Transcript: In Preparation for Increase Part 2
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 Believer's Equip. In preparation for increase part two. Isaiah chapter 54 from verse one down to the street. Sing oh barren. You who have not born. Break forth into singing and cry aloud. You who have not labored with child.
For more are the children of the desolate. Than the children of the married woman. Says the Lord. Enlarge the place of your tent and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings. Do not spare. And then we were at lengthen your courts. And today we move on to lengthen your cords. We spoke quite exhaustively as to what that means. I would advise and admonish us to go back to that teaching. I believe it is a very pragmatic teaching that would help you now and on the long run even as God begins to increase you.
Amen. And multiply you. Amen. In the name of Jesus. I want you to bow your heads before we start and ask God for understanding. Ask God that even as we begin to look upon his words, That your heart would understand and you would hear more than words. You would hear more than language. The words spoken would be spirit and they would be life. Come on pray. In Jesus name we have prayed.
Amen. Father, open the eyes of understanding. Amen. And let his words produce a result in the lives of people. Amen. Give the power to become. Even as we listen to these words in the name of Jesus. Let my angels be positioned in time and space. And let them be quickened to do your bidding. In the name of Jesus.
How many of you are preparing for increase already? How many of you are living your life like you are preparing for increase? Or you are just excited about the idea of increase? You just you just like the fact that increase sounds like a good prophecy, so let me buy into it and be excited about it. I've told you that the proof that you believe that rain is going to fall is that you build an ark. Is why the Bible says, by faith, Noah built an ark. And you have to understand the depth of that faith because he did not see rain for many many years. Yet he continued to build. Preparation is an act of faith. Preparation is proof that you believe.
Preparation is proof that you believe. How hard you prepare will show me how hard you believe. How hard you believe? If you believe that your life is going to be great, I would see it in the depth of your preparation. So the conversation we are having sits at the depth of how God multiplies people and how people become abundant in reality. And we spoke about enlarging the tent and we spoke about how the tent is precisely what God has shown you. Thank you precious holy spirit. In another instance, I would have but not today. I think those workers we treat would have benefited from that a lot. Because another picture of the tent is your heart.
So when the instruction came to enlarge the tent, it is instinctively saying, enlarge your heart. Because the tent and the picture of the tent in the old testament was where God dwells. Are you with me? And the bible says in the book of first Corinthians three, don't go there, that we have become the tabernacle of God. And you know that the part of you that God resides is your spirit. Is that not so? Your heart is a combination of your spirit and your soul. It is all the combined... It has all the combined functionalities of your spirit and your soul. That's why it's a very comprehensive organ.
Are you with me? Yes, sir. Very comprehensive organ. I might not have the time to discuss that now. And we've discussed on what the cords are and the idea behind lengthening the chords. I think the deepest chord of all is the one that Paul names in Romans chapter 12 and verse two. It says, do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That you may prove what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God. Look at the order in that verse. It is saying transformation.
That is the visible change of your life comes by the renewing of your mind. The invincible change of the thinking of a man. Paul does not say be transformed by praying for new circumstances. He says the route to a transformed life. Runs through a renewed mind. And then he attaches the result of this. He says that you may prove that you may prove means that you may work out, that you may demonstrate, that you may show, manifest the will of God for your life. Is that not so? And that means that there are dimensions of God's will that your life cannot prove, that your life cannot demonstrate until your mind is renewed to carry them. Because he says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove.
In other words, this proving becomes difficult until your mind is renewed. So there are dimensions of the will of God that you cannot enter even though it is the will of God. If your mind is not renewed. Is this simple English? Yes, sir. So it means that something is the will of God. I think I said this even in part one of this teaching, that something is the will of God does not automatically mean that a man enters into it. And this scripture shows you precisely how your life demonstrates, precisely how your life proves. Prove means that the thing is real. But that we need to display the thing.
We need to perform an experiment to validate that this is true. Are you with me? So we know that the will of God is true because his word of God reveals it. But that is your life is needed to prove it. Your life is needed to demonstrate it. And how it happens is that you are transformed by the renewing of your mind. So it's important that when you capture the will of God for your life, you have to understand that how your life proves it, how your life demonstrates it, is that your mind has to be renewed. Are you with me? Yes sir. Your mind has to be what?
Renewed. Renewed. So your mind... In fact, I would say that your mind is probably the master court. Because your life will never spread beyond the length of your thinking. A man cannot live wider than how he thinks. And this is precisely why God's first work in preparing anyone for increase is never external. It goes for your thinking first. In Ephesians chapter four from verse 22 down to verse 24, the Bible describes the same operation. It says that you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lust and then in verse 23, it says, and be renewed in the spirit.
Glory to God. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Put off. Be renewed, put on. That's the language that the old thinking must be deliberately removed. That the way you remove a garment, the way you put off a garment, the way you you know, huff a cloth from your body is exactly how the bible expects you to put off your old thinking because the old man cannot manage new measures of glory that God is bringing you into. Are you with me? And it's a particular pattern you see all through scripture. And you have to also understand that that there is a particular pattern of thinking that many of us carry that must be corrected, especially as Nigerians. Because it is one of the things that obstruct the believer's ability.
The average Nigerian really, but the moment you become a believer, cease to become an average Nigerian. Your functioning should be different as a believer. When we talk about the average Nigerian and the experiences of the average Nigerian, it shouldn't fall within the bracket of the believer. Do you understand what I'm saying? But there is unfortunately a way that your environment can craft your thinking pattern and can craft your ideology. And if you're not careful, your life will subscribe to the pattern that you have seen in your environment. It's why the bible says, do not be conformed. There is that teaching I taught many years ago called breaking the mold that you should listen to. That your environment has a mold that presses whoever is growing that environment into. And the bible says don't be conformed to this world, to this cosmos.
