The Plight of Christian Authors The story of a Christian author turned Publisher

In the summer of 2004, I had a startling, life-changing Holy Spirit encounter. Following that encounter, I became a Holy Spirit-inspired writer. I had no previous experience of book publishing, therefore when I completed my first book I had no idea of how and with whom to publish my book.

My first book is a question and answer book with me asking God the questions on behalf of the entire human race and God the Maker providing all the answers. As far as I was concerned, this makes my book somehow unique and as such, I was confident it would be highly in demand, not just by Christians but also by non-Christians everywhere. I was certain that Christian publishers across the globe would be full of excitement toward publishing the book if not for anything else but to prove that that God still speaks today, and that He is willingly ready to answer any questions that we might have. With this thinking mindset, I began my journey into the world of book publishing in full confidence that my book would be on shelves everywhere in no time.

Since I had no knowledge or experience whatsoever about book publishing, the first place I searched to begin my publishing journey was on the Internet. It was not long after I began my search on the Internet that I realised that just as I thought I have a God-given book, so do thousands of others out there believe that God has given them a unique book to publish. I also quickly discovered that not only do we all think that we have something unique, we seem to be all looking for the same thing: Publishers. As I began delving deeper into the world of book publishing, I realised there are different kinds of publishers ranging from traditional publishers to Vanity Press type self-publishing companies. I was not at all clear at the beginning what the differences are between them. However, from all the information I could gather, I realised whilst self-publishing means putting money on the table, get a manuscript published into a book, traditional publishing does not seem to require any payment.

Paying to have my book published was the last thing on my mind. Besides, I had no funds available at that time to place into any type of self-publishing venture. I was totally unprepared for the amount of money some Vanity Press type publishers were asking me to invest in order to have my work published. Therefore, I concluded the best option for an aspiring-author like myself would be traditional publishing. Indeed I could not understand why there are so many Vanity Press type self-publishing publisher adverts all over the place when as far as I was concerned, all I would have to do is simply approach a traditional Christian book publisher who would be more than happy to publish my Holy Spirit inspired book at no cost!

Looking to find a traditional publisher willing to publish my book was like diving into the sea in an attempt to find one pearl. Indeed I soon realised the moment I started searching that it would be easier for me to dive into the sea and find that one pearl than ever finding a traditional publisher that would be interested in publishing my book. The first thing I noticed was I could not even approach most traditional publishers by myself because they only accept manuscripts from literary agents. When I tried looking for literary agents, I discovered that most literary agents already have all the clients they need and are not looking for someone like myself with no fame, no brand name, no nothing for them to go on.

Following several intense hours and days of surfing the Internet, I eventually came across some Christian publishers who stated on their websites that they are prepared to accept unsolicited materials. I copied their addresses and posted my manuscripts to them hoping that they would all agree to publish my unique book once they read my manuscript. However, to my surprise just in matter of days after postage they started returning my manuscript back to me, an obvious indication that they did not even bother to read it. As the rejection letters flowed in, it soon dawned on me that I am not the only one soliciting the publishers.

My guess is that most first-time Christian writers probably dabble into the publishing world with the same kind of naive mind that I had. If I have guessed right, then only God knows how many manuscripts the traditional publishers must be getting in a week from the many hopefuls. One after the other, the publishing companies all returned my manuscript with rejection cover letters giving all sorts of excuses as to why they were not able to publish it. It felt at this stage as if I was sinking because what I had expected is the opposite of what I began to discover as the true state of affairs in the Christian book-publishing world.

The truth is, whether or not you are a Christian or secular author, I have come to realise that as far as book publishing is concerned, the same business rules apply to all authors. The publishing world of Christian books is largely a money-oriented business and just like any world business, it is all first and foremost about the moneymaking. When it comes to moneymaking, I found that it makes no difference whether you have gotten your inspiration from God or from the devil. The real question is: Are you a sellable product? I said, Are you a sellable product because what I have come to realise is that in the publishing business, like in any business involving the selling of talents, the product is not the talent itself but the talented person. If the talented person has moneymaking potentials, then everyone will be interested and if not, then no one cares whether or not you have a Word from God.

