BE DILIGENT TO PROTECT YOUR MINDSET PREACHED BY THE SON OF MAN (APOSTLE PETER ODOEMENA) @ THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD ONITSHA ON 15TH APRIL, 2007 AND 22ND APRIL, 2007.
I am a paradox—the more you look, the less you see. Nobody can know the Son of Man unless He wants you to know Him; and it will be to the extent I want. Believe it if you have the heart… -Son of Man
Be Diligent to protect your mindset for anything a man attains in life is a matter of the mind. Since you know that the mind is the central controller of everything, make sure you protect it wisely by making sure no wrong information ever registers there.
Make sure that your mind does not process any deceitful information such as gossip, envy, jealousy, malice, anger, hatred, evil speaking, slander, indolence, poverty and other things like that. –SON OF MAN
PART ONE
THE INTRODUCTION
PRAYER
Our heavenly father, we come to you just as we are this day,
thanking and praising your most Holy Name for preserving our lives even till this very hour, it is not because of our righteousness or any thing good we have done, it’s just your love, mercy that has sustained our lives till today, we are not in any way better than those that passed away even during last week.
2. Father we give you all the praise and glory that up till this very moment, we have not received any adverse report from any Local Assembly concerning yesterday’s election. None of our Brothers or Sisters ever paid the price of independence with his or her life; you protected all your children everywhere.
3. We say may all glory be Thine through Christ our Lord Amen.
PROLOGUE
Remain blessed, Brethren. I decided to allow you to exercise yourselves, because today we are dedicating two children. I don’t know what the teacher has for us but, I believe what he has calls for real quietness so that we can understand the Message. God is great and He must be greatly worshipped.
2. This morning, I want the children to go to their classes. Let the Teacher and their Pastor do their work very well. Teach these children things that will help them at least develop the right attitude towards life. Bring the Message down to their levels. If it is possible, use the local language to instruct. Use English; use local language; I mean our Igbo vernacular, you can use that one to explain many things.
3. The idea is to make sure they understand your teachings. If they do not understand your teaching, they will not behave rightly.
GOD HAS BEEN GOOD TO US
From December 8th precisely till now, if you can cast your minds back or look around, you will see the number of children God has added to this Fellowship. From December 8th till today, it has been wonderful.
5. While Sisters were jubilating around, I still saw about three with protruding bellies and I could see some other ones coming up. You could not see those ones, but with my eyes, I saw them. So, it is really wonderful.
6. I pray we shall grow spiritually also in the same magnitude. We have every course to glorify the Lord. Truly speaking, God is really great in this Faith.
7. Just look around the whole Onitsha, you will see what is happening; If you go through many families, you will see what they are passing through, but the Lord has been sustaining His people. His mighty hand has always prevailed constantly, giving us the victory. So, we owe Him a lot while we live.
8. Are you sure you came here with thanksgiving? Are you sure? There is no Sunday school today; we will have one straightforward service.
9. It is better to give a shout of joy than to cry and weep. It is better for us to gather in the Fellowship and give a shout of praise than to gather with tears dripping our eyes.
10. We are rejoicing because God has made us glad. If you are not glad, something is wrong with you, you have every reason to be glad.
11. Maybe you are not happy we are dedicating our children today. I dey happy oh! Today na my day!
12. When I remembered that today is dedication, I adjusted myself, and everything in me, especially when I was notified that it would not be dedication with dry mouth. I said it would be useless for me to dress on tie. No English dress, I must give allowance.
13. We are dedicating two children today, it is big, it is wonderful, and it is glorious, so I adjusted myself.
14. I have to tell you what happened to me. When I woke up this morning, I felt somehow. I reached for a bottle of small stout, something in me said, “Drop it. Why are you drinking ahead of time? Better adjust yourself and go.” My son started packing my bag; I said just pack I am not going to the pulpit, I am not preaching today. I will eat and drink.
15. A little while, I went to the hall again, nothing was there. I saw Brother Okey and Bro. Solomon; I saw their wives and my face fell. I did not want to join the praises again.
16. I started preparing a Message. I was busy preparing a Message I would use to upset them— Lo and behold, Bro. Vin came and said, “Sir, let me go and bring some drinks.” I said, “Eeh! Oyah! Go immediately.”
17. Hear me very well; thanksgiving without eating and drinking is incomplete. Any thanksgiving without eating and drinking is incomplete because there is no smile there.
18. Show me you are happy after saying, “God I thank you, Sir.” You thank us also because we would have carried down your corpse to your place.
19. Maybe you do not know that we are representing God here, for we are here to receive every thanksgiving on His behalf. So He will not query us. Glory be to God.
THE BEST FOOD IS THE WORD OF GOD
Nevertheless, the best food is the Word of God. After nourishing you with the Word of God for your spiritual strength, you have every course to glorify Him through thanksgiving because of what He has done in your life. Amen.
21. We shall listen to the Word of God, give our offering, praise God the more and have enough time to relax and hold our meeting concerning the outing we are making this weekend to Eha-Alumona in Nsukka. These are the things we shall deliberate on today. So you can see we have too many activities today. Please comply with us.
