Transcript: Breaking Out Through Transformation
Prepared from the audio, so small errors are possible.
Just like a soldier, going to battle, Garrett himself with every armor needed for battle and for winning. So believers must guard themselves with the gospel of peace, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Join apostle Emmanuel as he teaches God's word to equip you for a victorious life on earth. This is believers equip. There is almost always that season when someone rises up and starts to speak against the subject of prosperity in the church. I mean, this has been happening as far back as I can remember, even down to the days of abject poverty in the church when voices like Bishop David Oyedego started rising up and preaching that God desires that men should prosper. There were voices that rose against what he was preaching and people have different opinions. People had different opinions about it. Some people stating that it is not within the premise of the gospel. Some people stating that it is a materialistic gospel.
Some people stating all kinds of things. Now I'm not... I've never been one to jump in on arguments, to make my own point known, or to give my own take on a subject, especially in moments of public debate. I'm not one to jump into such conversations because I believe in standing firm on the truth of scriptures. And it is also my belief that if you have... If you are well taught from scriptures, if you're well taught, if you're properly taught, Conversations like that would not shake the foundations of your belief. It won't be the end of it, it will still always come. It will still always come. Next year it will come. Two years to come, it will come.
When you give birth to your children, there will still be people who are having these same conversations. There will still be people. And in those days, the people that they are fighting will now be you because you would have become so prosperous. The warfare is always against the rich. Why should a man own three private jets? Why should a pastor have a private jet? Why should a man of God drive a good car? Why should a believer live well and live comfortably? And when this becomes the experience of people, you know, different people have opinions as to that. And very soon you...
It would be your life that they would have that opinion for would not I would not care much as to the conversations people have. My responsibility as a man of God is not to debate and to join in argument. It is to establish those that God has given to me in the truth of Scripture as regards the will of God for their lives. Are you with me? Yes, sir. There is something that almost every single teaching or sermon on prosperity gets wrong. And because they get it wrong, millions of people sit in church after church, conference after conference, hearing messages after messages about financial breakthrough, about prosperity, and then they go home and then they return the following year in exactly the same position that they were in the year before. Sometimes even worse. And the error is not in the desire to help those people. The error is in the diagnosis.
Because when you diagnose a problem wrongly, the treatment you prescribe will never cure the problem. Will never cure the patient as well. Are you with me? You can give the right medicine for the wrong disease and the person will not get better. No matter how potent that medicine is. And for generations, I've observed with many people who attempt to teach the subject of prosperity is that the church and the world alike have been given the right medicine for the wrong disease when it comes to poverty, when it comes to financial suffering. Because what we do is that we keep on trying to change the circumstances of the person. And our our our medications are always around the circumstances of the person. So we hold meetings and conferences around the circumstances of the individual. We hold prayer meetings and conferences and teach sermons that attempt to change the circumstances of the individual.
Are you with me? Yes, sir. But then the inner world of the person whose circumstances we are trying to change has not yet been touched. And it doesn't work that way. It has never worked that way. It will never work that way. And that's what gives birth to frustrations. A lot of people genuinely believe that if my situation changes, my life will change. And it it sounds logical. It sounds reasonable.
I mean, if you... Somebody is going through something that they consider to be a terrible experience, with respect to financial scarcity, lack, and poverty. And then you tell them or you give them a promise that if you come to church, there is a breakthrough service going on, the pastor just has to release a word and your situation will change. See, and it sounds logical because if my situation changes has my life not changed? If what is happening to me changes, has my life not changed? A lot of people believe that what they need right now is a change of circumstances, a change of situation. In fact, their greatest expectation in coming to church is for the power of God to turn things around. You hear this kind of lingo, is that not so? And it's possible. Don't get me wrong.
It's possible. It happens. Scripture has shown us that it is possible for a man's circumstances and situations to be turned around. It is possible for God to intervene in the affairs of men. I believe this. It is my expectation as well. Are you with me? But when we talk about the subject of wealth, especially sustainable wealth, not not just stability. The subject of wealth. Abundance.
The subject of the wealthy place that the Bible promises the believer. The subject of the promised land. That place of abundance. It is important that believers study how we enter into the promised land. Because that promised land is that place where a lot of believers are looking to end. That's the land flowing with milk and honey. Is that not so? That's the land of many rivers. That's the land where the the the fruits of the land are as big as what you could imagine. That's the promise of God.
That's the eventual promise of God for the believer. But it's important that you study the route of the Israelite in getting there so that you know exactly how God has patterned for believers to get there. Are you with me brothers and sisters? Because you would then understand that how we think God approaches the mother is not how he does. People spend years trying to change circumstances, looking for a better job, looking for a bigger opportunity, looking for financial breakthrough, looking for a helper somewhere. And these things are beautiful, and God does God does... He does these things. And we believe that the moment the environment shifts, everything will finally become better. But you must understand understand this. Whenever God is dealing with a man, God does not start with his situation.
God starts with the man. Because if it changes your situation without changing you, you will reduce that new situation back to the level of the person you currently are. This is the teaching that most people are not ready to receive and I'm going to be saying some things that might you might struggle with a bit. Because it is deeply uncomfortable. It requires you to look not at your situation. But at yourself. And most people don't like to hear that. It requires you to look not at what is happening around you, but at what is happening inside of you. Not at what is in your bank account, but at what is in your mind, what is in you. It looks far fetched, but it is true.
And I really pray that you understand what I'm teaching you today. I really pray that you would. Oh, thank you Jesus. Romans chapter 12 and verse two, popular scripture. Do not be conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Paul did not say, just be praying for your circumstances to change. He said be transformed. The word transformed is the Greek word metamorpho. The same root from which we get the word metamorphosis.
It's the process by which a caterpillar becomes a butter fly. And what is important to understand about metamorphosis is that that change does not begin on the outside. That change begins on the inside. The caterpillar does not look different first and then now changes internally. Something happens on the inside of the caterpillar first and then externally the reality now flows outward. That is the order. It is internal first, external second, always. You can see that pattern all through scripture. God did not give the Israelite the promised land when they were crying in Egypt for deliverance. God brought them out of Egypt.
