“…Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him. And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard.” – Acts 22:13 – 15 NIV   The secret to every change you need in the world How long will the light of a candle last? Of course, the light will go out when the candle burns out, but if we light another candle with this one, the light will double in intensity. So, will the light of the first candle diminish because it has lit the second? No! And if we use the second to light a third, will the light of the second diminish? No! The light of each candle will last until the candle burns out, but when the first light goes out, the second will still be burning. When the second light goes out, the third will still go on shining. If we keep on lighting more candles – ten, a hundred, or a thousand candles – the light will never go out. This explains the testimony of the church. When the Son of God was on earth, he lit the first candle. After that, more candles were lit one after another. We, now, who witness Christ are the light of the world, lit from many lights who have come before us. So, what is this witnessing? In Acts 22:15, the Lord sent Ananias to speak to Paul: “For you will be a witness to Him unto all men of the things which you have seen and heard.” From this, we see that the basis of witnessing is what we have seen and heard. You cannot be a witness to what you have not seen with your own eyes or heard with your ears. Paul saw something with his own eyes and heard something with his ears. God charged him to be a witness of what he had seen with his own eyes and heard with his ears. First John 4:14 tells us what witnessing is: “We have beheld and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.” That is the substance of our witnessing! So, what is it we witness to as believers? Notice the same Acts 22:15 emphatically states that Ananias instructing Paul about what (rather, who) he is to witness about – Jesus. Notice also that John lends credence to this truth also in John 4:14, which we just read two paragraphs before now; a person is therefore a witness to what he has seen the Father do through Christ Jesus in redemption. This is not talking about miracles, sign, and wonders, which are a common strategy in our days even though it works amongst unbelievers and even some believers. The greatest form of deliverance however, is knowledge of the truth (John 8:32). What truth? The truth about what Jesus came to do and why he did it. Unbelievers seek signs, but the believers’ life is a light that witnesses the entire life of the Lord Himself, and the purpose for such expression of life. While the unbeliever seeks signs, the believer goes about both showing and telling the new creation experience so vividly and gracefully till the people find their faith in the Lord, giving them new creation experiences. Now this doesn’t mean signs and wonders are bad; they certainly do have their place in evangelism, but we must never forget that it is a means to an end. The end is to bring men to Jesus who is our faith. In our next article, we’ll see how evangelism is different from corporate marketing

        Business Process Modelling for every business person What really is Business Process Modelling? Well, in the book of elders, they say, if you don’t know where you are going, then at least, you should know where you’re coming from. Can one really model a business if they don’t know what business really is? I dare say No! Hence, the reason I would instead start this aspect by trying to explain what a business is ideally about. What is business and when is one considered to be in Business? A business is an organisation that provides goods and services to customers who want or need them. The term “business” also refers to the organized efforts and activities of individuals to produce and sell goods and services for profit, which means, I need to build some kind of organized activities around my products and services; it may start with me, but I need to structure it in a way that it can run properly. Business is also about process innovation – meaning instead of inventing a new idea, I simply take an existing idea that is ‘raw and dirty’, or even in the market that is not originally licensed to anyone. Then, I analyze how customers/market want to be served and go ahead to improve the process that delivers the products and services to the market. The fast-growing startups and businesses scaling and doing well in Nigeria and all over the world are into Process Innovation Management whether in fintech, Agritech, Edutech etc. So long therefore, as I am delivering services or product for value, I am in business. Also, if I am refining process of service delivery, I am in business. So, what is Business Process Modelling? The discipline in which people use various METHODS to discover, model, analyze, measure, improve, optimize, and automate business processes. Any combination of methods used to manage a company’s business processes is BPM. It helps the business to take predictable processes that make up the core of its business. This means you’ve got to be scientifically or mathematically driven when designing processes for your business. For example, the first switching company arguably in Nigeria is Interswitch Ltd; out of 17 million verve cards in circulation in Nigeria, Interswitch has 15 million users of their ATM card. Their service delivery and processes has been almost the same for more than 10 years. Then, about 4 years ago, Paystack came on board and simply improved on the Interswitch process of service delivery. They brought in seamless integration with websites and made international payment possible and easier. Within 3 years, they became the