On the Path of Winners By Bayo Ogunmupe

On the Path of Winners

By Bayo Ogunmupe

How to possess divine riches

POSSESSING God’s abundance is the second key to wealth. God told the children of Israel. “And it shall be when thou art come in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth for an inheritance, and possessest it, and dwellest therein,” Deuteronomy 26:1. In the olden days, land was regarded as wealth. So in the scriptures land was known as a store of riches. And God’s abundance is there for the taking.

  But nothing happens by accident. God does His part and He expects us to do ours. We will illustrate this with the story of Joshua and Caleb, two of the 12 men sent by Moses to spy out the land of Canaan. The majority report signed by 10 of the spies was frightening. With fear in their eyes, they exclaimed. “And there we saw the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers,” Numbers 13:33.

  Joshua and Caleb did not see it that way. They declared: “Let us go up at once, and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it,” Numbers 13:30. God didn’t drive out the Amalekites, the Hittites, the Jebusites and the rest of them. It was Joshua, Caleb and the other Israelites who were inspired by Yahweh to chase the giants from the land. God promised that the territory would be theirs, but they had to possess it. Which means your thinking needed to be transformed. You are not grasshoppers but giant-killers.

  The evil one has walked into your home and has stolen your treasure. It doesn’t belong to him – and never has. You don’t need to feel guilty about attacking him to retrieve the bounty. It was yours to begin with. Getting rich is like that. You have to struggle for it. It won’t fall on your laps like manna from heaven. You gain riches through fighting wars. That’s why you need to equip yourself for combat. You will fight the conflict on many fronts. You will have to wrestle against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness, against wickedness in high places. Here is your battle gear. One, have your loins girt about with truth. Two, put on the breastplate of righteousness. Three, your feet must be shod with the gospel of peace. Four, above all, you must put on, “the shield of faith wherever ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked,” Ephesians 6:16. Five, protect your head with the helmet of salvation. Six, in your hand hold “the sword of the spirit which is the word of God,” Ephesians 6:17. It is then that you are ready to possess the riches which is your birthright.

  In the course of your pursuit of abundance, after getting it, you have to be on the alert for life, so that you do not allow Satan to ensnare you into penury. People refer to the nation of Israel, but it isn’t as much a nation as it is an army. It has always been that. Even now in modern Israel. The country doesn’t have a traditional fighting force of volunteers. Instead, everyone is a member of the armed forces. The minute young men and women graduate from grammar school, they immediately start their training to be soldiers.

  In Nigeria soldiers serve by choice not by coercion. In Israel, every able-bodied adult in the nation is permanently on reserve, ready to be activated at a moment’s notice. That is the heritage from Jehovah. We are warriors with enemies to overcome. Military training eliminates fear because fear stifles us from fulfilling our destiny. Fear is the reason we don’t pray. Fear causes 90 per cent of our failures.

  God gave a direct order when He said: “Fear thou not,” Isaiah 41:10. He also tells you why you no longer need to worry. “For I am with thee, yea, I will help thee: yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness,” Isaiah 41:10. You can only counteract fear with faith, because fear cannot coexist with faith in the same heart. They are mutually exclusive. Absence of faith is often exhibited by my co-workers anon. When they receive alerts of their pay on Friday afternoon, their faith is sky-high. But by Saturday morning when they balance their accounts, fear has replaced their expectations. Here is a matter I wish to etch into your consciousness. When there is doubt concerning God’s will to prosper you, perfect faith cannot exist. This is because when the will of God is manifested, faith comes alive while fear dies.

  Moreover, ignorance hinders faith. “By knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all previous and pleasant riches,” Proverbs 24:4. Just as the knowledge of God’s will leads to abundance, ignorance leads to poverty. It is God’s will to abundantly bless you financially. Which was why Abraham was not just rich. He was extremely wealthy. Yet he used his resources wisely. But Allah’s abundance isn’t granted to lavish on yourself alone. It is given to establish the fellowship of the faithful throughout the world. You are blessed in order to be a vessel to loosen abundance upon the earth to help enlarge God’s fellowship on earth.

  Finally, for you to possess abundance, which is your right, you must have these three factors: Faith, believe and prayer. Faith casts out doubt. With believe you can move mountains. After directing us to have faith and believe, Jesus added: “What things so ever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them,” Mark 11:24. But sin hinders prayer. You cannot expect God to answer your prayers if you are iniquitous, greedy and lascivious.

  Our champion today is Cyprian Emeka Uzoh, the Nigerian inventor, engineer and winner of the 2006 Inventor of the Year from the New York Intellectual Property Law Association. When he left Nigeria for the U.S. in 1975, Uzoh’s simple goal was to acquire education. Although he was able to achieve his aims of getting first and doctorate degrees there, today he has etched his name in gold for his inventions in electronics.

  Uzoh has more than 150 patents in semi-conductor technology. This technology, which enabled the introduction of copper in the making of chips has revolutionalized the industry. It provided low-cost methods of depositing reliable copper films within integrated circuits for circuit wiring.

  Uzoh was its principal inventor. He was responsible for the electroplating technology. He also invented methods of preventing copper from contaminating semi-conductor fabs. After working for IBM for a decade, Uzoh moved to ASM Incorporated. He is a corporate fellow in the industry. He hails from Ojoto, Idemili South Local Government Area, Anambra State of Nigeria. Before leaving for America, Uzoh attended Christ the King College, Onitsha. He obtained his school certificate and higher school certificates there.