Customized war: understanding your life's call

Everybody has a customized war to engage in. Not wars. But War!(singular). There is a war that was designed for you alone to fight. And you cannot shy away from it. Until you understand that. You will not be able to fulfill your call or even walk in purpose on earth. We cannot help you to fight this war. It is yours to fight. Some of us were called to fight against mediocrity. Some of us were called to fight against injustice. Some of us were called to fight against racism.Some of us were called to fight against manipulations. Martin Luther identified his own war. Mother Theressa identified her own war. Barack Obama identified his own war. Have you found yours? Can you truly identify your own war?
All wars are works of the evil one. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. These works of the devil cannot be destroyed without you understanding your calling. The works of the devil must be destroyed by every believer.  You got to know your own war, and carefully fight on! You cannot choose your war. Rather, the war chooses you. It has a way of coming to you, of its own accord . It has a way of appearing and re-appearing in your life-journey. It keeps re-occurring to you in various shapes and forms. You got to be able to identify it and deal with it!
 It has to be fought by you alone. You were born for this!


The only way to fight this war is by wise counsel. That is what the book of proverbs told us:
For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors [there is] safety (Proverbs 24:6).
So wise counsel is very important…and wise counsel is found in the word of God. The additional weapon of warfare for this customized war is called multitude of counsellors. This could be multitude of great books written by wise people. Not necessarily going from one person to another and getting confused by different opposing view-points. Wrong advice can be brutal! That can influence your destiny forever. A multitude is a multitude. We need to understand that. When God says multitude of counsel. He meant what he said. God wants us to stay in the midst of wise words and right principles.

This is how to win this customized war! You will wage your own war through the word of God!
If the Bible could specifically call us unto wise counsel; it means that there are indeed some foolish counsels out there. There wrong advisers all around us. And how do we get to know the difference? How can we distinguish the foolish counsel from the wise counsels? It is by understanding the word of God personally. This is how to tell which is wise and which is a foolish counsel.
If in the multitude of counsellors there is safety. It means that in the absence of wise counsellors or in the presence of few counsellors, then, there is danger! Any counsel that contradicts the scripture is not from God. If it is not a wise counsel. It is from the evil one. And it does not matter who gave such counsel. The devil can go into anybody to bring out some evil counsel. We dont buy into personalities to wage customized war. We buy into principles of the kingdom. So in order to win your personal war. Get this word into your spirit man! Dig into the scripture! And win your war!

If you have just one day more to live?

Let me tell you a true story. A certain rich lady decided to build a house for her single mum. She poured all her resources into that project. However, she was bothered about the generous attitude of her mother towards others such that she stopped giving her mum enough money. As she stopped that monthly allowance which she usually gives her mum. In the process of time, she fell ill, unable to support herself financially. The Daughter kept building the Mansion. House was close to completion, when the Mum’s health worsened.  She was admitted to the hospital on the very last week that she was to move in to the new house.  Even though her belongings had been moved into the Mansion ahead of her, she died at the hospital without living in the Mansion that her daughter built. I know you all want to stone that rich construction company lady but wait till you read this all. 

How much will you prepare if you suddenly realized that you have just one day more to live? If you realized that you are on a timed machine and everything seems collapsing all around you? If what you see is reducing and you need to reduce your life into just one basic goal. What will that thing be? What will you want to do with the rest of your life? What will you like to be remembered for? How do you want to spend your last days, your last moments on this planet?  Oh! probably hanging out with loved ones. Kisses, hugs, crying over shoulders and more. 

I love to go to the Airport. And my favorite location is the Departure. I get to see people hugging and crying  each other. They are emotional, often sober because someone they love will be leaving for some time. Probably for a very long time. This feeling tends to break people. It reduces them into their indices. It tends to humble  us into deeper connection and re-connection. There is this hope of reunion that seems far off. There is this sadness of separation that looms all around. These components are the very parallax of our real life. And it does not matter who you are. It matters how much you live. How truly you gave. If you are a business person, Coach or even Parent. It matters, how we spend the time we spend with people. Yes i know people will never have enough of us. They can really love us into inaction and mere hanging outs. They just want us around them always. But its not the quantity of time spent as it is the quality of heart therein.

