Protocols of Palace. (Book excerpt).

In certain kingdoms in times of old, the protocols of palace were protocols of order and reverence. To be precise; it meant immobility of mortals. So powerful was the royal lineage that when you see the Prince or the Princess, (not to mention the king himself ) you were expected to stand still in awe. The mentality was that you are seeing the ultimate ruler himself. Thus you are faced with both "beheaded-ness" and beauty of promotion at the same time. Due to the power of presence they carry, each time you are in the presence of these royalties, the expected norm is caution!

Everything you have lived for, up to that moment was stake on this very hour. The unexpected could happen. The king`s mood determine what could happen to you. His heart decides your fate. That is why a ceratin writer said in Proverbs 21:1 that: The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.

Nothing is permanent in the presence of the king. The royal garb may fly over you in admiration and consequent reward. The king may become happier today than aforetime. At some point he may choose to be alone. He may never want to see any guest. He may not come to the corridor today like he has always done. Unpredictability was the norm. However, if the king appear and i happened to be present; I must pause whatever I'm doing  and take a bow in honor of him. 

I will inhale his fresh breath, his fragrance and beauty. As i stooped there inhaling, i am also exhaling. I am stooping in fear and terror. I am thinking of my misery yet forcing a smile in servant-hood. For who are you not to smile at the king. You cannot be sad in his presence. 

Before the king assumes his throne, there must be dances and songs of praises. Who is it that wants to sadden our king with his or her misery? The ruler must inhale praise. There must be happiness in the air always. Be it feigned or real. Your soul must bless the king such that fragrant flattery must spice his belly. 

Pause and ponder; and try to imagine that for a second. Do you realize that although the earthly kings are so powerful; they are so unpredictable, irrational, selfless, and sometimes wicked. But there's still one King who is the king of kings over them all. His name is the God of Heaven and earth. He is the God of wonders beyond the galaxies. He sits in heaven as the most ultimate!

This divine King whose presence calm all fears. Who presence radiates everlasting joy. Whose praise brings you wealth. Imagine how I don't have to force a smile in his presence. I do not need a fake mood. He knows all things and he understands how i am feeling. He does accepts me just the way I am. He is the Potentate ruler who outweighs, outshines all other power and authority. His wisdom transcends the whole universe. His depth cannot be fathomed and his folly is yet to be known. 

I think if I can just get there into his presence?I will be made whole. If i can just run into His presence, I will be holding on to royalties that can spare me in days of trouble for He is the mighty warrior. I am the son of the Almighty. And like a prince he sees me.

Finding the un-lost God...

I have seen how we can be so blessed and not even know it. Having been privileged to visit Clearwater; a small town within Manitoba Province. Lo! There was no network for the phone service provider I normally use. I couldn't even make phone calI or receive calls. It was like being in Ijebu town in Nigeria; West Africa. We can be sad when we realize that we cannot get all we want. But we hardly step back to see all what we have. All the opportunities we can convert, et.al. Isn't it funny how we seldom fail to see what we've really acquired over the years?

I am finding out how people are so different and how they're also the same everywhere you go. “Migration continual” everywhere you go; fro rural to urban, fro urban to urban. Everyone is seeking for something. We are all looking for something better. We want the Golden Fleece. We want a better life. We seek for economic values, financial worth, enduring benefits and gains, social securities and more. We convince ourselves that these are what we are looking for. But just as we reach them. We feel the search has to continue still. In the actual fact what we are really searching for is like a north star, like an ideal that may never be touchable. Could this be the reason why in that process of searching some of us sometimes get caught up in the rat race. We lose our sense of reasoning.

