2013: YEAR OF THE MIRACULOUS! Jesus Power at work for your advantage!

No wonder Apostle Peter proclaimed in Acts 2:22
"Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 

Common get up.Its time to raise your expectations on the LORD for His Miracles ! Signs ! Wonders!

Its raining on you already or what do you see?

2013: Year Of The Miraculous! You will receive...

@–VANGELISM : Reaching the ‘10/40 window’

I can hear someone asking ‘Windows 7 or Windows 8?’! No,Its none of what you think it is. This is is not any of Microsoft operating systems but a labeling.
The 10/40 Window concept highlights these three elements: an area of the world with great poverty and low quality of life, combined with lack of access to Christian resources.
According to Wikipedia,it is a term coined by Christian missionary strategist Luis Bush in 1990 to refer to those regions of the eastern hemisphere located between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator, a general area that in 1990 was purported to have the highest level of socioeconomic challenges and least access to the Christian message and Christian resources on the planet.
The window forms a band encompassing Saharan and Northern Africa, as well as almost all of Asia (West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia and much of Southeast Asia). Roughly two-thirds of the world population lives in the 10/40 Window.
10/40 Window is populated by people who are predominantly Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Animist,Jewish or Atheist. Many governments in the 10/40 Window are formally or informally opposed to Christian work of any kind within their borders.
Yet these vast fields of human life are still groaning for the manifest presence of God through the church . Human population in these nations is ever-increasing and so is the number of souls waiting to be reached for Christ. Indeed the fields are already white for harvest and now, the Lord of the harvest is already creating room through the instrumentation of technology ; especially the social network platforms!
A current report from cyberschuulnews ,an internet newsletter claimed “with the proliferation of internet particularly broadband provision in emerging economies, a study has revealed that user numbers [in these economies] are overtaking Western Europe and North America. “Of these group,internet users in the Middle East and China (the main 10/40 window population) are the busiest and most enthusiastic.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and China emerged as global leaders with around 55% of the sample populations found to be highly engaged in the internet, compared with only 42% in the UK and the US. It showed how much time people in this region spend online and their attitudes to technology.These people have been seen to spend more time on social networking than e-mail. Also with increased mobile access these people are more likely to post [and view] blogs, photos and videos online and value internet access.A study also found that 61% of people with internet access used it daily. That provides a good percentage of these people waiting to be reached via twitter, face book ,d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s , and what have you. If we fail to reach out to them, someone else [a bad one, at that] will.
It may interest you to know that, of these people group, China’s internet population of more than 400 million and by far the world’s largest online population, usage is mainly driven by entertainment features - instant messaging and online music, videos and games .
This should bring us to the question of ’how do we reach this lost people-group with the principles of Christ?’. Surely its high time we rode on the wave of technology by designing entertainment contents: Music ,Videos,Computer and Video games to spread the timeless gospel through the vehicle of entertainment! Free distribution of Bibles may be disallowed and even banned but we can redesign our gospel advance approach; infiltrate their rank and file with the timeless truth ; using technology.
Now may the marketable prophets of God arise with animations ,computer games and various web skills to take this mountain for the Lord. Or better still with alacrity,seek to acquire the requisite skills in this regard wherever any is wanting.Let music prophets,animation apostles and all believers with creative and iT competences rise and take their places to reap the already ripe harvest fields of the earth.
This great window of harvest must never be left to close! We must enter in…! And like he did Isaiah,the Spirit of God still asks this generation of believers, “Who will go for us?”…

Is Christ Jesus Truly The Only Way? Tokunbo Beulah Johnson

Heb 7:25 (NIV) Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Acts 17:30-32 (NIV) 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." So Is Christ Jesus the only Way? This is one of the knotty questions that begs for answer in this age of spiritual indifference and multiple options. People are fast concluding that probably Jesus couldn't be the only way to God; that a fair God would give people more options. This error of thinking holds strong also among Christ followers who in their bid to be politically correct and socially accepted are quiet or out-rightly denying that Jesus Christ alone is the only way. The consequence of this thinking then shows a growing number of church goers in the nations who have never accepted the truth of Jesus alone being the only cure to sin problem. Many congregation have tried different means to win followers to their fold without a fervent mention of what Christ did on the Cross (He died to take away the sins of the world)and without demanding from the followers that the same sacrifice that Christ made is a sine qua non for discipleship. Didn’t Jesus say all Christ followers would carry their own cross and follow Him? Matt 16:24 (NIV) “Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Church pews remain filled every Sunday but by religious and scripturally ignorant people who have only come to have their wish-list attended to by a ‘Santa Claus’ God that is so giving and expects nothing in return. That's not the God of the Hebrews that told them to journey into the wilderness to seek Him. He is the One true God who demands that people remove their garment of self-righteousness of good works so they can be clothed in His righteousness when they humbly come to Him through the shed blood of the Son of His own choosing: Christ Jesus. Rom 5:21 (NIV) “…so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” So let the church think again, change her mind and adjust her theology. For its through Christ Jeus alone that our sins are washed away and only though Him is forgiveness of sins appropriated for personal salvation. No man can come to the God, the Father except as they accept Jesus as Saviour , Lord, Master and King. He is even the One chosen and accredited by the Father to judge all men after all is said and done! 2 Tim 4:1-2 (NIV) “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead,…” What I am saying in essence is that it takes a cleansing of man's conscience by the Blood of Christ alone for man’s sins to be totally removed so he can serve God in the right way. (Heb.9: 11-14). For man, Sin is the problem and Christ, is the cure!

PRESENT TRUTHS: FULL RESTORATION INTO SONSHIP

Paul's last instruction to the Corinthian church in 2 Cor.13:11(NIV) was for them to "aim for perfection..." Today,new truths about our sonship and the revelation of perfection are being restored ; the Body of Christ through the revealed truths is gradually making her way towards what Paul,the Apostle called "the fullness of the stature of the measure of Christ" Eph 4:13. Secondly,God is also restoring the full function of the governmental gifts of the church otherwise known as five-fold ministry gifts of Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist,Pastor and Teacher.These ministry gifts will play a midwife role in bringing believers into maturity through accurate doctrines of Christ that build the nature of the Bridegroom into His Bride! With the restoration of these new truths,greater enlightenment and reality is brought concerning old truths.Nothing is lost but everything is enhanced. Jesus did not come to destroy the truths of the Old Testament but to demonstrate them and fulfill all the types and shadows contained in them.All scriptures right from Genesis to Malachi ; Matthew to Revelation all testified of Him. All members of the Body of Christ today need to seek to move up and grow up much more than she is concerned about going up to heaven.The former must precede the latter. Let the church heed God's truth that there is no going up without first a growing up into a fully restored state of being which is obtained only in the Christ anointing ! However, like it was in the days of Martin Luther(when the unscripturally educated and the spiritually unstable went into extremism and fanaticism), every restoration move has had and will have its extremes when the pendulum of new truth began to swing and mark a new time of advancement for the Church.Hence,we must endeavor to maintain a balance by the grace,wisdom,and maturity of the Head of the Church Himself,Jesus Christ our Lord. Tokunbo Beulah Johnson (Teaching Apostle)

'CHOICES, DECISIONS AND CONSEQUENCES'

