PRACTICAL STEPS TO GREATNESS THE SECRETS OF GREATNESS

PRACTICAL STEPS TO GREATNESS THE SECRETS OF GREATNESS A SUNDAY SCHOOL MESSAGE FOR THE YOUTH Preached on 15^th August, 2010 At the Household of God Onitsha By APOSTLE PETER ODOEMENA THE SON OF MAN © BRIDAL FAITH MINISTRY WORLD-WIDE

If God is not a man, how can man relate with Him? Every Messenger of God in every age has always been God-man. As God to save, and as man to make the enemies of God doubt Him, despise Him and reject Him. Yet, in Him is the Almighty hidden. Believe it if you can…

—The Son of Man

(DISPUTE AMONG BRETHREN VOL. 2, PP 3)

God’s plan is that you should soar like eagle. Thus, you must refuse to die like a chicken. Have expectation for good success. Do not be self-defeated. Work hard; pray well and expect a good turnaround. It is your turn to laugh. It is your turn to sing songs of joy. It is your turn to get good and profitable employment. It is your turn to get married and have a happy family. It is your turn to succeed.

As you move forward with confidence and faith in God, you will surely make it and succeed in life. I wish you a great success.

–Son of Man. (DISCOVER AND DEVELOP YOUR POTENTIALS AS A YOUTH, PP 14 & 15,)

A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR:

CONTROL AND CELEBRATE YOUR FUTURE

You can control your future if you want to. This is so because you have the power to control and manage your thoughts to your own advantage or disadvantage. As you think in your heart, so you are.

Honestly speaking, you can change the direction of your whole life if you wish. You are your own self driver with your brain as your steering and your mind as your eyes. Just like the vehicle driver, if you lose consciousness of yourself or lose control of your steering, you are bound to crash.
As the sole driver, you will either drive yourself to safety or to destruction, to success or to failure. The choice is yours.
A good driver that is determined to reach his destination on time and alive too. In addition, he must be very careful to avoid all avoidable obstacles and distractions along the way and focus all his attention on his destination.
For that reason, you can therefore effect a positive change in your life by thinking success, dreaming dreams bigger than your present condition, being diligent, having a strong belief in yourself to succeed come what may, striving earnestly to be above average, inculcating and developing the right attitude to life’s situations and circumstances.
Truly speaking, you can change your situations from bad to good, worse to better and better to best.
The Almighty God created you in His own image and likeness and commanded you to subdue the world and occupy. He therefore endowed you with specific talents, abilities and capabilities that will make you achieve fuller success in life if they are properly harnessed and put into use. As you discover these God-given gifts and talents, develop and employ them to better your lot and that of other people, you are already in-charge and control of your future. The fear of failure automatically vanishes away from you.
To be in control of your future requires that you do not only think success, but you also act success. Successful people are not only those that think success but those who do what the average people are afraid to do.
One of the secrets of success is hard work. No matter how you pray to God, if you refuse to work after praying, till eternity, you will never realize your goal in life. If you refuse to do what you are supposed to do, you can never be what you want to be. Those that really desire and want to control their future are men and women that work very hard.
The surest way to climb the ladder of success is by being diligent at work. Lazy people can never succeed in anything in life except failure. Indolent set of people and sluggards have no bright future to enjoy and control. Be lazy and remain indigent. Be diligent and have a bright future.
If you lack vision, you cannot control your future effectively. If you cannot dream big dreams, your future is bleak.
People with vision, passion and commitment are the people that create good destinies for themselves and enjoy good and happy days in their lifetime. The lazy ones end their lives in despair, sorrow, frustration, anguish and disaster. What a horrifying self-disappointment!
It is high time we started having a firm grip and control of our future. The future and the picture you have painted for yourself must eventually come to you if you do what you are supposed to do. Your future, to a very large extent, lies in your hands.
God has given you all that you need to make life whatever you want it to be, even your good health. You are therefore without excuse, because every excuse is a part of your problem. Your future, therefore, is in your hands to control. You can now choose the life you desire to live. If you want to be pauper, a criminal, an average man, which is a decorated poor man or a king or slave to the society, all are in your hands.
Nobody is born a failure, the same way, nobody is born a success. If you succeed, people will celebrate you but if you fail they will mourn you alive. The world is waiting for you. Any type of life you want to live is a matter of choice because life is nothing but what you make it.
To help you further, I wish to share with you, how you can control your future to your own advantage. Your future depends on many things, but mostly you. You may succeed even if nobody believes in you to succeed, but you will never succeed if you do not believe in yourself to succeed.
Any picture you have for yourself in your mind and in your heart is what you must accomplish at last. Do not build obstacles in your imaginations against your future. Do not constitute your own self enemy. Always note that it is impossible for man to be defeated until he has defeated himself. The same way, it is impossible for man to succeed when he has already failed himself within.
A man that doubts his integrity is like one that carries arms against himself. Give up all the doubts as to whether you will make it or not and begin now to celebrate your future. You are the architect of your own life whether it be good or miserable. You can create your own hell or paradise you will like to live in here on Earth. As you make your bed, so will you lie on it.
As a student, you can decide the type of course you will pursue, the grades you will make, the type of job you will apply for based on your excellent certificates, the type of place you will stay and the type of house you will live.
To have a happy, joyful and successful marital life is also a choice one makes; vice versa. I see a brighter future ahead of you if only you can create time to evaluate your time and life.
Ask yourself questions which you alone need to provide answers to such as; What kind of decisions have I taken that always set me back in life? How can I make a better use of my time, energy and resources? Am I lazy? Have I discovered my talents? Have I come to the climax of my achievements in life? What I am doing now, is it all that this life will offer me? Why am I trailing behind my mates? Am I happy with my present job? Who placed me in this work or business; God or myself? The answers you supply to these questions will help you to reason on how effectively you can control your future to your own advantage.
Life is designed to be happy and fulfilled. Business is supposed to yield reasonable profit. Marriage is to be enjoyed and not endured. All professional careers are supposed to bring alongside with their fulfillments. Examinations are to be passed. Families are designed to be happy. All aspects of man’s life are designed to be successful.
I am afraid that some people, in spite of the fact that they are not getting good results in what they are doing, still carry on with their fruitless efforts the same way, the same place and at the same pace without a change of either the environment or the activities and yet expecting to have a bright future. Such people work without accomplishing anything in life.
If your life is stagnant, if you retrogress instead of progressing, if you always fail in your examinations, if your business is not moving as you desire, if your marriage is not as peaceful as you desire, if nothing is working well with you at all times, the first thing is to stop and check what is wrong. You may be amazed that the solution to the so-called unsolvable problem will be CHANGE.
For example, a student that constantly fails in his examination may discover that what he or she needs is a change of attitude towards his or her studies by embracing diligence, remaining focused and concentrate in his or her academic work instead of being lazy and lousy.
If you desire to control your future, please, embrace change. Nothing in this life is permanent except change. The remarkable difference between the rich and the poor is the ability to change from unfavourable to a favourable pursuit in life. The easiest way to lose control of your future is by remaining in whatever you are doing even when it is not yielding the desired results.
To be in control of your future, you must break your old unprofitable habits, stop being self opinionated and holding very firmly to your long established system of doing things. You cannot sit down on a chair and lift it up at the same time. You must leave where you are for you to be where you want. Any step taken in the right direction, reduces the distance between where you are and where you are going.
You must challenge yourself now and stop sympathizing with your condition. If you hate change, you cannot control your future to your own advantage.
The world will leave to celebrate you if you succeed, but where you fail, the same world will mourn you alive. The world is waiting for you very anxiously. Do not disappoint their expectations.
I will love to celebrate your future with you. Do not fail to invite me as your special guest of honour tomorrow. Strive to make it a reality. Remain blessed.

