The Prodigal Son

• The Father never went looking for the son: "I will arise!" - Initiate a change.
• Ring represents:
• Authority
• Name
• Access
• Death to God is when you leave Access and go to employment.
• If you want to be free of the "pig-system", you need to first come to your senses. It does not begin with going to anyone else. It begins with you. The first step to end of poverty is self-visitation.

Single Again

Singleness

• Singleness is more important than marriage. Marriage depends on singleness.
• Our culture built us to get along with others. We were trained to focus on other people. That is why we are not equipped to have relationships with others.
• The most important relationship in life should not be inter-personal relationship. It should be intra-personal relationship. You cannot have inter-personal relationship until you have settled the intra-personal relationship. I need to love myself.
• If I don't know and love myself I cannot love another person.
• The most important pursuit in life is self-knowledge. Singleness is about finding myself, loving myself, valuing myself, accepting myself, understanding myself and then appreciating myself so much that I can now share myself with another person.

Some Notes:

1. People think they need to get married to be complete;
2. You don't need to be married to fulfill God's purpose;
3. Get busy fulfilling God's purpose and stop looking for someone to marry;
4. Failure in marriage can derail your purpose;
5. It is better to be unmarried and happy than to be married and depressed.

Divorce

• Don't just get custody of the kids. First get custody of yourself.
• The ultimate trauma in life is divorce (Mal.2:16);
• Divorce is a violent act.
• You don't want to develop a level of bond that you are not responsible for.
• Divorce is traumatic.
• There is no cure for the broken heart. God hates divorce because it creates a wound that no medication can cure. Only a personal encounter with Jesus Christ can heal the broken heart.
• Despite God hating divorce, He still loves the divorcee.
• Divorce is tragic because it is the death of relationship.
• It is impossible to get divorce unless you are married. Marriage is the prerequisite of divorce. Hence singleness is the most important pursuit in life.
• The ingredient determines the product. 
• We want perfection with defects;
• We expect success while building with failure;
• Divorce: something went wrong at the foundation level - the male and female was contaminated.

Marriage

• My marriage is only as good as the single me.
• I bring into the marriage only that which I am a single. No more, no less.
• Whatever I am, I create. 
• It is more important that I bring the best to the relationship. I should work on becoming the best.
• Marriage is like an omelette. It is only as good as the eggs. Omelettes are determined by the quality of the eggs.
• Do not be unequally yoked because you cannot unyoke the individual eggs from the omelette.
• You carry your life with you, so make sure it's one you want to carry.
• If you knew all you know about you, would you marry you?
• Are you the kind of person I can enjoy living with for 90 years?
• What do you have that I can live with forever?
• Take care of your life first.
• Are you a gift or a curse?
• Are you a promotion or a demotion to me?
• What is it that you have that will improve my life?

The Myth of Singleness

• Are you single or merely unmarried?
• To be single should be the goal of even the married because it is the singleness that keeps the marriage together. It is singleness that makes the marriage possible. Marriage is two whole people coming together. If you are not whole and get married to a whole person, you become a parasite. You suck life out of him/her. You use them to try and get complete. You are no longer a blessing; you are a curse.
• Most married people have never been single. Unmarried is a state while singleness is a disposition. It is an assessment of your entity.
• It is OK to be single but not to be "alone".
• Adam did not even know he needed someone. 
• Relationships are for sharing your victories and success with; not to bring on your burdens and depression.
• If you don't need to be married, you are probably ready to be married.
• Love is a decision to share with someone.
• You don't love someone because you need something from them.
• If you are not complete, marriage will expose you.
• Don't use your time looking for somebody, use your time becoming somebody.
• Unity in vision is more important than unity in love.

Redeeming Time-2

Ephesians 4:14-18
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, 
making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.
Instead, be filled with the Spirit...

• I am a product of how I used my time.

Redeeming Time

• Deem - To own;
• Redeem - re-own or re-control;
• "Spend the next year making up for what you lost.."
•  Cut off some relationships...
• To redeem means you cant have a normal life anymore - because you lost some time so you have to make up for the lost time. 
• You have to work a little harder;
• You have to be more focused and more disciplined;
• Re-possess or re-claim.