In a world when we are faced with many choices(both good and bad)how do we fail-proof our decisions? Read this eye-opening excerpt on 'CHOICES, DECISIONS AND CONSEQUENCES' (By Joke Olukuade- Weds, Nov 14,2012) Enjoy!!! TEXT : Deut 30:15-19 , NIV 15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live..." The Bible says we should choose life. Decisions affect our assignment 2012 is our Year Of Apostolic Assignment. This means we recognize we are on an assignment. In executing apostolic assignment you have to make decisions. You must be deliberate about what you do and those decisions have consequences. We need to know that there is a war that is going on over your life as someone on assignment. In this season we need to make good decisions out of the many choices we are faced with. The word Choice in the Hebrew is the word ‘Bahchar’ and it means a delicacy, choice, elect, selecting something, determining a particular piece of something from a basket of options. What is the difference between a choice and a decision ? -Choice you are selecting out of many ways presented while decision is selecting one of the choices. Gen 12:2 – God said to Abraham I will make you a great nation. Abraham did not do anything to warrant this .God just chose (barchar) him. 1 Kings 11: 34 –When God chose (Barchar) David . God looked at the whole clan of Israel and chose David. The same word (Barchar) held when God chose Moses. It was Barcha in operation when He chose you and I before the foundation of the world. Eph 1:4 . Chosen us in Him before even the Garden of Eden. This should be at the forefront of our minds that He chose us out of the multitude of people just like one son writer said. The word means He has tested us ; knowing we would stand pressure.That is God sees in us more than meets the eye. The word Barchar is revealed and better understood through the following ways in which God chooses people: 1. God chose us from the furnaces of affliction. Is 48:10. 2. God approved of us and selected us as the best. Josh 24:15,God chooses out of the multitude. Why does He chose people out of the multitude. God sees people great destiny.He sees something in us and chose us. We also need to see what God saw in us. 3. God chose us because He desired us - Ex 14:7. Talking about God choosing us because of desire was like what Lot did in Gen 13:11,when he chose the place of Jordan cause it was desirable to him. In the same way we are desirable to God and He chose us. The Lord put the tree in the Garden of Eden yet commanded man never to eat of the fruit of it.Gen 2:16,17. The question remained ‘why did n’t God just fence the tree off Adam?’. It is because the power of Choice is so powerful. God wanted Adam to choose to obey Him willfully and as a free moral agent. The greatest gift that God gave to man was the power of Choice! This might be the reason why God didn’t cage up the tree in Eden.He will never force man to obey Him under duress.He loves for men to make their own decision to obey Him. When we say that we don’t have a choice, its not true because the choice had actually been made way back. We have no choice in our prevailing marriage situations because we already made a choice way back when we chose to marry that individual. Technically,through our decision of past years, we actually signed up for all that we getting now. HANDLING CHOICES. Ever heard people say ‘I have choice things in front of me?’.The word is Heb. Yakach(pronounced Yawkahh)meaning to be right,correct. If you want to make a decision , you look at all the information that you have and then make the decision. Gen 37:14 -15 – Joseph was informed about where his brothers were. He had the right information so he found them. The Lesson here is: Progress is impossible without the right information. Note that Joseph was seeking (vs 16). The word seeking is not just an happenstance. The word here means Bakash to search until the object of search is located. The same word ‘seek’ here is the same word Bakash as also used in Ps 27:8. God calls us to a purposeful search. We will find Him only when we search for Him with all our hearts. When we seek God out and find Him there is always so much joy in our heart. God desire seekers. When we fail to seek God as we should we make wrong decisions or go our own ways.Here are some uses of the word ‘Way’ Pro.14: 12,14; Pro 1:31; Pro 12:15. When we seek God we exempt ourselves from folly because our decision are now informed. The word ‘Way’ here in Pro 12;15 is the Hebrew word ‘Derekh.’ It means the way we order our lives ;our manner of life , etc. Every day of our lives represents an option. Everyday we are presented with options and there are forces contending for our lives to make the wrong decisions whether we like it or not. Most times in our decision making process, we choose the part of least resistance. Pro 1:31 says we will eat of the fruits of our own way Pro 12:15 - Our choices always lead us somewhere. Our choices of course are informed by several things. For instance,who to marry and how many kids to have are all decisions. Things don’t just jump on us rather we make those decisionby ourselves . The word ‘right’ as used here in pro 12;15 means Straight just like in Matt 12:13,14. There is a limit to what we carry in our intelligence there is a way that seems right or straight to us. Our decisions fail in as much as we make them in consideration ONLY in the light of the volume physical information available to us. However things are not always what it seems. There are forces unseen behind everything. This is the Supernatural dimension to making decisions. In every decision we make we need to see the unseen.! In the New Testament, we are told that the things that we see are temporal and not permanent. Everything that we can see, touch, smell , are a manifestation of something from the spirit realm .e.g before I was born,I had existed in God’s mind. Everything that we see is a manifestation of what has gone on in the spirit realm. According to Pro 14:12; Rom 12:16. The advices are : 1. Do not be wise in your own opinion. 2. Don’ t think that you know it all. One of the word translated wise in Gk is the word Phronimus which actually means the way we think.It means to claim to know it all. That is why scripture enjoins “ don’t be wise in your own eyes.” Being wise in our own eyes and thinking that we know it all was why the First Adam fell. In Gen 3:6 – Eve saw that the fruit was pleasant to the eyes. Here Eve was trying to show herself wise. That she knows it all. Note that the fruit did not make her wise(no fruit can make that happen) but it was in her thinking. She thought ‘Ah now at last we would not need God anymore !!!’.She thought in her intellect. However, what we need is to have a certain wisdom which when acted upon brings us success. This is the type of wisdom that Joseph had. The point here is that : It takes wisdom (and not intelligence) to make the right decision. HOW TO MAKE THE RIGHT DECISIONS. 1. Open up yourself to His nature 2. Open up yourself to His power. Gen.39: 1-10. In verse 9,we saw that Joseph was not as concerned about sinning against Potiphar or his wife but God. 2 Tim 2:19- - If any man cleanses himself from the latter…”The decision is ours to make. Though the Lord has positioned us in sanctification but we need to make decisions to keep ourself . We should seek to consecrate ourself to God and be holy unto Him -Lev 20:7,8 Rom 8:13- If we live according to the flesh we shall die but if we make decisions informed by the Spirit of God we shall live. Making spirit-informed decision must be our goal always as we strive to make decisions that will positively impact on our lives, families, cities and communities !

2012 : Year of Apostolic Assignment!

Welcome to the decisive year 2012.!

It is decisive because of the peculiarity of the year to provide new foundations for all you shall be doing the rest of your life .It is an apostolic year .
Do you know that true kingdom foundations are laid when the apostolic character of the 5-fold Christ Anointing comes into play? Eph 2:20.

For our church it’s a Year of Apostolic Assignment! It is the Year of the ‘12’ !

The No 12 is the key factor to consider in 2012.
According to the Holy Scriptures,'12' is the no of the Apostolic.

The PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NO ‘12’: What It is :
It is the Completion Of God’s Government.
It is the Completion of Glory.
It is the no of Apostolic Purpose.

DECLARATIONS.
i.We declare that this shall be to us the completion of God’s government in our lives.
ii.We declare that this shall be to us the perfection of God’s glory in our lives.

