What if it’s not about the big picture?
Posted by: admin in: ● May 20, 2013
Guest Writer: Wemi Opakunle
Whenever someone is giving me a pep talk, they often say “it’s all about the big picture, keep your eye on the prize”. I also often hear “in the end, these difficult moments won’t matter.” As an individual who looks at life as an incredibly intricate puzzle, I can’t help but think about how misleading and false these seemingly harmless words of encouragement are. I constantly find myself asking “What if it really isn’t about the big picture or the prize at the end of the race for that matter?”
If you’re a puzzle lover or have ever had the pleasure of working on a puzzle with family or friends, you know that the beginning of putting a puzzle together is the hardest part. That moment when you dump all the pieces on the table is usually one filled with a little anxiety and maybe even some doubt as to how you’re going to get the mess in front of you to look like the perfect picture on the box.
Slowly but surely, you start somewhere. You rummage through the mess and you find the pieces that fit. Sometimes you jam certain pieces together but realize they don’t work, so you try again. Depending on how complicated the puzzle is, you may leave and come back to it when you’re ready. You scratch your head a few times and other times, you really just want to pull your hair out. You search for lost pieces. In fact, it seems like you’re always searching for lost pieces. There are times when you almost give up but you trudge on. When a piece fits another perfectly, you jump and scream for joy.
Throughout the process of putting the entire puzzle together, you have as many moments of frustration, impatience and anger as you have elation, joy and excitement. You realize that every single piece serves a purpose and every single piece holds equal weight. The piece in the center is just as important as that on the end and so your search for each piece means that much more. As you put the last piece in and look at your completed work of art, you sigh and appreciate its beauty. What you appreciate more however, is what it took to create that masterpiece. Every step of the journey was worth it.
Life, is a beautiful, intricate and challenging puzzle. What you’ll find at the end of the journey is that although you’ve reached your destination, it wasn’t ever about the destination to begin with. It was all about how you got there. The “how” is what shaped you, molded you and freed you. You are who you are, ready to take on the next puzzle because of the “how”. So next time someone tells you that “it’s all about about the big picture,” remember that it’s actually about those tiny moments and puzzle pieces. The big picture would be nothing without them.
International Network of Christian Intercessors presents: Praying for global peace and concerns. (Thursday, May 16, 2013)
Posted by: admin in: ● May 15, 2013
Some years ago, the Lord spoke to me in a dream concerning a time when the yoke of the beast will weigh down on the earth and it’s inhabitants. I delivered this message in a large congregation of children of God. As I continue to see the wave and style of violence amongst people and nations of the world, I know that this is the time to pray without ceasing, it is a time for true repentance and it is also a time to put on the whole armor of God, resist the devil and his evil imaginations and machinations. There are unimaginable atrocities been committed daily, from the senseless act of a single man destroying so many lives at a movie premier in Colorado to the constant shedding of the blood of innocent civilians in Syria. Please do not think of your own safety alone, there is a yoke that comes as a thick cloud, it is spreading gradually, none is safe except those that abide in the secret place. ((Psalm 91} Once again, watch and pray, the Bible as a living testament of the mind of God is being established daily as the truth and nothing but the truth!
Prayer Points:
- Confess your sins to your heavenly Father. Ask for cleansing and redemption by the precious blood of Jesus. Pray that the Holy Spirit will enable you to manifest the fruit of His full control.
- Pray that the Lord will anoint you to do things as our Lord Jesus Christ would do them, in righteousness and obedience to the will of the heavenly Father.
- Pray for sufficient measure of grace that will sustain this earth that has gone into total decadence.
- Pray that you and all that are yours will constantly be guarded by the putting on of the full armor of God. Thank God for the belt of truth that sets you free from all manipulations of the enemy, the breastplate of righteousness that puts Satan to flight as he cannot stand before the righteousness of God. Pray that your feet will be grounded on the solid rock, which is the gospel of peace that is Christ Jesus. Ask for the shield of faith that wards of all the missiles of the enemies, the powerful helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:13-17)
- The weapons of warfare that God has given us are not carnal but they are indeed mighty and will pull down any stronghold. Demand for the strength to pray always with supplications in the spirit for all saints.
- Affirm that the weapons you have, are powerful enough to demolish every dominion, authority power of darkness and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places.
- Use the name of the Lord Jesus and the power of His precious blood to pull down strongholds of violence, perversion and corruption of the mind, pornography, adultery and prostitution drug abuse and addiction, materialism and many more.
