by Reno Omokri
Trust in God is total and a person who understand this gives all glory from his earthly gifting to God.
I have seen many people in Christendom yearn for success to the extent that they become vulnerable and I have been moved by compassion for them to write this piece.
I practiced these principles and they worked for me and I have seen them work for others because quite simply, the Word of God works when you work it.
God laid down His key to a successful life in five very important chapters of The Bible.
The first is Joshua 1:8. The second is Proverbs 3:5-6. The third is Psalm 1:1-3. The fourth is Proverbs 3:3-4 and the fifth and Matthew 7:24-25.
For the sake of brevity, I will quote just one of these verses.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths“-Proverbs 3:5-6.
Now, let us examine the above principles in practical terms by studying the life of a man who put them into practice and another who refused to do so.
In 2 Kings 18:5-7 we read “Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. Notice how Hezekiah and Judah were blessed because they followed these principles. He held fast to the LORD and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses. And the LORD was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook” (NIV).
We see the opposite of Hezekiah in Hoshea. 2 Kings 18: 9:12 records that “in King Hezekiah’s fourth year, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and laid siege to it. At the end of three years the Assyrians took it. So Samaria was captured in Hezekiah’s sixth year, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel. The king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in towns of the Medes. This happened because they had not obeyed the LORD their God, but had violated his covenant–all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. They neither listened to the commands nor carried them out” (NIV).
Notice that failure befell Israel because they refused to follow principles.
Now, we know God has a special place in His heart for Israel?
In Psalm 80:1 we see the divine fondness for Israel. Yet see how they suffered when they did not let the law of God guide them.
Now if God would allow Israel to suffer the consequences of breaking principles, why would we think we can escape them?
When The Bible talks about trusting in God it goes deeper than most of us think.
Trust in God is total and a person who understand this gives all glory from his earthly gifting to God.
Let’s consider some specific example. Genesis 41:16 records “Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace“.
Notice that Joseph refused to exalt himself and gave glory to God and so God exalted him.
The same thing occurs in Daniel 2:27-28 “Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries” (NIV).
Notice that Daniel did the same thing Joseph did and was similarly exalted.
But we read of an opposite action in Acts12:22-23 “they shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died” (NIV).
Notice the difference. Because Herod refused to give glory to God he was brought low.
The principle that operated in all three situations is from Isaiah 42:8 “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another“
Taking glory for your gifting is pride but giving the glory to God is humility. This is why we have the principle in James 4:6 which says “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble” (NIV).
This is why when you praise people and they say oh no, that was nothing, you immediately conclude that they are modest. But when they bask in your praise you conclude that they are immodest and if you are like most people you begin to retreat from them.
There are many times that religious persons have done a good job and the person who is capable of promoting us praises us for the job and we don’t give the glory to God because it is an official setting and we think it is wrong to bring religion into a corporate environment.
Then three months down the line we are not promoted or we do not get another contract and we begin to question God and say ‘God, why’?
We often do not recall that moment of testing when we refused to give the glory to God.
Then we see a not so religious person getting promoted ahead of us and we get upset. We begin to show frustration.
But when they praised that irreligious person for work that he did which may or may not have equalled the work you did, the person did not care that he was in a corporate environment. He refused to bask in that praise.
That person may not be our idea of a true worshipper of God, but God is not like us. Acts 10:34 teaches that “God is no respecter of persons“. In fact verse 35 is more revealing when it says “in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him“.
God does not care about your religion as long as you obey His principles.
In actual fact, religion simply refers to the outward things you do. But God looks to the heart which is why Yeshu’a said “the tax-gatherers and the notorious sinners are entering the Kingdom of God in front of you“-Matthew 21:31.
Of such people, Paul wrote in Romans 2:14-15 “indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them” (NIV).
We must understand that though promotion comes through men, it does not come from men. Psalm 74:6-7 declares “promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he puts down one, and sets up another“.
God will honour His words and promote a Christian, Muslim or the adherent of any religion or no religion at all as long as such a person obeys His principles. Those who do not obey them will serve those who do irrespective of fasting and prayer.
Fasting and prayer are meant to draw you closer to God so you can know His will and do it. It is not meant to manipulate God and make Him change His principles because of you.