22. The minister we are going to have is God Himself speaking to us through a man, believe it if you can. As the bear thirsts for water, so my heart desires the Word of God. I hope it is so with you. So I am inviting the preacher to the pulpit to come and sharpen you a little and my choice today is Apostle Kelechi.
23. He should come and sharpen us a little with the Word of Life; then I will sharpen you for eating and drinking. I hope the quantity of food and drink will meet the Message I will like to use to sharpen your stomach?
24. Since two people are dedicating their children, I will make your stomach wide enough to accommodate at least two bags of trice and one trailer-load of drinks. If it is not so, go and meet outside and reason, at least I will drink two cartons before I will go.
25. It has been long we dedicated the last child in this Fellowship. That is Brother Thomas’; it has been long! We should be dedicating a child in this Fellowship at least every month—one, two, three or four every month. You are young men, very, very sharp. This is your turn; anybody that is giving birth to one is cheating the husband.
26. From now, it should be double-double, triple-triple. It is not too much, after all, one dog can deliver up to six; one goat can deliver up to four, you are bigger in size than a dog or a goat. After all, it is the same thing you will eat if you deliver one, that you will eat if you deliver three.
27. Do not worry; I have not stopped having mine until I give birth to twins. Do not worry, one day, I will wake up from sleep, my eyes will turn red and I will give birth to Peter and Paul, or James and John. If you believe it, say Amen.
28. It is Thanksgiving Day now, na the Lord dey bring the thing. Na the work of God, you should be happy with it. I mean it o! I no dey play. Make sure you pray for me.
29. Process the Message you are about to here with every amount of love and Godly sincerity. I assure you, your condition will not be the same. You have no problem; simply have confidence in the Son of Man. He must surely lead you through. Thank you for co-operating!
30. On this note, I say a big thank you to all of you for giving me undivided attention and for co-operating with me. My prayer is that this Message will bear the right fruit in all of you so that in no distant time, all of us will rejoice together that we have not paid attention in vain. Thank you very much.
31. I invite the teacher this morning to the pulpit and he is no other person than Apostle Kelechi. So, he is going to speak to us the way he is being led by the Spirit of God. If you want to get the full import of the Message, simply bring out your jotter and your biro; stop talking and stop distracting people’s attention. Amen.
COMMENTS ON ELECTION 2007
Let me say it once again that I am very glad to welcome all of you to the Fellowship today; even those that traveled within last week, God saw them through in all their trips. I have gathered reports from almost all our Local Assemblies and the reports are the same. The name of God is being glorified everywhere. Nobody fell victim to problem that was associated with the elections yesterday. So, it is a thing of joy.
2. Remember that news reaching us from different states of the federation is almost the same. So, it has been the Lord keeping His people. Some people ignorantly died when they were there to support whosoever they wanted to support.
3. Some caused trouble there and paid with their lives. I thank God, that as children of God, you know the roles you should play in situations like this.
4. Remember this is the beginning of the whole thing. This is just the beginning. Try to behave yourselves and do not allow your tongue to rope you into the trouble you know you cannot wriggle out of. I know there are too many people here who love to exaggerate situations—rumour mongers, people that will even claim to be witnesses of things that they never witnessed.
5. You were not there, why are you posing yourself as a witness? So, be very careful otherwise your tongue can rope you into a big problem. Even if you were there when it happened, unless you are called to question, keep your mouth sealed. It doesn’t concern you. Don’t be a busy body in another man’s affair.
6. A to Z concerning this election, God told us everything. So, we are not surprised at what is happening. God told us that there wouldn’t be anything called election. It is just a mere ruse, a decoy; we are vindicated. Even the INEC chairman himself, in this morning 10’clock news, has cancelled many elections in many places, and even ordered the arrest of INEC chairman in a particular state together with his workers.
7. He ordered the Police to arrest them and the Police worked relentlessly yesterday. If there was a time they really worked, it was yesterday; otherwise many lives would have been lost.
8. So they did a gallant work, a praise-worthy work. Boldly speaking, it was not an easy affair. It is true that elections were not conducted here, but the Police were there on duty. If they were not there you can begin to wonder what would have happened.
9. So please, respect yourself. You are not politicians. Allow politicians to continue with their troubles. Be peaceful, be law abiding. If you don’t know what to do, stay in your house, you have not committed any crime, finish. I say finish. Let’s watch events unfold.
10. Conflicting reports are coming; one will make announcement, another one will counter it, even the INEC officials themselves are now clashing in their reports. So, we don’t know where we are heading to. But God told us everything ahead of time. So, behave yourselves.
11. This morning 7’oclock news confirmed that about three persons lost their lives in Onitsha here. We were also told that they burnt down the INEC office in Onitsha North, Awka South, that is, Achalla and then attempted doing it at Nnewi South, but the Police overpowered them.
12. We were also told by the news casters that about three lorry-loads of voting materials were discovered by the Police where they were heading to Nnewi, and they were taken to the nearest Police Station over there. That is Nigeria.
