SHARPEN YOUR SKILL

“Using a dull ax requires great strength, so sharpen the blade. That's the value of wisdom; it helps you succeed.”

                                                                                                                                             Ecclesiastes 10:10(NLT)

I know you are good at what you do. But I will like to say:  if you are not the best in the world, then you have lots of room for improvement. Even champions fine tune their skills. It may interest you to know, that it is much easier to become a champion, than to remain one. That is clear even from the game of football – only a few winners of the European Champions league have been able to retain their trophy.

Are you working on what you have? Are you improving yourself? No skill in its raw state will make you a world champion; every talent needs to be worked on. It is natural does not mean its gains will come naturally. You must commit time, effort and resources to it. Manny Pacquiao had to train, Messi trains, Givenchy puts in time for finesse, Obama practices his speeches. You also, need to commit to sharpening your skill.

Crude oil serves no purpose until it is refined. Palm oil needs to be processed. Silver must of a necessity go through the refiner’s pot. Gold must passed through fire. The better the process, the more refined the product. Are you undergoing the process of sharpening?

Refuse to stay just as you are. Be diligent about self development. Whatever you are now can still be improved upon.

Studies tell us that the average person only uses 11% of his brain. Think about how much more potential we all could be tapping into. Maybe you’re an accountant. That’s good, but don’t settle there. Why don’t you go get your ICAN, ACCA or CPA license? There’s a new skill you can develop. That gift will make more room for you. Maybe you’re an engineer, a mechanic, a plumber. That’s great, but what steps are you taking to improve? 

I believe in this day and age, if you are at the same skill level today as you were five years ago, you’re at a disadvantage.

We live in an ever changing social system. And a man will soon lose his relevance, who does not commit to self improvement. The only way to stay relevant, is to become more.

Fisayo Adeniyi

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BETWEEN CHOICES

“We are our choices”

-          J.P. Sartre

One of the underlying principles that govern the world is choice. Every man on earth is daily presented with choices. Without fail, we all make choices. And our choices - more than anything else - have the power to affect the outcome of our lives. We are all products of our choices.

Whatever anyone becomes in life, is the resultant effect of choices they made. We all must be careful of what decisions we are making today. We must make choices today, in the light of our tomorrow.

A man in Ilorin, Nigeria who wants to get to Lagos will not choose the Ilorin-Offa road. That road takes him farther away from his desired destination. Are you making choices today that will take you to, or away from your destiny? Our choices have the power to make or mar us. Life always offers us alternatives, and we must always choose. Even in not making a choice, we choose.

There was once a man who was gifted with so much supernatural power. He was a fearless man, a one man army, a deliverer of his people. By his strength and force, he could defeat a nation, a people. He made a choice to be ravished by the love of foreign women (strange women and ungodly women). That was the beginning of his end. Samson’s death came by the hands and tricks of Delilah. Now you may call it love…but the discerning call it choice.

Never make decisions without considering your purpose and the future. Let all your decisions be guided by the power of foresight. Your life is genuinely yours and you don’t have a spare. Value it and guard yourself with all diligence.

 “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live”

                                                                                                                                        -  Deuteronomy 30:19

Be sure to make informed choices; those who don’t, end up being deformed in life.

Fisayo Adeniyi

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GOD'S 3D CINEMA

“We are ready to study GOD, eager for God-knowledge…”

                                                                                                            Hosea 6:3 (The Message)

A time must come when the depth of your perception increases.

You may have caught a glimpse of your tomorrow. You may have received the light upon which you must travel. And at the time when you received it, you were full of hope, totally excited about what God was about to do in and through you. You even boasted about it! But fast forward, a few years later. Your dream is totally out of gas and steam. You only faintly remember the promise of God. You are almost in the place of despair. You are about to give up.

My dearly loved friend, don’t give up yet. What you are experiencing is the leaking of a vision, for truly vision leaks!

But when vision leaks, what do we do? Do we begin to dream of yesterday like we can have it again?  Or do we just forget about it? Friend, we all shall pass through the ‘Valley of Leaking Vision’; that point on the journey when we tarry, and sometimes doubt the actualization and manifestation of our vision.

