Pay Attention to Details 2

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Therefore, invest time and resources in living a life of excellence, producing quality work, services and products, relationships etc. The rewards of excellence far outweigh the handouts from doing anything shabbily or just to get by so that you can flow with the crowd. Cut out from the crowd of mediocre people. Mediocrity is not of God because God is excellent and His Spirit of excellence is available to as many people who request the grace to provide excellent services and products. Secondly, Mediocrity does not lead to fruitfulness and multiplication. Only excellence and diligence do. Therefore, separate yourself from mediocre people and mediocrity. Give mediocrity, mediocre people, their services and products a very wide berth. Move away at the speed of light from drab, ordinary, average, good, better to being the BEST. IT IS POSSIBLE.

Excellence is inspiring and motivates. Significantly, excellence does not necessarily have to be bought with money though money is sometimes required to produce excellent services and products. Everything about what you do should speak of excellence. Do not bother yourself about how other people are doing their jobs. Rather, focus on what God wants you to do, how to do it, when to do it, where to do it and why you should do it. That way, you will always render excellent services and produce excellent products. Instructively, excellent services and products attract quality people and their resources to your business. And even if you are an employee, your bosses will be impressed with the quality of your work and move you up the ladder. You can ask the biblical Joseph, Daniel and Huram who served kings and not insignificant people.  Please read Proverbs Chapter 22 verse 29.

Pay Attention to Details

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

There is actually nothing like luxury. The truth is that what is branded as luxury is actually high quality, the crème de la crème of quality in terms of materials used for production, designing, the entire production process as well as the finish. That explains why luxury goods have great aesthetics, great fit, wonderful functionality and durability. What this also implies is that anyone can actually produce luxury goods without necessarily being branded as a luxury brand; though every producer of quality goods  and services eventually turns out to be a producer of luxury goods and services and acquires the status of a luxury brand as well as all the perks associated with luxury goods such as high prices, loyal clients and high patronage (people who are used to luxury goods and services always stick to luxury goods irrespective of the pricing as they cannot afford to use lower quality goods and services).

A case in point are techies who use a certain brand of computers and phones especially programmers. Because of the ease of using these products especially in writing codes, they find it extremely difficult to use other brands. I am not a fan of that brand and I am not making a case for the brand either. It is simply that I have worked closely with techies who use these products. They would not touch other products and they have advised me severally to start using these products. Unfortunately, I cannot afford them. Secondly, I am not a programmer though I am an advanced user of technology.

Producers of luxury goods and services pay attention to details, the design, finish and choice of materials. Significantly, the precision is always right. You can also move up that ladder by improving on and enhancing the aesthetic appeal and value of whatever it is you do. You can do this by insisting on and providing excellent services and products; by always setting very high standards; and please make efforts to exceed them. Pay attention to details even the very minutest of details such as color, background, choice of diction, graphics, etc. All of these will add great value to what you do because you would have enhanced quality in the process.

MAKE YOUR OWN WEALTH 4

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

It is not a sin to engage in an economic activity. An economic activity is an activity which allows you to trade your God given economic resources for either money or other economic resources such as real estate, gold, silver, stocks in corporations and whatever else you desire.

The Biblical Solomon traded his God given wisdom for gold, silver and other resources. He also traded in horses and chariots within his geographical region and controlled a monopoly of the trade. Together with King Hiram of Tyre, they traded in gold, silver, spices and whatever else could be sourced from far away lands; deploying merchant ships and seasoned sailors who understood the seas and the trade.  Being a king did not stop him from engaging in economic activities.

The virtuous woman of Proverbs Chapter 31 verses 10 to 31 was a wonderful wife, a great mother and a very successful manager of a home; in point of fact, a role model for many generations; yet she engaged in economic activities. She turned a regular domestic activity engaged in by nearly every woman of her time into a very profitable economic activity which generated revenue for the purchase of a field to plant a vineyard, another economic activity which would lead to yet another economic activity. She was a productively busy woman, not an idle moment in unproductive activities and relationships. Every second translated into productive fruitful marital, parental, spiritual, mental, physical, economic and financial activities.

Beloved, there is really no excuse for refusing to engage in an economic activity. You cannot be busier or more saddled with family or community obligations than the virtuous woman. All you need do is to organize your time and activities as well as your relationships so that you have ample time to engage in economic activities.