Apostle Peter Odoemena

The Son of Man

DISCOVER AND DEVELOP YOUR POTENTIALS

If you go to one of our Messages titled “Discover and Develop Your Potentials as a Youth,” it says that in your youthful stage of life you try to discover and develop your potentials.

Note, it says, “DISCOVER and DEVELOP your POTENTIALS.”
When you are in a class where a teacher is teaching, do not write too much but pay much attention to what the teacher is saying for too much writing may spoil you. A good student is not one that writes verbatim while the teacher is teaching, but one that is paying rapt attention.
If you can grasp what the teacher is giving to you, you can even make your notes; but when you are busy trying to record every word that proceeds out of his mouth, you are bound to miss the purpose for the lecture.
For sometime now, I have not spoken to the youth in their class and I believe there is no better time I should give you this Message than this time around you are rounding off your holiday programmes. Those that are in the Universities will be going back any time from now to joining their course-mates in their various schools.
Those that are vying for admission into the Universities, your minds are filled with uncertainties for the whole situation appears to be very, very precarious and unpredictable; for nobody knows the system the authorities will use in offering admission. As a result, many of you are not too sure whether you will be admitted or not. But simply believe in yourself that you will be there and you will be there.
Note, simply believe in yourself that you will be there, even if others do not believe in you, believe in yourself that you will be there and surely, you will be there. How long it takes does not matter, but getting there is the most important thing. Whether it takes you one year or two years, that is not the most important thing.
The most important thing is getting there at last and I am betting that all of you that are really focused, if you have it as your target, time will vindicate what I am going to say in this Message.
Yes! Whatever that may pose as an obstacle on your way to getting admission into the University or any higher institution of learning will only pose a temporary delay and not a permanent denial.
Note, delay cannot be denial unless you give up along the way. For that reason, I want you to consider this Godly Message you are holding in my own way as I am being led by the Spirit of God; be considerate in your way.
Just as I earlier on said in the beginning of this Message, the Message titled “Discover and Develop Your Potentials as a Youth,” says that in your youthful stage of life you try to discover and develop your potentials.
I do not know how many of you that have ever come across the Message or that have taken time to read it.

HAVE A GOAL AND WALK TOWARDS IT

In the beginning of the Message, it opened up with this phrase: “A word from the author; Put Your Name Here.”
Let me see if we have some good historians, or social scientists or social critics in our midst. Each time you hear the name, Late Doctor Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Owelle of Onitsha, what really comes to your mind?
Firstly, you can say it reminds you of the Nigerian Independence. Now, what do you mean by Nigerian Independence? Okay, is he the only one that fought for Nigerian Independence? The answer is no. But he was one of those that fought for the independence of this nation called Nigeria. He was one out of hundred, it was a collective effort.
Also, note, for the fact that the name was mentioned around the Independence does not mean that he was the one that spearheaded it, no! Too many people spearheaded it.
There is one thing I want you to grasp. Is it that he was a great man? No! That is not what I want you to grasp. If I may ask, what made him great? Somebody might say because he made impact in the society. Then the question arises: name one of the impacts he made? I can hear somebody say that he was among those that fought for the independence of this nation called Nigeria. That is true, but I want you to get something higher than that.
You see, if you do not know about those names that were mentioned in the Message titled “Discover and Develop Your Potentials as a Youth,” you might not know why your name should be included there.
Late Doctor Nnamdi Azikiwe is an Igbo man; a native of Onitsha that had a chequered history. I mean most of his materials are around you. Even if you have not read his works, you have heard too many things about him.
Even if you say that Late Doctor Nnamdi Azikiwe had an ambition despite the fact that he was from a poor family; what was that ambition? Some may say, “To elevate the nation.” But that was not his ambition when he joined the Police in Ghana. Before he even enlisted into the Army under the West African Frontier Force, he developed a newspaper in those days called “The National Pilot.”
This was the newspaper he used together with his compatriots to solicit for the sovereignty of this nation called Nigeria from the hands of the Britons.
However, that was not what I was aiming at. Do we say that he spearheaded the independence of some Sovereign States in the Western Coast of Africa? The answer is no for he never spearheaded their Independence. The man that spearheaded the independence of some Sovereign States in the Western Coast of Africa was not even a Nigerian. It was Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, a Pan Africanist of the last order.
For that reason, you must understand that Late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe just followed suit. Thus, the man that spearheaded the revolution that led to the independence of some Sovereign States in the Western Coast of Africa was Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and he paid dearly for it.
Let me just tell you what I want you to understand. The moment you hear the name “Late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe,” what will flash across your mind is that he was the first President of this great nation called Nigeria. He was the first President, whether ceremonial President, parliamentary or whatever you may call it; as long as Nigeria lives as a sovereign nation, the first President of this nation was Late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, while the Prime Minister was Late Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, a Pan-Africanist also, who joined in the race.
Now, you must know what Late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was before he became the President. He was born in Onitsha in Anambra State; note that Onitsha was too backward that time. He came from one of the least privileged families and he made up his mind that he must be a great man.
He took a decision and he never resigned on that decision. He set a goal for himself, as time passed on, he pursued his goal vigorously; this was the goal he set when he was born, that culminated into him becoming the Governor-General of Nigeria in 1960 and the President in 1963; from nothing to something.
When you hear the name Abraham Lincoln of America, what comes across your mind? Abraham Lincoln is one of the great minds that we stand quoting. Up till today, we are still quoting his works, just like the way we quote Socrates, Aristotle and those like that.
Note that Abraham Lincoln of America was the first person that attempted to be the President of America for ten times and then won it on the eleventh attempt.
Abraham Lincoln of America came from a very poor family and through his self-striving; he attained a height in education. By self-striving, I mean that he sponsored himself to great heights and then joined the right political party, called the Democrat. He then contested in the American presidential election ten consecutive times and he failed ten times.
But did he give up? No! He did not give up for he had already placed it as a goal that come what may, his name must be imprinted in the White House as one of the people that ruled America. At the eleventh time, Abraham Lincoln contested and won the Presidential election. Is it not wonderful? Is it not glorious? What can you catch from the little history I have just narrated?
He never relented; although, his target was delayed. However, he got there at last because he had already made up his mind that only death would stop him from getting there.
What can you say about the young man called Philip Emeagwali of Nigeria? You have been hearing about Philip Emeagwali, Philip Emeagwali, yet he is not a doctorate degree holder. He only holds his master’s degree in Computer Science, which he obtained in California, now celebrated in San Francisco. He is not a PhD holder, but he has too many aggregates in computer programming.
When you hear the name Philip Emeagwali, what runs across your mind? Somebody said that Philip Emeagwali is the man that programmed the fastest computer in America, while another said that he was referred to as the father of the Internet. But I disagree.
Some of you that are acquainted with names behind the computer and the Internet, is Philip Emeagwali there? No African name is there. Please, try to crosscheck information, lest you go out and disgrace yourself.
Philip Emeagwali has actually become a force to reckon with worldwide as far as computer programming is very much concerned, but look at what I want you to get there: Philip Emeagwali was born in Onitsha, at Umu-Asele village, in the poorest family behind the Egbuna’s (one of our Brother’s) house. People that accompanied us during the burial of the Late Egbuna, I pointed at the house where Philip Emeagwali was born for them to see.
Philip Emeagwali’s younger brother, called Francis is my schoolmate; we went to school together, and worked together also. We are still friends till today. I know the entire family, from their father to their mother. He came from the most wretched family in Onitsha in Anambra State. Up till today, the shanty or ordinary batcher where Philip was born is still in that compound (as at the time of this publication).
His father was a nurse. He went to Warri and was working there in the Welfare Hospital where Philip had the opportunity to go to school. While at Warri, he made up his mind that he must study Mathematics and Sciences. There was nothing called computer that time.
From Philip Emeagwali’s statement the day we were eating in my house, he was in my house. My wife served us food and all us were eating. I interviewed him seriously before his brothers. He told me that he had something in mind and that was to challenge his cousin, Chike Obi the Mathematician.
He said that they were calling Chike Obi the best Mathematician in Africa, that he was wondering what could make Chike Obi become the best Mathematician in Africa. As a result, he decided to give himself over to Mathematics until they nicknamed him “calculus.”
Actually, he succeeded in outwitting Chike Obi within a very short period. How did he go to America? It was courtesy of his cousin; that was all. He had not anything computer in mind.
You know, computer is a latter-day development. As a result, when he got to America with the ambition to become the best Mathematician, not only in Africa, but the entire world; he associated himself with the Mathematics Club in San Francisco from where he was transferred to Harvard.
Later, he became the president of Mathematics Club in Harvard. Note his target: to become the best Mathematician in the whole world.
While he was working for that club, he was instrumental to the first IBM calculator, not digital, but manual. That was the type you just log in the data and then you pull out the information; it uses paper. Philip was instrumental to it, but his name was not recorded because he was a black (an African).
That time, racial discrimination was very high. The Whites refused to recognize whatever a black man invented or spearheaded until Martin Luther King Junior paved way for the recognition of the blacks in the white man’s school. Philip then came into limelight that time. He was hired to run a programme by the IBM, which means International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), one of the world’s largest manufacturers of computers and a leading provider of computer-related products and services worldwide today.
Philip Emeagwali then decided in himself to become a part of the IBM fully. What happened next? He programmed the fastest computer not for the Americans, but for a club, just like you have the Paris Club. The Paris Club does not represent America or London; it is just a club.
On the other hand, what shoot him up was not that programme. It was his enlistment into the IBM crew. He is now the second in command or you can call him the Vice President of IBM and IBM just like I said earlier, is known as provider of almost all the computers in the whole world.
There is none to compare to IBM, but what I am trying to strike is this. He first of all had an ambition to accomplish and he set a goal for himself. He was all out to challenge one (a mathematician) that was already on the scene and he has achieved it at last.
Today, when you mention Chike Obi, we will say he is of the primitive generation, not of this present generation. There are too many names that are in the Message titled “Discover and Develop Your Potentials”.
Look at Mary Onyali. The name Mary Onyali rings bell worldwide. She has represented not only Nigeria but also the whole African Continent in too many tournaments.
What do you know her for? Mary Onyali remains the only Nigerian athlete that has won a gold medal in the Olympic Games and she is still participating till today.
How did she start? She started her career right from secondary school in the Eastern Nigeria. It was in Owerri Girls’ Secondary School, Owerri in Imo State. She fixed a goal that she would stop at nothing until she had become a star. She continued developing herself until she became an international star.
Furthermore, during the 1996 Olympic Games held in Atlanta, the capital of Georgia in the United States, she won a gold medal in long jump event, the first gold medal a Nigerian has ever won since the history of Olympic Games. Today, she has become a force to reckon with in athletics worldwide.