1. Fulfill a pledge or promise;
2. Convert into value;
3. Pay an outstanding debt;
• If you wasted 30 years of your life, you have a debt to yourself that you should pay yourself.
4. Deliver on a commitment

Redeeming Time-1

Time: The Common Gift to Man

• All humans on earth have this in common: TIME.
• What I am, and what I become depends on how I use my TIME!
• The billionaire and the beggar both have 24 hours in a day.
• TIME cannot be stopped but humans can control its use.
• Have I used my past years, months, days, hours effectively?

The Advantage of a New Year/Season

• An opportunity to redefine priorities.
• An opportunity to clarify purpose.
• An opportunity to refine my life's vision.
• An opportunity to re-establish worthwhile goals.
• An opportunity to bury the past and move into a new future.

Time is a blessing or a curse depending on how I use it.

Your Life Time

• Time is life. 
• Life is defined as Time.
• Life is measured in Time.
• Life is determined by Time.
• Life is lived out in Time.
• Life is qualified by Time.
• The passing of Time is the passing of Life.
• Life stops when Time stops.
• Death is life leaving Time.
• Time is temporary, life is eternal.

What is Time

• Time is an interruption in eternity.
• Time is a small measure of eternity.
• Time is a piece of eternity.
• Time is a slice of forever.
• Time is the limited period during which an action or process exists and takes place.
• Time is the measurement of space.

From Eternity into Time

Ecc.3:10-12

I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

• God matures everything in its time. There is time for maturity.
• God created time but He does not live in it. Therefore, when God speaks to us, we have to be careful as He is in eternity.
• If you make a mistake in eternity, it is an eternal mistake!

The Limitations of Time

Job 14:5-7

Man's days are determined; You have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed. So look away from him and let him alone, till he has put in his time like a hired man.

• Time is determined.

Maximizing Your Days

Psalm 39:4-5 (NIV)

Show me, LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before You. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.

Psalm 39:4-6 (NKJV)

LORD, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Surely every man walks about like a shadow; surely they busy themselves in vain; He heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them.

And now Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You! Deliver me from all my transgressions; do not make me the reproach of the foolish.

Psalm 90:12 (NIV)
Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 8:5-6 (NIV)
Whoever obeys command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure. For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down with misery.

The Measure of Time

• Time is measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, etc;
• Time measures life in yesterday, today and tomorrow.
• Whatever I went through is now in the past.
• Time separates the past from the future. 
• Time measures life in terms of seasons.
• Time protects us from living in a permanent condition.

The Equality Commodity of Time

• Time is the only commodity on earth given equally to each human being.
• Every human every day is given the same amount of time.
• What you become in life is determined by how you use your 24 hours.

Spending Time

• Time is the currency of life.
• Every human is given the same amount each day.
• Time like all currency must be spent.
• Time is used to buy life.
• You become whatever you spend your time buying.
• What you invest your time in, you become.

Abusing-Wasting Time

Just like money...

• Time can be stolen.
• Time can be abused.
• Time can be lost.
• Time can be squandered.
• Time can be appreciated.
• Time can depreciate.
• Time can be devalued.
• Time can be revalued.

Time is more important than money.

Where do I spend my time?

Who do I spend my time with?

What do I spend my time doing?

Do I use my time to give value?

Victims of Time

• You can never stop time.
• You can never control time.
• You can never resist time.
• You can never compromise with time.
• You can never repossess time.
• You can never buy time.
• You can never slow down time.
• You can never speed time up.
• Until death you are stuck in time.

Measuring Life in Time

Psalm 90:10

The length of our days is seventy years -- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass away, and we fly away.

 

What To Do With Time

• You can manage time.
• You can use time.
• You can invest time.
• You can convert time.
• Time should be used to initiate, create, develop, build and add value to the Life that exists in it.
• Use time to fulfill your Divine Purpose.

Kingdom Motive

John 6:24-27
When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus. And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, where did you come from?" Jesus answered, "You seek me, not because you saw the miracles, but because you ate fish and bread and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed His seal of approval."

• Their motive was that they wanted the good things. 
• The only thing that is sealed in life is Christ.
• The Kingdom is so strong, nothing can move it.

The Work of God

John 6:28-29

Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the work God requires?"

Jesus answered, "The work of God is to believe in the One He has sent."