13. Two days to the voting day, three lorry-loads of voting materials were snatched by armed robbers according to Vanguard Newspaper Headline on Thursday. That’s Nigeria. Glory be to God. Even if the results were published, you have no business there. I say you have no business there. You are not campaigning for anybody. Are you?
14. If you are campaigning for anybody, I will not to stop you, I will rather tell you to go where the person is so that you can get your own fair share for you cannot stay here and get it. So, co-operate with all the law enforcement agents by doing the right thing. Do not associate with hoodlums no matter what is being offered you, say no to that.
15. Be peaceful as children of God. One thing is clear; nobody is ever given a political appointment because of his thuggery activities. I am saying that nobody can be appointed a commissioner or a minister because of his thuggery activities. Never; a thug cannot be a governor of a state.
16. So, what is the reward of a thug then? It is just a mere temporary reward, a little reward– for eating and drinking and then he will hang himself. That’s why we de-emphasize on thuggery and other related devilish activities.
17. Be civil, be orderly, organize yourself for meaningful pursuit. The Lord will bless you but not through thuggery, I hope I am making sense? So young ones, be careful about evil company. You may die for something you know not because of where you are found. So if you are found where you are not supposed to be found, there is no excuse that will exonerate you from blame. So, you must surely pay the price.
18. I am saying in effect; make sure you do not stay away from the boundaries of God’s love. So, remain within the boundaries where the love of God can reach you and then protect you. When you stray away blame yourself and not God.
19. We give God the glory for everything so far. For He that saw us through yesterday, I believe will see us through out the whole period. Anybody can be the president of Nigeria. You know the mind of God concerning that.
20. The reason for all this disorder is just for one thing, people are looking for president, a candidate from a tribal extraction, but we are looking for a Nigerian president who will accommodate the whole Nigerians in love not a tribal or ethnic president who will not even hide his parochial interest in the office.
21. So we don’t want such a thing and remember it will take God to give us a leader, for it is the Lord that established thrones; it is also the Lord that pulls down thrones. Therefore, for that reason, every effort of man will end at nothing. Anybody God wants to be ruler over us is the one that will be a ruler. That is my belief about the whole situation. So, in every thing be calm. Amen.
OVERCOME YOUR HUMAN WEAKNESSES
My idea of using every day example in my Messages is for you to understand the teachings. If you do not understand my teachings, you will not behave rightly. That is why we use interpreter.
2. If not for the complexity of the Brethren in the Faith, I don’t think we will be speaking English in this Fellowship. So we take those who cannot understand Igbo into consideration.
3. That is why we blow grammar in this Fellowship. There is nothing wrong with our Igbo language, but the Faith is not an Igbo Faith, it is a Worldwide Faith. So the communication must be effective.
4. So, adults I am pleading with you to take the Messages serious. Let me sound a warning: If you are disturbing the Deacons during Fellowship, you are disturbing the whole Assembly, you are equally disturbing yourself. Anybody that says he is concentrating when he is walking around is telling lies.
5. Once you are there walking up and down at the back, you have lost concentration. If you are tired of sitting down, the remedy is not going to the back, you can stand even there along the window sides and, it should be just for a while. You cannot form it as a habit; you should not be hanging there till we dismiss, talking and distracting the attention of others. When you are talking, you are not listening and when you are listening, you cannot be talking.
6. Onyema Njom, you are becoming a constant pest, I say you are becoming a constant pest in this assembly. You see, let me put it the other way. It does no pride for a man who is an adult to behave like an infant. I don’t know the way I can talk to you than the way I have spoken to you now. You are laying the worst example for your children because parents are role models.
7. You cannot give your children something you do not have. The first example your children will copy is your behaviour or that of your wife. If you are behaving badly, your children do not know the difference; they are seeing it as a way of life because that is what they had seen in their father, and if they emulate it, don’t blame them.
8. It’s applicable to mothers. Your behaviour, both at home and in the congregation, matters a lot. If you are becoming uncontrollable in the congregation, you don’t have the right or the authority to begin to control your children.
9. In summary, your children must pattern after you whether you like it or not considering the nature of the society we are living in. If they emulate your conduct and then add it to theirs, they will copy from the society as a result of influence, what do you think they will be in life?
10. If at this age, you don’t know what is wrong and what is right, you don’t know the difference between disturbance and peace, something is wrong with you.
11. Last Wednesday, the moment you entered into the Fellowship, everybody noticed it. It was a childish behaviour. You have formed it as a character because you think there is virtue in doing so. No, it’s a mark of a hooligan.
12. If a wise man enters a congregation, a gathering of a people, he sits down quietly with a view to understanding exactly what is happening. After all, you are not the only person here. There are too many others here. You are not the only father; I only pity those you are fooling.
13. I go back to the same Message. Do not call yourself a mere feeble ant, maggot or dust.
14. Verse 11. “At each moment of man’s life, he is either a king or a slave. One is the opposite of the other.” As a man surrenders to a wrong appetite, a wrong way of thinking, a wrong way of seeing things, a wrong way of life, he surrenders to a wrong appetite, that is, as a man gives himself or herself to the wrong side of life, to any human weakness .