- Pray for the church of Christ and and the attempt of the devil to use greed, materialism, jealousy and other divisive means to weaken it’s foundation.
- Pray for our children and destroy every stronghold the enemy wants to build around them.
- Don’t sit on the fence, this is the time to pray!
Big Dreams = Big Journeys = Big Faith
Posted by: admin in: ● May 6, 2013
Guest Writer: Wemi Opakunle
If you have set out to do great things or live an extraordinary life, there will inevitably come a point in your journey when you will need to carry yourself to the finish line. In spite of how many people support you and your dreams, your faith and belief in yourself and God’s promises for your life will be your only saving grace.
When you have a big dream, It’s always nice to have a support system of friends and family believing with you and in you. Like I said, it’s always nice and this usually happens if you’re lucky. Most of the time, there are just a lot of naysayers and doubting Thomases wondering out loud about how you’re ever going to be able to bring your vision to life.
Whenever I think about dreams, I think about one of the biggest dreamers in history –Joseph. I wonder what it must have felt like when his dreams which symbolized his eventual greatness and power caused him to be sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. When he was falsely accused of the attempted rape of Potiphar’s wife and thrown in jail, I wonder if those dreams that he once saw so clearly started to become blurry. I wonder if he started to doubt God’s plan for his life.
Joseph wasn’t the only one who had to hold on to his dreams when no one else believed in him. I think about David who was anointed King as a little boy and his long journey to claiming the crown that was destined to rest upon his head. I wonder about the thoughts and especially doubts that ran through his mind when he was was hiding out in caves while being hunted by Saul.
If David’s situation was bad, I can only imagine what Abraham was going through. Specifically told that he would be a father of nations, he couldn’t even muster up one child with Sarah. How was he supposed to be a father of generations with no one to carry on his name and legacy? I can imagine the whispers amongst his clan and I can certainly visualize how he felt each passing year with promises unfulfilled.
When you are in the trenches of doubt and hopelessness, I want you to think about those who came before you. Big dreams require big journeys and big journeys need big faith. In spite of the crumbling walls around you and the time that keeps passing you by, you have to believe that you will see the manifestation of your promise. When no one else believes, you owe it to yourself to keep believing. Stay the course and don’t even think of turning back!
Stop comparing!
Posted by: admin in: ● April 28, 2013
Guest Writer: Wemi Opakunle
When I was seven years old, I remember my Grandmother telling me a story about a man in a shiny red car. This man, she said, was the envy of everyone in the neighborhood as he drove down the street without a care in the world. One neighbor in particular thought out loud “what I wouldn’t give to have a car and a life like that”. 2 blocks down, the man in the car swerved into a tree and died on the spot. The point, my grandmother bluntly said was never to covet another’s life or possessions.
With social media being at the height of its popularity at the moment, it has become increasingly difficult not to compare your life with others. Someone just got married and you’re still single; someone just had their third baby and you can’t seem to muster up one successful pregnancy; someone just bought another car and you’re still driving your beat up truck.
I once read a quote that said “I hope your life is one day as awesome as you pretend it is on Facebook”. Hilarious but true. What you may not see is that behind the perfect picture of that woman you admire, her family is in shambles. Her husband doesn’t even sleep in the same room. That childhood friend who just bought a new car is actually leasing it. And that friend who just had another baby is lying awake at night thinking about how she’ll be able to take care of her family financially.
No one’s life is perfect so there really isn’t any need to compete with someone else’s imperfect life. Be content with where you are because you are there for a reason and stop living your life based on other people’s expectations or timetables. Take inspired action everyday and create your own definition of success. Be hopeful and thankful. Be happy for others when something good comes into their lives and never, ever, covet another person’s life situation because only they know the real story and trust me, it’s hardly ever as glamorous as you think.
One more strike
Posted by: admin in: ● April 15, 2013
Guest Writer: Wemi Opakunle
When I first started experiencing a spiritual awakening and exploring the consciousness within, one of the first books that came into my possession was Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich”. Over the past few years, I’ve found myself still channeling some of the book’s powerful messages and earlier today when I woke up mentally exhausted, emotionally drained and wondering how I could find the strength to take one more step towards building my dreams, a specific chapter came to mind.
“Before success comes in any man’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do. More than five hundred of the most successful men this country has ever known told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them. Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning. It takes great delight in tripping one when success is almost within reach.”
