Preached on 14th February, 2010 At the Household of God Onitsha by APOSTLE PETER ODOEMENA THE SON OF MAN ©BRIDAL FAITH MINISTRY WORLD-WIDE
I am the smoking firewood. I am the only Being that challenged the whole world and came out unhurt. Believe it if you can… -The Son of Man
ADDING VALUE TO HUMAN LIFE, PG 3
To be an achiever, you must be a man and a woman of purpose. Purpose is the discovery of what you are living for. Purpose is the key to fulfillment in life. Until purpose is discovered, existence has no meaning. When you hit your purpose, you command attention. After discovering purpose, stay focused on it. The ability to remain undistracted no matter the situation is what focus is all about. Do you desire to be called an “achiever,” then be a man or a woman of determination. -Son of Man.
SUCCESS VISIONS, PG.21.5 6
1
THE UNIFYING POWER OF GOD IS IN HIS WORD
If you doubt the power of God, it is because you have not fully believed God. If you have fully believed God, you will begin to see the power of God in your life; you will begin to see the power of God at work in your business, in your academics, in your marital life.
2. Nobody in this Faith is committed to the welfare of his family. Nobody in this Faith is committed to the Ministry that is entrusted into our care and custody.
3. Your families are making a hell of noise because you have not fully believed. Both husband and wife are yet to believe fully the revealed truth which God has handed over to us.
4. Why not challenge yourself. Believe the truth; the fullness of the Gospel of Christ as it is being preached unto you. If you do not see the power of God at work in your family, know that God never sent Me.
5. The unifying power of God in your family can never be made manifest until the two of you (husband and wife) have fully believed. The unifying power of God is in His Word for God will do nothing outside His Word. If you have not believed fully that the two shall be one and no longer two, there is no way you and your wife will be one.
6. The message said, “When you are hearing: ‘man, man’, God is referring to both male and female for the two are one.”
7. For this statement to work in your family, you must first of all believe, but where you refuse to believe, it can never happen. All things happen according to your belief. When you believe, all things are possible. When you do not believe, nothing is possible—everything is impossible.
8. You labour with your strength and by the arms of flesh; no human being has ever prevailed. Your strength will take you nowhere. God has always remained the strength of His people.
9. What is God? God is His Word. The Word of God that is revealed to the children of God in every dispensation has remained the strength, the consolation, the comfort of God’s children in every age.
10. If the Word of God that is revealed to you is not your strength, consolation, comfort or healing, then you are gone. The Word of God is your healing. The Word of God is your sanctification. The Word of God is your baptism; is your holiness; is your all and all. Only if you believe. But where you do not believe, nothing will take place.
UNITY IS STRENGTH
Brother Onyema, where is your wife? She is out at a time like this. This is because she lacks the revelation of the hour.
12. William Branham said, “Inside, is God, outside is the Devil.” Wherever she is, she is communicating with another spirit. She is not communicating with the Word of God. You can never stray away from the fellowship of the Saints and maintain a link with what is happening in the midst of the Saints.
13. Too many thoughts will be coming into you. Too many things your eyes will be seeing will be drawing away your attention. But as long as you are in the midst of the Saints worshiping God, the power of God, the power of the Gospel; the power of the Word, the demonstration of the power will simply engulf you.
14. I remember the initial stage of the Bridal Ministry; when God was making a great move, He would order all that were outside the fellowship hall to come in, including little children. He always said, “Do not ever jump the fence for outside this gate, anything can happen to you for the Devil is outside.”
15. As many as were at Amazu Oil; as many as were at Eha-Amufu; as many as were with us at the beginning in GTC, am I bearing false witness? Has God changed? God is the same in all the ages; the same Power, the same Authority.
16. I will not be a party to proclaiming what the Devil is doing, but I am a strong advocate of confession of what God is doing in My day.
17. Whether you like it or not, I say it wherever I go that I am a very strong and unrepentant advocate of family unity. I believe in family unity for unity is strength.
18. The more we are in unity, the happier we shall be.
19. Any man that is claiming to be happy when he is not fully united with the wife spiritually is the greatest liar on Earth; that woman is the greatest liar on Earth.
