangible platform for making a difference to humanity. There are four resource heads that you need. They are God, people, material, and time. Stop focusing on what you lack. If you lack it now, you probably don’t need it yet. God’s will is God’s bill. If you find it, He will fund it. Much of what you are looking for has already been placed in you in potential form awaiting the discovery of your assignment before manifesting. When the student is ready, he will discover that there is no shortage of teachers. The four riverheads laden with gold, bdellium and other precious materials flowed FROM the garden of Eden, not into it. You are a warehouse of resources.

The real issue is not about getting what you thought you needed, it is about what you are doing with what you have where you are NOW. It is called RESOURCEFULNESS. Resourcefulness is the divine capacity to see an orchard in an orange seed. It is the ability to make lemonade from lemons. It is about the ability to add value to what you currently have in order to make it what you need It is the ability to take raw material and turn it into a finished product. When you ask God for an orchard, He presents you with an orange. If you know the potentials in that orange and plant the seeds after eating the orange, in a few years, you will harvest more oranges, translating to more seeds. If you plant the seeds of what you get from only one orange tree, it won’t take three years for you to own an orchard. You have more resources than you need for your current level. You just don’t have the capacity to manage them well.

Without effective resource management, no matter how humongous your resources are, they will be wasted. Money with no plan is SPENT but money with a plan is INVESTED. Money always follows VALUE. How do you manage money, time, and the relationships God brings into your life?

Every Eden comes with an INSTRUCTION. Products come with a manual containing a set of instructions from the manufacturer on how to operate them. So does your life. Inside the instruction of your life is the specificity or details of the assignment and your CODE OF ETHICS. For Adam, the general assignment was to fruitfulness, multiplication and dominion. But to achieve this, he was given a garden to cultivate. To succeed, he was given a specific instruction on what to do—”tend and keep the garden”—and what NOT to do—”don’teat of the tree in the middle of the garden.” Diligence and adherence to the instruction would determine success or failure. The instruction of your life is your value code. This is the currency of conduct and relationship with others. A strong value system is the compass of sustainable achievement. Where there is a values somersault, there will be a disconnect that leaves everyone around you confused about who you really are.

Your assignment reveals your enemies. Foxes will always show up when grapes are ripening. Until you move, nothing moves against you. Motion activates resistance. Action and reaction are equal and opposite. The velocity of motion is matched by the speed of opposition. It is a law of creation. Isaac Newton only discovered it.

Forget about the black, two-horned creature with red eyes, a monstrous visage and wings that they conjured to scare hell out of you when you were in Sunday school. “Satan” simply means “adversary” or “opposer.” You don’t know what stands against you until you stand for something. Confrontation is the first test of every worthwhile pursuit.

Jesus Himself faced opposition from when He was born. The Bible records that after being baptized with the Holy Spirit at the Jordan, Jesus fasted for forty days, at the end of which his first encounter was with the adversary, not angels. It is not for nothing that the scriptures tell us to “count it all joy WHEN (not IF) you go through diverse temptations.” Joy, not because of the trial, but because of the outcome when you overcome them.

The enemy doesn’t come after your person. He comes after your PROMISE. In a soccer tournament, attackers exist to penetrate your defenses and score goals against you in your territory. You have been empowered for whatever you were born to do. The blessing resident in you is the answer to adversity. The empowerment would have been needless if there was nothing to overcome. Power is latent and useless in a body at rest.

The seventh thing required to succeed is DISCIPLINE. This has to do with decisions dictated by a predetermined destination. Discipline is to a visionary what the rail is to a train. As long as it stays on track, it will arrive safely.

The greatest discipline is the discipline of FOCUS (Following One Course until Successful). Every temptation is a test of focus. Adam and Eve fell because of distraction from ONE instruction. Obstacles are the things you begin to see when you take your eyes off your goal. Let your decisions and habits be guided by the picture of the future that God has shown you. Make that your life compass and take your bearing from it.

Be deliberate about cultivating relevant relationships. Excise yourself from activities that do not facilitate or enhance the realization of your assignment. Measure your words. Listen more. Learn more. Develop an aggressive appetite for learning that enhances your function.

To get what others are not getting, you must do what others are not doing.

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!

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