15. That was why we were all shouting on Bro Onyema who is always surrendering to his human weakness instead of making effort to conquer it as a human being, because a human being is the only being God created that can attain moral conquest; there is always a moral struggle in man. You are the only being gifted to conquer it in your life.
16. As you give yourself over to a wrong way of life, to any human weaknesses, as you fall prostrate, as you bow down in hopeless subjection to any condition, to any environment or to any failure or habit, you become a slave to that condition. Please a word is enough for the wise.
Amen.
PART TWO
BE DILIGENT TO PROTECT YOUR MINDSET
CHAPTER 1
BEWARE OF SNIPERS
I will speak to all of you until you will hate me. I don’t need your love anymore provided peace will reign, because if care is not taken, there are too many snipers in this Faith. Snipers, you know what I call sniper; you don’t know the word sniper.
2. A sniper is one that encourages evil, one that discourages people from pursuing noble objectives, one that is strongly against progressive ideas, one that constantly misinterprets any honest move, he is called a sniper. SNIPERS – They are everywhere. Their duty is to go out and gather evil reports, discouraging reports, disheartening reports which they will spread in the camp.
3. Make a nice statement that will help the person, he will run to a member of the party because it is always a movement that is led by somebody—Movement against progress, MAP or Anti-progressive Movement; I mean Movement Against Progressive ideas, progressive philosophies. It’s always led by a member. They know themselves. Once you make a progressive statement which they should capture with their hearts, they will flicker their eyes on one another; they will catch the joke.
4. Sometimes, they will run to their members and whisper something in their ears, and that is their own interpretation of that progressive statement. In the end, their lives will tell you that they never believed the Message, they never accepted it, and such people, I call them spiral flyers. They can never develop, they can never grow above their shoes and I will tell you the reasons today.
5. Watch such people, if you watch their homes, it will take amazing grace to save their homes. I will describe such families and you will give your own a name. When I lift up the descriptions, you will place your own home where it belongs. Then, you begin to find out whether you are the sniper or your wife is the sniper.
6. Where there are snipers, forget about progress. I said forget about progress. Youths, mark those snipers and have nothing to do with them. Youths, I am talking to you, mark them. Respect not their marital status; respect not their ages as long as they fall within the snipers’ group— Movement against Progress. Mark them and avoid them, because you are youths, you must be progressive; you must succeed where others failed.
7. Snipers will only cite instances of failures, they will never cite instances of progress, and they will only give you reasons why anything will not work. Snipers, God help us today as adults, we should go home happy.
8. A better thing is on the scene. A new and better idea that is more successful, more progressive, more energetic, more demanding is on the scene.
9. Be Diligent to protect your mindset, for everything a man attains in life is a matter of the mind. Since you know that the mind is the central controller of everything, make sure you protect it wisely by making sure no wrong information ever registers there, it does not process any deceitful information such as gossip, envy, jealousy, malice, anger, hatred, evil speaking, slander, indolence, poverty and other things like that.
10. Make sure they don’t enter your mind set. Say “NO” to those things and give them zero tolerance. Don’t process them, they are all anti-progressives. They are those small and fake intangible things that disturb the mind and peg the mind from achieving fuller success.
11. The energy and time the individual would have used to reason out better ways of life, he will use in ruminating over fake and intangible things. Say NO to them and that will make you a great mind.
12. Why not visualize your tomorrow from here. I want you to see your tomorrow from here. If you will buy this pollination of my ideology about life – I am just cross pollinating my ideas—what the Lord has revealed to me about this life. Who will allow himself to be fertilized by this precious, noble idea, if only you will?
13. But where you cannot surrender your mind, the more I talk the more you are ruminating over dirty things, you cannot make it. Watch, all progressives are great minds. All progressives—Aristotle, Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello—they were all great minds.
14. Today, minds like Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and too many of them are great minds. What can you say about them, why can’t you be one of them? You may not go to school yet you can develop your mind and become one of the registered great minds. How many believe that the big name behind Eleganza Industry in Lagos didn’t go to school. The big names behind all giant structures and industries here in Onitsha like G.M.O group of industries, General Cotton mills, International Enamel wares, Ibeto Group of Industries, Dozzy Group of Industries, Alliance Group of Industries to mention just a few.
15. If your mind is not functioning well, your mindset is not only faulty but dead. Your mindset is not only faulty it needs total replacement. I am talking to you because I passed through the system. Don’t use me to judge those there oh! I was a civil servant with a difference, and my difference was clear. You all know it. Do you know that in my place of work that time, they were of the opinion that my progress was being effected by the Church; that the Church was taking care of me?
16. When I bought a car they said that it is the Church that bought the car for me; everything Church. You know that you contributed nothing; that it was my sweat.
17. You cannot correct the impression because they are lazy, they liken our Church to other Churches, but you know the truth about it. Glory be to God.
FACING THE STARK REALITIES OF LIFE
We want to face the stark realities of life. I want us to give our individual problems definite approaches immediately.
19. Begin to define your problems immediately, let your mind begin to process your problems and let your brain begin to supply the answers to your problems, for nobody will solve the problems but you. That is why God has given you the brain; to crack the nut and eat the seed.