Somehow someone once said: "Until you lose yourself, you can’t find yourself." Therefore, we don't even look before we leap any more. We just throw ourselves on…we go with people, we dabble into situations, we join a ritual, we become member of a committee, we join a group on social networking site, without giving a thought to the responsibilities involved. Without proper scrutiny; we are already involved without proper questioning. Therefore, self-loss is inevitable and it is becoming a phenomenon. It is one thing that separates the matured thinkers from infantile thinkers. Its one thing to get lost; it’s another thing too be lost. I may not clarify the difference. I may just hint on the difference. Just read on.
We must be careful not get lost in other people's folly. It’s like getting caught in a spider web. You may see through it, but you are stuck anyway. At times, you don’t even know if you are seeing clearly or not; for why would you end up in such a mess in the first instance? It is the same thing when it comes to being lost. It is the worst thing that can happen to anyone. I believe that we can actually avoid getting lost. And if we have lost our sense of identity in one way or the other. It is in Christ that we can see our true destiny recaptured, renewed and recovered.

SELF-LOSS.

There is this sense of self in us that doesn't like to lose control. We don’t want to be tethered like a horse. We struggle with the control panel of life. We always want to be in charge. We travel, we meet new people; we find ourselves among new groups. Our identity is challenged. Sometimes, they want us to do certain things so that we can be accepted. The peer pressure comes on. The battle to be what people want us to be instead of what God want us to be rises. Sometimes, at the lowest ranking of priority is the struggle to be who we really wanted to become. Fear sets in. We fail to realize that we owe no man other from God.
Everything was given... People were only tools through whom things were actually given to us. Although, people do lay claim to the good they did for us. All the glory must be to God. He is the only wise God. And He deserves all our praise.
He did not ask for anything from us. He has given us benevolently. That is why you are without debt in God’s records. It tells me that you must be very important to God. And you are very precious. “There’s no one like you here on earth”. You’re so unique that somehow scientists would have to go through some cloning exercise to get even a fragment of your resemblance in guise of your clone. And even that in its very best will be your counterfeit. This tells me that somehow, you are more than who, or what you really think you are. You are a masterpiece… A treasure… You are to God, what a man will call his Pension earnings...that is the result of his lifetime's labor. You are worth more than a thing to God. You are a child of God! And as we travel around the globe in search of some golden fleece, let it be said that you lived like a people who refused to lose self-identity for any ephemeral things. Why? Because in interaction, in relationships, people easily forgets who they are; and in bid to identify with others; they lose themselves.

Although, I recognize that struggle in the centre of our consciousness; which tell us that we must never let go. We just want to resolve everything at once. We want to understand everything. Our brain box was never made to understand all our experiences. We therefore throw ourselves into the arena…into the Dens of Lions and the arena of wolves in guise of self-abandonment. This self-loss is the beginning of crisis. It means that you do not know who you are. It is a situation wherein we are no longer valuing who we are. We are so fooled into thinking of acceptance that we lose sight self worth. We lose sight of our self-value, self-validations, self- appreciation and more. And even all these are the least on the scale. Why? Because they seem to be self centered if taken to the extreem point.

When we get lost in the physical sense of things; we can use such things like the GPS, Maps, Guides, to retrace our steps. We can even avoid getting lost by maximizing these things. Although, a man can get lost geographically, and still retrace his steps. He can get back to the true course. He may never be able to do the same thing if he got lost in his spirit. We must watch out not to be spiritually lost. We may watch against losing our properties, our friends, even families but things can happen that may lead to their loss. We must watch out never to be lost on our own. As we try to help those who are lost back unto course, we must watch out, that we ourselves don’t get lost.

Being lost is self-destructive. The worst thing that can ever happen to anyone is to be lost in ideals, values, character, morals, spirit and more. There’s a loss of property; which so many people cry over. It’s not a big deal. It’s even better to lose such material possession than losing self. Why? Because you can get such material things back after loss; but not the loss of one self. It is the loss of self that is the most terrible thing. It took the blood of Jesus to redeem man from loss at the very first time it happened to the first Man called Adam. He was lost in the world of a stranger's beliefs system-who told his wife and him that they will never die by contradicting God's instruction, which was to never eat of a particular tree in Eden. So what happened next? There was a way of escape provided for man was through God's only Son-Jesus Christ. He came in the form of man to save man. He came to redeem you and me from where we've lost it. This is the story of salvation you must have heard several times.