Assuming you are a Leader, and you are with your mentees, how much will you invest into them? If you are a Soldier on a troupe, with some stranger in the wild War zone, how will you fight , defend and make them remember you in such face of death? If it is your very last visit to a place. If it is your very last report to hand in. If it is your very last assignment or your last examination. If it is your very last time to grab a coffee or the last time to hang out with someone and talk. How differently will you handle it? How much will you put into  such situation? How much of yourself are you going to pour out? Now, i know you are probably asking me the same question. I think...you know your own heart. And you  alone can really tell if you are giving your all... because in the final analysis. God will test our hearts and not our smiles or our hugs. And it does not matter if your all is not enough for others... what matter most is this: Are you investing your all?

Like the story of the Lady i opened this writing with. You may be giving your all in the wrong direction. Her mum did not tell her that the most important thing to her was not the Mansion. So she gave into the wrong thing even though she gave her all. I am still learning this myself... Assuming you are coming into your last decade on this side of existence and you were told that this is the one last business you need to do to wrap up your season, will you invest your all into it? What if it is your last job interview? Will you hire your successor with a visionary eyes? Above all, this is not a mere question. It is not about what you will live to do? It is a question of what you will really live for?
 The answer to the question is relative...the answer you get is a pointer to something more larger than life itself. Something more bigger than you. And if you have never critically given this a thought. Please do so. This is because there is an urgency of purpose which our daily routine tends to becloud and rob us from. The answer you arrive at is always personal and it must be. It must be intimate, connecting you to, and with, your life calling. Its a question of purpose...If you are not living life to the full, this is the time to start doing so.  There is still a chance for redirection. Think about that. There is still hope for this very day. If you were called in and told that this is your last hour. That you just have this one day more to live...what will you do with it?

For the last time!

I'm the epitome of holy misfit.
‘cause I couldn’t fit in,
Not into where I was coming from;
Not into where I was going yet.
I could n’t fit comfortably
into where I am per time.
My heart is always stirring, my spirit yearning .
My mind is continually in motion.
Saying there’s more…
I can only create, and recreate till I die
I am not fulfilled till I see and seek Him.
I can boldly pioneer
Some sort of replica within me!
My soul longs for thee!
Oh! God of the freedom world
from such fanaticism of religion and dogman here.
I am left without afore
I am left an option; but to live
I’m left to die but, yet I’ll reach
and that is to reach for the stars
To gaze till I blink no more
To wait, wail until I see the star!
Until the daystar arise in my heart .
all I’ve is mire, myrrh and mind
all I was told is myth and mirth
All might have gone
but all I am is right here
on the inside of me.
All I have does not matter to me now
all I am is on the line.
I'll yet praise Him, until I see Him.
I’ll yet try and test all these creative things within,
this “creatorial” and creative-oral ability within me.
This what I will yet birth
this "thing" within that is crying to me:
“…for the last time!”

What is the most important thing to you in this life?-A tribute!

If I ask you this one question that: what is the most important thing to you in this life? What will you tell me? In my limited version of experience, I have come to realize that in the final analysis, Life is the only thing...it's the most important thing. Not our dreams, not our visions, not our ambitions but breathe. Those things we are able to do while we are still living here. Those noble deeds we are able to do are the things we will be remembered for. Those opportunities we are able to seize, those lives we are able to touch and the service we have offered unto God are the truest valuables.

Just like fire will be remembered for the ember. The smokes that we leave behind us are our deeds, service and relationships. What we have built or broken? Who we have helped upwards or held up? From the ashes of our history will remnant of stories come, out of the lips of those we have impacted. Those things we have been able to achieve for God and others will stand out like embers from dead fires. The ashes of memory that remains on the altar of time after our life is over are those who will miss us or not.

Yes! I know that people are taken up daily and they are blown off this earth. Death cannot be as extraordinary to everyone as much. Very recently in Jos, Nigeria was an uprising that claimed many lives. The crisis was of political, religious and unclear. It was crudely fuelled by ignorance, hatred and wickedness. Churches have been reported burnt in the massacre of many innocent lives, even sucklings were killed. I saw a photograph on Facebook taken during the crisis. It was of a burnt suckling lying side by side with her dead mother as though both were roasted game.
Another photo taken on the location revealed an amputee girl with her intestine busting out of stomach. Her hair and roasted-body were the remains we could identify. Corpses were laid on the floors. Most were covered with wrappers of survivors who stood by and wept as attendants.