20. It is just like students in the school, the highest favour we can show you is to pay your school fees and give you money for textbooks and leave you there. But you have to crack the nut. Do you believe that?
21. Who will crack the nut, is it your father? You! Even there and after.
22. When you go there and crack the nut, you come back with meal certificate. We call it meal certificate. That is why if you come out from there with your meal certificate, you know you are coming out with skill or without skill. At least you are coming out with a beggarly paper; you begin to beg somebody for a place where your services can be needed for a pay.
23. Make no mistake about it until you enter their youth service camp. Then you will begin to accept the correct definition of N.Y.S.C, which means “Now Your Sufferings Continue.” Now your sufferings continue. Yes, it is a place where they are going to groom you and show you what the world you are entering looks like. Attaching you to a place where you do your primary assignments that is what they call it, primary assignment.
24. You will be collecting a little allowance at the end of the month; after one year, you will be discharged, and you will see the world you came in. Then you will be walking up and down, travelling from place to place, anywhere you see newspaper: vacancy, you will copy the address.
25. The time when the university’s degrees give automatic appointment is over. I don’t know the course anybody will read in any university that will give the person automatic appointment. There is no course.
26. And even if you read humanitology – Human biology, before you will come out you will see Eziokwu bu Ndu (Herbalist) at Oguta road. Glory be to God.
27. I still want to confirm that I am a living example before your eyes, that I am back, no shaking. What they offered was contradictory to my nature and could not give me a job satisfaction because it is an alternative, a second choice.
28. Courageously, I cancelled it and said no. It is better for me to stay without work than to work without pay. If you are working without pay, you are trading without record; I mean trading without profit; may be your fellow human being is using you to achieve his aim.
29. An apprentice is better than you. Let me show you more things..
30. I AM BACK, page 17 vs. 30: “Finally, look at what I did. I went through the Message: ‘Courage as a tonic.’”
31. You see what the Son of Man did because he was of the opinion that God has already provided the remedy. It was in the power of my hand to create circumstances to suit my condition. So, I went to the Message called Courage.
32. I went and reviewed a Message I had already packed somewhere for you titled “Revelation of reserved powers.” I packed it somewhere for you. I have scratched it here many times that every animal knows how to meet emergency; that the colour of the water determines the colour of the fish.
33. Look at what I did, I went into that Message and discovered that man has a bundle of potentialities yet unrevealed. I came to a conclusion that nine tenth of an iceberg are amerced in the water, you know what an iceberg is ice-block in the water.
34. You know something about this ice block, even if it is as big as four-liter gallon, drop it in a bucket of water; nine-tenth will be embedded or immersed in the water. Only one tenth will be seen on the surface. So, I said to myself that I am like an iceberg; that the best in me is yet to be seen.
35. What people are rejoicing about is just the one tenth; that I have nine tenth of unrevealed powers, which make up the potentialities embedded in me, they are still right inside the sea. This is the time for me to rake all of them out because emergency puts a man into desperation.
36. Yes, necessity is the mother of invention. When the road becomes very rough, I mean the journey becomes very rough and tough, tough men will begin to be tougher and tougher but the cowards will retreat. Then the courageous men will move along.
37. I told you in this Faith that, a man is not a man because of what he is today but because of what he may be tomorrow. Put it down in your mind, you are not a man because of what you are today, you are not a woman because of what you are today, but what you will be tomorrow, what it may hold for you. What you are doing today will determine what the future will be for you. Where you are standing today will decide where you will land tomorrow. You see why you must think until it begins to hurt you. A man’s ability, a man’s greatness was what came into my mind.
38. A man’s greatness is never measured when the situation is conducive, when all is well with him, but is measured by where he stands in the time of difficulties, in the time of challenges; it is the time you know the worth of a man. I said God the hour has come; the hour has come for me to prove what I am; whether I am a coward or a brave man. I am brave if I can brave all the odds of life and rear my hopes up, hold my ground and rear my head up. But if I am submerged by the condition I found myself, my condition has eclipsed me completely. Then “Dike anaa!”—a brave man will be gone. But I said God forbid. God forbid, never, never.
39. Yes, I know that the road to success is not easy; there are many mountains to pass and there are many valleys to cross, but courage is needed. I cannot be a coward.
40. Who is a coward? A coward is one that accepts defeat when the opponent is still standing up. A coward accepts defeat when his opponent is still standing; you see him, neck down, raising his hands up. Can you get the Message?
41. A coward dies many times before his death. I am not numbered among such coward, I said God forbid. Then I set my mind at work, set my brain at work. I made my chair in my parlour my best bed, for a gallant solider does not sleep when the war is raging. The bench in my parlour became my favourite bed, my eyes were faced to the sky.
42. Sometimes, I close my eyes; some might be thinking that I was sleeping. Yes, when a dog is thinking his ways, thinking about his condition, foolish people will think that the dog is sleeping. If the dog is sleeping, if anybody passes by, you will hear: “hmm!” Amen.
