It’s All About Perception (1)

/ Adewumi Oni / Leave a comment

I got this inspiration while listening to a radio station and I think it is worth sharing. Almost everything in life is all about perception. Someone can perceive a half-full glass as half-empty. While someone perceives a place as a wild life reserve, some people may perceive it as a dangerous forest. Isn’t it funny that the most dreaded Sambisa forest is now being considered as an Arms training field? Most problems are not problems, they are actually opportunities, what makes them look like problems is your perception. 

To start with, what is perception? Perception is the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses. It is the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted. Meaning perception is your view of things, persons, or events. Your view can be influenced by your background, upbringing, experience, knowledge and even taste. 

Sometimes we feel like something is wrong with our health and when we go for check up, the doctor may not find anything wrong, but because the doctor understands that if we leave without any treatment, we will return with a worse feeling. At such times, doctors prescribe some harmless drug to satisfy our concerns and immediately we start feeling well even before starting the medications. This is called Placebo effect. The real problem is the belief that we are ill, there may be no illness. 
There are also cases where we feel befuddled with so many challenges. It would appear at such times like everything is working against us. We conclude that life is not fair, and then we seek counsel or share our burdens with some other and after receiving counsel or comforting words, we start to feel better, even when the challenges have not been addressed. 
In these two examples, you will observed that the only thing that changed is the way we view the perceived challenge. Doctor has given us medication, so we will get better (perception). We have been counselled, so solutions will come (perception). It is therefore important that we understand how perception affects our choices, actions, reactions and relationships, with the ultimate goals of living a healthier life with all, changing our national psyche and mindsets positively. 
I will enjoin you to come along with me as we explore ‘Perception’  in this series. 
Wishing you a Happy Easter and pleasurable moments with all yours. 

Cheers! 

Adewumi Oni

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Do What Matters

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We often run the risk of getting overwhelmed with a lot of activities such that we end up frustrated because we seem not to be making impact or producing desired report. You can do a lot of things at work and still not score well during appraisal. You can be all over the place in your business and still record loss. You can be the most active person in your social or religious circle and still feel a sense of not being fulfilled. 
If you  are to overcome this challenge, you must learn the art of separating and doing the things that matter from the lump of activities. You must learn to differentiate these four activity types :

1. Important and Urgent

2. Important but not urgent

3. Urgent but not important 

4. Not important and not urgent

Give more of your time to those activities that are important and urgent. If it is important but not urgent, schedule a time for it, don’t make it your first priority. If it is urgent but not important, try delegating it,  where possible. Never waste your time on matters that are not urgent nor important. 
Also identify activities that will produce the most result or that will have the most impact and focus more on them. Learn to also know how to sometimes say ‘No’ to some tasks that are not yours. 
Define your days by setting daily agenda and evaluate yourself at the end of each day. Remember that what will count at the end of the day is what matters. 
Have a great day and stay on top. 
Adewumi Oni

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Grace Over Effort

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In every story of success there is the place of effort. Effort is the contribution of man to his own success story. However not all efforts will lead to success because some efforts are channeled towards the wrong end. Some efforts will also not meet with opportunities. While some efforts are not backed up with the right motives. 
Effort is good and should be expended in every endeavours, but there is a superior way, the way of Grace. Grace is the contribution of divinity to humanity’s efforts. It is that which magnifies a man’s effort so much that what seems like a big deal for others look likes a walkover for another. It is a when gift and diligence meet. Gift is divine and diligence is human. 
When you apply effort to that which comes to you with ease, it becomes grace and you will have astounding result. Diligence alone can only take you as far as your strength can go. Grace will take you as far as you can imagine. 
Find your grace and find Grace. 
Great week ahead. Cheers! 

Adewumi Oni

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Vanities of Life

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It is amazing how many of us exert a lot of energy and put ourselves under so much pressure over vanities of life. I mean people kill themselves over plain vanities. I see people struggling to outdo themselves in who has the best wardrobe, who wears the most expensive wristwatches, the most expensive phone, the most expensive car, the biggest mansion, the list goes on. 
You cannot amount to anything acquiring everything to yourself. Your life is not measured by how much you possess financially or materially or even intellectually. A man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things he possesses. Your true worth is in the depth and reach of your influence on others. How many lives have been touched positively by you? Who have you affected positively either directly or indirectly? This is the real essence of life. 