Self-loss was ended through Salvation brought to man at the cross when Jesus was crucified. He brought man back to God. It was like disappearing into oblivion…someone literarily went into such darkness of hell to bring man back into light. The loss of one soul is such a big deal to God; not to even mention the loss of the entire human race.
Today, the loss of self in guise of mind-loss, happens every day. The loss of time has been overtaken by the loss of ideas, ideals and more. There’s been this wrong exchange of authentic beliefs, pragmatic philosophies, realities, simplicities, et.al for wrong and fake things. Somehow, human acceptance seems to be the next. We teem like fishes in the river of identity crisis. It has become so easy to reject God openly. It is not funny. It is sad. It happens everyday.

It’s my belief that, life is a gift from above and it is first a matter of where you stand? What you stand for? Who you stand for? If you don't clarify these things; you can lose yourself. And it can happen to anyone. It can happen so fast, so easily. What is your purpose? What cause will you die for? Why will you want to lose yourself? Does it really worth it to lose self for something immaterial, or something without eternal value? When Christ died for you to buy you back to life in God through His precious blood? Will you really want to lose your mind again? Will you do it for money, fame, game or shame? WiIl you lose your mind for people who would never agree with you in the first place? What will you lose yourself for? If you lose yourself into God, you will find your self… “Whoever will save his life will lose it, but whosoever will be ready to lose his life for the sake of the kingdom of God; will find it…" These were the words of Christ in red! Better to lose self into God than lose self into self, into sin, into worldliness, or crime. Better lose yourself into God rather than evil of self-indulgence. Life is valuable, it is of eternal value and it is a terrible thing to waste.

THE MAD PROPHETS!

Redemption was the finished work of Christ on the cross. He paid with His precious blood. Today I am baffled by how some people still go back into the Old Testament to pick out of context some scriptural texts and just misapply them blindly. They misinterpret scriptures in every respect. Imagine you were told to redeem your life with/by money? Because you were a first born of your parent, you have to pay some amounts of money to redeem your life into prosperity when Jesus became poor that we might be rich through His poverty? Alas! I saw it. Out of ignorance people gave money for their own redemption in our day because they found themselves in temporary predicament of life. They doubted the light in them. They felt that by giving money in deed to a prophet, they would be delivered. I shudder. I wonder if they ever knew that their deliverance was already settled on the cross of Calvary over two thousand years ago. I see why Jesus said: You will know the truth and the Truth will set you free. It is not the truth known by somebody else. It has got to be the truth known, understood and embraced by you. It must be your personal experience of the Truth. So what is the Truth? The word of God; the son of God is the Truth. You have to become one with the truth to be free in deed. This personal understanding is what every one of us needs to chase after.

Today we have people profiteering out of other people’s ignorance. And the largest market to make money is the market of spirituality. That is why some prophets, psychics, and diviners are making fortunes out of most people. These people unfortunately are believers who don’t know the God of heaven personally and intimately. They have not had any personal encounter with Him which they can look back on. Hence, they had to be introduced to Him and He had to be portrayed to them with human sense knowledge. But Christ is coming for a church that is without blemish or wrinkle. If you have to be told what God is saying to you as a child of God, you really need help. Because the bible has in store every word you need. And the word of God is the fulfillment of all prophecies. There is no new prophecy. No prophecy should be able to blow you away. When a prophecy now begins to make you tremble or even get you excited; that means you need help. The same scripture that said: “Despise not prophesying.” Is the same scripture that said: “Test and judge all prophecies”…if you are living your life based on prophecies; you will soon crumble. If you are depending on human wisdom, diviner’s intention or inspiration. You are still walking in darkness and you really need help. And help is in the word of God. The word of truth will liberate any man who sincerely seek God.