The story that preceded this quote was that of a man who set out to be successful by digging for gold. He took on a piece of land that was filled with potential and got to digging. After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the precious ore. He invested in machinery and gathered a few family members to join in the dig with high hopes of making a fortune. Unfortunately, after extensive drilling, they found that the vein of gold ore had disappeared. They kept trying but eventually, they gave up –selling the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars. It turns out that this junk man was smarter than most. He brought in a mining engineer to take a look at the mine. The engineer calculated that the dig had failed because the owners were not familiar with “fault lines”. Moreover, his calculations showed that the vein of gold would be found just three feet from where the owners stopped drilling. Needless to say that’s exactly where it was found. The “junk” man made millions from that mine.
When you have done everything that you can and you’ve pushed for so long that you don’t think your mind, body and soul can take it anymore; when you are at a standstill and you feel exhausted and even paralyzed, you owe it to yourself to give it one more shot. Push! Drill! Strike! Give it your all every time and one day, one hour, one minute, the ground will give in to you and you will strike gold. You may have started fifteen businesses and lost each one, invested and failed each time — I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t matter. Learn from those so called “failures” and try again. There is no alternative. In spite of your fear, in spite of your anger, in spite of your doubt, you have to try again.
Spring Cleaning
Posted by: admin in: ● April 7, 2013
Guest Writer: Wemi Opakunle
At the beginning of every season, I always take a weekend to clean my apartment from top to bottom. I also clean out my closet extensively, creating a pile of things that are no longer of value and most importantly things that I’ve outgrown. I find that it’s not only therapeutic but it’s also a great way of giving myself a fresh start and a new beginning.
This season, as I celebrated the arrival of Spring and as I embarked on my seasonal cleaning, I started to think about how effective it would be to apply the same notion of ‘getting rid of clothes and things that no longer fit’ to our life situations. I thought about those friends that are only ever interested in what’s going on with them (you know, those that call you under the pretense of seeing how you are but really only want to talk about how they are) to those that drain you with discussions of the same problem over and over again. Then there are those you’re not exactly sure you’re even friends with…do you love them or do they hate you? (we call those frenemies).
It’s truly amazing how much clutter we keep in our lives because we’re afraid of the empty space that’ll stare right back at us the moment we let go. What I can tell you from experience is that everytime you let go, you immediately open yourself up to something new, something better, and something that fits perfectly into that empty space. Every single time I’ve made my way to Goodwill and dropped of bags of clothes to help someone else in need, I’ve noticed within a few weeks that my closet goes back to being full again. Now that could be a sign that I love shopping entirely too much but I choose to believe that as I open my hands and let go, I’m immediately replenished.
Today, I’m going to ask you to do something in honor of the new season. I’m going to ask you to take inventory and start cleaning out the people and situations that do not add value to your life. Be selfish with your time and be protective of your soul and spirit. Refuse to let certain people and their life situations taint your sacred space. If you don’t want to cut someone off, then put limits on your time with them. Put limits on what you will and will not allow from them. You can’t control or change other people, the only person whose actions you have power over is you.
Take control of your life, your time and your space. Create multiple piles and if something or someone does not add value to your life, put them in the trash pile. Happy cleaning!
International Network of Christian Intercessors presents: Praying for global peace and concerns. (Thursday, March 28, 2013)
Posted by: admin in: ● March 27, 2013
The battle is over! (Isaiah 53, Revelation 12)
Thanks be to God for the victory that our Lord Jesus Christ obtained for us through his death and resurrection. The battle was fierce in heaven, archangels and angels fought gallantly against the dragon, the accuser of brethren. The captain of our salvation and our ransom exercised his sovereign rule over all things in heaven and upon the earth. He took the sting out of death and victory away from the grave. He made an open show of principalities and powers triumphing over them. Every attempt made by Satan to thwart the finished work upon the Cross at Calvary was aborted.
Christianity was born in Christ and through Christ. A man child delivered and nurtured by the divine power of God, was ordained to do exploits that the gates of hell would not be able to prevail against. Jesus is the church. He is the king and the head of the holy nation of God. We are the chosen elects of God, the citizens of the heavenly kingdom on earth. We are peculiar, and powerful. The enemy has been defeated, he hates his failure and so, he continues to grind his ugly teeth at the elects. Through God’s magnanimity, the church is preserved in the secret place where the dragon cannot penetrate because of the bloodline. The church of Christ has overcome Satan by the Blood of the Lamb and the words of our testimony. We are testifiers to the validity of the gospel of truth.