Whenever I read about the latest acquisitions of some fancy luxuries by some of our leaders, I often wonder if they understand life at all. When the leveller eventually levels you to ground zero, you will only be remembered by your good deeds. I am not advocating for a cheap life, no, you should aim to live a rich life, but a rich life is not in wealth alone, it is in the use of that wealth for the improvement of humanity. 

Vanity is when you place materiality above the interest of humanity. 

Check your life today, are you on the vanity run? 
Good morning and have a great day. 

Adewumi Oni

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Be Open to Changes

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Success is a journey and not a destination, and there are many routes on the way. Sometimes you will have to make a detour, other times you will have to even change the route, or even change the vehicle. 

One of the reasons for failure in life is being fixated with an idea to the point of becoming insensitive to divine nudgings. The truth is that more often than not, our plans are usually different from what God has in stock for us. His plans and thoughts are far higher than ours. 

Even when we think we know His plans, we may not not the way. This is why it is important to be opened to changes and be ready to glide with the wind of change. I am not talking about change that takes us from the moral path, I am referring to those changes in career paths, business choices or ventures, even locations. 

No wonder John 3:8 says “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” 

For us to enjoy our race on this side of the divide, we must learn to trust the guiding hands of God, even when we don’t understand where He is leading us. This doesn’t in any way mean you shouldn’t have to plan or goal. On the contrary, you should draw up your plan but be ready to readjust when necessary. 
Remember that the steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord because He delights in His ways. 
Good morning and remain blessed. 
Adewumi Oni

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The Road to Damascus (5)

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As we round up this series, we will close with the challenges and weapons required on the road to Damascus successfully. 
A major challenge on the road is criticism or rejection that you may have to suffer. Many will question your choices and try to convince you that you are confused or you don’t know what you are doing anymore. 
You will sometimes have to do it all alone and ignore the voices telling you otherwise. You will have to trust God wholly to take you through and take you to an expected end. 
You will also have to trust Him that His plans are far better than yours. Even when you don’t understand how it will end or when you can’t see beyond your nose, you must trust God that it will end well. 
Major weapons to travel successfully on the Road to Damascus are:
1. Your faith 

2. The Word of God 

3. Prayerful Life

4. Life of Worship
If you arm yourself with these weapons, you are guaranteed to end well. 
My prayer for that person out there who is already on his or her ‘Road to Damascus’, is that you will end well. 
Have a great week ahead and stay blessed. 
Adewumi Oni

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The Road to Damascus (4)

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In this part of the series we will be looking at signs of the road to Damascus. The signs vary from person to person and from circumstance to circumstance, but the end result is a state of brokenness and total surrender to the will of God. 
But before we proceed, it is important to say that not everyone will be privileged to travel down this road, and not everyone who travel on the Road to Damascus will end the journey with the desired results. Damascus experience is for the elected, the predestined and those who have found God’s mercy. Does this mean you have no part to play? Yes you do, your role is to submit to His will. 
Going back to our text, Saul set out on a self-assigned journey but ended up with God assigned journey. One major sign of being on the road to Damascus is when your plans are taken over by factors beyond your control. At such times the more you try to pursue your plans, the more you are taken off track, but such times are usually accompanied with a sense of quiet leading of God.  

Apostle Paul needed his sight to accomplish his set objectives, and God knew as long as he has his sight he will get to Damascus. His sight had to be taken for him to come to realisation of his ignorance. Paul’s sight is similar to man’s vision. This is why God sometimes takes your vision so that you can see His own vision and run with it. 

When you feel frustrated in the pursuit of your vision, you need to find out if it is God or other forces at work. Not all frustrations are from the devil or wicked forces, sometimes God himself will frustrate you to bring you to the centre of His will. He did so for Jonah. He kept the fishes away from Peter all night such that when he caught a great multitude of fishes during the day, Peter had no choice than to accept to follow Jesus. 

When God frustrates, He does so out of love and Mercy. Don’t despair when His hands press you sore, your lemon will produce lemonade. 
Till we meet again, stay blessed and Happy New Month. 
Adewumi Oni

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The Road to Damascus (3)

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The Road to Damascus can also be seen as a Process, a transformational process. When you take anyone or anything through a process, you always have a transformed product, whether positive or negative. 
Moses was raised in the King’s palace and treated like Pharaoh’s son. As a matter of fact, he grew up believing he was meant to be the liberator of Israel. He was cockish and short tempered. In a bid to defend an Israelite, he killed an Egyptian and buried him, but it became a public knowledge. This led to his exile from Egypt and to Jethro’s house. He forfeited all his princely privileges and became a shepherd,living with his father-in-law.