That is true. But before taking them to the promised land, he spent time dealing with them. He spent time reshaping them. He spent time teaching them, correcting them because he understood something that they did not understand. That a slave cannot manage a promise. But if you put abundance in the hands of a man who still thinks like a slave, who still thinks like a survival, he will mismanage it. He will fear it. He will misuse it. Eventually, will lose it. So God's system is consistent.
He upgrades the man before he upgrades his circumstances. Are you with me? You need to settle this in your mind that circumstances do not determine outcomes. The version of you operating inside that circumstance does. Again, the circumstance is not what determines the outcome of your life. It is the version of you that is operating inside a circumstance that eventually determines the outcome. It means that the circumstance is not the outcome. The circumstance is not the final say, especially if it is not what God has said over your life. Are you with me? Because the bible says better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.
And I caught a revelation met some time ago in that scripture. I saw that if the story of my life is not better than how I started, considerably so. And how do I define better in this regards? Bible says, thou shall increase my greatness and comfort me on every side. A little one shall become a thousand. The Bible says, though your beginning may be small, your later end should greatly increase. That means better in the context is great increase. So when the bible says better is the end of a thing, it defines that better somewhere else as though your beginning may be small, your later end should greatly increase. It means if whatever story that is being written about my life right now does not resemble great increase, then I'm not at the end. Do you understand what I'm saying?
Yes, sir. It can't... I'm not at the end. If the story is not currently looking like what I've seen in scripture, I'm not at the end. That means that is not the outcome. The circumstance of my life at that moment is not my outcome. So what determines the outcome ultimately is the version of the man that is going through it. Do you understand what I'm sharing with you? Circumstances don't determine outcomes. If the version of you that is going through circumstances do not change, nothing really changes.
So what many people call breakthrough is only actually a temporary relief. Because the internal structure has not shifted. Pressure lives for a moment in times of breakthrough, then returns again because the person remains the same. So what we call interventions or what we call miracles are just temporary lifts. It is not the ultimate expression of the will of God for a man. What many people call breakthroughs is the experiences of the Israelites in the wilderness. Mana coming from heaven. Is that not so? But it is temporal. Even though it's a miracle.
It's a miracle that mana comes from heaven. It's a miracle that water comes from the rock. Water is not designed to come from the rock. Is that not so? Water comes from the earth. But when they were in a place and a situation where rocks was what was around them. And they had not yet gotten into the promised land where there were many rivers. By default, if you get there, they are rivers. That means water is not your prayer request in the promised land. Do you understand what I'm saying?
That's the promise God made to them. Exodus chapter three verse eight. Verse... Let's start from verse 10. Next verse. Out of Egypt. Is it eight? Like, give me eight. Let me see eight. Alright.
So I've come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good land. Can you see that? To a large land. To a land flowing with milk and honey. To the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Evites and the Jebusites. And all these people are so invested in this place. And God said it's theirs. All the investment of these Hittites and Amorites belongs to them. No wonder it calls it a prepared blessing. It means some people have prepared it for you.
And whilst they were building, they never knew that it was you they were building for. Because it was not as though God came to them and said, build for my son. They were just going about there. God is taking us is just like this. People have labored, and they've not yet seen the reward of their labor. For others, people are laboring, are seeing the reward, but even the reward does not belong to them. That's why in another place the bible was speaking and he calls it He says, he said, he said vineyard you did not plant. Houses you did not build. Even land you did not buy. That is what God promised them.
A settled place, a place of rest, a place of peace. The wilderness is not a picture of that place, but there were miracles in the wilderness. Do you understand what I'm saying? There were provisions in the wilderness. Meat. There was meat. Quails came and started dropping. They were killing quails and they were surviving. Mana wasn't the only miracle that there was. There was a miracle of meat.
There was a miracle of water. Is that not so? There was the miracle of bitter water even becoming sweet. But you would not even have to need that miracle if you were in a place of milk and honey. Everything there is sweet. But now you are out of place. And because you are out of place, you are experiencing bitterness. So you need a miracle, an urgent miracle that turns bitterness into sweetness. You'd agree with me that these kinds of breakthroughs are not sustainable. It can't be the will of God for the believer.
That the kind of provision God expects for you is the kind where you jump from one level of embarrassment, then God comes to come and deliver you. And the next month, you are in another one, then God comes to come and deliver you. Then you need something again, and then God comes to deliver you. And then you are trusting God again, then God sends somebody, and your life is just in an episode on a cycle of needs and wants. That is sustained by God anyways. Don't make it the promise of God for the believer. Do you understand what I'm saying? Don't make it so. So what I've always been interested in is that realm of abundance. Because that's the promise and my life should not look anything other than the promise.
In business, in finances, in family, ministry. I don't accept any reality that does not look like what God promised me. And it is important in understanding this. Perhaps venture, there is somebody else here who has that desire. It would not come to be because your situations changed. How people enter into that reality is not that the situation changes. It's not that all of a sudden things just turns around. Because when you study the story of the children of Israel, that is the typology of the life of the believer and how a believer travels from salvation into inheritance, you realize that this was not what happened. So it is some kind of delusion to live and expect that you would enter into abundance just because circumstances changed. Are you with me brothers and sisters?
Let me look, take you through. Me show you a Bible verse. Emilio amplified classic. How much is good everybody? If you can see it, let us all read it together. One, two, three, go. Other translation uses minds. As the people change their minds. Amplified classic shows you what they are changing in their mind. Is the purpose.
The purpose of the deliverance itself. What is the purpose of the deliverance? It says, I've come to deliver them out of the hand of Egyptians into a land flowing with milk and burning. So that he can separate them to be a people unto himself. He calls them a holy nation, a royal priesthood. They were to be preserved. So that the seed can find expression through them. But God said that in this promise finding expression, there was a quicker route that we could have taken them through. But we saw that taking them through that route would have avoided a lot of hunger. Do you agree with me?
Because it would have meant that they would have just entered into abundance straight. So it means many of the things that would have meant situations changed. That's what believers think would happen. That would have meant that the situation just changed. That you were formerly slaves one day and then few, everything just turned around and the circumstances now changed and you just woke up in wealth and woke up in abundance. And God said no. There's a kind of person you have to be. A kind of man you have to be. And that kind of man is the one that enters into abundance. He's the one that enters into wealth.
