In this series excerpt from Bishop David Abioye’s book: “Creating a New Beginning”, I want to show you the unlimited power of faith in creating a new beginning for yourself. When you talk about creating a new beginning, the first thing some people think about is money, because they believe that money is the capital they need to make it in life, but it is far from it. Faith is what you need more than any other thing, because it commands all other materials resources that you need including money. “Through faith we understand that the worlds were frame by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:13). When you believe, all things become possible to you (Mark 9:23). It is only what faith cannot purchase that is unachievable. This is why you must come to a point of strong conviction that “Come rain come shine, I am going to be successful”, because that is what you are destined for. Believe it tenaciously and it will be counted to you for righteousness. Concerning Abraham, the Bible says: “…He believed in the LORD, and He counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). I have noticed that every great man and woman that ever lived, at one time or the other, came to a point in their lives where they were so far from success that nobody ever believed they could make it except themselves. May be you have failed so woefully that virtually everybody doubts if you will ever become anything again, some may even think you are crazy for wanting to make another attempt, your only sustenance at such a time is the faith that you have in the future that you have seen. That is what energizes you to rise up again and continue the race. Your faith determines your limit in life. No man ever achieves beyond his faith. Where you stop believing is where God stops acting on your behalf, because His Word says, “Be it unto you according to your faith.” (Matt. 9:29). So, if your faith is above the waters of life you are sure to survive every storm that comes your way.
You must, therefore, possess a possibility mentality in order to create a new beginning for yourself. The moment you believe that you can achieve a thing; an unusual ability is injected into you. But when you say you cannot, weakness overwhelms you instantly. So, the level of possibility you encounter in life is as paved by your faith. Faith is the force that moves a man from the ground and propels him towards his future. It is the link or the vital force for all possibility, but without it, stagnation and failure become permanent. With faith you can reach unimaginable heights in life. It is only what you believe that is counted for you. When you stop believing, you start loosing count. When in the face of poverty and failure you believe you can still be prosperous and successful, then God credits it to your account. He does not ask for any other person’s opinion, the only thing that counts is your faith. So, begin to fill your heavenly account through the power of faith. It does not matter how many people have said you will not survive or recover from that illness, if only you can believe that by the stripe of Jesus you were healed, God will disregard everything they have said and see to it that your healing becomes a reality. God cannot help you beyond your faith, so remove the barriers of unbelief and doubt in your life, convince yourself that you can get to the top and you will see yourself moving towards there. In Mark chapter 9, the father of as lunatic boy that was brought to Jesus for healing said to Him, “…If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.” But Jesus immediately replied him, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mk 9:22-23). That is to say, “The problem is not what I can do; rather it is how much you can believe, because all things are possible to him that believes.” When we talk to God about what He can do for us, He talks back to us about how much we can believe. Giving you success in life is not a problem for God, He can do anything we believe Him for from His Word. He said, “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?” (Jer.32:27). If there is a problem anywhere, it is the problem of unbelief. The father of that lunatic boy in Mark chapter 9 realized this and he cried out to Jesus, “…Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief” (Mark 9:24). I see God helping your unbelief now!
I believe there are certain things that God has shown you about your future but because of one experience of failure along the way, you no longer believe them. You may have allowed the devil to convince you that God didn’t speak to you after all or that His promise is not for you. But I’d like you to know that God has not changed His mind concerning whatever He told you about your future. He says, “For I know the plans I have for you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer. 29:11-NIV). The King James Version puts it this way: “For I know the thoughts that I think towards you… thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Based on this scripture, you can have faith for a new beginning in the face of crisis and failure. No matter what has happened, God has not changed His mind concerning you. His plan to give you an expected end is still in place, you are the only one who has changed your position so you need to pray and say to Him, “Lord, help thou my unbelief. I know You are not a liar, if You have shown me something, You will surely do it. Help my unbelief.” Before you begin to take steps to create a new beginning, check your faith? There is no point attempting to do what you don’t believe. Note that God is not asking you to do it, He only asks you to believe it and He will do it. “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it” (I Thess. 5:24). God will perform everything He has said concerning you, but it is your faith that triggers His action, and when He cannot see faith He folds His hands. God gets excited when He sees a believing saint, He becomes eager to act. He is looking for people who will dare Him with their faith, people who hold tenaciously to His Word and refuse to be moved by whatever is happening to or around them. You need to understand that God’s plan for you cannot be thwarted by any devil, irrespective of what you are going through right now. Your case cannot be worse than that of Joseph who spent so many years in prison for a crime he did not commit and he was there until God opened the door of favour to him when he was opportune to interpret Pharaoh’s dream. He became the prime minister of Egypt and that marked a new beginning for him (Genesis 41:39-44). Or are you like David who was forgotten in a bush until God located and anointed him to be king of Israel (1 Samuel 16:11-12)? Or even like Jacob in the house of Laban where he was cheated and his wages changed over twenty times till the day God showed him the secret of creative husbandry in a vision (Genesis 31:4-12)? Don’t allow your present circumstances to blind your eyes to what God has in store for you. Your future is bright and you will surely get there!