God is a God of talents and we have ample examples in the Bible of people who received their promotions through their talents. Joseph, being an obvious example. Today the Church is full of people who are highly frustrated in their attempts to market their talents for income generation for Kingdom-advancement purposes. The extreme economical pressures faced by many Christians in the world today have made the Christian population to be more and more a competitive selfish-group and not a selfless, complementary one. With emphasis and focus now much more on moneymaking and money grabbing, the end-time church world is much more into world business and not the Father’s business.

The work of God, just like any work requires good monetary funding and God gave us our talents to use for wealth creation for the advancement of His Kingdom work. The people of God are not meant to be beggars in the world. Through the proper utilisation of talents that are within the Body of Christ, God intended the Body of Christ as whole to have the surplus that we need to do His work. The Church as a united corporate body is meant to be the first point of contact for our talent marketing and promotions. However, with so much in fighting, competition and divisions within the so-called Body of Christ, many truly talented persons are continually lacking in the necessary opportunities required to effectively utilise and market their talents. The talents of many Christians are well hidden behind the outward trappings of the world, never to be seen, cancelling out any potential to bring in a harvest for God’s Kingdom.

Several talented Christians that are meant to be sponsoring Kingdom projects through effective utilisation of their talents remain as beggars experiencing financial frustrations, disappointments and discouragements. When it comes to God’s work, everyone, most especially some so-called Christians expect the struggling talented individuals to give their products away free of charge, never once considering that the profit from their talents would better position these gifted hard-working believers to further God’s Kingdom work. These same critiques are the first to crucify the struggling talented persons for selling their wares for a fee. Yet they themselves will not think twice when it comes to giving their money away to already wealthy famous faces and buying all sorts of self-gratifying worldly-paraphernalia. It is shocking how ruthless, thoughtless and uncaring some professing Christians can be. No wonder it looks as if the world is getting richer day-by-day and the majority of Christians are looking poorer and poorer.

Many Christians today are still waiting for manna to fall from heaven when all they need to do is to tap into their unique gifts and use them for God’s glory. Several who manage to discover their talents end up using them for worldly-aims because of what ‘benefits’ the world has to offer. Most talented Christians ends up utilising their talent for the world simply because those intended to promote talented people in the Church for the sake of glorification of the Body of Christ, are the same people who compress and undermine talented Christians further into economic darkness to rot.

The best selling book of all time the Bible, is a book written by a number of Christian authors through inspiration from God. The apostle Paul who wrote most of the New Testament would have faced lots of rejection from traditional Christian publishers in today’s world. Moses would not have had his books published particularly given the world’s strong objection to God’s law and righteousness in today’s world.

Writing is a very important legacy talent and it is an effective way of taking the gospel from the Church’s four walls out to the hearts of individuals for them to digest in their private corners. God gave the saints their writing talents to help spread the gospel from generation to generation. Today, anyone can write anything and be called a ‘Christian’ author. As long as they have the right literary agent and publisher they will sell millions of books all for the world’s benefit and gain.

The fact is, whilst I understand the plight of a traditional Christian publisher must be a tough one, we must not allow marketability to take priority over the main objective which is the promotion of God’s Word and not just anything that can sell. If we begin to do God’s work in mind of world business, then it will no longer be for God’s sake but for worldly gain.

I eventually managed to get my manuscript published, although I spent a great deal of money to do so, and the final product was a huge disappointment. I was only able to barely manage the exorbitant publishing package. My book was published with nothing more than by creating a PDF document from my Word document, without proper professional proofreading, editing or formatting essentials. This meant the book had no chance right from the start of getting anywhere. Even though the message it carries is extremely powerful, people only seem to be interested in pointing out everything wrong with it.

I was highly discouraged by the criticisms no surprise, considering the stress and money I spent to have my book published. Considering the standard of professional quality fell short of the required standards, it goes without saying that book promotion would clearly turn out to be another wasted venture. Besides, I discovered, once I finally published the book that it was even easier to publish than to promote Christian books. There are adverts on the Internet for book promoters for a fee but most are not Christian based and finding a reputable one with so many scammers on the Internet is indeed another problem in itself.

The world expects people to use their talents to contribute into the world economy, and as Christians, we cannot expect the world to help promote our God-given talents for God’s glory. Most websites on the Internet that have high traffic are secular and once they see the words ‘God’ or ‘Christ’, they want nothing to do with you. The secular world does not want to know anything pertaining to God or Christianity, so as not to offend others who are not godly and are not Christians.