Why then do we continue to fight, a battle that was finished thousands of years ago? Ignorance is what makes us stay in battle, when we have already been proclaimed Victors. We cannot continue to run around totting guns when the enemy is no more. Brethren, it’s time to enjoy the victory obtained for us through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are no more in bondage, no longer in battle, we are risen with Christ. Happy Easter!
The power of Gratitude
Posted by: admin in: ● March 24, 2013
Gratitude (photo courtesy of www.lilomm.com)
Guest Writer: Wemi Opakunle
I love the smell of spring in the air. I love the hope of new possibilities that comes with the changing breeze. I love the view of new life springing up. Most importantly, I love the feeling of inspiration that comes with the new season. I’ve always admired how life imitates nature and nature reflects life. There’s a time to sow and a time to reap. There’s a time to grow and nurture, a time to let nature take its course and a time to take action.
The interesting thing is that we do often forget that there is a time for everything. We’re so focused on the end result of our journey that we completely ignore the journey itself. We forget how meaningful and important each and every step we take is. We forget to acknowledge the small battles won along the way. Webster’s Dictionary defines a journey as ‘an act of traveling from one place to another’. There is no mention of the destination but rather the act. When we forget the act, we forget why we’re here.
I once read that “often, the happiest people in the world don’t have the best of everything…they just make the best of everything”. Depending on what your life situation is at this point in time, It may be harder for some, more than others to find a way to be grateful or to see the silver lining. What nature and specifically the new season does teach us is that there is no such thing as permanence in life. This too will pass. Things change, life changes, you change. It is inevitable.
As this new season begins, it’s important to take the time to reflect on how far you’ve come in your journey. Take a moment or a few moments to be grateful for the path taken, for the unacknowledged victories. Remember that there is no good or bad experience. Instead, understand that each experience is an important piece of the puzzle. Know that each experience serves a purpose to grow and build you. Appreciate it, love it, embrace it.
P.S
I recently received a beautiful vase from a friend and I’ve decided that instead of waiting for the perfect spring flowers to fill it with, I’m going to fill it with thanks. I’ve made it into a jar of gratitude. Every evening, I write out a small note of what I’m grateful for and I throw it in the jar. With every note that I add, I realize how truly lucky and blessed I am.
Ask, release and let go
Posted by: admin in: ● March 17, 2013
Guest Writer: Wemi Opakunle
My mother says that I discovered the power of prayer at the age of 4. I remember fervently asking for my heart’s desires every chance that I got and I believed they would all come to pass. If they didn’t, I believed that it was for the best. I may not have understood why they weren’t happening, but in my mind, it didn’t matter.
At 22, I discovered the law of attraction. Learning that I attracted whatever I put out into the Universe was life changing. Understanding that like attracts like and that positive thoughts attract positive outcomes was a defining moment. I started to devour every book that I could find on the subject. Everything that I read suggested that I could ask for anything that I wanted and the Universe would provide it. No questions asked.
At 25, I was surrounded by vision boards, dream journals and images of things that I wanted for my life. I thought about these things constantly. To say that they consumed me is an understatement. I put specific dates and time limits on when these dreams of mine would come into manifestation. I told the Universe how things should happen, even sometimes where they should happen. I was very specific. After all, I’d learned that the more specific you are with God, the better the chance your miracle had of happening.
At 28, I’ve realized that things are a little more complicated than our physical minds can even begin to comprehend. I’ve learned that you can’t control the “how” of things. It’s my job to ask and believe that if what I’ve asked for is meant to be a part of my journey, then it’ll come to pass. If it’s not meant to be, there’s a reason why and sooner or later, something of equal or greater value will make its way into my life. I’ve learned not to hold on so tightly to my desires and aspirations. I’ve learned to let go and let God.
As an adult, most of the things that I’ve asked for in the past few years have actually not happened. What has happened is that I have found myself on the most beautiful path that I could never have imagined for myself. The most unexpected surprises and successes have made their way into my life and they fit so perfectly in the journey that I’m on.
One more thing, I haven’t stopped asking. I still have a vision for my life. What I’m learning to do is to release my wishes and let go of their possible outcomes. Instead, I’m striving to be excited about the pieces of the puzzle that my mind has not even had the chance to anticipate. As Douglas Adams once said, ‘I seldom end up where I wanted to go, but almost always end up where I need to be.’
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