Don't be conformed to this environment. Are you with me? I believe that one of the greatest strength of the average Nigerian is our extraordinary ability to adapt. You know, in evolution, we were taught survival of the fittest. And now that the way evolution primes itself and the way every species primes itself is through evolution. How that circumstances and situations and even the environment becomes a tough terrain and only the specie that is strongest survives transition seasons. Is that not so? And I believe that the average Nigerian, again, has so evolved in intelligence. Whether it's a positive evolution or a negative evolution will now be yours to define by the time I explain what I mean by this. But we have evolved.
Are you with me? We have evolved in how we think. We've evolved in our ability to adapt to anything. Electricity disappears for this, and we find alternatives as though it were nothing. Do you know that in certain parts of the world, this is a strange anomaly? If this happens and there is absence of electricity for twenty four hours, somebody can have anxiety in certain part of the world. They can be heart attack, an anxiety disorder because there is no electricity for twenty four hours. Are you with me brothers and sisters? But it so turns out that we survive. We survive.
We find alternatives very fast. We are not quick to dwell the problem. We always look for ways, other ways to get things done. Are you with me? Yes, sir. We survive. We are inside a broken system. Many things don't work as they should but we survive. And we find ways for ourselves to ensure that we are not limited by what is not working. We survive.
The fact that you're in Nigeria makes a lot of things difficult for the normal man. Are you with me? Especially if you do the kind of work that I do where you rely heavily on internet connection. I mean in my house, have got almost all the network providers because you have no idea when one of them will pack up. But you know the amazing thing about Nigeria is that all of them can pack up. So the idea is that we adapt. Right? Even when all of them packs up, we still adapt. I remember I had a particular meeting then, very important meeting and I I traveled traveled and drove really fast because I couldn't have that meeting on the road. I was coming from another state.
So I rushed, traveled, got home to my house about thirty minutes before the meeting and I discovered that all the networks had a meeting before I came to pack up in a particular day. So none of them was working, but we find ways. I entered my car again, fume with my laptop, with everything, drove to the first workstation. Said, is there network here? Click check. I said, okay. How much is your work something? They said there's no space available. Drove to the next one again. Until I was driving and I found a place on the road where network came.
And I just parked my car at the road very fast, switched on my laptop, positioned myself, changed my background, prepared myself. I mean, we adapt to anything. There's almost nothing that almost nothing that shakes the average Nigerian. Is that not so? So when somebody giving excuses as to why they can't get some things done, you just know I'm not serious. But at the end of the day, if you want to get it done, you will get it done. Are you with me? Because even when internet fails, we still meet deadlines. Fail becomes scarce. Transportation doubles overnight.
Systems fail, and yet life continues. And generation after generation, we have learned to function in the middle of dysfunction. So much so we have accepted dysfunction as normal. And that resilience deserves respect because it has produced some of the most resourceful and mentally agile people on the earth today. It's why Nigerians thrive wherever they go. But that strength has also quietly grown into a a weakness or a limitation because when people become experts at surviving broken systems, when they become experts at surviving dysfunction, they can subconsciously and unconsciously lose the desire to build under healthy systems. So somebody who has become an expert in surviving under instability struggles when things are stable. And the problem now becomes instead of fixing the problem, instead of fixing the leak, instead of fixing the dysfunction, we've become experts at placing alternatives around the dysfunction. We find that something is leaking for instance. We are supposed to fix the leak, but we've become experts at putting buckets on them.
Until the abnormal feels normal. Are you with me? And this is where the danger is. Having operated under imposed dysfunction for so long, we now subconsciously create dysfunction in our own lives. Just to give our survival intelligence something to do because it is how we've trained ourselves to function. And so if there is no dysfunction, your brain cannot be in its most creative form. It is called survival intelligence. Intelligence that kicks off when your life is threatened. Are you with me? Yes sir.
Intelligence that kicks off when what? That's the reason why a student will not read. When things are stable. He has learned to function in dysfunction. So you give him twelve weeks, twelve academic weeks. He has he has 10 of them to have prepared so that when the exam comes, he approaches that exam with some level of confidence that every exam looks easy. Is that not so? But no. Nigeria has taught you that there must be a crisis before you can be intelligent. So subconsciously we create dysfunction around our lives so that we can become superheroes.
And our testimony would be, you know, I didn't prepare you for the exam, but I still pass. I rough farm. It's the language of the average Nigerian. You see the same thing in business. Are you with me? Sir. It's why a businessman spends all his profit on himself, Then adapt to the pressure of keeping the business afloat. Because as long as the business is afloat, his brain is thinking about how to keep that business running. But if the business experiences some kind of profit that puts him out of being afloat into being comfortable, he doesn't know exactly how to build something sustainable out of that experience and how to keep himself sustained rather. How to keep himself in abundance without being in the state of survival.
Are you with me? And because he doesn't know just how to do that, he will now kick start a cascade of reactions around himself that will bring that business back to that place where he has to start surviving again. And when he gets there, he will be the most hardworking guy. He's studying, he's walking, he's chasing every night. Bow, the breakthrough comes, he reverts again. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Is it making sense to you? Is why a man has nine months to prepare for his unborn child And he does not. And then last minute, he begins to look for money everywhere and he adapts to the pressure of looking for money everywhere. Looking for things everywhere.
Running to meet this person, running to meet that person, running to meet this person. Whereas you had ample time, you knew something was coming. You could have easily made arrangement for this. I mean you have a job. But then suddenly you realize that even your salary is not enough to pay doctors for delivery or for this or for that or to buy baby items. You see it cut across different areas of life. Are you with me? Yes, sir. You see it cut across different areas of life. You ask people how are things and then you hear things like we are pushing.