Meanwhile, the majority of Christians are not much different in their lack of willingness to help promote the Holy Spirit empowered work of other believers. In the Christian world there is such terrible competition within the church walls that very few avowed believers are prepared to help anyone. If you have talents and people cannot see your marketability potentials then you are on your own. Only if you manage to breakthrough all the world barriers are you a true saint and only then will everyone be willingly ready both Christians and non-Christians alike, to say ‘yes’ to you.

I thank God for His ways because if it were up to mankind, I would not even have a Bible today. Sadly, due to the inappropriate sense of self-importance, elitism, and misplaced values spiritually void moneymaking sensationalism is at the top of self-serving promotional lists, leaving the Lord’s commandment to ‘go and make disciples of all nations’ last on far too many lists.

If people are making money from Biblical materials in today’s world, then the writers that God used to write the Bible must be entitled to an everlasting royalty from Him, especially given that most of them ended up being killed in their time despite the fact that what they had to offer is in fact power of salvation to the souls. As far as I am concerned, the possibility of receiving God’s eternal royalty makes all of my sacrifice as a Christian worthwhile. My word to you if you are an aspiring Holy Spirit-inspired author, focus on God’s purpose for giving you talent which is the salvation of souls by sharing the gospel through your writing. If your focus is on your godly purpose, I guarantee you will overcome every barrier that is in the way of you using your talent to reach out to other souls through your writing talents, and it will all be for God’s glory.

To be a Christian writer is to understand that all aspects of your work is for the glory of God and not for worldly gain. God spoke His Word of grace to make all things work together for your goodness before the foundation of the world. With grace on your side, know for sure that everything that seems like a barrier in the way of your progress today is simply working out a glorious testimony for you in your tomorrow. Every godly inspired work is godly ordained and every ordination of God is to enable the unable. Whatever your barriers might be, be rest assured that the God Who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly much more than we can ever comprehend, will make a way for you in all things where it seems there is no way. He made a way for you to have His Word of Genesis unto Moses and Revelation unto John to place you in perfect revelation of His divine love for you.

The same God Who provided a way to place you in eternal benefit of His Word out of His grace for you, will always make a way for you to see that in all things you are already more than a conqueror. If God has anointed your soul to enable what seems impossible, know that God will always be on your side. He will never leave you or forsake you. If God is for you, then nothing can be against you. In Christ, nothing can ever prevent you from realizing and enjoying the heavenly advantages that He paved the way for you to have through the shedding of his precious blood, for the remission of your sins.

God indeed uses all our experiences to establish a perfect ministry for us for His Kingdom glory. God used all the disappointments and frustrations I experienced from my publishing saga to inspire me to start a Kingdom-oriented book publishing company. From everything I learnt the emphasis of Divine Grace is to present God’s work in the highest professional way for His Kingdom’s glory.

To ensure that first time authors have a godly-glorifying book we offer an affordable all-inclusive package which entails everything authors need to turn their manuscripts into outstanding books including proofreading, editing and proper formatting. God has also made it possible for us to connect with a Christian book-promotion company dedicated to achieving results that are Kingdom-centred. The services we offer are unbeatable with a team of true Christians working together for Kingdom-advancement’s sake. Authors are guaranteed publishing results second to none and our additional promotional services all, at a very affordable rate makes us a highly unique Kingdom-establishment.

To God be the glory, I have since republished the book for which I previously paid outrageous fees to self-publish and what I have so far in the market include: Hell on Earth which is about an open vision heaven and hell experience I had in 2004; From Captivity to Freedom House—a book about my initial experience of Christ’s deliverance powers; Holy Spirit led Prayers which is a book of life-changing prayers and Psalmist Meditations.