What can you say about Michael Jackson? Note, I am not encouraging you to become musicians, but I want you to have a goal and walk towards it. Amen.

GREATNESS EXPLAINED

I want to talk to you on GREATNESS. All the names recorded in the Message titled “Discover and Develop Your Potentials” speak nothing but greatness.

The moment you hear the name Bank Anthony of Lagos, it points you to greatness! You hear the name Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, it points you to greatness! You hear the name Achebe Chinua, it points you to greatness! You hear the name Mrs. Ndi Okereke Onyuike, it points you to greatness! You hear the name Prof. (Mrs.) Dora Akunyili, it points you to greatness! You hear the name Margaret Thatcher, it points you to greatness!
I hope I am making a sense.
Thus, greatness is not limited to men alone; women are also involved. If you are a lady, you can also achieve greatness. If you are a man, you can equally achieve greatness.
There is no discrimination in greatness. Nobody is born great. Philip Emeagwali was not born great; the Late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was not born great. Was he? Chief Obafemi Awolowo was not born great. If you know any man you can remember that was born great, tell me. You say Barack Obama, he was not born great.
You say that Philip Emeagwali and Barack Obama studied in America, then the question arises: Were they the only persons that studied in America? The answer is no. Too many went to America and came back without certificate. Some went to America and came back with certificates that are not profitable.
However, Philip Emeagwali had something in mind and that motivated him to go to America. He set a goal for himself and he was all out to achieve greatness. Greatness goes with achievement.
We are living in a society where only few achieve success, while majority achieve failure. Take the city of Onitsha for example. Why are we crying? Why are we lamenting? The truth is that 95% of the people inhabiting or residing in Onitsha, whether indigenes or foreigners are not comfortable. They are poor, frustrated and miserable.
In other words, only 5% of the inhabitants of Onitsha have achieved success. We are living in a society where everybody is clamouring for success, but only few achieve success.