So what do we do at this tarrying season and in this moment of our lives, for what we do in this time is most important! “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry” (Habb 2:3). But while we wait, it leaks and sometimes it becomes zero level. We no longer believe in it, or we become afraid it might not even be inspired. You want to abandon it. You say maybe it’s not God! Maybe I dreamt wrong! Wait a minute, don’t quit on your vision. You are in the valley but God is saying, ‘come with me let me take you to my cinema, let me show you your future in 3D, come to my movies for I have a 3D experience with you as the main act’

It is appropriate to share with you the story of a man God took to His Cinema; He said ‘Come forth abroad….’ Genesis 15:5

Abram was a giant of old, a pure faith radical, old yet relentless in his pursuit of a God he had come to know. He was living life in a land when God called upon Him, and told him to leave and follow His guide as He leads him to a land unknown. Then He promised that through him, He would make a nation. Abraham believed, he caught the vision and he followed God, but then his circumstances (He was without a child) made his vision leak. He was like us; sometimes circumstances collude against us to make our vision leak. I will have you remember, when your faith shakes and trembles, stay with God for He has revelations in 3 Dimensions that can help strengthen your faith.

So we find Abram in a dejected plea with God in Genesis 15:3 ‘…Behold, to me thou hast given no child’. The vision was leaking. But God did something, He gave him a 3D image – ‘And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be’. God took him through an experience that increased the depth of his perception.

God dealt with the problem by giving him a 3 dimensional vision – He gave him an imagery that dealt with the width, height and depth of his vision. He showed him something that the retina in his eyes could form a two- dimensional image with and his brain processed these two images into a 3D visual experience.  This is what is called Stereoscopic Vision. God’s solution to the ‘Valley of Leaking Vision’ is to take you for a 3D Experience. Don’t give up on your vision, don’t leave God, and don’t run away from Him. Seek to know Him. Get to Him; for in Him, is the revitalization of your vision.

Many times God gives us a vision, a dream about our future and we think that we can actualize it without Him. Stop doing the impossible. Stop living life on the difficult lane. Get to God and let Him provide you with your 3D experience. For He leaves imprints in our hearts that help us focus on our future. When He brings you through the experience, then you will be able to believe. Faith based on insight and revelation is magical. It is the highest level. And after his 3D experience, Abraham believed God and it was accounted for him for righteousness (Genesis 15:6). It is time for your faith to increase, lay hold on God. Let Him fire up your vision, for He teaches His truth in 3D vision.

Fisayo Adeniyi

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TAKING SOMETHING FROM NOTHING

'You cannot put something on nothing, it will fall, and it will certainly fall’.

The year was 2005, and I was in a cartography class. Our first assignment in that class was to write the above words with a Cartographic pen and template. That was a task. But long after the task, these words remained with me. In that statement, is a wealth of truth.

Today’s world -more than any time ever- demands that you use what you have. It demands that you search within and call upon the unique core brand that God has given you. We all have something we can give. We all have been equipped by God; He hasn’t sent anyone into this world empty. Emptiness is a lack of sight and understanding, not the depiction of a void.

I have heard many complain about their lack of talents and gifts. Why would they have been created empty? Why would the Creator leave them as empty vessels? The parable was told of the King who gave different gifting, and talents unto three of His subjects. He didn’t give them equally, nor did he give them the same thing. In truth, he gave them according to their abilities and capacities- but none could complain he had nothing. They all had something. They were all given enough to make impact. Yet one of them hid all he had. He hid it. He was barren. He lived a void life. (Matt 25:14-30, Luke 19:12-26).

Now He that is full of wisdom made a worthy statement, ‘For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him’ Luke 19:26 (Emphasis mine). How can you take from nothing? Wait a minute, I thought he had nothing! How can you take from he who is barren? Let’s explain this in monetary terms. We all have a way of understanding monetary terms. A man has a balance of $0.0 in his account, but someone withdraws $500,000.00 from that very account. Now, either there is a problem with the bank, or there is some information hidden to the man. He may just lack knowledge of what he has.

The Creator has got no problem. The problem is with the uninformed and misinformed man. It is time to give room and a lot of time for self discovery. You are made for bigger things. You are wired for impact. Quit living on Rejected Avenue, quit racing with roaches, for its time to join the elite class of men who are living in the fullness of who they are. You may not have what someone else has, but you have something! You are uniquely woven to impact your world. You are specially branded by God with your special gifts to be you.

Paul and Peter of old summed it up in two separate letters, ‘For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.’ (1 Corinthians 7:7), and ‘As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.’ (1 Peter 4:10).

You were not put here for nothing and on nothing; God gave you something with which to build your life and the lives of others. It is yours; so discover it…and use it!

Fisayo Adeniyi

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STOP THIS, ‘I WISH…’

If there is one thing common to all men, it is that we all, without fail, have gifts. God has equipped you as a solution for certain things on the earth.  We all carry on our insides, treasures, untold assets capable of building us to significance. We all are moving masses of precious things.