I have seen this malady in our age. I have seen this madness in my generation. People scream and shout in ignorance but God is not fooled. We are not in a prophetic age that substitutes the bible. And if any prophecy should violate the biblical standard; I will have no respect for that very prophet who spoke! Friends, be careful of what you run after. When he was about to die; David lay on his sick bed instructing Solomon (his son) that: “Know the God of your Fathers”. Something tells me that it was because there are many gods in Israel in those days. There are idols that could perform wonders through magic. And it is easy to be carried away by such. But it was even sad to discover that even Solomon was carried away unto strange gods despites all his wisdom. There’s a thin line between Knowing God and losing God. Men of honour even fall for the fluke. Today, I can see preachers asking audience to bring money for the gift of God. They are asking people to pay before they can be blessed. Meanwhile in the earthly days of Jesus Christ; “He was anointed with Holy Ghost and power such that he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil for God was with Him.” He did all for free. Then the bible said that: “The gift of God are irrevocable and without repentance”...and…“Every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of light, with whom there is neither shadow of turning nor any variableness”…Alas! God is merchandized in our day! The works of God are for sale. You can now buy the blessing of God with money. And you can even turn God to genie by commanding Him to do something even when it is not in His will. All you need is to give some money to a “prophet” and he will command God for you. Whatever, God will do are being predicted. All manner of wrong things are happening in the name of ignorance. And the representatives of God who should know better are the ones misleading the people. The best amongst us are blind. How can the blind lead the blind?

“My Knight in shining amour”

The Knight with a blazing sword,
My knight in shining Amour!
You’re my battle fighter
My hero, n’ friend,
Defender, n’ helper,
The warrior
Combatant with the blazing sword
who has never lost a battle like you?

You are my hero!
My song, my all
My very strength,
You're my all
And all in all.
My many thanks to you
My Lord, my King
The King of kings,
The LORD of lords...

-Babawale Odunga

Hope revived!

"Optimism is a spirit that must be carefully guarded by those who have it..."
-Olaotan Odunuga

“It’s a lie!” -You probably have heard or said that statement at one time or the other; when someone told you that something you lost hope on is workable or possible? "...And hope does not maketh ashamed...”(see Romans 5:5)“...But Jacob’s heart was like a stone, he couldn’t take it in” (see Genesis 45:26) That his son, Joseph is alive and ruling somewhere in Egypt? How do you explain that? Do you expect a joyful feeling from such a man like Pa Jacob, who has been accustomed to sorrow, pain and despair up to old age?

How do you explain to him that better days are here? How do you say that his latter end shall be greater and better than his beginning? That beginning from this very moment onward you will never have a reason to cry any more but laugh continuously?
All his children suddenly appeared as cast in a movie; on a large screen in a cinema hall, smiling. These everyday people he loves and lives with suddenly changed in status. How do you explain what happened to such a man like Jacob and expect him to join you on tourism jubilantly right away? A team of kids, who were worried a while ago instantly appeared from their trip rejoicing and they want him to believe them that all is well? Is it that easy to believe that all is well when so many things were not right? The most shocking News was that the presumed late Joseph is still alive?

I mean it took this old man some weeks or months to send these guys back to Egypt for more food after they have exhausted the first supply purchased from Egypt. Since they had arrived and said that Simeon had been arrested and will not be released until Benjamin comes, he had shut off from them all. He had to figure out if it was safe to send Benjamin to go with them even though they needed food desperately. Now they are all here rejoicing and even going as far as saying Joseph is alive and he is king over Egypt? The drama is becoming a little confusing and life is almost at an anticlimax here!

If you are still there and you’ve given up all hopes like Jacob? Your turning point is here! Joseph is alive! That was the good news for Jacob then. Jesus is alive is the good news for you now. My dear reader, your dreamer is alive! Your dream has come true.Your vision is released and you are freed! Your interpretation has become a reality! Your dream is manifesting! Mystery is becoming a possibility for you and all your doubts are shifting away. Every uncertainty is turning into certainty in your case! An achievable idea,has come.An interpretation has come for your visions. Your dream has began to speak! Right now! To those knotted situations, begin to receive clarity now! And every twined dreams and innovation begin to manifest into realization!