• Belief - pistis - it is the same word as faith. The work of God is to have faith in the One He sent; not in the things He does.
• He is shifting our motivation from things to Him; because things change.

Trust Him

John 6:31-33 (NIV)

Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'

Jesus said to them, "Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given the bread of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

John 6:31-33 (KJV)
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said to them, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven."

• Things material are temporary. So we put our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but that which is not seen is eternal. 
• We put our faith on God, not on the things of God.
• Is it Jesus that you are following?

Believing Beyond the Test-5,6

• He is still God, even if He does not come through for me. He is still God even if He does not deliver me.
•  I have what it takes to overcome. He won't allow it if I can't overcome it. My test is a sign of God's confidence in me.
• HE will make a way of escape. I don't know the way out of the situation. It may be so unorthodox that all I got is faith.
• Is my faith still in God or is it in healing? If he doesn't heal, He is still God.
• Don't put my faith in the way. Put my faith in God. Don't tell Him how to do it.
• There is a God-factor! It is the area where no one can control. It is where He can turn the fire in a furnace into cool air. Don't forget the God factor. When you hit the solid wall and there is nowhere to go, just remember the God factor...
• Kingdom faith submits its limitations to the unlimited God.
• Do I only believe God when He does something? 

Psalm 131:-1-2

Lord, my heart is not proud,

my eyes are not haughty;

neither do I exercise myself in great matters,

or in things too high for me.

• The human loves to find reason for everything. It's not everything we can explain. There are some things that are too high for me to understand. We leave them alone and keep trusting God.

What is Faith?

• Faith: aman
• To believe;
• To be firm, endure;
• Be faithful, true;
• Stand fast, trust, have belief, believe.
• Belief: pistos
•  Firm persuastion;
• Deep conviction;
• Resolve
• Faith is sure hope. My hope is in God.
• I am a stronger than the crisis I'm going through. He who began a good work in me will bring it to completion. He's gonna make His Name Great!

Faith Defined

• Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things not seen. By it the elders obtained a good testimony.
• I will never be known by the things I avoided;
• Am I gonna win my test?
• My story will be told by the tests I overcome.
• Without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God. For he who comes to God must believe that HE is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
• The test comes to purify me. Let's be known as the people who stood after the storm. People will trust me by what I came through.
• You don't demand respect. You earn it.

Believing Beyond the Test - 4

• God is faithful. He will not let me be tested beyond what I can bear. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but He delivers them from them all. There is no test that should destroy me. I gonna be OK.
• You can tell what God thinks of you by the test He allows you to face.
• We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses looking at our race.
• There is a point where if you get 
• Quit doubting and keep believing. 
• Life behind the test is wonderful but you've got to make it through.
• The route to the good times is a little test. Make it through.
• God will make a way. When we try to dictate the way, we end up disappointed.
• How does my faith act in the furnace/den?

Believing Beyond the Test-3

Designed for the Tests

1 Cor.10:12-13

So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.

And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.

But when you are tempted, He will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

• Don't try to explain things you can't comprehend. Just trust God in it. God is gonna take me through this. Keep your faith. Keep believing. Lose everything but don't lose faith in God. Don't let my faith fail. Believe myself right out of the lion's den.
• Nobody is special. The test is common. Elijah, I got 7,000 more who've not bowed their knee to Baal. It's a privilege for you to serve Me. I don't have to use you. 
• The test is not important. What is important is how I handle it.

Believing Beyond the Test-2

Strong Faith

• My faith is only as strong as the test it survives.
• In car manufacturing, they don't test all the cars. They test one engine, and then produce many others in its image. They make thousands in the image of one that was tested.
• The tested engine becomes the model, the prototype, so that they can use that one engine as the mentor for the others.

Luke 22:31-32

Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.

But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail.

And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.

Hebrews 5:7-

During the days of Jesus' life on earth,

He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears

to the One who could save Him from death,

and He was heard because of His reverent submission.

Son though he was, he learned obedience from what He suffered

and once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation

for all who obey Him...

• When I'm going through a tough time, it is a good sign that God wants to use me as a model. Go through the test and pass because God wants to make many others after your image.
• You don't just get called to ministry. You get qualified for ministry.
• Sometimes we think test is strange. It is not strange. It is normal when God wants to use you.