Believe in God: When you express faith in God, He empowers you beyond your ability. Every powerful man is sometimes confronted by certain situations that make him look powerless. It is at such times that you need to express your faith in God and He would come to your aid. Jesus looked at the people around Him one day and said, “Have faith in God” because when you have faith in God, you operate in the class of God. Don’t look at yourself and say, “Will God help me? Am I good enough?” Put aside such thoughts and express your faith in Him. Believe in God to help you recover all that you have lost. Believe that He will always be there for you and that He will fulfill His Word concerning you, He will stand by His promises which he has made towards you. Look at this account in Hebrews 11:11. Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Believe God without an iota of doubt; judge Him faithful, because there is neither variableness nor shadow of turning with Him. If God says a thing, it is settled. He told me in His Word that I will be the head and not the tail, so I am never bothered about my present circumstances. I am going somewhere; to be the head and not the tail, above and not beneath! Believe in yourself: To come out of failure and crisis, you must believe in yourself. Why? Because the way you rate yourself is the way your society will rate you? Your self-value determines your public value and also determines your ability to face challenges. If you want to have value in the public, first of all have value for yourself. Stop looking down on yourself. Stop telling yourself, “I can’t do anything.” You can do all things through Christ that strengthens you! No matter the situation you find yourself, you must have faith in yourself. You may feel weak and dejected but remember Paul the Apostle said in 2 Corinthians 3:5, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.” You have the very big God by your side and because He cannot fail, you cannot fail. You are an embodiment of possibilities but you need faith to make it happen. There is so much that God has stored up in you, lots of virtues but in the face of failure and challenges Satan makes you see yourself as a non-entity or a dull head. He tells you, “You too can see how very stupid you are. You never do anything right. You will never achieve anything in life. Foolish!” He wants you, lose confidence in yourself and give up. But the truth is, you have the spirit of excellence and can do so many great and powerful things. Listen to me; you need to reassure yourself of who you are in Christ by declaring the Word of God to yourself often. It is not pride, but self esteem! Many people mistake self-value for pride and because they want to be ‘humble’, they accept the lies of the devil and hide themselves. They call themselves all kinds of degrading names. That is not humility but stupidity! There is the story of a young man in the Bible whose name is Gideon. In his days, the Midianites terrorized and oppressed the Israelites so much that they were all in hiding. And one day Gideon was secretly threshing wheat by the winepress so as to hide it from the Midianites. Suddenly an angel appeared to him and called him “Thou mighty man of valour.” Gideon was surprised because that name did not match his circumstances. He began to talk to the angel about all the failures and terrible things that had befallen him and his people. But the angel again said, “Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites… Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man” (Judg. 6:14-16). Now, Gideon was from the poorest family in his tribe and also the least in his father’s house but when his eyes were opened to see the true picture of himself, he arose and saved Israel from their enemies. And while recounting the catalogue of men of faith in Hebrews chapter 11, Apostle Paul mentioned Gideon as one of those who through faith subdued kingdoms (Heb. 11:32-33). So it was through faith that Gideon put an end to the oppression of the enemy and created a new beginning in the history of Israel. He believed in God and believed in himself!