And what you are really saying is we are we are navigating problems. We are we are we are creating alternatives. We are finding a way out. We are pushing. We are pushing. The average Nigerian flourishes in pushing, never in building something. And if you want to be great, especially if you want to build a sustainable economy as Nigerians, we have to understand that no nation thrives like this. This would keep us afloat but will never make us into a developed nation. If this system remains, if this thinking remains, we will remain a third world nation. And we'll keep on calling ourselves giants of Africa.
What we would mean by that is that we've learned survival more than every other African nations. And we know how to thrive. Otherwise, you tell me how we are gents of Africa, but the nation that we used to give electricity thirty years ago is now giving out electricity. Glory to God. As so much electricity that parts of Nigeria is buying from them. Glory to God. Yet we are bigger. Yet we have even more infrastructures than them. But we have adapted to seeing systems break, but creating alternative around broken systems instead of fixing them. Because the idea of thriving on that fixed system is an anomaly to a Nigerian.
Are you with me brothers and sisters? If you weigh that mindset from scriptures, you'll realize that there is a end result to that mentality. Proverbs chapter six from six to verse eight. It says go to the hunt you sluggard. Consider our ways and be wise. Watch this. Which having no captain, overseer or ruler provides her supplies in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest. I want you to look carefully at what makes the hunt wise before we continue reading. Note this what makes the hand wise is that she gathers her food when? When?
When? When there is no pressure. She prepares without pressure. There's no captain shouting at her. There's no lack of food pressuring her. There's no children guarding and saying, mommy, what will we eat? Daddy what will we eat? Do you understand what I'm trying to say? No, there's no deadline chasing her. There's no crisis that have arrived.
It's the summer, it's the season when preparation feels unnecessary. And that's exactly when she begins to gather. The arm does not wait for winter to activate her intelligence. Our intelligence is expressed in preparation, not in reaction. And look at who Solomon sends to the school of the hunt. He says you slogger. And you would think that a slogger is a lazy man. You think a slog guard is a man who does nothing. But that's not quite it. The slog guard is oftentimes a man who only moves when pressure moves him.
His club guard is a man who put in his resume, I work well under pressure. The question is, why must there be pressure for you to work well? So if there's no pressure, you will not work well. And you think it's a dysfunction that you have that is normal. Glory to God. The arm doesn't wait for winter. But the slug out, no. He moves when pressure moves him. The sluggard is capable of tremendous last minute exertion, but he cannot act without a crisis pressing him on his back. That is survival intelligence.
And heaven calls it a very uncomfortable name. Listen to me. Performing, he says you are a slogger. That's the name. Performing under pressure is not the highest proof of intelligence. Doesn't even mean that you're intelligent. But it's the intelligence that we have evolved into as Nigerians. Preparing before pressure is the highest proof of intelligence. And nations that are developed in the world today understand this perfectly. I don't have time to show you the science of this.
Glory to God. Don't measure your intelligence by how well you recover from chaos, how well you recover from crisis. Measure your intelligence by the quality of the cords that you are lengthening even when there is no chaos at all. Because the people that shape the future are rarely those who perform the greatest during last minute pressure. No. No. Usually, they are the ones that build quietly. They are the ones whose preparation makes last minute miracles unnecessary. When you study the stories of greatness around the world, you'll find that this is true with respect to every one of them. What you know to be Facebook today, the young man who started building it, one of the youngest billionaires in the world started building what you know to be Facebook and Meta at a 19 year old boy in university.
A 19 year old boy in university was building something that the world will now grow to respect and use. It is said that about what 3,000,000,000 people use Facebook out of a population, a world population of about 8,000,000,000. Glory to God. More than one quarter of the world on a man's platform. A man has access to 3,000,000,000 hearts, 3,000,000,000 souls because of a product he started building at 19. Now the question is at 19, what are you building? Because you would not think of building something now because there's no pressure yet. Nobody is making demand on you financially. Usually, the average guy starts thinking about ways to increase his financial dexterity and his financial means when life begins to hit him hard, when there's pressure everywhere, when there are multiple bills to be paid. That's when he begins to think about what else can I do?
What can I do now? What can I do now? Usually times like this is not the time that a young man will be thinking, let me start building something for myself that can become an empire five years from now, ten years from now. But God has blessed you that you are here and you are listening to this. It means you have left the matrix. Glory to God. You're no longer a part of that sister. You're no longer in that bracket. Because what we are raising are builders. People who realize that there are great destinies ahead of them.
And every single decision that they are making today is contributing to the eventual result of that destiny ahead of them. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Luke chapter 16 from verse 10 to verse 12. Jesus says, he who is faithful in least is faithful also in much. And he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Next verse says, therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own? Jesus says the little that you are managing at the moment is an exam. Every small thing in your hand right now.
The small salary, the small platform, the small business, the small congregation. All of that is a court. And God is watching how you handle that court. And faithfulness there is what lengthens what you currently have. Many of us are asking God for much whilst mishandling the list. And the answer of Luke 16. Is that much usually waits on how you handle what is list. The court is the invincible thing like I said in the first part. That determines the spread of the visible thing. And I said, wisdom is a court.
Knowledge is a is a chord. Sharpening your skill is a chord. Diligence is a chord. Your thinking, your mentality, your ideology, your thinking pattern is a chord. In this your thinking pattern, that would mean that gaining exposure is a chord. Because it affects your thinking pattern. There's a way you cannot think if you're not exposed to think in that manner. There are ideas that cannot come to your mind because you have not seen it before. Usually thoughts, unless inspired by the holy spirit, depend on references. References in that you've seen something before, in that you have experienced something before.