HERE ARE SOME BIBLICAL INSIGHTS ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ‘12’ :
i.The chosen natural nation of Israel was 12 tribes having been born 12 sons of the patriarch Jacob .This is the foundation of God’s chosen people even till tomorrow. We recognize that as the church , we are Spiritual Israel.
ii. Elim the place of rest for the Israelites was a place of 12 springs of water and 70 palms (Ex 15:27;Num 33:9)
iii.There were to be 12 stones in the High priest’s breast-piece.- Ex 28:21
iv.Aaron chose 12(twelve) leaders -Num.1: 44
v. All gifts for the dedication of the altar were in Twelves -Num 7:84.87
vi. ‘12’(Twelve) stones were carried out of the midst of Jordan in memorial of the miracle of the parted river -Jos 4:3,8
vii.Solomon the leadership template for apostolic wisdom had ‘12’ district Governors over all Israel who provided food for him all year round-1 Kings 4:7
viii. The Sea (God's purification plan for the priest)rested on ‘12’ bulls – 1 Kg 7:25
ix. Elijah took ‘12’twelve stones – 1 Kgs 18:31
x. Elisha was plowing with ‘12’twelve yoke of oxen when God called him.
xi.The Altar of the temple was divisible of ‘12’ – Ex 43:16.
xii. Jesus had ‘12’ disciples Mark 3:16
xiii. Jesus promised us that those who believe in Him will at the end of the age,sit as judge on the ‘12’(twelve) thrones – Matt 19:28.

WHAT WE SHALL DO AS A PEOPLE…

1. Community - We will sustain covenant relationships and the build stronger kingdom
Communities .We will do these through:
i. Honouring commitments to our natural families (spouse ,children)
ii. Honouring commitments to our Church family (through the Tree of Life Community Centres)

2. Wisdom .We need this to build a predictable future out of a deliberate architecture.

3. Accuracy .We will walk in total obedience to the Lord in agreement with our discovered prophetic destiny and blueprint.

4. Focusing on the finish (through Constant Prayer, a Consecrated life , etc ).We will show our true dedication to the Lord in our monthly 3-day fasting and corporate prayer.

5. Evangelism and Church Planting .We will intensify our soul winning drive and increase our ‘Tree of Life’ Centers from 10 to 100 by Sept 2012)


Our Year 2012 Promise is found in the book of:
Psalms 107:23-30 (King James Version)which reads thus:

"23 They that go down to the sea in ships,that do business in great waters;

24 These see the works of the Lord,and his wonders in the deep.

25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind,which lifteth up the waves thereof.

26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths:their soul is melted because of trouble.

27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,and are at their wits 'end.

28 Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble,and he bringeth them out of their distresses.

29 He maketh the storm a calm,so that the waves thereof are still.

30 Then are they glad because they be quiet;so he bringeth them unto their desired haven."

I urge you to join us online every day in our 366 Days of Glory Devotionals journey through Facebook, twitter , and website(www.thecapstoneonline.com) to download apostolic prayer resources for your daily use for a victorious life!.

May your life be fruitful and may all your purposes be fulfilled to the glory of God this year.

I declare that, for you, this leap year 2012 shall be a Year of the Quantum Leap in Jesus’ Name!



Yours truly,


Tokunbo Beulah Johnson
Senior Elder/Pastor,The Capstone Yaba

www.beulahtoks.blogspot.com
www.thecapstoneonline.com

MY INDIAN BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER

 

THE JOURNEY

 

HOW TO GROW YOUR MINISTRY USING THE NEW MEDIA
- Tokunbo Beulah Johnson

Social Networks have become a very viable part of the New Media.With over 500 million subscribers worldwide on FaceBook alone,it has become a growing culture; one that promises to be a very long-lasting part of world culture that will not go away in a hurry. So we might as well jump in too!

1. An analysis of our Official Website (www.thecapstoneonline.com) by Google Analytics monitored between July 1 2010 and Feb 20,2011(7 months) showed :
- 1215 visits from 55 countries around the world as against that visited physically
- 3761 page views.
- Average time spent by visitors on the site 3:59 seconds.
This means people are following us online from farther places than we can ever know!
So we must try to:
• Make members grow deeper (by Discipleship)
• Make our church larger (by Attendance)
• Make our church have a wider net to accommodate for Diversities- Racial , Economic ,etc)
• Help people to get more connected by fellowship and network.

2. SOCIAL MEDIA
Using social media is very essential for:
i. Church like ours that has the global vision without limit. We need to be virtual in the people’s face.
ii. Church in a very cosmopolitan and busy city like Lagos requires this tool.
iii. Reaching the youths (75% of Nigeria’s population is youth).
iv. An aggressive Evangelism tool,we should have a phenomenal social media plan (Twitters , FaceBook ,MySpace, etc.).An aggressive and commendable user of this media is Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of the Christ Embassy.’Pastorchrislive’ on Twitter (as at Feb 2011,had well over 1 million followers.
iv. Great Pastoral Counseling tool.

However, it should be noted that Social media ONLY COMPLEMENTS excellent people ministry (Sermons, Services , Parking ,Children’s Ministry, etc)

MYTHS
1. Social networks are for the teenagers or young demographies.
2. BlackBerry is too expensive. No they aren’t!!! (They cost like N20,000 now with about N1000 /month internet package. All for soul-winning. Really,how much is soul worth ?!

WHAT YOU CAN DO
1. Tweet about your services and ministry.
This will work better if key leaders in your church actually use them.
Key decision-makers like you need to use it…
2. Small groups (meeting n homes) and Fellowships like Women Prayer Group, Men , Youths ,Worship Team ,etc should have their own FB Groups.

ADVANTAGES
i. People who are new in your church can engage with the other people on FB on a more personal basis.
ii. Everything on FB is Free!

I would like for us to examine two of the famous social media that we have around here:

(A) FACEBOOK : http://www.facebook.com/
-We need to double down on FaceBook . As church leaders,we must be investing on Facebook.75% of the people that learnt about a certain church: the Courageous Church, Atlanta , did so on FaceBook. People will bump unto your church on FB.

Truths:
i. Most of the people who attend our church are already on FB or have someone they know who is on FB. So we only need to tell them how to use it for our church’s advantage.
ii. Even those who do not attend our church, FB is already a part of their life. About 500 million worldwide people presently use FB on their iphone , BB , ipad , Computers. It is going to be a very long-lasting part of world culture that will not go away in a hurry. So we might as well jump in too!

THE DIFFERENT PLATFORMS on FB.
(i) FB ads-( http://www.facebook.com/advertising/)
See this screenshot of a xtian ad ‘WishPray’

It appears on the right side of the Home Page or Profile page
Its cost effective. For instance, ‘Courageous Church, Atlanta’ got 7.6 million FB ads appearances for just $1200 and 13018 people clicked on it within that period of time.
You pay only when the people click on it to view your ad. So it may even cost much less.

It can be used for the followings:
i. Advertising for a new teaching series that we are about to start(e.g Wednesday or Sunday services).

3 Words That Will Make People Click on FB Ads.
i. ‘Free’. e.g Skill Empowerment For Entertainment Wanna-Be. Admission is FREE.
ii. ‘Church’ - ‘Wouldn’t You Rather Be In Church This Sunday?’
iii. ‘Prayer’ – ‘Operation P-U-S-H’ . Pray Until Something Happens!

