Break with Tradition 2

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

General Naaman was obviously stuck to tradition. That explains why he took the bilateral diplomatic approach to seeing the Prophet Elisha. Rather than go to Elisha directly as advised by the Israelite servant girl to his wife; Naaman went to see the King of Syria. Also rather than send for Elisha or instruct Naaman to go see Elisha directly; the King of Syria sent a diplomatic letter to the King of Israel asking him to cure Naaman of his leprosy. Unfortunately, that letter caused quite a stir in the court of the King of Israel after the letter was read.

The Bible records that the King of Israel tore his robe and lamented as to why the King of Syria chose to take advantage of the issue of Naaman’s leprosy to pick a quarrel with him. To start with, the King of Israel was not God who can always heal, kill or make alive. Why then would the King of Syria saddle the King of Israel with the responsibility and task of curing Naaman? Fortunately for the King of Israel, Prophet Elisha heard about the travails of the King and quickly sent a message to the King to send Naaman to him.

Partner with Sound Minds

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Sound minds create wealth. There is a correlation between a sound mind, sound words, sound doctrine, sound speech and wealth. Please see 2^nd Timothy Chapter 1 verses 7, 13, 4 verse 3, Titus Chapter 2 verse 8. Partnering with sound minds can take on different forms – organizational partnerships, individual partnerships, ministry partnerships, employee/employer partnerships, as well as engaging the services of vendors and artisans. It could also be delegation. No matter the coloration of partnerships, the persons must be skilled. Please see 1^st Chronicles Chapter 25 verses 1, 7 (skilled ministers of music). They served under their father who was knowledgeable and who transferred the skills. They were also instructed in the songs of the Lord – they were knowledgeable and not ignorant.

David was a skilfull instrumentalist and was subsequently recommended to King Saul’s service. Please see 1^st Kings Chapter 5 verse 6. The Sidonians were skilled in cutting timber and subsequently were invited by King Solomon to supply timber for the building of the temple and the King’s palace. Please see 1^st Kings Chapter 7 verses 13 to 14. Huram was skilled in working with all kinds of bronze work. Please see 2^nd Chronicles Chapter verses 6, 13 to 14.

Mental prowess should also be a major consideration in choosing partners. Partners who have intellectual prowess, people who think, who think issues through, who have analytical powers, who strategize, who proffer solutions – people like the Biblical Jethro, Joseph, Daniel, Abigail, the virtuous woman of Proverbs Chapter 31, the wise woman for her people skills are partners that would move your enterprise up the ladder of wealth and success any day.

The Essence and Focus of Work

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

At creation, God gave man work to do (Genesis Chapter 2 verse 15). In Genesis Chapter 2 verses 5 to 15, the Bible describes how the Garden of Eden was created - again without the effort of man. The trees that bore fruit for food grew out of the ground and a river watered the garden. Man did not even have to do the watering – God prepared the river to do it. Man’s assignment was to tend and keep the garden as well as feed from it. What bliss!

The essence and focus of work is on being productive to be financially rewarding and not on being busy. Therefore, be purposeful, productive and profitable in your work by investing time to engage in in spiritually, physically, mentally and financially productive and rewarding processes as well as relationships in your work. As much as possible, avoid time wasting relationships, activities and utterances. People without clear  cut visions and even when they have visions but do not have clearly identified goals, SMART objectives. Therefore they do  not have clear road maps of where they are headed in life because they have no idea where they are going. If you must spend time with such people, make it really minimal otherwise you will be caught in their maze of a circular dance that does not take or move anyone forward in life. Spending quality time with such people is akin to hanging around a dried up brook in a long period of drought hoping against hope that water will suddenly come from nowhere.

Beloved, the sensible thing to do is to move away as fast as your legs or any means of transport at your disposal can carry you out of a dried up brook. Dried up brooks have nothing to offer. God instructed the prophet Elijah to move out of a dried up brook. Please see 1^st Kings Chapter 17 verses 3 to 10.