leader in the industry, of course with the help of VCs, that is, Venture Capitalists. Contrast them with E-transact, another switching company in Nigeria. They couldn’t scale like PayStack. They had their moment too, but based on innovation and creative problem solving, they couldn’t scale. The same is the case with Remita. Therefore, business process management becomes a key consideration in any business. Bottom line: business is creative problem solving, not just mere solving problems today because the market is now very aware due to technology and globalization. A customer in Nigeria can access information of how services are delivered in any part of the world and so expectations for service delivery is so high and must be creatively delivered. So, cherry picking and not following a well-defined and tested model will crash your business sooner or later. You therefore cannot see something working for another business, then you go copy that process without really testing if it will for work for you or interfere with your core business vision. An Example in Creating a Marketing Strategy So, let’s say you are creating a marketing strategy for your business or a client. What you create for that specific business or client is probably going to be original work. Also, let’s assume that within that business you have broken down the entire process into smaller projects, the projects will have a task you want to see accomplished. But it must be designed based on the unique vision of that business, which means my marketing plans and channel can be unique to my business or client. I recommend the conventional platforms. It will also affect the technology I use to reach my market. So, how then do I set up my business process to help me? The first step then becomes I do a business analysis. First, vision: What is my business vision? Once that is sorted, I design my process around this vision. Then I test models; You execute based on testing and validation with the business first before going into the market. I will show you the methodology questions to ask around the modeling stage. You execute based on testing and validation with the business first and then the market. Then you monitor the process, its implementation. If you need to go back to the drawing table, go back. Set up communication strategy, customer service and management plan etc. In order to optimise, you need to do a business analysis. The business analysis phase is vital within the business process framework. This phase involves identifying key business objectives and collecting as much data and information as possible. This data will enable you to put together a comprehensive picture of the issues facing your company and what your objectives are. Then, you will be able to design or enhance processes and procedures that enable you to reach these objectives and implement the right solutions for your organization. Within this stage of the business process framework, you need to ask yourself some questions to help provide focus for what actions need to be taken. The following questions can be used to guide your thinking: 1. What is the purpose of this process? 2. What key business objectives does this process achieve? 3. How can we monitor and measure this process to make sure it is achieving a key business objective? 4. How

               Balancing work with life   Is there anything like balance in work? Work is part of life, and life itself is a continuum of all sorts of work that have in themselves inherent outcomes for a particular people in a particular place, and at a particular time. So, as long as there is life, there will be work to be done or delegated. Truth however, is that in life-work balance, is that not all work needs to be done or even delegated. This brings me to what we call the 4Ds’ of time management. It’s a lesson I learnt in Neuro Linguistic Programming: Delete it. Check whether the thing requires your attention or is worth your time. If it does not, then simply delete it. If it is not important to you in any measure at all, then why do it at all? Delegate it. Is it important or necessary for you to do the task? Is it your responsibility to do? If the answer is no, then delegate it. Do it. The one touch rule says ‘If a task can be completed there and then in a few minutes, then just do it’. I mean, if you can do it now, why do it later? Defer it. There are some things that come across your way or day that you may just not be able to deal with straight away, coupled with the fact that these things are not important and urgent. So, if you can do it later and it’s not important to do it now, why do it now? So, when it comes to work, you can either ‘Do it’ immediately, ‘Delegate it’, ‘Delete’ or ‘Defer it’. Why is this very important to note when working within a particular time?  When we are able to identify the quality of a task and assign to it the right ‘D’, we will truly be able to find time to play when we should and avoid the saying, ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’. Knowing the vital Ds of work helps you truly identify when you CAN and CANNOT play, and what to engage in that will refresh you. This can then be a walk, movie, wrestling, catching up with friends. Just be sure that whatever you engage in for fun doesn’t master you, because pleasure for pleasure’s sake will leave you empty. Let pleasure be what will also build you holistically, and refreshed for your work, instead of depleting your energy levels for work. If you can achieve this, then you are ready to transcend to the next level – wealth creation. When next we get to talk, I will be sharing with you tips on ‘how to balance your life in the area of money’. Until then, keep being intentional.

“Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.”  – 1 Timothy 4:13 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed – Mark 1:35 NIV   Quiet time and Early rising Every believer ought to have the habit of rising early and going to a ‘place’ comfortable to read their Bible, pray and think/meditate on the things commanded in the Bible (Phil 4:8-9). Early rising has a quietness that puts you on reset after waking up. It is not a command in the Bible, but it is a profitable habit to develop. I remember in the 80s when I became born again, we always sang of early rising to praise the Lord. In the Bible we also find God’s servants rising early in the morning; since the epistles teach us to follow the examples of godly men, it is truly a fine thing to consider examples of such men Let us consider their examples: Abraham Gen 19:27 & 28 – And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.  Jacob Gen. 28:18 & 19 – And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.  Moses Exodus 8:20 – And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.  Mary Luke 24:22 – Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;   The apostles Acts 5:21 – And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning, and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.  Jesus Mark 1:35 – Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed Mat 14:22 & 23 – And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.  You need to practice early rising and quiet time this year. If you have left this habit, please GO BACK to it. God is not standing in the way of your pursuit and success; He takes pleasure in your success, joy, and progress in life (Ps 35:27), but if you pursue success and lose yourself, you will cause more harm than good. I also want you to be ambitious for success but not at the detriment of your soul or loved ones. Please give attention to these things. God bless your heart.

“Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.”  – 1 Timothy 4:13 “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word; With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments; Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”  – Psalm 119:9-11 Reading the Bible Every Christian should read the Bible because it is “God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). It shows us many things that God has done for us and the way He has led men in the past. Nowadays, many believers don’t have time to read the Bible, they just prefer to download a message and listen over and over. As good as that is, IT MUST NOT REPLACE THE READING of the Bible. In all the letters of Paul to Timothy, he encouraged Timothy to READ the Scriptures. He didn’t say, just read my letter/epistles and you will be fine. This is because the Scriptures (Genesis to Malachi) are the backdrop for the epistles – Paul’s letters and that of the other apostles Peter, John and James. Jesus had the custom of reading the scriptures – what we now call the Old Testament, our Bible (Luke 4:16b).  It is a noble thing to read the Bible for yourself before and after hearing a message (Acts 17:11). Don’t replace your reading with just listening to a sermon and don’t just plug in a Bible app. You need to sit down with the Bible to read it. While you are reading the Bible: (1) Discover the facts, (2) memorize and recite the words, (3) analyze, categorize, and make comparisons, and (4) receive God’s enlightening. Let us practicalize the four suggestions. How to discover the facts from a reading Breaking down your minutes  Again, let us assume for now that a person has one hour a day to study the Bible. He can allocate his time in the following way: First Twenty Minutes—Studying by Subjects: One can read all the related passages and find the verses that deal with the subject chosen. The Second Twenty Minutes—Word Study: For example, we may study the word ‘blood’. First, we should jot down all the chapters and verses that mention the blood. Then we should analyze the meaning of each occurrence. Words don’t always mean the same thing all over in the Bible. What has the blood done for us before God? What type of persons does the blood deal with? What and how much has the blood accomplished for us? In the Scriptures and Epistles, we can find many verses which speak of the blood.  III.         The Third Ten Minutes—Gathering Information: One can choose specific topics and spend the next ten minutes solely gathering information concerning them. The Fourth Ten Minutes—Paraphrasing The final ten minutes can be used to paraphrase the Bible. This exercise is very useful. Paraphrasing the Bible gives fresh insight into a passage. By paraphrasing the Bible with simple words, we express a passage in a way that others can understand at a glance. It doesn’t mean changing the text of the Bible or its meaning, it is you absorbing the meaning and expressing it in words that convene the meaning. For example, you may be doing a chapter-by-chapter study of the book of Romans. If a teenager comes and says, “I have read Paul’s word in Romans, but I cannot understand it,” you will have to think of some ways to explain this book to him/her using your own words. Again, DON’T REPLACE YOUR STUDY OF THE BIBLE with just listening to messages. You must balance both.  