Exposure does not mean that you travel the world. Even though traveling the world does expose you. Are you with me? For me, but you have mobile devices on your phone. You can expose yourself right there. The problem is that many of you expose yourself to stupid things. Only breast and bum bum is what you want to expose yourself to. Whereas there is intelligence to build, to build industries, creative industries. Glory to God. Amen.
Thank you for your holy spirit. So as you begin to lengthen your cords and God begins to increase you, we are not only concerned about the increase coming, we are concerned also about the increase being sustained. Because this is where we now ask the question, why do many people lose what they've prayed for? Why does a man receive the very breakthrough that he has fasted for and then some months into the breakthrough, the thing he has prayed for has broken him. Why does a business survive the years of struggle and then collapse in the years of profit? Why do we know more testimonies of increase arriving? Than testimonies of increase remaining. Glory to God. And the answer is hiding in the second line on that verse we have read. It says, strengthen your stakes.
You know, we used to confuse them a lot, especially I see people when leading prayers would usually say, the bible says strengthen your cord. The bible doesn't say strengthen your cord. The bible says lengthen your cord and strengthen your stakes. It's quite different. Are you with me? So we've dealt with lengthening your cords, but God doesn't stop there. He moves on to strengthening your sticks. I told you that the cord runs from the edge of the canvas down to the ground. Remember the tenth picture I showed us? And at the ground, that cord is now tied to a peg.
That peg is the stake. Right? It is driven deep into the earth. And this is what every tenth dweller who was living in the days of Isaiah would have known because this was the experience. But those of us who live in houses now might not get that illustration very well. The stick is what holds the entire structure together especially when force comes against it. It is the stick that holds it. The canvas catches the wind. When the wind is blowing, the cords transfer the strain. But the stick is what absorbs that strain.
Now, I want you to reason with me now. Are you with me? The bigger you make the tent, the more canvas you have. The more canvas you have, the more wind it can catch. Is that not so? And the more wind it can catch, the more violently the entire structure pulls against the stakes. Is that not so? Which means enlargement itself is what puts the stake under pressure. Because the more large the tent is, the more strain and the more pressure you put on the sticks. Are you with me?
A small tent can survive on shallow pegs because there is not enough enough canvas to endanger it. But the moment you obey the first command and you enlarge your tent, you have created a structure that will tear itself on the ground in the... If the first serious storm comes against it. Unless the stakes also go deeper in proportion to the enlargement of the tent. Are you with me? Yes, sir. That's exactly why God chained those commands together. That's exactly why God would not allow you to lengthen the cords with... Without strengthening the sticks. Because enlargement without anchoring the sticks deeper into the ground is guaranteed collapse.
The same expansion you are praying for is the very thing that then multiplies the strain on your foundations. That means increase does not only bring blessings. Increase also allows for more wind. What did I say? Increase allows for greater resistance. Increase allows for greater resistance. You're praying for increase in your finances, in your business, in your ministry. Any vision God has given to you, when that increase comes, there is greater resistance. The increase guarantees it. It is the nature of increase.
It is the nature of increase. Using the tent analogy, you cannot enlarge the tent without enlarging the canvas. Are you with me? The enlargement of the canvas already means you have more surface area for wind to land on. Does that make sense? The enlargement of the canvas would mean that. So increase automatically by default means that more height is on you. If you didn't have anything, you wouldn't have attention. People don't really care about what is not important. The bible says where the carcass is, there the eagles gather.
In other words, increase has a way of drawing attention. Results is what I mean by that. Results has a way of drawing attention. When your life starts producing some kind of result, some kind of result, it is increasing surface area to gather wind. And it would mean that there will be new sets of challenges, new sets of resistances that you would start to see when increase comes that if you have not strengthened your stakes, if you are still using the same depth of stake that you were using when you were small, when increase comes, your tent would not be able to hold the force of the wings. So precisely what you prayed for is what will catapult your tent. Are you with me? That's the reason why a lot of times when we study history, you find that appearing into the platform of greatness is relatively easy for so many people. But not so many people can sustain it. I was talking with my wife just some time ago and think we were playing a song on YouTube music, and one song just popped up.
And I remembered the individual that sang that song when we're very little. Doesn't mean we're not really very little, at least when I was in secondary school or so. And the first question that came to my mind is, where is this guy? Because that song used to be a very... I was almost saying powerful song. It used to be a hit song. It's a worldly song. Glory to God. It used be a hit song. In those days when we were younger.
And I just asked, where is this guy now? Is is he still alive? Is this still... What is he doing? And so I picked up my phone to check precisely if the guy is alive. I don't even know if he's alive. Let's first check if he's alive. So I found that he's alive. Glory to God. And I found out that some days ago or so then he had released a song.
I said, what? Really? I mean, do people still know that this guy is alive? Do people still know that this guy sings? Are you with me? As I was talking that and we're discussing, then my wife started mentioning other people. I used to train in those days. That when we were younger, they would have been references of greatness. In the same way that those... Some people that you know now would be references of greatness.
And now lots of them. And now you don't see them anywhere. Even in the gospel scene. Even in the gospel scene. People who are still doing music, who are still doing... Leave the... Leave music alone. Even in even in business. Even in business. Are you with me?
Now somebody might come and say something like, you know apostle, this life is turn by turn. When is your turn, you come out and you shine and you go, another person comes again. That will not be my kind of turn. Oh! Oh my God. When it is my turn, it is my turn. Are you with me, brothers and sisters? Yes, sir. Yeah. But you can be alive and be on the scene for many years and be relevant for many years.
