The Audacity of God's Grace: 10 Strategies To Living Your Best Life Now (6 page)

The Grace of God Stands Undefeated

When the grace of God is at work for you and within you, you will never stay down since new strength is rediscovered even in the midst of your adversity, because it is only the audacity of God’s grace that has the capacity to turn every combat in your warfare into a setup for a greater comeback. Believe me; God can compensate your lost. Remember that: The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4 NIV). Now watch why the grace of God makes the difference: happy, unhappy, successful, unsuccessful, fulfilled, unfulfilled, religious, not religious, educated and uneducated, the rich and the poor all talk about grace. However, what will make a big and lasting difference in your life is the audacity of God’s grace. While everyone could offer to give grace, the only grace that stands tall and undefeated is the audacious grace that God freely makes available even in our moments of weakness and adversity. When people and friends give you grace many of the times, they expect something in return. That is what makes man’s grace inefficient. My hope is that in this book you will embrace the grace that is sufficient and complete. For this reason, I am honored to welcome you to the GraceWorld family, the wealthy place where Jesus reigns and the grace of God rules supreme. Wherever the grace of God rules supreme, protocols get suspended as people’s lives are transformed; for they are at liberty to perform on top of the games of their own lives and at their very best too.

Your Success It’s About You

Remember, your success it’s about you. How you answered the questions I raised throughout this book will have immense consequences for your ability to live your best life now and your future life as well. However, what I want you to know is that you can think BIG, Dream BIG, and Win BIG. It’s all about you! You can do better than you are doing right now and live at your best today because you are a powerful person. What you need to do is harness the power of your belief. You have the talent, the ability, and the creative force to unleash your hidden potentials, destroy every limitation, and perform at the top and live your best life now. Yes, you can do it! It’s about time to become disgusted with smallness. If you can name four people you know at the top of their earning power, friends, neighbors, mentors, or acquaintances, you discover that there is nothing most of these people have that you can’t have except that they got there ahead of you.

If you can honestly compare yourself with people like Aliko Dangote—the world’s wealthiest black person from Nigeria, Dr. Deji Adeleke—the founder and owner of Adeleke University, Folorunsho Alakija—the richest black woman, Lade Delano—the youngest Nigerian Billionaire, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, the late Steve Jobs of Apple computers, or Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, you could honestly discover that their brains are not in any way ten times larger than yours neither did they drop from the space. The only major thing that differentiates you from these people is that their record showed that they each have surpassed you and have contributed significantly to impacting the lives of numerous people in society in a number of ways. Although you are far below the success ladder in your earning power and your contributions to social change than each of these people by most standards, the good news is that you are under construction. You can too. But you’ve got the potentials they each have and can beat that reach. Every stronghold: be it unemployed mindset, fear, doubt and the ability of disbelieving in yourself—your capabilities, paying off your debt, limited finances to meet your needs, marital woes, childlessness, unemployment, poverty, sicknesses and disease; setbacks and obstacles, and every unpleasant circumstance and adversity you are facing now can be turned around. Even if you feel you may never become Bill Gate or Oprah Winfrey, there are great opportunities out there for you. Obstacles are part of humanness. But that is not the end. If your obstacle is divorce, just know that that divorce is not the end for you. You can overcome by turning these obstacles around and use them to become a successful person. It’s all about you! You have the power to do. This is why you must believe in yourself and avoid self-recession. If you don’t believe in yourself, how else do you expect anyone to believe in you?

As you study, or re-read this book which I wrote for you, you will discover that most of the strategies here will help your earning power, to become more productive and defeat the spirit of unsuccessfulness and live your best life now. You will notice that many of the ideas or strategies shared in this book are things that have been taught for years. However, most of the things I shared in this book are things I have learned from studying success some of which I have shared with numerous audiences. The rest are things that I have personally experienced through my own lived experiences—from setbacks in life to victories and insights gained on my journey to success. The good news is that God is interested to see that you succeed in reaching your fullest abilities. He is passionate to see you set new records and become extremely successful in your relationship, in your health, in increasing your earning power and serving him faithfully as well as serving others that God may put in your path. I personally want you to do the same.

CHAPTER TWO
YOUR MIND WORKS LIKE THE ATM

“If you desire to pursue success, invest in feeding your thoughts positively. If you are not succeeding think again. If you have succeeded, thank those who taught you how to think differently.”