However, not everyone is aware of and appreciates their gift. Today I seek to encourage and enlighten you to discover your treasure house. We live in a world where many people are satisfied with ‘Oohing’, and ‘Aahing’ at the gift of others, while inside of them are much more awesome treasures. You are uniquely designed of God to stand out. There is something you have, a precious thing that you trivialize and make common, but which amazingly is unique to you. If well polished, it could be your way maker, your ground breaker and your key to significance. Some people write effortlessly, I have seen people compose songs without breaking a sweat, I have seen people dance as if they were made in that part of heaven where the only thing they do is dance… need I continue?

It is therefore worrisome to note that many people are lost in the land of ‘I wish’. They wish they could be the other person; they wish they had another talent or ability. Stop wishing you were someone else, and start celebrating who you are! God doesn’t make a mistake; He purposely designed you as you are for a reason. He has given you all that you will ever need to make a difference. But until you look deeply within, until you appreciate who you are, until your attitude towards yourself is right, you will continue a mediocre. You life begins with you! 

‘A gift is a precious stone in the eyes of the possessor: whithersoever it turneth it prospereth’. Pro 17:8. 

The verse shares a timeless truth, which is that until you see your gift as a precious stone, it will be worth nothing to you. It is first about the possessor of the gift. Those we salute and celebrate are not super humans; they are folks who have an understanding of how special their gifts (of management, leadership, innovation, help etc) are; therefore they deploy their gifts and their prosperity is assured.

How then do you see you? How special do you think your gifts and abilities are? If you think they are ordinary, then you will deal with them without due diligence, but if you know they are precious stones, then you will do all you can to diligently polish them.

There is only one you, and the world needs your answers. We need your solutions, ways, innovation, grace, care, help, art, skill, leadership etc. You matter to the world. You have within you, the precious stone that shall be the foundation for new frontiers. We need you to release your potential, to polish the gem, to unlock the treasure house that is in you.

My heartfelt desire is that you find grace as you unwrap and polish the REAL YOU.

Fisayo Adeniyi

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Words can KILL....

“Words kill, words give life; they're either poison or fruit--you choose”.

                                                                                                                       - The Message, Proverbs 18:21

One thing I learnt long ago was the import and power of words. Our words are not just mundane things, they shape our worlds. What you become tomorrow is as a result of what you say today. In truth, no other person’s words have as much power over your life as yours. Be careful what you say! Be careful of the word you release.

Last night, I was reading through the book of wisdom in my Bible, I found the words of Solomon, ‘A man's belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled.” Pro 18:20. As I read, light came and I saw what dear Solomon meant. I discovered yet another proof to the greatness of your words, not the words of another. Do note that the word of your Pastor, Prophet or Mentor is not as efficacious as your words. You- and not another person-, have the most right and power over the moulding of your destiny.

Solomon said that your words are seeds, and like every seed, when sown, they must germinate, all things being equal. A farmer eats of the fruits of his seed – whether directly or by profiting. The words you release today are the seeds, the fruit of which you will feed on tomorrow. Many times in life, the things we see don’t just happen, they happen as a result of process. The rain that comes upon the earth at noon is a result of a process that starts far before the noon. Your present state is a result of what started long ago.

What are you filled with today, what are you experiencing today? If your life is full of varying degrees of bitterness, failure, pain, disappointment etc, it may be because of the things you said long ago; you may be eating of the fruit of your mouth. A sure way to change your life is by starting to sow the right seeds. Heaven and earth respect your words – “Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you” Numbers 14:28. Life is more about the seed we sow than about the harvest, for your harvest is determined by the seed sown.

Life is always about the foundation, the beginning. You can’t make changes by focusing on the fruit. You don’t make changes on the product, you change the raw material, and you change the process! If your fruit makes your mouth bitter, your belly and life sour, you need to change your seed, for the seed determines the harvest. We release word, and yes, it’s within our powers but after words are released, the law of seed and harvest takes charge.

Today, understand that you feed on your release; you have with you the power to determine whether your coming years shall be filled with fruit of life or death. Like Solomon was interpreted by The Message, ‘Words kill, words give life; they are either poison or fruit - - you choose’. I know many say that your destiny is in your hands, but permit me to say, ‘it is in your mouth’.

Fisayo Adeniyi

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A LITTLE YEAST

Recently, a microbiology student I know was doing a study on yeast. I was amazed at the multi- types of yeast existing and their varied uses. More astounding is the almost ubiquitous nature of yeast and the fact that it is so important to our survival and nature. The study of yeast has therefore become an important area of discourse to researchers and teachers. The bible also speaks of the yeast.