Although Divine Grace as a company is newly started, I have already published a number of books for other authors. We are very hopeful and optimistic that the Lord will order the footsteps of many more authors to come to Divine Grace for us to help birth His Word in them for the transformation of many lives. I bless God every day for turning my publishing tests and trials into a wonderful success testimony. No matter what you are going through right now, I pray this testimony will uplift you and encourage you to keep marching forward for the Kingdom glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

My Prayer for You

I pray that God will continue to pour His Word of anointing upon your soul and that in daily appreciation of His love that you will always remain in good courage and continue to encourage others. I pray His ‘living water’ will continue to flow as rivers of life out of your heart and manifest from within you to openly bless people from generation to generation all unto His glory. I also pray that His entire Word of Life which is our Lord Jesus, Who came from the genesis of life to place you on exodus match from the genesis of your sins, into the revelation of His eternal life blessings will never depart from your soul. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Olabisi Obideyi

www.diviinegraceenterprises.com

The mysteries of time we combat by hope and if hope is lost then there can be no zeal to carry on matching ahead from one time to the next. Hope is something that we always need to have in time era because when hope is lost then the will to carry on will simply disappear.  As Christians, we need hope to carry on walking in faith and the enemy of faith and hope is time. Naturally, the longer it takes for change to take place the less the hope of a change and the less the hope of a change the more our faith and trust in God will start to decrease. If we are to live by faith, then we must have hope of eternal life throughout our stay in time. For without hope there can be no faith and without faith, we cannot act to bring about the necessary changes that we so much desire. Once hope is lost, vision automatically disappears because it is hope for a change that keeps our vision alive.
How do we combat the enemy of hope and faith, which is time? The answer is simple; we combat hopelessness and anxiety, which is a direct result of long wait in time by remaining hopeful in our vision of eternity. Focusing on time limits our mind to time framework and if all of our concentration is in on the events of time as it is happening in our lives and around us we cannot see God’s eternal love for us. Every man’s mission in time is to find their true position in eternity and if we concentrate all of our efforts on the visible time then we will be in blind focus of the invisible reality. We overcome the fears of time through revelation of our true potentials and identity in eternal context. If we know who we are, where we came from, where we are and where we are heading then we have all the certainty that we need to get through the trials and tribulations of time.  The reality of life is the invisible not the visible and when it comes to change, real change comes from the invisible to the visible. A surface change is no real change and if we are looking for a change in time, we must seek for change not on the outside only but from the inside out. Time itself does not change, instead the hands of time simply goes round and round in circles.  Whosoever is stuck in circle of time, will simply be going round and round in circles no matter how wonderful things may appear on the outside. Once we have change in the invisible then all we need to do for a change in the visible is to focus our attention on Christ the one that has all time secrets as the one who was, who is and ever will be. Faith is evidence of our hope for a change and if our hope is to bring real life changes, our faith and hope must work together to lead us to obey God for God sake. Only when we obey God for God sake will our faith raise perfect divine legitimate expectations. Only if we have continuous legitimate expectations towards God would we carry on in life with strong faith towards God.

Hope in God builds our trust in him. Without hope and trust in God, no one would have the mind to continue to be faithful towards God especially when it seems nothing positive is happening despite all of our believed faithful efforts to bring about change. If hope and trust is lost then the zeal to act will also disappear. Action is necessary to bring about changes in time not just to our lives, but also in the lives of others. To continue to be of a good service towards God in time era despite our challenging trials and tribulations our hope must be of eternal life and not just of our limited existence in time. Only if we have an eternal life mind of hope would we continue to believe that God loves us despite how tough things may get. God sees all that is in time from eternity and he knows the appropriate time to reveal what is hidden. Time will always make our eternal life vision appear false and the only way we can continue in our time mission is by focusing our mind on the fact that God had already fulfilled all his promises unto us even before our time. Time is in the controlling hands of God and if we obey God in time despite the negative circumstances then we say God is overall faithful and trustworthy.