Believing Beyond the Test-1

Unshakable Kingdom. Unshakable Faith.

• We were all created to fulfill a purpose. Nothing was created without a purpose.
• My purpose is my vision assignment.
• Every vision will be tested for authenticity. No one is exempt from testing.
• The safest way to stay out of major tests is to decide not to fulfill one's vision.
• The moment you discover and decide to pursue your vision, you get qualified for test.
• The enemy doesn't stop anyone going nowhere.
• If you aim at nothing, you never miss.
• Tests are normal. 
• Tests remind me that I'm living. Only the dead are not tested. As long as I'm breathing, I will be tested.
• The test is not to destroy me, but to prove me.
• You will never know who you really are until you are tested.
• God allows tests so that I can discover what I'm really made of. 
• I must allow God to be God. Don't try to be God. 
• There are things only God can do.
• There are things only God knows.
• There are things only God understands. So, render your lack of understanding to God's omnipotence.
• There are things only God can explain. 
• Know your limit.

The Value of Faith

• The most important power is your faith. When you don't know anything, all you got is faith left. When you don't understand, just believe.
• Faith is your belief and conviction that creates your confidence. Faith produces confidence, no matter how the conditions look. You walk with the confidence - I'm still gonna win.
• Faith is manifested by the test it encounters. This experience didn't come to destroy me. It came to test whether there is faith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRmLB5X8VTc

Lessons from My Father

Leadership Lessons by Myles Jr. Chairo

• Leadership success is measured by the success of their successor.

Mentoring & Succession

• Succession is the effective transfer, conveyance and transition of a leader's:
• Vision
• Passion
• Purpose
• Intent
• Dreams
• Character
• Standards
• Values
• Morals
• Qualities 
• to succeeding generations of leaders
• It is reproducing yourself.
• "My father was dedicated to the mandate that God had given him and he was faithful to the vision."
• You cannot mentor someone who does not want to be mentored. 
• God places individuals in our lives to advise us. We may think that they are trying to hinder us from accomplishing what we want to accomplish; but they have gone through what we are going through already. There is no need for us to make the same mistakes that they made.
• Mentors are not overbearing to the mentees.

Mentoring & Succession

• Identify the mentee
• Wants to be mentored
• Aligns with the vision
• Sold out to the vision
• A mentor takes you out of your comfort zone because he sees something in you that you may not see at the moment.
• Pick a starting point
• Keys - Access (resources, finance, time...), Freedom, Correction, Recognition, etc. 
• My dad changes for no one because he knows who he is.
• It's important for a leader to be the exact same person they say they are, behind everybody's eyes.
• He met many people in this earth who rubbed him the wrong way - but he still loved the God in them.  
• As a leader, you can't make emotional decisions. You can't make irrational decisions. As a leader, your decision affects many.

LIFE after Divorce or Separation

Isaiah 61
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners

• God does not encourage nor enjoy division. He is not in favor of broken fellowship. He is God of unity.
• God is not the author of destruction.
• Divorce - release a commitment that you had made for life. When you come into marriage, there is a war on to destroy you. Satan instigates everything to destroy it. We commit to each other to defend each other for life. Divorce is thus apostasy. 
• Promises are made to humans - vows are made to God. A vow is unto death. (Eccl.2). Built into a vow is the penalty. My making a vow, it allows God to judge you if you break it.
• Marriage is not made for divorce.

Separation

• If you are not able to handle the effects of a divorce/separation, you will eventually die.
• A key problem with divorce/separation is denial. Healing starts with acceptance.

Psalm 43:5

Why are you so downcast oh my soul, why so disturbed within me?

• Depression is a result of disappointed expectations.

How to Recover from Divorce/Separation

1. Where are you in your recovery? Did you avoid it (emotionally and mentally). This is avoiding it.
2. Others escape it by getting into another relationship too quick. There is no escape from the real feelings of trauma. The best way to deal with it is look at it straight into the eye.
3. Denial. Mentally block it and assume it didn't happen.
4. Acceptance. Others accept and deal with it.

Kingdom Citizenship: Success Laws of Marriage

• We want to rediscover the authority of the marriage covenant.
• We are citizens of the Kingdom/Nation of God. As citizens, we must obey the laws of our Country.