20. Where is the source of your happiness if not your obedience to the truth? If your happiness is not as a result of your obedience to the truth, your happiness is false happiness.
21. That is why if any man should rejoice; if any woman should rejoice, you rejoice over what God has done in your life and in your family. If that is not the basis of your rejoicing, you are rejoicing in vain. Amen.
2
THE POWER OF COMMITMENT
Brethren, time is not on your side. No matter how we preach “material prosperity,” IT PROFITS YOU NOTHING UNLESS YOU PROSPER SPIRITUALLY. First prosper spiritually, then you will prosper materially.
2. We are talking about family unity as a commitment.
3. What is commitment? Commitment means to be dedicated to a strong cause. You have a set out goal to accomplish and you devote your time, your energy, your money, everything towards accomplishing it. You dedicate your whole life towards accomplishing it. That is, you take a decision, vow a vow that you will stop at nothing until your goal or your set out plan is realized in your lifetime. That is what it takes to be committed to a cause.
4. Commitment. I will use few examples you know very well. The Apostles or the early Disciples of Christ were very few in number and they were committed to changing the history of the world in their day. As at that time, the whole world was full of idolatry, but they bound their hearts together that they must never join the world in idolatry, hence, the renaissance, the renewal, the revolution, the new awakening. They were few in number.
5. William Branham described them. He said, “To prove to you how few they were, they were fully accommodated in Rhoda’s house;” Rhoda’s parlour could accommodate all the Elect of God in that day.
6. Do you know the size of that house; I mean that room? The size could show you the number of people that were God’s children in a population of the world that was over one trillion.
7. What is more, they created history that shook the whole world. Oppositions, persecutions, cruel mockery, cruel misunderstanding, imprisonments, killings could not restrain them for they were committed to achieving it for posterity. Their names went down in the annals of history in the world as people that spearheaded the movement you have been enjoying till today.
8. Look at the case of Babylon. Everybody bowed down to the idols of Babylon, but four Hebrew children were committed to their cause, they were committed to changing the history of the world.
9. No man had ever disobeyed the proclamation of Nebuchadnezzar and remained alive. Everybody compromised, but the four Hebrew children were all out to preserve the purity of their Faith without pollution.
10. What happened? The four of them, first of all refused the king’s food and the Lord furnished them with what they were eating. They refused to bow down to the idols of Babylon. They suffered imprisonments, harassments and intimidations. They went into the fire. They went into the lion’s den. The Lord brought them out, yet, they never changed their conviction.
11. They changed the record of the world in a population of over one trillion people. This is to show you how few they were—I mean those that brought about the Revolution of that day which is being quoted till today. It has been a reference point to all believers in Christ. Is it not true?
12. That singular act; that Revolution was spearheaded by only four persons who were committed to changing the face of the world and left a legacy that we will remain quoting till eternity.
13. How I wish you will catch Me as I continue.
14. Watch what is happening today. There are too many examples on this. In this world that we are living in today, we know about Charles Wesley; how he was excommunicated because he carried out a Revolution saying no to the Whites’ profligacy.
15. England was set ablaze by a Revolution spearheaded by one man for he was committed to something.
16. Today, we have seen the Methodist Church and the Anglican Communion. The history of these great names could be traced back to a Revolution that was stired up by Charles Wesley who became an Angel Messenger of the Church Age.
17. You watch St. Paul; it was a single-handed Revolution with Barnabas, Philip, Priscilla and Aquila. They were few people there. Look at the Revolution. Look at what it brought about. Paul became the first Messenger of the First Church Age.
18. What can you say about William Branham, the minority Angel Messenger? What can you say about Jesus the Christ, the minority Angel; the great Angel when He set His feet down here on Earth?
19. Let Me put that aside. Let us come down here in Nigeria.
20. Up till today, the queue up mentality and environmental sanitation mentality which we cultivated as a result of Buhari-Idiagbor’s coup is still in so many of us. It was the Buhari-Idiagbor’s coup that brought about War Against Indiscipline (WAI) in Nigeria. It is what brought about operation sanitize your surroundings.
21. Every last Saturday of the month was declared environmental sanitation day which never happened before. We cultivated the mentality. Even if government says it will not be carried out, individuals will still carry it out. Am I making any sense?