Another person's tongue will come and when another person's tongue come, you have to just... I'm not saying another person's tongue should not come. But my own tongue does not have to go for another person's tongue to come. You understand what I'm saying? A man of God said, when we were young, we used to grow up believing that the sky is big for everybody to fly. Are you with me? Yes, sir. Then he was sharing how that it's not of that opinion. There are skies that fight the flight of birds. Well, whether the sky is big for everybody to fly or it's not, really is not my business.
Are you with me? All I do know is that it's it's big for me to fly. That's... How many other people want to fly with me? I don't really know. Glory to God. But when I look at the skies, I I see a place big for me to fly. That's what I see. That's what I Glory to God. Glory.
Are you with me brothers and sisters? Yes, sir. Back to what I was saying so we don't get distracted. Results would always increase attention, would always increase and bring resistance. It means in the preparatory season, God does not only say enlarge your tent. God does not only say lengthen your cord. God also tells you prepare for resistances, so strengthen your stakes. Prepare for every kind of resistances so that your result is sustained. So that when your tongue come, it is your tongue. To the day you be with the Lord.
So that nothing can uproot you. When you have been shown to the world. Are you with me? Yes sir. But my belief is this or my thought is this or what I would say is this. If you do not strengthen your stakes and you appear, the slightest of winds can collapse you. The slightest of winds. Just one and everything that you have gathered can collapse. It is the importance of strengthening your stakes so that you see that the idea is not just to be enlarged. The idea is not just to have results.
Just not to have money. Just not to be big. Just not to have a big business and exploits. People now know you and celebrate you. It's not just to have cars and houses. That's not just the idea. The idea is to last. What did I say? Increase brings more wind. Not because increase itself brings more wind, but because increase itself catches more wind.
In other words, without the increase, the wind is already blowing. It's not the increase that brought the wind. It's just that the increase now makes you catch the wind. It makes it makes your surface area enlarged to receive, to be recipient of the wind. Do you understand what I'm saying? It means if you are not great, people will keep on talking. They won't just talk about you. It's not the fact that you are great that many people start talking. People have always been talking. You are just not in the second frame of their talk.
Are you with me? The day you become great, your surface area enlarges. Then they'll start talking about you too. If your stakes are not... You will be swayed in the direction of whatever they say. That alone can uproot you. That alone can make you doubt your calling, doubt your purpose, doubt even what you are doing, doubt even what made you great. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Have you not seen people who were normal? Some of you would know what I'm talking about.
Is there any those that saw some of these worldly guys, worldly artist guys when they were little? And you watched their music videos those days many many years ago. All this Gen Z guy would not understand what I'm saying. But these other guys, watch their music videos. What you see is is t shirt like what I'm wearing or buttoned shirt with jeans. It's not even crazy jeans. So just normal jeans and sneakers, Nike that they bought from Alabadia. That's what you see. Are you with me? Yes, sir.
Now they released the first video. Boom. Then you watch the second one and you will see earring in this place. And you now see one silver teeth like this. And the guy that don't know the thing is not fine. He will now be making you see the thing. He doesn't know. Anything you find is wind is... Because the more you become great, the more wind, the more wind. You advise unsolicited advice.
This is what trains now. This is how you capture these people. Even things they're not comfortable with, they have to do because they've been taught this is what makes you trained at this moment. You can't be a worldly artist without being this type of person. Let me put it this way. You can't be a secular artist without being this type of person, without singing this type of songs. We'll start singing about bum bum and breasts or drugs or sex. And that's the reason now why a believer thinks it's a wrong thing to be a secularist. It is not. There's no other person who can sing about love more than believers.
There's no other person who understands love more than believers. You can be rest assured that if I didn't do a reception in my wedding, but you can be rest assured if I did one, what I would place, no I'd do a queue. I wouldn't hold my wife and then they say we should dance. But if you find a secular artist now who is rapping and he is singing about different things in the secular world, believers will begin to condemn the guy. Especially if the guy now is an usher in church. Because if we now give the guy a microphone to his league worship in church, will not be, is that not... Are you understanding this, Namsi? And if the guy too is not careful, the more he rises, the more you will start telling him, you have to change the direction of your music and even how you appear. Look at now, there's no piercing in your ear. You have to have like five.
He said, I don't really like... Is it what you like or do you want to blow? What do you want to blow? They are telling somebody who has blown that doesn't want to blow. It's the system of this world. You don't know. Because if he had not blown, would you even be interested in him? At least the first song where he was wearing T shirt, people listen. This is why you know him now. So what would make you think if they had maintained his value, he would have remained...
You see, the way this word convinces people. But you can see the pattern in almost everybody. You can see the pattern in almost everybody. I said, there was one of them like that that I saw in an interview, a secular artist as well, who had said that she will never expose her body because she believes that she's bringing a message to the younger generation that you can become successful without exposing your body as a lady. And I was impressed by the choice of words and how she presented at church Even though she was not a Christian, so much so I came and featured her in one of my teachings many years ago. I said, can you imagine? This young lady said, it didn't reach one year. I said find that kitchen for me. Fine. Just...
I say, who is this? This is the person that you spoke about. Jesus is love. Jesus is love. Glory to God. But that's not all. It's not just a matter of character. It's also a matter of systems and structures. Because a business that wants to break out and have greater increase must understand that your breakout and greater increase that you experience in your business would come with greater challenges as well that your stakes have to be ready for. Let's look at the bible.
Strengthening is a word about depth, a word about firmness. Sink deeper, go firmer, hold faster. When you read Genesis 41, the story of Joseph, you find that it's not just a man that interpreted dreams. Right? You'd also find the story of a systems builder. Pharaoh had a dream. You know that already? Yes, sir. He had a revelation of a common abundance and a common farming. And the first thing that you need to see is that the revelation alone did not save anybody.