THE MEANING OF GREATNESS

Please, when I talk about success, take off your mind from anything called money. Money does not count for success. Do you believe that? If money counts for success, an armed robber will be called a successful man, a dupe (419ner/fraudster) will also be called a successful man.
However, an armed robber is not a successful man; a dupe is not a successful man. Can you catch what I am saying? A drug pusher is not a successful fellow because whatever he is doing to make that money is injurious to the nation and the society.
People that harass, intimidate and extort money from their fellow human beings, whatever they call their successes are not successes before God and before man.
We are talking about success that comes from your creativity, from your vision, from your self-striving and honest effort. We are talking about the success that comes from the goals or targets you have set for yourself, for it will not only benefit you, but will also benefit all mankind and the society at large.
We are living in a society where many people are vying for success, but only few achieve the real success. Have you wondered why too many people are in the race, but only few will win the trophy? Are we not all in the race?
Who will like to be a failure? Who will like to be a slave in his own father’s compound? Who will like to be a slave to the society? Definitely, nobody! You want to be recognized and seen. You want to leave an enviable legacy. You want to be remembered for something good. Unfortunately, only the minority attains this greatness; majority wallows about in life and ends it up in misery, in disappointment, humiliation and despair.
Greatness means nothing but doing that which others think that it is impossible. Greatness means attaining that, which others might have attempted and failed. If you attempt it and succeed, automatically, you have become great.
Greatness means doing something extra-ordinarily good. Repeating what others have done can never make you great. Walking in an already established path can never take you to a greater height. Greatness is just as we are all walking in our various streets of our different residences, and you see everybody; greatness means doing that which nobody in that street has ever accomplished.
If you can accomplish that which nobody has accomplished in your society, your accomplishment has already made you great in your community. If you attain a height socially, financially, spiritually and otherwise, which nobody within your area has ever attempted, you are marked out in that society as an extraordinary person.
However, if you are emulating the footsteps of others, you are not doing something different from what they are doing. You will also stop at the same level with them. Greatness can never be attached to your name because what you will accomplish in the end will be what the people around you have already accomplished.
Then, what makes you great? If you stop at where others stopped, greatness is not attached to it. Greatness means going higher than people around you. How do you go higher than people around you? You will aspire, desire and dream dreams higher than what you can see presently.
When you fix the right goals for yourself, it is like having good dreams for yourself, goals that are higher than you are, goals that nobody can think you can accomplish. Look at what will happen to you from that time.
The moment you set up that goal for yourself, something you want to be in the nearest future and that thing is by far higher than where you are standing now, and you are bent on accomplishing it, that goal automatically transforms itself into latent energy or latent strength. The goal you have fixed for yourself energizes you. It does not drain your energy; rather, it increases your energy and your stamina – lofty goals, lofty strength and lofty stamina.
Why? This is because you are all out to get there and you cannot stop until you get there.
What is success? What is fulfillment of life? It is when you get to your target or when you arrive to the apex; you get to a point where there is no other prospect of advancement. You have come to the apex of your attainment in life if that apex is exactly the fulfillment of the dream, which you have already dreamt for yourself. It means you have lived a fulfilled life.
If by the time you get to that apex, you look around and there is no other lofty tower, but that tower on which you are, what else do you want to achieve? Everybody around you, the whole world will begin to sing your praise as one that has made it to the top.
Remember, before you take your first step, one, you must know where you are going. In addition, you must know why you want to be there.
Two, you must know how to get there. Always bear in mind that every crooked or every short cut you want to take will make your journey to your destination longer. Note what I am saying.
Every crooked path, you may call it shortcut or apiam way, makes your journey longer. The shortest distance ever known in the history of mankind is a straight forward road between two ends. The straightforward road between two ends is the shortest distance. Any other way will make the journey longer.
As a result, you must know where you are heading to, why you want to be there and the shortest way to get there, which is the straight forward way. Note, no crookedness along the way, no magomago, no I.M., nothing to fear. From the point where you are standing, you can see where you want to arrive at.
Now, take it deep into your heart that any little step you take forward reduces the distance from where you are standing and where you want to be. Any little step you take forward reduces the distance. For that reason, if you want to get to your goal or destination, always be on the move come what may.