The Paradox of Marriage

• Marriage is the greatest attraction and distraction in life. It can enhance or destroy your destiny.
• The most beautiful and dangerous thing in life is Marriage.
• The greatest source of joy and frustration is Marriage.
• Is the greatest dream but could also be a nightmare.
• Is the greatest source of hope and fear.

Marriage is an option given by God.

The Divine Option

1. Marriage was created by God.
2. It is a divine product.
3. It is a divine option. You should be preoccupied fulfilling God's will other than spending time chasing the prospect of marriage.
4. It is not necessary to fulfill God's purpose for your life.
5. It is a choice and not mandatory.

• Your education does not equip you for marriage.

The First Kingdom Institution

1. Marriage was the first institution God created.
2. The foundation of this institution is the single person.
3. Kingdom relationships are regulated by the standards of Heaven.
4. A successful marriage is only possible within Kingdom culture. 

• Cleave means to chase. Cleave to your wife - not just chase the woman and stop once she is married. Keep chasing her, learning her, with no one else in front of you. She is the only one you are to chase.
• The two shall become one flesh. This implies process.

Marriage-Foundational Institution

1. Marriage pre-dates all other institutions.
2. Marriage is the first foundation of the family.
3. Marriage is God's ideal context for human social development and relationship.
4. A nation is a collection of communities, which is a collection of families which is a product of marriage.
5. Destruction of marriage is the destruction of a nation.
6. Marriage is the context for successful human relationships intimately. You should only be intimate in marriage. Marriage is a safety net. He brought them together because he desired a godly offspring. Marriage is not for the people in it, it's for the product it produces.

The Principle to Marriage

1. A successful marriage has little to do with love.
2. Love does not guarantee success in marriage.
3. Love brings happiness but it does not make marriage work.
4. The thing that makes marriage work is [applied] knowledge.
5. Success depends not on what we know or what we feel.

What is Marriage

1. Marriage - "gameo" - "gem" - TO FUSE TOGETHER.
2. GEMS - diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds are all products heat, pressure, time and fusion.
3. Marriage is the fusion of two distinct human elements into one. True marriage doesn't become weak under pressure, it becomes stronger.

The Media Mandate of the Kingdom

1. There is nothing on earth as powerful as the human will. Even God cannot control it. The very nature of a will implies self control.
2. The will controls the destiny of man. God intended to use the will of man for His will. The will however gives man the power to choose.
3. The seat of the will is the conscious and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind feeds (downloads into) the unconscious mind. The key is to get something into the subconscious mind.
4. As a man thinks in his heart (sub-conscious mind), so is he. You are whatever is in your subconscious mind. Whoever controls your heart controls your life. Out of the heart comes forth the issues of life. 
5. The mind is defined as the heart. It determines the future and the destiny of a man. You are the sum total of the choices you make every day. You become what you are continually  hearing. You become what you are continually seeing.
• The issue is: how do you clean a hard drive? Born all over again. You gotta buy another program. Keep hearing and hearing 
6. It is a battle for the soul.  The mind is the center of the soul. The soul consists of the mind, will and emotions. The battle in life is for the soul of man. He that wins souls is wise.
7. The soul is the first component of media created by God. It mediates between the spirit and the body.
8. The soul receives from the senses and deposits into the spirit.
9. The soul feeds the spirit and also receives from the spirit.
• The only way to be completely free of any habit is to have a replacement of habits. Download new information.

The Purpose of God in All This!

1. Man is a spirit, lives in a body and possesses a soul.
2. Whoever controls the soul rules the man. 
3. The original purpose of God was to rule the seen world from the unseen.
4. The soul is God's media for Kingdom ruler-ship. I wish above all things that you prosper, even as your soul prospers.
5. The Kingdom of God is in the heart (soul). If it can't get into man's soul, it can never get into the earth. The first attention of Jesus was on repent.
6. God is battling for my soul. So is Satan.
• *Emotions

Media - Medium

• "This isn't entertainment it is containment."
• Medium/media is that which stands between the source and the object.
• It means to mediate. Jesus Christ is the Mediator between God and Man.
• Media can pervert, corrupt, clarify or protect the message.
• The media controls what the message recipient gets.
• Lev.20:27

Waiting and Dating-Part 1

• Habits and attitudes established during the dating years generally carry over into marriage.