If Joseph had interpreted the dream, I said it in the first part of this teaching, and going back to prison, Egypt would have enjoyed seven fat years, same as everybody, and then starved same as everybody. The only difference is that they would know why they are starving. But when you look at the wisdom of Joseph in what he proposed from verse 33 to verse 34, it says, now therefore, let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh do this and let him appoint officers over the land to collect one fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven plentiful years. Look at the component of the council that Joseph is giving. A man set over the land. That is leadership structure there. Officers appointed. That is delegation. That is accountability.
One fifth collected. That's a fixed percentage. That's a policy. So a leadership structure is created that has a rigid accountability structure, delegated officers to oversee execution. This is administrative wisdom. And then it says, every year of the plentiful year, that's discipline, that's consistency. In other words, the same system that works the first year is now subjected to a schedule repeated again and again. Joseph's response to Pharaoh's revelation wasn't excitement that seven years of abundance is coming. What he responded with is structure. And then when you read from verse 48 to verse 49, you then see the system at work.
The Bible says, so he gathered up the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt and laid up the food in the cities. He laid up in every city the food of the fields which surrounded them. Joseph gathered very much grain as the sand of the sea until he stopped counting for it was immeasurable. My God. Until he stopped counting for it was immeasurable. The bible says in every city, the structure was everywhere. Until he stopped counting, the system had outgrown even the builder's supervision. That's a stick. A stick is a structure that keeps working even when you are not watching it. And as a business person or someone who wants to grow in his finances, a stake is extremely important.
One of my young men wanted to... I had advised him to scale his business by putting some things in place and getting a team of people to work with him to scale what he does alone. Doing so might need a space, might need other things like that. And he came to me and he was telling me how he wanted to go about implementing what I told him from an advice he had gotten from someone or an external source. I looked at what he was saying as his implementation strategy, and it was obvious that there's no stake. There's no stake. So he told me he was ready to go ahead and get the space. Cost him a lot of money to get the space, and he wanted to invest in it. I found a reasonable space. I found where I want to get a blah blah blah.
I was just withdrawn. I wasn't as pushed, you know, as I was. God had given him the instruction initially. But upon seeing the implementation, it was obvious that there is no stake. This is not prophecy. This is wisdom. Right? And so I told him, I said, this is not in place. This is not in place. You're getting this now would be a waste of money.
And then he said, actually, what I'm thinking is that when I get this, it will now force me to now put this in place and this in place and this in place because I would now know that I've gotten this and I would know the amount of money I used to get it. Seeing that the amount of money is a lot of money, I would not want it to go to waste by just leaving it there. It's just not how life works. It looks intelligent, but it's not the wisdom of a builder. That is survival. You see that thing? You see? That's functioning inside dysfunction. You see that thing? He said when I get it, the idea that I've gotten something would now be pushing me knowing that I don't want the money to go to waste.
It means you don't know how to build instability. So you want to risk millions as a motivation. Now what what is that? That's not wisdom. There's no stake that has been driven into the ground. Glory to God. It's so clear and obvious that if the young man goes ahead to do that, it would be an absolute waste of money. Absolute waste of resources. And if a skill does happen with that level of wisdom, what would happen eventually is that the skill in itself would show that there is no stake in the ground. I hope you understand what I'm saying.
Yes, sir. Are you still with me? Yes, sir. And when the fireman came in Egypt in those days, the wind was finally pulling against the tent. In verse 56, the bible says Joseph opened all the storehouses. Joseph opened all the store houses. The Bible does not say a miracle was summoned under pressure. Doors that have been built years earlier was simply opened. Egypt did not survive the famine because Joseph was inspired during the famine. Egypt survived because Joseph had built before it.
He had strengthened the stakes before the famine. Are you with me? The structure that had been built was what sustained the season. Are you with me? Yes sir. So miracle may launch you into a seasons. Miracles may launch you into a season. But structures that have been built is what sustains it. Sticks that have been strengthened is what sustains it. And you come to Daniel and you see a personal version of what Joseph built nationally.
Because the life of Daniel spans through the administration of Nebuchadnezzar, of Baoshaza, of Darius, and of Cyrus. That's four different administrations. And Daniel became relevant in all the four administrations. Kingdoms rose and fell. Kings rose and fell. Empires change hands from Babylon to Persia. And Daniel kept standing through all of it. My God. How does one man remain at the top? Throughout the span of four administrations.
One man. Throughout even a change of an empire. That means it's not just a change of administration. There's a change of empire. That means the Persian government took over reign and kingdom from the Babylonian government. Are you with me? There was an overthrow of kingdom ship. And yet Daniel remained relevant. Even when another nation took over. You need to understand the depth of this.
It's easy if your father is a king and then your son became a king and then they told you that this guy is one that said, where's the father? It's another thing when an invading nation comes to take over rulership from you forcefully and they still recognize the impact of Daniel such that he can even serve in both administrations. Are you with me? Yes sir. How does one man remain at the top through four administrations, even a change of empire? And the answer is hiding inside one of the most famous verse of his story. Daniel six and verse 10. The bible says, now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room with his windows open towards Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed. Now this is what I want you to see because we read this part as though Daniel went to pray because a law was given that people should not pray again.
But when you read it, you see, and gave thanks before his God as was his custom since early days. That is the stake. The decree that was strengthening his life is not what created his prayer life. The decree only collided with an already existing prayer life. The prayer life had been running on schedule for decades. Are you with me? Three times a day, every day, it was fixed. It was redeeming. It was structural. The same discipline, whether the king favored him, whether the king hunted him, the same discipline.