THE SECRETS OF SUCCESS

We are talking about Greatness! Everybody wants to be great. You greet somebody, “My friend, how are you?” He will reply, “I am great!” Nobody wants to answer small.
You want to be great and God is saying that this greatness is nothing but what you want to make yourself. It is all in the power of your hands to make yourself great or small, whether your parents are there to help you or not.
Records abound of people that have no parents, yet, they made it to the top, simply because they fixed a goal. They fixed a target and they never allowed anything to distract their attention from their targets; they were focused. In other words, what you need to achieve greatness are: CONSISTENCY, COMMITMENT, HARD WORK and PRAYERS.
Number one, CONSISTENCY: if you try and fail, try again. You try again and fail, try again until you succeed. If you keep on trying you must succeed. Do not give up.
Abraham Lincoln’s philosophy should be your guide. He tried the first time and failed. He never relented; he tried the second time and failed, yet he never relented. He tried the third time, the forth time, the fifth time until he succeeded to become the president of America at the eleventh attempt. But at the initial stage, people were thinking that he was mad but he knew he was not mad. He was determined and consistent. Consistency is the secret.
Number two, COMMITMENT: this means to be committed to your call; to be strongly devoted to a particular mission. When you are strongly devoted and committed, everything that constitutes a problem becomes a challenge because commitment changes problems into challenges.
When you are committed, you will be seeing your target as a challenging responsibility, and no longer a problem.
You should start seeing your journey to greatness as a challenge. What is your problem? “My problem is admission,” you may say. But admission is no problem. Some people are already in the University. If it is a problem, the problem has already been solved because people are in the University already.
Those that are aspiring to gain admission into the University, admission into the University is a challenge and once it is a challenge, your duty is to brace up to the challenge by saying: “If people have made it, I will also make it. If people are there, I will also be there.”
Yet, you have not achieved greatness by doing that for people are already there. If you go there to answer great, what will they answer? Therefore, it is a challenge. Note the previous two things you need to achieve greatness: consistency and commitment.
Number three, HARD WORK: consistency, commitment, hard work – these things are common among great achievers.
The Late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe worked hard to train himself in the University, even at the secondary school level. His parents were too poor; they were peasant farmers residing in Zungeru in the Northern part of Nigeria. In order words, he sponsored himself in Ghana where he obtained his Cambridge Certificate and then proceeded to America. In America, he enlisted into menial jobs, helping himself until he got his first degree and then continued. He worked very hard.
What made him to succeed? He was committed to his target, that nothing would ever stop him until he hit the target and he did hit it in his lifetime. He was consistent. The disappointment he encountered in the West African Police and the West African Frontier Force did not deter him from continuing. He even suffered imprisonment in the hands of the British; yet, he continued. Remember these qualities: consistency, commitment and hard work.
The last one is PRAYERS: when you pray, what prayer will result to is self-discipline, for prayer will bring you under strict control. Prayer will help you to realize those noble objectives you have set for yourself. When you discipline yourself, your journey is made easy.
If you fix a target for yourself and you want to achieve greatness, commitment is there, consistency and hard work are there. However, if you lack self-discipline, you are going nowhere. In other words, you must inculcate self-discipline.
When you combine these qualities, this self-discipline in you coupled with your vision about yourself tomorrow will come together to build a big force in you that will cause you to be selective in the type of friends you will associate with.
When these qualities are in you, they will help you to build a formidable force that will make you to be selective in the associations you keep within and without. You may not know when you are doing it, because the Spirit of God, which is the spirit of success that is already in you has started His work by making you to be selective.
With this, you can hardly fit in with all type of people; you will begin to pick people with similar ambitions with whom to associate. Your brain will begin to sieve information; your brain will not accommodate every kind of information anymore. Your desire for information will change. You will begin to feed your brain with real mental nourishment, which I call nourished mental food.
This is because when you feed your brain with mental garbage, it will produce foolishness. You know what I call mental garbage? Do you know what garbage is?
When you feed your brain with mental garbage, you have already shattered your dream; you have already nullified your ambition for life. Every minute, instead of your brain to process the right information that will take you to where you want to go, your brain will be busy processing wrong, wrong information you stored in it, which in turn leads you to wrong attitude and wrong character.
Whatever might be your target, whatever might be your objective in life, remember that it is your character that will take you there. For character is the driver that will drive you to success.
If you do not have the right character or the right attitude, you will end up having dreams that will never materialize. All your dreams will be frustrated in the pipeline. They can never materialize, even in the next life to come. In the next life to come, if there is something like that, you will never arrive at your target. You will wait until you reincarnate, but you will die before you talk of reincarnation.
What I am saying in effect is that when you associate with fools in the society or if you take counsel from failures (people that have failed, that have thrown in the towel, that are tired of life), what do you think they have to offer you if not foolishness and failure?
If you are mingling or associating with somebody who has failed in life, he will teach you how to fail. If you move with the progressives, they will teach you how to succeed.
Success in your examinations is just a journey and not a destination. Is it true? Your University education remains a journey and not a destination. Until you get to a point where there is nothing left, until you get to the venue of your attainment academically, you are still on the journey; for every success will usher you into another phase of the journey.
You can say that phase one of the journey is BSC/BA/B.ED; phase two is MSC/MA/M.ED, then phase three and the final stage are PhD and Professorship respectively. Then, it means you have attained the climax. You now look around, what next? Where you are now, is it your final destination?
How comfortable are you where you are? Your present stage this day, whether you are in the school, whether you are doing business or craft, I do not care. Once you are a human being and you are within the age bracket, which I call the “productive age,” are you comfortable with where you are? Is this the best you think you can achieve even if you are given the world of opportunity?
After assessing yourself and you discover that you are not comfortable, what effort (s) are you making to get out of this stage? What will pull you out of this stage is when you begin to recognize that greater things still lie ahead, that you are yet to arrive at your destination, that where you are now can never make you great.
Nobody can call you a great man or a great woman now. That is where I disagree with the University undergraduates that answer great when they are yet to accomplish anything. They have not accomplished anything, no certificate to present; yet, they answer great. You are not great; rather, you are on your way to greatness. University education is still a journey and not a destination; that is what I am saying.
Since we are living in a society where many clamour to be great, but only few achieve greatness, who would like to be numbered among the few that will be associated with greatness? Among the youth, who would like to be numbered among the few that will be associated with greatness?
Look at the population of Nigeria; it is about one hundred and fifty million people, yet, less than one million people or persons are great. I am saying that in Nigeria, less than one million people achieved real success. Then, the rest are just beating about the bush. They are visitors to Nigeria, a nation that is endowed with great human and material resources.
What do you want to be tomorrow? What do you want to be from where you are now? Why do you want to be that thing? The life you are living now, your approach to whatever you are doing now, do you think it can take you to that height? Are you looking up to your parents to come and support you? What if your parents will die today? It then means the end of your achievement in life.
I am saying that the weight of the responsibility that lies ahead of you should be enough to discipline all of you. Since you know very well that behind every disciplined child, success must follow, behind every disciplined youth, success must surely follow; why not be disciplined?
The reason why many are not making it in life is because from childhood, they were stubborn, reckless and uncared for. Their parents abandoned them to the mercy of nature. Nobody guided them; their elderly ones even corrupt them more than their parents do. They followed poor footsteps.
There is no way you can follow the foolish and become wise. You cannot imitate the ways of a foolish man and then attain wisdom. Is it possible? Every negative action must produce negative result. When you have these knowledge from God settled down in you, it will widen your vision about tomorrow. You will now begin to see the secrets, which great people discovered.
Greatness is all about discovering the secrets, which others never discovered. When you discover the secrets, which your fathers and forefathers never discovered, surely, you are going to rule your fathers; you must go beyond your fathers.
The secrets of success, the secrets of greatness, which you have now discovered were unknown to your parents. Right now, they are unknown even to your friends and well-wishers. It is not a common knowledge. Go out now, anybody who is a bus driver, ask him what his ambition is, he will simply tell you, “I want to become another Ekenedilichukwu.”
If you ask a bus driver at Nsukka the same question, he will say, “Now, Ifesinachi Transport Company is no more; I want to become another Ifesinachi.”
Nobody is saying, “I want to challenge Ifesinachi by floating an airline. Ifesinachi was a transporter in his day and he paved a way. He is a challenge to me for he rose from a truck pusher to a transport magnet. Now, I am going to float an Airline.”
If anybody from Nsukka comes out with luxury buses tomorrow, has he achieved greatness? He is only stopping where Ifesinachi stopped. On the other hand, if you use shuttle buses like Peace Mass Transport Company, people will laugh at you. However, if you come up with an airline, people will begin to hail you by saying, “We know that you have achieved something; you have a better vision than those people.” This is exactly what God is saying.
What vision do you have for yourself? What are you thinking about yourself whether male or female? You must think about yourself; forget about your parents. Forget about your relations and think about yourself.
Why? This is because, if you are not well positioned, you cannot remember your relations. You have extended families if you are well positioned, but when your position is miserable and very pitiable, you have nothing to offer any family.
God is saying that you should stop thinking about your parents for now; stop thinking about your extended relations for now also. Begin to think about yourself saying, “What am I going to do to become great?” No matter the craft, even if it is fashioning and designing, if you can excel, if you can do it extra-ordinarily better than what is obtainable in that area where you are, surely, you must be recognized as the greatest.
Take for example. The paper I bought recently highlighted a Nigerian lady, she was a fashion designer in America who is the one presently designing all the clothing for Mrs. Obama, President Barack Obama’s wife. You see, a Nigerian fashion designer is the one doing that art. Is it not great? Of all fashion designers in America and the world over, that lady is the only person that is singled out because of her professionalism.
No matter your profession, you can be great there only if you want to be great. But before you want to be great, you must first of all know the value(s) of greatness. Where you do not know the value(s) of greatness, pursuing greatness vigorously will not be your ambition anymore.
What is more, God has decided to give us these secrets of success to enable us succeed even where others fail.
Note these secrets of success: number one is CONSISTENCY: if you try and fail, try again; do not give up. You try and fail, try again. Let your eyes and mind be focused on your target. Tell the whole world, publish it; use your mouth and proclaim it; say, “Wait for me there, if God will grant me life, only time will tell. I am arriving there; only death will stop me.”