22. In a population of Nigeria which is over one hundred and twenty million people, only two persons were committed to instilling ethical revolution in a great population. Only two individuals stood their ground, ready to die to make sure that Nigeria imbibed a culture of cleanliness and orderly living. The mentality is still in us till today.
23. Anybody whose mentality never cultivated this habit, the surroundings must remain dirty and the person must remain indiscipline.
24. Today, I am saying that as at that time, it took the action of two individuals who were committed to a cause to brand Nigeria a disciplined and clean nation. Can you get it?
25. In a population of over one hundred and twenty million people, it took few Nigerians that have indulged in 419 (Advanced Fee Fraud) practices to brand Nigeria a “419 country.”
26. I believe that the people that are doing the 419 are in the minority. They are not up to three thousand in the whole of Nigeria. The actions of just few individuals who were committed to wickedness have branded Nigeria a “419 country.”
27. The same way, it has taken only few individuals that have found themselves in the places of authority in a country that is over one hundred and twenty million people to perpetrate evil because they are corrupt. This is because they are committed to making money by all means at the detriment of the masses.
28. The actions of few individuals in the high places have made the whole world to label Nigeria a corrupt nation. This is because they are committed to a wicked cause.
29. Today, the actions of few individuals—they may not be up to twenty persons—have tainted the image of an entire country. They are committed to doing evil to mankind. Their activities have made Nigeria to be called a terrorist nation.
30. The same way, I believe that the minority that is in the Bridal Faith will change the world. Of all human beings in the world, we are the fewest in number; of all denominations, we are the fewest in number.
31. If we are committed to enthroning righteousness, peace, discipline, unity, I bet you, we must succeed. We must create history. We must change the face of the world. We will leave a legacy which generations that will come after us will remain quoting till eternity.
32. If you believe it say “Amen.”
BEING COMMITTED TO A JUST CAUSE
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n a world that is absolutely bad, where families are rotten, families are smelling, children are extremely reckless; in a world that is full of divorces, cruel misunderstandings everywhere, if you are committed to raising a family as an example of a godly home devoid of every kind of evil, a family after God’s own standard, you must surely achieve it.
34. There is nothing you cannot achieve provided you are committed to achieving it whether good or bad.
35. Can’t we change the history of the world? Can’t we create even history that will linger till eternity where people will quote that once upon a time a man appeared on Earth, Son of Man by name with few individuals, look at the standard they raised in every family so that all families will now begin to pattern after them?
36. How I wish you are getting what I am saying. Many are too far away from what I am saying—so it is to all the youth in this Bridal Faith. You are what you think you are. If you can adjust your mindset, for everything you want to achieve depends on the angle you tune your mindset; if you tune your mindset to evil, you will achieve evil. You tune your mindset to anything good, you will achieve good things.
37. Tune your mindset towards raising a family that evil will not be associated with, be committed to achieving it, I bet you, you will achieve it.
38. Why must you tune your mindset? Yes, it is from your mind that comes out all the issues of life. If you like believe it; if you like do not believe it.
GREATNESS IS NOT INHERITED BUT ACHIEVED
I have traced life situations and I have come to debunk the stupid truth that great men are born or leaders are born.
40. Let Me say it the way Socrates puts it: “Some are born great; some have greatness thrust upon them while some achieve greatness.”
41. I want to debunk the first two. Nobody is born great. Nobody has been born great. Nobody has ever inherited greatness. Take note of that.
42. It is not true that greatness can be thrust upon somebody. You are greater than the size of the womb that bore you.
43. Why not say it: “I am greater than the size of the womb that conceived me.”
44. Every great man; every great woman was conceived in a womb. Is there any man greater than Jesus the Christ? Was He not conceived in a womb? Socrates was conceived in a womb; Aristotle was conceived; Abraham Lincoln was conceived, Barack Obama was conceived; oh! glory be to God!
45. The youth, did you get the message? There was no one that was born and greatness was imputed on the person. Greatness came as a result of their missions on Earth.
46. Every man must know his mission on Earth. Your mission on Earth is nothing but what you have committed yourself to achieve.