FaceBook STATISTICS
1. An estimated 8140 people on FB who live in Nigeria and aged 18 years and older like the word ‘Church’.
2. An estimated 2,768,080 people who live in Nigeria and aged 18 yrs and above are on Facebook in Nigeria alone!
3.There are an estimated 2,374,860 people who are aged 18 , and above who live in Nigeria and speak American English (Source: FB campaign ad creator-http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/?campaign_id=368901427978&placement=advf2&extra_1=0).

iii. An estimated 7100 people aged 18 years and above who live in Nigeria have ‘Pray’ or ‘Prayers ‘as an area of interest.
The statistics of all this FB users is collated automatically through mapping of the IP addresses of people’s in Nigeria using personal computers on FB).

LOWEST RATE PER CLICK is (0.33 USD per click)
You can spend as little as 0.33 USD a day for the ads and it gives you the default option of running for 1 whole month daily! Between the hours of your choice.

You can do your ad based on demographics depending on who you are targeting.

2. FB for SMALL GROUPS – Just create a page, get someone to manage it and off you go.

3. EVENT.
(This appears in the right hand corner of the Home page or Profile page on FB.)
You can create a FB event (sermon series, Musical Concert , Outreach ,Xmas ,etc)for every event you are having. Helps you to invite everybody that you know or have as your FB friends.

Simply invite all members on your friends list and tell them to invite all the people on their FB address. This will generate a web-string of people connected to your event.

You can also run an ad for the FB event.
There just might be someone who is looking for a place to belong because people are looking for community and connections. People are looking for churches . People are lonely.

4.USING PEOPLES’ BIRTHDAYS (I still remember a wish on FB at my last year birthday from someone I have never met even till date).
Birthday Links appear in the Top Right-hand corner of the Home page on FB.
Though you don’t know them yet just go on and wish them a hapi bday on their FB wall.You wouldn’t believe the effect of this ! Simply write :
‘Hapi bday … you are great person and this year shall be great for you.God bless You ...’


(B) TWITTER : https://twitter.com/
-Go to twitter.com . Sign in and start tweeting about the aspects of the service that has inspired you or that can inspire other people.(The Message,the Speaker,the Music, the cool atmosphere, etc

-Using the Advanced feature - Twitter.com/advance
Allows you to connect with people in your city/neighbourhood who might need spiritual help. You can do the followings:
i. Search ‘pray’ or ‘looking for a church’
ii. Look for people who have these needs and tweet them. Send a pray to them.

URGENT TASK.
-Create a twitter account for your church.
-Create another separate account called ‘news’ for regular updates on goings-on in the church (e.g coming events, etc)

All of these are free!

-Search for the name of your church ( https://twitter.com) and text all the people who have been in your church and tweeted about you. They are always amazed that you could get back to them.

(C) YouTube : http://www.youtube.com.
-Create your own YouTube account.
-Use your BlackBerry or any other smart phone to record clips of our services and broadcast it on YouTube. Yes, on your own YouTube account that you have created!

(D) BLOGS :
For your articles , thots etc that you can contribute to the development of mankind.

Frequently Asked Question (FAQ):
Q: How Much Time Should i Dedicate To Social Media.
A: May be an hour a week.

RE-ENGINEER YOURSELF.
This will happen only if you recognize the following:
1. That our world is fast changing and at an alarming rate.
2. That unless you re-engineer yourself as leaders in the 21st Century,you will expire and become totally irrelevant!

CONCLUSION
What in the world can you cluster using the New Media (Blogs,Website,Social Media)just to make people crowd up your church till you are running around looking for seats to accommodate them .

I am available to help just reach me on:
www.megaliosit.blogspot.com.
www.beulahtoks.blogspot.com,
www.twitter.com/beulahtoks,
www.thecapstoneonline.com.

For prayer and counselling email:
helpdesk@thecapstoneonline.com ; capstone_c@yahoo.com
Tel: +234 8023182030

CREATING YOUR OWN WORLD OF GOOD NEWS “!- (Pastor Toks - February 13, 2011).

WHAT IMAGES DO YOU SEE?

“By faith he (Moses) left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.” (Heb 11:27,NIV)

A 6 year old boy recently engaged his mother in a discussion on proper and improper dressence. The mother took her time to educate the young lad about what proper dressing is like.To convince his mum that he gets the idea that his mum was trying to convey, he turned to her , smiled wryly and said “Mummy you mean proper dressing is like when Pastor Toks (referring to me)wears his suit.I want to be dressing like Pastor Toks and Obama”.

To the little boy, I am now in the same league as Obama. (Well I am laughing too!)
His perception of success is getting formed already. A picture , an image of success is already forming in his innocent mind.
Truth is , we dream of becoming something only because we have seen it.

Most information available to us in these days contain toxic pictures that are contrary to our well-being :Wars ,Killings ,Obscenities ,etc.These bad news create in our minds bad images.Bad images depress!On the other hand, Jesus already promised us victory (John 16:33). Through his parables Jesus continually drew good pictures in the minds of his hearers .
He used phrases that draw pictures .He promised us that we can make it ;that there is hope . Yes you can make it! All you need to do is see it possible and its yours!

WHAT IS MAN?
A Human being is composed of 3 parts-The Spirit , The Soul and The Body .With the Spirit, Man relates to the spirit realm .With the Soul /Mind ,man relates to the mental realm . While with the body , he adapts to the Physical realm. The greatest battle then exists in the mind.it is the battleground where the issues of our lives are won or lost ; all because of what images we see!

SOME PRINCIPLE OF IMAGES:
# 1- You become what you behold .We all are being transformed from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord as we fixate our gaze upon him . Looking unto Jesus , the Author and Finisher of our faith .The more we see him the more we become like him.
# 2- Your life (thoughts and actions) will only follow the path of your most dominant image – (As he thinketh so is he)
# 3- It can only be yours if you can see it. Elijah told Elisha,God showed Abraham the picture of Stars and Seashore . God sowed Jacob.
# 4 – Repetition is the key to memorization.

To succeed in anything you do you must:

First, see the Image in your mind’s eye. Allow the Bible to create these success images in your mind . Spend quality time reading the Bible daily.God’s Word is full of these pictures and images .
Right image creates right desire .Desire creates burden , Burden leads to asking . Asking leads to receiving. Mk 11:23,24).
Second, keep on confessing what you see until it becomes a physical reality.

“God wishes above all things that i prosper and be in health even as my soul prospers…”(1 Jn 3:2)
He bore my iniquities and carried my pains , the beatings that brought me peace was upon him and by his wounds I was healed( Is 53:4-6)
Faith or fear are both produced by images that we see.
Faith brings success while fear leads to failure!

TO DRAW A NEW IMAGE MAKE THESE YOUR CONFESSIONS OFTEN:
#1.For Spiritual Growth – (Collosians 1:10)
‘I increase daily in the knowledge of God’.
#2. For A Successful Career – (Joshua 1:8,9)
‘I see success and increase in all that I do according to Josh 1:8,9
I am head and not tail.’
#3. For A Healthy Relationship (1 Peter 3:7)
‘I prosper in my relationship and I reap the blessing of covenant.’
#4. For Health - (3 John 2)
‘I walk in perfect health because Christ has carried all my pains.’
#5. For Boldness/Sound Mind.-(2Timothy 1:7)
‘I do not fear anything or anyone , my mind is sound and I have self discipline.’