“A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” Galatians 5:9. That statement is so obviously true. You don’t need much yeast to see its effect on bread; just a little will do the work. But the Bible is not a book for the baker’s son; it is a book for the King’s sons. God must therefore be referring to something that has great significant in our lives, other than mere bread. God has a way of teaching us life lessons from the common things that can easily be understood.

In Galatians 5, Paul started this section of his letter by imploring believers to ‘Stand Fast…”. It is a call to stand firm in Christ’s entire true message; a call also to resist the deceit and the fraud of the enemy. It is in this light that he further said a little yeast is enough to influence the whole bread. The message of Christ does not need much error to be messed up, it only needs a little yeast – little deception, dark revelation, fake doctrines and prophecies.

As believers, we must understand that just a little stain makes us impure. It is Christ or nothing else, the word of God or the devil’s, Grace or Works, Light or Darkness. The Christian race is not an ‘Afro-Christo religion’ or a ‘Christo-Americana religion’. It is completely Christ. You can’t add to it or remove from it. You can’t combine it with religion, tradition or your cultural standards. If it’s God, then it must be completely God. You can’t make a little allowance for deception, lie, re-adjustment of standards, or leaving the ways of God. Your walk with God must be pure and undefiled. You can’t afford to add little drugs, a little booze, a little voodoo, a little bribe, a little sin, a little giving of your body to gain favour, a little lie, a little heresy etc. For just a little of these things will completely ruin your Christian testimony. I remember a song we use to sing a long time ago: ‘God will never readjust the standard of righteousness to the level of man’.

Today, decide and make a commitment to be careful of strange yeast that threatens to derail you from your walk with God and soil your Christian testimony. Christ warned His disciples of certain deceptive doctrines, “Jesus warned, "Be very careful. Keep a sharp eye out for the contaminating yeast of Pharisees and the followers of Herod." Mark 8:15 (The Message).

Brethren God is for us, His teaching grace is available to guide us against error…

Have you ever watched anyone bake with yeast? The just add in a little yeast. At no time do they pray or speak in tongues that the flour may rise. It is just natural; once the yeast gets in, the flour rises. That is how easy and how natural it is for strange doctrines, and error to mix with the pure treasures of God on our inside. My sincere prayer for you today is that you may run well, being unhindered and completely obeying the grace of God.

Fisayo Adeniyi

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THE 300 – The Movie, the People

Sometime in 2008, I saw a movie directed by Zack Snyder and distributed by Warner bros. It was titled 300. It tells a tale of the king Leonidas, himself a Spartan who was faced with the aggression and intimidation of Xerxes, the god-like king of Persia. The movie spoke of how Leonidas’ 300 men almost triumphed over an army of thousands but for a traitor named Ephialtes. The movie was about courage, tactics and a relentless passion to fight for what rightly belongs to one. But unfortunately, the battle claimed lives, of the 300. They were mere men. Despite their courage and great effort, they were defeated.

Long before 2008 however, I was in children church and the teacher told of certain 300 men led by Gideon who defied an army of a nation. This was so like Leonidas but unlike Leonidas, this was reality, this was true and much more importantly, this ended in victory. They were not mere men; they obtained the victory. Faced with great uncertainty, and much disability, they appeared to have no chance of victory. They were outnumbered. They faced an army that was better equipped, more armed and better prepared. But still they had the victory!  The difference maker was Jehovah. By God, Gideon and his crazy 300 men turned a suicidal mission to a telling victory!

Everywhere I look, I see the 300 of my generation, the 300 crazy men of my time. Men who were faced with great seemingly insurmountable challenge in their search for significance; men who have defied all laws, who encountered daunting problems on their march to greatness, yet they conquered, yet they won, and all they had was God. I look back at people who keep winning in the battles of life, and say, ‘who would have thought’.

No one gave them a chance. Life didn’t start good. Tales of silver spoons were things read in books, for these were men brought up with no spoon. Yet despite all, they have risen above their challenges. Yes, they were courageous, believing and relentless like Leonidas. And unlike him, they had an asset: God. He was the difference maker. He was the only force that could guarantee not only their victory, but their life. Now like Gideon, they can tell the tales of their triumph themselves, for they lived to fight another day. These are my gladiators, my Spartans, my 300…they are everyday people.

Some have shot out of poor miry backgrounds, to become kings in their clan. Thanks be to God who gives the victory. This piece is dedicated to all my friends and many more others who I do not even know. I know where you started from, I know where you are today, and this can be nothing but God. Blessed be God for the courage and grace. I raise my wineglass to more victories in your life.

Fisayo Adeniyi

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