As human beings we always want to know what the time says to decide whether to act on something or wait and relax before we rise up to action. Knowing all the bible verses is good but it is pointless if we do not act on the word that we say we know. It is action that brings about change in time thus God himself sacrificed his only begotten Son for us as demonstration of his own eternal faithful action to bring about his desired divine visible and invisible changes in our spiritual lives. Through visibly manifesting his word of love by his faithful actions, we became aware of his invisible love for us and if we only speak without acting then we cannot say we have God’s faith. God’s divine faith we see in his word of action. To know what the time is, is to concentrate on performing the right actions instead of just talks.  The time now is the end time and the end time is the time for faithful obedience actions for the glory of God. We live by faith not by sight of what we see in time because we know that even though time will come and go the eternal word of God endures forever. The entire word revealed is Christ Jesus and Jesus is my hope, my vision and my light. In vision of Christ, I have hope even when the situation appears hopeless and in hope of Christ, I know God is faithful. Since I know God is faithful, I am always in his eternal faithful rest in my spirit and soul. As such, no matter what the next minute brings I know it shall be to my advantage. God that is in me is not in constrains of time but beyond time. Since God is above time, I know he will make all things in my time and beyond my timely existence to work for the benefit of my soul in eternity due to his perfect eternal love for me.
No matter what you are going through today, my word of advice to you is to look unto the eternal word of God, which is Jesus the author, and finisher of our faith. The Jesus crucified in time is the Jesus glorified in eternity. This is evidence that even though time seems to regulate our life on earth, the one that dictates the pace and event of time is the Ancient of all days. The injustice of time could not prevent the real justice of God to Christ’s name for although man tried and unjustly crucified Christ in time, the Christ crucified is the real advocate and judge.  Although injustice of time will always try to abolish our hope of eternal joy, our hope of Christ-like eternal reward will always keep our hope and faith alive in God. In Christ, I have everyday hope and in hope, I am not led by sight of my trials and tribulations but by my faith of eternal faith in Christ. Faith is central to the heart of love and God is love. If God loves me so much to the extent that he gave me his only begotten Son before my time so that I do not perish in eternity, it is a lie that the same God that did all  he did will abandon me to the misery of time. He knows my name even before my parents conceived me and I know that in his eternal rest he has made all things possible for me.
My closing payer for you
I pray that no matter what you are going through today, that you find peace and rest in Christ that came in time from his eternal rest to give your soul peace, joy and rest for eternity.  May his peace see you throughout time, settle you permanently at the right hand of the Father to rest, and abide with him from everlasting to everlasting.

Pastor Olabisi Kufeji
Freedom House International

The bible is a book of principles and we can only understand biblical principles when we see things from a whole contextual perspective. From a divine principle perspective, God’s reference to all the seasons here is a symbolic reference to conditions. Darkness symbolises evil and day symbolises light. The word harvest here refers to both the normal harvest in the era of time and the ultimate harvest at the end of days. God made the natural harvest possible through his replenishing of the ground and as such, so long as the earth continues man will enjoy natural harvest from natural seeds plantations. In the fall of sin, God cursed the ground and as such, man lost the benefit of spiritual multiplications and was not able to enjoy goodness harvest from the earth ground. God gave the benefit of natural harvest again to man through blessing the ground following the renewal of his covenant with Noah. However, from a divine perspective the renewal of God’s covenant of multiplications with man is not just for natural harvest. The whole essence for God enabling man to have natural harvest on the earth is to sustain man on the earth for perfect regenerations of our souls.

At the end of time, God as the creator of all will have his own harvest day and he will only harvest on this final day of harvest the good and matured seeds. God is a God of productivity.  To make us his good produce he gave us Christ for us to have a spiritual new birth and in perfect spiritual birth, grow, mature, and become his perfect harvest. Until the day of final harvest good and evil, which is symbolised by day and night will operate side by side on this earth and this is so because the earth is the ground for regenerations. In Matthew chapter 13 Christ likened the kingdom of God unto a man, which sowed good seed in his field and while men sleep an enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and as the good seeds grew and brought forth fruits so also appeared the tares. When the savants went to ask the master whether they should gather up the tares the master in verse 30 responded by saying, “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn”. This parable is confirmation of God’s covenant statement to Noah that night and day meaning good and evil will continue on the earth until judgement day. In Revelations chapter 20, we find that on the final day of judgement God will call every spirit into order and reward them according to their deeds. Any spirit whose name is not found in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire just as Christ said in his parable. However, the good seeds of the Lord will enjoy a New heaven and Earth where there shall only be day meaning goodness and no more darkness meaning no more evil trials or tribulations. To be the Lord’s harvest is to dwell in the everlasting holy peaceful presence of God and the whole objective of bad seeds of darkness is to prevent man from having perfect spiritual growth to deny them godly spiritual harvest. Every man became a bad seed in the fall of sin however through Christ; we have benefit of regeneration and through perfect regeneration opportunity of becoming God’s own eternal harvest.  Since the good and the evil will continue to live together until the day of harvest the repentant man on the earth will undergo extreme tough conditions however, this tough conditions will only work in our favour if our spirit is in unity with