47. If your mission on Earth is to cause trouble, until you cause trouble, you will not have rest. If your mission on Earth is to bring about peace, until peace reigns, you will not stop.
48. What is your mission on Earth? Why did you appear here on Earth? Why did your mother conceive you?
49. Nobody is born great. There is nobody with greatness written on his face. Greatness is conferred on people as a result of what they have achieved in life.
50. If Alexander the Great never conquered the world; if Christopher Columbus never discovered the new world called America, do you think that greatness would have been attributed to them? If Mungo Park never discovered the lower Niger, do you think that greatness would have been attributed to him?
51. Now, did Mungo Park’s father ask him to go and discover the Niger? Did his father give birth to him as a great man?
52. If Acting President Goodluck Jonathan—no matter the much noised about fact that there is luck attached to the name “Goodluck”—did not go to the University to acquire a higher degree; if he did not become wealthy and influential, do you think he would have been recognized in Nigerian politics? The answer is no.
53. Number one, he acquired the relevant education; number two, he became wealthy; number three, he joined the ruling party; number four, he played a leading role, a prominent role; hence, of all, there was no other that was fit to deputize Yar’Adua except Goodluck Jonathan.
54. What is more, today, you can see where he is. The Acting President is the President. The Vice President is the President.
55. Now, the question arises: Did he go to school from his mother’s womb? What if when he was born he refused to go to school? What if when he was sent to school, he played away his time? What if when he came out from the school, he became a hooligan or a drunkard? What if he did not make a good choice of a party to join? What if he was not loyal to leadership? What if he never played a leading role, do you think he would have been where he is today?
56. I am saying that he fought himself to the position of prominence for he conquered all oppositions; all obstacles; all distractions because he was focused and committed. Nothing could stop him. I am using the examples you know.
57. I am afraid that I am talking to a people that hate good things. Nobody is born great; nobody is born small, but you make yourself great or small. Your ambition is what will make you great or small. Many of you in the Faith have very low ambitions.
58. When you have a low ambition, you have made yourself small.
59. Brother IK Nwaobodo, you are guilty of this thing. When you have a low ambition, you make yourself small.
60. Greatness has not been bestowed upon anybody. I will use a good example from the city of Onitsha in Anambra State.
61. Everyday, we do not cease from making references to the late great Zik of Africa who led in the Pan-African movement alongside other revolutionary elements of his day like Aminu Kano, Festus Okotie Ebo, Tafawa Balewa, Obafemi Awolowo, Ade Bayero, Denis Osadebe, Matthew Mbu, Margret Ekpo, M.I Okpara, Dr. Akanu Ibiam and the rest of them.
62. Yes, we are in the Faith for a purpose. If somebody could be born great, all the children of the great Zik of Africa will be called great. If greatness could be thrust upon somebody; if greatness could be inherited because their father was great, why then are the children not great?
63. It is just like the saying that some were born with silver spoons in their mouths; some with golden spoons, while some are with wooden spoons; I do not believe in that nonsense.
64. Nobody is born with a spoon in his mouth, but you are the one that will take the spoon which you desire. When you get into the market, there are many spoons there. Any one you can afford, is the one that you will take.
65. I know great people that acquired great riches, ruled at government circles, up till today, no great man has ever come from their families. If greatness could be thrust upon people, why was the greatness not thrust upon the children of these great men?
66. I know some that owned industries even in the city of Onitsha; once they died, their establishments collapsed. They had graduates as children; they had professionals. Even such people, some of them did not go to school, yet they achieved greatness; but their children up till today are not great; they are sycophants. Some are living from hand to mouth. Some have sold off even the entire estates their fathers purchased. Am I not making sense there?
67. Where then is the stupid truth that greatness could be thrust upon somebody by the parents?
68. Now, I have seen millions; I have read about so many who came from peasant and poor families, who did not even know their parents. Before they could come out in life, their parents died. But they worked hard to place themselves on positions of prominence.
69. There are hundreds and thousands of people that abound here on Earth who were born in families poorer than your family and My family. Millions of people are here on Earth who were born without knowing their parents; some were even sold to slavery; some were distributed to their extended family relations to take care of; some were street hawkers, yet by dint of hard work, vision and commitment, they worked themselves to places of honour and integrity.