And to show you the tragedy of the reality of the absence of transformation in the life of several believers, which is the reason why we never enter into abundance. A a truckload of believers stay within the confines of the wilderness and die there. Not many people ever taste the kind of wealth that that that the bible promises the believer. And it is true. Unless we want to lie to ourselves. If you read how people in scriptures were blessed and the kind of wealth they carry, you realize it's not the experience of many believers. And it is because we've not submitted ourselves to the process of transformation. And the first people who were meant to become adulterations and a model that God was patterning our lives after also failed in that assignment. Because that entire generation, transformation failed in their lives. They died in the wilderness.
They never enter into that that same reality. Glory to God. Now, when you begin to look at life through this lens, especially in the area of finances, you will realize that people are not just in different income brackets. They are operating in different realms. There are three major financial realms that govern how people live, how people think, and how they respond to life. And I was teaching a group of people this, and I failed to communicate the same thing to us. The first is survival. The second is stability. And the third is wealth. I mean, is general knowledge in economics, but there is something I wanna show you.
Let's talk about survival because one of the weapons of survival is that it normalizes itself. When you have lived inside a difficult financial reality for a long time, It stops feeling like a problem. It starts feeling like life. Are you with me? And once a problem feels like life, you stop fighting it. You start accommodating it in your mind. You start building your expectations around it. And that accommodation is one of the ways survival extends its tenure of existence in your life. Survival is not just earning a low income. Survival is a condition where life is controlled by immediate needs.
That's the first realm of existence financially that people live in and it wouldn't amaze you that According to statistics 50%, 40 to 50%. This is like what is considered the basic level, survival. In survival, it is expected that there is at least income. The problem with survival is that the expense is more than the income. Are you with me? Unfortunately, according to statistics, 40% of Africans are living below survival. You understand what I've just said? That's not poverty. That's habject poverty. So whatever I'm about to discuss right now, 40% of Africans are not even here.
So what what... However bad you think this is, there is a reality that is worse that 40% of Africans are living in. The statistics says 40 to 50 actually. Are you with me? Yes, sir. But survival is that place where the expense is more than the income. Where your... So your decisions have to be dictated by your needs. Is where money comes. And it's already finished even before the money arrives.
So you live your entire life reacting. Reacting to bills, reacting to hunger, reacting to emergencies. There's no margin. There's no buffer. There's no breathing space. Everything is so tight. Everything is pressing. Everything is now. Life is narrow for the person that is surviving. Are you with me?
Is waking up in the morning and your first thought before gratitude, before prayer, before anything else is money. Where will it come from? Where will it come from today? How will I get it today? Will it be enough today? What happens today if it does not come? That thought is the first thing that meet you in the morning and it is the last thing that followed you into sleep. Because there are needs that are pressing that needs money to solve. Are you with me? You receive salary and even before the month settles, the salary is already gone.
That's assuming that you're even receiving salary. In this era of joblessness amongst a lot of youths and young people. But even those who are receiving the salary, the expense and the needs consume the income before the income even settles down. The salary is like is like those soldiers that they dropped inside the lion's den when Daniel was released from the lion's den. The Bible says before the soldiers dropped down, whilst they were still falling down, the lions already jumped, finished them in the sky. It does not touch ground before it finishes. While it is still falling, the needs are jumping. I'm saying, my own portion, my own portion, own portion. Survival is terrible. Because rent is calling for its own share.
Feeding is calling for its own share. Transport is calling for its own share. Family responsibilities are calling for their own share. And before you even grieve, the money has been allocated and exhausted. So you are not living through that month, you are enduring through the month. And the old life, other than that, becomes about endurance. And how about that quiet cycle that has now become normal? Where the life of that guy, of that man, of that woman is from boring to boring to boring, that it becomes almost a normal thing. One first, then go and beg, settle another person. And even when someone helps you, the relief is only temporary because you already know something else is coming again.
It's a loop that does not seem to break. Your decisions are no longer governed by your vision. They are driven by survival. You're not asking what is the best option for my future right now. What is the best school I should go to? What is the best thing I should do? What you're asking me, what can I afford right now? Because it's not longer about what is good for my life. It's about what can I eat? You choose the cheaper thing even though it's not the better thing.
You delay important steps in destiny Not because you don't see the value of the steps, but because you can't carry them at the moment. There's no financial wherewithal. Life becomes a constant negotiation between what matters and what is possible. And most times, what is possible is what people can afford. There's no margin whatsoever. No breathing space. When a man lives in survival, if anything unexpected happens like this, a health issue, a sudden responsibility, a broken device, a delay in salary, it shakes everything in his life. Because there is nothing around his life to absorb the shock. Everything is tight. Everything is calculated to the last naira.
And so life becomes so fragile that one small disruption can scatter his entire existence. That is survival. You see three people sharing a face might face you. Not because they love themselves, but they have to put money together to afford that inguarant. It is survival. Nepa does not bring light and so you have to go and charge your phone at one junction somewhere and sit down there. Yeah. A lot of things. You're exposed to a lot of things that are not even your business. Get into a fight that is not your concern.
But we have to survive. We call it survival of the fittest. Because you will build certain traits and behaviors to survive. You will start evolving to poverty. Because that's what happens when you throw an organism inside a situation he's not familiar with. He has to build systems of resistance. And because the guy is surviving, does not want to be cheated. You will see him pray in tongues in the morning fight through traffic throughout the day. One bike man wants to show him one upgrade. They want to show him one...
Guy. If you drag on too much, I will commoditize time. If I commoditize, you know. And he's not joking. Because if he truly remove that time, he's not joking. It's survival. Because we have to survive. We have to do everything to just survive. The money is miniscule, but we have to stretch it. We have to manage it.
Many of us grew up in such environments where... Let it not be like we'd not use meat to eat. It's why we would use the the SIM card, the kind of meat we are using. We buy fish as though the fish is not already small, then we cut it into four. You cut it in the middle, then cut it like this. Then each member of the family takes one meat. It's survival. Some people grew up having to share cowbell and share millow and share everything like that. It's survival. Because how can you use one cowbell?
How can you use one cowbell? That's wastage. Because it's not enough, we have to share it. If by adventure we are able to buy thin milk in the house, you have to watch the kind of spoon and how much you take out of that spoon. Some people have received the beatings in their lives just because of the size of milk that came out of the thin milk. It is poverty. It is survival. And if we don't call it what it is, we will make it a life. That's the problem. That's why I said the weak point of survival is that it's normal life of itself.