CHAPTER 2
CHALLENGE YOUR SELF TODAY FOR IT IS NOT YET TOO LATE
Our problems started not today. I want to begin by correcting some of the stupid truths we have been living with till today. Yes! There are stupid truths. I mean expired truths. Are there expired truths? The answer is yes.
2. There is a stupid truth that, “when you get to Rome you behave like the Romans.” Hence, when you see yourself in the midst of criminals you behave like criminals. When you see yourself in the midst of mad people you become mad. If you see yourself in the midst of dead people in the mortuary what do you do? You will be stupid if you come out. Simply lie down among them and allow them to lock you up. Yes! After all, you are in Rome, so behave like Romans.
3. I am here to correct all stupid truths, expired truths. Our fathers used them to their own hurt and perished. They are all anti progressive slogans and proverbs that held them captive.
4. A progressive man dictates what he wants. A non-progressive fellow accepts everything. Hear me very well, a worker that knows his worth negotiates his condition of service, but one without any proficiency accepts every condition. I do not know whether you are getting what I am saying.
5. If you know your worth as a workman, do not accept all the conditions your employer will give you. Sit down and negotiate your condition of service, but if you have no skill, you have nothing to offer. Oh no! You accept every condition; you see your employer as one that is helping you. My employer is not helping me; I am not helping him. We are partners in progress. He cannot do without me; I cannot do without him, finish, because I know my worth.
6. A useless man or woman is one without ambition, one without a goal. He accepts every condition he finds himself. Every environment he sees himself is OK by him even if it means living in the bush, no problem: “At any point the light goes out on the journey, simply quit.” Do not even associate with people that have this adage or you will learn their evil ways.
7. Anybody in this Faith you notice that has that adage, run away from him, he belongs to the anti-progressives, the snipers, discouragers, haters of good things and will like everybody to be like him. Say no to such people; let this truth be registered in your mindset. Calm down and process all these information.
8. Remember, I am passing information to you, for this Message is aiming at one thing: to inform, to enlighten and to educate. If I have educated you, I have made it very impossible for any man to enslave you. When you bow down, accept every condition, you have made yourself a slave to your condition and to your environment.
CHALLENGE YOURSELF TODAY
Can you be a slave and a king at the same time? Never! You must develop yourself to say no to any condition that is not favourable to you. In other words, every condition is favourable to a fool. There is no condition he finds himself, which he will regret or feel uncomfortable.
10. A fool always desires death. A fool constantly desires death, but he lives longer than a wise man. Check all these people that die quick, foolish people will remain here, clock one hundred years because he has downloaded his brain. A fool’s brain is downloaded to that of a mad man.
11. Sickness does not kill a mad man because his brain is downloaded. He can drink from now to the next world and nothing bothers him; that is a fool. He does not make any impact in the society. His children do not feel his impact. I hope we do not have such people or people that are heading towards that way. I said God forbid; why not say, “God forbid, it is not my portion.”
12. Let me tell you, it is not yet too late. Some started at six years and made it. Some started at sixty years with hard work coupled with strict commitment to the core, and they made it to the top. Some started at fifty years; some started at fourty years and some started at infancy. Why not you?
13. Why not challenge yourself today? If after giving you this level of information, this level of assistance and your condition remains the same, well, you are a failure because you have chosen to be a failure. If you are sleeping over your condition, you will wake up more stupid than you were before.
14. Verse 12. “As the day-to-day crushes out human weakness, masters opposing elements within him and day-by-day recreates a new self from the sin or ignorance and folly of his past, he is then a king. If he learns from his mistakes with a determination never to repeat those mistakes again, he must suddenly become a king, having control over himself and deciding what tomorrow will hold.”
15. Every mistake is past. Every correction is for the future. Ruminate or process the information on the past for improvement, but do not carry the past forward for that will be anti- progressive. Do away with those anti-progressive ideas.
16. Do not become another Alexander the Great who had the capacity and potentials of controlling the whole world and he did it successfully but later became a servile slave over his own passion.
17. Every effort you will make starts with you. Sometimes, however, we grow bitter and storm at the wrong distribution of the good things of life and then relapse into a hopeless, fatalistic acceptance of our condition.
18. Note: a hopeless, fatalistic acceptance of our condition. We envy the success of others when we should emulate the process by which the success came. When you accept your condition by saying that you are as God made you, it is disastrous and fatalistic.
19. You know what I mean by FATAL. When two vehicles have a head-on collision and there is no survivor we say that it is a fatal accident.
20. Remember that ignorance is a fatal accident. Yes ignorance is a fatal accident, because it is ignorance that will compel the man to accept his condition anyhow. Instead of struggling to improve he will harden himself by saying, “Do we fight God.” Did I say you should fight God? I did not say you should fight God. You are not as God made you, you are as you made yourself, for God is not responsible for the wrong ideas and wrong philosophies that you are registering in your mind, which will always tell you that you are wiser than everybody, because a fool does not accept correction simply because he feels he is more intelligent and has better ideas than every other person. That is a fool.