For more resources and help :
www.beulahtoks.blogspot.com,
www.twitter.com/beulahtoks,
www.thecapstoneonline.com.
For prayer and counselling email:
helpdesk@thecapstoneonline.com ;capstone_c@yahoo.com
Tel: +234 8023182030

 

WELCOME TO 2011-THE YEAR OF LIGHT!-Tokunbo Johnson

The Year 2011 .’The Year of Great Light ‘is here at last and what a blessing to be alive and accomplishing the purposes of God together! Hallelujah!

Several miracles occurred in our midst up till the close of the last year even till the very last minutes; some were close shaves with death;others were great deliverances from career disasters .

Oh,without a shadow of doubt ,the year 2010 ended on a very good note for many. Although as a nation it introduced a new vista of violence and terrorism but again we look up with hope to God , the Owner of Nations .We beat our chest and brazenly say to the devil ‘is that the best that you can do ? ’.

Our great nation is in a birth pang ; surely we shall deliver safely and bring forth a new Nigeria.

On the global scene , leaders are still dealing with territorial aggressions ,high-handed leadership and threatened democracies .Through it all we shall overcome in Jesus Name!

In this hour we yearn to hear God and not man ; all people want to know what the Spirit of God is saying to His people and if there be any special word of comfort from the Spirit of God for a world in crisis .Oh yes ,our ears are open…

Now here are some of the things that God , the Spirit of the Church is saying:

For 2011,the scriptures that the Lord gave is Ephesians 5:14-17(KJV)
which says:

13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.

14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

The scriptures above though written to the believers in Ephesus dealt with two categories of people: The ‘Saved’ and the ‘Unsaved’ sinner.

The sinner is one who is dead in trespasses and needs the life of Christ to enter him to come to life. For only the person that has the Son(Jesus) has life! Jn 5:25,26;1 Jn 5:12 which reads:


“For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.” (John 5:25-26 , NIV)

“He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1 John 5:12 , NIV)


The Spiritual Equation for the unsaved is :
‘No Christ-life, no spirit-life .No spirit-life, no spiritual progress .No spiritual progress , no dominion/rulership !’ Surely there is no rest for the wicked!

On the other hand, the believer that is dead is one who has abandoned his priesthood (and as a result lagging behind in wisdom and revelation).Such a one needs the life of Christ to revive him to consciousness so that he can redeem all and recover all lost grounds. The Spiritual Equation for the believer is:
‘No Christ-life, no spirit-life .No spirit-life, no spiritual progress . No spiritual progress , no revelation and wisdom for dominion/rulership !’

The Books of Gen.1: 1-3 ; John 1:1-5 make this principle so vivid! They showed right from the beginning of human existence that :

1. Light is key to effective dominion and rulership . No King can rule or govern without the Oracle (Light)! True governmental/dominion life without priesthood life is at best a mirage!
The Equation then is :
INFORMATION+ REVELATION = TRANSFORMATION
In order words , INFORMATION - REVELATION= PERSPIRATION(and perspiration makes one stink)

2. Light comes only through a Greater Light. The Moon gets its light from another light , the Sun. Darkness can never produce light nor can it overcome it !Jn 1:1-5.

3. Progress is the grand-child of Life, Life is the father of Light. Life gave birth to Light which is the Father of Revelation. So Progress is the grand-child of Life.

Right from the book of Genesis (Gen.1:1-3), when darkness and confusion held earth in bondage ,we saw:
a. The Spirit life( hovering over the earth’s surface) then
b. The spoken Word , (“let there be Light!”) then
c. Light (which stands for ‘revelation’) then
d. Transformation of the landscape.(into vegetations,livestocks,etc)

Light (Revelation) always comes before Transformation (Progress/Success)

In the light of these, we hereby declare that the Year 2011 shall be:

- A Year of Actionable faith and Divine Acceleration in Jesus Name!
- A Year of Great Speed for you in Jesus name! When you will gather speed in all you do and travel in the speed of light!
- It shall be a year of sweat less work in Jesus Name! A year in which you shall work but you will reap greater profit than the work you did.

It shall be:
- A Year of Exceeding abundant in Jesus Name!.
- A Year of the supernatural intervention as Christ gives you light in Jesus Name! .
- A Year to enter the labour of others in Jesus name!
- A Year to fly without wings in Jesus name!
- A Year of the Eagles’ wings in Jesus name!! You shall fly high but with the supernatural grace of God above all peoples and above all circumstances in Jesus name!


I hear in the Spirit the following words , who are these flying without wings? !


Enjoy your ride on the wing of grace!

May Christ shine on you and cause you to operate with divine speed in all that you do this year in Jesus Name! Amen.

e–VANGELISM : Reaching the ‘10/40 window’ - Tokunbo Johnson

I can hear someone asking ‘Window?’! Its not what you think it is. This is is no operating system but ,rather a labelling.

The 10/40 Window concept highlights these three elements: an area of the world with great poverty and low quality of life, combined with lack of access to Christian resources.

According to Wikipedia,it is a term coined by Christian missionary strategist Luis Bush in 1990 to refer to those regions of the eastern hemisphere located between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator, a general area that in 1990 was purported to have the highest level of socioeconomic challenges and least access to the Christian message and Christian resources on the planet.

The window forms a band encompassing Saharan and Northern Africa, as well as almost all of Asia (West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia and much of Southeast Asia). Roughly two-thirds of the world population lives in the 10/40 Window.

10/40 Window is populated by people who are predominantly Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Animist,Jewish or Atheist. Many governments in the 10/40 Window are formally or informally opposed to Christian work of any kind within their borders.

Yet these vast fields of human life are still groaning for the manifest presence of God through the church . Human population in these nations is ever-increasing and so is the number of souls waiting to be reached for Christ. Indeed the fields are already white for harvest and now, the Lord of the harvest is already creating room through the instrumentation of technology ; especially the social network platforms!

A current report from cyberschuulnews ,an internet newsletter claimed “with the proliferation of internet particularly broadband provision in emerging economies, a study has revealed that user numbers [in these economies] are overtaking Western Europe and North America. “Of these group,internet users in the Middle East and China (the main 10/40 window population) are the busiest and most enthusiastic.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia and China emerged as global leaders with around 55% of the sample populations found to be highly engaged in the internet, compared with only 42% in the UK and the US. It showed how much time people in this region spend online and their attitudes to technology.These people have been seen to spend more time on social networking than e-mail. Also with increased mobile access these people are more likely to post [and view] blogs, photos and videos online and value internet access.A study also found that 61% of people with internet access used it daily. That provides a good percentage of these people waiting to be reached via twitter, face book ,d.e.l.ic.i.o.u.s , and what have you. If we fail to reach out to them, someone else [a bad one, at that] will.

It may interest you to know that, of these people group, China’s internet population of more than 400 million and by far the world’s largest online population, usage is mainly driven by entertainment features - instant messaging and online music, videos and games .