Is it true pressure is good for performance? I see so many young men and women abuse time just because they have strength coursing through them now. Time is the unit of measurement for life. You see, it may sound like only a student ‘thing’, but we all do it – what we call the last-minute syndrome. Your chances of making mistakes are high under pressure. I hear some people say I work well under pressure, but the truth is no one gives their best under pressure; peace of mind is the key to excellent delivery. We all need to learn how to manage, appropriate and efficiently SPEND our time. So, if you are a student and you SPEND your time for any other thing other than your primary purpose, you are not efficiently allocating your time. It will show when the results are pasted. One of the ways people get into trouble with their own God-given allotted 24 hours is the inability to say ‘No’.  They don’t know how to decline every request, so regardless of the apps out there to help them track time, they are unable to do so because they do not have the slightest idea of where they are heading for the day – no clear-cut goal. With a clear-cut goal and ensuing objective, you set for yourself pathways to take for the day. It becomes a roadmap guiding your actions; just in case when something alien to the elements of your map shows up to demand your attention, you are thus guided to choose whether to attend to it immediately, delegate it, do it later or never at all.      With dedication to such a roadmap, you are able to minimize interruptions into your precious time. You are able to say “No, I am not going with you”, “No, I am busy”, “No, I need to read”, “No, I need to spend time with my family”, “No, I need to pray”, “No, I need to work out”. And to each ‘No’ you issue out a request, what you are invariably doing is foregoing the alternative to invest your time in that family, prayer, activity or task. In practical terms, say with studying to acquire a skill or knowledge, what you have done is invest time to learn a skill to exchange for money in due time. So, you paid with TIME for it. Invariably, when you don’t purposefully spend time, you have wasted that currency freely given to you by God for your profiting. How misspent time can waste your life Like I said, wasting time is wasting the gift of God to you. God’s gift is for your good, and when you waste that gift, it’s tantamount to not doing what God wants you to do, especially when it has to do with God’s good for your life. Let me show you something I learnt years ago: When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, God commanded them, saying, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Ex. 12.2). So, to that nation of people, that particular month became the first month of the year, hence, the starting point for numbering the collective days of the entire nation. In the Bible we can notice that some days are ignored and unrecorded. Why is this so? First, let us see how many years there were from the time of the exodus to the beginning of the building of the temple by Solomon. “And for about the time of forty years as a nursing-father bare he them in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land for an inheritance, for about four hundred and fifty years: and after these things he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. And afterward they asked for a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for the space of forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king . . .” [Acts 13.18-22a] Now David had been king for 40 years (see 2 Sam. 5.4). So how many years were there from the exodus to the fourth year of the reign of Solomon when he began to build the temple? Let’s do some calculations based on Acts 13 up there: 40 years in the wilderness 450 years in the land of inheritance 40 years of Saul as King 40 years of David as King Adding further the 3 years of Solomon’s reign before he commenced building the temple, the total reaches 573 years.   Can you see that? Yet, in 1 Kings 6:1 when the same story was recorded it says:  “And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord.” Here we are told of 480 years, not 573. If you take away 480 from 573 you will have a difference of 93 years! There is a discrepancy! How can two stories have different time stamps or time record? Yet in 1 Kings 6:1 when the same story was recorded it says:  “And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord.” Here we are told of 480 years, not 573. Why is there such a discrepancy? Is the record of the book of Acts incorrect, or even that of 1 Kings? No, neither record is wrong. By

No time to check time! Is it true? You must have used this phrase before “I no get time!” Or, the more popular one among millennials and generations after: “No time to check time!” So, is it really true that we don’t have sufficient time to do the things we want to do? When I was growing up, a common phrase that was in vogue to make us work better was ‘time nah money’! I grew up in the barracks and our lingua Franca was what we call ‘broken English’. Once we used that phrase, we were reminded that we don’t have time to do whatever we wanted. Truly your time can be spent doing so many things other than the things that matter the most. That is why time management is critical and important. Time management; is there a set process to it? Good time management enables you to work smarter – not harder – so that you get more done in less time, even when time is tight and pressures are high.  The answer lies in setting a process of planning, which is actually sets of conscious controls on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity. So, yes, we don’t have sufficient time to do the things we want to do, but only if we don’t determine everyday WHAT IS IMPORTANT and PURPOSEFUL. Once we can determine from our log of activities, what is important and purposeful from what isn’t, we have begun on the path to time management. Is it practically possible to consistently track and allocate time to more important things amidst so much to do? Funny enough, you know you use the word SPEND OR SPENT when we talk about time: this is because whether you know it or not, time is been SPENT per second, per minute, per hour per day. The cumulative calculation of that time is what determines day, month and year. Well, since it’s always the same 24 hours for everyone who lives on earth, then there is an equal RESOURCE in time for everyone rich or poor to use for their benefit. This resource is given to us to make meaningful, effective, efficient and productive use of to become whatever we want to be. At the end of the day, a man’s life is calculated in time.  