My vocabulary could not capture the experience. I was not there present but how I felt when I saw the numbers of those who had died was not as one sedated. Why would people with gut kill their neighbours? Humans with the same breathe like them. Having blood like them. It is still a mystery to me. What saddens my heart was the reality that is dawning at us. Will this become a norm? Can’t we truly live together as brothers and sisters that we are? Despites all our love songs and debut albums on peace and unity?! And this is not the first time this cruelty will be happening in the same region of the same country.

Worst than death is death…worst of all is to experience the death of a friend amidst the news of metropolitan deaths! It tends to make you vulnerable, humble and mumble. You tend to utter such questions like: what is the most important thing? What is more important to you? About the same time, I heard of the passage of a lady who was one time my old friend and loyal “disciple”. I was privileged to lead her while we pioneered a campus fellowship during my final year in the university in Nigeria. It was during those days of small beginnings in a small town of Ayetoro in Abeokuta, Ogun state.

I still remember vividly those times. I remember her commitment. The way she sang in the choir and when she is alone. She once told me about her dreams, desires and vision. She wanted to grow up in the Lord to impact lives through preaching of the word and singing of life-transforming songs. She admired the lady preacher Joyce Meyer. She wants her life to make a mark like hers. She once asked me how she can become a impactful preacher of the gospel. I remember how she did everything with all her being... The smile on her face was encouraging… The way she played innocently like a baby… She would often serve her last food to entertain her guests while she goes without eating much. She just wanted to give and give. She is an epitome of sacrifice. She will hardly show it on her face when she is going through tough times. She may be cracking on her inside but you will hardly know it. She could handle pressure to a very large extent without complaining.

Although, you may not know Sholape Joto, she was a friend who touched my life in a remarkable way. She would often tell me to slow down in the middle of overwhelming school-workload. She was a pretty lady a guy would love to marry. But she did not get marry before passing on to glory. She graduated from a stressful university program, where for one whole year the penultimate year students are subjected to a farm life that can be likened to the slavery experiences of the Pre-cambrian era. So tedious was their farm practical year in that program that whoever went through never came out the same. The instructors were full of sadism. The farming activities itself was done with crude implements rather than improved technology. Activities such as weeding, planting, harvesting, processing and more are the order of the day.

All proceeds from the farm produce must be brought in to the instructors of the program. Coordination was so ruthless that even diseased crops, failed crops and pest infested crops had to be accounted for. They were evaluated as though they actually got harvested fresh as other germ-free produce. Failure to pay for crop failure is tantamount to a fail grade for the affected students. It was despite of weather, natural disaster, and genetics that students were to pay for the proceeds of their planted crops. The seeds are brought in at the beginning of season by students. The harvests are sold and proceeds brought in at the end of season. It was irrespective of outcome if you want to earn a passing grade.

Sad to say, that my friend graduated from such difficult program but she did not get to enjoy the victory. The tradition has it in Nigeria that fresh university graduates get enlisted to serve the nation in a certain National youth service corp called NYSC program. This is where fresh graduates get to sing some patriotic songs and anthem daily in a mock military camp. This service is regarded as an honourable period where patriotism displayed. Fresh graduated go through military drills daily as they dress up in mock military kits singing “Ajuwaya” songs (patriotic songs). My late friend would not be singing nor serving along with her comrades this year because she died just few days to the commencement of this year’s service program. She will not be serving her fatherland for the next one year or ever. Unlike others she already served her heavenly father when she could. Although, she won’t be singing any “Ajuwaya” song in the NYSC, she will be singing Halleluiah song in heaven amongst the host of Angels. She had sung so much in her daily life when she was here. She would usually wake up singing. When bathing, cooking and at her leisure times, always caught singing.

So sad about her story is that she did not wait to release that album before she died. She loved singing and she did sing as many times as possible especially during ministrations in the church choir. She sang on Sundays and week days. She preached her heart out when she finally became the Coordinator of Ogun Varsity Christian fellowship. As at the time I knew her, her priority was obvious. She was not thrilled by frivolities. She stood out of the crowd. And deliberately associated with greatness… much more on her mind was her dream. She wants to live a life of impact. As I looked back on her life, I came away with several lessons. Whenever we talk about vision, dreams and more; one thing that is certain is that these things are grand but that breathe within us is the most important!