You get to a point where start treating it as normal. That's the way of life. That's the way it should be. That's the way it should be. That will become victims of every single thing that happen. That it is your favorite snack because you have no choice. It has to be. It has to be. I met someone the other day. He told me I don't really like the love fries.
I said, what do you like? I said, what do you like? I said, what do you like? He said, he said, those ones are are not... They're just just... We just have sorted food for customized one another. I said, what do you like? What do you not like? What's your interest? When I asked him, he said, those days, the loaf rice is once there's a party in my house.
That's when we cook the loaf rice. Fried rice is even more scarce. If we cook fried rice, it's either somebody is born or somebody died. We cannot cook fried rice under normal conditions. Because by the time you look at everything it takes to cook it a food, we would have turned the man and cooked okra five times. Why would I not go through that route? No. And even that I've now customized the guy's taste. You don't know that the absence of options limits preference. And so you cannot say, I like this or I don't like this because you don't have options available to you.
Survival is a terrible thing, but it's not funny. It's not funny because people die because of it. That's the reason how we will manage health of someone we can take to the hospital. But we'll keep on looking at them and say, it's not that bad. It's not that bad. It's not that bad. Because we have considered how much will it take to go to the hospital. How much will it take to go to the hospital? We will be using faith we don't have. Because of the absence of money we don't have.
So we're forced to rely on faith. On what money... If you take your wife to the hospital, you are told that there is a complication around this birth. The easiest thing for us to do is do a surgery. How much is the surgery? 500,000. Let's use faith. And they are telling you that if you do this thing, there's a risk to the wife, to the health of the wife, or a risk to the health of the child. The easiest thing to do to save both of them is doing surgery, and then we can be sure that both of their lives will be preserved, and then there's no money for the surgery. And the reasonable thing to do is use faith.
So faith has been relegated to what we use in the absence of money. Then you ask the guy, say, why am I taking of yourself? What is going on? He said, just using faith. Oh, god. You don't have money to go to the pharmacy. We've relegated that to faith. And I'm not against faith. Believe in eternal life. I live by eternal life.
I function by eternal life. I don't fall asleep. Do you understand what I'm saying? My health is preserved in ways you cannot imagine. In the past, even two to three years, not been to the hospital because of myself. So don't you think that they're talking of something because it is not our experience? No. No. The reality is that many people die because of this. It affects the intelligence of children.
Because of the kind of environment they had to grow up in. Because of the lack of finances. The things they had to see. People were introduced into all kinds of indecency that have affected them up until now because of survival. Because of survival. I mean, we cannot afford to live in a two bedroom or three bedroom flat, so everybody has to stay in one room and parlor. In that one room and panel is where the cousins are staying, where the sisters are staying, where the aunties are staying. So with the at two years old already grew up seeing the breast of a girl of 17 years old. Because they all bath at the same place, all dressed at the same place. As though he's not a boy.
As though there are no hormones in his body. Quality education cannot be afforded because of survival. I mean, I've met people in SS3 who cannot speak English. And they went to school all their lives. But you go and check the school that they have gone to, and the person teaching them what is a verb is explaining in Yoruba. That's how the guy is learning English. Because you think I cannot understand what's the point of stressing ourselves. After all, we're not being paid well. Even the teacher is not being paid well, so he's giving his barest minimum to the child. Doesn't care one bit about that child.
It is there to avoid survival. He's there to sustain himself. Because at the end of the month, they will give him $11.20 k or $1.77 k. That's why he's there. He just wants to get that money. And he knows that if he gets the money, the money is barely enough to take care of his family and his own four children. While he's thinking about that, why should I come and now die on top of your mantle? If you will not pass, you are done. But repeat the exam, repeat the clam, repeat... You are not my business.
And you are in that school too because of survivor. It becomes a cycle. And then somebody... I think that's why you have to hate poverty. I don't think that there's anything modest about it. And that's also why it would be wickedness to think that God doesn't bless people. He does. We just have not understood how he does. Are you with me brothers and sisters? That's why we fight teachers that the moment the teacher starts talking about giving, we start fighting that person.
And I'm gonna tell you what giving does. Very soon. Stay with me. In a way that you probably have not been taught. Stay with me. A lot of people are matured and they are educated adults or intelligent adults, car people, and they're not able to take care of themselves. You see it in the mother who has not eaten since morning because the food was only enough for our children. You see it in the brother that has a university degree that is framed on his wall. Yet there is no meaningful employment whatsoever. He's selling data outside the street.
He's running model outside the street. He's sitting at the house watching YouTube because YouTube is free. Let me take my mind off the escape of the reality of the harsh world we live in. And to think that a lot of needless, needless, circumstantial deaths, circumstantial unfortunate incidents that surround the upbringing of many people is a result of poverty. A lot more people die from poverty than they die from sicknesses. The major reason why a lot of people die from sicknesses is because of poverty. Are you eating brothers and sisters? My children will not live like that. My children will not grow up like that. My children will not say the things we saw.
They will never know what it means to manage, but they will know what it means to be frugal. They will have wisdom of finances, but it's not poverty that will teach them. My children will not complain. They will not be victims of whatever happens in this nation. They will not be. The fact that there is not stable electricity in Nigeria does not mean there should be no stable electricity in the home. The fact that there is heat in Nigeria does not mean there should be heating the home. Is poverty. The next phase of existence is stability. Let me tell you what stability is and why it is not the destination that many people think it is.
Because stability is the second financial realm of existence. And it's genuinely better than survival. Because in stability, your income exceeds your expenses. So it means you have a little bit left at the end of the month. You're not panicking constantly. You can afford even small luxuries occasionally. You can handle a minor emergency without borrowing. That's progress if you ask me. And that progress deserves to be acknowledged as progress. But this is the dangerous truth about stability.
It is not a permanent state unless it is being actively converted into something greater. Stability is a platform. It is not a destination. A person is earning 150,000 naira per month for instance, and their expenses are say 203,000 naira. You will say that they are stable because at the end of the month, they might still have some amount of money left. And they feel like, Ah, thank God oh, now I have arrived. If that person was say at an expense of 120,000 Naira and he was earning 70,000 Naira, he was surviving. If he's now earning $150,000 naira and his expense is still at $120,000 naira, somewhat he's stable. Do you understand what I'm saying? Because his expenses is now lesser than his income.