Christ. In the natural context, seasons and conditions can hamper the growth of a seed hence to have good harvest it is necessary to plant our seeds in the right season and amidst perfect conditions. Just as bad conditions can hamper growth and development of a natural seed and by so doing adversely affect harvest outcome, so also can conditions and circumstances debilitate a man and adversely affect his spiritual growth and development. As the creator of all God is always in good harvest and it is to place us in his eternal life harvest that he gave his only begotten Son for the remissions of our sins. The principalities bad seed that God threw away before the foundations of the earth knows very well that conditions dictate moods and what they are after is to focus the mind of man on natural conditions or circumstances to disable the spirit from having spiritual growth and maturity.  The end time world is full of darkness agents. Their main task is to deceive man to distract them from focusing on their real spiritual soul objectives, which is to seek spiritual growth and maturity to become the Lords harvest. This darkness agents are dead seeds and as dead seeds lack good spiritual will and conscience. With many hell agents that lacks good conscience around, human beings in the end time are bound to undergo extreme bad conditions. However if we are in Christ, all season and condition will only condition and position us perfectly to be the Lord’s harvest. The harvest reward in the Lord’s kingdom is plentiful but the labourers are few and they are few because man in the world in blind eyes of the spirit is only interested in world harvest. Matthew 9 from verses 37 says “Then said he unto his disciples, The harvest is plenteous, but the labourers are few. Verses 38 says, Pray ye therefore the Lord of harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest”    God as the creator of all has finished his work of harvest and he is in his eternal rest. We enter into God’s rest through Christ. Christ is God’s perfect soil and it is only in Christ regeneration that we can become perfect fruits and as perfect fruits God’s own harvest everlastingly. I count it as highest honour that God has made me a labourer in his harvest vineyard for his eternal life reward purposes. No matter what I go through on this earth, I know that so long as I remain in the Lord’s goodness labour ward all things shall work together for eternal goodness of my soul.  In Christ, my soul knows that the Lord that called me into labour is a God of eternal rewards hence my harvest joyful dance will not just be for a day in time era but will surely last forever. I wish you all a life journey that ends in eternal harvest in heaven.

Pastor Olabisi Kufeji
Freedom House International

Principally every road leads somewhere. In our journey through life, we may be liable to experiences or challenges beyond our grasp.

This article is for those who have come to their end of devices and are considering throwing up the towel or wanting to give up as it were. Also for those contemplating suicide as an option to end life’s struggle, or perhaps giving God an ultimatum to act and intervene. This article is for you. It is also for you who may not be experiencing any struggles or problem now but to embrace the fact that you may soon pass this ‘road’ which many have gone through victoriously, and even beyond.

To understand the concept behind: Life Beyond dead ends. You must come into terms with this fact that Christians more than any other group of people do and would continue to experience problems. Their “dead end” experience ranges from the mundane trials and challenges to severe persecutions in their endeavours. Yet in all these things, the LORD is still in control and we are more than conquerors and are able to overcome.

Life’s journey might currently be tough just like the ‘road to Emmaus’, where the road expresses shocks, surprises, confusion and disappointment. It may also be difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel, or comprehend the situation as it presents itself. Even at such times, our Lord Jesus says “….learn of me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light….”

Let me pause a moment and see if you can identify yourself with any one or more of these dead-end experiences. For instance there are some who go through this life road of indecisions: A mind set of confusion, can’t decide or not sure of what is the right step to take. You may be one who cannot stop borrowing, and this road has caused you so many embarrassments…. the banks have added a huge interest to your debts and threaten you with court summons. It may be you are on the run even when your creditors are not in pursuit, and you wonder when these struggles will ever end. Perhaps your case is that incessant temptation: The testing and those trials in life might have brought you to a cross roads, and you are now unsure whether to carry on or not as every formula and avenue tried by you does not seem to work.

May be your situation is some what different and is in the area of unreliability. The Christian road appears not to match your expectations.  People you meet in your everyday life seem to be untrustworthy you feel the Christians around you also do not meet the mark in this respect, and you wonder how to relate with them. At times it is the whole concepts surrounding relationships: All the while you are finding it increasingly difficult getting involved with anyone, and sometimes feel that you get along much more with unbelievers than those of the same faith. Then you wonder what is beyond this dead end?