—John Nwankwo

SUCCESS IS IMPACTED BY WHAT YOU
INVEST YOUR THOUGHTS IN

Ever heard that popular saying that “you are what you think”? What’s on your mind today? Do you know that your mind works like the automated teller machines (ATM)? Just like the ATM, it is what you deposit into your mind account that you can withdraw. If you nurture joy, you withdraw strength. When you deposit success, you withdraw progress. And when you bank on opportunities, you withdraw unending prosperity. If you want to pursue success, invest in feeding your thoughts positively. If you are not succeeding think again. If you have succeeded, thank those who taught you how to think differently. For centuries, not too many ‘religious’ people have done well in the areas of commerce and entrepreneurship and control a sizeable share of the world’s economy and material goods because of the products of their mindset—thoughts, and their inability to embrace prosperity as God’s gift and take advantage of economic opportunities. While I studied many of these entrepreneurs, who not only reap a harvest of financial success and provided solutions to some of the world’s notable problems in some key areas, I saw that there was nothing so unique about them other than that they were ordinary people who only decided to do something extra by questioning the status quo and invested handsomely in innovation and creativity and positive thinking. These people were all created in the image of God who gave them talents with greater potentials to imitate their creator and by implication, recreate things since God the creator personally welcome all, created in his image to reflect and share in the economy of God’s grace.

My Findings About Visionary Entrepreneurship

In the process of investigating success, what I discovered about many self-made successful rich people is that they all taught their minds how to do great work for them, by automating their minds to work for their individual prosperity and success. For this reason, majority of great thinkers, inventors, and extraordinary people of all time have been differentiated from ordinary people because of their ability to think success and to think differently too from the average person in the populations. Sixteen of such great American extraordinary people who became a force for generations to come and made fortunes with their creative thinking abilities or innovative force and whose ideas have impacted how our daily lives and things around us are done today are: Samuel Morse—the American who created the first reliable telegraph conversing 30 miles away by 1844; Nikola Tesla, who in 1895, developed the technology to transmit a sound signal from New York to West Point, 50 miles away that paved way for radio broadcasting.

Others like Philo T. Farnsworth, a mathematical genius from Utah will years later, successfully add a visual element to radio signals when he introduced the image dissector tube. Philo Farnsworth first built the image dissector device, while in high school which enabled him to capture and transmit moving images. He broadcast America’s first television signal in 1927. The Radio Corporation of America eventually bought his patent and made the first public television broadcast from the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Among these great thinkers were Doctor John Pemberton—a pharmacist from Atlanta Georgia who concocted the Coca Cola formula and ushered in the Coca Cola Company and passed wealth to his generations to come. The Wright Brothers—whose aeronautical work successfully solved the flying problem gave us commercial and private airplanes. Henry Ford—the American whose global vision will lead him to develop and manufacture the first automobile that many middle class Americans could afford to buy and whence the Ford Motor Company promoted industrialization in North America. Thomas Edison of General Electric solved the problem of electricity around the world and others like George Eastman made photography easily accessible and affordable through his Kodak Camera Company and helped us to keep good and great memories of our lives. When Lawrence Roberts developed a system for sending data packets between computers, he had little idea where the innovation would lead the generations to come. He developed his computer network—the ARPANET—for the government.

Innovators Change Our World
& Make It Worth-Living

Other innovators that have changed our world are Bill Gates of Microsoft—the world’s largest personal-computer software company, which he co-founded with Paul Allen. What about Steve Jobs of Apple computers, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin who built Google, Inc.? In the quest to integrate work and study by the adult populations and solve the problem of having to go to a physical class room before receiving or completing a formal college or graduate education for most people, online formal education, which my grandfather—Paul Wichi Nwankwo never thought could be a possibility was significantly influenced by Dr. John Sperling. Dr. John Sperling, a Cambridge-educated economist professor-turned-entrepreneur, and the founder of the Apollo Group Inc. is one of the icons whose innovative and proactive thinking abilities and actions changed educational accessibility with the online platform. The University of Phoenix (UOP) which he founded in 1976 attained a peak enrollment of almost 600,000 students in 2010 with over 112 campuses worldwide. One of the other great innovators who made my list of the top sixteen great American innovative thinkers is Mark Zuckerberg. Mark Zuckerberg, a twenty year old college kid at the time he founded Facebook Inc. in 2004 whose net worth was over $19 billion (Nineteen billion US dollars by the end of 2013 at age 28) facilitated one of the most successful networks that will influence human open communications for generations to come.

You Can’t Just Die Like That

Considering these innovative icons we saw above, my question is: Where will you stand in history? You can’t just die like that.

“The unborn generations are looking for people who will build and leave a lasting legacy when they are gone.”

This should pose a greater challenge for ‘many religious people’ who are failing posterity to doing some of the exploits done by some of the people I observed above. My findings showed that many religious people can surpass the top sixteen great American innovators observed above. However, they have been unable to do so, not because they couldn’t. Instead, many religious believers and teachers have used religion to brainwash and undermine people’s potentialities and have rather gone into debates and denied themselves the same opportunities as observed above. They use religion for poor things, for terrorism and evil. Others use religion as an excuse over the dominion imperatives given to men and women by God—their creator during the creation week where everyone created in God’s own image no matter their race, their ethnicity, their tribes and names, or their geographical location according to Genesis (1:26) were welcomed into God’s greater economy of grace. Each of these people created by their loving creator were empowered and programmed to innovatively re-create things; subdue, rule and dominate earthly resources until they return to dust. This is why our world is in need of religious people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. whose creative social change dreams and accomplishments has changed our worldview forever.