That stability that he's in is not final. It is a platform. It's not a destination. It's a shooting ground. Are you with me? Because if you feel like you have arrived because you are now stable, because your expense is now lesser than your income, probably because your income has increased, probably because you received a promotion or something. It means what the devil needs to do, what life needs to do is to only change the situation of things around you and your income remains stable. Your rent increases. The price of fuel increases. And what was one stability?
Do you understand what I'm saying? Or a family member suddenly had an emergency, and you are told that to buy drugs for the person will cost the same salary that you have been saving. Your transport that made you stable suddenly skyrockets to times two because fuel is now 1,700 per liter. Or you get married. And now there's an household to run. Or a child arrives in the marriage. And then suddenly that 150,000 naira that was more than enough is now less than what is needed. You will notice that the income has not changed, but the circumstances has changed. And the person who was once stable now slides back into survival. You have seen this happen to many people that you know.
That's why some people say things like, oh, my parents were bowling before, they had money before. It's not as though they don't have money now. It's just that circumstances changed, and they were not prepared for it because there was no wealth in the mind. There's no wealth in the mind. Don't be offended. It's because I love you. Even this has happened to some of you. And the lesson is this, stability without trajectory towards wealth is merely postponed survival. It is just survival in a better quote because you will result back to survival. It does not matter how much the amount of money is.
Somebody can jump from earning 150,000 naira to earning 1,000,000 naira in a month. His income has increased and he feels as though he is stable. But he does not have wealth in his mind. He will go back to survival very soon. That's why income alone will never solve the problem. That's why circumstances changing alone is not what solves the problem. Do you understand what I'm saying? If the solution was simply more income than every person who has ever received a raise, Every person who has ever gotten a better paying job. Every person who has ever received some kind of a windfall would all be wealthy today. Everybody who has ever gotten a promotion would all be wealthy today.
But that's not what happens. People get raises every time and their lifestyle inflates to consume the race. People get better jobs and their expenses rise to match it. People receive windfalls and within a year, the money is gone. And they cannot account for where it went. The income changed, but the person did not change. And because the person did not change, the income was processed through the same system that had always produced the same result. So even though the income had increased, it was passing through the same person. Do you understand what I'm saying? The same person with the same old mind, with the same old mentality, with the same old system of thinking.
So even though you have changed his circumstances, his software will reduce that circumstances back to where he was. This is where I'm going. Because the worst thing about survival is not what it takes from you. It's not what it does to you in terms of the absence of many basic amenities that a person experiences. It is what it does to the mind of the person inside of it. That's the worst thing about survival. And that's the reason why it is difficult for someone who has been in a state of survival for so long to come out even when his circumstances change. Are you with me? What it does to you? What it makes you become?
The person, the inner man. What prolonged financial hardship does to the soul of a human being is one of the most devastating and probably the least discussed realities in the conversations we have about poverty. Because if you have lived through survival long enough, It does not only affect your circumstances. It begins to affect you as a person. It does not only occupy your circumstances. It begins to occupy you as a person. It gets into your thinking patterns. It colonizes your imagination. It reshapes your expectation of what life is and what is possible. It shrinks you.
It shrinks your mind. It shrinks your imagination. It makes your thinking small. It changes your identity. It paints a picture of life. It gives you a warped picture of life. Your thinking becomes short term. Your thinking becomes immediate. Your thinking becomes reactive. You are not planning ahead anymore.
You have lost the capacity to plan ahead. Now you are all about responding to pressure. Your mind is always occupied with what is next right now, what is urgent, what must be handled now. There's no space for strategy. There's no space for long term goals and long term visions because the present need is always too loud in your mind. So it has constrained you to a point where you can't see beyond one month. So when they tell people like that, see your future, there's nothing to see. What he sees is just what I will hit tomorrow. That's what it does to the mind of the person. Paint pictures, pictures of greatness, and the guy sits and he's trying to paint these pictures and nothing is coming to his mind.
The best he's saying is just being able to eat well and live well. It's what responds to his immediate needs right now. Are you with me? Yes, sir. You think about someone who has been poor for a long time, not broke in the temporal sense in that the person has money but not right now. Poor in the sustained systemic generational sense. You watch how they think about money. You would see the gravity spirit operating through them. You would see it so loud in their speaking. A constant internal voice that says there is not enough.
There is never enough. There will never be enough. And any money that comes in right now must be held tightly because it would disappear and not return easily. So if you see money, you must hold on to it. You must be strong headed about money. You must tightly wield it because you have no idea where the next one will come. So when you begin to speak giving to such a person, it feels that as though you are foolish, especially if it is a parent. Whose son now told you that I gave what? It's not your fault. It's not your fault.
We will never do this again. It is cavity in the mind. It is the impact of survival on the soul. It presses a man so tightly that he becomes so concerned about what he must eat, needs that must be met, and these things are legitimate. That's the dangerous thing about it. They are legitimate needs. Would you say a man should not think about what he should eat? What his family would eat? It should. But the bad thing about it is that this circumstance now becomes Lord over the soul of that man.
He bows to the pressure of the circumstance. Are you with me? That guy cannot invest money because investment requires releasing money now for a return later. Is that not so? And that system that he has lived in for so long does not trust later. It only knows now. He finds it difficult to plan. He finds it difficult. That's the kind of man that can be scammed. When the soul of a man has been disciple by survivor, anything that prophecies him money now, he will fall for it.
Even if it does not make sense. Sometimes you will not be talking to him and you'll be wondering, how can you fall for this? Somebody just called you and told you to drop 50,000 naira, that they will give you 100,000 naira, and you believed it like that. And you know, my son was in the hospital. He needed money. So I just thought maybe that's the breakthrough we have been praying for. Any kind of scam work on such people. That's why it is mostly people who have been educated by survivor that fall victims of scammers. Scammers know their target too. There is something that has to be...
That has to have happened to your soul for you to fall victim of a scam. I'm telling you. Especially when the thing is make... Making you rush to make decisions. You look it though. The opportunity is closing now. If you don't drop money now, you have lost it. In fact, it's a new investment scheme that we found that we found. This person cashed out yesterday. That one, cash out the day before yesterday.