Daniel did not improvise devotion when crisis came. The crisis came and met a standing structure. And when the enemies were looking for a way to destroy him, verse four, the Bible says, so the governors and satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom. Watch this. They sought to find some trap against Daniel concerning the kingdom. That means they audited his entire administration. They audited his service. Everything that was put under his care. They tried to find a charge against him concerning his service in the kingdom. And they could not find any charge or any fault.
Because he was faithful. Nor was there any error or fault found in him. That is the stake. Do you understand what I'm saying? No negligence, no error, no fault. His work was so consistently ordered that the only weapon left against him was his consistency self. They had to weaponize his faithfulness to God because his faithfulness in the kingdom was unsellable. He had a track record that there was nothing to think about his quality of service delivery. There was no way he changed figures. His integrity was consistent.
In other words, with respect to matters concerning his service, they couldn't find anything. With respect to matters concerning what the king had given to him to do, they couldn't find anything. Even the tiniest of things they couldn't find in him. That is that is that is stake. That tells you character is a stake. What did I say? Characteristic. Oh my God. Please write this down and write it down very well. In capital letter, character is a stake.
Discipline is a stake. A discipline that is kept in secret for decades is a stake. Your prayer devotion is a stake. That you are driving into the ground. That when storms come, storms meet the stake already driven in. The stakes already strengthened. Are you understanding this thing? The peg is already strong enough to withstand any kind of storm, any kind of wind that incline itself might bring. It says if you fail in the day of adversity, it wasn't because the adversity is great. It was because your strength is small.
You have not strengthened the sticks. Do you know that some people will become great finish and characterize how they will finish them? Character. Character. Character. Because there is no stake that was strengthened in character. You see you see greatness does not bring the wind. It only reveals the sufficiency or insufficiency of the structure. What did I say? Of the structure.
Plenty money in your hand will increase the canvas. It will. It will. It will. It will. And the question will now be, have the stakes been drawn into the ground? Is there character that have been built? Is there character that has been built? Is why results used to change people as though the result itself is changing somebody. That's how it looks like.
The reason why it looks as though the result is changing people is because we are deceived to think that because the change started happening when the results came, the result changed the person. No, that's not how it happens. The result only reveals what has always been there. Because if the result was not there, the wind will keep on blowing, but the canvas will just not catch it. So the day that you increase the size of the canvas is not the day the wind started blowing. Please understand what I'm saying. Understand it. Understand it. I've seen so many people's personal lives when small results, small results, just small results came and all kinds of character defects was immediately manifested to show that there was no stake that had been strengthened. People have gotten government jobs that they have promoted them and the government have written letters of promotion, and they've already given all kinds of licenses already.
Everybody had already vouched for the individual. And those who don't like him, just like Daniel here, will first go and check his records of service. Note, they are not interested in his record of service whilst he was performing the service. So whatever he was doing could get away. He would think that he was getting away with it. And the reason he's getting away with it is because the tent is not yet big. The moment the tent is big, it will attract attention to you. People will now start saying how exactly has he served these fifteen years? What exactly has he done these fifteen years? That's when the man discovered that ten years ago, he changed numbers.
He changed figures. They say, ah ah, what did you do? As though they don't want me to be great. When the tent increases, it catches more wing. Just understand what I'm saying. Strengthen your stake. Strengthen your stake. Strengthen your stake is thinking about your future and avoiding some things. It's choosing what must not feature inside your future. It's choosing where to be because you don't know who will come and check if you were here five years from now.
He's strengthening your stakes. It's one of the reasons why they couldn't find anything. You see, if Daniel was amongst a discussion when they were playing against the king or a coup or anything like that and he just... When they were planning, he was there. You see, the point is, straighten your stake means that understand the immediate repercussions of decisions now to your future. Ten years from now, five years from now, three years from now. And going hard on characters you must sustain because of what you have seen. It is strengthening your stakes. Otherwise, greatness exploits and result will become your undoing. To become your own becoming.
To become your own becoming. Strengthen your stakes. Live with the consciousness that see. There might be 10 naira in my account now. But I am greatness walking on two legs. Do you know what Abraham said to the king? When after he had delivered the nation that was plundered because Lot was there. And he went to go and help the nation. And when the king heard that he had delivered his people, the king came and wanted to distribute the spoils of war with him, wanted to give him the spoils of war. And Abraham rejected it.
And Abraham said, the reason I'm rejecting this is so that you would not see that you made Abraham rich. Only a man that has seen his future can talk like that. You see, that means I have seen the import of me collecting this thing. That means I will be very rich. Oh God. That means there is money I cannot collect from who I cannot collect it. Because when I become great finish, you will be part of those who will not be running your mouth and saying, do you understand what I'm saying? But you must have seen, you must know that there is even a future before you can make such decisions that test your character and the strength of your integrity. Do you know there are places I cannot be? Even...
Oh God. There are conferences in church. I mean church conferences. I'm careful of going. Conferences in church. Church conferences. A church is organizing a conference. I would like the lineup of ministers. I like this person. I'd have a restriction.
I can't go. So I would rather stream it online. There's a future I have seen. There's a future I have seen. I have seen nations gather in their millions. And when they do, they will now go and harvest pictures they snapped. And say this was where he was made. That's not where I was made, oh, that's not... Oh, God. And nefarious men, we say because he came to our church when we were the ones that, you know, those days when we mentored, those days...
You think it's not possible? And it's because I have seen. I have seen. So that when we talk about this thing, you think it's only bad places we're talking about. Think it's anybody that have good intentions. And you'll be naive to think so. Some of us know just how precious our destiny is are. We treat it like egg, like Hague. There are places I can't park in front of. I don't know who is.
