Gboyega Adedeji: A lot of people today are struggling, and you ask, is it because they cannot do so much in life, or they're refusing to tap into their capacity? You know, one thing I've come to realize is that most people that struggle, struggle because somebody some time ago said certain things in their lives; somebody said, “they can't do it”. Somebody said, “If anything good can ever come, it shouldn't be from them”. So, they've reduced their effectiveness, productivity, and success to the expectations and the words of people.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: Lots of people are falling prey to the words and conversations they have heard from other people saying, “This is how much you can go; this is how far you can go; this is the limitation.” And it has put a seal over their lives. So, people are now living below par, living below their capacity, and the ability that God has put in them.
Gboyega Adedeji: Do you what happens? The ideal situation is for a man to live up to the expectation of God for his or her life. The ideal thing is that God has said it, you believe it, and that becomes your experience. But we now have a situation where people are trying to live up to other people's expectations. People said to others, “You cannot succeed,” and they try as much as possible not to succeed. People said, “You are not good enough,” and then you make sure that you're not good enough. Instead of us making our lives reflect what God has said in His Word, we reflect what people have said to us; things that we have heard. People were saying and I quote, “Some people were speaking about me; these are the words I heard.” “Somebody called me up and said somebody said something about you? Is it true?” And instead of us to be what God has said, indeed, we like to conform to what people say about us.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: Today, a lot of people are confronted with this hard truth. The submission of your life today, is it according to what people had said about you in the past, the limitation they have brought in front of you, the challenges they have said will happen your way, or have you submitted your life to the will and dictates of God that have put a limitless bound over your life; that has said you can go as far as He has allowed you to go, or are you still limited by the limitation of the words that have been spoken over your life?
Gboyega Adedeji: So, in this video, we are here to discuss something that is important. We want to look at the Word of God in the Book of Lamentations and we want to share the secrets that will unlock your growth and your productivity, and it will make your life to be different from what people are saying about you. So, let's quickly go to the Book of Lamentations chapter 3, and we will read from verse 37 to verse 40.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji:
Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, When the Lord has not commanded it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That woe and well-being proceed? 39 Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? 40 Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord;
Gboyega Adedeji: You know, I will just speak to that verse 40, while you will do justice to the rest of the verses. Verse 40 says, “Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the Lord.” Could your life or any life be wrong right now, could a particular life be going through a path that God has not ordained it? The Bible says, “Search it out [examine your ways]”. Examine your choices, examine your decisions, examine the things you compromise on, and examine the things that you accept as true about your life. This is how my life can be, examined it. If you think it is not right, the Bible says to turn back to the Lord. So, there is an assumption here that many of us are following the wrong path in life. We are living lives that God didn't design; we are trying to live lives that men have painted for us.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: We are walking the path that men have set for us.
Gboyega Adedeji: The Bible says, “Examine that path”. If you think is good, you can continue but if you think, in all sincerity, that is not a good part, the Bible says, “Turn back,” go for the path that God has ordained for you.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: Wow! That's something that we need to give attention to. And you see what the Bible says: “Search out.” Let us search out and examine our ways; the things that we are experiencing, is it according to what the Lord has commanded? If it is not, then we need to return to the Lord because there's something God has commanded about your life, that is different from what you are experiencing. Once your experience is different from the command of the Lord concerning your life, something is wrong. There is a word that you are following that is contrary to what the Lord has spoken. And that's why verse 37 said, “Who is he who speaks” that person might be your father; might be your uncle; might be your mother or your teacher, when you are in primary school.
Gboyega Adedeji: And he could be a politician. Do you remember that place in the Bible, when there was a prophecy through the mouth of the man of God, that by this time tomorrow, so and so will be the price of items in the country? But somebody said, how could these things be; even if the Lord were to open the windows of heaven, could these things be? Somebody that speaks over a life; over a situation, could be an economic adviser; could be a government representative; could be a politician, a political party, saying, the country can never be peaceful, things can never be right.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: Whomever the person is, the Bible says, “Who is that person that speaks and it comes to pass, when the Lord” I want us to pay attention to “when the Lord”.