Then look at the testimonials. See. See. Cash out. Cash out. Cash out. Cash out. If you don't apply now, before you know, film, it has gone. Let me think about... God, there's no time to think.
There's no time to think. If you think one bit, it has gone. And the guy will go there. He does not want to go. But right now he's not checking his phone. He's seeing it. He's saying, cry. Should I do? I don't want to lose. I don't want to lose wondering.
And then before you know, he gets a call on his phone. Guy, your mother needs money. Guy, your this is coming. Your this one needs to get money. Your... Even rent is coming. There are bills all around. So the thinking is, what can I do right now to get money? They're the ones that gamble. They're the ones that do sporty bet and narrow bet.
They're the four man mines and four man everything. That the yahoo yahoos. Because all they think about is now. The urgency of now. Bible this morning got named haste. Flies away. Glory to God. And it is because of this. Survival has wired their relationship with money in such a fundamental way. And when it comes to money, I'm that individual.
And a lot of people are like that. You can get their allegiance with money. That's what explains the state of Nigeria and the leaders we have. Because you push people to the wall and you promise them crumbs. They will follow you. And if you master this manipulative strategy, you will realize that if you are a wicked man, the prosperity of the nation is not your advantage. Because there is a... There is one way to win elections. How is it? Give people crumbs.
Carry bag of rice and go and give them. Can you give back of rice to somebody who is prosperous to manipulate his vote? It means it's not to my advantage if you prosper. That means I could not sit down in my office and be thinking of how to make the system good for you. Because if it's good for you, next set, I won't be able to bring rice to you. I would put rice somewhere. I would do potholes somewhere. Pastor my name on it. See, snap picture and say, oh, we did pothole here when you elected us. Then call again the next day and promise all campaigns.
I'm telling you, if you vote for me, don't worry. That's how you get his allegiance. Are we... Can't you see it always works? It always works. You will know that this is evil, but the evil has money. And the money can feed your children right now. Because we don't have sense. Why not why not come out of the system? Isn't that the more sustainable solution?
Come out of the system. Oh God. I hate that system. But if it works, as long as it works, they will keep on using it. That means, it is to the benefit of the evil man that the masses are poor. Do you understand this? There is profit that comes from the masses being poor. Is how we, is how we, is how they have remained in leadership for so long. Because the masses have been poor for so long. So how to buy their trust has never changed.
For many years has never changed. It is always the same. Because the problem of the man who has been educated by survivor is that your needs now must be met. It doesn't matter whether the guy will rape your child as long as he will give you money. As long as he will give you money. And then our parents who have handed over their daughters to a rich man with pork belly that already has two wives. You must understand that. We don't want to do this, but it might one of those ways that and then we start speaking because when there is poverty, there is no stronghold for values. Values can be shackled easily on the altar of compromise. When there is poverty.
And it's how survivor disciple the soul of a man. That's the reason why a man who has been so discipled by survivor. Giving him money does not change the circumstance. Throwing money at him does not help in one bit because the person has not changed. Their mind has not been renewed. The patterns are not broken. The inner world is still operating on the software of scarcity, and that software will process any amount of income and return the same output, which is survival, poverty, never enough, cavity. You can change the hardware. Give them a better job. Give them a better income.
A higher salary. Give them a win for. But if the software is unchanged, the machine will produce the same results. Transformation must happen at the level of the mind. At the level of the mind. At the level of who the person has become on the inside. That's where transformation must happen. That's the process God takes a man through. So when a man will come out of circumstances into abundance, the first thing God does is not to change the circumstance, it is to begin to work on the man on the inside. Are you with me?
Yes, sir. So many people are trying to run out of the situation. But they are carrying the same mind. They are carrying the same habits, the same identity into every new opportunity. And so even when something changes on the outside, nothing is sustained on the inside. That's why a man can change jobs, change fittings, even change countries, and still produce the same struggle in a different country. Because you cannot outrun what you have not outgrown. A man of God said it this way. A lizard in Nigeria will not become an alligator in Europe. A change of environment will not change the person.
If someone is pouring the mine and you still take him out of Nigeria and put him in Europe, he will still be poor there. There's no difference whatsoever. In fact, it would even be less dignified. Because you can be surviving as a lecturer in Nigeria. And you feel as though your escape is to travel. Then you travel and start surviving as a cleaner. Both ways, you are still surviving. You have only jumped out of one fish pond into another fish pond. Maybe a cleaner fish pond was still a pond. Maybe the fish pond has grass under but it's still a pond.
Maybe even the larger fish pond was still a pond. And the fish is still in captive. Are you with me? So the real help that you can give to a man going through circumstances is to help his mind. But that one, that's where the problem is. Is it already obvious to you why there's a problem there? Because the guy does not have enough patience. All he wants is let my life change now. That's why what he's after is any kind of program that is offering him that change that he's looking for. So if I'm a prophet and I want to be popular, all I need to do is make a big banner and put it there.
One night of sudden turn around. I will now put it there. Are you? Are you going through any kind of problem? Are you trying to write and they are pressing you down? Are you experiencing failure at the end of breakthrough? Are you experiencing this and that? Maybe when you sleep, they come and press you in the night. Listen, what is troubling you is powers that are called resistive forces. They are called the daggers of the spirit realm.
Put some kind of soundtrack on that. We can even, we'll make it sweet. Put two people's voices under it. Say mommy, me, I will come out and say, ah, is that your story? Every day there is no food to eat. Come to this one night of power. And then you come. Because the promise is that one night will change everything. That's the promise. And when I stand on the pulpit, I now tell you.
That is one night of power. Every battle you brought here, you will drop them today. Is there a woman there whose business has been struggling for the past seven years? You realize you have a shop but only one, two, one, two. It does not pass one, two. They walk in ones and twos and leave your business alone. All you need to do is drop 50,000. It must not be one. It must not be two. Because you are trying to come out of one, two.
So start from 30,000, £40,050. We are on out now. Hello, And whilst they are on, avoid ballary and they're coming. Because they are the easiest to scam. It's still scam. It is scam. That's what it is. It's just a scam happening on pulpit. The same person that falls for that will fall for and $41.09, anything. And we will never get tired of it.