21. A wise man learns from others. It will take a fool to reject this Message, but a wise man will desire more of this Message. Although it is not a new Message, it is somewhat new. Why? The Word of God is constantly active, always alive in any living heart, not dead heart. My aim is to register something in your heart, which you will be processing today and forever until you come out of the woods. Until you come out of the woods, this Message will be ringing bell in your heart.
22. Verse. 22: “No man can make a habit in a moment or break it in a moment; it is a matter of development or growth. But at any moment, man may begin to make or break a new habit. This view of the growth of character should serve as a mighty stimulus to any man who sincerely desires and determines to live nearer to the limit of his potentialities and to his Creator.”
CHANGE IS A MATTER OF THE MIND
As long God lives and I live, no man forms a character in one day, even jesting or on the other hand good conduct. It is not formed as a habit in one day. It is something that builds up as a result of constant practice; your mind must be at work condemning your old way of life and character. Your mind will be constantly processing it, proffering the better way of living. The brain will be supplying the action, which everybody will see at a glance. This is how change comes.
24. Change is a matter of the mind. Hardness is also a matter of the mind. “Say what you want to say, I will behave the way I want.” It is the information your mind feeds your brain that it will process and your life starts reflecting it.
25. Since we know this to be true, we can begin today to reexamine our lives. Is it possible? It is only possible to those that believe it.
26. Retributive Justice, page one: “Our pattern of thinking is a clear reflection of our background. You see, I have destroyed the old background, which was very filthy and anti-progressive.”
27. If today is a new day to you, your pattern of thinking as from today will start reflecting on your background. If after today, you still continue in your old way of thinking, your background was not touched by this Message. If you believe it, say Amen.
28. Anybody whose background had been overhauled and completely excavated, and a new one laid from today, his mind will be functioning properly. His pattern of thinking will reflect today’s Message henceforth. His action will reflect progress.
29. The way we were brought up determines the direction we will go. A child that watches his parents reflect wicked acts, unforgiving spirits, doing those things that the society abhors will record same as good example.
30. The mind is like a computer and all actions are keyed into it. Be diligent everybody. Be diligent to keep watch, to monitor, to protect your mindsets for whatever you want to be in this life, whatever you will be in this life is a matter of the functioning of your mind. If it functions negatively, you will achieve negative results. If it functions positively, you will achieve progress.
31. Whether you are going to be a success or a failure, a king or a slave, depends on how you watch over your mindset. It all depends on having mastery over your mindset. Amen.
CHAPTER 3
HUMAN BEING: THE LIVING COMPUTER
I want to give you mental food. I did not say spiritual food. We have mental and spiritual food. I will give you mental food; you can call it “food for thought” so that your mind will have something to process otherwise coming in contact with this Message profits you nothing.
2. As you have your handset so you have your mindset, because the first thing that captures your impression is your mind – both past and present, relevant and irrelevant.
YOUR BRAIN IS A NETWORK
As a functional computer, once it captures the information it goes into processing immediately, and after processing, it transmits the whole thing into the brain; the brain supplies the action. The brain automatically supplies the action.
4. Then human beings could begin to see good or bad things about you as an individual. We will see whatever your mind has processed and the action your brain supplied. The whole thing will form the output.
5. A man is not measured by input but by output. It is the output that makes a personality. The output makes the personality.
6. We are in this Faith to improve your brain, our thinking faculty; God had the reason why he did not create us like other animals.
7. He enclosed a bundle of fibers inside the skull. Your brain is a network, a bundle of fibres that can send out impulses anywhere and any time. A matured brain contains over 20 billion fibres.
8. That is why in one second your brain can tour the whole part of the world and, at the same time, go round the whole environment and process the information in one second. What a powerful network!
YOUR BRIAN WILL DETERMINE YOUR DEVELOPMENTAL LEVEL
Why did God give you such brain, a very high potency brain? I do not mean an ordinary brain but a highly potent brain. If yours is dormant like an extinct volcano, it then means you have become a failure in life.
10. The extent your brain functions will determine the level of success you will attain in life. That is why if your brain is not functioning, you will not develop properly and you can never go far in life. That is why we are here to help you to understand that why God gave you the brain is to make sure you do not trouble Him every time. You can think out solutions to your problems without disturbing the peace of God. If you cannot think it out, God wasted His time creating you.
11. So, begin now to know why God gave you that type of brain. It is to enable you solve your problems without consultation and to enable you stand on your feet and avert all the dangers of life.
12. The most highly developed animal on Earth is the human being. But unfortunately, some look like human beings though they are mere lower animals.
13. Do not be surprised at what I am saying; you can see a handsome man elegant in stature very handsome and good to look at or a very beautiful woman, well to look at, very, very beautiful, but when the person behaves, you cannot see any noticeable difference between the person and an Ape.
14. In appearance he is a very handsome man, if he dresses in suit he can go places, he will look like Ronald Reagan of America. But when he behaves, Oh! No! You will be disappointed because behaviour is determined by the functional ability of the brain.
15. So, when your character is bad, it goes to show that you do not think well. You do not reason well, once you reason negatively, you must behave negatively, think negatively and act negatively.