COMMITMENT, CONSISTENCY AND HARD WORK

What is poverty? Poverty is a matter of the mind. If you think you are poor, it means you are poor. Once you think you are poor, automatically, you become poor. However, when you open your mouth and say, “I am not poor and I can never be poor,” ideas of how to get out of your condition will begin to flow into your mind.
Watch people that relaxed complacently in their impoverished estates, they are the people that are not challenged or moved by their conditions. They want to remain beggars.
Note it, nobody achieves greatness through begging. Nobody achieved or has ever achieved greatness through depending on others. Has it ever happened? Never, never.
However, people have achieved greatness through their creativity, their visions about life and their honest efforts. The goals they set for themselves are by far higher than their present conditions.
Do not limit your goal to where you are now. You see, a foolish man considers today, while a wise man considers tomorrow. A foolish man or a lazy man labours for today, but a wise man labours for eternity.
Are you labouring for today or for eternity? I am saying that you should struggle today; deny yourself of all the pleasures of life for today, suffer today so that when you begin to enjoy life tomorrow, you will enjoy it until the day you will die than enjoying the pleasures of life temporarily now only for you to suffer sorrows, pains, anguishes and deprivations till eternity.
This is very, very common among traders or businessmen that even spend their profit before they make the profit. When you spend your profit before you make the profit, you are in trouble. It means you want to live in sorrow and deprivation all the days of your life. It means you want to enjoy all the pleasures of this life now, so that sorrow will fill your heart tomorrow.
A wise fellow will rather deny himself of all the pleasures of life now like Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Akintola Williams and the like all did.
All great men ever recorded since the history of mankind were the men that denied themselves of the necessities of life, that they might attain comfortable positions for the future. Watch all of them, they were all focused. Consistency was there. It was consistency and constancy that brought Abraham Lincoln to the limelight he never expected.
Consistency! He never gave up for one day, a man that came from a very poor family. Friends and well-wishers deserted him. No help in sight except this man himself. It was his determination to become great that energized him.
When you begin to complain and murmur when you are being instructed on the way to success, it then means you are giving it a wrong interpretation. You are seeing it as a dissipation of energy. No! Your ambition will not dissipate your energy, rather, it increases your energy.
If you want to be poor, if you are a man, be a man without a project and you will be poor all the days of your life. However, embark on a project, you will discover that gradually, slowly and steadily, you will accomplish the project and when you look back you can hardly imagine that such a thing could be possible.
When you begin to estimate the money you have invested into that project, you will be wondering how the money came: “So, I was able to get this money without noticing it?”
For example, if someone embarks on a four-bedroom flat project as a structure in his father’s compound, by the time he will finish it, he may not know that he has already bought two brand new jeeps; not fairly used or tokunbo!
Besides, he may be wondering whether it can be possible. Go and estimate the cost of the building from the foundation, the blocks used up to the roofing of the whole building, you will be amazed at the huge amount you have already invested in the structure. It will be more than enough to provide you with two brand new jeeps.
Am I making a sense?
Now, what energized the man? The joy accompanies the accomplishment: “If I can accomplish it, the joy of having a house that will be called my own is there.” This is what energized him. Did he pack the money in one place and begin to spend it? No!
However, immediately he embarked on the project, he ignored all the pleasures of life. He cut off every occasion and focused his eyes and attention towards accomplishing the mission.
Note that while embarking on the project, detractors will be there trying to discourage or distract him. Mockers and scoffers will be there laughing at him. Before they know it, the man will pack into the house with his family and those people will be seeking help thinking that he stocked money somewhere. He never stocked it anywhere.
What saw him through? He was committed, consistent and constant in pursuing his objectives. He was committed and determined to succeed in the face of all odds. He never considered his present condition; he was always looking at where he would arrive. He was committed all through.
What did he do next? He supplied the hard work; he did not fold his arms. He worked relentlessly towards achieving his objectives. He disciplined himself through prayers, strong devotions and meditations. He disciplined himself and self-discipline helped him in curbing all forms of ungodly association.
Any association that would not help him to achieve his target, he dissociated from it completely. He began to pair up with progressive people who had progressive ideas to offer him, people that have the same noble ambitions with him. He cut off occasions with foolish people, failures who could have only taught him how to fail.

HAVE A CLEAR-CUT GOAL IN LIFE

In your classes, those that are still in the secondary schools, who are you pairing up with in your schools and colleges? If your best friend is one that is a failure, you are learning how to fail, no more, no less. There is no way you can get any good result from that person you are pairing up with. Can it happen? Never, never.
Why? Because he does not know the value of success. He is only there either because his parents sent him there or because his mates are there. He does not know the meaning; he has nothing in mind; he is not pursuing anything.
Do you know that anybody in this life who has no clear-cut goal or objective for living is a member of the living dead? Once you have no target to accomplish in life, there is no drive, there is no initiative, watch, automatically, you are a member of the club we call the Living Dead Club (LDC).
Are you living? Yes! But you are dead – no accomplishment in life year in, year out. Amen.

UPDATE AND UPGRADE YOUR GOALS

Before I wind up, the last step you will take in getting to the top is full inventory of your achievements. Do it routinely, that is from time to time; take full inventory of yourself and the magnitude of your achievements so far. What will it lead you to? It will help you to recognize the much you have achieved. It will also help you to recognize what lies ahead, that you have not yet arrived at your destination.

In other words, you have not lived a fulfilled life. Your ambition is not yet fulfilled. You are still on a journey and you cannot stop until you have reached your destination. On the other hand, you cannot go further if you refuse to take routine inventory. Watch, as you do this, something else will crop up; you will begin to update and upgrade your goals.
For example, if you are in the University, the moment you get your first degree, you take full inventory and say, “No, I have not come to the realization of my capabilities. I still have the potentials to achieve more. I have not come to the end of my achievement in life. No! I am not comfortable, I am looking for master’s degree.”
With this, you have now updated and upgraded: “No, I cannot remain like this, one room apartment every year. No! It is challenging; I cannot live in one room apartment every year; I have to update my standard of living.”
If you do not update and upgrade your goals, surely, you will be living behind your goals ignorantly. Too many people are living or trailing behind their age ignorantly. They think they are doing well when they are not moving. They do not know they are stationary, marking time year in, year out.
“No, I will upgrade my standard of living; I am packing away from this one room. I am packing into two rooms. Come what may, I am packing into two rooms – one for my bedroom, one for my parlour. I am moving away! I am not uncomfortable; I will stop decorating this one bedroom.”
Because you are taking full inventory of yourself, you have looked around, you have surveyed yourself, your destination cannot be one room, otherwise, you have become a failure in life. You will get to a point where your destination point will no longer be a bungalow. You will say, “No, I will update it; I will upgrade it. All the facilities I am enjoying here, I must enjoy the other way.”
If you do not update and upgrade your goals, you can never achieve greatness because what will lead you to updating and upgrading your goals is full inventory of where you are. You will notice that where you are is where too many people are already. Too many have already arrived there. Do not settle down there; move further for you cannot be great if you settle down. What will make you great is already ahead. It is still ahead, not where you are now.
What I have been saying from the beginning of this Message are the secrets of greatness, which our fathers never discovered. Some that went to schools and colleges, even to Universities, read and obtained good certificates, but came out without discovering these secrets. They hold those certificates and still remained poor.
These are privileges we are enjoying in Christ – God coming down to teach us concerning life and godliness so that we will never in this life murmur or complain.