 
It was after Moses was emptied of all his kingly ambition at the back of the wilderness after a period of forty years, that the Lord appeared to him in a burning bush experience. At that point, the one who was so willing to be the leader over Israel had become so humbled that he became reluctant to take on the position of leadership. He came up with several excuses not to go back to Egypt. He had come to realisation of the fact that he could not do anything relying on his own strength. The man who attended the best schools in the land suddenly became afraid of the task he murdered for. What a transformation! 
Have you suddenly become less confident about something you once believed you were cut out for, you may have been through the Road to Damascus. Maybe you have experienced some failures and you have lost confidence in yourself, yet some people are calling you to a similar assignment at a much higher level, you need not be afraid, God allowed those experience so that you can understand that you are insufficient of and by your own self, but in Him, you are complete. 
Just as Moses the stammerer succeeded in leading Israel out of captivity, you will succeed too by the Grace of God. The Road to Damascus transforms the self-sufficient to become God-reliant. 
Until we meet again in the next part of this series, stay blessed. 

Adewumi Oni

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The Road of Damascus (2)

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In this second part of this series, we will look at the various shades of ‘The Road to Damascus’. But before we proceed it is important to stress two salient points:

1. Everybody will (or had) at one or more points travel through this road. You may travel through it once or twice depending on your sensibility or discernment. 

2. Damascus is not a destination, it is only a terminal on the journey of destiny. 
A closer look at this road will reveal the Road as:

a).  A journey 

b). A process

c). An Encounter
​A) As a journey, the Road to Damascus is a journey from self-determination to submission to the will of the Almighty. When Saul set out from Jerusalem having received letter of authority from the High Priest to arrest anyone preaching in the name of Jesus at Damascus, he was full of self-determination and self-righteousness. He was confidently passionate that he was doing the right thing. If you take time to study Acts 8:1-8, you will observed that he had made an havoc of the Church at Jerusalem and many of the Christians had fled the city. 
Saul felt justified and took his passion further to Damascus. His response to the Lord after a great light blinded him, was ‘Lord what would you have me do?’ Acts 9:4. At that point, it mattered no longer to Saul if he was right or not, he was ready to do the will of the Master. 
There are times we are humbled by life’s challenges that we stop caring about our dreams or ambitions, and we become so willing to do whatever God wants us to do. At such times we are blinded and assailed with both the tenacity and barrage of problems, that we cry out to God to help us at any price or cost. Self-pride or confidence is thrown aside, and we are literally clinging naked to the feet of the Master. That point is your Road to Damascus. The major reason for that is for the Master to get your attention. 
The Master will take you on a journey through ‘The Road to Damascus’, if it is necessary to draw your attention. Damascus experience is God’s divine interruption in the earthly pursuits of His children. 
Stay tuned for the next part in this series. 
Have a great day and remain blessed. 
Adewumi Oni

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The Road To Damascus (1)

/ Adewumi Oni / 1 Comment

​I believe many of us are familiar with the story of Saul who later became Apostle Paul in the Bible. His journey on the way to Damascus, after being harmed with letters from the High Priests, was suddenly highjacked and he became a transformed man. The account can be found in the book of Acts of the Apostle Chapter 9.

This series will place emphasis on verse 3 of that chapter which says,  “And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven” (KJV). 

The objective for Saul on the road to Damascus was to arrest those claiming to be followers of Jesus Christ and bring them to Jerusalem for prosecution. It was a journey borne out of zeal, albeit ignorant zeal and passion, but ended with true revelation. It was a journey that turned out to be a  transformational journey. 
There are many people currently on the ‘Road to Damascus’ and who are wondering how they got so far away from their initial objectives. Apostle Paul couldn’t have in his wildest imagination seen himself preaching the same Jesus he had spent his passion opposing. 
Are you somewhere that looks like the very antithesis of what you initially believed and stood for? You might be on the ‘Road to Damascus’. Or maybe you suddenly find yourself defending what you have been criticising all your life and people are wondering what has come over you, maybe you are on your ‘Road to Damascus’. 
In the next broadcast in this series, we will look closely at the ‘Road to Damascus’ before proceeding to discuss the signs of being on the road, the challenges of the road, and how to travel successfully on the road. I am trusting that this series will help someone out there to understand his or her current situation. 
Stay tuned and remain blessed. Good morning. 
Adewumi Oni

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