Significantly and this is quite instructive; she worked from home and outsourced the rest -  getting her supplies from afar; and the management of the vineyard. However, she supervised every one of the activities by paying attention to details. You can do so and even more if you would humbly ask God for the wisdom to do so.

MAKE YOUR OWN WEALTH 3

 Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Take your eyes off other’s wealth. God has given you the power to create wealth, therefore you will create sustainable generational wealth, not by might nor by power but by the Spirit of the Lord Who guides you, establishes you in the perfect will of God, plans and purposes as well as divine timing and contacts with the appropriate divine wisdom to create wealth. To Him alone Who is always able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ever ask or think of be all the glory in Christ Jesus in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

 You can and will create sustainable generational wealth not by might nor by power but by the Spirit of the Lord because you can do all things through Christ Who strengthens you. Philippians Chapter 4 verse 13 and Zechariah Chapter 4 verse 6, Deuteronomy Chapter 8 verse 18, Joshua Chapter 1 verse 8.

 Therefore, make your own wealth. Invest in the plans and purposes of God for your life, the land God gave you to till, manage so that you will stop wandering and be used by people and institutions who enjoy using the skills and expertise of other people to further their personal ambitions. Laban and Jacob are classic examples. As far as Laban was concerned, Jacob had no business coming unto his own. He was bound to serve Laban and his sons. But God overruled such an evil plan by Laban and gave Jacob his own empire.

Therefore, grow God’s plans and purposes for your life. Be globally and nationally famous for what God asked you to do; your divinely assigned tasks and not tasks in the fields of other people. Stop wandering from the fields of Laban to Asher, Bola or Ifeanyi. Work your land and excel at it. The widow of the indebted prophet sold her oil and not the oil of other people; albeit in borrowed vessels to make an income and living; to stay off debts. You can borrow vessels if need be but do not agree to and bend to servitude. May God help you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

MAKE YOUR OWN WEALTH 2

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

For many years the widow of the indebted prophet alongside her husband and two sons lived in the consciousness of lack and poverty and therefore had to borrow from family members, friends and neighbours until they maxed themselves out. When her husband died, the creditor could not be bothered about their bereavement. He was concerned about retrieving his money from them by enslaving the two sons of the man in debt servitude.

Suddenly, reality dawned on the widow. Her husband was gone; and now her two sons in debt servitude! Something had to be done to remedy the family situation. She ran to the prophet Elisha.

Beloved, it was possible for the prophet to have given her the money required to pay off the debts and even if the prophet did not own such money, he could have sent her to someone he knew who could pay off the family debt and set them free, albeit; temporarily. This is because they would revert to borrowing again as it was the only way of livelihood they understood. So Elisha took the decision to correct the anomaly of living off borrowing in that family. He taught the woman and her sons to make their own money and wealth by deploying the resources at their disposal no matter how seemingly little or insignificant to make their own wealth.

Make Your Own Wealth

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

To make you own wealth, you urgently require a spiritual and mental paradigm shift which will prepare you mentally and spiritually to move away from dependency on the wealth of other people. You will need to drop the consciousness of I am created poor; to be dependent on the genuine or stage managed generosity of the rich; to live off their handouts. It is  a self-limiting consciousness which impoverishes and fosters generational poverty in families especially when a member or members of a family accept and internalize that consciousness and through certain consistent utterances and actions convey and transmit the consciousness to their children, siblings, other members of the family as well as neighbours, colleagues, community members and citizens of their nations.

Have you ever noticed that a certain aura of neediness pervades and surrounds people with such a consciousness so that even when they are brought before kings on account of their divine gifts designed to uplift them out of the dust and ash heap positions life; that ugly wealth, dignity and honor dispelling aura shows up so that rather than negotiate positions of power, influence, and wealth with their divine gifts, they request subservient positions so that they remain at the beck and call of the rich forever dependent on their supposed generosity whether genuine or stage managed. That explains why the lame man at the pool in Bethsaida was content to remain there making up excuses of having no one to help him. Those excuses and his inability to see that he had taken on an I am a liability and dependency consciousness and aura was the reason he could not immediately respond positively to Jesus’ question of whether he wanted to be made whole despite the fact that Jesus Christ initiated the conversation and healing process.