70. Look at Abraham Lincoln of America; he did not know his parents. How many times did he contest the US Parliamentary election? It was ten good times. He was not despaired. He did not give up for he was committed to becoming the President of America come what may. What happened? At the eleventh time, he won the presidential seat as the President of America; from the orphanage to the palace.
71. Who assisted him? It was the goal he set up for himself; what he was all out to achieve was what motivated him. If what you are aiming at is not your driver, you will arrive nowhere.
EDUCATION HAS NO AGE BARRIER
I have looked into the world; I have never seen anything called “universal success” or “universal greatness.” I have only seen “individual greatness” or “individual success;” and I have been tracing how this thing came about. Let Me just give you one typical example now.
73. You are nothing but what you make yourself. There is no age which you will attain and say: “I am not eligible enough to study or to go to school.”
74. Education has no age barrier. Provided you have the vision, you must be educated. Refusal to be educated is a self-inflicted injury; a deliberate misfortune. I am saying that illiteracy is a deliberate misfortune. You desired to be an illiterate.
75. At your age now, you can enlist in a school. I have used the case of a popular musician, John Ewelukwa Udegbunam, to give you an illustration in my Message.
76. You know him. He was a musician, a record seller at Zik’s Avenue, Fegge, Onitsha in Anambra State. One day, he challenged himself and enlisted at Central School Odakpu. He finished his primary school education and enlisted in his secondary career there, wrote his GCE and came out with six credits. He then enlisted in the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka in Anambra State, and then came out as a lawyer.
77. He went to Nigeria Law School, Lagos and was called to the Bar about five years ago. He is now addressed as Barrister John Ewelukwa Udegbunam.
78. I know My own brother, Julius Ejike. He had only primary six education. I helped him a lot. He wrote his GCE and then went to Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUTECH).
79. While he was doing his marketing in the city of Onitsha as a regional representative of Rikita Coleman, he obtained his first degree; and then obtained his masters. Can you see!
80. Before we knew it, he enrolled for doctorate degree. Today, he is a PhD holder. Who trained him? It will interest you to know that he came from the poorest family in our village. Brother Mike knows that this is not a false witness? Julius Ejike is Brother Mike’s brother too.
81. If you are a woman and you are not literate, you are an illiterate because you do not want to be literate and you do not know the value of education. If you know the value of education, if you know the value of reading and writing, if you know the value of standing out before the crowd speaking fluently to defend your personality, you will appreciate what I am saying.
82. There is no personality without education. What makes you a personality when you cannot read and write—you cannot stand out and make a public statement? You are inferior. In addition, do not ever aim at becoming great in life. Amen.
3
YOU CAN BE GREAT IF ONLY YOU WILL DESIRE GREATNESS AND PURSUE IT
All the youth in this Faith; all the little ones in this Faith, you are all bigger than the wombs that carried you. There is nobody in this Faith, even the one that is breastfeeding that can be accommodated now in any womb.
2. Carry your baby if your baby is breastfeeding, measure the size with your womb now. You will see that the child is bigger than your womb. God made you greater than the womb that bore you, but you are making yourself smaller and smaller everyday by dreaming smaller dreams.
3. When you dream smaller dreams, you will achieve smaller things. You will become a mediocre; an average man. When you settle down as an average man, you will become a decorated poor man.
4. You may be popular because poverty makes a man very popular. Once you become poor, you become an entertainer; a public slave; a vulture: “Instead of leaving this meal in the pot, let me empty it into my stomach; whatever food one eats last is what he dies with.”
5. If a sacrifice is made without a vulture appearing, you should know that something terrible happened in the land of the dead.
6. The reason why it is very difficult to tame many is because many of you are not educated, both formally and informally.
7. Educate a people, you make it easier for leadership and you make it impossible for anybody to enslave them or to exploit them. It is upon this backdrop that God said that water seeks its own level.
8. If you are a stark illiterate and you are not willing to move, make no mistake of marrying one that is educated, for the way he will be seeing things; judging things will be different from the way you will see things.
9. For you to succeed in this life, you must cultivate the mentality of a VICTOR, not the mentality of a VICTIM. The mentality of a victor is cultivated, it is not inborn. How do you cultivate it? By following the footsteps of all victorious people; emulating the paths that made them victorious. By so doing, you will cultivate the mentality.