I was carrying some people, and I was going to a particular meeting with some of my leaders in Akobo. And when I was driving there, we passed before a clubhouse and a vehicle was there with a pickup. I think it was all these cheap celebrities and had police people there. And, you know, I saw people carrying camera like this. I said... Abraham said, I won't take a dime from you. I won't take a dime from you. Lest you should say, I have made Abraham rich. Are you waiting, brothers and sisters? It's why when I see some people do some things, it's it's obvious.
You've not... You are like Joseph's brothers. You are blind as bat. You see, if you are blind, at least have brain. You can't be blind and be brainless. Those two combinations are terrible because okay, you are blind. You couldn't see that you are a star. The young man saw. He now came to tell you that you are a star. Now the next thing is now do you have brain?
To see that in this revelation of his, you are a star. In this revelation of his, you are a star. What what could have been your potential if you actually lived out the fullness of your being a star? May you not be blind? Because it is such blindness that makes 11 stars come together and say how do we kill? Do you know that? Stars being I don't wanna go into the scientific explanation of this. Many people might not understand it. Let me make it simple. Think of it like moons.
Let me use moon. And Joseph comes and says, I see you as a moon and I'm the sun. And being the moon, but you're bowing down to me. And you become angry. As though bowing down in that context would mean that you are bowing down. But if you take it in the revelational context, you realize that what he is saying basically is the moon requires the sun to be enlightened or to be brightened. Is that not so? Yes, sir. So when he's saying that I had another dream, this time, the sun, the moon, the 11 stars bowed down to me, He's not saying that they were bowing down to him as I is the lord of all of them. Are you with me?
Yes, sir. In fact, it is their misrepresentation of that dream that made them bow down to him. What he was seeing, calling them stars, these are luminary figures. It means in their own right, there was... There is an assignment that God had already written specific to each of these individuals. Yes, sir. Is that not so? Yes, sir. Do you understand what I'm saying? Sir.
What it simply means is that that assignment would require Joseph to function. It means that their destinies are stars. We're connected to the rising of Joseph and was connected to the lifting of Joseph. In other words, when Joseph becomes lifted, everybody will function as stars. But they misrepresented a thing. And in their misrepresentation, they became slaves. Are you with me, brothers and sisters? And it wasn't their misrepresentation that they now were discussing a plot to kill their destiny helper. Because they had not seen. It means your not seen would make you compromise your future, would make you compromise your destiny.
You're not seen. You will take decisions in the now they have not thought clearly about. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Yes, sir. I hope you do. I hope you do. I hope you do. Now I want you to hold Daniel beside the sluggard that Solomon sends to the hunt because Proverbs six that we read does not end there. Having shown the hands preparing in summer, Solomon now turns to the sluggard and pronounces what is coming for the man who builds nothing. In verse nine, it says, how long?
This is after he refers the slumber to the hand. He then goes on to now tell the slumber. What comes to him? He says, how long will you slumber, o sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? He then goes on to say, a little sleep, a little slumber, a little fold of the hands to sleep So shall your poverty come on you like a pallor. And your need like an harmed man. I want you to consider the language of the judgement. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands, nothing dramatic, nothing scandalous, just small small daily neglect here and there. Just tiny deferrals that feel harmless to your destiny in the moment.
Just a little sleep, just a little slumber. And then the consequence arrives with military force. It is like a prowler, like an armed man. Poverty does not knock the door of the unstructured life. It just breaks him. And the sobering part is this, this harmed man overpowers you. Not because he's strong. It's because you are not fortified. That verse is not describing a lazy man who is being punished. It is describing an unsticked tent meeting the wind.
That every structure that you refuse to build in the calm instability is an entry point you have left open for the storm. I think that's what Jesus said when he talked about counting before building in Luke chapter 14 from verse 28 to verse 30. And the bible says that the man who does not count and he starts to build is mocked. And he's not mocked for having no vision. I mean he had a tower in mind that he wanted to build. He's not mocked for failing to start. He has laid the foundation already. He's mocked because when he started, he could not finish, he could not sustain what he had started. He began and he was not able to finish it. It is the epitaph of enlargement.
Especially when the enlargement is without stakes. And our generation right now is full of such towers. Ministries that exploded and evaporated. Businesses that trended and vanished. Marriages that celebrated and was celebrated lavishly and was buried quietly. The starting was public. The starting was impressive. But the sustaining structure was never built. Jesus said sit down, counter cost. Counter cost.
Strengthen the stakes. Build character. There are teachings you would hear now that might not even look relevant for you now, but it is holding you responsible for your future. Build character. Build integrity. Thank you, Jesus. Build integrity. I was interviewing people today in my office and while I was interviewing people because they wanted to employ some people, I was told to interview them along with a colleague. While I was interviewing them, I was just seen being on the other side, sitting down on the other side of the interviewing panel, I was just seeing why a lot of the times people fail for the most miserable things. The most miserable things.
I saw that your faith is decided some minutes into the conversation. I was sitting at the other side so I could see it clear out. I said, my god. As we were interviewing people, the colleague that I was interviewing with... I mean, this is an opportunity that would... If any of them got it, change their lives forever. Well, maybe not forever, for now. Change their lives. And I could see places where individuals had not built stakes. Some of them were very good, but you could see places where they had just not build sticks.
And the guy would message me in DM whilst the guy that we are interviewing is passionately expressing himself. The guy who messaged me in my DM, my colleague will message me in my DM with laughing emoji. Rise up on your feet. You see, it pays to be a well grounded believer, a well rounded believer, and a well grounded believer. It pays to be both. It pays to be both. I pray that you don't take for granted what you're listening to. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. And changes your lives. I Amen. Pray. In the name of Jesus. Thank you for listening to this message. We trust you have been blessed. You can get more life transforming messages from apostle Emmanuel Boluatife 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.
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