This should bring us to the question of ’how do we reach this lost people-group with the principles of Christ?’. Surely its high time we rode on the wave of technology by designing entertainment contents: Music ,Videos,Computer and Video games to spread the timeless gospel through the vehicle of entertainment! Free distribution of Bibles may be disallowed and even banned but we can redesign our gospel advance approach; infiltrate their rank and file with the timeless truth ; using technology.

Now may the prophets of God arise with animations ,computer games and various web skills to take this mountain for the Lord. Or better still with alacrity,seek to acquire the requisite skills in this regard wherever any is wanting.Let music prophets,animation apostles and all believers with creative and iT competences rise and take their places to reap the already ripe harvest fields of the earth.

This great window of harvest must never be left to close! We must enter in…! And like he did Elijah,the Spirit of God still asks this generation of believers, “Who will go for us?”…

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP (PART 2)

TEXT : John 13:1; Habakkuk 2:2,3 ; Nehemiah. 2:11-18; Nehemiah 4:1-6; Nehemiah 5:14-19;John 14:12

I take it for granted that you have read the texts above . If you haven’t STOP NOW and do so before you proceed...

Well,well,well what a wonderful world we live in .We are making history. Hallelujah!

In the first part of this discuss , we examined Rom 12:2, and spoke on the leaders’ need to get ‘inside the change’ .That is a leader should model the transformation that he hopes to see in his organisation and followers ; then and only then does he qualify to challenge them constantly to transform.

In a nutshell the Concept of Transformational leadership focuses on producing leaders who have engaged themselves in personal change and are changing their organizations from ‘inside the change’.

In this edition , we shall be looking at the practicality of this!

The Challenge of 21st Century leaders
The main challenge for leaders in this ‘century of change’ is how to create an environment (of love and acceptance) that triggers the best in everyone they are leading so that the corporate goal can be achieved and of course the bottom-line (its okay to use the word ‘profit’) can increase. Did the Apostle Paul not urge his protégé, Timothy to do all he could so that his profiting may be known to all. C’mon guys, its time to get publicly quoted ! This can be done in the following pragmatic and easy ways:
1. Clearly Define Your Corporate Mission:
Set a high target. See it possible and effectively communicate your possibility openly so that all stakeholders might see the target with you! (Read that Nehemiah 2 again and note how in 52 days , Nehemiah motivated all to achieve a hitherto impossible task of rebuilding a perimeter wall ).Experts have said vision leaks and as such should be communicated every 26 days. Commnunicate with your followers every month without fail. Never allow your excitement to die! C’mon exhale!!

2. Communicate Effectively:
Use the most effective medium-conversations, strategy meetings ,bonding meetings or Cocktails , etc. Just about anything creative you could think of. Learn to use stories or images Use Powerpoint and slides for pictorial presentations.Paint pictures , they speak more than a thousand words.Use words that can draw pictures in the mind of your listeners.Jesus employed this most effectively by using parables and illustrations that are pictorial .e . g Jonah in the belly of the fish. He spoke about ‘break this Temple down and rebuild it after three days’. This is creativity at its best. He stretched their thinking.

3. Reconcile Individual and Organisational Goals: The whole has to be greater than the sum of its parts.There should be no ‘my goals’ but ‘our goals’. Everyone must find his place in the big picture. ‘I’ (personal goals)needs to thrive only inside the ‘WE’(corporate goals).

4. Foster Innovation
Think up how you can tap the best and most exciting New Thinking from your followers. Create conversational environments that nourish innovation-such as a Team building culture.Tell them also that they are free to make mistakes! Great things have come from small and sometimes failed beginnings.Like the Toyota brand phrase claimed: ‘Good Thinking ,Good Product!’

5. Develop People:
We develop people primarily through the words we speak to them.Words are seeds!There are leaders who kill anything good in their followers. They do this through destructive criticisms, hate and racist speeches, and their high-handedness.
A leader builds people by meeting the 3 main areas of need in their lives: (i)Need for Affirmation, (ii)Need for Appreciation and (iii) Need for Commendation. These build in the followers ,a sense of Self-worth, Significance and Esteem respectively.

6. Replicate Leaders:
Organisations wither and go out of business when they are unable to pass
on and transform their corporate culture. The future of any organization
depends on her ability to priortise people-development above financial
gains. The management guru ,Peter Drucker claimed the 8th Habit Of
Effective People is : Building Legacies.

NOW, PRAY THE LEADERS’ PRAYER :
‘Remember me with favour oh my God for all that I have done for this
people ’ (Nehemiah 5:19).

DO YOU KNOW?
Jesus died a horrible death on a cross to set you free from sin and to give you
abundant life here on this earth. As we know him more and more deep in our hearts,
He can help us grow into who we should truly be. Our lives are empty and hopeless
without Him holding us.A life without Christ is shattered dreams!

You Too Can experience His Love.Give Your heart to him.Do it Now!


Follow me on : www.beulahtoks.blogspot.com, www.twitter.com/beulahtoks,
www.thecapstoneonline.com.

For prayer and counselling email: helpdesk@thecapstoneonline.com ;
Tel: +234 8023182030

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP (Tokunbo Johnson- Teacher,Mentor)

Ever read the books of Rom 12 :1,2 ; Deut. 32:9-12? They contain some very helpful tips for would -be successful leaders..

Introduction
The only thing constant in life is Change ! People change, Circumstances change, Places change and the list goes on. Nothing ever remains the same.
The key to relevance is CHANGE! If you are going to meet your responsibilities as a leader and provide the necessary vision and direction for your organisation while also continue your personal success then you will have to be “inside the change”. This means you will have to keep changing yourself . Every transformational leader uses change to grow his/her leadership competencies.A Leader must be and do the followings:

1. Bond intentions with strive to achieve results that he desired .

2. Place emphasis on communication. e.g hold cross-divisional conversations with all employees to impact i.e get honest feedback(The best ones are the ones in the hallway). Even parents must train their children different with love and not for punishment.

3. Engage your people passionately (calling them by an alias/pet name will not be a bad idea).Let them know you are crazy about them! Actually,you should be...

4. Provide ways for your people to do meaningful work and contribute to developing the corporate goals.Remove every Moabite Cause (Lot and his two daughters.-Gen. 19:30-38.

5. Provide ways for people to build quality relationships with you and among themselves encourage bonding programmes.(even to fall in Love...)

6. Challenge them to strive for higher goals-Dr.Myles Munroe claimed that
while in the university at ORU,his Pro- Chancellor used to challenge them to ‘Think no small thoughts here!’

7. Give people opportunities to access resources- Trainings and to leverage on your own relationships.

8. Challenge them to increase their influence

9. Challenge them to innovate- i.e commodify their creativity.

10. Challenge them to lead in their own way; the same way a young Eagle must learn to fly.(Deut 32:9-12).

CONCLUSION
No one attains a position of high-level leadership without agreeing to ,first, take on an extraordinary personal self-awareness. You need to know where you are at and take yourself from there with a leap.

So take the LEAP !

DO YOU KNOW?
Jesus died a horrible death on a cross to set us free from sin and to give us an abundant life here on this earth. As we know him more and more deep in our hearts He can help us grow into who we should truly be. Our lives are empty and hopeless without Him holding us.A life without Christ is shattered dreams!

You Too Can experience His Love.Give Your heart to him.Do it Now!