10. You want to be a winner? The spirit is imbibed. When you imbibe the spirit of success, you drive out the spirit of failure. All the paths that lead to failure, you will say no to them. You will get rid of all negative thoughts, negative reasoning, negative attitudes to life and imbibe a positive culture.
11. The youth, I hope I am making sense? You can work your way to greatness.
12. Look at the woman known as Mrs. Arunna Oteh who has succeeded the former president of Security and Exchange Commission. You had better read her profile. Right from the time she was unmarried, she said she would stop at nothing until she touch the sky. Even her husband would not stop her. Then she continued. At the age of 22, she had already bagged her chartered accountant certificate. She continued fighting. Today, see where she is.
13. What can you say about Doctor Mrs. Ndi-Okereke from Ngor-Okpala. She is a native of Okpalla but married at Nimo in the Onuike family.
14. Late Chief Okereke never allowed the woman to attend the University. She had already stopped giving birth to children before she enrolled into the University. Before we knew it, she became a doctorate degree holder and became the chief executive officer (CEO) of Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
15. There are too many of them. I won’t begin to mention names.
16. Can you believe that it was just a single letter that Professor Mrs. Dora Akunyili wrote to the National Assembly that put a final full stop to the controversy as to whether Yar’ Adua should continue or hand over to his deputy. Others have been writing and making noise, but she wrote one memo that ended the controversy. All references are now to her.
17. Problems and challenges bring out your potentials, talents and gifts. Fearing to face life challenges kills potentials. RECOGNIZE YOUR POTENTIALS. Pg. 54
18. Look at Professor Mrs. Dora Akunyili; until Nigeria made her the Director of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC), nobody was afraid of importing fake drugs into Nigeria. Counterfeit drugs reigned in all our markets, but she single-handedly—with only few staff—fought the illicit importation of fake and substandard drugs. She was committed to sanitizing the Nigerian market of all fake drugs.
19. In spite of all oppositions, attacks and threats to her life, she was never hindered one day and she achieved it. The whole world joined together and raised her hand to the sky as a single woman that has sanitized the drug industry and raised a standard for drugs administration in the whole of Nigeria.
20. A time came when, if you ever mentioned that Professor Mrs. Dora Akunyili was coming to Bridge-head Market, you will see full fledged men locking up their shops and taking to their heels.
21. Do you know the population of Nigeria? Do you know how many people are indulging in this illicit business? But Professor Mrs. Dora Akunyili single handedly took it up as a challenge. Was it thrust upon her? The answer is no.
22. Assuming she did not go to school, study until she obtained a doctorate degree, walked herself to limelight, do you think she would have attained that position?
GET RID OF LAZY HABITS— GREATNESS GOES BY ACHIEVEMENT
I have told you that Nigeria has come of age. The time when illiterates were appointed Commissioners is over. If you are a stark illiterate, do not dream a dream and begin to see yourself as the Governor of Anambra State. It will not happen. Or a special assistant to the Governor.
23. If you are a stark illiterate, you won’t even be appointed a special assistant to a Commissioner. You must walk your way to that position.
24. What can you say about the Soldiers and the Police? Some of them started as recruits. Before you knew it, they fought their ways to the rank of General.
25. The Inspector General of Police, was he not conceived by a human being? I am saying that the President of Nigeria was born by a woman. All the Generals in the Army, women conceived them. Why can’t you be one of them?
26. But you have desired to live below the baseline. That is why you cause trouble wherever you go for when you are not keeping pace with your mates; you are not keeping pace with the society, you become a trouble maker and a false accuser.
27. Watch, if you have such people in your family; people that refuse to work; refuse to learn any trade; never-do-wells, they refuse formal education, they are the people that accuse wealthy ones of being money mongers.
28. A lazy man can never believe that a man can acquire wealth innocently. This is because the laziness in him will also affect his way of thinking and his way of seeing things.
29. A lazy man is a poor man. A lazy man is highly superstitious. The most superstitious human being is a stark illiterate who is poor and lazy. Every night, witches and wizards are pursuing him. In the day, all enemies are at his throat when nobody is pursuing him. Nobody even knows that he exists.