In contrast, we see a very proactive Blind Bartimaeus who had a different consciousness and aura – the God given consciousness of I am created to win; I am not created a liability but a blessing to humanity. That explains why he did what he did – deploy the resources at his disposal to get the attention of Jesus – Jesus Whom he could not see and had never seen; Jesus Whom he had heard so much about and Whom Blind Bartimaeus knew could change his status in life – restore his sight so that he would never have to depend on other people for mobility and sight – that way he could take on a job and never have to sit at the roadside to beg. Blind Bartimaeus initiated the process of his interaction with Jesus; subsequent restoration of his sight as well as freedom and deliverance from the supposedly limitations which would have kept him dependent and subservient. Unlike the lame man at Gate Beautiful and the man at the pool in Bethsaida, Blind Bartimaeus refused to be bound. That explains why he initiated the process by literally taking the bull by the horns.  Even when people tried to hush him down, he shouted louder; practically shouting himself hoarse until Jesus paid him attention.

The Dynamics of Seeds 2

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

This also implies that anyone could be a seed sower if they put their minds to it because the truth is that God created everyone with seeds so that the seed should always be planted to produce a harvest of bread and more seeds for planting. But unfortunately, there are people like the wicked lazy servant and the prodigal son; that is when he had not repented who have no intention of planting seeds at all. It is too much trouble for them. They would rather have bread all day; even if it is at the expense and inconvenience of other people. They do not bother about applying themselves in any endeavor. They feel that family members, Church members, neighbors, their communities, their religious organizations, the government, God, everyone, even animals and natural elements of creation owe them an obligation to put bread on their table at all times. That explains why they get angry; are resentful when family members, the Church and people they always expect to put bread on their table refuse to do so because they have asked for bread too often so that making that provision always has become burdensome to family members.

Beloved, watch your life. God did not create you to be a burden to members of your family, Church, community, nation, etc. God created you to be a blessing to your family, Church, community, nation, organization. Therefore, your contribution to the growth of your family, your Church, community and nation should constitute what you always plan to do. Your mental processes should always be filled with how you can become a blessing and not how you can and should siphon blessings from other people. God did not create you to be a leech, preying on other people. Therefore, grow up and stop being a leech, a gold digger and a fortune hunter.                      

The Dynamics of Seeds

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Seeds are productive resources which multiply and compound when planted and nurtured as they should be; that is to say that they are planted in the right soil where they should be planted and when they should be planted; nurtured the way they should be nurtured. Otherwise, that is to say that if they are not planted where they should be planted; or planted and not nurtured, they could go to waste and never produce a harvest.

The young man void of understanding is an example of someone who planted seed seeds in the right soil but refused to care for them. He lost a great harvest through lack of care simply because he refused to discipline himself.

The prodigal son is a different ball game. He simply did not know that seeds are economic resources, productive resources designed to multiply and compound. That explains why he frittered his financial resources on riotous living – wild parties and heavy drinking which do not yield profits and dividends. If he had invested that money, he would not have come to penury and lack. However, coming to penury and lack was a good thing for him as it helped to clear the foolishness of treating seeds as bread out of his head.

Beloved, the Scripture records that God gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater in 2^nd Corinthians Chapter 9 verses 10 to 12. This implies that there are people who are seed sowers – whatever comes to them are regarded as seeds and are planted where and when they should be planted. They do not eat or fritter the seeds. They invest seeds so that the seeds would multiply and compound. These are the people who keep reinvesting their initial capital as well as profits made to expand their business or businesses. They are also the ones who are always developing themselves as career people not just so that they would be promoted but so that their output is enhanced. They are the ones who personally pay to attend workshops and seminars for self-improvement. They are the ones who read and study professional books as well as other books to expand their knowledge base as well as broaden their horizon. They are the ones who network to find opportunities for collaboration. They do stay idle and static; content to work eight to five every day, staring at a computer; doing the daily grind without offering new insight. These seed sowers always have something new, inspiring and profitable to offer to enhance the quality of work they do; to contribute to the growth of the organization and be globally respected.

How to Correct Negative Financial Behaviors 4

 Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Start Walking

Beloved, it is high time you learnt some life lessons from the prodigal son who frittered his inheritance on riotous living. Rather than wait for the demise of his father to receive his inheritance, he requested the inheritance from his father and the moment he received it; huge sums of money he never labored for; he traveled to a city or town where no one would supervise him and went on a binge with like minded people. They painted that city or town red with wild parties and heavy drinking at his expense – again recall that he did not labor for the money so he probably had no idea that he was frittering the money? Why? Unknown to him, financial resources multiply and compound when they are invested in productive economic activities and not wild parties and heavy drinking.