How many times have we been like Jacob we’ve been praying for so long for something to happen, may be for a new born and your delayed was over. A wife announced that she is now pregnant at last; but you couldn't believe it. It’s a lie.You said but No it’s not a lie. It is a dream come true.You cannot just figure it out yet…you can’t Imagine it? Well. Even the church folks were like that. Sometimes ago, they were praying for Apostle Peter in a house during the time of his imprisonment for preaching the gospel. And Rhoda heard a knock and went to answer the door. Behold it was Peter at the door. She announced joyfully that Apostle Peter is out there at the door and they all thought she was mad. It’s a lie! How can it be? They said. How come our prayers got answered, just like that? Is that possible? Weren’t they praying in faith with un-expectancy?

Faithfulness and un-expectant heart does not go together. Don’t mess with God at all. If you are not ready for it; don't ask for it. If you want it badly enough.Then pray for He does not joke with His people. One of the things God will never do is that He will never crack a joke over our matters. If you’re not serious about it, don’t bring it forward to Him in prayers. Expectation is vital if we must become the recipient of the Grace of God and receive answers to our prayers. We must be looking out at every moment for our reply. We should dare to expect to be blessed by other people. We should want a better day ahead than the previous ones. We should seek gracious hour at every moment of the day. Look out for our answers coming through the doorway to us... Optimism is of God. Inspiration is from God. And we are children of God.We need both.

How to handle Doubts...

"The greatest of ideas sometimes come in seemingly slimy doubtful forms...
- Olaotan Odunuga

Do you want to tell me that Joseph did not doubt his interpreted dream at least for once throughout the seven years of plenty and leadership in Egypt? He probably would have said to himself; what if there was no famine coming at all? What if all I interpreted to King Pharaoh was a lie? What if the famine never comes and the people figure out my interpretation was a scheme to get out of Portifar’s wife’s case and imprisonment? He probably would have thought to himself that he hopes the dream and the interpretations come true just as it was seen and interpreted.Real people in real situations will tell you how desperate it is to be waiting for something or someone. As the whole kingdom of Egypt wish for the year of abundance to continue forever, Joseph would have been waiting seriously, hoping like Jonah to see his interpretation and prophecy come to past just as he had seen and declared it.

You may think that folks in scripture times never had the kind of problems we have today. More often, previous loses teach us to retreat, quit and become more protective...Jacob wouldn’t want to release Benjamin to his brothers to travel to Egypt as the evidence that the ten of them were not spies. There was no need for proof if he would get killed like Joseph. It will be foolish trying to convince the noble Egyptian who wanted them to bring Benjamin before he could release Simeon. Reuben bet his two sons’ lives on him and Judah bet his own life on Benjamin’s life that they will bring him back to Jacob. Is it not astounding how much length people will try to go in order to prove a point, or correct a wrong, after realizing they have done something so terrible in the past to innocent people? Here was Reuben and Simeon who shared from the selling price of Joseph. They now wanted to set things straight at least on Benjamin the junior brother of the guy they sold. We will all love to clean our back trail if we are given the chance to redo some things all over again?
Patriarchs were ordinary men who after facing all odds of life stood with hope on God.Despite their doubts, they moved on. Jacob was one Patriarch who struggled over some decisions like we do today. It took him time to overcome his doubts and unbelief. He came to terms with the reality and believed when he saw the "made in Egypt" wagons, all loaded with gifts and foods from Joseph his son, who he thought was dead. He said “It must be true! Joseph my son is alive!” Jacob must have shouted here as if someone withdrawing himself from the grip of the doubts that was holding him back, all along. Then he could have probably whispered the rest of the words to himself or muttered it within his lips that: “I will go and see him [now determined] before I die [with probably a clenched of some incomplete teeth as a result of aging].