30. The thoughts of a lazy man haunt him about. The thoughts of a wicked man haunt him about. That is why a wicked man runs when nobody is pursuing him.
31. Little children, do not be comfortable with your parents’ achievements for your parents’ achievements belong to them. The credit goes to them not to you. Do not ever bear the name Akunnaya (father’s wealth) or Akunwanne (relation’s wealth) or Akunne (mother’s wealth), rather, bear the name Akunanwata ( my own wealth).
32. Your parents’ achievements are not your achievements. You must be called a great man or a great woman based on your own personal achievements. No man was ever called great because of what his parents left behind. Has it happened before? The answer is no.
33. You are not a great man because your parents left a storey building for you. You do not know the value. You will even abuse the usage.
34. Why do sycophants, never-do-wells waste their parents’ properties when their parents die? It is because they do not know the value. They do not know what it took their parents to acquire those properties. When you labour to acquire something, you must preserve it.
35. For that reason, parents in this Faith, try to help your children. Help them understand that you are only helping them to achieve greatness; that you will not achieve greatness for them; greatness goes by achievement.
36. Moreover, if you are asked about your achievements, God said, “Do not include your wife and your children. They are gifts that are bestowed upon you by nature for reproduction is natural.” Do you believe that?
37. You can even own families without having a wife. You can have children without having a wife. There are some traditions that permit you to take children born to you by your girlfriends.
38. Dr. Arthur Nzeribe has children, but no wife. Across the Niger, in Europe for example, you can have children without having a wife. At Aguleri, Umuleri and Nsugbe, all in Anambra State, the same tradition holds sway. You can have children without having a wife.
39. Just simply impregnate your girlfriend and take care of her, when she is delivered of a baby, whether she likes it or not, the children must be given to you for they can never take another man’s blood.
40. As a result, when you are counting on your achievements, discount your wife and your children. Nobody has ever been called a great man as a result of the number of children he raised. You can only be called a great man because of your children if you supervise them to attain great heights and the only way you can do that is by giving them qualitative education, helping and encouraging them to attain those heights where they can no longer dream of lowering themselves anymore.
CULTIVATE THE MENTALITY OF A CHAMPION
Note that you cannot achieve anything without commitment. If we are committed to changing the rotten stories we are hearing about families on Earth by making our families unique, we must achieve it.
42. Where there is commitment, achievement is made possible, but where there is not commitment, nobody achieves anything.
43. Do you want to come out with distinction in your schools, first class in the University? It is all possible. People are making it. Why not you? People have achieved it by dint of HARD WORK and COMMITMENT. Why not you? If others have done it, you can as well do it. If only you can commit yourself to achieving it, you will.
44. Stop dreaming small dreams. Dream dreams that are bigger than your stature. Dream dreams that are bigger than your income; dream dreams that are bigger than your resources. Everyday, walk towards it. Be committed and the Lord knows how to come to your rescue by enlarging your coast to enable you realize those dreams.
45. God will enlarge your coast so that you can realize your dreams, but when you have no dreams at all, you have no set out plans, you are living a plan-less life, well, you are just like a ship that is driven by the wind in the ocean. You can land anywhere. Such people feel comfortable in any condition.
46. God never created any man and said that he must be poor. He never created any man and called the person a great man. People achieve greatness. Cultivate the mentality of great people. Cultivate the mentality of a champion. Call yourself a champion.
47. You are a champion if you achieve something higher than what your people expected you to achieve. If people never think you will succeed, believe in yourself that you will succeed and God will help you to succeed.
CHALLENGE YOURSELF
Our Message said, “Some started at 50 years; some at 60 years; some at 70 years and yet they made it to the top.”
49. For that reason, now can be your starting point. You can be 60 years now, you can be 70 years, you can be 75 years; with commitment, 7 years of commitment to an honest cause will change your whole history if you do not draw back.
50. Challenge yourself now. Map out a plan for yourself. Say what you want to be. Map out a plan on how to get there. Be strict in its observance. Focus your attention there no matter the opposition; no matter the obstacle, do not draw back. 7 years from now; if you do not realize it, know that I am not sent by God.
