Developing The Mindset That Creates Success

On The Path Of Winners

BY BAYO OGUNMUPE

Developing The Mindset That Creates Success

WHENEVER you have the opportunity to occupy a place of responsibility, what is required of you is to be faithful so that you can be honoured. One of the greatest impendiments to success is pride. Proud people refuse to follow advice that can deliver them from poverty.

  People who are proud over-estimate themselves. Hence, they avoid starting small in their businesses because they suffer from delusions of grandeur.

  Let us travel through the Bible to receive its wisdom: ‘‘Whoever secretly slanders his neighbour, Him I will destroy. The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, Him I will not endure,’’ Psalm 101:5. Thus, because of God’s disdain for the proud, the door of divine blessing is closed against them. Proud people always end up in the shame of poverty. ‘‘A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honour,’’ Pro 29:23. Pride brings a man down, which is why it is a major cause of poverty.

  ‘‘You are proud because you live in a rock fortress and make your home high in the mountains. ‘Who can ever reach us way up there?’ you ask boastfully. Don't fool yourselves. Though you ascend as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,’’ says the Lord, Obadiah 3, 4. The opposite  of pride is humility. This means in order to attain success in life you must develop the mindset of humility. It is the way of Jehovah to diminish the full and enlarge the modest. It is the way of humans to overthrow the full and replenish the modest. God brings down disaster on the full and bless the modest. It is the way of man to hate the full and love the modest. Humility displayed in a position of honour increases the radiance of that honour, displayed in a lowly position, men will not seek to brush it aside.

  Therefore, the modest man encounters good fortune in all his undertakings.

  In life, the positive and the negative are constantly interchanging. Applied to our situation, it means that a humble man should sometime change his manner by gathering strength and taking the offensive. It will be necessary he defends himself against those who would take advantage of his humility.

  Obeying God and lawful order is the second attitudinal mindset of champions. Disobedience is the opposite of obedience. How many of you would have his employee disobey him and yet gain promotion? I doubt if any of you would promote such a disobedient employee. How come then, you expect to disobey God and still get His blessings? Disobedience has kept many people away from God’s abundance.

  There are two dimensions to disobedience. One, disobedience to the commands of God and two, disobedience to God’s wealth creation principles. ‘‘If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword,’’ for the mouth of the Lord has spoken,’’ Isiah 1:19. Here are two conditions upon which you could partake of the good of the land. One, be willing and two: be obedient. Unfortunately, many people are willing but a few are obedient to God’s commandments. Willingness isn’t enough. You must obey the laws and principles of wealth creation.

  ‘‘If you obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures, but if they do not obey, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge,’’ Job 36: 11-12. Thus, poverty is the result of disobedience. People presently claiming to serve God are only doing so on their own terms. But serving without obedience is an offence. Serving and obeying gains you divine prosperity and a lifetime of pleasure. Therefore, obedience is the panacea to Jehovah’s blessings.

  ‘‘If you fully obey the Lord your God by keeping all the commands I am giving you today, Jehovah your God will exalt you above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God,’’ Deu 28: 1-2. Read Deuteronomy 28 verses 14 to see the list of blessings attached to obedience. Certainly, you cannot be obedient to the commands of God and still remain poor. ‘‘But if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not obey all the commands and laws I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you,’’ – Deutoronomy 28:15. On the following verse 16 is the gory list of curses disobedience can bring to your life. You cannot disobey and enjoy all that Jehovah wants you to be.

  You are advised to read the entire 15^th chapter of First Samuel to get the full import of Saul’s journey of disobedience. It is better to obey God than to bribe Him with the proceeds of your disobedience. Many think they are obedient because they don't realize that: one, delayed obedience is disobedience; two: partial obedience is disobedience, three: adjusted obedience is disobedience and that incomplete obedience is disobedience. Poverty is a spirit and a curse. Many are poor because they live in disobedience to economic principles and wealth creation laws.

  Our champion for today is Robert (Bob) Levinson, the American private investigator and retired deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) agent. He was taken hostage on March 9, 2007 when visiting Iran’s Kish Island while researching a cigarette smuggling case. He is currently the longest held hostage in American history. Born in March 1948, Levinson was kidnapped exactly two weeks before the 2007 Iranian seizure of Royal Navy personnel to be interrogated and used as a bargaining chip in investigations with Washington.

  In December 2013, the Associated Press reported that their investigations revealed that  Levinson was working for the CIA. However, U.S. government said Levinson was not an employee of the government at the time of his capture. In December 2007, Christine Levinson, wife of Robert and her son Dan, traveled to Iran to learn more facts about Levinson’s disappearance. They met Iranian officials in Tehran and visited Robert’s hotel on Kish, the Hotel Maryam. But they got no clue to his whereabouts.

  Pressed by Charlie Rose in an interview for CBS news, in September 2012, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ‘‘did not deny Iran still has Levinson in its custody, and hinted that there had been talks about a prisoner exchange.’’ And President Barack Obama met with Christine Levinson at the Oval Office in March 2012 to assure her of governments determination to secure his release from Iranian officials. Levinson’s current status is that the father of seven, suffers from diabetes, gout and hypertension, his whereabouts are still unknown. His passport has never shown up in any other country.