So, if time is spent, just like money, it can be SPENT wisely or foolishly. You know, really, any SPENDING needs some fine arts to master the process. If an ‘app’ will help wake you up on time, it’s cool! Let me share something with you: My personal strategy 1. Begin your day with a clear focus. What is most important to you? What will contribute to your ultimate goal in life? Allocate more time to that thing. 2. Put down a purposeful task list. This will require you to know who you are, what you want to be, not what people want you to be or are forcing you to be. You may need to talk to a counselor, a religious leader or coach to help you figure this out and then SPEND more to become that thing 3. Focus on high-value activities. As we journey along in life, many things will catch your interest. Things that LOOK like where you are going, and things that will attract you because you have strength; you’ve got to know what are the high value activities for you along the path to your set destination for the day. What are the 20% things you do that give you the 100% yield? Allocate more time to those things. 4. Note and Minimize interruptions. Once you discover your purpose and those high value activities, focus your mind. Give more time to those things and reduce distractions and interruptions. Now, in mastering anything you will need to exchange time for it. Time is actually the currency we spend on life, that’s why you exchange eight hours daily for a salary. If you are a consultant like me, you exchange 11 hours, or days, or months for an amount. The concentration required to deliver on those things that matter most to you is the TIME you give to it. I study my bible about 5 hours daily because it matters most to me. Time is what you pay to get the value that you then exchange for money, therefore you must minimize interruptions into your time, else that will hinder you in life. 5. Stop procrastinating. Procrastination is not only a killer of time but a stealer of destiny and divine opportunities. You see, time in life is both chronological and divine. The divine time is when opportunities meet with your skill set or quality perspective, character or knowledge that you have built with sufficient TIME investment. I see people do what they like WHEN they like it. Such people NEVER become great people in life. Doing the right thing at the wrong time will make the right thing wrong. Doing the wrong thing at the right time makes it wrong. Doing the right thing at the right time is what makes a man become great. There must be balance; when you postpone the acquisition of a skill or character or discipline, you miss an appointment or opportunity. We must discern seasons and SPEND time when it needs to be spent. If you need to learn how to cook now that you are single, do it now. You don’t learn to cook in your husband’s house: that is crisis in the waiting. When you don’t learn a lesson WHEN you should LEARN it, the lesson will be repeated and it will become more painful and tougher for you Do it now! 6. Limit multi-tasking If you are just learning how to SPEND or manage TIME, don’t multi-task. Do one thing well and finish it then add another to it 7. Review your day and life constantly Don’t just put your life on auto drive. From time

“Develop your business first before building your house” Prov. 24:27 Living Bible Someone once asked me, “should we run our business as a Christian or should we run it as men?” Well, the answer is, you need to run your business bearing the principles of the world in mind and then do yours as a Christian. What this means is that you need to know how the world thinks and live. The way of the world is far different from the way God and His Children. Nonetheless, you need to know. For example, men are transactional, businesses also are transactional. I therefore invest in the world to harvest. This is the way of the world. This means, if you don’t invest, you are not going to harvest. If you spend all you have because you believe in miracles, you will certainly be poor and you will ALWAYS beg. You must plant seeds of investments and wisely do so. Don’t do charity with your business. Do your business well, then give from your business to charity. Set the rules of engagement; ensure the necessary things are in place and engage the market with a high return on investment in mind. If you run down your business because you are just giving out and you are not transactional, people will mock and laugh at you in the end. A word about Your seed In Genesis 1:11, God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The key word here is ‘seed-bearing plants and trees.’ If you don’t know the difference between a seed and a fruit, you will make bad decisions in life. Jesus quoted this law in John 3:5, everything must bring forth after its kind. A seed is anything that can reproduce after its kind. What this means is that, I must plant what I want to see in life or what I plant will determine what I get. Gal 6:7-8. I determine my experiences in this life by the kind of seeds I sow. Seeds are for planting while the fruit is for food. To continue the circle of investment and reproduction, God put the seed in every fruit. Once you see the fruit, know that the seeds are in it for reinvestment. That means every big break around you, provides you with the opportunity to reinvest to ensure continuity. So, I must bear in mind that I cannot spend everything without thinking what is the seed in this big break that must be reinvested for another season or similar harvest? Sometimes the seed is a show of gratitude with style to bless the person who made the opportunity possible for you. Please pay attention to these things I pray for you to get this.