51. People do not realize their targets because of the fire-fighting approach they employ. They fight today; they go home and relax the next day. After some time, they come back again.
52. Sometimes, you scream: “Fire, fire, fire,” there will be no water in the tank. Sometimes, you scream: “Fire, fire, fire,” the hose is not functional. Sometimes, you scream: “Fire, fire, fire,” the engine is faulty.
53. Some behave like the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). They are very unpredictable and erratic. At a time you think they are coming up, in a twinkling of an eye, the light is switched off. You begin to wonder what is happening to Brother.
54. Why can’t Brother be consistent? At a time you are sharing good testimonies of your family relationship, how your husband is now responding to all your love approaches, how your wife is responding; how peace has come to your family, all of a sudden, the light will go out. The testimony will fizzle out. Troubles will replace peace.
55. This is because you are not consistent. You do not mean business. You are not committed to achieving a lasting peace; an enduring peace, an enduring harmonious relationship. It is not your target because you do not know the value. You do not know where it will take you to. That is why you are erratic, always off and on. You are epileptic.
56. Yes, when your relationship is not consistently cordial and harmonious, it is epileptic. You touch your wife, she says, “Do not touch me; leave me alone!” You touch your husband, he says, “If it is play, just stop it! I am not in a good mood!”
57. Why are you not in a good mood? Why should your wife become the object of your mood? Why should your wife become the object of your mood? You are not in a good mood because your mind is wrongly set.
58. Once your mind is properly set towards achieving peace, good relationship, raising a godly standard as a home towards changing the face of the world for better, nothing will ever upset you. Amen
GREATER PEACE HAVE THEY THAT KNOW THE LORD
Greater peace have they that know the Lord and nothing shall by any means offend them. Greater peace, greater success, greater heights shall all that put their trust and confidence in the Lord attain, and nothing shall by any means stop them. Death cannot stop them. This is because if death should strike, one of the children will stand in the vision of the parents and accomplish it.
2. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I have a dream; I have a dream,” and that dream cost him his life. His subordinate mounted the podium and continued to hammer on the dream. His followers continued. The dream continued and today, a black man is now in the White House.
3. Your dream can put you into trouble. Yes, for every achievement must be faced with great opposition. Great achievements attract great oppositions, but a coward is the only person that will be deterred by opposition.
4. A courageous man, a fearless man, in the face of all odds forges ahead.
5. Greater peace have they that know the Lord and nothing shall by any means upset them.
6. Do you know the Lord? Do you have that greater peace? Does anything offend you? Does anything upset you? If yes, it is a sure sign that you are yet to know the Lord. The moment you know the Lord, nothing upsets or offends you.
7. The moment you are upset, you lose your balance. You can hardly achieve anything.
8. What do you have in mind to achieve in your family? What do you have in mind to achieve in your children? What do you have in mind to achieve in this life? This is what will determine the type of life you will live.
9. Do you want to be a sycophant; a nonentity; a hooligan; a foolish and unreasonable fellow? It is all in your hands. It is the way you think, for the thoughts of your heart direct your habits.
10. You want to be a great fellow or a celebrity? It is all in your hands. Do not begin to tell Me that greatness is inborn. It is not inborn. If greatness is inborn, nobody will be small.
11. Many are poor because of poor enlightenment. If after receiving this enlightenment, you still remain poor and miserable, who will you blame?
12. Will you blame the Son of Man? Will you blame the Message? If your family is not at peace, if your children turn out to be hooligans because of your willful neglect when you are constantly quarrelling and fighting with your husband, who will you blame? This is because if two elephants fight, the grass will suffer.
13. Where husband and wife disagree; where they are at loggerheads, the children must bear the brunt whether they like it or not.
14. Greater peace have they that know the Lord and nothing shall by any means upset them
15. I am praying that this year—not another year—all of you will begin to dream dreams of greatness. Begin to wish yourselves greatness; begin to pursue the things that lead to greatness. I bet you, nobody will ever think of living below the baseline.
16. I want to see all of you succeed. I can see you succeeding already. I can see many of you sitting in places of authority already. Yes! I wish you success.
17. On this note, I say thank you and remain blessed in Him eternally.