Disappointment is another dead end scenario that people face. However much they try, or hard they work, a certain spirit of failures tends to loom over them, thereby overturning their resources and frustrating all their efforts. And then the question again is asked, “Is there a way beyond these frustrations?” These are more of dead ends I can highlight but these will suffice for now.

So the question remains, what lies behind these dead ends? Listed here are some answers I offer you to carry you through your dead end scenarios:

ENDURANCE: This divine word denotes continuance and constancy perseverance. In other words for anyone to go or live beyond dead ends, such must hold out and remain steadfast in that capacity. One must continue under such difficult circumstances to draw strength from the Lord. I advised that every believer must learn to endure in hostile, confusing and frustrating circumstances.

HOPE: Again beyond dead ends lies hope, a divine substance given to believers to enable them to trust God even when there seems not to be no lasting solutions to their daily struggles. We are told in the word of the living God that ‘…hope does not disappoint….because the love of God has been poured into our hearts….’ in no way does God abandon us in our circumstances for he himself sympathises with our infirmities, and having himself gone through untold agony, temptations and hurts beyond man’s comprehensions. Thus our daily living must be characterised with hope as “long there is breath in you there is hope as well”.

Now, only those who live in hope and believe that joy comes in the morning easily over comes their despondencies. However, what keeps anyone in hope is ‘faith’ the act to believe and trust in the midst of impossibilities. This becomes the proving evidence that God can do it for you even when there seems not to be light through the tunnel. In other words you cannot talk of hope without faith nor faith without hope, both have strong bond and are intertwined.

GRACE: I am aware that there is this well known definition of ‘grace’ as ‘unmerited favour’. I beg to differ as for me everything that God gives is well merited, i.e by reason of his death, of Jesus Christ for our sins and hence, His love for us. Now grace is “merited” and not “unmerited”. Therefore I define for you here that ‘Grace’ is that divine substance too that energises and enables you to stand, established, rooted, unmovable and strong in the midst of all crisis in life. No wonder in the fierce agony of Paul the apostle, our Lord could say to him that my ‘grace’ is sufficient for you! And I say Amen to that. Grace becomes that which we must crave for, ask and receive freely. Never should we do anything in our crisis without waiting upon God for His grace. We should never look for short cuts to our problems but find grace. Then we shall receive help to go beyond dead ends and impossibilities.

PATIENCE:  This factor produces character. Our daily experiences are supposed to build in us patience. A patient personality pays off. One thing this concept is that there are no time limit to patience. Each day what you and I need to leap over our dead ends is to exercise patience. Then you see the salvation of God in real action! And yet we must understand that impatient leaves us perspiring, confused, and robbed us of our clarity of purpose. Please exercise patience!

PRAYER: This is the ‘mountain mover’. I have never seen anything that pushes aside difficulties in life like prayer. Healing, deliverance, and every form of spiritual blessings come only by virtue of prayer, and that is why to see beyond one’s dead ends, you must pray more than you usually do – it called “pray without ceasing”. I remember that encounter when Jesus has to say to his disciples that the deliverance at hand could only come about by prayer and fasting. It makes sense to say here that our troubles can only give way when we pray whilst believing. I said this because whoever is of double mind cannot obtain his break through from God.

WORD: The Bible offers God’s promises that breathe fresh air of assurance, confidence and courage to overcome our troubles. Only if men put their trust in God’s word, will they see break-through in their dead ends. God’s word brings life in the midst of confusion and frustrations. It gives hope in all hopeless situations, and gives light in our darkest hour, and I assure you that we serve a God that is mindful of his own. God’s word say ‘we do not serve a high priest who is not touched with our infirmities’ I find the Word of God most reliable to strengthen His people when we are cast down

THANKSGIVING: It may sound funny and unrealistic that I am suggesting to you here that you should praise God in your hopeless moment of dead ends and press on. Job in his dark moment could say: ‘though you slain me I shall yet praise you’. Paul and Silas in the bible burst into ‘songs of praise’ for them to divinely see the power of praise that break loose their chains, and see the angel of the Lord walked them out of all locked prison cells. So dearly beloved have faith in thanksgiving even when you have come to the end of the road and there seems to be no solution. Ps. 73:26, Acts 16:25-26, Romans 8:35-39, Philippians 4:13.