Follow me on : www.beulahtoks.blogspot.com, www.twitter.com/beulahtoks, www.thecapstoneonline.com.
For prayer and counselling email: helpdesk@thecapstoneonline.com ;
Tel: +234 8023182030

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP (Tokunbo Johnson- Teacher,Mentor)

Ever read the books of Rom 12 :1,2 ; Deut. 32:9-12? They contain some very helpful tips for would -be successful leaders..

Introduction

The only thing constant in life is Change ! People change, Circumstances change, Places change and the list goes on. Nothing ever remains the same.

The key to relevance is CHANGE! If you are going to meet your responsibilities as a leader and provide the necessary vision and direction for your organisation while also continue your personal success then you will have to be “inside the change”. This means you will have to keep changing yourself . Every transformational leader uses change to grow his/her leadership competencies.A Leader must be and do the followings:

1. Bond intentions with strive to achieve results that he desired .

2. Place emphasis on communication. e.g hold cross-divisional conversations with all employees to impact i.e get honest feedback(The best ones are the ones in the hallway). Even parents must train their children different with love and not for punishment.

3. Engage your people passionately (calling them by an alias/pet name will not be a bad idea).Let them know you are crazy about them! Actually,you should be...

4. Provide ways for your people to do meaningful work and contribute to developing the corporate goals.Remove every Moabite Cause (Lot and his two daughters.-Gen. 19:30-38.

5. Provide ways for people to build quality relationships with you and among themselves encourage bonding programmes.(even to fall in Love...)

6. Challenge them to strive for higher goals-Dr.Myles Munroe claimed that

while in the university at ORU,his Pro- Chancellor used to challenge them to ‘Think no small thoughts here!’

7. Give people opportunities to access resources- Trainings and to leverage on your own relationships.

8. Challenge them to increase their influence.

9. Challenge them to innovate- i.e commodify their creativity.

10. Challenge them to lead in their own way; the same way a young Eagle must learn to fly.(Deut 32:9-12).

CONCLUSION

No one attains a position of high-level leadership without agreeing to ,first, take on an extraordinary personal self-awareness. You need to know where you are at and take yourself from there with a leap.

So take the LEAP !

DO YOU KNOW?

Jesus died a horrible death on a cross to set us free from sin and to give us an abundant life here on this earth. As we know him more and more deep in our hearts He can help us grow into who we should truly be. Our lives are empty and hopeless without Him holding us.A life without Christ is shattered dreams!

You Too Can experience His Love.Give Your heart to him.Do it Now!

Follow me on : www.beulahtoks.blogspot.com, www.twitter.com/beulahtoks, www.thecapstoneonline.com.

For prayer and counselling email: helpdesk@thecapstoneonline.com ;

Tel: +234 8023182030

IN THE DAYS OF THE FATHERS…

“When all the work King Solomon had done for the temple of the LORD was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated — the silver and gold and the furnishings — and he placed them in the treasuries of the LORD's temple “. 1 Kings 7:51 NIV

Ok . Ok…You didn’t get it! Let me explain it to you. Follow me please will you…

There was a strong injunction in the book of Malachi on the need for trans-generational connection (Mal 4:4-6); the hearts of the sons must connect to that of the fathers else we will all come under a curse (that is , we will only struggle to no avail).

The dealings of God had always been such that connects one aging generation to another. The Psalmist says ‘one generation shall praise your works to another’ and our fathers have told us what you did in their lives.(Ps 44:1;Ps 78:3)All these are pointers and clear insights why we must not despise and disregard the dealings of God with past generations. Though new and ‘seemingly’ more radical truths are being restored in each generation yet there is a need to always link the chain: the ‘aged’ old with the ‘vibrant’ new. This was the simple lesson we learnt from this account of King Solomon in 1 Kings 7.

Surely, the new leader with the new dealings of God had just achieved a mean feat: Built the Temple! Any leader before him had never rivaled this. This surely was worth bragging about. He had done what none of the fathers, with all their anointing and the dealings of God, had dared to achieve. Not even those of them who saw ‘YAHWEH’ face to face. However it is noteworthy that the scripture says Solomon brought ‘in’ not ‘put on the fringe’ but into the inner most and most important and sacred part of the temple, the items of silver and gold that his father David had, in his own time of conquest, dedicated to the Lord in 2 Samuel 8:11.

What are the achievements of the fathers that we can celebrate today: Their revelations of salvation by faith in Christ alone, their emphasis on sanctification and then the infilling of the Holy Spirit with the physical evidences of speaking with new tongues , etc. We must never get too big to ignore this landmarks; being really careful and in the word of scripture (Pro 23:10)not to remove the old landmarks. Even the Lord Jesus showed that a good manager is one who could build the new , resting on the platform of the old(Matt 13:5).Could that be why Isaac redug the well earlier dug by his father Abraham? Whatever the landmark achievements of the fathers are, we must never let them go to waste.

Political successors need to translate policies of past leaders into present operations in the spirit of continuity. The lack of this has been the bane of African countries so much that, inevitably, there is the re-inventing of the wheel of progress. And whenever this is the case, investors are repelled for lack of faith in unstable government policies. Or who would not be scared that certain that policy arrangements with previous governments will not be honoured by successive ones. How could one forget so soon (among several other instances) the Virgin-Nigeria Airline alliance between Richard Branson(CEO,Virgin Group) and the Obasanjo government .What with the eventual collapse of that alliance under a successive government. It appears African leaders take pride in rubbishing the achievements of their predecessors (the fathers).

King (’President’) Solomon would not do that.He would respect past alliances entered into by his predecessor and even leverage on them(1 Kings 5:1-6).He would continue with policies that have been seen and proven to benefit the people and they(the people) would be the better for it.

Maintaining old landmarks would sustain the polity and not heat it up . It will engender a win-win situation . In the final analysis , everyone is happy and appreciated!

We ought to always remind and challenge ourselves to make sure that “the labours of our heroes past “are never in vain. Anything outside this, borders on pride which always the herald the fall of leaders. May we not become what the writer of Proverbs (Pro 30:11-KJV) called“ a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother”.

A Miracle By The Nile !

Exodus 2:1-3(NIV)
Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman,
and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.
But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

To the Egyptians of old, the River Nile was more than just an aquatic splendour. It was a reservoir of life; the whole essence of their identity was connected to it.Every Pharaoh (and surely their household too) went every day to the quintessential Nile!
Though it wasn’t a surprise that on the certain day, Pharaoh’s daughter came by the Nile to have a bath the surprise was that she located the baby at the exact spot where Moses’ mother expected her to pass by. And seeing the basket by the Nile she requested it be brought to her. When she saw the helpless little occupant, she decided to preserve its life even when she knew it was a Hebrew baby.

Are you pregnant with a dream and burdened with a vision and don’t know how to keep and nurture it? Then get ready because the God of the Hebrews is about to lead you to that point of breakthrough that you so badly need. He is just right now about to turn your helplessness around.

#1.Pray with me:
‘Lord, I connect myself to those you have appointed to bring the much-needed resources necessary for my sustenance in the midst of this present global crisis.
Lead them to the place where I am and use them to bring me into my Promised Land.’ Amen

The prayer of Moses’ mother must have sounded something like the one above on that fateful day when she dropped her lovely son off - not at the crèche - but at the bank of the River Nile.