So we always go because he always promises us the same thing. But the one that really delivers would avoid. Would avoid like a plague. Somebody get them blessed. Don't be offended. Had the inclination that I might offend 10 people today. Just don't get too much. The way out is not escape. The way out is transformation. Romans twelve two says be conformed by the renewing of your mind.
The word renewing I told you already is what anachinosis. The word renewing there is the word anachinosis. And it means a renovation. A complete renovation of thought patterns. Belief systems, mental frameworks through which a person processes reality. It's not a surface clean, it's a deep renovation. Renewing. The kind of renovation where you pull out the old walls and you begin to rebuild new ones on it. That kind that is disruptive and uncomfortable. But when it is done, the structure is fundamentally different from what it was before.
Are you with me? Yes, sir. That is what needs to happen to a person who has lived long in survival and wants to come out into abundance. It is a changing of the framework. Sometimes this thing can be long depending on the yieldedness of the person involved. Because some of the things you will now be learning in attempting to change your thinking and changing your mind will be averse to what you've always known. Do you understand what I'm sharing with you? And you must go through that painful process of dropping away. You see? You must stop.
Patterns... The thing about foundational patterns is this. Because a lot of people are delivered and they believe that they've been delivered, is that not so, From foundational patterns. And so if there is a pattern that you see in your family, for instance, poverty or... Let me give it more realistic one. Say, a pattern of broken homes where in Luxor store, father has like three wives, is not stable with any of them, several children outside. Then your own mother was married to your father, then left your father, married somebody else. And it's just a mix of confusion inside that family. And you realize that your father's brother, the same thing, your mother's sister, the same thing. It's just a messed up network in that family.
That's a pattern. That's a pattern. That's a real pattern. It exists. Such things exist. That's the same way patterns of poverty does exist. There are families that what governs their reality is actually an altar, a demonic real altar. Are you with me? It exists. So when the believer is delivered from such a thing, when he gets the revelation of deliverance from such a thing, and he believes that it's delivered.
If he does not understand what I'm teaching right now, despite having been delivered from the influence of the spirit of that altar, he will still mercilessly replicate and reproduce the pattern in his own life. And one of the ways he will know is, now he believes that spirit can no longer touch him. He believes so genuinely. Do you understand what I'm saying? And it is right. It's true. The spirit can no longer touch him based on the revelation that he has. But because there are still gaps in his understanding, he will find out that he's loving three women at the same time. He will find out that he's a prayer warrior. He will find out.
He can't seem to be able to keep a home. Even when he meets somebody that he knows that this is the best person for my life at the moment, he will just do something stupid. He will just be helplessly foolish. You know what I mean by that? And I'll go into that. Just helplessly foolish. And the reason is because of this. Because when inside the circumstance, what governs such patterns is not just the presence of the altar. It is something else that the altar sponsors. And if you've lived in it long enough, it is called behaviors.
So there is the spirit. There is the behavior that the spirit brings. We can remove the influence of the spirit. But the behavior remains. So, you are out of the family, but you are still angry like your mother. A spirit is not troubling you. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's not any order that is troubling. And because of that same anger that your mother has, your husband too will chase you away from the house. And you will now say, I thought I was...
It is true that were delivered, but there was a gap in your understanding. You are not taught that patterns are not reproduced just by the influence of the spirit. They are reproduced also by the behaviors that the spirit teach those that were long influenced by it. Are you with me brothers and sisters? So there is a behavior that sponsors poverty. That's what I'm trying to tell you. A real behavior that you give somebody money like this. You give him 1,000,000 naira and the behavior will come up. He almost cannot help it. It will reduce him back to nothing.
I have a vision called breaking heart of patterns. Sometimes this year, I'll teach it. So when it has to do with the subject of wealth, we must begin to confront what that person inside that situation has always believed about money, has always believed about wealth, has always believed about giving. Do you understand what I'm saying? Let me give an example before we close in just one minute. One of the things that someone who has been struggling in survival for a long time will now be introduced to as it's being taught is the subject and the concept of giving. Willful giving, cheerful giving, rhythmic giving, not forceful, not manipulated, not under the false pretext that when you give something will happen in one moment that will do something to you. No. Do you understand what I'm saying? Giving cheerfully as the scripture teaches it.
Lovingly as scripture teaches it. As scripture teaches it, that the Lord love a cheerful giver. Give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall men bring onto your bosom. There is he that scatter it and yet increase it. There is he that withholds more than his meat and it tends to poverty. Is that not so? Yes. Giving. Now watch this.
Why will it sound strange to someone who has been educated by survivor when you tell him to give? It sounds unreasonable. It sounds even to you who is saying it, it might even look insensitive. It sounds almost offensive. It sounds like we are adding weight to an already burdened person. Because in his mind, he's already lacking. He's already managing. I mean, I barely have enough for myself, and you are asking me to give out of the little that I have to someone else. But what he does not understand is that giving is not forced about money. Giving is forced about breaking something inside of him.
Are you with me? It is about breaking the hold that survivor has had on his mind. So the moment a man who has lived like this begins to or decides to give, something is shifting inside of his mind. It's not in his bank account. It is inside of him. That's where the transformation begins. Because in that moment, he's making a declaration. And what he's saying is that my situation no longer controls me. I'm not a slave to my environment. Lack is not my master.
Money is not my master. I'm not so small. I'm so trapped that I cannot release from my hand what my situation is telling me I cannot afford to release. That's the first level of victory. That a man can say, I have need but I would give. What he has done is that he has he has registered it in his mind that I am bigger than the world. And that shift has to force that happening because the more a man has hold to money, the more you can begin to tell him about prosperity. That act of giving breaks something in the soul of that man. There is this mental chain that poverty has been tightening for however long he has been in that situation, and it interrupts that cavity loop. It refuses the identity that survivor has been assigning to him.
The moment he decides to give. So before increase comes, before abundance manifests, there must be that internal victory that the man shows that is not governed by what he's going through. Because as long as your environment dictates your actions, you are still under it. So if the spirit tells you give, but your environment makes it clear that you have this to do, this to do, this to do, and so you cannot give, it means you are under the influence of the environment. It means survival is discipling that man. On the moment you rise contrary or do contrary to it, you rise above that situation. That's what happened in first Kings 17 and verse 12. When Elijah told that lady to Eve, and the lady said, as Lord your God lives, I don't have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin and a little oil in a jar. And see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, and that we may eat and die. She's literally saying this the last thing we have.