Here I conclude that you and I can surely go beyond dead ends, for our God has given us ‘all-grace- sufficient’ in these storms of life.

Rev Benjamin A Adetutu-Joshua is the Senior Pastor of Glad Tides Christian Ministries
In Kew, Richmond, UK. And also a lecturer in Pastoral Theology and Church History with Wisdom Christian College in affiliation with University of Wales, Lampeter.

As we saw in the story of Abraham, God replaced Isaac with a ram and this ram of course is symbolic of Christ the Lamb of God. Today when we speak of faith, it is more to do with what we want from God and the attitude of many is that if God does not give them what they want in this world then he is unfaithful to them. If God has given us his begotten Son as a demonstration of his faith towards us, it means God has made way for us to have what counts most, which is eternal life of peace, rest and joy for our souls.  If we cannot see God’s faithfulness through his sacrifice for us, then it means God can never satisfy us because human wants are insatiable. God by giving us his Son gave us our soul needs and desire. Our wants are of this world and because God’s love is divine, he may not necessarily give us our wants but will always meet our needs. If we see God’s faith through Christ then it becomes easy for us to sacrifice for God’s glory.

The faith of many Christians today is simply vanity faith. As such, many fall daily into the trap of the deceivers that promise world riches and instant breakthroughs because they do not understand the concept of faith. The Christians that have real breakthrough in life are those that are prepared to sacrifice unto God for God’s sake. Many Christians have made huge sacrifices to promote God’s kingdom and most of these people have little or no support from their so-called Christian brethren.  Following a Holy spirit encounter that I had four years ago my faith shifted from expecting God to give me everything I want that is all worldily to me to wanting to do everything for God’s glory. My Holy Spirit encounter activated a service mission in me towards God, however I soon discovered that most people with a yearn to serve God are mostly on their own particularly at the foundation stages.

The end time world is a world whereby people are desperate for quick fixes because of never ending problems that people are daily facing such as mounting financial pressures, illnesses and family breakdowns. Quick fixes attitude towards faith means many Christians today suffer everyday disappointments because they lack the patience that is central to divine faith. In darkness mind of faith, many Christians today rely on false breakthrough promises and spend their money on fake anointing products all for nothing. The liars know the problems faced by majority of people in the world today and their game is to target the most vulnerable to take from them for their own greedy ends.
At a conference that I recently attended the speaker after capturing the people’s mind with the right Bible verses, threw in the prosperity bait and many people fell for it. The speaker started from £1,000, gradually reduced it to £50, and as soon as they collected all the money, the speaker left and that was the end. If there is someone on earth that is a firm believer in God’s healing power and principle of sowing, I happen to be one.  However, my word to all Christians out there is you should surrender all to God for your healing to take place and when it comes to sowing my suggestion is that you only sow for God’s sake and not out of greed or desire for worldly things. The devils know that the heart of man is worldly and if you are to remain a step ahead of the end time false prophets and deceivers, you must understand faith from a divine perspective.

Faith requires divine action and action must be in mind of promoting God’s glory. Expectation from God can be faith in God however; divine faithful action is what brings about manifestation of our real life expectations. If our faith were to be all about our wordily desires then we cannot bring the real changes that God wants us to bring to the life of others hence we cannot please God. My question to you is how would you rate your faith? Would you say it is more to do with what you want from God or what you want to do for God’s sake, because you believe God has already done it all for you. If you have a mind of serving God because of your faith in him, do not wait until you have a big ministry. Instead, begin your faith service today by encouraging someone you know to remain faithful unto God by helping them to realize what God has already done for us all, which is the sacrificing of his only begotten Son Christ Jesus for the remissions of our sins. If we focus our mind on what God has already done before our time instead of what we want him to do now for us in our limited time existence then we will have no problem to be faithful unto God at all times.

My closing payer.
I pray that whatsoever you are facing today that it will not lead you to go weary in your faith towards God. I pray that your reliance on God not only entitle you exceedingly great blessing from God but that it makes you a blessing just like Abraham unto all nations.

Pastor Olabisi Obideyi

Freedom House International