Soon, surprisingly quite soon, they stopped painting the town red because their wild parties and heavy drinking suddenly came to an end; not because they got tired of such revelry but because the prodigal son no longer had the financial muscles to fund the parties and drinks. He was left in the lurch as his waste partners left him to seek other providers of such revelry. Fortunately for the prodigal son, he had nowhere to go.

Penniless and hungry, he sought employment in a piggery but his income was not even a living wage and he came close to eating the pods he fed the pigs. That was when he came to his senses – what exactly was he doing in a place like that? How did he end up like that – someone who had not really labored; who had the best life had to offer; my oh my, it was time to retrace his steps home and offer to work in his father’s farm. After all, his father’s employees earned good salaries and fed well. He opted to return home and was restored to his former position. He did not even have to labor.

Invest in People 2

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Jesus Christ for instance spent years, deploying a multi mix of methods to invest in His disciples. They faithfully and successfully pioneered the early Church when Jesus Christ departed planet earth. The Apostle Paul also invested in both his mentees and the many disciples God used him to raise as he planted Churches in Europe and Asia. These mentees became a great blessing to him when he became a very old man. They helped to carry on the work and also labored faithfully in the vineyard when Paul was in prison. The implication of investing in other people is that you are actually investing in yourself. When Ruth chose to invest in Naomi, little did she know that Naomi would also invest in her and she would become the wife of Boaz and when she became the wife of Boaz and mother of Obed. She also further invested in Naomi by bringing Naomi the untold joy of being a grandmother, so to speak.

Beloved, invest in yourself by investing in people around you.

Mordecai invested in his cousin Esther. Though a gateman at the palace; and in a low income bracket, Mordecai chose to raise his orphaned cousin – he provided for her, housed her, and schooled her in the ways of the Lord. And so Esther had a home and a godly older cousin to look up to for protection and provision in a male dominated world. And when suddenly the position of queen became vacant in the land, Mordecai instructed Esther to apply. Accustomed to obeying her older cousin, Esther participated in the national search for a queen contest and won. Because Mordecai had cautioned her not to make known her nationality, no one knew she was related to Mordecai; one of the gatemen at Shushan palace.

Invest in People

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Why?

People are assets, referred to in corporations as either human resources or human capital. Great corporations, families, communities and nations spend fortunes to invest in their human capital. Investing in human capital development is wisdom, the strength of any family, community, nation and corporation is the quality of human capital in it.

People are assets, in point of fact the greatest assets you can think of after your salvation by faith in Christ Jesus. This is because the people you invest in today are the ones who will be there for you tomorrow. Ruth for instance chose to invest in Naomi even when Naomi had nothing to offer in return. Naomi had no sons that would marry her; Naomi had no financial resources to meet their very basic of needs yet Ruth chose Naomi over Moab, her homeland which appeared to offer many pleasant opportunities; she could live in her family home if she chose not to remarry; there were men there who knew her and could ask for her hand in marriage considering that she was a young widow. Her choice then to go with Naomi who in the face of every physical appearance had nothing was like sentencing herself to a life of penury in addition to being an old maid. But as future events played out; it turned out that Ruth saw into the future and tapped into it or she was just following the leading of the God she chose to serve by associating with Naomi.

Ruth and Naomi arrived in Bethlehem at harvest time and considering that they were not there at planting season, they had nothing of their own to harvest so they resorted to gleaning, a law which allowed strangers and the vulnerable as well as the poor to up sheaves left on purpose by farm owners and harvesters for such people. Naomi was apparently not strong enough for much physical labor; so Ruth went into the fields on a daily basis to glean for the food they required.

Again, directed and guided by the unseen hand of God, she chose to glean in the fields of Boaz, a man she did not even know was their close relative. Ruth gleaned on a daily basis, harvesting what they required for food so that they did not lack bread. But unknown to Ruth and even Naomi at that point in time, Ruth was not just directed to Boaz’ farm for bread alone. Her steps were divinely directed to Boaz’ farm for divine purposes well beyond bread. Fortunately all of that unfolded when Naomi suddenly realized that she could repay the kindness generosity of Ruth by tapping into the law of near kinsman ship which made it mandatory for near kinsmen to marry the widows of their late kinsmen. So Naomi schooled Ruth in the process (Ruth Chapter 3 verses 1 to 18) and Ruth went to work. Needless to say, Ruth became the wife of Boaz and joint owner of the fields she gleaned in to put bread on the table for her and Naomi. Significantly, she also became the mother of Obed, the father of Jesse who gave birth to David, the ancestor of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.