WRITE YOUR BIOGRAPHY

Nobody is born great and nobody is born small. Nobody is born rich, neither is anybody born poor. Whether greatness or smallness, wealth or poverty, it is exactly what you make yourself for life is nothing but what you make it.
If you take a decision the way you want to live your life, you have taken a decision the way you want to end it. Once a man takes a decision concerning the life he wants to live, he has indirectly taken a decision concerning the type of death he will die and the type of legacy he will leave behind. For the life you are living today and its accomplishments will determine the legacy you will leave behind for your children to enjoy, for the world to talk about you.
Always remember that the world must surely stand to talk about you. Are you living a life where the world will stand to talk about you? If the world will begin to talk about you tomorrow, what will they say concerning you?
As youth, it is not a crime, I want to give you this assignment: get a plain sheet of paper or ruled sheet of paper; use your own hand and write your obituary. It is not a crime.
Nothing inspires a man to higher heights more than writing his obituary. Write your own obituary notice while you are alive. Do you know what obituary is all about? When you write how long you have lived on Earth, remember that how long you lived on Earth depends on how comfortable you are here on Earth. If you are not comfortable, surely, you will not live long on Earth.
Please, forget about natural occurrences that befall human beings. Writing your obituary means writing your accomplishments, which people will begin to rehearse after you: “Oh! We are mourning this man; he was a great man. Look at what he did!”
What you would like to be remembered for is your obituary. What you will be remembered for is what you have accomplished when you were alive, the type of life you lived when you were alive, the impact you made in the society. Life is not all about making contact, but making impact. Some people come into this world only to make contact, but they do not make impact.
You can make contact even in your families, you can make contact with your parents, but no impact, nothing to impart in the living. What a miserable and pitiable condition! It is a pitiable condition for one to make contact and pass on or give way without making a great impact.
When you make impact in the hearts of your parents, you become the envy of your parents. They will hail you, you can hardly find anything difficult unless they cannot afford it. Where they cannot afford it, they can even borrow to sponsor you. This is the same in the House of God.
Your obedience to the Messages you have received will help you to make great impact in the Heart of God. In addition, when you are making good and positive impact in the Heart of God, He can never leave you alone. He will establish all your plans for you so that by tomorrow, you will only say that God is your Helper. You will attribute your success to God.
Who is that great man tomorrow? It is that man that will fix a target for himself and will never draw back. Fix a target for yourself and never draw back; pursue it vigorously and surely, you will be there.
We are writing histories. We are writing our biographies and autobiographies. Write your own biography. What and what will be documented in your biography? The essence of life here on Earth is not to roam about in it and pass on, but to make solid impact, not only in your family, but in the society at large.

WHAT IS YOUR TARGET?

Greatness is associated with habit, the achievement you make academically, spiritually, socially, politically and otherwise.
How many will like to be poor? How many will like to be failures? Surely, nobody!
Remember we are living in a society where everybody wants to be great, but only few achieve greatness. Besides, the few that achieve greatness are only those that discovered the secret of attaining greatness. These secrets are the things I have conferred to you in this Message. If you walk by these concepts, your name must come into the annals of history.
If you walk by the light of what you received even in this Message, surely, your name must be written in gold among the great names that have featured here on Earth.
You ask me about myself, I will say, “Yes! It is a good question to know about me.” I told my children and I will keep on saying it wherever I go that I transcended from the pedigree of Aristotle, Socrates, Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Showes, S. Armstrong and the rest of them.
I would like to live to be quoted as a great mind, not as a feeble mind. Anyday I leave the scene, people will say that of a truth, greater than Martin Luther King (Jr) appeared here on Earth. I will leave something behind, which people will stand quoting in all generations. That is my own target.
What is your own target? Define it very well and if you do not know the way, ask people that know the way; but God has already shown you the way. No matter what your target is all about, I have espoused all of you to the way.
As a result, you know the place and the way. You can get there even without somebody leading you. You can get there even without the support of anybody provided you bring together all these secrets. Allow them to build a formidable force in you and let that force be transformed through prayers, into latent energy that will help you accomplish it.

STOP SEEING PROBLEMS BUT CHALLENGES

Remember that every crooked path you want to take will make your journey longer than necessary. Stop seeing problems; begin to see challenges. EVERY CHALLENGE will only DELAY your arrival to your target, but will not DENY you from arriving at your target. Delay is not denial; financial constraint can delay, but it can never deny you of your destination. If it is financial impediment, it is a challenge; it can be conquered. I do not care what that obstacle might be; you can remove it if only you will be determined.
Say it within yourself, “I am going to be a surprise in my age. I am going to be a surprise in my family; I am going to be a surprise in my village. Wait for me; you will see me arriving there. Pray for me that God will help me to stay alive. I am arriving there; I will surprise everybody.” Say it within yourself and work towards it. Do not ever change your mind on your decision. Be focused; surely, if you do not arrive there within the shortest time limit, know that I am not from God; know that I am deceiving you.
What I am imparting in you has nothing to do with religious practices. Amen.

PART 2

COMMENTS AFTER THE SUNDAY SCHOOL WITH THE YOUTH

WE ARE LIVING IN A CHALLENGING WORLD

WE ARE LIVING IN A CHALLENGING WORLD

Have you ever asked yourself why many people are in a race, but only few win the trophy? Have you ever asked why? Who are the people that win trophies? They are the people that discover the secrets before they enroll in the mission. They have discovered the secrets, they know where they are going, they know the way, they know the joy that will accompany it.

Stop eating your cake before you produce it. Stop spending your profit before you make it. You have not made any profit and you have begun to purchase items. What if the profit does not materialize, then you will become a debtor.
Volunteer to suffer today, deny yourself of all the pleasures of this life today so that you will enjoy life tomorrow, and even forever. Suffer today and enjoy tomorrow. Stop living a pleasurable life now so that you will avoid living in pains tomorrow. Do not start rejoicing now for God knows all of you in this Faith.
No matter how well placed you think you are, I am saying that you are living in euphoria; you do not know where you are. Believe it if you can. No matter how well placed you are, you will notice that your expenses are greater than your income and they will keep on increasing with every passing day.
Do your homework very well; you will see that God has never fooled you. There is no room for comfort in a growing family. Any family where the members are takers, anybody that is running a family where the children are still takers is running a growing family with increasing demands.
Therefore, there is no room for comfort. This is why you must understand where you are.
If you are a public administrator, you are administering the programmes of the public. You are on appointment or an international manager, I call you a chief manager. If you are a manager, you are managing nothing but human resources.
In all however, you are a manager, managing finances, managing human resources, managing assets whether you like it or not. Besides, your greatest asset remains your brain and you must protect it. If your brain is not your asset it then means it can never be protected. Out of your brain comes every human plan that will move you either forward or backward.