Financial Management: Its myths and legends What is Financial Management?  In a simple language, it’s the knowledge and act of directing, managing, organizing and planning finances. Most times I hear people say they don’t have money to do the things they want to do,  but then when you ask them how much they earn and how they plan around it you will be amazed how much they’ve wasted. Without financial intelligence, you will likely not achieve much. This is because no matter how much you earn, if too much goes out, you will be poor. What I find out as the difference between the rich and the poor is that the poor spend more than the rich. The rich PLAN, MANAGE AND ORGANIZE their money; the poor just spend! Your personal principle on managing finance I grew up in a home where my mother made us to save every dime. We had this pot made of clay with one small opening. When we had guests and friends and they gave us money, my parents would make us keep whatever we were given. Of course, as children we would have wanted to use the money to buy biscuits and even impress our friends with better biscuits other than cabin biscuit. As we approached Easter, my mum would ask us what we wished using our savings to buy. You can bet most of what we wanted to buy were liabilities, like clothing and biscuits. So, when we eventually made up our mind on what to buy, mum would then will then ask us to open our savings and count what we had saved. Three lessons I learnt back then: 1. You can ONLY buy what your savings can afford. She will NEVER add to your        money. So, I learnt to buy what I can afford early in life. 2. My mum made us spend our money on what can give us more money, instead of the biscuits and new clothes; as children we grow up very fast, and not too long, before I spent my money on anything, I would ask that second question: “What I want to buy, will it give me more money? What is the ROI (return on investment) on this?”  You see the biscuits are the liabilities that take more money from you instead of generating more money for you. I learned that very early in life and I still apply that principle. 3. She made me buy what we can buy: similar to the first principle but different in that, we don’t have to borrow to get things done. The more you borrow, the more you mortgaged your profit. As simple as these principles look, I still apply them even now. ·         I save more than I spend ·          I consider carefully a field before I buy it, even if it is prided as the most essential technology innovation for all people ·          I buy only with value chain in mind Yes, what we will become they say is determined by the books we read and the quality of the people in our life. So, most of what I bought were books. I knew books would open me up to knowledge that would in turn help me give birth to profitable babies. I started with books, then with time, knowledge from such books helped me get a grip on topics like land, shares, small business opportunities and capital investment. Not too long, I was able to apply this knowledge in managing my finances. You see, the POSTERITY in finance is its wise application so that it can give more money.  Your View on Finances as a Believer with Respect to Giving in Church  Well, you know someone once told me he is a cheerful giver. He thought as a Pastor myself, I would be impressed by this sort of noble declaration. He made me understand he gives so much that even if he didn’t have to give, he would have to borrow to sow. He’s been taught in his church that you must never see a need in the church and not give. So, he thought, ‘borrowing in faith’ to sow was being spiritual. I’m sorry to say it, but that is just foolishness. I teach ‘giving’, and I know it is good to give, but to borrow to give is unwise. What the Bible teaches is that we should WORK so that we can have to give. Secondly, if you give all you earn, you will be poor. It may sound as though you have faith but it is foolishness to do so. If you give all your salary as seed in January, February, March April as seed, how will you feed? How will you transport yourself to the office? How will you meet your light bill? How will you send to your parents? How will you even give offerings on during service?  No matter what we do, we must have savings. Your savings can be structured into: fixed assets, liquidity or investment Again, it is unwise to say, “well, they asked us to buy assets;” then, you put all your cash into buying lands or real estate so that you don’t have ANY cash in bank. You need to have cash in bank just as you have WISE investments here and there. This is true financial management! Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on linkedin