Principles of Dating Readiness

1. You are not ready to date until you are fully aware of both the benefits and the dangers of dating. Human beings interact with each other in the spiritual, soulical and physical dimensions. Healthy relationships should always begin at the spiritual and intellectual levels - the levels of purpose, motivation, interests, dreams and personality. The physical dimension is the least important.
2. A good understanding of God's standards for relationships. This requires a certain degree of spiritual maturity.
• There are only 2 choices: either you will follow God's standards by deliberate choice, or you will follow the world's standards by default. Unless you plan ahead to keep yourself pure on a date, you probably won't.
• Dating is no place for trial and error.
3. Resolve in your spirit that you will not lower or compromise God's standards for any reason, even if it means losing dates. Standing firm on what you believe is a sign of both spiritual and emotional maturity. There are no second-class areas of life to God. He is after your best. He wants you to obey Him, follow His Word, and stand firmly on His standards. Anything less and you cannot expect to receive His best.
4. YOU ARE READY TO DATE WHEN YOU DON'T NEED TO
• If you feel that you need a date in order to be complete or fulfilled personally, you are not ready for dating. Need involves demand and implies that there is something lacking in life. As long as you perceive lack or incompleteness within yourself, every relationship you enter will be, to one degree or another, an effort to supply that lack or bring a sense of completeness.
• You are ready to date only to the extent that you feel whole and complete within yourself, apart from any other person (except God). When you regard dating as a matter of choice rather than necessity, you are ready.
• Before Eve came along, Adam was alone, but he was not lonely. Loneliness is a spiritual disease. Adam was alone because he was the only one of his kind, but he was completely fulfilled as a person. In tending the garden he had meaningful work to do. In his authority over the living creatures, he was exercising his God-given dominion over the created order. He enjoyed full and open fellowship with his Creator.
• The time you are most prepared for dating is when you don't need anyone to complete you, fulfill you or instill in you a sense of worth or purpose. You are ready to date when you have first learned how to be single.

Reflecting Character in the Kingdom-2

1. Character is the very essence of God. He is the same yesterday today and forever. Am I? 
2. God boasts that He never changes. That is why we can trust Him. He is stable. He says heaven and earth may pass away but His word will never pass away. He would sacrifice the universe before breaking His word.
• A good man swears to his own hurt.
• The first thing God gave man was not dominion but image. Character is more important than power. Do you have the character to contain the anointing of God? Power will kill you without character. God's priority is Character. Character is necessary before dominion. God is more concerned about my character than my dominating the earth. Character is God's prerequisite for dominion and ruler-ship. Character is God's foundation for Leadership.

• Three things will test your character:
1. Power;
2. Money;
3. Access to Sex.
• Given any or all of the above, a person's character or lack of it manifests.
• Am I gonna make it to the End? The race is not to the swift... it is to the one who endures to the end. Will I still be around, 10 years from now? Will I still be the same person? Will I outlive every storm and hurricane? Will I be still standing, when every temptation has passed?
• The only way to test character is by temptation. 
• Temper is to test for weakness. You will never have a time in your life when you are without temptation. Temptation will constantly be in my life to monitor my character.
• Your character is as strong as the temptation you fall for.
• Eve wanted to be like God i.e. Power.
• Satan will only test you with what you already are. So the greatest danger is ignorance of self. You cannot tempt me to be what I know I already am.
• Ignorance will make you disbelieve yourself.
• God gave character before power.
• I am a king just like my Father. My territory is on earth. God knew that without character the power will 
• Power does not corrupt. Power simply reveals corruption. You were already defective. You finally got a chance to show it. Power is pure. 
• The fall of man distorted the Image of God. Man became a defective character. His self worth fell. He didn't know what he was worth anymore.
• The principle trait of fallen man is unpredictability.
• You cannot predict a sinner. You don't know what he gonna do next.
• I am gonna get rid of things that can destroy my character. 
• All I have built could be destroyed in 5 seconds.
• I am as safe as my character!
• Morality is a product of my values. Morals inform ethics.
• You don't lead out of your position. You lead out of your life.
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Source of Values

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Reflecting Character in the Kingdom-1

• Principles are laws. They never change.
• "The secret to my success (as a teacher) is that I only teach principles." You can never disagree with a principle. 
• A person with character does not live on what is popular. They live on what is principled.
• Character is that which is unchanging. 
• Am I the same person all the time? Am I consistent? Am I predictable?
• Leaders must have character. People will not follow you if they don't trust you. Character attracts loyalty.