Gboyega Adedeji: So, it's even impossible for a man of God to speak when the Lord has commanded it.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: “When the Lord has not commanded it.” So, there is a when the command of the Lord will come to your life. If the command of the Lord has not come, nobody anywhere should speak, and it comes to pass. The only person that can speak over your life, and it will come to pass, as a matter of authority and importance, is God. And that's why in verse 40, the Bible says, “Let us return to the Lord, let us examine our ways.” Who are the people that have spoken over your life, and it is coming to pass because you have permitted it. How did you permit it? You believed it. And whatever you believe so far, is coming to pass. They told you that you wouldn’t amount to anything, and you believed it, and you are presently not amounting to anything.
Gboyega Adedeji: An example is very strong in my heart. I remember growing up, and the manner of life I was living as a young boy, I remember certain people speaking into my life; friends and family: “Considering somebody of your character, who can ever marry you?” Imagine that I had stayed at that level telling myself ‘For somebody of my behaviour, I don't deserve a woman,’ I think I would still be single by now.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: Yes, but what happened to you? “You searched out and you examined your ways, and you turned back to the Lord,” and in the Lord is your marriage secured; in the Lord, your children are there; in the Lord, your beautiful bright future is there. So, it is important that we examine our ways, and turn to the Lord who said concerning you, “I know the thoughts that I think towards you, they are thoughts of peace, and not of evil.” I remember also growing up and somebody said to me, “The way you are going about your life,” I was very outspoken when I was younger, “you will be pregnant out of wedlock; the way you're going about it”. And the person said it, for some people, such a statement remains in their hearts, and it becomes their reality because they believed it. But I refuse to believe it. I told myself ‘That is not my portion and I am not going to have children out of wedlock,” and it didn’t become my reality, because who is he that has spoken and it came to pass when the Lord has not commanded it? The Lord did not command that I will have a child out of wedlock, and it didn’t come to pass.
Gboyega Adedeji: It won’t be about the will of man; it shall be about the will of God. But the question is whose will do we believe?
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: That's important.
Gboyega Adedeji: When we look at the story of Jabez and Benjamin in the Bible, you remember when Benjamin was born, the mother gave him a name that was different from what God has ordained him. But when the father wanted to respond to it standing in the place of the Lord. The father turned it; “my son will not be called this name; he shall be called this name”. Jabez, when he realized the calamitous state his life had been or come to, because of the name he was called, he prayed to God also. So, people can speak into your life and call you different things. Look at Jacob, he was called a supplanter. Was it God that gave him that name? So, when he wrestled with God, and there was a need for change, he yearned for change and turned to the Lord, I'm sure he laboured for seven years, but they supplanted him. He had to labour to get a real wife. Things were not working the way they ought to.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: Even his Father-in-law supplanted him in business.
Gboyega Adedeji: When he searched out his situation, he turned to the Lord, and God changed his name. So, people could call him supplanter, God started calling him Israel; a priest of God. So, we must understand that what will turn our lives around is not necessarily getting new education, or getting new jobs, we just need to turn to God. God needs to speak the right word into our lives.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: Yeah.
Gboyega Adedeji: Men have spoken into our lives. And it hasn’t helped us so much. Our lives sometimes have been going on a roller coaster. We rise today, we fall tomorrow. We succeed today; we fail tomorrow. Businesses come, failure comes, and scarcity comes. Things are not working well because people have said, we can't make it; we can't do well. It's time we go to God, what is it that God has written in his word? Pontius Pilate said to the people, the Pharisees that wanted him to change what was said and written concerning Jesus, the King of Jews, he said, “what is written, is written.” We must understand the potency of what God has said, whether it is written or it is spoken; it is the Word of God, it is potent, it can shape our lives, it can shape our destinies instead of relying on, making our lives to reflect, what our neighbours have said, what our friends have said, what our enemies have said, it's important we go to God, nobody should have the final say over whom we become or what we do.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: Yes, it's important because somebody called you a mistake does not mean you live your life full of mistakes. What God has said about you has the place of authority and prominence over anything, anybody, whomever the person might be, and has said over You. It is important you understand it; it is important you believe it because you see, nothing has permission to come into your life and become an experience until you allow it. Jesus even said, “I stand at the door and knock”. And that's why several words are standing at the door; they are knocking, and once you allow them in, they would dine with you.