It is my prayer that God will open your eyes to see the true picture of yourself as God sees you because as a man thinks in his heart, so is he [Prov.23:7]. That means your greatest enemy is you and your greatest friend is you. God cannot help you beyond your mentality of yourself. If you abandon yourself then you will be abandoned, but you must understand that you are a person of great value. The reason Satan is opposing and pursuing you is because you matter so much to your society ad your generation. Don’t let him stop you! It is true that the Bible warns against over estimation of self [Lk. 19.14], but it does no say we should underestimate ourselves either. You need to have the correct estimation of yourself to make it in life. You must know who you are in Christ and the things that you can do by reason of the grace of God upon your life so that nothing would distract you on your journey. Most often when we find ourselves unable to do certain things, it is as a result of lack of faith in ourselves. Sometimes, it is the fear of making mistakes or the fear of people mocking us. As a matter of fact, the greatest fear that some people encounter is that of standing alone. But you must understand that if first stand out and identify with what may appear reproachful at first, just like Jesus did when He went to the Cross. It is in the process of enduring reproach that the glory takes over and you become outstanding. You have to believe strongly in the abilities God has put in you. May I ask you, how much to you believe in yourself? One day, Peter and the other Disciples of Christ were in a boat at night and they saw Jesus coming from afar off, walking on the sea. At first, they thought it was a ghost, but Jesus said to them “Don’t be afraid, it is I.” And Peter said, “Master, if you are truly the one, bid me to come to you on the water.” and the Master said, “Come on, Peter stepped out and walked on the water, because he believed in the Word of Jesus and he believed in himself. What do you believe you can do? David Schwartz, the author of The Magic of Thinking Big said, “Not many people believe they can move mountains so not many people do.” Do you believe that you are important, relevant and can affect your generation? Such mentally is the secret of every inventor. Even when their experiments keep failing, they simply believe that they can come out with something and eventually they hit it. Most great people today had very poor backgrounds some of them grew under unbelievable poor conditions, but they broke through and became stars, because they believed in themselves. The man who discovered Anesthesia for instance, simply believed that he could do something to alleviate the horrors and pains that people were going through during surgery in those days. Today, his name has gone into the record of great people. Stop doubting yourself, God has invested enough treasures in you to make you what He wants you to be. You have what it takes to create a new beginning from any circumstance that you find yourself, but when you doubt yourself, you despise the potentials in you. What you need to live well is inside you, all you need to do is discover it. Disagree with people and circumstances that want to make you believe that you are a failure. You can prove them wrong; no matter how long you have been in failure, you can create a new beginning of success in your life from this moment.
Believe in Others: Thirdly, you must have faith in people. There is no self made man on earth. In your journey to the top, you just have to find people to believe in; some higher than you, some at your level and others subordinate to you. You must realize that people are inevitable, a part of building your destiny, they are God’s gifts to you. Many people are not progressing in their businesses and other endeavours of life because they have limited their spread by keeping everything close to themselves. Due to shortsightedness, they want to keep their eyes on everything, they don’t want to trust any other person with any aspect of the work and in the process they cannot spread beyond where they are. Please know that it is how much you are able to believe in people that determines how much and how well you will be able to spread your effect in life. The ministry of Jesus continues today because he believed in the twelve disciples despite their short-comings and inadequacies. Individuals who believe in other people hardly succeed. Ask any successful man and he will tell you that his success is as a result of other people’s involvement and contributions. You will discover that every time the Bible makes reference to David, additional references are also made to his mighty men like Joab and the others. You may have heard about Ben Carson, a gifted neurosurgeon who is making waves around the world. His specialty in high-risk cases earned him the title of World Best and Famous Neurosurgeon at the age of 32. But as a kid, Ben was the dullest in his class; he would have remained a failure if not for the help and influence of certain people in his life. In his biography titled, Gifted Hands, he dedicated some of the chapters to writing about his mentors, influencers and other significant people who contributed to his life at one stage or the other on the journey to success. He said, “Throughout my life at various times, specific individuals have touched my life and enabled me to climb from the bottom of my class to the top of my profession.” You need people in the making of your future. No one ever climbs up alone. Even Moses the great prophet needed Aaron and Hur to hold his hands up in the time of war for Israel to win (Exodus 17.8-13). In the creation process recorded in Genesis chapter one, you can see that at a point God needed the input of the trinity “And God said (to the Son and the Holy Spirit), let us make man…” Solomon said, “Never go to war without taking advice from your counselors” (Proverbs 24.6 paraphrased). So, to create a new beginning for yourself, look out for people who have the potentials to help you attain the plan of God for your life.
Dr. Lewis Akpogena
08055059656
E-mail: akpogena@yahoo.com