And this last thing we have, what... Where we are right now is just hit this thing and die. This is someone that has submitted herself to the pressure of the of the circumstance. Are you with me? I have a question for you. Would it not have been easy if the first thing God did was to tell Elijah? Because the bible says in Matthew chapter 10 that there were many widows in Zarephath, but unto none was Elias sent, save this woman of Zarephath. Are you with me? So it means Elias was sent to her. She wasn't sent to the prophet.
Because God was feeding his prophet with ravens and water. In fact, God interrupted the feeding of his prophet with ravens by telling the prophet, go to Zarephat. It means this woman was under heaven's preservation system and heaven wanted to preserve her. Are you with me? The easiest thing to have done was to tell the woman, multiply. And as she now multiplies, now bring me food. Then respond. And then she just takes, hey, it's plenty. Yeah. Give me from that plenty.
That's not what happened. What happened was contrary to that to show you that the circumstance is not the first thing that changes. That the person is the first thing that changes. That the willingness of the person to insist that I will not, I will not be subject to my environment. I will not be subject to my circumstances. I will not be subject to what I'm going through is what brings a man, is what gives him authority. Over that circumstance. Otherwise, why do you think the Bible says in Matthew six ninety three? Seek ye first the kingdom. And all these things the Gentiles seek shall be handed on to you.
What will Gentiles seek? All these things. Food and all of these things. How do you think a man gets there to the point where he's now seeking first the kingdom as a matter of priority Over what Gentiles are seeking for. As though he is not looking for it. What are the things that are looking? Food. Do you not need food? Shelter. Money, influence.
What brings a man there is that his soul is conquered. That's what brings a man there. That's what gives him a... There is a lot of... There's a lot to this. But this is where we begin from. There is something that must happen to the soul of that man that makes him realize that it's not it's not when I have more that I give. I give to have more. That those of us who give in the way that we give, don't do so because everything is rich and we are so we are so abundant. No.
We do so because we refuse. To work for a living. Understand what I've just said. And some of us have gotten this thing. Some of us, some of us. But a lot of people have not. It is a struggle to comprehend is why I'm explaining it to you in this manner. Because you can understand it. You've broken through. You've broken through.
You will then realize that what is happening first is not the change of the situation. What is happening first is the change of the person. The change of the person. Conquering the weight of lack on your soul. Conquering the weight of needs on your soul. Conquering the weight of wants on your soul. That's the reason why there can be many things I want to do and I'll still give. In fact, I will still sacrifice and empty. And empty. And the things I want to do are still there.
But the weight of those things on the soul is gone. So I'm not experiencing that thing in the same way that somebody who is captured by survival is experiencing it. That's what makes abundance possible for me. Do you understand this thing I'm teaching you? The first thing that you learn, Otherwise, what would happen is you step into a place of stability. You come out of Egypt, enter into the wilderness, and you want to hold. You want to hold. You want to hold. Because for the first time, you are seeing resources. You just got a job and they are paying you 500,000 naira.
And you say, hey. And you would think that if you have not changed inside of your soul, you would think that the presence of resources is when you will not start giving. It is a lie. It's a lie. The you before the results will ensure that it does not matter what the results is. You go back to that you. Sometimes it will be that you will rise in the level of your your death will just increase. All of a sudden, you want to go and eat in the same restaurant you were eating before when you were any 100 k. And you just look at that restaurant, yeah, this is too small for me. You now see one big one and say, hey, let me enter here.
How much is your food? 17,000. Wattanko? 5,000. Food beef uncle? 5,000. This uncle will have bring everything for me because he has just been paid 500,000. That's the behavior I'm talking about. It will reduce him back because he will start raising his lifestyle Until his lifestyle now becomes expense more than income. Amen.
He was thinking I will give when I get there. I will give when I get there. Now he has gotten there, but his things are about to increase. His expense is not going to increase. No. So at that point, it does not matter. What I get for doesn't get there. What brings a man into sustainable wealth is that if the man himself changes, grows. It's not the only thing. This is a series that I'm starting today.
Eyes open your feet. Are you blessed? The you. Will Lord. I seeing them burning. There's a way we tend to not value teachers like this. Because it does not appeal to our passion. So what would appeal to us usually is when subjects of encounters, hunger, and all these beautiful things have been taught. Then we tend to pay more attention. If you're a young man with that kind of a passion, I would advise you to listen to this as though your life depends on on it so that poverty will not become the reason why your passion dies because it will shock you That when you want to enrich those souls.
It's not tongues you use that enrich them. I know, I know the temptation, I know. I know. I've been there. That's why I know. I think this, would go for conferences and they will be speaking. Just tell me about kingdom. Tell me about fire. Tell me about the holy ghost. You're gonna discover it.
What I'm teaching you is the reason why a lot of people are still in the same place that they are despite they've received so many breakthroughs. Some have received testimony. Some have received favor, divine favor, financial favor from friends and from people. And God is showing you where the reason why you are where you are is not because events are not changing. There's been a lot of breakthroughs, a lot of miracles. But miracles are not sustainable. They happen as interventions. That's what it is. It's an intervention. To take you out of an urgent need, and then you would need a miracle again, need a miracle again.
No. There's a realm of existence we believers can live in. A place of life, a place of abundance. That's the reason why we teach this. It's not the only thing that is there. It's a lot. Are you with me, brothers and sisters? When the man has changed, then this thing of there's nothing I cannot do They will not bribe. They will not steal. But someone that survival is present on their soul, that has not changed from with they will do anything.
You will gamble, they will do anything. What we are raising here are more gamblers. I'm not for one night. When we say young and great, I'm not saying young people who are doing nefarious things. Questionable things. That's not what we're talking about. That's not what we're talking about. You for listening to this message. We trust you have been blessed. You can get more life transforming messages from apostle Emmanuel Boluwatife on our Telegram page at DCN media channel.
You can also stream the messages on Spotify, Ocho Mac, and Apple podcast. Connect with us via our social media platforms on Instagram at DCN underscore nations, on Facebook at disciples christian network, on X at dcm central and on TikTok at disciples christian network. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel at disciples television. If you have a testimony from this message, you can mail us at disciplecngmail dot com. God bless you.