EFFECT A CHANGE

From your brain, you will know what you are going to be. From your brain, you will know that you are going to be either great or small. You may even go where you will hang yourself; it is all from your brain. The same brain will ask you to sit down.
Must you remain in this condition forever? Who placed you in that condition? Now is a very nice time. If we can recognize who we are, check all the excesses of life; face the challenges ahead of us, tomorrow will be better for us.
God said that any child born in a family is an additional responsibility. The children have their own challenges and parents equally have their own challenges. Thus, we are living in a challenging world. The world is steering us on the face. This is our time and we must convince ourselves and the world around us that we have made no mistake identifying with the Almighty God in our own generation.
If you have the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom and the counsel of the wise, foolishness will run away from you. Stop mingling with fools; stop associating yourself with failures, people that are not moving forward. They have nothing to offer you. They are teaching you the way that brought them even to their present condition. What they will teach you is what they know. They cannot teach you what they do not know; and watch somebody who lives such a life; he accepts every condition he finds himself in. Every condition he finds himself, “That is how God wants it. After all, every man must go the way he is ordained.”
In order words, God ordained you that way. No! God never ordained you that way but you ordained yourself that way. It is the choice you have made for yourself that has placed you where you are now. Your parents never made the choice for you. God never made the choice for you; you decided to make that choice, but man is subject to change.
If you have made a choice and the choice is not favouring you, why not reject it? How long must you remain there? People over sympathize with their conditions. Stop all sympathies for your condition and then battle your condition out! Thus, your condition is a sign of weakness on your side. The condition is a sign of weakness because you have not given it the battle it deserves. Battle it out of your way! Come out fully and say to yourself, “I am a human being full of knowledge and power to effect changes. I am to decide what I want.”
If your brain is functioning well and you are courageous, coupled with the fear of God, you will get what you want. Things will go the way you want, not the way they want. After all, are you not the one that woke up one day and said you must marry? Why did you wake up and say you must marry? It is because you desired to have children. What is more, as you pursued it, you got married. As you got married, you began to have children. Is it not true?
Were you born with a wife? Were you born with children? Why must we mourn our useless conditions as if we have come to the end of our achievements in life? You have not come to the end of your achievements in life, unless you have concluded that you are now unprofitable.
The moment you have concluded yourself unprofitable and useless, you have come to the highest point of your attainment in life and at that point, anything that is introduced to you must faze out.
However, one that has never come to the fullest of his attainment in life will always be pressing for higher heights, never satisfied with the present condition. He looks away from today and sees ten years ahead.
Another problem you are having is having very short projection but life is not like that. The youth, remember what I told you that your goals should be bigger than you. What you want to be tomorrow should be by far bigger than what you are today. It should be bigger than the resources of your parents. What you have in mind to achieve without the help of your parents or relations should be by far loftier than your parents’ resources.
Do not have your dreams based on your parents’ support but have your personal dream – how your journey through life will be is based on your capabilities. For there are too many that attained greatness without knowing where their parents were.
They were orphans; they had neither relations nor any help in sight, yet, they attained greatness. Do not build your hope upon your parents’ resources; build your hope upon your capabilities for many have made it. You can make it also.
Let your dream be bigger than who you are. For that reason, the Message is narrowed down to us. If you want to achieve greatness, embark on projects greater than your income. The goal you set before yourself energizes you more than anything else. The goals you set for yourself, the target you have in mind, that which you want to achieve can never drain your energy rather it is going to be in form of strength.
The man that embarked on a project said in himself, “I am going to erect this upstairs come what may,” this was at a time he had little or no resources. As time went on, he moulded the blocks and laid the foundation. The building became a challenge; the building challenged him everyday. In every kobo he got, the building gulped a half of it. For the responsibility a man carries does not wear him down; rather, it energizes him.
One that embarks on his project, running the project based on what they call “one year one block”, yet, the man is accomplishing his target. They might be thinking that he stocked money somewhere, no money was packed anywhere. It was just step-by-step.
Everyday he took a step forward. Every year he took a step forward. Before we knew it, the journey that started one day ended with joy.
Once you fix the target, determination is there in spite of all odds. When the goal is fulfilled, great joy will accompany your accomplishment. When you accomplish a great thing, the world will sing your praise and rally round you.
If you continue believing and abiding in the Messages of the Son of Man, I am sure and certain that once you have attained a height no man has attained in your environment, the world will celebrate you. However, when you fail, the world will mourn you.
Why not say with your mouth, with all your hearts, “I must live to be celebrated by the world. The world will not mourn me; I must be celebrated”.
That obnoxious and retrogressive way of thinking that a man does not succeed unless he cheats is useless. When they see a man that succeeds a little, even without coming nearer, their tongues will be waging which is confession of inferiority, that he has done this or that. On the other hand, if you verify very well, you will find out that the man is as innocent as innocent can be.
In the mothers’ class, my wife was teaching them how they ought to co-operate with their husbands so that the family would move forward; so that the objective of the family would be realized. She told them that any woman that was not co-operating with the husband was indirectly frustrating everything in the family.
Now, how do you co-operate with your husband in the monetary aspect of the family since that is where your help is needed, that the weight of the family shall not be borne by your husband alone?
Any little contribution you are making in the family means something. It is a big relief. No matter how small that contribution might be, whatever you can do as a mother to reduce the cost of running your family must surely reduce the expenses of the man. It is a big encouragement to reduce the cost of running the family to the barest minimum.
Nevertheless, where you want to buy everything from the market, you do not know how to make something out of nothing; you simply fold your arms; you will request money for soap, money for cucumber, money for tomatoes, money for powder, money for this and that. Even if the man is the holiest angel, he must complain. Even if the man is the greatest rock feller in Nigeria, he must complain.
Thus, I am saying that women must look inward; be creative in your domestic offices. Trim down, from time to time, the tree of the family’s expenditure by using little money to provide those things that are necessities in the home.
You can provide pap for the family without rushing out every morning and the man’s absolute strength will be renewed. Even the one you call Soya milk, you can prepare it to the taste of your family; and many other things you can prepare, thereby reducing the cost of running the family.
You can also engage in petty trading. Those that have already engaged in petty trading, you have nothing in mind while establishing it, for if you are looking forward and looking backward, you will not go far.
This is why our mothers are not doing well in petty trading. They do not know that God can use that little business to bless their homes. To men, how many years will it take you to stabilize? What efforts are you making to establish yourself? How long will your wife carry you before you will be established?
Or are you depending on your wife every year simply because you have inculcated a bad habit of eating without contributing, dodging your responsibilities, passing the ball to your wife only to assume the head? Think about it.
Do not sleep over this matter until you solve this problem. Almost everybody aspires to be great, but only few people achieve greatness. Is it not disturbing? Why must I not be numbered among the minority that will attain the greatness? Put your name there, man or woman.
A woman can be great; a man can be great. Both can be great; if you do not know, know it now.
If you are a real child of God, what is that obstacle that you cannot surmount? The vision you have for your family will help your children a long way. Anytime I want to be seen, what will people be saying concerning me? Will they celebrate me or mourn me?

POVERTY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVILS

Stop sympathizing with your condition, showing unnecessary sympathy with your condition. Do not bury yourself when you are alive! Poverty ruins life; poverty is the root of all evils, not money.
What is leading people to robbery? Is it not poverty? What is leading people to prostitution? Poverty! What is leading to kidnapping? Poverty! What is leading to every kind of evil act? Frustration leads to suicide. Bribery and corruption is as a result of poverty.
Therefore, money is not the root of all evils; the root of all evils is poverty. Poverty can even lead a man into drunkenness. Yes! In the attempt to ease out his frustration, he takes to drinking. Poverty can lead to every kind of evil character. Poverty can make you to be an entertainer or a public nuisance.
Poverty can make you a town crier; poverty can make you a master of ceremony. You become a decorated chief only to narrate the activities of the day. Money is not the root of all evils.
When one is filled with frustration, it leads to premature death; it leads to an unfulfilled ambition in life. Nothing humiliates a man more than poverty.
Moreover, you are poor because of your inability to control your mental faculty by feeding it with the right information that will fight against poverty. You are poor because you are comfortable with your present condition. The moment you feel uncomfortable, you must look for a way out.
However, with the knowledge you have acquired from God, I am looking forward to seeing a people that will be capable of changing the world, a change for the better, not changing for the worst.
I am sitting down because I am comfortable sitting down. Any day I am discomforted, I will stand up. You are enjoying your condition because you are feeling comfortable with it. Change is not necessary if you are comfortable.
I want you to stand up before it becomes very late; all hands must be on deck. I have unveiled the secrets of success intending that tomorrow, great men and women are going to come out from our families.
These are practical steps to greatness.
If we do not attain greatness, let us lay the foundation of greatness for our children. This is my prayer to all of you.
On this note, I say thank you and remain blessed in Him eternally. Amen.