God does not discriminate with His principles. Whoever applies them gets the benefit which is why even the great universities of this world are teaching executives out of the ancient wisdom of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Those we look up to in the secular world are only secular because they steal the principles of God and give them fancy names and we think they came up with that wisdom on their own.
While giving his commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005, Steve Jobs said “remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life”.
Knowingly or unknowingly, Jobs took that wisdom from Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (NIV).
Jobs also said “don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice“.
The above is just a reenactment of 2 Corinthians 10:12 “but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise“.
Foolish people care what other people say about them in the media or in an every day settling.
There are seven billion people on planet earth but only one God in the whole of creation.
The mathematical equation of this reality is that seven billion opinions is not equal to one judgment; 7 billion (opinions) ≠ 1 Judgement.
Therefore, live your life for God’s approval. As Hebrews 13:5 declares “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me“.
Joseph and Daniel did not care that they were in a corporate environment. They did not share God’s glory and God did not spare their glory.
This is the main reason why more intelligent people are serving less intelligent people. God is not looking for intelligence when He wants to promote. He looks at character.
The fall of Lucifer was not a failure of intelligence because as spiritually conscious people know, he is still very diabolically intelligent.
Lucifer’s fall from grace was a failure of character and God does not want a person without character in His Kingdom.
Your intelligence is quite simply God’s gift to you but your character is your gift to Him.
The Bible makes us understand that we do not take our intelligence to God’s Kingdom because we will have unlimited access to intelligence there.
The proof of this assertion is in 1 Corinthians 13:9-10 “now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless” (NIV)
But as the account of the rich man and Lazarus shows, you will take your character with you to God’s Kingdom.
If you want a life of consistent promotion and success, you need to understand what Yaqob the brother of Yeshu’a, whom the West calls James, said in James 1:17 “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning“.
And in the Africa of today, you have to be wise. You have to have discernment to succeed the God way and discernment can only come from being close to God. And being close to God can only come from reading His word and drawing near to His Spirit.
In my opinion, in Africa we are combining witchcraft with Christ and some people may be offended by what I an saying and some will even saying its impossible.
Have you gone round churches in Nigeria? If you do, you will think the end result of Christianity is winning money instead of soul winning.
You will see people who advertise miracles they never perform when in fact Yeshu’a performed miracle He never advertised.
Do you know what is happen in Nigeria? We are re-enacting 2 Kings 17:24-34.
For brevity’s sake I will quote just two of those verses “they worshiped the LORD, but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as priests in the shrines at the high places. They worshiped the LORD, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought“-2 Kings 17:32:33 (NIV).
After the Mary Slessors of this world left the luxury of their homelands and sacrificed their lives to show us true Christianity and taught us to value twins instead of killing them.
After missionaries taught us to love our neighbor as Yeshu’a loved us meaning that we got rid of slavery, osu, and other caste systems (which have now made a resurgence).
After Reverend (Canon) Josiah Ransome-Kuti and Bishop Samuel Ajayi-Crowther taught us to jettison magic men who bestowed wealth by sorcery and other wicked practices that involved hideous sacrifices what do we go and do?
Today, Nigerians have turned Christianity into a money making machine. We have stripped away the sacrifice and the death of self that was modeled to us by the missionaries in person and by the saints in The Bible.
Where Yeshu’a told us to “seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you“, we want instead to seek things first and hope the Kingdom of God comes after, if at all.
Yeshu’a said “follow me, and I will make you fishers of men“-(Matthew 4:17). If you claim to follow Yeshu’a and you have been fishing for financial breakthroughs and miracles instead of winning souls for God via evangelism, it’s time to ask yourself who is a liar between you and Yeshu’a.
And let me end by saying that God is not against Christians prospering. Not at all. What I am saying is that prosperity is not a fruit of church going or the reason why we should follow Christ. Success can be ours if we follow the principles of The Bible.
It may shock you to know why God even allows people in this world to be billionaires and multi millionaires.
The reason is found in Ecclesiastes 2:26 “To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God” (NIV).
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Reno Omokri is the Special Assistant to the Nigerian President on New Media
Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.
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