It was in the very early hour of the morning; just immediately after the breaking of dawn; that hour when the cock was not even up yet for its natural wake up call.
She had kept him from public view and from Pharaoh’s sword for three months and now the boy had grown bigger than her home security system could guarantee. Certain death was imminent and only a miracle could save the boy (or any Hebrew boy at all) from the blood-thirsty sword of Pharaoh.

One lesson is so clear: when God decides to lift you to a new height of relevance and importance, the enemy of your destiny will rise up. However, the Good news is: no matter how mean and resolute the devil is in his plot against you, God will always
make a way of escape for you, his anointed one! As God saved Moses, so will He save you.

According to Bible records, she (Moses’ mother) left Moses’ sister on the scene to keep watch on the boy as he lay innocently in the basket by the Nile. This woman believed strongly that the God of Israel would show up for her somehow. Anyhow. And truly He did - just as she had believed He would. (Heb 11:23).If only you would believe “all things are possible to him that believes”.

Later in the day, God made some amazing moves. He made sure Pharaoh’s daughter got hot enough to need a cold bath in the Nile. He equally made sure that she went past the exact spot and place where Moses was (in his ‘Moses’ basket’) just by the bank of the Nile. One more thing God did was to make sure that Moses’ plight caught the attention of Pharaoh’s daughter.
God is about to make sure that someone becomes uncomfortable in his present location and relocates towards you for your advantage.

#2.Pray with me:
Lord, please lead helpers of destiny to the place of my struggle and let my plight catch their attention.

Pharaoh’s daughter took him to live with her later but not until after Moses’ mother had sufficiently brought her son up in the value and culture of Isreal. He had become sufficiently aware of his people’s covenant with the God of Abraham. Did you notice that she also got paid for nursing her dream? Getting paid to do what you love to do is the ultimate prayer of any person. It is the reason many want to do what is their passion in life. Moses’ mother got more than she asked for; she must have thought to herself “if only someone could take custody of him once I abandon him at the Nile” But God did exceedingly, abundantly more than she had imagined.

This story marked the beginning of the much-sought after deliverance for the whole race of the Hebrews. God had finally found a vessel to use. He would ensure that the vessel was preserved and cared for in the face of apparent danger. God is still looking for men to use for the salvation of nations. Are you the one?

# 3.Pray with me:
Lord, in this hour, work things out that will provide me a platform for the reformation of my nation.

In the courtyard of Pharaoh was bred the deliverer of God’s people. God is going to use the resources of Egypt to prepare his people’s great destiny. God is training you in Pharaoh’s court and in due season he will bring you out to fulfil your destiny.

# 4.Pray with me:
Lord, I am ready for whatever you would have me do for your glory. Please help me not miss the call of destiny.

My prayer for you today is: May you encounter the miracle of God at the Nile of your life.

Surely Change is coming your way! Only be strong.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Lesson From The Wise

Effective project management is a function of many things ; each salient and quintessential on its own and critical to achieving set objectives and corporate goals.

A close examination of the life of , the wisest man who ever lived , Solomon, will throw more light on this leadership perspective.

On becoming King , the first assignment Solomon embarked on was restoring worship and providing a conducive environment for same to thrive .For this to happen he conceived a vision ;to build a permanent physical place of worship . It was going to be a building project. To achieve this feat, Solomon did a few things and these he shared with us in 1 Kings 5.

First he got into a treaty (alliance ) with Hiram(you will see this in verse 12) . In the present context , we would call this ‘Leveraging’ .What he lacked in human resource he depended on Hiram to supply and gave Hiram food resources in barter.

Secondly , he knew how to harness his vast human resources by conscripting them into service (you will see this in verse 13).Its one thing to have human capital but harnessing them is a different thing altogether . Like someone once said “leader, use your people power!” Know how to conscript people into adequate and useful positions of service; one that fits their characters and personalities. This principle is predicated on Theory Y of leadership which states that people do not like to take responsibilities by themselves and so they need to be conscripted into predetermined roles for performance to happen. People are not likely to willingly volunteer themselves without a strong ‘whats in it for me’ except God had done a quick work in them.

Thirdly , he scheduled his human resources into duty shifts (don’t miss this in verse 14).This is one thing that will ensure that people are not allowed to laze . Failure to manage people into duty roasters and deliberate measurable schedules makes failure to achieve corporate goals inevitable .Isn’t it so sad that ordinary ants seem to have more sense of responsibilities than humans even when no one is watching .Try that with humans and you will be sorry. Those little guys don’t even need a line of authority over them . If you think am kidding read Pro 6:6-11. My second son ,Tom, just shared it with me from his morning devotion today. It really jolted me tell you!

Fourthly, establish a supervisory system over the duty posts for assessment.(that is in verse 16). Except ,of course, if you are leading ants, fail to put this system in place in project management and again you will be sorry.

Fifthly, this looks like the previous point but differs in that this clearly stipulates not just a need for supervision system but lines of authority(Seen it yet in verse 17?). It must be very clear and unambiguous who in the chain reports to who? For instance, among same level managers who is first among equals. This is sacrosanct to adequate report system which ensures stability in corporate governance; reports know where to go and responsibilities are vested in a certain office and person(s).

Sixthly, aside duty shifts, supervision and even defined line of duty, a very well stated document enumerating clearly all the people’s job description needs to be provided.

With this principles of project management in proper place, nothing could go wrong with vision accomplishment.

FAIL-PROOFED LEADERSHIP

As a guest speaker on a radio programme on Easter Monday, one of the questions I was asked was ‘How Can Leaders Govern Well?’. My answer to the question was swift and unambiguous because it was a question that had consumed my thoughts over the last couple of months. Quoting the Bible assessment of ‘President (I mean ,King)David Jesse’s rule in the Book of Psalms 78:72 I quipped, ’Leaders must lead with the integrity of heart much more than the skill of their hands’.To which my hosts could not agree more.

Whether it was King David or King Solomon (his son) or Mahatma Ghandi or the sage Obafemi Awolowo, it is clear that all great leaders ruled with the heart. They identified with the pains of the people. Even in the old account ,Bible records that God let Isreal off the oppression of Pharaoh’s Egypt simply because He heard the cries of the people and bled in His heart for their travails.

When in the Book of 1 Kings 3,Solomon was responding to God’s permission to him to ask what he would , he was quick to point out that he recognized that his late father succeeded only because of an upright heart .See,there it is agin;Heart! And as if to show that the lesson of his father’s success was not lost on him, Solomon accurately knew what to ask for: a discerning heart ; one that can distinguish between right and wrong.

The twin factor to a discerning heart is integrity of heart. That’s why the earlier scripture I quoted Ps 78:72” And David shepherded them with integrity of heart ; with skillful hands he led them” holds so true.

How then can leaders lead in the face of compromise and risk to their lives ? Any leader worth its salt will know that the only way he can ever live up to his leadership assignment is to shun all personal gains to himself and be willing to sacrifice for the led to live. Is this not the whole essence of Easter .In this season of the year when the whole world celebrate the greatest leader of all times : Jesus ,the Son of God with power .They do, not because of the vastness of His loot or personal enrichment rather because He died the worst death ,so that others(his constituents) may live.