16. Carry bad news and receive bad results; carry good news and receive good results. God wants us to be developed human beings, but unfortunately we wish ourselves evil.
A MAN HAS BUNDLE OF POWERS
If you can at least know how to avoid danger, lower animals do that, so you should go beyond that. You know when you are hungry and when you are not; lower animals know more than that. You should go beyond that. When you look at the society—let me begin with what you know very well. The bench you sit on daily, examine it very well, Almighty God did not make one; it is the product of the human brain.
18. A man was tired of sitting on the ground. Immediately, he began to think on how to get something that could bring him up. He told himself “You can cut down one of those trees; you can sit down on one of those trees and see what will happen.” He sat down on one of those trees he cut down and saw it was good.
19. He went further; he said “No, this is discomforting, what if I hewn it and then smoothen it so it will be a little bit comfortable.” So he decided to achieve it.
20. He was advancing from sitting on the ground to sitting on a huge tree, from there to a bench and then an idea came: “Can’t I make it somehow light so that I can carry the thing about? Let me reduce the size and pin the thing together.” So he used something, not nail, because our early fathers did not use nail. They used stick which edge was sharpened and then pinned it so someone could sit down. He shook the thing, it was strong, it could carry him and his children all at the same time; he rejoiced.
21. From where did all these things come out? The mind did the processing and the brain supplied the action.
IS YOUR BRAIN AND MIND FUNCTIONING WELL?
Now what is your condition? What is your mind telling you about your condition? And what is your brain offering as a remedy to your condition? Or are you expecting God to supply all these things. Of what use is the brain then? What is your condition now? I mean here, what is your mind telling you about your condition?
23. If your mind is actually processing this information, think about your condition and let your mind capture the information and process it. If I should remain in this condition, where shall I arrive? Is this how I will remain till this year ends? When will this trouble end? Your mind has started processing the information.
24. If you are uncomfortable in your condition, and then the information goes straight to the brain, the brain will tell you what to do.
MAN IS A CREATOR
Remember, every advancement is the work of a human being; it is a human being that brought out the idea of fabricating a bicycle. Even this house you are in today, a man came up with the idea, God never built a house for any human being. The same way birds of the air constructed their nests is the same way the idea came into man that he should not allow himself to be beaten by rain and sunshine every hour; enough of hiding under the rocks, that he should make a structure for himself, which can be called his nest.
26. Then the idea came into him, let me start by using water and mud or clay, let me fabricate something, let me use palm fronts, mix them together as birds used to mix theirs; let me use it to cover this mud.
27. Did you see how the idea came in? The man said, “No! Let me make the clay in sizeable form, dry it so it becomes brick, and let me put it in a form so I can partition it. A man came up with the ideas, processed them and the brain supplied the action.
28. God did not manufacture motorcar. A human being came up with the idea – airplane is the work of a human being; telephone, radio – name it, and ship that sails on the ocean. God never manufactured one.
29. Why not agree with me that a man, who has come to the knowledge of who he is, is a creator or an inventor. The same way you can create circumstances. If I can create circumstances, it then means I can change my conditions; I can change situations around me. I have the power to do that.
YOUR DESTINY IS IN YOUR HANDS
Hear me very well, if I should deny myself sleep, the time must be employed in something better than sleep or that time is useless. If I notice that being lazy is not helping me, then I have to change that attitude because laziness is an attitude developed by one towards life.
31. Whatever you are doing today is what you have decided for yourself. You have decided it. God never imposed it on you. You decided it, and whatever you are doing, the extent you are so far is the extent your brain has functioned either in a good or a bad thing, for you can never go above the functional system of your brain or the functional ability of your brain. That is why there is a way you will behave; someone will begin to ask you whether your brain is still functioning.
32. This is not the time where you should wait for God to come and crack the kernel for you so that you will begin to eat the seed. Think out how to crack the kernel. A man, one day, came up and said, “Using wood to crack the kernel was becoming painful,”
33. So he came up with the idea of looking for a stone, using stone to crack it against the wood. He noticed from time to time that they developed big holes making the cracking almost impossible. Then he thought about cracking it against the stone.
34. Human beings developed all these crushing machines. When they considered the energy that is invested on pounding or mauling his mind was set at work at minimizing energy waste so as to prolong their life span. Yes when you reduce the level of energy that is used and the activities, it will prolong your life. I mean that the energy you are spending on activities is equal to your life spent.
35. When we say that the man is going down what do we mean? His strength is being sapped every day. Looking at the stature, he is very big but the strength is no longer there. What he is known for as a man has gone.
EMPLOY THE PRINCIPLE OF IDEAL LIVING
So what are we saying? If I say, “Be diligent to preserve or protect your mindset,” you must have a mindset before you protect it. What if you have none? God is saying develop one from now.
37. Do not allow your mind to be empty or to be ruminating on useless things that profit nothing; set the mind at work constantly over a Godly sort. Employ the principles of ideal living; there are principles of ideal living.
38. The Principles of Ideal Living—you may be alive but it is not an ideal life, it is a useless life.
39. So, observe the guiding principles of life, you will always be happy with yourself. Amen.