Defining Character

1. Character is commitment to a set of values without compromise. Your values will protect you.
2. Character is dedication to a set of standards without wavering. My standards produce my character. I will never violate my standards. There is no excuse in life for breaking standards.
3. Character is self-imposed discipline for the sake of moral convictions. A person of character locks themselves up in the prison of their own convictions and throw away the key. They police themselves.
• Your future depends on your character, not  your charisma.
• The only thing that can protect your gift and talent is your character.
4. Character is a constant effort to integrate one's words and deeds.
• Integrate means to become one.
5. Character is sacrifice for principles.
• Who are you with, that you shouldn't be with?
• What are you doing, in secret, that you shouldn't be doing? Are you willing to sacrifice that to protect your principles?
6. Character is simply integrity.
• Integrity means that you are ONE with yourself.
• Holy: the root word for holy is One. The Hebrew concept for holiness is integrity. The number one confession about God is that The Lord our God, the Lord is One! Holiness means I'm integrated. I am One. I am not multi-personality.
• Be One. Stop being a hypocrite.
• The foundation for trust is integrity. When you are one, people eventually trust you.
• Don't be attracted to charisma. Seek out character.
• If what you teach does not work for you, it shouldn't be taught.
• Lead with your life. Your life is the weight of your words.
• There is no such thing as a personal life. There is no such thing as a private life. What I do in private is my family's and my community's business.
• A person of character doesn't need to talk:
• Nelson Mandela went to prison for close to three decades and never changed his conviction.
• Fathers, do not exasperate your children.
• Exasperate: frustrate because of instability.
• Character protects your words.

Image before dominion. (Gen.1:26).

• Everyone is born to lead, not just people, but in an area of gifting. Your gifting attracts people. 
• Your gift makes room for you and will bring you before kings. 
• You can have a PhD and not know your gift.
• Many educated people didn't finish school. Bill Gates and Steve Jobbs found their gift.
• Your culture trains you to find a job, not to find your gift. You are 50 and still don't know why you were born.
• Your gift is your leadership fruit. When a fruit tree bears a fruit, it never brings the fruit to you. You are attracted to the tree. True leaders never seek followers! Followers are attracted to true leaders. They are not attracted to the person/individual. They are coming to the fruit. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtwBBLrg9JA

The Power of Kingdom Faith

Keys to Building a Stable Faith

The Mysteries of Life

1. There are questions in life that we can never answer.
2. There are things in life we can never explain.
3. There are things in life we can never change. Weeping, worrying etc does not change.
4. There are things in life we cannot control.
5. There are things in life we cannot stop - so you make arrangements for it to pass you.
6. There are things in life we are not responsible for.
7. There are things in life we cannot exceed. One powerful statement in life is: I DON'T KNOW.

Facing Life
The key to life is:

• Know your limitations. My limitations keep me peaceful.
• What is my responsibility? Success in life is when you know what you are responsible for. I cannot blame anyone for something that I decided.
• What is not my responsibility? God will never, for example, violate our will.
• What I cannot do. Sometimes you gonna go to jail, to get your anointing. 
• LET GOD BE GOD. (We have a great temptation to be God.)
• There are things only God can do.
• There are things only God knows.
• There are things only God understands. Don't sweat it. Go to sleep this week.
• There are things only God can explain. Don't argue with God. 
• Don't put yourself under unnecessary pressure trying to explain things only God can.

WHAT GOD IS AFTER, IS  STRONG FAITH.

• My faith is only as strong as the test it survives.
• You can never brag on your strength unless you test it.
• What is my motive for following God? My motivation will be destiny. (John 6:24-27)
• 24 Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.
  25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi,when did you get here?”
  26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life,which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
• I allowed this storm to see your reaction. 
• Whatever I am going through is allowed by God.
• If my faith is in God, it does not matter what happens around me.
• Some people can't even survive success!