The seasons of greatness

Greatness does not have to be chased; it comes with responsibility and time. As we stick to our divine calling we are going to gradually stand out of the crowd. Although, our lack of character may delay our emergence, our weaknesses may keep delaying God’s great work concerning our life.
However, there is another outworking of God on our inside that is greater than the working on the outside. That is where the work of depth occurs in our spirit man. Our sin and weaknesses are not enough to stop him from taking us there to his destined point for our lives… this is why purpose is inevitable.
Your greatness is tied to your purpose. Your greatness will be discovered in the confines of your core calling. Your greatness is tied to your obedience to God’s word. When you are determined to live and die for a noble cause; you are only being philanthropic but when you are willing to be crucified with the lord Jesus Christ; when you are willing to live for Him alone.
When you are eager to see the fulfillment of His promises, purpose, and the manifestation of His power; daylight will arise in your heart. You will be able to say that it has been worth it all along. You will be certain that you have not come this far in vain because the true greatness in Christ is not seasonal.

Dancing to your inner drums!

Just because God deals with us individually and not always as group, when it comes to his specific instruction, it is very easy to compare ourselves with other people. Look unto the rock from were you were hewn, look unto Abraham your father, and to Sarah your mother, for I called him alone. An amazing thing I’ve seen when it comes to hearing from God individually is that you can be in the midst of a crowd and still be the only one who hears what you heard. Your ear could actively screen certain rhythms of instruction while others may not. You are so conscious of the instruction of that moment that you lose touch with the activities in your surrounding. Sounds crazily familiar?
You are among multitude but you are the only one hearing whatever kinds of sound you are hearing. You are hearing specifically what others are not hearing. Others may feel you’re mad for a while until they see what you see and hear what you heard.
And this is when it is very important to follow the direction of the spirit. As God beckons on you with His call, obey the divine program .Follow the yield sign.Why react to the anger of onlookers? You are weird to them and that is true. They cannot feel or see what you are experiencing. Stop trying to explain everything to everyone. They can’t understand by mere explanation. It has to be encountered as revelation. It is a divine matter. Spiritual things can only be understood by spiritually inclined. You are a spiritual being, the workmanship of God of heaven. You were never created to be understood all the time. You were not created by some kind of mathematical brains in a laboratory somewhere rather you were God’s divine intention. You cam into being by the very breathe of the almighty. Through the supernatural power of the almighty God, you were preordained unto greatness. Stop living by human analysis. Why? Because you were meant to live life to the full and be all what God wants you to be. You were destined for greatness. You were craft for God’s glory. Be all you were meant to be.

The field of Dreams …

When I saw the North Star!
I set out after it
When I saw that flickering light,
I ran on, holding to my beliefs and briefs
Towards vision like moth to light
Towards dreams like butterfly to grains of pollen
When I saw the dreams,
I pursued with my whole heart.
I called, I turned
To the east and the west, I yelled.
I begged and beckoned
For the Supporters club of life
But Lo! They won’t come
Wary of my daydreaming
Boycotting my rescue
The supporters club failed me
They despised my dreams.
They will not come to my aid.
At a point I began to doubt.
I felt sorry
I pity partied self.
I felt like a loser.
I even considered I was crazy
I was regarded: that unserious fool.
Rejected with the baggage of my dreams
Lonely with the blanket of my ideas
I laid me down to sleep without
In the cold winter of November
I was left in the field of dreams
I held on
I was holding on to the dreams without fail
In my doubts and uncertainties
I started out
I started taking small steps…
Made small and big mistakes
But I kept on moving
Then a bold step…
Then another, after another
I saw crowd gunning for most profitable ventures
Not my kind of silly venture
They’re still chasing another’s field till date.
But then, I stayed in mine, at home alone
And behold! It speaks…
The dreams speak!
It was for an appointed time
Then the traffic shifted
The crowd changed.
They held my way
Into the field of dreams
They came to me
Where I’ve once laid alone
I can now barely rest
I now have more sweet and honey
From the honeycomb of my dreams
Dreams…they don't die. They age like men,
they sprout wings and fly
Don't give up until they come true!