So, it's important that you guard your heart. That is why the Bible says, “We should guard our hearts with all diligence for out of it flows the issues of life.” You need to guard your heart; the things people are saying to you; people are saying around you, don't allow them to sit in the place of belief and faith in your spirit because you will become what you believe. You will experience what you believe. So, look at the trajectory of your life. Look at the trend, look at that pattern of your life. What are they depicting? And that's why this Lamentation chapter 3 verse 40 is important. Let us search out; let us search out in our lives, in our families.
Gboyega Adedeji: Something we have to do independently and personally. you cannot give me that responsibility of searching out the things of your life. You have to sit down on your own and search out things; how has my life been?
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: Yes, examine means carefully, painstakingly looking at your ways, look at your life. Look at where you are coming from. There are some people in your family, there are generational curses, and the reason is that the devil allows you to make choices that led to them. Sit down and look at the choice you're also making, if you continue to sow this seed, are you also going to have the same harvests? Then if yes, you terminate it at the seed level.
Gboyega Adedeji: In our family, this is how we do it.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: Yeah.
Gboyega Adedeji: We normally do it. And it has normally been producing the same results.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: The same negative results. So, that's why this verse 40 is important. Let us search out individually. Let us sit down and search out and examine our ways. examine our families, examine our lives, look at the trajectory of your life, look at the trajectory of your family and turn back to the Lord. The one that when he says a thing, He commands it and it comes to pass. The one whose thought towards you is of peace and not of evil. God loves you more than your parents love you. God loves you more than your family. God loves you more than your country. God loves you more than your enemies; He loves you more than your friends. God is interested in your success. He wishes above all things that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers.
That is why it's important to turn to the Lord, the one that is thinking about you, the one that has a great plan for you. He said, “I'm going to give you a future”. So, if you think today that you do have a future, it is because you have not turned to the Lord. When you turn to the Lord, He said, ‘I will give you a future [something to live for; hope]”. The state that you are in now, you're in that state where you think ‘What am I even living for?’ It is because you have not come to the Lord. The moment you turn to the Lord, you will have a reason to live, you will have something to live for.
Gboyega Adedeji: Something to hold onto. Perhaps, as a woman, they might have said, “You will never conceive a child in your womb,” but when God speaks to you that ‘none shall be barren in the land, then you have something to hold unto.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: Something to believe for something to look out for. And that's the plan of God for us. That's why we must embrace this verse 40, “Turn back to the Lord,” embrace the thoughts, embrace the plans, embrace all that God has for you.
Gboyega Adedeji: I believe you have learned something today. The truth is, let God be true, and every man; every woman a liar. So, whatever anybody has said concerning you, it could just be a big lie. No matter how beautiful it is, it could just be a beautiful lie. You must listen to God. God is the one that speaks the truth. And He has your best interests at heart. As you turn to Him, you will see your life turn for good, and for what God has ordained it in Jesus’ name. Such a great time we have had today and I believe that so much has been shared, and I am also excited about what God is set to do in our lives in days and years to come. As we turn to the Lord, we would see great results in our lives in Jesus’ name.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: So, don’t be afraid. Believe the Lord. Walk in His ways and I see your path shinning brighter and brighter unto that perfect day. Please if you have gained wisdom from this video, we would love you to like it, drop your comments and also activate your notification bell. God bless you.
Amen