The Power of Religious Teachings

Disappointedly, many religious institutions, religious practitioners, religious clerics, believers and religious teachers have created curricula in their theological developments and pedagogies in ways that it negated to teach the clergy men and women and their congregations or followers how people can become great industrialists and still be committed to their kingdom assignment, and how these industries can promote the prosperity of their lands and communities and help people to reach their redemptive capital on earth. These teachings indirectly questions the possibility of whether we have greater responsibility and capacity as individuals or Christians in our material well-being; in advancing causes that will help banish people and communities from poverty and enable them to live their best life today on earth. The religious teachings or curricula failed mostly to teach the populations how to handle financial matters now and the next (future) and how they can become a force for the general good of the populations and the generations to come, while waiting for the return of Jesus.

Religious Teachings, Poverty & Underdevelopment

The products of such debates and religious teachings are evident in people’s day to day life of poverty and struggle. Was it not religious teachings that were used to justify the exploitations of people’s resources during the slave trade which the after effect positioned a great number of people to embrace poverty as a way of life? Are not the impacts of these structural injustices still among us today, subjecting diverse people and countries into underdevelopment, life difficulties and the struggle for survival? The fact is that the Christian Church, Islamic religion, other religions and the society in general must come together to demand how to empower people and citizens of the world to maximize their fullest potentials for the greater good of all the populations and how best to redistribute the wealth of the earth. I know that this will take political guts to do so, but it surely is worth every effort and a good way to help individuals and communities who are willing to rise to the top and live their best life now. At the center of the religious argument has been whether it is possible for people to live their dream and live their best life now on earth. Because of ignorance and negligence, I have heard many preachers and their followers argue in favor of the idea of material poverty for those who sincerely want to walk along side with God or those whose calling is to work in God’s vineyard.

The Results

The result of these centuries of poor teaching that failed to empower the populations is a massive production of people and societies with poor thinking abilities and the spirit of poverty which promotes the facilitation of unemployed minds. I have witnessed the products of such philosophical systems which usually culminate in mediocrity and double standards. It makes life difficult for people and disables them to the pursuit of noble opportunities that promote holistic development and their ability to live at their everyday best, since it was not a present reality that people could live at their best today. To some religious people, the thought that we can live our best life even now is merely an illusion. I have witnessed many Christians who argue that our ability as Christians to live our best life now is only a future reality, and whence, that idea postulates that the possibility of people living their best life now is not going to be a present reality, but only a reality that will exist in the future because of the cataclysmic event when we get past this present life, and transcend into the kingdom of God. The problem to this system of philosophy is that it negates demanding justice by the people to their oppressors. In places where political office holders loot their nations treasury, these system of teaching have failed to empower the adherents to become responsible citizens who should follow the political trends that shape their own lives and the future of their offspring.

Many Religious Prescriptions Are Based On Perceptions; Not Inspiration

For me, a gross abuse of religion abounds due to a misperception of God’s word and a problem of interpretation and meaning. Many religious prescriptions that fuel poverty are based on perception, not inspiration. The reason is that people who favor the idea of material poverty misrepresent God. They have not been well prepared in understanding what God meant when he gave everyone in his economy, the mandate of dominion. The truth is that in the world of material things, nothing comes easy. The world will not hand over to you, what you don’t demand. When people are liberated and are able to understand the principle of dominion and what it can do in their everyday lives, poverty, many crimes and vices will be a thing of the past. The fact is that if we want to be productive in life, we must be willing to directly investigate God’s mandate and inspiration for our lives—not religious prescriptions that are rooted in orthodoxy and tradition. We must be open to seek new understanding and ways to use such inspirations and mandates to live at our best, tap into the unending opportunities that lurk around us and not to settle for mediocrity.

There’s Nothing Valuable In Mediocrity

While we work hard with faith in the God of unending possibilities for our lives, we can step out of mediocrity and partner with God by believing that in God, impossibilities are nothing. The blessings and prosperity of Abraham still speak and could as well be ours since we are his heirs.

“Making excuses for not reaching or maximizing our potentials because of poor religious traditions and teachings bring God disproportionate displeasure.”

In Genesis Chapter 14, we are told about Abraham, a decent business man that loved God and worked with God. He was very wealthy because he learned the secret of living at his everyday best—obeying the power of God’s word in his life and believing every idea for what God commands him to do, and for whom God is, and what God has promised for his life—prosperity and blessings. He lived his everyday life as if there was nothing to live for apart from obeying God for his goodness and holding God accountable to release his promises of prosperity and vitality into his life and surroundings. Abraham, a very religious man did not allow religion to get in his way or in his mind and stampede him from fulfilling whatever assignment and task God has called him out from the Ore of Chaldeans for to accomplish. He was very wealthy and powerful that he had 318 trained personal aides born and raised under his household.